N00348:115
Heavenly merchandiseHeavenly merchandize
Heavenly merchandise; or The purchasing of truth recommended and the selling of it dissuaded; as it was delivered in several sermons upon Prov. 23. 23. / By Samuel Willard, teacher of a church in Boston. ; [Three lines of Scripture text]Heavenly merchandize; or The purchasing of truth recommended and the selling of it disswaded; as it was delivered in several sermons upon Prov. 23. 23. / By Samuel Willard, teacher of a church in Boston. ; [Three lines of Scripture text]
printed by Samuel Green, 1686
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
2. Beware of a cheat, and therefore endeavour, so be well persuaded that it is the Truth before you buy it. If it be Truth that you come to the market for, take diligent heed to your selves that you do not carry home a lye with you in the room of it, and to put you upon it to be exceeding cautious here, let me offer these considerations.
2. Beware of a cheat, and therefore endeavour, so be well perswaded that it is the Truth before you buy it. If it be Truth that you come to the market for, take diligent heed to your selves that you do not carry home a lye with you in the room of it, and to put you upon it to be exceeding cautious here, let me offer these considerations.
1. There are a great many of Cheats going up and down the World, seeking to vend Falsehoods under the specious pretence of Truth. If all those that open Shop, and hang out a Sign for the Truth, were indeed authorized, and set up by divine approbation, the danger would be by much the less: but there are the Locusts of the bottomless pit, the Spawn of Hell, the spirits of Devils, Satan's ⟨p. 92⟩Factors, employed by him, to go up and down seeking by all means to seduce and draw souls away after them: and if they can but obtain to be believed, they will persuade us that it is nothing but Truth which they bring with them to put off: they set that mark upon the Doctrines of Devils, hoping that by such an imposture simple and inconsiderate Souls will be drawn into the cheat: & that they may make these to pass the better, and find the more ready reception among men, they call themselves New-Lights, and they are new-Truths, which they bring with them to impart unto us; Truths that have lain hid (in some by corner) from the World for many Ages, and it hath laboured of great unhappiness for the want of them, but they have by some strange and wonderful way made the blessed discovery of them, and being loth to keep them only to themselves, they are (in good will) greatly desirous to expose them for the common benefit of man kind; these our Saviour Christ would have us to beware of, & that for this reason,