N00348:124
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.
And here in particular.
1. Make not great men your Rule. It is an evident note of a practical Atheist, that will always be of the Court Religion where he lives, be it what it will; I mean to make that the Rule of his Profession and look no farther: They put the highest affront imaginable upon man-kind, who bind them always to believe as the Church believes, thereby, meaning their Rulers and Leaders; and how ⟨p. 100⟩rationally soever those Pharisees and Elders supposed themselves to argue against the common peoples believing in Christ, I am sure they argued irreligiously, Joh. 7. 48. Have any of the Rulers, or of the Pharisees believed on him? Great men are not always wise, I am sure not spiritually and savingly so, and to Judg of Truth by them, is to try it by a Lesbian Rule, that will bend it self to the mutable humours of men, and is the ready way to make Truth (which of it self is immutable) every whit as changeable as the times and fashions.
1. Make not great men your Rule. It is an evident note of a practical Atheist, that will alwayes be of the Court Religion where he lives, be it what it will; I mean to make that the Rule of his Profession and look no farther: They put the highest affront imaginable upon man-kind, who bind them always to believe as the Church believes, thereby, meaning their Rulers and Leaders; and how ⟨p. 100⟩rationally soever those Pharisees and Elders supposed themselves to argue against the common peoples believing in Christ, I am sure they argued irreligiously, Joh. 7. 48. Have any of the Rulers, or of the Pharisees believed on him? Great men are not alwayes wise, I am sure not spiritually and savingly so, and to Judg of Truth by them, is to try it by a Lesbian Rule, that will bend it self to the mutable humors of men, and is the ready way to make Truth (which of it self is immutable) every whit as changeable as the times and fashions.