N00348:133
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.
4. Rest not in the Judgment of your own Reason: Determine not of Truth and Falsehood by the ratiocinations, and comprehensions of your Judgments. There are some who would be counted and called Rational Professors, and these lay it down for a maxim, that nothing is to be received for a truth in Religion, but what our reason can fathom, ⟨p. 106⟩and make a Demonstration of, so that this must be made the very standard, and supreme judge of Truth: whereas the Word of God acquaints us, that the Christian Religion is a great mystery, 1 Tim. 1. 3. 16. Great is the mystery of Godliness. It is true indeed, that there is highest reason to give credit to Divine Truths, because they are born witness unto, by him who is the Truth: and the authority of Divine Testimony, carries in it more force to command our credit to the things which it asserts, then all the arguments which our invention can fetch out of the Topics of Reason, or borrow from the observation of our senses, God being to be believed for himself, because, he cannot lie: But to think to be able to sound the depth, and reach the bottom of these things with the short plumb line of our Understanding, is truly madness; our breath is lost before we have dived half the way; and for us to resolve to believe no more than what we are able to grasp with our reason, is distraction; and carries in it an implicit resolution to banish the most necessary and Soul Saving Truths out of our Creed: Consider here, […] Your Natural Reason is prejudiced, for which consideration it cannot be a competent judge. To talk of a Jesus Crucified no ⟨p. 107⟩way agrees with a Grecians logic, and therefore he counts it foolishness, 1 Cor. 1. 23. We preach Christ crucified, to the Greeks foolishness: and hear what a Commentary Festus makes of it, Acts 25. 19. and of one Jesus which was Dead, whom Paul affirms to be alive. The Doctrine of the Resurrection, contradicts an Athenians Philosophy, and if Paul himself preached it, he shall pass under the reputation of a Babbler,