N00348:148
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.
3. Hence it is a vain thing for you ever to think to beat down the Market. God is not like unto many men, who have their reserves and abatements, and may be in time brought to take half so much for a Commodity as they did at the first ask for it, rather than lose a good Customer: He is of one mind; He hath positively set the price, and he will never go from it; it is to no purpose at all to use words and arguments with him, who is not to be moved from what he hath determined: if, when you hear what the Truth must cost you, if God and you drive a Bargain, you do find fault with it, and cry out, it is abundantly to hard, if you take a disgust and go away from him, refusing to come to his terms, He matters it not. He hath declared his wonderful good will to the Children of men, in that he hath made the offers of it freely unto them, but yet he will not so undervalue the Truth, as to suffer himself ⟨p. 122⟩to be beaten down in his just demands, or vouchsafe to trade with such men as would go about to cast the disparagement upon him of being an hard Dealer; he is under no necessity, he wants not our Custom, all our cost enricheth not him at all: if we go away and never buy of him he is never the poorer; its we only who shall be the losers in the winding up: as on the other hand, if we buy, ours will be the great profit; so true is that in Prov. 9. 12. If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thy self, but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt hear it.
4. Hence your great business is to satisfy your selves in the infinite worth of the Truth, that so you may be persuaded cheerfully to come up to Gods terms, and drive this happy Bargain. The want of this information and consequent satisfaction is the great reason why there are so many triflers, and so few buyers, among the number of those who come to the Ordinances. There is nothing that makes men to be more irresolute in a Bargain, holding them off, and continuing them in suspense, than a fear of being overreached, and this fear is for the most part occasioned, because they have not gotten an insight into the true worth of the thing: but