N00348:16
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.
Doct Truth is a Treasure which every one ought to purchase, whatever it costs him; and having once gotten it, never to forego it again. In pursuit of this Doctrine we may enquire, 1. What we are here mainly to understand […] Truth, together with the evidence that there is such a thing? 2. What of duty is recommended to us under the notion of buying it? 3. Why every one ought to buy it? 4. What is the import of the phrase of selling? 5. Why it is not to be sold. A few words to each of these in order.
Doct Truth is a Treasure which every one ought to purchase, whatever it costs him; and having once gotten it, never to forego it again. In pursuit of this Doctrine we may enquire, 1. What we are here mainly to understand 〈…〉 Truth, together with the evidence that there is such a thing? 2. What of duty is recommended to us under the notion of buying it? 3. Why every one ought to buy it? 4. What is the import of the phrase of selling? 5. Why it is not to be sold. A few words to each of these in order.
1. What we are here mainly to understand by Truth, &c.
A. The right knowledge to this is the ⟨p. 5⟩Key to the whole discourse; it will therefore be worth the while to make some enquiry after it. There are many notions about Truth, which have more of curiosity than common profitableness in them, which I shall therefore designedly avoid, and only touch at such as are more necessary. Concerning Truth in general, I shall only intimate thus much, viz. That as there are two principal Faculties in the Soul of Man, helping him in his rational closure with his objects; so there are two Affections in things, […] and accommodating of them, for the closure of these faculties with them. These Faculties are the Understanding and Will; and those Affections of things are Truth and Goodness: for as Goodness is the attractive of the Will, so is Truth of the Understanding. Truth then is considerable in a treble notion; either as it is rooted in the thing, or as it is taken into the Understanding, or as it is communicated unto others. Truth in the thing is nothing else but the distinct nature of it, considered as it is knowable, and that either generically, specifically, or individually. It adds nothing really to the nature of the thing; but is only a relative affection, by which the