N00348:163
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. You must renounce all your worldly lusts too, if you would be savingly possest of the Truth. Not but that it is to be confessed, that men may be Orthodox in Principles, and vicious in their life; a poisonous Toad may have a ⟨p. 136⟩Jewel in his head of great worth; men may have great attainments in Theoretical Divinity, and Christ may advise his Hearers to do as the Pharisees say, though he together admonished them to beware of following their deeds: but so to know God in his Son Jesus Christ as is Life Eternal; which is indeed the only profitable purchasing of the Truth, is inconsistent with the harbouring and maintaining of fleshly lusts: the Truth can find no suitable lodgings in a soul that is wedded to his concupiscence; nay such is the nature of Divine Truth, that where it comes into the soul indeed, it will certainly shine down the works of darkness, and the same word of Truth that doth effectually turn men from darkness to light, doth at the same time turn them from Sin to God, hence they are put together as inseparable fruits and effects of the Gospel, where it comes with a saving efficacy, Acts 26. 18. To open their eyes, and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God; and we find Paul arguing from their learning, of the Truth, to the mortifying of their lusts, Eph. 4. 21, 22. If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the Truth is in Jesus, […] ye put off concerning the former conversation, the Old-man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful ⟨p. 137⟩lusts. Besides, every Fleshly Lust is a Lye, and they are called lies, in the Scripture, Psal. 40. 4. Nor such as turn aside to lies, i. e. to sinful and deceitful-lusts: and […] every such lust entertained in the heart, must needs keep out the contrary Truth from taking up a room in the soul; and he that will engage himself to defend and plead for any foolish and hurtful lust, of what kind soever, must in so doing set himself against the Truth, and whether such an one be in any likely way to buy it, let any man judge.