N00348:26
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. Buying argues the thing is to be sold, and that there is one that hath it to sell. A man may have a commodity, but if he resolves to keep, and hath purposed not to part with it, we can have no hopes of buying it: But Truth is to be had, if men were but willing to come up to the price of it; for though it is our duty to buy it, and then not to sell it again, so that one man cannot buy it of another, (the Wise Virgins can spare none of their Oil to the foolish) yet God hath it for all such as want it, and are willing to hearken to his advice, and take his direction about it. Neither doth he only keep it in the chambers, to bring down to such as are making enquiry after it, but he lays it forth upon the Shop boards of the Ordinances, and offers it to all that come; nay, more than so, he (in pity to poor man) sends out a Crier to proclaim it in markets and streets, that if there be any among them that hath any mind to Truth, if they will come to him for it, they shall have it on fair and rational terms; see how this is emphatically described in Prov. 8. begin. and cap. 9. 3, 4.
2. Buying argues the thing is to be sold, and that there is one that hath it to sell. A man may have a commodity, but if he resolves to keep, and hath purposed not to part with it, we can have no hopes of buying it: But Truth is to be had, if men were but willing to come up to the price of it; for though it is our duty to buy it, and then not to sell it again, so that one man cannot buy it of another, (the Wise Virgins can spare none of their Oyl to the foolish) yet God hath it for all such as want it, and are willing to hearken to his advice, and take his direction about it. Neither doth he only keep it in the chambers, to bring down to such as are making enquiry after it, but he lays it forth upon the Shop boards of the Ordinances, and offers it to all that come; nay, more than so, he (in pity to poor man) sends out a Cryer to proclaim it in markets and streets, that if there be any among them that hath any mind to Truth, if they will come to him for it, they shall have it on fair and rational terms; see how this is emphatically described in Prov. 8. begin. and cap. 9. 3, 4.