N00348:49
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.
5. Why it is not to be sold.
A. There need no other reason be rendered of it, but this; Because, for a man that hath bought the Truth, to sell it again; crosseth all the rules and ends of prudent Merchandise, and this may be exemplified in two or three particulars.
A. There need no other reason be rendred of it, but this; Because, for a man that hath bought the Truth, to sell it again; crosseth all the rules and ends of prudent Merchandize, and this may be exemplified in two or three particulars.
1. No Understanding Man will part with that which he cannot subsist without, and if he put it out of his hands, cannot get it again; for by so doing he at once undoes himself: such a thing is Truth; it is a mans life, if he have it not, he is an undone man: without Truth no man can be saved; he who sells the Truth, hates his own soul; he is guilty of destroying himself with his own hands, it is utterly impossible that he should ⟨p. 31⟩barter for any thing in exchange for it, that can supply the necessary use of it to him; for the world hath it not to offer him: in the very same moment wherein a man parts with the Truth, he parts with God, and Christ, and Heaven, and all grounded hope of happiness: and if men will be so foolish as to sell the Truth, God is wont to be so severe in bearing witness against them, as to give them up to believe a lye, to their own damnation; as that Awful Scripture denounceth, 2 Thes. 2. 9, 10. and what will become of such an unhappy wretch, when he hath sold the Truth that could have saved him, and purchased a lye in the room of it, that will damn him?