N00348:82
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.
1. The world hath not hitherto bid them a valuable price for the Truth, nor any thing near one; and therefore no wonder if they blow upon it with holy scorn […] Satan either could or would have performed that offer which he made to the man Christ, Mat. 4. 8, 9. All this will I give thee, &c. upon his parting with the Truth, yet if he had accepted it, he had been undone by the bargain. If men that come to you to buy your earthly merchandise, do proffer you a price far short of that which you value the commodity at, it will greatly incense you, and you will scarce vouchsafe so much as to give them an answer, but turn your backs upon them and be gone, as looking upon your selves to be mocked: and it is out of question, that when Satan and his Instruments have made their largest offers to godly men to win them from the Truth; when they have told them, they shall have their lives, enjoy their liberties, their estates, ⟨p. 60⟩yea, and be advanced to great honours and preferment, and made to enjoy whatsoever the world can afford to make them happy, they have offered them but a Counter for a Guinea, but a Bristow-stone for an Oriental▪ Pearl; yea, not so much as that, but indeed hath sought to impose upon them the greatest cheat that they possibly can: and yet if they do not readily and cheerfully, embrace the motion, and take in with the offer, they are fools, and sots, and what not? in mens esteem; whereas if they should be induced to part with it on these terms, it must need argue them either of gross ignorance, or in deliberate folly; either that they have not a right understanding of the value of Truth, or are surprised unawares with a deluding false opinion of the worth of these worthless things. But he that hath truly bought the Truth, knows its worth too well to lay it in the balance against these things, and finds every day more of experimental sweetness in it, then to put it off for such gewgaws and childish fooleries as are here offered to him; and what a vile and injurious thing is it for any to make offers to men to make fools of them, and when they have so done, to rail at, and call them so, because (through ⟨p. 61⟩grace) they have been too wise to accept of the offer?