N00801:13
A remedy against despair. Or Brief discourse wherein great sinners are encouraged, and directed…
A remedy against despair. Or Brief discourse wherein great sinners are encouraged, and directed how to improve the consideration of the greatness of their sins in praying to God for pardon. Being the substance of two sermons preached at the lecture in Boston, 1699. / By Samuel Willard, teacher of a church there. ; [Four lines of Scripture texts]
Boston: printed by B. Green and J. Allen. Sold by S. Phillips, 1700
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 Object to whom he directs it, the Lord; the word is, Jehovah, which is a proper and incommunicable name of God, and is no where ascribed to any second being whatsoever, but to the true God alone.
2. The benefit which he petitioneth for, viz. pardon or forgiveness; the word properly signifies to pardon, or to spare of free grace or mercy, without any the least deserving in the Subject to whom it is applied: and Critics observe that it is most commonly used in the Law of Moses, for such a forgiveness as is afforded, upon an oblation that hath been offered to God for the expiation of the Guilt contracted by the person; so that we may here suppose the Psalmist to have an eye of Faith upon the Sacrifice of Christ, which was to satisfy the Justice of God, in order to the obtaining of a Pardon for Sinners. Pardon presumes Guilt, and supposeth it to be removed by it.
2. The benefit which he petitioneth for, viz. pardon or forgiveness; the word properly signifies to pardon, or to spare of free grace or mercy, without any the least deserving in the Subject to whom it is applied: and Criticks observe that it is most commonly used in the Law of Moses, for such a forgiveness as is afforded, upon an oblation that hath been offered to God for the expiation of the Guilt contracted by the person; so that we may here suppose the Psalmist to have an eye of Faith upon the Sacrifice of Christ, which was to satisfie the Justice of God, in order to the obtaining of a Pardon for Sinners. Pardon presumes Guilt, and supposeth it to be removed by it.
3. The special Subject about which he petitioneth this benefit to be conferred upon him; mine iniquity: and here two things are to be considered.