N00802:1025
The truly blessed man
The truly blessed man: or, The way to be happy here, and for ever: being the substance of divers sermons preached on, Psalm XXXII. / By Samuel Willard, teacher of a church in Boston. N.E. ; [Five lines from Isaiah]
printed by B. Green for Michael Perry, 1700
Sermon › Doctrine 3: God to be sought in a finding time. DOCTRINE. III.
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. That Sinners may, in this life, put God off so long, till he resolves to have nothing more to do with them in way of special favour. It is a truth, that at what time a sinner truly turns, God will show him mercy; but yet men may sin themselves into desertion and dereliction, so that God will not give them repentance, and if so, he will not afford them forgiveness; for they are inseparable, Acts 5 31. And yet there may be such horrors and remorses, as will make them to cry fearfully for pardon; but they shall not be heard; hence such warning, Prov. 1.28. And that reason, Vers. 24.
2. That Sinners may, in this life, put God off so long, till he resolves to have nothing more to do with them in way of special favour. It is a truth, that at what time a sinner truly turns, God will shew him mercy; but yet men may sin themselves into desertion and dereliction, so that God will not give them repentance, and if so, he will not afford them forgiveness; for they are inseparable, Acts 5 31. And yet there may be such horrours and remorces, as will make them to cry fearfully for pardon; but they shall not be heard; hence such warning, Prov. 1.28. And that reason, Vers. 24.
3. That Gods own Children may, by missing the opportunity, pray a long time before God will let them know that he hears them. God makes them tarry long before he pours the balm of comfort into their Souls. Hence their complaints, that they are not heard though they cry, that they seek, and cannot find him; and their Sins mean while oppress, and almost sink them; see, Psal. 31.9, 10.38. begin. If when a Child of God hath been trepanned into