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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 1: Contumacy to be avoided if we would have true peace. DOCTRINE I.
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. When they cannot bear the means that are used with them, but are enraged at them. If God sends his Servants, and they rebuke them, and give them serious warning, they fly out upon them, as if they had offered them the greatest affront; thus they dealt by Jeremiah, Jer. 26.11. Thus did Asa by the Prophet, 2 Chron. 16.10. One that is tractable will take a reproof for a kindness, Psal. 141.5. And submits to it, 2 Sam. 12.10.11. Again, if God lays them under affliction, they murmur at his Providence, and fly in his face; thus Israel did in the Wilderness; they behave themselves as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke, Jer. 31.18. Whereas the other stoops and lies down quietly, Lam. 3.28▪ 29, 30.
2. When they resolutely reject counsel. They will not receive instruction, as God complains of them, Zeph 3.7. Their pride makes them think themselves too good to be advised, and they scornfully cast it off, sometimes in express terms, as they, Jer. 44.16, 17. And oftener by contemptuous carriages they stop their ears, and wilfully refuse to return, Jer. 8.5. Psal. 58.4. Mat. 23.37. Whereas a tractable spirit readily receives advice, and is thankful for it, 1 Sam 25.32, 33.