N00802:1412
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.
4. Henc• if ever God bring them to enjoy this favour, he will give them Repentance. Herein God discovers his eternal purpose concerning men; means are no further profitable to any, than as they help forward the end for which they are used: if God have thoughts of mercy for men, and resolves to make them partake in pardon, peace and salvation, he will give them Repentance; & when he so doth, his purpose now breaks out and discovers it self: Christ was Exalted for this very end, Acts 5 31. I• then he leave men under impenitency, after all means, it speaks awfully.
4. Henc• if ever God bring them to enjoy this favour, he will give them Repentance. Herein God discovers his eternal purpose concerning men; means are no further pr•fitable to any, than as they help forward the end for which they are used: if God have thoughts of mercy for men, and resolves to make them partake in pardon, peace and salvation, he will give them Repentance; & when he so doth, his purpose now breaks out and discovers it self: Christ was Exalted for this very end, Acts 5 31. I• then he leave men under impenitency, after all means, it speaks awfully.
5. This Repentance will never be, so long as their contumacy abides. There belong these things to Repentance which are inconsistent with it. There is a sight and sense of sin, a confessing and bewailing of it, a self abhorrence for it, a returning to God with the whole heart: to all of which is required a willing mind, an heart laid at the foot of God. A stiff neck, and a rebellious heart go together. God, in bringing men to Repentance, takes away the heart of stone, makes the stout spirit stoop; and till this be done, the distance abides, and no hope of recovering either pardon, or comfort.