N00802:1416
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. See here where the blame lies that men live without this peace and comfort. As God did not break with men, but they with him, Isa. 59.2. So not he, but they are in the fault that the breach is not made up. He declares his readiness to be reconciled, by all the means he useth with them; he tells them of their sins, of the unreasonableness of them, invites them to repent, waits for it, promiseth that if they do, he will pardon them, give them his Spirit, bestow on them his love, and compass them with songs of deliverance. The culpable cause then must be, they are wilful, obstinate, stupid, refractory, receive not instruction, will not be reformed. God therefore so expostulates, Jer. 13.27. Isa 48 18. And is there any unrighteousness in God that he will not be at peace with such? is it not just that they do smart for their obstinacy? And if they live and die under Gods wrath, must they not for ever ⟨p. 464⟩charge it on their own perverseness? Let sinners now think of this; and if Godly men lie long under darkness and sorrow, let them enquire whether this be not the reason of it, and see their own folly.
1. See here where the blame lies that men live without this peace and comfort. As God did not break with men, but they with him, Isa. 59.2. So not he, but they are in the fault that the breach is not made up. He declares his readiness to be reconciled, by all the means he useth with them; he tells them of their sins, of the unreasonableness of them, invites them to repent, waits for it, promiseth that if they do, he will pardon them, give them his Spirit, bestow on them his love, and compass them with songs of deliverance. The culpable cause then must be, they are wilful, obstinate, stupid, refractory, receive not instruction, will not be reformed. God therefore so expostulates, Jer. 13.27. Isa 48 18. And is there any unrighteousness in God that he will not be at peace with such? is it not just that they do smart for their obstinacy? And if they live and dy under Gods wrath, must they not for ever ⟨p. 464⟩