N00802:1490
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: To go no further in Gods Service than forced is an ill sign. 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.
7. This fear hath a force in it, and will carry men no farther than it drives them. There is a vast difference between the motives that arise from this fear, and those that proceed from love. There is a sweet attractive in love, because it naturally craveth union with its object, which carrieth it forth with great spontaneity. Love would always be wi•h and please its beloved. Whereas there is more of compulsion in fear; though it also works on the man, and puts him on a choice, yet it is not absolute, but hypothetical. In a word, love seeth an amiableness, a desirableness in the Service of God, that it is in it self good and pleasant, and preferable, Psal 19.10. Whereas fear alone, doth not take away that natural averseness that is in us to obedience▪ it alters not our false principles, but we still •all good evil, only it makes us apprehend the danger arising from the threatening, which we count unreasonable, but because we cannot otherwise avoid the threatened misery, we choose rather to ⟨p. 486⟩abstain from such sins, and practice such duties, than suffer what is denounced. Hence it is an unwilling willingness that is produced: our obedience is like the service of a slave, who must do what he i• •idden, but it is a burden to him, Mal. 1.13.
7. This fear hath a force in it, and will carry men no farther than it drives them. There is a vast difference between the motives that arise from this fear, and those that proceed from love. There is a sweet attractive in love, because it naturally craveth union with its object, which carrieth it forth with great spontaneity. Love would always be wi•h and please its beloved. Whereas there is more of compulsion in fear; though it also works on the man, and puts him on a choise, yet it is not absolute, but hypothetical. In a word, love seeth an amiableness, a desirableness in the Service of God, that it is in it self good and pleasant, and preferable, Psal 19.10. Whereas fear alone, doth not take away that natural aversness that is in us to obedience it alters not our false principles, but we still all good evil, only it makes us apprehend the danger arising from the threatning, which we count unreasonable, but because we cannot otherwise aoid the threatned misery, we chuse rather to