N00802:1555
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: Untractableness under means, a character of a wicked man. 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.
2. And we may be won suddenly to show our prevailing corruption, in slighting of counsels and reproofs. So long as we are under the captivity of the law in our members, it will draw out our lusts to act themselves, sometimes in stupidity, as it was with […] sometimes by breaking forth into unruly passion at them that rebuke us, as it was with Asa; which is a s•d sign of an ill frame that we are in, which may well stumble us, and if we now question our sincerity, it is no wonder; yet we may not hence positively conclude.
2. And we may be won suddenly to shew our prevailing corruption, in slighting of counsels and reproofs. So long as we are under the captivity of the law in our members, it will draw out our lusts to act themselves, sometimes in stupidity, as it was with 〈…〉 sometimes by breaking forth into unruly passion at them that rebuke us, as it was with Asa; which is a s•d sign of an ill frame that we are in, which may well stumble us, and if we now question our sincerity, it is no wonder; yet we may not hence positively conclude.
3. But if this be our constant guise, it speaks sadly against us. This is a bad symptom that we are sat down in the seat of the scornful; it looks like a spot that is not of Gods Children. Where there is Grace, there will be a warfare maintained between that and corruption in us; and though corruption would of it self, be always too strong for us, yet God will not desert his own work in his Children, so as to suffer it always to be worsted; but for the most part to resist and conquer; for he hath planted his Grace in us for this end.
3. But if this be our constant guize, it speaks sadly against us. This is a bad symptom that we are sat down in the seat of the scornful; it looks like a spot that is not of Gods Children. Where there is Grace, there will be a warfare maintained between that and corruption in us; and though corruption would of it self, be alwayes too strong for us, yet God will not desert his own work in his Children, so as to suffer it always to be worsted; but for the most part to resist and conquer; for he hath planted his Grace in us for this end.