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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 2: Wicked mens Sorrows, great and innumerable. DOCTRINE II.
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. Learn hence that wicked men have no cause to boast, nor Godly men to envy. There is too much of this in both respects, and the ground or occasion of it is this; there is a day of Gods patience towards Sinners in this world, in which his mercy moderateth the Execution of the Sentence that is past upon them, and his common Goodness and Bounty opens its hand to them, so that they are not for the present in trouble as other men, but flourish in great opulency, enjoying whatsoever they can desire, as they are described, Job 21.7. &c. Psal. 73 3. &c And so, to outward appearance, they look as if they were the darlings of Providence ▪ and special favourites of heaven. This is also a day wherein God will try and exercise the Grace of his Children, in order to the perfecting and glorifying of them: that he may mortify sin in them, wean them from the world, and prepare them for the Kingdom: and for this he useth many afflictions and troubles in this life, which ⟨p. 527⟩they often meet withal, and frequently in greater measures than others do, Psal. 73.14 42.3 Which makes them seem to a carnal eye, as if God took no care of, but disregarded them. From hence Wicked men, who know no other happiness or misery than what is in this life, boast and brag of themselves, as if they were the only men; they bless themselves, Psal. 10.3, 6. And scorn the people of God as such who are most forlorn, Jer. 30.17. And Godly men are prejudiced, and envy, Psal. 73.3. And complain, verse 13. But both of these discover a great deal of folly, and the truth in hand makes it manifest. Are these Sorrows for all this the portion of wicked men? do they wait them, and shall they certainly befall them? needs must they have no more reason to boast, than a condemned man hath of his prison fare, because it is liberal, whiles he is every day in expectation of being fetched out and Executed. Nor have the Children of God any more reason to envy, because this is all the portion they are like to have of good things, and are mean while upon the precipice of ruin. See