N00802:1722
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
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. That these very acts of Obedience are maimed & •ame things. Look on them again, compare them with the Rule, and that perfection which is the measure of our conformity prescribed in the word of God, and you shall find so much deficiency in them, that it will make your plumes fall, and in stead of being proud you will be ashamed of your selves, confessing all to be Rags; and this will make you so far from being discontented that they are not, that you will wonder that they should ever be accepted; and help you to ascribe all the returns of your prayers, not to your Obedience, but to his rich Grace.
2. That these very acts of Obedience are maimed & •ame things. Look on them again, compare them with the Rule, and that perfection which is the measure of our conformity prescribed in the word of God, and you shall find so much deficiency in them, that it will make your plumes fall, and in stead of being proud you will be ashamed of your selves, confessing all to be Rags; and this will make you so far from being discontented that they are not, that you will wonder that they should ever be accepted; and h•lp you to ascribe all the returns of your prayers, not to your Obedience, but to his rich Grace.
USE IV. This may also serve to support the Godly, under the sense of the imperfection of their Obedience; and their fear lest it should not be accepted. Here then;
1. Remember it is mercy you have to do with. David comforts himself with this, Psal 130.34 You are not under the rigour of the Covenant of works, where every defect incurs the Curse; but the Covenant of Grace, in which God is pleased to make known the riches of his Grace, and hence his Children are encouraged to hope in it, under the deepest sense of their own infirmities.