N00802:1877
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 › The Righteous should Rejoice abundantly.Sermon › The Righteous should Rejoyce abundantly.
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. Hence the motion of the Affections is according to the apprehension had of the Object. Now this apprehension is either by the exercise of the senses, as in brutes, or of reason, as in man: for though the senses in man are helpful in the discovery of things, yet they are subservient to his reason; which hath in him the power of judging and determining of things: that therefore which moves the affections is either the good or evil in the Object; but not merely as it is in it, but as the man apprehends it so to be; and so they may be led by mistake, through a false opinion to call good evil, and evil good, & act accordingly Isa 5 20.
2. Hence the motion of the Affections is according to the apprehension had of the Object. Now this apprehension is either by the exercise of the senses, as in bruits, or of reason, as in man: for though the senses in man are helpful in the discovery of things, yet they are subservient to his reason; which hath in him the power of judging and determining of things: that therefore which moves the affections is either the good or evil in the Object; but not meerly as it is in it, but as the man apprehends it so to be; and so they may be led by mistake, through a false opinion to call good evil, and evil good, & act accordingly Isa 5 20.
3. Hence also they are graduated according to the conception of the degree of that which moves them in the object. That there are divers measures in their operation, is evident, we do not rejoice, we do not grieve so much on one occasion, as we do on another; and there must be some reason for this: ⟨p. 613⟩It doth not only a•ise from the diversity of the Constitution, but also from the diversity of the motive; the same person on divers occasions is variously moved, as he esteems the occasion to be smaller or greater, which must needs be from the apprehension of the different reason of it in the object: he thinks one thing to be a greater good, and takes a proportionable delight in it; another thing to be a greater evil, and lets out his grief accordingly: and hence we read in the Word of God, of greater or lesser occasions of joy & sorrow.