N00802:247
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 Hence we have a clear discovery of the blessedness of a pardoned man; well might the Psalmist put that remark upon such an one; for indeed one essential part of the misery of Sinner• is that they are under the Imputation of Sin▪ Whence ariseth their obnoxiousness to the Fiery Indignation of God, which by this Non-Imputation ⟨p. 95⟩they are delivered from; by this the Wrath of God passeth from them; and if God will not charge i•, their sin can never bring them into Condemnation▪ let them have committed never so many or gr•at sins, they can do them no hurt on this account; they are thus put out of all danger of hell, and the miseries o• that place; and surely he is an happy man.
3. Learn hence the necessity of Christ's passive Obedience, in order to our forgiveness. If he had not suffered, we could not have been pardoned: for such is our relation to the Law of Justice, that if once we have contracted Guilt to our selves, there is a Law Imputation of it to us: and to the •aking that off again, nothing less can be necessary than that the Law be answered; and that requires satisfaction, and will not take up without it. Nor was there any to be found that was able to give in this satisfaction for us, but the Son of God in our nature: if he had not done it, no other could; so that we must have remained under the charge, how then could God have been Just, and yet Justify us? Rom. 3.26 to him then are we to acknowledge this wonderful benefit.
3. Learn hence the necessity of Christ's passive Obedience, in order to our forgiveness. If he had not suffered, we could not have been pardoned: for such is our relation to the Law of Justice, that if once we have contracted Guilt to our selves, there is a Law Imputation of it to us: and to the aking that off again, nothing less can be necessary than that the Law be answered; and that requires satisfaction, and will not take up without it. Nor was there any to be found that was able to give in this satisfaction for us, but the Son of God in our nature: if he had not done it, no other could; so that we must have remained under the charge, how then could God have been Just, and yet Justifie us?