N00802:352
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: The distress of a Conscience burdened with Sin. 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. The Consideration of the strength of the Obligation. Guilt is a prison that holds the man fast: the bars of it are too strong for the whole Creation to be able to break: the powerful hand of Omnipotency, keeps them in, and the watchful eye of Omniscience guards them, so that there is no possibility of making an escape: the Sentence declaring them Guilty is positive, Gen. 2.17. The God who hath declared it is of One Mind, and cannot repent : He hath said the Sinner shall Die, and he will accomplish it, either in him or his Surety. The Holiness and Justice of God stands pressed to prosecute the Sinner to the utmost, and will not fall of doing it. By Guilt the Sinner Falls into Gods Hands, and that is a fearful thing. Heb. 10 31.
2. The Consideration of the strength of the Obligation. Guilt is a prison that holds the man fast: the bars of it are too strong for the whole Creation to be able to break: the powerful hand of Omnipotency, keeps them in, and the watchful eye of Omnisciency guards them, so that there is no possibility of making an escape: the Sentence declaring them Guilty is positive, Gen. 2.17. The God who hath declared it is of One Mind, and cannot repen• : He hath said the Sinner shall Dy, and he will accomplish it, either in him or his Surety. The Holiness and Justice of God stands prest to prosecute the Sinner to the utmost, and will not fall of doing it. By Guilt the Sinner Falls into Gods Hands, and that is a fearful thing. Heb. 10 31.
3. The Consideration of the danger which by reason of Guilt, the man is every moment exposed unto: It lays the Sinner open to present Execution. There is no time prefixed in the Law, how long it shall be before the Sentence shall take place, and fall on the sinner in its whole weight. He is no sooner a Sinner, but Guilty, and no sooner Guilty but exposed, and God may, i he please, in that instant Arraign, Judge, Condemn, and Damn him; all the Patience extended to him, is of mere Sovereignty. God may call a Court when he will, and proceed