N00802:357
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.
3. Conscience is a Witness to matters of fact. ⟨p. 137⟩And this it is in all the Circumstances; and as good as ten thousand, being privy to all, standing by, looking on, and writing down the most Secret Sins, Rom 2.15. And it will not, dares not withhold its Testimony, when God commands it to declare: if he lay the matter before it, it will not be silent, Joh. 8.9. Nor will the man dare to deny, when Conscience stares him in the face and terrifieth him.
3. Conscience is a Witness to matters of fact. ⟨p. 137⟩And this it is in all the Circumstances; and as good as ten thousand, being privy to all, standing by, looking on, and writing down the most Secret Sins, Rom 2.15. And it will not, dares not withold its Testimony, when God commands it to declare: if he lay the matter before it, it will not be silent, Joh. 8.9. Nor will the man dare to deny, when Conscience stares him in the face and terrifyeth him.
4. Conscience is an Accuser. This is one office it bears under God, Rom. 2.15. And though, for the present, men bribe and baffle their Consciences, and make them to hold their peace, yet they will certainly betray them; and when there is neither Man, Angel, nor Devil appears, to lay any thing to their charge, this will haunt them with its reflections, and give them no rest. Yea, how often doth it blab all, and force a confession from them before men.