N00802:360
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.
6. Conscience is also an Executioner. When it hath done the Office of a Judge, it then falls upon ⟨p. 138⟩the man, and •ends and tears him. This is the Worm that dies not, Mark 9.43. It begins to feed upon him here in this world, it fills him with horror, and many times precipitates him into mischief. Now all this process of Conscience in the Sinner, is built upon the Guilt that lieth on him, and so tells us how much there is in it to distress the man, because it provides this work for Conscience, but for which it would be his Friend, and speak peace to him.
6. Conscience is also an Executioner. When it hath done the Office of a Judge, it then falls upon ⟨p. 138⟩the man, and •ends and tears him. This is the Worm that dies not, Mark 9.43. It begins to feed upon him here in this world, it fills him with horrour, and many times precipitates him into mischief. Now all this process of Conscience in the Sinner, is built upon the Guilt that lyeth on him, and so tells us how much there is in it to distress the man, because it provides this work for Conscience, but for which it would be his Friend, and speak peace to him.
3. From the impression which this lively sense maketh upon the Conscience. The matter of this distress lies in the Guilt it self; and the Conscience is a subject fit to afflict the man with it; but the application of it ariseth from this sense: so that though the man were quiet before, though his condition were the same, yet now he cannot be so. It is impossible but the man should be horribly distressed.