N00802:371
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.
USE II. See here one reason why Conversion is called a Strait Gate. It is so, Mat. 7.14. The word implieth that which distresseth a man, by straitening and putting him to pain, and hence the Verb of it signifieth, To Groan ▪ The work of Conviction is the first work of the Spirit, Joh. 16.8. Now the Conscience is the Subject of this Conviction, ⟨p. 141⟩and the matter of it is the Guilt arising from sin, or Sin and Guilt which are inseparable, according to the tenor of the First Covenant; and though the way of the Spirit of God with Infants be to us a secret, yet in grown persons, who are Converted by the Word and Ordinances, God leaves this Conviction upon them, in order to his drawing of them to Christ, and they are distressed by it; the next Invitation therefore is to such as are weary and heavy laden, Mat. 11.28. The Spirit of God acts arbitrarily in measuring the degrees of this, and usually when men have been most notorious for sin, the distress is the greatest; but there are such impressions of it on all who are thus drawn, so as to bring them into a lost state, and make them apprehensively perishing: and by this means God embitters Sin to them, so that he may hereby make his grace the more welcome and acceptable to them; that being oppressed, they may cry out for help.
USE II. See here one reason why Conversion is called a Strait Gate. It is so, Mat. 7.14. The word implieth that which distresseth a man, by straitning and putting him to pain, and hence the Verb of it signifieth, To Groan ▪ The work of Conviction is the first work of the Spirit, Joh. 16.8. Now the Conscience is the Subject of this Conviction, ⟨p. 141⟩and the matter of it is the Guilt arising from sin, or Sin and Guilt which are inseparable, according to the tenour of the First Covenant; and though the way of the Spirit of God with Infants be to us a secret, yet in grown persons, who are Converted by the Word and Ordinances, God leaves this Conviction upon them, in order to his drawing of them to Christ, and they are distressed by it; the next Invitation therefore is to such as are weary and heavy laden,