N00802:557
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 › Right Confession, its nature and usefulness. DOCTRINE. › Proposition 3: PROPOSITION III.
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.
PROPOSITION III.
That we must be very free and deliberate in the confessing of our sins. The Psalmist tells us of his purpose to do it, I said I will confess: and how did he say this, but in his heart? he did it upon mature consideration it was neither an enforced, nor an inconsiderate action, done in haste, rashly. Here then,
1. It must be free, ingenuous, voluntary. There must first be a resolution, and then a practice upon it, and without this it cannot be right or sincere. There is no Religious duty done acceptably to God, but what hath the heart in it, the will determined about it; there are many forced confessions, that men are driven to in distress, when Gods hand is upon them, and Conscience thundereth against them, that maketh them to vomit up their indigested morsels, and make a great noise, as those that are extremely sick of Sin; but it is not kindly, nor will it end well. Pharaoh did thus when Gods hand was heavy on him; & the Children of Israel did so in times of distressing Judgments: but what came it to? What a remark doth God make on it? Psal. 78.37 God indeed frequently useth afflictive Providences as means, and Conscience as an instrument for the bringing of men to a sincere confession, such as Ephraims was, Jer. 31.18, 19. But he causeth it to work so on the heart, as to make the man truly affected with his Sin, and with self abhorrence to confess it.