N00802:579
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 4: PROPOSITION IV.
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. We must not hide the sinfulness of the fact by any unjust pretences or excuses. It is not enough to say we have done the thing, and sinned in it, if we mince the matter, and seek to make it as excusable as we can. Here observe,
1. We must not go about to make any sin little when we are confessing it. I did not do well, I might have done better, I was not so careful as I ought; but it was but a circumstance or inconsiderable matter, I hope it will not be imputed; this is a vain confession. All sins indeed are not alike; but to confess any so diminutively, is to trifle: this is next to saying, spare it, it is a little one: It saith we are not convinced of the malignity there is in all sin.
2. We must not put the blame of it from our selves to others, and so make our fault the less. We did not well indeed, we should have been more watchful; but we were provoked, allured, the temptation was great; and these or those are to blame for it, but for whom I had never done it; thus our First Parents, Gen. 3. Thus Aaron, Exod. 32.22, 23. It is very common, and men think they ease themselves much with it; not considering that others may tempt us, but if they prevail it is with our consent.