N00802:601
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 6: PROPOSITION VI.
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.
5. Hence sometimes it is requisite to make a public Confession, when the Sin cannot be legally proved against us: Viz. When Gods Providence giveth so much light, as our profession is scandalized among men, though there be not a full proof. When there are such circumstances of discovery, as give a moral certainty to men, and there are several things known, that render us justly suspected: as when there is a common fame, and such things as make the most charitable suspicious of us, and force an enquiry to be made: Now we are either innocent or guilty, and the honour of God requires that we either assert our innocency, or acknowledge our Guilt; the Apostle reproved the Corinthians on a common report, 1 Cor. 5.1. ⟨p. 216⟩And he commends their earnestness in clearing themselves, 2 Cor. 7.10.
5. Hence sometimes it is requisite to make a publick Confession, when the Sin cannot be legally proved against us: Viz. When Gods Providence giveth so much light, as our profession is scandalized among men, though there be not a full proof. When there are such circumstances of discovery, as give a moral certainty to men, and there are several things known, that render us justly suspected: as when there is a common fame, and such things as make the most charitable suspicious of us, and force an enquiry to be made: Now we are either innocent or guilty, and the honour of God requires that we either assert our innocency, or acknowledge our Guilt; the Apostle reproved the Corinthians on a common report, 1 Cor. 5.1. ⟨p. 216⟩And he commends their earnestness in clearing themselves, 2 Cor. 7.10.