N00802:603
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.
1. God knows all our sins, and therefore it is vain to go about to hide them from him. They all stand in the light of his Countenance; we may hope to escape from men by hiding; but to think to get any thing by not confessing to God, is a great folly. He doth not need our confession, to give him any information, he knows them, and can set them in order before us, when he pleaseth; if then he looketh for our acknowledgement, and we do not make it, this will turn to our damage, there is a threatening in that, Prov. 28.13. He that covereth his sins, shall not prosper.
1. God knows all our sins, and therefore it is vain to go about to hide them from him. They all stand in the light of his Countenance; we may hope to escape from men by hiding; but to think to get any thing by not confessing to God, is a great folly. He doth not need our confession, to give him any information, he knows them, and can set them in order before us, when he pleaseth; if then he looketh for our acknowledgment, and we do not make it, this will turn to our damage, there is a threatning in that, Prov. 28.13. He that covereth his sins, shall not prosper.
2. All Sin is against God. Men may be injured by it, but whether they be or no, Gods ⟨p. 217⟩honour is stricken at by every Sin; it is a transgression of his Law, 1 Joh. 3.4. It is a coming short of his glory, Rom. 3.23. And that is an affront offered to him; and indeed, considered as Sin, it is only against him, Psal 51.4. And whom should we make our Confession to, but him whom we have provoked by it? he is the party firstly concerned, and must not be neglected.