N00802:742
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 › Gods readiness to forgive on Penitent Confession. DOCTRINE.
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. Let it be to encourage drooping and desponding Sinners. When Satan can no longer cherish presumption in men, but the Spirit awakens and puts them in fear, he now seeks to overwhelm them with fears, and put them out of hope; here then is a precious cordial for such. For Encouragement. Consider;
1. You have a gracious God to do withal, who delighteth in pardon. He is indeed holy and just, but be not disheartened by that; he is for all that merciful, those Attributes cannot hinder his being so: all that he hath done to make way for this forgiveness, stands to let us understand, how much his heart is in it. Would he ever have given his own Son to be made an offering for sin, had he not taken pleasure in exalting his pardoning grace among a company of sinful Creatures?
2. He hath laid in enough for your pardon, whatsoever you have been. It may be the greatness of your sins terrify you, or the multitude of them, or your long continuing in them, and the many aggravations circumstancing of them, which makes you think them to outbid a pardon; but know it, that because God delighted in forgiveness, he provided for the glorifying of it, by laying it upon one ⟨p. 271⟩mighty to save: and hence, in the Satisfaction made by Christ, there is sufficient to answer all the demands of Justice, for the greatest Sins and Sinners. Such are therefore encouraged, Isa. 55.5. There can be no wrong done to the Law of God; & abundance is added to the manifestation of his grace by this: there is therefore no […] le•t for your doubting on this account: […] you may make a plea of it,