N00802:786
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 › Doctrine 1: Examples of Pardoned Sinners, our Encouragement DOCTRINE I.
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 is the same still. He ever carrieth himself to us like himself: what he hath been to his people, that he will be; there is one way in which he dispenseth his grace from first to last. Hence that encouragement, Mal. 3.6. I am God, I change not.
2. This way is accommodated to the Precept. God hath given di•ection to Sinners […] do, and how to seek •im so as to find him Now, i• we compare these examples be this Rule, we shall observe that they followed the directions given them by God, else they had not sped: so that by their good success we may better understand what God requireth of us; and this must also help our faith.
2. This way is accommodated to the Precept. God hath given di•ection to Sinners 〈…〉 do, and how to seek •im so as to find him Now, i• we compare these examples be this Rule, we shall observe that they followed the directions given them by God, else they had not sped: so that by their good succ•ss we may better understand what God requireth of us; and this must also help our faith.
3. It is a trodden way. It is not an untraced path; we are not to begin in it, but others have gone before us, and we are to follow them: and as it is thereby the easier to find, so it is the more hopeful of success. We have leaders in it, and so may the better keep it: and it may put life into us, when we see they have done well in it, and are gotten safe through it.