N00802:819
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 2: Forgiveness obtained in the way of Prayer. DOCTRINE II.
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.
3 That Faith in Christ is the great medium by which we apprehend Gods forgiveness. We cannot me it i•, all that we have to do, is to receive it, which is only by an hand of Faith. Hence Justification, to which pardon belongs is in the Gospel restrained to believing, Rom. 5.1. But this hath been already insisted on.
4. That our faith must be acted on Christ for our apprehension of this pardon. I here dispute not, ⟨p. 291⟩whether the habit of Faith doth not put us in a safe state? We are here only considering the order of the Economy of the Divine dispensation to us. As to Gods dealing with Infants, it is dark to us: We can readily conceive them Subjects as well capable of the Sanctification of the Spirit, as of natural corruption: though how they should exert acts of faith and repentance, is beyond our conjecture. But as to others, we know that the habits of Grace are infused for action: and to believe in Christ for life is an act of the Soul, proceeding from such a principle, and not merely the principle it self, though it presumes a power put into us, else we could not take hold on Christ. Now it is actual believing to which the Gospel promise is made, Joh. 3 16. And therefore it is called a coming to him, Math. 11.28.
4. That our faith must be acted on Christ for our apprehension of this pardon. I here dispute not, ⟨p. 291⟩whether the habit of Faith doth not put us in a safe state? We are here only considering the order of the Oeconomy of the Divine dispensation to us. As to Gods dealing with Infants, it is dark to us: We can readily conceive them Subjects as well capable of the Sanctification of the Spirit, as of natural corruption: though how they should exert acts of faith and repentance, is beyond our conjecture. But as to others, we know that the habits of Grace are infused for action: and to believe in Christ for life is an act of the Soul, proceeding from such a principle, and not meerly the principle it self, though it presumes a power put into us, else we could not take hold on Christ. Now it is actual believing to which the Gospel promise is made,