N00802:822
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.
1 Herein we testify our self want of it. It is sense of need that drives men to Prayer. All formalities without this feeling, are •ut idle strains of complement which God hath no regard for. And indeed ⟨p. 292⟩the end of Prayer is not to acquaint him with our necessities, for He knows them before, Math 6.8. but to affect our selves with them. God would have us know our need, that we may put the better value on his kindness: it is therefore upon felt want that we are advised to ask, Jam. 1 5.
1 Herein we testify our self want of it. It is sence of need that drives men to Prayer. All formalities without this feeling, are •ut idle strains of complement which God hath no regard for. And indeed ⟨p. 292⟩the end of Prayer is not to acquaint him with our necessities, for He knows them before, Math 6.8. but to affect our selves with them. God would have us know our need, that we may put the better value on his kindness: it is therefore upon felt want that we are advised to ask, Jam. 1 5.
2. We herein also acknowledge God to be the author of our forgiveness. This he expecteth of us. It was one clause in his Prayer, Dan. 9.9. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses. And if we do not believe and acknowledge it to come from him, why do we ask it of him? and here is a double exercise of faith: we believe that he can forgive, and we believe that if ever we be forgiven, it must come from him,