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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 3: God to be sought in a finding time. DOCTRINE. III.
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.
5. Jesus Christ came to seek lost Sinners, and bring them into this way; he himself tells us so, Luk. 19.10. True, he had a further design in coming, viz to make this way, by his Priestly Office; but yet in his Prophetical and Kingly he pursueth this design: for having purchased to himself a Church in the world, he sends forth his Spirit to gather them to himself; he seeks them up in their lost estate, and finds them, and so they find him, Isa. 65.1.
3. For the ground of this, or how it comes to pass, that he is willing to be found, let these things be considered.
1. That God hath purposed the glory of his Grace in the Salvation of Sinners. Hence some are said to be, Chosen in Christ to this very end, Eph. 1.3.6. The foundation of all this is laid in his good will: it was because he had a mind that this letter in his name should be made legible, and celebrated throughout Eternal Ages.