N00802:902
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. There are certain means in and with which God reveals himself to men, so as they may find him. As God is to be found, so there is a way for it. Natural men that live without the Gospel, can never find him in that condition; the mere light of nature will never lead any of mankind to God, or bring them to communion with him again: had not this been manifested in the Gospel, it had never been known, and man must have wandered in an endless maze of error, 2 Cor. 4.6. And it is in and with this Gospel that God is pleased to show himself to the Souls of men, and therefore by serious attendance thereon they are to seek him. Where therefore these means are either not bestowed, or are taken from men, or they from them, now the opportunity must needs cease with them.
5. There are certain means in and with which God reveals himself to men, so as they may find him. As God is to be found, so there is a way for it. Natural men that live without the Gospel, can never find him in that condition; the meer light of nature will never lead any of mankind to God, or bring them to communion with him again: had not this been manifested in the Gospel, it had never been known, and man must have wandred in an endless maze of error, 2 Cor. 4.6. And it is in and with this Gospel that God is pleased to shew himself to the Souls of men, and therefore by serious attendance thereon they are to seek him. Where therefore these means are either not bestowed, or are taken from men, or they from them, now the opportunity must needs cease with them.
I now proceed to make it appear, that if ever we find God, it must be during the time of our life in this world; and from the premises there are these evidences for it.