N00802:938
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.
2. Be encouraged to pursue this work. Though you have been faithful according to your opportunity, and see little good come of it: you have been earnest and serious with them, and told them of their miserable state by nature, necessity of seeking and finding God, the folly of their courses, the hazards they are exposed to; and with bleeding hearts entreated them; but your counsels are neglected, your warnings slighted, your entreaties disregarded. Do not for this abandon all hope, but take heart, renew your solicitations; Consider;
2. Be encouraged to pursue this work. Though you have been faithful according to your opportunity, and see little good come of it: you have been earnest and serious with them, and told them of their miserable state by nature, necessity of seeking and finding God, the folly of their courses, the hazards they are exposed to; and with bleeding hearts entreated them; but your counsels are neglected, your warnings slighted, your entreaties disregarded. Do not for this abandon all hope, but take heart, renew your sollicitations; Consider;
1. They are still within the compass of time. If that were done, you must have done too, they are among the living: and what saith he? Isa. 38.19. Though they are gone far, they may return; there is a who knows left; and that is an encouragement in a desperate case.
2. They are within the reach of the means. If they were beyond the opportunity of Gospel Ordinances, of our counsels and prayers, our business ⟨p. 327⟩with them would be over; but while they enjoy these privileges, they may be taken by them: God may still send a word, which may stop them in their wicked and vain courses, and rouse them up to seek after him; though they have despised offered mercy, God can be too hard for them, and melt them.