A59669:467
The Sincere Convert
The sincere convert discovering the paucity of true believers and the great difficulty of saving conversion by Tho. Shepherd ....The sincere convert discovering the paucity of true beleevers and the great difficulty of saving conversion by Tho. Shepheard ....
London: printed by T.P. and M.S. for Humphrey Blunden, 1641
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. By removing all things that may trouble them: and
2. By giving unto them all things that may quiet and comfort them, as meat, drink, rest, lodging, &c. so doth Satan deal with his slaves and servants.
2. By giving unto them all things that may quiet and comfort them, as meat, drinke, rest, lodging, &c. so doth Sathan deale with his slaves and servants.
First, by removing those sins which trouble the conscience; for a man may live in a sin, and yet never be troubled for that sin; for sin against the light of conscience only troubles the conscience; as children that are tumbling and playing in the dust, they are not troubled with all the dust, nay, they take pleasure to wallow in it; but only with that (whether it be small or great) that lights in their eyes. And hence that young man came boasting ⟨p. 197⟩to Christ, that he had kept all the commandments from his youth, but went away sorrowful, because that dust, that sin he lived in with delight before, fell into his eyes, and therefore was troubled: Now mark the plot of the Devil, when he can make a man live, and wallow, and delight in his sins, and so serve him, and yet will not suffer him to live in any sin against conscience, whereby he should be troubled, and so seek to come out of his woeful estate, he is sure this man is his own; and now a poor deluded man himself goes up and down, not doubting but he shall be saved; why? because their conscience (they thank God) is clear, and they know of no one sin they live in, they know nothing by themselves, that may make them so much as suspect their estate is bad,