The sound believer, or, A treatise of evangelical conversion discovering the work of Christs…The sound beleever, or, A treatise of evangelicall conversion discovering the work of Christs…

Nicodemus ••ay first see and be convinced of the want of regeneration, and thereby feel his need of Christ; the Lord may set a man upon the ⟨p. 15⟩consideration of all his life past, how wickedly it hath been spent; and so not one, but a multitude of iniquities compass him about: a man may see the godly examples of his parents, or other godly Christians in the family or town where he dwells, and by this be convinced; that if their state and way be good, his own (so far unlike it) must needs be stark naught: the Lord ever convinceth the soul of sins in particular, but he doth not alway convince one man of the same particular sins at first as he doth another; whether the Lord convinceth all the elect at first of the sin of their nature, and shows them their original sin in and about this first stroke of conviction, I doubt not of it; Paul would have been alive, and a proud Pharisee still, if the Lord had not let him by the law see this sin, Rom. 7.9. and so would all men in the world, if this should not be revealed first or last, in a lesser or greater measure, under a distinct or more indistinct notion: and hence arise those confessions of the Saints, I never thought I had had such a vile heart; if all the world had told me, I could not have believed them; but that the Lord hath made me feel it, & see it at last; was there ever such a sinner (at least in heart, which is continually opposing of him) whom the Lord at any time received to mercy, as I am?

Nicodemus ••ay first see and bee convinced of the want of regeneration, and thereby feel his need of Christ; the Lord may set a man upon the ⟨p. 15⟩consideration of all his life past, how wickedly it hath been spent; and so not one, but a multitude of iniquities compasse him about: a man may see the godly examples of his parents, or other godly Christians in the family or town where he dwels, and by this be convinced; that if their state and way bee good, his own (so far unlike it) must needs be starke naught: the Lord ever convinceth the soule of sins in particular, but hee doth not alway convince one man of the same particular sinnes at first as hee doth another; whether the Lord convinceth all the elect at first of the sin of their nature, and shewes them their original sin in and about this first stroake of conviction, I doubt not of it; Paul would have been alive, and a proud Pharisee still, if the Lord had not let him by the law see this sin,