A92857:548
The riches of grace displayed in the offer and tender of salvation to poor…
The riches of grace displayed in the offer and tender of salvation to poor sinners. Wherein is set out, the gracious behaviour of Christ, standing at the door and knocking for entrance. The dutiful behaviour of sinners in hearing Christs voice and opening to him. And the comfortable event upon them both. / By Obadiah Sedgwick. B.D. and late minister of the Gospel in Covent-Garden.
London: printed by T.R. & E.M. for Adoniram Byfield, 1657
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
Sol. 1. The possessing is real: it is not a fixious notion formed only by a wild imagination, for the door of the heart is a real thing, and the knocking at the door is a real motion and offer, and the opening of the door is a real dilatation of the soul to embrace Christ; so likewise is his coming in, it is a real entrance and taking possession of the soul, a real owning and interessing, &c.
Sol. 1. The possessing is real: it is not a fixious notion formed only by a wild imagination, for the doore of the heart is a real thing, and the knocking at the door is a real motion and offer, and the opening of the door is a real dilatation of the soul to embrace Christ; so likewise is his coming in, it is a real entrance and taking possession of the soul, a real owning and interessing, &c.
2 Yet it is spiritual, you must not be so weak to imagine that the person of Christ comes now ⟨p. 176⟩into our hearts, as once into sinners houses, O no, a corporal possession cannot be, and it alone were fruitless. But Christ takes possession of the soul, (being a spirit) by his Spirit; and therefore as in one place Christ is said to dwell in us, Eph. 3. 17. so in another place the Spirit is said to dwell in us, John 14. 17. and as he is said to be in us, so his Spirit is said to be in us: He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you, ibid. It is his Spirit which applies him to us, and it is his Spirit which worketh in us (by way of efficiency) the graces we enjoy, and it is the Spirit of Christ who ruleth in us, &c.
2 Yet it is spiritual, you must not be so weak to imagine that the person of Christ comes now ⟨p. 176⟩into our hearts, as once into sinners houses, O no, a corporal possession cannot be, and it alone were fruitlesse. But Christ takes possession of the soul, (being a spirit) by his Spirit; and therefore as in one place Christ is said to dwell in us,