N00357:527
The safety of appearing at the day of judgement, in the righteousness of Christ
The safety of appearing at the day of judgement, in the righteousness of Christ: opened and applied. By Solomon Stoddard Pastor to the church of North-Hampton in New-England. ; [Nine lines from Philippians]The safety of appearing at the day of judgement, in the righteousness of Christ: opened and applied. By Solomon Stoddard Pastor to the church of North-Hampton in New-England. ; [Nine lines from Phillipians]
Boston: printed by Samuel Green for Samuel Phillips, 1687
Title page typeset from the transcription.
The Safety of Appearing in the Righteousness of Jesus Christ. › Chapter 9
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. It is not a broken, bleeding spirit for sin: many men take it to be so, and when they understand that they must be humbled before their coming to Christ, they strive after this broken frame of spirit: and when they find but little of it, they complain they are not humbled enough, and gi•e that as a reason why they do not come to Christ: but what sinners find this way is more like humility than humiliation: men think if they could get much of this Spirit, they should be prepared for Christ indeed; but this is quite another thing from that humiliation that does go before Faith.
1. It is not a broken, bleeding spirit for sin: many men take it to be so, and when they understand that they must be humbled b•fore their coming to Christ, they strive after this broken frame of spirit: and when they find but little of it, they complain they are not humbled enough, and gi•e that as a reason why they do not come to Christ: but what sinners find this way is more like humility than humiliation: men think if they could get much of this Spirit, they should be prepared for Christ indeed; but this is quite another thing from that humiliation that does go before Faith.
Argument. 1.
This appears, because an unregenerate man can't truly mourn for sin: from what principle should he do it before he is born again: he may be grieved for it under other considerations, as i• exposes him to a great deal of misery here and hereafter, yea as it is in it self evil; but not as the greatest evil as it is against God: to suppose that a man can sincerely mourn for sin before his conversion, it is to suppose him converted, before his conversion, it is in regeneration that all the graces of the Spirit are implanted in the heart: it is then that the heart of stone is taken away,