N00357:670
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.
3. Such persons as do not walk in Gods commands out of a gracious respect unto him: though they be ⟨p. 258⟩exceeding diligent and conscientious: yet they are not acted from spiritual considerations: they do not duties from a spirit of obedience, and for the glory of God, and from a true sense what a glorious God this as: these men have no faith; for they have no true holiness: they have no faith, for by faith men come to have a spiritual understanding of the glorious excellency of God, and if they understood that they would serve him because he is such: and hence those men that are acted by a principle of morality in their religion have no faith: and those men that are acted only by an enlightened conscience have no faith: many men are terrified and scared into religion, out of a spirit of fear they reform and do duty: but this is not real holiness: an enlightened conscience is not sufficient to make a man produce any one holy action: though men abound in duties of religion yet it be not from a right motive, they have no faith, for all their duties are but hypocrisy: not only when men make it their great end to get wealth and reputation, but when they make it their great end to get peace of conscience, deliverance from hell, and the joys of heaven: if such things as these be the great things that have an influence into mens religion, God will not accept of it: faith makes men serve God from a spirit of love, gal. 5.6. Faith which worketh by love.
3. Such persons as do not walk in Gods commands out of a gracious respect unto him: though they be ⟨p. 258⟩exceeding diligent and conscienscious: yet they are not acted from spiritual considerations: they do not duties from a spirit of obedience, and for the glory of God, and from a true sence what a glorious God this as: these men have no faith; for they have no true holiness: they have no faith, for by faith men come to have a spiritual understanding of the glorious excellency of God, and if they understood that they would serve him because he is such: and hence those men that are acted by a principle of morality in their religion have no faith: and those men that are acted only by an enlightned conscience have no faith: many men are terrified and scared into religion, out of a spirit of fear they reform and do duty: but this is not real holiness: an enlightened conscience is not sufficient to make a man produce any one holy action: though men abound in duties of religion yet it be not from a right motive, they have no faith, for all their duties are but hypocrisie: not onely when men make it their great end to get wealth and reputation, but when they make it their great end to get peace of conscience, deliverance from hell, and the joyes of heaven: if such things as these be the great things that have an influence into mens religion, God will not accept of it: faith makes men serve God from a spirit of love, gal. 5.6. Faith which worketh by love.