N00779:58
The order of the Gospel, professed and practised by the churches of Christ in…
The order of the Gospel, professed and practised by the churches of Christ in New England, justified, by the Scripture, and by the writings of many learned men, both ancient and modern divines; in answer to several questions, relating to church discipline / by Increase Mather, president of Harvard College in Cambridge, and teacher of a church at Boston in New England. ; [Five lines of Scripture texts]The order of the Gospel, professed and practised by the churches of Christ in New England, justified, by the Scripture, and by the writings of many learned men, both ancient and modern divines; in answer to several questions, relating to church discipline / by Increase Mather, president of Harvard Colledge in Cambridge, and teacher of a church at Boston in New England. ; [Five lines of Scripture texts]
Boston: printed by B. Green for Benjamin Eliot, 1700
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. Some truly Converted ones know neither the Time nor the Manner of their Conversion▪ It is often so with those that have been Advantaged with a Religious Education, and that have been all their days kept from falling into Scandalous Sins. The Spirit of God changeth their Hearts gradually and insensibly, as Mr. Hooker and other practical Divines have shown. I have (h)else-where noted ⟨p. 30⟩what Mr. Baxter relates concerning a considerable number of Eminent Christians who being met together on other accounts, it was proposed whether they could all give an account of the Exact Time of their Conversion; and there was but one of them all that could do it.
1. Some truly Converted ones know neither the Time nor the Manner of their Conversion▪ It is often so with those that have been Advantaged with a Religious Education, and that have been all their dayes kept from falling into Scandalous Sins. The Spirit of God changeth their Hearts gradually and insensibly, as Mr. Hooker and other practical Divines have shewen. I have (h)else-where noted ⟨p. 30⟩what Mr. Baxter relates concerning a considerable number of Eminent Christians who being met together on other accounts, it was proposed whether they could all give an account of the Exact Time of their Conversion; and there was but one of them all that could do it.
- (h)In the preface to Mr. Mitchels Life.
2. The natural Tempers and Infirmities of some are such as make them uncapable of relating publicly what God has done for them. Some have a natural Hesitancy of Speech. Others are of very bashful Tempers. Others are of such weak Intellectuals as that they can Scarce speak sense. To put such upon Public Declarations of their Experiences, would be to expose Sacred things to be Contemned and Ridiculed by mn of profane Spirits.