N00851:15
The necessity of acknowledgement of offences, in order to reconciliation. Set forth in a…The necessity of acknowledgment of offences, in order to reconciliation. Set forth in a…
The necessity of acknowledgement of offences, in order to reconciliation. Set forth in a sermon, preached at Boston, July 3rd. 1701. Being the lecture day. / By Solomon Stoddard, Pastor of Northampton.The necessity of acknowledgment of offences, in order to reconciliation. Set forth in a sermon, preached at Boston, July 3rd. 1701. Being the lecture day. / By Solomon Stoddard, Pastor of Northampton.
printed by T. Green, 1701
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.
Quest. 1. What offences must they acknowledge?
Answ. The offences of the Land. Not all the offences that are in the Land: many offences are secret & they cannot acknowledge them, some offences only being personal guilt but the offences of the Land, that the People and Country are guilty of, are to be acknowledged by them. So in the Text, they shall acknowledge Their offence. And there be many sins that the Land are guilty of, which must be owned.
Answ. The offences of the Land. Not all the offences that are in the Land: many offences are secret & they cannot acknowledge them, some offences only being personal guilt but the offences of the Land, that the People and Countrey are guilty of, are to be acknowledged by them. So in the Text, they shall acknowledge Their offence. And there be many sins that the Land are guilty of, which must be owned.
As;
1. Such prevailing sins as do not fall under the cognizance of Authority. When ever a people do manifest a Corrupt departed heart, an heart gone away from God; they break Covenant and are guilty: and this they may do when their carriages are not Criminal before men, nor Scandalous, as when they do not savour of a gracious, humble, believing spirit; but they savour much of vanity, worldliness, pride and unbelief; this is justly offensive to God.