N01152:52
The inexcusableness of neglecting the worship of God, under a pretence of being in…
The inexcusableness of neglecting the worship of God, under a pretence of being in an unconverted condition. Showed in a sermon preached at Northampton, the 17th. Decemb. 1707. being the time of the sitting of the Inferior Court. / By Solomon Stoddard, Pastor of Northampton. ; Imprimatur, J. Dudley.The inexcusableness of neglecting the worship of God, under a pretence of being in an unconverted condition. Shewed in a sermon preached at Northampton, the 17th. Decemb. 1707. being the time of the sitting of the Inferiour Court. / By Solomon Stoddard, Pastor of Northampton. ; Imprimatur, J. Dudley.
printed by B. Green. Sold by Samuel Phillips, 1708
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.
4. If none that are destitute of Sanctifying Grace may come, than two sorts of Persons that do come should stay away. First, such persons as are in a natural condition, yet have got a confidence that they are Converted: there are many such. Prov. 30. 12. There is a Generation that are pure in their own eyes, yet are not cleansed from their filthiness: But there is no way to keep them from it, the Church can't keep them from it, because they are visible Saints: and their own Consciences will not forbid ⟨p. 22⟩them, because they are confident that they are Converted. And Secondly, there is another sort that should forbear, viz. Such Godly men as do not know that they are Converted. If a man be Godly, yet how can he with a good Conscience come to an Ordinance, peculiar to Godly men, when he don't know himself to be Godly: if only Saints are allowed to come, he must know himself to be a Saint, before he can know that he is allowed of God to come. As if a man has power to Sell nothing but what is his own, then he must know a thing to be his own before be can sell it with a good Conscience. Or if a Church have power to censure only Scandalous persons, then they must know a man to be Scandalous before they can with a good Conscience censure him. So in this case, if the Sacrament be only for Godly men, they don't know that they have any right to it, until they know that they are Godly.
4. If none that are destitute of Sanctifying Grace may come, than two sorts of Persons that do come should stay away. First, such persons as are in a natural condition, yet have got a confidence that they are Converted: there are many such. Prov. 30. 12. There is a Generation that are pure in their own eyes, yet are not cleansed from their filthiness: But there is no way to keep them from it, the Church can't keep them from it, because they are visible Saints: and their own Consciences will not forbid ⟨p. 22⟩them, because they are confident that they are Converted. And Secondly, there is another sort that should forbear, viz. Such Godly men as do not know that they are Converted. If a man be Godly, yet how can he with a good Conscience come to an Ordinance, peculiar to Godly men, when he don't know himself to be Godly: if only Saints are allowed to come, he must know himself to be a Saint, before he can know that he is allowed of God to come. As if a man has power to Sell nothing but what is his own, then he must know a thing to be his own before be can sell it with a good Conscience. Or if a Church have power to consure only Scandalous persons, then they must know a man to be Scandalous before they can with a good Conscience censure him. So in this case, if the Sacrament be only for Godly men, they dont know that they have any right to it, until they know that they are Godly.