N01625:80
Three sermons lately preached at Boston. I. Showing the virtue of Christs blood to…Three sermons lately preached at Boston. I. Shewing the vertue of Christs blood to…
Three sermons lately preached at Boston. I. Showing the virtue of Christs blood to cleanse from sin. II. That natural men are under the government of self-love. III. That the Gospel is the means of conversion. : To which a fourth is added, to stir up young men and maidens to praise the name of the Lord. / By Solomon Stoddard A.M. Pastor of Northampton.Three sermons lately preached at Boston. I. Shewing the vertue of Christs blood to cleanse from sin. II. That natural men are under the government of self-love. III. That the Gospel is the means of conversion. : To which a fourth is added, to stir up young men and maidens to praise the name of the Lord. / By Solomon Stoddard A.M. Pastor of Northampton.
printed by B. Green for Daniel Henchman, 1717
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.
Godly Men are under the influence of a better and higher principle, they have a spirit of love to God. Psal. 18.1. I love thee, O Lord, my strength. But Natural Men are ruled by a spirit of self-love. The first and great Command is, to love the Lord thy God with all the heart, Matth. 22.37, 38. But Natural Men are wholly destitute of this spirit. ⟨p. 36⟩There is much of a spirit of self-love in the Saints; but other Men are under the power of it. Phil. 2.21. All seek their own things, and not the things of Jesus Christ. Self-love branches out it self into the love of honour, and profit, and ease, and carnal pleasure, of their wills, and of their lives; and sometimes the love of one interest is predominant, and sometimes the love of another, but still they are governed by a spirit of self-love. Their own hearts tell them, that they should not be governed by it, but it doth rule them.
In speaking to this I shall first premise two Cautions, and then prove the Doctrine.
Caution, 1. They are sometimes over-ruled by a spirit of Compassion. Men that are devoted to themselves, are so over-born sometimes with a Spirit of Compassion, that they forget their own Interest. Some Men are more compassionate than others: but there is no Man so void of compassion, but upon some occasions pity will prevail upon him. The seeing or hearing of the Miseries of others, will extort acts of compassion, and they will be under a necessity to deny themselves, and relieve them. Men have not the command of their own compassions, their compassion doth prevail sometimes whether they will or no, and they are forced to neglect their own interest to relieve others in their distress: and this compassion is not only to friends, but to strangers, persons that they have no acquaintance with; yea to Enemies, persons that