N01749:153
A treatise concerning conversion: showing the nature of saving conversion to God, and the…A treatise concerning conversion: shewing the nature of saving conversion to God, and the…
A treatise concerning conversion: showing the nature of saving conversion to God, and the way wherein it is wrought; together with an exhortation to labour after it. : To which is added, a lecture-sermon had at Boston, July 2. 1719. Wherein the way to know sincerity and hypocrisy is cleared up. / By Solomon Stoddard, Pastor of Northampton.A treatise concerning conversion: shewing the nature of saving conversion to God, and the way wherein it is wrought; together with an exhortation to labour after it. : To which is added, a lecture-sermon had at Boston, July 2. 1719. Wherein the way to know sincerity and hypocrisy is cleared up. / By Solomon Stoddard, Pastor of Northampton.
Boston: printed by J.F. i.e for D. Henchman, 1719
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.
THE Way to know SINCERITY AND HYPOCRISY Cleared up.
1 JOH. IV. latter part of v. 7. and former part of v. 8. Every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God.
Godliness is a thing of great concernment. The acceptance of services, the hearing of prayers, and the salvation of the •oul doth depend upon it. And because it is •f such moment, the comfort of men doth much depend upon the knowledge of it. But there is a great ⟨p. 118⟩deal of darkness in the minds of men about it. Many times godly men have scruples, and sometimes great fears, that they are not godly: They often set in judgment on themselves, and are at a loss what sentence to pronounce. And some ungodly men have great hopes that they are in a good estate, and steal comfort that don't belong to them. Some can't see their way to condemn themselves, and some give judgment for themselves. But the Apostle doth here direct the one sort and the other in the determination of their condition. First, he tells us how a godly man may know his godliness: He that sees the workings of the grace of love in himself; he that sees more or fewer actings of that grace, may conclude for himself, that he is born of God, hath had a work of regeneration, the gospel has had a saving efficacy on his heart, he has the spiritual knowledge of God, his eyes have been opened to see the glory of God. Secondly, he tells us how hypocrites may know their hypocrisy: He that loveth not, that liveth in the omission of love, that hath nothing of the working of that spirit, that lives in the neglect of it, hath not the spiritual knowledge of God; whatever pretences he makes, this casts the case against him. The […] we may say with respect to every other grace: He that believeth on Jesus Christ, that loveth God, that has godly sorrow, is born of God: But he that doth no