N01749:40
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.
Arg. 1. The same light that works gracious inclinations, doth destroy Sin. The ⟨p. 27⟩way wherein God communicates Grace is by teaching men how glorious he is. He lets in Gospel Light, and so works gracious inclinations. Men see the reason why they should love God, trust in Christ, and be humble, and this inclines the heart that way. God deals with men as with rational creatures; he discovers to them the Reason and Foundation of holy carriages, and so disposes the heart to them: 2 Cor. 4.18. We all beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image. He makes them know himself, and so makes them sincere. Psal. 36, 10. Stretch forth thy loving kindness to them that know thee, and thy righteousness to the upright in heart. He teaches them, and so they come to Christ: Joh. 6.45. Every one that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me. And it is the same way that he mortifies their corruption. This light weans them from the world, kills the pride of their hearts. This light makes them hate the ways of Sin. At the same time that they see reason to exalt God, they see the evil of pride. When they see reason to love God, they see that there is no reason to dote on the world, Act. 26.18. To turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God.
Arg. 2. Natural Corruption is nothing else but the privation of Holiness. Contracted habits have something positive in them, but natural corruption is only the privation of ⟨p. 28⟩Holiness. When Man lost the image of God, there was nothing positive put into him. The condition of man by nature is, that he is destitute of Love, and Faith, and Humility; and thence he runs into evil, and is disposed to love the world, and set up himself above God. This shows that the very giving of Grace mortifies corruption. When the habit is given, the privation is expelled. When light comes into the eye, the darkness is gone: When sight is given to men, blindness is taken away: When life came into Lazarus, he was delivered from Death: When love to God is put into the Soul, inordinate self-love is mortified. When Faith is wrought in the heart, Unbelief is mortified. When men are made humble, their Pride is mortified. When God conveys spiritual Life to men, without any more to do, they are delivered from spiritual Death: