N01814:55
Awakening soul-saving truths, plainly delivered, in several sermons. In which is showed, I. That…Awakening soul-saving truths, plainly delivered, in several sermons. In which is shewed, I. That…
Awakening soul-saving truths, plainly delivered, in several sermons. In which is showed, I. That many are called, who are not effectually called. II. That men may be of the visible church, and yet not be of the Lord's chosen. III. That the chosen of God are comparatively but few. / By Increase Mather. D.D. ; [Four lines of Scripture texts]Awakening soul-saving truths, plainly delivered, in several sermons. In which is shewed, I. That many are called, who are not effectually called. II. That men may be of the visible church, and yet not be of the Lord's chosen. III. That the chosen of God are comparatively but few. / By Increase Mather. D.D. ; [Four lines of Scripture texts]
Boston: printed by S. Kneeland for B. Gray, 1720
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.
Is it nor good for a Man to Pray in his Closet every day? Yet some that have done so for a time, they have cast off the thing that is good; instead of their Praying killing their Sins, their Sins have killed their Praying▪ Is it not good for Men to Pray in their Families? yet as to some their was a time they would Pray in their Families, but they have cast off the thing that is good. By these thing• we see, that in Churches there may be those that are not sincere in their Profession of Religion.
Quest. 2. How or whence does this come to pass?
Ans. 1. It comes to pass sometimes through the infirmities which attends Churches and Officers therein. Men ⟨p. 47⟩what are they? poor weak creatures, they cannot make an infallible judgment of others, whether they are sincere or no; they judge by outward appearance. Samuel, what a charitable judgment made he of Eliab, he thought Eliab was the Lord's Chosen, 1 Sam. 16.7. but the Lord said unto him, Look not on his countenance▪ for the Lord seeth not as Man seeth, Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. God knows whether there •e any real work of Grace in the heart, if there be but so much as a spark of true Grace in a sea of Corruption God sees it and knows it. He knows whether the hearts of Men are set for God, for Christ, for Heaven, for the things of Eternity, or for Sin and the World; God and He only knows what is in the Heart.