N01911:127
Some important truths about conversion, delivered in sundry sermons, / by Increase Mather, D.D.…
Some important truths about conversion, delivered in sundry sermons, / by Increase Mather, D.D. teacher of a church at Boston, in New-England ; With a preface by Dr. Owen.Some important truths about conversion, delivered in sundry sermons, / by Increase Mather, D.D. teacher of a church at Boston, in New-England ; With a praeface by Dr. Owen.
Boston: printed by John Allen for John Edwards, 1721
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.
In this Verse that Exhortation set down, in the two foregoing Verses, if further urged from a double Argument, 1. From the gracious opportunity which they then had, inasmuch as Christ was then amongst them; in the first part of the Verse. 2. From the good and benefit which would come thereby; in the latter part of the Verse.
For opening of the words, before we come to the Doctrine from them, we shall only enquire, what is here meant by the Door, when Christ saith, If any man open the Door, &c.
What is this Door?
Answ. Thereby the Heart is signified. Hence the Scripture speaketh of opening the heart: It is said of Lydia, that she was one whose heart the Lord opened, Acts 16.•4: The words are a Metaphor from the opening of a Door. The Door is that by which men enter into the House. So it is by the Heart, that the Lord enters into a man to take possession of his soul. A Christian is compared to an House; now the Heart is the Door of that House. Moreover, the Doors or Gates of Cities in old times, were the strength thereof, So is the Heart of a man his