N01911:306
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.
7. Another thing implied herein, is, That every man must chiefly mind the Concernments of his [own] Soul. This is intimated, when it is said, your Own Salvation. Alas, men are apt to mind others concernments, with the neglect of their own. It is a sad complaint which you find, Ca•t. 1.6. They made me the keeper of the Vineyard, but my own Vineyard have I not kept. So there are that look after ⟨p. 223⟩the concernments of others, but mind not at all their own; nay it may be, that are busy in other mens matters, which do not at all belong to them, when in the mean time, the Salvation and eternal Concernment of their own Souls are not minded as ought to be. There was a time when Peter said concerning John, What shall this man do? John 21.21. So men are apt to say, This such a man should do, and this is such a ones duty, whereas every one should think with himself, What is my duty? What is the work that I should do? As it was with John Baptists hearers, Luke 3.12, 13. The people came and said, What shall we do? and the Publicans said, What shall we do? and the Soldiers said, What shall we do? Thus men ought to look to themselves, and to their own particular duty. A man should watch over his own heart, and look well to the frame of his own spirit; Then may he be said to work out his own Salvation. So much for the first thing.
7. Another thing implied herein, is, That every man must chiefly mind the Concernments of his [own] Soul. This is intimated, when it is said, your Own Salvation. Alas, men are apt to mind others concernments, with the neglect of their own. It is a sad complaint which you find, Ca•t. 1.6. They made me the keeper of the Vineyard, but my own Vineyard have I not kept. So there are that look after ⟨p. 223⟩the concernments of others, but mind not at all their own; nay it may be, that are busie in other mens matters, which do not at all belong to them, when in the mean time, the Salvation and eternal Concernment of their own Souls are not minded as ought to be. There was a time when Peter said concerning John, What shall this man do?