N01911:75
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.
2. A Child is teachable and tractable: A Child is far more easy brought under Discipline, than an elder person that was never used to it. Thus it is with a Convert: He is become marvellous teachable, ready to be led with the Word and Spirit of God; It is said of such, Isa. 11.6. ⟨p. 47⟩A little Child shall • lead them. Now then, consider, will the least word of God awe you, and lead you this way or that way? Tho' the Instrument be never so contemptible, yet if he bring Scripture along with him, doth the Authority of that carry you before it, this is a good sign.
2. A Child is teachable and tractable: A Child is far more easie brought under Discipline, than an elder person that was never used to it. Thus it is with a Convert: He is become marvellous teachable, ready to be led with the Word and Spirit of God; It is said of such, Isa. 11.6. ⟨p. 47⟩A little Child shall • lead them. Now then, consider, will the least word of God aw you, and lead you this way or that way? Tho' the Instrument be never so contemptible, yet if he bring Scripture along with him, doth the Authority of that carry you before it, this is a good sign.
3. Children are apt to forget wrongs: Hence is that, 1 Cor. 14.20. in malice be ye children. You often observe that Children, tho' they fall out never so, yet in a little time all will be forgotten, and they will become as good friends as ever they were. Truly he that cannot forgive wrongs, hath no Grace in his heart; so if a man hath a forgiving spirit, it's a good sign; yea, if a man doth freely forgive those that wrong him, and if he doth it out of conscience to the holy Commandment of God, and out of a sense of the Grace of God towards him, in pardoning of his many sins, it is one of the clearest evidences of a true Child of God that can be given. This hath Christ taught us, Mat, 6.14, 15. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if you forgive them not their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you your trespasses. So that you see it holds true both in the Affirmative and in the Negative, That a forgiving spirit is an Evidence of a true Child of God; and the want of this, an Evidence of the contrary. But besides these Characters