N01911:93
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.
By the Ground men are signified, who are indeed fitly compared to the ground, because they are the subject of Divine Cultivation The earth is tilled and dressed, so are men in a mystical sense: Seed is not sown in any Element but the earth only; not into the fire or water, but into the moulds of the ⟨p. 58⟩earth: So the seed of the Word is dispensed amongst no other Creatures but men; only its true the Gospel is said to be preached to every Creature, because the Hebrews were wont to call Man by the name of Creature: So that by every Creature is meant, nothing else but men of all sorts. Again, Man is a poor earthly Creature; so he is in respect of his original, and in respect of his end; therefore God said to Adam after his fall, Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return, Gen. 3 19. Hence men are fitly compared unto, and resembled by the earth.
By the Ground men are signified, who are indeed fitly compared to the ground, because they are the subject of Divine Cultivation The earth is tilled and dressed, so are men in a mystical sence: Seed is not sown in any Element but the earth only; not into the fire or water, but into the moulds of the ⟨p. 58⟩earth: So the seed of the Word is dispensed amongst no other Creatures but men; only its true the Gospel is said to be preached to every Creature, because the Hebrews were wont to call Man by the name of Creature: So that by every Creature is meant, nothing else but men of all sorts. Again, Man is a poor earthly Creature; so he is in respect of his original, and in respect of his end; therefore God said to Adam after his fall, Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return, Gen. 3 19. Hence men are fitly compared unto, and resembled by the earth.
By the Rain here spoken of, we are to understand, the Gracious Dispensations of God: In special, his word, and most of all, the word of the Gospel: The word of God is frequently compared in the Scripture unto Rain, Deu 32.2. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers on the grass. Hence is that phrase of dropping the Word,