N09311:78
The nature of saving conversion, and the way
The nature of saving conversion, and the way wherein it is wrought. By the Rev'd. learned, and eminently pious, Mr. Solomon Stoddard of Northampton, New-England, first published A.D. 1719.
Boston: : Printed for and sold by Edmund Sawyer, at his house in Newbury., 1770
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.
Before God converts men, it is his manner to prepare them for it by a common work of his Spirit, which is called Preparatory, which puts men upon it to to be sensibly seeking after reconciliation. Men are called upon to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; to labour not for the meat that perishes, but for that meat that doth endure unto eternal life. And men are blamed for slightly seeking, Luk. 13.24. Many seek and are not able to enter. And that was the happiness of some, their hearts were mightily set in seeking the kingdom of God, Mat. 11.13 Men are labouring, some a long while for peace with God before they are converted: They are convinced of the vanity of the world, and of the necessity of the favour of God and eternal life: They are convinced also of the insufficiency of their own righteousness, so as to relinquish hopes from that, but when God sets in spiritual light to convert men, that doth discover the same that they saw under the work of preparation, and that after a better manner than they saw them before,
BEfore God converts men, it is his manner to prepare them for it by a common work of his Spirit, which is called Preparatory, which puts men upon it to to be sensibly seeking after reconciliation. Men are called upon to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; to labour not for the meat that perishes, but for that meat that doth endure unto eternal life. And men are blamed for slightly seeking, Luk. 13.24. Many seek and are not able to enter. And that was the happiness of some, their hearts were mightily set in seeking the kingdom of God, Mat. 11.13 Men are labouring, some a long while for peace with God before they are converted: They are convinced of the vanity of the world, and of the necessity of the favour of God and eternal life: They are convinced also of the insufficiency of their own righteousness, so as to relinquish hopes from that, but when God sets in spiritual light to convert men, that doth discover the same that they saw under the work of preparation, and that after a better manner than they saw them before,