The Soul's Preparation for Christ

A classic Puritan treatise on conversion, unfolding how the Holy Spirit prepares a sinner's heart to receive Christ. Preaching from Acts 2:37 ("pricked in their heart"), Hooker traces the soul's passage from contrition over sin to humiliation under God's judgment, arguing that grace does not bypass the conscience but awakens it. Distinguishing true from false preparation, he presses readers toward the kind of self-searching sorrow that flings the soul upon Christ as its only refuge — a foundational text of New England Puritan spirituality.