N01446:160
A guide to Christ. Or, The way of directing souls that are under the…
A guide to Christ. Or, The way of directing souls that are under the work of conversion. Compiled for the help of young ministers: and may be serviceable to private Christians, who are enquiring the way to Zion. / By Solomon Stoddard, A.M. and Pastor of the church in Northampton. ; With an epistle prefixed, by the Reverend Dr. Increase Mather.
Boston: printed by J. Allen for N. Boone, 1714
Directions How to guide Souls through the Work of Conversion.
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.
4. If men be thoroughly scared with the danger of Damnation, they will readily improve their possibility, and not stand for assurance of success. Men will be glad of a possibility, and not neglect means, because they have no more encouragement: If a man be cast into the Sea, he will not neglect Swimming, because he is not certain that he can swim to the Shore: If a man be pursued by an Enemy, he will not stand still, because he is not certain that he shall get clear. If men stand convinced of their dreadful danger in neglecting to seek, they will betake themselves to the use of means at a venture, rather than run the hazard of their Souls.
4. If men be thorowly scared with the danger of Damnation, they will readily improve their possibility, and not stand for assurance of success. Men will be glad of a possibility, and not neglect means, because they have no more incouragement: If a man be cast into the Sea, he will not neglect Swimming, because he is not certain that he can swim to the Shore: If a man be pursued by an Enemy, he will not stand still, because he is not certain that he shall get clear. If men stand convinced of their dreadful danger in neglecting to seek, they will betake themselves to the use of means at a venture, rather than run the hazard of their Souls.
SOMETIMES he complains that after he has told the Minister how it is with him, it seems to him as if he had told a company of lies; and he is terrified with the apprehension of it. In this Case he may be told,
1. That these thoughts rise partly from the frightfulness of his Conscience. He is in a terrified condition, and so the sound of a shaking leaf will scare him; and he flees when none pursueth; he imagines dangers where there be none; he has a humbling guilty Conscience, and is afraid that he sins when he don't, and is ready to charge things upon himself without cause.