N01446:174
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.
2. Instruct him, that there is a necessity of his submission to God; for his opposition to that has made him to quench those Convictions of the Spirit which he had. He could not bear to yield himself a prisoner into the hands of God, and to lie at his foot waiting ⟨p. 52⟩for mercy, and that has put him upon it to deliver himself from those Convictions that led that way; but he must be instructed, that there is a necessity of submitting himself to God; he cannot help himself, & God is not bound to help him; God may leave him to perish if he will, and so long as he magnifies himself, and refuses to resign up himself to God, God will not discover Christ to him; he may pray, but he will not be heard: God resists the proud.
SOMETIMES he is afraid that his Convictions are not like the Convictions of other men, and he hath several arguments to strengthen those fears.
One Argument is, that his Convictions are only the workings of natural Conscience, and not from the Spirit of God: his Convictions are from the workings of his own thoughts; but he may be told, the way of the Spirits working when it does convince men, is by enlightening natural Conscience; the Spirit does not work by giving a testimony, but by assisting natural Conscience to do its work: Natural Conscience is the instrument in the hand of God to accuse, condemn, terrify, and to urge to duty: The Spirit of God leads men into the consideration of their danger, and make them to be affected therewith, Prov. 20.27. The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly. When men's own hearts are stirring ⟨p. 53⟩