N01446:192
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. That it is not so usual with God to take men away when they are under earnest endeavours to be Converted. God threatens Sinners to take them away in the time of their security: When they say peace, peace, 1 Thes. 5.3. Mat. 24.48. ⟨p. 60⟩Though sometimes men do dye that are seeking after peace with God, and to all appearance have not found; yet this is not an ordinary dispensation. When he is striving by his Spirit to bring them to Repentance, it is an hopeful sign that God will wait a while upon them; if we knock at a mans door, and they be all fast and don't stir to open the door, we are wont to go away; but if we perceive that they are rising and preparing to open the door, we are content to wait a-while. God generally stays to see what work men will make of it.
3. That he has indeed no certainty of his life; his body is mortal and frail, and many men dye suddenly. God has been much provoked by him, and may justly snatch him away by a sudden stroke. Many times men have very little warning of Death, the fear of death is of great use to forward the work of Conversion: If men put far away the evil day, they thereby harden their hearts; the right numbering of their days, is a means to make them apply their hearts to wisdom, Psal. 90.12. Upon this account it is good to nourish awful fears of death; that makes men sensible of the vanity of the World, of the dangerousness of Sin of the necessity of making haste to be Converted: therefore Ministers should say nothing to persuade them, that they are in no danger, for they are in real danger, and it is best for them to have the sense of it; this will solemnize their spirits, and quicken ⟨p. 61⟩them to their work; when afraid of Death, they will be willing to take pains, and not be hindered by temptations.