N01446:199
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.
1. That the DECREES of GOD does not at all infringe the liberty of man: Though the Decrees brings a necessity, yet men act as freely, as if there were no Decrees. The Decree of God offers no violence to the will of man; men choose the ways of sin, Isa. 66.3. And therefore ⟨p. 63⟩the Decree is no excuse for Sin: Men don't accept it when any wrong is done unto them, neither will God accept it as an excuse; men act their own pleasure and dispositions when they sin: The necessity rising from the Decree, don't take away the commendableness of good actions, nor the blameableness of bad actions; this necessity don't cut off all rewards and punishments.
1. That the DECREES of GOD does not at all infringe the liberty of man: Though the Decrees brings a necessity, yet men act as freely, as if there were no Decrees. The Decree of God offers no violence to the will of man; men chuse the ways of sin, Isa. 66.3. And therefore ⟨p. 63⟩the Decree is no excuse for Sin: Men don't accept it when any wrong is done unto them, neither will God accept it as an excuse; men act their own pleasure and dispositions when they sin: The necessity rising from the Decree, don't take away the commendableness of good actions, nor the blameableness of bad actions; this necessity don't cut off all rewards and punishments.
2. That in this Decree, God does but use his Sovereign Liberty. If God will make a multitude of Men and Angels, must he be bound to bring them all to Eternal Life? Who shall lay a prohibition upon God, that he shall not make use of some of them for the Glory of his Justice? If it be injurious for God to Decree that men shall sin, and then punish them for their sin, then he is utterly cut off from all opportunity for the glorifying of his Justice; but it is worth the while for Men and Angels to suffer for the manifestation of Gods Vindictive Justice.