N01446:214
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 if he does what he can, he may not challenge mercy from thence. By what Law will he demand saving grace because of that? That does not in its own nature take away Gods Liberty and his Sovereignty: there is no wrong done him, if God sees cause to deny him; neither is there any promise whereby God has obliged himself to those that do all they can; God has left it in his own liberty to deny them, if he pleases.
1. That if he does what he can, he may not challenge mercy from thence. By what Law will he demand saving grace because of that? That does not in its own nature take away Gods Liberty and his Soveraignty: there is no wrong done him, if God sees cause to deny him; neither is there any promise whereby God has obliged himself to those that do all they can; God has left it in his own liberty to deny them, if he pleases.
2. That he doth not what he can. It may be he is otherwise very faulty, but however he don't do what he can, because he does not own the Sovereignty of God; he don't justify God, nor acknowledge that God may justly reject him after all. Indeed he can't do this without help from God, so he can't pray and reform, ⟨p. 68⟩without assistance: Yet this is a thing that he can do, principles of nature may produce this effect; many natural men have come to this; men that have no natural principle have resigned up themselves to God, their mo•ths have been stopped, and they have become guilty before God.
2. That he doth not what he can. It may be he is otherwise very faulty, but however he don't do what he can, because he does not own the Sovereignty of God; he don't justifie God, nor acknowledge that God may justly reject him after all. Indeed he can't do this without help from God, so he can't pray and reform, ⟨p. 68⟩