N01446:241
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.
Quest. What is to be said to a man in case he should say that he is willing to be Damned?
A. 1. No man acting understandingly is willing to be Damned. All Ungodly men do interpretatively love Damnation. Pro. 8.36. but no man that understands himself, is willing to be damned; it is against Nature; Nature teaches every man to desire Happiness. Damnation is a dreadful terror to them that know what it is, Isa. 33.14.
2. No such thing is required of men. For God has put a spirit of self-love into men, & binds them to love themselves; and commands men to be seeking of Salvation, Joh. 6.27. Luke 13.24.
Such willingness is either only pretended; or if real, it must arise either from desperate rage and passion, or from some violent pang of false affection to God. The Spirit of God don't stir up such workings in the hearts of men.