N01446:248
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.
3. To try his heart, by supposing some suitable cases to it; as he may suppose to himself, That such Godly men as he pretends great love to, should slight and despise him; that God should take away such a Child from him, that God should Convert some others, and leave him under guilt and terrors; that his Estate should be lost, that there should come Persecuting Times; that he were in the hands of Enemies that would kill him, if he would not carry sinfully; that God should now come to take away his life before he is Converted. By questioning seriously with himself what he thinks he should do in such cases, he may come to have more understanding in his own heart. Changes of Condition make great discoveries of the heart: and supposed changes sometimes do a pretty deal that way; such questions if seriously considered, may be as touchstones to discover what is in the heart; the answer of the heart to such Enquiries, may give men a great deal of light to see themselves by.
Quest. How does God show men the badness of their own hearts?
Quest. How does God shew men the badness of their own hearts?
Answ. 1 The Means whereby God effects it, is by leading men into temptation. Men in continuance ⟨p. 79⟩of time fall into temptation, and so the Visor falls off from their hearts, and they come to have an understanding of the plague that is therein. Sometimes by reason of some temptation they are drawn into some moral evil, and that discovers their hypocrisy and corruption: Sometimes temptations prevail upon them to make them worldly and proud: Sometimes by Afflictions the discontentment of their hearts is stirred up; so by God's not hearing their prayers, by converting other persons; sometimes by hearing the Doctrine of God's Sovereignty, or the strictness of the Law Sometimes the Word of God, and sometimes the Works of God are a temptation to them, and occasion them to be dead to that which is good, and make their corruptions works violently,