N01446:266
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 there is no hope in any Creature. He can't help himself, he has no wisdom, power nor worthiness that can help him; there is no way that he can take that is sufficient for his deliverance: that Ministers are not able to deliver him, and that if others pray for him, yet tha• will not secure his salvation: All Creatures are as cyphers, and can't work out any salvation for him; if God will destroy him, there is none that can save him.
2. That God may help him; it is not beyond the power of God to change his heart, and it is not beyond the Grace of God to help him. The reason that men are not pardoned, is not the greatness of their sins, but because they do not come to Jesus Christ. That though God be angry, yet he should not be discouraged, God is always angry with Sinners, when he comes to bestow Converting Grace upon them: That God has done a great deal for him, inasmuch as he makes him sensible of his danger: That these discoveries of danger are many times fore-runners of Conversion: That his Condition is a great deal more hopeful now, than when he pleased himself with his frames and attainments; every man must despair in himself, before he ⟨p. 85⟩comes to trust in Christ; that there is enough in Christ, he is able to save to the uttermost, Heb. 7.15. Christ came to save the chief of Sinners, 1 Tim. 5.
3. That there is no way left him now, but to yield himself into the Hands of God. If God destroy him he may, he lies at the mere mercy of God; if God will deliver him he may, if he does not he does no wrong; he can't run from God, he can't force God; if he stands it out against God, he takes a way to ruin himself the safest course he can take, is to fall into the hands of God; it may be God may help him, however he can but perish.