N01446:281
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. To examine whether his faith be right. And in this work there is no weight to be laid on it, whether it was in Hearing, Reading, Praying or Meditating, that God gave one right to him; God does not confine himself to any of those ways: neither is there any weight to be laid on it, whether it was by any particular word or without it; if it be according to the Word it is sufficient; nor must we lay weight upon it, whether it were by a word of promise, or some other passage of the Gospel, nor whether he had one word came to him or many Sometimes many promises flow in, one after another, in abundance; but special Enquiry is to be made, [1.] What condition he was in just before, whether he was wholly emptied of himself, or found any imaginary goodness in himself; if his humiliation was right, there as no doubt of h•s faith: [2.] Whether by that light that was given him, he saw Christ and Salvation offered to him, or whether he saw that God loved him and pardoned him; for the offer of Grace, and our acceptance goes before pardon, and therefore much more before the knowledge of it: [3.] Whether he saw a glorious fullness in Christ, a sufficiency for the greatest sinners, so as to make him admire the excellency of Christ: [4.] Whether the Offer came with Divine Authority, whether he saw God calling of him so that he could not but accept thereof.
1. To examine whether his faith be right. And in this work there is no weight to be laid on it, whether it was in Hearing, Reading, Praying or Meditating, that God gave one right to him; God does not confine himself to any of those ways: neither is there any weight to be laid on it, whether it was by any particular word or without it; if it be according to the Word it is sufficient; nor must we lay weight upon it, whether it were by a word of promise, or some other passage of the G•spel, nor whether he had one word came to him or many Sometimes many promises flow in, one after another, in abundance; but special Enquiry is to be made, [1.] What condition he was in just before, whether he was wholly emptied of himself, or found any imaginary goodness in himself; if his humiliation was right, there as no doubt of h•s fa•th: [2.] Whether by that light that was given him, he saw Christ and Salvation offered to him, or whether he saw that God loved him and pardoned him; for the offer of Grace, and our acceptance goes before pardon, and therefore much more before the knowledge of it: [3.] Whether he saw a glorious fulness in Christ, a sufficiency for the greatest sinners, so as to make him admire the excellency of Christ: [4.] Whether the Offer came with Divine Authority, whether he saw God calling of him so that he could not but accept thereof.