N01446:41
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.
2. It is extremely dangerous to tell him, that it is hopeful that God has put the seeds of Grace into him. There is not one in a thousand but does experience such religious affections long before […] is Converted; these religious affections are nothing else but the workings of self-love and natural conscience; natural Conscience discovers the danger of sin, and somewhat of […] baseness of it, hence he is sorry for it; the […] conceives some hope that by praying, reading, &c. he shall get Salvation, hence he delights in them; the man hopes that he has accepted of God, hence he has some affections to him; and of a Minister does but speak encouragingly as if the man were Converted, he lays a foundation for […] for he is in great da• to fall in with the flattery.
2. It is extreamly dangerons to tell him, that it is hopeful that God has put the seeds of Grace into him. There is not one in a thousand but does experience such religious affections long before 〈…〉 is Converted; these religious affections are nothing else but the workings of self-love and natural conscience; natural Conscience discovers the danger of sin, and somewhat of 〈…〉 baseness of it, hence he is sorry for it; the 〈…〉 conceives some hope that by praying, reading, &c. he shall get Salvation, hence he delights in them; the man hopes that he has accepted of God, hence he has some affections to him; and of a Minister does but speak encouragingly as if the man were Converted, he lays a foundation for 〈…〉 for he is in great da• to fall in with the flattery.
3. He is to be warned against a self-righteous Spirit. Men are exceeding ready to think that their good works and religious frames will abate the fierce anger of God, and incline God to pity them, and have mercy on them; they are proud of their Services, ignorant of the Righteousness of Christ, and of the freedom of Gods mercy; they think God cannot love them, unless they be lovely; and that he cannot but love them if they be lovely, and so they are ready to dote upon their own righteousness,