N01446:60
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.
WHEN the Sinner that was hoping he was in a good Estate, because some refreshing Scriptures came to him, sees his mistake, he is in danger to be discouraged. In this case he may be told,
1. That it is a common thing for persons that are afterwards Converted, to pass through such Changes; it is not a peculiar thing to him, but a thing of ordinary experience in such people as God is about to deliver out of a Natural Estate. They commonly have some lightsome times, and then returns of darkness: there was no reason to expect that that should last very long; such comforts are like Jonahs Gourd, that rise in a night, and perish in a night.
1. That it is a common thing for persons that are afterwards Converted, to pass thorow such Changes; it is not a peculiar thing to him, but a thing of ordinary experience in such people as God is about to deliver out of a Natural Estate. They commonly have some lightsome times, and then returns of darkness: there was no reason to expect that that should last very long; such comforts are like Jonahs Goard, that rise in a night, and perish in a night.
2. That it is a great mercy that those confidences are taken away from him; had they continued, they would have ruined him; false confidence is better lost than kept. His condition is the more hopeful now those confidences are lost; while he had those confidences he was like a Ship that stuck in the Sand, and now he ⟨p. 11⟩is delivered from them, there is more ground of encouragement.