N02171:12
The defects of preachers reproved in a sermon preached at Northampton, May 19th. 1723
The defects of preachers reproved in a sermon preached at Northampton, May 19th. 1723. / By Solomon Stoddard, Pastor of N. Hampton.
printed by T. Green, 1724
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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. Commune with your self. Search your Heart, Try your state; that you may find whether there hath not been the acting of Faith, of Repentance, Love to God & Christ, & love to Fellow-Christians. Consider whether you have not experienced that God hath shed abroad His Love in your Heart by His Holy Spirit. And if after your Care to find a reason for a Good Hope, you are doubtful whether your Reason thereof be good, get the Judgment of an Experienced Minister, whether the reason of your Hope is good. If you can find no sign of Grace, but do find reason to believe, and do verily believe, that a Saving Change hath never been wrought in you. Then
2. Commune with your self. Search your Heart, Try your state; that you may find whether there hath not been the acting of Faith, of Repentance, Love to God & Christ, & love to Fellow-Christians. Consider whether you have not experienc'd that God hath shed abroad His Love in your Heart by His Holy Spirit. And if after your Care to find a reason for a Good Hope, you are doubtful whether your Reason thereof be good, get the Judgment of an Experienced Minister, whether the reason of your Hope is good. If you can find no sign of Grace, but do find reason to believe, and do verily believe, that a Saving Change hath never been wrought in you. Then
1. Lament, bewail your Case before GOD, saying, Oh! Wretched Person I am, who shall deliver ⟨p. iv⟩me from the Body of this Death? I am Miserable, Poor, Blind and Naked.
2. Observe that your help is to be found in GOD. He tells you, Thou hast destroyed thy self, but in Me is thy help found.