N04231:165
The poor doubting Christian drawn to Christ. Wherein the main hindrances, which keep men…
The poor doubting Christian drawn to Christ. Wherein the main hindrances, which keep men from coming to Christ, are discovered. : With special helps to recover God's favour. / By Thomas Hooker. ; With an abstract of the author's life. ; [Four lines from Isaiah]
Boston: printed by Green for D. Henchman, 1743
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.
And now when the Soul seeth that these Things cannot succour it, but lay it in a worse Case; a Man will then be content to have his Heart divorced from them. And here it is with the Soul as it was with Noah's Dove, when the Ark began to rest upon the Mountain of Ararat: Noah then sent out the Dove; but the Dove found no Rest for the Sole of her Foot. No question there were many dead Carcasses to settle upon; but the Dove found no Rest, 'till she came to the Ark again. So when a Man finds no Rest in any Thing the Creature affords, and can get no Footing for the Soul there to stay it self upon; then it betakes it self to CHRIST the Ark, and goes home to the Promise, and rests there, and expects from thence what is needful for it. As (therefore) in the Art of Swimming; he that will swim, must pluck his Feet from the Bottom, and commit himself to the Stream to bear him up: So in this our Purpose to Heaven, we must draw our Hearts from these vain Things below, and these from them; and tho' we have Honour and Preferments, yet we must put no Confidence in them, but ⟨p. 81⟩pluck our Affections, as it were Feet from them, and learn by our Believing to commit our selves wholly to the Power of the Promise, and thence to receive Comfort, and permanent abiding.
And now when the Soul seeth that these Things cannot succour it, but lay it in a worse Case; a Man will then be content to have his Heart divorsed from them. And here it is with the Soul as it was with Noah's Dove, when the Ark began to rest upon the Mountain of Ararat: Noah then sent out the Dove; but the Dove found no Rest for the Sole of her Foot. No question there were many dead Carcases to settle upon; but the Dove found no Rest, 'till she came to the Ark again. So when a Man finds no Rest in any Thing the Creature affords, and can get no Footing for the Soul there to stay it self upon; then it betakes it self to CHRIST the Ark, and goes home to the Promise, and rests there, and expects from thence what is needful for it. As (therefore) in the Art of Swimming; he that will swim, must pluck his Feet from the Bottom, and commit himself to the Stream to bear him up: So in this our Purpose to Heaven, we must draw our Hearts from these vain Things below, and these from them; and tho' we have Honour and Preferments, yet we must put no Confidence in them, but ⟨p. 81⟩pluck our Affections, as it were Feet from them, and learn by our Believing to commit our selves wholly to the Power of the Promise, and thence to receive Comfort, and permanent abiding.