N04231:171
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.
The Consideration of so much, should not only work a Longing after CHRIST, and the Promise; but fill our Faces with Shame and Confusion, that ever we should set so light by such Riches of Mercy, and walk unworthy of so great Salvation. Could we comprehend the unmeasurable Dimensions of GOD'S Love and Goodness revealed in his Word; O how would our Hearts be inflamed towards him! When the Sinner thinks thus with himself; I that have done all that I could against so good a GOD, that my Heart even bleeds to think of it; there was no Name under Heaven that I tore in Pieces more, or so much, as God's Name; his Wounds, and Life, and Heart-Blood I have rent and torn a thousand Times. Nay, there was no Command in ⟨p. 86⟩the World that my Soul so much despised, as the Command of the LORD JESUS. There was no Spirit which ever spake to me, which I so much resisted as the Spirit of the Almighty. Oh how many sweet Motions hath the LORD let into my Soul, thereby to force me from my Courses so base, and Practices so sinful? By how many Mercies hath he allured me; by how many gracious Promises hath he invited me; by how much of his Goodness provoked me to forsake my Sins, and to turn to him? But I have flown in the Face of his Ministers, and BLESSED SPIRIT, and rejected all Terms of Reconciliation. If I had lien in a Dungeon, and been plagued with Torments all my Life-Time, yea, though I could have had another World full of Miseries to live in; I should count it infinite Mercy, so the Lord would pass by my sinful Miscarriages, and pardon these inward Insurrections.
The Consideration of so much, should not only work a Longing after CHRIST, and the Promise; but fill our Faces with Shame and Confusion, that ever we should set so light by such Riches of Mercy, and walk unworthy of so great Salvation. Could we comprehend the unmeasurable Dimensions of GOD'S Love and Goodness revealed in his Word; O how would our Hearts be enflamed towards him! When the Sinner thinks thus with himself; I that have done all that I could against so good a GOD, that my Heart even bleeds to think of it; there was no Name under Heaven that I tore in Pieces more, or so much, as God's Name; his Wounds, and Life, and Heart-Blood I have rent and torn a thousand Times. Nay, there was no Command in ⟨p. 86⟩the World that my Soul so much despised, as the Command of the LORD JESUS. There was no Spirit which ever spake to me, which I so much resisted as the Spirit of the Almighty. Oh how many sweet Motions hath the LORD let into my Soul, thereby to force me from my Courses so base, and Practices so sinful? By how many Mercies hath he allured me; by how many gracious Promises hath he invited me; by how much of his Goodness provoked me to forsake my Sins, and to turn to him? But I have flown in the Face of his Ministers, and BLESSED SPIRIT, and rejected all Terms of Reconciliation. If I had lien in a Dungeon, and been plagued with Torments all my Life-Time, yea, though I could have had another World full of Miseries to live in; I should count it infinite Mercy, so the Lord would pass by my sinful Miscarriages, and pardon these inward Insurrections.