N04231:195
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.
it must dwell in you, that you may but step aside and have it; there is the Matter for your Faith to work on. So also
II. In the next Place, we are to sit Faith for the Service; that it may succeed with more Comfort and better Speed. Tho' a Man be a Believer, yet there is a great deal of Dullness and Bluntness comes upon this Grace, tho' he have it. See how our Saviour chides his Disciples, Oh Fools, and slow and dull of Heart to believe, &c. So we ought to whet our Faith, that it may line and square the Promises (as it is in the Hebrew) that it may pierce through' the Veil of all the Riches of the Freeness of GOD'S Grace, and so bring Comfort to us. It's with the Hand of Faith, as it is with the Hand of the Body; if it be numbed, stiff, or frozen, a Man must rub it, or warm it, before he can hold any thing; so it is with the Hand of Faith, for Faith is the Hand of the Soul, it takes hold of that Mercy which GOD hath provided for us in ⟨p. 105⟩CHRIST JESUS. Now Faith is sometimes numbed and stiff through' Carelessness and Looseness; therefore it's not enough for a Man to have Faith, but he must supple and oil the Sinews of Faith, that he may more freely take hold of the Promises of Life, and receive Comfort from thence. And that this may be done, we must,
II. In the next Place, we are to sit Faith for the Service; that it may succeed with more Comfort and better Speed. Tho' a Man be a Believer, yet there is a great deal of Dullness and Bluntness comes upon this Grace, tho' he have it. See how our Saviour chides his Disciples, Oh Fools, and slow and dull of Heart to believe, &c. So we ought to whet our Faith, that it may line and square the Promises (as it is in the Hebrew) that it may pierce thro' the Veil of all the Riches of the Freeness of GOD'S Grace, and so bring Comfort to us. It's with the Hand of Faith, as it is with the Hand of the Body; if it be nummed, stiff, or frozen, a Man must rub it, or warm it, before he can hold any thing; so it is with the Hand of Faith, for Faith is the Hand of the Soul, it takes hold of that Mercy which GOD hath provided for us in