N04231:47
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.
Answ. This Hurts not neither; provided that thy Heart be weary of it self, because it cannot be weary of Sin, Mich, 7.18. The Lord showeth Mercy, because he will show Mercy: It is not because thou canst please him, but because Mercy pleaseth him. When did the Lord show Mercy to Paul? I say, When, but even when Paul did express most Malice against him? Acts 16. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? He persecutes Christ, and yet Christ pities him, and shows him Mercy: And so the churlish Jailer, when he was most opposite against the Means of Grace, the Lord even then showed most Compassion upon him. He that (before) resisted the Means of Grace, was now brought home by those Means that before he resisted.
Answ. This Hurts not neither; provided that thy Heart be weary of it self, because it cannot be weary of Sin, Mich, 7.18. The Lord sheweth Mercy, because he will shew Mercy: It is not because thou canst please him, but because Mercy pleaseth him. When did the Lord shew Mercy to Paul? I say, When, but even when Paul did express most Malice against him? Acts 16. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? He persecutes Christ, and yet Christ pities him, and shews him Mercy: And so the churlish Jaylor, when he was most opposite against the Means of Grace, the Lord even then shewed most Compassion upon him. He that (before) resisted the Means of Grace, was now bro't home by those Means that before he resisted.
Object. But woe to me (saith the poor Soul) you are now come to the Quick; this very Word is like a Millstone about my Neck, and I in the Sea, ready to be sunk for ever. This is the Depth of that Baseness that lies on me, even this, that all the Means can do no better upon me. Why, what tho' Paul and the Jailer were bad enough, so bad as you say? Yet they were made better by the Means: But this is my hopeless Condition, that the Means of Grace prevail nothing on me. Oh, is there such an heart in Hell as I have? For how bad must it needs be, ⟨p. 12⟩