N04231:52
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.
3. Thirdly; Know and consider, that thou hast rested upon thine own Duties and Endeavours,1 and so doest not go to God, that blesseth both the Means, and all the Endeavours of his this Way. The Fault therefore is thine own, (I say) thine own, because thou restest in thine own Performances, and in the Power of the Means that thou apprehendest, and doest not go to God, that would have wrought more than all they can: For, did a Man depend upon God's Power and Mercy in his Ordinances, he should always find some proportionable Succour, as well when he finds no Success, as when he finds any. God sometimes give, and sometimes delays to give: But God's Love is as constant when he gives not, as when he gives. Therefore labour to quit all carnal Confidence in holy Duties. Rest not in thine own Performances, but look beyond ⟨p. 15⟩all Duties to God in Christ, and desire him to give thee the Success above them.
- 1Rest not upon Duties.
Watch how thy Soul behaves it self after the naked Discharge of a Duty: All quiet and calm, notwithstanding he lives in a daily Course and Practice of Sin; so that he prays and lies, fasts and cozens, and yet this makes all whole: I tell you, it is an undoubted Argument, that the Soul did place a carnal Confidence in his own Performances, and as yet never attained to a Lord Christ in the Duty: For he that seeks a Saviour in his Duties, and rests not in Self-Performances, this Man brings a Saviour a Christ into his Soul. And mark what follows; Christ brings pardoning Virtue, and purging Virtue with him, and gives him more Power against Corruptions, and more Suspicion over his own Soul than ever he had before: So that the Soul begins to quarrel with it self, and lies down with Shame, and says, What shall I think of my praying and hearing? Where is the Virtue and Power of it? Did ever Christ hear my Prayers, or come into my Soul by his Ordinances? Where is the purging Virtue then, to clear me of my Sins? Where is the purifying Virtue to cleanse me of my Corruptions? This is a Ground of a gracious Heart, that placeth not any Confidence in holy Duties, but only in the Lord Christ.