N04231:61
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.
I would not have a poor Creature think thus with himself: If this Means, and these Ordinances will do me no good, nor work upon my Heart, I shall never have Comfort: But speak thus unto God, and say, In truth, Lord, I expect no Power from my self, nor from the Means; but my Resolution is, to look up to him that hath hid his Face yet from his poor Servant. I will not look any lower, as here within my self, for any such Power: No, Lord, but to the highest in Power and Gifts. Nor will I look to the Minister, or to the Means, but I will wait upon thee (O Lord) and look up to thy Power, to work by thine own Means. Remember what the Prophet saith: Isai. 50.20. Who is amongst you that feareth the Lord, and obeyeth the Voice of his Servant, that walketh in Darkness, and hath no ⟨p. 22⟩Light, (of Comfort) let him trust in the Name of the Lord, and stay himself upon his God. Then when all other Things in the World fail, let the Soul look up to the Lord, and get away from it self. For then is the fittest Time of all to meet with God. I would have a Christian choose this Time above all Times, the fittest wherein to meet his Saviour, and to disappoint Satan: For, as I said, it is the last Refuge that the Devil hath: And if he miss of this, his Force is gone for ever. For otherwise the Sinner, partly seeing the Beauty of Grace, will not; and partly seeing the Baseness of his own Heart, will not dare to come to Christ.
I would not have a poor Creature think thus with himself: If this Means, and these Ordinances will do me no good, nor work upon my Heart, I shall never have Comfort: But speak thus unto God, and say, In truth, Lord, I expect no Power from my self, nor from the Means; but my Resolution is, to look up to him that hath hid his Face yet from his poor Servant. I will not look any lower, as here within my self, for any such Power: No, Lord, but to the highest in Power and Gifts. Nor will I look to the Minister, or to the Means, but I will wait upon thee (O Lord) and look up to thy Power, to work by thine own Means. Remember what the Prophet saith: Isai. 50.20. Who is amongst you that feareth the Lord, and obeyeth the Voice of his Servant, that walketh in Darkness, and hath no ⟨p. 22⟩Light, (of Comfort) let him trust in the Name of the Lord, and stay himself upon his God. Then when all other Things in the World fail, let the Soul look up to the Lord, and get away from it self. For then is the fittest Time of all to meet with God. I would have a Christian chuse this Time above all Times, the fittest wherein to meet his Saviour, and to disappoint Satan: For, as I said, it is the last Refuge that the Devil hath: And if he miss of this, his Force is gone for ever. For otherwise the Sinner, partly seeing the Beauty of Grace, will not; and partly seeing the Baseness of his own Heart, will not dare to come to Christ.