N04231:65
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.
Secondly; Know that these Joys, and this Sense and Feeling may be absent from Faith. For a Man may have a good Faith, and yet want the Relish and Sweetness which he longs after. One may want what he Desires, and yet want neither Life nor Heat. A Tree may want Leaves and Fruit, and yet want neither Sap nor Moisture: And a Man's Faith may be somewhat strong, when his Feeling is nothing at all. David was justified and sanctified, and yet wanted this Joy. And Job trusted upon God when he had but little Feeling; as when he saith, Thou makest me a But to shoot at; yet I will trust in thee tho' thou kill me. Therefore build not your Comfort upon Sense and Feeling, ⟨p. 24⟩which is to build upon the Sand; but go to the Promise, as to the Rock, for it.
Quest. But how comes this Desire after Christ?
I answer: There are no more but two Affections in the Soul to absent Good, God infinitely wise having so framed it; and these two are Hope and Desire. The Understanding says, such a Thing is profitable & comfortable if I had it; then Hope is sent out to wait for that Goodness; and if it comes not, then Desire is sent out to meet that Goodness: Hope stands and waits for it; but Desire wanders up and down seeking and enquiring after a LORD JESUS, and goes from Coast to Coast, from East to West; O that I could, O that I might, and when shall I? And how may I come to the Speech of a Lord Christ? As it was with the Spouse in the Canticles; when her Beloved was gone, she wandered up and down seeking him, and enquiring of the Watchmen if they did not see him whom her Soul loved; so wanders from this Thing to that, from this Place to that Place, and never ceaseth to seek and see if she can gain Notice of Christ. It goes to Prayer, to see if that will entreat a Christ; it goes to the Word, to see if that will reveal a Christ: It goes to Conference, to see if it can hear of Christ there: Then it comes to the Congregation, and to the Sacrament, to see if it can hear of any News of a Lord Christ, and of Mercy.