A Guide to Christ - Puritan Solomon Stoddard Sermon "When men see the badness of their own hearts, they are ready to be discouraged, but they are then in a more hopeful condition than before: If men be strangers to their own hearts, they will trust in themselves, and neglect Christ. God first discovers to them what they are, and then he discovers the excellency of Christ to them: men will never come to Christ, till they are convinced what corrupt, blind and dead creatures they are. And therefore the more God shews him of the badness of his heart, the more graciously he deals with him: The badness of the heart is matter of sorrow, but the sight of that badness is matter of encouragement; the more they see of that, the more hope there is of their being prepared for Christ." Thanks to http://www.puritanaudiobooks.net/ for allowing me to share this narration. SUBSCRIBE: https://www.youtube.com/user/stack45ny SUPPORT MINISTRY: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5022374 Link to my "Christian Devotional Readings" Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ChristianDevotionalReadings Solomon Stoddard (September 27, 1643, baptized October 1, 1643 – February 11, 1729) was the pastor of the Congregationalist Church in Northampton, Massachusetts Bay Colony. He succeeded Rev. Eleazer Mather, and later married his widow around 1670. Stoddard significantly liberalized church policy while promoting more power for the clergy, decrying drinking and extravagance, and urging the preaching of hellfire and the Judgment. The major religious leader of what was then the frontier, he was concerned with the lives (and the souls) of second-generation Puritans. The well-known theologian Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) was his grandson, the son of Solomon's daughter, Esther Stoddard Edwards. "One way of sin is exception enough against the man’s salvation. Though the sin that he lives in be but small: such persons will not be guilty of perjury. stealing, drunkenness, fornication; they look upon them to be heinous things, and they are afraid of them; but they do not much matter it, if they oppress a little in a bargain, if they commend a thing too much when they are about to sell it, if they break a promise, if they spend the Sabbath unprofitably, if they neglect secret prayer, if they talk rudely and reproach others; they think these are but small things, if they can keep clear of great transgressions, they hope that God will not insist upon small things. — But indeed all the commands of God are established by divine authority: a small shot may kill a man, as well as a cannon bullet: a small leak may sink a ship." Please watch: "FULL ALBUM Christian Praise Worship Songs 2013 - A Message of Hope" ➨ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb_VlgldVpA