A treatise of faith divided into two parts. The first showing the nature, the…A treatise of faith diuided into two parts. The first shewing the nature, the…

§. 9. What if a Christian cannot find, no not after search and examination, any lively sense or feeling of faith;¹ nay, he cannot discern any faith at all in himself? Hereby the Lord may correct our unthankfulness for mercies formerly received,² or that presumptuous licence we took to our selves in sinning, or in questioning with our selves of his graces: All which things we are heartily to confess and bewail. But for the comfort of the distressed, he is to know, that sometimes graces may lie hid, yea, and work in respect of our acknowledgement insensibly.³ The seed of faith cannot be lost, after it is once planted in an honest and good heart by the holy Spirit: but the sight thereof may be hid from our knowledge, and the lively functions thereof intermitted. The child lives in the mothers womb, though it know not so much. Life remains in a man fallen into a dead swoon, wherein he is ⟨p. 180⟩deprived for a time of understanding, reason, memory, sense, motion, and all apparent vital functions. The tree lives in winter, though nipped with frosts, and weather-beaten with tempests, dead in appearance. Coals raked close under the ashes, that they give neither heat nor light, do y•t retain both, though they show not forth themselves. There is a generation pure in their own eyes, who are not purged from their iniquities:⁴ the most holy are not privy to all their secret sins, nor throughly acquainted with the deceitfulness of their own hearts: And the graces of the Spirit may lie hid in the hearts of the regenerate,⁵ and work insensibly to their feeling and discerning, as well as corruption lurk secretly and work privily in the soul both of regenerate and unregenerate. An argument drawn from his sense and feeling: may have some colour in the conceit of a distressed mind: but in truth it is a deceitful reasoning to conclude, That they have no faith, because they have no sense or feeling thereof in their apprehension. In the agony of conscience none are more unfit to judge of our estate, then we of our own. Though at other times we be sick of self-love, and too partial in our own case; yet in this state, towards our selves we are most uncharitable; and being out of love with our selves, we are apt to derogate from the work of Gods Spirit in us.