A03604:352
The souls exaltation A treatiseThe soules exaltation A treatise
The souls exaltation A treatise containing the souls union with Christ, on I Cor. 6. 17. The souls benefit from union with Christ, on I Cor. 1. 30. The souls justification, on 2 Cor. 5. 21. By T.H.The soules exaltation A treatise containing the soules union with Christ, on I Cor. 6. 17. The soules benefit from vnion with Christ, on I Cor. 1. 30. The soules justification, on 2 Cor. 5. 21. By T.H.
London: printed by John Haviland for Andrew Crooke, 1638London: printed by Iohn Haviland for Andrew Crooke, 1638
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.
First, the nature of desperation, what it is:
Secondly, I will show that this desperation is no part of the second death.
Secondly, I will shew that this desperation is no part of the second death.
First of all, for the nature of it, what it is: desperation as the word carries i•, is to cast away all hope and expectation of any good, this is properly to despair: For if there be any good things with us, then we are said to have them in possession, and fruition: but if good things are absent from us, then we are said to expect them, and to hope and wait for them; and hope saith it may be otherwise: this is that which bears up the souls in the most heavy brunt▪ But for hope, the heart would break, saith the Proverb: and it is true indeed, in the greatest miseries that can befall ••, and when we feel nothing, nor find nothing, nor have nothing in sense, ye• hope saith it may be otherwise, and though now I am sinful and miserable, yet I may be pardoned, and though now in the gall of bitterness, yet I may be purged ⟨p. 228⟩and sanctified; and though now I am a damned creature, yet I may be succoured and delivered. This is that which sometimes bears up the heart, and it is that also which bears up the hearts of the wicked many times here upon the earth: when the Lord lets in the horror of heart, and fills the soul with his indignation, his heart would sink, but that a little lean starved hope supports him, and he sees than Gods will is not yet fully revealed, but that he may be saved: and he saith, this conscience may be quieted, and this soul may be saved, and these sins may be pardoned; now despair is the quite contrary, when the soul hath no good in expectation, and that which cuts the heart strings of a mans consolation, and pluck a mans comforts up by the roots, as he hath nothing for the present, so all means and ways of getting any good are cut off, and then he casts off hope, and never looks to God more, because he never looks for mercy from God; and then hope goes out and saith, Oh when will it once be, cannot these sins be pardoned, &c? And at last he sees there is no way of getting any good, and therefore he never looks for mercy more, but expects hell and damnation, and cries out, I am damned, I am damned: This is despair, and this is the nature of it.