A03604:92
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.
Quest. 2 What doth the believer do? ask your own hearts, do your hearts close and meet with the good Word of the Lord? and do you say, Oh it is the good Word of the Lord, my heart consented to it, and closed with it thus?
Quest. 2 What doth the beleever doe? aske your owne hearts, doe your hearts close and meet with the good Word of the Lord? and doe you say, Oh it is the good Word of the Lord, my heart consented to it, and closed with it thus?
Answ. Oh yes, saith the soul, me thought I was even knit to the Word: then I ask again, was thy heart knit to the Word only, and the syllable only? and did thy heart close with the sentences only? the soul answers, No, the truth is, my ear did receive the sound, and my mind the sense, but my soul received the Lord Jesus Christ: To as many as received him, to them he gave power to become the sons of God, 1 John 12. the words are but only as the conduit to convey the water of life, and the Spirit of grace, but they lay ⟨p. 36⟩hold upon Christ there, and that it is so, I prove it thus, did not you find your hearts comforted at such a time? Oh yes, saith the soul, me thinks I see the Ministers face still, and when he came to such a point and such a passage, good Lord, me thought I was in heaven; could words, and reasons, and sentences have done it? No surely, the Spirit of grace was there, and my heart did close with the same: the stomach receives not meat, as the dish or vessel doth, but the stomach doth receive it, and is fastened to it, and hath the sweetness of it, and is made one with it: John 6.63. The words that I speak, they are Spirit and life; and this is the excellency of the Word, when all the learned Doctors and Schoolmasters shall have the tongues, but shall never humble one soul, nor purge nor convert one heart, yet the Word and the Spirit in it, will do that which is useful and helpful for thee in this kind; the Words that I speak, they are Spirit, and they are life, saith our Saviour; so then you see, you that are ignorant and weak, you say to your self, how shall I come to be knit to the Lord Jesus Christ, seeing he is in heaven, and I am on earth? Oh but quiet thy self in this, he is in a most special manner in the preaching of the Word, and if thou cleavest to the Word aright, then thou cleavest to the Spirit of Christ.