A09339:1953
A Golden Chain
A golden chain: or The description of theology containing the order of the causes of salvation and damnation, according to Gods word. A view whereof is to be seen in the table annexed. Hereunto is adjoined the order which M. Theodore Beza used in comforting afflicted consciences.A golden chaine: or The description of theologie containing the order of the causes of saluation and damnation, according to Gods word. A view whereof is to be seene in the table annexed. Hereunto is adioyned the order which M. Theodore Beza vsed in comforting afflicted consciences.
Cambridge: printed by John Legat, 1600Cambridge: printed by Iohn Legat, 1600
AN EXPOSITION OF THE CREED. I believe in God. &c.AN EXPOSITION OF THE CREED. I beleeue in God. &c.
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.
Concerning these gifts of the holy Ghost, two questions may be moved. First, what is the measure of grace in this life. Answ. Small, in respect. In this world, we receive, as Paul saith, not the tenths,1 but the first fruits of Gods spirit: & the earnest of the spirit. 2Now the first fruits properly are but as an handful or twain of corn, to a whole corn field, containing many acres & furlongs of ground. And the earnest in a bargain it may be is but a penny laid down for the paying of twenty thousand pound. The second question is, whether the graces of the holy Ghost may be wholly lost or not. Ans. The common gifts of the spirit may be lost and extinguished. But the gifts proper to the Elect can not. Indeed they may be diminished & covered as coals under ashes, and as the sap in the root of the tree in the winter season, not appearing at all in the branches; & the feeling of them may be lost: but they can not either finally or totally be abolished. It is true that God doth forsake his children; but that is only in part,3 as he left Hezekiah to prove and try what was in his heart. A mother that loves her child most tenderly, sets it down in the floor, lets it stand, and fall, and break the face, and all this while she hides her self, not because her purpose is to leave her child quite, or to make it hurt it self; but that when she taketh it up again, it may love her the better. So dealeth the holy Ghost with men to make them see their own weakness and frailty: he hides himself as it were in some corner of the heart for a season, that they may the more earnestly hunger after grace, the want whereof they feel.
Concerning these gifts of the holy Ghost, two questions may be mooued. First, what is the measure of grace in this life. Answ. Small, in respect. In this world, we receiue, as Paul saith, not the tenths,1 but the first fruits of Gods spirit: & the earnest of the spirit. 2Now the first fruits properly are but as an handfull or twaine of corne, to a whole corne field, containing many acres & furlongs of ground. And the earnest in a bargain it may be is but a penie laid down for the paying of twentie thousand pound. The second question is, whether the graces of the holy Ghost may be wholly lost or not. Ans. The common gifts of the spirit may be lost and extinguished. But the gifts proper to the Elect can not. Indeed they may be diminished & couered as coales vnder ashes, and as the sappe in the roote of the tree in the winter season, not appearing at all in the branches; & the feeling of them may be lost: but they can not either finally or totally be abolished. It is true that God doth forsake his children; but that is onely in part,