A09353:1201
A golden chain, or the description of theologyA golden chaine, or the description of theologie
A golden chain, or the description of theology containing the order of the causes of salvation and damnation, according to Gods word. A view of the order whereof, is to be seen in the table annexed. Written in Latin by William Perkins, and translated by an other. Hereunto is adjoined the order which M. Theodore Beza used in comforting troubled consciences.A golden chaine, or the description of theologie containing the order of the causes of saluation and damnation, according to Gods woord. A view of the order wherof, is to be seene in the table annexed. Written in Latine by William Perkins, and translated by an other. Hereunto is adioyned the order which M. Theodore Beza vsed in comforting troubled consciences.
London: printed by Edward Alde, 1591
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.
If therefore I have to do with such an one, ⟨image 167⟩[…] •ed by the preaching of the Gospel, or if he were called, yet seemeth both to himself & others never to have regarded him that called: and hence concludeth that he is not in the number of them whom God hath purposed to take pity upon: I forthwith tell him, that Satan playeth the Sophister, in teaching him thus to conclude: for this his reason is as untrue, as if a man looking at midnight, & seeing that the sun is not then risen, should therefore affirm that it would never rise. And this is that which when I objected to D. Andreas. pag. 482. He very boldly corrupting my meaning, printed this as mine assertion, Say unto a man that is afflicted, the sun is risen, although as yet it be not risen. But I teach not lies, howsoever this depravation of my words came from D. Andr. printers, or himself. And whereas D. Andr. excepted, that this consolation were to no purpose, because he that was afflicted might doubt, whether this sun would ever rise or not: I answered to him, that which the printers have quite left out, and which I will now therefore more fully repeat. I was wont therefore to tell the party thus troubled, after he had forsaken his false and devilish position: that although an external vocation were not of force enough to appease an afflicted conscience, yet it was of sufficient force and efficacy against the devil. For I tell him that they which never had external nor internal calling, they (if we regard an ordinary calling) must needs perish: but whosoever is once called, he hath set as it were his foot in the first entry into the kingdom of heaven: ⟨image 167⟩and unless it be by his own default, he shall come afterward into the courts of God, and so by degrees into his Majesties palace. And for the confirmation of this, I use divers ways. For why, say I, doubtest thou of his good will towards thee, who in mercy hath sent me a minister to call thee unto him? thou hast no cause, unless thou allege the number of thy sins. If this be all, why, oppose the infinite greatness of Gods mercy against thy sins, who hath sent me to bring thee unto him. The Lord vouchsafeth to bring thee into the way of the elect, why art thou a stumbling block unto thy self? and refusest to follow him? If thou feelest not as yet inwardly in thy self to be stirred forward, pray that thou mayest be.