A09376:56
A cloud of faithful witnesses, leading to the heavenly Canaan, or, A commentary upon…A cloud of faithfull witnesses, leading to the heauenly Canaan, or, A commentarie vpon…
A cloud of faithful witnesses, leading to the heavenly Canaan, or, A commentary upon the 11 chapter to the Hebrews preached in Cambridge by that godly, and judicious divine, M. William Perkins ; long expected and desired, and therefore published at the request of his executors, by Will. Crashawe and Tho. Pierson, preachers of Gods Word, who heard him preach it, and wrote it from his mouth.A cloud of faithfull witnesses, leading to the heauenly Canaan, or, A commentarie vpon the 11 chapter to the Hebrewes preached in Cambridge by that godly, and iudicious divine, M. William Perkins ; long expected and desired, and therefore published at the request of his executours, by Will. Crashawe and Tho. Pierson, preachers of Gods Word, who heard him preach it, and wrote it from his mouth.
London: printed by Humphrey Lownes for Leo. Greene, 1607London: printed by Humfrey Lownes for Leo. Greene, 1607
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 any man ask how this can be? I answer, The faith of the receiver knoweth best; and yet reason can say something in this case: for suppose a man look earnestly upon a star, there are many thousand of miles betwixt his eye & the star; yet the star and his eye are so united together, as that the star is after a sort present to his eye. So if we regard local distance, we are as far from Christ as earth is from heaven: but if we regard the nature of Faith, which is to reach it self to Christ, where ever he be, in that regard Christ is present: and why should not this be so? for if the bodily eye, so feeble and weak, can reach so far as to a star, and join it to it self, and so make it present; why should not much more the piercing eye of the soul reach up to Christ, & make him present to the comfortable feeling of it self?
If any man aske how this can be? I answer, The faith of the receiuer knoweth best; and yet reason can say something in this case: for suppose a man looke earnestly vpon a starre, there are many thousand of miles betwixt his eye & the star; yet the starre and his eye are so vnited together, as that the starre is after a sort present to his eye. So if we regard locall distance, we are as farre from Christ as earth is from heauen: but if we regard the nature of Faith, which is to reach it selfe to Christ, where euer he be, in that regard Christ is present: and why should not this be so? for if the bodily eye, so feeble and weake, can reach so farre as to a starre, and ioyne it to it selfe, and so make it present; why should not much more the piercing eye of the soule reach vp to Christ, & make him present to the comfortable feeling of it selfe?
Thirdly, here we learn how to behave our selves in a strange temptation, whereby God useth to exercise his children. The Lord, after that he hath received his children into his favour, continueth not always to manifest that favour unto them; but often times pulls back the feeling of it for a time; that afterward, he may show it again in more comfortable manner unto them, and that they may afterward more sensibly feel it, and more earnestly love it, and more carefully labour to keep it, when they have it.