A09466:127
A treatise tending unto a declaration whether a man be in the estate of…A treatise tending vnto a declaration whether a man be in the estate of…
A treatise tending unto a declaration whether a man be in the estate of damnation or in the estate of grace and if he be in the first, how he may in time come out of it: if in the second, how he may discern it, and persevere in the same to the end. The points that are handled are set down in the page following.A treatise tending vnto a declaration whether a man be in the estate of damnation or in the estate of grace and if he be in the first, how he may in time come out of it: if in the second, how he maie discerne it, and perseuere in the same to the end. The points that are handled are set downe in the page following.
London: printed by R. Robinson for T. Gubbin, 1590
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.
XIIII.
Thus it appeareth how God maketh the hart fit to receive faith: in the next place it is to be considered how the Lord causeth faith to spring and to breed in the humbled hart. For the effecting of this so blessed a1 work, God worketh four things in the hart. First when a man is seriously humbled under the burden of his sin, the Lord by his spirit makes him lift up himself to consider & to ponder most diligently the great mercy of God offered unto him in Christ Jesus. After the consideration of Gods2 mercy in Christ: he comes in the second place, to see, feel, and from his heart to acknowledge himself to stand in need of Christ and to stand in need of every drop of his most precious blood. Thirdly the3 Lord stirreth up in his heart a vehement desire and longing after Christ and his merits: this desire is compared to athirst: which is not only the feeling of the dryness of the stomach, but also a vehement appetite after drink, and David fitly expresseth ⟨p. 45⟩it when he saith, I stretched forth my bhands unto thee: my soul desireth after thee as the thirsty land. Lastly, after this desire he begins to pray, not for any worldly benefit, but only for the forgiveness of his sins, crying with the poor publican, O God be merciful to me a sinner. Now this prayer, it is made, not for one day only, but continually from day to day: not with the lips, but with greater sighs & groans of the heart then that they can be expressed with the tongue. Now, after these desires and prayers for Gods mercy, ariseth in the