A09466:311
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.
Euseb. Many there are which when they hear or read of faith at once they consent thereunto & have a certain imagination & opinion of faith: as when a man telleth a story or a thing done in a strange land that pertaineth not to them at all: which yet they believe & tell as a true thing, & this imagination o• opinion they call faith, Therefore as soon as they have this imagination or opinion ⟨p. 147⟩in their hearts, they say, verily, this doctrine seemeth true, I believe it even so: then they think that the right faith is there, but afterward when they feel in themselves no manner of working of the spirit, neither the terrible sentence of the law, & the horrible captivity under Satan, neither can perceive any alteration in themselves & that any good works follow, but find they are altogether as before, & abide in their old state, then think they that faith is not sufficient, but that works must be joined with faith to justification: but true faith is only the gift of God, & is mighty in operation, ever working, being full of virtue: it reneweth man, & begetteth him a fresh, altereth him, changeth him, & turneth him altogether into a new creature & conversation: so that a man shall feel his hart clean changed, & far otherwise disposed then before, & hath power to love that which before he could not but hate, & delighteth in that which before he abhorred, & hateth that which before he could not but love. And it setteth the soul at liberty & maketh her free to follow the will of god, & is to the soul as health to the body after that a man is pined with long sick•es: the legs cannot bear him, he cannot lift up his hands to help him, his taste is corrupt, ⟨p. 148⟩sugar is better in his mouth, his stomach longeth after slubbersauce and swash, at which a whole stomach is ready to cast his gorge: when health cometh she changeth and altereth him clean, giveth him strength in all his members, lust and will to do of his own accord that which before he could not do, neither could suffer that any man should exhort him to do, & hath now lust in wholesome things, and his members are free and at liberty, and have power to do all things of his own accord which belong to a sound and whole man to do. And faith worketh in the same manner as a tree brings forth fruit, of his own accord;