A09466:339
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.
Timoth. We are all baptized, belike the• we shall all understand the Scriptures.
Timoth. We are all baptized, belike the• we shall all vnderstand the Scriptures.
Euseb. But alas very few there be that are taught & feel their ingrafting into Christ, their justification, their inward dying unto sin & living unto righteousness, which is the ⟨p. 175⟩meaning of their Baptism. And therefore we remain all blind generally, as well the great Rabbins which brag of their learning, as the poor unlearned lay man. And the Scripture is become so dark unto them, that they grope for the door & can find no way in, & it is become a maze unto them in which they wander as in a mist or (as we say) led by Robin goodfellow. And their darkness can not comprehend the light of the Scriptures but they read them as men do tales of Robin hood, as riddles, or as old priests read their Ladies matins, which they understand not. And until a man be taught his baptism, that his heart feel the sweetness of it, the Scriptures are shut up from him, & so dark that he could not understand it, though Peter, Paul, or Christ himself did expound it unto him, no more then a man stark blind can see though thou set a candle before him, or show him the Sun, or point with thy finger unto that thou wouldest have him look upon. As for heresy there is no danger if a man come to the Scripture with a meek spirit seeking there to fashion himself like unto Christ according to the profession and vow of his Baptism: but contrariwise he shall there find the mighty power of GOD to alter and change him in ⟨p. 176⟩the inner man by little and little till in process he be full shapen after the image of our Saviour in knowledge and love of all truth, & power to work thereafter. Heresies spring not of Scripture, no more then darkness of the Sun, but are dark clouds which spring out of the blind hearts of hypocrites given to pride and singularity, and do cover the face of the Scripture and blind their eyes that they cannot behold the bright beams of the Scripture.