A09466:347
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. I answer, though they be inseparable, yet I praise God I do conceive how these three have three separable & sundry offices. Faith only is an undoubted & sure •ove in Christ, & in the father through him certifieth the conscience▪ that the sin is forgiven & the damnation of the law taken away. And with such persuasions mollifieth the •art & maketh it love God again & his law. ⟨p. 180⟩And as oft as we sin, faith only keepeth that we forsake not our profession and that love utterly quench not, & hope fail, & only maketh the peace again: for a true believer trusteth in Christ alone and not in his own works nor ought else for the remission of sins. The office of love is to pour out again the same goodness that it hath received of God upon her neighbour, to be to him as it feeleth Christ to be to it self. The office of love is only to have compassion, and to bear with her neighbour the burden of his infirmities. 1. Pet. 4. Love covereth the multitude of sins: (that is to say) considereth the infirmities & interpreteth all to the best, & taketh for no sin at all a thousand things of which the least were enough (if a man loved not) to go to law for, & to trouble & disquiet an whole Town, and sometime a whole Realm too. The office of hope is to comfort in adversity, and to make patient that we faint not, nor fall down under the Cross, or cast it of our backs. Thus these three inseparable have separable offices & effects, as heat, & dryness, being inseparable in the fire have yet their separable operations, for dryness only expelleth the moistness of all that is consumed by fire, and hea• ⟨p. 181⟩only destroyeth the coldness. And it is not1 all one to say, the dryness only, and the dryness that is alone, neither is it all one to say, faith only, and faith that is alone.
Euseb. I answere, though they be inseparable, yet I praise God I doe conceiue howe these three haue three separable & sundrie offices. Faith onlie is an vndoubted & sure oue in Christ, & in the father through him ertifieth the conscience that the sin is forgiuē & the dānation of the law taken awaie. And with such perswasions mollifieth the art & maketh it loue God again & his law.