A09466:39
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.
XI
The reprobate hath oftentimes fear and terror of conscience: but this is only, because he considereth the wrath and vengeance of God, which is most terrible. When Paul preached before Felix, & by the majesty ⟨p. 6⟩of Gods spirit, did (as it were) thunder from heaven against his sins, doubtless, he made his heart to ache, and every joint of him to tremble. 1Ecebolius a Philosopher of Constantinople, in the days of Constantius, professed Christian religion, and went beyond all other in zeal for the same religion: yet afterward under Julian, he fell from that religion unto Gentilism. But after Julians death making means to be received into the Church again, overwhelmed with the horror of his own conscience for his wicked revolting, he cast himself down on the ground before the doors of the Church crying aloud, Calcate me salem insipidum: trample on me unsavoury salt. And the Devil believeth the word of God, and at his own damnation he trembleth. These servile fears, though they harden the heart of the reprobate, as heat doth the iron, after it hath been in the furnace: yet these fears in the children of God, oare very good preparations, to make them fit to receive grace: like as we see the heedle which soweth not the cloth, yet it maketh a passage and entrance for the thread, which serveth for this use, to sow cloth together.
The reprobate hath oftentimes feare and terror of conscience: but this is onely, because he considereth the wrath and vengeance of God, which is most terrible. When Paul preached before Foelix, & by the maiestie ⟨p. 6⟩