A09466:53
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.
XVIII.
The reprobate may yet go further in the profession of religion, and may seem for a •ime to be planted in the Church: for he doth believe the promises of God made in Christ Jesus, yet so that he cannot apply them to himself. In this thing the elect and1 the reprobate differ. The reprobate, dgenerally in a confused manner, believeth that Christ is a saviour of some men: and he neither can nor desireth to come to the particular applying of Christ. The Elect believeth, that Christ is a saviour of him particularly: The3 reprobates faith may perish in this life, but the faith of the elect cannot. The reprobate4 may be persuaded of the mercy and goodness of God towards him for the present time in the which he •eeleth it: the elect is not only persuaded of the mercies he presently enjoyeth, but also he is persuaded of his eternal election before the foundation of the world, & of his everlasting life, which yet he doth not enjoy: Yea, eif God would confound him, and he saw nothing but present death, and hell fire: yet such is his nature, that still ⟨p. 12⟩he would believe: for faith and hope are no• grounded upon sense and feeling; but are the evidence of those things which were never yet seen or felt. The life of the faithful is hid in Christ, as the sap in the root of the tree: their life is not in sense and feeling, but in hoping and believing: which often times, or contrary to mans sense and feeling, is in David: who saith: Create a new heart in me.