A09466:603
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
Consolations for the troubled consciences of repentant Sinners.
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.
Minister. As it is in the strait seas, the ⟨p. 281⟩water ebbs and flows, so is it in the godly: in them as long as they live in this world according to their own feeling, there is an access and recess of the spirit. Otherwhiles they be troubled with deadness and dullness of heart, as David was, who prayed1 to the Lord, to quicken him according to his loving kindness, that he may keep the testimonies of his mouth, and in another place he saith, that Gods promises quickened him. Which could2 not be, unless he had been troubled with great dullness of heart. Again, sometimes the spirit of God quite withdraweth it self to their feeling: as it was in David. In the dai• 3of my trouble (saith he) I sought the Lord, and my soul refused comfort. I did think upon God & was troubled, I prayed and my spirit was full of anguish. Again, will the Lord absent himself for ever? and will he show no more favour? hath God forgotten to be merciful? &c. The Church in •h• 4Canticles complaineth of this. In my bedd• • sought him by night whom my soul loved: I sought him, but I found him not. And again, my well-beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and […] heart was affectioned towards him: I rose […] pen to my well-beloved, and my hands did […] myrrh, my fingers pour myrrh upon •dles of the bar, I opened to my well-beloved▪ […] my ⟨p. 282⟩well-beloved was gone and past, mine heart was gone when he did speak. I sought him, but I could not find him, I called, but he answered me not. Contrariwise, God at some other times sheds abroad