A10659:677
Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulness of sin. The life…Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulnesse of sinne. The life…
Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulness of sin. The life of Christ. Being the substance of several sermons preached at Lincolns Inn: by Edward Reynolds, preacher to that honourable society, and late fellow of Merton College in Oxford.Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulnesse of sinne. The life of Christ. Being the substance of severall sermons preached at Lincolns Inne: by Edward Reynoldes, preacher to that honourable society, and late fellow of Merton Colledge in Oxford.
London: printed by Felix Kyngston for Robert Bostocke, 1631
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.
Fourthly, the nature and effects of Faith, whose property it is to make future things present to the believer, and to give them a Being, and by consequence a necessity and certainty to the apprehensions of the Soul, even when they have not a Being in themselves. Saint Paul call's it the subsistencie of things to come, and the evidence 1and demonstration of things not seen: which our Saviours words do more fully explain; He that drinketh my blood hath eternal Life, and shall never thirst. ⟨p. 450⟩2Though Eternal Life be to come in regard of the full fruition, yet it is present already in regard of the first fruits of it; And therefore we find our Saviour take a future medium to prove a present Blessedness, [Greek or Hebrew],3 ye are blessed when men shall hate you, &c: for great is your reward in Heaven. Which inference could not be sound unless that future medium were certain by the Power of Faith, giving unto the promises of God as it were a presubsistencie. For it is the privilege of Faith *to look upon things to come, as if they were already conferred upon us. And the Apostle useth the like argument; Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the Law, but under Grace. This were a strange inference in natural or civill things, to say you shall not die, because you are in health; or you shall not be rejected, because you are in favour. But the Covenant of Grace, being sealed by an Oath, makes all the grants which therein are made, irreversible, and constant. So that now, as when a man is dead to the Being of sin (as the Saints departed this life are) the Being of sin doth no more trouble them, nor return upon them: so when a man is dead to the dominion of sin, that dominion shall never any more return upon him.
Fourthly, the nature and effects of Faith, whose propertie it is to make future things present to the beleever, and to give them a Being, and by consequence a necessitie and certaintie to the apprehensions of the Soule, even when they have not a Being in themselves. Saint Paul call's it the subsistencie of things to come, and the evidence