A26951:2269
The life of faith in three parts, the first is a sermon on Heb.…
The life of faith in three parts, the first is a sermon on Heb. 11, 1, formerly preached before His Majesty, and published by his command, with another added for the fuller application : the second is instructions for confirming believers in the Christian faith : the third is directions how to live by faith, or how to exercise it upon all occasions / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed by R.W. for Nevil Simmons, 1670
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.
And it is an unsafe course which many such weak persons use, to think in their troubles that every text of Scripture which cometh into their mind, or every conceit of their own is a special suggestion of the Spirit of God: You shall ordinarily hear them say, [Such a text was brought to me, or was set upon my heart, and such a thing was set upon my mind] when two to one, it was no otherwise brought unto them, nor set upon them, than any other ordinary thoughts are; and had no special or extraordinary operation of God in it at all. Though it is certain that every good thought which cometh into our minds, is some effect of the working of Gods Spirit, as every good word, and every good work is; and it is certain that sometimes Gods Spirit doth guide and comfort Christians as a remembrancer, by bringing informing and comforting texts and doctrines to their remembrance; yet it is a dangerous thing to think that all such suggestions or thoughts are from some special or extraordinary work of the Spirit, or that every text that cometh into our minds, is brought thither by the Spirit of God at all.
The reasons are these,
1. Satan can bring a text or truth to our remembrance for his own ends, as he did to Christ, Matth. 4. in his temptations.