A29686:146
A cabinet of choice jewels, or, A box of precious ointment being a plain…A cabinet of choice jevvels, or, A box of precious ointment being a plain…
A cabinet of choice jewels, or, A box of precious ointment being a plain discovery of, or, what men are worth for eternity, and how 'tis like to go with them in another world ... / by Thomas Brooks ...A cabinet of choice jevvels, or, A box of precious ointment being a plain discovery of, or, what men are worth for eternity, and how 'tis like to go with them in another world ... / by Thomas Brooks ...
London : Printed and are to be sold by John Hancock ..., 1669
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
Secondly, A gracious soul may argue thus; All the great and precious promises concerning everlasting happiness and blessedness, are made over to faith and repentance, as the Scriptures do abundantly evidence: Now, he that really finds faith and repentance wrought in his soul, so that he is able to say, I am a repenting and a believing sinner, he may truly and safely conclude, that he shall be saved; for all the promises of eternal happiness and blessedness, do run out with a full stream to faith and repentance: I readily grant, that a strong hope results from the clear evidence it hath of ⟨p. 27⟩both these. We read in Scripture of a threefold assurance: As first, an assurance of understanding, Col. 2.2. Secondly, an assurance of faith, Heb. 10.22. Thirdly, an assurance of hope, Heb. 6.11. And 'tis a very choice note, that acute D. A. hath upon it, viz. That these three make up one practical Syllogism, wherein knowledge forms the proportion, faith makes the assumption, and hope draws the conclusion. I do (saith the Christian) assuredly know from the Word that can't deceive me, That the believing and repenting sinner, shall be saved, my conscience also tells me, that I do unfeignedly believe and repent, therefore I do firmly hope, that I shall (how ever vile and unworthy (otherwise) be saved. Now mark, answerable to the evidence that a man hath in his own soul, that faith and repentance is wrote in him; so will his hope and assurance be weaker or stronger, more or less. If a mans evidence for the truth of his faith and repentance be dark, and weak, and low, and uncertain, his hope and assurance that is born of these parents (as I may say) must needs partake of its parents weakness and infirmities, and be it self weak, and dark, and low, and wavering, and uncertain, as they are from which it results; •ope and assurance ebbs and flows, as the evidence of a mans faith and repentance ebbs and flows.