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…

The seventh Proposition is this. That the Scripture giveth §7many signs and symptoms of grace; so that if a man cannot find all, yet if he discover some, yea but one, he may safely conclude, that all the rest are there; he who hath but one in truth of the forementioned characters in this book, hath seminally all; he who hath one link of the golden chain, hath the whole chain. Look, as he who hath one grace in truth, hath every grace in truth, though he doth not see every grace shining in his soul; so he that hath in truth any one evidence of grace in his soul, he hath virtually all. And, O that all weak, dark, doubting Christians, would seriously and frequently ponder upon this Proposition, for it may be a staff to uphold them, and a cordial to comfort them under all their fears and faintings. But,

The eighth Proposition is this. Without the light of the §8holy Ghost our graces shine not; our graces are only the means by which our condition is known to us;¹ the efficient cause of this knowledge, is the Spirit illustrating our graces and making them visible, and so helping us to conclude from them, 1 Cor. 2.12. Now we have received not the spirit of the ⟨p. 348⟩world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Our graces, our sanctification, as well as our election, vocation, justification and glorification, are freely given to us of God; and the Spirit of God is given as well to discover the one as the other to us. Mark, the things freely given us may be received by us, and yet the receipt of them not known to us; therefore the Spirit for our further consolation doth (as it were) put his hand and seal to our receipts,²