A29686:660
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.
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 whence he is said to seal us up unto the day of redemption. The graces of the Spirit are a real earnest of the Spirit, yet they are not always an evidential earnest; therefore an earnest is often superadded to our graces. For ever remember these few hints; 1. That it is the work of the Spirit to plant grace in the soul. 2. That it is the work of the Spirit to act and exercise the graces that he has planted there. 3. That it is the work of the Spirit to shine upon those graces that he has planted in the soul, and to cause the soul to see and feel what he has wrote. 4. That it is the work of the Spirit to raise springs of comfort and joy in the soul, upon the discovery of that grace which he has wrote in the soul. O Christians, till the Spirit of the Lord shine upon your graces,3 you will still be in the dark. 'Tis only God's own Interpreter that must show a man his righteousness. When the holy Ghost shines upon a Christians graces, then a Christian finds the springs of comfort to rise in his soul, and then he finds the greatest serenity and calmness in his spirit. O Sirs! no man can by any natural light or evidence in him, come to be assured of the grace wrought in his soul. Look, as no man can see the Sun but in the light of the Sun; so no man can see the graces of the Spirit but in the light of the Spirit.