A29686:661
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.
till the Spirit shines upon his own work, a child of light may walk in darkness and see no light. Look, as no man can subdue his sins but by the power of the Spirit; so no man can see his graces but in the light of the Spirit. The confidence that a believer hath of the truth of grace wrought ⟨p. 349⟩in him, springs more from the Spirits removing his slavish fears, and answering his doubts, and shining upon his graces, and supporting his soul, than it does from that excellency and beauty of grace which shines in him. A man may read the promises over and over a thousand times, and yet never be affected, delighted or taken with them, till the Spirit of the Lord set them home upon his soul. And a man may read the threatenings over and over a thousand times, and yet never startle nor tremble, though he knows himself guilty of those very sins against which the threatenings are denounced, till the Spirit of the Lord sets home the threatenings in power upon his conscience; and then every threatening will be like the hand-writing upon the wall, which will cause his countenance to be changed, and his thoughts to be troubled,1 and his joints to be loosed, and his knees to be dashed one against another. It is just so in the matter of our graces, and gracious evidences, till the holy Spirit shine upon them, till in the light of the Spirit we come to see them, they won't be witnessing, comforting and refreshing to us; and therefore let not the pious Reader think, that by the strength of his natural light he shall ever attain to know the certainty of that grace which is in his soul, but let him rather beg hard of God for his holy Spirit, and that his Spirit may shine upon that good work which he hath begun in him, that so he may be persuaded, assured and comforted. Without the light of the Spirit, the work of the Spirit can't be seen, no more than a book written in the fairest hand or print, can be seen without light to see it or read it by. But,
till the Spirit shines upon his own work, a child of light may walk in darkness and see no light. Look, as no man can subdue his sins but by the power of the Spirit; so no man can see his graces but in the light of the Spirit. The confidence that a believer hath of the truth of grace wrought ⟨p. 349⟩