Sighs from hell, or, The groans of a damned soul discovering from the 16th…

7. He that believeth the Scriptures to be the word of God▪ believeth that men must be born again, and also be partakers of that faith which is of the operation of God (according as he hath read and believes) he must and shall be damned. And he that believeth this aright, will not be contented until (according as it is written) he do partake of, and enjoy the n•w birth, and until he do find through grace, that faith that is wrought by the operation of God in his soul. For this is the cause why men do satisf•• themselves with so slender a conceited hope that their state is good (when it is nothing so) namely, because they do not credit the Scripture; for did they, they would look into their own hearts, and examine seriously, whether that faith, that hope, that grace, which they think ⟨p. 187⟩they have, be of that nature, and wrought by that spirit and power, that the Scripture speaketh of. I speak this of an effectual believing, without which all other is nothing unto salvation. Now then, because I would not be too tedious, I shall at this time lay down no more discoveries of such an one as doth savingly believe the Scriptures, and the things contained in them, but shall speak a few words of examination containing the things already mentioned. As,

1. Thou sayest thou dost indeed and in truth effectually believe the Scriptures: I ask therefore, wast thou ever killed stark dead by the Law of works contained in the Scriptures? killed by the Law or letter, and made to see thy sins against it, and left in an helpless condition by that Law▪ For as I said, the proper work of the Law is to slay the Soul, and to leave it dead in a helpless state. For it doth neither give the Soul any comfort it self when it comes, nor doth it show the soul where comfort is to be had; and therefore it is called the ministration of condemnation, as in 2 Cor. 3. 9. the ministration of death,