A30241:2697
CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…
CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St. John, or, Christs prayer before his passion explicated, and both practically and polemically improved by Anthony Burgess ...
London: printed by Abraham Miller for Thomas Underhill, 1656
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Sermon 105: Of Justifying Faith, That it is a fiducial Recumbency on Christ.
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.
3. That Faith must be in a special manner fiducial and applying, appeareth in the effects that commonly follow it; For to this believing is attributed peace and unspeakable joy, yea, a triumphing over all oppositions and difficulties, a boasting and glorying in tribulation; Now this could never be without a particular interest in Christ, for what peace and joy doth it bring to hear, that Christ in the general came to save sinners; Do not thousands go to hell for all that? It's therefore necessary to true solid peace, that he become my Christ and my Saviour; Hence it is, that believing is the uniting of the soul to Christ as an husband which is an appropriate Interest, as the Church expressed it, I am my Well-beloveds, and my well-beloved is mine, Cant. 2.16. And hence also are those comparisons of an head and a body, of a Vine and branches, all which argue, that the good we have by Christ comes because of our intimate union with him, So that if we do respect those glorious effects which usually accompany believing, they will necessarily suppose a fiducial appropriation of Christ in a special manner.
4. This special faith is seen by the opposites and contrarieties unto it, for he that doth not believe is said [Greek or Hebrew], Luk 12.29. to be carried up and down as a meteor that hath no fixed place; Thus while the soul is not fixed on Christ it's like a reed tossed up and down with every wind, as one in a journey, and at a stand, seeing two ways, and not knowing which way to go, or as a man that is uncertain between two arguments, like the balance with equal weights, that doth not incline to one side more then another; These dispositions of the Soul oppose faith, and it's a resting and a determining of the soul upon Christ.
4. This special faith is seen by the opposites and contrarieties unto it, for he that doth not believe is said 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, Luk 12.29. to be carried up and down as a meteor that hath no fixed place; Thus while the soul is not fixed on Christ it's like a reed tossed up and down with every winde, as one in a journey, and at a stand, seeing two waies, and not knowing which way to go, or as a man that is uncertain between two arguments, like the ballance with equal weights, that doth not incline to one side more then another; These dispositions of the Soul oppose faith, and it's a resting and a determining of the soul upon Christ.