A30345:698
A treatise of the covenant of grace wherein the gradual breakings out of Gospel…A treatise of the covenant of grace wherein the graduall breakings out of Gospel…
A treatise of the covenant of grace wherein the gradual breakings out of Gospel grace from Adam to Christ are clearly discovered, the differences betwixt the Old and New Testament are laid open, divers errors of Arminians and others are confuted, the nature of uprightness, and the way of Christ in bringing the soul into communion with himself ... are solidly handled / by that faithful servant of Jesus Christ, and minister of the Gospel, John Ball ; published by Simeon Ash.A treatise of the covenant of grace wherein the graduall breakings out of Gospel grace from Adam to Christ are clearly discovered, the differences betwixt the Old and New Testament are laid open, divers errours of Arminians and others are confuted, the nature of uprightnesse, and the way of Christ in bringing the soul into communion with himself ... are solidly handled / by that faithfull servant of Jesus Christ, and minister of the Gospel, John Ball ; published by Simeon Ash.
London: printed by G. Miller for Edward Brewster, 1645
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.
A second help is the inward illumination and inspiration wrought in us, by which as the internal Word God speaketh in the mind. The conversion of sinners is called, a conviction, because it is ever wrought in us as we are reasonable and intelligent creatures, the judgement going before is a director what to choose. And if the mind of man were once throughly and in a spiritual manner (as it becometh such objects as are altogether spiritual)1 possessed of the adequate goodness and truth, which is in grace and glory, and did consider it deliberately, both simply and in comparison, with all circumstances and occurrences, and did apply it self to the serious study and thought thereof, the heart could not utterly reject them. For humane liberty is not a brutish, but a reasonable thing: it consisteth not in contumacy and head-strongnesse, but in such a manner of working, as is apt to be regulated, varied, or suspended by the dictates of right reason and sound judgement, if things be distinctly and certainly apprehended, seriously weighed and pondered, and the thought thereof preserved and kept in mind. The only cause why men are not willing to submit unto Christ, is, because they are not throughly, and in a manner suitable to the excellency of the things, enlightened in their mind, or they do not keep in mind and thought that which they are taught in the Word of God, and cannot but know in some sort. Sinners in Scripture are said to be blind, simple, fools, brutish, inconsiderate, that remember not that God seeth them, consider not their latter end. Sin is natural, not as nature is opposed to liberty, but as nature is opposed to grace:2 And so without Christ and the holy Spirit, miserable, natural or mortal men would sin necessarily. The first sin of our first parents was an error: for whatsoever a man doth will, that he doth will being led by certain reason, true, or in appearance. The act of willing hath in it power whatsoever is subject to it, but it self is not in it own power, but in the power of reason, whose prescript it doth follow, whether right or corrupt. Necessarily good is preferred before evil, and the greater good certainly and distinctly known before the lesser, but not known it is not preferred ⟨p. 334⟩with equal necessity. The will is not enforced of it self, either of it self resting, or forcing it self: