The real Christian, or, A treatise of effectual calling wherein the work of God…

So that here is no matter of trouble, if the Lord hath enlightened you, and convinced you in the knowledge of Christ, no matter when it was, nor how it was: the work is done.

So that here is no matter of trouble, if the Lord hath enlightned you, and convinced you in the knowledge of Christ, no matter when it was, nor how it was: the work is done.

Concerning the nature of saving Faith in Christ, wherein the essence of it lies, great hath been the controversy between Protestants and Papists; great the difference between Protestants themselves: Divines of late years have cleared up the nature of Faith more than ever: yet I shall make bold to to cast in my Mite, it being a thing wherein I was exercised for many years my self, as to my own state, not being able to find by the Books which then were extant what it was; but if that were Faith, and saving Faith, which Mr. Perkins, Mr. John Rogers, and others had described, and what my godly Father had taught me in my Catechism, viz. that Faith was a sure persuasion of my heart, that whatever Christ hath done belongeth to me as if I had done it, (he had learned it from some of those ancient Divines) then be sure I had no Faith: When I heard Ministers preach against unbelief in Christ, or faith in him, I could not tell what they meant by faith or unbelief; nor do I know to this day, when I hear some men, what they mean by unbelief. Doctor Ames in his Medulla Theolog. l. 1. c. 2. Thes. 14.17. cap. 27. Thes. 17.19. was the Book that first gave me some hopes I might have Faith. A reverend Divine (whom I have mentioned in my Epistle to the Reader) assured me, that what I found, and related to him, was saving Faith, It is an ill ⟨p. 154⟩thing, that in a thing of this moment the Trumpet should give an uncertain sound; Ministers should be clear in their preaching.

Concerning the nature of saving Faith in Christ, wherein the essence of it lies, great hath been the controversie between Protestants and Papists; great the difference between Protestants themselves: Divines of late years have cleared up the nature of Faith more than ever: yet I shall make bold to to cast in my Mite, it being a thing wherein I was exercised for many years my self, as to my own state, not being able to find by the Books which then were extant what it was; but if that were Faith, and saving Faith, which Mr. Perkins, Mr. John Rogers, and others had described, and what my godly Father had taught me in my Catechism, viz. that Faith was a sure perswasion of my heart, that whatever Christ hath done belongeth to me as if I had done it, (he had learned it from some of those ancient Divines) then be sure I had no Faith: When I heard Ministers preach against unbelief in Christ, or faith in him, I could not tell what they meant by faith or unbelief; nor do I know to this day, when I hear some men, what they mean by unbelief. Doctor Ames in his Medulla Theolog. l. 1. c. 2. Thes. 14.17. cap. 27. Thes. 17.19. was the Book that first gave me some hopes I might have Faith. A reverend Divine (whom I have mentioned in my Epistle to the Reader) assured me, that what I found, and related to him, was saving Faith, It is an ill