A41331:676
The real Christian, or, A treatise of effectual calling wherein the work of God…
The real Christian, or, A treatise of effectual calling wherein the work of God is drawing the soul to Christ ... : to which is added, in the epistle to the reader, a few words concerning Socinianism ... / by Giles Firmin ...The real Christian, or, A treatise of effectual calling wherein the work of God is drawing the soul to Christ ... : to which is added, in the epistle to the reader, a few words concerning Socinianisme ... / by Giles Firmin ...
London: printed for Dorman Newman, 1670
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.
These things we grant.
First, That the glory of Gods Grace, the honour of Christ, are above our salvation.
Secondly, God hath his Grace glorified in the Souls first closing with Christ, and shall have the glory of it to eternity. Christ hath his honour, and shall eternally be exalted by the believer. In the very first receiving of Christ, he doth wonder at the Grace of God, he admires the Love and Redemption of Christ, and doth so all his days while he lives, and shall do so for ever when days end.
Secondly, God hath his Grace glorified in the Souls first closing with Christ, and shall have the glory of it to eternity. Christ hath his honour, and shall eternally be exalted by the believer. In the very first receiving of Christ, he doth wonder at the Grace of God, he admires the Love and Redemption of Christ, and doth so all his dayes while he lives, and shall do so for ever when dayes end.
But the pinch lieth in this word Above, in such a time, or such an act; that is, that in the first act of faith, in the answer of the call, in the uniting of the Soul to Christ. Now the Soul must see and examine it self, whether it sets up this Grace above its own salvation? As for Mr. Shepherd's words, Take hold on him, not with the hand of presumption [what he means by this, he opposeth the hand of faith, I think, to it] and love to thy self, to save thy self, but with the hand of faith, and love to him, to honour him: This passage is so strange, and so his ninth way to hell, that I could not believe that ever Mr. Shepherd did deliver such Doctrine;