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

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; ¹but if the Printer saith true in his Title page, that this fourth Edition is corrected and much amended by the Author, then I should believe it: but I have some cause to doubt it, upon these two grounds. First, I compared this with his Sound Believer, where he tells us what is the end of faith; in which there is not any such words as these, nothing like them; nothing of Mr. Rogers notion; nothing different from what I have delivered, but he and I fully agree. Christ himself and all his benefits, is the end of faith coming to Christ; and I hope salvation is one of those benefits. Secondly, I do not believe it, upon Mr. Shepherd's own words in his Letter to me, which are these, without omitting or adding a syllable, That which is called the Sincere Convert, I have not the book, I once saw it; it was a Collection of such Notes in a dark Town in England, which one procuring of me, published them without my will or privity; I scarce know what it contains, nor do I like to see it, considering the many [Greek or Hebrew] Typographica, most absurd, and the confession of him that published it, that comes out gelded and altered from what was first written. Thus you have his own words faithfully transcribed; this Letter was dated October 27. 1647. the year, wherein the Printer saith the book is corrected and much amended by the Author, is, 1646. Let any man then judge, how this book was corrected and amended much by him. In short therefore as to that book, for the general part of it, the book is very solid,