A49258:229
A treatise of effectual calling and election In XVI. sermons, on 2 Peter 1.10.…
A treatise of effectual calling and election In XVI. sermons, on 2 Peter 1.10. Wherein a Christian may discern, whether yet he be effectually called and elected. And what course he ought to take that he may attain the assurance thereof. Preached by that faithful servant of Christ, Mr. Christopher Love, late minister of Laurence Jury, London.A treatise of effectual calling and election In XVI. sermons, on 2 Peter 1.10. Wherein a Christian may discern, whether yet he be effectually called and elected. And what course he ought to take that he may attain the assurance thereof. Preached by that faithfull servant of Christ, Mr. Christopher Love, late minister of Laurence Jury, London.
London: printed for John Rothwell, 1655
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.
Thirdly, Suppose all this, that you could have a Lease of your lives, and you could be assured, that when you come to old age, your hearts should not be hardened; yet consider this, that the more sinful and evil the days of your youth have been, the more disquietness of mind, and horror of conscience will this breed in you when you are old, though you shall be called, and converted by Jesus Christ. Job. 13.24.25, 26. Thou •idest thy face, thou holdest me as thy Enemy. Thou dost drive me as a leaf to and fro, and thou dost pursue me like dry stubb•e. Now why doth Job complain thus? Mark the next words, For th•u writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth. Job, when he was a young man, it seem•, he was a wicked man, and had many sins in his youth, and this in his old age made him cry out, and say, that God took him for his Enemy, and that God brake him like a leaf driven with the wind. O beloved, the sins of your youth, though you should be Jobs, converted, yet they will bring great disquietness, and great horror, when you come to age; the lusts of youth, and the vanities of youth, and the sensual pleasures of your youthful days, they will lay a foundation of sorrow, when you come to grey hairs, to be near your graves; so Job 20.11. And therefore, put the case you should repent, and should be called when you are old, you have no cause to put off the call of Jesus Christ, seeing sins of youth will fill you with horror and disquietness of mind. Hence it is, that David, after he was called by the power of the word, cries out, Psal. 25. Lord, remember not the sins of my youth; that gravelled and galled his conscience,1 the sins of his youth before his call. It is the speech of an Author, that to look on the pleasurable vanities and contents of youth, this will become an heavy burden, and bitter vexation to old age. Beloved, the more evil you run out into in your youthful days, the greater and deeper foundation of disquietness and sorrow you lay in your souls in your latter days, though you should be called by Jesus Christ.