A49258:399
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.
Fourthly, Real assurance of your estate, it doth bear up the soul under the greatest outward sorrow and sufferings that it can meet with in this world. Heb. 10:34. Th•y suffered joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing in themselves that they had in heaven a better and more enduring substance. What made them so to rejoice to see their houses plundered before them, their estates taken from them, but this, they knew in their own selves, and had assurance in their own hearts that Christ was theirs, and heaven was theirs; and this made them suffer joyfully the spoiling of their goods. So Psal. 119.50: This is my comfort in affliction, that thy word doth quicken me: That is, this bears up my heart when I am afflicted, that I have a word to build upon, that I have assurance, I have interest in a promise to build upon; this quickens and bears me up under my sorrows. So Psal. 119.81. My spirit had fainted within me, only that I hoped in thy word. That is, I had hope and confidence ⟨p. 127⟩built upon thy Word, and that kept me from fears, and fainting, and discouragement under my affliction. So Isa. 33.24. The Inhabitant shall not say, I am sick; the people that dwell therein, shall be forgiven their iniquity. *Beloved, Assurance will lift up and bear up the heart under all sorrows. Assurance in a Christian is like oil. Now pour oil into a sea or ocean of water, and the oil will never be kept under, but still be uppermost; so this oil of comfort, and this oil assurance, it will bear thee up on the top, though thou shouldst be cast into a flood of troubles, and an ocean of sorrows. I have read in Latimers writings a notable saying of his to Ridley that famous Martyr. Sometime, saith he, when I live in a settled and steadfast assurance about the state of my soul, me thinks then I am as bold as a Lion, I can can laugh at all trouble, no affliction daunts me; but when I am eclipsed in my comforts, I am of so fearful a spirit, that I could run into a very mouse-hole. Beloved, it is so with godly men, when they want assurance of their estate, and the soundness of their call, every affliction daunts, and every trouble startles them. O but when they can live in a settled assurance of their interest in Christ, and calling by him; they are as bold as Lions and they are born up with comfort, under all the sorrows, and sufferings they meet withal.