A57982:109
The trial & triumph of faithThe tryal & triumph of faith
The trial & triumph of faith: or, An exposition of the history of Christs dispossessing of the daughter of the woman of Canaan Delivered in sermons; in which are opened, the victory of faith; the condition of those that are tempted; the excellency of Jesus Christ and free-grace; and some special grounds and principles of libertinism and antinomian errors, discovered by Samuel Rutherfurd, professor of divinity in the University of St. Andrews. Published by authority.The tryal & triumph of faith: or, An exposition of the history of Christs dispossessing of the daughter of the woman of Canaan Delivered in sermons; in which are opened, the victory of faith; the condition of those that are tempted; the excellency of Jesus Christ and free-grace; and some speciall grounds and principles of libertinisme and antinomian errors, discovered by Samuel Rutherfurd, professor of divinity in the University of St. Andrews. Published by authority.
London: printed by John Field, 1652
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.
Observe, That all that came to Christ have been forced through some one necessity or other, either a leprous body, blind eyes, a palsy, a bloody issue, a withered arm, or a dying son, and that some have been brought to Christ, at least their Parents or Friends have come to Christ through reason of bodily possession by the Devil; but we read of none that came through reason of the Devil's spiritual possessing of them,1 either by themselves or others. 1. There is much flesh and much nature in us, and so much sense and little spirit, and little of God; a blind eye will chase thee to Christ, a §1soul under the Prince of darkness will not. 2. §2We are all body, and life, and time; but we are not all Soul, and Spirit, and Eternity: Heaven is far from being the master Element in us. 3. §3Misplaced love is much, Joh. 8.44. Ye are of your Father the Devil, saith Christ to the Jews; every ⟨p. 45⟩child loveth the Father. Why? And men love not the Devil; doth not every wretch through natures instinct, abhor the Devil? Is not this the Mother-devotion of any wretch that knoweth nothing of God from the womb? God save me from the Devil, and all his works, 2I have nothing to do with that fowl spirit. Its true, There's a physical hatred of the Devil; as he is a spirit, an Angel and the Pursuivant of divine justice, inflicting evil of punishment on all men naturally; but there's in all men an inbred moral love of the Devil, as he is a fallen spirit, tempting to sin; here every prisoner loveth this keeper, like loveth like, broken men and Bankrupt flee together to Woods and Mountains; an Out-law loveth an Out-law, Fowls of a feather flock together, the Devil and sinful men are both broken men, and Out-laws of Heaven, and of one blood; wicked men are, 1 Joh. 3.10. The children of the Devil, they have that natural relation of Father and Son: There's of the Devils seed in sinners, there's a spiritual concupiscence in Devils, to lust against Gods Image and Glory, and Satan findeth his own seed in us by nature, to wit, concupiscence, a stem, a sprouting, and child of the house of Hell. It were good we knew our own misery, the man resolveth a prisoner has a sweet life, who loveth his own chains because made of gold, and hateth them not because chains, and falleth to Paint the walls of his Dungeon, and to put up Hangings