A57982:11
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.
for Christ, cannot tire or weary from eternity to be Christ, and so he must not, he cannot but be an infinite and eternal flowing sea to diffuse and let out streams and floods of boundless grace; say that the ⟨image 4⟩Rose were eternal▪ the sweet smell, the loveliness of greenness and colour must be eternal. O what a happiness for a soul to lose its excellency in his transcendent glory? What a blessedness for the creature to cast in his little all in Christ his matchless Al-sufficiency? Could all the streams retire into the fountain and first Spring, they should be kept in a more sweet and firm possession of their being in the bosom of their first cause, then in their borrowed channels, that they now move in: Our neighbourhood, and retiring in to dwell, for ever and ever, in the Fountain-blessedness, Jesus Christ, with our borrowed goodness, is the firm and solid fruition of our eternal happy being: Christ is the sphere, the connatural first Spring, and element of borrowed drops, and small pieces of created Grace, the Rose is surest in being, in beauty on its own stalk and root; let life and sap be eternally in the stalk and root, and the Rose keep its first union with the root, and it shall never wither, never cast its blossom nor greenness of beauty: its violence for a gracious spirit to be out of his stalk and root: union here, is life and happiness, therefore the Churches last prayer in Canonic Scripture is for union, Revel. 22.20. Amen, Even so, Come Lord Jesus: It shall not be well while the Father, and Christ the prime Heir, and all the weeping children be under one roof, in the Palace-Royal, it is a sort of mystical lameness, ⟨image 5⟩and that the head wanteth an Arm or a finger, and it is a violent and forced condition for Arm and finger to be separated from the head: The Saints are little pieces of mystical Christ, sick of love for union, the wife of youth that wants her husband some years, and expects he shall return to her from over-sea lands, is often on the shore, every ship coming near shore, is her new joy, her heart loves the wind that shall bring him home, she asks at every passenger news: O saw you my husband? what is he doing? when shall he come? Is he shipped for a return? Every Ship that carrieth not her husband is the breaking of her heart: