A57982:293
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.
Obj. But we find by experience, that true poverty of spirit, 1and sense of sinful wretchedness, doth kill and destroy any sight of guilt and wickedness in my self; if I rightly see Christ, I shall not also see any unworthiness in my self. Answ. This experience is not warranted ⟨p. 181⟩by the word of truth. These may well consist together: 1. That felt and apprehended wretchedness of a sinner, may stand with a sight of Christs riches of grace, is as evident, as the felt pain of the sting of the fiery Scorpion, 2may stand with looking up to the brazen Serpent, and being saved: yea, when the poor man, Mark 9.24. said, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief; he both was sensible of faith, and unbelief. 2. Yea, the converted may well see grace and holiness in himself, (else how shall he be thankful to Christ the giver) and also see Christ, and believe his righteousness? for holy walking cometh under a threefold consideration: 1. As a duty. 2. As a mean ordained of God that we should walk in, Eph. 2.10. 3. As a promise, 3or a thing promised in the new Covenant: and in this threefold consideration, we may know how far we may build our peace upon any duties, as upon evidences of our state of grace; 1. as holy walking is a duty coming from us, its no ground of true peace, believers often seek in themselves what they should seek in Christ; this is natural merit; often we argue from the measure of obedience to deny grace altogether; this is a false way, especially its a false way of logic, to argue Negatively, from want of such & such a measure of obedience, to deny you are in Christ; how we may argue Affirmatively, we shall hear hereafter. 2. The duty is Christs mean, not enjoined in a strict Law-way, but in ⟨p. 182⟩a Gospel-way, as the commandment is oiled with a Gospel-spirit of love: Law and love are not contrary, as Antinomians do imagine; Christ has united, not only persons, but also graces and virtues. This way the duty is a mean, and a way, not to the right of salvation, but to the actual possession of it; and as it is, or standeth stated before us in the letter of the Gospel, in a Moral commanding, or a Doctrinal, or directing way, without the efficacy of grace, it can be nothing but a Doctrinal-mean, no more then the Law-way is; for all Gospel-precepts without grace, are as little available to us, as the Law: