A57982:457
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.
32.31 Hezekiah was tried of God in the business of the King of Babylons Ambassadors; that the King might see that he could not walk to heaven on clay legs, or by his own strength, and the reason is clear; God cannot make a Promise of contributing this bowing and predeterminating Grace, but in a way suitable to Free-grace. For God cannot change Grace unto natural debt, it remaining grace, for so it should be Grace & no Grace, which is a contradiction: 2. The Lord hath reserved liberty to himself in this promise, that in this or this particular Act (the omission whereof may consist with perseverance in Grace) he may contribute his influence of Grace, or not contribute it; so David hath not actual Grace at his will and nod, to eschew adultery, and murder as he pleaseth:1 nor Peter to decline an evil hour, when he shall be tempted to forswear his Saviour Christ; nor hath Heman in his hand, Psal. 88. nor the deserted Church power, Psal. 77. to pray and believe, and rejoice in the salvation of God at the disposition of Free-will: But the key is up in the hands of the Kingly Intercessor, At the right hand of the Father that must open the heart; its far to fetch, as far as the Heaven of heavens, to make wind and sailing to Christ-ward; therefore, 3. Seasons of Acts of Grace to believe, to walk in any warmness of love to ⟨p. 352⟩Christ and his members, are fruits of Royal Liberty and Free-Grace; who hath the key of the house of wine, to stay the soul with the Flagons and Apples of love? Certainly, it is the King himself that taketh the Spouse into His banqueting House, Cant 2.4. And yet so as the omission of all supernatural duties; yea, our laziness in the manner of doing, our failings and sins are imputed to our selves, and not to the not blowing of the wind of the holy spirit, nor to the want of the efficacious motion of the spirit, as Libertines teach, with Arminians; For we so sin through the want of the motions of efficacious Grace, as through the want of a Physical, not of a moral cause, and so as we are most willing to want that influence, and so are guilty before the Lord: God hath reasons strong and convincing, why he worketh thus; 1. It setteth not Grace to work by engagement; the spirit of the living creatures is within every wheel of Christ, that it must move from an inward principle;