A57982:477
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.
113. Faith effectual by, or with child of love and good works is a strong Faith, 1 Thes. 1.3. Remembering your work of Faith, Philem. v. 6. Faith effectual. There be bones in a strong Faith: yea, sap and life. How many Thousands of Apples be there virtually in a Tree that beareth fruit, for thirty or forty years together? So its said of Stephen, That he was full of faith and power, Act. 6.8. And Barnabas, Act 11.24. Full of the Holy Ghost, and of Faith. What is then a small Faith, or a weak Faith, is easily known.2 1. A Faith void of all doubting is not a weak Faith: Nor yet the strong Faith. Antinomians err many ways in this point. 1. After the revelation of the spirit, neither Devil nor sin can make the soul to doubt ⟨p. 371⟩(say they:) Yea,3 but the spirit of revelation was in Jeremiah, who doubted when he complained, Chap. 15. v. 18. to God of God, Wilt thou be to me altogether as a liar, and as waters that fail? Chap. 20.7, 8, 9. v. 14.15.16. Job doubted c. 13. v. 14. when he said, Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy? And Asaph, Ps. 73.13. Heman, Ps. 88.13, 14, 15. And the Church, 77. Psal. Yet all these were sealed by the spirit unto the day of redemption. 42. This is like the foul error of the Arminians, who, with Socinians, hold that as there be three degrees of believers, 1. Some babes. 2. Some aged, so there is a third sort of truly perfect ones, who do not sin from the root of concupiscence, the combat between the flesh and the spirit now ceasing, only they sin through inadvertence or some error, or over-clouding of their light, as Adam and the Angels sinned, there being no inward principle of corruption in them: Hence some Libertines say, These that are in Christ can no more sin, and not walk with God, then the sun can leave off to give light, or fire to cast heat, or a fountain to send out streams, in regard that the spirit acteth them to walk with God by such a necessary impulsion that destroyeth all freedom of will; and if they sin, they are not to be blamed, because the spirit moveth them not to abstinence from sin, and to holy walking. But Paul, a chosen vessel, and a strong believer,