A57982:511
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.
Must be in their state, some other thing then old creatures, then darkness, then unrenewed, uncircumcised old men, slaves of sin, persecutors, blasphemers, injurious persons: The Lord speaketh of a change great enough, Is. 43.4. Since thou wast precious in my sight; thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee, &c. Were the children of wrath from Eternity Honourable? No, were they more precious & honourable actually before God from eternity, then the rest of the Nations? No, the contrary is evident, Ez. 16.3. Deu. 7.7, 8. Ps. 147.19, 20 Deu. 26.5. Certainly, if Faith or conversion to God (a special part of which is Faith) doth not alter the state of Believers before God, then are they Believers, and actually converted before God, and so justified from eternity? When were they then sinners? Never, Their sins were just no sins from Eternity, and blotted away as a cloud, as a thick cloud, as it is Isa. 44.22. And that from Eternity, and from Eternity sought and not found, because pardoned, Jerem. 5.20. no more remembered, Isaiah 43.25. now they were justified from Eternity, and ere they believe in him that justifieth the ungodly, no other ways then in Gods decree and eternal purpose; but the truth is, this is the principle, false and rotten pillar of all Libertinism, which I evert thus; and ⟨p. 410⟩they shall never be able to answer it, if faith be so far forth a manifestation of our justification before God, because justification was in the sight of God actually done from eternity, before all time; then are we never ungodly and actually sinners before God: For it is unpossible (say Antinomians) that God can both hate us, as ungodly, and love us as justified in Christ; and it is vain, and non se•se (say they) that God loved the persons from eternity and hated the sins, or that he loved the elect with the love of election, or love of good will, & did not also love them with the love of justification (this is their term not mine) or with the love of complacency, and his good liking to faith in them. Then (say I) from eternity the justified were never ungodly, never sinners, never the heirs of wrath, never such as served divers lusts,