A59685:199
The sound believer, or, A treatise of evangelical conversion discovering the work of Christs…The sound beleever, or, A treatise of evangelicall conversion discovering the work of Christs…
The sound believer, or, A treatise of evangelical conversion discovering the work of Christs spirit in reconciling of a sinner to God / by Tho. Shepard ...The sound beleever, or, A treatise of evangelicall conversion discovering the work of Christs spirit in reconciling of a sinner to God / by Tho. Shepard ...
London: printed for R. Dawlman, 1645
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.
2. But whiles it is thus with the soul, he is uncapable of Christ; for he that trusts to other things to save him, or makes himself his own Saviour, or rests in his duties without a Saviour, he can never have Christ to save him. Rom. 9.32. it is said, the Jews lost Christs righteousness, because they sought ⟨p. 128⟩it not by faith, but •ought salvation by their own righteousness. He that maketh flesh his arm, (as all duties and endeavours of man be, when trusted to) the Lord saith, Cursed be that man, Jer. 17.5, 6. Only the Lord doth not leave his Elect here; he that is married unto the Law, Rom. 7. cannot be matched unto Christ, till he be first divorced, not from the duties themselves, but from trusting to them, and resting in them. And therefore saith Paul, 1I through the Law am dead to it, that I might live unto God. He that trusteth to riches cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven, no more then a Camel through a needles eye, because it is too big for so narrow a room: so he that trusteth to his duties and abilities, is too big to enter in by Christ, the Lord must cut off this spirit, and lay it low, and make it stoop as vile before God, before it can have Christ in this estate; the Lord must not only cut it off from this self-confidence in duties, but also so far forth as that the soul may lye under God, to be disposed of as he pleaseth. And the reason is, because such a soul as is unwilling to stoop, is unhumbled; and he that is so, doth not only on his part resist God, but the Lord also resists him, James 4.7, 8. And hence you shall observe, many a one hath lain long under distress of conscience, because they have either rested in their duties which could not ⟨p. 129⟩quiet, or because they have not so cast off their confidence in them, so as to lye down quietly before God, that he may do what he will with them; being so long objects of Gods resistance, not of his grace.