A88594:367
A treatise of effectual calling and election. In XVI. sermons, on 2 Pet. 1.10…
A treatise of effectual calling and election. In XVI. sermons, on 2 Pet. 1.10 Wherein a Christian may discern, whether yet he be effectually called and elected. And what course he ought to take that he may attain the assurance thereof. Preached by that faithful servant of Christ, Mr. Christopher Love, late minister of Lawrence Jury, London.
London: printed for John Rothwell, 1653
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.
Fifthly, Take heed you make not sense and feeling the Touchstone to try your effectual calling by; sense and feeling will deceive you in the matters of your calling. I may allude to that passage in the book of Genesis: you know old Isaac was dim-sighted, and by reason of his old age, he ran into a mistake by feeling; He had Jacob by the hand, and by feeling thought it had been Esau. Beloved, many of us are dim-sighted in our comforts, and in our graces, and if we trust to feeling, we may be deceived as Isaac was. You may think when you have Jacob by the hand, I mean grace in the heart, that it is but an Esau, it is but a reprobate. Therefore take heed of making sense and feeling the Touchstone to try your calling by. A child is born, yet knows not that it is born; lives, yet knows not that it lives; but those about it do: so a Christian may be born again, live the life of grace, and yet not be sensible of it.
Fifthly, Take heed you make not sense and feeling the Touchstone to try your effectual calling by; sense and feeling will deceive you in the matters of your calling. I may allude to that passage in the book of Genesis: you know old Isaac was dimme-sighted, and by reason of his old age, he ran into a mistake by feeling; He had Jacob by the hand, and by feeling thought it had been Esau. Beloved, many of us are dimme-sighted in our comforts, and in our graces, and if we trust to feeling, we may be deceived as Isaac was. You may think when you have Jacob by the hand, I mean grace in the heart, that it is but an Esau, it is but a reprobate. Therefore take heed of making sense and feeling the Touchstone to try your calling by. A childe is born, yet knowes not that it is born; lives, yet knowes not that it lives; but those about it do: so a Christian may be born again, live the life of grace, and yet not be sensible of it.
Sixthly, Give diligence to remove this hinderance, to wit, Pride in your gifts, and dependence upon your graces. Pride and dependence, they are not only murderers of comforts, but they murder our graces also; and if God sees you swell with pride, because you abound in grace, he will soon prick that swelling bladder. It is the observation of a ⟨p. 129⟩