A92854:537
The humbled sinner resolved what he should do to be saved. Or Faith in…
The humbled sinner resolved what he should do to be saved. Or Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ the only way of salvation for sensible sinners. Discovering the quality, object, acts, seat, subject, inseparable concomitants and degrees of justifying faith. The agreement and difference of a strong and weak faith; the difficulty of believing, the facility of mistake about it, and the misery of unbelief. The nature of living by faith, and the improvement of it to a full assurance. Wherein several cases are resolved, and objections answered. / By Obadiah Sedgwick, Bachelor in Divinity and late minister of the Gospel in Covent Garden.The humbled sinner resolved what he should do to be saved. Or Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ the only way of salvation for sensible sinners. Discovering the quality, object, acts, seat, subject, inseparable concomitants and degrees of justifying faith. The agreement and difference of a strong and weak faith; the difficulty of beleeving, the facility of mistake about it, and the misery of unbelief. The nature of living by faith, and the improvement of it to a full assurance. Wherein several cases are resolved, and objections answered. / By Obadiah Sedgwick, Batchelour in Divinity and late minister of the Gospel in Covent Garden.
London: printed by T.R. & E.M. for Adoniram Byfield, 1657
The humble sinner resolved what he should do to be saved. › Chapter 13 › Section 1
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.
Again, a man cannot by faith take Christ to be his Lord and Saviour, unless he hath some sensibleness of his sinful condition; our heart will not look towards Christ, it cannot conceive of his excellencies, nor of his own necessity, until we feel our sinfulness, and lostness, and vileness; The whole neither need, nor look for a Physician, yet a person may be sensible of his sinful condition; he may not only by the light of natural conscience apprehend some broader and stirring enormities, but he may by a smart and quick light let in by the Ministry of the Word, discern heaps of wickedness in his life and heart, for which his conscience may sting him with wonderfully bitter accusations, and yet such a person (possibly) may not rise from trouble to faith, as is evident in Cain and Judas. So then remember this, that in the searchings and trials for faith, you do not conclude the presence of the habit from the common antecedent of faith, for as much as faith is but a contingent consequent of them, sometimes it doth follow, sometimes it doth not. As in Marriage, sometimes it doth follow the motion which is made, and sometimes it doth not; so the espousing of our souls to Christ by faith, sometimes it doth follow knowledge, sometimes it doth not, sometimes it doth follow the preaching of the Word, and yet sometimes it doth not; for all have heard, yet who hath believed, said the Apostle? Rom. 10. sometimes it doth follow the motions, and inward excitations of the Spirit, and sometimes it doth not.
Again, a man cannot by faith take Christ to be his Lord and Saviour, unlesse he hath some sensiblenesse of his sinful condition; our heart will not look towards Christ, it cannot conceive of his excellencies, nor of his own necessity, until we feel our sinfulnesse, and lostnesse, and vilenesse; The whole neither need, nor look for a Physician, yet a person may be sensible of his sinful condition; he may not only by the light of natural conscience apprehend some broader and stirring enormities, but he may by a smart and quick light let in by the Ministry of the Word, discern heaps of wickednesse in his life and heart, for which his conscience may sting him with wonderfully bitter accusations, and yet such a person (possibly) may not rise from trouble to faith, as is evident in Cain and Judas. So then remember this, that in the searchings and trials for faith, you do not conclude the presence of the habit from the common antecedent of faith, for as much as faith is but a contingent consequent of them, sometimes it doth follow, sometimes it doth not. As in Marriage, sometimes it doth follow the motion which is made, and sometimes it doth not; so the espousing of our soules to Christ by faith, sometimes it doth follow knowledge, sometimes it doth not, sometimes it doth follow the preaching of the Word, and yet sometimes it doth not; for all have heard, yet who hath beleeved, said the Apostle?