Baxter - Houston-Packer Collection BT770 .B39 1670

2 The Life ofFaith. that they ca,r nave no :iffurancc that they arcElea, theydoubt of the conciufìon. . And many of them think that the Promife extendeth not to fuch as they, raeeuàfe :of fonte fin, or great unworthi- nefs, which they are guilty o. And others think that the; 'hr,ve not that Faith and Repen- tance which are the csnditicu c the prcmife of pardon and fal- vation : And in Come of thcf: the thing it (elf may be foob- fcure, as to be indeed the mater of rational doubtfulncfs. And in others of them, the caufe may be either a mifiake about the true nature and figs of Faith and Repentance; or elk a timerous melancholy cautilefs fufpition of chemftives Eut which of all theft fòever be the caufc, it is fomething different from proper unbelief or diffruft of God. For he that mitlaketh the extent of the Promife, and thinketh that it bc- longeth not to lush as he, would believe andmiff it, if he un- derstood it, that it extends to him as well as others. And he that doubteth ofhis own Repentance and Faitb,mayyet be con- fident of the truth of Gods Promife to all true penitent Believers. I mention this for the cureof two mifchicfs > The fiat is that of the prefumptuous ©pinionift, who goeth to Hell pre- fuming that he hath true tàving frith, bccaufe he confidently bclieveth, that he himfclf is pardoned, and (hail be laved. The fecord is that of the perplexed fearful Chrifüan, who thinks that all his uncertainty of his own ftneerity, and fo of his falvation, is properly unbelief, and fo concludeth that he cannot believe, and (hall not be Paved. Becaufe he knoweth not that faith is fucb abeliefand fruit in Cbriff, as will bring us abfolutely and unrefervedly to venture cur an upon bins alone. And yet I mull tell all thefe perlons, that all this while it is ten to one, but there is really a great deal of unbelief in themwhich they know not : and that their belief of the truth of the immortality of the foul, and the life to come, and of the Gofpcl it fell, is not fo thong and firm, as their never-doubting of it would intimate, or as fome of their definitions of Faith, and their Book -opinions and Difputcs import. And it had been well for forme of them, that they

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