Perkins - BX9315 P465 1597

tkefeshà, dprit. 3¢ one.Church may erre, fo anhundred more máy. For in ref41 ofthis combate, theefiate & condition ofall men is alike, Whence it appeares that theChurch militant vponearth is fubie t toerrour, But yct as the difeafes of the bodie beoftwo forts : fore curable; and fomc incurable which are to death; fo ltkewife errours are. And the Church though it be fubiett to fundry fais , yet it can not erre in foundation todeath : the errors ofGods children be curable. Some may here fay , Ifall men and Churches be fubieEE to errour, then it (hall not be good to ioyne with anyof them, but to feparate from them all. I anfwere, though theymay and do erre, yet we muff notfeparate from thern,fo longas they donot feparate from Chrift. The fecond combat in themind, is betwene faith andunbeliefe. For faith is iinperfeIl, and mixt with the contrarie, unbeliefe, prefutning, doubting; &c. As the man in the Gorpell faith , Lord, l beleer:e, help mine unbeliefe. By reafon of this fight , when unbeliefe prevailes , the very child of Godmay fall into fits and pangs ofdifpaire : as lob and David in their temptations did.For Davidonceconfidering theprofperitie ofthe wic- ked,brake outinto this faeech, Certainlylhave clenfedarsine hitrt in vaiate, Pfa1.73.t3 and*afbedminehands in a nnocenrie.Yea,this difpaire may be fo extreame, that it (hall weaken the bodie and confume it, more then any fickneffe. Noman is to thinkethis firange in thechild ofGod.For though he dif- paire of his ele,aion and falvation in Chrift, yet his defperation is nei- ther totali nor finall. It is not totall, becaufe he doth not difpairewith his whole heart, faith even at that inftant lullingagainfi difpaire. It is not flfall, becaufe he (hall recover before the laft end ofhis life, Toproceede,the combat in thewill is this. The will partly willeth and partly nilleth that which is good at the fame inflant : and fo like- wife it willeth and mlleth that which is evill : becaufe it is partly re, generate and partly unregenerate. Theaffeaions hkewife , which are placed in the will , partly irnbrace and partly efchew their obit is : as loue partly lovetb,andpartly Bothnot loueGodand.things to be loved: feare is mixed andnot pure (as fchoolemenhavedreamed) but partly filral,partly fervil, caufing the childofGod to{land in awe ofGod,not onely for his mercies, but alto for his Judgements and puniíhnnents. The will ofa man regenerate is like him that bath one leggefound, the other lame: who.in every flep which hemakes, Both not whollyhalt or wholly goupright, hut partly go upright and partly halt. Or like a man in a boat cn thewater: who goeth upward becaufe he is carried upwardby the veflcll : and at the farne time goes downeward, becaufe he waikes downeward in the fame veffell at the fame inftant. Ifany alnoradibio fhall fay that contraries cannot be in the fame (-tibial : the anfwere is, r» that they can not, ifone ofthem be in his full ftrength a in the higheft Ciif

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