unto severall truths which are in the word provided 1. That thou assentest to all truths that are necessarily to be beleeved to salvation and the foundations of Faith 2. Provided thou strivest against other doubtings and labourest to get a sense of Faith and a strength to resist the Devils temptations and to be convinced of every particular truth and of thy errour if it bee one which thou hast taken up from some mistaken portion of Scripture and labourest for a more cleare and distinct knowledge of every truth that so thy assent may be more cleare every day than other The Ninth SERMON LUKE 17. v. 5. Lord increase our faith I Am shewing you what doubts may consist in a gracious soule with true faith I have already shewed what weaknesse may consist with faith in respect of knowledge and what doubts in relation to the meanest and lowest act of faith which is assent It is my task at this time to shew you what doubts and weaknesses may consist with saving faith in a gracious soule in relation to the second act which is indeed the essence and marrow of justifying faith that is the act of adhering the soules rolling relying and wholly depending it selfe upon Jesus Christ for salvation for although the soules assenting to the promise and being perswaded of the promise as a sure and stedfast word of truth be an act of faith yet it is concluded by most or all godly and sober Divines that it is not the act of faith that justifies but as it is concluded against the Antinomians and Libertines on one side that it is not faith of assurance that onely justifies so it is also concluded against the Papists on the other side that it is not an assent to and perswasion of the truth of the Word that justifieth the soule but that true justifying faith though it doth suppose both knowledge and assent yet it doth especially consist in the soules rollings and throwing it selfe upon the Lord Jesus Christ for eternall salvation and adhering to the promises as its portion And therefore it is observed by learned and gracious Mr. Ball 1 Par. p. 24. in his Treatise of Faith that there are six words in Scripture by which the Holy Ghost doth in Scripture expresse to us true and saving faith This I have noted before every one of which doth denote unto us that the very essence and marrow of true and saving faith is a reliâ—nce and dependance of the soule upon Christ The first is Beleeve opposed to fainting Psal 27. 13. it argues a staying of the soule upon something when it was falling swooning fainting c. The second word is Trust his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord. A third word is translated trust but signifies to betake to as a Castle Psal 2. 11. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him A fourth word signifies to leane upon as a man leanes himselfe upon a staffe 2 Chron. 16. v. 7 8. A fifth word signifies to stay and rest the minde upon Isa 48. 2. They stay themselves upon the God of Israel A sixth word signifies to roll a mans selfe upon a thing as a man in danger of drowning catcheth hold of a Willow and hang upon it all which words denote to us that the true and proper distinguishing act of true justifying faith is the soules rolling it selfe upon the promises of life and upon Christ for eternall salvation I take true justifying faith so far as it is the soules act by the vertue and strength of the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ infused in relation to this act to be this for a soul wholly and stedfastly and solely and obediently to rest and roll it self upon the Lord Iesus Christ for eternall life Now in this act of true and saving faith there may be a great deale of weaknesse and it may be accompanied with a great deale of doubting CHAP. X. Concerning those weaknesses which may consist with true faith in a gracious soule and how to satiisfie the soule that conceives it doth not truly rely upon Christ because it doth not finde that it can rely so fully and constantly as it desires nor upon all the promises alike ALas sayes a poor soul I cannot think that I do really rest and râ—l my self upon Iesus Christ and the promises for eternall life when I do rest as I think I am ready again to think I doe not and if I be in a frame of heart one day that I think that now I can roll my self upon Christ and trust his promises another day again I can trust nothing if sometimes I do cleave to the word of life as sweet and pretious and imbrace it as true and prize Christ and value his Word above all sensuall delights whatsoever and hunger and thirst after it and after Christ another while again I cleave to a sensuall good more then to a spirituall promise or an heavenly Christ and besides I cannot rely upon God for the fulfilling of every promise there are some of Gods promises that I think I could rest upon God for fulfilling of others again I cannot for my life though I am perswaded that they are equall words of truth with the other trust God for nor can I be fully perswaded that the promises do really and peculiarly belong to me Now to satisfie the soule in this particular I will shew you what doubtings and weaknesses may be in the soule and yet the soule at that time may have received and may rest and rely and roll it self upon the Lord Iesus Christ for the promises of salvation and may at the same time have true saving justifying faith this is my work to which I am to addresse my selfe Know for thy comfort First Thou mayest fully and wholly rely thy soule upon Iesus Christ and yet not beleeve thou dost fully and wholly rest Reliance and dependance is necessary to Faith not full perswasion of such a reliance I meane justifying faith Reliance is a necessary act of Faith full perswasion of such a reliance is a comfortable act of Faith depending and relying is the act of this hand helped by Gods Spirit full perswasion of this reliance is more the shining of Gods face then the act of our soules Labour more to get evidences of the truth of thy act of faith then of the degrees of it Christ may be in the room and yet not seen he may be in the midst of thy heart and saying Peace be to this soule and yet the doores of thy sense be shut Heaven is a thing unseen and he that measureth his faith by his eye may call an Ephah an Omer especially if thou wilt not think that thou hast faith unlesse thou canst see a truth of the very act and refuse to take an evidence for thy sense from the effects of faith The acts of the minde are secret acts of which as I said before we are very ill Judges Resting and relying upon Christ is
Aug. 16th 1648. I Have perused this Booke entitled A Cordiall for a fainting soule wherein I find many cases clearly resolved tending to the consolation of afflicted consciences and wounded spirits which are so judiciously and piously handled and so effectually and fitly applyed that I thinke them very profitable and through Gods blessing availeable for the comforting of poore weak Christians and the curing and removing of their doubts and scruples which retard and hinder their progresse in the wayes of Piety and therefore very worthy to be printed and published John Downame A CORDIALL FOR A FAINTING SOULE OR Some ESSAYES for the satisfaction of wounded spirits labouring under severall burthens In which severall Cases of Conscience most ordinary to Christians especially in the beginning of their Conversion are resolved Being the summe of fourteen Sermons delivered in so many Lectures in a private Chappell belonging to Chappell-Field-House in NORVVICH With a Table annexed conteining the severall Cases of Conscience which in the following Treatise are spoken to directly or collaterally Preached and now published upon the importunity of divers Christians By John Collings Mr of Arts and one of the most unworthy of the Ambassadors of Jesus Christ for the preaching of the Gospell in that City Hostis noster adhuc in hâc vitâ nos positos quantò magis nos sibi rebellare conspicit â—amò ampliùs expugnare contendit eos enim pulsare negligit quos quieto jure possidere se sentit Contra nos verò eo â—ehementiùs incitatur quo ex corde nostro quasi ex jure propria habitationis expeâ—itur Greg. in Cap. 33. Job Isa 30. 40. Who is amongst you that feareth the Lord and obeyeth the voice of his servant that sitteth in darknes and hath no light Let him trust in the Name of the Lord and stay upon his God LONDON Printed for Richard Tomlins at the Sun and Bible neare Pie-corner MDCXLIX To the Right Honourable and truely Noble both by the first and second Birth the Lady Elizabeth Countesse Dowager of Exeter Happinesse and Peace Madam AFter that I was perswaded to let the world see these Receits I thought it policy to give them as much allowance of advantage as they were capable of and to this end I have presumed to offer them to your Honour for your probatum est The Sermons never yet were made more publike then the private Chappel belonging to this Family where they have been offered to the ears of those that have importuned me to venture them upon a publike censure My designe from the first beginning of that private Lecture was to satisfie diverse doubting Christians in severall cases of conscience if God might but honour me so far as to remove strawes out of the way of their faith The most of those cases herein contained were such as in my little time I had gathered from the experiences of divers and possibly it was but my duty to endeavour to satisfie them in my Pulpit who had almost set me in my closet And had not I had their Imprimatur so much nothing is there of mine in them they had never been offered as a Sacrifice at another Altar If God hath sanctified them but to one soul I dare not call them common or unclean If what hath satisfied my own and possibly some others spirits may be honoured with further successe let the Physician of souls have the glory and I onely more of his work which is a wages to it self I am confident as your Honours eye passeth the several pages your Ladiship will espie some stone turned out of the way upon which your Honours own soul stumbled Let it minde your Ladiship to say with David Psal 116. Ah Lord Truly I am thy servant I am thy servant and the childe of thine hand maid for thou hast loosed my bonds I shall be honoured if any thing in these Papers occasion but one meditation of praise Madam I am confident your Honour is past this rough stumbling way It will be yet sweetnesse for your Honour to remember the dayes of old though you have led captivity captive I have here but begun my work answering some few cases according to the ability God hath measured to me The greate part is yet behinde viâ—â— Such as arise from the miâ—judging the effects of faith If this be acceptable I may possibly hereafter venture a second part upon the publike Charity My single aim in this work hath been to prepare the way of the Lord and it is Madam an Honourable employment to be a Pioneer to the Lord of Hosts I have neither sought to enter line these plain Sermons with reading nor yet glaze them with Rhetorick I knew leaves of antiquity would make no plaisters for wounded consciences nor would it be the smell or look but the inward vertue of the salve which must heal the sores of a troubled spirit I have often wished that some man whose years had taught him more divine wisdom and experience in these secret cures might have prevented me in this work Alas Madam your Honour knows I am but an infant of dayes let not your Honour expect much but remember that he who writes hath not yet exceeded the twenty sixth yeer of his age and that as his days have been few so they have most of them been very evil too But my bowels yearned to see so many poor souls lye wounded and panting for life in the way of our Ministery and every one in the midst of this Pamphlet age passing by and but looking on if not possibly another way Many have handled notions and disputed niceties in Divinity Others more profitably have laboured in practicall paints in which God hath honoured this age in which we live to excell former Centuries of Time But few have made it their work except collaterally to remove the souls obstructions which soon put the whole frame of their spirits in a sad distemperature and upon the removâ—th of which depends so much for the Christians thriving and growth though he be fed at the daintiest tables This hath made me though the meanest of those that labour for the Lord to do the 〈…〉 in casting a directâ—r eye upon their woundâ— where I have failed my eyes are â—nto the great Physician to supply the deficiences of his poor creature who in this hath indeavoured to do nothing but for his sake and those on earth who are his Mysticall pieces How sweet Madam shall be the countenances of the glorified ones when the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ the highest flower in glory shall be fully transparent in their cheeks clarified from the duskish shadow that corruption casts upon them Me thinks it will be glorious to see and it is sweet but to think how beautifully David appears before the throne of the Lamb without the visible track of a tear upon his cheeks who here quartered so many nights amongst floods and billows of sorrow and was so often startled at so poor a
as crimson they shall be as wooll But now the Christian not clearly understanding the nature and vertue of these promises cannot make a particular application of them to its soule it stands off and cannot make a particular application Alas saith the Christian these are made upon condition of a wearinesse and an heavy load of hungring and thirsting of comming of washing and cleansing of putting away the evil of my doings of ceasing to do evil and learning to do well Hard sayings Who can heare them I cannot get my heart to hunger and thirst I cannot get my heart to be weary and heavy laden A Leopard can as well cleanse himselfe of spots and an Ethiopian as well wash away the blacknesse of his skin as I can wash my black soule c. One that hath no legs can as well walk to Rome as I can come to Christ But know Christian thy particular applying faith here is hindered by a meer misunderstanding of the promise for though those promises require conditions yet they require not conditions to he fulfilled in thy strength but those required conditions are as well parts and branches of the free covenant of Grace as those promises which thou desirest to apply therefore you shall find promises for the fulfilling those conditions in thy soul God requires a wearines of sin and a loathing of sin and a sorrow for sin as a condition Mat. 11. 29. Is 55 1 3. God promiseth to give this self abhorring frame of Spirit and to work this loathing in his peoples soules Ezek. 6 9 20 43. 36. chap. 31. Zach. 12. 10. God requires washing and cleansing as a condition Isa 1 16. â—7 18. He hath promised to work this in the soule Christ tels Peter he would do it â—oh 13. 8. And David prayes that God would do it for him Psal â—1 2. 7. which prayer was grounded upon a promise and this washing is attributed to God as the working of his spirit Isa 4. 4. v. When the Lord shall â—ave washed away the filth of the daughteâ—s of Sion and shalt have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the Spirit of judgement and the spirit of burning God requires turning and comming and learning and leaving sin as a condition but he hath promised to fulfill these Hosea 14. 8. but he hath said none can come unlesse the Father draw him Ioh. 6. 44. and the Spouse without question grounding her prayer on a promise saith draw me Cant. 1. 5. He hath required turning as a condition Ezek. 33. 11. Ier. 3. 14. but he hath promised to work this in the soule Mat. 4. 6. and upon this the Church prayes Ier. 31. 18. Turn thou me and I shall be turned So that this is a certaine rule God requires no condition of a promise which he hath not promised to fulfill in us And whatsoever spirituall action is anywhere required of us as a duty he hath somewhere promised to bestow upon us as a dispensation of free Grace Therefore I would have the soule in such a condition when it stumbles at the condition of a promise seek out those promises where God promiseth to fulfill those conditions in it and particularly apply them and rely upon God for making them good and direct its prayers accordingly So I have done with the first thing required in the Soule for the particular application of the promises viz. a cleare understanding of the promises for which I have given three Rules Now in regard that at all times there may be in a true beleeving soule a clear understanding of the promises I conclude there may be true faith in the soule that at all times cannot make a particular Application But I hasten to The second thing which is requisite in that soule that doth truly rely or that can particularly apply the promises and that is a cleare understanding of its own condition for how can I truly and particularly apply a promise to the wound of my Soule when I do not understand truly what wound my soule hath Now a true believing soule may have a very false estimate of its own condition Thus had David and Asaph and the Church they thought they were cast off Psal 43. 2. Psal 44. 9. Psal 60. 1. Psal 7â— 1. 77 7 89 38. Now if I think that a part of my body is gangrened I will never apply Physick to it because I know it is in vaine so so long as the Soule conceives that its condition is irrecoverable its sins unpardonable that applying promises to it is but applying warm clothes to a dead man it will never apply Now such a temper may be in the beleeving Soule occasioned by the violent temptations of Sathan by dark clouds of melancholy or the like it apprehends its sinns nor pardonable or at least not pardonable as yet to the soule O! sayes the soule I have sinned against the holy Ghost what good will it do to me to apply promises I am dammed It is a temptation which Sathan ordinarily first or last troubles beleeving soules with I have answered that case of Conscience particularly and therefore shall not enter into a particular discourse of it now Now till the soule be brought so farr truly to understand its own condition that its wounds are curable and to cry unto God for the healing and cure of them it cannot be expected that it should particularly apply any Promises as plâ—isters for the healing and in regard I say that there may be some misjudging of the soules true estate in a gracious soule there may also be a want of this peculiar faith It is true it is given by all sober Divines as the least degree of Faith to beleeve that my sins are pardonable and to run and fly and cry unto God for a pardon of them but yet through the distemperature of the soule even this thing that the soules sins are pardonable which is generally beleeved and is the soules foundation upon which ground it humbles it self and cries and prayes may not be beleeved by the soule that yet hath true Faith or at least beleeved very darkly and with a great deale of doubting The third and last thing which I will instance in which must be found in that soule that shall particularly apply a generall promise as its particular portion is a constant wonderfull working of the powerfull Spirit of God upon the soule For let a soule never so truly understand its own condition and never so truly understand the vertue of the promise and never so fully conceive that the promises have an adequate proportionable vertue for the healing of its particular wounds yet unlesse the spirit of God by a wonderfull powerfull worke of grace doth lay the salve upon the sore and apply the promise unto the soule it cannot be done as it is with a man that hath lost his hands or the use of them and suppose him to have a sorein his back let him never so truly understand the
nature of his disease and the vertue of the salve with which the Plaister is spread that is to be applied to the sore hee is not able yet to apply it and lay it on for cure the hand of the Chirurgeon or some other for him must doe this Ro. 8. 16. So it is with the Soule Ro. 8. 16. The Spirit it self must beare witnesse with our spirits that wee are the children of God now unlesse that be witnessed we have nothing to do with the promise the children of the promise must be the children of God and in being his children they become â—â—ires of the promise as the Apostle disputes Gal. 3. It is a sweet and remarkable expression of David to this purpose Psal 119. Psal 119. â—9 v. 49. Remember the word unto thy servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope It is God and his spirit that must cause us to hope and trust in his word Now in regard that the Saints and Servants of God may though they alwayes have the spirit dwelling in them yet sometimes have the Spirit not so fully and powerfully acting in them the strong and powerfull actings of the Spirit it being the effects of Gods manifestive love which may be more or lesse in a Christian though his elective love admits of no degrees I say in this regard I conceive a Christian may have true saving Faith and yet not for the present at all times bee able to apply the promises with a particular Faith as its owne proper and peculiar portion And now you have heard the reasons which may be reduced shortly thus 1. Because there may be a misunderstanding or a cleare ignorance of the vertue of the promises which must be understood before they can bee particularly applyed 2. Because there may be a misunderstanding of the soules condition it may say there is no hope and judge its wounds incurable 3. Because there may want such a constant powerfull working of the Spirit of God in the soule as must be joyned with the soules peculiar application and yet there may be true faith For the first I conceive the particular applying of the promise with a confidence they are my portion doth argue a sense of faith which may not be in the soule and yet true faith be in it Secondly Because as a man must not be judged to be no man because he wants his power to act reason in a Feaver So the estimate of the truth of faith that is in the soule must not be taken in the distemperature of the soule when under heavy temptations or secondly dark and melancholy apprehensions or thirdly overpressing afflictions or fourthly sad desertions Thirdly Because there is a difference between resting out of a principle of hope which argues onely a relyance and dependance and out of a principle of certainty and perswasion applying The truly beleeving soule when out of desertions For hope which is seen is no hope and from under temptations and not burtheâ—d with afflictions and melancholy doth alwaeys apply the promises with an application of hope it hopes they belong to it Rom. 8. 24. though not alwayes with an application of perswasion now the application of hope and the resting out of a principle of hope But our hope must be lively provided there be an acting accordingly is enough to save Rom. 8. 24. â— Pet. 1. 3. 4 We are saved by hope 1 Cor. 15. 19. 1 Col. 27. But yet this we must not rest in but labour for a full perswasion the full assurance of hope Heb. 6. 11. Thou mayest apply thy selfe to the promse when thou canst not apply the promise to thee But of this more in the next Sermon The Twelfth SERMON LUKE 17. v. 5. Lord increase our faith CHAP. XII Concerning those weaknesses that may accompany the highest act of faith viz. Assurance And how to satisfie the soule that scruples its faith because it cannot be assured at all or weakly and unconstantly MY subject is to discover what doubts and weaknesse may be in relation to the last and highest act of Faith in a gracious soule for there is nothing more ordinary then to heare such complaints as these from a gracious soule Alas never tell me of faith I have no opinion at all that ever I shall be saved never did poor soule live at such incertainties I pray I look upward I desire I faint I groan I swoon and yet not a drop of cordiall water of perswasion that my Christ will afford me to revive my dying spirit or if I do sometimes catch up a perswasion in my soule and come to think that I have an interest in God it is but a bare thought and so weake that it is scarce able to â—â—â—nd a day sometimes indeed for a day or a week or a month together I could blesse my soule in a good condition but then againe I am as full of doubts and feares and is there any certainty in this faith am I not like a wave of the Sea tost about with thousands of winds One while I think I am sure of heaven and glory and am as it were wrapt up into a third heaven and the diademe of glory is fitting on to my head another while I am thrown down to hell and me thinks every Devill is tracing mee I will with the help of my God endeavavor to satisfie thee and shew thee what weaknesse may consist with this act and in relation to this act of Faith in these ensuing Conclusions Conclus 1. Thou wayst have a true and certaine faith and such a one as will richly save thee and yet have no assurance of thy salvation Indeed my severall Sermons that I preacht upon this Subject doe all concurre to the proofe of this truth for if a Christian may have saving Faith and yet so much weaknesse and doubting consist and be contemporaneous with it in the soule it will necessarily follow that Assurance is not the minimum quod sic the least degree of saving Faith But now it lying in my way I shall speak something more distinctly to it There are Opinions on the right hand and on the left concerning this sublime act of our Faith 1. The Papist denies any possibility of Assurance and reviles that pretious Doctrine as licentious and pleads only for a generall faith to believe the history of the Word and the Articles of Faith c. 2. The Antinomians on the other side deny any Faith to be true Faith that is accmpanied with any kind of doubting a full assurance they will make the minimum quod sic the least Faith that can help a man to heaven Some Reverend Writers living neare the time of the reign of that Popish Doctrine denying anything of perswasion to come into the nature of true saving Faith and setting themselves in full opposition to it have not a little though unwillingly contributed to the last opinion defining Faith to be a perswasion of the
Christ pronounceth such blest as hunger and thirst after righteousnesse we say in that sense a sincere desire to pray and believe Ruth p. 14â— is materially and by concomitancy a neighbour and neere a kin to beleeving and praying A verball or seminaâ—â— intention to pray beleeve love Christ do his will is in the seed of praying beleeving c. when the intention is supernaturall and of the same kind with the act as the seed is the tree we say not so of naturall intentions or desires As Abrahams sincere intentions to offer up his sonne was the offring of his son c. But I go to a third consideration Thirdly therefore consider that feeling at the best is but a deceivable and disputable evidence ofttimes conclusions grounded upon sense are false and sink in time If thou judgest thy condition by feeling thou mayest ofttimes think God doth nothing for thee though he be at that instant fully enlivening thee c. and againe think that God is at peace with thee and that hee carrieth thee out to duties c. when there is no such matter and it is nothing but the strength of natuarall parts that carrieth thee out c. Saul thought he had a great deal of feeling 1 Sam. 15. 13. when he came to meet Gods messenger he cryes out Blessed be thou of the Lord I have kept the Commandments of the Lord But yet the following part of that story will tell you that Saul was far enough off from any true feeling of peace and comfort So without question those in Mat. 7. 22. judged themselves to have a great deale of feeling of Gods strength when they had prophesied in Gods name and in his name cast out Devils and in his name done many wonderfull workes yet Christ professeth he would say to many such I never knew you depart from me yee workers of iniquity thou cryest thou dost not feele God carrying thee out in duties as many other Christians are and that which thou callest Gods spirit in them or in thy selfe may be no such matter it is not the courting of God with elegant eâ—â—â—essions that argues the strength of God assisting there is many a stammering non-sence prayer that hath more of the sweet spirit of God in it there may be a full heart though it runs not out of the lips so fast yea oftentimes the fulnesse of the heart causeth the straitnesse of the lips just as the fulnesse of the vessell may occasion the water to run slowly out of the hole for want of vent or wind The Apostle sayes that the Spirit of God helpeth our infirmities with cryes and groanes which cannot be uttered it doth not say it helpeth our infirmities with courtly expressions that cannot be paâ—alleled thou mayest when thou thinkest that God carrryes thee out with more strength and enlargement to duties call and misconstrue that to be the strength and assistance of the spirit of God which is occasioned meerly from thy owne clearenesse of naturall spirit when thou art in a little better vein of Rhetorick then thou wert Mistake not there is a distinction betwixt Praying gifts and Praying graces I observe it is said Iacob wrestled with God by vertue of strength from him subintellige This is the strength of the spirit the spirits worke is not to carry out our tongue in expressions but our heart in zeale and importunity It is not said that Iacob scraped leggs with God no he wrestled wee are but ill ludges of feeling commonly which makes feeling but a deceivable and disputable evidence Fourthly consider that No Christian feeleth alwayes alike yea perhaps hath no cause to feele alwayes aliâ—e God to the best of his dearest servants doth sometimes measure but an Ephah and sometimes but an Omer distinguish alwayes betwixt the truth of Gods love to his deare children and the actings I meane the visible actings of his love that of God which is not seene is alwayes full and certain to Christians I meane his elective love the yernings of his heart towards his deare children there is of God also that may be seen Psal 68. 24. They have seen thy goings O God even the goings of my God in the Sanctuary Gods goings in a poor soule are sometimes very visible to a gracious soule but sometimes his goings are more secret and invisible yet he is alwaies going in acts of love and grace to his poore fervants only his goings are more mysterious and dark God sometimes goes a meere foot pace just sets one foot before another in them and towards them sometimes hee goes faster and more strongly in them and apparently towards them First Gods soft going in the soule may sometimes bee a cause why the soule cannot feel Peter had no reason to feel the strength of God alike when he shamefully denied his Master in the high Priests Hall as when hee durst venture to walke on the Sea towards him Secondly God withdrawes some degrees of his strength sometimes to try whether a Christian can stand upon the true legs of Faith as well as upon the wooden legs of sense the mother withdrawes her hand sometimes to see how the child can goe without trusting to the feeling of her hand guiding and supporting it Thirdly another cause may be in the Christian why he cannot feele God carrying him out to acts of his grace in his strength alwayes alike The soule may possibly have lost its feeling the benummed member doth not feele In sicknesses and deseases of the body Nature may sometimes bee so much infeebled that sometimes the party affected falls into a dead swound wherein he is deiprved for a time not only of the use of his understanding reason and memory but also of his sense motion and vitall functions So it may be with a Christian sin or the violence of some temptations of Sathan may bee such that the Christian cannot feele any thing the soule cast into a swound and deprived of all the spirituall faculties of it faith love life c. no wonder the soule for the present doth not feele the leg of the soule is asleep the whole soule is benummed how should it feel but let it alone a little as such body if not quite dead will quickly returne to its sense again and live and feele and move c. so likewise will the gracious soule quickly come to recover its life and sense and motion againe though the soule seemes to the judgement of sense to have no sap or principle of life in it yet consider it is winter-time with the soule stay but till the spring and summer while the frost hath done nipping and discolouring and the soule will have its sap visible and recover iâ—s beauty againe there is fire in the soule though it be caked up in the night wait but till the morning that the ashes be blown away you shall see the fire of Gods spirit is not extinguished in the soule I sleepe saith the Spouse but my heart waketh