Page:A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion.djvu/219

Rh with whose indwelling, or state, he is as little acquainted as a fish in the sea! But, my friends, there is a treasure hid in this faith, so deep, however, and so covered up, that no part of it can appear; wherefore it is my advice that in this case also we keep our understandings in obedience to faith." After he had sighed for some time, he again raised his voice, and said, "Oh, how grand a mystery is election! He is an elect person, to whom God imputeth this faith, which of his free pleasure, and pure grace, he poureth out on whomsoever he pleaseth, and at whatsoever time it seemeth good unto him; and during the act of such infusion from God, man is like a stock or a stone, but, when this faith is infused, he becometh like a living and fruitful tree; the fruits however, which are good works, hang indeed from that tree, which in a representative sense is our faith, but still they do not cohere with it: wherefore the price of that tree doth not arise from its fruit; but as this may appear like heterodoxy, and yet is a great mystical truth, therefore, my brethren, it is my advice that on this subject also we keep our understandings in obedience to faith." Then, after a short pause, seeming as if he wanted to recollect something which he had stored up in his memory, he continued his discourse, saying, "From my store of mysteries I will yet produce one other, which is this, that man hath not a single grain of freewill, with respect to spiritual things; for the chiefs and rulers of our order assert, in their theological canons, that in regard to what concerns faith, and salvation, or the things particularly called spiritual, man hath no power to will, to think, to understand, no, nor even to accommodate, and apply himself to the reception of them; wherefore I do positively insist that man of himself hath no more power to think rationally, or talk sensibly, on such subjects, than a