Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	abraham_n	faith_n	justify_v	2,976	5	9.3728	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33971	Par nobile two treatises, the one concerning the excellent woman, evincing a person fearing the Lord to be the most excellent person, discoursed more privately upon occasion of the death of the Right Honourable the Lady Frances Hobart late of Norwich, from Pro. 31, 29, 30, 31 : the other discovering a fountain of comfort and satisfaction to persons walking with God, yet living and dying without sensible consolations , discovered from Psal. 17, 15 at the funerals of the Right Honourable the Lady Katherine Courten, preached at Blicklin in the county of Norfolk, March 27, 1652 : with the narratives of the holy lives and deaths of those two noble sisters / by J.C.	Collinges, John, 1623-1690.; Collinges, John, 1623-1690. Excellent woman.; Collinges, John, 1623-1690. Light in darkness.	1669 (1669)	Wing C5329; ESTC R26441	164,919	320

men fetch their breath shorter and shorter till at last it quite fails them so are the presumptuous hopes of hypocrites the nearer they come to death the shorter they fetch the breath of their hopes till at last they quite fail them and they die either stupid or despairing God makes a great trial of his Saints faith when he calls them to die in the strength of it 3. God may have a design in it to honour his Word If we wholly lived upon sight the Word of God would not be so precious to us the Promises would not be so dear to us Though I consess it is a very suspicious comfort which the Word brings not into our souls but yet consolatory dispensations are the more special and extraordinary manifestations of the Spirit in a more than ordinary improvement of the Word Gods Word appeareth and is made very precious to the soul when it hangs its whole weight upon it being not at all advantaged from sensible reflexions I had perished saith Psal 119. 92. David in my affliction if they Word had not been my delight What an honour there did holy David put upon the Word of God acknowledging that the whole weight of his perishing soul hung upon it and it sustained him Indeed there is a secret powerful influence of the Holy Ghost tcaching and inabling the soul to lay hold upon and to apply this Word But in faith of adhere●●e though the Spirit be the great Author and Finisher of it teaching and inabling the soul to lay hold upon and to apply the Promise yet it is by a more secret and insensible act and the Word appeareth most in maintaining that Oh! faith the soul had it not been for such a Word such a Promise such a good word of God is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation In the reflex act of Faith which giveth the soul a plerophorous evidence or a full perswasion of its evidence in God the work of the Spirit appeareth more extraordinary and glorious the vertue of the Word doth not so much shew it self Now the Lord will sometimes honour his Word in the fight of his children letting them see that it is enough to support bear up and to uphold a soul though it should never see the face of God till it come in Heaven yet the Word is enough securely to carry it thither 4. God in such a dispensation may have a design to teach his people that salvation doth not depend upon sensible consolatory manifestations Not upon the sweet application of the Promises to the soul an act wherein we have no share it being the Lords work alone and marvelous in our eyes but upon the strong and steddy application of our souls to the Promise This latter is justifying faith the other is the faith of one already actually justified We are too prone to lay too much upon sensible comforts Some there are who will acknowledge no other notion of faith but a full perswasion of the love of God and so indeed confound faith and sight which the Apostle seemed so warily to distinguish when he told us We live by faith and not by fight And again that hope which is seen is no hope and indeed cut the throat of many a poor Christians comfort who it may be all his life cannot come to such a sensible evidence Indeed the most judicious Christians are prone to lay too much stress upon these consolatory manifestations and to think all nothing if they want them Now this is a great error which the Lord may aim at the correction of in his people by such dispensations letting the soul see there is vertue enough in his Word to bear it up through the deepest waters of affliction without the bladders of sensible manifestations Enough in that and the souls application of it self to that though until it come in Heaven it never sees the face of God It is believing that carries the soul to Heaven i. e. an hungring and relying upon Christ and his righteousness alone not that joy and peace which is the consequent of believing and that too inconsistent and uncertain And indeed I do not know any one truth that needs more rooting and confirmation in a gracious heart The life of sense is the life of the Saint triumphant The life of faith is the life of the militant Christian Though God sometimes condescends in such manifestations to the infirmities and desires of his people and is pleased to give them a glimpse of glory as the earnest penny of a future greater reward which he intendeth them yet these must not be lookt upon as the necessaries of a Christian but what God gives ●s ex abundanti a pledge of future glory Sometimes God gives his children to go to Heaven in the sight of Heaven As Stephen went to it seeing the Heavens opened and Christ Jesus stanidng at the right hand of God pleading for him and ready to receive him into the glorious mansions provided for him But as this is a note of singular and extraordinary favour which God is not bound to any particular soul by promise for so God will sometimes single out a child of his unto death that shall go to Heaven without this seal that living Christians may not run away with an erroneous apprehension that these influences are necessary to salvation and upon the death of such a child of God the Lord proclaims See here my friends you of little of faith here 's a child of mine coming alone to me without the staff of sense trusting me upon the credit of my bare word Here 's one that hath not seen and yet hath believed that hath dared to take my word for Heaven Now be not faithless but believing 5. Lastly I do not know but God may sometimes do it in Justice when one who hath been made partaker of Gods distinguishing love hath apostatized in his profession or run into some degrees of looseness of life by which Gods Name hath been dishonoured the Lord may thus far chastize his Apostacy I told you before that the Covenant runs with a notwithstanding sin as to eternal salvation the unfaithfulness of man cannot make God unfaithful he cannot alter the thing gone out Psal 89. 33. of his lips But the comforts of Gods people may fail and they may for ought I know dy although not despairingly yet doubting with an a king heart and with broken bones Divines question whether holy David though stiled the man after Gods own heart ever after his fall into those two great sins of murther and adultery recovered the fulness of his comfort again It is plain by all his penitential Psalms that he lost them and especially by that petition Psal 51. 12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation Though the Scripture plainly evidenceth that he died strong in the faith yet it speaketh nothing of sensible consolations You have his last words 2 Sam. 23. 1. These be the last words of

truth in the Scripture but I mean that faith which the Apostle calls The faith of Gods Elect Justifying faith It was indeed an unwary description which some ancient Divines gave of justifying faith calling it a full perswasion of the Love of God and it may be much occasioned by the heat of their opposition to the jejune faith of Papists who would make justifying faith to be assent to the Proposition of the Word it is likely their so describing justifying faith gave too much advantage to the Antinomian notion who to this day will understand nothing of faith under plerophory or full perswasion but undoubtedly the act of justifying faith lyes lower in receiving Christ believing in him relying upon him committing our selves unto him c. Nor can the other be the act of faith that justifieth being not to be found but in souls that are justified For how can any soul whom God doth not love in Jesus Christ be fully and justly perswaded of his love Now the Lord loveth the righteous until the soul be made righteous through the imputed righteousness of Christ it can be no object of divine love That soul who hath opened his Will through divine grace to receive and embrace Christ as tendered in the Gospel that is perswaded to rest hang trust rely commit its self to him and him alone for salvation that soul truly believeth Now this the soul doth that watcheth for Gods likeness though it want sensible comforts Nay this faith is strong faith It is the note of a late eminent servant of God that faith is so much the stronger by how much the fewer externals it needs to support it It was said of Abraham that he was strong in the Rom. 4. 18 19 20 21. faith giving glory to God Wherein did the strength of Abrahams faith appear v. 18. He staggered not at the promise he against hope believed in hope he had nothing of sense to help his faith his faith stood meerly upon the strength of the word he had a word of promise and he staggered not at the promise he was so far from having any help to his faith from sense that he had all the discouragement and hinderance imaginable the matter to be believed was that God would give him a Son for this he had the word of God Thou shalt have a Son saith God his wife was past child-bearing her womb was dead insomuch that she laughed when she Gen. 18. 12. heard the promise and said Shall I of a surety bear a child who am old Abraham himself was beyond the age in which ordinarily children are begot he was an hundred years old But though he had no incouragement but all imaginable discouragement from sense both on his own and on his wives part yet saith the Apostle he distrusted not he staggered not at the promise through unbelief Thus he was strong in faith and thus he gave glory to God saith the Apostle giving him the honour of his power of his truth and faithfulness c. and this faith was imputed to him for righteousness v. 21 22. Now if the weakest faith being true be sufficient to carry the soul to Heaven much more shall a strong faith such a faith as that of Abraham the Father of the faithful do it 6. Lastly Will it not satisfie thee Christian to tell thee thou art blessed I have a good warrant to do that Joh. 20. 19. They are the words of our Saviour to Thomas Thou hast seen saith our Lord therefore thou hast believed blessed are they that have not seen and yet believed You are even out of Christs mouth more blessed believing when you do not see than those are who see and therefore believe But I shall enlarge no more upon this first ground of satisfaction for Christians walking in the dark and seeing no light I proceed to the second from the word considered as it signifies to awake 2. It ought to satisfie Christians walking in the dark as to sensible consolations to consider that when in the resurrection they shall awake they shall be satisfied with the likeness of God There is nothing more needful for the explication of the Proposition than I have already said in the opening of some or other of the Propositions In short the substance of what I intend is this that if it so pleaseth God that any child of his should not only spend a great part of his life without any sensible comforts any witnessings of the Spirit to his spirit Nay if the Lord should call him to die without such sensible evidences yet he ought not to repine or murmure against God but to be silent before him and trust in him chearfully considering that though he dieth he shall rise again from the dead and in the resurrection he shall be fully and abundantly satisfied with Gods full and glorious manifestations of himself unto him when he shall be blessed in the full and glorious enjoyment of God to all eternity 1. This is that which God hath agreed with us for this is the penny for which he hath contracted But of this I spake before 2. This is infinitely more than any child of God hath merited or can merit at Gods hand It will be a great piece of the work of the Saints in Heaven to admire that rich and infinite grace which hath brought them thither Yea though we should never see Gods face till we come in Heaven yet we shall see free grace magnified in bringing us thither at last 3. Lastly The satisfaction which the soul shall meet with when it comes in Heaven will be infinitely more than will make us amends for all the dissatisfactions all the hours of sadness and darkness we have met with in this life and infinitely more than will recompence us for all our faith and hope all our watchings and waitings for and upon God For our duties we value them above the Scripture rate if we count them better than menstrous cloths and filthy raggs or reckon that they deserve any thing at the hand of God other than wrath and shame and confusion of faith And saith the Apostle Rom. 8. 18. Rom. 8. 18. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Every one of you would easily determine this were I able to shew you but a little of those things which eye hath not seen nor hath ear heard nor can 2 Cor. 13. 12. 1 Thes 1. 17. 1 Joh. 3. 2. it enter into the heart of man to conceive To open to you what it is to be ever with the Lord to see him face to face to see him as be is to be like the Angels in Heaven to have our bodies made like unto his glorious body and our corruptible to put on incorruption I say were I able to open these and other expressions by which it hath pleased the Holy Ghost in Scripture to express

soul 1 Col. 27. Christ in you the hope of Glory hath been returned to my soul and comforted me but I cannot call this assurance doubting quickly returned and now Satan would have me let go also my hold on Christ but I am resolved not to let it go until I die shall I not so resolve I beseech you Sir tell me should I not so resolve To this I replied 1. That I rejoyced to hear her Ladiship acknowledging that God had sometimes sealed promised unto her soul that those impressions did not abide constant was not to be wondred at it being rarely the lot of any child of God to walk in the constant light of his countenance but I humbly conceived her Ladiship had great ground to call these impressions of the Spirit of God upon a threefold account 1. They were made upon her soul after earnest prayer 2. They came to one in a dark sad and afflicted condition and to an awakened conscience and to one who had for some time desired to walk close with God and this after long and patient waiting for God 3. The return of that word in which the Lord had made her soul first to hope was a great evidence to me that the Author of the first was also the Author of the second impression 2. I rejoyced more to her Ladiships grant that her Faith of adherence was strengthened and so strengthened as she was resolved not to let it go until she died In which resolution I humbly besought her Ladiship to persist I intreated her Ladiship to consider that there are not two better marks of a strong Faith than 1. The resistance and repelling of temptations to doubt 2. The casting of our souls upon God and adhering to the promise though we want incouragement of sense with Abraham to believe in hope above hope This indeed is a strong faith and gives much glory to God And indeed I thought I never was a witness to the actings of a stronger faith than that of this noble person in the midst of her saddest torments of her darkest hours when she was even distracted through pain and terrours she would cry out to all our amazement It is my strong hold I will not let it go no I will not let it go I am resolved I will not let it go let Satan suggest what he will it is my strong hold I have committed my self unto Christ c. Thus she would cry out bitterly weeping while she spake in great Agonies of her spirit 3. As to Patience I desired her Ladiship to consider that the grace of patience was not a Roman fortitude carrying one out under an affliction without any expression of passion this an Heathen might do without any assistance of distinguishing grace and some distempe●atures were such as the best Christians could not so bear them David roared Job complained Christ himself cryed out My God My God Patience is a sacred influence of grace by which we are inabled in the hour of affliction to hope in God whom we see not and meekly to submit to him under his severer dispensations without any murmuring repining or any frowardness of behaviour I told her that although her Ladiship did sometimes roar out through extremity of pain and were restless through torments yet the grace of patience was evidently made manifest in her soul in her humble owning the Justice of God kissing his rod never repining nor murmuring at his dispensations only desiring strength to bear what he would please to lay upon her and her willingness to die or live as he should please to order for it was now patience in her to be content to live finally in her willingness in obedience to Gods command and ordinances though she earnestly desired death yet to use all means though she had no hope of cure to prolong a miserable life so long as God pleased 4. Finally I told her that although possibly sometimes in the height of her distempers some speeches might sound some impatience and unbelief when the extremity of her pain had almost totally deprived her of the use of her reason yet God would not impute this to her for he weighs our performances with our temptations So the Apostle saith You have heard of the patience of Job he that looks in the story will find much in Job which we should call impatience he cursed the day of his birth chap. 3. And we find in his story many other very passionate and distempered speeches yet the Apostle saith not you have heard of the passion and frowardness but you have heard of the patience of Job Though Job sometimes were very impatient yet the Lord considering Jobs patience with his temptations records him as a patient man and so patient as to be propounded to his Saints in following ages as an example of patience he saith not you have heard of the passion or frowardness but you have heard of the patience of Job In short I told her Ladiship that we who were spectators could not but judge her in the free use of her reason full both of faith and patience for her few distempered hours as they were not in number equal to the rest so neither would her tender Father judge her for them By these and other Arguments through Gods assistance she seemed at last satisfied that although she yet wanted the consolations of the Spirit yet she was not without the strengthening influences of it But yet her adversary would not leave her his next temptation was from her apprechended want of Gods quickening grace to which purpose she replies again 6. Tempt Sir I remember you told me that though I wanted the consolations of the Spirit yet if I found its quickening influences I had no reason to despond but Sir I want these my head and my heart is dull there is no life left in my spirit I lift up a lifeless soul to God in prayer never was any in so dull and dead a condition as I am To this I replied 1. That if her Ladiship found the strengthening influences of the holy Spirit they would evidence a state of justification and favour with God now those were evident in her Ladiship how else did her Ladiship in her dark condition commit her self unto God rest upon him and patiently wait for him 2. That as to quickening grace it was seen 1. In exciting the soul to duty 2. In inclining the soul in duty so as it performeth it with alacrity delight and vigour and for the latter it works in us by assisting us in the improvement of our natural parts and powers now this assistance might be wanting to her Ladiship through the indisposition of those Organs by and through the means of which the Spirit perfecteth these operations and her Ladiship must consider that her spirits were tired with succession of pain and stupified by anodines medicines which her learned Physician thought proper for her for the allevation of her pain which otherwise would soon have