Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	assurance_n	faith_n	justify_v	2,314	5	9.2915	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44438	The fourth (and last) volume of discourses, or sermons, on several scriptures by Exekiel Hopkins ...	Hopkins, Ezekiel, 1634-1690.	1696 (1696)	Wing H2734; ESTC R43261	196,621	503

6.24 29. How they should do to work the Works of God Our Lord tells them This is the Work of God that you believe on him whom he hath sent Nay further as a Faith of Adherence or Acceptance gives a Right and Title to Salvation so a Faith of full Assurance is this Salvation it self Heb. 11.1 For Faith is the substance of Things hoped for the Evidence of Things not seen In its justifying Act it gives a Title to Salvation in its assuring Act it gives the substance of the Thing it self for it is much at one to a strong Faith to believe Heaven and to enjoy it Secondly Faith doth compendiously further and promote the working out of our Salvation in actual possession and that because Faith is that Grace which fetcheth all that ability and strength from Christ whereby a Christian is inabled to work Faith is not only a Grace of it self but it is Steward and Purveyor for all other Graces and its Office is to bring in Provision for them while they are working and therefore as a Mans Faith grows either stronger or weaker so his Work goes on more or less vigorously When other Graces are in want and cry Give Give then Faith betakes it self to Christ and saith Lord such a Grace stands in need of so much Strength to support it and such a Grace stands in need of so much Support to act it and I have nothing to give it my self and therefore I come to fetch Supplies from thee And certainly this Faith that comes thus empty-handed unto Christ never goes away empty-handed from Christ What is it that you complain of Is it that the Work stands at a stay and you cannot make it go forward Is it that Temptations are strong and violent that Duties are hard irksome and difficult Why set Faith on work to go to Christ and there you may be sure to have Supply because Faith is an omnipotent Grace All things are possible to him that believeth and that because all things are possible to that God and to that Christ on whom Faith is acted There is no Grace nor no Supply nor Mercy laid up in the Lord Jesus Christ but it is all in the Hands of a Believer's Faith and he may take from thence whatsoever he needs to supply the present Wants and Necessities of his Soul Secondly Another working Grace is the fervent actings of Love Love is the great Wheel of the Soul that sets all the rest a moving and makes it like the Chariots of Aminadab to run swiftly towards its desired Object There is a mutual dependence between Faith and Love in their working Love depends upon Faith to strengthen it and Faith depends again upon Love to act it As we love not that which we do not know and our knowledge of God and of the Things of Eternity is by Faith not by Vision so those Things which we do know and which we do believe yet if we love them not we shall never endeavour after them The Apostle therefore tells us that Faith worketh by Love Now there is a threefold spiritual Love required to expedite our great Work First A transcendent Love of God Secondly A regular Love of our selves Thirdly A complacential Love unto and Delight in our Work it self Now when the Affections go out after these Objects of Love this will much facilitate our great Work First The Love of God is a great help to our Duty Our Saviour therefore urgeth Obedience upon this very account If ye love me keep my Commandments John 14.15 1 John 5.3 And says the Apostle this is the Love of God that is this is a certain Sign or it is the constant effect of our Love to God that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not grievous they are not grievous because they are his Commandments who is the Love and Joy of our Souls Divine Love always conforms it self to divine Precepts and that for two Reasons First Because this Grace as it desires the beatifical Union to God in Glory hereafter for Love is the desire of Union so now it causes an unspeakable Union of Will and a supernatural simpathy of Affection betwixt God and the Soul which Union cannot be a Union of Equality or Entity as is in the Persons of the blessed Trinity and therefore it is a Union of Subordination of a Christians Will to the Will of God Now what is this Will of God Why the Apostle tells us 1 Thes 4.3 This is the Will of God says he even your Sanctification And the same Apostle tells us in another place Eph. 2.10 We are his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good Works that God hath before ordained that we should walk in them And is this Gods Will and shall it not be our Work Hath God ordained that we should walk therein and shall we be averse from or slothful thereunto How can we pretend we love God while we neglect the only Thing he requires from us Holiness and Obedience God wills our Holiness because there is no better a thing that he can Will next unto himself the Image of God next to himself is the most excellent and chiefest Good every thing the nearer it approacheth unto God the more desirable it becomes in it self Now that which comes most near unto God and advanceth the Soul in some resemblance and similitude to him is Holiness and Endeavours after Obedience whereby we become conformable unto God and attain some faint Shadows and Essays of the divine Perfections The Soul wills in order unto Gods Will God now wills Holiness because it is most desirable and we must will our own Holiness because if we love God as we pretend to do our Wills must be conformable to his holy Will Secondly Love to God is a Help to Duty because it is in and by Duty that we enjoy the Presence of God and have Communion and Fellowship with him These are the Lattices through which God appears to the longing Soul and though he many times vouchsafes but half Smiles and little Glances yet in these reserved Communications the Soul finds so much sweetness as ingageth it to a constant performance of Duties all its Days Here says the Soul God was wont to walk in his Sanctuary here have I heard his Voice here have I seen his Face his Spirit hath here breathed upon me his Consolations have here refreshed me and therefore here will I wait upon him as long as I live I remember well says the Soul when in Prayer and Meditation my Heart hath been filled by him poured out to him and accepted with him I remember when he filled me first with Sighs and then with Songs and both alike unutterable and therefore I will keep to the performance of these Duties waiting for the further Discoveries and Manifestations of my God unto me Secondly As Love to God so a regular Self-love will much help and further our Obedience and Duty And then is

attain in Glory where our whole Work to all Eternity shall be to love and please God or else that Perfection that consists in its Sincerity in this Life If we take it for that perfection of Love that shall for ever burn in our Hearts when we our selves shall be made perfect so it is certain it will cast out all tormenting Fears for certainly if in Heaven Hope it self shall be abolished much more shall Fear be abolished for there every Saint shall have much more than a full assurance even a full fruition of Glory and they shall know themselves to be for ever confirmed in that blessed state which shall prevent all doubts and fears If we understand it of that perfection of Love that we may attain to in this Life so also the strong and vigorous actings of Love to God casteth out all tormenting Fears It is not possible that that Soul that actually loves God with a vigorous and most ardent Affection should at the same time be rack'd with distracting fears of Hell and Damnation for it is the sense of God's Love unto the Soul that draws from it reciprocal Love again unto God We love him says the Apostle because he first loved us That is as strong as our apprehensions are of God's Love to us so strong will our Love be in its returns to God again Water riseth naturally as high as its Spring wherefore the assurance of God's Love being the Spring from whence our Love flows such as is our Love such will be our assurance also If then our Love be strong in its actings it must needs cast out Fear because it flows from that assurance with which tormenting Fear is utterly inconsistent But then there is another kind of Fear that is not tormenting and that is an awful frame of Heart struck with reverential apprehensions of God's infinite Majesty and our own vileness and unworthiness and this perfect Love doth not cast out but perfects this awful sedate calm fear of God The Angels and the glorified Saints in Heaven whose Love is so perfect that it can neither admit of an increase or abatement yet they stand in aw and fear of the terrible Majesty of the great God the same infinit Excelencies of the divine Nature that attract their Love doth also excite their Fear See how the Prophet makes this an Argument to fear God Jer. 10.7 Who would not fear thee O King of Saints For said he in all the Earth there is none like unto thee One would rather think Gods unparallel Excellencies and Perfections should be a Motive to Love who would not love thee O King of Saints since there is none in all the Earth like thee Yea but filial Fear and filial Love are of so near a kind and cognation that they may well be enforced by one and the same Argument Who would not fear thee for in all the Earth there is none like thee This is the Excellency of divine Love it is an attractive of Love and it is an excitement unto Fear Well then though we have no chilling Fear of a hot and scorching Hell yet let us have an awful reverential Fear of the glorious God whose Excellencies are such as cannot be matched nor scarcely imitable by any in Heaven or in Earth Thirdly 3. A holy Fear of God is not contrary to the Spirit of Adoption The Fear of God is not contrary to that free Spirit of Adoption which we receive in our first Conversion It may perhaps seem to some that the Apostle opposeth them in Rom. 8.15 You have not received the Spirit of Bondage again to Fear but the Spirit of Adoption whereby you cry Abba Father To this I Answer That by the Spirit of Bondage here the Apostle means the legal Work of the holy Ghost in Conviction that is preparatory to Conversion which Work usually is accompanied with dreadful Terrors apprehending God not as a reconciled Father but as an incensed and severe Judge why now says the Apostle You have not received this Spirit of Bondage again thus to fear this is not that Fear that the consideration of God as your God and reconciled Father excited to you this is not that Fear that the Apostle exhorts Christians unto but an awful reverential Fear of God whereby we should stand in aw of his dread Majesty so as to be preserved from whatever may be an offence to his Purity and if in any Night of Desertion it should happen that the Hearts of true Believers should be overwhelmed with dismal Fears apprehending God as enraged and incensed against them standing in doubt of the goodness of their spiritual Condition if this seize upon them after they have had the Spirit of Adoption let them know this Fear is not from a Work of the Holy Ghost in them they have not received the Spirit of Bondage again so to fear it is not a Work of the Holy Ghost to excite in them doubts and fears of their spiritual Condition after they have once had assurance of the goodness thereof but it ariseth either from some Ignorance or from some Sin that they have committed that interposeth betwixt them and the clear sight of the discoveries of God's Love Now for the better understanding of this place because I judge it pertinent to my present purpose I shall open it to you somewhat largely in these following Particulars 1. The Work of Conversion is usually carried on by legal Fear and Terrors First The preparatory Work of Conversion is usually carried on in the Soul by legal Fears and Terrors I call that a legal Fear that is wrought in the Soul by the Dread-Threatnings and Denunciations of the Law The Law if we take it in its native Rigour without the merciful qualification of Gospel-grace thunder'd out nothing but Execrations Wrath and Vengeance against every Transgressor of it representing God armed also with his almighty Power to destroy them this is that Glass that shew'd them their old Sins in most ugly Shapes now they see them stare ghastly upon their Consciences that before allured them the Scene is quite changed and there are nothing but dreadful Apparitions of Death and Hell fleeting now before them Hell belsh'd in their very Faces God brandished his flaming Sword over them ready to reeve their Hearts asunder they that lately were secure and fearless now stand quaking under the fearful expectations of that fiery Wrath and Indignation that they neither have hope to escape nor yet have they Strength or Patience to endure This is that legal Fear that the Curse and Threatnings of the Law when set home in their full acrimony work in the Hearts of convinced Sinners Secondly 2. Slavish Fear engenders unto Bondage This legal Fear is slavish and engenders unto Bondage There is Bondage under the reigning Power of Sin and there is a Bondage under the terrifying Power of Sin The former makes a Man a Slave unto the Devil and the latter makes a Man a