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
A49796	An exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrewes wherein the text is cleared, Theopolitica improved, the Socinian comment examined / by George Lawson ...	Lawson, George, d. 1678.	1662 (1662)	Wing L707; ESTC R19688	586,405	384

so far as was necessary for their deliverance and became liable to the penalty which was due to Man for his Sin That which moved God to send and give his Son was his meer mercy and free love to miserable Sinners That which moved God to punish him once substituted was his vindicative Justice looking upon our Sins It is not proper to say That our Sins were a cause either intrinsecally or extrinsecally impelling God to put Christ to Death and to lay upon him the iniquities of us all Though Sin is the formal object of punitive justice and doth deserve punishment yet God as Supream Lord and Judge and above his own Law had power to pardon Sin or punish it and punish it either in the party offending or in Christman's voluntary Hostage and in what measure he pleased and to accept this punishment willingly suffered for what ends and in what degree he pleased For to inflict the penalty upon the party delinquent or upon another or in this or that degree or for this or that end which shall be agreeable to Justice and pleasing to Mercy is accidental and not essential to it And because this Death of Christ was suffered for Sin and so intended by the Supream Judge it was not only an affliction but properly a punishment That which moved Christ to offer himself was his love unto his heavenly Father a resolution to obey his Command and a desire to be beneficial to mankind and the offering was an act of Charity Obedience and properly a Sacrifice which did so please God that he in consideration of the same was willing to grant unto Man many glorious and incomparable Blessings And to substitute Christ to Command him to offer himself to make him Sin for us to accept his Sacrifice for 〈◊〉 and in consideration of the same to promise Remission of Sins and eternal life to sinful man believing was not meerly or properly a dispensation but an abrogation of the Law of Works In this offering God did manifest his Wisdom his Power his Holiness and hatred of Sin his love of Righteousness his vindicative Justice his supream Dominion and his infinite Mercy In it Christ was a patern and lively mirrour of Humility Patience Fortitude Faith Hope Charity Self-denial and Obedience unto Death the Death of the Cross. The effects of this one offering are here said to be Sanctification and Consecration yet it was not an absolute and immediate cause of these Therefore we must observe That the effects of this cause may be said to be immediate or mediate though this is no formal distinction of a cause as a Cause The immediate effects which are antecedent to application are of three sorts 1. Such as respect God to whom the Sacrifice was offered or Christ who offered it or Man for whom it was offered Such as respect God respect him either as Lord or Law-giver or Judge As Lord by this Sacrifice redeeming man he acquired a new power over Man as he was Law-giver the Law of Works was made rel●xible or repealable as he was Judge his vindicative power in respect of the sin of man was suspended or inhibited upon a satisfaction or compensation made so that his mercy might freely issue out to save man without any breach or violation of Justice or derogation from the Authority of his Law All these may be reduced to propitiation and reconciliation In respect of Christ the person offering by this he acquired power over all Flesh and all that happiness and glory which his Father promised to conferr upon him upon the performance of this Service In respect of man for whom Christ offered he by this became savable upon a new Covenant and new terms for the performance of which Covenant and attaining of which Salvation all means and power necessary were merited These effects followed immediately in respect of the offering the mediate effects are such as followed upon this offering applyed yet are the immediate effects of it as applyed For upon the same received by Faith followed Justification Reconciliation Adoption Resurrection and eternal Salvation and all these are reduced by the Apostle to Sanctification and Consecration So that the Salvation of Man from first to last is wholly from this offering yet this offering was not the first Spring and Fountain of our Happiness for that was the love of God giving Christ to offer himself It 's a vain and loose assertion of the Socinian to s●y or argue That because God loved Man so as to give Christ for him therefore there was no need of any Propitiation or Reconciliation or Aversion of his Wrath by Blood For he might easily distinguish between a general indefinite and a particular love and between a love of good will and of friendship The love of God is best known by the acts and effects thereof For we find three degrees and effects of his love to sinful man The first is the giving of Christ to offer himself for him and thus he loved him when he was an Enemy and ungodly for we may love Enemies though not as Friends The second is the giving the means of Conversion that he may believe and when God loves him thus and first calls him he finds him still an Enemy The third degree and effect of his love is to justify and glorify him and when God loves him thus he finds him converted and looks upon him as a Friend From these degrees of love the Apostle argues That if when we were Enemies we were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son how much more being reconciled shall we be saved by his life Rom. 5. 10. And though Christ hath offered himself for Sinners and this was an act of exceeding love yet he that believeth not on the Son offering himself hath no life in him but the Wrath of God abideth on him Joh. 3. 36. And no man can have peace with God by Jesus Christ before he be justified by Faith in Christ. For being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 5. 16. Where to have peace with God and be the determinate object of God's special love doth presuppose and necessarily prerequire both Faith and Justification § 14. The Apostle having proved formerly out of Psalm 40. the excellency of Christ's Sacrifice and the virtue of it in the next words adds another proof out of Jeremy 31. 33 34. The same Text of the Prophet was alledged Chap. 8. and there handled and therefore here I need not enlarge but contract my Explication But let us hear the words of the Allegation Ver. 15. Whereof the Holy Ghost is a witness to us For after he had said before Ver. 16. This is the Covenant that I will make with them After those dayes saith the Lord I will put m● Laws in their hearts and in their minds will I write them Ver. 17. And their Sins and Iniquities will I remember no more Ver. 18. Now where Remission of these

Doctrine so it is also a ground of the future Exhortations For if there had been no way made or if there had been a way and we could have had no liberty of accesse unto the Throne of Grace by the Blood of Christ or if there had been a way and liberty to enter and yet no High-Priest set over the House of God it would be in vain to continue in the profession of Christian Faith or to perform any of those Duties exhorted unto in the following part of the Epistle But seeing we have all these and none of them nor any other thing necessary to Salvation is wanting but eternal life is possible and certainly upon these Reason to be obtained therefore we have a great motive and encouragement to go on and continue in the performance of the Duties exhorted unto For the ground of our hope is the possibility and certainty of attaining eternal Salvation and the ground of our practise and perseverance is our Hope which is the stronger because a way is made a liberty to enter obtained and a Priest set over God's House who will secure us of eternal bliss if we continue to believe and obey him to the end This is so much the more an effectuall reason because none of these could be had by the Law § 19. But what are these Duties exhorted unto They are several yet such as have great affinity one with another and all tend to one end The first this is Ver. 22. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of ●aith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience and our Bodies washed with pure Water THE Apostle in these words and those which follow exhorts to severall Duties 1 To draw near to God ver 22. 2. To persevere in their Christian Profession ver 23. 3. To stir up one another to Love and good Works ver 24. 4. To Continue in Christian Communion ver 25. In the first Exhortation we may observe 1. The Duty exhorted unto and to be performed 2. The manner of performance 3. The preparation of the persons who must perform it For the Duty is to no purpose no wayes profitable if it be not 1. Performed 2. Performed in due manner 3. Performed by persons prepared and duly qualified 1. To draw near to God for so the words are to be understood is to Worship God in general in particular to pray and seek Remission and eternal Life from him This is to make use of the way Consecrated through Christ's Flesh and of our liberty to enter into the Holiest procured by the Blood of Christ. It 's the same with coming boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain Mercy and find Grace for seasonable Help Chap. 4. 16. It 's the same with coming to God by Christ to sue for Mercy Chap. 7. 25. The party therefore to whom we come is God yet considered as sitting in the Throne of Grace and propitiated by the Blood of Christ. The drawing nigh or coming to God thus considered is a motion not of the Body but the Soul whereby it turns away both the mind and heart from all other objects and turneth and addresseth it self unto God to converse with him for his Favour Mercy Blessings that it may obtain them from him And it fixeth upon him and abides with him till the business with him be finished This Coming is called Worshipping as Worshippers are called Commers ver 1. 2. This being the Duty it must be performed with a pure heart and in full assurance of Faith this is the manner and the due qualification of the act of drawing nigh to God without which it can neither please God nor profit Man This qualification is two-fold 1. The purity of Heart 2. The full assurance of Faith 1. It must be performed with the Heart For all serious actions issue from the Heart and whatsoever is not done with Knowledg and Will is not the action of a Man as a Man and a rational Creature The Worship of God whereby we seek eternal happiness requires both and in the highest degree of our activity because in it we have to do with God concerning the most weighty business of all others yet we may Worship with the Heart and not with a true Heart that is without sincerity The Heart is then sincere when according to God's Will it 's firmly fixed upon and aims chiefly at the chief End God's Glory and eternal Happiness desiring and intending both far above all other things and this out of clear Understanding And here it 's to be observed That sincerity is required not only in the person Worshipping but in the action of Worship He that is habitually sincere may so f●● forget himself as to worship without sincerity and the principal part essence power reality and truth of that Worship which God requires For this truth and sincerity is the very Life and Soul of acceptable Worship If we incline or have secret and remote thoughts of Vain-glory of falling off from our profession or returning to Sin then our Heart is not perfect sincere upright and our worship must needs be like our hearts which ought in the first place wholly and folely be given and offered to God By this we easily understand and both how few do Worship God sincerely and how defective the Worship of the best may often prove 2. Besides sincerity is required a full assurance of Faith Faith is both a belief and a confidence and assurance full assurance is an higher degree of both As a belief it 's grounded on God's Word in general revealing the Truths and Propositions to be believed as a confidence it 's grounded on the promise a special part of God's Word The belief goes before confidence follows after as depending upon the belief for the promise is first a Truth and so to be considered before it can be conceived under the formal notion of a Promise He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him That God is a Rewarder of those who diligently seek him is a truth or true proposition and is to be believed and it is a Promise because therein God signifies that as he is able so he is willing to reward such any he hath in the Gospel signified his unchangeable Will and Decree so to do and hath bound himself both by his Decree and his Word which is the signification of the Decree The full assurance of this Faith is grounded upon the infallible Truth of his Word and the fidelity and immutability of his Promise And where as this full ssurance is thought generally an high degree of Faith yet Faith is no divine Faith without it For no man receives the Word and Promise of God as the Word and Promise of God that wants this full assurance For the firmness of Faith should answer the firmness of God's Word If this full assurance were an assurance of our particular estate