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
A88645	The practice of godlines or brief rules directing Christians how to keep their hearts in a constant holy frame, and how to order their conversation aright. With an addition concerning self-examination, and the nature of faith. / By Henry Lukin minister of the gospel.	Lukin, H. (Henry), 1628-1719.	1659 (1659)	Wing L3479; Thomason E2107_2; ESTC R210051	38,795	129

not setled And indeed the Hebrews express the Act of Affiance by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to roll Psal 22.8 Let the Reader only observe that Mr Cotton takes resting in a stricter sense than we do in the former description when he opposeth it to rolling he understands thereby the Affiance of Hope which follows Assurance To come then to the Question Dost thou freely accept of Jesus Christ for thy Saviour Art thou heartily willing to strike hands with God in the Covenant of Grace And though thou hast not a particular Assurance that Christ will save thee Dost thou look towards him Dost thou roll thy self upon him though unbelieving thoughts return oft and presse hard upon thee As a man may roll a burden upon something and it may return oft upon him again before he can make it lie Thy condition is very hopefull But here it will be objected That there are some that for a time believe and yet fall away Luk. 8.13 I confesse this case is very difficult yet I shall give the Objection a fair hearing before I answer it Indeed I do believe that there is a real intrinsick difference between the first Act of Justifying Faith and the Faith of a Temporary Yet many times this difference is not discernable by the persons themselves which so believe That you may understand what I mean Suppose two men under the same affliction as the Israelites Psal 78.31 c. or both hearing the Word together as Luke 8.13 These men may be so wrought upon as that they may both make the same resolution as seems to themselves with alike seriousness and without dissimulation freely taking Christ for their Saviour or casting themselves upon him for Salvation they may have the same apprehensions concerning their own Acts themselves one of these may fall the other persevere This is that which hath been long since taught see Dyke on the Deceitfullnesse of the Heart Chap. 20. where speaking of the Israelites Psalm 78.34 he sayes They spake as they thought and meant to doe See likewise more sully on this Doctor Jackson of Faith Chap. 7. Paragr 14. And it is generally acknowledged That there are not only grosse Hypocrites that deceive others but close Hypocrites that deceive themselves But how comes it to passe that one stands and another falls I answer As it is in colours two things may appear at first of the same colour one abides the other fades Now the Reason of this is there is an addition of some ingredient which gives the one a more lasting tincture than the other one is died in grain the other hath but an ordinary die So to those rational Motives which are the inducements both to the one and to the other to believe there is in one the addition of a spiritual infusion which gives to one mans Faith a true and abiding tincture There is a seed of God abiding in him 1 John 3.9 You will say If it be thus How shall we ever come to any Certainty concerning our own Condition if we may be deceived in the Acts of our own souls If it be said That we must know the truth of our Faith by the trial of it in standing out against temptations This is something indeed But what time must we take for the tryall of our Faith When may we confirm the truth of it with a probatum est When shall I know that the worst tryall is over Some stood out in the time of Queen Maries persecution which afterwards fell away in time of liberty and prosperity Joab turned not after Absalom but he turned after Adonijah Though I turn not after one temptation I may after another Yea a lesse temptation may overcome me after I have stood out against greater Adversus majora vigilantibus quaedam incautis minuta subrepunt Aug. As Lot retained his integrity in Sodome but miscarried when he was only with his own family Gen. 19.33 And so we must conclude There is no assurance to be had without special revelation by this means while we are in this life Dicique beatus ante obitum nemo c. Having thus urged the Objection with all its strength I answer There is yet another way for the tryall of our Faith although many times in the first Act of Faith as Streso observes the soul is not so deliberate it doth not stand to debate the matter long or to form Syllogismes but pressed with the apprehension of its danger layes hold on what is next to save it and flees for resuge to the hope that is set before it yet afterwards when it comes more deliberately to recognize its former Act which he is supposed to have opportunity for who is enquiring after the sincerity of his Faith in this recognition or renewing the Act of Faith there is that which doth clearly difference it from a temporaries Faith Therefore there are three things which I shall lay down which may serve both to direct Christians in the exercise of their Faith and the srequent renewing of their hold on Jesus Christ and to try the sincerity of Faith in the renewed Acts of it First Sit downe and count the cost of being the Disciples of Christ Luk. 14.26 And see in the two fore-going verses the occasion of these words Consider That Christ will rule you if he save you and that his Laws are not suited to your carnall interests or corrupt lusts We must take Christ as he is offered in the Gospel God hath condescended there as farre as he will he cannot be brought to lower termes Indeed in the first Act of Faith usually the soul hath chief respect to pardon as that which it is then most sensible of the want of the soul therein flees for refuge to Christ Heb. 6.18 Flees from the wrath to come Matth. 3.7 But though pardoning grace be Ratio motiva or the first inducement to bring us to Jesus Christ yet it must not be ratio terminativa or that which must bound our desires after him Here now the Hypocrite fails when he comes to see what it is to be a Disciple of Christ he repents of his repentance and comes off with a non putâram Christ had many followers while they saw his miracles and he was likely to be made an earthly King but they turned their backs on him when they understood the Nature of his service John 6.16 60 66. Many under the lash of afflictions or the convictions of the Word betake themselves to Christ for shelter but afterwards despise the simplicity of the Gospel and the strictnesse of holin●sse as one that in a storme takes shelter in a Cottage where he would not be afterwards perswaded to dwell or borrows a Coat which after the showr is over he would scorn to wear But Paul when he came to make a recognition of his former act Phil. 3.7 8. He stands to his former choice and judgement Those things saith he that were gain to me I counted

to think too highly of themselves Now before I conclude I must say something in answer to a Question which will be easily occasioned by what hath been already spoken Since we are to try our selves by an adaequate Rule and by such Evidences as are competent to all justified persons and to them only What are those proper Characters of a true Christian I cannot here discourse at large of the several graces of the Spirit and shew how they may be distinguished from their counterseits yet that I may do something towards the satisfaction of Christians in this particular I shall first endeavour to explain the true Nature of saving Faith and then to discover so far as I am able what is the genuine temper and disposition of a child of God For the first It is that which our salvation depends upon and I chuse alwayes to describe it in the words of our common Catéchism which I would never willingly swerve from but keep close to that so Christians may be more secure in entertaining the truth and free from suspicion of being misguided by the singular notions of a private spirit Now there it is described A saving grace whereby we receive Jesus-Christ and rest upon him for salvation as he is offered to us in the Gospel I confess I do not look upon this as an acurate definition of Faith properly so called yet as consonant to the Scriptures manner of teaching Divinity being a practical Discipline the holy Ghost in Scripture doth not desine things as a Philosopher by their genus differentia but by their effects See the Scriptures definition of wisdom Job 28.28 of knowledg Jer. 16.22 of faith Heb. 11.1 of the fear of God Pro. 8.13 of the love of God 1 Jo. 5.3 of Religion Jam. 1.27 Faith is properly an assent to any thing upon the authority of him that affirms it and so more particularly divine Faith is an assent to any truth upon Gods authority but because it is not so easie to make a right judgment of the acts of the understanding as they have an existence in their Subject however we may speak something of the difference of them as they are in their Idea The Scripture takes notice of them when they come lower into the Will and observes what work they make or what effect they have there and thereby judges whether they be right or no. But let me a little explain this description of Faith that so we may the better understand the nature of it It is called a Grace because it is a gift freely given Eph. 2.8 a saving grace because it is one of those things which accompany salvation Mark 16.16 It is said to be a grace whereby we receive Jesus Christ Now I confess I do not see that the place usually alledged for the proof hereof Joh. 1.12 doth convincingly prove it since it may be otherwise expounded what inconvenience would follow if we should take the word receive in a larger sense as it is used Matth. 10.14 and the words following not exegeticè as an exposition of what went before but restrictivè as a limitation thereof The like restriction we have Psal 145.18 yet Faith may properly be called a receiving of Jesus Christ it being the firstact of the Will about the means leading to our end which act the Schoolmen call Election hence I suppose Doctor Ames Rolloc and others borrow this term which they make use of in explaining the Nature of Faith which they make to be an accepting of this or that means or choosing it before others by the approbation of the judgment as best conducing to the attainment of our end Or to speak more plainly and properly which is best if we consider Jesus Christ as the gift of God offered to us in the Gospel as is expressed in the fore-going description Faith is our receiving of him accepting of Gods offer Taking hold on Gods Covenant striking hands with him consenting freely that Christ shall be ours I cannot stand here to examine how necessary our acceptation is to the making a thing our own or a gift properly to us Or whether a man may in any case have not only Jus●ad rem or title but Jus in re or possession without his consent or acceptance remembring the end of my discourse which such disquisitions would have little tendency to Vid. Mestrezat de la Vertu de la Foy. pag. 97. Therefore to proceed It is added in this Description of Faith That it is a resting upon Jesus Christ for Salvation The former words do aptly express the first Act of Faith which is the souls fixing or pitching upon Christ in its choice as the only sufficient means of Salvation These words hold forth the porro esse as I may speak of Faith or the continued Act of it upon the souls former choice So that as a learned man Doctor Wallis in his most ingenuous answer to the Lord Brook doth well observe It is all one whether we make Faith to be a receiving of Christ for our Saviour or a resting upon him for Salvation Some choose to express it by the former Act some by the latter for the latter doth necessarily suppose the former and the former immediately inferre the latter if we consider how Christ is offered in the Gospel that is as the only Saviour Act. 4.12 and as a sufficient Saviour Heb. 7.25 But here observe That by a resting on Jesus Christ we do not mean a confirmed hope or a certain expectation of Salvation by Jesus Christ This is an effect of assurance but the leaning rolling staying of the soul upon Jesus Christ which we may conceive of by the notion which the Scripture oft holds it forth under a looking to him or having our eyes towards him Read 2 Chron. 20.12 Psal 121.1 123.1 2. Isai 45.22 Jonah 2.4 Micha 7.7 This Act the soul may put forth without Assurance Of the Difference between these two Acts see Doctor Ward De Fide Justificante cap. 8. 23. And in English Doctor Bolton Of the Nature of Faith pag. 60 61. This latter Act is aptly expressed by Master Cotton a man of much Christian experience on 1 John 5.10 whose words I shall set down because they are suited to the capacity and experience of weak Christians There is saith he a believing on Christ when the heart doth not yet rest on him but roll it self on him and that may be done while the heart is yet in motion resting is a setlednesse of condition but rolling is an unsetled tumbling about sometimes one way and sometimes another yet such a Christian believes on Christ because he is rolling towards him that so he may lie on him Psal 37.5 Commit thy way to the Lord according to the Original it is Roll thy way upon the Lord lean thy soul that way which is done by rolling thy self towards him that thou mayest rest upon him Pro. 16.3 a man may be said to leane on that whereon be is