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A49255 The penitent pardoned a treatise wherein is handled the duty of confession of sin and the priviledge of the pardon of sin : together with a discourse of Christs ascension into heaven and of his coming again from heaven : wherein the opinion of the Chiliasts is considered and solidly confuted / being the sum and substance of several sermons preached by that faithful servant of Christ, Mr. Christopher Love ... Love, Christopher, 1618-1651. 1657 (1657) Wing L3171; ESTC R3803 178,515 248

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a part of repentance and then forgivenesse Secondly there is no promise in all Scripture that God will pardon a sin before repentance for sin but there are many promises that God will pardon when they doe repent Jer. 23. 8. And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity whereby they have sinned against me and I will pardon all their iniquities whereby they have sinned and whereby they have transgressed against me Many promises that when men repent of sin they shall have ●in pardoned but there is never a promise that hath any shew that before a man repents he shall have pardon Thirdly the Scripture doth lay all men under a state of wrath and condemnation till they beleeve and repent unlesse ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Luk. 13. 5. I tell you Nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Ephes 2. 3. Among whom also we had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh fullfilling the desires of the flesh and of the minde and were by nature the children of wrath even as others Vers 12. that at that time ye were without Christ being aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world No hope of heaven no hope of pardon in an unconverted state Now by the sufferings of Christ wee receive pardon a man unrepenting is a man without Christ therefore surely without pardon Therefore the Antinomians doctrine doth bolster men in profanenesse saying in a manner to a drunkard go on in drunkennesse for God hath pardoned thee from all eternity but I say Repent therefore that your sins may bee blotted out There are not onely these expresse testimonies in Scripture and reasons grounded thereupon but manifold and grosse absurdities that would follow if you should deny this truth This would follow then that there is no difference between a converted man and a man unconverted and is not this grosse to say that there is as much comfort to a man before he is converted as to one after he is converted Secondly if a man is pardoned before he beleeves and repents then this destroyes Justification by faith being justified by faith we have peace with God Now justification is a pardoning of sin is Gods gracious act and not imputing sin unto you when the Scripture saith I am justified by faith and the Antinomian saith I am justified without faith where lyes the error Now then to say that a man is pardoned before he beleeves and repents is in express terms to contradict the Scripture when the Scripture saith he is justified by faith The Antinomians have this evasion say they a man is pardoned before he beleeves he is actually pardoned but when he beleeves then he hath manifestation of pardon On this evasion another grosse error will follow for by this reason faith is no more instrumentall to justification then as it is declarative to a man that he is justified whereas the Scripture saith there is more use of faith for faith is an instrument actually to lay hold on Christ for pardon the grace of love to Christ the grace of humility the grace of selfe-deniall and the grace of mortification these do evidence and declare a pardoned state as well as faith this is to destroy the main use of faith and makes faith of little or no use in Justification Again another absurdity will follow to say that a man before he repents is pardoned it is as much as to say before a man be in Christ he is pardoned this is false for without Christ there is no pardon I might run over many absurdities that would follow in denying this orthodox point Object 1 There is one strong Objection which is this Answ 1 Doth not God love a man from all eternity and doth not the Scripture say that we were chosen in Christ before the foundations of the world were laid Now God electing of us or loving of us is Gods pardoning of us if God doth love a man before he was born then sure God doth pardon a man from eternity To argue from Gods love to actuall pardon is as great an absurdity as to argue that because God did purpose from all eternity to create the world therefore the world was created from eternity God decrees to pardon from all eternity God executes this decree when thou art converted God doth manifest this that he hath pardoned thee when he doth give thee the assurance of his love Antinomians make onely the decree and the manifestation and leave out the execution of it Secondly observe this That when we say that God doth love a man from all eternity you must not understand it that it is a love in purpose and Divines do give this solid and usefull distinction in it that there is a twofold love in God there is a love of purpose and a love of complacency or delight the love of purpose is in God towards elect men from all eternity that is a love where God hath a purpose in time to doe a soule good but a love of complacency and delight in God is not in God till he be converted before conversion God hath not a love of delight for there is nothing in thee that God should take delight in At that time ye were children of wrath God doth not love an elect man with the love of complacency till hee be converted untill he doth repent and beleeve Object Another objection is this Doth not God pardon a man before hee beleeves and repents then what say ye of young Infants which cannot actually beleeve or repent you will not be so cruell to say that all Infants go to hell Answ 1 I answer I am farre from thinking that all Infants go to hell I beleeve that Heaven is as full of Infants as any other rank of years in the world yet this plea will make nothing for those that plead for justification before repenting and beleeving this is onely spoken of justificacation and salvation of Infants without actuall beleeving Thirdly consider that there is a great difference between the state of an Infant and of men grown to years the scripture tels you that faith comes by hearing that is in men grown in years they must get their faith in an ordinary way by hearing the Word preached but this rule holds not for young Infants because they are not capable of understanding they wanting the use of reason and God expects no more from them then he gives ability faith comes by hearing faith the scripture but saith the Antinomian what need I hear what need I pray for a man may have pardon without all But consider that though children cannot exercise faith yet children may have habituall faith as Divines say children may have grace seminally though they cannot have the exercise of grace Thou canst not tell saith Solomon how the bones of a childe grow in the womb therefore much more how God by