Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	believe_v	faith_n	justification_n	5,240	5	9.4416	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A71273	The verdict upon the dissenters plea, occasioned by their Melius inquirendum to which is added A letter from Geneva, to the Assembly of Divines, printed by His late Majesties special command, with some notes upon the margent under his own royal and sacred hand : also a postscript touching the union of Protestants.	Womock, Laurence, 1612-1685.; Diodati, Giovanni, 1576-1649. Answer sent to the ecclesiastical assembly at London by the reverend, noble, and learned man, John Deodate.	1681 (1681)	Wing W3356; ESTC R36681	154,158	329

4. ult 3. There is something attributed unto Man He is the subject of this great benefit and some qualification is required in him towards his own justification Christ is set forth to be a Propitiation but it is through faith in his Blood tho we are said also to be justified freely by God's grace See Rom. 3. 24 25. And with the heart man believeth unto righteousness Rom. 10. 10. and to the saving of his Soul Heb. 10. ult 'T is out of controversy on all sides that Believers are justified freely through God's mercy and that Believers are justified for the Merits of Jesus Christ. All the matter of Question amongst sober men is this Whether in our justification Faith be our own Act whether considered as our Act and as a lively Act and fruitful of good works As we own no other Author of our justification but God no other Merits but Christ so likewise do we acknowledge no other Condition but Faith But that is not a dead Faith for St. James tells us flatly that 's unprofitable Jam. 2. This Faith must be an Evangelical Faith which though the Holy Ghost maks a Change not only in our Relations but in our Habitude in our Hearts and Practice Act. 15. 9. He that pretends to remission of sin before repentance may with as much reason pretend to a Pardon as some do before he is guilty We must not confound the Condition with the Cause either Efficient or Meritorious The presence of some disposition may be requisite as a qualification in the person to be justified and yet have no efficiency into his justification I think it is agreed among all Men learned and sober minded That 't is a lively Faith which is the Condition of our Justification And if we be agreed in this to wrangle about Notions Quae Quâ is not of so great importance as to study to be quiet and to follow the things which make for peace and the things whereby we may edify one another 'T is true St. Paul in the matter of justification does exclude the works of the Law Rom. 3. 28. But there are works of Faith 1 Thes. 1. 3. Are they excluded too By what Law The Apostle prays That the work of Faith may be fulfilled 2 Thes. 1. 11. To say we are justified by the efficiency of these works of Faith That 's against God's Prerogative To say we are justified by the merit of them that is against Christ's Mediation But will you deny the Presence and Concomitancy of them to attend to evidence and to attest our justification If it be Faith only yet it is not Faith alone of all qualifications which the Gospel requires Faith must have the respect of Soveraign but it stands not with her Enemies to be solitary Faith therefore may be considered in a double Capacity 1. Receptivè as she has the Office of a Receiver 2. Redditivè as she has the Office of a Dispenser 1. As a Receiver so taken Joh. 1. 12. she receives Christ in all his Capacities and Offices as a King as a Priest as a Prophet in his state of Humiliation in his state of Exaltation In this Habitude or Capacity to believe in Christ is the most Natural act of Faith her Elicite Act and as much a work as is the Elicite Act of Hope or Love or of any other Virtue The People ask John 6. 28. What shall we do that we might work the work of God Our blessed Saviour Answers This is the work of God the work commanded by God 1 John 3. 23. but to be performed by you That ye believe on him whom he hath sent 'T is Mans Duty at God's Command and by his Assistance 2. Take Faith Redditivè in the Capacity of a Dispenser so it is much more a work and the Mistress of it for so she disburses all her Talents and she sets all other virtues a work and so pays homage to Christ in all Capacities As he is a Prophet so she hears his Voice and own 's his Doctrine as he is a Priest so she trusts to his Atonement and relies upon his Merits and Mediation as he is a King so she obey's his Laws and observes his Institutions she renders up the whole Man to the dispose of his Redeemer and makes him resolve with full purpose of heart to cleave unto the Lord and to submit to all his Commands and Impositions Take Faith therefore in the whole habitude and capacity of it and for a qualification to justification and life I may say 't is all in all It comprehends the sense of the word is so large the whole Principle of Grace and all the Effluxes and Egressions of it This Dr. Owen does acknowledge for speaking of Habitual Grace which dwels in us and makes it abode with us He saith thus This according to the dictinct faculties of our Souls wherein it is or the distinct Objects about which it is exercised receiveth various Appellations being indeed all but one New Principle of life In the Vnderstanding it is Light in the Will Obedience in the Affections Love in all Faith He that desires to be fully satisfied in this point let him consult the Learned and Judicious Divine Mr. Thomas Hotchki's in his Second Part of a Discourse of Imputed Righteousness Chap. 28. and especially the 29th where he treats hereof solidly and perspicuously St. James gives us a double instance or example of Justification by works Abraham and Rahab and concludes with a kind of demonstration thereupon ye see then how that by works a man is justified and not by Faith only Jam. 2. 21. to the end We must not therefore deny the Proposition in every sense For it is more modest to throw that Epistle quite out of the Canon as Luther did then to question the truth of this Doctrine in it But does not St. Paul contradict St. James No in no wise For in Christ Jesus he tells us neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Vncircumcision and these two divided the whole World but Faith which worketh by love Gal. 5. 6. if nothing but Faith which worketh by love then no dead nor idle no other kind of Faith and if not avail to any thing then not to our Justification And 't is the Observation of P. Martyr Talem semper Apo●●olus describit fidem cum de justificatione agit quae necessario Confessionem opera bona habeat Conjuncta Where the Apostle treats of Justification he always describes such a Faith as has Confession and Good-works necessarily joyn'd with it And Calvin upon the same Text tells us That the Apostle notes there which is the true Faith from which this fruit of Justification flows lest any man should pretend to an empty title of Faith instead of it For the true Faith ought so to affect the heart with the glory of God that the flame may break out and appear openly And a little after Caeterum viderint quid

to let 'em alone but we believe the contrary For if they do not dogmatize themselves and their followers into superstition which is highly probable yet by their pretermission and neglect of what is injoyned them they break the Law despise Authority and give scandal to the Church and whether Hell may not ly at the bottom of such disobedience I leave it between God and themselves to judge Does not God require and delight in Verity And can there be Vnity without Obedience Does he not require us to avoid Offences and follow Peace especially with his Church Is not Schism a work of the Flesh as well as Murder or Adultery Is not a wilful and groundless separation from the Mystical Body of Christ a separation from Communion with him And is there no peril in breaking our selves off from this Vine Do they think they can climbe up to Heaven by a Ladder of their own when they place the foot of it upon ground of their own devising No No. Graviter peccant saith the Learned Zanchy They sin grievously who for these indifferent Ceremonies disturb the Churches and damn all other Magistrates and Rulers because they use their liberty in these things Is this the Piety which is boasted of Is this the Charity which we ow to the Churches of God If they want Piety and Charit who contend with other Churches about Ceremonies how little of those Christian-virtues have they to pretend to who quarrel with their own because she will not prostrate her self to gratify their humors 5. If Christ will send none to Hell for performing his worship and service rudely and slovenly with a stiff and peremptory sawciness which I am sure is no where allowed certainly he will not send to Hell such as worship him in the beauty of holiness with a due Reverence and Solemnity which he hath commanded The Dissenters Seventh Section THey pretend that the things imposed are Parts of Worship which none can Create but God nor will God accept of any but such as are of his own Creating and whether they be integral or essential Parts they do not know but in the Worship of God they find them stand upon even ground with those that are certainly Divine or at least as high as man can lift them The Answer When the Apostle saith let all things be done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to Rule and Order he does imply that somethings are to be decreed and ordered and that must be done after such a manner as is decent and to such an end as edification Orders to this effect are not the essentials of Religion but the Appendages Circumstances and Modifications of it which in a general sense we call Rites and Ceremonies And of the Dissenting Brethren this their Advocate tells us They pretend that the things imposed are Parts of Worship This he says they pretend and 't is one of the modestest expressions I have observed fall from his Pen. But why do they pretend Why because they are resolved to object and Cavil But why do they but pretend Because they cannot prove and perhaps because some of them do not believe themselves in what they suggest against the Church viz. That the rites ceremonies imposed immediately by her Authority are Parts of Worship The Worship of God is twofold 1. Internal which consists of the internal actions of a pious Soul for example the act of Faith is to believe the act of hope is to hope the act of Charity to love God and our Neighbour with other internal exercises of Piety 2. There is an external worship of God and that consists in the external exercises of Piety and these are of two sorts Some are of themselves good and acceptable to God and necessary to Salvation Such are Confession of our Lord and Saviour the external works of Faith Beneficence or doing good to our Neighbour the external work of Charity These are such effects of Piety that Piety it self cannot be without them Whereupon they are more properly called works of Piety and no less pleasing to God than the internal works themselves There are other external exercises of Piety which are conversant in external Rites and Ceremonies of God's institution and opposed to the inventions Exercises and Offices of mans devising Such are Sacraments and Sacrifices which are Ordained not for their own sakes but to be inservient to internal Piety to bring that to light and protest it to exercise and promote it to God's glory the good of our Neighbour and the salvation of our own Souls Piety is the Soul of all our worship without which the Observation of these external Rites and Ceremonies are but as a dead Carcass which God will reject as a thing of an ill savour In this worship of God 't is doubtless the Duty of the Church to give direction and call upon us to perform it But this worship is of Gods appointment and imposition not the Churches If the Rites and Ceremonies imposed by this Church be part of worship How came they to be so It must be either by Divine Institution which we are so far from pretending to that we do stedfastly deny it or else by humane estimation If we did value them at so high a rate this must appear 1. Either by the necessity we lav upon them Or 2. By the Merit and Efficacy we ascribe to them Or 3. By the preference we give them 1. The Scribes and Pharises indeed set such a value upon their Traditions which had no competent Authority to establish them but were wicked and repugnant to Divine Authority that they prefer'd them so far before God's Law as to have force enough to rescinde it and make it of none effect Matt. 15. 6. But for Rites and Ceremonies establisht among us the Church has declar'd that upon just causes they may be altered and changed and therefore are not to be esteemed equal with God's Law * 2. That we should place any Merit in the use of them cannot well be imagined when we allow no such to the very best works we can perform at God's appointment And when Authority has injoyn'd or restrain'd the use of them so that upon such a supposition they become necessary according to such restraint or injunction Yet they remain indifferent still in their own nature and do not immediately bind mens Consciences as if they were immediate parts of God's worship or of absolute necessity to salvation for which the Church has tyed our Faith strictly to the holy writ and to nothing else Artic. 20. But to proceed They say none can Create parts of worship but God nor will God accept of any but of such as are of his own Creating Here we have two things which call for our consideration 1. The Creation of worship And 2. The acceptableness of such performances as have not that stamp of God's Creation on them 1. By Creation of worship or the parts of it we suppose

a damnable neglect or the fear of persecution or a perswasion of greater perfection falls soon into Schism and Apostacy and cannot perform that duty of Charity which he is obliged to by his Christianity Vult Deus adorari nos in verâ congregari charitate saith Oecolampadius God will be worshipped and will have us to be assembled in true charity Qui ab Ecclesia Dei se scindit non orat versus Hierusalem quando quidem illam non cupit reparatam a qua ipse seperatur He that cuts himself off from the Church does not pray with his face towards Jerusalem as the Prophet Daniel did because he does not desire that the Church should be repaired from which he is seperated Thus Oecolampadius These Dissenters may reform and purify the Church they are to advise about till they leave it naked not only of Rites and Ceremonies but also of useful Truth faederal Conditions and holy Duties as others have done and do still to this day Here Mr. Baxter shall vouch for me and I will instance in the great Article of Justification He charges not a small party with misunderstanding of the nature and use of Christ's Death and Obedience as he says thinking that Christ obeyed or satisfied by suffering or both as in our persons so that the Law takes it to all ends and uses as done by us our selves as when a man payeth his debt by his Delegate This opinion saith he if I understand it blots out Law and Gospel at one dash And he adds a little after That from that Doctrine this opinion follows That we are justified before we believe nay before we sin nay before we are born nay that it is an immanent Act in God and therefore eternal and that Infidels are justified as Infidels And a little after he says The beginning of these mens misery is usually pride of their supposed graces This leads them first to a seperation from their Brethren and contempt of their Guides next to Anabaptistry and at last they turn Antinomians and Libertines and are given up to a Spirit of Madness As Luther observ'd in his time eo feruntur Spiritu Satanae ut rideant doceri a nobis fidem charitatem They are carried with such a Spirit of Satan that they deride we should teach them Faith and Charity But to return to Mr. Baxter who goes on thus When men will so horribly abuse thSe on of God as to make him a friend to sin who hath done and suffered so much to destroy it and to make his blood the chiefest defensative of transgression and the price of a Lawless and Licentious life which was shed to demonstrate God's hatred of sin and to purge the Souls of men from its power and pollution c. It 's no wonder then as he concludes if God bears no longer but do appear against them from Heaven Excommunicate them and deliver them up to Satan the Spirit of Delusion It appears by the Confutation of that Physician that Mr. Baxter thought Dr. Lewis Moulin had taken too strong a Dose of that pernicious Doctrine And he tells us further that my Lord Brooks made this the Basis of all their Vanity Pride and Insolence They have the Spirit and so know more than all the Learned Pious Godly men in the World They have the Spirit they cannot sin they cannot err Adultery is but an Act of the Flesh but they are all Spirit and no Flesh. In this case if they be Traitors heady highminded c. Who will wonder What may they not be carried up to by the imagination of the Spirit That Lord as Mr. Baxter cites him goes on with their Character and concludes How can these things be spoken of Arminians Socinians or our Prelates These Dissenters should resolve the World whether these be the more eligible or only the tolerable party they communicate with in their separation from the Church of England But because they Appeal to the word to the word let them go That word tells us of Prelates and refers us to their Authority and sets forth their Faith and Practice for our Pattern Heb. 13. 7. 17. It tells us also of false Apostles deceitful workers transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ 2 Cor. 11. 13 14 15. But it charges us not to follow their pernitious ways And so I leave them The Dissenters Fifth Section THey plead that ther 's no Obligation upon them to own the Churches Power to impose New Terms of Communion unless the Church can prove her Power from Christ It 's not for them to disprove it it lies upon her to prove it and to prove it substantially too or else it will be hard to prove it their duty to own it The Answer 1. That Power which the Church had from the Apostles she had from Christ for the Apostles as was proved above had the mind of Christ if they did not deliver what they had received they were unfaithful And if they were unfaithful in this they might be unfaithful in all the rest and so our whole Christianity will be call'd in question 2. The Church hath not only made her Claim to a Power but has bin in actual Possession of it for more than 1600. years without interruption That Plea is enough for her to keep possession and many Rules of Law will Justify her in it 1. Melior est conditio possidentis He that is in possession has the best Title and 2. Cum Partium Jura sunt obscura favendum est Reo When the Rights of the Parties Litigant or Contesting are obscure and doubtful we are to favour the Defendant that is the Party whom the Actor or Accuser desires and labours to thrust out of Possession or lay a Guilt upon And the Law says further in dubio favendum est Superiori imperanti in doubtful Cases we are to favour the Commands of our Superiors That the Church is not Bonae Fidei Possessor and comes not honestly by her Title and Possession of this Power cannot by the Rules of Law or Equity be determined by the Melius Inquirendum of an Adversary The Actor Aggressor or Plaintiff must bring his Writ of Ejectment to try the Title and if these Dissenters have not yet been sufficiently bafled in this attempt let them at last offer us substantial Proofs to this effect and I dare promise them we shall not follow the example of this Author we will not be scurrilous not droll or quibble upon him about a substantial proof of circumstantial matters 3. This Power is not pretended to be such a plenitude of Power as they claim in the Church of Rome not a Power to all intents and purposes No not a Power to make any new Articles of Faith or institute any new Sacraments or parts of Divine Worship But only to make Orders touching Circumstances Rites and Ceremonies in the publick performance of God's service and the Administration of Discipline amongst the Members