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
A96976	Meditations upon the marks of the true Church of Christ: or, Motives of credibility in behalf of the true religion: and, the easiest way to finde it out. / By H.W.	H. W.; Wilkinson, Henry, 1610-1675,	1655 (1655)	Wing W36A; Thomason E1666_1; ESTC R208388	95,687	283

reach the ability of nature or art for such persons question lesse have conference and hold correspondence with God and de facto Insidels were brought to embrace the Catholick Faith by these motives as the cheifest inducements The truth is That it is not only in all mens opinion morally but as many learned Divines teach metaphysically impossible that that Religion should be false which God hath confirmed with his own Hand and Seal I mean with these Arguments Motives and Marks which the absolute power of God onely could produce for otherwise it would follow that God should induce men into error and be the author of falshood a thing which implies a contradiction and is incompatible with the goodnes and veracity of God and would make the divine will repugnant to it self by commanding men to serve him in the true Religion and yet leading them to a false one by the whole complex of such and so extraordinary motives as these are Thus much for the instruction and conviction of non-christians and such as do not admit the holy scripture to be the word of God Concerning which people I adde that when any of them are come so far as to believe with humane faith which may be in every ones power to do that these motives convince that to be the true church which is confirmed by those divine signes and when they do accept of that Church for such God will undoubtedly raise their humane Faith up to be divine by infusing into them the auxiliary forces of his supernatural grace and light with the habit of divine faith Now for the better understanding how from humane faith a man may ascend to an act of divine faith Note the distinction betwixt these four principles into which an act of faith may be resolved First the extrinsical motives and these are not nor can they be the efficient cause of an act of divine faith but they are dispositions that is they are motives or cause why that Religion or such a point is accepted on for the truth Secondly The Authority of the Churchs and she doth onely propound what is to be believed and gives order and direction how to proceed in the carriage of belief Thirdly The Veracity of God revealing to the Church and by the Church to us divine truths and this is the formall object or cause why the understanding assents to such a thing as a divine truth for therefore we believe that such Books are Divine because God hath revealed to the Church that they are so Fourthly The habit of Divine Faith together with divine grace and these are the efficient cause of an act of Divine Faith All these four principles intervene in the analysis of theologicall Faith but with subordination to one another and not as so many independent first principles of Faith for the first immediate and indemonstrable cause of mans assent is God revealing though the cause of accepting such a faith must be the motives of credibility I conclude this Preface with giving the Reader notice that before I begin with the Meditations of the particular Marks of which I have chosen out onely 16. I thought fit to premise 4 Meditations which are both of most necessary subjects in themselves as also preparatives for the more fruitfull perusage of those which follow And for a clearer demonstration to Sectaries that such and such are put for marks of Christs Church by scripture it self I have of set purpose cited the proofs universally out of the Protestants own Bible A Table of the severall Meditations following MEd. 1. Of the end of Man Page 1 Med. 2. Of divine Faith Page 11 Med. 3. Of Christs true Church Page 22 Med. 4. Of the Marks in generall Page 33 Med. 5. Of Miracles Page 46 Med. 6. Of Sanctity of Life Page 57 Med. 7. Of Holinesse of Doctrine Page 73 Med. 8. Of the Conversion of nations Page 91 Med. 9. Of the Vninterupted and Apostolical Succession of the Pastors of the Church Page 106 10. Of the antiquity of the true church Page 123 Med. 11. Of Vnity in matters of Faith and Religion Page 143 Med. 12. Of the Amplitude and Extent of the Dominions of Christs Church Page 156 Med. 13. Of the Name of Catholick and whose it is by right Page 167 Med. 14. Of the gift of Prophesie Page 176 15. Of easy Decission of Controversies Page 186 16. Of Persecution and Martyrdome Page 198 Med. 17. Of the Prophecies and Promises and Figures of the old Law fulfilled in Christes Church Page 208 Med. 18. Of Temporal blessings Miraculously bestowed on the Defenders and Propagators of the Catholick Religion Page 219 Med. 19. Of the Disasters and Vnhappy ends of the Opposers and Enemies of the Roman Church Page 233 M. 20. Of the Confession of Adversaries Page 249 Of the end of Man The first Meditation and a ground to those which follow after Of the End of Man Of the means to attain it and of the Use which is to be made of that means The first Point COnsider first how the Almighty drawing man by the act of creation out of the darksome abysse of that non-entity or nothing in which hee had laine from all eternity past without any reall being and bringing him into the light of life now a rational and noble creature placed him in this inferiour world but for what end to spend precious time in searching after sensull pleasures in hunting after honours in scraping up riches No the end for which God created thee man was more sublime than so it was a supernatural end an end of the highest perfection and the most to be wished for that can possibly be to serve God in this life and to enjoy eternally the beatisicall Vision of him in the life to come this was that which God intended in creating thee do thou prefix to thy self the same end if thou will be happy Consider Secondly for the better understanding of this mainly fundamental point that this end hath two parts or is twofold So sayes St. Paul Ye have your fruit unto sanctification but your end eternall life And our Saviour intimateth the same in these Divine words Matt. 6. 33. Seek first the kingdome of God and his righteousnesse so that here 's sanctity and eternall beatitude the one is to be practised in this life the other shall be purchased in the next the one is finis maximus and the other is the remote end and as the self same thing may be both the end and the means also respectively so here holinesse of life though it be really mans end in this life for he is created to serve God in this life yet in respect of the finall end which is eternally to enjoy that insinite goodnesse the former is onely the means by which the latter is attainable Gather out of this Fundamentall point a strong resolution and effectuall desire from henceforth to make the consideration of this so noble end thy serious and frequent

is to hazard the winning or losing heaven Heaven is the Wager Resolution shoots the Arrow the true Church is the white let deliberation take right aym and earnestly beg the direction of the Almighty who hath also bent his how and prepared it by saying Lord demonstrate unto me thy wayes and teach me thy paths send forth thy light and thy truth that they may lead me unto thy holy mountain and into the Tabernacles of thy Church Amen The Second Meditation Of Divine Faith The first Point Consider first what Faith is both in respect of the habit and the act Habitual Faith is a supernatural vertue infused by God into the soule of man by which his understanding is illuminated inabled and inclined to believe stedfastly all those things to be true which God hath revealed to his Church It differs much from other intellectuall habits as from Science which relyes on the evidence of the thing Faith on Authority to wit of God From opinion doubtfulnesse suspicion which do not satissie the understanding Faith convinceth it from civil or humane faith which is subject to error but Theologicall and divine Faith is that cui non potest subesse falsum no falshood dare insinuate it self into the company of Divine Faith Actuall Faith is no other thing but the exercise or act proceeding from the habit of Faith it is a firm assent of the understanding believing such particulars revealed by God to wit that one and the self same nature and essence of God is in three distinct persons that Christ is both God and man and yet not two but only one thing that there is heaven that there is hell and the like to be true so that the material things believed are the objects of those acts Consider secondly The insallible certainty which an act of divine faith hath in it the certainty of it hangs upon these two cardinal attributes of divine wisdome and goodnesse by the former of which we are warranted that God cannot by ignorance be deceived by the second we are secured that he will not deceive by revealing that for a truth which is false since both these perfections are in him infinite This infinite authority therefore of God revealing being the motive or formal object of an act of faith for therefore we believe such a thing to be true because God hath revealed it makes these acts most true Gather hence what an admirable benefit the gift of divine Faith is and not the habit onely but the acts also are such since to the producing of every one of them is required a congruous cogitation and a pious affection of the will besides the application of mans endeavour both which are favours from Almighty God Purpose a frequent exercise of producing acts of Faith about those holy misteries which God hath revealed to his Church thou that art a member of it The second Point Consider now the necessity of this virtue of Divine Faith first from the Testimonies of holy Scripture without faith faith Saint Paul it is impossible to please God He that shall be found at his death devoid of this virtue shall not onely not please God a misery great enough but shall moreover inevitably incur the greatest of all miseries eternal damnation He that will not believe shall be condemned fearfull words but spoken by Christ himself heavy news for such as die not Catholicks but told by truth it self Hence resolve that as the means to please God is to begin by true Faith so the means to get true Faith is by becoming a Member of the true Church Consider also that as the eye is the light of the body and the understanding the natural eye and light of the Soule so Divine Faith is the supernatural light of the understanding Nisi credideritis non intelligetis what say you Socinians to this Oracle of divine Truth unlesse you believe what The mysteries of the Kingdom of God and amongst the rest the possibility and actuall gift of infallible Faith How With Divine Faith What will follow Non intelliget is you shall have no understanding of those arcana or sacred secrets into which Faith dives true it is that humane faith and natural reason drawn from the consideration of those things which are marks of the true Church are previous conditions prerequisite to divine Faith whose acts are rational and it an intellectual habit but this is not to make natural reason the formal object or basis and ultimate resolution of maters of faith Mans intellect hath but a small sphere of activity in Order to a perception of divine things but so sarre forth as it is elevated by Divine Faith As for us who hope we are true believers let not us content our selves with humane Faith but petition Gods divine Majesty for that Faith which is his heavenly gift Lord adauge nobis fidem increase in us Faith true faith infallible Faith divine Faith make us strong in faith that by it we may know thee and whom thou sent Jesus Christ Gather out of this point one reason amongst others why many Sectaries are so bad Paraphrastes and expounders of Scripture and why they hold such Paradoxes and improbable opinions in these main matters of Faith To wit because they want divine and Theological fith so true that truth is unlesse ye will believe ye shall not understand The third Point Consider now what is to be believed and how we are to proceed in the exercise of the virtue of faith this will be facilitated by understanding the precepts of Faith which are two the one Affirmative the other Negative The Affirmative Precept obligeth every one to believe actually and expresly some particular points of Faith and the rest implicitly or in general that is all whatsoever the holy Catholike Church believes yet so in general that every one is bound to be in a readinesse and disposition to embrace and assent to the other particulars when and accordingly as they shall be sufficiently propounded by the true Church Now for a better information of what particulars are expresly to be believed Note that of these materiall objects or points of Faith some are so essentially requisite to salvation that a pure non-knowledgement or not believing them expresly and in particular is destructive of salvation these are called necessary necessitate medii such are these two which Saint Paul mentions in these words but without faith it is impossible to please God for he that cometh to God must believe that he is to wit that there is a God and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Here it is expresly set down that there is no coming to God no enjoying him without believing that there is a God and that he is a rewarder and these two are to be believed by all even Ethnicks and Infidels But those to whom the Evangelicall law hath been sufficiently propounded must believe besides these two Christ and the blessed Trinity

say it is so but other Sectaries deprive it not of comely ornaments onely but even requisites and have lest in it nothing but one Sacrament to wit baptisme for their other things is but bare Bread and Wine and that now omitted and abused by many no form of Worship but some one of their ill translated Psalms and that not used by all and Preaching common to all sorts and even Sexes of People Secondly they teach things which are plainly paradoxical and asystata things not onely repugnant to most clear texts of Scripture but quite destructive of good Works and by consequence of the means for salvation for by their private spirit and each mans own interpretation of scripture they measure and square out the whole busines of Faith and Religion in this if they erre and how can they be free from errours they not onely run hazard of but plainly incur damnation for he that will not believe shall be condemned Amay with this pernicious and presumptuous tenent let the Church be your guide hear Her Shee 's exposed to no illusions of self-conceipt or of the wicked spirits whose transfiguring themselves into angels of light she can discover you cannot They deny also that man can merit by his good Works a tenent evidently contrary to all places of scripture in which the word reward is extant for merit and reward are correlatives they inferre one another to say that Christ amongst the other things he merited merited also this that mans good works done in relation to hi● passion and in vertue of it should be meritorious does not this more extoll Christs merits and magnifie them more than the negative opinion does many stupendious benefits favors and means for mans salvation Christ our Savior merited amongst the rest this They deny Free will at least to do good in man O imposture What 's this but a cloak for malice an occasion if not invitation allurement to sin and a stumbling block laid in the way for all to break their necks over this was a trick of Luthers and Calvins devising who after they had shamefully fallen into some enormous sins of the fltsh as they did began to broach this doctrine conformable to the lives they had begun and intended to lead thereby to save themselves from the indeleable stain of sacriledge Apostacy and infamy and because companions contribute to lessen the miseries of disgrace and dishonour by how many the more there be that participate of them therefore they indeavoured by this hellish herefie to inveagle others to adhere to them Many of them hold that the Commandements of God cannot possibly be kept O blasphemy What 's this but to impeach the divine Majesty of tyranny Can that goodnesse that infinite wise legislator impose laws under pain of damnations which are impossible to be kept stand astonisbed you heavens at this And to omlt other their assertions dishonourable to Christian Religion they hold that an act of Faith alone works that great work of mans justification that great change which the Prophet David cals the work of the right hand of him that is on high of a soul transferred from the state of being found guilty of mortal fin and by it of eternal punishment to the state of grace divine adoption and right to the eternal inheritance of the kingdom of heaven to attribute this stupendious effect to one act of faith alone as the cause either efficient or formall of it is an incredible paradox yea an impossibility besides the bad sequels which thence result that by which a man is formally justified is justice intrinsecally inherent in the soul to wit sanctifying grace and this is bestowed upon him for Christs justice to wit his merits nor can Faith alone be the efficient cause of mans justification or sanctification it is indeed a disposition but so is fear penance hopes and an act of the love of God by which act the soul is much more unired to God than by an act of Faith of mans justification therefore the efficient cause is God the formall cause divine grace and the meritory cause is Christ to wit by his merits and passion The bad sequels are many which that opinion of faith alone justifying brings first it hinders the exercise of many other vertues much recommended unto us in the holy Scripture as filiall fear offending God sorrow for having offended him and good purposes of amendment secondly it is a great let and impediment to good Works and the study of vertue for if I can be satisfied and consequently saved by producing one act of Faith only what need is there of spending my time and taking pains to pray fast watch do penance give alms What need you take pains about self-denyal carrying my Crosse and following my Saviour by imitating his vertues the three things he recommends unto us the practice of which since that opinion hinders it who does not see how pernicious it is thirdly it lays open a wide gate for all licenciousnesse sin and wickednesse for if with an act of faith onely you can repair and redress all the misery which sin brings to my soul why should I not feed all my senses with their delightfull objects follow the instinct of my flesh give the bridle to my passions and sacrifice my time my body my thoughts and my endeavours wholly to sensuality Ah deer Redeemer Now I see the reason of that your pitifull complaint Supra dorsum meum fabricaverunt peccatores upon my back sinners have built I see who they are that insteed of carrying their crosses after you and in imitation of you build upon your back and lay not onely all their obligations to Christian duties upon your sacred shoulders by omitting them but heap sin upon sin by offending more freely and lay these upon you also For what do they else who under pretence of magnifying your merits deny all merits of mans best works by denying Freewill to do good do no good by extolling the ability of Faith alone give occasion of remisnesse in vertue of falling into vice and of making shipwrack of all true faith The fourth point Consider now in order to a rectifying of thy judgement in matter of belief and for the better managing of thy life what may be inferred out of the precedent points and amongst other things first some peculiar differences betwixt the Doctrine of Romane Catholicks and that of Sectaries the one is most conformable to the holy Scriptures and our Saviours doctrine and example the other is contrary to these the ones Doctrine favours and honours the church of Christ by teaching that which is most beseeming almighty God and it the other by attributing all to an act of faith makes the Church an imperfect yea a needlesse thing for all the other priviledges and proprieties of it as also the means it hath conducing to salvation are superfluous if an act onely of faith will do all The one teacheth to