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	object_n	6,980	5	9.0206	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A11363	A treatise of Paradise. And the principall contents thereof especially of the greatnesse, situation, beautie, and other properties of that place: of the trees of life, good and euill; of the serpent, cherubin, fiery sword, mans creation, immortalitie, propagation, stature, age, knowledge, temptation, fall, and exclusion out of Paradise; and consequently of his and our originall sin: with many other difficulties touching these points. Collected out of the holy Scriptures, ancient fathers, and other both ancient and moderne writers.	Salkeld, John, 1576-1660.	1617 (1617)	STC 21622; ESTC S116515	126,315	368

the reward yet neuerthelesse the all-seeing and infinite good God doth neuer leaue the least loue of man without his reward It is necessary saith Paul that hee who doth come vnto God should beleeue and especially beleeue that he is a rewarder Wherefore as the first act of a regenerate person is faith so the first obiect of this act is touching our end for as the Philosopher saith quod est primum in intentione est vltimum in executione that which is first in intention or speculation is last in practise or execution and contrariwise that which is first in practise and execution is last in intention and speculation Wherefore as our supernaturall end and felicitie is the last thing which wee are to enioy so is it the first and principall which we ought to seeke and intend and if this bee true in all our actions it must needs bee much more in this of faith which is as Paul said the substance ground or confidence of things hoped for and of all our supernaturall actions By this it is manifest that the measure of the knowledge of the meanes of this supernaturall felicitie was according to the perfection of the apprehension and notice of this end insomuch that as this end may be attained vnto by a threefold meane so was man ordained thereunto by the same meanes to wit faith hope and loue faith for the discouerie of the obiect of our felicitie hope for the effectuating of the meanes of our happinesse loue for the combining of both the meanes a triple cord with a triple knot which not euen the power of Satan shall be able euer to dissolue Againe it seemeth most certaine that he knew the fall of the damned spirits because he might by the knowledge of this be much holpen in the obtaining of his end as thereby inferring the seueritie of the diuine iudgement towards the Angels and his infinite mercy towards men by the one he might be moued to feare the like seueritie if himselfe should fall and hope to replenish the places of the fallen Angels if he should stand The third obiect reuealed vnto Adam was the mysterie of the blessed Trinitie how God I meane was three in one and one in three three in distinction of persons one in the indiuisibilitie of nature being and essence and all his other infinite attributes the which though distinguished for our capacitie according to their obiects yet he well vnderstood them to bee one and the same in nature realitie and simplicitie of essence My reason why I thinke the reuelation of this obiect vnto Adam to be certaine is seeing that the sight of it is to be the perfection of our blessednesse in the life to come it must needs be also a beginning of it here wherefore as it is there by a perfect sight face to face so it must be likewise here in speculo in aenigmate with imperfection and obscuritie Yea seeing Adam knew himselfe to be made to the image of God three in one and one in three in his simple essence and his three spirituall powers so he must needs inferre the same of his prototypon and Creator Lastly hee had reuealed vnto him the incarnation of the Sonne of God not as passible for his sinne which certainly hee did not foresee but as to bee vnited to our nature for the excellencie of the mysterie and because he was to bee the head of mankinde CHAP. XLII Whether Adam was created in the grace of God or no. THough it be out of all controuersie that Adam was before his fall in the state of grace yet many bee of opinion that hee was not created so this was the opinion of Alex. Hales Scotus Bonan Marsilius and Altisiodorensis who though they grant that he was created in originall iustice yet distinguishing these two they deny that hee was created in state of grace their reason is because by grace there is contracted a spirituall kinde of wedlocke league and vnion betweene God and our soules Now then as matrimoniall vnion requireth the consent of both the parts so likewise here and the rather that Adam thereby might the better know himselfe and the weaknesse of his owne nature by an after infusion of grace Neuerthelesse it seemeth much more probable that though wee distinguish grace from originall iustice or howsoeuer that Adam was created in grace for as S. Austine saith God created the first man in that estate in which if hee would haue kept himselfe hee should haue beene transposed at his due time without any death vnto a better estate and where as he could haue committed no sinne so could hee haue had no will vnto sinne so that it was with Adam as the same Father saith in another place of the Angels God did simul condere naturam largiri gratiam ioyntly create his nature and giue him grace yea this according to the opinion of Origen Victorinus Basil Ambrose Chrysostome Augustine Beda and Rupertus is signified by these words let vs make man according to our image and likenesse image to wit in nature and her proprieties similitude according to grace and her euer following vertues yea this is insinuated by Paul himselfe in his epistle to the Colossians 3. chap. 9. and 10. verses where he saith that wee should not lie one to another seeing that wee haue put off the old man with his works haue put on the new man which is renewed with knowledge after the image that created him CHAP. XLIII Whether if Adam had not falne all his posteritie should haue beene borne in the grace and fauour of God and confirmed in the same HVgo de sancto Victore answereth that though Adam had begot children in his innocencie yet that his children should not haue beene borne inheritors of their fathers righteousnesse because righteousnes proceedeth not of flesh and bloud but of the meere grace of God so though they had not beene borne in sinne yet neither should they haue beene endued with originall iustice Neuerthelesse the common tenent of Diuines doth perswade the contrary to wit that as Adam by his sinne did transfuse into his posteritie the imputation of sinne together with the crime it selfe so likewise if hee had kept the same originall iustice in which hee was created he should also haue deriued the same vnto all his posteritie And this in effect is the meaning of the Arauficane Counsell where it defineth Adamum peccando sanctitatem iustitiam perdidisse non sibi tantum sed omnibus etiam posteris suis that Adam lost both his sanctitie and righteousnes by his originall sin and transgression not only in regard of him selfe but also to all his posteritie Neither may it bee inferred hence that then grace were no grace as Paul speaketh seeing that it should be cōnaturall in the aforesaid cause for though in some sense it should haue been connaturall that is hauing her being together with nature yet seeing it was not of nature neither due vnto

of knowledge of good and euill especially seeing he fore-knew his fall THe answer is easie to wit that by the tryall of his obedience in this one commandment hee might subiect the whole man vnto himselfe in all things and that man by the breach or keeping of the said commandement might know by wofull experience as he truely did in his wofull fall the difference betweene good and euill so that whereas before hee knew it onely by contemplation now he should find it by a lamentable experience yea in this his sinne was the greater in that the obiect of his obedience was so facile and the commandement so easie to be kept Aug. li. 14. de ciu Dei cap. 15. For as S. Austine saith like as the obedience of Abraham is highly extolled because the slaying of his sonne with his owne hands was of such difficultie euen so the disobedience of Adam in Paradise was the more hainous by how much the precept which he had imposed was the more facile to haue beene fulfilled Againe as the obedience of the second Adam was so much the more admirable because hee was obedient euen vnto death so the disobedience of the first Adam was the more detestable by which he became disobedient euen vnto death for where the punishment of the disobedience is great and the thing commanded easie who can expresse how great an euill it is not to obey and how great an iniurie to so great a power especially threatning so great punishments Now as touching the second point I answer that therefore God as absolute in his will science and power would create Adam and giue him the aforesaid precept which hee knew neuerthelesse hee would so presently violate to the end that his vnhappy fall might bee an occasion of our most happy Redeemer for as the Schooles commonly hold if Adam had not sinned the Sonne of God had not beene incarnated so that as Gregory saith in regard of this it was a happy fall which deserued or rather required to haue such a Redeemer O foelix culpa quae talem ac tantum habere meruit Redemptorem in which I know not whether I should more admire the goodnesse of God in the creation and restauration of man or the ingratitude of man towards God in and after both his creation redemption and infinite offences and falles but that as it is the nature of that infinite goodnesse to effectuate the greatest good of the greatest euill so is it no lesse consequent to mans naturall propension and of himselfe as it were an infinite of euill of the greatest good to worke the greatest euill a thing not easily beleeued if our daily and wofull experience did not so manifestly proue it for as God by our greatest and originall euill did worke our greatest and originall good and this onely out of his infinite goodnesse the incarnation I meane of his eternall Sonne so man out of his infinite malice did by occasion of this so infinite a benefit worke the most wicked outrage that could bee imagined against his benefactour by seeking his dishonour and death who so abased himselfe to giue him life so that I know not whether I should more admire God shedding his bloud for man or man spilling the bloud of God mans ingratitude towards God or Gods infinite bountie towards man And hence it is that as faith teacheth vs this euill and sinne of Adam was foreseene and permitted of God so is it no lesse a blasphemous heresie to auerre that this or any other sinne is wrought by God wrought I meane by his particular command or concourse not by his vniuersall which is due vnto all entitie and being yet in some sense neither due vnto this of sinne as which in it selfe hath neither entitie nor being but rather if wee speake formally is a priuation of all rectitude goodnesse and being CHAP. XXXII What death that was which God threatned to inflict vpon Adam for his transgression AS it is certaine that the mortalitie of Adam and consequently of all mankinde did proceed of sinne so it hath no small difficultie to declare what instant death that was which God so instantly threatned should follow mans sinne for so saith the text Gen. 2. the 17. verse In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death What day is this what death is this seeing that he neither first sinned the last day of his life nor yet died the first day of his sinne true it is that as death was due at his last day for his first sinne so was it not inflicted in the first houre for his first dayes sinne Was this death peraduenture the priuation of grace by which his soule supernaturally liued for as the body liueth by the soule so Adams soule liued by grace consequently as the body is said to die by the absence of the soule so the soule spiritually by the priuation of grace but yet though this be true yet it cannot bee the sole meaning of the aforesaid words so that then no other death should haue beene due vnto man but only the death of the soule the separation from God who as he had sinned both in body and soule was iustly to be punished in body and soule which the effect afterward shewed that God had before accordingly decreed so that the sentence of his death as it was executed both in body and soule so it is to bee vnderstood to haue beene decreed as well in regard of the body as of the soule because the corporall death is a necessary consequent of the spirituall now then the spirituall being inflicted in the very instant of mans sinne how chanced it that the corporall also did not befall him in the day of his sinne especially seeing that though God threatned not death in the instant of his sinne for the instant of his sinne yet at least God saith that man shall die in the day of his sinne Is it peraduenture threatned and not truly decreed or if really decreed how is it not absolutely performed God threatned his death in the day of his eating Adam eateth and yet liueth long after his eating Could Adam change the decree of God or could God decree that hee meant not to performe Hee performed not therefore he decreed not if he decreed not how then was it said In the day that thou eatest thou shalt die the death not of the soule only for that was instantly but of the body principally seeing that is said to be in tempore in the day not in instanti or momentarily Was it a threat only as wee reade of the Niniuites but they changed their minde they repented their sinne therfore as the sentence was conditionall the condition being changed the sentence of God though eternall is said to be reuoked not changed in act but immuted in obiect the act being immutable the obiect mutable according to the decree of the immutable act But here in this of Adam the cause is altered God