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
A82528	A friendly debate on a weighty subject: or, a conference by writing betwixt Mr Samuel Eaton and Mr John Knowles concerning the divinity of Iesus Christ: for the beating out, and further clearing up of truth.	Eaton, Samuel, 1596?-1665.; Knowles, John, fl. 1646-1668.	1650 (1650)	Wing E121; Thomason E609_16; ESTC R205964	49,997	66

I shall put this Instance in form of an Argument that the fallacy and insufficiency thereof may the better appear That it is contrary to the Scripture to give Divine worship honour and service to a meer Creature But Divine worship honour and service is by the warrant of the Scripture given to Christ Iesus Rev. 5.12 13 14. Therefoae Christ Iesus is not a meer creature To the Major I shall thus reply 1. I conceive that your expressions having in them some ambiguity need explanation If by Divine worship honour and service you mean that worship honor and service which is in any sense Divine I utterly deny your Proposition as erroneous and unsound For there is no worship honour and service which of right belongs to the creature but is in a sense Divine God being the principall Author and ultimate Center thereof Rom. 13. Eph. 5.7 But if you mean in the strictest sense that worship honour and service which is peculiar unto the most High God then shall I say with you that it is Idolatry and contrary to the Scripture to give it to any creature whatsoever That worship honour and service which is peculiar unto God differs from that which may be yeelded to the Creature partly in the matter but wholly in the manner of it We must pray to God for all things we want and may pray to men for what they can give we must obey God and we must obey men who are set over us by God but we may not worship honour or serve men in the like manner as we doe the most High God who is the Principall and Ultimate Object of all worship honour and service his right thereto being only of himself and he himself being the sole end thereof According to this sense is that command which our Saviour mentions Mat. 4. ●0 to be understood Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve 2. I wonder at this adjection MEER which you have added to creature as if a creature in essence could be more then a meer creature or as if some creature might have as its right and due that honor worship and service which the Scripture doth appropriate to the most High God Sure I am that creatures as creatures are excluded from sharing with GOD in that worship and service which is peculiar to him Now for your Minor That Divine worship honor and service is by Scripture-warrant given to Christ Iesus Answ Sir it is granted that Jesus Christ is the intermediate object of Divine worship honour and service being Gods Viceroy and acting amongst men in his Fathers name which the Scripture you bring helps to confirm But where the Scripture allows worship honour and service to be given to him as the Principall and Vltimate Object thereof is not yet made to appear and therefore the Conclusion may not have liberty to pass as an unquestiouable truth Instance 2 If Christ be a meer creature then it is lawfull and warrantable to beleeve in a meer Creature which is against the tenure of the whole Scripture But it is commanded in reference unto Christ Joh. 14.1 and salvation is annexed to it Jo. 3.36 Instance 3 If Christ be a meer creature then faith in a meer creature can save man which is absurd and grosse and contrary to the Scriptures for Abraham beleeved God and it was accounted to him for Righteousness Rom. 4.3 and so was saving Answ SIR these two instances the one being in respect of the other flesh of its flesh and bone of its bone I have joyn'd together and shall oppose unto these two Propositions which the Scripture will warrant and may suffice for an Answer 1. That that Faith which is needfull and necessary to salvation hath a double object God and the man Christ Jesus Joh. 14.1 the Scripture which you quote bears witness to this as a truth We are to beleeve on him that sent Jesus Christ Joh. 5.24 Verily verily I say unto you saith Christ he that heareth my Word and beleeveth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death to life And also on Jesus Christ that was sent John 6.29 As the Serpent was lifted up in the wilderness so must the Son of man be lifted up that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life John 3.14 15. That faith which hath but a single object is not a saving faith It is impossible that men should by a Gospel-light beleeve in God and not in Christ or in Christ and not in God Jesus cryed and said He that beleeveth on me beleeveth not on me but on him that sent me John 12.44 For by the Gospel God appears merciful in the face of Christ Christ appears instrumentall in the hand of God Rom. 4.24 Rom. 10.9 Though in some places but one is expressed yet there the other is clearly imply'd 2. That that Faith which is needfull and necessary to salvation acts in a diverse manner on God and the Lord Christ Jesus It acts towards God as the Principall and Vltimate and towards Iesus Christ as the Secondary and mediate Object of Faith Peter shews that the Saints to whom he wrote did beleeve in God through Iesus Christ and so that God was the Ultimate and Christ the Mediate object of their faith 1 Pet. 1.21 'T is from Gods Commandment that faith in Christ is needfull 1 Iohn 3.23 And 't is from Gods appointment that faith in Christ is saving Joh. 6.4 This is the will of him that sent me saith Christ that every one which seeth the Son and beleeveth on him may have everlasting life Instance 4 If Christ be but a meer creature then a meer creature is the Saviour of men saving them with a mighty and eternal salvation as the Scripture speaks but this is against the whole current of the Gospel which speaks of God our Saviour Tit. 2.10 13. and in many other places Answ Against this your instance I shall levell this Assertion which will be sufficient to discover its weakness and confute it That to affirm Jesus Christ to be the Saviour of men without God or equal with God is contrary to the current of the whole Scripture which doth distinguish God from Christ in the work of Salvation calling him a Saviour as distinct from Christ as in the 1 Tim. 1.1 where God is said to be our Saviour and the Lord Jesus Christ to be our hope and in the Text you alleadge and frequently elsewhere And in that the Scripture doth prefer God in the work of Salvation before our Lord Jesus Christ making God to be the principal Agent therein when it declares that the work of Christ in saving men was from the purpose of God who appointed him for it and from the Precept of God who injoyned him to it and from the Presence of God who assisted him in it all which from the Scriptures might be abundantly set forth

proportion betwixt one meer man dying for sin and many men sinning and deserving death each of them for the sins they have committed And how an Infinite Justice offended should be satisfied with the sacrifice finite in value is unconceivable and against the tenure of the Scripture Answ Considering the words of this Instance with its scope we may draw up this Argument That Doctrine which takes away the value of Christs offering and destroys the satisfaction which he gave to Divine Iustice brings in as it were another Gospel c. But that Doctrine which makes Christ a meer creature doth so Therefore I shall grant the Major but how prove you the Minor You would confirm your Doctrine by asking two Queries 1. If Christ was say you a meer creature then who could he satisfie for the sins of many transgressours c Sir if it please you to consider Rom. 5.12 and so forward you may answer your own Query or see as good Reason of this which I shall now propound If Adam were a meer creature how could his sin make many transgressours If through the offence of one many be dead much more the grace of God and the gift by grace by one man Iesus Christ hath abounded unto many Rom. 5.15 Christ as well as Adam was a common person and therefore the Lord having laid upon him the iniquities of us all and he bearing the curse of the Law his Members are delivered from both the sin and the curse Your Second Query is this How is it conceivable that an Infinite Iustice offended should be satisfied by a Sacrifice finite in value What matters it Sir if it be unconceivable must it therefore be uncredible Doubtless in all Controversall doctrines you will not hold this for an Orthodoxall tenent In the Doctrine of the Trinity credit must be given to things unconceivable but the like liberty it seems will not be allowed in Christs Mediatorship Eut Sir the foundation you build upon is not a little questionable you take that for granted and so infer from it which you are to confirm Sure I am that not a few errours may lie under your Non-Scripturall-Language Ye tell us of an Infinite Sacrifice but what you mean by it and where Scripture tells us I am yet for to learn The Scripture tells us that Christ was made sin or a sin offering for us by taking our sins and bearing the curse But how this Sacrifice was infinite remains to me unconceivable If the suffering of Christ had been Infinite there had been no end of it If the curse had been Infinite man could not have born it being uncapable of any thing Infinite in the Infinity of it It is enough for me to believe that my Lord Jesus suffered for me whatever I deserved to suffer and that was the curse of the Law be that what it will There is a Scripture which I finde in your Instance and that is Acts 20.28 and I knew no fitteer place then the close of my Answer for it Sir I shall offer these few things to your consideration 1. That there may be some mistake in the Text. God may be put for Lord or Christ which if granted the words are thus to be read Take heed therefore to your selves and to all the slock over which the holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the Church of Christ which he hath purchased with his own bloud The Churches of the Saints are called the Churches of Christ Rom. 16.16 This conceit of a mistake may receive countenance from the possibility probability and facility thereof It is possible that the Scribe through carelesness or something worse might here put God for Christ There are two places one in the Old Testament another in the New which Willet conceiveth to have been mistaken by the Scribes negligence or something worse The first is Psal 22.16 where Caari signifying as a Lion is put for Caru they pierced The other is Rom. 12.11 we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 time for Lord Also it is probable that here is a mistake for as Grotius observes many Copies have Lord and the Syriack Christ not God Lastly it was easie to mistake taking one for the other from that compendious writing which was anciently much in use where for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they wrote onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. But in the next place if it be proved that there is no mistake in the Text yet there may be a defect in the words For the last clause some Greek copies thus have it which he hath purchased with the blood of his own and so the word Son is to be understood with the blood of his own Son 3. Last of all if both these may bee removed yet the words may have another meaning then what you and many others allot to them Christs blood may be said to be Gods own blood in way of eminency it being more excellent by farre then the blood of the Legall Sacrifices In the old Testament tall trees are called Cedars of God the like Phrases are frequently there to be found And the New Testament is not wholly a stranger to the like Phrases In this sence Christ is called the Lamb of God Joh. 1.36 because he was far more excellent then either the Paschall Lamb or any other Lamb which was to be slain in way of Sacrifice under the Leviticall Priesthood The Divine Authour to the Hebrewes speaking both of the blood of legall sacrifices and of Christ Jesus preferres the blood of Christ far before all other blood that was shed for the expiation of sinne Heb. 9.13.14 Now I hasten to your ninth substance which is this Instance 1 If Christ be a meere creature then the intercession of Christ is overthrown for Christ if meere man being in heaven cannot know the state of the Church in all places upon earth therefore cannot intercede for it Answ Sir the reducing of this your Instance into an Argument will be sufficient to discover its vanity and weaknesse Thus it may be formed without the least injury to your meaning if your mind agree with the import of your words That Doctrine which utterly overthrows the Intercession of Christ brings in as it were another Gospel c. But the Doctrine which makes Christ to be a meere creature utterly overthrows the intercesson of Christ Therefore Sir to your major I yield the fullest concession being so much a friend to Christs Incercession Your minor brings in an high accusation but pray Sir how is it attended with probation you onely say that if Christ were a meere creature being in heaven he could not know the state of the Churches in all places upon earth and therefore if he were but a meere creature he could not intercede What must we again take your word for a proffer I wish a better for there is no goodnesse in that We have already been too long troubled with the word I say in