Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	condition_n	faith_n	justify_v	3,574	5	8.9714	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25294	The substance of Christian religion, or, A plain and easie draught of the Christian catechisme in LII lectures on chosen texts of Scripture, for each Lords-day of the year, learnedly and perspicuously illustrated with doctrines, reasons, and uses / by that reverend and worthy laborer in the Lord's vineyard, William Ames ...	Ames, William, 1576-1633.	1659 (1659)	Wing A3003; ESTC R6622	173,739	322

us than any other vertue or grace and gift of God as charity temperance and the like Use 1. Is of Refutation against such as attribute justification to Faith as it is an act and part of our obedience as a condition required of God For thus the strength and life of justifying Faith is destroyed and Christ is robbed of his glory and the consciences of Christians of their solid comfort and tranquility of minde Use 2. Is of Direction that we may alwayes set the the eye of our faith directly upon Christ or on the grace and mercy of God in him that so we may from him draw Righteousness and Salvation Doct. 4. Iustifying saving faith consists not properly in any knowledge but in certain solid or sound affiance or trust Justifying Faith is an act and fruit of the experience of Faith and not the first affiance and trust that justifies Our Doctrine is hence gathered in that the object of Faith in this place is no intellectual or logical truth as such but some good as the object of the practical mind of preelection viz. the means of salvation which is a single or incomplex terme as Logicians call it in these words on the Lord Iesus Christ where not any thing of or about Christ but Christ himself is the object Next because Faith is said to be busied about this object as about a prop or stay so that the heart of a man otherwise destitute of all help and about to run into despair casts it self upon Christ as a stay that by him it may be sustained and upheld which is intimated by this phrase believe in our Lord Iesus Christ. By affiance we understand not any assent or act of the understanding about logical truth or affirmation or negation nor yet properly the confident expectation of the will which is assigned to our hope and confidence therein contained or from thence arising but that act of the will or heart which properly is called e●…ection or choyse whereby we rely upon Christ repose and rest on him and adhere to him as a fit and sufficient Mediator by whom we may be saved By this affiance we are said every where in the Old Testament to be united or joyned to God as Isa. 48. 2. 50. 10. And by this affiance properly we come unto Christ Ioh. 6. and are said to receive Christ Ioh. 1. 12. which things cannot be affirmed of any complex knowledge or assent of the understanding whether general or special It is true that such a knowledge on the behalf of such as belong to Christ is a necessary antecedent and the cause of this faith and affiance that justifies and so in that respect it hath the title of this faith as well in Scriptures as in commn discourse But yet when Faith is considered precisely as it justifies and saves then it is understood either as an act or as a disposition of the will or heart which followes the foresaid knowledge and for the begetting whereof that knowledge doth serve From this affiance if it be lively and vigorous and joyned with fitting knowledge there followes a certain perswasion of remission of our sins and therefore true Faith useth often to be described by this perswasion especially when the controversy is with Papists who oppose this perswasion as a vain presumption Yet this perswasion is not properly justifying faith but an act of hope and experience rather a fruit in him who already is justified It is also such an act that for some time may be wanting where yet true justifying faith is though insirm as experience in the godly teacheth and therefore it ought not to be proposed in the essence and definition of justifying Faith least so the weak consciences of some believers should thence be heavily troubled as if they had not tru faith when they feel themselves to have no such certain perswasion of the remission of their sins It will appear then to any rightly weighing all things that justifying Faith as such is properly the affiance of the hear not any complex knowledge or judgement of the understanding Reason 1. Because nothing in the whole Gospell is promised to any that hath yet no affiance or trust in Christ before this affiance therefore nothing can be known that hath the vertue to justify until it be trusted on and therefore no knowledge going before this faith of affiance can justify Reas. 2. We cannot conceive any knowledge before this affiance which is not found sometimes in such as are not justified As for example such as have a spirit of illumination and light but not of regeneration and therefore fall away afterwards from that glory which inseparably followes justification sinning against the Holy Ghost Reas. 3 Because in every part of Religion and so in Faith also these two things are distinguished to wit to know and to do To know what is to be believed and what all ought to believe and to give assent to truthes that are to be believed is not yet to do that which believing imports and is the proper obedience of Faith it self which is the root of all other obedience and therefore joyntly to be understood under this as both comes from Faith Rom. 1. 5. And in very truth such is the formal reason of obedience in true Faith that under this name and nature it ought to be referred unto the will properly because it is the part of the will and not of the understanding to obey Reas. 4 Because by this act of the will we have an inward union with God in Christ even as amongst men there is a greater conjunction by a constant inclination and affection of the will than by the judgement of the intellect Reas. 5. Because the act of faith is such that by it we cast our selves wholly upon Christ or upon the mercy of God in Christ. But the act of the understanding properly and immediately doth not transfer the whole man but the act of the will which alone therefore properly is called the act of the whole man Nor can it be heer answered that Faith is an aggregate thing consisting partly of knowledge and partly of affiance because unto such aggregate things single and distinct operations can not be attributed as are attributed unto Faith For example the health of the whole body hath no distinct operation but is conceived as a single thing extends it self alike to soundness of all and of every part and as holiness as it is in this or that virtue hath no distinct and single operation Moreover no more reason can be given why knowledge affiance should make up one aggregate thing than knowledge and hope or knowledge and love or than knowledge and justice or temperance Besides all this however knowledge be aggregated with true Faith yet because a great part of this knowledge which goes before affiance is found also in the Devills themselves neither yet can any knowledge be shewn that goes before affiance which is not

found in some unregenerate persons no reason admits that this knowledge should be an essential part of Faith and of the spiritual life because it is found in them that have no part of spiritual life Use. Is of Exhortation against Papists and others who know nor acknowledge no other faith but knowledge and a certain material assent which yet may may consist with greatest diffidence and most wretched desperation Use 2. Is of Direction that we may enquire of the knowledge of the truth which is necessary for us unto Faith and to Salvation and that we be wary that we rest not on any bare knowledge but then think we have true Faith onely when according to the knowledge of the truth we rely upon Christ with our whole heart for salvation to be obtayned by him alone Use 3. Is of Consolation to those who with all their heart strive to rest upon Christ and yet cannot for a time or presently and certainly perswade themselves That God is reconciled unto th●…m for such have true Faith though weak For this certainty of perswasion is the effect of a more strong and perfect Faith whereunto also in their own time such believers shall be brought A Question is here propounded By what means is such a Faith begotten and promoted in our hearts Answer This Faith is properly begotten in us by the Holy Ghost through the Ministry and Preaching of the Gospell because Faith is above nature while we believe these things that surmount all reason and are lifted up above our selves by Faith as the Apostle saith that Abraham hoped above hope that is beyond humane natural and ordinary hope so also they that truly believe believe beyond belief or above belief It is begotten in us by the Gospell because in the promises of the Gospell Christ is offered and exhibited to us and the efficacy or power of the Holy Ghost accompanieth the preaching of the holy Gospell Now from these things it followeth that such have not true Faith who either believe nothing above what is natural or in a supernaturall way or else have not their Faith from the Gospell and word of God Doct. 5. Such as truly believe in Christ may and ought to be sure of their salvation This is gathered from the connexion between the antecedent and consequent in the Text believe and thou shalt be saved For as particular men while they remain in their particular sins may be assured that for that time they are subject to the curse of God so may some believers be particularly assured that they are partakers of eternal blessing and salvation For as that other assurance of the curse comes from the Law towards impenitent sinners or breakers of it so this other assurance of the blessing comes to repenting and believing sinners through the promises of the Gospell The whole order therefore of this consolation whereby we may be certain of salvation is as followeth in such a Syllogism wherein both will and understanding have their parts whereof the proposition stands in the assent of the understanding and makes up a dogmatical Faith The assumption is not principally in the compounding understanding but in the single apprehension and will so as to make it true and of force to infer the certainty in the conclusion which the heart doth by this act of affiance that being the property of justifying Faith and thus existing in the heart The conclusion is also principally ultimately in the single apprehension and will or in the heart by the grace of hope and both it and the experimental reflexion joyn'd with it which is in the understanding and the other also by this reflexion are the effects of the experimental knowledge and reflexion of our understanding in the assumption upon the true existence of the single term in the heart or will which bears the whole burthen of the assurance Use Is of great Consolation to believers whereof they are Sacrilegiously robbed by Papists and all such who impugne this certainty of salvation The eighth Lords day Mat. 28. 19. Go ye therefore and teach all Nations baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost IN this verse is contained that principal command which Christ left to his Apostles and Ministers and it consists of two parts whereof in the first the preaching of the Word and in the other the administration of the Sacraments is commanded The chief scope of both parts is shewed in the last words to wit That men may be taught and confirmed in the true faith and obedience of the Father Son and Holy Ghost From this place was the Creed taken and framed which is called the Apostles Creed but as to the foundation of it in these words not first taught by the Apostles but to the Apostles by Christ himself at that very time when he spake those words 2. By the Apostles at the command of Christ to all Christians for a rule of Faith and a badge whereby Christians should be discovered as well fro●… Heathens as from Jews and other Sects Nor was there any other or longer Creed than this contained in the words of our Lord in the times of the Apostles and of the Church that next followed their times But afterwards diverse Heresies laid a necessity upon the Church of adding diverse articles to this Creed not that they should be new additions to the old Faith but needfull explications of the same Hence it is that all things that are now contained in the Creed are referred unto these three heads which are set down in these words viz. either unto the Father or the Sonne or the Holy Ghost Doct. 1. Though God be one in essence onely yet is he three in persons the Fathe●… the Son and the Holy Spirit Reas. 1. Because in this place Faith is presupposed and prerequired for baptising one of age whereby he believeth in the Father Son and Holy Ghost and this same Faith is as it were sealed by Baptism as with a seal and the open profession of this Faith is solemnised by this Badge or Confession and Creed that our Lord himself taught and gave in command And these things were not done for once or in a temporary way but by an unchangeable Institution and perpetual Covenant they were delivered to the Church to be observed through all ages as necessary foundations of salvation The consequence of this argument hath certainty and confirmation from thence in that divine Faith and spiritual neither ought●… nor is any where used in Scripture to be directed to any creature but to God alone Reas. 2. Because one and the self-same authority and power is attributed to the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost For when the Word is preached and Baptism administred not onely in the name of the Father but likewise also of the Son and of the Holy Ghost It is manifestly shewed that by the authority and power of this most holy Trinity Baptisme with other the like