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
A89645	A little starre, giving some light into the counsels and purposes of God revealed in the Scriptures. Or A catechisme, wherein these ensuing principles. 1. What God is, and how he manifests himselfe. 2 Why he made the world and man. 3. Mans condition, what, 1. by creation. 2. By his fall. 3. By being restored by Jesus Christ. 4 The uses and ends of the law. 5. What the Gospell is. 6. Justification what it is. 7. Sanctification what, and how it is wrought. 8. What repentance is. 9. The use and ends of the Scriptures. 10. What true prayer is. 11. Baptisme, and the Lords Supper, why, and how used. 12. Generall redemption what, and how to be adjudged of. 13. Resurrection and judgement what. 14. Heaven and Hell what, in truth and misterie. All which are briefly by way of question and answer opened and explained. / By VVilliam Mason.	Mason, William, Anabaptist.	1653 (1653)	Wing M948; Thomason E1505_1; ESTC R208669	86,553	204

partly outward the inward part of the Covenant which was Christ was clouded and very dark as was said before and very little notice taken of it by the greatest part of them But the outward part of it was very plain and easie and they all knew it very well and acted generally according unto it and minded earthly Canaan long life and outward prosperity therein more than heavenly Canaan or the sweet and comfortable enjoyment of God in the lively apprehension of his love and favour But now Christ who indeed is the new Covenant for he is the substance of all those former Covenants being come and having acted his part in the flesh is now revealed in the Spirit for he is that Spirit or power of Gods infinite love proceeding eternally from the Father upon the Son and from the Son upon the Saints and into their hearts and now the Saints look not for Christ in outward observations but in inward and spiritual demonstrations of infinite love shed abroad in their hearts whereby they are transformed and conformed unto Christ their head more and more Neither doe the Saints now look to any outward Covenant for there is no promise made unto them of any outward or temporal things but with persecution and that they shall be contented with their conditions But the Saints look unto Jesus who is the author and finisher of their faith and count it all joy when they are accounted worthy to suffer rebuke for his name And this is the true reason why the Saints walk with God so chearfully and joyfully because they clearly see that they are not justified by or for any work or merit or worth of their own but meerly by the free grace and love of God in and for the righteousnesse of Christ Jesus who is the Lord our righteousnesse both unto justification and also unto sanctification Q. What is justification Or how may sinfull men be said to be justified or made righteous before God A. Justification is an act of Gods free grace and love whereby he through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ hath freely forgiven the sinnes of all his elect and accepts of them in him as perfectly just and righteous But more plainly Justification is that whereby God himself is pleased to condiscend and to cloath himself with our flesh and in our nature and our flesh to fulfill all the righteousnesse of the Law for us and also to subject himself in the flesh to death and curse hereby paying all our debts and satisfying divine Justice on our behalf and so became our righteousnesse for justification All which he hath done freely without any desert or desire on our part Q. But doth not the Scripture say that we are justified by faith What is faith And how are we justified by the same A. There be in Scripture divers kinds of faith mentioned by reason whereof many think that they believe to justification and are deceived for justification is free on Gods part and without any condition at all on our part for if faith were a condition of our justification then it were not free justification being an act of God in his eternal counsell and purpose before the world began if faith were a condition thereof then are we justified for some fore-seen grace in us and not freely by his grace Now faith is neither a meanes nor yet any condition of justification but rather an evidence or demonstration thereof for true faith is that whereby we close with God in the promise of life and salvation in and by Jesus Christ Now this faith is not in us by nature but is wrought in the heart by the manifestation of God in the soul When the Lord is pleased to reveal Christ in the soul and to discover to the same that he is well pleased with him in Jesus and that he hath freely forgiven all his sinnes meerly for the merit and righteousnesse of Jesus and that now he accepts of him as righteous in his beloved Son and that in Christ he hath adopted him to himself to be his Son now when the soul apprehends this then it is thereby enabled to believe it and rests upon it And thus true faith doth not act in the workes of justification but onely believes it when it is revealed in the soul and then believing hath peace with God and can look upon him with comfort and can joy in him in all tribulations Now no man can believe in Jesus Christ untill he be revealed unto him by the Father and according to the measure or degrees whereby God is pleased to discover himself to any man so he can believe or confide in him more or lesse so that it is plain that faith is no meanes or condition of our justification but by faith we believe it and rest confidently assured of it when it is revealed and so have joy and peace in believing Q. But doth not the Scripture say that Abraham was justified by works what say you then of good workes as prayer reading and hearing the word repentance and all other duties of piety and charity are not they required as good meanes of our justification A. The scope of that Scripture is not to declare that Abraham did act any thing in the work of justification for it is said that Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousnesse and those good works whereby Abraham is said to be justified doe rather declare him to believe and his faith to be a live than any way to act in the matter of justification For faith as is said before doth not justifie but believes it and applies it true faith works by love and shewes what house it comes of by actions of piety and mercy There is a faith which is dead it being nothing else but a perswasion of a carnal heart which is deceitfull and of this many men brag and boast and cry religion religion but they doe not walk in love neither toward God nor men and this faith profiteth nothing or profitable to no man and is no better than the faith of Devils But true faith where it is indeed it proceeds from a holy seed being begotten by the manifestation or discovery of God in the soul and hath for its ground a word of promise not onely without but especially within and is reall and not in imagination so also it acts like it self and is profitable every way First toward God it gives him the glory of all his wisdome power justice mercy and goodnesse when men can say indeed In the Lord have I righteousnesse and in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength when a man can say now I live yet not I but Christ lives in me yea I can doe all things be any thing suffer any thing through Christ that strengthens me I can be abased and I

that is dead having now neither strength nor desire to act toward his own good That he had no will appears by this when God called for him he ran away and hid himself and also when the Lord reasoned out the matter in a gentle and peaceable way he began to excuse himself and shift off the business to another but had no mind to cry guilty And to shew that it was altogether impossible for him to attain the love and favour of God which is life by any power of his own or by any meanes he could devise There was placed between him and life irresistable power and unavoidable danger Cherubims and a flaming Sword turning every way to keep the way of the Tree of Life Q. Seeing mans condition was at first every way so happy and blessed how could it be possible that by one offence he should become thus extreamly and unavoidably miserable A. Mans felicity did not altogether consist in that he was made happy by vertue of his Creation but in that he was in the love and favour of God that being the main Pillar whereon his blessedness his joy his comfort yea and his very life depended but when he would leave the Counsel and Command of God and hearken to Satan the utter enemy of God and follow his counsel and obey his command he deprived himself and that justly of all that blessed and comfortable enjoyment of Gods love and favour and not onely so but was now become the Bond-slave of Satan and led captive of him at his will Q Is there then such danger in sin A. The nature of sin is exceeding dangerous it deprived man of all comfort joy and happiness both in his soul and in his outward condition also and exposed him to all miseries in his soul and outward estate And not onely so but it is also very poysonous Satan that foul spirit being now possessed of mans heart hath tainted and corrupted his whole Nature soul and body in all the powers and parts thereof so that now he was not able of himself to think act or speak any thing that is good or of God but altogether that which is evil and of the Devil Q. Man being now wholly corrupted and abominable in his actions and being joyned also with Satan against God how then came it to pass that God who is infinite in justice could forbear and not execute upon him that penalty which he at first denounced against him in case he disobeyed A. That infinite and over-flowing fulness of love which is in God or rather which is God could now no longer be kept in for now he begins to act like a Father whose Bowels yearn after his Children and though he carryed the matter strange a while yet notwithstanding love breaks forth and acts like it self and instead of proceeding to execution he begins to comfort him revealing to him his purpose in the mysterie of Christ and out of the bottomless depth of Wisdom declaring that he could be just in justifying the ungodly condemning the sin in the second Adam who was to arise of the Seed of the woman and though the Devil had been too hard for them and spoiled them of their present happiness yet at length the womans Seed should overcome the Devil and ransom them and redeem them from his slavery and put them into a safer condition than they had lost Q. Was Adam fully restored by vertue of this Promise unto that happy condition which at first he enjoyed A. Mans condition was at first happy in that he could act righteousness and so keep himself in the love of God but when he by sin had disabled himself and could act nothing but unrighteousness he lost the favour of God and so became miserable Nevertheless by this promise he was much repaired not that he could now act but that he was enabled to believe on him who should act righteousness for him for according to the manifestations of God to him so he could believe and according to his faith or the measure thereof so was his comfort and happiness But he was not yet fully restored for although Satan was cast out yet he was not wholly overcome but waited his opportunity to re-enter continually labouring by his subtile suggestions and insinuations to make that bitter Root and spawn of sin which remained in him to grow increase and break forth into act that so he might at least deprive him of his comfort Q. Did the guilt of this sin and the punishment due to the same lye and remain onely upon Adam or did it extend also to his Posterity A. Sin is of such a filthy and defiling nature that it taints and pollutes every thing that touches it or comes near it and though Adam or the first man was alone as touching the act of it yet notwithstanding he being wholly corrupted and all men being then in his loynes they must of necessity be tainted and polluted with the same Q. This me thinks seems very strange that Adam sinning in his own person his Posterity should be defiled therewith and it being a point not easily digested of all therefore how do you further prove it A. Adam in his innocency was Holy and Righteous and therein he was like unto God but now having sinned and corrupted himself he no longer retains the Image of God but is become like Satan and is a sinner and in this condition he could not beget a son in the Image of God that is holy and righteous but in his own image that is a sinner like himself no man being able to bring forth pure streams out of an impure and filthy Fountain Q. But how could God justly punish and that so severely the Posterity of Adam for his sin A. God who is infinitely Holy and Righteous though he might have justly condemned and destroyed all Adam's Posterity they being all born the Children of wrath and under the curse yet notwithstanding doth not proceed to the condemnation of any until they have made Adam's sin their own by acting sin in their own persons Q. All men being become thus sinful and abominable in their doings what means doth God use and what course doth he take for their redemption and salvation A. The promise which God made to Adam concerning the Seed of the woman must in the fulness of time be fulfilled God who is rich in mercy for his infinite love wherewith he loved Man-kind doth marvellously condescend and comes forth in the name and nature of a Son works powerfully in the Womb of a Virgin causeth a wonderful Conception brings forth an excellent creature a second Adam altogether without sin pure and holy calls him his Son names him a Saviour manifests his great love and the exceeding riches of his grace in him he being Immanuel or God made one