Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	faith_n	heart_n	purify_v	2,568	5	11.6551	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47646	Sermons preached by Dr. Robert Leighton, late archbishop of Glasgow published at the desire of his friends, after his death, from his papers written with his own hand.	Leighton, Robert, 1611-1684.	1692 (1692)	Wing L1031; ESTC R29941	164,938	342

hath died and that stands for the Believer Whosoever flies to him and lays hold on him for life he cannot die again nor canst thou die for whom he died once or rather is risen that raises the assurance higher and sets it firmer for this evidences that in his death all was payed when he being the Surety and seized on for the Debt and once Deaths Prisoner yet was set free This clears the matter that there is no more to be said and yet further in sign that all is done he is raised to the height of Honour above all Principalities and Powers is set at the right hand of the Father and there he sits and lives to make Intercession to sue out the fulfilling of all for Believers the bringing of them home lives to see all made good that he Died and Covenanted for so now his righteousness is thine that believest any challenge must meet with Christ first and if it seize not on him it cannot light on thee for thou art in him married to him And the same triumph that he speaks Isaiah 50. 8. whence these words are borrowed that is made thine and thou mayest now speak it in him I know not what can cast him down that hath this word to rest upon and to comfort himself in SERMON XVII Rom. VIII 35 c. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or ●amine or nak●dness or peril or sword c. IS this he that so lately cry'd out O wretched Man that I am Who shall deliver me That now triumphs O happy Man Who shall separate us from the love of Christ Yes t is the same Pained then with the thoughts of that miserable conjunction with a Body of Death and so crying out who will deliver Who will separate me from that now Now he hath found a Deliverer to do that for him to whom he is for ever united and he glories now in his inseparable Union and unalterable Love that none can divide him from yea it is through him that presently after that word of complaint he praises God and now in him he triumphs So vast a difference is there betwixt a Christian taken in himself and in Christ when he views himself in himself then nothing but wretched and wretched a polluted perishing Wretch but then he looks again and sees himself in Christ and there he 's rich and safe and happy he triumphs and he glories in it above all the painted Prosperities and against all the hor●id Adversities of the World he lives in his Christ content and happy and laughs at all Enemies And he extends his triumph he makes a common good of it to all Believers speaks it in their name who shall separate us and would have them partake of the same confidence and speak in the same stile with him It is vain that men fancy these to be expressions of Revelations or some singularly priviledg'd Assurances then they would not suit their end which is clearly and undoubtedly the encouragement of all the Children of God upon grounds that are peculiar to them from all the rest of the World but common to them all in all Ages and all varieties of condition It is true all of them have not a like clear and firm apprehension of their happy and sure estate and scarce any of them are alike at all times yet they have all and always the same right to this estate and to the comfort of it and when they stand in a right light to view it they do see it so and rejoice in it There be indeed some kind of assurances that are more rare and extraordinary some immediate glances or co●uscations of the love of God upon the Soul of a Believer a smile of his Countenance and this doth exceedingly refresh yea ravish the Soul and enables it mightily for Duties and Sufferings These he dispenses arbitrarily and freely where and when he will some weaker Christians sometimes have them while stronger are strangers to them the Lord training them to live more contentedly by Faith till the day of Vision come And that is the other the less ex●atical but the more constant and fixed kind of assurance the proper assurance of Faith the Soul by believing cleaves unto God in Christ as he offers himself in the Gospel and thence is possest with a sweet and calm perswasion of his love that being the proper work to appropriate him to make Christ and in him Eternal Life ours so 't is the proper result and fruit of that its acting especially when it acts any thing strongly to quiet the Soul in him Then being Justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ and from that Peace Joy yea even glorying in Tribulation as there follows And these springing not from an extraordinary sense or view but from the very innate Vertue of Faith working kindly and according to its own Nature Therefore many Christians do prejudice their own Comfort and darken their Spirits by not giving freedom to Faith to act according to its Nature and proper Principles they will not believe till they find some evidence or assurance which is quite to invert the order of the thing and to look for Fruit without settling a Root for it to grow from Would you take Christ upon the absolute word of promise tendring him to you and rest on him so this would ingraft you into life it self for that he is and so those Fruits of the Holy Ghost would bud and flourish in your hearts from that very believing on him would arise this perswasion yea even to a gloriation and an humble boasting in his love who shall accuse who shall condemn who shall separate The undivided Companion and undoubted Helper and Preserver of this confidence of Faith is an active love to Christ a constant study of Holiness and strife against Sin which is the grand enemy of Faith that obstructs the very Vital Spirits of Faith that makes it sickly and heavy in its actings and causes the Palsie in the hand of Faith that it cannot lay so fast hold Therefore this you would be careful of yea know that of necessity it attends Faith and as Faith grows Holiness will grow and Holiness growing will mutually strengthen and establish Faith the Comforts of the Holy Ghost are holy purifying Comforts and the more the Soul is purify'd and made holy the more is it cleared and enlarged to receive much of these Comforts Blessed are the pure heart they shall see God Unholiness is as damps and filthy mists in the Soul it darkens all Hence it is evident in what way Christians may and ought to aspire to this Assurance it is their Portion and in this way they are to aspire to it and shall find it if not presently yet let them wait and go on in this way they shall not miscarry Again it appears that this assurance is no enemy to Holy Diligence nor friend of Carnal

matter one would think smal the eating of the Fruit of a Tree 't was rebellion against the Majesty of God casting off his Law and Authority and aspiring to an imagin'd Self-Deity And this is still the treasonable Pride or Independency and Wickedness of our Nature rising up against God that formed us of nothing And this is the power and substance of Religion the new Impress of God upon the heart and Obedience and Resignment to him to be given up to him as entirely his to be moulded and ordered as he will to be subject to hi● Laws and Appointments in all things to have every Action and every Word under a Rule and Law and the penalty to be so high Eternal Death All this to a carnal or haughty mind is hard not only every Action and Word but even every Thought too must be subject not so much as thought free every thought brought into Captivity as the Apostle speaks And so the Licentious mind accounts it not only the Affections and Desires but the very Reasonings and Imaginations are brought under this Law Now to yield this as reasonable and due to God to own his Soveraignty and to acknowledge the Law to be Holy Just and Good to approve yea to love it even there where it most contradicts and controuls our own corrupt Will and the Law of Sin in our Flesh this is true Spiritual Obedience to study and enquire after the Will of God in all our ways what will please him and having found it to follow that which is here called the way of his Commandments to make this our way and our business in the World and all others things but Accessaries and By-works even those lawful things that may be taken in and used as helps in our way As the Disciples passing through the Corn pluckt the Ears and did eat in passing as a By-work but their business was to follow their Master And whatsoever would hinder us in this way must be watched and guarded against to reject that we must either remove and thrust it aside or if we cannot do that yet we must go over it and trample it under foot were it the thing or the person that is dearest to us in the World till the heart be brought to this state and purpose it is either wholly void of or very low and weak in the Truth of Religion We place Religion much in our accustom'd performances to coming to Church hearing and repeating of Sermons and praying at home keeping a road of such and such Duties The way of Gods Commandments is more in doing than in discourse In many Religion evaporates it self too much out by the Tongue while it appears too little in their ways Oh! but this is the main one Act of Charity Meekness or Humility speaks more than a days discourse All the means we use in Religion are intended for a further end which if they attain not they are nothing This end is to mortifie and pur●fie the heart to mould it to the way of Gods Commandments in the whole tract of our lives in our private converse one with another and our retired secret converse with our selves to have God still before us and his Law our Rule in all we do that he may be our meditation Day and Night and that his Law may be our Counsellour as this Psalm hath it to regulate all our Designs and the Works of our Callings by it To walk soberly and godly and righteously in this present World to curb and cross our own Wills where they cross Gods to deny our selves our own Humour and Pride our Passions and Pleasures to have all those subdued and brought under by the Power of the Law of Love within us This and nothing below this is the end of Religion Alas amongst multitudes that are called Christians some there may be that speak and appear like it yet how few are there that make this their business and aspire to this The way of Gods Commandments His intended course in this way he expresses by running 't is good to be in this way even in the ●lowest motions Love will creep where it cannot go But if thou art so indeed then thou wilt long for a swifter motion if thou do but creep be doing creep on yet desire to be enabled to go if thou goest but yet halting and lamely desire to be strengthned to walk straight and if thou walkest let not that satisfie thee desire to run So here David did walk in this way but he earnestly wishes to mend his pace he would willingly run and for that end he desires an enlarged heart Some dispute and descant too much whether they go or no and Childishly tell their steps and would know at every pace whether they advance or no and how much they advance and thus amuse themselves and spend the time of doing and going in questioning and doubting Thus it is with many Christians but it were a more wise and comfortable way to be endeavouring onwards and if thou make little progress at least to be desiring to make more to be praying and walking And praying that thou mayest walk faster and that in the end thou mayest run not satisfied with any thing attained but yet by that unsatisfiedness not to be so dejected as to sit down or stand still but rather excited to go on So it was with St. Paul Philip. 3. 13. Forgetting these things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before I press forward If any one thinks that he hath done well and run far and will take a pause the great Apostle is of another mind Not as if I had attained Oh no! far from that he still sets forward as if nothing were done as a Runner not still looking back how much he hath run but forward to what he is to run stretching forth to that inflamed with frequent looks at the mark and end some are retarded by looking on what is past as not satisfy'd they have done nothing as they think and so stand still discontented but even in that way it is not good to look too much to things behind we must forget them rather and press onwards Some if they have gone on well and possibly run a while yet if they fall then they are ready in a desperate Malecontent to lie still and think all is lost and in this peevish fretting at their falls some men please themselves and take it for Repentance whereas indeed it is not that but rather Pride and Humour Repentance is a more submissive humble thing But this is that which troubles some men at their new falls especially if after a long time of even walking or running as they think their project is now spoiled their thoughts are broken off they would have had somewhat to have rejoiced in if they had still gone on to the end but being disappointed of that they think they had as good let alone and give over Oh! but the