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	instrument_n	justification_n	2,356	5	9.7198	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33930	A confession of faith, published on special occasion wherein is contained the substance of the most material principels of the Gospel and Christian faith, in contradistinction to the errors and heresies by some held and maintained, in opposition thereunto : whereunto is annexed a postscript, with brief animadversions on some things contained in a confession of faith, lately published in the name of the elders and brethren of many congregations in London and the countrey / written by Thomas Collier.	Collier, Thomas, fl. 1691.	1678 (1678)	Wing C5275; ESTC R32494	30,415	69

ready to speak plain and the heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge Chap. 29. 24. They that erred in spirit shall come to Vnderstanding and they that murmured shall learn Doctrine Amen Psal 116. 10. I believed therefore have I spoken Luk. 2. 29 30 31. Now Lord let thy Servant depart in Peace for mine eyes have seen thy Salvation which thou hast prepared before the face of all People a Light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy People Israel Mat. 24. 14. And this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the World for a witness unto all Nations and then shall the end come Rev. 14. 6 7. The Church with whom I walk is united in the substance of this Faith before declared The Postscript A Confession of Faith lately published from London providentially coming to my hands and contrary to my expectation finding such things therein as was and is truly grievous to me it being inconsistent with the true Faith and Religion of God I could not in good conscience both towards God and Man pass it by without saying something thereunto In which I find under the name of fundamental Principles of Faith no less than seven things of special note contrary thereunto most of which I have before detected and them I shall but only name so that though there are many good Truths scattered therein yet these contrary unsound and unscriptural notions contradict and undo them all As 1. Absolute Reprobation of the World from Eternity alone from the free Will of God though not plainly in terms exprest but more covertly and hiddenly yet absolutely and fully stated for they say that God hath immutably decreed all things whatsoever comes to pass and that he elected or predestinated a certain number of Angels and Men to Eternal Life to which there can be no addition c. which states absolute Reprobation to all the World besides by an eternal Decree before the World was 2. Christ dying to redeem the Elect only and that none else can possibly obtain which not only denieth the truth of God's Love to the World and Christ's giving himself for the life of the World but contains in it the absolutest Reprobation of the World that can be stated for if Christ died not for them it 's impossible they should be saved Act. 4. 12. 3. Impossiblity for any to believe with the Gospel helps that God affordeth without a mighty miraculous power misunderstanding and so wronging the Scripture for its confirmation Eph. 1. 19 20. 4. Justification by Faith without Works and not by Faith neither as the Scripture states it viz. as the conditions and terms of our Justification in Pag. 40. Of Justification they say it is not by imputing Faith it self the act of Believing or any other Evangelical obedience as their Righteousness Faith is the alone instrument of Justification as of receiving Christ whereas the Scripture saith Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for Righteousness Gen. 15. 6. and Rom. 4. 3 5. His Faith is counted for Righteousness ver 23 24. But they say plainly No it is not imputed but only an Instrument and what that is I do not know nor is the Scripture acquainted with such language but I leave the Reader to believe the Scripture or them which he please 5. Impossibility of falling from Grace which is contrary to the whole current of Scripture as before hath been shewed 6. In Chap. 3. of the Decrees of God That God hath from all Eternity decreed in himself all things whatsoever comes to pass c. and that this Decree is immutable and unchangeable arising not from knowledge of what would be but from his own determinate Will 7. And in Chap. 5. of Divine Providence That this his determinate Counsel extends it self to the first fall and all other sinful actions both of Angels and Men and that not by a bare permission which also he most wisely and powerfully boundeth and otherwise ordereth and governeth in a manifold dispensation to his most holy ends yet so as the sinfulness of their acts proceed only of the Creatures and not from God who being most righteous neither is nor can be the approver of sin Psal 50. 21. 1 Joh. 2. 16. These last words are true and contradict all the rest as most Heretical and false for he cannot but approve his own Decrees In these Positions the Mystery of Iniquity seems to be perfected including a perfection of falshood impiety and abominations in them First The abuse of the Scriptures for proof of this horrid Doctrine not one of the Scriptures mentioned having any such thing in them nor indeed may we imagine any such thing to be in the holy Word of the holy God without blasphemy against him What that God hath eternally decreed in himself all things whatsoever comes to pass the determinate Counsel extending it self to all the sinful actions both of Angels and Men What the Decreer thereof and yet not the Approver of his own Decrees Obj. But we have a way to distinguish between the Actions and the sinfulness of the Actions God decreed all Actions and all Actions in themselves are simply good because acted in his Power and according to his Decrees but the sinfulness of the Action is the Creatures of which God is no Approver To this I say I think it will require more Logick and Rhetorick thus rightly to distinguish than all the Persons in the World of this opinion will be able to find out Hath God decreed the act of Murther and not the sin and so of Adultery Witchcraft and all other abominations is not the act it self the sin if there were no such act there would be no such sin therefore let them divide the act from the sin if they can the act to be God's Decree and the sin the Creatures and God no approver thereof though he decreed it as they say But 1. To prove that God hath decreed all things whatsoever comes to pass all sinful Actions both of Angels and Men Isa 46. 10. Eph. 1. 11. Heb. 6. 17. is referred to all which Scriptures speak only of God's own Works and Counsel determined and declared especially relative to his Gospel-work of Salvation by Jesus Christ and not his determining all the sinful actions of Angels and Men as a weak capacity may easily discern So the like of Act. 15. 18. And as for Act. 2. 23. 4. 17 28. First The Scriptures do not say that God decreed them to crucifie his Son But that he was delivered by the determinate Counsel and foreknowledge of God for them to do unto him what he before knew they would do He determined that his Son should give himself for the life of the World and foreknew that the Jews with the rest would do that Work and he determined to give him up to them and they by wicked hands crucified him And therein he bounded their actions to his own Counsel before determined But

knows when he doth his Will and when not He commands all Men every where to repent yet by this Doctrine hath decreed the Sin and Damnation of almost all the World he commands to pray for all Men yet hath decreed the Sin and Damnation of almost all Men. It rationally ends all repentance for Sin all reproofs for Sin all blamings of Men for Sin none can be reproveable for any of their actions either Saints or Sinners their works being all decreed of old it 's all the holy Will of God If his decreed Will be holy then the keeping thereof must be holy and so no such thing as Sin in the World and so it necessarily turns all those sayings in Scripture that manifest God's displeasure against Sin into a lie as that he is angry with the wicked every day Psal 7. 11. Yea and angry and sometimes very angry with his own People because of Sin Deut. 1. 31. and 9. 20. Psal 74. 1. which if Sin be the effecting of his absolute decreed Will it 's impossible to be true that he should be angry with any for doing his freely decreed Will So that this Principle leaves no room for any Religion and therefore is most impious Tenthly If God immutably determined all sinful acts it lays a foundation for Rantism Atheism and all manner of filthiness and prophaneness in the World And indeed had I met with such a Principle from the Ranters I should not have marvelled it being the foundation of their practice viz. that all is the decreed Will of God and therefore all is alike good and so no such thing as Sin in the World this being the foundation of so horrid a building it is most impious to assert or imagine Eleventhly It 's that which renders God to be worse to Men than the Devil and that both in respect to Sin and Punishment 1. Of Sin the Devil can but tempt unto it and may be resisted Jam. 4. 7. but the eternal Decree of God is irresistible that must be done 2. The Devil can by temptation but endeavour by sin to fit Men for Judgment but by this Doctrine the eternal immutable Decree hath destinated the world both to Sin and Judgment without all hope or possible help which if the Devil believed which with-out doubt he dos not but knows the contrary it would make him a very sluggard his work being already effected by eternal Decree he need not go about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour if all were devoured by the eternal and irrefistible Decree which were it true O Wo to the World that they have such a God! which is most impious to imagine And as for what they say that God does not force any to sin but leaves them to the liberty of their wills helps not for the Decree must be effected Twelfthly And finally as an effect of all It strikes a deadly blow to the whole Name Nature and Being of God as opened to us both in his Word and by his Works As 1. In his Holiness that he is most holy that Holy and Reverent is his name that he loveth Righteousness and hateth Sin and Wickedness and hateth nothing else but Sin and for Sins sake but this asserts all the unholiness sins and wickedness in the World both of Devils and Men to be his birth from all eternity by an eternal and immutable Decree 2. In his Goodness and Mercy to Men the Scripture testifieth that he is good to all that he loved the World in the gift of his Son but this kills this Doctrine of Goodness and Mercy to the World asserting the Sin and Judgment of the World established by an immutable Decree before the World was which renders the great design of God in the Creation to be the Sin and Judgment of the World without all hope or help and in sending his Son to effect the same which is most impious to imagine 3. In his Justice The Scripture saith that all his ways are judgment a God of truth and without iniquity just and right is he Deut. 32. 4. But this fastens on him the greatest injustice imaginable to determine Men by a forcible and irresistible Decree before they were to sin against his Law that so he might take Justice on them Which likewise asmuch derogates from his Wisdom in finding no more righteous a way to magnify his Justice than by enforcing Men to sin by an irresistible Decree and over-ruling Providence in order thereunto that so Justice might take place upon them What such a thing would be accounted among Men I need not speak But here it will be objected That God is under no Law his own Will is his Law and whatever he willeth is good and righteous and therefore what have we to do to question his Will and Work or to say unto him what doest thou Rom. 9. 14 to 22. hath enough in it to confirm this and to stop all Mouths in this matter Answ 1. It 's true the Will of God is his Law and whatever he wills is just and right Yet 2. It behoves us to understand that such is the holiness of his Nature and Name that he can will nothing which is contrary thereunto And 3. That such is his Truth and Faithfulness that he never did nor can will any thing that is contrary to his Word Rom. 3. 3 4. Tit. 1. 2. That though he be under no Law of Mans making yet he is under the Law of his own Name and Nature of his own revealed Word and Will and those who say otherwise end all ground of Faith and Religion And as for Rom. 9. I have said enough to that already it not relating to his eternal Decrees but his present actings towards Men in way of Judgment for former Iniquity and otherwise to understand it is contrary to the Name Nature and Truth of God in his Word and therefore is impious so to imagine 4. And it strikes as deeply at the Truth and Faithfulness of God in his Word which presents us with his being good to all and with his love to all in which he sweareth that he hath no pleasure in the death of the Wicked but this gives him the lye in all asserting an eternal Decree both of Sin and Death before the World was But let God be true and every Man a Lyar in this matter Thus have I endeavoured though very briefly to open this great Mystery of Iniquity and had it not been stated as a Foundation-Principle of Faith though tending to end all Faith and clothed in so fine a dress as making so much for the exaltation of God in his Name and for the consolation of Christians had at present said nothing to it and all arising from and as the effects of that untimely born Monster Absolute Reprobation of the World by an immutable Decree before ever it had a Being And from hence as the Reprobation was decreed so must the Sin to make the Reprobation certain and sure and

from hence comes in the denial of God's love to the World and Christ's giving himself a Sacrafice for the sins of the World all is to confirm this monstrous Birth with several other things that I could name that flows from it as the effects thereof Obj. Some may say O Sir you are too rash you out run the Bounds of Moderation and your own Principle which is for Moderation and the Gospel-spirit of Love and Peace and besides the Asserters of this Principle intend no such things as you say are included therein but do often declare in other of their Articles to be against Sin and for Holiness Answ 1. I am of the same Mind and have more Charity towards the Persons concerned herein than to think they really intend all that is included in this Principle and therefore shall not say they are Hereticks though the Principles in themselves are as deeply heretical as any can possibly be Answ 2. Their many sayings to the contrary argues either 1. Their ignorance of their own Principles not understanding the true nature and tendency thereof it being truly and really the open door to Rantism At this very door it entred and they have anew set it open again They concluded that God having decreed all things then all acts must be alike good and pleasing to God that there could be no such thing in the World as Sin and indeed if it were true that all things whatsoever come to pass in the World were God's birth by virtue of his eternal Decree then all must be good and the Ranters in the right Religion which far be it from any sober Christian to imagine Or 2. It argues their contradiction for indeed if they held it without contradiction it must needs be the most damnable Principle in the World to assert God to be Author of all things whatsoever by an eternal and immutable Decree and yet pretend some of those things to be evil sinful and damnable and God not to be the Approver thereof yet his own decreed act is the highest contradiction and irreconcilable to it self nor will that vain device any whit help in this matter as before I shewed that the act is God's and so good but the sin is the Creatures till they can either religiously or rationally distinguish between the act and the sin the act being the sin were there no such acts there could be no such sins sin being the transgression of the Law it will stand as the greatest and most irreconcilable contradiction as can be imagined or the greatest Blasphemy that can be against God 3. It being the over-ruling Article stated next to the Being of God All the rest must be understood by this and stoop to it nothing may be understood in the rest that is contrary to this this being the foundation of all and indeed undoeth and contradicteth all the rest at once for all decreed acts are good and so there can be no Sin and so no Judgment and so saith the Principle it self from whence they learned it and as I could name that there is nothing Sin as it is the Decree of God that the things which he decreed are most perfectly good which in it self is a great truth but not that he decreed all things whatsoever come to pass then he decreed things that are perfectly evil which is contradictory neither is there any thing of it self absolutely evil then it must be absolutely good This is the bottom of this horrid and impious Principle of Faith which indeed tends to end all Religion And of this Faith they would insinuate the Reader all sound Christians to be but I know many more and I hope there are moe Congregations and Christians that do abhor it than believe it and they had done well and honestly to have distinguished seeing they could not but know there are more of a contrary Faith in this matter than themselves but that they would have People to believe that they are of the only true sound Faith whereas if there be any Mystery of Iniquity or Apostacy from the true Faith in the World it may be found here seeing none can be worse 4. And as for a supposition of rashness and out-running the Bounds of Moderation and a Gospel-spirit in this matter I say No and I doubt not but it will so appear to unbyassed Persons the depth of the matter being seriously pondered it being not Persons but things I am contending against even spiritual Wickedness in high places It is for the Name of God Christ and the Gospel it is against this God-dishonouring Gospel-destroying Sin-exalting and Soul-undoing Principle of Faith that I am contending I design no wrong to Men but their eternal Good their Repentance But as for this horrid Principle whose birth as is most manifest is from the Prince and Power of Darkness I cannot spare and that it is from Satan and not from above is most apparent For 1. It is not of God What shall we believe that God decreed things that are so absolutely contrary to his Name Nature and holy Word shall we believe that God decreed things which himself calls abominable things which he hates and filthy stinking things Jer. 44. 4. Psal 14. 1 2 3. detestible and abominable things Jer. 16 18. Ezek. 5. 11. and 7. 20. accursed things Josh 7. 13 15. wicked things that provoke him to anger 2 King 17 11. horrible things Jer. 18. 13. and 23. 14. yea things that never came into the heart of God to have done Jer. 7. 31. I say shall we believe that God decreed all these things it 's a Faith to be abhorred of all serious Christians it turning the whole Book of God into a lye 2. As it is not of God so it is immoral and never came from the Light of Nature that hath more honourable thoughts of God than to father all the wicked acts of Men upon God himself we may truly say as Jer. 18. 13. Ask ye now among the Heathen who hath heard such things the Virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing Therefore it must needs be from the Prince and Power of Darkness thus to belye the Lord it being contrary to the holy Name Nature and Word of God and an abhorrency to the Law and Light of Nature And therefore I cannot spare this impious Principle of Absolute Reprobation of the World by an immutable Decree before it was made as if God had made the World for no other end but by an eternal Decree to sin and be damned I would shame yea set fire on this impious Principle even the fire of the Word and Spirit of Truth to the end if possible this prodigious monster with all its impious concomitants might be fired and frighted out of the World and returnd to its place and never be named among Men any more especially as an Article of Christian Faith I would if I might give it its deaths wound that there might be no need of another stroke