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	justification_n	justify_v	18,040	5	9.2485	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90678	The Gospel nevv-creature; wherein the work of the spirit is opened, in awakening the soul; to the getting pardon of sin, and an interest in Jesus Christ; without which, it is undone to all eternity. Discovering the false refuges, and vain hopes for heaven, of ignorant and formal professors in this nation, tending to rouze them out of their carnal security, before it be too late. Whereunto is added, (by way of comfort, to all dejected soules) the tempestuous soul calmed by Jesus Christ. / By A. Palmer, preacher of the Gospel at Bourton on the Water in Gloucester-shire.	Palmer, Anthony, 1618?-1679.; Palmer, Anthony, 1618?-1679. Tempestuous soul calmed.	1658 (1658)	Wing P216; Thomason E1826_2; Thomason E1826_3; ESTC R209826	155,076	274

changed in thy self pray and be holy and obey God in all things yet canst thou not be hereby justified but still thy justifying righteousness is in Christ and not in thy self as the onely procuring-meritorious cause of pardon and peace with God Ierem. 33.16 Isa 54. last 3. The great question therefore that should come upon thy heart is Whether thou art in a state of condemnation or justification If not justified thou art still as I have shewed under the condemnation of the whole Law nothing thou hast yet done or shalt ever be able to do will stand between Wrath and Hell and thy poor soul till thou comest to be justified in the bloud and righteousness of Iesus Christ Oh sinners ponder of this great thing that is now laid before you Can you say from a Testimony within you Oh! I was thus and thus once under the reign power guilt condemnation of sin but now now blessed be rich and free grace I am washed justified in the Name of the Lord Iesus Christ See that Word 1 Cor. 6.10 11. And such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of our Lord Iesus and by the Spirit of our God Or at least that I may speak to poor weak willing trembling soules Is this it that your soules are restless after Oh that I were that I were in such a blessed state Oh that I could but believingly say the righteousness of Iesus Christ were mine and that now I am I am justified Oh what peace and sweetness and joy would fill my heart Why Soul If this be indeed the breathing of thy Soul Iesus Christ is thine and thou art justified and pardoned and God will at last give in unto thee if thou continue to follow him the sense and comfort of it in thy poor Soul Onely by the way take a Discovery or two of the reality of thy Heart in this matter 1. If thy Soul from a Spiritual Conviction be under a real making out after justification by Iesus Christ then thou would'st also be as really sanctified be made holy 'T was as much in the purpose of God to call thee out of a state of sinne and to sanctifie thee as to pardon and justifie thee 1 Ep. John 5.6 2. If thou art brought into a justified state thy soul making out after it thou art made alive in the Spirit Rom. 8.1 Thou art in Iesus Christ and wouldst walk no more after the flesh and the lusts thereof but after the Spirit Gal. 5.18 If ye are led by the Spirit ye are not under the Law namely to condemn you but are freed from the curse of it and verse 23. Against such there is no Law that is such as would walk after the Spirit be led by the Spirit and shew forth the fruit of the Spirit And this is that which the Apostle intimateth 1 Ep. Joh. 5.10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the Witness in himself namely of the Spirit So that every justified person hath the Spirit of Christ according to the measure of the grace of God dwelling in him is quickned in the Spirit being once dead prays in the Spirit mortifies sin through the Spirit is taught by the Spirit and so in all other saving and sanctifying vertues of it If it be not thus with thee thou as yet hast no part in this blessedness but art under condemnation unto death And therefore sinner come before God in the sense of thy condemned estate and give up thy self to Jesus Christ to be washed justified sanctified and then blessed for ever 3. Let called and sanctified Believers labour to live in the sense of a pardoned-justified state that God is not off and on with them in the matter of justification though it may be sometimes darkned and clouded as to the evidence of it Oh! do you labour to preserve the sense and sweet and blessed peace of it in your souls give glory to the riches of grace for now there is No No condemnation to you you are passed from Death to Life and the Blessed God imputes no sin unto you Let this be the highest and strongest Argument to Holiness and love to the glory that possibly may be and if indeed you walk in the comfort of it it will be so unto you Onely let me give caution here to young Converts whose hearts at the first discovery of the free and glorious grace of the Gospel and of Iesus Christ are wonderfully taken and affected with it but after a time are apt to want on with it unless the first humiliation be the deeper and to wax sleight in Duties and so their Lusts recover strength again and return upon them and either they fall or are near unto it to the fresh wounding of their Soules This hath been the condition of many therefore be well caution'd in it and walk with fear in the midst of your joyous apprehensions of the sweetness of grace and the endearing love of the Lord Iesus to you Having briefly shewed what the nature of justification is what it is to be in a justifyed state before God I now come to open more particularly how a Soul comes to be partaker of this justification through the redemption of Iesus Christ namely Through Faith in his bloud ver 25. of this 3d of Rom. Observ As God through Free-grace hath set forth Iesus Christ to work forth Redemption for sinners so there must be a special believing on and applying the bloud of Iesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins by every one that is saved Therefore justification is attributed to Faith Rom. 5.1 Therefore being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ So Gal. 2.16 3.11 In all which places Faith is put in opposition to the Works of the Law And so the righteousness of Christ is called the righteousness of Faith Rom. 9.30 10.6 in opposition to righteousnesse by Works Not as if Faith were the matter of our justification that it did as an Act or Work in the Soul justifie before God but that God doth thus make over the bloud and righteousness of Iesus Christ to a Soul by inabling the Soul to come unto to take hold of to apply to it self to appropriate the merit of the bloud of Iesus Christ for its own Redemption and Salvation which may afford us a plain Description of justifying Faith precisely considered namely Faith is a work of the Holy Ghost in the Soul inabling it to appropriate or apply to it self the bloud and righteousness of Iesus Christ for the remission of sin and its justification unto eternal life So it is called the work of Faith with power 2 Thes 1.11 and 't is expressed by receiving of Iesus Christ Joh. 1. and believing on his Name coming unto him resting upon him So that plainly Faith is a going out to believing in trusting on another namely the Lord Iesus Christ for what it

can never be able to find or bring about in or by it self which may lead us to the more particular way of the Holy Ghost's working this power in the soul in the saved ones of God 1. In the working of Faith in the soul it is first brought to see an impossibility of coming to God as in its self or by its self concluded under an utter unability to pacifie God or make up a righreousness in it self to get access with God The soul is emptyed from vessell to vessell till all the things that it counted gain before become losse for Jesus Christ This is the first work of the Spirit it emptyes a poor sinfull Creature of all its refuges all its dependencyes all its sufficiencyes and so becomes naked in its guilt before God and therefore is brought to this that its acceptance to God if ever it be accepted must be out of its self what ever become of him he must perish as in himself 2. In the work of saith The soul is brought to see that this was the end of the Revelation of Jesus Christ of Gods setting him forth to be a propitiation that he might work forth Redemption and Righteousnesse for some that this is a way of Gods own ordaining Jesus Christ was set forth for this very end even by God himself and therefore the soul is brought to this conclusion to venture the issue of its life and eternall salvation upon it and so throwes it self as in a sinking condition upon the the grace blood righteousnesse of Jesus Christ sink or swim live or perish saved or damned there the soul casts Anchor there it pitcheth to this it will stand or fall before the righteous God If there be not enough in the blood of Jesus to give it acceptance with God the soul resolves to Hell it must and will There saith a poor self-emptyed soul I cast even away my self if it might be upon it Phil. 3.9 3. The soul is brought on to believe the report that God in his word makes concerning his Son Jesus Christ and of the price value merit and all-sufficiency of his blood to save a poor sinner even to the utmost that comes to God by him Heb. 7.25 to answer all the wants and distresses of a poor soul namely in pacifying the Justice of God fulfilling the Law making atonement removing guilt procuring remission of sins reconciling to God Rom. 5.9 10. Much more being now justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his Life In all which things the soul is enabled to believe the report of the Gospell that the blood and death of Jesus Christ can do all this for poor sinners that shall pitch upon it 4. In this working of faith the soul comes to see and fasten upon an absolute unlimited Free promise where any sinner that will may come to Jesus Christ and so have the vertue of his death and blood applyed to it and therefore that he as well as any other sinner in the world may come to him and make claime to his blood and plead it before God whosoever will let him come Rev. 22. Now saith a poor self-emptyed sinner I do not find that I am any where excluded but invited and called upon to come to the Lord Jesus and claime an interest in his blood and that I may plead it even at the throne of his justice and that I may warrantably safely upon good grounds given out from the mouth of God himself take hold of the Lord Jesus in such a promise and there is no sin or unworthinesse can exclude me unlesse I will frowardly and wretchedly exclude my self I do not find saith a poor soul that any sin is too great for the sacrifice of that blood of Jesus so the sinner will come to it yea that 't is the greatest sin and the top of condemnation not to come to it that I more injure God by standing off from Jesus Christ then by all the filthinesse blasphemies ungodlinesses my soul ever wallowed in Heb. 10.29 The blood of Christ is a price sufficient for the sins of the whole world therefore saith a poor soul For mine He is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world therefore he can take away mine and I am freely call'd and invited to it and t is my rebellion not to come what can I have more And so sense of peace and reconciliation falls in upon the Soul 5. The soul by its often renewing of such Acts of believing comes at last to see the blood of Jesus Christ appropriated to him now it can stay it self upon the word of promise and can sometimes rejoyce in believing If I rolle my self upon the blood of Jesus I have the word of God for it that I shall be saved we shall be saved from wrath through him not it may be but we shall be saved and all upon the account of being justified by his blood Rom. 5.9 which justification ariseth upon this believing we have mention'd Thus have I opened the nature of faith as it is precisely justifying as it applyes and appropriates the blood and righteousnesse of the Lord Jesus for remission of sins and Justification unto eternall Life I might insist upon the discovery of the effectuall operations of faith in the soul as may distinguish it from a mere belief of the History of the death of Jesus Christ take two or three 1. When the soul by faith doth act upon the blood of Jesus Christ for justification it doth also bring the power and efficacy of it for the purging of the soul Heb. 9.14 How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternall Spirit offer'd himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the Living God So Act. 15.9 Purifying your hearts by faith There is a purifying vertue in the blood of Jesus Christ upon the souls of believers They are for the purging away the filth as well as the guilt of sin There 's no believing soul but cryes out Purge me Oh Lord purge me and thoroughly from my filth 2. The soul hath a secret yet reall fellowship with the death of Jesus Christ to crucifie and destroy the body of sin in a justified believer which ariseth from its union with Christ Rom. 6.5 6. For if we have bin planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likenesse of his Resurrection knowing that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin Every true believer can really say I am or I would be Crucified with Christ Gal. 2.20 Which the Apostle there brings in as an effect of Justification by faith 3. Every justified believer looks upon this as one great end of his Justification

thou poor formal out-side Professour who never didst feel the vertue healing life and warmth of the bloud of Christ upon thy heart Oh rest not in good thoughts of it onely but come believingly to it as thou hast been exhorted Say and that with thy heart Now Lord I would know the power and efficacy of this Redemption upon my poor soul Wash me Lord wash me I renounce all but the blood of this Christ as to making way to God for me Oh! let it pacifie my conscience and purge my conscience and I shall be clean If the Spirit of the Lord shall work thy heart to come as a guilty helplesse unholy sinner in thy self to this blood of Jesus and make thy approaches to God daily and argue for grace and remission upon it and purging thy soul these inestimable blessings will be the issue of it which I will but name to thee 1. Thou shall Certainly find forgivenesse of thy sins In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgivenesse of our sins Ephes 1.7 God will remember them no more against thee and thou shalt have peace with thy God for ever 2. God will let forth an infinite unchangeable love upon thee Rom. 5.5 which love he bore thee from eternity but will now manifest it to thee and estate thee in it for ever 3. Thou shalt have boldnesse of accesse to God Rom. 5.2 even into his intimate presence to speak with God face to face and ask of God what thou wilt according to his will Heb. 10. 4. All the promises of mercy grace and all blessings here and for ever shall be thine made over sealed in the blood of Christ 5. Thou shalt rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God Rom. 5.2 with all Saints and see thy self an heir of heaven 6. Thou shalt be still a washing and purifying and fitting for Heaven till thou shalt be taken up unto God and live in the Ocean of his love to all eternity Now if ease in thy sin and the world can do better for thee than this that I have named then keep in but if not as most certainly it cannot Arise and come to this blessed Redemption and get thy part and portion in it and thou shalt say Blessed be thy counsell and advice for evermore But now upon this Redemption of Iesus Christ how is a sinner said to be justified that is to be put into an actuall possession of the Redemption of Iesus Christ through the free grace of God 1. When the Compact was made between God the Father and Iesus Christ as to the salvation of those that the Father gave to Iesus Christ and Iesus Christ undertook the fulfilling of the Condition of the Covenant ☞ God did purpose in himself to justifie them from eternity and look't upon them as in Christ 2 Tim. 1.9 Ephes 1.4 So they were justified as to the purpose of God from all eternity 2. When Iesus Christ performed the condition of obedience in his dying and paid unto God what he required at his hands for the sinners redemption then did God as in the Court of Heaven discharge the sinner though not in the court of Conscience and when Christ arose and came to Heaven the Father gave him in an absolution of them all from the guilt of sin and obligation to death and so at the death of Christ all the Elect were meritoriously justified inasmuch as the price was paid and accepted of the Father Rom. 5.10 3. When according to the purpose of God through the purchase of Iesus Christ a sinner is called by grace hath faith given him as purchased also for him to embrace Iesus Christ in the Promise to receive him as offer'd in the Gospell and with him all spirituall blessings then is the soul put into the actuall possession of what God in his purpose and love determined to give him and Iesus Christ by the purchase of his blood gave him a right to before and so there is an Act of Gods pardoning mercy passeth upon the sinner he hath an actuall discharge given in unto his Conscience hath the obedience of Iesus Christ imputed to him and so is lookt upon by God not as a sinner under guilt but as righteous in the righteousnesse of Christ which bespeakes him Justified that is made just and righteous before God by the imputation and making over Christs righteousnesse to him as if righteous in his own person upon which Act of God there is a full remission of sinne as in the Text and the believer is put into another state a state of justification unto life through Iesus Christ Rom. 8.18 who before was in a state of death and condemnation Before I speak of that faith which through grace puts a soul in his pardoned and justified state I will breifly apply this to the Capacity of the weak 1. It may informe and instruct you in this great Mystery that any sinner that is saved must be thus justified made righteous by the obedience of Iesus Christ he must come to see the justice of God made up his sin satisfied for a price paid unto God and this to be actually made over to him as we shall presently shew Most of sinners 't is to be feared do not consider this that speak of mercy and pretend they hope in mercy but are never convinc'd of the righteousnesse of Iesus Christ and what it is to passe from a state of guilt to a state of righteousnesse by Iesus Christ from a state of condemnation to a state of justification without which there can be no salvation Oh be convinced sinners of this great matter of the necessity of the righteousness of Christ his obedience in fulfilling the Law to be made over to you to be brought into a justified state or you can never have pardon of sin and be accepted with God you can never stand before God but in the righteousness of Iesus Christ Say If I do not get the righteousness of Christ made mine If I do not get thus justified I must never expect pardon of my sin and acceptance of my poor soul at the great day of the Lord. This is the Work of the Spirit to be savingly convinced of this Ioh. 16.8 Oh look up to the Father for the Spirit thus to convince you not onely of sinne and the damnableness and sinfulness thereof but of your infinite need to get not onely some general hope of mercy and pardon but the righteousness of the Son of God to bring you into a state of pardon reconciliation peace with God 2. It may further clear unto you that your justification before God is not within you but without you wrought forth by Iesus Christ for such as are or shall be called by grace and imputed to them not inherent or wrought in them 'T is not grace in you that doth or can justifie you though renewing grace shall be wrought in all that are so pardoned and justified Therefore though thou must be

that he might live to God Gal. 2.19 That I might live unto God Likewise reckon ye your selves to be dead indeed unto him but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.11 Every justified believer doth thus reckon of himself I am to be dead to sin but alive to God I am to yeild my self to God verse 13. To have my fruit unto holinesse verse 22. 4. Faith that justifies doth through the Spirit work the soul to Gospel-obedience to all the Lawes and Ordinances of Jesus of Christ which shall be revealed to be the will Christ from the Command of Jesus Christ and from a principle of love to Jesus Christ John 15.10 5. A Justified believer will deny himself for Christ take up his crosse and follow Him let any sufferings be proposed to a called believer and let him know it is for Jesus Christ and that soul unlesse under a temporary desertion or temptation will choose and embrace those sufferings and undergo them with some chearfulnesse Luk. 14.26 27. 6. Every justified believer hath a marriage-union with Jesus Christ Ephes 5.25 26 32. The soul hath chosen Jesus Christ having broken off from all other lovers hath betrothed it self unto Christ in an everlasting bond and Covenant hath given it self to Christ As Jesus Christ bestowes himself and all he hath upon the soul so doth the soul bestow it self and all it hath upon Jesus Christ and having so done resolves to be contented with him in every condition whom have I in heaven but thee and none in earth in Comparison of thee saith every gracious Believer 7. Every justified believer lives by his faith Gal. 2.20 lives upon Jesus Christ for all and fetcheth all from him sees him as a treasury of all grace hath recourse unto him this being the most proper Act of Faith to make the soul live out of its self upon another namely Jesus Christ for all 8. Faith that entitles the Soul to Jesus Christ works by love to all Saints Gal. 5.6 When the Soul closeth with Jesus Christ it will also close with his Disciples as distinguisht from carnal unsavoury dead Professors What makes the living among the dead A living Soul alive in Christ highly priseth fellowship with such as are alive I might name many more particulars but these may suffice as the most distinguishing 1. Let what hath been spoken serve to discover to you Whether you have a Faith that doth entitle you to the bloud of Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of your sins Can you say your Soules are carryed out after more purging and 't is your daily cry to Heaven Can you say that you are often crucifying with Jesus Christ And oh that I were that I were but crucified with Jesus Christ that I might reckon of my self as dead to sinne And oh that I might live to God and might walk in Gospel-obedience That I might throughly deny my self for Jesus Christ and choose to suffer with him and for him Oh I would more clearly see the Marriage-union between Christ and my poor Soul I would I do bestow my self upon him and all that 's mine I do give my self to him I will be contented with him here and for ever Whom have I whom have I but him Oh have you found in some good degree such Workings of heart towards Jesus Christ And do you live by your Faith upon Christ upon Promises and do you maintain your Souls this way And do you love and delight in the Fellowship of living soules savoury soules or do you at least long that you may have opportunity to do so If you cannot in some measure experience these things your Faith is a dead empty Speculation such a Faith that is so far from uniting you to Christ that indeed it keeps you on this side Jesus Christ And therefore say of it 't is a Faith that is in vain that keeps me dead in my sins Oh therefore say in thy Heart I will now wait on the Word the Ministration of it that is ordained of God to beget Faith I will go and pray the Father to draw me to Jesus Christ and that my soul may be united to him that I may have Fellowship in his Death and Resurrection that I may be made alive unto God that I may feel the pacifying-purging vertue of the bloud of the Lord Jesus upon my poor Soul By what hath been said Believers may try their Faith and if they find their Soules to have experienced these things they may take comfort that they are justifyed by Faith in the bloud of Jesus and therefore shall be saved by his Life To wind up all in a word of Exhortation If God hath set forth Iesus Christ to be a propitiation that through Faith in his bloud a sinner may become justified from his sinne then what encouragement is here for sinners to come to him and believe on his Name to venture the issue of Eternal Salvation upon him since God himself hath set him forth For that end and purpose that sinners might come unto him and be washed justified saved from their sins 'T is not then to be doubted but that God as he hath therein taken care for the Salvation of the sinner so for the glory of his own righteousness so that the sinner hath no reason to doubt that comes to Jesus in the way proposed but that God can take pleasure to accept of him through the bloud of Jesus 'T was the most deliberate Act that ever the Wisdom of God was taken up about the setting forth of Jesus Christ to be the Saviour of sinners through his bloud 'T was the first Foundation that God said from all Eternity and after he had promised Jesus Christ it was some thousands of years before he set him forth to the World and therefore God cannot repent nor change his mind purpose as to accepting pardoning justifying sanctifying poor sinners that cast their souls upon it by the bloud of his Son Jesus Christ Upon which it is that blessed Souls are brought in in the Scriptures magnifying the grace of God for their cleansing by the bloud of Jesus 1 Joh. 1.7 The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sinne So are the Saints brought forth tryumphing Rev. 5.9 Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy bloud And Chap. 7.14 These are they who have washed their Robes and made them white in the bloud of the Lamb. Therefore I say with what boldness may poor sinners come unto it and how certainly are they in Gods way to Salvation in which way blessed souls have been ever found and none did ever miss of this end the Salvation of their Soules I have now dispatcht what I shall speak at this time as to the Doctrine of Justification by the Free-grace of God through the righteousness of Jesus Christ and of Saving-Faith therein and shall commit it to the Lord to work it upon the Conscience I shall a little insist upon the last