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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	john_n	luke_n	mark_v	4,432	5	10.4916	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61301	The love of God to all mankind in the glorious work of their redemption by Jesus Christ, asserted and vindicated. With a plain and sober discussion of those controversies which are the constant concomitants of it, viz. election and reprobation, God's foreknowledg, his nature, attributes, and decrees; the sufficiency of means vouchsafed to all men to believe; the use of the law to believers under the gospel. Also concerning original sin, freewill, and falling from grace. All fitted to the meanest capacity, in a way of dialogue, by Zachary Stanton.	Stanton, Zachary.	1700 (1700)	Wing S5251A; ESTC R219675	159,700	342

none think that God will do all our Works for us while we sit still and do nothing For as God must blow upon the Spark of Grace by his Spirit so we should be storing up Holy Endeavours God will not bring his People to Heaven sleeping but praying in the use of Means and Holy Ordinances yet may Means and Duties be greatly abused if we be not careful Philad Yea they are abused when we do not look through them all to Jesus or when we make them as Mediators set them in the room of Christ or when Christ is not eyed sought to admired and trusted in Alas What can poor Sinners do without a Jesus There is no Salvation in any other the highest measure of Believing Doing or Suffering cannot turn away God's Wrath for the least Sin All our Prayers Tears Alms Duties do not pacifie God no we must with Holy Paul count all as nothing to win Christ so that had not Christ perfectly fulfilled the Law and have been made a Curse for us Gal. 3. 13. the exactest Christian could have no grounded hopes of Heaven there is no escaping the Curse but by Christ so that all that do or have escap'd the Curse have cause to say that not their own Graces nor their own Works but Christ hath delivered them from Wrath to come 'T is Christ's precious undertaking that gives us a right to Heaven but yet our walking in the Holy Commands of God fits us for it For without holiness none shall see the Lord Heb. 12. 14. Rev. 21. 27. Philet If Christ be our Righteousness and Sanctification as 1 Cor. 1. what need we have any Righteousness of our own Nay there is no Qualification or Condition in the New Covenant required on our part 't is all free 't was free Love in God to send his Son to die for his People and free Love in Christ to lay down his Life for the Elect neither is it the Elect but Christ that stands engaged to God by the New Covenant free Grace wholly excludes Self or any thing we can do as a Cause procuring or as a Condition qualifying us for the receiving of it Here 's a comfortable difference between the New Covenant and the Old the Old was such that in case Man did fail to perform his Condition the Covenant was broke and God was free from giving Life but in the New Covenant Man is tied to no Condition that he must perform which if he doth not it will make the Covenant void to him and those that teach otherwise detract and lessen the free Grace of God and attribute something to the Creature Philad Tho' the Love Grace and Mercy of God in our Redemption be wholly free no one sought out to him for a Saviour but he alone was moved by his own Love to a poor lost Creature and first sought after him when he was fallen God was not bound to bring forth a Saviour for any he was not laid under any necessity to cast an Eye of Pity upon Man it was an Act of free Grace to save Sinners by the Obedience and Suffering of Jesus Yet is nothing to be accounted free Grace without the Lord for the sake of Christ pardon the Sins of the most Impure and Impenitent and bring them to Heaven whether they will or no Was not God at liberty to pardon Sinners in what way and upon what terms he pleased such as he in his Wisdom should judg most meet and most consistent with his Justice Mercy Truth and Holiness God hath no where promised to save Men by Jesus Christ that I know of but by Repentance Faith and Obedience as the means as you may see John 3. 16 36. Mark 16. 16. Luke 13. 3 5. Mat. 4. 17. Acts 3. 19. Rev. 22. 14. Rom. 2. 7 8 9 10. and in Heb. 5. 9. Christ is there said to be the Author of Eternal Salvation To whom To those that continue in their Rebellion and Impenitency No but to such as obey him 't is true Christ came into the World that the Sentence of Eternal Death might not be executed upon us yet 't is ungrateful wickedness and no better than to tread under foot the infinite price of Forgiveness to think because his Blood hath purchased a Pardon therefore we are freed from our Duty to him And whereas you say that in the New Covenant Man is tied to no Condition that he must perform c. and that not Man but Christ stands engaged to God c. methinks 't is a very sine way to acquit your self of all Sins and consequently of all punishment for Sin but if Christ stands ingaged to repent believe and obey the Gospel how comes it to pass that Persons are exhorted to them and charged with Sin upon the omission of them Surely then all the Sins of the Elect for they sin as well as others must be charged upon Christ and he stands guilty of all the breaches of the New Covenant how an you endure to speak this without abhorrence But is there no Condition no Qualification required on our parts in order to come to partake of the Great and Gracious Promises Then what 's the meaning of all these Scriptures John 15. 10. Prov. 4. 5. Rom. 8. 13. Mic. 7. 21. prov 28. 13. Rom. 2 8 9. and what are all those Blessed and most Gracious Promises in Mat. 5 Do they not include Conditions something to be done on our parts if we would find acceptance with the Lord Pray read Luke 13. 3. John 6. 53. Mat. 18. 3. John 3. 5. Mat. 5. 20. John 15. 20. Nay view those many Expressions which you find in the Word of God in the Commands Exhortations Instructions Threatnings and Promises and then see whether we come to injoy the great Blessings of the Gospel without conditions Mar. Doth not the Scripture say Isa 64. 6. That all our Righteousnesses are as filthy Rags yea as a menstruous Cloth Philad I am satisfied that this Scripture is greatly abused for want of a right understanding and rightly distinguishing between that Righteousness which doth justisie us at the Bar of God's Justice and that Righteousness which is God's Requirement and so the Creatures Duty now taken in one Sense they are no better than filthy Rags and in the other they are now if we expect to merit Heaven and obtain Eternal Salvation for well doing this is to overthrow the blessed undertaking of Jesus Christ and lessen the free Grace of God as if Persons could go to Heaven without being beholden to Jesus And here it is that they are no better in the sight of God having no worth or value but are rejected of the Lord as filthy Rags but now as they are the Holy Commands and Appointments of the Lord and the Creature 's Duty who dare say that they are in the sight of God as filthy Rags or as stinking Carrion What hath God required his Creatures to perform such and such Duties and hath promised

sin Philad I believe the same that Believers considered as to that state they are in cannot sin as wicked Men sin to wit in making a customary trade of Sin but that they may sin with delight yea with deliberation yea plot and cast Projects for the committing of Sin as well as the Wicked witness David 2 Sam. 11. But now the Question is Whether they cannot cease to be Believers and then sin as other Men sin Mar. The Seed of God doth so remain in true Believers that they cannot but continue such yea they must remain Believers while the Seed of God remains in them for that keeps them from sinning as wicked Men sin or from finally falling neither can they do any thing to occasion the Seed of God to be taken away from them Philad This word remain signifies a present abode a present being in him it doth not shew a continuance of being and so it is true that those that are born of God begotten by the immortal and incorruptible Seed the Word of God 1 Pet. 1. 23. James 1. 18. and made partakers of the Divine Nature cannot sin as wicked Men sin so long as the Seed remains but you are to prove that it cannot but remain as Mr. Ives says in his Dispute with Mr. Danson Mar. The Seed is Grace by your own grant and it is for the substance of it incorruptible unperishable 1 Pet. 1. 23. John 3. 9. 17. 3. 10. 28 29. 6. 54. 1 John 5. 13. Peter's Faith failed sadly as to the act but the Seed remained c. and he was kept by the Power of God that he did not finally fall away Philad 'T is true the Seed or the Word of God is in its own nature incorruptible tho all the Men in the whole World should reject it 't is not called incorruptible because it cannot be forsaken or taken from those in whom it hath a residence for the present but because whether it be taken away or forsaken by them or not whether it be received or rejected yet still it remains in it self incorruptible and unperishable But you seem to lay the stress upon the word remain to shew that true Believers cannot fall away now the same Apostle John supposeth that the same Seed or Word might not remain by the word if Chap. 2. 24. If that which you have heard from the beginning shall remain in you c. you also shall continue in the Son and in the Father c. and so Chap. 2. 14. I have written to you young Men because you are strong and the Word of God abides in you yet that this was subject to be lost appears by ver 28. where he exhorts the same little Children to abide in him that they might not be ashamed at his coming surely the Apostle would not admonish to that which it was impossible should fall out otherwise So Christ promiseth that the Comforter should abide with his Disciples for ever John 14. 6. Yet that doth not suppose that it was impossible for them to fall for he tells them Chap. 15. 2. That every Branch in me mind in me that hears not Fruit he taketh away And vers 10. If ye keep my Commandments ye shall abide in my Love Christ never said to any of his Disciples That the most abominable Practices you can commit shall never lessen my Love to you nor is it possible you should die in your Sins in the midst of your Impieties there is a Seed of Grace in you that shall keep you from final falling away 'T is true so long as a Man is a true Believer the Seed remains but when once a Man departs from that state then the Seed doth not abide in him so that the word remain or abide doth not imply that it shall never depart the Scripture tells us John 3. 36. That he that believes not the Wrath of God abides upon him doth it follow from hence that it is impossible for him that is an Unbeliever and as such under the abiding Wrath of God to be a Believer So Whoremongers Adulterers Idolaters 1 Cor. 6. 10. Heb. 13. 4. are threatned with the loss of the Kingdom of Heaven without any mention made that if they repent afterwards the Punishment shall be reversed yet would it not be strange Divinity to affirm That no such kind of Sinners shall enjoy Life and Salvation upon their Repentance So God promiseth Life and Salvation to just and faithful Men without mentioning the loss of Life and Salvation they are like to sustain in case they turn aside yet manifest it is in Scripture such are threatned with death and destruction as Ezek. 18. 24 25. 33. 12 13. it being ordinary in Scripture to predict unto Men both Future Punishment and Reward according to their present Ways whether Good or Evil. Philet I believe many Believers fall away but by their falling away they plainly declare they were never of the number of real Saints Philad The Apostle speaks of some in his days that made Shipwrack of Faith c. Philet Ay what Faith was it It was only a temporary Faith or a light believing the Gospel such as believe for a season and then fall away like the stony ground but this differs much from true Justifying Faith Philad He that received the Seed in stony ground might be a true Believer as well as the other for that Faith which springs from the same Seed of the Gospel must needs be of one and the same nature and kind neither doth the withering of a man's Faith in time of Temptation prove he never had true Faith or that it differs in nature from that which is real and endures to the end the Scripture owns no such distinction that I know of neither do I see but that that Faith which indureth but a short time may be as real and true in Nature as that which abides all a Man's days But if a temporary Faith a Faith that is not accompanied with Justification and Salvation be the Faith that these are said to fall from then is it such a Faith that they are exhorted to persevere in and surely he would not exhort them to keep such a Faith with which they might perish and which would certainly fail them neither can you possibly prove that those that made Shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience never were true Believers Besides if to fall from a false hypocritical dead Faith be the Apostacy that the Scripture speaks of surely it would not be a Sin of so high a provocation to God Heb. 10. ult as the Scriptures declare it to be and which you in your preaching and printing declare it to be But I must away I shall be thought long Philet One word more What say you to John 13. 1. Having loved his own which were in the World he loved them to the end Philad Who questions the continuance of God's or Christ's Love to those that continue in love and