Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
faith_n	abraham_n	righteousness_n	seal_n	9,017	5	9.6941	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60243	The Romish priest turn'd protestant with the reasons of his conversion, wherin the true Church is exposed to the view of Christians and derived out of the Holy Scriptures, sound reason, and the ancient fathers : humbly presented to both houses of Parliament / by James Salago.	Salgado, James, fl. 1680.	1679 (1679)	Wing S380; ESTC R28844	30,919	39

requires at the end of the greatest Controversies which are handled betwixt us and the Romanists yields to the truth and is more though an Italian a Protestant than a Papist So then we have by the grace of God shewn Justification as in relation to God to be a forensick pronunciation of the righteousness of a sinner and the passive one to be only by faith and a living faith which applys to her the merits of our Saviour As to Sanctification we will not speak any thing of it by reason the Papists do not dispute much against the Protestants in this matter only I utterly deny these works which we do to be meritorious which are conducing and necessary to our salvation necessitate medit as a means by which we should arrive to everlasting salvation Bernhard saith very handsomely of them Bernhard Opera bona sunt via ad regnum non causa regnandi Good Works are a way to Heaven but not the cause of it Neither doth the distinction of the Papists betwixt the works de congruo and de condigno mitigate their assertion For besides that the congruency of Gods reward for our works consists only in his own pleasure Fear not little flock for it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdom Luk. 12.32 Likewise which I always admired they have found no other place out of the Scriptures or in them for the asserting the condignity or meritoriousness as it is considered in it self of good works besides this place which doth contradict them to their faces Non sunt condignae passiones hujus temporis gloriae in nobis revelandae This is the only place where the word condignae is to be found Ex ungue leonem It is enough to give a small portraiture of truth because Wisdom which hath many sons can be justified by them I will go further and shew how the Protestant Church teacheth well of the Sacraments that are seals of the righteousness of faith Rom. 4.11 and give a short view of the Papists Errors As touching Baptism both of the parties confesseth the same to be a Sacrament of Initiation by which we are implanted in fide parentum which I hold in the faith of our Parents into the Church which is the Body of Christ But falsly do the Papists affirm that first it doth work ex opere operate by its own vertue in order to our Regeneration and the taking away of the Original sin not only because a thing corporal and outward can have no influence into things spiritual as to their amendment but all proceeds from God only Omne bonum donum omnis perfecta Donatio descendit a patre luminum saith James But because a sign of the Covenant cannot contribute the things in it comprehended neither is it apparent by the effect by reason those that have been baptized are and have been subject to everlasting damnation and have fallen from that former Illumination of which speaketh the Apostle Heb. 6.4 And if this Sacrament should work ex opere operato Heb. 6.4 Rom. 4.9 10. Grace or Regeneration c. Surely Abraham could not have been as he was counted righteous by faith in uncircumcision Moreover in the times Primitive and especially as to them that were baptized being at age Faith was required before the seal of Righteousness was stamp'd upon their souls and consciences Now being that faith is a cause of other vertues and graces and hath adjoyned to it self that great work of Repentance it must needs follow that the Apostle requiring faith as to the aged did suppose in them other graces not thinking that the same should be conferred upon them by the Baptism but rather sealed and confirmed Yea because the Sacrament of Baptism is a seal of the Righteousness of faith and not a thing working out by its internal Power Faith and Regeneration This same reason hath moved Austin and other of the ancient Fathers to affirm that Children are baptized either in fide parentum in the faith of their parents if faithful Christians or else in fide Ecclesiae in the faith of the Church viz. if their parents be unknown or Infidels because they were perswaded that faith is required before baptism rather than conferred by it So that we think that in these Children which are elected there is an operation of the Holy Ghost from the beginning which although not sensibly yet efficaciously worketh upon their tender hearts and minds and if it doth not work in them subjectively some kind of faith or else an actual faith yet it objectively applieth the benefits of Christ which are otherwise received by an actual faith Now that no body should think we do charge falsly our Adversaries the Papists with this assertion I will shew the Courteous Reader the reason why they do assert thus and then evince the same out of another custom of theirs in this holy Sacrament As to the reason why it is this Because they say that Children dying without being baptized cannot be saved but are in a limbus infantum a kind of a hole prepared for Children where they suffer paenam damni sed non paenam sensus that is they are deprived only from the Vision of God but are not subject to any sensible torment If then their election which is unchangeable Act. 2.39 and the being under the Covenant of Grace which as well belongeth to them as their Parents cannot save them because of their not being baptized Surely baptism which maketh them able to demand Heaven must work these graces by its internal vertue by which they may arrive to the eternal happiness 2. They say none can be saved without the Church and none can be counted as a Member of it unless he be baptized So then if the baptism only maketh us Members of the Church without which we cannot be saved Baptism likewise must operate by its internal vertue those graces by which we are saved As to the custom in some particulars it is this They think the holy Baptism to be so absolutely necessary to salvation that they in case of necessity do approve the baptism of Women if they only observe the form of the baptism Which evinces that they think baptism to work as we said formerly ex opere operato Having shewed the truth of our charge laid unto them I will shew with one argument the falsness of them both As to the first That not all Children that die without baptism are to be deprived of the beatifical Vision 2 Sam. 12.18 23. is as sure as that David who was saved was to go after his death to his child which was dead without circumcision instead of which baptism succeeded as we may infer out of Col. Col. 2.11 12. Act. 2.39 2.11 12. It is as fure as that the promise of everlasting salvation belongeth to the Children which argument is to be pressed as well against Anabaptists denying the seal to the Children unto whom belongeth

when he did give the figure or the sign of it And the most of the ancient Fathers do interpret the words in this sense as we will shew God willing in another Treatise purposely handling of this matter Scripture as we shewed somewhat higher calls it Sigillum or signaculum justitiae fidei a seal of the Righteousness of Faith and what is a seal of a thing cannot be the thing it self The Objections that the Papists have against Protestants as to their Transubstantiation out of the Scriptures as well as out of the ancient Fathers we will not touch them here referring them to that Treatise which we spoke of before where it shall be most fully handled of Only I cannot pass this Objection by which I did read in one Anonymus Jesuit framed against our last reason Jesuita Anonymus namely that nothing can be a sign of it self He maketh this instance That something can be a sign of it self as David could had been a sign of himself as fighting with Goliah in the Valley of Terebinth if he had presented himself upon the Theater But I answer 1. David had not been a sign of himself but of his actions he performed at the time of the Combate 2. If David had been sewed up in a Sack or else had lain upon the Theater being covered with a skin of an ass as they say Christ is covered with the species of bread and wine so that no body could have seen him I do not understand how he could have been a sign of himself or of his actions either and shew'd how valiantly he had fought with Goliah I will omit here that this Sacrament was instituted for the remembrance of Christ Man and that the remembrance is only of a thing absent as likewise many of their exceptions against us because I refer all this to the aforesaid Treatise Only I will shew my second Proposition which is that the Supper of the Lord is no sacrifice for the living and the dead And this as short as ever I can by this general argument Where there is no Priest no Altar no proper Hoast there is no proper sacrifice for sin In the New Testament there is no such thing The Major is very true and plain They Papists allow their sacrifice to be proper if so she must have a proper altar a proper Priest a proper Hoast because the nature of Relatives is such that they do in general relate to one another and so saith Bellarmine Bellar. de Missa lib. 1. c. 16. De cuten san lib. 3. c. 4. De Miss lib. 1. c. 14. Altaria non consueverunt erigi nisi ad sacrificia proprie dicta The altars use not to be erected unless for sacrifices properly so called And again Sine altari non potest sacrificari Without an altar there can be no sacrifice And again Nunquam altare proprie dictum erigitur nisi ad sacrificia proprie dicta An altar properly so called is never erected but for sacrifices properly so called If we therefore evince that there is no proper altar nor Priest nor sacrifice in the New Testament that is besides Christ himself We shall shew our conclusion evidently that there is no sacrifice neither As to the Altar there is no material altar to be sound in the holy Scriptures as one that should be used in the New Testament Christ the instituter of this holy Sacrament Luk. 22.21 1 Cor. 10.21 Bellar. de missa lib. 1. cap. 17. celebrated the same on the Table the Apostle Paul calls it a Lords-Table there is no mention made of an altar which had been done if it had been in use hence the great Bellarmine Ap stoli non utebantur nominibus sacerdotii sacrificii altaris The Apostles did not use the name of Priesthood sacrifice altar as knowing well that there could be none after the material sacrifices were sealed up But the Papists object out of Hebr. Obj. 13.10 We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat Heb. 13.10 who serve the tabernacle I answer that it is an ignoratio elenchi We do not deny an improper altar of which this Text speaketh but we deny a proper and a material altar That this Text speaketh improperly the words themselves shew viz. We have an altar whereof to eat c. Can any body eat a material altar and that this altar is an invisible and an improper one the sacrifice that the Apostle would have to be offered upon it doth plainly evince it Heb. 13.15 By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name So the old Fathers likewise Ambros in Epist ad Hebr. Bernh in ser om S. Ser. 4. Nazian Orat. 24. ●ell l. 1. 〈◊〉 miss ●ap 14. Dan. 9. Ambrose saith Nihil horum est visibile neque sacerdos neque sacrificium neque altare Nothing of these is visible neither the Priest nor the sacrifice nor the altar Bernhard Altare nihil aliud arbitror esse quam corpus Domini I think the altar to be nothing else but the body of the Lord. Nazianzen the Divine calls it an altar which is above that is Christ himself And for the last the Papists themselves must yield here an improper altar to be understood as Bellarmine confesseth Non urgeo ipsum locum I do not urge this place and so doth Thomas Anselmus the Divines of Collen and others As to the Sacrifice there is none proper neither so prophesieth Daniel that the Sacrifice and Oblation should cease and so we see in the fulfilling of the same Prophesie Heb. 9.26 So saith Paul Nor yet that he should offer himself often but now once in the end of the world c. And in another place Heb. 10.12 And every Priest standeth every day ministring and offering but this man after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever sate down on the right hand of God. Where the Apostle plainly sheweth that Christ offered himself but once and so cannot be offered any more Yea it is observable that the Apostle urgeth the sufficiency of Christs oblation and the excellency of it by this argument 1. Because he offered himself but once and did not repeat it often as an insufficient sacrifice And 2. because he sat down on the right hand of God for ever having done his work perfectly which the Priests could not do because they did stand which signifieth one that hath not done his work as yet but must lay his hand once more to it before he can sit down and rest himself from his work Therefore the Papist commencing daily sacrifices of Christ after that one sacrifice do derogate from the sufficiency of it and make him liable to standing where he sits already for ever at the right hand of God. This was the reason likewise why God did destroy Jerusalem and the Temple after the fulfilling of Christs Mediatorship as to