Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
faith_n	covenant_n	grace_n	seal_n	4,967	5	9.5543	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47454	The counterfeit Christian, or, The danger of hypocrisy opened in two sermons : containing an exposition of that parabolical speech of our Blessed Saviour, Matth. XII, 43, 44, 45 ... / by Benjamin Keach ...	Keach, Benjamin, 1640-1704.	1691 (1691)	Wing K55; ESTC R18720	49,835	62

And hence it is likewise there are so many Whisperers Tatlers and Backbiters in Congregations and so consequently so much trouble and disorder in our Churches Tho Godly Christians may be guilty of great Disorders and many Infirmities yet I am perswaded were there not many false and deceitful carnal and hypocritical Professors it would never be as it is What makes the best Design that ever was amongst us for the promoting the Interest of Christ and good of the Churches so neglected and like to sink in the Bud but the great discouragement these sort of People lay it under They have no mind to such a good and great Work they are for enriching themselves and to lay into their own Coffers and Treasuries but not to cast into Christ's Treasury And this evil Example of theirs lays a Temptation on sincere and upright Men and Women What do such and such do they are far richer than I and they will do nothing To these let me speak one word Why will you do no more for God because some who love him not will do nothing Alas you had need do the more I am perswaded you would not willingly be found foolish Virgins in the Day of Christ How do you know but these very Men shall be found to be such who value the gratifying of a base Lust above the discharging a holy and acceptable Duty to Christ who give more to deck and adorn their Houses and please the base Lust of their Children than they will give to promote the Gospel and recover the languishing Interest of Jesus Christ that is in our hands And may not this be the reason our Assemblies are so thin on Lecture-days is it not because the Hearts of People are not right with God Can godly Christians be always under the same Temptation Can Sin predominate in them and they act thus habitually to the scandal of their sacred Religion Can Sin be in the Affections of Saints because there are some Infirmities in their Conversations Is not a true Child of God quickly convinced of his Fault and doth he not straitway reform But this is a constant course of evil and wilfully persisting in nay and ye shall incur their displeasure perhaps if you deal plainly with them Sure Christ is at the Door Now the Kingdom of Heaven may certainly be compared to ten Virgins five wise and as many foolish read the latter end of Mat. 24. and the beginning of the 25th Chapter Multitudes of Foolish Virgins 't is to be feared are now got into the Church as Christ signifies it would be a little before his Coming whose latter end will be worse than the first This also reproves those who foment such Notions and strive to distil them into the Minds of People that are absurd and tend to blind and ruin their Souls telling them they are in the Covenant of Grace and Church-Members by their Parents Faith and have the Seal of the Covenant yet I could never learn what it doth seal or make firm to them For a Seal all know usually makes sure all that is contained in the said Covenant Shall they miss of the Blessings of the Covenant of Grace who have it sealed to them Alas hereby 't is to be feared many think they are in a good Condition though never united by saving Faith to Jesus Christ Can it seal and not seal Covenant-Mercies to them Or can they perish after they are in the Covenant and have the Seal of it Circumcision was a Seal 't is true of that Faith Abraham had being yet uncircumcised it was not a Seal of that Faith which he had not but of the Faith which he had and therefore it could not be a Seal to his Male Infants of the Righteousness of their Faith which they had being yet uncircumcised because they had no such Faith before Circumcision as to believe in God and to have it imputed to them for Righteousness as had Abraham their Father to whom Circumcision was only called a Seal of the Righteousness of the Faith which he had yet being uncircumcised that he might be the Father of all them that believe It was a Seal to him of the latter Blessing as well as the former for the Promise that he should be the Heir of the World the Apostle shews was not through the Law nor in or through Circumcision nor had any that dignity conferred upon them but Abraham only which clearly shews Circumcision did not appertain to the Covenant of Faith Likewise it may reprehend another sort who tell the People they were made the Children of God Members of Christ and Inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven in their Baptism or rather Rantism O the danger of this pernicious Doctrine how many flatter themselves with the Hopes of Heaven from this false Foundation thinking they sucked in the true Faith and true Religion with their Mother's Milk and were made Christians by a Priest's scattering a little Water on their Faces when Babes tho they live in all manner of horrid Sins and are Enemies to the Life and Power of Godliness This is a way of making Christians which Christ and his Apostles never taught and it is a healing of the Hurt of the People slightly taking them off from seeking after Grace and true Regeneration for if they were made true Christians then regenerated then doubtless their State is good and so 't is to be feared thousands of them conclude and never doubt of their Salvation Moreover it reproves all who rest on Morality who because they live a sober Life and pay every Man his own doing justly c. conclude all is well yet look after no other Religion And it also as much reprehends those who boast of their Knowledg and spiritual Attainments they conclude their State is good because they are Members of a true Church and have been Baptized indeed and break Bread Read and Pray in their Families and discharge all other External Duties of Religion but rest wholly upon these things and never were brought to be poor in Spirit nor obtain real Union with Christ but are ignorant of the Faith of the Operation of God What means the Pride of some their Earthliness Contention Whispering Backbiting want of Love Divisions c. shutting their Eyes at further Light and discovery of Truth O look about you for the Lord's sake lest after all your high Profession and Hopes of Heaven you do not at last drop down to Hell Lastly It reproves all such nice and scrupulous Persons who seem to make it their chief Business to render all odious who are not of their own fantastical Humor Women must not wear a bit of Lace c. nor a gold Ring nor Men wear a Periwig though never so short and modest and advised to do it by able Physicians for their Health-sake because the Apostle saith 'T is a shame for a Man to wear long Hair therefore they run into Extreams and cut their

That by the drawing here is not meant of any coaction or force upon the Will is out of Question the Will acts freely according to the Nature of that Faculty but as it is acted and influenced by the Spirit according to that Text in the Psalms My People shall be willing in the Day of my Power But that it is to be understood only of a rational drawing by Arguments used in the Ministry of the Word we do deny though in this sense some do take it and conclude it is of the same import with that compelling mentioned Luk. 14. 23. for the Ministers of the Gospel as one observes have no other Power to compel But the Act of drawing here is not ascribed to the Servants but to the Master not the Preacher but the Father therefore doubtless it signifies a Divine Power put forth upon the Soul of Man by which the Lord opens the Heart as he did the Heart of Lydia so that he is made obedient to the call of God and willing to close with the Offer of Christ And that this must be the meaning of the Text it is rational to conclude considering the nature of the motion in coming unto Christ which is the motion of the Soul to a sublime spiritual Object to do which as no Soul hath any power of it self such is the darkness of the Mind the obstinacy of the Will and pravity of the Affections unless influenced and wrought upon by the Spirit So in like manner nothing is proud Man naturally more averse to cannot indure to think he is such a poor Miscreant a mere beggarly Wretch that he has not so much as a bit of Bread to eat nor a Garment in a spiritual sense to cover him but must be beholden to his Neighbour for all For as no Soul is able without supernatural Grace to apprehend spiritual Things cannot discern them so there is in his mind enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be From all which I have said it appears Faith as before hinted is not the Condition of Justification tho the Way or Means appointed to receive that Righteousness that doth justify the Sinner so likewise Faith is God's Gift Yet 't is foolish to say Man doth not believe but rather the Spirit for him because he cannot believe by any natural Power inherent in him till he is divinely influenced by the Holy Ghost For such may as well say Lazarus did not live or it was not his Life which he had after quickned because it was infused into him by the Power and Spirit of Christ Therefore this and the former Objection are both gone and the supposed Condition of the New Covenant vanquished since Faith it self being the Fruit of it cannot be the Condition thereof But saith the Objector If Faith and Repentance be not Conditions of the Covenant of Grace then those whom God hath appointed to Salvation shall be saved whether they believe or repent or no. To which we answer That Faith and Repentance c. are Promises of the New Covenant as well as Justification and Eternal Life and he that hath ordained the End hath also ordained the Means I will put my Law into their inward Parts and write it in their Hearts and will be their God and they shall be my People And I will make an everlasting Covenant with them that I will not turn away from doing them good but I will put my Fear into their Hearts that they shall not depart from me That God who hath promised to make us Happy hath also promised to make us Holy he hath promised Grace to us here and to change our Hearts of Stone and to give us Hearts of Flesh as well as he hath promised to give us Glory hereafter Our being called in Time is but the effect of God's eternal Love before Time because he hath loved us with an everlasting love therefore with loving kindness hath he drawn us We are called by the free Grace of God according to his purpose as well as justified and eternally saved We are predestinated that we may be conformable to the Image of his Son in Holiness here on Earth as well as in Heaven hereafter If Men are left under the power of their Sins or only to the bare improvements of their own natural Abilities in a meer reformed Life and never brought by the free Grace of God to believe in Jesus Christ and so to have real Union with him 't is an evident sign they shall never be saved they being none of them that the Father hath given to Christ for saith he all that the Father giveth to me shall come unto me and in these only are infused the Divine Habits of Saving-Grace The Apostle positively affirms that God hath chosen us in Christ before the Foundation of the World that we should be Holy and without blame before him in love not only chosen to Salvation which is the End but to Holiness as the Means Not because we are Holy are we chosen but that we may be Holy but this ought not to take any Soul from the use of the Means And as a clear demonstration and illustration of this I might mention that passage concerning Paul's Voyage to Rome in respect of that assurance God gave him of the Lives of all that were with him in the Ship the Angel of God appeared to him and said And lo God hath given thee all them that sail with thee Wherefore Sirs be of good chear for I believe God that it shall be as it was told me This Promise was absolute yet see what Paul said to them Except ye abide in the Ship ye cannot be saved That God that hath promised us Salvation doth not save us without the use of Means although the efficaciousness and truth of the Promise does no ways depend upon the virtue of the Means but the Means are made effectual by virtue of the Promise yet whoever neglects the Means under any pretence of a free Promise he does but tempt God but doth not as some observe rightly believe in him Seventhly Amongst the wicked Spirits that are entred into this Man namely into this Counterfeit Christian that horrid and wicked Spirit of Unbelief must not be left out for tho this Sin of Sins is in all unconverted Persons yet it reigns and triumphs more in this sort of People than in others Prophane Persons are kept up by a false Faith depending as they will tell you on the Death and Merits of Christ tho 't is only cursed presumption in them for that cannot be a true Faith which changes not the Heart and Life of the Creature But they believe not by reason of love to their Sins which they are not as yet willing to forgo But these believe not on Christ because of that love which they have to their own seeming Righteousness which in point of Trust

and only by this way we must be saved if ever we come to Heaven Another Foundation can no Man lay He that believeth not shall be damned Let him be what he will Righteous or Wicked 't is a great Error to think that Christ's Merits make our Services or Performances meritorious though 〈◊〉 are accepted thereby when they flow from Faith yet not as the Spring or procuring Cause of our Justification To close with this let me add one thing further which shews the Danger these Persons are in This Errour is a capital One 't is to err in a main Fundamental of Religion and therefore Heresy a damnable Principle And hence the Apostle calls it a subverting the Souls of such who receive it And it was also from hence God gave the Jews up to Judicial Blindness i. e. because they went about to establish their own Righteousness and did not submit to the Righteousness of God According as it is written God hath given them the Spirit of Slumber Eyes that they should not see and Ears that they should not hear That must needs be a dangerous Evil that provokes the Holy God thus to leave and give up a Person to blindness of Mind and final Impenitency for such must needs perish of necessity Therefore in the last place it follows that the state of these People is worse than it was when they were no Professors of Religion at all but were openly wicked and prophane Sinners these unclean Spirits are worse than the first And from hence let all take heed how they mix Law and Gospel together in the case of Justification If by Grace then is it no more of Works otherwise Grace is no Grace But if it be of Works then it is no more Grace otherwise Work is no more Work There is no mixing of the Merits of good Works and the free Grace of God together but one of these doth exclude and destroy the Nature of the other for if Election and Justification were partly of Grace and partly of or from foreseen Works then Grace is no Grace and Works no Works For whatsoever proceedeth of Grace as one observes that cometh freely and not of Debt but whatsoever cometh by Merits or Works that cometh by Debt But now Debt and free Grace or that which is free and absolutely by Grace and that by desert are quite contrary things therefore to say Men are Called and Justified partly by Grace and partly by Works or by whatsoever is done by the Creature this were to put such things together that cannot agree for 't is to make Merit no Merit Debt no Debt Works no Works Grace no Grace and so affirm and deny one and the same thing Therefore how absurd a thing is it for Men to mix the Law and Gospel together in this sense or make that which is the Creature 's Act or Work a procuring Cause of acceptance and Justification in God's sight seeing it utterly destroys the nature of Grace and so consequently the glorious Design of God's eternal Purpose in Jesus Christ and that blessed Covenant of his confirmed by the Mediator thereof Where the Creature is wholly abased and the free Grace of God alone exalted Man is not a co-worker or co-partner with God therefore those Principles that have a natural tendency so to do ought to be abominated by all good Christians But it is objected That we are said to be justified by Faith and also that Repentance is required as a Condition of Salvation c. 1. I answer Some put Faith in the room and place of perfect Obedience to the Law and that Faith which they speak of they affirm is the sole Act of the Creature But this certainly is a grand Errour for it would make our Justification to be still by Works and so destroy the Nature of God's free Grace for that which is the Creature 's Act is all one with the Creature 's Work 't is but to change one Work of the Creature to another from an external Work of the Life to an internal Work of the Heart For as Mr. Cary well observes 'T is Christ's perfect Righteousness and Obedience only which is put into the room and place of ours to justify and save us and his Sufferings take away the Curse which our Disobedience brought upon us Faith therefore is only the instrumental Cause of our Justification 't is only as an Instrument or Way of our receiving and applying the Righteousness of Christ if it justifies as a Condition of the New Covenant as Works were required under the Old and as that act or work injoined on our part to be done by us as Antecedent to the benefit of the Promise that would make our Act or Work the formal Cause of our Justification and so render the Terms of the new-New-Covenant much of the same Nature with the Old Faith is not our Righteousness in it self as a Work but in relation to Christ the Object of it or as an Act of receiving and applying his Righteousness and Merits as Eating nourisheth though it be the Meat that doth it in this sense Him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly his Faith is counted for Righteousness And now whereas the Apostle James speaks of Works justifying and not Faith only Jam. 2. 24. it is easy to be comprehended and the great Apostle of the Gentiles and he reconciled Paul speaks of the Cause of our Justification before God and James of the Signs of our Justification before Men or shews how our good Works justify our Faith The one speaks of the Imputation of Righteousness the other of the Declaration of our Righteousness or one speaks of the Office of Faith the other of the Quality of Faith the one speaks of the Justification of the Person the other of the Faith of that Person the one speaks of Abraham to be justified the other of Abraham already justified Moreover 2. That Faith by which we are said to be justified is as much the Free-Gift of God's Grace to us as Christ is the Free-Gift of his Grace for us and hence Faith is called the Gift of God Eph. 2. 8 9. and also a Fruit of the Spirit Gal. 5. 22. And as it is a Grace wrought in us so also such a Grace that was promised to us as part of Christ's Purchase To you it is given saith the Apostle in the behalf of Christ not only to believe but also to suffer for his sake that is it is given freely of God's meer Grace yet upon the account of Christ's Merits and Mediation Their believing in Christ was not in their own Power No Man can come to me that is believe in me except it were given unto him of my Father And all that the Father hath given to me shall come unto me that is believe on me And again No Man can come unto me except the Father which sent me draw him