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	sacrament_n	seal_n	4,627	5	9.5821	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70894	The life of the Most Reverend Father in God, James Usher, late Lord Arch-Bishop of Armagh, primate and metropolitan of all Ireland with a Collection of three hundred letters between the said Lord Primate and most of the eminentest persons for piety and learning in his time ... / collected and published from original copies under their own hands, by Richard Parr ...	Parr, Richard, 1617-1691.; Ussher, James, 1581-1656. Collection of three hundred letters.	1686 (1686)	Wing P548; Wing U163; ESTC R1496	625,199	629

to me that the Order is this God doth 1. Offer his Covenant under the condition of Faith and Repentance and therein Christ and his Benefits 2. We accept of the Covenant according to the tenor of it 3. God offers to confirm it with Sacraments proportional 4. We receive them and so are certified of the performance of the Covenant and have the Promises thereof conveyed by Covenant and by Seal also unto us Where you say In the Eucharist God doth first offer and exhibit growth and increase of Grdce and a nearer and faster Communion of Christ's Body and Blood and all the Benefits flowing from thence and then it is a Pledg to assure us thereof It seems to me that God having in the New Testament confirmed with Christ's Blood offered unto us Life under the condition of our receiving him would confirm to as many as receive him that they have Life Therefore he hath instituted Bread and Wine the means of Natural Life in a certain use to be Seals of Spiritual Life We now receiving them they are Pledges unto us and do certifie us of that Spiritual Life which we have by receiving Christ. Where then you say That the instrumental conveyance of the Grace signified is as true an effect of a Sacrament as Obsignation and is then existent in order of Nature unto it I do conceive that the setting of Christ and his Benefits before us in the Gospel as the Bread that came down from Heaven and in the institution of the holy Supper in the proportional creatures of Bread and Wine with condition that these worthily received shall confer those must needs go before any Obsignation But then our partaking of these Creatures duly giveth unto us the Possession of the former by way of Obsignation which in our purpose is the sole and only instrumental conveyance which the Sacraments have You will ask what is the due participation That which God requires There can be required no more of Infants but the receiving of the outward washing in Baptism they cannot prove themselves nor repent and believe Very true Have they then that Obsignation Yes doubtless according to the form of the Covenant How is that That repenting and believing their Sins are washed away Then because they do not yet repent and believe nothing passes Yes this passes The Confirmation that this Sacrament gives upon Repentance and belief of all God's Promises of the New Testament The same thing which passes to him qui fictus accedit who when afterward he doth indeed repent of his Fiction and receives Christ by Faith hath also the actual enjoying of the thing so confirmed to him The Opinion of the Franciscans out of Scotus and Bernard mentioned in the Council of Trent seems to be the true Opinion for they make the Sacraments to be effectual because God gives them Effectus regulariter concomitantes and to contain Grace no otherwise then as an effectual Sign and that Grace is received by them as an Investiture by a Ring or Staff which is obsignando Which agrees also with Catharines Opinion de intenione Ministri And Eisingrens saith that God only can give to sensible Signs Vertue to confer Grace Confess c. 1. Yet I believe they understand the matter otherwise then I have before expressed Their Authority is of little moment either way Beza Ursine and Calvin have no other meaning then I have expressed Mr. Hooker I have not Since Infants say you are capable of Baptism why not of spiritual Ablution of Original Guilt which is the thing signified tho not of actual Obsignation of this since they cannot interpose any impediment to hinder the operation of the Sacraments Questionless they are partakers of the actual Obsignation of Ablution from original and actual Guilt say I. Suppose they understand not this Obsignation nor receive this Ablution otherwise then Sacramentally As I said before the counterfeit Convert also doth tho he put a bar to his present Ablution of his Sins and consequently his own Certification thereof Where I said The true definition of a Sacrament in general will decide this Question which you grant and commend that of our Catechism I do not disallow it being well interpreted but do think incomparably better that of the Apostle That they be Seals of the Righteousness of Faith Or if we will include the Sacraments of the state of Grace before the Fall They be Seals of God's Covenant concerning everlasting Happiness If yet more generally we will include the Rain-bow Gen. 9. They be Seals of God's Covenants The Definition of Scotus Signum sensibile gratiam Dei ejus effectum gratuitum ex institutione divinâ efficacitèr signanus ordinatum ad salutem hominis viatoris methinks is a good Definition especially declaring efficaciter as he doth in hoc efficacitèr saith he includitur tam certitudinalitèr quam prognosticè I know that he acknowledges no Sacrament pro statu innocentiae but without all reason and the Definition will serve well enough for both States where he and the other Schoolmen require since the Fall some remedy for Original Sin and I perceived the same form in your Determination Certum esse Christum Sacramentum Baptismi instituisse in remedium originalis peccati ad reatus ejusdem veram solutionem I conceived you meant to make that the proper effect of Baptism which seemed also to be implied in the explication of the Question in the first Sentence and after Cumque Baptismus potissimum institutus sit ad solutionem originalis peccati c. You know what it is to demonstrate specially of one sort of Triangles that which is true in all which made me a little touch upon that point But verily I think this conceit of Sacraments to make them Medicines is the root of all Error in this matter and that it is good to take Light from the Tree of Life and that of the knowledg of Good and Evil that they are Seals only to God's Promises In my last to you as I remember I gave you occasion a little to consider the case of Women under the Law and of all Mankind before Circumcision Methinks it is very inconvenient to say that the Males should have a remedy against Sin and the Females none And the Schoolmen when they will first lay down their own conceit that such a remedy there must be and then divine what it must be they make Bellarmine ridiculous who from the silence of holy Scripture herein labours to shew the Scriptures are insufficient and yet he cannot help us here by any Traditions This Inconvenience is well avoided by making the Sacraments to confer Grace only by Obsignation of God's Promises and the end of them to be Certioration For so long as God would have Men rest upon his meer Word and Promise without a Seal his Word alone was to suffice When he gave a Seal that was to have validity as far as he extended it Now he extended Circumcision to

For as Mr. Beza saith in Col. Mompel Obsignari non potest quod non habetur pag. 66 76 131. Ursin. Cat. Edit Cant. p. 584. Sacramentum opus Dei erga nos in quo dat aliquid scilicet signa res signalas in quo testatur se nobis offerre ac dare sua beneficio mox Baptismus ac Coena Domini sunt Sacramenta quia sunt opus Dei qui aliquid in its nobis dat se dare testatur Vid. etiam Calvin Instit. lib. 4. c. 17. § 10 11. and in 1 Cor. 24. So that instrumental conveyance of the Grace signified to the due Receiver is as true an effect of a Sacrament when it is administred as obsignation and is pre-existing in order of Nature to Obsignation See more at large Mr. Hooker l. 5. § 57 59 60 64 67. who in my opinion doth truly explicate the Efficacy of Sacraments The opinion of the Franciscans out of Soctus Bonaeventure and St. Bernard mentioned in the History of the Council of Trent pag. 237 is a true opinion tho they leave out the other use of the Sacraments which is Obsignation Tho Catherinus and Eisingren●us hold that also Since then Infants are capable of Baptism why not of spiritual Ablution of Original Guilt which is the thing signified tho not of actual Obsignation of this since they cannot interpose any impediment to hinder the operation of the Sacrament It seemeth you conceive that I make Circumsion and Baptism to be the remedy of original Sin only I neither so say nor think It is true your Lordship saith the true definition of a Sacrament in general will decide this Question and so say I and think the definition in our ordinary Catechism formerly mentioned is a good and sound definition LETTER CLXIII Part of a Letter from the Right Reverend William Bedell Bishop of Kilmore to Dr. Samuel Ward FIrst you say If Sacraments be meerly obsignatory and the ablution of Sons in Baptism only conditional and expectative of which the Baptized have no benefit till they believe and repent Then Infants baptized dying in Infancy have no benefit by Baptism This Consequence me-thinks is not good For they are by Baptism received into the visible Church which is a noble Priviledg of Comfort to Parents and Honour and Profit to themselves Again there is presently granted them an entrance into Covenant with God as was anciently by Circumcision with the God of Abraham wherein God promises Pardon of Sin and Life eternal upon their Faith and Repentance and in this they have a present right tho the accomplishment be deferred Yet if God take them out of this World while the Condition is in expectation most pious it is to believe that he takes the Condition for performed Like to him that solemnizeth a Marriage with her to whom he was betrothed sub conditione And here if the Souls of Christians be indued with any actual Knowledg at all so soon as they leave the Body it seems the mystery of Redemption by Christ is revealed unto them and Faith is given them whereby they cleave to God by him the Author of their Blessedness although they have no need now of the Obsignation of the Promise whereof they are in present possession The second Reason Non-elect Infants living shall thus have no benefit at all by Baptism I answer Where there be divers ends of one and the same thing the denial of one is not the denial of the rest These Non-elect Infants have offered by God the same with the other viz. the obsignation of the Covenant and aggregation to the Church The same that he hath also quifictus accedit ut ponit obicem gratiae as to the present possession of it All that come to the Sacrament Elect or Non-elect receive the Pardon of Sin Original and Actual sacramentally and whosoever performs the Condition of the Covenant hath the fruition of that whereof before he had the Grant under Seal So as the Sacraments are not nuda inefficacia signa on God's part to the one or other Thirdly you say What necessity of baptizing Infants if their Baptism produce no effect till they come to years of discretion Though the most principal Effect be not attained presently the less principal are not to be refused So Children were circumcised which could not understand the reason of it and the same also did eat the Passover And so did also Children baptized in the Primitive Church communicate in the Lord's Supper Which I know not why it should not be so still de quo alias Fourthly Our Divines you say generally hold that the Sacraments do offer and exhibit the Grace which they signify and in order of Nature do first offer and exhibit before they assure and confirm For God doth 1. Offer and exhibit Grace promised in the Sacraments 2. We exercise our Faith resting upon God promising and exhibiting 3. So we receive the Grace promised 4. Then the Sacraments assure us of the Grace received And this order you endeavour to confirm out of the Definition of a Sament in our Catechism you declare it in the Eucharist and bring divers Testimonies of our Writers to prove it I answer The Grace which the Sacraments confer is of three sorts The first is The spiritual things which are proportionable to the outward The second The Effects of these The third The Certification of the Party in the lawful use of the outward of the enjoying the two former As in Baptism 1. The Blood and Spirit of Christ. 2. The washing of Sin and new Birth 3. The Obsignation to the Party baptized that by Christ's Blood his Sins are cleansed The first of these is signified in that common Sentence That Sacraments consist of two parts An outward visible Sign and an inward invisible Grace The second is the most usual and common notion of the word Grace meaning some Spiritual Favour in order to Salvation promised in the New Covenant The last is most properly the Grace of the Sacrament it self For the two former which our Catechism seems to reduce to one are properly the Grace of the Covenant which God doth confirm and seal by the Sacraments As when the King's Majesty grants Lands and Tenements with certain Immunities and Priviledges thereunto appertaining as in his Letters Patents at large appeareth and sets to the Great Seal all the Grants and Articles in the Patent are confirmed thereby materialiter subjective but the Ratification of the Patent is properly and formally that which the Seal works Which also according to the form of the Patent may be simple or conditional present or ad diem according as his Majesty is pleased As touching the terms also of offering and exhibiting they may be taken two ways Either of the offering and propounding so doth Calvin take the word exhibet in the Covenant and Institution of the Sacraments Or 2. confirming in the use of them These things thus premised it seems

all Abraham's Seed Males and Females yea to the Males and Females of all that were adjoyned to Abraham tho but bought with his Mony And the Circumcision of the Males was an Obsignation of God's Covenant to the Females also Lastly in the New Testament willing to make more ample Demonstration of his Love and more abundantly to confirm the Truth of his Promises he hath appointed the Obsignation of them even to both Sexes and to every several Person Whereby he hath not made their Condition worse who without contempt do want it but their 's better which are Partakers of it Which I speak in regard of the imagined necessity of Baptism to Infants to Salvation as if it were indeed a Medicine to save Life whereas it is only an assuring that Christ gives Life Consider how Baptism was given to them who had remission of Sins and the gifts of the Holy Ghost also before who therefore could have no other Intention therein but Certification only and adjoyning to the Church Acts 10. 44. Consider how it hath force about Sin not only going before it but following also yea even to them that at the time of the outward receiving it do ponere obicem else such ought to be re-baptized Consider that if the Faith of the Parents or the Church were effectual before Circumcision was instituted for the taking away of Original Sin from Infants or under the Law from Female Children it is no less effectual at the present under the Gospel And this presupposing that some mean must come between to make them partakers of Christ. Wherefore the same mean yet standing the effect of Baptism needs not to be assigned Justification or Ablution from Sin but Testification to the Receiver when he repents and believes that he is washed from Sin Consider that if you will aver that Baptism washes away otherwise then sacramentally that is obsignatorily original Sin yet you must allow that manner of washing for future actual Sins And you must make two sons of Justification one for Children another for Adulti And which passes all the rest you must find some Promise in God's Covenant wherein he binds himself to wash away Sin without Faith or Repentance for that Children have these I think you will not say You seem also to break the Chain of the Apostle Rom. 8. 30. Whom he hath justified he hath glorified Lastly by this Doctrine you must also maintain that Children do spiritually eat the Flesh of Christ and drink his Blood if they receive the Encharist as for divers Ages they did and by the Analogy of the Passover they may perhaps ought since they do not ponere obicem contraria cogitationis aut pravae operationis And sith the use of his Sacrament topics quoties must needs confer Grace it seems it were necessary to let them communicate and the oftner the better to the intent they might be stronger in Grace Which Opinion tho St. Austine and many more of the Ancients do maintain I believe you will not easily condescend unto or that Children dying without Baptism are damn'd Which if Baptism be the Remedy that takes away Original Sin I see not how you can avoid Touching the Propositions of Molina opposed by the Dominicans and the Letters of Hippolytus de Alonte-Peloso I am glad you have met with them For I sent you the Originals which P. Paulo gave me upon occasion of speech with him touching that Controversy reserving no Copy to my self The occasion was the contention of the Jesuits and Dominicans before Pope Clement the 8th And those Letters were week by sent from Rome to Padre Paule of the carriage of the Business When you find a trusty Messenger I desire you to send me them For the Quodlibetical Question there is no haste I would join with it another Tractate about the Valtelin● set forth by Sir Rob. Cotton in English as it is said at least but I cannot get the Italian Copy I am sorry that Arminianism finds such favour in the Low-Countries and amongst our selves and glad that my Lord of Sarum whom I truly love and honour came off so well in the Business touching his Sermon LETTER CLXIV A Letter from his Majesty K. Charles the First to the King's Council in Ireland Cha. REX Right trusty and right well-beloved Cousins and Counsellors we greet you well Whereas it hath pleased God of his infinite Grace and Goodness to vouchsafe unto us a Son born at our Palace of St. James's the 9th day of this present Month of May to the great comfort not only of our Selves in particular but to the general Joy and Contentment of all our Good and Loving Subjects as being a principal Mean for the establishment of the prosperous Estate and Peace of all our Kingdoms whose Welfare We do and will ever prefer before any other earthly Blessing that can befal Us in this Life We therefore according to the laudable Custom of our Royal Progenitors in like case heretofort used have thought fit to make known unto you the joyful Tidings as well in regard of the High Place ye hold under Us in the Government of that our Kingdom as also that by timely Order from you the same may be communicated unto the Nobility and principal Cities and Towns thereof as to those who we know with all dutiful and loving Affections will embrace whatsoever may ma●● for the prosperous advancement of the Publick Good in which both you and they have so great Interest And to this purpose We have sent these out Letters unto you by Our trusty and well beloved Servant Thomas Prist●● 〈◊〉 one of our Officers of Arms being an Officer of Honour specially by Us honour to appointed for the more honourable expression of our good affection to that our Kingdom Given under our Signet at Our Palace of Westminister the fifth day of June in the sixth Year of Our Reign To Our right 〈◊〉 and right well-beloved 〈◊〉 and Counsellors Adam Viscount Loftus of Ely 〈◊〉 Chancellor of Our Kingdom of Ireland and Richard Earl of Cork Our Justices of that our Realm LETTER CLXV A Letter from the Right Honourable the Earl of Cork c. to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh After our hearty Commendations to your Lordship WE have lately to our exceeding great comfort received the glad Advertisement of the Queen 's safe Delivery in the Birth of a young Prince which did surprize us with such extraordinary Joy as is justly due from us upon so happy an occasion And because it is our Duties to join in sit Expressions of thankfulness to God for so great a Blessing we have resolved to set a Day apart for performance of those Duties so soon as one of his Majesty's Servants shall arrive here who is an Officer of Honour especially appointed by his Majesty to convey unto us those glad Tidings for the more honourable expression of his Highness's good Affection to this his Kingdom The particular respect we