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
A85329	Londons gate to the Lords Table. Where the eldership doth sit doing their office aright, in discovering and shutting out the ignorant, prophane, and meere civill honest man : in suspending the suspected formall, legall, and antinomisticall professor, and in drawing in the weakest humble beleeving soule. In a dialogue betweene a minister of the Gospell. Alexander an ignorant prophane man. Simon a proud professor. And Matthias an humble penitent. Imprimatur Edmund Calamy.	Fisher, Edward, fl. 1627-1655.	1646 (1646)	Wing F995; Thomason E1213_1; ESTC R210120	58,722	302

heart of unbeleefe and therefore shall perish as it is written Hos 3. 6. My people perish for want of knowledge Alex. And Sir do you also thinke that I am wholly sinfull Min. Yea indeed do I for an ignorant heart is alwayes a sinfull heart and a man without knowledge is alwayes a man without grace Alex. But Sir when you say I am wholly sinfull I pray you tell me what you meane for I do not well understand you Min. Why I meane you are wholly given over to sinne you commit sinne with greedinesse without any strife in your will and affections against it you love sinne and delight in the committing of it Alex. Nay now Sir I see you are deceived in me for I thanke God I doe strive against my sins and would faine leave off my sinfull courses and as the saying is My Spirit is willing but my Flesh is weake The Lord bee mercifull unto mee and forgive me all my sinnes as I hope he will Min. But what is your meaning when you say You doe strive against your sinnes and would faine leave them Alex. Why my meaning is That when I am overcome by drinking too much and do thereupon fall to cursing and swearing quarrelling and some other sinnes when I come to my selfe againe and have considered what I have said and done I am much vexed at my selfe and wish from my heart that I had never done so yea and I have many a time resolved never to do the like againe and yet by occasion of going into the company of some men with whom I have some dealing who are too subject to that vice though otherwise very honest faire conditioned men and also by reason of mine own naturall inclination to those sinnes I am now and then overcome and so commit the like sinnes againe Min. And what hath beene the reason of this your striving against your sinnes as you call it Alex. Why truly Sir it hath been because I have considered that in so doing I have mis-spent my time and my money and have disgraced my selfe and endangered the salvation of mine owne soule if the Lord were not the more mercifull Min. Surely it appears to me that all this striving hath beene onely betwixt your Judgement and Affections or betwixt your Conscience your Lusts You doe in your Judgement conceive these courses to be evill because of the evill effects that follow them and therefore your conscience tells you that you do evil in cōmitting them and you thinke it were good for you to leave them because of the punishment that follows or is like to follow upon the committing of them but your Affections and Lusts do like and approve of them and therefore doe prevaile with you to act and commit them and in the committing of them you take great delight so that I say this your striving against sinne is nothing but Conscience and Lusts by the ears together which striving Herod Balaam and Pilate had within them and so may the vilest Reprobate in the world have But all this while there is no strife in you betwixt will and will nor betwixt Affection and Affection as there is in every true Beleever for he having the Spirit of Christ within him is a regenerate man and in part renewed and therefore the strife that is in him is betwixt the Flesh and the Spirit betwixt the regenerate part and the unregenerate part and it is against sinne as it is sinne and hated and loathed by him and therefore assure your selfe that notwithstanding all your striving you are wholly sinfull Sim. But stay a little I pray Sir this your speech seemeth to imply as though a true Beleever might commit the like grosse sinnes that he doth and that there were no other difference betwixt him and a true Beleever in the point of sinning but onely this different striving Min. But assure your selfe neighbour Simon that my meaning is not so for I doe fully agree with that worthy man of God who saith That a true Repentant and that is a true Beleever forsakes all sinne in affection and all grosse sinne in action and therefore I pray you neighbour Alexander consider of it for this doth more fully prove that you are wholly sinfull as well as wholly ignorant Alex. Well Sir though I be wholly ignorant and wholly sinfull as you say yet would I faine know the reason why I may not have true faith in Christ for all that Min. The reason why there can be no true faith in Christ when a man is wholly ignorant of him is because it is the nature of faith to beleeve that which it knoweth so that wheresoever there is no true knowledge of Christ there can be no true faith in Christ and therefore Reynolds on the Sacraments p. 138. Christ himselfe makes the knowledge of him all one with beleefe in him Joh. 17. 3. And the reason why there can be no true faith in Christ when a man is wholly sinfull is because holinesse of life and conversation is an unseperable companion and fruit of faith for faith purifieth the heart Acts 15. 9. and faith worketh by love Gal. 5. 6. Alex. Well Sir suppose I have no true faith in Christ and so be an unbeleever as you say Yet why was not the Sacrament of the Lords Supper instituted and ordained for unbeleevers as well as for beleevers Min. The reason is because the Sacrament of the Lords Supper being not the Sacrament of Regeneration but of sustentation and nourishment Christ did not institute and ordaine it for the regenerating or converting of any man nor for the breeding of grace in him but for the strengthning of the regenerate man that is borne againe and for the nourishment of grace already bred and begun in him so that indeed the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is childrens bread even the bread of Gods children that are borne againe not of corruptible 1 Pet. 1. 23 seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever and therefore it is not to bee given unto dogs yea it is spirituall food ordained for spiritually living men and therefore it is not to bee put into the mouthes of spiritually dead men but into the soules of spiritually living men and a man is made a sonne of God onely by faith in Christ as it is written Joh. 1. 12. To as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to them that beleeve on his Name And so Gal. 3. 16. Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus yea it is faith that quickens a man and maks him spiritually alive according to that of the Apostle Gal. 2. 20. I live by the faith of the Son of God Furthermore the Sacrament is the Seale of a Covenant Rom. 4. 11. and Covenants essentially include conditions and the condition on our part is Faith so that where there is no Faith there is no

Covenant and where there is no Covenant there is no Seale and then consequently no Sacrament so that you being an unbeleever you are an unconverted un-regenerate man no childe of God no spiritually living man neither are you under the Covenant of Grace and therefore assure your selfe the sacrament of the Lords Supper was not instituted and ordained for you Alex. Then Sir it seems that you do not intend to admit me to bee a partaker of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Min. Surely neighbour Alexander you not having true faith in Christ you cannot bee a partaker thereof though we should admit you Alex. This is strange to me Sir cannot I come to Church and receive the Bread and Wine and eat it and drinke it if you give it me Min. Yea I do confesse though you have no faith yet you may partake of the Bread and Wine but you are not to come to the Sacrament to partake of the Bread and Wine but to be made a partaker of CHRISTS Body and Blood under the similitude of Bread and Wine but this you cannot doe without Faith for Faith is the hand with which Christ is received as you may see Joh. 1. 12. yea and it is the mouth by which we feed on him as you may see Joh. 6. 53. wherefore I beseech you bee not so simple as to thinke and imagine that you are to come to the Sacrament for a morsell of finer Bread or for a draught of sweet Wine nor that if you receive the outward Elements in a reverend manner and behave your selfe decently during that action and demeane your selfe mannerly for that day that then you have received the Sacrament in honour of Christ and done a right acceptable service to God But know and consider That the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is a spirituall Banquet where we are to feast our soules with the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ crucified for us and this you cannot do for want of Faith and therefore if you should come and partake of the outward Elements yet would it be no benefit to you Alex. But Sir doe you thinke it would bee any hurt to me if I should receive the Sacrament Min. Yea I know it would be great hurt to you for by reason of your Ignorance and want of Faith in Christ you are neither able to examine your selfe before you come there nor to discerne the Lords Body when you are there and so should you receive the Sacrament unworthily and so not only be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord but also eat and drinke damnation to your selfe as the Apostle tells you 1 Cor. 11. 27. 28 29. Alex. Sir these things are somewhat strange to me and therefore I pray you give me leave to ask you a few questions about them and first of all tell me what I ought to examine my selfe of because you say I am not able to doe it Min. Why you ought to examine your selfe 2 Cor. 13. 5 whether you bee in the Faith whether Christ be in you yea or no whether you be dead to sinne or alive to righteousnesse what graces you have and what you want what corruptions you have overcome and what do overcome you what religious actions you perform and how you performe them in briefe to examine your selfe is to take a true survey of the state and condition of your soule by comparing it with the Scriptures Now you are ignorant both of the state and condition of your soule and also of the Scriptures and therefore I say it is impossible that you should be able to examine your selfe Alex. Well Sir and what is it to discerne the Lords Body Min. To discerne the LORDS Bodie is to put a right difference betweene the outward Elements in the Sacrament and common Pemble on the Sacraments p. 59. Bread and Wine which difference is not at all in substance but in the use the one being prophane the other sacred being set a part to signifie unto us the benefits of Christs death and passion or the discerning of the Lords Body stands in knowledge understanding and Dike on the Sacraments p. 90. judgement of the nature use and necessitie of the Sacrament but you have manifested by that which you said ere while That you put no difference betwixt the Bread and Wine at the Lords Table and common bread and wine but would use them as you doe your ordinarie food without any regard of the spirituall use of them and therefore you are not able to discerne the Lords Body at the Sacrament Alex. But Sir it would be a strange thing if I by receiving the Sacrament should become guilty of the Body and Blood of Christ I pray you Sir shew me the reason of it Min. The reason is because if you should receive the Sacrament you would doe even so as the shedders of Christs Blood did for looke as they that crucified and pierced Christ poured not forth his Blood that they might Dike on the Sacraments p. 56. drinke it but onely that they might poure it forth and shed it so you by your receiving the Sacrament without profit or benefit to your soule would rashly and in vaine shed the Blood of Christ Or to be guiltie of the Body and Blood of Christ Reynolds on the Sacraments p. 180. is to offer some notable contempt unto the sufferings of Christ to finne against the price of our Redemption and to vilifie and set at naught the precious Blood of the new Covenant as if it were a common and prophane thing when men out of ignorant sensuall secure presumptuous formalizing inconsiderate and prophane affections approach unto Christs Table to communicate of him Alex. And do you think that I should eat and drink damnation to my selfe if I should receive the Bread and Wine at the Sacrament Min. I think you would commit such a sinne in prophaning the Sacrament as deserves both eternall and temporall Judgement for though this Table of the Lord be a Feast of choicest delicates for refreshing of the Pemble on the Sacraments p. 66. soule when men come rightly prepared thereto yet doth it become the bane and destruction of soules when men present themselves thereat with unbeleeving impenitent and unholy hearts as you would doe if you should come there Alex. Then Sir it seems you doe absolutely conclude that I am unfit to be admitted to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Min. Surely neighbour Alexander you being wholly ignorant wholly sinfull unbeleeving unregenerate unconverted no Sonne of God no spiritually living man and having neither hand to receive Christ nor mouth to feed on Christ nor being able to examine your selfe nor to discerne the Lords Bodie and an unworthy receiver and so liable to become guilty of the Bodie and Blood of Christ and to eat and drink your own damnation I think it must needs follow that you are unfit to be admitted to the Sacrament of the LORDS Supper Alex. Well

But yet Sir me thinkes so small a measure of faith as the Lord knowes I have if any at all should not fit a man to receive the Sacrament aright Min. O but you are to Rogers on the Sacra p. 48. consider that it is the kinde of faith that makes a man fit for the Sacrament and not the measure the truth of faith is rather required then any certaine measure and thought you have not that measure of faith that you doe desire yet have you that truth of faith which Christ doth require Mat. But Sir doe you use to admit any to the Sacrament that are so weake as I Min. Yea indeed for we doe consider that a ●● spark of fire is fire as well as the whole Element even so is a sparke of faith faith as well as the flame and we must looke to faith in the sparke as well as in the flame knowing right well that although all Beleevers have not the like strong faith yet have they all the like precious faith whereby they lay hold and put on the perfect righteousnesse of Jesus Christ And we are not ignorant that the Sacrament of the Lords Supper was instituted and Rogers on the Sacrament p. 107. ordained to make weake Beleevers strong and not onely nor chiefly to make strong Beleevers stronger Mat. Well Sir I thanke the Lord I doe now begin to see more concerning the Sacrament of the Lords Supper then hitherto I have done for to say nothing of former times when I went unto it and received it hand over head not knowing any other reason why I should receive it but because others did so and I thought I did God some service and that he was as it were beholden to me for doing so even since I have known more then formerly I have therein been much mistaken for I had thought that knowledge faith repentance love and obedience had made a man worthy to receive the Sacrament for I am sure I have either heard some Minister Preach or else read it in some Booke that the wedding garment wherewith a man that commeth to the Sacrament is to be cloathed is made up of all these and that therefore it was for want of these that the man in the Gospell was bound hand and foot and cast into utter darknesse and therefore because I found a want of all these in my selfe I thought I was altogether unworthy to come to the Sacrament and durst not presume to come unto it but now I doe perceive that it is rather an hungering and thirsting appetite after Christ and his Righteousnesse arising from a true sight and sence of the want thereof that makes a man worthy and I hope I may truly say That I doe see and feele a want thereof in some small measure and therefore Sir I doe desire to come to the Sacrament if you be pleased to admit me Min. Neighbour Matthias if you read the contents of the 22. Chapter of the Gospell written by Sr. Matthew where the wedding garment is mentioned in the Bible that containes Bezas notes in the Margent you shall find these words The wedding garment is faith to the which I doe assent for though t is true where faith is truly planted in the heart all the other doe proceed and grow from thence as fruits yet it is faith that is especially exercised in the act of receiving the Sacrament it being as I told you the hand that receiveth Christ and the mouth that feedeth on Christ yea and it is by faith that this hungering and thirsting appetite is stirred up in the soule therefore I said that your hungering and thirsting after Christ and his Righteousnesse is from faith or rather faith it selfe and so you having the wedding garment I doe pronounce you to be one of those guests which Christ inviteth to his Table and therefore I as a messenger sent from Christ doe in the name of my Lord and Master Christ invite you to his Table assuring you that he will bid you kindly welcome and therefore I beseech you faile not to be there the next time it shall be administred and in the meane time I would intreat you to come before me and the Elders together that you may also have their approbation for I of my selfe have not power to admit you Mat. But Sir it may be though you doe think me fit to be admitted yet it may be they will not and then I shall be turned backe and that will much trouble me Min. Feare not man I dare warrant you that they will be all of my minde in that point concerning you Mat. Well then Sir God willing I will come before you and if they also give their consent if the Lord spare me life and health I will come to the Sacrament with my godly neighbours the next time it shall be administred and in the meane time I beseech you Sir pray for me that the Lord would be pleased to fit and prepare me to pertake thereof Min. Yea neighbour Mathias as the LORD shall be pleased to enable me I will pray for you and I beseech you also in the meane time to pray for your selfe and use all other meanes to informe your judgement aright concerning the nature use and end of the Sacrament that so you may receive that fruit and benefit which the Lord doth thereby tender and offer to such as you are Mat. Sir I doe acknowledge that I am very ignorant in these points and therefore have great need to use all the meanes I can to be better informed and truly for the present I know no better meanes then to intreat you to give me some further instruction concerning the same Min. God willing you shall not want the best instructions that I am able to give you and therefore I pray you understand that the Sacrament of the LORDS Supper was by Christ himselfe instituted and ordained for three especiall ends 1 As first of all to keep Beleevers in a continuall remembrance of that propitiatory Sacrifice which he once for all offered by his death upon the Crosse Doe this saith he in remembrance Luk. 22. 19. of me that is to say Do this in remembrance that my Body was broken and my Blood shed for the remission of your sinnes 2 Secondly Christ did institute and ordaine it to be a seale of the righteousnesse Rom. 4. ●● of faith to ratifie and confirme the Covenant of promise made with all beleevers for indeed that Covenant is as a last Will and Testament and the Sacraments are as Seales set thereunto whereby all the promises in the Covenant of Grace or the Gospell are ratified and confirmed to every faithfull soule that so they having both Christs hand and seale their faith may be the better confirmed and strengthned 3 Thirdly Christ did institute and ordaine it to be spirituall nourishment to every hungry and thirsty soule yea and to be spirituall Physick to heale and cure every sensible sick and

diseased soule Now these being the ends for which Christ did institute and ordaine the Sacrament I beseech you let your comming thereunto be to obtaine these ends and doe not you come for forme and custome sake neither yet for your credit sake amongst your neighbours neither yet out of a conceit that your very presence there and your very performance of the outward acts is well pleasing and acceptable to the Lord as I feare me many ignorant people have thought in former times neither yet doe you conceive that for your so doing the Lord is ingaged to forgive you your sinnes and give you eternall life neither yet doe you imagine that the bare outward actions and elements are able to sanctifie you in a word beware of conceiving too highly of the outward acts and outward elements but rather look to the inward invisible matter and vertue of the Sacrament which is Jesus Christ alwayes remembring that he is all in all in every action and in every element and therefore when you are at the Lords Table as I hope you will be very shortly and there see the Bread and Wine separated by consecration unto this holy use and these blessed ends then remember Christ and thinke how he was fore-ordained and Pemble on the Sacraments p. 8 fore-appointed by his Father from everlasting unto the accomplishing of our redemption by his death and blood-sheding and when you see the Bread broken and the Wine poured forth then remember Christ and thinke how he was torne and rent in his precious Body with stripes and wounds and pained even to the death in his most holy Soule full of the wrath of God and the indignation of the Almighty by whom he was smitten for your sinnes and plagued for your transgressions and when the Minister offereth unto you the Bread and Wine then remember Christ and thinke how he is given to you of God freely yea and freely gives himselfe to you if you will receive him and when you receive the Bread and drinke the Wine then remember Christ that living Bread and thinke how he himself hath said Ioh. 6. 5. 5. My flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drinke indeed and beleeve that thereby hee gives life unto your soule and will preserve it to all eternity in a word consider how God the Father did by this death and bloodshed of his Sonne thus represented in the Sacrament fully answer and satisfie his owne justice to the end he might set open a doore of mercy to all humble penitent hearted sinners yea and doe you thereupon assuredly beleeve that you have thereby tendered unto the Justice of God a full and perfect satisfaction for all your sinnes and that therefore now it is a meet and equall thing with God he having received and accepted this full satisfaction to pardon and forgive you all your sinnes according to his promise Mat. 26. 28. yea doe you beleeve and assuredly perswade your heart that for this satisfaction sake you are reconciled unto God according to his promise Col. 1. 21 22. yea doe you beleeve and assuredly perswade your owne soule that for the obedience and satisfaction sake of Christ you are justified in the sight of God according to his promise Rom. 5. 9. yea and doe you then beleeve and make no doubt of it but that for this satisfaction sake of Jesus Christ you shall be sanctified by his Spirit according to his promise Hebr. 13. 12. and have your heart of stone taken out of your bowels and a heart of flesh given unto you according as it is promised Ezek. 36. 26. and have strength and vigour to all holy performances according to that promise Heb. 13. 20 21. yea doe you beleeve and make no question of it but that for this satisfaction sake of Christ you shall have eternall life according to Christs owne promise Ioh. 6. 51. This you see is the Covenant of promise this is Christs last Will and Testament these are the riches which he hath left and bequeathed to all such as you are this is Christs owne hand and deed and by the Sacrament duly administred and rightly received he sets too his seale and so confirmes it fully wherefore I beseech you when you are at the Sacrament yea as oft as you shall be there present at any time hereafter speake to your faith as Deborah did to her self Iudg. 5. 12. and say Awake awake O my faith and now bestir and rouze thy selfe up to do thine office in receiving Christ now offered in whom all these ● Cor. 1. ●0 promises are Yea and Amen Lift up thine eye to see Christ reach forth thine hand and lay hold on him and receive him set thy mouth to him and feed on him eat and drink Christ by sucking these breasts of consolation and thus would I have you in the act of receiving the Sacrament by Faith to knit your heart unto Christ and throw your selfe into his armes stretched out on the crosse to imbrace you and wash your soule in his Blood that you may be cleane and by Faith apply his Blood to your soule for the healing of all your infirmities say in your heart Hath my Saviour died for my sinnes and shall not I die unto sinne shall I live any longer therein Rom. 6. 2. no God forbid and by this meanes ye shall finde your sinnes weakned and the graces of Gods Spirit revived and strengthned yea you shall finde the Sacrament to become a good corasive to eat out your corruptions and as physicke to heale and cure you of all your infirmities yea you shall finde it to be by meanes of the acting of your faith as a Conduit pipe which being set to the Fountaine of grace Christ Jesus shall convey grace from that holy Fountaine Christ into the cisterne of your soule and like a soveraigne medicine you shall finde it to become beneficiall to all the parts of your soule making you apt and ready to every good worke and therefore I beseech you to receive it often Mat. Truly Sir by meanes of these your speeches my judgement is much better informed touching the use and end of the Sacrament and I am hereby much incouraged to approach thereunto but Sir because you doe exhort me to receive it often I would gladly know the reason why we must receive that Sacrament of the Lords Supper often seeing we are to receive the Sacrament of Baptisme but once in all our lives Min. The Reason is because the sacrament of Rogers on the Sacrament p. 360. Baptisme is the sacrament of our Regeneration or new birth and the sacrament of the Lords Supper is the sacrament of our spirituall nourishment and growth and therefore we are to be baptized but once because we are borne but once but we are to receive the sacrament of the LORDS Supper often because that after wee are borne wee stand in need to be often nourished and fed that so we may grow in grace for