Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
faith_n	justification_n	justify_v	sanctification_n	6,333	5	10.3320	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23636	The principles of the Protestant religion maintained, and churches of New-England, in the profession and exercise thereof defended against all the calumnies of one George Keith, a Quaker, in a book lately published at Pensilvania, to undermine them both / by the ministers of the Gospel in Boston.	Mather, Cotton, 1663-1728.; Allen, James, 1632-1710.	1690 (1690)	Wing A1029; ESTC W19401	72,664	176

ipse dixit which is of no value among sober men and hence to conclude That the inward Dispensation that is among the Gentiles that have not Christ outwardly preached hath its glory and great service to those that are faithful in it is to talk at liberty himself and deny to all others a liberty to judge Reflections on Chapt. 7. of Justification The Doctrine of Justification is one principal pillar of our Faith we cannot forego one clause of it without greatest hazzard let him not then think to wheadle us out of it his attempts so to do must be detected defeated Sect. 1. When he saith God doth not justifie men in their Vngodliness but from it would be true if he had not perverted it afterwards To justifie a man is to uphold and defend him in such a way and to say to the wicked thou art righteous this is far from God But to justifie a man from his ungodliness may admit of a double Interpretation if it intend that He absolves a man from his ungodliness by a gracious act of pardon acquittance it is true but if it intend a taking away of his sin from him by cleansing him from his filthiness and purging the corruption of it out of him as he after interprets himself this is no Justification at all but belongs to Sanctification Sect. 2. He saith They are only the sanctified that are justified if he intends that whom God doth justifie He doth also sanctifie it is a great truth but if he puts Sanctification which is a Concomitant to be a cause of Justification yea the material cause as his following Discourse evidently insinuates it is a deceit and here he mistaketh when he saith That we are the seed of Christ by Sanctification which is only a benefit which Christ bestowes on His seed and not a cause of their being so And when he tells us That Christ bestowes Adoption only on His brethren it is as much as if he had said that Christ only Adopts the Adopted Sect. 3. Here he falls into down-right Popery confounding those two great benefits of Justification and Sanctification which tho' inseparable are to be distinguished All Protestant Writers of Controversies against papists have abundantly Confuted this mistake only he will force us in the Sequel to make some brief Remarks on this matter Sect. 4. One Errour begets another a false principle will afford mistakes for Deductions and here we see it he took Justification and Sanctification for one thing and so he tells us that God justifies not only by faith in Christ but by a real inward righteousness too though Paul thought that these two ways of having a justifying Righteousness were inconsistent Rom. 11.6 but herein he follows his Fathers the Papists and whereas he saies That The graces of Sanctification are the instruments of obtaining Justification from Christ he mistakes the order of Christ's Benefits for its certain that there is none of these graces in the man habitually much less the Exercise of them before Justification for in with the souls applying it self to Christ by Faith it is justified and it is to be remembred that Paul tells us it is the justification of the ungodly Rom. 4.5 Such God finds them in themselves when He comes to ●ustifie them And when he saith Jesus Christ cannot be applied to men for justification unless the man be made righteous it s either a Contradiction or a Sophism If they be made righteous for their justification the Application of Christ for their Righteousness ●s superfluous If he intends that the Application of Justification makes them righte●us it is fallacious it makes them so in 〈◊〉 Law sense but not in a moral sense not ●ustification but Sanctification doeth that ●is Similitude is from that which hath no ●ikeness his Scripture Citations are not to ●he purpose that in 1. Joh. 3.7 speakes of ●anfictication that in Rev. 22.15 speaks ●f the visible Right to Church-Communion which men are to prove by their Obedience or if he will not admit of that let him Remember that Faith which layes hold on the Righteousness of Christ is the great Gospel Command 1. Joh. 3.23 Sect. 5. 'T is a great mistake in him to say that Faith is one hand to receive Christ Love is another the Office of Love is another and quite different thing by faith we receive Christ by Love we serve him or testifie our Thankfulness in our Obedience to Him Joh. 14.15 and it is by Faith tha● we derive from Christ all that virtue which nourisheth the graces of Love whereby we may serve Him Gal. 5.6 And whereas he here applies the putting on of Christ to Justification we that esteem Justification and Sanctification two things reckon it to Sanctification and that according to Scripture fo● what else is the Righteousness and true Holiness by which it is interpreted Eph. 4.22 23 24. Sect. 6. In this Paragraph he gives up th● whole Cause if he speakes sincerely if not let him answer it to his Judge Sect. 7. That because Pardon of Sin is 〈◊〉 part of Justification therefore Repentance 〈◊〉 a necessary instrument to obtain it has no Consequence in it Repentance being an inseparable Concomitant of Faith and influenced by it Act. 5.31.11.18 elsewhere Only let it be observed that we separate not Repentance from Justification but deny it to have any causal Influence into it His proof from Tit. 3.5 is impertinent we never denied Sanctification to be necessary to Salvation But we suppose there is more requisite to Salvation than there is to Justification not only must we be adjudged to the Inheritance but we must be made meet or suitable for that happy state Col. 1.12 and that is by Sanctification Hebr. 12.14 this therefore is one of the Gospel Conditions of Salvation but not of Justification When he saith that Paul in saying that men are not justified by the works of the Law only excludes the legal performances in which the Jews rested who had not faith in Christ he labours of a double mistake for both all the Jews did not rest in them but some had faith in Christ and yet they did these works and were not justified by them and Paul renounceth his own works both before after believing distinctly Phil. 3.7.8 Sect. 8. Whereas he saith that when Paul speakes of Justification by faith he useth the word faith by a Synechdoche it is gratis dictum we have only his word for it and how much the word of one guilty of so much Heresy and Blasphemy is worth on this account let any judge We grant that the word Faith is sometimes used for the Gospel-Doctrine but when the Scripture mentions it as the instrument of justification it is never so intended and it belongs to him to prove it if he can Sect. 9. We understand not the meaning of his Rant in this Section about a Christ divided a Christ without and a Christ within a Christ in heaven and

a Christ in the heart we believe that there is but One Christ and that He is in Heaven as to His humane nature infinite as to His Divine Nature and that by His Virtue Influence and Grace He dwells in the hearts of all His people and that they live upon Him by Faith Sect. 10. None of us ever doubted that Faith hath true Assurance in it and infallible too he therefore abuseth us in saying that we deny that faith hath assurance in the being nature of it only he must give us leave or we will take it to distinguish between the Assurance of the Object of the Subject 〈◊〉 by the Assurance of the Object we understand the full Security which a believer is put into of enjoying eternal life in the very instant of beleeving this Assurance we say belongs to faith of its own nature i. e. it cannot be without it but the Assurance of the Subject is that Knowledge or Discerning whereby a Believer reads the Evidence and has it infallibly confirmed to his knowledge this we say is not of the nature of Faith but belongs to inchoate Glorification and that Beleevers may be safe and yet want the Discerning of it Isa 50.10 tho' we still believe and have formerly proved that this Assurance may be had without extraordinary Revelation and he argues foolishly that because no place of Scripture tells us that we have these infallible marks therefore we cannot know them infallibly without such Revelation for the marks are knowable men have understandings and can know what they mean apply 'em and the Spirit can and doth in this way set His seal to the Confirmation hereof Sect. 11. The poison conteined in this Section will be more fully discovered in the next Chapter to which we refer the Reader to prevent the nauseous Tautologies which his book labours of Reflections on Cap. 8. of Perseverence c. It s worth the observing that all those that stand for Justification by works deny the Doctrine of Perseverance and great reason might ●e assigned for it Wonder not then that we have him chopping at this Pillar too but this Doctrine is a Cordial of such worth that we believe that none who have re-received it in the promise will readily part with it let us then vindicate it from his false Comments Sect. 1. Real and true beginnings of faith and Sanctification saith he may be fallen from What meanes he by this There are some previous and preparatory common works that are wrought in men such as Conviction of sin and misery by the law and the terrours of the Lord that make men affraid and may put a stop to their lewd courses yea and work a reformation in many things and make a natural Conscience to act more strongly than before if he meanes these we deny not but they may be lost but then we deny them to be the beginnings of true justifying or saving faith called the Faith of God's elect to distinguish it from other faith and those which he instanceth in Heb. 6.4 5 6. belong to this head they had through these arrived to a Temporary Faith but not to that which is saying and therefore the Apostle charitably exempts his Hebrews from any such danger as having other things in them vers 9. His instance from Rom. 11. relates only to a visible Church state which all that stand in are not true Believers That of the Angels fall is impertinent for they were under a Covenant of Works Their Faith in the thorny and stony ground was but a temporary Faith it had not a saving root●ng and for that Reason abode but a while And we must distinguish between a false faith and one that is not saying it is therefore blame-worthy for men to lose some things the keeping whereof will not save them such are all the moral principles which men have imbibed such as the young man had Mat. 19. And it is to be observed that the good ground is differenced from the other three by the epethete good to shew that the other were not so in a spiritual sense and though God's children feel many thorns stones in their hearts after Conversion yet their hearts being in saving measures softned and broke-up they receive their Denomination from the better part according to Scripture Nor will the Parable of the Virgins Mat. 25. begin help him at all we grant the oyl there signifies true saving grace but then by Lamps we are to understand an outward profession by Vessels the heart the foolish Virgins had oyl in their Lamps i. e. they pretended to and made a profession and shew of Grace though they had none really the wise virgins had it in their lamps i. e. profession and vessels too i. e. hearts and it is no new thing for the Scripture to express things which men seem to have as if they had them because they hold others in hand and often deceive themselves into a beliefe that they have them see Luc. 8.18 compare Mat. 13.20 His allegation from Ezek. 18.24 c. may at first seem to have a face of a plea in it but it only seems so Other Scriptures assure us that no true believer shall finally totally fall away from grace and Scripture doth not contradict it self Several things might here be offered briefly Consider 1. This is but a conditional expression and therefore asserts nothing to his purpose 2. God is pleased sometimes to curb in His people's Corruptions by such Conditional Threatnings see Rom. 8.13 Heb. 12 14. for they have nothing in themselves but what they might lose if God did not secure it God so preserves His People as to stir up fear and care in them 3. And what if we say That God speaks to them in respect of the typical part of the typical Covenant to whom the promises and threatnings concerning the typical blessings of Canaan were made on these conditions which they might either keep or bre●k and by breaking fall from them and forfeit their lives and Land That David is a clear instance of one that totally fell from grace he proves not the sins he committed were great the Aggravation● heinous but if he had totally lost his grace why doth he pray Psal 51.11 take not thy holy Spirit from me Nor doth it follow as he intimates that because a justified man may fall into Murder and Adultery therefore the worst of men may believe that they are true real Saints for they never had the work of Conversion past upon them as David had and besides such horrid falls break their bones defile their hearts wound their grace and consequently be-cloud their Evidences what plea is there for such as never had any Evidence Nor doth it follow that if these men dy in their sins they shall go to heaven immediately For tho' God suffer for holy ends His Children to fall far yet as not to fall totally so He will give them Repentance tho' the just