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
A97271	A touch-stone to try (by our knowledge, belief, and life) whether we be Christians in name onely, or Christians in deed. Or, The character of a true beleever, that walks in some measure answerable to the gospell, his Christian profession, and the millions of mercies he hath received. / By R.Y. of Roxwell in Essex.	Younge, Richard.	1648 (1648)	Wing Y193B; Thomason E1150_4; ESTC R208624	54,772	52

grieving that he can performe no better service to so good a Master He will not as too many most sordidly doe take liberty to sin because God is mercifull and forbeares to execute judgement speedily or deferre his repentance because the Thiefe upon the Crosse was heard at the last hour but he will even therefore the more feare him because he is mercifull and therefore be holy because he is not under the Law but under grace § 66. And lastly having thus done and performed his utmost not to merit by it but to expresse his thankfulnesse to him that hath done performed and suffered so much for him he confesseth himselfe an unprofitable servant and that in all he comes farre short of performing his duty yea he ackcowledgeth that it were just for God eternally to condemne him Well may he be comforted by the graces which God hath given him as an earnest penny of those eternall Mansions in Heaven but he will not be exalted by them because they are not his graces but the Graces of God in him and wrought by his Spirit yea he so abhorres to attribute or ascribe ought to doing that he counts his very righteousnesse no better then filthy raggs ascribing every good thought word and action which proceeds from him to Free Grace for he lookes back to the rock out of which he was hewne and is not onely humbled thereby but forced with an holy admiration to wonder at the marvellous and extraordinary change which God hath wrought in him and also instructed to trust onely to Christs obedience in whom onely our good workes are accepted and for whom alone they are rewarded To shut up all he indeavours so to live as if there were no Gospel and so to dye as if there were no Law § 67. Onely it remaines that you looke your selves in this glasse and try your selves by this touchstone for though others may give a shrewd ghesse yet the Mother knowes best whether the Childe be like the Father or no and the signes of Salvation are to be sought in our selves as the cause in Jesus Christ our Justification is to be proved by the fruits of our Sanctification and though faith alone justifieth yet justifying faith is never alone but ever accompanied with spirituall graces the beauties of the soule and good workes the beauty of graces yea they are as inseparable as the root and the sap the Sunne and its light and as Fire may be discerned by heat and life by motion so a mans faith may be discerned by the fruits of it Nor can any one be deceived except he desires to deceive himselfe for every particular man is either the Childe of God or the Childe of the Devill as Chrysostome hath it for there is not a meane betwixt them and there be more differences betweene the Children of God and the Children of the Devill then there are between Men and Beasts whereof I have named not a few for whatsoever you may find the one herein set forth to speake think or doe the other does the contrary and to have the true Character of an unbeleever you need but read this Character of a true Beleever backward understand all by the rule of contraries and be satisfied I speake this to Naturians onely for the regenerate man knowes the one to be so by what he is and the other by what he hath been neither is there one of all these signes or characters but each experienced Christian findes it in some degree written in his heart as his conscience can beare me witnesse And would you know whether you belong to Christ This will informe you you will by helpe from above endeavour to bring into captivity every thought and thing to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.5 1 John 2.4 but so have not you in the least so long as you love not or any way oppose the people of God for the very first part of conversion is to love them that love God 1 John 3.10 yea in reason if the Image of God by faith were repaired in thee thou couldest not but be delighted with those that are like thy selfe And what saith St. John He that pretends interest in God or Christ and keepeth not his Commandements is a lyar and the truth is not in him 1 John 2.4 and in the third Chapter and eighth Verse he affirmes plainly That all wilfull sinners are the Devills servants And indeed let men flatter themselves or pretend what they will it cannot be denyed but the fruit tells best the name of the Tree the conversation above all shewes who carries the bridle of the will whether God or Satan and did not men purposely shut their eyes and stop their eares and harden their owne hearts least they should see and heare and so be converted as our Saviour himselfe speakes Matth. 13.15 they could not but know that the whole Bible beates upon this It is Saint Pauls everlasting rule Rom 6.16 Yea are his servants to whom ye obey And Saint Peters infallible Doctsrine 2 Pet. 2.19 Of whom a man is overcome unto him he is in bondage And Saint Johns In this are the Children of God knowne and the Children of the Devill whosoever doth not righteousnesse is not of God but of the Devill 1 John 3.8 10. And after this manner does our Saviour reason with the Jewes John 8.33 to 48. See then whose commands ye doe Gods or Satans if Satans then saith Saint John Let no man deceive you through vaine words for he onely that doth righteousnesse is righteous and he that doth unrighteousnesse is of the Devill 1 John 3.7 8. wherefore if thou art a common Drunkard or a continuall Swearer or an usuall companion of Harlots or an accustomary Deceiver or a frequent slanderer of thy Neighbour or an open and common Sabbath-breaker or canst thou boast of sinne and mischiefe or defend it If thou makest no conscience of Praying in thy Family if thou callest evill good and good evill if thou hatest thy Brother for doing that which is good as Caine did Abel if Ismael-like thou mockest or Cham-like thou scoffest at the religious or usest bitter iests against them though it be under the notion of Round-heads Puritanes Sectaries Black-coates or the like if thou raisest slanders of them or furtherest them being raised if thou dost rejoyce at the secret infirmities of the godly or open scandalls of Hypocrites if thou dost carpe and fret against the Word refusing to heare it or withstandest the preaching of it if being a Minister thou disgrafest or revilest the godly in thy preaching so making sad the hearts of the righteous or justifyest the wicked so strengthening them in their evill courses by preaching unto them peace if thou hast a base esteeme of Gods people and their wayes and thinkest the worse of a man for scrupling small matters if thou makest Religion a cloake for villany if thou dost borrow or run in debt without care to pay againe if thou delightest in

many thousand of the Children of Israel upon Hammon and Balaam Saul and Doeg Absalon and Achittophel Ahab and Jezabell Senacharib and Nebuchadnezzar the two Captaines and their fifties Herod and Judas Annanias and Saphira with a world of others yea how severely hath he dealt with his owne children when they finned against him viz. with Moses and Aaron and Ely who were in singular favour with him yea with David a man after Gods owne heart and that after his sinne was remitted and lastly with his owne Sonne that no finne might goe unpunished which may make all impenitent persons tremble for if God was so just and severe to his owne Sonne that nothing would appease him but his death on the Crosse how can the wicked his enemies looke to be spared and if Gods owne Servants who are as deare and neare to him as the apple of his own eye or as the signet on his right hand suffer so many and grievous afflictions here what shall his adversaries suffer in Hell But because thou shalt have nothing to object Wilt thou beleeve Christ himselfe whom thou thinkest came to save all indifferently if thou wilt turne but to Matth. 25. and he will tell thee that at his comming to Judgement he will as well say to the disobedient Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire which is prepared for the Devill and his Angels as to the obedient Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdome of heaven prepared for you from the foundation of the world ver 34.41 Againe least any should be over consident he tells all men plainly that the gate of heaven is so straight that few shall finde it Matth. 7.13 14. and that many shall seeke to enter thereat and shall not be able Luke 13.24 And that many are called viz. by the outward ministry of the Word but few chosen Matth. 20.16 22.14 sad predictions for such as apply Christs Passion as a warrant for their lisentiousnesse not as a remedy and take his Death as a license to sinne his Crosse as a Letters Patent to doe mischiefe O that men would seriously thinke upon these Scriptures together with that 2 Thess 1.7 8 9. where the Apostle tells us that the Lord Jesus shall come the second time in flaming fire to render vengeance unto them that know him not and that obey not his Gospell 1 Pet. 4.18 where the Holy Ghost tells us that even the righteous shall scarcely be saved And Deut. 29.19 to 29. where God tells us expresly that he will not be mercifull unto such as flatter themselves in an evill way but that his wrath and sealousie shall smoke against them c. and that if we will not regard nor hearken unto him when he calls upon us for repentance he will not heare nor regard us when in our distresse and anguish we shall call upon him for mercy but even laugh at our destruction and mock when our feare cometh Prov. 1.24 to 33. and that he will recompence every man according to his workes be they good or evill Revel 20.13 22.12 Rom 2.6 Ezek. 7.4.8.9 9.10 11.21 16.43 but this is the misery and a just plague upon our so much formality and prophanesse under our so much meanes of grace there be very few men that make not the whole Bible and all the Sermons they heare yea the checks of their owne consciences and the motions of Gods Spirit utterly ineffectuall for want of wit and grace to apply the same to themselves but to goe on § 83 Secondly we shall finde that though Christ in the Gospel hath made many large and precious promises yet there are none so generall which are not limited with the condition of saith and the fruit thereof unfained repentance and each of them are so tyed and entayled that none can lay claime to them but true Beleevers which repent and turne from all their sinnes to serve him in holinesse without which no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12.14 5.9 Marke 16.16 John 3.36 Isay 59.20 Neither was it ever heard that any ascended into Heaven without going up the stayers of obedience and good workes that any have attained unto everlasting life without faith repentance and sanctification for even the Thiefe upon the Crosse whom you ignorantly alleadge beleeved in Christ and shewed the fruites of his faith in acknowledging his owne sinne reproving his fellow and confessing our Saviour Christ even then when his Apostles denied and forsooke him in calling upon his name desiring and confidently trusting by his meanes and merits to have everlasting life And indeed the very end of Gods electing and of Christs redeeming us was That we might be holy Eph. 1.4 Mat. 19.17 and therefore he bindes it with an oath That whomsoever he redeemeth out of the hands of their spirituall enemies they shall worship him in holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of their lives Luke 1.70 to 76. 1 Pet. 2.24 they therefore that never came to be holy were never chosen never redeemed other Scriptures to this purpose are many see onely Tit. 2.12.14 1 Pet. 2.24 Matth. 19.17 nor ought any indeed to call upon Christ or once to name him with their mouthes except they depart from iniquity 2 Tim. 2.19 Neither doth the Thiefes example make any whit for the comfort of procrastinators for First we read not that ever he was outwardly called untill this very houre Secondly though there was one saved at the last houre that none might dispaire yet there was but one that none should presume and millions who had lesse iniquity have found lesse mercy Thirdly the Thiefes conversion was one of the Miracles with the glory whereof our Saviour would honour the ignominy of his Crosse Againe Fourthly the Thiefe was saved at the very instant of time when our Saviour triumphed on the Crosse tooke his leave of the world and entred into his glory Now it is usuall with Princes to save some hainous Malefactors at their Coronation when they enter upon their Kingdomes in triumph which they are never knowne to doe afterwards which circumstances being rightly considered together with the wonderfull change so suddenly wrought in him as I shewed before his example will yeeld little encouragement to men of thy condition nor was his suddaine conversion ever intended in Gods purpose for a temptation and yet by Satans policy working upon wicked mens depraved judgements and corrupt hearts in wresting this Scripture it hath proved by accident the losse of many thousand soules and take heed it prove not thy case to which end let not Satan any longer bewitch you so to thinke upon Gods mercy as in the meane time to forget that he is also just and true and so much for answer to those two objections which Satan findes more prevalent then all the rest he is able to invent § 84. Now to winde up all with a word of exhortation if thou beest convinst and resolvest upon a new course let thy