Selected quad for the lemma: grace_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
grace_n	faith_n	justify_v	sanctification_n	2,387	5	10.2932	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26932	Gildas Salvianus, the reformed pastor shewing the nature of the pastoral work, especially in private instruction and catechizing : with an open confession of our too open sins : prepared for a day of humiliation kept at Worcester, Decemb. 4, 1655 by the ministers of that county, who subscribed the agreement for catechizing and personal instruction at their entrance upon that work / by their unworthy fellow-servant, Richard Baxter ...	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1656 (1656)	Wing B1274; ESTC R209214	317,338	576

so much shall serve for Directions to the younger Ministers in their dealing with the more ignorant or carnal sort of persons AS for them that are under fears and troubles of mind who yet give us hopes of the work of saving grace on their souls though it deserve a full discourse to direct us in dealing with them yet I shall not meddle with it now 1. Because I intended this discourse for another end 2. Because Divines being at some variance about the methods of comforting and confirming troubled minds are many of them so impatient of reading any thing which is not cut out according to their present opinions that I perceive it my duty as far as I can to avoid points controverted 3. Because I have done so much as I think necessary already in my Directions for peace of Conscience CHAP. VIII SECT 1. ANother fort there are that we may have occasion of conference with though they will scarce stoop to be Catechized and that is Opinionative Questionists that being tainted with Pride and self-conceitedness are readyer to teach then to be taught and to vent their own conceits and quarrel with you as being ignorant or erroneous your selves then to receive instruction and if they are tainted with any notable errour or schismatical disposition they will seek to waste the time in vain janglings and to dispute rather then to learn I am not now directing you what to do with those men at other times of that I shall give a touch anon but only if they come to you at this time which is appointed for Catechizing and edifying Instruction Nor is it my thought to presume to direct any but the weaker sort of Ministers in this any more then in the former It s like you will have some come to you amongst the rest that when they should give an account of their faith will fall into a Teaching and Contentious d●scourse and one will tell you that you have no t●ue Church because you have such bad members another will ask you by what authority you baptize Infant● another will ask you how you can be a true Minister if you had your Ordination from Prelates and another will tell you that you are no true Minister because you had not your Ordination from Prelates another will ask you What Scripture you have for Praying or singing Psalm● in a mixt Assembly and another will quarrel with you because you administer not the Lords Supper to them in the gesture and manner as they desire and were ●ont to receive it or because you exercise any Discipline among them If any such person should come to you and thus seek to divert your better discourse I' should think it best to take this course with them 1. Let them know that this meeting is appointed for another use that is for the Instructing of the people in the Principles of Religion and you think it very unmeet to pe●vert it from that use it being a sin to do Gods work disorderly or to be doing a lesser work when you should be doing a greater And therefore as you durst not turn Gods publike worship on the Lords day into vain or contentious disputings which discompose mens minds and spoil a greater work so neither do you think it lawful to abuse these times to lower uses which are appointed for higher 2. Yet let him know that you do not this to avoid any tryal of the truth and that he may know so much you will at any other fit season when he will come on purpose to that end endeavour to give him full satisfaction or you will as willingly receive instruction from him if he be able and have the truth as you desire he should receive instruction from you and if it must be so you will yield to his desire before you part if there be but time when you have dispatcht the greater work but upon condition only that he will submit to the greater first 3. Then desire him first to give you some account of the Principles in the Catechism And if he deny it conuince him before all of the iniquity of his course 1. In that it is the Principles that salvation most dependeth on and therefore being of greatest Excellency and Necessity are first to be taken into consideration 2. In that it is the appointed business of this day 3. It is orderly to begin with the fundamentals because they bear up the rest which suppose them flow from them and cannot be understood without them 4. It is the note of a Proud vain-glorious hypocrite to make a flourish about lesser things and yet either to be ignorant of the greater or to scorn to give that account of his knowledge which the people whom he despiseth refuse not to give If he yield to you ask him only such questions as seem to be of great weight and yet strain him up a peg higher then you do the common people and especially keep out the predicate usually from your Question and put him most upon defining or distinguishing or expounding some terms or sentences of Scripture c. As such questions as these may be put to him which call for definitions wherein it s ten to one but you will find him ignorant E. G What is God What is Jesus Christ What is the Holy-Ghost What is Person in the Trinity How many natures hath Christ Was Christ a creature before his Incarnation or the Creation Is he called the first-born of all creatures as God or as man Is he called the Image of the Invisible God and the express Image of the Fathers person or subsistence as a creature or as God Was Adam bound to believe in Christ Was one or two Covenants made with Adam before his fall Did the first Covenant of Nature make any promise of everlasting celestial glory Did it threaten hell fire or only temporal death Did it threaten eternal torment to the soul only or to the body also Should there have been any Resurrection of the body if Christ had not come to procure it Should Christ have com or been our Head or have brought us to glory if man had not fallen What is the first Covenant what its conditions What the second Covenant and its Conditions What was the difference between the Covenant with Adam and that by Moses Was it a Covenant of Works or of Grace that was made by Moses What were the conditions of salvation before Christs Incarnation What is forgiveness of sin What is Justification How are we said to be Justified by faith how by works What is faith What repentance What Sanctification Vocation Regeneration Is the Covenant of Works Abrogated or not Is the Covenant of Grace made with the Elect only or with all or with whom What is Freewill Is there any conversion without the word What is the true nature of special grace and what is the proper difference of a Regenerate man from all others What is the Catholike Church How will you know

happy Church and Commonwealth The same I mean also along of the Course of Schoolmasters to their scholars But when Languages and Philosophy have almost all their time and diligence and instead of reading Philosophy like Divines they read Divinity like Philosophers as if it were a thing of no more moment then a lesson of Musick or Arithmetick and not the doctrine of Everlasting life this is it that blasteth so many in the bud and pestereth the Church with unsanctified Teachers Hence it is that we have so many worldlings to preach of the invisible felicity and so many carnal men to declare the mysteries of the Spirit and I would I might not say so many Infidels to preach Christ or so many Atheists to preach the living God And when they are taught Philosophy before or without Religion what wonder if their Philosophy be all or most of their Religion and if they grow up into admirations of their unprofitable fancies and deifie their own deluded brains when they know no other God and if they reduce all their Theologie to their Philosophy like Campanella White and other self-admirers or if they take Christianity for a meer delusion and fall with Hobbs to write Leviathans or with the L. Herbert to write such Treatises de veritate as shall shew the world how little they esteem of verity or at best if they turn Paracelsian Behmenists and spin them a Religion from their own inventions Again therefore I address my self to all them that have the education of youth especially in order to preparation for the Ministery You that are Schoolmasters and Tutors begin and end with the things of God Speak daily to the hearts of your Schollars those things that must be wrought into their hearts or else they are undone Let some piercing words fall frequently from your mouthes of God and the state of their souls and the life to come Do not say They are too young to understand and entertain them You little know what impressions they may make which you discern not Not only the soul of that boy but a Congregation or many souls therein may have cause to bless God for your zeal and diligence yea for one such seasonable word You have a great advantage above others to do them good You have them before they are grown to the worst and they will hear you when they will not hear another If they are destinated to the Ministery you are preparing them for the special service of God and must they not first have the knowledge of him whom they must serve O think with your selves what a sad thing it will be to their own souls and what a wrong to the Church of God if they come out from you with common and carnal hearts to so holy and spiritual and great a work Of an hundred Students that be in one of your Colledges how many may there be that are serious experienced godly men some talk of too small a number If you should send one half of them on a work that they are un it for what bloody work will they make in the Church or Countries Whereas if you be the means of their through-sanctification how many souls may bless you and what greater good can you do the Church When once their hearts are savingly affected with the Doctrine which they study and preach they will study it more heartily and preach it heartily their own experience will direct them to the fittest subjects and will furnish them with matter and quicken them to set it home and I observe that the best of our hearers can feel and favour such experimental preachers and usually do less regard others what ever may be their accomplishments See therefore that you make not work for Sequestrators nor for the groans and lamentation of the Church nor for the great Tormenter of the murderers of souls SECT VI. 2. MY second particular Exhortation is this Content not your selves to have the main work of grace but be also very careful that your graces be kept in life and action and that you preach to your selves the Sermons that you stud● before you preach them to others If you did this for your own sakes it would be no lost labour but I am speaking to you upon the publike account and that you would do it for the sake of the Church When your minds are in a heavenly holy frame your people are like to partake of the fruits of it Your prayers and praises and doctrine will be heavenly and sweet to them They will likely feel when you have been much with God That which is on your hearts most is like to be most in their ears I confess I must speak it by lamentable experience that I publish to my Flock the distempers of my soul when I let my heart grow cold my preaching is cold and when it is confused my preaching will be so and so I can observe too oft in the best of my hearers that when I have a while grown cold in preaching they have cooled accordingly and the next Prayers that I have heard from them hath been too like my preaching We are the Nurses of Christs little ones If we forbear our food we shall famish them they will quickly find it in the want of Milk and we may quickly see it again on them in the lean and dull discharge of their several duties If we let our Love go down we are not so like to raise up theirs If we abate our holy care and fear it will appear in our Doctrine If the matter shew it not the manner will If we feed on unwholsom food either errors or fruitless controversies our hearers are like to fare the worse for it Whereas if we could abound in Faith and Love and Zeal how would it over-flow to the refreshing of our Congregations and how would it appear in the increase of the same graces in others O Brethren watch therefore over your own hearts keep out lusts and passions and worldly inclinations Keep up the life of Faith and Love Be much at home and be much with God If it be not your daily serious business to study your own hearts and subdue corruptions and live as upon God if you make it not your very work which you constantly attend all will go amiss and you will starve your auditors or if you have but an affected servency you cannot expect such a blessing to attend it Be much above all in secret prayer and meditation There you must fetch the heavenly fire that must kindle your sacrifices Remember you cannot decline and neglect your duty to your own hurt alone but many will be losers by it as well as you For your peoples sakes therefore look to your hearts If a pang of spiritual Pride should overtake you and you should grow into any dangerous or schismatical conceits and vent your own over-valued inventions to draw away Disciples after you what a wound might this prove to the Church that you