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ground_n divine_a faith_n revelation_n 2,617 5 10.5414 5 true
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A37065 The earnest breathings of forreign Protestants, divines & others, to the ministers and other able Christians of these three nations for a compleat body of practicall divinity ... and an essay of a modell of the said body of divinity / by J.D. ... ; together with an expedient tendered for the entertainment of strangers who are Protestants, and by their means to advance the Gospel unto their several nations and quarters ... Dury, John, 1596-1680. 1658 (1658) Wing D2855; ESTC R3545 75,860 66

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thereof I suppose the ground is prepared upon which the Fundamentals of Divine Faith that is the Doctrine of Revealed Truths which by natural Reasoning no man can reach unto may be offered For as God doth make a man first by a living soul to be a natural man and afterward he becomes by grace a new creature and spirituall man so I suppose he doth 1 Cor. 15. 46. cause the Truths of Rationality concerning himselfe first to become effectual upon the conscience before the understanding is obliged conscionably to entertain Revealed Truths For he who is not capable of that measure of Faith which common Reason it self doth beget upon the natural apprehensions of God and his Truths written in the heart how can he be thought susceptible of the other measure which dependeth onely upon Revelation and Divine Tradition We conclude therefore that these Precognitions are first to be handled as matters requisite to fit the mind of a natural man to receive that which is to follow after because I conceive not that the Principles of the life of Godlinesse which are to follow are to be delivered as the products of these fore-going Truths but onely as matters subsequent unto the same in respect of the order of things to be taught These Praecognita are Praesupponenda but not Principia because I take a Principle of Godlinesse to be such a Truth from which a Conclusion of divine faith and love may flow But that cannot flow from any truth which is entertained upon meer natural Grounds as I suppose without spiritual Revelation and Illumination for divine Faith as it is the gift of God and not the product of humane Reasoning so it must needs have a higher Principle then these Precognitions namely some truth as revealed immediately by God unto the Conscience to convince it that he doth offer himselfe unto it to be a Saviour And this is the reason why I would have the Precognitions and the Principles of Godlinesse distinguished namely because they are truths of a different nature yet they are subordinate but so that the latter cannot follow the former without some speciall work of God upon the mind Concerning the Principles THe Principles of the life of Godlinesse are such Truths as set the mind upon the apprehension of supernatural Objects and beget thereby the acts of divine Faith therein which worketh through love in the whole Man all which is acceptable unto God Now all the Truths which beget divine Faith and Love proceed from one Root which is the Tenor of the Covenant which God hath appointed to be offered from the Scriptures by the Preaching of the Gospel in his name to be believed and entertained by all for all that God doth aime at in his dealing with Man-kind next unto the manifestation of the glory of his goodnesse over all his Creatures is chiefly this to shew himselfe a Saviour in uniting man by a Covenant Psal 73. 24. 2 Tim. 4. 7. of Grace unto himselfe that he being guided by his Counsel and having kept the faith therein may afterward be received into glory The Covenant of Grace then is the great and fundamental Principle of all the Principles of the life of Godlinesse for as there is none other way appointed to unite man unto God and restore us again from our fall to integritie but this way of a Covenant so there is nothing which we can do acceptably towards God or profitably for our own salvation but that which is done in order to the Tenor thereof Whence followeth also that all our knowledge is not otherwise useful nor to be sought after upon any other ground but as it leadeth to the observation of the Covenant nor to be entertained for any other aime but as it is subordinate unto the Tenor thereof for as no man ever was is or can be saved but he that is faithful in the Covenant of Grace with God so no matter of knowledge can be saving to any man but that which inableth him to keep the Tenor thereof Hereunto then all truths both Theoretical and Practical are finally to be referred and therefore in the Doctrine of the life of Godlinesse the Covenant must be made the ground of all the principles of Faith from which the duties of obedience must flow And I am fully perswaded both upon the grounds of found reason which a natural morall man is capable of and upon the grounds of divine Testimony and spiritual experience that all doubtful matters in Divinity whether they concern the points of Knowledge or of Practice may not onely be resolved by the right understanding of Gods aime towards us and of our dutie towards him in the Covenant but that the Resolutions thereof of what kind soever must be examined by and applyed unto the Analogy of Faith concerning the Covenant before ever they can bring true peace to the Conscience of any man and therefore my advice shall be unto those who will undertake any part of this Work that they keep alwayes the Covenant in their eye as Marriners do the North point of the Compass to steer their Course by it in all their Meditations for it is mainly for want of this Directory that both in our Notions and Actions concerning Religion we run such wild courses nor is it possible as I conceive ever to unite the Professors of Christianity to each other to heale their Breaches and Divisions in Doctrine and Practice and to make them live together as brethren in one Spirit ought to do without the same sense of the Covenant by which they may be made to perceive the termes upon which God doth unite all those that are his Children unto himselfe and upon which every one that is in Covenant with God is bound in Conscience through love unto God to maintain the unitie of the Spirit in the bond of peace with those that are his Children who all alike and by the same very way are in Covenant with him The knowledge of the Covenant then being the fundamental Principle whereunto all other Truths are to be reduced that they may be received unto the end for which they are revealed we shall endeavour to shew what the Doctrines of divine Faith are which are subordinate thereunto and which by vertue of that subordination are able to beget love towards God in a believing soul for no doctrine of Faith doth otherwise oblige any man to love and obedience towards God then as it is revealed to manifest Gods love unto us as he is become our Saviour and to make us faithfull towards him in the Covenant I conceive then that all the Doctrines of divine Faith tend either to the erecting and settling of the Covenant of Grace with us or to the confirmation of our Faith in the truth thereof To Erect and settle the Covenant with us we must needs know 1. The true Instrument of the Covenant wherein it is revealed 2. The things belonging to the true Tenor thereof as they are offered