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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
head_n	body_n	member_n	mystical_a	10,421	5	11.0632	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67085	The key of saving knovvledge, opening out of the holy Scriptures, the right way, and straight passage to eternall life, or, A dialogue wherein the chiefe principles of the Christian religion are unfolded for the enabling of Christian people, to understand the Word of God ... composed by Geo. Walker ...	Walker, George, 1581?-1651.	1641 (1641)	Wing W360; ESTC R39413	43,048	124

the sure spirituall band of union betweene Christ the head and them the members of the same mysticall body Quest What is Adoption Answ. It is a necessary consequent of the union of the Elect with Christ For Christ being the only begotten Son of God by eternall generation as hee is God and as hee is Man by personall union with God the Sonne and by a supernaturall and miraculous generation and so heire of all things Heb. 1. 2. It must necessarily follow that whosoever are in him one body with him and lead by his Spirit do thereby come under the account of children and heires of God and of coheires with Christ and so God the Father doth esteeme respect and accoumpt them the Spirit dwelling in them doth witnesse with their spirit that they are the children of God Rom. 8. 16. Quest What is the Communion with Christ of all his benefits Answ. It is a consequent that is a grace necessarily following from union with Christ For whosoever are by one Spirit baptized into Christ and made one spirituall body with him as really and substantially as all members in a mans body are one naturall body with the head they must needs have such a spirituall communion of all Christs treasures vertues and endowents as is the naturall communion which all the members in a mans body have with the head Christs sufferings satisfaction for sin righteousnesse ransome and intercession are theirs and they have a right and interest in them and communion of them all And thus God justifies and makes them fundamentally righteous by Christs perfect righteousnesse frees them from the guilt of all their sins by his satisfactory sufferings and accepts them for his redeemed and reconciled ones through Christs intercession and makes them actually accepted in his beloved Christ Eph. 1. 6. Quest What are the works of saving grace which God so worketh in the Elect that they also being moved by his Spirit do cooperat and worke together with him Answ. They are the actions of the Elect regenerat exercising by the motion of the Spirit those spirituall gifts and Christian vertues which were given them by renovation or renuing of the holy Ghost Quest Which is the first of them Answ The first is actuall Faith or Beleeving in God and in Christ for as the gift of Faith is the first of all spirituall gifts which by the renuing of the holy Ghost is wrought in the elect regenerate So the worke of their Faith that is actuall beleeving is the first of all which by the motion of the Spirit they performe after they are quickned and raised up to live a spirituall life Quest Why is the work of their Faith the first before the acts of knowledge repentance love hope and the rest Answ. Because Faith possesseth the whole heart and soule of man and informeth after a sort all the powers and faculties thereof even the understanding will and affections It is the opening of the understanding to take notice of Gods goodnesse and of the truth of his Word It is the inclining of the will to give assent to the whole Word of God and all truth therein revealed and to acknowledge all Gods Truth Goodnesse and Mercy in Christ It is the rectifying of the affections and the plyablenesse of them to trust in God to rely on him to hope in his mercy to love feare and reverence him and to hate all offence of his holy Majesty to sorrow for sin with godly sorrow to repentance to rejoyce and delight in the things of God and to bee zealous of good works and resolve to serve honour and obey God in a constant course of life This saving Faith sets a work all other graces and therefore all works of true godlinesse holinesse and righteousnesse performed by the Elect regenerate and sanctified are called fruits of Faith by which their Faith is openly shewed and made knowne as a tree by the fruits of it Quest Which is the proper work of true saving Faith Answ The proper work of it by which all other graces are set a work is a firme and stedfast beleeving with the whole heart of the Word of God and all things therein revealed which concerne their salvation by Christ that is both eternall life in the fruition of God and the way to it Quest What difference is there betweene this beleeving and that which is in Devils and in carnall hypocrites who beleeve these things or at least many of them at some times Answ. There is as great difference between them as between light and darknesse The beleeving of the Elect regenerat proceeds from a supernaturall cause and from a Divine and holyroot even the Spirit of God dwelling in them as Gods immortall seed and sanctifying them and therefore it is holy firme and stedfast and reacheth beyond all hope sense and reason But that of the Devils and carnall hypocrites proceeds from their own naturall reason convinced by sense experience and plaine arguments or by a common illumination of the Spirit shining from without into the hearts of hypocrites and temporary beleevers as we read of Simon Magus Act. 8. 13. and the hypocriticall Iews who beleeved in Christs name when they saw his miracles John 2. 23. And therefore their beleeving is carnall temporary and vanishing and goeth no further than sense and naturall reason do lead The beleeving of the Elect is the subsisting of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11. 1. That is they have the things which they beleeve as certainly as they beleeve that they have them and hope for them and their beleeving is a cleare evidence to them of their being in Christ and of their communion with him in grace and of their portion in Heaven which things are not seene with carnall eyes of sense or reason For the Spirit which works this beleefe hath united them to Christ and made Christ and all his benefits theirs already so that their beleeving is infallible and cannot deceive them But Devils carnall men and hypocrites cannot reach so far as to beleeve their own particular salvation in Christ or their having of things thereto belonging And if any of them do at any time Mich. 3. 11. it is but a false and vanishing beliefe In a word whosoever doth by a true saving Faith beleeve historically the Word of God and the truth therein conteined he hath withall an affiance in God and grace to beleeve by all other acts of Faith even to apply to himselfe all Gods promise by beleeving steadfastly that they belong to himself in particular For as the Spirit wch works this faith is the fountain of all grace and unites the beleevers to Christ makes him all his benefits theirs So this Faith necessarily produceth all acts of beleeving in them and makes them able by beleeving to apply to themselvs to enjoy all blessings which are to be found in Christ Quest What benefits do the Elect receive by

noysom weeds plants Lastly it brought all mankind in bondage to death both temporal wch is such a corruption of the body as doth separat the soule frō it make it utterly unfit for the soule to lodge in and also eternall which is the punishment of him with eternall destruction from the presence of God and from the glory of his power Quest Is there any hope of deliverance from this foule staine guilt of sins and from death and all evill of wrath which are the fruits and effects of it Answ. There is no hope of deliverance in any thing which mans wit and reason can devise or man by his art skil and power can performe All creatures in the world can yield him no help God only of his infinit mercy free grace love and kindnesse to man-kind hath from all eternity ordeined an all-sufficient Saviour and Redeemer even his only begotten son who immediatly after mans sin and fall did undertake for man staid the execution of the sentence and punishment of death and was promised to become the seed of the woman and by suffering death and all the punishments due to sin in our nature to redeeme man-kind from sin and death and to destroy the Devill who had the power of death and to dissolve all his workes Quest Who is this Son of God which did undertake to redeeme man Answ. It is the Lord Iesus Christ who was first promised under the name of the seed of the woman Gen. 3. 15. which should break the serpents head and afterward was promised to Abraham Isaac and Jacob under the name of the blessed seed in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed And to David and by the Prophets by the name of Messiah that is the annoynted Saviour of the seed of David And at last in the fulnesse of the time when hee was made flesh tooke our nature upon him and was borne of a Virgin did beare the name of Iesus and is now preached and made knowne to the world under the name of the Lord Iesus Christ Quest Why did not Christ come in the flesh in the beginning or first age of the world and worke mans redemption that the Fathers who lived under the old Testament might bee redeemed and saved by him as we now are under the Gospell Answ. The Incarnation of Christ and all things which he did and suffered for our redemption in the dayes of his flesh were present with God from all eternity as all times and all things which come to passe in all times past present and to come are continually present with him and were as effectuall to satisfie his justice appease his wrath and to purchase and procure perfect salvation to men at his hands as they are now ever since they were actually performed And through Christ promised God did shed his Spirit on the Fathers of old as hee now doth on us through Christ given and exhibited and by the Spirit united them to him in one spirituall body and wrought in them Faith by which they did as it said of Abraham see the day of Christ beleeve in him were partakers of all his benefits and were made conformable to him both in his death and life by mortification and sanctification Quest Why did Christ come and satisfie for sinfull men in the mids of yeares between the times of the Old and New Testament Answ. Because that was the most fit and seasonable of all times for man-kind for divers reasons First if he had appeared in the first ages of the world the memory of him would have been worne out For as the people of the Gentiles within a few ages forgot the promises of Christ made to Adam Noah and Sem and lost the knowledge of them so men would have forgotten Christ and all his doings and sufferings long ago for the world loveth changes and loathing old things seeketh after novelties Secondly the deferring of Christs comming held the world in suspence and expectation with promises from age to age still more plainely renued that after much longing his comming might be so much more welcome and men might with greater joy receive him Thirdly the world increasing in sin and corruption and being growne so hard that weaker meanes and obscurer revelation could worke litle upon men it was Gods Wisdome to reserve the appearance of Christ and the publishing of the powerfull Gospell for these latter evill days as being the fittest meanes for these harder times Fourthly if Christ in our nature had made satisfaction in the first ages of the world and had paid our ransome so many ages before wee were borne or had our being it had not been so equall and proportionable to justice as now it is by reason of his comming in the midst of yeares between the Old and the New Testament For by this meanes Gods forbearance of the ransome and satisfaction for the sinnes of the Fathers before Christs death is recompensed with payment of our debt and making a full satisfaction for our sinnes as much before hand even many ages before our committing of sinne or running in debt to his Majesty in our own persons Lastly it was necessary that many of the members of his elect and faithfull Church should by the Spirit bee united to him and by Faith have Communion with him before and at his comming appearing in the flesh that being the head of the Church actually through them He might by Cōmunion and imputation of the sins of so great a body multitude justly suffer the punishments due to the sins of his people even of them who were in after ages to grow up into the same mystical body by the same Spirit If he had beene borne in the beginning of the world before the Church of the Old Testament had any actuall being he could not have been the actuall head of the body nor united to the Church which as yet was not in being and so could not have borne the sins of his Church nor justly suffered the punishment of them Therefore the Apostle very fitly cals the time of Christs comming in the flesh the fulnesse of time that is the time most seasonable Gal. 4 4. Quest What have you learned concerning Christs person needfull to be knowne and beleeved Answ. I have learned That as he was the eternall Son of God one and the same God and of the same nature and substance with the Father and the Spirit hee did undertake according to Gods eternall Counsell to bee the Mediator between God and man and to mediate for man from the day of his fall and as hee was promised to bee the Seed of the woman so hee did in fulnesse of time assume and take into personall union with himselfe the whole nature and substance of a man and was made of the seed of Abraham and David in the womb of a Virgin of their seed a man like unto us in all things but without sin even

in their infancy are saved by the free Grace of God who worketh all things after the counsell of his own will Quest How doth the Word preached worke saving grace in men Answ. Not barely by it selfe nor by any divine vertue inherent in it but by the free grace of God and the inward operation of the Spirit working with it when and where and in whom he will For the Word preached doth not profit when it s notmingled with Faith in them that heare it Heb. 4. 2. as we see in the Iewes to whom Christ himselfe preached and yet they were not turned to God but the Word by him spoken through their infidelity turned to their hurt wrought to the hardening of them in their sins and left them without all excuse or any cloak for their wickednesse Iohn 15. 22. Quest What are those necessary works and saving graces which God by his Word and Spirit worketh in men to bring them to salvation in Christ Answ. They are works and graces which flow from Gods eternall election and are only wrought in the elect They are necessary because without them none can be saved and they are called saving works and graces because the persons in whom they are once wrought can never fall away and perish but shall certeinely persevere in them and be saved And they all may be brought under two heads The first are the works which God alone by his Word and Spirit worketh in his Elect. The second sort are the works which God so worketh that they also do cooperat with him and work together with his Spirit Quest Which are the works which God alone by his Spirit worketh in the Elect Answ. The first is regeneration from which all the rest do flow to wit renovation which is called renuing of the holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5. Effectuall calling union with Christ adoption and Communion of all Christs benefits as of his ransome satisfaction righteousnesse and intercession for redemption remission of sins justification and perfect reconciliation Quest Which is the first saving grace Answ. The first which is the ground of al the rest is Regeneration Quest What is Regeneration Answ. It is that worke of God by which he sheds the Holy Ghost on his Elect through Iesus Christ of which Spirit given to dwell in them as his immortall seed they are borne again and become new creatures and spirituall members of Christ and children of God by a new birth and Generation Quest What is Renovation Answ. It is the work of God which he by his Spirit shed on them and dwelling in them doth work in them renuing them after the image of Christ and making them conformable to him both in his death by mortification and in his life by vivification Quest What is Mortification Answ. It is that work of Gods Spirit wherein hee deriveth the vertue of Christs death unto them and worketh in them such a sense of their misery sin and corruption and such a godly griefe sorrow contrition of heart loathing and abhorring of themselvs as doth tame their rebellious lusts and gives a deadly blow to the old man of sinfull corruption in them so that sinne can no more reigne in their mortall bodies but by grace they prevaile more and more over their corruption and do mortifie it continually Quest What is Vivification Answ. It is that worke of the Spirit by which he derives the vertue of Christs holy life unto them to quicken them and sanctifie them by inherit holines and to make them in the whole course of their life conformable to the holy and upright life of Christ Quest What gifts and graces are wrought in the Elect by Renovation Answ. The first which is as it were the root of the rest is Faith For as the Devill did first breath into Adam an unbeleefe and distrust of God and his truth so that hee beleeved not the Word and threatning of God but gave credit to Satans lyes and relyed on them and by his false beliefe Satan drew him on to a false opinion of God and a conceipt that God envyed his greater good whereupon hee began proudly to imagine that he might by eating of the forbidden tree become wise as God and did conceive enmity in his mind against God ambitious lusts and evill affections So God in renuing man doth first worke Faith in him which is the gift of beleeving in God and relying on his Word and Promises And by his Word beleeved he gives light of unde●standing and knowledge which drives out errors and false opinions and enables man to see his owne vilenesse and Gods goodnesse towards him whence ariseth the grace of humility and repentance also a sincere holy love of God feare and reverence of his Majesty joy rejoycing hope and delight in God and a will and desire to obey him in all things and in a word all Christian vertues by which a man becomes conformable to Christ Quest What is Effectuall Calling Answ. It is the work of the Spirit of Regeneration who by giving to the elect a new heart and spirit doth incline and enable them to follow the outward calling of the Word and to turne from darknesse to light and from the power of Satan unto God Act. 26. 18. Quest What is the Vnion of the Elect with Christ Answ. It is not a making of their severall persons one undivided Essence and Substance with the person of Christ For that unity is only in God and in the three persons of the blessed Trinity Neither is it a making of them one person with Christ by such a personal union as is between his Godhead and Manhood and betweene the soule and body of every man Neither is it a bodily uniting of them with Christ by a bodily mixture and composition of the substance of their soules and bodyes with the substance of the soule and body of Christ as wine and water are mingled together For such an union makes the things united inseparable in place one from another so that wheresoever Christs body is there they must needs be and can be in no other proper place who are thus united Neither is this union only in heart and affection But this is a spirituall mysticall and substantiall union in which Christ sitting at Gods right hand above the Heavens and they dispersed over all the Earth are made one spirituall and mysticall body whereof Christ is the head and they members by meanes of the same Spirit dwelling and working in them after the same maner as he dwelleth and worketh in the humane nature of Christ from his first conception and framing in the wombe For by one Spirit they are all Baptized into one body whereof Christ is the head and being many members they make up one body even as all members in naturall body though they be many make up but one body because they all have but one soule and life the holy Spirit of which they are regenerate borne againe and made new creatures is

THE KEY OF SAVING KNOWLEDGE Opening out of the holy Scriptures the right way and straight passage to Eternall life OR A Dialogue wherein the chiefe principles of Christian Religion are unfolded for the enabling of Christian people to understand the Word of God and to atteine to the true sense and mean●ng thereof Composed by GEO. WALKER B. of Div. and Pastor of S Iohn the Evangelists Church in LONDON LONDON Printed by THO. BADGER M.DC.XLI To his little flock the Inhabitants of the Parish of S. Iohn the Evangelist in Watlingstreet in London Georg● Walker their weake but wellwishing ●astor commendeth this small token of his unfeined love and hearty desire of their eternall happinesse in the fruition of God by their fellowship and communion with him in the Lord Iesus Christ BEloved in the Lord Christ seeing now I have spent one halfe of my dayes in Preaching to you and your predecessors the Gospell of Christ in expounding the sacred Scriptures in watching and labouring for the good of your soules to wit for the space of 29 yeares untill there is not one left alive of all those inhabitants who were masters of families at my first coming to this place and did all with one consent and voyce make choyce of me to be their Pastor I hold it high time for me to thinke of my departure from hence by putting off this earthly tabernacle and of leaving you as your predecessors who were my first flocke have left me their Pastor behind them to feed you a succeeding generation And least my labour and paines which I spent among them for the good of their soules should seeme to die with them and to bee buried in their graves I have thought good to renew the memory of them and to leave to the World some Monuments of that Doctrin I have Preached to them heretofore as also to you of latter times by Gods gracious assistance though in great weaknesse of body yet with a willing mind and with a courage never daunted with any menacings and threatenings of potent adversaries and malicious persecutors The principall heads and true platforme of which doctrine I have briefly comprised and compendiously set forth in this short Dialogue which containes in it the principles and foundations of Christian Religion and which I do here commend to you as a testimony of that unfeigned love which I beare to you and of my fervent desire of the salvation of your soules I have already published and have ready for the Presse divers larger Treatises wherein are conteined many particular doctrines which may be reduced to these principall heads and are there largely handled plainly opened and fully proved by Scriptures and the true use of them shewed in such manner as they have beene by my mouth publikly preached among you But this golden Key which is the quintessence of them all will open Heaven unto you if you can learn to use it aright It is made of divine metall even the Word of God revealed from Heaven which is more pure than the most refined gold It will teach you by a short and compendious way to know God not only in the unity of Essence in his essentiall attributes In the Trinity of persons and in his Works of Creation and actuall Providence overruling mans fall and disposing it and all the evils which entered in by it to his own glory and the good of his Elect but also in Iesus Christ in whom to know him the only true God is eternall life as our Saviour testifieth Iohn 12. 3. Here Gods eternall Counsell and Decree of Predestination is discovered Here you may learn the saving works of God in and by Christ God and man humbled in our nature What love God hath shewed in giving his Son for us and what Christ hath done and suffered for our Redemption Here you may see what saving works God works by his Spirit shed on his Elect through Christ as Regeneration Renovation effectuall calling Vnion with Christ Adoption Communion of his ransome for Redemption of his Righteousnesse for Iustification of his satisfaction for Remission of sins and Reconciliation And what Gods Spirit works in us and by us as Mortification Sanctification Faith Repentance and all holy graces and how and by what meanes he enables us to apply Christ and his benefits unto us and to enioy him and them for Salvation and also doth beget and increase grace in his Elect to wit by the Word preached and heard the Sacraments rightly administred and received faithfull and fervent Prayer and the like And how these worke in the Elect to eternall life and blessednesse and are abused by wicked reprobates to their owne everlasting damnation and destruction These things have I written to you Fathers and Masters that you may read them your selves and commend them to your children and families I commend them to you Young men that you may grow strong and may overcome the wicked one And I commend them to you litle children that you may learne to know his name and that your sins may be forgiven you for his names sake If after so much preaching teaching you be found ignorant unprofitable it is because the God of this World hath blinded your minds least the light of the glorious Gospell of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto you This word will be to you the savour of death unto death and this booke shall witnesse for me against you that you are wilfully ignorant and a lost people But if as I hope and pray fervently and wish from my heart You do chearefully receive the love of this Truth then shall my Doctrine bee to you the savour of life unto life and wee shall both together I of my worke and labour in preaching and you of your reverence in hearing and faithfulnesse in obeying the Word Preached receive the reward of righteousnesse which Christ hath purchased for them that beleeve and obey the Gospell even the Crown of glorie which never fadeth This briefe summe of Christian Religion with other more large Treatises I have written in my bonds for the common benefit of you and others to testifie unto you that the many waters of troubles and persecutions which I suffer for the Truth sake which I have preached unto you cannot quench my love to you nor my desire of your salvation nor hinder mee from labouring for your good In all which I seeke not yours but you And as I have preached the Gospell freelie to you never seeking any of your temporall goods for my ministring of spirituall things plentifullie unto you but spending besides my spirits much substance over and above the revenues of my smal Benefice which from you I have received so I commend to you freely this and all other works and labours of my love which if you do lovinglie accept and use and imploy to your own advantage I shall thinke my work in some good measure rewarded and shall ever remaine a faithfull