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A93282 The true church of Christ exposed to the view of all sober Christians, from the Word of God, sound reason, and the ancient fathers / by James Salgado, a Spaniard, a converted priest. Salgado, James, fl. 1680. 1681 (1681) Wing S384; ESTC R42935 23,389 69

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besides that when the Object is present to the Understanding the Will is necessarily determined by the last practical judgment of the understanding to imbrace or reject the object like as if Straw and Fire come together there must needs a Flame be kindled I say besides this it 's impossible for any man to alter the Prescience and Decree of God which is one of the things requisite to action for the Counsel of God stands and he will do all his pleasure All things requisite to Judas his betraying of Christ being present viz. the last practical judgment of his understanding the receiving of the Money c. and the Eternal Counsel of God designing that Christ should be delivered into the hands of men suffer death and rise again the third day it was impossible for him not to act Therefore the Reformed Churches do excellently define Free-will A faculty of acting freely without compulsion or physical determination to one thing For the Will cannot be forced to any elicite or internal act nor is it capable of a physical or natural necessity determining it to one thing as Fire is determined to burn But it is not free from the determination of the Divine Decree and the last practical judgment of the understanding nor in the unregenerate from sin to which it is in general necessarily determined by its Original depravation although it hath a freedom to chuse this or that special sin So that in the unregenerate man it is free only to will nor can he by his own strength perform any action spiritually good Of our selves as of our selves we cannot think a good thought 2 Cor. 3.5 much less do a good action by nature We are dead in sin Eph. 2.1 without God in the world Eph. 2.3 and every imagination of our heart is only evil continually Gen. 6.5 And the best actions that the unregenerate can do are really evil because they do not proceed from Faith and whatsoever is not of Faith is sin Rom. 14.23 So that as from a total privation there is no returning to the habit but by an Infinite Power so from sin which is a privation of that rectitude which ought to be in our faculties and actions there is no returning to righteousness except God do quicken us from the Dead and say to us as unto Lazarus Lazarus arise Joh. 11.43 and cause the Sun of Righteousness to arise in the dark Horizon of our hearts saying as in the first Creation Let there be light Gen. 1. And truly seeing Regeneration according to Scripture phrase is a new Creation Create in me a clean heart Psa 51. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Eph. 2.10 In Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Vncircumcision but the New Creature Gal. 6.15 it cannot be the work of less than an Infinite Power whereby God worketh in us both to will and to do of his good preasure Phil. 2.13 So that Augustine did rightly affirm that the good works of the Heathen were but glistering sins They may indeed act something that is morally good by the general influence of Divine Providence yet they can act nothingthat is truly good in a Theological sense because they want Faith to purifie their hearts nor do they aim at the glory of God for they do not shun this or that sin simply because it is a sin but from a vain-glorious desire of Reputation among the people Hence it followeth that Justification and Sanctification are not ours but Gods so that when God conferreth Glory upon those that are Justified and Sanctified he may with good reason be said to Crown with this reward his own gifts and not our works As for Justification of which we intend to speak first it is twofold active and passive for it may be considered either in respect of God that justifieth or of Man that is justified In the former consideration it is nothing else but an act of God whereby he absolves the sinner and reputes him righteous for the Merits and satisfaction of Christ Hence God is said to justifie the ungodly Rom. 4.5 by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ Rom. 3.24 So that God in justifying maketh no physical change in the sinner as the Papists say who would have the Justification of God to be of the same nature with Transubstantiation whereby one thing is changed into another that is that God in Justifying doth not proceed as a Judge pronouncing one at the Bar Innocent but as it were by a physical immutation making a righteous man out of an unrighteous even as Christ turned water into Wine Bellarmine Becan and other Jesuits have laboured much in the proof of this Assertion but without any success They produce nothing from Scripture but what is to be referred to Sanctification not Justification And thus they commit the fallacy of ignoratio Elenchi and as for their Arguments drawn from Reason they are so unreasonable that they do not deserve a Refutation Their chief Argument is taken from the Word it self for say they to Justifie according to the Etimology of the word is nothing else but to make just or righteous being it is compounded of justus and facio as well as to Sanctifie is to make not to pronounce holy c. Therefore to justifie cannot import the absolution of a sinner who is really unrighteous but the making of him righteous But they hereby shew themselves to be no better Gramarians than they are Divines for the sense of a word in matters of Faith is not to be taken out of Calepine but from the Word of God which is the Rule of our Faith Now it is manifest and hath been demonstrated by many that Justification is every where in the Scriptures taken in a Law-sense Thus Solomon He that justifieth the ungodly and condemneth the righteous are both an abomination unto the Lord. Here the justifying of the unrighteous is opposed to the condemning of the righteous and so in all other places of Scripture Moreover if this were the meaning of the word Justifie then there would be no difference between Justification and Sanctification which nevertheless is evident from Rev. 22.11 He that is righteous let him be righteous still and he that is holy let him be holy still Also Rom. 8.30 Whom he justified them he also glorified where under the word Glorifie is comprehended Sanctification which is begun Glory even as Glory is consummate Sanctification Lastly This Composition with the Verb Facio doth not always import an internal change as appears from the Song of the Blessed Virgin My Soul doth magnifie the Lord. Now let them set their heads together and prove that the Blessed Virgin by magnifying the Lord did cause any internal change in him and we shall also allow that God by justifying us doth make an internal change in us Ante leves vero pascentur in aethere cervi Hitherto of Active Justification Now we shall come to
the Living and the Dead and by consequence no Transubstantiation uppon which this Sacrifice is builded And here their Purgatory falls to the Ground for besides that it is contrary to Scriptures to Reason to the Antient Fathers and injurious to the satisfaction and merits of Christ moreover if there be no Sacrifice there can be no Mass and by consequence no money for the delivery of Souls out of Purgatory Here also falls to the ground their Doctrine of Concomitancy for the sake whereof as Gelatius one of their Popes Intimates they have committed Sacriledg in the Cup from the Laity which although the Council of Constance confesseth to be contrary to the Primitive Institution of Christ and Custom of the Antient Church yet for some ridiculous reasons such as That some persons hands do shake that some have deformed Whiskers and Beards pronouncing an Anathema against him that will contradict it And I have many times wondred why by the same Doctrine of Concomitancy they may not as well give the Cup and take away the Bread or take away the Cup from the Clergy as well as the Laity Why it is a fufilling of the Law to abstain from the one and a sin yea a mortal sin to abstain from the other There is neither reason nor Scripture to countenance it in the least So that the Reformed Churches teach sound Doctrine both as to the Nature and the Integrity of this Sacrament The last Point I shall touch upon is the worshipping of Saints The Protestants agree herein with the Scriptures and the Ancient Fathers that the Saints are to be honoured by imitation but not to be religiously adored and that for these three Reasons 1. We cannot believe in Saints therefore we cannot worship them how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed Rom. 10.14 2. We are severely forbidden to worship any but God Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve Mat. 4.10 3. The Saints do not know our thoughts nor can they hear our Prayers Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel acknowledgeth us not Isa 63.16 Hence Aquinas saith To know the thoughts of the heart is the property of God and elsewhere The Angels know not the secrets of the heart And again to know the particular thoughts and actions of men is above the perfection of a create understanding And Durandus denies that the glorified Saints do know our thoughts Finally Augustin saith that the dead know not what is done here God onely knoweth the hearts of the Children of Men 1 Kings 8.39 Peter the Apostle though a Saint would not suffer Cornelius to worship him saying I my self also am a man Acts 10.26 nor would the Angel suffer John to prestrate himself to him worship God saith he Rev. 19.20 Yea a Heathen Poet could tell that God onely is to be worshipped Nec D●a sum dixit nec sacro thuris honore Humanum dignare capu● Their distinction betwixt latria and dulia and hyperdulia hath been abundantly refuted by many of the Reformed Writers I shall onely conclude that if Papists cannot be accused of formal Idolatry yet they are certainly guilty of material Idolatry Having demonstrated that the Protestant Churches do defend the Holy Scriptures and conform their Doctrine thereunto in the most weighty points I justly infer that the Protestant Church is a true faithful and sincere Church I shall shut up all with this Observation that the Papists perceiving that they cannot prevail against the Protestants in disputing of their Doctrine They question the Protestant Minestery as not Legitimate But besides that their own Scholasticks as Bannes Canus c. do allow that the power of Ordaining is not lost by Heresy their own practice doth evidently confute them for these that have been ordained in our Churches are not reordained by them as to the substantial part of Ordination And it is certain enough That a bad Governour or Governours of the Church may send good Labourers into Christ's Vineyard yea Antichrist himself being under the Cloak of Christs Vicar may distribute the Offices of Christs Temporal and Earthly Court to good men that are willing to serve Christ So when Christ was upon Earth the Church was very much corrupted and yet they sent good Workmen into the Lords Vineyard such as Joseph Nicodemus and othes I shall conclude all with thanks to Almighty God for that he hath been pleased to open mine eyes to see the way of truth and prayers to him to confirm me therein and my hearty wishes that every one may reject the way of abomination and be rooted and built up in Christ and established in the faith lest he be spoiled by vain deceit after the Tradition of Men after the Rudiments of the World and not after Christ Come out of Babylon my People lest ye be partakers of her sins Embrace the true Protestant Religion which is pure in Doctrine holy in Manners and faithful to God and the King FINIS