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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A40632 A treatise of faith and repentance by Francis Fuller ... Fuller, Francis, 1637?-1701. 1685 (1685) Wing F2386; ESTC R7233 53,021 156

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and dependance notwithstanding those Doubts nothing but perfect Faith casts out all Doubts and where is it to be found They that never doubted never believed Then Faith might be lost for Assurance may in that tho some are assur'd but not fully and some fully yet none immutably Then Damnation would be not for want of Faith but of Assurance which is necessary not for our Safety but Comfort only and Salvation would be by the reflex and not by the direct Act of Faith for Assurance consists in a reflex Act contrary to the tenure of the Promise of Salvation made Not to the Act of Assurance but of Faith and not to the Degree but Truth of it They that make Assurance to be Faith do more than is needful for Assurance is but a Fruit of Faith and Faith may be alive without it as a Tree may though for a time without Fruit though Assurance cannot be without Faith for God never sets his Seal where he has not first set his Hand They that make Assent to be Faith do less than is needful For Tho Justifying Faith cannot be without General Faith yet General Faith may be without that for it is not a single but complicated Act not the single Act of the Understanding but of the whole Composition not an Act of the Understanding only to Actus complicatus totius compositi know and believe a Divine Revelation as true but of the Will also to receive it as good a Consent as well as an Assent an Assent of the Understanding as it begins there and a Consent of the Will as it ends in it without which the first will avail but little For It is not Christ as dying but as believ'd on nor as tender'd by a hand of Love but as receiv'd by a Hand of Faith that saves So that it appears that Faith is neither an Act of Assent only nor of Assurance but an Act of Affiance also which is more than the first and less than the second viz. That Grace wrought by the Spirit through the Word whereby sensible Sinners are enabled to receive Christ as offered in the Gospel trusting to and relying upon him for Salvation I. It is the Work of God's Spirit It is not our Work but God's Not our Work For Of our selves we are no more able to perform the Articles of the second Covenant than those of the first nor to believe the Gospel than we are to keep the Law But God's Work It is call'd God's Work not only John 6. 29. in regard of Excellency but Efficiency it is not the Work of Men nor of Angels but of God only the powerful Work of his Spirit preparing us for it and enabling us to it we believe through Grace and come to Christ by Acts 18. 27. 1 Cor. 12. 9. Christ To him by Faith from him II. It is the Work of the Spirit through the Word Faith comes by hearing and hearing by Rom. 10. 17. the Word the hearing of Faith wrought by the Spirit as the Efficient and by the Word as the instrumental Cause of it Through the Word viz. both Law and Gospel by one Occasionally and Indirectly by the other Properly and Directly First By the Law not properly but Occasionally and Indirectly 1. Not Properly for the Law has no Power of its own either to Convert or Comfort Sinners Not to Convert them It shows them the sinfulness of their corrupt Nature and Lives but prescribes no Cure and tells them what their Duty is but gives no strength to the performance of it The Law commands Obedience The Gospel enables to it Not to Comfort them It wounds but pours no healing Lex graves manus habet Balm into those Wounds arraigns and condemns but allows no Psalm of Mercy for the Voice of the Law is He that has sinn'd shall die The Law condemns but the Gospel acquits and saves 2. But Occasionally and Indirectly 1. By discovering Sin Sin is the Burden and that which Rom. 3. 20. 5. 20. Gal. 3. 19. makes it feel heavy is the Law For by the Law is the knowledg of Sin viz. a knowledg of Guilt by it Where there are no Bounds there can be no Trespass nor any Transgression where no Law 2. By discovering Wrath due to Sin Where there is no Law there Rom. 2. 8 9. 4. 15. is no Sin and where there is no Sin there is no Curse but where Sin is there a Curse is due to it and the knowledg of it is necessary not to merit Mercy but to dispose to it The Law is the Ministration of Death 2 Cor. 3 7. The Gospel is the Ministration of Life 3. By afflicting and wounding under a sense of Guilt and Wrath due to it It is a fiery Law that has Heat as Deut. 33. 2. Galat. 3. 20. well as Light in it Light to discover Sin and Heat to afflict and torment for it The Law works by Fear The Gospel works by Love 4. By discovering an impossibility for them to help themselves being under a Guilt they cannot expiate obnoxious to a Wrath they cannot flee from shut up in a Prison they cannot break and surrounded with a misery that they cannot redress The Law shows the Wound The Gospel shows the Cure The Help of Salvation is from God Your Destruction is of your selves Hos 13. 9. Thus as Moses brought the Israelites to the Borders of Canaan so something there is of the Hand of Moses viz. something of the Law though but occasionally and indirectly in the Work of Faith Secondly By the Gospel viz. Properly and Directly The Law shews Misery as an Indictment shews the Offence and works Fear the Gospel as a Remedy shews the Disease and works Faith By discovering 1. A remote possibility of Mercy No absolute necessity they should tho' Sinners be damn'd because Grace is rich and free 2. A tender of Mercy indefinitely Isa 55. 1. John 3. 10 The Voice of the Gospel is All that will come may none are excluded but such as wilfully exclude themselves An Indefinite is equivalent to a Vniversal 3. A Suitableness Fulness and Willigness in Christ 1. A Suitableness As being Wisdom Righteousness 1 Cor. 1. 30. Sanctification Redemption Healing Life and Salvation for the relief of blind guilty polluted captiv'd sick dead lost and undone Sinners No Fountain like this Jordan to wash in for Sin and Vncleanness Zech. 13. 1. 2. A Fulness Meat and Drink are a suitable Good John 1. 16. Col. 2. 9. to the hungry and thirsty because Hunger and Thirst are Appetites determined to those Objects but a Crum or a Drop is not enough in that tho' it is a suitable yet it is not a full Good but in Christ there is a fulness of Merit to justify and of Spirit to sanctify that which is every way commensurate to the Desires and Necessities of distressed Sinners If they have him they are made If not they are