Selected quad for the lemma: reason_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
reason_n	believe_v	faith_n	revelation_n	2,830	5	9.5573	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47599	The marrow of true justification, or, Justification without works containing the substance of two sermons lately preached on Rom. 4:5 ... : wherein the nature of justification is opened, as it hath been formerly asserted by all sound Protestants, and the present prevailing errors against the said doctrine detected / by Benjamin Keach ...	Keach, Benjamin, 1640-1704.	1692 (1692)	Wing K76; ESTC R18579	45,425	50

another This to the learned Greeks was a strange Doctrine But to say a Man is justified by sincere Obedience i. e. by believing the Truth of God's Word and living a godly Life suits well with Man's natural Wisdom and Reason But the Doctrine of Faith though it be not against humane Reason yet it is above it and wholly depends upon divine or supernatural Revelation through this Man is preached unto you remission of Sins and by him all that believe are justified from all things by which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts 13. 38 39. For as by one Man's Disobedience many were made Sinners so by the Obedience of one shall many be made righteous Rom 5. 19. How dare any say our Works or sincere Obedience is our Righteousness sith the Apostle positively asserts We are made righteous by the Obedience of Jesus Christ If it be by his Obedience 't is not by our own For as Adam's Sin was imputed to his Seed to Condemnation so is the Obedience or Righteousness of Christ imputed to all those who believe in him to Justification Now the worst of Men that have any sense of Religion are prone to conclude the only way to obtain God's Favour and to be justified in his sight is to make the practice of Holiness and upright Walking a Condition nay the only way thereunto and that Happiness is to be by that means obtained Hence 't is when they meet with any awakening Convictions or Terror of Conscience they presently begin to think they must amend their Lives and perform Religious Duties Nay this way the Heathens were brought to their best Devotion as a learned Writer observes Mankind being made and born under a Covenant of Works are naturally led to work for Life or to do something to procure God's Acceptance and escape his Displeasure The very Light of natural Reason informs us that it is just with God to require us to perform Duties of sincere Obedience or Duties of natural or instituted Religion and if we fall in doing what our Consciences tells us we ought to do we presently through self-love and blind hope persuade our selves God being gracious will pardon us wherein we come short through Christ who died for Sinners And thus we may perceive that the Persuasion of Salvation and Justification by the Condition of sincere Obedience hath its Original from our corrupt natural Reason and is part of the Wisdom of the World but it is none of the Wisdom of God in a Mystery yea that hidden Wisdom God hath ordained before the World began to our Glory It is not of the things of the Spirit of God nor of the Mystery of Faith which the natural Man cannot receive but are Foolishness unto him This is not the foolishness of preaching whereby God is pleased to save them that believe 1 Cor. 2. 6 7 9 14. Certainly the Justification of a Sinner in the sight of God by Faith only or to believe on him that justifies the Ungodly is one of the chief Mysteries of the Gospel but if our Justification was by our own Obedience or by conforming our Lives to the Rules of the Gospel Justification and Salvation would cease from being any more a Mystery But to be justified by the Righteousness of another though Sinners in our selves and have done nothing to procure such Favour and Acceptance at God's hand can't enter into the heart of natural and self-deceived Mortals Sirs our Justification is a great Mystery as 't is an Act of God's Sovereign Grace and Wisdom Herein his Justice and Mercy equally shine forth and the one doth not eclipse the Glory of the other Sin is punished and the Sinner acquitted 6 Arg. If when we have done all we can do we are unprofitable Servants then by our best Works of Obedience and Services under the Gospel we cannot be justified But contrariwise all Works in that respect as done by us are excluded Luke 17. 10. He is no unprofitable Servant whose Works or sincere Obedience commends him to God in point of Justification no Man is able to come up fully to discharge his Duty If therefore sincere Obedience ●nstead of perfect God now requires of us in the case of Justification and we are able fully to discharge the Law of sincere Obedience which our new Doctors must say or they say nothing then it follows that all such Persons are not unprofitable Servants for they have done all that God requires of them Nor indeed can I see as a Divine observes if sincere Obedience be the Condition of Justification and Life how the Imperfections of the Godly should be any Sins against the Gospel Where there is no Law there is no Transgression For this New Law i. e. the Gospel requires no more than sincere and upright Obedience say they though the Law did and the Gospel also promises Life in like manner to sincere Obedience as the Law did to perfect and compleat Obedience they may be Imperfections saith he in Nature but not proper Sins Praeter non contra Legem as the Papists say If they say that more than sincere Obedience is required of us but not as a Condition of Life I ask by what Law The Covenant of Works required nothing but as the Condition of Life no more doth the Gospel if it be a Law of Life After such a manner our Saviour doubtless by his Expressions shews us that all we do avails us nothing in point of Desert though never so sincerely performed and therefore far from justifying us in God's sight but that all we have is of God's Free Grace 7 Arg. Because we are said to be justified by the Righteousness of God Hence it follows that all our own Works of Obedience are excluded Rom. 3. 21 22. 'T is called the Righteousness of God in opposition to the Righteousness of the Creature not the Essential Righteousness of God but the Righteousness of Christ the Mediator who is God as well as Man and that Righteousness God in his infinite Wisdom hath found out to discharge us guilty and condemn'd Sinners and to justifie us in his sight Hence St. Paul renounced all his own Righteousness that he might be found in the Righteousness of God which is by Faith in Jesus Christ Phil. 3. 8 9 10. Obj. But say some Paul speaks only of that Righteousness which he had whilst a Pharisee or of the Righteousness of the Law He intends not saith Mr. Williams p. 204 205. Gospel-sincerity but those Jewish thing or what they boasted of And again he saith It was not Gospel-holiness which he counted dung or loss Answ 'T is strange this Man should adventure to give such a sence of this Text when at the same time he would ●ain have his Reader believe he owns the imputed Righteousness of Christ for our Justification p. 202. 'T is evident he does deny that the Righteousness of Christ alone is imputed to us for Justification as being the only Matter

Other Subjects a Minister may Preach upon and that unto the Profit and Advantage of the People but this he must Preach this he cannot omit if he would truly Preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ 2. Because I fear many Good Christians may not be so clearly and fully instructed into this Doctrine as they ought or it might be wished they were though they may be rightly built upon the true Foundation or upon that precious Corner-stone God hath laid in Sion yet are but Babes in Christ and therefore need farther Instruction for their establishment in this and other Essentials of the true Christian Religion 3. Because the present Times are perillous and many Grand Errours in and about this great Fundamental Point too much abound and prevail as many have with grief observed of late and that too in and about this City which caused a worthy Minister lately to say that it greatly concerned Pastors of the Churches c. to strive to establish their People in this Blessed Truth since there are some who with all their Might endeavour to sow the Seeds of Errour and Heresie almost every where and many are sadly corrupted thereby already 4. Because if a Person err herein or be corrupt and of an unsound Faith in the case of Justification he is in a dangerous condition though he may seem to be otherwise a Good Christian and of a Holy Life for 't is evident that there are damnable Principles as well as damnable Practices according to that of the Apostle Peter 2 Pet. 2. 1 2. And as our Saviour said to the Jews Vnless ye believe that I am he ye shall die in your Sins Joh. 8. 24. So must I say Unless ye have a true and right Faith in him ye must die in your Sins for 't is not enough to believe Christ is the true Saviour but we must have also a right Faith in that Object unbelief and a mis-belief are alike destructive and pernicious Was it not an Errour about Justification that caused the Jews to miscarry eternally viz. They being ignorant of God's Righteousness went about to establish their own Righteousness c. Rom. 10. 3. 5. Because this Doctrine tends so much to the Honour of God and the magnifying of his infinite Wisdom and his Free Grace and Mercy in Jesus Christ and also to the abasement of the Creature Was it not the Exaltation of the Glory of God in all his Attributes and Blessed Perfections which was the result of that Glorious Counsel held above between the Father and the Son before the World began in the bringing in and establishment of the Covenant of Grace What did God as I may say design or aim at therein● more than his own Glory and to abase sinful Man And if so how doth it behove us to see to our utmost to open the Channel that this Sovereign Grace may run freely and not be obstructed by the Mud or cursed Notions and Errors of Men's dark Minds who seek to Eclipse the Doctrine of God's Free Grace 6. Because from this Doctrine doth proceed all the Hope we have of Eternal Life Destroy this Foundation and what can the righteous do I may say of Justification through the imputation of Christ's righteousness as David speaks of the Covenant of Grace This is all our Salvation and our Hope c. 2 Sam. 23. 5. If we come not to Heaven this way I know no other for other Foundation can no Man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 3. 11. 7. Because 't is a Doctrine that affords so much sweet and Divine Comfort to our Souls when rightly understood and apprehended and I am perswaded 't is through the want of Light and clear knowledge of this Doctrine so many Doubts and Fears attend many Good Christians For as I have told some of you lately divers weak Saints are ready to judge of their Justification according to the degree and measure of their Sanctification and can hardly be brought to believe such vile Creatures as they are who find such evil and deceitful Hearts and so many great Evils and Infirmities in their Lives can be Justified in the fight of God not that I ever denied that Sanctification and Holiness is a Mark or Evidence of a Justified Person though I deny Justification to be a gradual Act as Sanctification in us is or that a Person is not perfectly Justified until he is perfectly Sanctified or actually delivered in him self from the pollution and defilement of all Sin for then it would follow No Believer is actually Justified in this Life But that which I intend and hint at is this That if some weak Christians can but arrive to Holy and Spiritual Frames in Duty and get power over their Corruptions then they think they have good grounds to believe and hope they may be Justified as if it were ●nherent Grace and Holiness that Justifies them in God's sight So much briefly as to the Grounds and Reasons which induced me to Answer the Call I had to insist upon this Text and Subject Secondly To proceed the more orderly I shall give you the scope and coherence of the Text it self for the better understanding the design and main drift of the Holy Ghost therein And as to this we need go no further back than to the 9 verse of the 3 Chap. where the Apostle proves that all Men both Jews and Gentiles are under Sin What then are we better than they no in no wise for we have before proved ●oth Jews and Gentiles that they are all under Sin verse 9. This he confirms by the Scriptures of the Old Testament particularly by that of David There is none righteous no not one verse 10. All Men naturally as considered under the Fall are ungodly and vile in the sight of God and although the Jews thought themselves in a better condition than the Gentiles were and boasted of their Knowledge and Sanctity the Apostle declares they were notwithstanding abominable Sinners and in no better State but deceived themselves and that he might make this farther manifest he proceeds more particularly to discover their wretched Pollution and Filthiness There is none that understandeth verse 11. 1. He shews that all the Faculties of the Soul are corrupted viz. their Minds and Understandings are blind and darkned being ignorant of God or without the knowledge of his pure and spotless Nature Justice and Holiness There is none that seeketh after God 2. By this he shews also the Poyson and Venom that was got into the Will for as they have lost God so they will not seek after him like that of our Saviour Ye will not come to me that ye might have Life Joh. 5. 40. Now till a Man comes to see his own wretched and woful condition and understands the Nature of God and the Nature and Tenure of the Holy Law of God he cannot discern that absolute necessity there is of a perfect and compleat righteousness to Justifie