Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	believe_v	faith_n	revelation_n	3,045	5	9.5466	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50550	A sermon preached before the King & Queen, at Windsor-Castle, Sept. 21, 1690 by R. Meggott ...	Meggott, Richard, d. 1692.	1690 (1690)	Wing M1629; ESTC R795	11,158	31

same Species with that which they call justifying the duration of a thing doth not at all belong to the Essence of it He was as truly a Man that dyed at Thirty as he that liveth while he is Fourscore And our Saviour speaking of it Luke 8.13 doth not make it to be another but the same kind of Seed that fell upon the Rock where it withered away after it sprang up because it had no Root with that which fell upon the good ground and brought forth fruit with patience And so that which is called Justifying Faith considered in it self is nothing else but that which they call Historical which without all doubt doth Justifie if all those other things which the new Covenant doth require to the justification of a Sinner doth accompany it Every one will subscribe to that of our Apostle v. 14. of this Chapter that if a man say he hath Faith and hath not Works his Faith cannot save him So that faith of no kind when it is alone is justifying and faith of that kind they call Historical made perfect by works will be justifying And thus upon the whole matter it is evident that he who doth really believe whatsoever is contained in Gods Word to be true hath Faith whatever other Grace he may be deficient in But lest any Man should from some mistaken places of Scripture flatter himself that this is sufficient to qualifie him for the favour of God and admission into Heaven We are informed that without a good life it will never profit This is that which is here Praedicated and declared concerning faith The other General of the Text that without Works it is dead as a Carcass when the Soul is departed For as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also And here again there is A Supposition and an Assertion The Supposition is that faith may be without works The Assertion that wheresoever it is so it is unacceptable to God and unprofitable unto Men it is dead The Supposition here is that faith may be without works If it did necessarily draw Obedience after it as some with plausible shows of reason Camero praelect ad Met. 18. have attempted to maintain this whole discourse about it would have been omitted as impertinent Why should our Apostle have argued so earnestly and closely about an utter impossibility It is true there can be no good works without Faith Hebr. 11.6 Without faith it is impossible to please God for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him He that doth not believe this that God will reward him for it in another World will never Mortify his corrupt inclinations in this But true as it is that there can be no good works without Faith it is as true that there may be faith without good works else why are we exhorted 2 Pet. 1.5 To add to our Faith Vertue If this habit could not be in us idle and un-active there would have been no more need of it than to admonish the fire that it would warm or make orations to the water that it would cleanse or moisten It is a Moral motive to good Works but it is no irresistible Cause no it may be barren and unfruitful It is so in two very common Cases In case of Inconsideration In case of Presumption I. First in case of Inconsideration There is no question but that it is sufficient to produce good works St. Gregory Expounding that passage of our Saviour B. Greg. in Ebany hom 29. Mark 16.17 18. These signs shall follow them that believe in my name they shall cast out Devils they shall speak with new tongues they shall take up serpents if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover Because saith he faith doth not work these Wonders now shall we say it is not Faith No it doth now as mighty things upon the spirits of Men as then it did upon their Bodies Where it really is it casteth out Devils still the Envious the Proud the Unclean the Revengeful every Evil Spirit that possesseth Men. It maketh Men speak with new tongues still that which is good to the use of Edifying instead of Blasphemies Slanders Lyes Oaths Corrupt and Filthy Communication It taketh up Serpents still stinging Scoffs and Censures when called to it the greatest dangers and losses for the keeping of a good Conscience If they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt such still the sollicitings and temptations of bad Company which is so deadly unto thousands they shall not be Poysoned with They shall lay their hands on the sick and they shall recover still their many Infirmities and Frailties they labour under by degrees they shall overcome and conquer waxing stronger in the Lord These saith he are the wonderful effects of faith still But then it must be remembred it produceth them not as a Charm but as a Medicine not in a Magical way but in a Moral It representeth Arguments to our hopes and Fears of such amazing moment as are proper and apt enough to influence the stupidest or wildest Persons that will but weigh them but yet no Vertue will come out of them except our Minds touch them And are there not some who seldom or never seriously and in earnest think of these things tho' they know them And then what can be expected The sharpest Sword will not cut as long as it is in the Scabard In this case tho' there be Faith woful experience showeth it worketh no more than the Potion in a Glass which the Patient doth not take in the case of Inconsideration The other is like unto it and that is II. The case of Presumption Altho' Inconsideration with the Philistines cutteth the Hair wherein the strength of Faith lyeth this will not serve always in time it will grow again and make its fresh assaults on us Tho' Men may for a while by casual or contrived diversions have these things out of their thoughts they cannot so utterly rid their Consciences of its company but that sometime or other it meeteth them as the Angel did Balaam with a naked Sword in its Hand so dreadful that it maketh the the most Brutish sort of Sinners for the present to start and boggle in their ways and yet for all this oft-times they will not go back again No when they dare not run full-butt against it then they find out a trick cunningly to slip by it They suppose the things to be true but then they promise themselves selves that they will be wise They resolve they will repent before they dye and then they assure themselves the threatning will not take place Behind this Sconce they stand secure against the most dreadful Artillery of Heaven that is discharged at them having once imbibed this Opiat Principle like those Indian Kings mentioned by *

A SERMON Preached before the King Queen AT WINDSOR-CASTLE SEPT 21. 1690. By R. Meggott D. D. Dean of Winchester and Chaplain in Ordinary to Their Majesties Published by Their Majesties Special Command LONDON Printed for Tho. Bennet at the Half-Moon in St. Pauls Church-yard MDCXC James II. XXVI For as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also MAthias a Michou l. 1 c. 5. Desarmat Asianâ telleth us the reason why the Tartars embraced Mahometism was because the Saracens perswaded them that that Religion was more favourable and fit for their turn than the strict and rigid Christian But had they been acquainted with those indulging comments which we our selves as occasion hath served have made on it this need not have in the least disheartned them There is no Text so severe no saying so hard in it that these with one distinction and evasion or another have not softned and sweetned so that even the most delicate and wanton Palates may away with them Finding it irksome to rectify their Manners by the Rule to satisfy their grumbling Consciences Men have bowed the Rule to their Manners And to avoid the Reproach of disobeying the Oracle found out Devices to Misinterpret it So the Aethiopian that he may seem Beautiful himself Painteth his God black too Tho' 't is but now and then we meet with a boysterous Athiest so rude as impudently to dash the Looking-glass against the ground because it sheweth him sights so unwelcome and affrighting yet nothing more common than to use such Arts in ordering and placing it that it may be sure to flatter and reflect things pleasingly Tho' the most Charitable Religion the World was ever blessed with it hath been quoted in Justification of Cruelty and Persecution Tho' the most sincere Religion it hath been alledged as a Warrant for Perfidiousness and Aequivocation Tho' the most Rational Religion it hath been wrested to hallow Enthusiasm and Disorder Pure and spotless holy and harmless as it is yet as if Celsus and Zozimus's Malicious Calumny had been true that it was indeed an Asylum where the most Lewd and Scandalous Offenders were promised Protection scarce any thing so grosly Vile that some or other have not pleaded its Commission for And notwithstanding the clear obligation which it layeth upon the Professors of it to all good Works some have taught as if it were a special Dispensation from the doing them So instead of Conscientiously paying these Debts they deny them Audaciously appealing to the Book that they are already discharged by another for them and are not now owing Even while the Apostles were alive there arose Men speaking such perverse things and against these St. James directeth a considerable part of this Epistle irrefragably proving the necessity of Universal Obedience in order to our everlasting Happiness that the belief of our Religion will never profit us without an answerable Conversation For as the body without out the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also In which words here are the Subject and its Praedicat to be considered of The Subject is Faith What is here Praedicated of it is That without Works it is dead as the body without the Spirit The former of these the Subject here spoken of is Faith Very glorious things are spoken of this in the Book of God but it is a word of such various significations and there are so many things of the Name that it seemeth a little difficult to say which of them they must be applied to In the Latin Concordance of the Vulgar Bible published by Stephanus there are reckoned up no less than twenty two several acceptations of it with the divers places of Scripture set down that have been accounted to refer to each of them Not to take up your time about them consider it as that Theological Grace distinguished from Hope and Charity and it is but another word for Believing and so is an assent of the mind to all the known Revelations of God whether Doctrines or Commands Promises or Threatnings as unquestionably true and certain If this account seem not so accurate as some Scholastick or so Spiritual as some Practical Divines have given of it we need not be concerned because the Holy Ghost himself speaketh of it on this wise Heb. 11.1 Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen That is it is such a Conviction of the truth of those things which God hath spoken tho' we have no Ocular or Sensible demonstration of them as maketh us patiently and confidently expect the fulfilling them This is the genuine proper and comprehensive Notion of it If any shall say it is not such a general Faith the Gospel setteth so great a price up on but a special one if by special they mean an undoubting Perswasion a certain and full assurance of our own Justification and Salvation as (a) In Cap. 48 Genes Luther (b) Iust it l. 3. c. 2. § 7. Calvin (c) Confes c. 4. Art 5. Beza (d) Tom. 7. l. 1. de certa salute Ecclesiae Zanchy's and several others about that time spake of this Grace in their Definitions of it with due reverence to the Names of those useful Men in their Generations this is so far from being a more excellent kind of Faith that to speak plainly it is no Faith at all The Object of faith is Divine Revelation which is this case being but general and conditional such an Absolute and Particular conclusion if it be not a Delusion and over-weaning opinion of our own State which it is to be feared too oft it is yet however if never so well grounded it can be at most but a Rational Deduction arising from Self-examination By reason therefore of the Inconveniencies they perceived it clogged with this since hath been generally quitted by the most * Vide Baronium Philos Theol. Ancil Exercit. 3. Davenant Determ Q. 37. Judicious of them who in all other things adhered to them who first broached it they choosing rather to excuse those Worthies in this than defend them But notwithstanding their wariness in this instead of contenting themselves with that plain simple and substantial account the Scriptures give of it these also have nicely Coyned so many disputable sorts of it as gave but too much occasion to Maldonat's spiteful Sarcasm upon the Churches Reformed that they had alluding to the Aequivocalness of the Latin Word Tot fides quot in lyra Besides that of Miracles which is now ceased the most famous distribution of it is into these three Kinds Temporary Historical and Justifying And yet these Terms currantly as they have passed it may be upon consideration will appear not so much to have explained as confounded the thing and indeed to have been but distinctions without a difference For that which they call Temporary Faith the faith of them that believe but for a time is of the