Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sin_n	impute_v	justification_n	remission_n	3,472	5	10.2876	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33955	A cordiall for a fainting soule, or, Some essayes for the satisfaction of wounded spirits labouring under severall burthens in which severall cases of conscience most ordinary to Christians, especially in the beginning of their conversion, are resolved : being the summe of fourteen sermons, delivered in so many lectures in a private chappell belonging to Chappell-Field-House in Norwich : with a table annexed, conteining the severall cases of conscience which in the following treatise are spoken to directly or collaterally / preached and now published ... by John Collings.	Collinges, John, 1623-1690.	1649 (1649)	Wing C5305; ESTC R24775	174,484	300

pardon of our sins and of a pardon past and done c. I have already shewed you that the essence and marrow of justifying Faith consists in the soules rolling it selfe and relying upon God for eternall salvation not in the soules assurance that God is its God in the soules goings out not in its commings in in its direct act not in its reflect act And therefore our Divines make a distinction betwixt a soules application of its self to the promise and a soules application of the promise to it selfe and grant that there may bee in the soule a certainty of Faith in respect of the object though not an assurance of Faith in respect of the subject Wee will a little enquire how perswasion comes into the nature of justifying Faith There is a double distinction which I have noted before and shall here repeat would be observed concerning this perswasion First there is a difference betwixt a Perswasion and a beleeved Perswasion on a full Perswasion Secondly there is a great deale of difference betwixt a perswasion eying the future and relating to the present There may be in a gracious soule a perswasion though he sayes he is not perswaded There is a great deale of difference betwixt Faith and the Sense and feeling of Faith as I shall shew you more hereafter Secondly there may be in a soule a certain perswasion though not a full perswasion In all Faith there is a perswasion but in all Faith there is not a full perswasion the word in Scripture translated full perswasion is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 4. 21. It is said that Abraham was fully perswaded it is put in opposition to doubting of unbeliefe being so saith the text hee staggered not through unbeliefe and so Rom. 14. Let him that eateth be fully perswaded that is so perswaded that hee doth not eate with any scruple of mind or doubting of spirit I may be perswaded of a thing that yet I am not fully perswaded of but have some doubts of yet when my reasons for the affirmative are more then for the negative my mind begets a perswasion and enters a perswasion in my soule from the major vote of reason Now I cannot be said to bee fully perswaded unlesse my soule runs without a rub● as it is ordinary amongst us when wee are informed by credible Witnesses of such a thing done wee may bee perswaded it is true and really beleeve the truth of it and yet will not sweare it and perhaps shall have scruples and doubts unlesse we saw it our selves c. So a Christian may be perswaded that Gods love is towards him but till he feeles it as well as thinkes it he will hardly have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a full perswasion without any manner of doubts or scruples concerning it Again There is a great deale of difference betwixt a perswasion for the present and a perswasion for the future I am forced to put it in these Termes for want of other I meane betwixt an assurance that my sinnes are actually pardoned and a perswasion that they are pardonable and decretally and me●itoriously pardoned and I shall feel at last the seale of Gods love I must speake here according to the manner of men it is true it may sound harshly that a Christian should beleeve only that God will pardon his sins and will justify him I know there be some learned and pretious men that hold that the elected soule is pardoned and formally justifyed before he beleeves and so would make our justification as Master Burgesse saith wittily nothing but the fetching a Coppy out of the Courtr●ll but I am of his mind in his late Treatise of justification p. 17. 8. where hee gives severall Arguments against this opinion As First If it bee so then all the Elect were then made blessed and happy their sins not being imputed contrary to Eph. 2. 3. Secondly because this Doctrine would make justification onely to bee declarative when the Scriptures tell us that our sinnes are charged upon us till wee beleeve Thirdly because Christ cannot as an head represent those that are not his members now before actuall beleeving we are no members of Christ Indeed meritoriously and vertually our sinnes are pardoned before wee beleeve See the Arguments against this answered in Mr Burgesse his Treatise of justification p. 180 181. and our soules are justified before we beleeve but I with him cannot see how we are formally and actually justified before we beleeve and to his Arguments give me leave to add a fourth Fourthly Pardon of sin and justification it is an acquitting of the guilty soule before God for the righteousnesse of another now how the soule should be actually acquitted before it be actually and formally guilty I cannot understand And therefore I say a soule may be perswaded that its sins are pardonable and shall be pardoned and accordingly truly rely upon the Lord Iesus Christ for the pardon of them which is true Faith though it cannot be fully perswaded that its sinns are pardoned And thus much may briefly serve to have noted how far perswasion and assurance necessarily come into the nature of true and saving Faith and how not And concerning it I shall only nominate these conclusions to you as containing the whole truth concerning it First That a Christian may have saving Faith though he cannot be fully perswaded that God hath actually pardoned and blotted out his sins and formally justified him for a beleeving that my sins are formally pardoned is to beleeve I am justified and is the Faith of a justified person not justifying Faith properly so called Secondly That a Beleever may have true saving Faith though he could never yet at all be perswaded that God had actually and formally justified his soule by pardoning his sins This is still the application of the promise to the soule and a reflex act of Faith which conduceth more to the soules comfort then its formall justification Thirdly That a Christian may have true justifying Faith though he cannot at all times be fully and unquestionably perswaded that God will pardon his sins a rationall man in a Feaver may have lost his actings of reason though while he hath the being of a man reason hath a being in him the tongue may belye the heart when the actions cleer it A Christian may be at will God pardon me with his tongue when his heart really thinks he will and he manifestly shewes it by crying fasting fearing to sin lying groveling at the doore of free grace Fourthly That a Christian cannot have true saving justifying Faith unlesse he doth I doe not say unlesse hee think he doth or unlesse he sayes hee doth but unlesse he doth beleeve and is perswaded that God will pardon his sins it is easily perceived by its resolving not to leave crying praying walking holily and circumspectly that it is perswaded in this particular that it is best both simply and in comparison to draw near to God

to salvation The going out of the soul unto Christ and the whole application of it self to the promises of salvation made in and by him and whosoever doth this sincerely and with a faithfull heart is passed from death to life and shall never perish neither in this life nor in the life to come it puts its trust in him that never fails them that do so There is indeed a third Act of Faith Which is an act of assurance and full perswasion commonly called by Divines The reflex act of Faith Now this Act of Faith Is when the soul is fully and throughly perswaded that Iesus Christ hath actually pardoned all its sins and that it is his and he is hers This is not that Act of Faith concerning which the Apostle speaks Rom. 5. 1. Being justified by Faith we have peace with God It is rather a consequent of justifying Faith that peace which floweth to the soul as a fruit and a sweet effect of justification and that this is not that Act of Faith which justifieth is plain Because the soul must be justified before it can put forth it self in this Act. This is a comfortable but not a necessary Act of Faith and is more properly called fides justificati then fides justificans the Faith of a justified person then justifying Faith It is good and speciall justifying Faith for the soul heartily and sincerely to desire and thirst and hunger after the pardon and forgivenesse of its sins through the free grace of Iesus Christ and confidently to rest upon the promises of free remission and pardon But it is another pitch of Faith and of an higher nature to be confidently assured that all my sins are really and fully pardoned It is one thing to beleeve that my sins how many and how great soever shall be taken away and that God will smile upon me and we shall not finally perish And another thing to be fully assured that now God is well pleased with us and all our sins are blotted out Yea it is one thing to be perswaded that our names are in the white book of election and our sins decretally pardoned which was from eternity and meritoriously pardoned which was if ever in Christs death And another thing to beleeve that God hath acquitted us actually from the obligation to death that is in them God so pardons in time and in the Act of justification It is truth we ought to strive after a Faith of assurance but we are not necessarily obliged to an assurance upon our justification Faith precedes actuall and formall justification in our consciences it is the instrument to apprehend it Now the Gospel doth not when it calls to me to beleeve oblige me to a lye If before I am justified I should be tied to beleeve I am actually justified the Gospel would oblige me to that in order to my justification which I cannot upon warrantable grounds beleeve till after my justification So that we cannot conclude that we have not true justifying Faith that we do not beleeve because we cannot be confident God hath actually and formally in the court of our consciences acquitted us from the guilt of our sins for the essence of justifying Faith doth not consist in that And yet we may not altogether shut out confidence and perswasion out of the justifying Act of Faith give me therefore leave to adde a word or two concerning it The Seventh SERMON LUKE 17. v. 5. Lord increase our faith YOu may remember that I have told you that in order to the increasing of faith we must labour to remove those blocks and scruples which hinder the progresse of faith in the Soule And to this end I have spent severall houres in satisfying poor souls in those scruples which often lye in faiths way in a gracious soule I have done with such as are previous to faith and make the soul think it dare not and ought not to beleeve The last day having set the soule so farre on of its way that it is convinced it ought to beleeve but complaines That it doth not it cannot beleeve I came to search out the cause of such complaints which I shewed was ordinarily either First a mistake of the nature and acts of faith or Secondly a misjudging it self from the effects of faith I began with the first and propounded to such Christians these two considerations First That faith hath divers acts and the highest was not necessary to a justifying faith Secondly That Faith is of so good a nature that it will consist with many doubtings and weaknesses and yet retaine its truth For the first of these I shewed you the last day what were the severall acts of true faith and what act was necessary to justification and what act was not necessary I shall repeat nothing of what I then said but go on CHAP. 7. How to satisfie such poor Christians as think they doe not truly beleeve because they have many doubtings and weaknesses ALas Complaint saith a poor Christian I am confident my faith is not true but false I am so full of doubtings and feares and every act which I should think an act of faith is so weak c. To this Complaint now I shall apply my second consideration viz. That true faith is of so good a nature that it will keeping its truth consist with much weaknesse in the severall acts and dwell in a soule where many doubts are This is my Thesis Now concerning this divers have treated so largly that I shall be very brief and rather repeat what they say following them then lead you a worse way of my own Sedgwicks doubting Christian I finde Mr. Sedgwick who hath made it his work in his Book called The doubting Christian to handle this very point and hath done it fully laying down foure or five conclusions by way of premise for the right understanding of this point I shall name them to you First It is without question that all Doubtings are ●infull they are the smoakings of our corruptions they are begotten of sinne the depravation of our originall light with which God in innocencie enlightned Adam that is the cause and they hinder grace and hinder us in our duty c. Secondly They be no part of faith in that a man doth beleeve he doth not doubt Faith and Doubting may dwell under the same roofe but they marry not nor mingle any bloods together they are not at all of a family Faith is of the family of Heaven Doubtings are of the family of Hell they are inmates but have little acquaintance one with another none at all with one anothers natures they are two things though in one soule Thirdly They cannot consist at the same instant with the act of faith Ib. p. 16. for it is impossible that Faith should formally doubt the beleever while he beleeveth and in what he beleeveth doth not doubt I cannot at the same time lay my hand upon the Rock and