Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	act_n	faith_n	grace_n	4,482	5	5.9933	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65069	Tēs pisteōs elegchos, or, The reason of faith briefly discuss'd in a sermon, preach'd at Pauls before the Right Honourable, the Lord Mayor, &c., the third of October, 1658, and publish'd by the order of his lordship, and Court of Aldermen / by Peter Vinke ...	Timoreus, Theophilus.	1659 (1659)	Wing V562; ESTC R39404	19,583	36

2 Cor. 1.18 but 't is in Christ Yea that is like himself who is the same yesterday to day and for evermore Hebr. 13.8 Men indeed too ordinarily dress Religion as the Heathens did their gods or as the Papists do their images according to the fashion of the time and place in which they live and think that there is little or nothing more in it But be not deceiv'd God will not set his seal in water in a fluid transitory imagination or opinion but in wax in that understanding which though ductile and flexible is fit to retain those impressions which his Spirit shall make in it Secondly Faith differs from opinion in that opinion is onely matter of speculation faith is practical also The seat of opinion is onely the head but wiih the heart man believes Rom. 10.10 To know and assent unto the truths in Scripture will not alone make a man a believer unlesse such a one as the Devil is James 2.19 who believes and trembles Interroge te utrùm credis dicis credo fac quod dicis fidcs est Aug. 'T is not a right faith untill it does what it sayes Nay faith is with all the heart it takes in every faculty for its object hath a double aspect upon the soul first as true and so it bespeaks assent in the understanding and then also as good and thus it excites and draws forth the will and affections without this latter acting of a truth or promise upon the soul a man hath no more benefit by it then he hath nourishment from his food when he only sees and believes the wholesomnesse of it but eats it not Try then your faith by this you would not take a false sixpence and will ye be put off with a false jewel a false faith On the other side 2. Faith is not alwayes an assurance 2 Pet. 1.10 as faith is not an opinion barely so 't is not an assurance for though it be an evidence 't is of things not seen now assurance is a kinde of sight of these things We will suppose assurance much to be endeavoured after when the Apostle charges us to make our calling and election sure and indeed there is no warmth in a direct beam Faith which is the direct act the souls going unto and relying upon Christ will at length save but the reflexe act of assurance chiefly comforts Our present businesse is to shew that they are distinct Consider then that faith is so farre from being an assurance that it must necessarily go before it otherwise a man might be assur'd of what is not and as we are partakers of humane nature before that we know we are and bear the image of the earthy before we know we do so we bear the image of the heavenly and be partakers of the divine nature before we know of it There is an infancy or non-age in both natures as to us and the spiritual life here is no more exempted from its weaknesse than the natural life is from the infirmities which belong unto it I will but name some other particular differences 1. Faith is constant 't is a seed immortal assurance is not the vision is sometimes taken up nay suddenly Acts 10 16. The influence of the Sunne does alwayes remain but the light of the Sun does not it shine and claps in again 2. Faith which justifies admits of no degrees that is wheresoever it is it is in its compleat essence or not at all The soul cannot be partly married or united unto Christ and partly not but on the contrary assurance hath its degrees where it is it is usually but incompleat we know thus too but in part sometimes we read our evidences by a candle-light as well as other-while by a Sunne-beam 3. The act of faith is grounded upon Gods Word Assurance is chiefly grounded upon experience though indeed in both the soul is helped by the Spirit Now I have said this the rather for their sakes who walk in darknesse and see no light such Trees of the Lord may stand and grow Isa 50. ult when most shaken with the winde and clouded from the Sun Remember then what ye have heard this day faith to be viz. As the miraculous cloud which we read of Exod. 14.20 which hath its light side as 't is an evidence but hath its dark side also as 't is of things not seen We come to tell you the condition of a believer 2. Instruct In the condition of a believer which cannot but be desirable Faith hath made him a great one indeed richer than the richest 't is this man only that can say truly as they did vainly Hos 12.8 I have found me out substance a carnal man hath but shadowes lyes which he trusts unto He may dream he eats c. but if ever God awaken him either here or hereafter he shall finde he is hungry truly indigent and full of wants Oh man greatly beloved this is he that hath made the best discovery of what before was but a terra incognita an unknown Region where true Gold and Jewels of real price are to be found and to this place he travels all the remainder of his life nay more he hath a kind of possession of it already Phil. 3.20 and is whilest he lives on earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Citizen of heaven and there he hath his conversation enjoying by faith the happinesse and doing by love the duties of that place As to earth he is vel praesens absens like Archimedes at the taking of Syracuse never minding what becomes of the world and worldly matters Faith brings him better Relations Riches Possessions then their fading ones are and therefore as to heaven he is vel Absens praesens his heart as another fore-runner is entred in He hath sent his soul as a Prodromus to prepare the way for his body And in the mean while let the winds blow from what corner they will Matth. 7.25 impavidum ferient they can't cause him to make ship-wrack of his substance Thus in the midst of a storme the nodes of the compasse remain immovable when there is nothing else in the whole ship but is tossed too and fro The other things in the ship as the other men of the world are hurried whither the present Tempest and season carries them But believers as the points in the Compasse are fixt at all times being governed not by the various windes but by the constant heavens Ah how much then hath the meanest true servant of God to blesse him for flesh and blood hath not revealed these things Mat. 16.17 acquir'd this substance for them but your Father which is in heaven Faith is a supernatural gift not onely in respect of nature corrupted as all other graces be but in respect also of nature as 't was at first created Faith is not as other graces in our regeneration repaired but as it were new built from

whom all things are possible And as if you would act rationally you must claudere quinque fenestras not follow your sensual appetites so if you will act religiously you will be forc'd in many cases to say with Luther tu stulta ratio tace thou foolish reason give way Let our Apostle be heard in this case who tells us concerning the mysteries of Religion 1 Cor. 2.9 that eye hath not seen nor eare heard they are out of the reach of sense neither have they entred into the heart of man they exceed the capacity of reason And therefore when a soul is conquered and taken in for God the Articles of its Surrender are that it should now cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalts it self * Adversus scientiam Dei quae est Christianorum fides Bern. Ad Milites Templi Isa 54 1● against the knowledge of God and bring into captivity every thought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.5 So that henceforth this soul must according to this agreement give up its self to be taught of God those things which its nature is neither able nor willing otherwise to conceive of I know I am upon a ticklish point This truth stands betwixt the Scylla of Enthysiasts who are ready to decry every thing because it is rational and the Charybdis of Socinians who cavil at every thing that is above the level of their reason as if they needed to fear to be guilty of blinde obedience when they have the Sun of Righteousnesse God in his Word to go before them I shall endeavour to do something towards the resolution of this great case in several particulars I will not call it my award betwixt these two parties faith and reason yet I shall labour to give to each its due The use of reason and faith laid down 1. Positively 1. In Civil Affairs 1. Positively 1. 'T is granted on all sides that reason hath its use in Civil Affairs and Worldly Matters those that deny it to be a Jacob's ladder to climb up into heaven by acknowledge it to be an useful staffe to walk upon earth withal We are not to pull out this eye because we cannot look stedfastly with it upon the Sunne The Musitian does not cut off the strings and throw them away because the Instrument is out of tune Nay more 2. In Religion Matters reason is useful in the things of God 1. Reason is necessary for the conversion of Pagans and Infidels to the faith of Christ the very milk of the Word is too strong meat for such at first 'T is in vain to alledge Scripture to such as are not yet induc'd to believe the authority of it We must deal with such as men that cure the bodily blinde not bring them at first to gaze upon the Sunne but use them to lesser lights till at last they be able to look upon the greatest Thus nature does not expose us to the Sun-beams immediately out of pitchy darknesse till she hath inured us by a twilight to bear them 2. Reason is the subject of divine knowledge in a believing soul 't is the vessel which God fills with the oile of this grace God in Regeneration does not make another faculty another eye but purges it As at the first time of writing the Law God afforded the Tables and writing too Exod. 24.12 Exod. 34.1 but at the renewing of it Moses provided the Tables though the writing still was Gods in our Creation we have heart and holinesse both minde and knowledge Tables and writing from God but in our renovation God takes the faculties which we have already and engraves his Image on them God makes all things indeed new in quality not in substance And this is the greater miracle of the two that the same man should by the same faculty apprehend the same things so diversly from what he did in his unregeneracy worldly things which were so great in his eyes as when the prospective glasse is turn'd seem now very small and inconsiderable and the things of God which did scarce appear unto him as if he had now got Galileo's glasse to look on the heavens withal he views them in their just dimensions 3. Reason is the Instrument that God makes use of to direct and guide the whole man by 'T is the Rudder in the ship let it be bound for what place it will that as whatsoever we hear we hear by the ear and whatsoever we see we see by the eye so whatsoever we understand we understand by this faculty By the eye of our understanding when enlightned we know what is the hope of our calling c. Ephes 1.18 By reason we know what may be inferr'd from Scripture and what not Hence not to mention the Trinity c. we grant and use two Sacraments because reason infers these from Scripture and on the other side we reject a great many that others would bring into the Church because we cannot by reason prove them to be commanded there 4. I may adde moreover there is nothing which faith believes but what is when throughly understood agreeable to right reason It may be above it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it cannot as you have heard be against it True reason did never go about to comprise the Bible in its own nut-shell faith it self is but a kind of a new life of reason 'T is the highest reason to believe what God sayes without further enquiry If ye have not made your selves more the children of darknesse than ye yet were by nature and if God hath not in judgment blinded you and given you over to a reprobate minde does not your very reason tell you how vain it is to measure immensity by a finite compasse or span eternity by your imperfect duration To fathom the depth of the Wisdome of God by the line and plummet of the wisdome of man Rom. 11.33 I have read of one of the Antients I think 't was Austin who being very thoughtful about the Nature and Essence of God he espies as he was meditating by the Sea shoar a young man taking the water out of the Sea with a Ladle and putting of it into a little hole which he had made The Father demands the reason of so frivolous an employment The young man tells him that he was emptying the sea into that hole and that he might sooner make the vast Ocean to be contained in that small place than the other should comprehend the deep Mysteries he was meditating of in his shallow understanding Being we have freely granted thus much Negatively I hope none will be offended if we dare not go further in its commendation but must lest we should encroach on Faith prescribe some bounds to Reason 1. Reason may not be the Rule to try or measure revealed truths by that you should believe no more than what it affirms to I am