Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	believe_v	faith_n	justify_v	5,380	5	8.8463	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B06542	A brief, and plain apology written by John Wheelwright: wherein he doth vindicate himself, from al [sic] those errors, heresies, and flagitious crimes, layed to his charge by Mr. Thomas Weld, in his short story, and further fastened upon him, by Mr. Samuel Rutherford in his survey of antinomianisme. Wherein free grace is maintained in three propositions, and four thesis [sic] ...	Wheelwright, John, 1594-1679.	1658 (1658)	Wing W1604; ESTC R186427	40,565	36

terminis but in sense These are frequent Gospel expressions We are justified by Faith Faith is taken as well for the habit as the act When Faith is said not to fail that is to be understood of the habit When we are commanded to Beleeve that is meant of the act Bucer saith Zanchy is not ashamed to say That we beleeve sometimes in act sometimes only in habit There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus Let a man be in Christ whether by the act or by the habit of Faith he is justified Which way soever Christ and his righteousness is made ours this righteousness is counted to us for ours by God who counts things as they are Object 3. He that beleeveth not is condemned already Joh. 3.18 We are not then justified but consequently to our act of beleeving Answ The act of Faith doth ever follow the habit and in order of time they can scarce be distinguished the one from the other But in order of causality Gods work goes before ours A Christian is in the order of nature in the state of grace before Faiths act though not in time In a word when it is said He that beleeveth not is condemned already it must be understood thus He that beleeveth not either actu secundo or actu primo else what will become of us when we are asleep and put forth no act of beleeving Object 4. If we be justified antecedently to our act of Faith then justification goes before vocation contrary to that Rom. 8.30 And whom he called them he also justified Answ That doth not follow Vocation is a gracious act of God by which we are brought into fellowship with Christ 1 Cor. 1.9 We are in our effectual call drawn into union with Christ by a Physical act of God in our passive conversion precedently to our act of beleeving Faith goes in order before justification both in our passive and active conversion the habit in the one and both habit and act in the other THESIS III. That the Faith of Gods Elect whereby they do beleeve on Christ is grounded upon a free simple absolute promise of Grace The Question is Whether God in the Gospel do first reveal his special love to his Elect in giving of them Christ and blessing through him in a conditional promise or in an absolute promise I say in an absolute These are my Arguments 1. Almighty God himself the Prophets Angels John Baptist Christ and the Apostles in the publishing of the Gospel have ever propounded Christ to be beleeved on in an absolute promise of Grace Gen. 3.15 15.5 Isa 9.6 Hos 2.19 20. Luk. 2.10 11. Matth. 3.2 4.17 10.7 2. The Elect have alwayes founded that act of Faith by which they did beleeve on Christ upon this principle Abraham beleeved on the Lord and it was counted unto him for righteousness Upon what promise did he ground his Faith Upon this absolute promise Thus shall thy Seed be Gen. 15.5 6. This Faith of Abraham is made a patern for all the spiritual seed of Abraham to follow Rom 4.23 24 25. Paul describeth the Faith by which he spiritually lived Gal. 2.20 In what Promise was Christ revealed Even in this absolute Declaration of Gods good Will towards him who loved me and gave himself for me The Apostle tells us That all the Elect are born as Isaac was Now we Brethren as Isaac was are the children of the Promise Gal. 4.28 In what form runs the Promise This is the word of Promise At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a Son Rom 9.9 The children of this absolute Promise are counted for the seed vers 8. 3. The proper immediate effects of justifying Faith do strongly argue That it is built upon an absolute promise powerfully applyed by the spirit in our effectual call How comes Faith to work by Love It apprehends Gods love to us in Christ How doth it cause Rejoycing It beholds Christ given for us and to us out of Gods eternal love Abraham rejoyced to see Chrtsts day and he saw it and was glad Joh. 8.56 How doth it beget Peace It looks at God as reconciled unto us in Christ How doth it cause Repentance It makes us apprehensive that we have sinned against our Saviour Omnium appetitivorum motuum causa est bonum vel malum apprehensum 4. As in Conjugal Contracts amongst us the Husband doth first make known his Love and express his absolute consent so doth Christ when he doth betroth the Church of his Elect unto himself in their effectual Call I will say unto them that were not my People Thou art my People and they shall say thou art my God Hos 2.23 5. If our Faith be not founded upon an absolute Promise then is not the Covenant of Grace established upon better Promises for form than the Covenant of Works contrary to that which is affirmed by the Apostle Heb. 8.6 7 8 9 10 11 12. The New Covenant Promises are better than the Old in this respect amongst the rest That they are absolute or upon conditions absolutely promised 6. The absolute Promises are either only to be propounded to Beleevers antecedently or else also to Unbeleevers for the begetting of Faith But they are not only to be propounded to Beleevers antecedently They were no Beleevers to whom the Lord by the Prophet Hosea applies the absolute Promises Hos 2.19 20. being such as were unmarried and not betrothed to what end did he propound them if not to build faith upon 7. There is no conditional Promise or Grant in all the Word of God wherein Christ doth convey himself over to us for the beginning of Salvation Christ doth absolutely promise to give us a new heart inhabit in us his Spirit Ezek. 36.26 27. What ever the Remonstrants say to put in any condition is against Scripture and Reason Wherefore we must beleeve on Christ and receive him as given in an absolute Promise of Grace This very Doctrine which teacheth us to ground our faith whereby we are perswaded of Gods Love to us in Christ upon an absolute Promise is maintained by Zanchy in his Miscellanies against Marbuchius who objects against it as one of Zanchy's Errors and new Revelations but he doth earnestly contend for the truth hereof affirming of it to be the Judgment of Bucer and that conformable to the Scriptures Which he could not but imbrace proving it by Four Arguments and Answers three Objections The Definition of Justifying Faith given by Dr. Zanchy and Mr. Calvin declares them to be of this mind Faith say they is a stedfast and assured knowledg of Gods kindness towards us which being grounded upon the truth of the free Promise in Christ is both revealed to our minds and sealed in our hearts by the Holy Ghost They make two Essential parts of Faith 1. An apprehension of Gods Love to us in Christ which is an act of the Intellect 2. A receiving and imbracing of Christ which is

undoubted truth That falsum non est objectum fidei The Spirit of Truth doth not perswade men to beleeve Lyes The Spirit is truth and is no lye 1 John 2.27 2ly All to whom the Gospel cometh are not only bound to put forth acts of Evangelical obedience but to have the principles of these acts for we lost in Adam the very principles of yielding obedience to the holy Will of God to wit Integrity of Nature with the presence and assistance of Gods gracious Spirit So that it is a sin to be unregenerate and to want the spirit of Grace where the Gospel is preached Jude 19. 3ly When Reprobates are commanded to beleeve the Lord requires of them these two things 1. That they have a new heart and a new spirit which is the spirit of Adoption Ezek. 18.31 2ly That they Elicite an act of Faith from this new heart excited by this new spirit Let Reprobates then according to the true sence of the Gospels Command have a new heart and a new spirit and beleeve from these principles that the absolute promise of Grace belongs unto them and they shall not beleeve a lye Neither are Elect nor Reprobates commanded actually to beleeve immediately from the principles of Nature but by the intervening of a new heart and a new spirit which are the principles of Grace let these intervene and then it is not required that they beleeve more than is revealed and true All true Christians beleeve that this Promise belongs unto them in habit inclination desire or act of which there are many degrees THESIS IV. That all Promises proper and peculiar to the Gospel are absolute In the Covenant of Grace there are two sorts of Promises Some common to the Law with the Gospel though not for the matter yet for the form into which they are put as Beleeve and be saved Repent and be saved and these are conditional belonging to Elect and Reprobates There be other Promises peculiar to the Gospel both for matter and form as a new heart will I give you a new Spirit will I put within you and these are absolute Ezek. 36.26 Which Promises though they be propounded in the promulgation of the Gospel to all indifferently yet are they proper only to Gods Elect. Of these Promises is that to be understood which Prosper speaks Lib. 1. De voc Gent. Cap. 9. Manet prorsus et quotidiè impletur quod Abrahae Dominus sine conditione promisit sine lege donavit And of these Promises doth Zanchy mean Miscell Lib. 2. Thes 13. where he saith Promissiones de gratuitâ Dei misericordiâ deque certa et aeterna salute etsi univer salitér omnibus proponuntur et praedicandae sunt ad ipsos tamen tantum electos reipsa pertinent And again De Common Divinis Evangelium propriè quod annuntiat id absolutè citrà conditionem annuntiat It was denyed in the Synod that there was any absolute Promises The Remonstrants Collat. Hag. Band. pag. 190. lin 22. assert That the giving of a new heart is promised upon condition of our actual conversion Others would have these Promises to be only Predictions and Prophesies but seem to exclude them from being any part of the Covenant of Grace whereas they be the chief and proper part or else I cannot see that our first Parents had any Gospel preached unto them in Paradice Gen. 3.15 There is nothing but an absolute Promise expressed in which all absolute Promises in both the sences before mentioned are wrapt up though I doubt not but the conditional Promise Beleeve and be saved is implied Our Orthodox Divines in the Synod of Dordt stand for these absolute Promises as parts of the Covenant of Grace against the Arminians and that they are proper to the Gospel in respect of their absolute form cannot be denied the Law hath no Promises which run in that form It is evident which Zanchy saith Quicquid pertinet ad legem in scripturis conditionale est I have lost divers Notes by often removals but to my best remembrance these with one or two more of the like Nature coincident with them were all the Positions which at first I intended for Disputation in the Synod In heat of Discourse in that Assembly certain expressions fell from me which were numbred amongst my Errors and made the chief matter of Dispute by them who took all occasions and advantages to make me seem erroneous Amongst the rest how it came in I do not well know I said That Christ was part of the new Creature The Question is What is meant by the new Creature or new Man which Christians are commanded to put on I answer Partly Christ with his new created Righteousness partly new created qualities in us Which I conceive may thus be proved Adam is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adam is the old man and Christ the new man Hereupon tropically all sin which entred into the World by Adam is called the Old man and all that righteousness which is brought in by Christ is called the New man which righteousness of Christs becomes ours in our New Birth partly by Imputation partly by Regeneration Eph. 2.15 Object By the Old man which we are to put off is only meant Sin not Adam 's Person and therefore by the New man is only meant new qualities in us and not Christ's Person Answ By the Old man may be understood not only the corruption of Nature which passeth from Adam to us but his disobedience which becomes ours by imputation So that in some respect we are to put off Adam that is the transgression of Adam in eating the forbidden Fruit which was his in act and ours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and originally I am not the first who have taken the New man in that sense which if it be not proper yet is it true We are to put on Christ as well by Faith as by imitation I shall not much herein contend Zanchy upon Eph. 4.24 having set down the judgment of Ambrose what is meant by the New man which Christians are to put on who understood it of Christ himself and of others interpreting it of new qualities delivers his own mind and joyns them both together Novus igitur homo primum est Christus ipse in nobis inhabitans deinde ipse nova totius hominis qualitas et natura per Christum in nobis creata postremo nos ipsi Christo induti et novae illius naturae participes effecti et in virtute ut loquuntur scholia viventes Ye would likewise have wrested other expressions which fell from me to a corrupt sence as if I denied acting from a formal principle of Grace or that any power was conveyed by the Commandments of the Law to act graciously which was far from my sence The Opinion of Peter Lombart Lib. 1. Dist 18. that Charity is not any thing created in the soul but the Holy Ghost himself is sufficiently

an act of the Will And they ground both these Acts upon a free Promise of Grace efficaciously applied by the Holy Ghost These are the words of Mr. Calvin upon Gal 3.7 Faith is not an imagination of our own forging it is an assuredness which we conceive of Gods Goodness when he cometh unto us and uttereth familiarly his love that he beareth to us This hath been the constant Definition of Justifying Faith given by our Orthodox Divines in Luthers time and of many since Fides est certa persuasio et 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quâ cum servatorem amplectimur hâc fiduciâ quod crucifixus mortuus sit in propitiationem pro peccatis non aliarum tantum sed et meis Melanchthon Beza with many others describe Faith after that manner and generally this is part of the description of it Faith is a certain perswasion of Gods mercy towards us in Christ which they could not do did they not ground it upon an absolute Promise All our Expositors of the Creed who make this part of the meaning of that Article I beleeve in Jesus Christ to be I beleeve that Christ is mine and place it before that act of the heart by which we rely on Christ do found it upon an absolute Promise Mr. Perkins in his Exposition of the Creed saith That no man can put his confidence in God till he be first perswaded of Gods mercy towards him in Christ This is Mr. Dikes Judgment on Phil. 5. First we must beleeve that Christ is ours before we can be able to commit our selves to him for the will and affections follow the understanding Mr. Cotton in his N. Covenant declares himself fully to be of this Judgment and saith Faith to receive Christ is ever upon an absolute Promise pag. 56. which is as much as I affirm Object 1. The Promise propounded in the Gospel for the begetting of faith is conditional Beleeve and be saved Answ That is not the Gospels first Promise There is an absolute indefinite Promise I take an absolute Promise for that which shall certainly be accomplished in Gods Elect precedent to this viz. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand to which the command of Beleeving in the conditional Promise hath relation As in the Covenant of Works first there is an absolute Law given and then a conditional Covenant made Do this and live So in the Covenant of Grace first there is made an absolute Promise of Salvation through Christ taking absolute in that sense which I have named and then a conditional Covenant Beleeve and be saved When I am commanded to beleeve the Gospel or beleeve on the Lord Jesus Christ it is intended that I beleeve this absolute Promise not only Historically but Applicatorily and that I receive and relie upon Christ promised and then I shall not perish but have everlasting life The act of faith is not terminated in the Promise but in the simple term Christ Object 2. There is no absolute Promise of Salvation through Christ in all the Gospel Answ That is not so The first Gospel Promise of Grace and Life was absolute The seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpents head Gen. 3.15 This is renewed to Abraham In thee shall all Families of the Earth be blessed Gen. 12.3 Is not this a simple categorical Proposition and Declaration of Gods good will in Christ to the World And this was Gospel which was preached unto Abraham Gal. 3.8 To make things more clear Take an absolute Promise for that which shall certainly be accomplished and then the Gospel alwaies begins with an absolute Promise both of end and means to wit Salvation and all means tending thereunto with relation to Gods Elect of which kind are the Promises before mentioned Gen. 3.15 and 12.3 Let an absolute Promise be taken for that which shall receive its accomplishment without any gracious precedent act of ours and then the beginning of our Salvation to wit a new heart a new spirit and faith it self is absolutely promised Jer. 3.33 34. Ezek. 36.26 27. If by Salvation be meant the continuance perfecting and consummation of Salvation in Gods eternal and everlasting Kingdom that is indeed promised upon condition we put forth acts of faith repentance holiness and righteousness throughout the whol course of our lives all which conditions as hath been said are absolutely promised Ezek. 36.27 Conditiones N Faederis non tantum praeceptae sunt sed etiam promissae Embd. Min. in the Synod of Dordt Object 3. The Promises to save absolutely and upon condition of beleeving are inconsistent Answ 1. To promise the beginning of Salvation absolutely and the continuance and accomplishment of Salvation upon condition of an holy penitential faith stand well together 2. To promise absolutely that is assuredly the continuance perfecting and consummation of Salvation upon condition we actually beleeve repent and obey is not inconsistent because the conditions are absolutely promised Object 4. The absolute Promise of Salvation through Christ propounded in the Gospel is not particular and personal but general and indefinite and therefore if we beleeve it by particular application we beleeve more than is revealed Answ Though the absolute Promise of Salvation through Christ be general and indefinite yet is it made particular to every Elect Person in his effectual call This Promise is held forth with a commandment to apply it and make it particular So saith Zanchy Lib. 5. De Naturâ Dei Cap. 2. and Mr. Perkins upon Gal. 2. When we are commanded to beleeve on the Lord Jesus Christ this is one act that is required of us to beleeve that Christ is ours 1 John 5.13 Whilst this Gospel is in preaching in our effectual Vocation the Lord sends the spirit of Adoption into our hearts gives us a new heart and a new spirit which new spirit perswades us to beleeve and apply the Promise and Christ promised and it is all one as if he should call us by name Isa 43.1 John 10.3 They who are thus perswaded by Christ not only outwardly by his Word but inwardly by his Spirit in their hearts have a good ground to beleeve that the Promise belongs unto them and that Christ is theirs nor do they herein beleeve more than is revealed To beleeve what Christ commands is no Enthusiasme Object 5. If all to whom the Gospel is preached are commanded to beleeve that the absolute Promise belongs unto them then are Reprobates commanded to beleeve a lye Answ Zanchy upon Hos 2.1 and Mr. Perkins in his Treatise of Predestination answers thus in effect Let Reprobates beleeve and they shall not find it false but true But because our act of Beleeving works no change in the Object and our beleeving makes not a thing true but it must be true before we beleeve it is not satisfactory to me Before I set down mine own apprehensions with humble submission to better Judgments I think it requisite that some things should be premised 1. I imbrace it for an