Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	clear_a	explication_n	great_a	29	3	2.0646	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27029	The Scripture Gospel defended, and Christ, grace, and free justification vindicated against the libertines ... in two books : the first, a breviate of fifty controversies about justification ... : the second upon the sudden reviving of antinomianism ... and the re-printing of Dr. Crisp's sermons with additions ... / by Richard Baxter ...	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1690 (1690)	Wing B1397; ESTC R20024	135,131	242

ignorance or incapacity is not obstinacy If your Schollar or Apprentice be seven years learning what you teach him it may not by that be proved obstinacy The word Heretick is used as please the speaker in various sences 1. Some call all Hereticks that obstinately oppose any Opinion or truth which the Church determineth to be Believed 2. Some call all Hereticks that gather any segregate Church to maintain or propagate any Error 3. Some call all Hereticks who oppose any Poi●t essentiall to Christianity though but ignorantly by remote consequence 4. Some call those Hereticks who deny some one essential Article of Christianity directly and knowingly while they own the rest 5. And some call no●e Hereticks but those that joyn together the denying of some essential Arti●le directly or by plain evident consequence and gather segregate Churches to propagate it and do this obstinately against sufficient light If you will use the Name tell men which of these you mean Ortho. Y●u encour●ge Heresie by making it so hard to know a Heretick May we not know them by their Doctrin● Reconcil You may know what is Error and Heretical when you know not the man to be an Heretick do what you can justly to save men from their Error without unjust and uncha●itable censuring of the persons To which end I remember you of the writing of worthy Dr. Fow●●● that H●li●ess is the design of Christianity If then it prove that many of these that hold these ●ad opinions are men of sincere Holiness then Christianity in them hath reached to its design Now ●●nd that the most of them that I have known seem to me to be persons of serious Holiness notwithstanding their infirmities They are Zealous towards God they greatly honour Christ they avoid known Sin they live justly and charitably towards men yea it is the Piety and Strictness of the lives of many of them which hath drawn many well-meaning ignorant persons to their Errors Bu●nian an unlearned Antinomian-Anabaptist wrote against the foresaid Book of Dr. F●wler yet abating his separation I never heard that Bunnian was not an honest Godly man If then he attained the design of Christianity was he not a Christian Ortho. Could ●e be Godly that said a●d did so ●u●h against the Truth and so much to draw men t● his Errors Reconcil There is no man without many Errors And do not all desire that others should take that for Truth which they take to be Truth And how few be there in the world that embody not with some Sect or Faction for the promoting of their Opinions And how few that do not over-vilifie and wrong those from whom they differ And Bunnians last preachings give me hope that he repented of his Errors for he Zealously preached but the common acknowledged doctrine of Christ's readiness to receive and pardon converted sinners Ortho. But unholy Doctrine will not make men holy nor cosist therewith Reconcil 1. It is Holy Doctrine practically received that maketh them Holy and that which is Unholy is received but notionally and so prevaileth not against the power of truth No doub● but false unholy Doctrine greatly tendeth to unholiness of heart and life Therefore let us all do our best to cure it But it is not the sharpest censures nor the greatest fierceness or foulest words or punishments that are the right o● wisest way of cure But t●e clearest explication of the Truth and the most loving and meek instructing opposers if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the Truth Ortho. I am sure General Councils and H●ath●ns Bishops and Emperors also of old were severe against Hereticks Reconcil What will you say if I fully prove that Hereticks themselves as such did not mor● hurt to the Church than the stir and violence used against them that were accounted such hath done and still doth No nor so much hurt But what need I more proof of this than what Popery hath done these 800. or 900. years in the World Did Hereticks ever murder so many hundred thousands as the Papists did of the Waldens●s B●hemia●s French Protestants Dutch Irish Engl●sh Polanders Hungarians c. by Wars Massacres Inquisitions c. Ortho. Those men were not Hereticks but men fals●y a●cus●d of Heresie Why instance you in Papist Tyrants Reconcil And who think you will be Judge who shall suffer as Hereticks Will it not be those that are uppermost and get greatest strength And are those usually the wisest Who is the Judge now in the Turks Dominions and among Christians who is Judge in Muscovy where Preaching is forbidden Ortho. But it is the Clergy that is the Judge of Heresie Reconcil And how small a part of the Earth is so happy as to have the major part of the Clergy wise sound honest and orthodox Where 's the Clergy so powerful as in the Roman Kingdom And where more erroneous or more cruel Ortho. But you must instance in times of the Churches Purity and not in the time of Anti Christs Reign Reconcil Few of us are agreed when the time of the Church-Purity ended from the Apostles days till the Fall of the Pagan Empire there were great Numbers of Hereticks in the Church and no Sword was drawn or desired against them by the Churches And yet all the Number of that time mentioned by Epiphanius hurt not the Church so much as the Pride and Contention of the Clergy even before Dioclesia●s Persecution if Eusebius may be believed lib. 8. c. 1. And for long time after the Church abhorred the use of the Sword or Violence against Hereticks Or else Martin had not with such abhorrence separated from the Bishops that were for the use of the Sword against the Priscilian Gnosticks And whereas Austin is cited as the chief that changed his mind herein his instance is but one and it is usually abused 1. It being not against Heresie but Schism that he writeth The Donatists were Prelatical Zealots that thought themselves the greater Number and so called themselves the Church for being the supposed Majority in Africk and having the truest Bishop as the Papists and some Prelatists arrogate the Name of the Church on those Accounts W●at Errour had they more than Cyprian and all his pious Councils had saving their Factiousness for their own chosen Bishop 2. And it was not this Shism neither that Austin was for Violence against but to repress Force with Force for the Donatists used Murder and Violence But come to the Times and Councils that suppressed Hereticks with the greatest Zeal I have nothing herein to say against the Council of Nice though some good men think that they had done better to tolerate the Easter-Day different yea and to have done less to stir up Disputes about One Substance But do you think Nestorius did more hurt by saying That Mary was not to be called The Mother ●f God but The Mother of him who is God than was done by banishing him Who was so far from being

the n●●●ssary qualification of the Patient or Re●●iver i. e. naturally and legally necessary such as dispositio materiae is said to be in Physicks 3. And as for the notion of an Instrumental Cause of Justification it is past doubt that properly taken neither Faith nor any act of ours is any such nor doth justifie us efficiently at all But if any be so fond of the invented notion of an Instrument as that they will use it though unaptly they must say 1. That it is not an Efficient but a Recipient Instrument Dr. Kendall calls it like Boys catching the Ball in their Hats or as a Spoon is in eating But it is not an Instrument of Physical Reception but Moral To Trust is no more a Reception than to Love The active Acceptance of a Saviour given with his benefits is a Moral Receiving of him which disposeth us as the Condition of the Covenant to receive Justification that is to be justified And in this lax sense you may call it all these if you please viz. a Condition a Dispositive Cause and a Receiving Instrument 4. A Meritorious Cause it is not in a Commutative or strict sense But if you will call that meritorious which is pleasing to God as congruous to his free gift and design of grace whence some are called Worthy in the Gospel so the thing is not to be denied and so all are reconciled Contr. 17. Is justifying Faith an act of the understanding or will Ans Both and therefore it is no one Physical act only nor Instrumental in a strict Physical sense Contr. 18. What act of Faith is it that justifieth as to the Object whether only the belief of the truth of the Promise or of the whole Gospel also or the affiance on Christs Righteousness or on his Truth or on his Intercession or taking him wholly for our Saviour Prophet Priest and King And whether Faith in God the Father and the Holy Ghost do justifie or all these And if but one which is it and whe●her all the rest are the works which Paul excludeth from Justification Ans To say that only one Physical act of Faith is it that we are justified by and all the rest are those works is a perverse corrupting of Christianity and not to be heard without detestation For it will utterly confound all persons to find out which that one act is which they indeed can never do And it will contradict the substance of all the Gospel There is no such thing as Faith in Christ which containeth not or includeth not Faith in God as God both as he is our Creator and as reconciled by Christ and as the Giver of Christ to us John 3.16 and as the end of all the work of Redemption Nor is there any such thing as Faith in Christ which is true and saving that includeth not or connoteth not the Knowledge of Christ and Love and Desire and Thankfulness and Consent Nor did ever God tell us of a Faith in Christs Imputed Righteousness only that must justifie us which is not also a Faith in his Person Doctrine Law Promise and Example and his Intercession in the Heavens And to say that only the Act of Recumbency on Christs Righteousness as imputed to our Justification is that act of Faith by which we are justified and that Believing in God his Majesty Truth Wisdom Goodness and the believing in Christ as he is the Prophet Teacher King of the Church and the Resurrection Life and Judge of all and believing in the Holy Ghost as the Sanctifier Comforter and Witness and Advocate of Christ and believing and trusting the Promise of God for Life Eternal or for any grace except Christs Righteousness imputed that all this Faith in God in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit and all our Love to Christ and desire after him and prayer for his grace and thankfulness for it c. are all none of the Faith which Justification is promised to but are the Works by which no man is justified and that he is faln from grace that seeketh to be justified by such works that is by true Faith in God as God and in Christ as Christ This is a new Gospel subverting Christs Gospel and making Christianity another thing and this without any countenance from the Scripture and contrary to its very scope The Faith by which we are justified is one Moral act containing many Physical acts even our fiducial Consent to the Baptismal Covenant and dedication of our selves to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost to be our Reconciled God our Saviour and our Sanctifier to give us Pardon Adoption Holiness and Glory which is our Christianity it self as such Contr. 18. But though this be the Faith quae justificat which justifieth us is it not only Recumbency on Christs Imputed Righteousness qu● talis which hath the Office of Instrumentality and is ●ides qu● justificans Ans Such quibbling and jingling of a meer sound of words is usual in ludicrous Disputations of Lads But it 's pity it should pass as the last remedy against plain truth in so great a matter First it must be remembred that no Faith justifieth efficiently and therefore neither quae nor quâ justificans is to signifie any such thing but a meer Moral qualification of the recipient subject so that to be justified by Faith is but to be justified by it as that which God hath promised Justification on as the qualifying Condition But if it be not the same thing that is here called Fides quae and quâ but in the first part they speak of the Habit and in the second of the Act had it not been plainer to say The same Habit of Faith hath several Acts as believing in God in Christs Intercession Kingdom c. but none of these Acts do justifie us but one only viz. trusting to the Imputation of his Righteousness And so both the quae and quâ is ●denied to all Acts save that one This is their plain meaning which is denied to be truth and is a human dangerous invention Yet it 's granted them that it is not every Act of Faith that is made the Condition of Justification or Salvation It is necessary that the formal Object Gods Veracit● be believed to make it true Faith and that the Gospel or Covenant of Grace be believed with Consent as aforesaid to make it to be the true Christian Faith in essence and it 's of necessity that every thing be believed which we know that God revealeth But it is the Christian Faith that hath the Promise of Justification and that not any one single Act of it but all that is essential to it and that which belongeth but to its Integrity ad bene esse when it existeth is also so far conducible to our Justification as Abrahams believing that Isaac should live and have seed when he went to sacrifice him yet Justification may be without some Acts as Salvation may without many due Acts of Obedience

it self and so that to be Justified by the Object as such and not by that Faith it self is a notorious putid Contradiction or should I stand to prove that Faith it self is said by Paul to be Imputed for Righteousness in meer subordination to the meritorious Sacrifice and Righteousness of Christ and in conjunction with Free Pardon and Adoption purchased by Christ how needless a work is this made by the Text Sect. 12. 11. Should I stand to prove that Elect Infidels Atheists or wicked Men are not Justified while such save as God maketh them Just by Conversion Pardon all the Scripture tell us it is needless and that Eternal Electing to Justification is not Justifying nor yet Christs dying for us till He be given to us as well as for us Sect. 13. 12. Should I stand to prove that men shall be judged according to their Works and that God is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him and that Christ hath frequently promised Rewards and that the same Salvation which as to Value is no Debt but meerly a Free Gift of Grace through Christ is yet as to the Order of Conveyance given on Condition as a Reward that Fatherly Love may attain its ends by Saptential means and not only by Power Morally producing Moral Effects in conjunction with Love and Power and thus that the pardoning and saving Acts of the Covenant impose Conditions as receptive qualifications which yet are all the Effects of Grace the whole Scripture maketh this a needless task Sect. 14. 13. Should I prove the distinctness 1. Of the Law and Covenant of Innocency 2. And of the Law and Covenant of Mediation And 3. Of the Mediators Law and Covenant of Grace imposed on us and sealed in Sacraments and that the same is both a Law and Covenant and that the Covenant of Grace is the Instrumental Gift of Pardon and Justification How much of the Bible must I transcribe Sect. 15. The like I may say of most of the rest which I doubt I have been too large in proving in all the six or seven or eight Books before named I thought also to have distinctly answered th● Printed Pinners-Hall Lecture but he that cann●● find it more than fully answered in the foresaid Books either never read them or Answers to such a man will be vain And I am sorry that the same hand in another Lecture elsewhere publisheth that That any are brought to believe in Jesus is as great a Miracle as the Resurrection of Christ from the dead p. 223. And after There is not a greater Instance of the Power of God in the whole World than this in bringing over the heart of a sinner to believe in Christ It grieveth my Soul to think what Scandals are thus given by good Men to Papists Infidels and prejudiced Scorners and what work they will make with it No doubt but Faith is a great and difficult Work and wrought by Almighty Power For God hath no other Power but Omnipotency omnis Dei Potentia est Omnipotentia quia Infinita Gods Power is his Essence But the Instances and Demonstrations of it are as various as the Effects Your Finger or Tongue moveth not but by Omnipotency But every Motion or Fly is not as great an Instance or Demonstration of Power as Faith is Nor Faith so great an Instance as the making of Angels Men Heaven and Earth Sun Moon and Stars their Natures Motion and Order Divines have hitherto taught that Power is eminently manifested in Creation and Natural Preservation tho' with Wisdom and L●ve and Wisdom Eminently manifested in Government and Love in Glorifying tho' they were conjunct in each Man cannot work Miracles and that so great And I do not believe that God damneth all unbelievers as for want of an Act as great as the motion of the Sun or making the World And if it be a Miracle and as great a one as Christ's Resurrection How can any believer doubt at all Why was Christ's Resurrection Preached by the Apostles so much as the Proof of the Truth of Christianity and not the Faith of every believer Then we need not go far to prove the Christian V●●ity Every poor Boy or Woman that believeth hath the fullest Proof and as great and miraculous as Christ's Resurrection Why send we not Infidels and Doubters to this Miracle which is about them in all ages in thousands Over-doing is undoing And yet no doubt the Author saith truly that Faith in Christ is so hard a Work that he that never found it hard hath none or hath it but in the seed and yet unrooted or untryed But alas Infidels find it too hard to them To conclude Instead of the larger part of the Proof or Confutations which I intended 1. I shall with this Annex a brief Treatise resolving a multitude of Controversies about Justification which I have laid by about Fifteen Years 2. I refer you to the foresaid former perforformance of it 3. Were I not disabled by Pain and the approaches of Death I would be ready to Answer any sober rational Objector A Post-script Sect. 1. WHereas divers say they were drawn in to prenx their Names to this Drs. Book because they were told that the Errours were expunged Upon perusal I find that it is no such matter but in Vol. 3. Ser. 3 4. c. the Author rather more frequently inculcateth the worst of them viz. That sin cannot hurt any that are Elect or that Christ dyed for And that in 1. Joh. It is a powerful means to k●ep th●m from sinning to believe that if they sin it can do them no hurt Sect. 2. The Text drew him to use the Name of sinning I write to you that you sin not But did not the Contradiction of it to his Doctrine convince him while he read the Text against sinning judge whether he took not the thing to be impossible He saith Tho' such do Murder commit Adultery Blasphemy Idolatry or any such thing they are no Murderers Adulterers c. or Sinners because it is Christ's sin and not theirs and cannot be his and theirs too so that they may live in the Act but cannot sin Object But it was their sin once before it was Christs sin Answ No He saith that it was Christ's sin if not from Eternity at least above Sixteen Hundred Years before we were born And he that had no being could have no sin And Gods fore-knowledge of future sin maketh not sin Nay he could not fore-know that which would never be so that indeed Christ could not take our sin as his which was not ours nor ever would be at all And if he had yet I hope they will not say that now in Heaven he is the greatest sinner And so there neither was nor is any sin in us or Christ Sect. 3. But as he repeateth this Errour I will repeat my Lamentations and Warning to this tempted Sect. Hear it as Speculatoris Tubam the Watch-mans Trumpet that would