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virtue_n	act_n	grace_n	habit_n	906	5	9.7429	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20770	A treatise of the true nature and definition of justifying faith together with a defence of the same, against the answere of N. Baxter. By Iohn Downe B. in Divinity, and sometime fellow of Emanuel C. in Cambridge.; Selections	Downe, John, 1570?-1631.; Baxter, Nathaniel, fl. 1606.; Bayly, Mr., fl. 1635.; Muret, Marc-Antoine, 1526-1585. Institutio puerilis. English.	1635 (1635)	STC 7153; ESTC S109816	240,136	421

source of all Rebellion and Disobedience N. B. Your Genus is that Faith iustifying is a Rest which is false when you speake more learnedly I will deigne you farther answer I. D. That Rest is not the Genus of Iustifying Faith I easily grant you for as appeares manifestly in my Treatise I make Affiance or which is all one Rest to bee the Act or Forme of Faith and not the Genus thereof If I had thought it fitting to haue troubled the Definition therewith I was not so ignorant but I could haue called it either an infused grace or a gratious habit or a Theologicall vertue but because the Philosopher taught me that Habits are sufficiently defined by their Acts in reference vnto their proper Obiects I held it needlesse to expresse it But suppose I had made it to be the right Genus how doe you disproue it Forsooth it is sufficient for such a Pythagoras as you are to say it is false an inexpiable wrong would it be to demand a reason of your sayings Onely you adde Plut. in vitâ Alex. that when I shall speake more learnedly you will deigne me farther answer Brauely againe spoken and Alexander-like for neither would hee being a King contend with any but Kings neither may you being so transcendent for your learning and surmounting the most of men as farre as the Sun doth the lesser lights without impeachment of honour vouchsafe disputation with any but your Peers much lesse with such a one as is scarce to bee found in any Predicament Yet seeing the Sunne so surpassing in glory is no way enuious of his light but imparteth bountifully of his beames to the enlightning of the rest of the starres it may please you also with whom wisdome must liue and dye Ioh. 12.2 out of your benignity to send forth some influence of your learning vpon mee that I may more cleerely discerne at least in this question betweene truth and that which is onely seeming so N. B. Shew mee for your warrant one place of Scripture that so tearmeth it any one Father of the Church old or new for these 1600. yeeres Greeks or Latins that will auouch it and I will yeeld to your Genus The Hebrew word for Faith and the Greek word whereof you haue heard before doe vtterly condemne you they both signifying a perswasion and an Assurance and neuer a Rest I maruell you will teach the Holy Ghost to speake and the Church now to vnderstand what Faith is and that by such a woodden Definition which may rather moue to choller then consent I. D. If by denying vnto mee the warrant of Scriptures of Fathers old and new Greeke and Latin for 1600. yeeres and of the Greeke and Hebrew words for Faith you intend to proue that Affiance or Rest is not the Genus of Faith it shall without more a-doo bee yeelded vnto you for as appeares in the former section I make it to bee not the Genus but the Act or Forme thereof But if you would thereby perswade that Rest or Affiance is not the Act of Faith I must tell you that these reasons are cleane out of date and that you doe too much abuse your Readers patience setting againe before him these Coleworts now more then twice sodden For both in the beginning of this disputation and in the last section saue two before this I haue throughly scanned cleered this businesse shewing that I am so farre from teaching the Holy Ghost to speake and the Church to vnderstand what Faith is as you vnchristianly lay vnto my charge that I vse no other tearme but that which the Spirit of God hath in Scripture sanctified to this purpose and the Holy Church hath euer spoken and vsed But because I am loth to pester my paper with so many Tautologies and needles repetitions as you vse to doe thither must I entreate the courteous Reader to repaire for satisfaction In the meane season seeing both by expresse testimony of Scripture and cleere euidence of reason I haue warranted euery part of my definition and yet you without disprouing the weakest of my proofes tauntingly call it a woodden Definition you must pardon mee if I tell you plainely that this wood-kinde of answering deserues to bee reformed with a little woodden correction But where you say my Definition may rather moue to choler then consent a man would thinke reading this your answer that either your principles were so incurably hurt or your braine dam'd and ram'd vp with such a deale of dull and tough flegme that it were as easy almost to remoue a mountaine as to moue you either to the one or the other And yet indeed I find you of a cleene contrary complexion euen the most pettish and waspish gentleman that euer I met withall euery small petty occasion stirs your choler and works you presently out of temper But because I see it is your impotency disease I beare with you the more praying you notwithstanding to haue as much patience as you may if at times for the purging of this humor I play the Physician and minister some small quantity of rheubarb vnto you N. B. For alas Master Downe what Rest can a man haue vpon Christ without Assurance to bee saued by his death and Passion and knowledge of his Lord and Sauiour A full assurance therefore as a cause worketh Rest vpon Christ as an effect and is therefore the Generall word in the Definition of Iustifying Faith I. D. Your argument if I mistake not standeth thus That which is an Effect of Assurance cannot be the Act of Faith But Resting vpon Christ is an Effect of Assurance Ergo it cannot bee the Act of Faith I distinguish of Assurance for it is either of the generall proposition or of the Speciall and indiuiduall of the Generall when wee are assured that Whosoeuer Belieueth on Christ shall bee iustified and saued of the Speciall when wee are certainly perswaded that We are iustified and shall bee saued If you meane the former then I deny the Maior for such Historicall Assurance is a necessary pre-requisite vnto Iustifying Faith and is the cause without which wee cannot belieue on Christ and therefore that which is such an effect of Assurance may bee the Act of Faith If you vnderstand the latter then doe I grant the Maior for if such Assurance be as I haue demonstratiuely proued it selfe the Effect of Faith it is more then manifest that That which is an effect of such Assurance cannot bee the Act of Faith But then I deny the Minor that Resting vpon Christ is an effect of such assurance affirming that contrarily Resting vpon Christ is the cause of such Assurance and Assurance is the Effect of that Resting But what rest say you can a man haue vpon Christ without Assurance to be saued by his Death Passion Surely vnlesse wee know his Death and Passion to bee the onely meanes of saluation wee cannot rest vpon him for it but to

Treatise I haue expresly shewed the contrary For first touching the Negatiue that Faith is not Assurance I vouched therein the authority of that reuerend and worthy man of God M. Foxe whose words anon you shall heare at large In the meane season it behooueth you if you will bee beleeued in this point to produce the cloud of witnesses you so much boast of that wee may heare whether they will depose the contradictory hereunto namely that Faith is Assurance For howsoeuer you say you haue no fewer then All yet it may bee when all comes to all you will proue as ill stored of testimonies as the wise man of Athens was of shipping who being not worth the poorest shallop in the harbor bare himselfe notwithstanding for owner of all the gallies that arriued therein And surely hauing throughly searched your Answer to this purpose I find the nūber by you cited so small that I need not much skill in Arithmetike to summe them vp for the totall amounts to no more then an Vnity and all your Authors are but one Caluin once alledged in the front thereof Vnto whom I denie not but you might haue ioyned some other of the later Writers but what are they to all both old and new for 1600. yeeres For as for the ancient Fathers not one of them so farre as I can learne affirmeth the iustifying act of Faith to be Assurance and among the Moderne it is more then manifest that a good part of them flatly denyeth it So that being backed of so few and yet craking so loudly of All Ter. Eunuch act 4. Scen. 7. you play right the glorious Souldier in the Comedie who hauing but foure men in all the world bestirred himselfe so busily with three of them as if hee had been mustering a whole Legion and at length missing the fourth gallantly demaunded where all the rest were Againe touching the Affirmatiue that Faith is Affiance I quoted that passage of S. Augustin To beleeue is to loue ad by louing to moue vnto God In my Treatise De morib Eccl. ca. 15. Now Loue by which that Father vsually defineth Vertue properly is not an act of Faith because of Charity Charity Faith being two different and distinct Habits 1 Cor. 13.13 And therefore by Loue you are to vnderstand generally an act of the will it being an affection of that Facultie as if in plainer tearmes he should haue said To belieue is that act of the Will whereby we moue vnto God Which elsewhere he expresseth more clearly saying He that commeth vnwillingly beleeueth not In Ioh. 6. tract 26. and he that beleeueth not commeth not for we run not vnto Christ by walking but beleeuing neither come we by the motion of the body but by the wil of the heart So that Faith being in S. Augustins iudgement an act or motion of the Will what other can it bee then Affiance 12. q. 40. a. 2. ad 2. For as Thomas sayth that motion in the appetite which immediately followeth Desire to obtaine that good which wee esteeme possible to be obtained is Affiance Adde vnto him Theophylact Hee that with great affection beleeueth In Marc. 11. stretcheth out his heart towards God And what doth it It is vnited vnto him and the heart enflamed gathereth great certainty that it shall obtaine his desires Where by the way obserue that certainty is concluded out of Faith and therefore can no more bee Faith then the Conclusion can bee one of the Premises Serm. de Sancto Andr. So Barnard To beleeue in God is to set all our hope in him And our Diuines in the Conference of Altemburg define it by Affiance in the Heart and Will In a word all those who seat it only or principally in the will Colloq Altemb accord with mee For although defining it popularly they put vsually into their Descriptions Assent vnto supernaturall verities which is an act of the mind yet making not that but Affiance only the proper act that iustifies they doe in effect fully accord and agree with me So that you see I am not driuen to so neere an exigent but vnto your one I can oppose more then you are aware of And yet had I farre more I would not vpon presumption either of their number or authority say vnto you Ep. 11. inter ep Aug. as Hierome sometime wrote vnto Augustin Suffer me I pray thee to erre with such men and sith you see I haue so many companions in error with mee you ought to bring forth one at least that ioynes with you For who is he that would willingly erre with whomsoeuer or how many soeuer 2 Pet. 1.19 But hauing as S. Peter speaketh a more sure word of the Prophets for my warrant I rather conclude with that free and ingenuous answer of Augustin to Hierom More testimonies I thinke might I easily haue found if I had read much Epist 19. but the Apostle Paul shall bee vnto mee insteed of them all yea aboue them all N. B. Let vs therefore see what you affirme and wee agree to be our iustifying Faith and how you impugne it Fides iustificans in adultis quae sit Iustifying Faith agreed vpon vs both as holden by the Church We agree both in this that iustifying Faith as we hold it and you deny it is A certaine knowledge infused into the hearts of the elect by the Holy Ghost by which they constantly agree to all things reuealed in the Word of God and also a firme Assurance whereby euery one of the Elect relieth vpon the Promises of Christ fully resoluing that Christ with all his merits are giuen to him for iustification and eternall life Now as you deny this to bee iustifying Faith so againe let vs see what you count iustifying Faith to bee M. Downes iustifying Faith Iustifying Faith is a rest of mans will vpon Christ and his merits of Iustification and Saluation The validity of your definition wee will view anon by Gods help in the meane season let vs see with what engins of rare wit and solid Syllogismes you endeuour to ouerthrow the former definition of ours consisting vpon the generall Word the causes the effects the proper Subiect and Adiuncts or essentiall Properties I. D. Your second cogitations I see are wiser then the first and now you shoot with far better aime then erewhile missing not much of the right state of the Question For the Definition here attributed vnto me is I confesse that which I defend and the other assumed vnto your selfe is that also which I impugne I meane so farre forth as it makes Knowledge the Generall Word and Particular Assurance the Act or as you tearme it the adiunct or essentiall Propertie For otherwise that causally it is from the Holy Ghost subiectiuely in the elect and effectuall vnto Iustification is not questioned by mee but equally acknowledged of vs both Now the validity of my definition you say you will view

say that a man cannot rest vpon him for saluation vnlesse hee know that hee is already translated from death to life is a most vnreasonable and senselesse speech as if a man might not trust vnto his friend to doe something for him vntill he were sure it is already done If you be so sandblind in this present case that you cannot see how Rest may goe before Assurance yet I hope your sight is not so much decayed but you may perceiue it through a paire of spectacles Put case then that a skilfull and welknowne Physician should offer freely to cure the diseases of such as are sicke vpon condition they receiue Physicke of no other but put themselues wholly absolutely into his hands doe you thinke it absurd to become his patient or that you cannot repose your selfe vpon his skill to bee cured by him vnlesse you be first assured that the cure is already done Nay rather if you know well that your health is perfectly recouered you cannot rely vpon him for that whereof you are fully possessed Iesus Christ the Arch-physician of our soules as hee is knowne to bee all-sufficient and euery way able to heale our maladies so doth hee louingly inuite all those that are heauy loden to come vnto him promising to refresh them all vpon condition that renouncing themselues and all others they set their whole Affiance on him for the remission of their sinnes And dare you now make question how a man may betake himselfe into the hands of Christ vntill he know that his sinnes bee already pardoned Nay rather when wee know the debt is paid and that according to the old rule sinnes once remitted neuer returne againe we remaine thankefull for that which is past and continue our Affiance on him for discharge of that which is to come For to obserue this by the way wee may not thinke that in the first act of our conuersion and iustification we receiue actuall pardon of all our sinnes past present and to come as some and those of no meane marke haue rashly and vnaduisedly taught for sinnes past only are then actually forgiuen and sinnes to come onely in the destination and purpose of God But neither doth God actually pardon the iustified man nor the iustified man actually receiue pardon for his sinnes vntill hee haue actually committed them and renewed his Faith and Repentance for them Neither let any man thinke that I speake this out of mine owne head and without ground for I am strongly backed herein by the warrant of Scripture the euidence of reason and the testimony of worthy men By the warrant of Scripture for that teacheth onely remission of sinnes past so saith Saint Paul in expresse tearmes Rom. 3.25 God hath set forth Iesus Christ to bee a reconciliation through faith in his bloud to declare his righteousnesse by the forgiuenesse of the sinnes that are passed By the euidence of reason for if future sinnes as well as sinnes past bee actually remitted in our conuersion and first acceptation into grace what need of Repentance what need of Prayer that God would forgiue vs our trespasses To repent and craue p●●●on of that whereof wee are not guilty and which wee neuer committed is palpable folly and as great folly is it by Repentance and prayer to demand that of God which wee say wee are sure hee hath long agoe bestowed vpon vs Finally by the testimony of worthy men for Pardon saith Origen is of sinnes past not future Repentance In ad Rom. 3. De acerbè Iudicantib Miscell lib. 3. pa. 97. saith Gregory Nyssen is the dissolution and destruction of sinnes past It is confessed by all truly godly and learned saith Hierome Zanchie that the Saints to obtaine new remission for a new sinne haue need of a new act of Faith and Repentance according to that saying so rise in Scripture that by Faith men are iustified and haue their sinnes remitted which when it is spoken of them that are come to yeeres of discretion is alwayes to be vnderstood of Actuall Faith that is of the Act of Faith De praedest grat Lastly Master Perkins when a Faithfull man grieuously sinneth the sinne is indeed remitted in the destination of God yet no remission is actually either giuen by God or receiued by man vntill hee repent Nay if hee should neuer repent which yet is impossible hee should as guilty of eternall death euen for this one sin be damned for there is no new remission of any new sinne without a new act of Faith and Repentance But inough of this point in this place though it bee of great importance because it is but by the way only hence I gather that seeing Faith goeth before and Assurance necessarily commeth after remission that Faith is not Assurance N. B. I had rather say Faith were a labour then a Rest for it seeketh continually by sanctification and holy loue to bring both body and soule vnto eternall rest and then Faith ceaseth when eternall pacification and rest is wrought in man I. D. Thus you reason Faith is a labour Rest is not a labour Ergo Faith is not a Rest The Maior you proue thus That which worketh rest is a labour But Faith worketh rest and ceaseth when rest is wrought Ergo Faith is a labour The Minor you leaue naked and without proofe supposing I thinke that no man vnlesse bereft of his fiue wits would deny it and hold that Rest is a labour Let vs therefore briefly examine them both The Maior of your second Syllogisme precisely and literally vnderstood is not true for that which worketh is the Agent or Labourer and the Labourer cannot bee the Action or Labour Whereupon it followeth If that which worketh bee not a labour And Faith as you assume worke that therefore Faith is not a labor which is contradictory vnto the Maior of your first Syllogysme And yet as I grant not vnto you that Faith is a labour so neither dare I peremptorily deny it only I blame you for speaking so confusedly where it was necessary to vse distinction Know therefore that Faith as all other qualities whether acquired or infused may bee considered two wayes either in the first act as Schooles vse to speake or in the second The first act is the very habit of Faith inhering and sticking in the soule the second is the immediate and proper operation and action thereof If then you vnderstand Faith in the first Act and as it is an Habit it is not a labour but is imprinted in vs by the Holy Ghost to the end that when oportunity is offered and duty requireth wee may by vertue thereof more sweetly readily and easily worke and labour And so far is it from being a labor it selfe that oftentimes it lieth as it were idle asleep doing nothing at all vntill it please the Spirit of God to stirre vp our wils and to quicken the sparke hee hath put in vs inabling vs thereby to cooperate

first infancy beene seasoned and sanctified with the Christian Faith cannot easily be conceiued or imagined Sixtly tell mee doe all that haue receiued Faith in their infancy loose it againe when they come to bee of more yeeres It seemeth so if then they receiued it for otherwise why are they put to their Catechisme and taught the elements of Faith againe But this were a very strange course For how should they loose it vnlesse perhaps God secretly steale that from them which earst he gaue them which to say is very derogatory to the bounty of God who neuer withdraweth grace once giuen vntill man by abusing it haue deserued to loose it Not loosing it therefore and yet learning it when they come to yeeres of capacity It is a plaine argument they neuer receiued it in their Infancy Seuenthly and lastly there is not the least Habit either acquired by custome or infused from aboue but maketh a man more apt and prone vnto their proper actions For example whosoeuer is possessed of the vertues of Iustice Temperance Liberality Fortitude will readily doe iustly temperatly liberally valiantly it being the nature of Habits to facilitate Actions Tell mee then are the Children of Christians when they come first to be instructed more capable of Christian Religion or more inclinable to holy actions then the Children of Infidels Experience tels vs they are not but are as waxe indifferently flexible any way It is absurd therefore and void of reason to place in Infants the Habit of Faith which yet inclines them no more to the Acts of Faith then those that are without it Now hauing thus briefly demonstrated that Infants haue neither Actuall nor Habituall Faith it followeth in the next place to answer the contrary arguments aboue set downe And first where it is said that Faith is a necessary meanes vnto Iustification and Saluation in as much as none can please God or liue without it I answer in a word it is to bee vnderstood not of Infants But de Adultis of those that are of riper yeeres vnto whom alone Faith is necessary These cannot please God nor liue nor bee iustified and saued without a particular Faith of their owne but Infants by reason of their incapacity through the indulgence of God may Adde hereunto that according to the Tenent of our Diuines it is not the Habit but the Act of Faith that doth iustify in regard whereof they define it by a Motion of the Will grounded vpon an assent of the Mind vnto the truth of the Gospell Vnlesse therefore you grant vnto Infants such a motion both of the Mind and Will which Papists expresly deny and Lutherans seeme to stagger at neither can they bee iustified by Actuall Faith hauing none And seeing without it the Habit auailes nothing at all as being an idle Faith I see not to what end the Habit should bee infused And if it bee to no end neither is it infused For if Nature doe not much lesse doth God any thing in vaine To that of our Sauiour where hee seemeth expresly to affirme that Little-ones belieue I answer first that those Little-ones are not Infants properly but such men as resemble little Children in holy Innocence Simplicity in regard whereof they are elsewhere called by Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Infants Secondly Mat. 11.25 grant it that Children bee also meant yet not such Children as are infants but growne to some stature and capacity For although the Child whom Christ tooke in his armes be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little Child yet was hee both a follower and hearer of Christ and such a one as in some measure could vnderstand such as were those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 little Children to whom Saint Iohn thought it not vnfit to write 1 Ioh. 2.14 For as the text saith hee was one that came of himselfe being called and farther hee was capable of scandall and offence which questionlesse is not incident vnto Infants Lastly to the example of Iohn the Baptist Ep. 57. I answer with Saint Augustin Nec quod factum est in Iohanne contemno nec inde regulam quid sentiendun sit de paruulis figo immò id in illo mirabiliter praedico quia in alijs non inuenio Neither doe I contemne saith hee that which was done in Iohn neither doe I from thence frame a rule what wee are to thinke of little-ones yea I acknowledge it to bee marueilous in him because I find it not in others Moreouer it is not said of him Credidit in vtero he belieued in the wombe but only exultauit he sprang in the wombe this exultation or Springing diuinitùs facta est in Infante non humanitùs ab Infante was done by the power of God in the Infant and not by any humane power of the Infant Or if vse of reason and will were so hastned vnto him as hee did belieue in miraculis habendum est diuinae potentiae non ad humanae trahendum est exemplar naturae it is to bee reckoned among the miracles of Gods power and not to be drawne into an example of human nature And thus much of reasons both for and against the Faith of Infants Now I know it will here farther bee demanded if Infants haue neither Actuall nor Habituall Faith of their owne how then and by what meanes are they Iustified and Saued For it is mercilesse and against all Diuinity to exclude them from either Whereunto I answer in the words of Bernard Epist 77. Saluantur ipsi per fidem non tamen suam sed alienam they are also saued by Faith yet not their owne Faith but anothers Anothers Will you say this seemeth very strange Heare then what the same Bernard yet further addeth Dignum est ad Dei spectat dignitatem vt quibus fidem aetas denegat propriam gratia concedat prodesse alienam It is fit and belongs vnto the dignity of God that to whom age denies a proper Faith of their owne grace should yeeld them the benefit of anothers Faith And againe Nec enim omnipotent is iustitia propriam ab his putat exigendam fidem quos nouit propriam nullam habere culpam for neither doth the iustice of God Almighty thinke that a proper Faith is to bee required of those whom he knowes to haue no proper fault of their owne In which words of Bernard two excellent reasons are rendred why the Faith of another through the grace and indulgence of God should bee auailable vnto them the first because their Jnfancy denies vnto them a proper Faith of their owne the second because besides that Originall Corruption traduced into them from their parents without their knowledge or consent they haue no other sinne of their owne Can they not then by reason of their tender yeeres haue a Faith of their owne It befits the goodnes of God that they bee holpen by the Faith of another Haue they no proper and particular