Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	brazen_a	look_v	serpent_n	839	5	9.9901	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39669	The method of grace, in bringing home the eternal redemption contrived by the Father, and accomplished by the Son through the effectual application of the spirit unto God's elect, being the second part of Gospel redemption : wherein the great mysterie of our union and communion with Christ is opened and applied, unbelievers invited, false pretenders convicted, every mans claim to Christ examined, and the misery of Christless persons discovered and bewailed / by John Flavell ...	Flavel, John, 1630?-1691.	1681 (1681)	Wing F1169; ESTC R20432	474,959	654

light Isa. 50. 10. nay a man must be a believer before he know himself to be so the direct act of faith is before the reflex act so that the justifying act of faith lies neither in Assent nor in Assurance Assent saith I believe that Christ is and that he is the Saviour of the elect Assurance saith I believe and am sure that Christ dyed for me and that I shall be saved through him So that Assent widens the nature of faith too much and Assurance upon the other hand straitens it too much but Acceptance which saith I take Christ in all his offices to be mine this fits it exactly and belongs to all true believers and to none but true believers and to all true believers at all times this therefore must be the justifying and saving act of faith Arg. 3. Thirdly That and no other is the justifying and saving act of faith to which the properties and effects of saving faith do Arg. 3. belong or in which they are only found But in the fiducial receiving of Christ are the properties and effects of saving faith only found This therefore must be the justifying and saving act of faith First By saving faith Christ is said to dwell in our hearts Eph. 3. 17. but it is neither by assent nor assurance but by acceptance and receiving him that he dwells in our hearts not by assent for then he would dwell in the unregenerate nor by assurance for he must dwell in our hearts before we can be assured of it Therefore it is by acceptance Secondly By faith we are justified Rom. 5. 1. but neither assent nor assurance for the reasons above do justifie therefore it must be by the receiving act and no other Thirdly The Scripture ascribes great difficulties to that faith by which we are saved as being most cross and opposite to the corrupt nature of man but of all the acts of faith none is clog'd with like difficulties or conflicts with greater oppositions than the receiving act doth about this act hang the greatest difficulties fears and deepest self-denyal In assent a mans reason is convinced and yields to the evidence of truth so that he can do no other but assent to the truth In assurance there is nothing against a mans will or comfort but much for it every one desires it but it is not so in acceptance of Christ upon the self-denying terms of the Gospel as will hereafter be evinced We conclude therefore that in this consists the nature and essence of saving faith Thirdly Having seen what the receiving of Jesus Christ 3. is and that it is the faith by which we are justified and saved I next come to open the Dignity and excellency of this faith whose praises and Encomiums are in all the Scriptures there you find it renowned by the title of precious faith 2 Pet. 1. 7. enriching faith Jam. 2. 5. the work of God Joh. 6. 29. the great mystery of Godliness 1 Tim. 3. 16. with many more rich Epithets throughout the Scriptures bestowed upon it Now faith may be considered two ways viz. either Qualitatively or Relatively Considered qualitatively as a saving grace it hath the same excellency that all other precious saving graces have as it is the fruit of the Spirit it is more precious than Gold Prov. 8. 11 19. and so are all other graces as well as faith in this sense they all shine with equal glory and that a glory transcending all the glory of this world but then consider faith Relatively as the instrument by which the righteousness of Christ is apprehended and made ours and in that consideration it excels all other graces This is the grace that is singled out from among all other graces to receive Christ by which office it is dignified above all its fellows as Moses was honoured above the many thousands of Israel when God took him up into the Mount admitted him nearer to himself than any other of all the Tribes might come for they stood without the Rail while Moses was received into the special presence of God and was admitted to such views as others must not have so faith is honoured above all its fellow graces in being singled out and solemnly anointed to this high office in our Justification this is that precious eye that looks unto Christ as the stung Israelites did to the brazen Serpent and derives healing vertue from him to the soul. It is the grace which instrumentally saves us Eph. 2. 8. as it's Christs glory to be the door of salvation so it 's Faiths glory to be the golden key that opens that door What shall I say of Faith 't is the bond of Union the instrument of justification the spring of spiritual peace and joy the means of spiritual livelihood and subsistence and therefore the great scope and drift of the Gospel which aims at and presseth nothing more than to bring men and women to believe First This is the bond of our Union with Christ that Union is begun in our vivification and compleated in our actual receiving of Christ the first is a bond of Union on the Spirits part the second a bond of Union on our part Christ dwelleth in our hearts by faith Eph. 3. 17. and herein it is a door opened to let in many rich blessings to the soul for by uniting us to Christ it brings us into special favour and acceptation with God Eph. 1. 6. makes us the special objects of Christs conjugal love and delight Eph. 5. 29. draws from his heart sympathy and tender sense of all our miseries and burdens Heb. 4. 15. Secondly 'T is the instrument of our justification Rom. 5. 1. till Christ be received thus received by us we are in our sins under guilt and condemnation but when faith comes then comes freedome by him all that believe are justified from all things Acts 13. 38. Rom. 8. 1. for it apprehends or receives the pure and perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus wherein the soul how guilty and sinful soever it be in it self stands faultless and spotless before the presence of God all Inveniri in Christo tacitam habet relationem ad dei judicium in iis nullam invenit condemnationem quia justitiâ qualem esse requirit i. e. perfectâ accumulatâ exornatos nos invenit nempe justitia Christi per fidem nobis imputata Bern. in Loc. obligations to punishment are upon believing immediately dissolved a full and final pardon sealed O precious faith who can sufficiently value it What respect Reader wouldst thou have to that hand that should bring thee a Pardon when on the Ladder or Block why that pardon which thou canst not read without tears of joy is brought thee by the hand of faith O inestimable grace that cloaths the pure righteousness of Jesus upon our defiled souls and so causes us to become the righteousness of God in him or as it is 1 Joh. 3. 7. righteous as he is righteous non