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A27009 The right method for a settled peace of conscience, and spiritual comfort in 32 directions : written for the use of a troubled friend / and now published by Richard Baxter ... Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. 1653 (1653) Wing B1373A; ESTC R17485 252,137 602

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before some bashful or proud or tender Patients will open their disease The very opening of a mans grief to a faithful friend doth oft ease the heart of it self 2. And that this should be done to your Pastor I will shew you further anon 2. But you must understand well when this is your Duty 1. Not in every small infirmity which accompanies Christians in their daily most watchful Conversation Nor yet in every lesser Doubt which may be otherways resolved It is a folly and a wrong to Physitians to run to them for every cut finger or prick with a pin Every neighbour can help you in this 2. Nor except it be a weighty case indeed go not first to a Minister But first study the case your self and seek Gods direction If that will not serve open your case to your nearest bosom friend that is godly and judicious And in these two cases always go to your Pastor 1. In case privater means can do you no Good then God calls you to seek further If a cut finger so fester that ordinary means will not cure it you must go to the Physician 2. If the case be weighty and dangerous For then none but the more prudent advice is to be trusted If you be struck with a dangerous disease I would not have you delay so long nor wrong your self so much as to stay while you tamper with every womans medicine but go presently to the Physician So if you either fall into any grievous sin or any terrible pangs of Conscience or any great streights and difficulties about matters of Doctrine or Practice go presently to your Pastour for advice The Devil and Pride and Bashfulness will do their utmost to hinder you but see that they prevail not 3. Next consider to what End you must do this Not 1. either to expect that a Minister can of himself create Peace in you or that all your Doubts should vanish as soon as ever you have opened your mind Onely the great Peacemaker the Prince of Peace can create Peace in you Ascribe not to any the office of the Holy Ghost to be your effectual Comforter To expect more from man then belongs to man is the way to receive nothing from him but to cause God to blast to you the best endeavours 2. Nor must you resolve to take all meerly from the word of your Pastour as if he were Infallible Nor absolutely to Judge of your self as he Judgeth For he may be too rigorous or more commonly too charitable in his opinion of you There may be much of your disposition and conversation unknown to him which may hinder his right Judging But 1. You must use your Pastour as the ordained Instrument Messenger of the Lord Jesus his Spirit appointed to speak a word in season to the weary and to shew to man his Righteousness and to strengthen the weak hands and feeble knees yea and more to bind and loose on Earth as Christ doth bind and loose in Heaven As Christ and his Spirit do onely save in the principal place and yet Ministers save souls in subordination to them as his Instruments Act. 26.17 18. 1 Tim. 4.15 16. Jam. 5.20 So Christ and the Spirit are as Principal Causes the onely Comforters but his Ministers are Comforters under him 2. And that which you must expect from them is these two things 1. You must expect those fuller discoveries of Gods Will then you are able to make your self by which you may have assurance of your duty to God and of the sense of Scripture which expresseth how God will deal with you That so a clearer discovery of Gods mind may Resolve your Doubts 2. In the mean time till you can come to a full Resolution you may and must somewhat stay your self on the very Judgement of your Pastour Not as Infallible but as a discovery of the Probability of your Good or bad estate and so of your duty also Though you will not renounce your own understanding and believe any man when you know he is deceived or would deceive you yet you will so far suspect your own reason and value anothers as to have a special regard to every mans Judgement in his own Profession If the Physician tell you that your disease is not dangerous or the Lawyer that your Cause is good it will more Comfort you then if another man should say as much It may much stay your heart till you can reach to clear Evidences and Assurance to have a Pastor that is well acquainted with you and is faithful and Judicious to tell you that he verily thinks that you are in a safe Condition 3. But the chief use of his Advice is not so much to tell you what he thinks of you as to give you Directions how you may Judge of your self and come out of your trouble Besides the benefit of his Prayers to God for you 4. Next let me tell you what men you must choose to open your mind to And they must be 1. Men of Judgement and Knowledge and not the Ignorant be they never so honest Else they may deceive you not knowing what they do either for want of understanding the Scripture and the nature of Grace and Sin or for want of skill to deal with both weak Consciences and deep deceitful hearts 2. They must be truly fearing God and of experience in this great work For a Troubled soul is seldom well resolved and comforted meerly out of a Book but from the Book and Experience both together Carnal or formal men will but make a Jest at the Doubts of a Troubled Christian or at least will give you such formal Remedies as will prove no Cure Either they will perswade you as the Antinomians do that you should trust God with your soul and never Question your Faith Or that you do ill to trouble your self about such things Or they will direct you onely to the Comforts of General Grace and tell you onely that God is Merciful and Christ dyed for sinners which are the necessary Foundations of our Peace but will not answer particular Doubts of our own sincerity and of our Interest in Christ Or else they will make you believe that Holiness of heart and life which is the thing you look after is it that troubleth you and breeds all your scruples Or else with the Papists they will send you to your Merits for Comfort or to some Vindictive Penance in Fastings Pilgrimages or the like or to some Saint departed or Angel or to the Pardons or Indulgencies of the Pope or to a certain formal carnal Devotion to make God amends 3. They must be men of downright Faithfulness that will deal plainly and freely though not cruelly and not like those tender Surgeons that will leave the Cure undone for fear of hurting Meddle not with men-pleasers and daubers that will presently speak Comfort to you as Confidently as if they had known you twenty years when perhaps they know
us Doubt we should do nothing but doubt I know you may easily tell a long and a sad story of your sins how you are troubled with this and that and many a distemper and weak and wanting in every Grace and Duty and have committed many sins But doth it follow that therefore you have no true Grace Learn therefore to be Humbled for every sin but not to Doubt of your sincerity and salvation for every sin DIRECTION XXX 30. Whatsoever New Doubtings do arise in your soul see that you carefully discern whether they are such as must be resolved from the Consideration of General Grace or of Special Grace And especially be sure of this that when you want or lose your Certainty of sincerity and salvation you have presently recourse to the Probability of it and lose not the Comforts of that Or if you should lose the sight of a Probability of Special Grace yet see that you have recourse at the utmost to General Grace and never let go the Comforts of that at the worst THis Rule is of unspeakable Necessity and use for your Peace and Comfort Here are three several Degrees of the Grounds of Comfort It is exceeding weakness for a man that is beaten from one of these holds therefore to let go the other too and because he cannot have the highest Degree therefore to conclude that he hath none at all I beseech you in all your Doubtings and Complainings still Remember the two Rules here laid down 1. All Doubts arise not from the same Cause and therefore must not have the same Cure Let the first thing which you do upon every doubt be this To consider Whether it come from the Vnbelieving or low Apprehensions of the General Grounds of Comfort or from the want of evidence of special Grace For that which is a fit Remedy for one of these will do little for the cure of the other 2. If your Doubting be onely Whether you be sincere in Beli●ving Loving Hoping Repenting and Obeying then it will not answer this Doubt though you discern never so much of Gods Merciful Nature or Christs Gracious Office or the Universal sufficiency of his Death and Satisfaction or the freeness and extent of the Promise of Pardon For I profess considerately that I do not know in all the Body of Popery concerning Merits Justification Humane Satisfactions Assurance or any other point about Grace for which we unchurch them that they erre half so dangerously as Saltmarsh and such Antinomians do in this one point when they say That Christ hath Repented and Believed for us meaning it of that Faith and Repentance which he hath made the Conditions of our salvation and that We must no more question our own faith then we must question Christ the Object of it It will be no saving Plea at the day of Judgement to say Though I Repented not and Believed not yet Christ dyed for me or God is merciful or Christ Repented and Believed for me or God made me a free Promise and Gift of salvation if I would Repent and Believe What Comfort would such an Answer give them And therefore doubtless it will not serve now to quiet any knowing Christian against those Doubts that arise from the want of particular evidence of special Grace though in their own place the General Grounds of Comfort are of Absolute Necessity thereto 2. On the other side if your Doubts arise from any Defect in your Apprehensions of General Grace it is not your looking after Marks in your self that is the way to Resolve them I told you in the beginning that the General Grounds of Comfort lie in four particulars that square Foundation which will bear up all the Faith of the Saints First Gods merciful and unconceivably Good and Gracious Nature and his Love to mankind Secondly the Gracious Nature of the Mediatour God and Man with his most Gracious undertaken Office of Saving and Reconciling Thirdly the sufficiency of Christs Death and satisfaction for all the world to save them if they will Accept him and his Grace I put it in terms beyond dispute because I would not build up Believers Comforts on points which godly Divines do contradict as little as may be Yet I am past all Doubt my self that Christ did actually make satisfaction to Gods Justice for All and that no man perisheth for want of an Expiatory sacrifice but for want of faith to believe and apply it or for want of Repentance and yielding to Recovering Grace The fourth is The Universal Grant of pardon and Right to salvation on Condition of Faith and Repentance If your Doubt arise from the Ignorance or overlooking of any of these to these must you have recourse for your Cure Where Note that all those Doubts which come from the greatness of your sin as such that you think will not therefore be forgiven or that come from the sense of Unworthiness in a Legal sense or want of Merit in your self and all your Doubts whether God be willing to accept and forgive you though you should Repent and believe or whether any sacrifice was offered by Christ for your sins I say all these come from your Ignorance or Unbelief of some or all of the four General Grounds here mentioned and from them must be cured Note also in a special manner That there is a great difference between these four General Grounds and your particular Evidences in point of Certainty For these four Corner-stones are fast founded beyond all possibility of Removal so that they are always of as undoubted Certainty as that the Heaven is over your head and they are immutable still the same These you are commanded strictly to Believe with a Divine Faith as being the clearly revealed Truths of God and if you should not Believe them yet they remain firm and true and your unbelief should not make voyd the Universal promise and Grace of God But your own Evidences of special Grace are not so Certain so Clear or so Immutable nor are you bound to Believe them but to search after them that you may know them You are not bound by any Word of God strictly to Believe that you do Believe or Repent but to try and discern it This then is the first part of this Direction That you always discover whether your troubles arise from low unbelieving or ignorant thoughts of Gods Mercifulness Christs Gracious nature and office General Satisfaction or the universal Promise or whether they arise from want of evidence of sincerity in your self and accordingly in your thoughts apply the Remedy The second part of the Direction is that you hold fast Probabilities of Special Grace when you lose your Certainty and that you hold fast your General Grounds when you lose both the former Never forget this in any of your Doubts You say your faith and obedience have such breaches and sad defects in them that you cannot be Certain that they are sincere Suppose it be so Do you see