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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	act_n	faith_n	justify_v	11,290	5	9.0946	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67085	The key of saving knovvledge, opening out of the holy Scriptures, the right way, and straight passage to eternall life, or, A dialogue wherein the chiefe principles of the Christian religion are unfolded for the enabling of Christian people, to understand the Word of God ... composed by Geo. Walker ...	Walker, George, 1581?-1651.	1641 (1641)	Wing W360; ESTC R39413	43,048	124

their actuall beliefe and exercise of their saving Faith Answ. They receive hereby First a comfortable sense feeling and fruition of their regeneration renovation effectuall calling union adoption remission of sins justification reconciliation and in a word communion of all Christs benefits and hence it is that they are said by Faith to turne to God to be united to Christ adopted justified and to obtaine remission of all their sins that is in their own sense and feeling And secondly by this actuall beleeving and by the sense and feeling which it brings to the beleevers all other graces are set a worke and more and more increased in them Quest How doth beleeving give to the Elect a feeling of their regeneration renovation effectuall calling union adoption and other saving works of God in them Answ. First as it is a fruit and work of the Spirit of regeneration and adoption which hee never workes in any but them who are regenerate made new creatures effectually called united to Christ adopted and have communion of all his benefits so it is a cleare evidence to them of those graces in themselves and by it the Spirit witnesseth with their spirits that they are the children of God by regeneration and adoption and are effectually cald and engraffed into Christ become new creatures heires of God and coheires with Christ Secondly the act of beleeving by a true saving Faith is an applying of the things beleeved to themselvs and by beleeving that they are regenerat renued effectually cald united adopted and have cōmunion of Christs perfect satisfaction intercession and righteousnesse they possesse and injoy all those graces and are in their own sense fully reconciled to God Quest How are they justified and have their sins pardoned by Faith Answ. They are justified and have their sins remitted by Faith not as by an instrumentall cause and meanes to make them righteous before God but as by the hand of the soule receiving and applying to themselves the righteousnesse of Christ to make them righteous in their own sense and feeling And their actuall beleeving that they are justified and pardoned is neither their righteousnesse nor the satisfaction for their sins nor any thing which in it selfe properly is accepted of God or reputed for righteousnesse and satisfaction but is only the applying of Christs righteousnes and satisfaction to themselves and an assuring of themselves that by communion thereof they are justified And by this beleeving they possesse and sweetly enjoy them and are in their owne sense and feeling justified and absolved from the guilt of al their sins and obteine this testimony from God that they are righteous Rom. 4. 3. Quest Can any man bee justified before hee doth actually beleeve Answ. If we take justification in the first most proper and principall sense as it is the act of God alone communicating Christs righteousnesse and satisfaction to his elect when hee doth first unite them to Christ by his Spirit and make Christ theirs with all his treasures Then it must bee granted that men may be and are justified before and without any expresse act of beleeving As for example elect infants which dye in their infancy when they are regenerated and united to Christ by his Spirit they have communion of his righteousnesse and are justified and made righteous and all their sins are abolished and blotted out and yet they do not actually beleeve nor performe any explicit and expresse act of Faith Also they who are not effectually called to the state of grace and to communion with Christ till they come to yeares of discretion though they have the gift of Faith immediatly at the same time infused into them yet Christs righteousnesse is in order of nature communicated to them and they are made righteous by it before God before they do actually beleeve or can truly beleeve that Christ is made to them righteousnesse or can by beleeving possesse and enjoy his righteousnesse for justification As a child may bee borne or made an heire to Lands Honor and riches and may have a true right and interest in them and bee Lord of all before hee hath wit to know his own estate or discretion to possesse actually and use them So men may be justified by Christs righteousnesse madetheirs in the first instant of their regeneration and spirituall union with Christ before they do actually beleeve and sensibly possesse and enjoy Christ and his obedience for justification But if we take justification in a secondary sense as it is an act wherein the elect themselves do cooperat and work together with God by receiving and applying to themselves particularly the gift of righteousnesse freely given unto them and by possessing and enjoying it then must actuall beleeving go before it as the instrumentall cause by which God justifieth them in their own sense and feeling and upon which he doth esteeme and account them righteous in the intercourse betweene him and them and gives them his warrant to esteeme themselves justified with him But if we take justification in a Iudiciary sense as it is used in Courts of Iustice and Iudgement for proving declaring and pronouncing men righteous Then not only Faith and actuall beleeving but also repentance amendment of life and all holy Christian duties and good works of piety mercy and charity must necessarily go before as evidences testimonies and proofes by which men must be justified that is judged declared and pronounced righteous First in the Court of their owne conscience so often as sin and Satan stand up against them to accuse them Secondly in the common judgement of men Thirdly in the generall judgement at the last day Of the first Iustification the Apostle speakes Rom. 5. 19. where he saith that by the obedience of Christ many are made righteous and Rom. 8. 4. and 1 Cor. 5. 21. Of the second he speakes Rom. 3. 28. and 4. 3. and Gal. 3. 8. where he saith we are justified by saith without workes or deedes of the Law Of the third Saint James speakes where he saith that Abraham was justified by works Jam. 2. 21. and Job 13. 18. where he saith Behold now I have ordered my cause I know that I shall be justified and this S. Paul cals justification of life Rom. 5. 18. because it is an adjudging of men to eternall life according to the evidence of their works as our Saviour sheweth Mat. 24. 35. Quest How doth justifying Faith differ from that which they call historicall Faith Answ. They both in the elect are one and the same Faith and differ onely as severall acts of the same Faith exercised about severall objects For when they beleeve the History of the Scripture and that those things are true which they heare or read out of Gods Word this is called historicall Faith But when they beleeve firmely and confidently that the promises of God in Christ belong to them and that Christ with his righteousnes is given to them of God made theirs this

beleeving applying of Christs righteousnes to themselves is the justifying act of Faith And whereas the historicall saith of Devils and carnall men is only an assent unto the Word of God that it is true arising from carnal reason and arguments convincing the judgement without any affection to the truth or any relying on it On the contrary every act of beleeving any word or promise of God if it proceeds from a true Faith in the elect is not a naked assent ruled by humane and naturall reason but guided by Gods Spirit and joyned with a relying on God and his Word upon the Divine authority of the speaker and may be brought as an evidence of their salvation may in that respect be called a saving beliefe as we see at large Heb. 11. where beleeving that the worlds were framed by the Word of God And that God would bring a flood upon the world and destroy all except them that were in the Arke made by his appointment and that he would give the land of Canaan to the seed of Abraham the Israelites and after 400 yeares deliver them out of Aegypt and such like acts of beleeving proceeding from an holy spirituall Faith are declared to bee saving Faith Quest How doth actuall beleeving set a work all other graces and increase them more and more in the Elect regenerate and justified Answ. By the sense feeling and sweet fruition of Christ and his righteousnesse satisfaction and intercession it brings us to the sight and experimentall knowledge of the goodnesse bounty love and mercy of God to us in Christ And being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ and rejoyce in hope of the glory of God and hereby the holy Ghost sheddeth the love of God abroad in our hearts so that being inflamed with the love of God wee begin more and more to hate and abhorre our owne vile corruptions and sins which are offensive to his holy Majesty We are ashamed and confounded because we have by our sins so often provoked so gracious a God and mercifull Father wee grieve and mourne and sorrow with godly sorrow to repentance wee strive and wrastle against our lusts and by the assistance of the Spirit tame and subdue them so that sinne can no more reigne in our mortall bodies we contend to sollow hard after God to cleave to him in love and to bee still more more united to Christ in love and zealous affection of heart And in holinesse and newnesse of life we study and strive to be conformable to his image and in a word we are stirred up to use all care and endeavour that wee may abound in all good works and still forgetting those things which are behind may reach forth unto those things which are before and presse hard towards the marke for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Iesus In all which workes of saving grace as God moves us by his Spirit so we being moved enabled and made a free people do cooperate and work together with him till we come to the measure of the age of the fulnesse of Christ and be fitted to see God in glory Quest What outward meanes are to bee used whereby the Spirit of God may worke in the Elect and beget and increase Faith and beliefe with all other saving graces in them Answ. The chiefe outward meanes is the Word of God without which God doth not ordinarily shed his Spirit on them beget them again and by his Spirit work saving grace and the works of grace in them For they are borne again of incorruptible seed that is of the Spirit by the Word of God 1 Pet. 1. 23. and regeneration which is Gods shedding of the holy Ghost on them through Christ and the first saving worke even the ground worke of all other saving graces is not to be found where the Word is not Preached By the Word of Christ the holy Gospell only the Spirit speaks inwardly to mens hearts and leads them into all truth John 16. 13. By the Word preached hee begets Faith for Faith commeth by hearing and none can beleeve except heheare Rom. 10. 14 17. The Word is the whole and perfect rule of Faith and whatsoever the elect beleeve to salvation is conteined in the Word and there only to be learned John 3. 39. The threatenings of the Law are the meanes by which the Spirit discovers to beleevers the danger of sin and their own misery humbles them in their own eies and drives them out of themselves to Christ by repentance The precepts of the Law prescribe to them the right way in which they ought to walk and is a lamp to their feet and light to their steps Psa. 119 105. The Word of the Gospell is the Covenant of life and sets before them the goodnesse bounty love and mercy of God in Christ and by it the Spirit inflames them with the love of God with joy and delight in God and with zeale for his glory and stirres them up to imitate God in works of mercy love and charity and in all holinesse and sanctification till they be conformed to Christ and to serve honour and worship God And in a word the whole Scripture which is the sure infallible Word of God given by Divine inspiration is profitable for doctrine for reproofe for correction and for instruction in righteousnes that the man of God may bee perfect thorowly furnished unto all good works 2 Tim. 3. 16. 17. Quest How must the Word of God bee used that it may be such an effectuall meanes of the Spirit to worke all these gracious effects in Gods elect people Answ. It must not only be read out of the Sacred Scriptures in which it is recorded by the Prophets and Apostles but also preached and expounded by godly able and learned Ministers who are called and sent of God Rom. 10. 15. For they are Gods watchmen who have a charge given to watch for mens soules Ezek. 3. 17. Heb. 13. 17. They are his Shepheards and Overseers to feed his flock with his Word the Bread of Life Act. 20. 28. Ezek. 34. 1 Pet. 5. 2. Ephes. 4. 11. And by delivering Gods message faithfuly they obteine this honour to themselves to bee called the Angels of the Lord Mal. 2. 7. and Gods Ambassadours 2 Cor. 5. 20. and to be spirituall Fathers under God who beget children to God in Christ by the Gospell 1 Cor. 4. 15. Quest What other meanes are to be used Answ None but such as God hath prescribed in his holy Word to wit the Sacraments which are seales annexed to the Word publike Prayers Invocation and Worship of God And also good education and private Prayers and instruction and often reading of Gods Word alone and in private Families Quest What is a Sacrament Answ. It is a religious action prescribed by God in which by using outward visible rites consecrated to be signes seales pledges and

the holy one of God and so was God and man in one person Quest How could hee bee borne a pure holy man without sinne of a woman a daughter of Evah and of the same nature with the rest of man-kind who are all corrupted in Adam Answ. God Almighty who alone is able to bring a cleane thing out of an uncleane did by his power over-shadow the Virgin his mother and the holy Ghost came upon her and framed out of her seed and substance an holy seed and so hee was conceived and borne without sinne perfectly holy both in soule and body and filled with the holy Ghost Quest How could he being so perfectly holy be subject to infirmities and to death and other punishments due to sin Answ Though he knew no sin yet he was made sin for us 2 Cor. 5. 21. and being most holy and righteous in himselfe he tooke all our sins upon him and bare all our sorrows and infirmities that he might thereby satisfie Gods infinit justice pay our ransome and redeeme and reconcile us unto God Isa. 53. 4 6. Quest How and by what meanes hath Christ redeemed us from wrath and wrought our salvation Answ. By executing and performing the office of a Mediator between God and men Quest How is he a Mediator Answ. As he is God the Son equall with the Father so he is a person of infinite value and worthy to be accepted and able to make a full satisfaction for all sin to Gods Iustice and to pay a ransome of infinit value And as hee is man of the same nature and substance with all man-kind and the first fruits of the whole lumpe so hee is fit to make satisfaction in the same nature which sinned and is our brother and friend and one who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities and is compassionate towards us and deales faithfully for us As he is God so he is too high to be a Mediator for man and as he is man so hee is too low to mediate and plead to God for us sinners But as he is God and man in one person so he is most fit to come as a Mediatour betweene God and men Quest Wherein doth Christs Mediation consist Answ. In the faithful execution of a threefold office The first of a Prophet The second of a Priest The third of a King Quest How did he execute the office of a Prophet Answ. By Prophecying Preaching and Revealing the Will of God from the beginning both in his own person and also by his Prophets Apostles and Ministers of the Word and Gospell In the old world he went forth in the Spirit and soake to the godly Fathers Enoch Methushelah Noah and others and by them preached to the wicked especially while the Arke was a preparing as the Apostle testifieth 1 Pet. 3. 19. He in the forme of man and sometimes of an Angell spake to Abraham Isaac and Jacob Gen. 18. 26. 32 24. Hee was the Angell of the Covenant which appeared to Moses in the bush and said I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob Exod. 3. Hee spake also at sundry times and in divers manners as apparitions dreames and visions to the Fathers in times past and by his Spirit inspiring and moving the Prophets Heb. 1. 1. And in the dayes of his flesh he preached the Gospell with his own mouth And as after his Ascension he sent down the Holy Ghost upon his Apostles and gave them the gifts of Tongues and of Knowledge to Prophecy and Preach the Gospell to all Nations Act. 2. So he is with them in their true successors the Ministers of the Gospell to the end of the world Mat. 28. 20. And by his Spirit gives them knowledge and utterance to teach and expound the Scriptures and to bring men to the saving knowledge of the truth And in a word he is the great Prophet whom God promised to raise up to his people like unto Moses whom all ought to heare and obey in all things Deut. 18. 15. And no other Prophets or Preachers are to be heard but those which Preach in his Name truly according to his Word conteined in the holy Scriptures Quest Wherein doth the office of his Priesthood consist Answ. In making attonement betweene God and men both by offering up himselfe and all sufficient Sacrifice for all our sins in his obedience unto death and in suffering all punishments due to sin and by bringing in eternall righteousnes which is his perfect fulfilling of the Law in the obedience of his whole life Dan. 9. 24. Rom. 8. 3 4. 1 Cor. 5. 21. For in these two consists the whole work of mans redemption and the full ransome and sacrifice of attonement which is needfull to reconcile men unto God Quest How can the sufferings of one man satisfie for all men and the righteousnesse of one be able to justifie all that are to bee justified Answ. The man Christ as hee fulfilled the Law and suffered in our nature so his righteousnesse and satisfaction is humane and is proper only to mankind for as man sinned so man satisfied But as this man Christ is also God in the same person So his righteousnes and satisfaction is Divine of infinite value and worth even the righteousnesse and suffering of God and that is more than if all men had suffered eternall death and fulfilled in their own persons every jot and title of the Law and all the righteousnesse thereof Quest If Christs infinite Godhead doth adde so much to his obedience performed in our Nature and makes his sufferings of infinite worth and value What need was there of shedding his bloud unto death and of suffering all the stormes of Gods wrath was not as some say one drop of his bloud sufficient to redeeme the world Answ. Though Christ is a person of infinite value because he is God yet as he could not be a compleat and perfect Mediator if hee had taken into his person the body only of a man and not a complete Manhood consisting both of soule and body So suffering in part and obeying the Law in part could not bee made a complete satisfaction for justice requires a full suffering of all kinds of punishment due to man for sin even of death it selfe and a perfect fulfilling of the whole Law otherwise there is no righteousnesse If one drop of Christs bloud shed for sin had beene a sufficient price of redemption than it had been injustice in God to exact more and undiscreet and vaine prodigality in Christ to poure out all his bloud and his soule to death when one drop was enough Quest Is this all that Christ doth as a Priest Answ. This is all that Christ did in paying mans ransome and price of attonement but to make men partakers of it and of the benefit thereof he doth make intercession to God for them as appeares Rom. 8. 34. and Heb. 7. 25. Quest How doth

1 Tim. 26. and by him all things are said to consist Coloss. 1. 17. Quest How can Christs vertue reach to them who are a far off Aliens and Strangers from him and enemies to his Crosse and sufferings Answ. It reacheth to them not immediatly by vertue of union with him as it doth to the Faithfull but after a secondary manner for his Elects sake For Christ by his mediation hath obteined of God that all the World which was made for mans use should be upheld by his generall providence that the Heavens and the Sun Moon and Stars should keep their course and continue in their naturall being and give light and influence to the good and the bad the just and unjust and that the Aire the Earth and the Sea should breed and nourish living creatures and herbes plantes fruit-trees and all other things usefull for men yea the wicked prosper and flourish in wealth and strength either that they may be a wall of defence to the Elect which live among them or that they may build houses plant vineyards and subdue the Earth for them as the cursed Canaanites did for Israel or that they may be progenitors and instruments to bring forth an elect seed as our fore-fathers the Heathen Gentiles were to us their Christian progeny or for the punishing and correcting of the sins of the elect as the Canaanites were kept alive to punish the Israelites when they sinned and for the tryall and exercise of their Faith and patience by unjust persecution Christ by his Mediation hath procured all these things for his elects sake to all creatures which otherwise should have perished with man being all stained and corrupted by his sin And hence it is that he is said to beare up the pillars of the world when the earth and the inhabitants thereof are dissolved Psal. 75 3. And thus farre we may grant and acknowledge an universall grace which Christ by his Mediation hath procured to all the world even to the wicked reprobates which perish Quest Hath not Christ procured to all man-kind grace and ability to beleeve repent and be saved if they will do as much as they are able for the obteining of regeneration and other saving graces of the Spirit Answ. No certeinely For Regeneration Effectuall calling Faith and all saving Graces are purchased and given by Christ only to the Elect for whom alone he prayed and doth still make intercession And they also while they remaine in the common state of Nature have no power in themselves either to will or to do any work truly good but are dead in trespasses and sins Ephes. 2. 1. They are aliens and enemies in their minds and all their thoughts incline to evill Colos. 1. 21. If all men even they who perish had power and liberty of will to beleeve and be saved certeinely some of them who are not elect would beleeve and be regenerate and use their liberty to the saving of their soules For it is given for that end that it might be brought into act and take effect if it never doth it is given by God in vaine But Nature as the Philosophers observed never gives power in vaine and much more doth the God of Nature abhorre to give men a vaine power which never comes into act Quest If it be not in their power to do any worke tending to life nor to beleeve and repent why are they condemned for infidelity impenitency and omission of good works Answ. Though they cannot beleeve nor repent to salvation yet they have a power left by common grace to use the meanes which lead to Faith and Repentance as hearing of the Word reading the Scriptures hearkning to Reproofes and to good admonitions and exhortations and this naturall power they refuse to exercise and wickedly and wilfully neglect and reject those outward meanes Also by their sin in Adam they have disabled themselves are become froward and averse from all actions truly good and are a cursed generation justly condemned Quest How come the Elect to bee redeemed and saved by the Mediation of Christ seeing they by nature have no more interest in Christ than others Answ. They are redeemed and saved by the most gracious supernaturall working of God in them according to his eternall Counsel Purpose and Decree For as he hath ordeined them to eternall life in Christ before the foundation of the world so it doth in the time appointed gather them to himselfe in and by the Lord Iesus Christ Quest By what meanes doth God worke saving grace in them Answ. By the Ministery and Preaching of his holy Word which is a worke of the Propheticall office of Christ For by that Word spoken to the Elect Fathers of old in Dremes Visions and Apparitions and after spoken and written by Moses the Prophets and Holy men of God who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost and since by the mouth of Christ and his Apostles Evangelists and their successors hee hath revealed and doth continually reveale himselfe to them in Christ teacheth them the onely right way to salvation cals upon them and invites them by gracious promises to come unto him and by the threatenings of the Law he drives them out of themselvs discovers their sins and the dangerous estate in which they are by reason of sinne and suffers them to find no place wherein to rest untill like Noahs dove they flee unto his Arke the true Church Quest Can the Word Preached bring men to Christ and to salvation in him Answ. It is the only outward ordinary meanes which God useth for that purpose and we never read of any who without the word beleeved were called effectually to Christ and saved All Heathen Infidels Turks and Pagans who either never heard the Word Preached or hearing do refuse and reject it do undoubtedly perish in their unbeliefe For he that beleeveth not is condemned already John 3. 18. and without the Word heard none can beleeve Rom. 10. 14. Quest What then shall wee thinke of infants borne of beleeving parents which dye before they heare or are able to beleeve the Word Answ God teacheth and inclineth them inwardly by his Spirit to long after Christ and to grope after him as they do after their mothers breasts for milk and bodily nourishment but yet not without the Word For by the Word preached to their Fathers hee workes Faith in them and makes his covenant of life in Christ with them and their seed and so by the Ministery of the Word their infants come to be in the Covenant And God doth often times sanctifie them by his Spirit from the wombe as we read of Jeremy and John the Baptist or in their baptisme at the Prayers of his Church And therefore we ought charitably to beleeve and judge that children of beleeving parents as they are from the wombe holy by dedication 1 Cor. 7. 14. and capable of baptisme so are inwardly baptized by the Spirit into Christ and if they dye