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A29923
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The unspotted high-court of justice erected and discovered in three sermons preached in London and other places by Thomas Baker.
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Baker, Thomas, 1624 or 5-1690.
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1657
(1657)
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Wing B523; ESTC R25262
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34,477
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158
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in the old law was to make an atonement for the Holy offerings of the People that they might be accepted Exod. 28.38 never may the best of our Services without some Atonement and Expiation hope to be sped of Acceptance at his Hands in whose Eyes the Stars are not clear Iob 25.5 but is of Purer Eyes then to behold any Iniquity Hab. 1.13 And then if in our best Dresses we may not hope to appear Acceptable in our worst how Abominable must we needs appear in his sight And therefore St. Aug. word to the Lord cannot but be concluded to be very pregnant Vae etiam laudabili vitae Hominum si remota Misericordia discutias eam Woe to our most laudable course of Life saith he if thou O Lord without the Spectacle of Mercy shall be pleased to look upon it Nay this way of work-trial the whole Stream of the Divine Pen-men seemeth every where to cross setting up Grace and Faith not in competition only with but in a direct opposition unto works in the work of our Salvation and so in this Day of Trial we conclude saith St. Paul Dogmatically that a Man is justified by Faith without the works of the Law Rom. 2.28 There is a Remnant according to the Election of Grace saith the same Apostle in the 11. of the same Epistle 5. and 6. and if by Grace then is it no more of works otherwise Grace is no more Grace And if by Grace and Faith we are to look for Justification then how is it that according to our works we shall be Judged It will not be so difficult a Task perhaps upon a full discussion of the whole matter to reconcile this so much seemingly jarring Triumvirate as at first sight may appear Grace is the first yea Principal Impulsive cause of our Justification Being Iustified freely by his Grace saith the same Apostle Rom. 3.24 faith the instrumental for the laying hold of this grace in Christ The righteousnes of God saith the same Apostle in the 22. of the same Chapter by the Faith of Jesus is upon all them that Believe Good works are for the present to every one of us as at this last Day they shall be in the Presence of the whole world Sole but sufficient Evidence that we by Faith apprehend this unspeakable Grace and Mercy in Christ And therefore the same Apostle may you observe to be so far from opposing of either of these to other that Ephes. 2.8 you may see him Coupling Grace and Faith By Grace saith he are you saved through Faith Nay 1 Tim. 1.14 both Grace and Faith and good works together The Grace of our Lord was exceeding Abundant with Faith and Love the sourse of all Good works in Christ Jesus The lively Emblem and Representation of all three may you clearly discover in the Eye of a Man The Light we know is the only Object this Eye contemplateth And the Eye the sole Organ for the Contemplation of this Light And yet little comfort shall there be found by any Man in this object of Light nor will this Organ of the Eye be of any use if by any means it shall be divorced from the other Members of the Body To the Eye Light cannot be more welcome then is the Grace and Mercy of God that bringeth Salvation to the soul You are kept saith St. Peter by the Power of God unto Salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 Salvation the clearest Evidence as of the Mercy so Power of God And Faith the only means for the sealing up unto us this Evidence And yet shall Faith though of this Intuitive and Obsignative Efficacy as the Eye from the other Members be divided and separated from all other Gifts and Graces of the soul as Humility Meekness Temperance Patience it shall appear no better then Dead For Faith without works is Dead alone Iam. 2.17 Briefly by the Grace of God I am what I am you know is our Apostles word of himself 1 Cor. 15.10 whatever we may have in us whether of the Seeds of Faith or the Fruits of good works may in no wise be Pimarily ascribed to any cause but the Grace of God So that then for that both for the best Plerophory of our Faith we shall have too just reason to cry out as that Father of the Daemoniaque Mark 9.24 Lord I Believe help mine unbelief and for our choisest works for that they are so far from holding any the least conformity unto the Rule of Gods Law sadly to bemoan our selves before him as doth the Royal Prophet Psal. 130.3 If thou Lord wilt be extream to mark what is done amiss who may abide it Nay for that we cannot conceive the least hope of Salvation by our best works without borrowing much out of the inexhaustible Treasury not of Gods gracious Interpretation only but his Imputation of his Son Merits unto us Christ was made sin for us saith our Apostle that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 who seeth not how more then suffient ground there will be for our saying one to another what Zorobabel sometimes of the stone of the great Mountain Zach. 4.7 Grace unto it Grace unto it And for those two Faith and good-Good-works thus genuinely and equally springing from the same Root the grace of God far be it from us from becomming such Boutifeaus and Incendiaries as to blow and kindle the Coals of any Division between them which without the least prejudice or disgust nay without the extream prejudice of the destruction of our souls cannot be set or kept at the least distance Indeed without Faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11.6 And yet never shall Faith be able to please God without the Observation of his Commandements It is Faith that apprehendeth the Merits of Christ Being justified by Faith we have Peace with God through Iesus Christ our Lord Rom. 5.1 And yet Opera mea testantur de me as our Saviour sometimes of himself Iohn 5.36 They are good works that must justifie our Faith for true and sincere Faith as the Kings Daughter Psal. 45.14 cannot but appear gratious and amiable in her Heavenly Fathers Eyes yet may she not be brought into his Presence until she appear in her Raiment of Needle-work and the Virgins of all other spiritual Graces for the keeping her Company V. 15. and 16. Faith like one part of a pair of Compasses must still center in the free grace of God through Christ But then must Love like the other be moving about the Circumference of the relief of our distressed Brethrens necessities So that then for our Faith however possibly we may conceive of it as our Apostle sometimes of his Faith of Miracles Heb. 11.33 34. that it is of force to subdue Kingdoms stop the Mouths of Lions quench the violence of Fire yet may we not fancy that it shall be able to open the Gates of the Kingdome of Heaven as long as we are so far destitute of
such good-good-works which may become Newness of Life as that we have any thing of Abomination or defilement about us for the keeping us out the last v. of the last Chap. of this Book And therefore however for the work of our Justification God may say unto us as to the two Blind-men Matth. 9.29 According to your Faith be it unto you yet if now upon this foundation of our whatever Faith we shall be so far from building up the Gold or Silver Superstruction of Pious and Religious works as that we shall lay on nothing but the Hay and Stubble of all manner of vanities yea Impieties and Enormities so far shall such a Faith be from saving us that most woful must our condition needs appear when we shall all come to stand up before God to receive our sentence either of Acquital or condemnation according to our works Every Mans works shall be made manifest saith Saint Paul for the Fire shall try every mans works of what sort it is 1 Cor. 3.13 where by Fire will we hear St. Augustin and diverse others of the Antients We are to understand either the Fire of all manner of Temptations and Tribulations and Persecutions which as Fire are to try and prove sound Doctrin and reduce to nothing the Hay and Stubble of Humane Invention When the Lord shall wash away the filth of the Daughter of Sion by the Spirit of judgement and Fire saith the Prophet Isa. 4.4 or the Fire of the Holy Ghost He shall Baptize saith the Baptist with the Holy Ghost and with Fire Matth. 3.11 or our Saviours appearance at this Day of Judgement either for the brightness of his Presence Who is the true Light that lightneth every one that commeth into the world Iohn 1.9 or for his consumptive quality that as is the same Psalmists Prediction Mat. 3. â—2 is to burn up the Chaffe with unquenchable Fire So that then finde we in our selves some ability for the bearing of Tribulations and Persecutions Some eminent graces of Gods Spirit Some Light of Illumination of our understandings for the discerning of those things that are Excellent Some consumption of the Hay and Stubble of all manner of Corruptions within us Upon these and no other Terms just reason shall we have to conclude that we are truly justified by Faith in the free Grace of Christ and so shall be counted worthy to stand before this Son of Man as himself speaketh Luke 21.36 Let then the Light of our Faith so shine before Men that they seeing our goods works may thereby be induced yea enforced to glorifie our Father which is in Heaven Let not our Lean Profession of Faith devour and swallow up the Fat of all manner of good works amongst us But let the Pomegranats of all manner of Fruits of Gods Spirit every where appear in the Coat of our Christianity as well as the Bels of our loud Profession of Faith Let Faith which commeth by hearing be as Mary conversant about one thing the Hearing of the word whilst the other as Martha is careful for many things the entertaining of Christ in all his needy Members Let Faith sing the Plain-song and Good-works the descant for the making up of a Melodious Harmony in the Ears of the Highest Let Faith and good works in every of us prove as Rachel and Leah fruitful for the building up of the House of our Christian Profession That so being Justified by Faith and having good works for the Justifying of this Faith of ours in the End of our Days we may receive the End of our Hopes the Salvation of our Souls when this great God of Heaven and Earth shall judge the Dead Small and Great out of those things that are written in the Books according to their works And thus far shall it serve to have examined the equal Proceedings of the Court which clearly appeareth in that the Dead Small and Great shall without any further distinction or discrimination be thus as you see Judged I shall only give you a short glimpse of the infallible certainty of all that which is irrefragably evident in that our Divine Evangelist professeth himself to have been {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an Eye-witness of all I saw the Dead Small and Great stand up before God The Poets word it is Segnius irritant Animos The objects of Hearing make not so sudden an impression upon the Ear as those of seeing do upon the Eye And the reason hereof given by the Phylosopher cannot but be concluded to be very pregnant for that those things we see saith he come to the Eye {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in a direct Line but the things we Hear to the Ear {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} oblickly and as we say on every side Had our Apostle by Hear-say only by Tradition from others acquainted us with the Dead Small and Great standing up in this wise before God and yet this same Evangelist of our Ears conceiveth but even such a Relation to be Edged with Authority sufficient what we have heard saith he declare we to you in the 1. of his 1. Epistle and 5. the less strange might it seem did we appear to distrust the Relation not only for that our Age to palpably aboundeth with Lies much more then Truth but for that much more the greatest part of us that have led the Lives of Infidels would gladly cry down this Christian Truth rather for a Fabled Romancee then a Divine Oracle Sed cum certissimus Index Eplicuit presens oculus quem Fabula nescit But now what the greatest Sceptick can in the least measure question the Truth of this Report which so Authentick an Author as this our Evangelist reporteth himself to have seen and this by so unquestioned away as this of Revelation I saw and that with mine own Eyes and that by so unerring Evidence as Revelation the Dead Small and Great stand up before God Indeed I am not Ignorant that there are Revelations that may to justly be stooped to draw in the same Yoak with Dreams Hearken not to your Prophets is the Lords own word to the King of Sidon of Tyre of Moab and Ammon nor to your Diviners nor Dreamers Ier. 27.9 Every even the meanest of us hath for a long time as the Corinthians of old in the 1. of those Epistles 14. and 26. hath a Revelation an Interpretation of his own Of every of which therefore far greater reason shall we have to Quaere then those Philosophers sometimes of our Apostle Acts 17.18 what will this Babbler say But when we meet with a Testificemur quod vidimus as from this our Evangelist Iohn 3.11 we Testifie that which we have seen and that no Prophesie of Scripture is of Private Interpretation but Holy Men of God spake still as they were moved by God 2 Pet. 1.20 that Sceptick must needs be concluded to be above measure Sceptical that shall distrust the Credit of such a Relation I saw the Dead Small and Great stand up before God Let it then be the careful Provision and Circumspection of every one of us that his dreadful sight of the Dead Small and Great standing up before a most impartial Judge and of the Books made up of three volumns in the first whereof is written the Law of Nature in the second the Law from Sinai in the third the Law from Sion the second â—is Day-book of two whereof the first is that of our own Conscience the second of his Remembrance the third his Book of Records and this of a twofold Nature the one wherein the Church Registreth those for his Sons that by an outward Profession of their Faith are received into her Bosome notwithstanding that many of them afterwards prove gross Impostours and Hypocrites the other that immutable Fore-knowledge whereby from Eternity he hath and beyond all Tract of Time will acknowledge those for his whom he hath Predestinated to the Adoption of Sons and ordained to be Heirs of Everlasting Life let this spectacle I say what the Lord sometimes to his People of the Book of the Law Ioshua 1.8 depart never out of our Mouths but meditate we therein Day and Night And let it be the Hing of the same Care of ours to consider that we shall be saved or condemned not by the Leaves or Blossoms of faire Shews or Semblances but by the Fruits of Good-works And then having laboured as much as in us lieth to conform us to his Example that is the Resurrection and the Life when he which is this Life of ours shall appear just reason shall we have to become confident that we shall also appear with him in Glory with the Lustre of which Appearance in thy good time O Lord irradiate every one us for thy Mercies sake c. FINIS