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A40632
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A treatise of faith and repentance by Francis Fuller ...
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Fuller, Francis, 1637?-1701.
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1685
(1685)
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Wing F2386; ESTC R7233
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53,021
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156
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and dependance notwithstanding those Doubts nothing but perfect Faith casts out all Doubts and where is it to be found They that never doubted never believed Then Faith might be lost for Assurance may in that tho some are assur'd but not fully and some fully yet none immutably Then Damnation would be not for want of Faith but of Assurance which is necessary not for our Safety but Comfort only and Salvation would be by the reflex and not by the direct Act of Faith for Assurance consists in a reflex Act contrary to the tenure of the Promise of Salvation made Not to the Act of Assurance but of Faith and not to the Degree but Truth of it They that make Assurance to be Faith do more than is needful for Assurance is but a Fruit of Faith and Faith may be alive without it as a Tree may though for a time without Fruit though Assurance cannot be without Faith for God never sets his Seal where he has not first set his Hand They that make Assent to be Faith do less than is needful For Tho Justifying Faith cannot be without General Faith yet General Faith may be without that for it is not a single but complicated Act not the single Act of the Understanding but of the whole Composition not an Act of the Understanding only to Actus complicatus totius compositi know and believe a Divine Revelation as true but of the Will also to receive it as good a Consent as well as an Assent an Assent of the Understanding as it begins there and a Consent of the Will as it ends in it without which the first will avail but little For It is not Christ as dying but as believ'd on nor as tender'd by a hand of Love but as receiv'd by a Hand of Faith that saves So that it appears that Faith is neither an Act of Assent only nor of Assurance but an Act of Affiance also which is more than the first and less than the second viz. That Grace wrought by the Spirit through the Word whereby sensible Sinners are enabled to receive Christ as offered in the Gospel trusting to and relying upon him for Salvation I. It is the Work of God's Spirit It is not our Work but God's Not our Work For Of our selves we are no more able to perform the Articles of the second Covenant than those of the first nor to believe the Gospel than we are to keep the Law But God's Work It is call'd God's Work not only John 6. 29. in regard of Excellency but Efficiency it is not the Work of Men nor of Angels but of God only the powerful Work of his Spirit preparing us for it and enabling us to it we believe through Grace and come to Christ by Acts 18. 27. 1 Cor. 12. 9. Christ To him by Faith from him II. It is the Work of the Spirit through the Word Faith comes by hearing and hearing by Rom. 10. 17. the Word the hearing of Faith wrought by the Spirit as the Efficient and by the Word as the instrumental Cause of it Through the Word viz. both Law and Gospel by one Occasionally and Indirectly by the other Properly and Directly First By the Law not properly but Occasionally and Indirectly 1. Not Properly for the Law has no Power of its own either to Convert or Comfort Sinners Not to Convert them It shows them the sinfulness of their corrupt Nature and Lives but prescribes no Cure and tells them what their Duty is but gives no strength to the performance of it The Law commands Obedience The Gospel enables to it Not to Comfort them It wounds but pours no healing Lex graves manus habet Balm into those Wounds arraigns and condemns but allows no Psalm of Mercy for the Voice of the Law is He that has sinn'd shall die The Law condemns but the Gospel acquits and saves 2. But Occasionally and Indirectly 1. By discovering Sin Sin is the Burden and that which Rom. 3. 20. 5. 20. Gal. 3. 19. makes it feel heavy is the Law For by the Law is the knowledg of Sin viz. a knowledg of Guilt by it Where there are no Bounds there can be no Trespass nor any Transgression where no Law 2. By discovering Wrath due to Sin Where there is no Law there Rom. 2. 8 9. 4. 15. is no Sin and where there is no Sin there is no Curse but where Sin is there a Curse is due to it and the knowledg of it is necessary not to merit Mercy but to dispose to it The Law is the Ministration of Death 2 Cor. 3 7. The Gospel is the Ministration of Life 3. By afflicting and wounding under a sense of Guilt and Wrath due to it It is a fiery Law that has Heat as Deut. 33. 2. Galat. 3. 20. well as Light in it Light to discover Sin and Heat to afflict and torment for it The Law works by Fear The Gospel works by Love 4. By discovering an impossibility for them to help themselves being under a Guilt they cannot expiate obnoxious to a Wrath they cannot flee from shut up in a Prison they cannot break and surrounded with a misery that they cannot redress The Law shows the Wound The Gospel shows the Cure The Help of Salvation is from God Your Destruction is of your selves Hos 13. 9. Thus as Moses brought the Israelites to the Borders of Canaan so something there is of the Hand of Moses viz. something of the Law though but occasionally and indirectly in the Work of Faith Secondly By the Gospel viz. Properly and Directly The Law shews Misery as an Indictment shews the Offence and works Fear the Gospel as a Remedy shews the Disease and works Faith By discovering 1. A remote possibility of Mercy No absolute necessity they should tho' Sinners be damn'd because Grace is rich and free 2. A tender of Mercy indefinitely Isa 55. 1. John 3. 10 The Voice of the Gospel is All that will come may none are excluded but such as wilfully exclude themselves An Indefinite is equivalent to a Vniversal 3. A Suitableness Fulness and Willigness in Christ 1. A Suitableness As being Wisdom Righteousness 1 Cor. 1. 30. Sanctification Redemption Healing Life and Salvation for the relief of blind guilty polluted captiv'd sick dead lost and undone Sinners No Fountain like this Jordan to wash in for Sin and Vncleanness Zech. 13. 1. 2. A Fulness Meat and Drink are a suitable Good John 1. 16. Col. 2. 9. to the hungry and thirsty because Hunger and Thirst are Appetites determined to those Objects but a Crum or a Drop is not enough in that tho' it is a suitable yet it is not a full Good but in Christ there is a fulness of Merit to justify and of Spirit to sanctify that which is every way commensurate to the Desires and Necessities of distressed Sinners If they have him they are made If not they are
and on Earth the Wonder of Angels and the Center of Excellencies but not so to us until we believe They that do not know Christ cannot love him for as we apprehend so we affect they that believe not in him do not know him the God of this World has blinded 2 Cor. 4 4. the Eyes of them that believe not to them therefore he is a disallowed Stone 1 Pet. 2. 7. not worth the owning This Beloved Isa 53. 23. no more than nor so much as any other Beloved without Form and Comeliness or any thing to attract their Quantum credimus tantum ditigimus Love but to them that believe he is the Head of the Corner the chiefest of Ten thousands altogether lovely so in himself and so to them as loved by them above their Souls and Happiness they see not only a need of him but an excellency in him Excellency and nothing but Excellency a Superlative Excellency eclipsing the Glory of all created Excellency more than the Sun does the Light of the Stars enough to beget wonder and astonishment as one that is as far above their Praise as Love as appears by their sincere Amor lex sive severissima Obedience to him the effect of Divine Power constraining to it and their uncessant desires after him the sparks of that Holy Flame that are ever-ascending Animus est ubi amat to him Knowledg precedes Faith Faith produces Love Love evidences Faith it shews it to be true it is not the cause of Faith but the 2 Cor. 6. 6. 2 Tim. 1. 5. sign of it as Breath is of Life and a full Tide of a full Moon Vnfeigned Love to Christ shews unfeigned Faith in him for to them that believe he is precious 1 Pet. 2. 7. 3. It is fruitful in good Works By Faith our Persons are justified Rom. 5. 1. and by Works our Faith is justified by that our Persons before God by these our Faith before Men by that our Persons are acquitted from Sin by these our Faith is acquitted from Hypocrisy by that our Persons are made Righteous by these our Faith is made Jam. 2. 22. 2 Cor. 12. 9. 1 John 5. 12. Fides foeta operibus ubi bona opera non ad extra fides non ad intra Faith produces Works Per modum causae efficientis motivi impetrationis quod lex operum minando imperat lex fidei credendo impetrat perfect i. e. made manifest as God's strength is said to be made perfect that is made manifest in our weakness by that we are in a state of Life he that has the Son has Life by these our Faith appears to be alive Christ prov'd his Deity by his Works and Faith proves her Divine Original viz. the Faith of God by Works too There is no Love without the labour of Love nor any Faith without the Work of Faith For As Works are dead without Faith so Jam. 2. 17. Faith without Works is dead also 4. It is accompanied with Holiness Justification and Sanctification are as one saith always distinguish'd but never separated Distinguish'd The Righteousness of Justification is in Christ the Righteousness of Sanctification flows from him that is Relative and without this is Real and within in that there is a change in our State in this a change in our Na-Nature that is perfect and alike in all but this is imperfect in all as to Degrees though not as to Parts by that we are acquitted from the Guilt of Sin by this we are cleansed from the filth of it in that we have Peace with God in this we are made like to him one by the Merit the other by the Spirit of Christ Not Separated They that are justified by the Grace of God are sanctified by the Spirit of God for the justifying Vertue of Christ's Blood is ever accompanied with the purifying Vertue of it moral Vertues are as the Philosopher Indiâ—iduus virtutum comitatus says inseparably connected and so are Divine Graces too the Fruits of the Spirit are of a Cluster the Spirit infuses the Habits and Faith quickens the Acts it is as the Sun to the World and the Soul to the Body that influences all the radical Grace that maintains the Life of them the Leader and Commander in chief as the Brain is the facultas mandans as it is the Seat of Sense as the Heart is of Life by whose Conduct they are guided according to whose motion as the Primum Mobile they all move and proportionably to the strength or weakness of it they are strong or weak rise or fall as some Fish as is said wax and wane with the Moon Our Justification was merited by Christ is applied by Faith and by these as concomitant with it assured without which we can never make out our Title to it for as Life of any kind is known by the Actions of Life a Tree by its Acts 15. 9 Fruits and a Fountain by its Streams so a pure Faith is known only by pure Acts if it has not Virtue to sanctify it has none to justify nor can it be Fiducial unless Obediential An obediential Faith justifies it self Abraham believ'd and obey'd A DISCOURSE OF Self-denial Being an APPENDIX TO THE Treatise of FAITH OUR first Parents fell by Infidelity and Self-seeking and we rise by Faith and Self-denial Self-denial is of the Essence of Christianity it is founded in the Nature of it and we have no more of one than we have of the other it does not abound as the Stoical Philosophy did with Improbable Opinions Contradictions and Irreconcile-Paradoxes yet with many things above Reason though with none contrary to it things harsh and difficult to Flesh and Blood And that 's the Reason Christ has so many idle Retainers and so few true Servants so many that follow him as Peter once did afar Mat. 26. 58. off and so few that keep close to him that will not like Politick Souldiers stir an inch upon disadvantage nor venture like wary Merchants all in one Bottom nor sail so far into the Sea like those that go thither for Pleasure only but that they may return when the Storm arises They study more the Doctrine of Self-preservation than of Self-denial how they may keep all from Christ rather than forsake any thing for him and therefore will not venture their whole stock with him lest they should as they think be undone by him Many such followed Christ for a time when he was here in the days of his flesh thinking it an easy pleasant and gainful Life but when told what they were like to meet with the good things they must forsake the evil things they must endure and after all follow him they took their leaves of him and went no more after him A bare profession of Christ will not entitle us to him for all that outwardly profess him must be Followers of him nor a bare following of