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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	deny_v	live_v	ungodliness_n	2,303	5	11.2667	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23663	A discourse of the nature, ends, and difference of the two covenants evincing in special, that faith as justifying, is not opposed to works of evangelical obedience : with an appendix of the nature and difference of saving and ineffectual faith, and the	Allen, William, d. 1686.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1673 (1673)	Wing A1061; ESTC R5298	108,111	235

such as were injudicious concerning the Faith that will save and under mistakes of the Apostles Doctrine about it All this will easily appear to any that shall but with a competent measure of understanding view and consider the Scope and Contents of that Epistle And thus you see how plainly it appears by the Epistles of the Apostles that the Doctrine of Justification by Faith without Works in the sence in which the Apostles asserted it was misunderstood by many Gnosticks carnal Gospellers or Solifidians The sense in which the Apostles did assert it was that Faith justifies without Works Antecedent to believing and without Works as the Works of a literal observation of Moses Law which was opposed by the Iews to Faith as having Christ crucified for its Object and Repentance Regeneration and sincere Obedience in a holy Life for its inseparable Effects But these deceived Souls that deceived their own Hearts seem to have understood the Apostles as if they had taught Justification by Faith considered only as having the Death of Christ and the Atonement made thereby for its Object without respect to Regeneration and new Obedience as any part of the Condition And it had been much better for the Christian World if those corrupt Notions about the Doctrine of Faith as justifying had dyed with those Men which in the first Ages of the Christian-Church were infected with them But alas it is too apparent that the same or much of the same dangerous and destructive mistakes have been transmitted to or revived in these latter Ages of the Church For we find by experience in this present Age that very many of those who are called Christians presume themselves to be Christians indeed and such as shall be saved by Christ though their lives declare them to be far from being new Creatures from ●eing renewed in the Spirit of their Minds Wills Affections and Conversations as those are that have been taught as the Truth is in Iesus Ephes. 4. 21 24. For they are confident they believe all the Articles of their Creed and in doing so they are confident they shall be saved and so they would if that belief of theirs were but so effectual and operative as to produce such a change in Heart and Life as would denominate them new Creatures But the mischief is they deceive themselves in the nature of their Faith it being but an Opinionative inoperative and dead assent to the truth of the Gospel such as is only an act of the mind or understanding and doth not powerfully influence the Will and so it is not a believing with all the Heart but is the act only of one faculty of the Soul A Belief its probable may be found in the Devil himself And such a Belief was found in some who were so convinced by the power of Christ's Miracles in concurrence with his Doctrine and Life that they could not choose but believe him to be an extraordinary Person sent from God though their carnal interest prevailed so much in them as that it would not suffer them to confess him openly because they loved the praise of Men more than the praise of God Joh. 12. 42 43. And besides these Men deceive themselves about their Faith in this also that they do not heartily believe the whole Doctrine of the Gospel but are partial in their Faith They in a sort believe Christ to be the Son of God and that he came into the World to save sinners and that he dyed for our sins and the like But then they do not heartily believe his Doctrine touching the necessity of Repentance of being born again of denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts of living righteously godly and soberly in this present world Or else they frame such Notions of these things unto themselves of Repentance and Regeneration as that they think they believe Christ's Doctrine touching them when they believe only the lying imagination of their own brains And there is too much ground to fear that many Mens ill managing the Doctrine of Justification by Faith hath not a little strengthened Men in this vain confidence For while Evangelical Obedience it self under the Notion of those Works to which Faith is opposed hath been decryed as Popish when interessed in Justification and Justification asserted to be by Faith alone in opposition to all works whatsoever inward and outward as well Evangelical as Legal as well those after Conversion as those before yea and the disposition thereunto the Flesh and the Devil to help it hath got great advantage thereby to perswade men against the necessity of a holy Life in such a sense of a holy Life as the Scripture makes absolutely necessary to Salvation For though its true that good Works have been acknowledged and pressed too as necessary to Salvation yet when withall they have been denyed to be necessary to Justification and Men have been taught that when once they are Justified they can never fall away from a state of Justification they have easily been drawn to believe that good Works are not absolutely necessary to Salvation no more than to Justification but Faith only And upon supposition that the other 2 Points of Doctrine are true it would be but rational for them so to believe For if good Works be not necessary to Justification at all And if it is impossible but that those who are once justified should be saved how should Men chuse but infer from hence that good Works are not absolutely necessary to Salvation unless it shall be said that Men are not put into an immediate capacity of Salvation by being justified Which to affirm would be to say Men are not freed from Condemnation by being freed from Condemnation which would be a contradiction in terms For to be justified is to be freed from condemnation Rom. 8. 33 34. 5. 16 18. and therefore Justification must needs put Men into an immediate capacity of being saved And as there is great reason to think that the Doctrine of Justification by Faith alone in opposition to the works of Evangelical Obedience hath been a stumbling-stone unto many and a back-friend to the power of godliness so there is another which hath been wont to be joyned with it that hath rendred it the more dangerous and it self no good friend to holy living and that is the Doctrine of the imputation of Christ's Righteousness unto Justification in that way in which it hath been managed by very many for otherwise there is a sense as I have shewed in which it is a great and a comfortable truth For when Men have been taught to esteem their own Righteousness but as filthy rags not only because of its utter insufficiency to justifie in stead of Christ or as he justifies in which respect indeed it is no better but also as any part of a Condition of Justification or of our acceptance with God And when they have been taught also that upon their believing only Christ's Righteousness in fulfilling

those Sacrifices the same atoning virtue and purging efficacy as is proper only to the Blood of Christ. In opposition to this Opinion it is maintain'd 1. That those Legal Sacrifices were but Figures of the great Sacrifice Christ Jesus Heb. 9. 10 11 12. and 10. 1. 2. It was argued that it was impossible that the blood of Bulls and of Goats should take away Sin because these were offered year after year over and over in the day of general Atonement for the same sins And that if the former Sacrifices which were first offered had taken away sin the latter could not have been necessary to the same purpose Heb. 10. 1 2 3 11. The often repetition of Sacrifices for the same sins argues that the Worshippers had a secret sense in their Conscience that those Sacrifices were not of a competent value nor a sufficient price to redeem their Souls from Sin as it exposeth to Eternal punishment however they might sanctifie as to the purifying of the flesh yet they could not make any perfect as pertaining to the Conscience Heb. 9. 9. 10. 1 2. 3. It was argued from a Prophetical passage in Psal. 40. in which Christ is brought in speaking thus Sacrifice and Offering thou would ' st not but a Body hast thou prepared me In burnt Offerings and Sacrifice for sin thou hast had no pleasure Then said I Lo I come to do thy will O God From whence he infers that the first sort of Sacrifices were taken away as insufficient that the second might be established By the which will saith he we are sanctified through the offering of the Body of Iesus once for all Heb. 10. 5. 10. This Opinion of theirs that Legal Sacrifices did expiate all their Sins did keep up in them a hope of impunity here and hereafter under many immoralities and great transgressions in the course of their lives Though they multiplyed transgression yet if they multiplyed Sacrifices too they thought they should escape well enough Amos 4. 4 5. Come to Bethel and transgress at Gilgal multiply transgression and bring your Sacrifice every morning and your Tythes after three years and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with Leaven and proclaim and publish your free-Offerings for this liketh you O Children of Israel saith the Lord God And much after this rate do carnal Christians bear up themselves in hopes that all their sins are done away by the Sacrifice of Christ the Lamb of God that taketh away the Sins of the World though they live from day to day in ungodliness Only indeed they sin at a cheaper rate for the present than the wicked Iews did The Iewish sinners were at the cost of many a Sacrifice to stop the mouth of Conscience but these are at cost only in making provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof and depend upon Christ to pay all their scores 4. Another of their Errors as consequent upon the former was this That without Circumcision and observing of the Law of Moses the Gentiles could not be saved This Opinion the Judaizing Christians retained after their Conversion to the Christian Profession Acts 15. 1 5 24. Certain men which came down from Iudea taught the brethren saying Except ye be Circumcised after the manner of Moses ye cannot be saved There rose up certain of the Sect of the Pharisees which believed saying that it was needful to Circumcise them and to command them to keep the Law of Moses In opposition to which Opinion St. Paul taught that the Righteousness of God by Faith without the Law is manifested unto all and upon all that believe whether Iews or Gentiles and that there is no difference Rom. 3. 21 22. And that a Man is justified by Faith without the deeds of the Law though never Circumcised And that God is the God of the Gentiles as well as of the Iews and that he doth justifie the uncircumcision and the circumcision those that had observed the Law of Moses and those that had not upon the same terms viz. of Evangelical Faith Rom. 3. 28 29 30. Whereunto agrees the words of St. Peter Acts 15. 9 11. He put no difference between us and them purifying their hearts by Faith i. e. us Iews and they Gentiles But we believe that through the Grace of our Lord Iesus Christ we shall be saved even as they and upon no other terms though we have observed the Law and they have not Gal. 2. 15 16. Upon the same account St. Paul again affirms Rom. 4. 5. That to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his Faith is counted for Righteousness That is the Idolatrous Gentiles that never had observed the Law but lived without God in the World should yet have their practical belief of the Gospel imputed even to them for Righteousness And he further exemplifies this in Abraham Ver. 9 10 11 12. whose Faith was reckoned to him for Righteousness before he was Circumcised that he might be the Patern and great Example of Gods justifying the Heathen upon their believing and obeying as Abraham did in leaving his Idolatry and his Countrey upon God's Promise and Command though he never had been Circumcised And upon the like account he saith again Gal. 3. 8 9. That the Scripture foreseeing that God would justifie the Heathen through Faith preached before the Gospel unto Abraham saying In thee shall all Nations be blessed And from thence he concludes that those Gentiles that be of Faith that believe as Abraham did are blessed as Abraham was are blessed with faithful Abraham 5. Another Error which was held by some Judaizing Christians was this That Faith in Christ and Literal Circumcision with a Literal observation of the Law of Moses joyntly were the Condition of Justification Though they were such as believed yet they taught that except men were Circumcised and kept the Law of Moses they could not be saved Acts 15. 1 5. They seem to have retained the same false Opinion of Justification by the Law as the unbelieving Iews did but held the Death of Christ necessary to be superadded To convince them of which Error St. Paul sets before them the bad consequence of it in two respects 1. In that they hereby rendered the death of Christ needless in it self Gal. 2. 21. If righteousness come by the Law than Christ is dead in vain There would then have been no need of Christ's death to accomplish it as the unbelieving Iews indeed did hold 2. In that this Opinion of their's made Christ and his death useless unto them and cut them off from receiving any benefit by him Gal. 5. 2 4. Behold I Paul say unto you that if you be Circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing Christ is become of none effect unto you whosoever of you are justified by the Law ye are fallen from Grace And hereto agrees that in Hebr. 13. 10. We have an Altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the Tabernacle Those

sometimes described by an assenting to the truth of one single Proposition yet then it implies the belief of many more and such a belief as draws in the Will to act according to the import and concernment of the thing believed As for instance The belief of this Proposition That Christ Iesus is the Son of God by which Faith is sometimes described doth include in it a belief of the truth of his whole Doctrine both concerning God's Grace and Mans Duty and the Will 's concurrence as to its concernment in it For if he be the Son of God then he cannot lye or deceive in any thing he hath said And again the belief of this Proposition That God raised Christ from the Dead by which Faith is also described Rom. 10. 9. includes in it a belief that all that Doctrine which he taught is undoubtedly true For if it had not God would never have wrought such a Miracle as to raise Christ from the dead to confirm it The belief then of such single Propositions include a belief of the whole Doctrine of the Gospel which is the Proper Object of the Christian Faith and for that cause is frequently stiled Faith or the Faith in the New Testament But if we respect the nature of Faith in general as answering the different degrees of God's Revelation of his Will in several Ages of the World both under the Gospel and before I do not know how better to define it than thus Faith is such a hearty belief of God's Declaration concerning his own Grace and Man's Duty as doth effectually cause a man to expect from God and to act in a way of sincere Obedience according to the Tenour and Import of such a Declaration Or if you will take in the belief of God's threatnings against sinners into the definition then it will be thus Faith is such a hearty belief of God's Declaration concerning his own Grace and Displeasure and Man's Duty as doth effectually cause a man to expect from God and to act in a way of sincere Obedience according to the Tenour and Import of such a Declaration Faith thus defined we have already seen exemplified in Abraham who is the great Exemplar of believing and the Father of Believers And that it was his belief of God's Promise or Declaration of grace and favour to him as it was practical in producing Repentance Self-denial and sincere Obedience by which he was justified and made happy appears farther not only in that it 's said by St. Iames that his Faith wrought with his Works and was made perfect by them and that he was justified by Works as well as by Faith of which more anon but also in that it 's said that he received the sign of Circumcision which was the Condition upon which God covenanted with him to be his God and upon the same terms to be the God of his Seed a Seal of the Righteousness of the Faith which he had while he was yet uncircumcised For supposing which is not denied Circumcision to be an outward Sign of inward Grace of the Circumcision of the Heart consisting in Mortification or a Penitential change of the Heart which is the effect of Faith his Circumcision as such was a Seal of confirmation to Abraham that it was upon his former so believing God upon his Promise as thereby to be induced to leave the evil Customs of his Countrey and his Countrey it self with his Kindred his Fathers house that God would be his God indeed In which Promise was implicitly promised all that would make him eternally happy And God's further design of giving to Abraham this Covenant of Circumcision as a Seal to assure him the enjoyment of the benefit wrapt up in that Promise upon the terms aforesaid was that he might be the Father of all them that believe whether literally circumcised or not that is that he might be a great Example and Pattern to all others of obtaining the same benefits in the same way and so might be a means of begetting others to believe in God and to obey him as he had done to be a great Instrument to propagate the kind of new Creatures of Men renewed to God to the end they might be blessed as he was This or somewhat to this effect is doubtless the meaning of Rom. 4. 11 12. And he received the sign of Circumcision a Seal of the Righteousness of the Faith which he had being yet uncircumcised That he might be the Father of all them that believe though they be not circumcised that Righteousness might be imputed to them also And the Father of Circumcision to them who are not of the Circumcision only but also walk in the steps of that Faith of our Father Abraham which he had being yet uncircumcised and it is not unlikely but that as Heart-Circumcision under the figure of Literal-Circumcision was together with Faith made the condition of the Covenant then so Spiritual Baptism which is a death unto sin and a living unto God is under the Figure of Water-Baptism joyned with believing as the condition of the Promise of Salvation now Mark 16. 16. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved According to which St. Peter having spoken of Noah's Ark saith The like figure whereunto Baptism now saveth us not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards God 1 Pet. 3. 21. Now as it was in Abraham such a belief of God's Declaration of Grace and Favour as did effectually induce him to love and obey God by which he was justified so I shall shew afterwards it was the very same kind of Faith working after the same manner by which the Saints under the Law of Moses were saved But Faith as Evangelical and Christian is such a hearty assent and consent unto God's Declartion in the Gospel by his Son concerning Christ himself and his Grace and Favour towards Men by him and concerning their own duty as causeth a man to expect from God and to act in a way of duty according to the Tenour of such a Declaration and his own concerns in it And Faith thus defined is fully agreeable to the Tenour of the Gospel Mark 16. 15 16. Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every Creature He that believeth and is Baptized shall be saved He that believeth What Why he that believeth that Gospel which was to be preached to every Creature Which Gospel contains a Declaration of God's Grace Man's Duty of his Wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of Men. For 1. It declares from God that he hath given his Son Jesus Christ to be the Saviour of the World by being a Propitiation for the sin of it in becoming a Sacrifice to expiate sin 2. It declares that God upon account of his Sons giving himself a Ransom for all hath made and doth establish a New Covenant with the World to pardon and eternally to save as