Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	divine_a	faith_n	humane_a	4,064	5	8.7140	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47301	The measures of Christian obedience, or, A discourse shewing what obedience is indispensably necessary to a regenerate state, and what defects are consistent with it, for the promotion of piety, and the peace of troubled consciences by John Kettlewell ...	Kettlewell, John, 1653-1695.	1681 (1681)	Wing K372; ESTC R18916	498,267	755

as a good plea at that Bar when they are separate from Obedience but then only when they effect and work it But when he says that Faith Repentance Love or any other thing shall save us he means not all or any but only a working Faith an obedient Repentance an active Love a Faith Love and Repentance which do not overlook Obedience but accompany and produce it So that first or last Obedience is still that wherein all the rest must concenter and agree that alone condition which our judge will accept and which we may safely trust to And this will fully appear by running over the particulars CHAP. II. Of Pardon promised to Faith Knowledge and being in Christ. The CONTENTS Of Pardon and happiness promised to Faith and Knowledge Of the nature of Faith in general Of natural Jewish and Christian Faith Of this last as justifying and saving Of the fitness of Christian Faith and Knowledge to produce Obedience Pardon promised to them no further than they are productive of it Of Pardon promised to being in Christ. Christ sometimes signifies the Christian Religion sometimes the Christian Church Being in Christ is being of Christs Religion or a member of Christs Church The fitness of these to effect Obedience Pardon promised to them no further than they do FIRST this condition of our acceptance which is to mete out to us our last doom of Bliss and Mercy and whereto Life and Pardon are promised at the last day is sometimes called knowledge or what is only a more particular way of knowing a knowing upon witness or testimony Faith By or upon the account of his knowledge or the knowledge of him shall my Righteous Servant when he sits to judge them justifie many says God of our Judge and Saviour Christ by the Prophet Isaiah Isa. 53.11 And this is Life Eternal says our Lord himself to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Joh. 17.3 And then as for Faith which is the particular way of knowledge among us Christians who owe all that we know in order to Heaven and happiness to the witness and testimony of Jesus Christ the places which promise Life and Pardon unto it are to be met with in abundance Whosoever believes on me says our Saviour shall not perish but have Everlasting Life Joh. 3.15 16. And again This is the will of him that sent me that whosoever believes on me may have Everlasting Life Joh. 6.40 And when he sends out his Apostles after his Resurrection to proclaim the terms of Mercy and Salvation to all the world he bids them say Whosoever believeth and is Baptized shall be saved Mar. 16.16 Faith or belief in the general is a thinking something to be true upon the testimony of those persons who declare it And herein it differs from other sorts of knowledge because in them we believe upon the evidence and apparent reason of the things themselves but in this upon the witness and authority of those persons who reveal them For then we are said to know when we assent upon the Authority of things but then to believe when we assent upon the Authority of persons when not the evidence of the things revealed but the word and testimony of the revealer make us give credit to his Revelation This is the nature of Faith in general it is a giving credit to a thing or taking it to be true upon the testimony or authority of such persons as declare it And according to the difference of this testimony our Faith upon it is differenced and distinguished also For if we believe any thing upon the bare word of a man it is an Humane if upon the bare word and testimony of God it is a Divine Faith Divine Faith then is nothing else but a belief of Divine Revelations a taking any thing to be true because God has told us it is so And therefore we may be said to have Divine Faith of as many things as God has any way attested or revealed to us And for Gods Revelations they have been derived to us in several ways and by several instruments For some things God has revealed to us by the light of Nature That light came from him and is his Revelation For the spirit of a Man is the Candle of the Lord which as S t John saith in another case of our Saviour enlightens every man that cometh into the world Joh. 1.9 And in this general sence of Faith for a natural Faith or a belief of all natural Revelations all matters of knowledge are likewise matters of Faith because at last all natural light and evidence of things rests upon Gods Revelation that very evidence being no otherwise a proof to us that things are true than we are assured that God is the Author of it and that it is his Testimony and declaration to them that they are so And by this way of Revelation this natural light God has declared to us two great foundations of all Religion his own existence and his Providence that there is a God and that he will love and reward all such as serve and worship him The belief of which Articles so testified S t Paul affirms to be a part of Faith yea a part so fundamental as is absolutely necessary to our pleasing of God and to all Religion without Faith saith he it is impossible to please God for he who comes to God must believe that HE IS and that he is A REWARDER of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11.6 Other things God has revealed not by the light of nature seeing they are such things as that alone could never have discovered to us but either by his own immediate voice or inspiration or by the mediation and message of inspired men By the former he revealed to Noah the Drowning of the old world Gen. 6.13 the belief whereof is called Noah's Faith Heb. 11.7 To Abraham his having a numerous Issue by his Wife Sarah when as yet they had no Child and in all appearance were too old ever to expect one Gen. 15.5 6 and Chap. 17.17 19. the belief whereof is likewise call'd Abraham's Faith Heb. 11.17 18 19. To Moses his passing over all the houses of the Israelites where he should see the Blood of the Paschal Lamb sprinkled for a Token when he would slay all the First-born throughout all the Land of Egypt Exod. 12.12 13. the belief of which Revelation is also call'd the Faith of Moses Heb. 11.28 By the latter he reveal'd his will more largely to the whole people of Israel by the mouth and mediation of his Servant Moses and because both God and Man concurr'd in this Testimony their belief of his message was their Faith not in God only but together with him in his Servant Moses too For because the Law and Religion which they received though it came originally from God was yet derived down to them immediately by his Ministry and they knew no otherwise what

God had spoken to them than by his Testimony and upon his Authority therefore are they said in believing and embracing that Divine Law which was delivered to them by Moses to believe not the Lord alone but also his Servant Moses Exod. 14.31 Joh. 5.46 to be Baptized into Moses 1 Cor. 10.2 to be Moses's Disciples Joh. 9.28 to trust or place their hope in Moses Joh. 5.45 to obey or hearken unto Moses Luk. 16.31 But the most clear and full Revelation that God ever made of his will to men was by the message and mediation of his own Son Jesus Christ. For God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past to the Jews by Moses and to the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son Heb. 1.1 And the belief of his Gospel or taking for certain Truths upon his Authority all those things which he has declared to us in Gods Name is call'd the Christian as the other was the Mosaick Faith For he being the great Author and deriver of this last and greatest Revelation of God down to us and our belief of it being upon his immediate Authority he being as S t Paul says the Authour and finisher of our Faith Heb. 12.2 Our belief of it is called not only Faith towards God Heb. 6.1 but also Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ Acts 20.21 And because the knowledge of our whole Religion got into our minds this way upon our submission to Christs Authority and our Faith or belief of his Testimony therefore is our Religion it self most commonly in the Scriptures called our Faith The Preaching of it is called Preaching the Faith Gal. 1.23 the hearing of it hearing of Faith Gal. 3.2 the profession of it a profession of Faith Heb. 10.23 the contending for it a striving for the Faith Phil. 1.27 the erring in it an erring from the Faith 1 Tim. 6.10 the falling from it a making shipwrack of the Faith 1 Tim. 1.19 obedience to it the obedience of Faith Rom. 1.5 and the Righteousness required in it and effected by it the Righteousness of Faith Rom. 4.11.13 So that in like manner as the Mosaick Faith was a belief of the Divinity of the Mosaick Law and Religion upon the Authority of Moses the Christian Faith is a belief of the Divine institution of our Christian Religion upon the Authority of Christ. It is a taking upon his word all those things for truths of God which he has declared to us in Gods Name A belief begot in us by vertue of his Testimony that all his Doctrines are Gods Truths that all his Laws are Gods Precepts that all his promises are Gods Promises and that all his threats are Gods threatnings in sum that that whole Religion and Gospel which Christ has delivered to us in Gods Name is the very Religion and Word of God The belief of all this upon the Authority of Christ makes our Faith Christian and the good effects of it upon our hearts and lives make it justifying and saving For when by vertue of this Faith we truly Repent and sincerely obey which is the great condition as we have seen whereupon at the last day we must all be pardoned and justified Eternally it is a justifying as when by vertue of it we are saved and delivered from the dominion and service of our Sins which as the Angel hath assured us are those principal evils that Christ came to save us from it is a saving Faith This is the nature of our Christian knowledge and our Christian Faith And as for it now it is the very fundamental cause and natural spring of all our Christian service and obedience For it is because we believe Jesus to be the Lord because we know those Laws which he has given us and give credit to him when he tells us of the insupportable punishments which he will one day inflict for sin and of the glorious rewards which he will confer upon obedience It is by means of our knowledge and belief of all these in our minds I say that we serve and obey him in our outward actions It is our knowledge and belief that lets us see the reasonableness of his Precepts the power of his Assistances the glory of his Rewards and the terror of his Punishments and in all respects convinces us of the beauty and profit of Obedience And this sight and conviction in our minds cannot well miss of gaining our hearts and resolutions For the belief of his endless judgments will raise our fears the belief of his infinite rewards will quicken our hopes the belief of his inexpressible kindness will kindle our love and by all these our souls will be led Captive into eager desires and firm resolutions and be fully purposed to keep Gods Laws that so they may avoid that terrible Death which he threatens and attain those matchless joys which he promises to our Obedience And when once by means of this faith and knowledge Gods Laws have gain'd both our wills and passions which are the inward springs and causes of them they cannot fail of being obeyed in our works and actions which are produced by them But we shall quickly go on to perform what we resolve and to do what we desire and so in very deed fulfill and obey them Upon which account of our Christian Faith having so mighty an influence upon our Christian and obedient practice our obedience it self as being the effect of it and produced by it is call'd the obedience of Faith Rom. 16.26 The Righteousness which it exacts of us and cooperates to work in us the Righteousness of Faith Gal 5.5 Our Christian warfar or striving against Sin is called the good sight of Faith 1 Tim 6.12 And because in this contest our great succors which protect us and keep us from fainting and at last make us victorious are some points or promises of our Religious belief therefore it is stiled a shield and a breast-plate of Faith 1 Thess. 5.8 and S t John affirms plainly that this is the victory over the world even our Faith 1 Joh. 5.4 And for this reason it is because our Faith and knowledge are so powerful a cause and principle of our Obedience that God speaks so great things of them and has made such valuable promises to them He never intends to reward the Faith and knowledge of our minds further than they effect the obedience of our actions It is only when they are carryed on to this effect when they become an obedient knowledge and a working Faith that they confer a right to the promised reward and are available to our Salvation For when in the places mentioned or in any other God promises that he who knows Christ or believes in Christ shall live he speaks metonymically and means Faith and knowledge with this effect of a working service and obedience As for knowledge 't is plain that God accepts it no otherwise