Selected quad for the lemma: father_n
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A47190
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Truth and innocency defended against calumny and defamation in a late report spread abroad concerning the revolution of humane souls : with a futher clearing of the truth by a plain explication of my sence, &c. / by George Keith.
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Keith, George, 1639?-1716.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing K224; ESTC R6443
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17,150
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20
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that hath for its Object the Man Christ Jesus our alone Mediator without us in whom the Fullness dweâ—eth as well as the â—â—â—ature â—f him inwardly revealed in us and without this Faith in God the Father and in the Man Christ Jesus without us and in the Fullness that is in him as the greatest and most principal Object of our Faith I can own none to be true Christians or Believers in Christ Jesus who are the Children of God by the Free-woman Jerusalem from above let their Pretentions be ever so great to Christ as the Light in them As for Justin Martyr his calling Socrates a Christian Socrates might have had the Faith of Christ according to the Substance of it then but obscurely revealed and so might Pythagoras and Plato who conversed with Jews for the least measure of the Light of Christ in every true Christian to whom the Gospel Day of Châ—iâ—â— is dawned doth most necessarily draw and lead the Soul's Faith Love and Devotion to the Man Christ without them and to God the Father as dwelling in him most abundantly and gloriously that so God out of Christ our alone Mediator may continually supply us aâ— out of a most rich Treasury and Store-house with all new and fresh Supplies Aids and Assistances of his divine Grace Light Life and Spirit to serve him acceptably and to enjoy the indwelling of God the Father and of the Son and of the holy Spirit in our own Hearts and Vessels daily more and more abundantly as our Faith Love and Devotion is thus daily and continually exercised upon him Nor is there any real danger by so believing or by so preaching to draw the Minds of People from the Gift of Christ in them this at most is but the Abuse or evil Use of this Doctrine as the best of Doctrines have been and may be abused which all ought to watch against but indeed the real proper and necessary direct tendency of such Doctrine rightly improved is to bring People still more and more to the Gift of Christ in themselves and to the more abundant enjoyment of him as the Scripture Testimony and the Experience of Thousâ—nds and ten Thousands do sufficiently confirm But such who preach Faith only in the Light within calling that Light Christ as they have learned by hear-say or reading and yet are ignorant of that great Mystery of Christ without us they neither know Christ within nor believe in him as such for though Christ the true Light be in all men both Believers and Unbelievers yet only true Believers in him who believe in him as he dyed for us and rose again and is ascended c. truly know him the Light and Life in them and have the true Comfort and Enjoyment of him every way and of all his Blessings and benefits and such Preachers and Ministers who have this Faith of Christ wholly and Fully it is no indifferent thing to them to have it or preach it for as they daily live by it so they daily labour in Word and Doctrine to preach it for the Hearers Salvation and for bringing them to know Christ in them as Thousands can witness with me that had we not believed in Christ without us aâ— he dyed and rose again and had we not been perswaded that Christ dyed for us and rose again that God and Christ might dwell in us and that we might receive the inward and spiritual blessing and Benefit of him in our hearts we had not believed in him nor known him as in us And such Preachers who say as some do whom I have heard to my grief and sorrow That men may be saved in Gods ordinary way aâ— for Example the Indians here in America or any else-where without the Faith of Christ as he dyed for us and rose again by their honest and sober Living according to the Reâ—uirings or Dictates of the Light in them and that not only so as to witness a beginning but a perfecting the work of Christianity and Salvation in them They are not like to be at great pains to preach Faith in Christ crucified and raised from the Dead either to Indians or any others or to encourage others to do it for this Faith not being necessary where or to whom it is not preached the effectual way to make the Faith of it wholly an indifferent and unnecessary thing is not at all to preach it but bury it in Oblivion as some would do and so to bring our Posterity to be Indians or Heathens and as it was almost quite buried and forgot by too many â—igh Pretenders to the Light within And if God in his infinite Mercy in those American Parts where we have but few Bibles and very few other Books perused by many among us that teâ—ch the necessity of this Faith had not raised a Godly Zeal in some to revive and raise up this most precious and necessary Doctrine concerning the Faith in Christ both Without us and Within us the Faith and Reâ—â—membrance of it would have been in probability lost in many Families in a little time especially iâ— being rarely preached by many high Pretenders to the Light within and if at any times mentioned by them not hold forth as the necessary Object of Faith but rather as occasional as other Historical-Things of Scripture and â—o this the Conceit that some have that the Scriptures are not Instrumental to our Faith and Knowledge the Light or Spirit being the only means c. as some say and to preach Christ without us is to lead People to know Christ after the Flesh and to bring them from the Spirit to the Letter but the great and indispensible Necessity of Preaching it is that it may be believed to Eternal Salvation for it is not only necessary to be believed because preached but because it is necessary to be believed universally in some measure therefore it is necessary to be Preached so that the very cause of its Preaching is the Necessity of the Faith it self in order to finish the Work of mens Salvation universally even as men gather Materials of Stone and Timber to build and the Building is not necessary for Materials but the Materials are necessary for the Building This as the necessary Effect That as a necessary Antecedent in an ordinary way 4 thly And thus it manifestly appeareth how there is no Contradiction nor Contrariety betwixt the present Doctrine I Preach or Print and any of my former printed Books nor betwixt my dear and worthy brother and Friend R. Barclay nor any of my dear and worthy Friends and Brethren who have said That Pious and Conscienious Gentiles are not excluded from Gods Mercy or Salvation who have not had the express Historical Knowledge and Faith of Christ revealed to them by distinguishing first betwixt the Express Knowledge and Faith of that great Mystery and the Implicit Faith and Knowledge of it for to deny the Necessity of the express Faith c. is to affirm the
in Flesh and offer up himself a Sacrifice in his Body of Flesh for the sins of the World and should dye and rise again and by his Death and Resurrection should bruise the Serpents Head that is conquer and break his Power in all the faithful so as perfectly to deliver them from Death both Spiritual and Natural the Spiritual here and the Natural hereafter at the Resurrection of the Dead And by the bruising of his Heel is understood his Sufferings and Death in the Flesh occasioned by the Devil's Instigation as all sound Christians of all Professions generally acknowledge and in Testimony of this Faith it was that the Faithful before the Law and under the Law by Gods direction offered up Sacrifices of clean Beasts that were Types and Memorials of Christ the Lamb of God that was to be slain and offered up for the sins of the World and the Faith of all the faithful for the Remission of sin and cleansing and sanctifying was not in the Sacrifices which they offered but in Christ whom they represented and of whom they were Types And before Christ came in the flesh not only the People of Israel offered Sacrifices and practised Circumcision all which were Typical of Christ in the Flesh but many other Nations as not only the Posterity of Ishmael and Esau but other Nations that learned it of them And that Circumcision was Typical of Christ and had a special Relation to Christ and Faith in him as he was to come in the Flesh and to his Death and sufferings is clear from Rom. 4.11 where it is called A Seal of the Righteousness of Faith And as the Church of God hath never failed in the Earth since the beginning of the World nor will to the end of it so nor hath the Doctrin of Gods Salvation concerning the Saviour of the World and the Mediator betwixt God and Men who should be both GOD and MAN failed or been wanting as in respect of the essential parts of it even from being outwardly preserved delivered and conveyed from from Age to Age in some measure and degree for the benefit of Mankind in general and therefore in all Ages even in the Darkest Christ as he was to come in the Flesh and be an Offering for the Sins of the World was sufficiently set forth for that time to be the Object of mens Faith in those Ages and Parts of the World where these Types and Figures of Sacrifices and Circumcision were extant and even these who did not practise them yet might hear of them by others and it may be very probably defâ—nded by a rational Hypothesis and so doth R. B. call his Doctrine in his 6 th Thesis viz on Hypothesis that no Nation under Heaven was so left destitute of all outward means but that partly by the Report of the Sacrifices of clean Beasts offered to the true God and by Circumcision and other Types Figures and Shadows that had been used from the beginning and partly from the Types and Figures given to Mankind in general in the whole visible Creation the Mediator betwixt God and Men the Saviour and Redeemer of the World who should be both God and Man or God manifest in Flesh and who as Man should dye for the sins of the World and rise again was proposed in some sort though obscurely answering to that Dispensation wherein Christ was the Mystery hid from Ages and Generations that was in after Ages clearly to be revealed according to Ephes cap. 3. 5 9. Col. cap. 1.26 Rom. cap. 16.26 and set forth to be the Object of mens Faith and Hope of Salvation and Remission of sin and Reconciliation with God the inward Light of the divine Word that is the Light of men that ever did in 〈◊〉 Ages and ever doth and ever will enlighten every man that cometh into the World acting or operating by its heavenly and divine Influence upon their reasonable Faculties of Understanding and all their national Powers to cause them both know and believe that God would be merciful to them and forgive their sins upon their Repentance and Amendment of Life for the sake of the Mediator Redeemer Saviour of the World who should be both God and Man or it by an unavoidable case as R. B. wordeth it in his 6 t Thes some or many are excluded from this benefit of having it outwardly revealed to them as others had yet that defeâ—t may be supplied by inward divine Râ—velation in all extraordinary Cases revealing at least the substance of that great Mystery of the Mediator the Saviour of the World by whose Death and Blood men through Repentance and Faith in him should be reconciled unto God and have their sins both forgiven and pâ—rged or washed away 3 dly But yet we ought not universally to confine this Faith of Christ as without us or within us to the narrow bounds of outward Preaching it either by the Prophets in their Day or to the Evangelists and Apostles in their Day or to the hearing or reading of the holy Scriptures or to the outward Ministry of Angels oâ— Men well knowing and believing That as God gave it to our first Parents without all Ministry of Men and as he gave it to Abraham to Job to the three Wise Men that came from the East to worship Jesus in Bethlehem so he hath given it to many others and can or may give it to as many as he pleaseth without all outward Ministry yet I say in Gods ordinary way he is pleased to give it by the Ministry of Preaching and for this cause he revealed it to the holy Prophets and Apostles that by their Ministry and Writings it might be made known to all Nations for the Obedience of Faith Rom. 16.26 and the said Doctrine as outwardly delivered by their Ministry and as delivered by the Ministry of faithful men succeeding them in the same Faith God is pleased to bless with a New divine Visitation and Illumination of more Light and Grace than was or is given to such where this Doctrine is not outwardly preached to bring them to the Obedience of that Faith And to declare my Mind with all plainness As I can find no Faith in Christ in all the Scripture but what hath always a respect to Christ as that great Offering and Sacrifice for sin without us as well as to his inward and spiritual Presence and Appearance in us according to measure teaching us and enabling us to apply to us the benefit of his Death and Sufferings Resurrection and Ascention and Mâ—â—â—â—tion for the Remission of our sins and our Eternal Salvation as the â—â—â—ness of all Grace and Truth dwelt and still dwelleth in the Mâ—â— Christ Jesus without us and of whose Fullness we daily more and more partake who believe in him and in God the Father through him and who pray to God in his Name and Worship and Obey him so I can own no other Faith but this to be the true Christian Faith