Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	act_n	faith_n	grace_n	4,482	5	5.9933	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26862	Aphorismes of justification, with their explication annexed wherein also is opened the nature of the covenants, satisfaction, righteousnesse, faith, works, &c. : published especially for the use of the church of Kederminster in Worcestershire / by their unworthy teacher Ri. Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1655 (1655)	Wing B1186; ESTC R38720	166,773	360

so as Idolatry is that violation of the law of Nature which doth eminentér containe all the rest in it So is Unbeliefe in respect of the Law of Grace And as the formall Nature of Idolatry lyeth in disclayming God from being God or form being our God or from being our alone God Even so the formall nature of Unbeliefe lyeth in disclaiming Christ either from being a Redeemer and Lord or from being Our Redeemer and Lord or from being Our onely Redeemer and Lord. This being well considered will direct you truly and punctually where to find the very formall being and nature of Faith Not in beleeving the pardon of sin or the favour of God or our salvation nor in Affiance or recumbency though that be a most immediate product of it Nor in Assurance as Divines were wont to teach 80. yeares agoe Nor in Obedience or following of Christ as a guide to Heaven or as a Captaine or meere Patterne and Law-giver as the wretched Socinians teach But in the three Acts above mentioned 1. Taking Christ for a Redeemer and Lord which is by Assent 2. Taking him for our Redeemer Saviour and Lord which is by consent 3. Taking him for our onely Redeemer Saviour and Lord which is the Morall sincerity of the former And the essentiall differencing property of it Not whereby Faith is differenced from Love or joy c. But whereby that faith in Christ which is the Gospell condition is differenced from all other Faith in Christ. So that as Corpus Anima Rationale doe speake the whole essence of man Even so this Assent Consent and Preference of Christ before all others do speak the whole Essence of Faith For the common opinion that justifying Faith as justifying doth consist in any one single Act is a wretched mistake as I shall shew you further anon THESIS LXV SCripture doth not take the word Faith as strictly as a Philosopher would doe for any one single Act of the soul nor yet for various Acts of one onely Faculty But for a compleat entire Motion of the whole Soul to Christ its Object THESIS LXVI NEither is Christ in respect of any one part or work of his Office alone the Object of Iustifying Faith as such But Christ in his entire office considered in this Object viz. as he is Redeemer Lord and Saviour THESIS LXVII MVch lesse are any Promises or benefits of Christ the proper Object of justifying Faith as many Divines do mistakingly conceive THESIS LXVIII NOr is Christs person considered as such or for it self the object of this Faith But the person of Christ as cloathed with his Office and Authority is this Object EXPLICATION I Put all these together as ayming at one scope I shall now explain them distinctly To the 65. First that Faith is not taken for any one single Act I prove thus 1. If it were but one single Act I mean specifically not numerically then it could not according to the common opinion of Philosophers be the Act of the whole Soul But Faith must be the Act of the whole Soul or else part of the Soul would receive Christ and part would not and part of it would entertain him and part not Some think the soul is as the body which hath a hand to receive things in the name and for the use of the whole But it is not so Christ is not onely taken into the hand But as the blood and spirits which are received into every living part Though I intend not the comparison should reach to the manner of receiving Neither is the soul so divisible into parts as the body is and therefore hath not severall parts for severall offices 2. The most of our accurate studious Divines of late doe take Faith to be seated in both faculties Understanding and Will But if so according to the common Philosophie it cannot be any one single Act. Neither Secondly is it in various Acts of one single faculty For 1. It will in my judgement never be proved that the soul hath faculties which are really distinct from it self or from each other These Faculties are but the soul it self able to doe thus and thus from its naturall being Vide Scaliger Exercit. 107. Sect. 3. Understanding and Willing are its immediate Acts And perhaps those very Acts are more diversified or distinct in their objects then in themselves The souls apprehension of an objects as true we call Understanding in regard of its Metaphysicall Truth it is a simple apprehension as we receive this Truth upon the word of another it is Assent and Beliefe as this Object is considered as Good our motion toward it is called Willing if absent Desiring Hoping if present Complacency Joying when we Will a thing as Good any thing strongly and apprehend its Goodnesse any thing cleerely this we call Love c. But whether all these be really distinct kinds of Acts of the Soul is very doubtfull Much more whether they proceed from distinct Faculties As I am not of my Lord Brook's minde concerning the Unity of all things So neither would I unnecessarily admit of any division especially in so spirituall and perfect a piece as the Sould knowing how much of Perfection lyeth in Unity and remembring the Pythagorean curse of the Number Two because it was the first that durst depart from Unity frustra fit per plura c. 2. But if it were proved that the Souls Faculties are really distinct yet both these Faculties are capable of receiving Christ and Christ is an Object suited to both and then what doubt is it whether Faith be in both 1. For the Will no man will question it that it is capable of receiving Christ and Christ a suitable Object for it 2. And for the Understanding it doth as much incline to Truth as the Will to Goodness and as truely receive its Object under the notion of True as the Will doth receive its Object as Good If you would see it proved fully That Assent is an Essentiall part of justifying Faith read Dr. Downame of Iustification on that Subject and his Appendix to the Covenant of Grace in Answer to Mr. Pemble Where though his Argument will not reach their intended scope to prove that Assent is the onely proper Act of justifying Faith yet they do conclude that it is a reall part And he well confuteth his opposer though he do not well confirm that his own opinion 3. Consider further that Christ doth not treat of Faith in sensu Physico sed morali Politico not as a Naturall Philosopher but as a Law-giver to his Church Now in Politicks we doe not take the names of Actions in so narrow and strict a sense as in Physicks and Logicke If a Town doe agree to take or receive such a man for their Mayor or a Kingdome take or receive such a one as their King The words Take or Receive here doe not note any one single Act of soul or body alone but a

promise for it 3. Their sufferings if they will be ruled shall turn to their advantage To the sixth Question The last enemy to be overcome is death 1 Cor. 15 26. This enemy will be overcome perfectly at the Resurrection then also shall we be perfectly acquit from the charge of the Law and accusation of Satan Therefore not till the day of Resurrection and Judgment will all the Effects of Sin and Law and Wrath be perfectly removed 1 Cor. 15. 24. THESIS X. 1 MAn having not only broken this first Covenant but disabled himself to perform its Conditions for the future and so being out of all hope of attaining Righteousness and Life thereby 2 It pleased the Father aud the Mediator to prescribe unto him a new Law 3 and tender him a new Covenant 4 the Conditions whereof should be more easie to the Sinner and yet more abasing 5 and should more cleerly manifest and more highly honour the unconceiveable Love of the Father and Redeemer EXPLICATION 1 WHether Man were only the meritorious Cause of this his disability or also the Efficient is a great dispute but of no great moment as long as we are agreed that Man is the only faulty cause Whether he cast away Gods image or whether God took it from him for sin whether God only could annihilate it Or whether Man may annihilate a Quality though not a Substance I will not meddle with But too sure it is that we are naturally deprived of it and so disabled to fulfill the Law If Christ therefore should have pardoned all that was past and renewed the first violated Covenant again and set Man in the same estate that he fell from in poynt of guilt yet would he have fallen as desperately the next temptation yea though he had restored to him his primitive strength and holinesse yet experience hath shewed on how slippery and uncertain a ground his happiness would have stood and how soon he was likely to play the Prodigal again with his stock 2 God the Father and Christ the Mediator who have one will did therefore resolve upon a more suitable way of happines 3 This way as the former is by both a Law and Covenant As it is a Law it is by Christ prescribed and flatly enjoyned and either obedience or the penalty shall be exacted As it is a Covenant it is only tendered and not enforced It is called a Covenant as it is in Scripture written and offered as is said before improperly because it containeth the matter of the Covenant though yet it want the form Even as a Bond or Obligation before the sealing or agreement is called a Bond Or as a form of prayer as it is written in a book is called a prayer because it containeth the matter that we should pray for though to speak strictly it is no prayer till it be sent up to God from a desiring Soul 4 Though without Grace we can no more beleeve then perfectly obey as a dead man can no more remove a straw then a mountain yet the conditions of the Gospel considered in themselves or in reference to the strength which God will bestow are far more facile then the old conditions Mat. 11. 29 30. 1 Ioh. 5. 3. And more abasing they are to the sinner in that he hath far lesse to doe in the work of his salvation And also in that they contain the acknowledgement of his lost estate through his own former self destroying folly 5 Such incomprehensible amazing Love of God the Father and of Christ is manifested in this New Covenant that the glorifying thereof doth seem to be the main end in this design Oh sweet and blessed End should not then the searching into it be our main study and the contemplating of it and admiring it be our main employment Rom. 5. 8. Tit. 3. 4. 1 Ioh. 4. 9. Eph. 3. 18. 19. Ioh. 15. 13. No wonder therefore that God did not prevent the fall of man though he foresaw it when he could make it an occasionall preparative to such happy ends THESIS XI NOt that Christ doth absolutely null or repeal the old Covenant hereby but he super-addeth this as the only possible way of Life The former still continueth to command prohibite promise threaten So that the sins even of the justified are still breaches of that Law and are threatned and cursed thereby EXPLICATION I Acknowledge that this Assertion is disputable and dificult and many places of Scripture are usually produced which seem to contradict it I know also that it the judgement of learned and godly men that the Law as it a Covenant of works is quite null and repealed in regard of the Sins of beleevers yea many do beleeve that the Covenant of works is repealed to all the world and only the Covenant of grace in force Against both these I maintain this Assertion by the Arguments which you finde under the following Position 13. And I hope not withstanding that I extoll free Grace as much and preach the Law as little in a forbidden sence as though I held the contraty opinion THESIS XII THerefore we must not plead the repeal of the Law for our Iustification but must refer it to our Surety who by the value and efficacy of his once offering and merits doth continually satisfie EXPLICATION I Shall here explain to you in what sence and how far the Law is in force and how far not and then prove it in and under the next head You must here distinguish betwixt 1. The repealing of the Law and the relaxing of it 2. Between a dispensation absolute and respective 3. Between the alteration of the Law and the alteration of the Subjects relation to it 4. Between a Discharge conditional with a suspension of execution and a Discharge absolute And so I resolve the question thus 1. The Law of Works is not abrogated or repealed but dispensed with or relaxed A Dispensation is as Grotius defineth it an act of a Superior whereby the obligation of a Law in force is taken away as to certain persons and things 2. This Dispensation therefore is not total or absolute but respective For 1. though it dispence with the rigorous execution yet not with every degree of execution 2. Though the Law be dispenced with as it containeth the proper subjects of the penalty viz. the parties offending and also the circumstances of duration c. Yet in regard of the meer punishment abstracted from person and circumstances it is not dispenced with for to Christ it was not dispenced with His satisfaction was by paying the full value 3. Though by this Dispensation our Freedom may be as full as upon a Repeal yet the Alteration is not made in the Law but in our estate and relation to the Law 4. So far is the Law dispenced with to all as to suspend the rigorous execution for a time and a Liberation or Discharge conditional procured and granted them But an absolute Discharge is granted to

all inferiour ends are nothing and all meanes do lose their nature and become uselesse and so the soul of the most gracious man shall be no fitter to attain and prosecute its end and do no more thereto then a beast or a stone This consequence is undeniable 9. Nay consider whether you do not make all the graces of the Spirit except love joy and thankfulnesse to be almost vain and the blessed supernaturall work of the spirit upon us to be a uselesse labour doth not God onely create in nature but also new create by grace in us such things as Desire Care Fear Zeal Courage Diligence Watchfulnesse c. and may we not use them Surely if we may not use them for Heaven then for nothing And I cannot believe that God will at so dear a rate plant in us a heavenly nature and these heavenly Graces and then make it our sinne to use them for Heaven and that while we are here in the way where we have such need of them 10. But especially I would have you throughly consider to what end God did fill his word so with Precepts Prohibitions Promises conditionall and Threats Doth not almost all the Scripture for the doctrinall part consist of these And are not Precepts to put us on to dutie And hath not every duty its end even for our selves And can it be any other then the obtaining of the fruition of God in Heaven so what end have the prohibition else And what are the conditionall promises for but to stirre us up to believe and to performe the conditions that so we may enjoy the promised good And why are the Threatnings but with the fear of the evill threatned to deterre us from the sinne and to the dutie What think you is the reason that God doth so commonly Promise Heaven and threaten Hell if it be unlawfull for us to labour for Heaven and to escape Hell Do you not hereby insinuate an accusation of vanity at least against God and his Lawes Nay the very essence of the Covenants doth consist in all these parts conjunct And will you also overthrow the very essentiall parts of the Law or Covenant by making it unlawfull for us to admit their proper use To quote the particular places for this would be needlesse and endlesse 11 Methinks you should be so farre from questioning the lawfulnesse of labouring for Heaven that you should rather think you have almost nothing else to labour for Gods glory and your salvation not disjunct but conjunct are all the businesse you have to look after What do you live for Why have you all the mercies of your life Is it onely that you may be thankfull for life and mercie Or that you might also improve them to some further advantage I hope for all your question that you make it the greatest labour of your life to seek for assurance and obtainment of your eternall happinesse in God 12. And once more let me intreat you to consider whether there be any hope of that mans salvation who shall reduce this your doctrine into his practise I abhorre censoriousnesse but I desire it may be considered because it is a matter of such unspeakable importance For surely if this Doctrine practised will not stand with salvation it is time for you and all men to abhorre it And indeed this is it that maketh me say so much against it because it hath a holy pretence and is very plausible to the inconsiderate but yet is no better then damnable if it be practised I say if practised because the opinion as such is not so for I believe many a godly man doth erre as foully as this But it is possible for a man by reading and argument to be drawn to entertain some opinions in his brain not onely consequently but directly contrary to the practice of his heart and life and yet himself to continue that practice Even as a wicked man may entertain those truths into his brain in speculation which directly to contradict his continued practice Now it being the practice here that is of absolute necessity to salvation and not the opinion I doubt not but such that erre onely in this opinion not reducing it into practice may be saved But if practised I cannot see but it will certainly damne For search the Scriptures impartially and consider whether seeking Heaven be not necessarie to the obtaining of it And whether those that seek not and labour not for it be not shut out View over the places which I quoted you before and then judge Must not all that will have life come to Christ that they may have it Iohn 5. 39 40 And must not they strive to enter in at the straight gate and lay violent hands on the Kingdome of Heaven And lay up for themselves a treasure in heaven and seek the Kingdome of God and his Righteousnesse in the first place Matth. 6. 33. And presse on that we may attain the Resurrection Philip. 3. 14. And lay up a good foundation against the time to come doing good works and lay hold on eternall life 1 Timoth. 6. 12 18 19. And work out our salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2. 12. And do his commandments that we may have right to the Tree of Life and enter in by the gates into the City Rev. 22. 14. And make friends of the unrighteous Mammon that they may receive us into everlasting habitations See also Rev. 2. 7 10 11 13 14 16 17 19. 23. 26 27 28 29. and 3. 2 3 4 5 8. 10 11 12 13 15 16 20 21 22. See also Mat. 18. 8 9. Iohn 5. 29. Act 2. 28 1 Tim. 4 8. Iam. 1 12. 1 Pet. 3. 10. Rom. 2. 7. 1 Tim. 1. 2. 2 Tim. 4. 18. Mat. 5. 12. 6. 1. 19. 21. Luk. 10. 20. Phil. 1. 19. 1 Pet. 1. 9. Heb. 2. 3. 2 Tim. 2. 10. 1 Thes. 5. 8 9. Act. 16. 17. Yea we are commanded to fear him that is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell even under that consideration to fear him Luke 12. 5. And to fear lest a promise being left us of entring into rest we should come short of it Heb. 4. 1. And what is that but to fear the losse of Heaven or to fear Hell Prov. 15. 24. Mar. 3. 29 16. 16. Mat. 5. 25. Rom. 11. 21 44. 1 Cor. 10. 12. Heb. 12. 15 16 Iames 5. 9 12. But I must stop for if I should quote all Scriptures that prove this I should transcribe a great part of the Bible Consider then if even many that seek to enter shall not be able whether they are like to enter that never seek And if the righteous be scarcely saved what shall become of them that thought it unlawfull to labour for salvation 13. Lastlie how is it that you do not see that by this Doctrine you condemne not all the Saints onelie but even the Lord himself Did not Paul therefore keep under his bodie and