Linguistic DNA - Concept Modelling Demonstrator

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	believe_v	good_a	work_n	1,567	5	5.8652	4	false

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A13556	Regula vitæ the rule of the law vnder the Gospel. Containing a discovery of the pestiferous sect of libertines, antinomians, and sonnes of Belial, lately sprung up both to destroy the law, and disturbe the faith of the Gospell: wherein is manifestly proved, that God seeth sinne in iustified persons. By Thomas Taylor Dr. of Divinity, and pastour of S. Mary Aldermanbury, London.	Taylor, Thomas, 1576-1632.	1631 (1631)	STC 23851; ESTC S118279	80,247	284

satisfied it for us for this is testified by keeping the commandements Ioh. 14. 23. If any man love me hee will keepe my commandements What love then in these men that will keepe no commandements Object Our love makes us keep his commandements but what is that to the commandements of the Law Answ. As if Christ did not command the same love and duties in the Morall Law See Matth. 22. 37 38. where Christ enjoyneth the young man all the duties of both tables 1 Ioh. 3. 23. This is his commandement that wee should beleeve and love one another Is this his commandement of any other love than that which is the summe of the second table and what were the commandements of the Apostles but evangelicall commandements commandements of Christ and yet they commanded duties of the Law 1 Thess. 4. 2. Ye know what commandements we gave you by the Lord Iesus What were they Such as concerned fornication v. 3. and oppression fraud v. 6. and were not these the same duties of the Law The 3 error floweth from ignorance of the nature of faith which is so farre from renouncing obedience that it is never severed from obedience and it is not true faith that worketh not by love for what is it to beleeve it is not onely to assent to what the scripture saith but to adhere and cleave unto it and to the Lord in the obedience of it as Henoch by faith walked with God Abraham by faith left his Country abode in the land of Canaan as a stranger offered his son Isaac c. And whence is it that obedience is called a fruit of faith for every act of grace must rise from the roote of that grace as every fruit from his owne roote so as workes of charity are rooted in charity which is a distinct grace from faith yet are they called fruits of faith because the doctrine of faith enjoynes them and the grace of faith inclines the soule unto them and because faith receives the spirit of Christ for sanctification as well as the merit of Christ for justification But why doe they exclaime against us for preaching and embracing a dead faith while they obtrude on their proselites a faith which must not work by love which if they will beleeve S. Iames is a dead faith 2 ERROR That godly life hath nothing to doe with keeping commandements Answ. The Scripture saith that godly life is nothing else but the fulfilling of the commandement and will of God revealed 1 Ioh. 2. 17. He that fulfilleth the commandement abideth for ever which is to be meant of evangelicall fulfilling not legall See chap. 3. arg 5. One thing it is to exercise good workes in way of obedience another to rely on them in way of righteousnesse 2. Our charge is in every thing to prove and try what is the good and acceptable will of God and have we nothing to doe with commandements the rule of tryall certainly we can neither doe any just thing without the rule of justice nor prosecute it justly 3. The life of Christ was most godly yet was said of him Heb. 10. 7. In the volume of the booke it is written of me that I should doe thy will and hereunto must every member be framed that must be in conformimity with the head 4. Not any duty of godly life can be acceptable or comfortable but that which is warranted by a commandement and we must know it so to be there can be no right worship or worshipper but hee that doth the will of God Ioh. 9. 31. If any be a worshipper of God and doth his will him hee heareth So doest thou expresse love shew mercy execute justice or practise any vertue and not by vertue of any commandement he that will not heare the Lord saying What I command thee that doe onely shall heare Who required these things at your hands 3 ERROR That blessednesse is meerly passive and therefore it is in vaine to put men upon actions for that end Answ. It is so to us in respect of merit and price but in respect of fruition it is obtained instrumentally by faith which is an action and is said to be ours yea our owne for the just lives by his owne faith not because we are authours or causes of it but subjects in whom God worketh it and because by it things beleeved become our owne 2. We are meere patients in the causes of blessednesse but in respect of conditions we are not so for as we said of faith wee may also say of good works God enableth to them but man worketh them and walketh in the way of them to blessednes not that our works are causes but conditions without which blessednesse is not attained See Matth. 25. 35. 3. This assertion bewrayeth great ignorance of the proper and present use of sanctification and the duties of it which they conceive as legally urged to helpe the beleever in his title and right to the blessed inheritante purchased in heaven whereas onely Christs righteousnes and merits give right and title unto heaven but yet the grace of sanctification gives us an aptitude and fitnesse unto it for without holinesse none shall see God Heb. 12. 14. and no uncleane thing shall enter into the gates of that City Yea it is proceeding in sanctification to the measure and stature of Christ that fits us to the vision and fruition of the glorious presence of God and for the full possession of that heavenly inheritance 4 ERROR That the justified person is free from all spot of sinne and perfectly righteous for justice requires that a man should be as perfect as by creation before acceptation Answ. 1. Iustice requireth that Gods wrath should be pacified and a righteousnes procured whereby the sinner may be accepted to mercy but not a plenary and personall perfection 2. They shew grosse ignorance in the nature of justification which frees the beleever from the condemnation of sin but not from the inhabitation or molestation for sinne is in the godly after justification 1 Ioh. 1. 8. If wee that is wee that walke in the light and have communion one with another say we have no sinne we deceive our selves 3. Faith it selfe in the justified is sincere but not perfect for as we know things beleeved but in part so we beleeve but in part our eye is not more dimme to see than our hand is weake to receive yea even in the best faith is imperfect and mingled with doubting Mosesâ—aith â—aith quailed at the Rocke Elias in a passion would be dead yea even Abraham himselfe who was strong in faith though he doubted not of infidelity yet he doubted of infirmity Gen. 15. 3. By long delay his faith was sore shaken when he said that Eliezer of Damascus must be his heire Now would I know how that which is it selfe imperfect and not free from spot of sinne can make another altogether spotlesse See more hereof

in the second ground of this opposition CHAP. 5. Containing foure more pernicious and erronious opinions 5 ERROR That no action of the beleever after justification is sinne for unto faith there is no sinne for all sinne past present and to come is taken away by the blood of Christ and no sinne remaineth in the kingdome where faith reigneth and sitteth judge it is out of the Lawes element to judge of this blessed condition Neither can God allow any worke that is defective in the beleever Answ. Here is the ghost of H. N. in this peece of new Gospell which tels us a dream of an absolute reigne of faith where is still remaining sinne True it is that faith deposeth the reigne of sinne that it rule not but so as that it selfe never reigneth in this life without the presence and assault of sin for such as say they have no sinne with their faith deceive themselves 2. It is enough for the state of this life that faith frame the heart to willing and sincere obedience though not to perfect and absolute 3. It argues their grosse ignorance in the Scriptures which affirme that both persons and duties of beleevers though imperfect defective are yet pleasing 1. For their persons God looketh upon them in Christ pronounceth of them that though they be blacke yet they are comely Prov. 12. 22. The Lord taketh pleasure in them that feare him Psal. 147. 11. The Lord taketh pleasure in his people Acts 10. 35. In every Nation he that feareth him is accepted of him 2. For their duties though they be imperfect yet they please him because their persons doe Mal. 3. 4. Then shall the offerings of Iudah and Ierusalem be pleasing unto thee Phil. 4. 18. An odour of sweet smell a sacrifice acceptable and well-pleasing unto God speaking of the almes and charity of that Church Col. 3. 20. Children obey your parents for this is wel-pleasing to the Lord. And our comfort and happines is that he pleaseth to accept from us that which is sincere though weake and imperfect 6 ERROR That our Preachers teach Popery in persuading good works to further mens owne salvation Answ. Our doctrine and practise herein agreeth with the doctrine of the Scriptures and with the practise of Christ and his Apostles and because the Sectaries cast this imputation upon godly Ministers to weaken their authority among their people it will not be amisse in few words to cleare it and that in these positions 1. Wee teach according to Scripture That every good worke must rise from a good worker for the tree must first be good and men gather not figges of thistles So as a good worke is proper to a justified person and the use of it cannot be to justifie because he is justified already 2. We teach the necessity of the duties of the Law to salvatioÌ„ not as causes or merits of our salvation or justification which were to dethrone Christ and preach Popery but as a way and meanes appointed by God to walke into heaven and so the Apostle preached them necessary Tit 3. 14. Let ours also learne to maintaine good workes for necessary uses and every simple man knoweth that the holding of the way must needes further the journey and conduce to the place intended 3. Wee carefully alwayes distinguish betweene the justice of workes which conduceth nothing to salvation and the presence of workes without which there is no expectation of salvation for without their presence all faith is dead and all religion vaine 4. Wee distinguish in this doctrine the principall efficient cause of righteousnesse and salvation from the instrumentall Is it a good reason that because Christ is the principall efficient and the onely meritorious cause of our salvation that therefore all the instrumentall and adjuvant causes and means of salvation must be cut off and cast away True it is that God alone decreeth our salvation Christ alone meriteth it the spirit alone sealeth it but yet the Gospell revealeth it and that saveth faith apprehendeth it and that saveth the Ministers they preach it and they save namely ministerially 1 Tim 4. 16. Thou shalt save thy selfe and them that heare thee Did the Apostle write popery or derogate froÌ„ Christ in saying that Timothy did save himselfe and others or is it such a peece of popery to say that the use of the meanes doth further the end 5. What will you say of St. Paul who commands us to worke out our salvation with feare and trembling It seemeth he thought that men must doe something toward their owne salvation as that Father did who saith that though God made us without our selves yet hee saveth us not without our selves And Phil 4. 17. when he calleth duties of beneficence and charity a fruit furthering our reckoning that is as a meanes not as a merit I would know how they should further our reckoning and not further our salvation True it is that mercy accepteth that for a furthering of our reckoning which in strict justice would not goe for payment but yet seeing the same mercy takes us into the worke we may perâ—wade also with the Apostle that Christians would be still thus furthering their owne reckoning The same Apostle speaking of the same duties 2 Cor 9. 6. calleth them a sowing and saith He that soweth liberally shall reape liberally Whether doe not these men thinke that sowing is a furtherance to the harvest Surely S. Paul thought so yet minded not to strengthen popery for neither is he that soweth any thing neither he that reapeth any thing but God that giveth the promise and increase The same Apostle speaking of the duties of Christian suffering saith not onely that they turne to the salvation of the Saints Phil 1. 9. but also that our light and momentany afflictions cause unto us an eternall weight of glory do they not then further our salvation and what doth the Apostle Peter say lesse when he saith that by addition and exercise of graces an entrance is ministred abundantly into the kingdome of Christ. And why doth the Apostle excite Christians every day to further themselves in the way of salvation as runners by speed and strength get nearer the goale if we may not urge the doctrine of good workes and Christian duties in pretence of the Lawes abolition which certainly was as much abolished in the Apostles dayes as now 7 ERROR That not as much as any outward worship of God required in the Law is to be performed by true beleevers since the comming of Christ because all the worship of the new Testament is inward and spirituall Ioh 4. 23. The houre commeth c. and to receive the doctrine of the Gospel by faith is to worship the Father Neither hath any other good worke done in obedience to the Morall Law any reward because all is the free gift of God Answ. 1. Here is a bundle of errours

the best 1. It makes them relish and prize the promises of much the more and sticke faster to them hold in the way unto them 2. The hearing of threatnings kindleth a flame of love to God for delivering from them 3. Incieth our charity and compassion to our brethren to helpe them from under them and provoketh the Saints themselves to worke out their own salvation with feare and trembling Phil 2. 11. 5. Are we lewd Preachers for urging the Law upon men then why were not Christ his Apostles so in pressing on beleevers the obedience of the law Yea to the law more strictly expounded than by the Scribes and Pharises and in urging on them a righteousnes exceeding the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharises which was not an imputed righteousnesse of faith for justification before God but a righteousnesse of sanctification in their persons performed through grace by themselves So when our Lord affirmeth that in the kingdome of heaven that is the Church of the new Testament Hee that doth the commandements and teacheth men so to doe shall be called great that is shall be highly esteemed was hee a lewd and false teacher leading men away from himself and the grace of the Gospell or if he were not why are wee so for teaching the same doctrine 6. No man can teach obedience of faith but therein he must teach the obedience of the Law also for the same workes are both the works of the Law and the workes of faith which are distinguished not divided For example Love or charity which containeth all the duties of the second table is called a worke of the Law Luk. 10. 27. What is written in the Law how readest thou and he answered Thou shalt love the Lord thy God c. Thus it is a worke of the Law in respect of canon rule direction But it is called also a fruit or worke of faith Iames 2. 17 18. Shew me thy faith by thy workes and faith worketh by love Thus it is a worke of faith in respect of the cause and adhaesion being an inseperable issue of it How can a man persuade love as a worke of faith and not the same a worke of the Law 7. How false and absurd is it to say that Preachers teaching obedience to the Law of God teach men thereby to hang upon their owne righteousnesse or to seeke their justification by their owne performances Far are we from teaching that Iudaicall righteousnesse performed in way of justification all which is a filthy ragge in the sight of God and his strict justice But we persuade a Christian righteousnesse of sanctification wrought by the spirit of holinesse of which holy obedience are many other uses which they are loath to see besides the justifying of their persons in the sight of God As 1. It is called for in way of Christian conversation that our light may shine before men 2. In way of imitation of Christ our head and of conformity of his members to his righteousnesse which derogateth nothing from his righteousnesse 3. In way of testification of our righteousnesse before God for Hee that doth righteousnesse is righteous 1 Ioh 3. 7. Thus having set downe these twelve Articles of libertine and famelisticall faith I will content my selfe therewith although I could have easily set downe twelve more so fruitfull and generative errour is but that I intended in this onely to give a proofe of their grosse ignorance in principles of religion which was that I undertooke I could easily have refelled that mysticall and spirituall but fantasticall union of theirs with Christ before faith their sanctification before justification their elevating the sin of infidelity which strongly savours also of liberty as that it is no sinne or at least of the morall Law wherein I will not strive though I am sure the Scripture maketh it a sinne of sinnes and Christ calleth it the great condemnation and perhaps they shall holde a more sound tenent that shall holde it both against the Law and Gospell For 1. It may be not unprofitably enquired whether the first commandement doe not binde to all commandements both ordinary and eztraordinary both dâ— praesenti and de futuro whether the Law doe not binde us to beleeve all that God shall utter as well as what hee hath uttered 2. Whether the second commandement doth not enjoyne whatsoever is a meanes of salvation and an inward religious worship for then the contrary must needes be sinne 3. Whether it be not a sinne against the second coÌ„mandemeÌ„t not to beleeve that branch of the same commandement that God will shew mercy to thousands of them that love him and keepe his commandements And if it be then infidelity is a sin against that Law But I forbeare many things and perhaps some will thinke I might have spared some paines in refuting the former which at the first sight are so distastefull to the judicious as the reciting of them might seeme a sufficient confutation but my desire of helping the weake who are easily overreached drew mee thus farre beyond mine owne purpose and my endeavour was to contract many things into as narrow a roome as I could CHAP. 7. Shewing the second ground of this opposition which is horrible pride especially discovered in their ridiculous conceit of perfection THe undivided companion of ignorance is pride for no man that ever aright knew God or himselfe but the nearer he approached to God with Abraham the more did he humble himselfe in dust and ashes But here is a generation of men swelled up with pride and blowne up with a presumption that they are gotten into the highest forme of perfection they can scorne and disdaine the directions of the Law as being far beyond it for they have attained a full perfection not of justification onely but of sanctificatioÌ„ also already they are free not onely from the power of sinne but from the presence also Christ himselfe is not purer or more free from sinne than they are nay being borne of God they cannot sin if they would if they doe acts of sinne in high nature yet where is no Law is no transgression God cannot see them in that glasse Hence they can loose themselves from most ministeries but some teachers of their owne sect and deride the holy labours of godly Preachers who with zeale and piety persuade men to walke according to rules Oh what an height of pride are those private peremptory persons come unto who complaine that their heads have aked to heare some godly and worthy Preachers and have professed that for the gift of two pence they would never more heare sundry such as I know to be of long continuance as shining and burning lights as they may well be in the first ranke of Gods worthies that have beene of best desert in our Church And where is the humility of that teacher that makes his bragge Your teachers understand not

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