Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	blood_n	purge_v	sprinkle_v	2,278	5	11.3241	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30137	A defence of the doctrine of justification, by faith in Jesus Christ: shewing, true Gospel-holiness flows from thence. Or, Mr. Fowler's pretended design of Christianity, proved to be nothing more then to trample under foot the blood of the Son of God and the idolizing of man's own righteousness. As also, how while he pretends to be a minister of the Church of England, he overthroweth the wholesom doctrine contained in the 10th. 11th. and 13th. of the Thirty Nine Articles of the same, and that he falleth in with the Quaker, and Romanist, against them. By John Bunyan.	Bunyan, John, 1628-1688.	1673 (1673)	Wing B5508; ESTC R215886	107,458	132

that is found in the whole World But you add farther What good ground can Men have for this fancy when as our Saviour hath Merited the Pardon of Sin for this end that it might be an Effectual motive to turn from it Answ. Although you speak this in great Derision to Faith when it worketh right yet know that therefore seeing you would hear it I say therfore hath our Saviour merited pardon and bestowed it on men freely and bid them believe or receive it and have it that thereby they might be incouraged to live to him and love him and comply with his commandements For scarcely for a Righteous Man will one dye yet for peradventure for a good Man some would even dare to dye But God commended his love to us in that while we were yet Sinners Christ dyed for us Much more then being NOW Justified we shall be saved from Wrath through him Now as here we are said to be Justified by his Blood that is as his Blood appeaseth the Justice of God so again it is said that this Blood is set forth by God for us to have Faith in it by the term of a Propitiation Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation or a Sacrifice to appease the displeasure of God through Faith in his Blood To declare at this time his Righteousness that he might be Just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus Rom. 3. Again As we are thus Justified by Blood in the sight of God by Faith in it so also it is testified of his Blood that it sprinkleth the Conscience of the faithful but still onely as it is received by Faith But from what is the Conscience sprinkled but from those dead Works that remain in all that have not yet been Justified by Faith in this Blood Now if Faith in this Blood doth sprinkle the Conscience and so doth purge it from all dead Works then must Faith go first to the Blood of Christ for Justification and must bring this home to the Defiled Conscience before it be delivered from those dead Works that are in it and made Capable of serving the Living God Rom. 5. 7 to 10. ch 3. 24 25. Heb. 9. 14. ch 10. 19 20 21 22. But you say you will never trust your discoursive faculty so long as you live if you are mistaken here Pag. 224. Tell not me of your discoursive faculty The Word of God is plain And never challenge Man for he that Condemneth your way to Heaven to the very Pit of Hell as Paul doth can yet set forth a better I come now to the Second thing viz. The Doctrine of the imputation of Christ's Righteousness which you thus Expound It Consists in dealing with sincerely Righteous Persons as if they were perfectly so for the sake and upon the account of Christ's Righteousness Pag. 225 226. Answ. 1. Any thing but truth But I would know how sincerely Righteous they were that were Justified without Works or how sincerely Righteous they were whom God Justified as Ungodly Rom. 4. 3 4 5. 2. Your Explication of the imputation of Christ's Righteousness makes it respect our Works rather then our Persons It Consists say you in dealing with sincerely Righteous Persons as if they were Perfectly so That is it Justifieth their imperfect Righteousness First and so Secondarily their Persons for the sake of that But Observe a few things from this Explication 1. This Concludeth that a man may be sincerely Righteous in God's account WITHOUT the Righteousness of Christ for that is to be imputed to such and none but such 2. Th● Concludeth that Men may be sincerely Righteous BEFORE Christ's Righteousness is imputed For this sincere Righteousness is Precedent to the Imputation of Christ's 3. This Concludeth that a Man may have true yea saving Grace in great and mighty action in him before he hath Faith in the Righteousness of Christ. For if a Man must be sincerely Righteous first then he must not onely have that we call the Habit but the powerful Acts of Grace Besides if the Righteousness of Christ is not to be looked to First but Secondarily not before but after we be made sincerely Righteous then may not Faith be thus acted if a man should have it until he be first a sincerely Righteous Person 4. This Concludeth that a Man may be brought from under the Curse of the Law in God's sight before he have Faith in the Righteousness of Christ yea before it be imputed to him For he that in God's account is reckoned sincerely Righteous is beloved of his God 5. This Concludeth that a Man may be from under the Curse of God without the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ For if a Man must be sincerely Righteous in God's account without it then he is from under the Curse of God without it 6. This Doctrine teacheth farther that Christ came to call and Justifie the Righteous contrary to his express Word In short By this account of things first we must be healed and then the Plaister comes Yea so Confident is this Man in this his Assertion that he saith it is not possible any other notion of this Doctrine should have truth in it Pag. 226. O this Jesus this Rock of offence But he that believeth on him shall not be Confounded But Blessed be God for Jesus Christ and for that he took our Nature and Sin and Curse and Death upon him And for that he did also by himself by one Offering Purge our Sins We that have believed have found rest even there where God and his Father hath smelled a sweet savour of rest because we are presented to God even now compleat in the Righteousness of him and stand discharged of guilt even by the Faith of him Yea as Sins past so Sins to come were taken up and satisfied for by that offering of the Body of Jesus we who have had a due sence of Sins and of the Nature of the Justice of God we know that no Remission of the guilt of any one can be but by Attonement made by Blood Heb. 9. 22. We also know that where Faith in Jesus Christ is wanting there can be neither good Principle nor good Indeavour for Faith is the first of all Graces and without it there is nothing but Sin We know also that Faith as a Grace in us severed from the Righteousness of Christ is onely a beholder of things but not a Justifier of Persons and that if it lay not hold of and applyeth not that Righteousness which is in Christ it carrieth us no farther then to the Devils We know that this Doctrine killeth Sin and curseth it at the very roots I say we know it who have mourned over him whom WE have pierced and who have been confounded to see that God by his Blood should be pacified towards us for all the Wickedness we have done Yea we have a double Motive to be Holy and Humble before him one because be dyed for

that their believing takes away the Curse but puts the Soul upon trusting to him that before Purged this Guilt and Curse I say before he sat down on the Right Hand of God Not to Suspend as you would have it but to take away the Sin of the World The Lord hath LAID upon him the Iniquities of us all And he BARE them in his own Body on the Tree Nor yet that he should OFTEN Offer himself for then must he OFTEN have suffered since the Foundation of the World But NOW and that at Once in the end of the World hath he Appeared to put away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself Mark he did put it away by the Sacrifice of his Body and Soul when he dyed on the Cross but he could not then put away the inward Filth of those that then remained Unconverted or those that as yet wanted being in the World The putting away of Sin therefore that the Holy Ghost here intendeth is such a putting of it away as respecteth the Guilt Curse and Condemnation thereof as it stood by the Accusations of the Law against all Flesh before the Face of God which Guilt Curse and Condemnation Christ himself was made in that day when he dyed the Death for us And this is the First and Principle Intendment of the Angel in that blessed saying to Godly Joseph concerning Christ He shall save his People from their Sins from the Guilt and Curse due to them first and afterwards from the Filth thereof This is yet manifest farther because the Heart is Purified by Faith and Hope Acts 9. 15. 1 John 3. 3 4. Now it is not the Nature of Faith I mean of Justifying Faith to have any thing for an Object from which fetcheth Peace with God Holiness before or besides the Christ of God himself for he is the way to the Father and no Man can come to the Father but by him Come that is so as to find Acceptance and Peace with him The Reason is because without his Blood Guilt remains Heb. 9. 22. He hath made Peace by the Blood of his Cross so then Faith in the first place seeketh Peace But why Peace First because till Peace is fetched into the Soul by Faiths laying hold on the blood of Christ Sin remains in the Guilt and Curse though not in the sight of God yet upon the Conscience through the Power of Unbelief He that believeth not stands yet Condemned Now so long as Guilt and the Curse in Power remains there is not Purity but Unbelief not Joy but Doubting not Peace but Peevishness not Content but Murmuring and Anger against the Lord himself The Law Worketh Wrath Rom. 4. Wherefore as yet there can be no Purity of Heart because that Faith yet wants his Object But having once found Peace with God by believing what the Blood of Christ hath done Joy followeth so doth Peace Quietness Content and Love Which is also the fulfilling of the Law Yet not from such Dungish Principles as yours For so the Apostle calls them Phil. 3. But from the Holy Ghost it self which God by Faith hath granted to be received by them that believe in the Blood of his Jesus But you add That Christ giveth First Repentance and then forgiveness of Sins Page 17. Answ. 1. This makes nothing for the Holiness which we lost in Adam for the Proof of which you bring that Text Acts 5. 31. 2. But for Christ to take away Guilt and the Curse from before the Face of ●ods is one thing and to make that discovery is another 3. Again Christ doth not give forgiveness for the sake of that Repentance which hath it's rise Originally from the Dictates of our own nature which is the thing you are to prove for that Repentance is called the Sorrow of this World and must be again Repented of But the Repentance mentioned in the Text is that which comes from Christ But 4. It cannot be for the sake of Gospel Repentance that the forgiveness of Sins is Manifested because both are his Peculiar Gift 5. Therefore both Faith and Repentance and Forgiveness of Sins are given by Christ and come to us for the sake of that Blessed Offering of his Body once for all For after he Arose from the Dead having led Captivity Captive and taken the Curse from before the Face of God therefore his Father gave him Gifts for Men even all the things that are Necessary and Effectual for our Conversion and Preservation in this World c. Ephes. 4. 6 7 8. This Text therefore with all the rest you bring falleth short of the least shew of Proof That the great Errand for which Christ came into the World was to put us in Possession of the Holiness that we had lost Your Third Chapter is as Empty of the Proof of your Design as that through which we have passed there being not one Scripture therein Tited that giveth the least intimation that ever it entred into the Heart of Christ to put us again into Possession of that Holiness which we had before we were Converted for such was that we lost in Adam You tell us the Sum of all is That we are Commauded to add to our Faith Vertue c. Page 35. I suppose you intend a Gospel Faith which if you can prove Adam had before the fall and that we lost this Faith in him and also that this Gospel Faith is none other but that which Origianally ariseth from or is the Dictates of Humane Nature I will confess you have Scripture and Knowledge beyond me In the mean time you must suffer me to tell you you are as far in this from the mind of the Holy Ghost as if you had yet never in all your days heard whether there be a Holy Ghost or no. Add to your Faith The Apostle here lays a Gospel Principle viz. Faith in the Son of God which Faith layeth hold of the forgiveness of Sins alone for the sake of Christ Therefore he is a great way off of laying the Purity of the Humane Nature the Law as written in the heart of natural man as the Prenciple of Holiness from whence is produced good Works in the Soul of the Godly In your Fourth Chapter also Pag. 28. even in the beginning thereof even with one Text you have overthrown your whole Book This Chapter is to prove that the onely Design of the Promises and Threatnings of the Gospel is to Promote and put us again in Possession of the Holiness we had lost For that the Reader must still remember is the onely Design of your Book Pag. 12. Whereas the First Text you speak of maketh mention of the Divine Nature or of the Spirit of the Living God which is also received by the Precious Faith of Christ and the Revelation of the Knowledge of him this Blessed Spirit and therefore not the Dictates of Humane Nature is the Principle that is laid in the Godly But Adam's Holiness had neither