Linguistic DNA - Concept Modelling Demonstrator

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	faith_n	heart_n	sprinkle_v	2,758	5	11.3113	5	true

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A74993	Certain select discourses on those most important subjects, requisite to be well understood by a catechist in laying the foundation of Christian knowledge in the minds of novitiates viz., First discourses on I. The doctrine of the two covenants both legal and evangelical, II. On faith and justification / by William Allen. Secondly, Discourses on I. The covenant of grace, or baptismal covenant, being chatechetical lectures on the preliminary questions and answers of the Church-Catechism : II. Three catechetical lectures on faith and justification / by Thomas Bray, D.D.	Allen, William, d. 1686.; Bray, Thomas, 1658-1730.	1699 (1699)	Wing A1055A; ESTC R172154	614,412	564

having him our High-Priest over the House of God we may hence-forward draw near with a true Heart in full Assurance of Faith having our Hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience Heb. 10.19 20 21 22. that is Every Christian provided he comes not with the guilt of any unrepented Sin upon his Conscience may himself now Offer up his own Prayers to God through Christ without the Mediation of any other Priest or Sacrifice and that with a full Assurance of being graciously heard and answer'd And that this Faith and full Assurance with which we may Approach unto God to Pray to him for the Forgiveness of Sins is our Priviledge only as we are the Sons of God by Adoption is plain from St. Paul Rom. 8.15 Ye have not received the Spirit of Bondage again unto fear as under the Law but ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry unto God Abba Father And again Gal. 4.6 Because ye are thus made his Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father And now Lastly If there be any other very considerable Priviledge Lastly A Child of God is more surely instated in the Inheritance of Heaven than others accruing to a Child of God from such his Relation it is That God will more surely Instate him in the Inheritance of Heaven than he will do others that have no such Relation to him And indeed if Children of God then Heirs we are told Heirs of God and Joint-Heirs with Christ Rom. 8.17 But the Vastness of this will be best consider'd by us when we come to the Explication of that Third and the last of those Priviledges made over to us on God's Part in the Covenant of Grace viz. What it is to be an Inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven The infinite reason we have to praise God for these Advantages And now upon the Review of what has been said in the Exposition of this present Article In what Admiration of God's Goodness may we all of us cry out with St. John 1 Epist 3.1 Behold what manner of Love the Father hath bestow'd upon us that we should be call'd the Sons of God And what infinite Reason have we with St. Paul thankfully to Praise him for it Eph. 1.3.5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath Blessed us Christians with all Spiritual Blessings in and concerning Heavenly Places and Concerns of the World to come through Christ having Predestinated us to the Adoption and Priviledges of Children by Jesus Christ unto himself according to the good Pleasure of his Will He Adopted us to be his Children according to the good Pleasure of his Will This Priviledge that we should be his Children is Attended with very rich Advantages all which have accru'd to us not from any Merit and Desert of ours being suppos'd Enemies unto him but only from his free Goodness towards us which was pleas'd so to determine it And as it is both Great and Free we ought certainly with all possible Acknowledgments to Magnify and Extol both his infinite Condescension and Goodness and our own unspeakable Priviledge and Dignity therein Indeed for God to be a Father by Creation and Providence as One observes tho' it be a Mercy yet it is no Priviledge for in that Sence he is Parens rerum the common Parent of all things But that God should be thy Father by Adoption that he should make thee his Son through his only Begotten Son that he should rake up Dirt and Filth as thou art and lay it in his Bosom that he should take Aliens and Strangers near unto himself and Adopt Enemies and Rebels into his Family Register their Names in the Book of Life make them Heirs of Glory Co-heirs with Jesus Christ his Eternal Son as the Apostle doth admiringly re-count it Rom. 8.17 This is Mercy and Miracle both It is indeed an invaluable Grace and Favour that we should be Adopted his Children were it only for this that he will be ready to Pardon our Sins and Infirmities and will Admit us favourably to Address our Selves and Prayers to him But this Priviledge of being his Children will farther appear to be beyond all Expression Great since if Children as the Apostle infers Rom. 8.17 then Heirs Heirs of God and Joint-Heirs with Christ If a Child of God then which Crowns all the rest of his Covenanted Mercies Inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven which yet it is said we shall be But what and how Great that Third and Last Priviledge of the Covenant is I am in the Explication of the next Article to declare unto you THE Eighth Lecture And an Inheritour of the Kingdom of Heaven HAving hitherto spoke to the Two First Priviledges made over to us in the Covenant of Grace that thereby we are First made Members of Christ and Secondly Children of God Having both Explain'd to you the Meaning and Importance of those Two Articles and laid out to you the Vastness of those Priviledges and Advantages contain'd therein I come now in like manner to Explain to you the Third which is that we are made thereby Inheritours of the Kingdom of Heaven And indeed this Last does necessarily follow from the other For as St. Paul speaks Rom. 8.17 If Children then Heirs Heirs of God and Joint-Heirs with Christ This is the Perfection of all God's Promises and Favours vouchsafed in the Second Covenant It comes last and Crowns all the rest And it will be the certain Reward of all those that persevere to the end of their Lives in well-doing and in sincere Obedience notwithstanding all Temptations to the contrary to God's most Righteous Commands Be faithful unto Death says our Saviour and I will give thee a Crown of Life Rev. 2.10 And that you may throughly understand the vast greatness of this most extraordinary Priviledge made over to you by Covenant so as to be excited thereby to render your selves worthy to be Partakers thereof according to my usual Method I will Explain to you First What is meant by the Kingdom of Heaven Secondly What it Imports to be an Inheritour of it And then Lastly I will lay out before you the Vastness of our Priviledge in being made Inheritours of the Kingdom of Heaven And First I am to Explain unto you By the Kingdom of Heaven is meant in Scripture either First the Kingdom of Grace in this Life or Secondly the Kingdom of Glory in the Life to come what is meant by the Kingdom of Heaven The Kingdom of Heaven is an Expression we do meet with above Thirty times in the New Testament and I think we may safely say That we are constantly to understand by it either First The Kingdom of Grace in this Life or Secondly The Kingdom of Glory in the Life to come By the Kingdom of Grace in this Life I mean that Happy and Blessed State of us Christians now under the Gospel wherein we Enjoy the Happiness

of the Benefits promised by it which as it is now revealed is the Gospel Justification is a Law-term And no Man shall be Justified in Judgment or upon Tryal but he that is Just in the Eye of this New Law of Grace as every one that rightly Believes Repents and sincerely Obeys is because that is all that it requires of a Man himself to his Justification and Salvation And yet every Believer's Justification will be all of Grace because the Law by which they are Justified is wholly of Grace is wholly a Law of Grace and was Enacted in meer Grace and Favour to undone Man that was utterly undone by the Fall There are two things which I conceive do constitute and make up the Righteousness of the Law of Grace presupposing all to be procured by the Purchase which Christ hath made first The Righteousness which consisteth in the forgiveness of sins and secondly The Righteousness of sincere Obedience And in reference to both these Faith is imputed for Righteousness by virtue of the Law of Grace First Faith as practical is imputed to a Man for Righteousness as it is That and all That which is required of him himself by the Law of Grace to entitle him to the Righteousness which consisteth in the Remission of sins through Christ Now that remission of Sins is part of the Righteousness which is by Faith is evident from Rom. 4.5 6 7 8. Where the Apostle to prove that a Man's Faith in God who justifyeth the ungodly is counted to him for Righteousness he citeth a passage out of Psalm the 32d Even as David also saith he describeth the blessedness of the man to whom God imputeth Righteousness without Works saying Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin The Righteousness imputed in this sense doth consist in the non-imputation of sin Not to impute sin is not to reckon a Man not to have sinned but it is to deal with him not according to the demerit of his sin it is to pardon him for Christ's sake upon his penitential Faith and not to punish him for his sin and this by vertue of a New Law or Act of Indemnity or Covenant of Grace For although pardon of sin is obtained for Man by Christ's Sufferings for sin In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins Ephes .1 7. and though God for Christ's sake doth forgive us Ephes 4.32 yet the actual collation of this great Benefit is not promised but upon condition of Man's Faith Him hath God set forth to be a Propitiation but it is through Faith in his blood Rom. 3.25 By him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts 13.39 and 10.43 Although Christ is the Propitiation for the sins of the whole World 1 Joh. 2.2 yet that saying of Christ must and will take place If ye believe not that I am he ye shall dye in your sins Joh. 8.24 And that also Mark 16.16 He that believeth not shall be damned So that Faith is imputed for Righteousness partly as it is the Condition upon which Pardon of sin is granted Secondly That Faith is imputed for Righteousness which is practical or productive of sincere Obedience without which property it is not a fulfilling of the Law of Grace as a Condition of the promised Benefits and consequently cannot justifie a Man in the Eye of that Law For 1st Repentance and likewise forgiving Men their Injuries for instance are such Acts of Obedience as without which a Man cannot be Pardoned and if not Pardoned then not Justified And therefore Faith is not imputed for Righteousness unless it be productive of Obedience 2dly No Faith is available to Justification but such as worketh by Love Gal. 5.6 Which to say is all one as to say no Faith is imputed for Righteousness but such as worketh by keeping the Commandments of God and fulfilling the Law for that is the interpretation of Love both to God and Men 1 Joh. 5.3 Rom. 13.10 3dly Abraham who was set forth by God for a Pattern of his justifying Men by Faith was Justified by such Works as were the fruits of his Faith and not only by his Faith which was the Root of them And therefore his Faith as practical was imputed to him for Righteousness And such must be the Faith of all others that shall obtain Justification upon their Believing as he did Jam. 2.21 22 23. Was not Abraham our Father justified by Works when he had offered Isaac his Son upon the Altar Seest thou how Faith wrought with his Works and by Works was Faith made perfect And the Scripture was fulfilled which saith Abraham Believed God and it was imputed to him for Righteousness Where note these four things 1. That Abraham's Faith wrought with his Works about the same End as a Condition of obtaining it to wit his Justification 2. That by his Works his Faith was made perfect to wit in its aptitude by God's Institution to justifie him without which it would not have reached that End 3. Note further That it was his Faith as it wrought with his Works and as it was compleated and made perfect by them that was imputed to him for Righteousness 4. Note That in the Imputation of his Faith for Righteousness as it was thus accompanied with and perfected by Works was the Scripture fulfilled which saith Abraham Believed God and it was imputed to him for Righteousness And if so then the Justification by Works together with Faith of which St. James speaks here is a Justification before God and not before Men only and to a Man 's own Conscience For of such a Justification doth the Scripture in Gen 15.6 speak which is here cited by St. James Nor doth this that Faith accompanied with Obedience is imputed for Righteousness at all derogate from the Obedience and Sufferings of Christ in reference to the Ends for which they serve Because the whole Covenant and all the parts and terms of it both promises of Benefits and the Condition on which they are promised are all founded in Christ his undertaking for us and all the Benefits of it accrue to us upon our Believing and Obeying upon his account and for his sake We are in him who of God is made unto us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 For which cause also he is called the Lord our Righteousness Not as if his Personal Obedience to the Law was so formally imputed to us as that we should be reckoned to have kept the Law in his keeping of it which hath been the Opinion of some for if that had been so there would have been no more need that Christ should have Suffered for us than there was that he should have Suffered for himself who had no sin for neither should we if we had perfectly kept the Law in him

days upon the Land c. Deut. 32.46 47. Set your hearts unto all the words which I testifie among you this day for it is not a vain thing for you because it is your life and through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the Land wherein ye go The latter words are exegetical of the former Through this thing ye shall prolong your days is the interpretation of those it is your Life And it may be considered also whether this Particle in which if a Man do he shall even live in them may not determine the nature and kind of that Reward which was promised in the first Covenant as it was a present Reward a Reward which was received even while the Work was doing according to that Psal 19.11 In keeping them there is great reward And this is agreeable to what fell out in the event The Lord was with them to prosper them while they were with him but when they forsook him presently Troubles overtook them The pouring out of God's Fury on them to consume them in the Wilderness being put in Ezek. 20 13 21. as the direct contrary to those words which if a Man do he shall even live in them seems greatly to favour this Notion But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the Wilderness They walked not in my Statutes and they despised my Judgâ—ents which if a man do he shall even live in them Then I said I would â—â—ur out my fury upon them to consume them in the Wilderness And indeed one main difference between the two Covenants which I â—ould have here observed lies in this to wit the presentness of the Râ—ward promised in the first and the futurity of that promised in the seâ—ond St. Paul in his Allegorical description of the two Covenants Gaâ— 4.24 c. represents those that adhered to the first Covenant by the Children of the Bond-servant to whom Abraham gave Gifts in presâ—â—t and sent them away as in Gen. 25.5 and those that adhered to thâ— second by the Son of the free-woman Isaac who was Abraham's Heir â—o whom he gave the whole Inheritance at last And the Adoptioâ— of Sons as the Privilege of the New Covenant is opposed to the condition of Servants under the Old Gal. 4.7 And what are they adâ—pted to but to an Inheritance for the future For by Adoption they are made Heirs If a Son then an Heir of God through Christ An Heir of what of an Inheritance for the future an inheritance incorruptible undefiled and which fadeth not away reserved in Heaven 1 Pet. 1.4 And therefore they are said to wait for the Adoption to wit the redemption of their Bodies at the Resurrection Rom. 8.23 Sons and Heirs serve their Father with a free and ingenuous Spirit though they have but little for the present in confidence of what he will do for them â—ereafter in another World when they shall come to Age. But those under the Old Covenant were like Servants who serve with a servile Spirit because they do it with expectation of present pay The one walk by Faith which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen the other were influenced in their Obedience by the expectation of present Reward because that was it which the first Covenant promised to the observers of it These Promises now insisted on were promises of Reward to the observers of this first Covenant But besides these there was another sort of Promises exhibited in the first Covenant and they were Promises of Pardon in many cases when the Laws of that Covenant were broken There were as I have shewed Laws of Indemnity which made many of the breaches of the Laws of Duty pardonable upon certain conditions And such were all Sins of Ignorance and Inadvertency and some of those also which were committed wittingly But presumptuous Sins and such as carried in them a kind of contempt of the Law these were exempted from Pardon Heb. 10.28 He that despised Moses's Law died without mercy under two or three witnesses But for the other there were promises of pardon upon certain conditions which conditions were not always the same In some cases the offering of a Sin-offering or Trespass-offering was the condition In other cases that with confession of Sin was the condition And in some other cases Sacrificing Restitution and Satisfaction were the condition And afflicting of the Soul as well as the Sacrifice for Atonement oâ— the day of general Expiation was always a condition of forgiveness These things in the particularities of them you have in the 4 5 6 1â— and 23d Chapters of Levit. And then the condition of the Promisâ—s of Purgation of Legal Uncleannesses and the penal effects from theâ— was the observing the Rules prescribed for purifying the Uncleâ—n Now the forgiveness promised by these Laws of Indemnity did â—ot free the Conscience from all obligation to Eternal Punishment but â—nly freed the Person from suffering those temporal Evils which â—ere threatned in this Covenant against those which did not continâ—â— in all things written in the Book of it Neither Sacrifices nor â—egal Purifications Sanctified but unto the purifying of the flesh and to their temporal Concerns only Heb. 9.9 10 13. And here we may observe a five-fold difference in reference â—o Remission of Sin between the first Covenant and the Coveâ—ant of Grace 1. They differ in the nature of those Sacrifices by which Atonements were made and upon which Forgiveness was promised The Blood of the Sacrifice of the first Covenant was but the blood of Bulls and of Goats and the like Heb. 10.4 But the Blood of the Sacrifice of the second Covenant is the Blood of Christ the Eternal Son of God So that the nature of the Sacrifices of the two Covenants upon which the Promise of the pardon of Sins was granted doth differ as much as the Blood of Beasts and the Blood of the Son of God differ 2. Those two sorts of Sacrifices pertaining to two kinds of Covenants differ in the proportion of Efficacy and Virtue to accomplish their respective Ends and Effects There is a greater Richness of proportion in the Blood of Christ to free the Conscience from the guilt of Sin or obligation to Eternal Punishment than there was in the Blood of Beasts to free the delinquent Person from temporal Punishments This is plainly intimated in Heb. 9.13 14. For if the blood of Bulls and of Goats and the ashes of an Heiser sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your Conscience from dead works to serve the living God 3. They differ in the nature of the pardon promised in each of the Covenants respectively The Redemption granted in the first Covenant was but Temporal as the Covenant it self was it was but from Evils temporal But Christ Jesus by his Atonement hath obtained

hereto that to be justified and to be saved is the same thing with St. James as well as it is with St. Paul according to the tenour of his Reasoning Chap. 2. from ver 14. to the end What doth it profit my brethren saith he though a man say he hath Faith and have not Works Can Faith save him Vers 14. This Interrogation implies an Emphatical Negation and the meaning is that such a Faith can by no means save a Man and he gives the reason of it twice over in vers 17 20. because Faith without Works is dead And then afterwards argues the necessity of Works together with Faith unto Justification or unto Salvation which was the thing he began with by God's justifying Abraham by Works together with his Faith who was the great Pattern or Example of God's justifying all others If then to be justified and to be saved amounts to the same in St. James's Discourse here then by the way they do not rightly understand St. James who think he doth not speak of a Justification before God in this his Discourse about Justification by Works together with Faith but of a Justification before Men and to their own Conscience only Which supposition of theirs doth directly thwart the very scope and design of his whole Discourse which is to set forth what will and what will not avail a Christian-Professor in the sight of God to the saving of his Soul as abundantly appears So that the Scripture which saith Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for Righteousness and which St. James saith was fulfilled in Abraham's being justified by Works as well as by Faith was not fulfilled in Abraham's being justified to others and to his own Conscience but in his being justified before God and so St. Paul understood it Rom. 4.3 Gal. 3.6 But this was touched before in Chap. 1. The result then of what hath been argued in Answer to the Objection is this viz. That all that are justified are thereby put regularly into an immediate capacity of Salvation so that if they should dye the very next moment after they are once justified they would undoubtedly be saved And therefore Evangelical Obedience can be no more necessary to Salvation than it is to Justification and it is as necessary to the one as to the other And if to say Evangelical Obedience is necessary to Justification be injurious to Christ and to the Grace of God as some would pretend how comes it to pass then that to say Evangelical Obedience is necessary to Salvation is not so too For our final Salvation is as much the effect of God's Grace and of Christ's Undertaking for us as our Justification it self is and of as much Value And therefore if the one be not injurious in this kind neither is the other 8. As the Promise of forgiveness of sins by the Blood of Christ or the Promise of an interest in his Blood to the pardon of Sin is sometimes made unto Believing so sometimes again it is made unto Evangelical Obedience or a holy Life as in 1 Joh. 1.7 If we walk in the light as he is in the light that is endeavouring to be holy as God is holy then have we fellowship one with another and the Blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sin but otherwise it doth not And so the Christians to whom St. Peter wrote were said to be elect according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father through Sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.2 But they were not elect to the benefit of being sprinkled with the Blood of Christ without Obedience And therefore by this we see also that Evangelical Obedience is part of the Condition of the Promise of Justification by the Blood of Christ 9. To forgive Injuries is an act of Evangelical Obedience to that Precept of our Lord Mar. 11.25 And yet without this act of Obedience Men that have been injured cannot be justified because they cannot be pardoned according to the Word of our Lord Mark 11.26 Mat. 6.15 and 18.35 Therefore Evangelical Obedience must needs be part of the Condition of Justification 10. Repentance is an eminent Act of Evangelical Obedience Acts 17.30 and yet pardon of sin which is essential to Justification is not to be obtained without it Luke 13.3 5. Therefore again it follows that Evangelical Obedience is necessary to Justification and part of the Condition of it And now by this time I suppose it fully appears to any unprejudiced Reader that the Doctrine of St. Paul yea and of St. Peter and John too do fully accord with the Doctrine of St. James touching the necessity of Evangelical Obedience unto Justification The opposition then which some have made between Faith and all Internal and External Works in reference to Justification as well Evangelical as Mosaical hath not been only without Scripture-ground but against Scripture-evidence and looks more like that which was made by the Gnosticks or other Solisidians opposed by St. James if it be not the very same than any the Scripture any where maketh And how much injury the Christian Religion and the Souls of Men may have suffered thereby is a thing to be thought on and sadly laid to Heart It is a pleasant Doctrine and the worst of Men called Christians are glad to hear that they may be justify'd by Christ only upon their Believing in him without any Works of Righteousness or Self-denial of their own And upon that account presuming verily that they do Believe they are confident that they are justify'd though they are unsanctify'd But those especially are in great danger of deceiving their own Souls by building their Confidence upon this Doctrine who together with this Belief have more of the form of Godliness than the other have and are found much more in the use and exercise of the external Devotional part of Religion and are zealous for this or that Opinion Party or Way which they think most Orthodox though they be greatly destitute of Love to the Nature of God and of Humility Charity strict Justice Fidelity Peaceableness Sobriety Temperance Modesty and Meekness and of that renewed frame of Soul which would make them like Christ Jesus wherein the power of Christianity doth consist The external Duties of Hearing Reading Praying and the rest being in great part but means referring to the other as the end So that no Man is to account himself truly Religious further than he attains to these truly Christian Qualifications by the use of the External Mâ—ans and Internal Aids Yea the â—â—â—shly part even in Mâ—n good in the main is very apt to make an advantage of such a Doctrine as aforesaid to the lessening of their Care Dilience and Zeal in working out their Salvation in striving to enter in at the straight Gate in governing their own Spirits and Appetites in cleansing themselves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit and

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