Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	good_a	love_n	unfeigned_a	1,422	5	11.0683	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

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

some of the principall objections of the Libertines 1 OBIECT Is this our text Rom 6. 19. Ye are not under the Law but under grace Whence thus they reason To them that are not under the Law but under grace to those the Law doth not belong but it is to them abolished and void But beleevers are not under the Law c. Therefore Answ. 1. There is a twofold being under the Law First a being vnder the curse burden malediction condemnation and coaction of the Law thus no beleever is under it Secondly there is a being under the obedience rule counsell and direction of the Law and thus beleevers are under it much more than before as Christ himselfe also was For they are now by the free spirit of Christ framed to a free and voluntary obedience of it So saith August The Law made us guilty by cōmanding but not assisting but grace assisteth every beleever to be a keeper of the Law 2 This objection will be also fully satisfied by applying the former distinction of the Law Considering it 1. in the matter and substance of it And thus beleevers are still under it both for performance of all holy duties of it and forbearance of all the evills prohibited by it 2. in the manner of obedience and in the consequences and appendices of it and thus are they not vnder the rigor coaction or strict exaction of it and much lesse under the curse malediction or condemnation of it But this objection hath beene before abundantly satisfied in the 2. 3. Chapters And therefore I passe it now more breifly 2 OBIECT Gal. 3. 10. So many as are under the workes of the Law are under the curse Therefore Either the Law is utterly void to Christians or they are still under the curse of it Answ. The Apostle saith not that those to whom the Law appertaineth are under the curse but those that are under the workes of the Law 2. The workes of the Law are twofold Either workes of obedience done in humility by way of duty in testimony of thankfulnesse and of our conformity with Christ. Or 2. workes of the Law done in pride to seeke justification by the Law and the workes of it and so to promise to themselves eternall life by the observation of the law And those onely that are thus under the workes of the Law are under the curse and the meaning of the holy Apostle is no other whose scope in his whole discourse is to beate downe such as sought to set up justification by the workes of the Law and not by faith onely as appeares plainly in the next verse 11. for that no man is justified by the Law in the sight of God is evident for the just shall live by faith But though no beleever can in the second respect bee under the workes of the Law for justification but he must be under the curse of it yet it follows not that hee is not under the workes of the Law for obedience and yet not under the curse of it This place is indeed an hammer and hatchet against popery who by seeking iustification by the workes of the Law thrust themselves under the curse of God for if the curse attacheth him that seeketh righteousnesse before God by Moses Law how much more accursed are they that by observation of humane Laws and traditions by humane satisfactions and impositions seeke to demerrit God obtaine without Christ what onely Christ can procure The greater is their sinne and danger who after the knowledge and profession of the truth for some politick and worldly ends runne back into recusancy and popery which is the way of perdition apparently renouncing the blessing of justification by free grace and chuse the curse of the Law which shall runne into their bowells as water of such apostacy may be said as of Iudas it had beene good for them they had never beene borne OBIECT 3. To whom the Law is not given to those it belongs not at all But the Law is not given to the righteous 1 Tim. 1. 9. Therefore it belongs not to beleevers being justified Answ. 1. The scope and intention of the Apostle is not to abolish the Law who in the words immediately going before saith that the Law is good if it be used lawfully which words clearely import and imply that among beleevers there is a good vse of the Law which true use hee shewes in the fifth verse namely to be a guide and direction to the duties of love and charity which is now the effect of faith as the words plainly show for the end of the commandement is love out of a pure heart a good conscience and faith unfained Note that the Apostle maketh that love which is the end of the commandement a fruite and effect of faith and therefore a beleever is not loosed from the love and obedience of the Law by faith but tyed unto it 2. The sence of the Apostle is not that a righteous man can be under no lawes for Adam in innocencie was a most righteous man and yet was under the Law both in generall under the whole Morall Law and in speciall under the Law concerning the forbidden tree and this Law was given to the most righteous man in the world Innocency and righteousnesse in perfection exempts no creature from the Law of his Creatour But the Apostles meaning is that the Law is not given against a righteous man that frameth his course according to the Law it dealeth not with him as an enemy that assenteth unto it that is delighteth in it in the inner man that is ruled and ordered by it it can pronounce no sentence of damnation against him it neither can justifie him who is already justified by faith nor yet can condemne him And that this is the true meaning of the Apostle appeareth by 2 arguments in the text 1. In the originall word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which implieth an action or plea of God against a man and that the Law is not Gods action or plea against a righteous man to bring him under judgement or subdue him under the sentence of it for Christ hath freed such a one from the curse by his merit and obedience as also by his spirit made him a lover of the Law And this is the same in sence with that of the Apostle Gal 5. 23. Against such namely as expresse those recited fruites of the spirit there is no Law for the Law is so farre from condemning such as it is a witnesse rather of their conformity to it selfe and consequently of their love and obedience unto God and of their similitude with Iesus Christ. 2 Argument in the text is in that the lawlesse and disobedient are said to be wrapped up in the full damnatory power of the Law against all whom it is Gods plea and action yea the bill of inditement to their condemnation 3. Neither is the Law given to the just to

the person of the surety and gets acceptance when perfect obedience is done for the person though not by him 2. Another appendix of the Law is that this rigorous exaction of personall and perfect obedience is urged upon paine of eternall death for Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the booke of the Law Deut. 27. 26. and Gal. 3. 10. Now the beleever is not under this co●sequent of the Law for Christ was made a curse for us and redeemed us from the curse of the Law Gal. 3. 13. and by him being justified by faith we escape this damnatory sentence Rom. 8. 1. But it is one thing to be free from the curse of the Law another from the Law it selfe and it is no good sequell We are free from this sanction of the Law therefore from the substance 3. Another appendix of the Law is that it urgeth and forceth it selfe upon the conscience with feare and terrour for as was the manner of the Lawes delivery at the first so it still thrusts it selfe upon the sou●● by coaction and constraint A●● thus the beleever is not und●● the Law for the grace of 〈…〉 empteth him from the rigorous exaction of it and frameth his heart to a willing and cheerefull endeavour in obedience for what the Law prescribes to be done it helpeth in the doing of it and as Christ himself became under the Law not forced or coacted but freely so is now the Christian. But this being but an adjunct shall we argue from removing an accident to the remotion of the subject or because we are not under the Law as a rigorous exactour and terrible revenger therefore we are not under it as a righteous commander and holy conductour The 4 consequent of the Law is that it acknowledgeth no justification or life but by com●●eat obedience no life or sal●ation must be expected by the ●w but by keeping it wholly 〈◊〉 exactly And thus it is an impossible yoake for by the workes of the Law no flesh can be justified Rom 3. 20. so as now the beleever is not under the Law for justification unto whom Christ is made righteousnesse and whose perfect obedience is imputed Rom 4. 5. But it is no good argument that because the Law is fulfilled by Christ it is therefore abolished by Christ surely every simple man can distinguish betweene accomplishing and abolishing the Law nor it will not follow that because the Law cannot justifie therefore it cannot instruct guide or edifie The 5 consequent is that the Law is the vigour and strength of sinne that it arraignes and condemneth the sinner and is the minister of death 2 Cor 3. 7. But there is no condemnation to those that are in Iesus Christ Rom 8. 1. for that heavie sentence of the Law is transferred upon Christ himselfe and carried off the beleever But it will never hold weight or water in argument that because a beleever is freed from the damnatory power of the Law he is free therefore from the mandatory and directory power of it The 6 consequent or appendix of the Law is that thereby sinne is excited and provoked by our owne corruption rebelling against the Law Rom 7. 11. which is not by the fault of the Law which remaineth holy just and good v. 12. but by our wicked nature which is more violently carried to that which is forbidden even as an untamed colt the more it is hampered the more mad and stirring it is But the beleever is not thus under the incitation of the Law who by grace is in great part freed from this reluctation and resistance and by the same grace made tractable and willingly subject to the Law which they discerne to be so concordant and a very counterpaine of the holinesse and justice of God himselfe and thinke themselves so farre from being loosed from the Law by the doctrine of grace that they are faster tyed to the obedience of it The 7 and last appendix of the Law is to consider it as the Law of Moses and in Moses hand given to the Church of the Iewes in which respect it had many circumstantiall references to that people and many accessories in the administration towards them besides some strictnesse rigour and terrour to that people under rudiments In regard of which beleevers in the new Testament are not under the Law as it was in Moses hand but sundry references and circumstances as suppose time place persons tables testament manner measure terrour rigour are altered and changed in the Church since Christs death But it will prove no good reason that because an heire in minority is under tutours and rods therefore he may being come to yeares live as he list and become a lawlesse man or that because the Law as given by Moses to the Church of the Iewes is in some circumstances altered therefore it must be in the whole substance of it abolished and that wholly or that because the Church of the olde Testament was under a strait Law therefore the Church in the new Testament must be under none The summe of all is comprised in these three following conclusions 1. That the regenerate are never sine Lege that is without Law of wicked men is said that they are lawlesse and described to be disobedient ungodly sinners unholy prophane the genuine epithites and right characters of our late Anomists and Antinomists but the regenerate are no such 2. That the regenerate are not as our Text saith sub Lege not under the Law namely in respect 1. of Iustification by the Law 2. of Condemnation by it 3. of Personall and perfect obedience which Ch●ist in their stead hath undertaken and performed 4. of Coaction and constraint from which the spirit of liberty hath freed thē in great part 5. of the sundry accessories of Moses his administration to that people to whom it was delivered in these regards and some other they are not under the Law 3. That the regenerate may be truly said to be in Lege that is in or under the Law or within the compasse of the Law in respect 1. of the doctrine rule and instruction of it 2. of their subjection unto it who frame their lives secundum Legem according to the Law 3. of the spirits inscription who writing it in their hearts keepes them within the compasse of it and holdeth them in the respect and cheerfull obedience unto it And thus we have cleared the meaning of the Apostle in this and other phrases of the like sound Ye are not under the Law CHAP. 3. Proving beleevers under the rule and direction of the Morall Law NOw because the sonnes of Belial are come out and tumultuously are risen as did the heathens against the Lord and his most righteous Law saying Let us break these bonds and cast these cords from us for we are under the teaching of grace and under the rule of

laying hold on Christ by faith hath no Law but all the Law to him is abolished with all his terrours and torments And page seque We say that the Morall Law or the Law of ten commandements hath no power to accuse and terrifie the conscience in which Iesus Christ reigneth by grace for hee hath abolished the power thereof Answ. And we say so too and holde it our happinesse to beleeve this sweet Gospel But Luther speakes here and every where else of certaine uses of the Law either for justification righteousnesse and salvation or else for terrour accusation and condemnation and thus wee have proved long since and at large that it is abolished to the beleever 2. We say that to abolish the power of the Law is not to abolish the Law and to abolish the power of accusing and terrifying is not to abolish all the power of it And all their shreddings and cuttings and poore allegations out of Mr. Luthers workes doe onely prove the magnifying the Article of Christian righteousnes against the righteousnesse of the Law and workes wherein Luther was for the singular good of the Church most vehement but none of them doe so much as glance at the abolishing of the Law as a doctrine or rule of life which Mr. Luther not in a few places acknowledgeth to binde all men from the beginning of the world to the end of it But whereas no man better knew Mr. Luthers judgement than his owne schollers and followers it will not be amisse to heare them expressing their Masters minde in this argument and delivering unto us what they received from him from whom to depart in any thing they held almost piacular Chemnitius a most learned and moderate Lutheran in his common place de lege cap. 10. and 11. directly refuteth these Antinomists and sheweth that the regenerate are not under the Law in respect of justification accusation condemnation or coaction but yet affirmeth a threefold use of it in the regenerate 1. as a doctrine to direct in duties 2. as a glasse to see the defects of them 3. as a correcter and restrainer of remanent corruption In all treading in the very steppes of of Luther as we have declared Fredericus Baldwinus a learned professour in Wittenberg Passionis typicae lib 2. typ 6. hath these words Christ our Saviour by his most holy merit hath hid and covered alluding to the propitiatory the tables of the Law not that we owe no further obedience unto it but that it may not strike with maledictiō those that are in Christ for the Law is abrogated by Christ not in respect of obedience but in respect of malediction Many more were easily induced to speake the same thing but I content my selfe with these from whom none of the rest dissent and conclude that if Mr. Luthers schollers understood their Masters doctrine better than these Libertines then they sew but a fig leafe to cover their nakednesse by stretching any of Mr. Luthers phrases to the proving of their profane opinion And as Mr. Luther hath abundantly cleared unto us this truth so have we the consent of all godly learned Protestant Writers both ancient and moderne whom I might induce as a cloud of witnesses not like that cloud which Elias his servant did see as bigge as a mans hand but like the same cloud when it covered the whole heavens My spare time is not so much nor perhaps the Readers neither in so cleare a case were it so needfull to make this volume swell with such numberlesse testimonies of orthodox Divines as professedly refute this profane and lawles and as brainles a fancy I will onely therefore shew these delinquents against the Law to be cast by the verdict of an whole Iurie of godly Divines And because they shall not deny but they have faire triall and proceeding we have empannelled twelve men the most of which they acknowledge their friends and well-willers even as they challenge Mr. Luther the foreman to be wholly theirs and one man shall not speake for all as in ordinary trialls but as it is in great and extraordinary trialls every one shall deliver his owne sentence The first of them is Mr. Calvin who in the second booke of his Institutions cap. 7. sec. 12. having spoken of two uses of the Morall Law addeth a third which especially concerneth the faithfull namely that therby they must daily more certainly know what is the will of God to which they aspire as also by the frequent meditation of it they should be excited to the obedience of it and strengthened in that obedience and restrained from the offences of it In the 13 section he answers the Libertines objection But because the Law containes the ministration of death therefore Christians must reject the Law Farre be from us saith he such a profane opinion for Moses excellently sheweth that the Law which can beget nothing but death among sinners hath among the Saints a better and more excellent use and what that is hee sheweth namely to be one perpetuall and inflexible rule of life In the 14. section he answereth at large that objection that the Law is abrogated to the faithfull speaking still of the Morall Law namely not that it doth not still command what is right as it did before but that it is not that to them as it was before in terrifiyng their consciences confounding condemning and destroying them In which sense saith he Paul manifestly sheweth that it is abrogated not in respect of institution of life but of the former vigorous obligation of conscience sect 15. Thus have I abridged M. Calvine his larger Tractat upon this Argument wherein wee see him wholly consenting to the doctrine we have propounded through our whole discourse Adde only her unto that in the 3 booke cap. 19. sect 2 Christian libertie consisteth first in this That the consciences of the faithfull in the confidence of their justification before God must lift themselves above the Law forget the whole righteousnes of the Law Yet saith he no man must hence collect that the Law is needlesse For it doth not therefore cease to teach to exhort and incite to good though before Gods tribunall it hath no place in their consciences The Law therefore by Mr. Calvins de e●mination abideth by Christ a● inviolable doctrine the which by teaching us by admonishing by rebuking and by correcting doth secure prepare us to every good worke The second is Reverend Beza in his defence against Castillion on Rom. 7. 6. farre be it from me saith he that I should assent to you who say the Law is dead to them to whom it is cheifly alive that is those that are most obedient unto it meaning beleevers For a King doth not more manifestly regine over any thē those which freely and willingly obey his Lawes See also his judgement constant to himselfe in his

It will make a greater noise that you can contemne such conquered adversaries for what are your London Ministers to them Much rather doe I wish you would in time consider how dangerous your way now is while you rise up against the most impregnable and unconquerable Law of God how the Scripture brandeth them for wicked men that forsake the Law and depart from the Law and much more that disclaime and revile it And if those that be partiall in the Law that is take some and leave some be made despised of God and vile before all people how much more shall those that reject it all and in every part bee justly branded as you are for a vile generation of men CHAP. 12. Containing the conclnsion and a short direction how the people of God should carry themselves towards the Law of God THese premises being all duely considered it remaineth that such as desire to learne Christ aright should take his directions how to demeane themselves towards his Law which is so holy just and good To which purpose it shall not be amisse to lay these grounds in our consciences and order our selves by them First That in the Liberty from the Law consists the chiefe stay and comfort of a Christian because being now freed from the guilt of sinne from the curse of sinne and from exaction of an inherent and personall righteousnesse to justification hee may now without respect of his owne obedience and without regard of any righteousnesse of his owne relie upon the mercies of God and merits of Christ and challenge his righteousnesse before God with the the Apostle Phil 3 9. Secondly That upon this liberty of justification wherein is no respect at all of our personall obedience issueth another liberty of sanctification which is a freedome from the bondage and staine of sinne not wholly and at once as is our justification but in part and degrees and here although the obedience of the Law be quite shut out of our justification yet it is required unto sanctification and we necessarily bound unto it but not to bee thereby justified seeing wee must necessarily be justified before we can be obedient Thirdly that the Law is an eternall doctrine and abides for ever yea David saith it endures for ever in heaven that is not onely his decree appeares stable by the government and perpetuall Law which hee hath set in the heavens and cannot be broken but as Saint Basil expoundeth it it abideth inviolably observed by heavenly inhabitants even the holy Angels themselves so as though it may be contradicted controverted and resisted by Libertines on earth yet it is not abrogable for ever but abideth stable in heauen Doe the Angels in heaven observe it as a rule of holinesse and doe not the Saints in heaven doe they live by divers charters And if the Saints in heaven who have attained full perfection and perfect sanctification are bound to the Law are the Saints in earth so perfect as they are loose from it Hath not Christ done as much for them as for these Fourthly That the Law of God is the rule of godly life in which regard holy David calleth it a counseller and a directer unto good duties and therefore wee must acknowledge the necessity of this part of the word The Sunne is not more necessary for the day nor the Moone to governe the night nor a lanterne or candle for a darke house than this part of the word so long as wee are in the night of the world for without this light we grope in the darke nothing can be seene no action can be well done nothing wanting can be found no crooked thing can be straightened no streight thing tried nay all our way in which this light of God shineth not is darknesse and tendeth to utter darknesse The pillar of the cloud and of fire was not more necessary to Israel in the wildernesse for their station or motion towards Canaan than is this shining pillar of Gods Law to guide us unto heaven and as it was their happinesse that their pillar lasted them till they entred Canaan and it had not beene for their ease to have rejected it in their way so ought we to esteeme our selves happy in the fruition of this holy doctrine and direction and on the contrary these Libertines to be unhappy men who being in as darke as heavie and dangerous a way and wildernesse put out their light and breake to peeces and cast away their lanthorne Fifthly Being the rule of godly life we must square all our duties thereby even as a workman applieth his rule to every part of his worke and declines not to the right hand or to the left and holy wisdome requireth no lesse but that that should be the square of all which must bee the judge of all things done in the flesh be it good or evill And hence is it that the LORD writeth his Law by his spirit in the spirits of the elect and imprinteth it in the fleshly tables of their hearts that all their motions actions and affections should be conformable unto it But how doe these lawlesse men affirming the Law to be wholly abolished denie it to bee written in their owne hearts and consequently that they want the spirit promised to be sent into the hearts of the elect for this purpose And that either themselves are none of the elect or that the spirit is wanting in his office which were an high blasphemy Sixthly That as the Law is a reveiler of duty so it is a reveiler of sinne too and discovers the sinfull defects of our best obedience And because by the Law is the knowledge of sin therefore by the obedience and works of the Law can no flesh be justified That same Law that discovereth and condemneth a traytor cannot acquit him and it were madnes for him to expect life from that Law which hath sentenced him with death Shall franticke Papists ever finde life and righteousnesse by the works of that Law which condemns that very fact And are not they next to fr●nzy that after all this so open disclaiming it would fasten upon us that because wee teach the Law wee therefore teach justification by the Law Nay we are so farre from consenting to any such poysoned assertion That when the Gospell promiseth salvation and eternall life to repentance and good works wee deny them promised to these as performances of the Law but only as they are fruits of lively faith by which the promises of eternal life are apprehended Seventhly that the Law being a constant reveiler of sinne wee must by the Law be still drawne neerer unto Christ not onely by the Law to see our sinne and in our sinne our need of Christ but we must see the Law fulfilled for us in Christ else can we never looke comfortably towards the Law And because it revelleth sinne not onely before we come to Christ to bring us first unto him but it