Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	law_n	light_n	perfect_a	1,397	5	9.4420	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30730	Sabbatikh ʻhmepa ʻhmepa ʻimepa, Septima dies, dies desiderabilis, sabbatum Jehovae the seventh-day-sabbath the desirable day, the closing completing day of that first created week, which was, is, and will be, the just measure of all succeeding weeks in their successive courses, both for working in the six foregoing days, and for rest in the seventh, which is the last day, by an unchangeable law of well-established order, both in the revealed word and in created nature. The second part / by Francis Bampfield.	Bampfield, Francis, 1615 or 16-1683.	1677 (1677)	Wing B628; ESTC R13923	284,270	156

World made known in every Nation to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews all Mankind being concerned therein as to their Eternal Estate so that if as Adversaries have confessed it were the Gentiles Duty to observe the Law of the ten Words as soon as these were made known unto them which have so much of self-evidence in them commending themselves to every man's conscience at first view we take then their own concession and would improve what they grant for their own conviction that seeing besides what was made manifest to Gentile Nations of these Laws before Moses's time there were many present at the very time of Promulgation of the Decalogue of Mount Sinai and who knows how many more might hear the sound of Christ's Voice at that time and there was one and the same Law to Israelite and to Gentile and seeing in the after-dispersions of the Israelites and Jews unto the several Nations into all Nations these Laws were published abroad among the Gentiles that therefore the Gentiles also who had or at least might have had the knowledge of these Laws were under the obligatory power of them Come we now to the New Testament This doth not run in the stile nor carry the form of enacting new Laws which were never before but as to the Matter in hand it doth confirm and established the Old Law of the ten Word This was the constant Doctrine of Christ when he spake to this subject This Decalogical Doctrine and Rule of Life was not at all disanulled or any way dissolved by this Lawgiver but he made it to stand firmly in his place and to preach the good old Gospel of Reconciliation through his Name he being that very Messiah who was foretold of should come in the flesh born of a Virgin and to declare the sound old Doctrine of Faith for the comfort of such converted Souls as turned from sin to a Saviour and so obtained Justification and Salvation by Faith in Christ which was the same in all ages of the Church under the several dispensations of Grace unto all and upon all that believe which Truth hath Testimony from the Law and from the Prophets This Law of the ten Words the Apostles by Commission from the LORD Jesus Christ commend and command to all rational Creature as a Rule of Life in their Preaching and Uniting to the Gentile Nations not as by way of new constituting and re-enacting of Laws as if they had been no Laws to them before but reviving and re-inforcing of these old Laws upon their Conscience and this they often bring in especially Paul sometimes to prove a Doctrine othertimes convincingly to reprove for a sin or reformingly to correct some Error or Vice or chastizingly to instruct some Duty of Holiness and Righteousness according as the particular occasions for these were taking it for granted that they were a Directory for the Gentiles as well as for the Jews The Apostles when they preached to Jew or Gentile before the New Testament was written were it a Doctrine or a Duty or what else which they pressed upon the hearers still they proved what they taught out of the Scriptures of the Old Testament as that which did and doth bind I speak of the Law of the ten Words both Jew and Gentile this was a part of that word-foundation on which all the Jewish and Gentile Churches were built Examine we some passages in the Epistles to this end There were Gentiles in the Church at Rome and Paul in his writing to them doth evidently declare That they were under the Obligation of those Commandments which were delivered from God by Moses giving particular instances in several of the Laws of the ten Words as the Marginal references will inform And commending of this Law in the general at large There were Gentiles in the Church at Corinth and Paul in his first Epistle to them doth convince them both of sin and duty from what was written in the Law of Moses There were Gentiles in the Church of Galatia yet Paul doth convince them of their guilt and cursedness whilst they were in their sinful state from those things which were written in the Book of the Law and sheweth them the necessity of Faith as to Justification which he proveth out of the writings of an Old Testament Prophet and as for Love he declares unto them that all the Law is fulfilled in one Word Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self which was the same Doctrine with that of Moses and of Christ There were Gentiles in the Church at Ephesus yet was that Church built upon the foundation of the Prophets of the Old Testament whose writings were much of them a Commentary upon the Law of the ten Words as well as under the Apostles of the New he urgeth upon them obedience to the Decalogical Law and particularly doth single one out of the Ten about honouring of the Father and the Mother which was the first Commandment of the second Table with promise An industrious Reader and a diligent observer may quickly carry this through the New Testament and spare me the further labour by his own unprejudiced ingenuity The Gentiles as well as the Jews are in their natural corrupt state in Sin and under the Curse which sin is a Transgression of this Law The Light of Nature in the Gentiles especially when rightly and throughly informed by the Word of God approves of every one of the Laws of the ten Words There is but one only Lawgiver who has mere and direct Empire over the consciences of all Mankind even Jehovah Aelohim who is able to save and to destroy according as men obey him or not And there is one only perfect Rule of Life to which all thoughts words and actions should be conformed and by which we shall be judged at that last Great Day even the Word of God the ten Words summarily this is the chief the principle the supreme Directory Whatsoever is written in the heart of the Pagans so far as it is right is concordant unto this Law The Will of the LORD concerning what is or is not to be done which way soever he has revealed it to all or to any of Mankind is still the same with this holy righteous Law when ever he has signified to man what his requirements from man in these matters are Unto his Will must the will of all Mankind be conformed all Mankind is always bound to will that which God would have them to will all Mankind who have the use and the exercise of right Reason cannot but acknowledge that the two great comprehensive Summaries of the ten Words do bind them all which are To love the LORD our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind and to love our neighbour as our selves all are reduced to this bipartite Universal Law Though the LORD variously reveal his Will and his Word for

thereof for the glory of Aelohim The glory of Christ The good of the Elect and of the Believing The work of Creation in that one week of the Erected World was a glorious work every way perfect particularly of Man as Man That Sabbath which was thus from the beginning must still stand The first created Seventh-day-Sabbath is throughout the Scripture most natural according to the Scripture This alone and no other Day is the Sabbath in pure created Nature This Seventh in order has the natural name of Sabbath which the First second third fourth fifth and sixth have not The creation has a natural order The several works thereof having been so created in such due order in six distinct days doth carry that along with it in the very nature and order of their creation which would convince a natural conscience exercising right reason especially when the true information and clear discovery thereof is brought unto him by Scripture-revelation that the Creators wisdom doth shine forth in that order and that this self-evidencing light should be received entertained and improved with ready submission to its obliging Law which doth bind such a natural conscience to believe observe and obey it The first created time as to the weekly Sabbath was perfected and appointed in its proper prime pure and natural Created state and therefore the created order of the seven days of that one week must still keep their natural Names and so the last day of the week and no other is alone the seventh-day and the Sabbath-day Which day then cannot be altered unto a working-day Aelohim's Law must still be obeyed and his Example followed whilst Time has duration To carry the Sabbatizing rest from the seventh to the first day and the Labouring-service from the first to the seventh-day is contrary to the purest Created Nature There is not a translating either of the Work or of the Rest from one day of the week to another Aelohim would not have either of these to be separated from his from their appointed seasons It must abide to the End what was thus from the Beginning What the Holy Law of pure Nature doth confirm doth remain unmoved through all the Dispensations of Grace both of the Old and New-Testament-Administration This doth not destroy that which is pure and perfect in its natural created Being Scripture and Nature are in Harmonious Concord in this matter This seventh day is peculiarly sequestred by Aelohim for a Sabbath and has this Preeminence beyond all the rest the Vote and suffrage of Primitive Nature doth determine and conclude it to be so And what is Man that he attempts to change this Time and Law by a Devising of his own heart and to level this Honorable Day with the rest seeing it was the Institution of Aelohim in the very Forming of Created beings The Holy ends whereof were concreated uses natural and permanent for this portion of Time Which seventh day may not therefore be employed about the common ends uses and works of the six foregoing days of the Week Which six days in their order and names have their several distinct Existence as sense doth plainly demonstrate by the continued successive courses of Night and Day in their seasons At the first framing of Nature the very time it self of the seventh day was on that same day created and made an Holy Rest and was by Law and Sanction so declared The time it self of the seventh-day-Sabbath As such was and is and will be That distinct part of Time which was the object of Aelohim's blessing and sanctifying of it as the natural Weekly Sabbath to be a day of Holy Rest having Foundation in its own natural Existence This is manifestly evidenceable to every rational Man's revived nature and it is perfectly demonstrable by Scripture-revelation to every considering Believer who gives himself impartially to understand the substance and the end of Aelohim's creating of such a separated determinate portion of Time This is the true Doctrine and the Genuin meaning of the Weekly-Sabbath Man and this seventh-day-Sabbath being created in one and the same week will be coeval whilst Weeks do last They will live and stand together The fittedness of this Day was a Creating-Act The reason of which Day is of natural self-Manifestation and Obligation in which we are confirmed by Word-revelation This is the prime Make of it having its first rise with Created Nature and so is Perpetual and unchangeably fixed An Individual-Sabbath-day untransferrable to any other Day of the Week Sabbath-day and seventh-day are Connatural and Reciprocal Sabbath-worship and service must be done on the Day thereof All days of the week are not of equal accompt with God neither have they the same Honour Christ Himself hath put the Crown upon the Head of the Seventh-day and so let it enjoy its sole and lasting Royal Dignity It having a concreated Excellingness which will be and abide with it through the duration of the World A Primitive Constitution that must stand firm It is a distinct day and has a distinct word for it Thus let the Scriptural compleat Journal and its perfect Diary of that one Created Week in seven distinct days remain in its unmoveable Order And now if this Argument drawn from pure Primitive Created Nature be convincing and demonstrative let that Great Ratiocinator call to mind his Expressions I can consent saith he that all They take the seventh-day for the Sabbath who can prove it to be by meer natural evidence and in another place he thus writes This is the very hinge of all our Controversie For if this be once proved we shall easily consess that it he speaks of the Seventh-day-sabbath is not abrogated For Christ came not to abrogate any Law of Nature And further he writes That the great Laws of nature containing Man's Duty to God resulting from and manifested in our nature As related to God and in the nature of things or the works of God was still made the chief part of the Redeemer's Law So that this Law of nature whose sum is the love of God and of his Image is ever the Primitive unchangeable Law No title of this shall ever cease if Nature cease not The seventh-day thus speaks for it self and has its Creator and his word cogently pleading for it No other day of the week either in name or in nature is the Seventh-day The order of the Days is sensible from the first to the seventh He that can tell the days and knows their number understandeth that there must six go before in the same week ere he can come to the seventh A day which cannot be lost by all Mankind Will any apprehend that all and every of reasonable creatures have out slept just one whole day or more whereby this accompt is disturbed What colour is there for such an apprehension And if for Disputes sake such a groundless supposition were admitted yet the Day if thorowly searched after

of Promise made to the observers of the First day as such What one word of threatning against any that do not so observe the First day as the weekly Sabbath day and if there be not any one word here for the First day either as to Institution or Command or Promise or Threating how can any observer keep it aright either in Faith or Obedience in Hope or Fear The direct plain meaning of this Scripture is if I mis-judge not that this day doth evidently relate to that providential Day of the LORD Christ's appearing in the fulfilling of this Prophesie who appeared to John as LORD pleading the Cause of his Kingly Lordly Office which has been too long and too far invaded by the Kings and Lords of the Earth who have not inforced Christ's Laws nor made them to be the Rule of Government but usurped an unscriptural authority over mens consciences and souls How Lordly a Day therefore will it be when Christ will recover and exercise his Power and his Right Those great things which this ever-blessed LORD of Glory would do in the latter ages were represented to John from Christ by an Angel in a way of Prophetical Revelation This manifestation by Vision and by Voice was after such a manner as if the thing had been acted and performed before and to John's senses By comparing of this passage with some other passages in the same book of Revelation relating to the same matter he that doth diligently mark and wisely observe and rightly understand may see that this Lordly Day is the great Providential Day of that God that Almighty One a name several times given to Christ in this Book There are several parts of this great comprehensive large Vision and there are several seasons of their fulfillings and accordingly several days in this great Day Ezekiel doth mention one part of this Prophesie that will last seven years The LORD Jesus Christ will come and come in several Judgements on several Hours Days Weeks Months and Years It is one of his Names to be such a one as is coming and he is called the coming King And his Kingdom is a coming Kingdom and the age of this is said to be a coming Age and the World to come a coming World In every age of the Church of Christ there were fulfillings of this in part Those in John's time had somewhat of this Lordly Day who therefore were to behold Christ's coming This was partly Historical before John's death when Christ came in his admirable way of wonderful providence to destroy Jerusalem according as was foretold in other Scriptures and partly Prophetical to be accomplished in the several ages after John's time John saw this Day in a Vision and speaks of it with a double confirmation John was made to be in the Spirit on that Lordly Day An expression of which he had experience as is mentioned in other places of this Book The Article added that Lordly Day doth determine but indefinitely There is no such certain particular Day of the Week pointed out so to our understanding on what Day of the Week it will begin or on what Day of the Week it will end This is not the design at least not as to the pretended change of the Weekly Sabbath-day It was that Lordly Day of Christ's coming when he would convert and recover the chosen remnant of those of Israel and of Judah and destroy the Rebellious and the unbelieving among them If men will be limiting of this day to any one determinate definite particular day of the week what one day has such a plea as the Seventh-day Sabbath Seeing for the dreadfully executed Judgement part of it as the first Temple was destroyed being burnt with fire on the tenth day of the fifth Moon which day according to Jeremiah's Prophesie is granted even by many adversaries to be the Seventh-day Sabbath he told the Jews before it came to pass that their Temple would be burnt with Fire if they profaned the Sabbath of Jehovah Answerable unto which is that passage in another Prophet who on the same day of the same Moon reproved Sabbath-breaking when the Elders came to inquire what the mind of the LORD was And as the second Temple was under the like threatning from the mouth of the LORD Christ himself putting them upon earnest importunate Prayer lest otherwise that terrible destruction brake in upon them on the Sabbath the Seventh-day Sabbath Those who are sond of Ecclesiastical Histories may find it recorded in them that the second Temple was actually destroyed according to this Prophetical threatning of our LORD on the seventh-day Sabbath The change of Jehovah's Ordinance of which mens changing of his Seventh day Sabbath is one is soretold in Isaiah with respect to the later ages of the World to be one great provoking Cause of his sending of Judgements upon the rebellious and unfaithful World when keepers of his Seventh-day Sabbath shall have his holy Arm revealed for their Salvation Some of the first great rejections of the unbelieving Jews in a way of Church censure after Christ's ascending on high were occasionally and deservedly by their prophane blaspheming miscarriage on the Seventh day Sabbath of which some account hath been given before So that if a particular day of the week in the weekly returns of it were here designedly pointed at what day can plead and claim a fairer Title and Right unto it than the Seventh-day which is the Sabbath of or to Jehovah or to the LORD Jehovah is the chief choice Name of the Eternal Ever blessed Self-being the Being of beings as that Name doth signifie And that Word which in the Greek doth answer to this Hebrew Name Jehovah some do draw from a word that doth signifie I am which they constantly render LORD So that Jehovah in the Old Testament is often rendred by this Word in the New which we do translate LORD That which in the Old is Hear O Israel Jehovah our Aelohim Jehovah One is in the new Hear O Israel The LORD that God of ours is one LORD Thus also the Hebrew Text doth sometimes but Adonai supporting LORD for Jehovah Thus that whith in one Psalm is I will confess thee among the peoples O Jehovah is in another Psalm I will confess thee among the peoples O LORD Further Christ Jesus saith of himself that he is LORD of the Sabbath of that Seventh-day Sabbath which he created commanded and observed being a keeper of his Fathers Commandments whereof this of the Seventh-day Sabbath was one Those that do relie on the judgement and authorities of men about the meaning of this expression may consider that Ecclesiastical Historians do relate that John and his followers the Eastern Asiatick Churches did keep the Passover on the Seventh-day not pressing the observation of the first day for the celebration of the Passover as

third and sourth Chapters to exhort the Christianized professing Hebrews to take great heed lest they were shut out of it by their unbelief unperswadableness and disobedience as the unbelieving unperswadable and disobedient of old amongst the Israelities did not enter into the Land of Canaan which was a Type of this Rest The parallel of the As the Believers resting from his Works as God Christ God man rested from his Works holds here exactly enough in the sense of this Objector himself For he affirms that in the tenth Verse of the fourth Chapter of this Epistle and in his expression upon it that the Works which Christ did rest from were all that he did and suffered from his Incarnation to his Resurrection as the Mediator of the Covenant with all the Fruits Effects and Consequents of what he so did and suffered as belong to these Works And so shall Believers Rest when they shall pass into Glory from what they did and suffered for Christ here As Christ shall suffer no more and dye no more so Believers shall suffer no more dye no more when once raised as Christ is risen As Christ so ceased from Working as yet to continue the Work of his Grace in the preservation of the New Creature and orderly increase and propagation of it by the Spirit so shall Believers so cease from this working here as yet to continue in the full supplies of the holy Spirit for ever in the acting of Grace perfected in Glory in the freest largest exercising and putting forth thereof according to the capacities and powers of the New Creature when thus growing up to it s well proportioned measure of a perfect man keeping the New Creature by a Power received from Christ in its due order and putting it forth to the Glory of Jehovah Aelohim As Christ so Rested from his Works as to take Refreshment in his Works to have satisfaction and complacency in them as those which did set forth his praise and did satisfie his glorious design Thus Believers so far are delighted with what they have done and suffered for Christ as the Father is delighted and pleased in what his holy Spirit through Christ has in wrought in them and inabled them to Work for the setting forth of his Praise and for the promoting of his Glorious Design in the World whilst they were in it and so far they were conformed here to Christ in their doing and suffering here for Christ who will be their Eternal Righteousness even in Glory though they own nothing in any or in all their own Works as Meritorious of Reward or satisfactory to Divine Justice these being the Works of Christ the Mediator by his alone All-suffering Sacrifice So that here is a fair apt resemblance as to Works and as to Rest They do answer each other so far as Believers have a capacity in a way of similitude And this kind of doing and of suffering doth last as long as a Believers life doth last even upon the Seventh-day Sabbath in their weekly Returns according to the Duties of those Days as Christ's doing and suffering did last as long as his life did last even upon the Seventh-day Sabbath There is a Sabbath-service which a Believer is to do for Christ in Obedience to his Command and men of persecuting spirits will be laying on of crosses upon the Believer for his thus keeping the Seventh-day Sabbath holy to Jehovah though a Believer will rejoyce in such sufferings for Christ Only here the Reader may take notice that this Objector doth lay the foundation of his Sabbatizing on the Morning of the First Day of the Week when he supposeth that Christ by his then first rising from the dead did lay and perfect the Foundation of the New Creation I desire that this may be considered How can a serious inquiring spirit be satisfied from the Objectors arguing concerning a Weekly-day of Rest or Sabbath from Sun-rising to Sun-set of that First Day by an Argument drawn from Christs ceasing from his Works of Redemption on that Morning as he affirms when withal he doth acknowledge that Christ works did continue from his Inearnation to his Resurrection without any interruption never ceasing from it all the First Days of his Life Can a weekly half-day of resting from work be demonstratively inforced upon a rational intellect from three and thirty years continued working without any cessation from that working For that is the shortest time assigned to Christ's abode here on Earth though some do reckon more years than three and thirty The Creation of the World was finished in six Days which did lay the foundation of the weekly Seventh-day Sabbath both in Word and Nature to continue every Week As a Law Rule and Pattern for man's working the six foregoing Days and for his resting on the Seventh which is the last Day of the Week Whereas now this Objector would urge upon our consciences a weekly observing of half a Day as a weekly Day of Rest or Sabbath from a continued Work thirty years out-right if not more The Conjunction For in the tenth verse of the fourth Chapter comes next to be searthed into This word doth set out a further Reason of the Conclusion which the Author of this Epistle had drawn from that Psalm and the Parallels which I mentioned before which was in the Sixth and Ninth Verses of the fourth Chapter that there was yet remaining a Sabbatism for the people of God For as God did work and then Rested from His Labors so must Believers work here which when they have finished they also shall Rest from their Labors For is a word which hath such a Syllogistical sense by which often the Reason of a thing is rendred by a Causal Rationality As also in other Languages There are such Conjunctions Rational Sometimes it sets out such a Probation as is by way of Special Declaration of that which before was spoken of in a more general position other times it is a rational transition of another Member of two or of more things propounded Sometimes it is a rational repeating of a Sentence begun a little before and it doth absolve and complete it though by another manner of Speech to mention no more Still it is a Rational All which do well agree here The Believing Israelites had their Work and Labour and then their Rest ensued thereupon when they entred into the Typical Land of Promised Rest and quietly enjoyed it when they had subdued their Enemies And so shall Believers after their Working-Labouring-Season is over here enter into that Promised Rest of which the other was a Type So did Believers who died in the Faith under the Old Testament-dispensation of Grace So do Believers now who so live and so die And so will Believers in the Ages after us As for the Import of the change of the Number from the Plural to the Singular which the Objector would fetch about to his own purpose thus The

great Church Assembly did he not teach in that Sermon of his at the Mount the same true Christian Doctrine which was delivered of old to his faithful Messengers from him the which to bring to his people And did he not vindicate the verity and purity of it from those corrupt wrong Interpretations that false Teachers had given of it Did not Christ who lay in the bosom of his Father declare and reveal the whole of the Will of his Father under that former dispensation of Grace so far as concerned that Dispensation And is it not one and the same Will still the difference in the manner of dispensing only well observed Were not they then taught all things and all Truths whatsoever that were necessary to Salvation Were not they fully and perfectly directed the true right way to Eternal Life Were not they strictly charged from Christ by his Servant Moses not to add to the words that he gave them in commandment nor to take from them And must not that Word then be a complete Directory and comprehensive sum of all Doctrinals as well as of other matters O who will give that this Word of Christ may ind wel in us copiously abundantly in all Wisdom O let it not stand as a stranger without doors but let us receive it in and find a place for it in our inmost parts That it may be as well known and familiar to us as the most dear delightful companions and the most near beloved Relations with whom we dwell and converse Let us be well acquainted with the whole of it and diligently compare it in the several parts of it Be we much and mighty in the Scriptures of both the Prophets and also of the Apostles receiving the whole as a Doctrine revealed from Heaven by Christ O that this were more found in our Hearts and Minds In our Memory and Conscience in our Wills and Affections That all the good Fruits thereof may abound and be more visible in the whole of our Life There we may learn all saving Wisdom There is the perfect Knowledge to be had of all things to be both believed and done that Eternal Life may be obtained There are Universal Principles of this Law of the ten Words which do pertain to Faith and Manners and these Practical Dictates which every one of these Laws doth include is a Fundamental Truth and Doctrine necessary to be believed as that we must have Jehovah Aelohim for our God and him alone that we must worship him according to his Institutions in his Word and not in any other way of Humane Inventing and imposing that we ought to have an holy reverent use of his Name That the Seventh day is his Sabbath in which we may not do the servile works of our particular calling that the Father and Mother are to be honoured and so of the rest Whoever doth believe the contrary to these is guilty of erring in Decalogical Fundamentals Have I not already demonstrated and proved by the whole Scriptures those great Doctrines concerning the Jehovahship the Christship the Mediatorship the Lordship the Lawgivership the Creatorship of the LORD Jesus Christ Would the Reader have more Doctrines thus manifested The Doctrine of Regeneration was preached of old The first Creation of Man was an exact Patten and a lively Samplar of this when man was made in the Image according to the likeness of his Makers he having a concreated resemblance unto his Creators in Knowledge in Righteousness in Holiness in Dominion in Glory this was defaced by the Fall of Man and is again restored to Sons and Daughters of God in Spiritual Recreation which is a new man renewed unto acknowledgement according to the Image of him who created him in Righteousness and Holiness of Truth As Paul doth speak David acknowledgeth in the Book of Psalms that a new heart is Creation-work So glorious and excelling a piece as that it is the making of a new World of Men and of Women A Work that none but the Almighty-creating power can do and therefore all the Honour and Glory of it must be given to him alone This is the humble confession called for Know ye that Jehovah he God he made us and not we his people and sheep of his pasture This is variously expressed in the Old Testament in very significant Words Moses sets it out by the circumcision of the heart So doth Jeremiah David by Creation and Renovation Isaiah by Jahovah's creating a people for his Glory for his Forming of them or Framing them anew by the Spirit of Regeneration Ezekiel by a Resurrection a Life from the Dead he calleth it a new Heart a new Spirit an Heart of flesh Jehova's giving of his Spirit in the innermost of the Covenant-people The Prophets often by conversion or turning from sin to Jehovah Aelohim What Spiritual Discerner doth not here see the same Doctrine which Christ preached to Nicodemus when he discovered to him the necessity of being born again from above otherwise there could be no seeing no entring into the Kingdom of God Affirming once and again and the third time that this must be Which when this great Doctor understood not what this Spiritual Regeneration was what that was which was born of the Spirit The LORD Christ reproves him for and convinceth him of his Ignorance Art thou a Teacher in Israel and knowest thou not these things Whereby he evidently shews that this was no such new unheard of Doctrine before but the same that was taught in Moses's Book and by the Prophets Wouldst thou be led to some other great Truth Consider that Doctrine about Justification Hath not Habakkuk declared that The Righteous by faith he shall live And is not this three if not four several times mentioned in the New Testament Hath not Paul confirmed the same shewing that The Righteousness without the Law only by faith in Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe hath testimony from the Law and the Prophets Doth not Jeremiah call Christ by this name Jehovah-tzidkenu Our Righteousness Did not Noah preach the same true sound Doctrine Was not that which was said of Abraham that He believed and it was imputed to him for Righteousness Was not this written not for his sake alone that it was imputed to him but for our sakes also to whom it shall be imputed even to them that believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead who was delivered over for our sins and was raised up for our Justification Were not Believers of old well instructed in the Doctrine of free Remission of sins O how kindly was David's heart affected herewith when he tasted the sweetness and enjoyed the good of this Truth O the blessedness the happy goings on of him whose trespass is forgiven whose sin is covered O how Blessed the man to whom Jehovah imputeth no iniquity and in whose spirit no deceit Thou O