Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
doctrine_n	believe_v	faith_n	justification_n	2,510	5	8.9827	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93868	Vindiciæ fundamenti: or A threefold defence of the doctrine of original sin: together with some other fundamentals of salvation the first against the exceptions of Mr. Robert Everard in his book entituled, The creation and the fall of man. The second against the examiners of the late assemblies confession of faith. The third against the allegations of Dr. Jeremy Taylor, in his Unum necessarium, and two letter treatises of his. By Nathaniel Stephens minister of Fenny-Drayton in Leicestershire.	Stephens, Nathaniel, 1606?-1678.	1658 (1658)	Wing S5452; Thomason E940_1; ESTC R207546	207,183	256

Lords gift the believing Ephesians must be supposed to have it from their own ability If this be so how shall we agree with the scope of the Apostle who saith in expresse termes You are saved by grace through faith not of your selves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast Truly Sir if your faith be not Gods gift it will be of your self and you will have cause of boasting as though you did make your self to differ from other men and what is this else but to go point blanck against the scope of the Scripture And though I do plead this truth against you in affirming faith to be the gift of God yet I say also it is the act of man God gives the grace and man beleeves These two are not so parted asunder but that they may be joyned together For your third Scripture concerning the striving for the faith given to the Saints which S. Jude speaks of this is not meant of the grace or habit of faith in the heart but of the doctrine of faith onely That men should strive to preserve the Gospel in its purity and integrity against the heresies of the times But you go further to shew the absurdities that will follow upon the holding of that position that obedient actions are the gift of God you say If God should give the actions as sure as he giveth means to act then a mans conscience might and would as well accuse him for want of means to act as for want of action But I never heard say you that any mans conscience accused him for want of means to performe his actions but because be made not use of the means In this passage of yours as ther eare some things which I allow as true and sound so there are others which I do reject as false and unsound For as I have said before they who deny a man to be a free Agent I cannot see by the tenor of their doctrine how their conscience can accuse them for non-performance of action seeing they hold that both the act the means to act are onely from God and man is meerly passive So far you I are agreed but whereas you oppose the carrying on of the work of salvation by the power the grace of God in this you contradict the Scriptures and by name that place of the Apostle We are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 That the Saints do persevere it is mainly from the power of God who carries on the work But how not without their own endeavour Ye are kept by the power of God through faith Men must apply the promise of God and that will engage his power to carry them on to salvation And yet further God speaketh of his elect I will put my Spirit in them that they shall keep my Commandments and do them But most plainly in that place 2 Thes 2.13 We are bound to give God thanks for you brethren that he hath chosen you from the beginning to salvation thorough the sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth In the Words going before he doth speak of the great Apostacy that should be in all Anti-Christian times that because men did not receive the truth in the love of it that they might he saved therfore God should deliver them over to strong delusions to believe lies By way of opposition to these Apostates the Apostle comforts the beleeving Thessalonians with the infallibility and certainty of their salvation But how would he bring them to salvation thorough the sanctification of the Spirit and the belief of the truth These two means he doth name to shew that God will bring none to salvation as the end but he will first justify and sanctifie them in the use of the means Though he will carry on the work by his own power infallibly and certainly in the hearts of his people yet their act endeavour and obedience shall go along with the working of his grace Many such like places might be brought to shew that the infallible workings of God may stand with the endeavours of his own people Secondly whereas you affirme That you never heard any mans conscience accuse him for want of means but for want of using the means Oh Sir in what corner of the world were you brought up that the fame of this never came to your eares I think it is a truth well known in the Church of God that mens consciences do accuse them not onely because they made no use of the means but also because thorough their own default the means are not administred to them or that they are taken from them If it had been your lot to visit men in trouble of conscience in agonies and gripes upon their sick-beds there you should have heard such words as these again and again repeated Had I sought God had I prayed in faith of his promise had I walked humbly with him had I fruitfully used the grace administred to me as a good and profitable Steward I had never wanted the means to subdue the power and rage of such and such corruptions It is meerely from mine own defect that there is such a strangenesse betwixt the Lord and me These are the ordinary complaints of men who neglect the day of their salvation and you tell us you never heard any mans conscience accuse him for the want of the means when the talent was taken from the unprofitable servant he was deprived of the means but was not that deprivation through his own fault but you further add If conscience be so well informed that it must and wil bear witness then of whom shal it bear witnesse against God No marvail that there be so many corrupt sayings if God had given me abilities powers and actions then I would have done it Nay do not many say I must be contented to stay Gods time Hath God commanded you before his time Nay do not you discharge your self of duties in saying it is not his time page 72. Such a dextrous faculty you have in cavilling against the main truths of Christianity But when I read this and such like passages thorough your whole Treatise I cannot but compare the state of the Church in these times to the ship that carried Saint Paul to Rome the forepart of it stuck in the sand and the hinder part of it was broken with the waves Into such desperate extreams are we now fallen For if we speak of actions of obedience if the power be not placed chiefly in the will of man you and the whole nation of the Free-willers do tell us that we be discharged from duty seeing we are cast upon a necessity of waiting when the matter is not in our own hand On the other side there is sprung up a generation of fanatical men which are so opposite to the freedome of will that they think the Spirit must do all they will not give thanks

causes of that being which he had in the beginning and tell us that God saw all that he had made and behold it was very good Gen. 1.32 From whence you draw this Conclusion doubtlesse these words were spoken to take off some future objections or to prevent mens sayings that Adam consisted in creation of two sorts of people one being assigned for heaven the other for hell And lest we should judge that God made any part of him for damnation at that time he assures us that he made all things very good When I read this passage of yours I do call to minde a kinde of torment used in the Primitive times when the persecutors would expose the bodies of Christians to wilde beasts they did sometimes cover and disguise them with the skins of other living creatures So do you here and in other parts of your book with the doctrine of Gods free election When you see that there is such a Majesty in the truth it self that you cannot well oppose it you do draw an ugly visage and forme over it to the end that you may baite and encounter it more easily at your own pleasure The Lords making all good in the beginning doth not infringe the election of some and the non-election of others if these things be rightly construed And therefore whether you consider men in that first state made after the image of God or in that state as fallen in both these I conceive all mankinde to be equal The difference of elect or non-elect is immanent onely in the Decree of God and election doth onely so farre forth begin to be manifest as men living under the meanes come to be called justified sanctified by the Spirit Rom. 8.30 2 Thess 2.13 We have no other way to take notice of election but this onely For that saying of yours that Adam consisted of two sorts of people in creation the one part being assigned for heaven and the other for hell We willingly acknowledge that the number of the elect were known to God before the foundation of the world yet this difference between man and man in the Lords secret intention did make no difference between man and man in the creation or in the fall The nature of all men elect and others was equally good before the fall as it was equally corrupted and depraved after the fall As in the like case Jesse was the father of many sons of which one was designed in the secret counsel of God to rule the Kingdom of Israel As they were the sons of one parent they were all equal made of one blood partakers of the same education though one was specially designed for the Kingdome So in the present case the nature of all men may be equally good before the fall all may have one and the same image of God all may fall in one and the same parent yet God may in a special manner intend to bring some to salvation and to leave others voluntarily to run their own ruine he may have mercie on whom he will have mercie and he may have compassion on whom he will have compassion You do then plainly impose upon us with your sophistrie when you fetch arguments from some temporal acts to overturne the Lords eternal Decrees But this is a passage onely by the way we will go to the next Chapter CHAP. II. Wherein Adams abilities did consist HEre you define ability that it is a fitnesse in the subject commanded every way answerable to performe any action that the Creator is pleased to call the creature to pag. 5. In this I do agree that originally God did proportion the abilities of Adam to the commands that he gave him I do also willingly acknowledge with you that he had first a capassity to receive intelligence secondly directions thirdly abilities in present possession and fourthly time But whereas you say p. 7. that our Lord the Creator afforded all these aforenamed accommodations as a sufficient means for every man to obey his commands In this I beleeve you do not onely equal but go beyond Pelagius himself For you say in effect that man hath as great abilities after the fall as before But lest that any may think that these are the consequences of mine own making and that they are not the true result of your doctrine let him go to the fourteenth chapter of your book and there let him see how you do expedite the question You propound the quere what Adam retained of his forfeiture after his death and here you determine that his power was inwardly as great to keep the commands of God as before You say if in that service of God which Adam had to do he was compleatly furnished by God why should I judge that he would employ him in a more hard service and not aford him sutable accommodations seeing God was as willing that his commands should be obeyed after as he was before the fall For I judge the work that God set Adam about before the fall he had ability to do after the fall if God had given him a command to returne into the garden page 110. Let any man who readeth these words judge in his own heart whether Pelagius himself could have spoken more to the derogation of the free grace of God in Christ then you have done To this if we adde the several passages in your Treatise concerning the improvement of nature and the freedome of infants from original sin and compare all together we shall finde the whole tenour of your doctrine to be manifestly destructive to the Covenant of Grace We will therefore endeavour on the contrary to shew the positive truth And therefore seeing God doth require obedience of man after the fall I do freely assent that he doth give sutable accommodation But how the accommodation doth not consist in the presence of any natural ability but in the promise since the fall there is an ability to obey the Lords commands but that ability is out of man in Christ onely To him they must go to supply all their wants and he must help them to performe all the duties enjoyned If you stand upon the proportion of abilities to commands then say that the ability is in Christ onely to be had and we shall easily agree He of God is made to us wisdome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 In him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid Col. 2.3 Of his fulnesse have we all received grace for grace John 1.16 It shall never be denied by me nay I will maintain it that now since the fall there is a proportion betwixt the ability and the command but then the ability must be had from Christ onely and the immediate supply of his Spirit In this sence Saint Paul had abilities in a meet temper and correspondence to his duties for he saith I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me Phil. 4.11 12 13. And in another place my grace

powers they cannot without a new grace and favour go to heaven But then it cannot presently be inferred that therefore they go to hell but this ought to be inferred which indeed was the real consequent of it therefore it is necessary that Gods grace should supply this defect if God intends heaven to them at all and because nature cannot God sent a Saviour by whom it was effected so far he pag. 15. Now I leave it to any man to judge whither the same mutatis mutandis may not be said of our opinion though infants are borne in Original sin and are by nature the children of wrath yet they may be saved by grace By all this it is evident that we are as faire for the salvation of infants as he is and by the same doore as he goes out we will go out at the same And for the sayings of our writers I have three things to answer First some speak more mildly in the point rather inclining to the salvation than the damnation of infants Junius in his collation de naturâ gratiâ hath these words Nemo nostrum it a fuerit aut furere compertus est c. There is none of ours that is so mad or was ever found so void of reason who would simply affirme infants to be damned They which teach otherwise let themselves look to it by what right they moy do it and by what authority it may be done For although in respect of their own selves and that common nature of ours they may be in a state lyable to damnation it follows not that we should passe the sentence of damnation upon them c. In the processe of his discourse he giveth sundry reasons First the promise of God to believers and their natural seed Secondly his mercy to thousands and that through many descents where the Ancestors have sometimes belonged to the Covenant Thirdly The judgement of charity seeing it is the Lords pleasure to take them away in their infancy we may presume that by that fatherly act of his he intends to receive them to mercy Other testimonies may be brought of such that have gone in the milder way but these shall suffice A second sort of our Expositiors there are that do pitch more hard They say that some infants may go to hell yet they moderate their sentence as Chamier Non abhorret a verisimilitudine paenas eorum esse mitissimas It is very probable their punishments are most mild A third sort leave the matter wholly in suspence they think it sufficient to believe that all infants are borne in a state lyable to damnation they have in them the seeds of all evil yet for all this they conceive that God may shew mercy in and through Christ specially to the infants of such that do belong to the Covenant specially where conscience is made to enter them into the outward visible Church by baptisme And this is all that we will say of this question Leaving this businesse of the state of infants and reserving to God the secrets of election or non-election we will come to the point that is more useful and more easie to be understood And here he questions whether Adam did debauch our nature and corrupt our will and manner by his fall And if he did it he further enquires after the manner how it was done First whether it was done by a natural or physical efficiency of sin it selfe Secondly whether was it because we are all in the loynes of Adam or Thirdly whether was the sentence and the decree of God the cause thereof he hath foure arguments against a physical efficiency which we have in part handled already and shall have occasion to speak afterwards And therefore to avoid repetition we will come to the second branch whether Adam did debauch our nature because we are all in his loynes Against this he hath sundry reasons that follow in order By the same reason saith he we are guilty of all the sins that he committed while we were in his loynes there being no imaginable reason why the first should be propagated and not the rest Answ As I have formerly shewed so I declare againe the pollution of nature can only be propagated from the first sin because in that only Adam did act as a publick man in which sence the Apostle calls him the figure of him that is to come But of this I have spoken already Secondly upon this account saith he all the sins of all our progenitours will be imputed to us because we were in their loynes when they sinn'd them Answ Not so neither for though we were in their loynes when they sinned yet in a strict sence they are only vehicula so many conduit pipes of the conveyances of the nature from the first root To speak properly there are only two roots of the nature Adam the root of corruption to all his branches Christ the root of grace and spiritual life to all his branches If any question be made of the truth of this there is every where in the doctrine of St. Paul an antithesis between the flesh and the spirit between the old man and the new betwixt generation and regeneration betwixt Adam and Christ Between these two there is a plaine opposition in three things in point of justification Secondly in point of sanctification Thirdly in point of the resurrection from the dead And therefore whereas the first man by his act brings us under the guilt of sin the second washes away the guilt of sin by his blood and whereas the first man pollutes our nature and is the root of the corruption of nature the second man sanctifies our nature and is the root of a new nature to all his branches And whereas the first man did bring in death and all the miseries of nature upon our bodies that lead to death the second man frees us from all these by the resurrection from the dead But he further alledgeth Thirdly Sin saith he is seated in the will it is an action and so transient and when it dwels or abides it abides no where but in the will by approbation and love to which is naturally consequent a readinesse in the inferiour faculties to obey and act accordingly and therefore sin doth not infect our meer natural faculties but the will only and not that in the natural capacity but in its moral only Answ Though it be true that sin is principally seated in the will yet we shall finde all along that the Scriptures do lay great weight upon the blindnesse and the perversity of the judgement and as in the old creation so it is in the new The first work that is done is the creation of light Besides the Christ-like disposition is begun and carried on by degrees and all this by the renovation of light The understanding is first enlightned and then the will comes to choose the things of God Further let it be supposed that sin is only seated in the will