Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	action_n	law_n	sin_n	1,227	5	5.2581	4	true

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

Repentance of a Sinner is sufficient to answer whatever could be justly demanded as a Satisfaction thereto which if you should you would in consequence say that Man is or may be in himself just that is equal with God or that the sin of Man was not a transgression of the Law that was given and a procurer of the Punishment that is threatned by that Eternal God that gave it But let me give you a Caution Take heed that you belye not these men Christ cryes If it be possible let this Cup pass from me If what be possible why that Sinners should be saved without His Blood Ought not Christ to have suffered Christ must needs have suffered not because of some certain Circumstances but because the Eternal Justice of God could not consent to the salvation of the Sinner without a Satisfaction for the Sin committed Of which more in the next if you shall think good to reply Now that my Reader may see that I have not abused you in this Reply to your sayings I will repeat your words at large and leave them upon you to answer it You say Actions may become dutyes or sins two wayes first as they are compliances with or transgressions of Divine positive Precepts These are the declarations of the arbitrary Will of God whereby he restraineth our liberty for great and wise reasons in things that are of an indifferent nature and absolutely considered are neither good nor evil and so makes things not good in themselves and are capable of becoming so onely by reason of certain Circumstances Duties and things not evil in themselves sins SUCH were all the Injunctions and Prohibitions of the Ceremonial Law and some few SUCH we have under the Gospel page 7. Then page 9. you tell ●s That the reason of the Positive Laws that is concerning things in themselves i●different in the Gospel are declared of which say you I know but three that are purely so viz. That of Coming to God by Christ the Institution of Baptisme and the Lords Supper Here now let the Reader note That the positive Precepts declarations of the arbitrary Will of God in things of an indifferent nature being such as absolutely considered are neither good nor evil some few SUCH say you we have under the Gospel namely that of coming to God by Christ c. I am the more punctual in this thing because you have confounded your weak Reader with a crooked Parenthesis in the midst of the Paragraph and also by deferring to spit your intended venome at Christ till again you had puzzled him with your Mathematicks and Metaphysicks c. putting in another Page betwixt the beginning and the end of your blasphemy Indeed in the seventh Chapter of your Book you make a great noise of the Effects and Consequences of the Death of Christ as that it was a Sacrifice for sin an expiatory and propitiatory Sacrifice page 83. Yet he that well shall weigh you and compare you with your self shall find that words and sense with you are two things and also that you have learned of your Brethren of old to dissemble with Words that thereby your own heart-errors and the Snake that lyeth in your bosome may yet there abide the more undiscovered For in the conclusion of that very Chapter even is and by a word or two you take away that glory that of right belongeth to the Death and Blood of Christ and lay it upon other things For you s●y The Scriptures that frequently affirm that the end of Christs Death wa● the forgiveness of our sins and the reconciling of us to the Father we are not SO to understand as if the blessings were absolutely thereby procured for us page 91. any otherwise then upon the account of our effectual believing I answer By the Death of Christ was the Forgiveness of Sins effectually obtained for all that shall be saved and they even while yet Enemies by that were reconciled unto God So that as to forgiveness from God it is purely upon the account of grace in Christ We are justified by his Blood we are reconciled to God by the Death of his Son Rom. 5● Yea peace is made by the Blood of his Cross And God for Christs sake hath forgiven us So then our effectual believing is not a procuring cause in the sight of God or a condition of ours foreseen by God and the motive that prevaileth with him to forgive us our manifold transgressions Believing being rather that which makes Application of that Forgiveness and that possesseth the Son with that Peace that already is made for us with God by the Blood of his Son Christ Jesus Being justified by Faith we have Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. The peace and comfort of it cometh not to the Soul but by believing Yet the Work is finished Pardon procured Justice being satisfied already or before by the precious Blood of Christ. Observe I am commanded to believe but what should I believe or what should be the object of my Faith in the matter of my justification with God Why I am to believe is Christ I am to have Faith in his Blood But what is 〈◊〉 to believe in Christ and what to have faith in his Blood Verily To believe that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us That even then when we were Enemies we were Reconciled to God by the Death of his Son To believe that there is a Righteousness already for us compleated I had as good give you the Apostles Argument and Conclusion in his own language But God commended his love towards us in that while we were YET sinners Christ-dyed for us much more then being NOW justified by his Blood we shall be saved from wrath through him And note that this word now respects the same time with yet that went before For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son much more being Reconciled we shall be saved by his life or Intercession Believing then as to the business of my deliveranc from the Curse before God is an accepting of a trusting to or a receiving the benefit that Christ hath already obtained for me by which act of Faith I see my interest in that Peace that is made before with God by the Blood of his Cross For if Peace be made already by his Blood then is the Curse taken away from his sight if the Curse be taken away from his sight then there is no sin with the Curse of it to be charged from God by the Law for so long as sin is charged by the Law with the Curse thereto belonging the Curse and so the wrath of God remaineth But say you Christ dyed to put 〈◊〉 into a capacity of pardon 10 page 91. Answ. True But that is not all He dyed to put us into the Parsonal Possession of Pardon Yea to put us into a personal Possession of it and that

Of his fulness have we all Saints received and grace for grace Wherefore the holiness that hath its original from us from the purity of the humane nature which is the thing you aim at and that originally as you term it is the dictates thereof is the Religion of the Socinians Quakers c. and not the Religion of Jesus Christ. And now I will come to your indifferent things viz. those which you call positive Precepts things say you of an indifferent nature and absolutely considered are neither good nor evil but are capable of becoming so onely by reason of certain Circumstances Of these positive indifferent Precepts you say you know but three in the Gospel but three that are purely so viz. That of coming to God by Christ the Institutions of Baptisme and the Lords Supper This we have in Page 7. and 9. 1. These words as I hinted before are highly derogatory to the Lord the King of Glory and trample as much upon the Blood of the Son of God as words can likely do For first If coming to God by Christ be in it self but an Indifferent thing then as I also hinted before it is not of the substance of Christianity but a man may be truely a Christian without it may be saved and go to heaven without it This is in truth the Consequence of your words for things purely of an indifferent nature do not in themselves either make or marre the Righteousness that justifieth us from the Curse before God Wherefore by your Argument if a man remain ignorant of that positive Precept of coming to God by Christ he remaineth ignorant but of an Indifferent thing a thing that in its self is neither good nor evil and therefore not essentially material to his Faith or justifying Righteousness 2. An indifferent thing in it self is next to nothing neither good nor evil then but a thing betwixt them both Then is the Blood of the Lord Jesus in it self of no value at all nor Faith in him of it self any more then a thing● of ●ought their virtue and goodness onely dependeth upon● certain Circumstances that make them soo For the indifferency of the thing lyeth not simply in coming to God but in coming to him by Christ Coming otherwise to God even in this mans eyes being the All in All but in this coming in coming to him by Christ there lyeth the indifferency I marvel what injury the Lord Jesus hath done this man that he should have such indifferent thought of coming to God by him But hath he no better thoughts of his own good deeds which are by the Law Yes doubtless for those saith he are of an indispensible and eternal obligation which were first written in mens hearts and originally dictates of humane nature pag 8. Mark Not a dictate of humane nature or necessary conclusion on deduction from it is of an indifferent but of an indispensible not of a transient but of an eternal obligation It is onely going to God by Christ and two other things that he findeth in the Gospel that of themselves are of an indifferent nature But how indifferent Even as indifferent in it self as the blood of a silly Sheep or the ashes of an Heifer for these are his very words SVCH that is such ordinances as in themselves are of an indifferent nature were all the Injunctions and Prohibitions of the Ceremonial Law and some few SUCH we have under the Gospel page 7. Then in page 9. ●he tells you what these positive Precepts under the Gospel or things indifferent are THAT of going to God by Christ is one and the other two are Institutions of Baptisme and the Lords Supper SVCH therefore as were the Ceremonies of the Law such even SVCH saith he is that of going to God by Christ c. Wherefore he that shall lay no more stress upon the Lord Jesus to come to God by then this man doth would lay as much were the old Ceremonies in force upon a silly Sheep as upon the Christ of God For these are all alike positive Precepts such as were the Ceremonies of the Law things in themselves neither good nor evil but absolutely considered of an indifferent nature So that to come to God by Christ is reckoned of it self by him a thing of a very indifferent nature and therefore this man cannot do it but with a very indifferent heart his great and most substantial coming to God must needs be by some other way But why should this THIEF love thus to Clamber and seek to go to God by other Means such which he reckoneth of a more dispensible nature and eternal seeing Christ onely as indifferent as he is is the onely way to the Father I am the Way saith he the Truth and the Life No man cometh to the Father but by me If he be the on●ly Way then there is none other if he be thus the Truth then is all other the Lye and if he be here the Life then is all other the Death let him call them indispensible and eternal never so often So then how far off this mans Doctrine is of sinning against the Holy Ghost let him that is wise consider it For if coming to God by Christ be in it self but a thing indifferent and onely made a Duty upon the account of certain Circumstances then to come to God by Christ is a duty incumbent upon us onely by reason of certain Circumstances not that the thing in it self is good or that the nature of sin and the Justice of God layeth a necess●y on us so to But what be these certain Circumstances For it is because of these if you will believe him that God the Father yea the whole Trinity did consult in Eternity and consent that Christ should be the Way to Life Now I say it is partly because by Him was the greatest safety he being naturally the Justice Wisdome and Power of God and partly because it would we having sinned be utterly impossible we should come to God by other means and live He that will call these Circumstances that is things over and above besides the Substantials of the Gospel will but discover his unbelief and ignorance c. As for your saying That Calvin Peter Martyr Musculus Zanchy and others did not question but that God could have Pardoned sin without any other Satisfaction then the Repentance of the Sinner pag● 84 It matters nothing to me I have neither made my Creed out of them nor other then the Holy Scriptures of God But if Christ was from before all World 's ordained to be the Saviour then was he from all Eternity so appointed and prepared to be And if God be as you say infinitely page 136. and I will add Eternally just how can he Pardon without he be presented with that Satisfaction for Sin that to all points of the highest perfection doth answer the Demands of this Infinite and Eternal Justice unless you will say that the

Devil and the Wrath to come No Incouragement to Holiness like this like the Perswasion and Belief of this because this carrieth in it the greatest expression of Love that we are Capable of Hearing or Believing and there is nothing that worketh on us so Powerfully as Love And herein is Love not that we Loved God but that he Loved us and gave his Son to be the Propitiation for our Sins He then that by Faith can see that the Body of his Sin did hang upon the Cross b● the Body of Christ and that can see by that action Death and Sin the Devil and Hell destroyed for him 't is he that will say Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me Bless his Holy Name c. Psa. 103. 1 2 3 4. Secondly Moreover the Knowledge of this giveth a man to understand this Mistery That Christ and himself are united in one For Faith saith If our Old man was Crucified with Christ then were we also Reckoned in him when he hanged on the Cross I am Crucified with Christ All the Elect did Mystically hang upon the Cross in Christ. We then are Dead to the Law and Sin First by the Body of Christ Rom. 7. 4. Now he that is Dead is free from Sin now if we be dead with Christ we Believe that we shall live with him knowing that Christ being raised from the Dead Dyeth no more Death hath no more Dominion over him for in that he dyed he dyed unto Sin once but in that he liveth he liveth unto God Likewise reckon your selves also dead unto Sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. This also Peter doth lively Discourse of Forasmuch then saith he as Christ hath suffered for us in the Flesh Arm your selves likewise with the same mind for he that hath suffered in the Flesh hath ceased from Sin 1 Pet. 4. 1 2. By which Words he Insinuateth the Mystical Union that is between Christ the Head and the Elect his Body Arguing from the Suffering of a Part there should be a Sympathy in the whole If Christ then suffered for us we were even our Sins Bodies and Souls reckoned in him when he so suffered Wherefore by his sufferings the Wrath of God for us is appeased the Curse is taken from us For as Adam by his acts of Rebellion made all that were in him Guilty of his Wickedness so Christ by his acts and doings of Goodness and Justice made all that were reckoned in him good and Just also But as Adam's Transgression did First and immediately Reside with and remain in the Person of Adam onely and the Imputation of that Transgression to them that sprang from him so the Goodness and Justice that was accomplished by the Second Adam First and Immediately Resideth in him and is made over to his also by the Imputation of God But again As they that were in Adam stood not onely guilty of Sin by Imputation but Polluted by the Filth that Possessed him at his fall So the Children of the Second Adam do not onely though first stand Just by Vertue of the Imputation of the Personal acts of Justice and Goodness done by Christ but they also receive of that inward quality the Grace and Holiness that was in him at the Day of his rising from the Dead Thus therefore come we to be Holy by the Death and Blood of the Lord This also is the Contents of those other Scriptures which abusively you Cite to Justifie your Assertion to wit That the great Errand of Christ in coming into the World was to put us again into Possession of the Holiness which we had lost And that onely Designed the Establishing such a Holiness as is Sealed Originally in our Natures and Originally Dictates of the Humane Nature The rest of the Chapter being spoken to already I pass it and Proceed to the next Your Eighth Chapter tell us That it is onely the Promoting of the Design of making Men Holy that is Aimed at by the Apostles Insisting on the Doctrines of Christ's Resurrection Assention and coming again to Judgement Though this should be granted as indeed it ought not yet there is not one Sillable in all their Doctrines that tendeth in the least to drive Men back to the Possession of the Holiness we had lost which is still the thing Asserted by you and that for the Proof of which you make this noise and adoe Neither did Christ at all Design the Promoting of Holiness by such Principles as you have Asserted in your Book neither doth the Holy Spirit of God either help us in or excite us to our Duty Simply from such Natural Principles But the Apostles in these Doctrines you mention had far other Glorious Designs such as were truly Gospel and tended to strengthen our Faith yet farther As First For the Resurrection of Christ They Urge that as an Undeniable Argument of his doing away Sin by his Sacrificing and Death He was delivered for our Offences because he put himself into the Room and State of the Wicked as undertaking their Deliverance from Death and the Everlasting Wrath of God Now putting himself into their Condition he bears their Sin and dyes their Death but how shall we know that by undertaking this Work he did accomplish the thing he intended The answer is He was raised again for our Justification Rom. 4. 25. even to make it manifest that by the Offering of himself he had Purged our Sins from before the Face of God For in that he was raised again and that by him for the appeasing of whose Wrath he was delivered up to Death it is evident that the Work for us was by him effectually done For God raised him up again And hence it is that Paul calls the Resurrection of Christ the sure Mercies of David Act. 13. And as concerning that he raised him up from the Dead now no more to return to Corruption he saith on this wise I will give thee the sure Mercies of David For Christ having Conquered and overcome Death Sin the Devil and the Curse by himself as 't is manifest he did by his rising from the Dead what now remains for him for whom he did this but Mercy and Goodness for ever Wherefore the Resurrection of Christ is that which Sealeth the truth of our being delivered from the Wrath by his Blood Secondly As to his Ascention they urge and make use of that for divers weighty Reasons also 1. As a farther Testimony yet of the Sufficiency of his Righteousness to Justifie Sinners withal For if he that undertaketh the Work is yet entertained by him whose Wrath he was to appease thereby What is it but that he hath so compleated that Work Wherefore he saith that the Holy Ghost shall Convince the world that he hath a sufficient righteousness and that because he went to the Father John 16. And they saw him no more because he went he Ascended up to the Father was there