Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	faith_n	law_n	moral_a	1,475	5	9.2774	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40076	Dirt wipt off, or, A manifest discovery of the gross ignorance, erroneousness and most unchristian and wicked spirit of one John Bunyan ... which he hath shewed in a vile pamphlet publish'd by him, against The design of Christianity ...	Fowler, Edward, 1632-1714.	1672 (1672)	Wing F1701; ESTC R8698	59,846	88

considered without respect to the command of God but the command of God hath made going to him by Christ a duty of absolute and indispensable necessity and such a grand fundamental and essential of the Gospel as that there is none greater So that 't is damnable for any one to whom the Gospel is revealed to omit this duty He saith that an indifferent thing in it self is next to nothing and then the bloud of Christ is of no value at all and afterwards he thus taunts it How indifferent as indifferent as the blood of a silly Sheep c. But thou most unsufferable abusive and provoking man take this answer once for all whatsoever is commanded us by the great God how indifferent soever it was before ceaseth then to be indifferent but is of as absolute necessity to be done by us as 't is not to incur the penalty of eternal damnation And I tell you once again that no man in his wits ever could think any other than that going to God by Christ is made a duty by a Positive Law of God only nor did I ever hear of any one that was so mad as to deny this nay you your self will not dare to say that this duty is commanded by the Law of Nature or the Moral Law nay you more than once say it is not Go now and confess that you are either most shamefully ignorant as not knowing the difference between a moral and positive Law or else that you do most wittingly and designedly calumniate and defame your brother All men of any understanding will tell you that one of these is most true of you when they read this and therefore take your own choice But he that reads this whole Pamphlet will not cannot doubt if he be not grosly prejudiced that you are not less malicious than you are ignorant After abundance of repetitions vile railing and the most foolish cavills that ever man read which I will not trouble my self with he comes p. 60. to tell Mr. F. that his saying that 't is an impossible thing that a wicked man should have Gods pardon and that Christ's Righteousness should be imputed to an unrighteous man proclaim him to be ignorant of Jesus Christ and then he undertakes thus to confute him Saith he God doth not pardon painted Sinners but such as are really so That is granted but it is when they are sincerely through his grace willing and desirous to leave their Sins and then they do not in this life cease to be Sinners but they cease to be such as are called wicked and ungodly by which phrases is meant Presumptuous Sinners Then he tells Mr. F. impertinently that Christ dyed for Sinners but he must say he dyed so for Sinners as to give them a pardon while they live and delight in sin and refuse to be reformed or he saith nothing to the purpose But where is this said I declare no where but the contrary in abundance of places Is it not said Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out Acts 3. 19. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Iesus Christ for the remission of Sins Acts 2. 38. Him hath God exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour to give Repentance to Israel and forgiveness of Sins Repentance first and then forgiveness Acts 5. 31. Let the wicked forsake his way c. and let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God for he will or he then will abundantly Pardon Isai. 55. 7. Wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well c. and what follows Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as Snow c. Is. 1. 16. Acts 26. 18. I send thee to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgiveness of Sins c. Have I wrested these Scriptures to which I can add innumerable more and don 't they as plainly speak turning from Sin to be a necessary condition of pardon as words can do it what blindness have they contracted that don't see this But I. B. hath a Text for his turn which all his brethren cry up mightily namely that in Rom. 4. 5. God justifieth the ungodly But doth not every body see that that text will contradict hundreds of other Scriptures if it be otherwise to be understood than thus God justifies those that were once ungodly not while they are ungodly God doth not nay he cannot pass a false judgment and declare those Righteous that are utterly void of Righteousness God's nature is so holy that he no less abominates to be a justifier of the wicked while they continue so than to condemn the Righteous He hath declared No peace to the wicked Now take notice Reader that there is no doctrine delivered in M. F's book that he is so outragiously mad at as at this doctrine Now suppose it should be false as 't is as true as the Gospel what danger can there be in asserting that men by the free grace of God are delivered from the Power of Sin before that is in order of nature he delivers them from the guilt of it And who but the Devil or one devoted to his Service can curse that man with Bell Book and Candle that delivers this doctrine Nay who but a man that loves his lusts with all his heart and cannot endure to think of parting with them would not be ready to embrace this doctrine as soon as 't is sufficiently proposed to him And once more who that hath any love for inward real Righteousness would desire to be dealt with as if he were a perfectly Righteous man merely because he hath so strong a fancy as to imagine Christs Righteousness is imputed to him And nothing but this fancy is the Faith of this I. B. He declares p. 17. to omit other places that Faith in the justification of a Sinner from the curse and wrath of God respecteth only the mercy of God and forgiveness of Sin for the sake of Christ. So that he that hath but confidence enough strongly to believe though he hath no more reason so to do than because he believes so that his Sins are forgiven hath justifying faith Again saith he in the next words God for Christs sake hath forgiven him that is inabled to believe that is to trust to and venture the Eternal concern of his Soul upon the Righteousness that is no where to be found but in the person of the Son of God The destroyer of Souls cannot invent more destructive Doctrine Nor is that to be heeded that they say that Holiness will by way of gratitude be the consequent of such a faith for 1. we know by experience that that is false for we see

fulfil or perfect the law and the prophets by giving more and higher instances of moral duties than were before expresly given This would have been but the lading of men with heavy burthens p. 46. Observe that those words and the Prophets are of his own adding But whereas he saith that our Saviours giving more and higher instances of moral duties c. would be but the lading of men with heavy burthens he should have said it would have been the lading of Hypocrites such as himself with heavy burthens none but such can think them so 16. Christs Exposition he saith of the Law was more to shew thee the perfection of his own obedience than to drive thee back to the holiness thou hadst lost p. 47 Can any Ranter talk at a madder rate Read but Matth. 5. and then believe this wretched assertion if you can could S. Paul be of his mind when he said Rom. 2. 13. not the hearers of the Law are just before God but the Doers of the Law shall be justified 17. He saith that in Heaven there shall not be in us only a likeness to but the very nature of God p. 63 For this he cites as hath been shewed that of the Apostle Heirs of God That is Heirs of his nature or substance Here is Blasphemy with a witness 18. He saith the dictates of humane nature are never urged in the New Testament but in order to shew men they have forgotten to act as men p. 72. That is they are not urged that they may be obeyed and yet almost all the precepts of the Gospel are dictates of humane nature He himself saith somewhere that trust in God is one and so are love to God and our neighbour humility meekness patience purity c. all such as we are told are our duty by the dictates of nature Never did wicked creature more industriously set himself to make the Gospel precepts mere insignificant and vain things 19. Whereas Christ is called a Prince and a Saviour he thus interprets it that is a Prince as a Saviour because the righteousness by which he saves beareth rule in Heaven and Earth p. 77 I want words to express my amazement at and detestation of his as senseless as wicked perverting this place to make it favour his Ranting doctrine Thus Reader thou seest he is as good at abusing and wresting of Scripture as of Mr. F's words God grant that his timely repentance may prevent his doing it to his own destruction 20. He saith that the obedience or inclination to obedience that is before faith or the understanding of the Gospel is so far from being an excellent preparative or good qualification for faith and the knowledge of the Gospel that in its own nature which is more than in its consequences it is a great obstruction thereunto p. 96 Still like himself a blessed faith that must be in the mean time that is obstructed by a readiness to obey whatsoever God reveals and would the Reader see what his Faith is let him go back to page 17. of his book there as hath been shewn 21. He saith God hath forgiven him that is enabled to believe and what is it with him to believe he tells you in the next words that is to trust to and venture the Eternal concerns of his Soul upon the righteousness that is no where to be found but in the person of the son of God p. 17 This is all and as much as any one can expect from him 22. He saith that for a man to confine himself only to the life of the Lord Iesus for an example or to think it enough to make him in his life a pattern for us to follow leaveth us through our shortness in the end with the Devil and his Angels for want of faith in the doctrine of Remission of Sins p. 108 1. How sottish is this Ranter For faith in Christ and his whole Gospel is enjoyned as a means to bring us to the blessed state of likeness to him as is fully proved in the Design of Christianity and we may not once suppose that we can obtain this likeness without that Faith 2. But how desperately wicked is it likewise as if a man may be damned that is exactly like Christ and hath all that done in him for the sake of which Faith in Christ is required That is is enabled from holy principles to perform all holy obedience But this is another discovery of his wickedness in contemning moral Righteousness and advancing only imputative and I never knew a brutish creature do it like him Nay he cannot forbear somewhere in his book to speak contemptuously of our Saviours life in asserting that Mr. F. hath given a mere heathenish account of it where he as is to be seen in the beginning of this Pamphlet gives the four Evangelists account of it I do assure the Reader that this I have read in his Book but I do not now remember the page Observe that I do not call these two and twenty doctrines nor yet distinct assertions for I have not nor will I so much trouble my self about them as to consider to how many or few heads they may be reduced the mere transcribing them must needs be trouble and discomposure enough to any man that hath the least affection for the Gospel of Christ and true goodness I could present not a few more but never was horse more tired at a mill than I am at this work and I assure the Reader as I shall answer it at the great day that I have been most severely just to him in this Catalogue as he may quickly see so far have I been from dealing with his Sayings as 't is shewn he hath dealt with Mr. Fowlers And now I conjure the followers of him and his Brethren as they have any the least regard for their Souls that for the future they abandon them as those that feed their hearers with the deadliest poison instead of the sincere milk of the word and the most wholesome food of the Gospel of Christ I say I conjure them to avoid such as they will Answer it at the dreadful day of our Saviours appearing with ten thousand of his Saints to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodlily committed and of all the hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him against the blessed doctrines of his Glorious Gospel and his faithful ministers And now I will present you with another Catalogue of the hard speeches of this man of whom whether he be one of St. Iudes ungodly Sinners or no the Reader is by this time well able to judge or at least will be anon A Catalogue of some of John Bunyan's horrible Revilings and most Abominable Scurrilities 1. IN the Title page he tells us that the design of Mr. F's Book is proved to be nothing more than to trample under foot the blood of the Son of

s. book so that the bare shewing how wofully he hath performed that one undertaking would have been a sufficient confirmation and defence of it But though I have not found so much as one thing in it that deserves to have a serious reply made to it I have so far denyed my self as not only to say enough to undermine but also to give an utter overthrow to the whole of it And to shew that so far as it opposeth The Design of Christianity 't is composed of nothing else but the most horrid absurdities belyings and revilings of that Treatise Nay it fully appeareth from what I have written that never did any writing more flatly that is in more evident consequences oppose the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ Iesus than this that he stileth a defence of it And that were Mr. F. a Iulian Celsus or Porphyry an utter enemy to Christianity as he wickedly accuseth him he could never have wished to have a greater dishonor done unto it than this man in his book hath done So that should I have considered every absurd and base passage from one end to the other of it and given it its due remark I should have made my self a most unmerciful drudg and swelled these leaves to a large Volume and been guilty of the most profuse and unaccountable expence of my time and Paper For I sedately and consideratively profess that I never read that I remember any thing that was half so full thrapt and crowded with both non-sensical and wicked stuff To conclude if any Reader is now able to think that there needs more than I have written or so much either to wipe off the dirt that is flung upon the Design of Christianity I must be so free with him as plainly to tell him that he is honor'd far beyond his merits in having one wise word bestowed upon him A Catalogue of some few of the abundance of absurd and most wicked Doctrinals and Assertions that are contained in John Bunyans Pamphlet against the Design of Christianity 1. HE calls this Paul's definition of a man There is none righteous no not one there is none that understandeth c. page 4. Mark as he most absurdly calls this Paul's definition so he calls it too his definition of a man not of a wicked man And sutably to this fine doctrine 2. He makes no real distinction between the humane Nature and Sin p. 3. As if Sin were not the corruption of our nature but essential to it 3. He Saith that of mans supreme faculty the Scripture teacheth that man in his best estate is altogether vanity Psal. 39. 5. p. 5. When as David speaks there only of mans bodily frailty But I might have spared this as being but a peccadillo in this man 4. He saith that the Command of the Law was not the great and principal argument with Christ no not in its first and highest principles to do or continue to do it p. 14. Then the first reason of our Saviours obedience was not the Command of God 5. He interprets those words of the Apostle of moral duties viz. They speak of the world and the world heareth them 1 John 4. 5. p. 19. 6. He saith that the new man is dead to the Law as to principles of nature and interprets that of the Apostle you are become dead to the law of the moral as well as Ceremonial law and further saith that a man must first be dead to your principles both of nature and the law If he will serve in a new spirit if he would bring forth fruit unto God p. 22 The only sense of which sayings whatever he meant by them is this that a man must cease to be a man and turn beast nay and Devil too before he can bring forth fruit unto God 7. He interprets those words in 1 Cor. 15. 46. and after that which is Spiritual of Spiritual holiness p. 23 Whereas the words are only spoken of an immortal body 8. He saith that the holiness of Adam in his best estate even that which he lost and we in him it was no other than that which was natural even the sinless state of a natural man p. 24 Thus he makes Adam a mere Brute as to holiness but in this he contradicts himself elsewhere as hath been shewn 9. He saith that even the inward holiness that is in Saints it is none other than that which dwelleth in the person of the Son of God in heaven p. 27 Then there are no graces of the holy Spirit wrought in us then our holiness is perfect and infinite and then according to his rate of arguing with Mr. F. p. 66. Christ's righteousness is by Faith in himself and an imputative righteousness 10. He saith that Christ dyed to put us into a personal possession of pardon before we know it p. 33 He that hath read his or this Pamphlet knows his meaning in this saying viz. that Christ dyed to put men into a personal possession of pardon while they continue in their wickedness 11. He Saith that for Christ to come to establish this righteousness viz. the righteousness which we have lost is all one as if he should be sent from Heaven to overthrow and abrogate the Eternal purpose of Grace which the father had purposed should be manifested to the world by Christ. p. 37. Let the Reader match me this Saying for the horrid wickedness of it out of any other books than this mans if he can 12. The wrath that the Law is said to work Rom. 4. 15. he interprets to be murmure and anger against the Lord. p. 39 Whenas the next words shew that the meaning is it renders men for their disobedience to it lyable to the judgment of God 13. He saith that that Repentance which hath its rise originally from the dictates of our own nature is called the sorrow of the world and must be again repented of p. 40. So that to be sorry for my sins because my reason tells me that they are an unworthy requital of Gods goodness to me is the worldly Sorrow condemned by the Apostle and must be again repented of 14. He saith that he that looks to or seeks after that holiness we have lost is as sure to be damned and go to hell as he that transgresseth the law because that is not the righteousness of God the righteousness of Christ the righteousness of faith nor that to which the promise is made p. 42. So that according to this devilish doctrine to endeavour to bring our hearts to the love of God above all and to the hatred and abhorrence of all sin is as ready or sure a way to hell as living in disobedience to all Gods Commandments And take notice that it is Proved that that is the Righteousness of God of Christ and of Faith 15. He saith That it is a foolish and an heathenish thing nay worse to think that the son of God should only or especially