Selected quad for the lemma: grace_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
grace_n	abound_v	sin_n	sin_v	2,962	5	9.1094	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66871	Justification evangelical, or, A plain impartial scripture-account of God's method in justifying a sinner written by Sir Charles Wolseley ...	Wolseley, Charles, Sir, 1630?-1714.	1677 (1677)	Wing W3308; ESTC R15406	58,996	146

to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself That was the grand thing typified and intended by the sacrifices to be done and that which our Saviour by his coming actually did do as we are told in the 1st chap. of the same book in that expression When he had by himself purged our sins he sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high That is When he had fully accomplished that great End for which he came into the world which was to procure pardon of sins he then ascended to his Mediatory Throne and the exercise of that Authority If we look into the Gospel in the 26 of St. Matt. where our blessed Saviour first instituted and solemnly himself administred that Sacrament wherein Himself and all the saving Advantages appurtenant to him are represented and conveyed He there calls his Blood the blood of the New Testament shed for many for the remission of sins Declaring that to be the grand Effect of his purchase and the great attainment of the Gospel from whence all our happiness is derived In the 1st of the Ephes v. 7. the Redemption we have by Christ is called the forgiveness of sin In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins In the 2d of the Acts vers 38. St. Peter there perswades the Jews to embrace the Christian-religion in these words Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins as the great End attainable by the Gospel and all the Institutions of it St. John in the 1st chap. of his 1st Epist tells us that If we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son Cleanseth us from all sin That being the great End of all Gospel faith and obedience to be cleansed from all sin and the in-let to all happiness And 't is that which all the Saints the whole Church unitedly do una voce adore the Mediator for as the grand Effect of his undertaking That he has washed them from their sins in his own blood and thereby made them Kings and Priests unto God and intituled them to all happiness and Glory In a word our Saviour himself summs up and Epitomizeth all those blessings he came to purchase for and confer upon the world and seems to be in the Supreamest exercise of his Mediatory Authority in pronouncing that Benediction Thy sins are forgiven thee Thirdly Whatever other expressions the Scripture makes use of to signifie and represent Justification to us by they all relate to the pardon of sin and give us this sense and signification of it The Scripture expresseth our Justification by three other Terms Sometimes 't is called Redemption sometimes Remission and sometimes Reconciliation And all these have a reference to sin and its forgiveness 'T is called Redemption with respect to that captivity and bondage that is in sin Remission with respect to that guilt and obligation to punishment that is in sin And 't is called Reconciliation with respect to that enmity and opposition to God that is in sin All which we are freed from by the pardon of sin as the great priviledge of a justified state and that wherein it consisteth Fourthly The great Blessing that the Scripture foretold and held forth to the world in the coming of the Messiah and that Covenant of Grace that God would graciously enter into with Mankind was the Remission of sin and blotting out of iniquity Instances of this kind the Scripture abounds with The great effect of Christs coming we are told should be To save his people from their sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity And in divers of the Prophets God declares the Grace of his Covenant to lye per eminentiam in this The pardoning of our iniquities and the remembring our sins no more So St. Peter declares Act. 10.43 To Him give all the Prophets witness that thorough his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive Remission of sins And when God was pleased to make the Attributes of his Mercy and Goodness in an especial manner to pass before Moses and to reveal it to him as it relates to Mankind 't is expressed by That as the Grand and Transcendent Effect of it the pardoning iniquity transgression and sin A third consideration to clear up the truth of this Definition I have given of Justification and which is of great prevailing in the case is this That whenever God pardons any mans sin He looks upon him as a Righteous person does cerstitute him so thereby and deal with him accordingly Where he sees no iniquity there his Countenance is as upon the righteous This I shall make out First from the Reasons of the Thing in it self abstractedly considered that it ought so to be Secondly from plain and positive Scriptures in the case whereby it appears to be Gods ordination that so it should be And thirdly from the Method God is pleased in his wisdom to take in the pardoning and justifying Offenders and the manner of his procedure therein whereby his Righteousness and his Justice become very evident in so doing There be these five Reasons result from the Thing in it self abstractedly considered for the proof of this point First Man in his primary Make was righteous and just that was his Original constitution Sin is but an Accidental Deprivation And therefore when all Sin and Guilt contracted is Legally removed and wholly obliterated 't is but reasonable he should be judg d of by his first state and it falls in naturally so to be Sublata privatione ponitur habitus is a firm Axiom in Logick Not that I am here about to prove that a man is restored barely to the state of Adams Original innocency by the Redemption and Forgiveness of the Gospel for by Gods gracious Ordination we are instated in much more I urge this only to evidence thus much That man being made Righteous and having made himself a Sinner his sin being pardoned and obliterated were there nothing else in the case 't were Just with God to account of him according to what at first he made him Nor can we with any good Reason abstractedly considering him so circumstanced judge of him otherwise then as in a righteous and so happy condition Secondly Remission of all sin is in its own nature constructively and properly enough so called a Righteousness According to that noted saying among the Antient Christians Hominis justicia est Dei Indulgentia He that is chargeable with no offence at Gods Tribunal as he is not that has all his sins both of omission and commission judicially and authoritatively forgiven must needs be Reputed upon even terms with an Observer of the whole Law and have a right to all the advantages appurtenant to an innocent person To want any of them were paena damni and a part of punishment which can have no place where there is no Sin nor Transgression Thirdly Man is a Subject in which

12th ver of that Chapter to the end of it is evidently to prove these two things First That as sin came first into the world by Adam's disobedience and death by sin and did not only seize on him but descended upon all his Posterity even upon them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression that is against a Law promulgated as he did he begetting them in his image after his Fall in his apostate state and not in his innocncy So from Christs obedience and satisfaction for sin came righteousness life and salvation In three things the Apostle makes the Feadship of Adam and that of Christ to run parallel First As Adam had a publick Station and stood so related to others that he had power to involve them in his own condition So had Christ Secondly the Effect of Adams sin was Vniversal came upon all The Effect of Christs obedience is so comes upon all that is both upon Jews and Gentiles without distinction which is the grand point the Apostle is all along making good Thirdly the first Adam by his disobedience was the general Author of death Christ the second Adam by obedience is the Great Introducer of life And secondly That there is not and exact equality and even proportion between the Headship of Christ and the Headship of Adam So the Apostle tells us in the 15 and 16 ver But not as the offence so also is the free gift For if through the offence of One Many be dead much more the grace of God and the gift by grace by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many And not as it was by one that sinned so is the gift I or the judgment was by one to condemnation but the free gift is of many offences unto Justification The Advantage lyes much on Christs side in the comparison and that in three respects First Christs spiritual seed Believers are not so like him in degrees of holiness as Adams natural posterity are like him in degrees of sin And yet Life reignes as triumphantly amongst them as Death did over the posterity of Adam Secondly it was one sin of Adam that introduced Death But Christs obedience and the gift brought in by him was not upon the occasion of that or any other one sin but of many is the abundance of grace and procures forgiveness not only for that sin but for all other sins whatsoever that have ensued thereupon And thirdly there is a disparity between Adam and Christ in this and the advantage lyes much on Christs side That one sin one act of disobedience was enough to condemn But more the one act of obedience was requisite to procure our pardon And so although Christ do not save by his obedience so many as Adam condemned by his disobedience yet the second Adam is much more potent then the first because there is much more efficacy required in the Saving of One then there was in the Condemning of Many As the restoring of One dead to life is much harder then the destroying of the lives of many Now How by one mans disobedience were many made sinners Why Adam who had all mankind vertually in himself turning a Rebel and an Apostate his natural state was thereby changed his nature was attainted and became sinful and so fell under the sentence of death and that was included in the penalty threatned In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye Thy Natural state shall be changed and subjected to death And this falling out before he had propagated any of his kind he begat all his posterity in the same sinful Mortal state with himself So the Apostle tells us that in Adam all dye That is he becoming Mortal all were so propagated and Death reigned upon that account So on the contrary by one mans ●●●obedience many are made righteous As all meer men sinned in Adam being all in him and undergo the Effects of that sin So all Believers have virtually satisfied for sin in Christ By Christs obedience and satisfaction we come to be pardoned accounted of as righteous and saved But still 't is as an effect of Christs obedience that we come to be made righteous for the Apostle does not say In one mans obedience many shall be made righteous but By one mans obedience as a consequent and Effect of it many shall be made righteous As the effect of one mans disobedience many come to be shapen in iniquity and brought forth in a sinful condemned nature so as by the Effect of one mans obedience many come to be new born and brought forth in a righteous and a saving sfate A third Text insisted on is that in the 3d. chap. to the Philip. ver 9. And be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith To this Text a short Answer will suffice No more is requisite then to read from the 4. v. where the Apostle is discoursing of his Attainments under the Law Though I might sayes he have confidence also in the flesh if any other man thinketh he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh I more circumcised the eighth day c. and so he goes on And in the 7th ver But what things were gain to me those I counted loss for Christ yea doubtless I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith By which it is as plain as words can make it That the righteousness he desires Not to be found in was his own as he was a Jew and a Pharisee And to be found in Christ was no more then to be found ingraffed by Faith into the Christian Church to be found in that righteousness which is of God by faith which is the Gospel-righteousness No sober minded man can imagine the Apostle did not desire to be found in Gospel-righteousness or that by his own righteousness he meant that For 't is that alone can intitle us to the benefits of Christs righteousness And he himself every where so earnestly presseth men to strive for it as indispensably necessary to salvation and rejoyeeth in it telling us what comfort he had took to conling sider that he had fought a good fight had finished his course had kept the faith and that as a reward of so doing a crown of life was laid up for him in Heaven Nor is there any one passage of St. Pauls Epistles against works but 't is very plain from the context he intends the works of the Law and no other For as he opposeth faith to works so he also opposeth faith with Gospel-obedience