Selected quad for the lemma: grace_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
grace_n	adam_n	covenant_n	fall_n	2,656	5	9.6090	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23663	A discourse of the nature, ends, and difference of the two covenants evincing in special, that faith as justifying, is not opposed to works of evangelical obedience : with an appendix of the nature and difference of saving and ineffectual faith, and the	Allen, William, d. 1686.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1673 (1673)	Wing A1061; ESTC R5298	108,111	235

A DISCOURSE of the Nature Ends and Difference OF THE Two Covenants Evincing in special That FAITH as Justifying is not opposed to WORKS of Evangelical Obedience WITH An APPENDIX of the Nature and Difference of saving and ineffectual Faith and the reason of that difference To which is prefixed a PREFACE by Mr. Rich. Baxter 2 Pet. 1. 5. Add to your Faith Virtue Jam. 2. 22. And by Works was Faith made perfect LONDON Printed by I. Darby for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Pauls Church-yard 1673. TO THE READER Reader THeology is the Doctrine of the Kingdom of God A Kingdom is a State of Government Government is by Laws He therefore that will understand any thing in Divinity must understand the Laws of God And though there be many inferiour Particles distinguished from the weighty things of the Law which few do clearly understand yet is it necessary that we know in general what kind of Law it is that we are under and also that we know the most important parts If we understand not the Law of Tything Mint and Cummin we must not be ignorant of Iudgment Mercy and Faith Matth. 23. 23. They that tell us we are now under no Laws do tell us thereby that we are under no Goverment and consequently that God and out Redeemer Jesus Christ is not the Governour of Believers And he that knoweth that the Name GOD doth signifie the Divine Relation to Man as well as the Divine Nature will know that this is to deny a God and to deny Iesus Christ and rather to be called Atheism and Infidelity than Antinomianism Even they that had not the written Law of Moses had a Law of Nature partly written out upon their hearts And Christians have both the Law of Nature Extrinsick and the written Law of Christ and both acccording to the various measures of Grace written out upon their hearts that is received by knowledge Faith Love and readiness to obey But they that know that we are under a Law as those in Heaven even Angels are yet do not all well understand what Law it is and on what terms the World or the Church are governed and must be judged That the first Law of Natural Innocency as alone or as to the Promissory part or as to threatning without mercies or remedy is it that any part of the Earth is now governed by or under is an intolerable Errour God promiseth not sinners everlasting life on condition they be no sinners That Promise ceased by a Cessation of the Subjects capacity without any more ado or possibility of reviving it Nor doth God deal with any people according to the sole threatning of that Law without mercy dispensation or remedy The Law of Grace was as truly made with all men in Adam Gen. 3. 15. as the Law of Innocency was Though the Serpents Seed be mentioned in it that intimateth not that any were such as then in the Loins of lapsed Adam but as consequently they would become such by rejecting and abusing Grace and so contracting a further Malignity If Man as in Adam's loyns then was the Serpents Seed then all God's Elect should be such and so be bruised and not saved by Jesus Christ For all then were really alike in Adam And to say that God's meer Election and Reprobation without any real inherent difference existent or foreseen is the reason of denominating some the Seed of the Woman and some the Seed of the Serpent is an unproved fancy and irrational corrupting the Word of God All men therefore in lapsed Adam were at once under the guilt of Sin and also under a remedying Law of Grace so far as that it is enacted and offered to save those that receive it It saved not Adam himself meerly by the making of it till by Faith he had received it And no doubt but as the Covenant of Grace to us extendeth to the faithful and their Seed so did the Covenant of Grace to Adam for it was the same as was made to all the faithful before Christ●s Incarnation The case of Infants being obscure clearer Truths are not to be reduced to it And whether Cain and Abel as they were both born in Original Sin so were both pardoned upon their Covenant-Dedication to God by their Parents and Cain after lost his Infant-state of Grace as Davenant Ward c. think Infant Grace may now be lost or whether Adam and Eve neglected that Dedication of Cain to God which was needful to his Sanctification or whether God past him by and denyed him infant-Infant-Grace of his meer will I leave to Mens enquiry and various judgments The controversie concerneth Children now as well as then and the difficulties every way are not small But of these things I am past doubt 1. That Cain was not the Serpents Seed meerly for Original Sin and as born of Adam as Abel was also nor did God make him the Serpents Seed by Reprobation but that he made himself so by superadded Sin against the Redeemer and Law of Grace 2. That all Mankind are still under this Law of Grace further than they forfeit the benefits of it by sins against it 3. That most Writers if not most Christians do greatly darken the Sacred Doctrine by overlooking the Interest of Children in the actions of their meer Parents and think that they participate of no guilt and suffer for no Original Sin but Adams only and bring the Doctrine of Original Sin it self into doubt by laying all upon Covenant-Relation and denying or overlooking the Natural Proofs Doubtless through Scripture it is remarkable that God usually judgeth the posterity of new sinners to new punishments and promises and threatnings are made since the Covenant of Innocency ceased to the believers and unbelievers or wicked with their Seed For we may well say that the Seed of Cain Cham Nimrod Ishmael Esau Saul Ahab c. had more Original Sin than what they had from Adam And Matth. 23. 35. Expounds the matter It was not in vain that Ezra Daniel c. confessed their forefathers sin nor doth our Liturgie pray for the dead but the living when it saith Remember not Lord our offences nor the offences of our Forefathers neither take thou vengeance of our Sins The Author of this Treatise beginning at the Promise made to Abraham doth it to comport with the Apostle Paul who thought meet to call the Iews to no higher Observations than the Case in hand about the Non-obligation of Moses's Law to the Gentiles did require But this denyeth not but supposeth the same Law of Grace in the main to have been made to all men in Adam and Noah and to have been in force to all Mankind before it was renewed to Abraham saving that to him and his Seed there were many great priviledges added above the rest of Mankind upon his extraordinary obediential Faith Of how great importance it is to have a right understanding of the difference between the Law of

Innocency and the Law of Grace and in it the Promise made to Adam and Noah and that to Abraham and the peculiar Mosaical Law and Covenant and the perfecter Edition of the Law or Covenant of Grace by Christ Incarnate a true Student of Theology may easily discern Wherein I hope the Reader will find that among the many late Treatises on this Subject the Authour here hath done considerable service to the Church of God Of which Subject I have written long ago so much my self and am attempting to make it yet more plain that I need not here tell you what is my judgment only lest any who know not how to stop in Mediocrity should be tempted by Socinians or Papists to think that we countenance any of their Errors or that our Differences in the Point of Justification by Faith or Works are greater than indeed they are and lest any weak Opiniative persons should clamour unpeaceably against their Brethren and think to raise a name to themselves for their differing Notions I shall here give the Reader such evidences of our real Concord as shall silence that Calumny Though some few Lutherans did upon peevish suspiciousness against George Major long ago assert that good Works are not necessary to Salvation And though some few good men whose zeal without judgment doth better serve their own turn than the Churches are jealous lest all the good that is ascribed to Man be a dishonour to God and therefore speak as if God were honoured most by saying the worst words of our selves and many have uncomely and irregular Notions about these matters and though some that are addicted to sidings do take it to be their godly zeal to censure and reproach the more understanding Sort when they most grosly erre themselves And though too many of the people are carried about through injudiciousness and temptations to false Doctrines and evil lives yet is the Argument of Protestants thus manifested 1. They all affirm that Christ's Sacrifice with his Holiness and perfect Obedience are the Meritorious Cause of the forgiving Covenants and of our Pardon and Iustification thereby and of our right to Life Eternal which it giveth us And that this price was not paid or given in it self immediately to us but to God for us and so that our foresaid benefits are its effects 2. They agree that Christ's Person and ours were not really the same and therefore that the same Righteousness which is an Accident of one cannot possibly be an Accident of the other 3. They all detest the conceit that God should aver and repute a Man to have done that which he never did 4. They all agree that Christ's Sacrifice and Merits are really so effectual to procure our Pardon Justification Adoption and right to the sealing gift of the Holy Ghost and to Glory upon our Faith and Repentance that God giveth us all these benefits of the New Covenant as certainly for the sake of Christ and his Righteousness as if we had satisfied him and merited them our selves And that thus far Christ's Righteousness is ours in its effects and imputed to us in that we are thus used for it and shall be judged accordingly 5. They all agree that we are Justified by none but a Practical or working Faith 6. And that this Faith is the Condition of the Promise or Gift of Justification and Adoption 7. And that Repentance is a Condition also though as it is not the same with Faith as Repentance of unbelief is on another aptitudinal account even as a willingness to be cured and a willingness to take one for my Physitian and to trust him in the use of his Remedies are on several accounts the Conditions on which that Physitian will undertake the Cure or as willingness to return to subjection thankful acceptance of a purchased parden and of the Purchasers love and future Authority are the Conditions of a Rebels pardon 8. And they all agree that in the first instant of a Mans Conversion or Believing he is entered into a state of Justification before he hath done any outward works And that so it is true that good Works follow the justified and go not before his initial Iustification As also in the sense that Austin spake it who took Justification for that which we call Sanctification or Conversion 9. And they all agree that justifying Faith is such a receiving affiance as is both in the Intellect and the Will and therefore as in the Will participateth of some kind of love to the justifying Object as well as to Justification 10. And that no Man can choose or use Christ as a means so called in respect to his own intention to bring him to God the Father who hath not so much love to God as to take him for his End●n the use of that means 11. And they agree that we shall be all judged according to our Works by the Rule of the Covenant of Grace though not for our Works by way of Commutative or Legal proper Merit And Iudging is the Genus whose Species is Iustifying and Condemning And to be judged according to our Works is nothing but to be Iustified or Condemned according to them 12. They all agree that no Man can possibly merit of God in point of Commutative Iustice nor yet in point of Distributive or Governing Iustice according to the Law of Nature or Innocency as Adam might have done nor by the Works of the Mosaical Law 13. They all agree that no Works of Mans are to be trusted in or pleaded but all excluded and the conceit of them abhorred 1. As they are feigned to be against or in stead of the free Mercy of God 2. As they are against or feigned instead of the Sacrifice Obedience Merit or Intercession of Christ. 3. Or as supposed to be done of our selves without the Grace of the Holy Ghost 4. Or as supposed falsly to be perfect 5. Or as supposed to have any of the aforedisclaimed merit 6. Or as materially consisting in Mosaical observances 7. Much more in any Superstitious Inventions 8. Or in any evil mistaken to be good 9. Or as any way inconsistent with the tenor of the freely pardoning Covenant In all these senses Justification by Works is disclaimed by all Protestants at least 14. Yet all agree that we are Created to good Works in Christ Jesus which God hath ordained that we should walk therein and that he that nameth the Name of Christ must depart from iniquity or else he hath not the Seal of God and that he that is born of God sinneth not that is predominantly And that all Christ's Members are holy purified zealous of good Works cleansing themselves from all filthiness of flesh and Spirit that they might perfect holyness in God's fear doing good to all Men as loving their Neighbours as themselves And that if any Man have not the Sanctifying Spirit of Christ he is none of his nor without holiness can see God 15. They all

now under the Gospel from Abraham's being justified by Faith and from God's setting him forth for a pattern and example to all after-ages of his justifying both Iews and Gentiles upon the condition of believing The strengh of which arguing seems to depend upon this supposition That the Promise by the belief of which Abraham was then justified and the Promise in the Gospel by the belief of which men are now justified do both agree and are one in the general nature of them And upon these grounds and under this notion of the Promise to Abraham I intend to discourse of it But when I consider for what reason he that is least in the Kingdom of God is said to be greater than Iohn the Baptist though not Abraham himself nor any of the Prophets were greater than he and when I consider likewise how ignorant the Apostles were for a time touching the necessity of the Death and Resurrection of Christ notwithstanding the many plainer Revelations thereof in the Prophets than we find Abraham had I cannot I confess think that Abraham had or could have a distinct notion of all that was contained and implyed in the Promise as now it is opened and unfolded in the Writings of the New Testament it does appear was wrapt up in it And therefore though I think I may well found a Discourse of the New Covenant upon the Promise made to Abraham as it is now explained in the New Testament yet I would not be understood to suppose Abrahams apprehension or Faith to have then been commensurate to the Promise as it is so explained Supposing then the Promise to Abraham to be the New Covenant it self in a more imperfect Edition of it than afterward came forth I shall now a little further consider what it was and what the New Covenant is ever hath been in the general nature of it since it first commenced And it is a new Law or Covenant made by way of remedy against the rigour and extremity of the Law of Nature under which Man was created For the Law of Nature the Law of Gods Creation as well as his instituted Law in Paradise being violated and impossible to be kept inviolable by Man in his lapsed state by reason of his moral impotency and the pravity of his Nature derived from Adam he must inevitably have sunk and perished under the condemnation of it unless there had been a new Law instituted to supercede the procedure of this Law against him in its natural and proper course If Salvation had been attainable by Man in his lapsed state without this remedying Law of Grace there would have been no need of a New Covenant If there had been a Law given which could have given life verily righteousness should have been by the Law Gal. 3. 21. But there was no such Law given besides this new Law Nor could the Original Law be repealed for the relief of faln Man it being founded in the Nature of God and the nature of Man as he was created after Gods own Image and is no more changeable than the Nature of good and evil are changable And therefore as I said there was a necessity that Man must have perished under the condemnation of the Law of his Creation as the lapsed Angels did under theirs unless a Law of Indemnity had been Enacted But God whose tender mercies are over all his works to the end so great and considerable a part of his Creation as Man is might not be wholly lost and undone to all eternity out of his infinite compassion mercy and love did constitute a new Law or Covenant for mans relief which well may be called the Covenant of Grace against the rigour and extremity of the first Law Which new Law was in some degree though but obscurely made known to Man not long after Adams fall or else there would have been no ground for that Faith which we are assured was in Abel Enoch c. Heb. 11. But it was doubtless somewhat more fully declared to Abraham than to any before and at last compleatly established and published by Jesus Christ the Mediatour of it who was given for a Covenant to the people And this new Law in the last edition of it under the Gospel is variously denominated being called the Promise the New Covenant the Law of Faith the Law of Liberty the Gospel the Grace of God or the Word of his Grace And so we come Sect. 2. To consider what the design of God was in this New Covenant or Promise unto Abraham Next to his own glory it was to recover the Humane Nature from its degenerate state to a state of holiness to that likeness to God in which Man was at the first made and therein and thereby to a state of happiness both which were lost by the fall Holiness love and goodness as they were once the glory and happiness of Man before he lost them so are still perfective of his nature And therefore it is impossible in the nature of the thing to recover Man to happiness without recovering his nature to a conformity to God in these or for Man to be perfectly happy whose nature is not perfected in them Sin is the disease and sickness of the Soul and it 's as possible for a sick man to enjoy the pleasure of health as it is for the sinful and corrupt nature of man while such to enjoy the pleasure which the humane nature did naturally enjoy or was capable of enjoying in its innocency and purity But when the nature of Man is once recovered to perfection in knowledge holiness love and goodness it will then be matter of unspeakable delight to him to love God Angels and Men and to do the will of God in every thing It is so to the holy Angels And it was so to our blessed Saviour who counted it as his meat and drink to be doing the will of his heavenly Father And to what degree the nature of man is here in this world restored towards its proper perfection to the same degree it is matter of pleasure and delight to him to act holily and righteously and to be doing good It i● joy to the Iust to do judgment Prov. 21. 15. It is a pain to a man to act contrary to the bent and inclination of his nature by compulsion or fear And therefore unless the corrupt nature of Man were changed Heaven would not be Heaven to him in case he were there Those Divine and Heavenly exercises which are there the unspeakable delight of Saints and Angels would be his pain and torment as being contrary to his nature And the pleasures of that state as having not what will satisfie the unsatiable lusts of mans corrupt nature would not be such to him but add rather to his anguish For as it would be a torment to a Man to be in extremity of hunger and thirst and to be without Meat and Drink and all hopes of any to satisfie him So will

Faith to him for Righteousness that is that which in the eye of that new Law should pass in his estimation for Righteousness subordinate to Christ's Righteousness which procured this Grant or Law For otherwise Faith neither as it is the condition of the Promise of Remission of Sin through Christ nor as it works Repentance for sins past or sincere Obedience for time to come is Righteousness in the Eye of the Original Law For that accounts no Man that hath though but once transgressed it to be Righteous either upon the account of anothers suffering for his sin or his own Repentance or sincere imperfect Obedience but curseth every Man that from first to last continueth not in all things which are contained in that Law But it is as I said an Act of God's special Favour and by virtue of his new Law of Grace and as it is established in Christ that such a Faith as I have described comes to be reckoned or imputed to a man for Righteousness and through God's imputing it for Righteousness to stand a man in the same if not in a better stead as to his eternal concerns as a perfect fulfilling of the Original Law from first to last would have done Christ's Righteousness being presupposed the only Meritorious Cause of this Grant or Covenant And thus indeed the Faith which I have described is a Man's Righteousness in the Eye of this new Law because it is Summarily all that is required of him himself to make him capable of the Benefits promised by it which as it is now revealed is the Gospel Justification is a Law-term And no Man shall be justified in Judgment or upon Tryal but he that is just in the Eye of this new Law of Grace as every one that rightly believes repents and sincerely obeys is because that is all that it requires of a Man himself to his Justification and Salvation And yet every Believers Justification will be all of Grace because the Law by which they are Justified is wholly of Grace is wholly a Law of Grace and was Enacted in meer Grace and Favour to undone Man that was utterly undone by the fall There are two things which I conceive do constitute and make up the Righteousness of the Law of Grace presupposing all to be procured by the purchase which Christ hath made first the Righteousness which consisteth in the forgiveness of sins and secondly the Righteousness of sincere Obedience And in reference to both these Faith is imputed for Righteousness by virtue of the Law of Grace First Faith as practical is imputed to a Man for Righteousness as it is that and all that which is required of him himself by the Law of Grace to entitle him to the Righteousness which consisteth in the remission of sins through Christ. Now that remission of Sinnes is part of the Righteousness which is by Faith is evident from Rom. 4. 5 6 7 8. Where the Apostle to prove that a Man's Faith in God who justifyeth the ungodly is counted to him for Righteousness he citeth a passage out of Psalm the 32d Even as David also saith he describeth the blessedness of the man to whom God imputeth Righteousness without Works saying blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin The Righteousness imputed in this sense doth consist in the non-imputation of sin Not to impute sin is not to reckon a Man not to have sinned but it is to deal with him not according to the demerit of his sin it is to pardon him for Christ's sake upon his penitential Faith and not to punish him for his sin and this by vertue of a new Law or Act of Indemnity or Covenant of Grace For although pardon of sin is obtained for Man by Christ his suffering for sin In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveneess of sins Ephes. 1. 7. and though God for Christ's sake doth forgive us Epes 4. 32. yet the actual collation of this great Benefit is not promised but upon condition of Man's Faith Him hath God set forth to be a Propitiation but it is through Faith in his blood Rom. 3. 25. By him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts 13. 39. and 10. 43. Although Christ is the Propitiation for the sins of the whole World 1 Ioh. 2. 2. yet that saying of Christ must and will will take place If ye believe not that I am he ye shall dye in your sins Joh. 8. 24. and that also Mark 16. 16. He that believeth not shall be damned So that Faith is imputed for Righteousness partly as it is the Condition upon which pardon of sin is granted Secondly That Faith is imputed for Righteousness which is practical or productive of sincere Obedience without which property it is not a fulfilling of the Law of Grace as a condition of the promised Benefits and consequently cannot justifie a Man in the Eye of that Law For First Repentance and likewise forgiving men their injuries for instance are such Acts of Obedience as without which a Man cannot be pardoned and if not pardoned then not justified And therefore Faith is not imputed for Righteousness unless it be productive of Obedience Secondly No Faith is available to justification but such as worketh by Love Gal. 5. 6. Which to say is all one as to say no Faith is imputed for Righteousness but such as worketh by keeping the Commandments of God and fulfilling the Law for that is the interpretation of love both to God and Men 1 Ioh. 5. 3. Rom. 13. 10. Thirdly Abraham who was set forth by God for a Pattern of his justifying Men by Faith was Justified by such works as were the fruits of his Faith and not only by his Faith which was the Root of them And therefore his Faith as practical was imputed to him for Righteousnss And such must be the Faith of all others that shall obtain Justification upon their believing as he did Iam. 2. 21 22 23. Was not Abraham our Father justified by Works when he had offered Isaac his Son upon the Altar Seest thou how Faith wrought with his Works and by Works was Faith made perfect And the Scripture was fulfilled which saith Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for Righteousness Where note these four things 1. That Abrahams Faith wrought with his Works about the same end as a Condition of obtaining it to wit his Justification 2. That by his Works his Faith was made perfect to wit in its aptitude by God's Institution to justifie him without which it would not have reached that end 3. Note further that it was his Faith as it wrought with his Works and as it was compleated and made perfect by them that was imputed to him for Righteousness 4. Note that in the Imputation of his Faith for Righteousness as it was