Selected quad for the lemma: grace_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
grace_n	deny_v	teach_v	ungodliness_n	4,302	5	11.7286	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33454	Methodus Evangelica, or, The gospel method of Gods saving sinners by Jesus Christ practically explained in XII propositions / by Abraham Clifford ; to which is prefixed a preface by Dr. Manton, and Rich. Baxter.	Clifford, Abraham.; Manton, Thomas, 1620-1677.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1676 (1676)	Wing C4701; ESTC R23890	95,942	214

nature that creature is truly and formally happy He is so well that he can be no better and therefore capable of no greater felicity But then since mans being and perfections are not originally from himself but borrowed and derived from God as rayes of light from the Sun and streams from the Ocean it thence necessarily follows that God as Original is the only rule and standard by which all perfection is to be measured and consequently the more or less any creature is approximate and conformed to God the more or less perfect As the excellency of a Picture lying in its exact resemblance to the face by which 't is drawn the more like thereto still the more excellent And this is that which gives Man the preheminence above the rest of the creatures in this visible world They are at a far more remote distance from him and partake less of him but Man is more nearly allied to him and admitted to a more full participation of the divine nature The rest as 't is commonly exprest have only some tracks and footsteps of God but Man his Image And by this resemblance of Man to God is his greatest happiness both as innocent and glorified described in Scripture Gen. 1.26 27. So God created Man in his own Image and after his own likeness There is the happiness of Man in his primitive state of innocency And 1 Joh. 3.2 It doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is There is the chief happiness of the Saints now in glory And indeed nothing less than this can be the happiness of a reasonable creature And to this all the duties of Christianity are so nearly related as that that they really become an essential part of it For either they are such wherein our likeness to God doth formally consist as the more patient and just and merciful and holy and righteous we are still the more like to God since he is so Or else such wherein we express our conformity to God as humility and reverence and faith and watchfulness c. which hold a suteable correspondence to his greatness Majesty faithfulness omniscience c. In the former we resemble God as the picture doth the face it represents And by the latter as the impression in the wax doth the stamp upon the seal that made it as a late Author hath well exprest it in his most ingenious and learned treatise concerning the blessedness of the righteous Did men therefore as they ought consider either what happiness is or how great a correspondence and affinity their present duties have to it they would be so far from thinking the performance of them any diminution of Gods free Grace as that they would rather esteem it as one of the most signal acts of his Grace and favour that he hath provided such effectual means and afforded them so powerful aids and assistances in order to the making them holy and obedient 'T is doubtless an act of kindness and bounty to heal the wounded and restore eyes to the blind and strength and beauty to the maimed and deformed no less than to forgive a poor Man his debt In justification our debt 's forgiven but in sanctification the ruines of degenerate nature are repaired and the Image of God restored And which of these two do you think is the greater kindness That frees us from prison and arrests from misery but this makes us truly and formally happy But lastly 5. Though our personal performance of the conditions of the Covenant be asserted as indispensably necessary to our eternal Salvation yet not by vertue of our own natural strength and power without the assistance of Divine Grace That is no where affirmed but the contrary What remainders of natural strength and ability there may be left in Man and how far they may be improved by him with reference to his own Salvation is not my business now to enquire or determine He is now 't is acknowledged in a state of degeneracy and by his fall the several powers and faculties of his Soul were impaired and weakened though not wholly lost But yet his obligation to duty is not thereby rescinded but remains intire and therefore he is still bound as much as ever to render love and service to his Maker For man's inability to obey cannot take away Gods right to command nor his Apostasie destroy the law of his creation Man is still Gods creature though degenerate and lives daily in a necessary dependance upon him and therefore 't is impossible he should ever be absolved from his engagement to love and honour and obey him since 't is impossible for a creature to become independent The great design therefore of Gospel Grace is not as some foolishly imagine to exempt us from duty and to dispence with our love to God or obedience to his Laws but to repair our strength and assist our faculties and every way to enable us to the performance of our duty That we may repent and return to God and live in all due subjection and obedience to him as becometh creatures Tit. 2.11 12. For the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world The same Grace here that is said to bring Salvation the same also teacheth us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts c. And both are alike called by the name of Grace Grace teacheth us this lesson and Grace also assists us both in the learning and practice of it For God is no hard Master he doth not gather where he hath not strewed nor reap where he hath not sown Though he gives not succors to all alike but to some more to others less according to the good pleasure of his will yet he is wanting to none but such as are wanting to themselves His promises are no less extensive than his commands No duty is required of us but God himself is engaged for our assistance in the performance of it Must we repent and turn to God Acts 17.3 He then will give us repentance unto life Act. 5.31 Must we come to Christ and believe in him that we may have life Matth. 11.28 29 He then will draw us Joh 6.44 and make us willing in the day of his power Psal 110.3 Must we cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and perfect holiness in his fear 2 Cor. 7.1 He then will pour clean water upon us and cleanse us from our iniquities Ezek. 36.25 and sanctifie us throughout in Body Soul and Spirit 1 Thes 5.21 Must we run with patience the race that is set before us Heb. 12.1 He then will increase our strength that we may run and not be weary and walk and not faint Isa 40.29 and 31. Must we work about our Salvation with fear and

can be drawn up or made at least so as to be obliging unless it be by mutual consent and agreement thereto demanded and obtained since betwixt equals there can be no Dominion or Soveraignty and consequently no right to impose terms upon each other But betwixt Superiors and such as are in a state of subjection and dependence the case is far different The Supreme Magistrate if he intend to confer Honours or Preferments upon any of his Subjects or to pardon such as have been disloyal and have rebelled against him he may draw up and propound to them what Conditions or Articles of Agreement he thinks meet provided they be not unjust and unreasonable and not to their prejudice He may require them to make publick acknowledgment of their fault and to promise homage and subjection to all his Laws and Government without asking their leave to do it and they notwithstanding are thereupon obliged to yield their consent thereunto at least i● they expect any benefit by his Act of Grace and Pardon Now this is the case betwixt God and the Creature Man he is not only as a Creature necessarily subject to and dependent upon God but as a degenerate Creature he 's fallen under his displeasure and become liable to his anger and vindictive justice And God on the other hand he 's our Soveraign Lord and Governour that hath an absolute Dominion over us yet being withall infinitely gracious and compassionate he hath been pleased to draw up conditions of Peace betwixt himself and fallen Man which is that we call the New Covenant wherein he promiseth to pardon our sins and give us eternal life provided we repent and believe c. This he hath caused to be printed and published by his Ambassadors to all the World and besides that this is a sufficient declaration of his own consent to it he hath also confirmed it to us by his Oath and now requires that we also each man for himself should come and seal to these Conditions which we all do in Baptism and solemnly profess our consent to them upon which but not before we are actually instated in all the Priviledges and Blessings belonging to this Covenant But withall let me add that even they who withhold or deny their consent to it and resolve never to perform the conditions of it are notwithstanding necessarily obliged thereunto not only as it is an act of Grace in the benefits of which they hope to be partakers but also as 't is the Royal Law as the Apostle calls it of that God who is the Supreme Governour of the World from obedience to whose Authority 't is impossible the Creature should be exempted But before I proceed to make this good by further proof it will be necessary to make some short digression for the clearing the sense of one place of Scripture that seems at first view to bear open testimony against what I am now pleading for The place we have Gal. 3.16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the Promises made He saith not And to Seeds as of many but as of one And to thy Seed which is Christ Hence some infer and they suppose with no less than unquestionable evidence since 't is in terms exprest That the New Covenant is made with Jesus Christ and not with Believers personally considered and consequently that he is the only party that stands engaged to the Father and not they for the performance of all such terms as this Covenant doth require A strange and dangerous Position which raseth the very foundations of Christianity the great design of this being to teach us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live godly righteously and soberly in this present world Tit. 2.12 To this it might be sufficient by way of answer to reply That since this Text is of doubtful interpretation it cannot in reason be thought sufficient to warrant an opinion of so great importance especially since it not only stands alone without a second to confirm it but that there is abundant evidence both from Scripture and Reason against it as is afterwards to be shewn And 't is a known and safe rule in interpreting Scripture that doubtful and obscure places are and not on the contrary to be tryed and judged by the light and testimony of such as are more clear and evident 1. But further for the better understanding the true sense of this place it is here to be noted that such is the resemblance that Believers have of Christ and that intimate union they have with him as that they are sometimes called by his name as for the same reason Magistrates are called Gods Psal 6.7 and the Children of Jacob are called Jacob Psal 44.4 and Israel Rom. 11.2 7. and Jerusalem the Lord our Righteousness Jer. 33.16 and every man by the name of Adam Psal 144.3 and so upon the like account Believers they are called Christ because of that near alliance there is betwixt them Thus we find this word used by the Apostle 1 Corinth 12.12 Eph. 4.13 Col. 1.24 Heb. 11.25 26. compared Acts 9.4 So that by Christ here we may understand not Christ personal but Christ mystical that is the whole body of Believers whether Jew or Gentile as jointly united and made one in Christ their head as the Apostle expresseth it Eph. 1.22 23. and chap. 2.13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21. And this I take to be that one Seed to whom the promise is here said to be made 2. But secondly As the word may be thus taken without imposing any new sense upon it since 't is elsewhere so used by the Apostle and Scripture delights to transfer the name of any common Head to those that are either derived from or representative of it so it ought also to be taken in this and no other sense in this place and that for these following Reasons which to me render it abundantly evident For 1. This sense of the word here doth best suit with the Apostles design and main intendment in this and the following Chapter which is first to prove that we are justified by Faith in Christ and secondly that this priviledge with the rest annexed to the Covenant of Grace belonged not only to the Jews but to the believing Gentiles also 'T is well known that it was the common opinion of the Jewish Doctors that if a man lived in a due observance of the Law of Moses and if upon any moral miscarriage he were but punctual in offering Sacrifices and Oblations in that case appointed his sins were thereby expiated and he assured of eternal life and consequently that they were saved by their own righteousness and works of the Law And because they were originally descended from Abraham and had the Law and Oracles of God and the holy Temple c. amongst them therefore they rested in the Law and made their boast of God as appropriate to themselves being as they falsly apprehended the only Seed of Abraham