Selected quad for the lemma: grace_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
grace_n	salvation_n	teach_v	ungodliness_n	2,577	5	11.7800	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38042	Socinianism unmask'd a discourse shewing the unreasonableness of a late writer's opinion concerning the necessity of only one article of Christian faith, and of his other assertions in his late book, entituled, The reasonableness of Christianity as deliver'd in the Scriptures, and in his vindication of it : with a brief reply to another (professed) Socinian writer / by John Edwards ...	Edwards, John, 1637-1716.	1696 (1696)	Wing E214; ESTC R3296	60,720	171

upon us by the Messias are necessary matters of our Belief for we can't duly acknowledge him for our Benefactor and Saviour unless we believe that these Great Prerogatives are confer'd upon us Moreover it is of undoubted necessity in order to our being Christians that we know and believe what the Messias requires of us which is contained in such general Texts as these That ye being delivered out of the hands of your enemies may serve him Christ our Deliverer without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life Luke 1. 75. The grace of God which bringeth salvation teacheth us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts c. Tit. 2. 11 12. He gave himself for us that he might re-redeem us from all iniquity c. Tit. 2. 14. This is the will of God even your sanctification 1 Thess. 4. 3. Without Faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11. 6. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12. 14. Which places yield us such Propositions as these that the Messias who vouchsafed to come into the world to redeem lost Man requires of him universal Holiness and Righteousness and the abandoning of all sin and ungodliness That it was one grand end and design of Christ's visiting the would to redeem men from their iniquities to sanctifie their Natures and to make them entirely godly sober and righteous in their Lives That without these there is no Salvation no Seeing of God in the regions of Glory no hopes of Everlasting Happiness The disbelieving of these Articles hath made so many Sorry Christians as we see every where such as lay claim to that Honourable Title but are regardless of that Holiness which should accompany it We must not only believe that Iesus is the Messias but we must believe this also that we can have no Benefit by this Messias unless we by Faith and Obedience adhere to him Neither is this enough it is further matter of our Belief as we are Christians that our Salvation springs from the mere Favour and Bounty of God through his Son Iesus Christ and that this is the only source of that Happiness which we expect By grace we are saved through faith and that not of our selves it is the gift of God Eph. 2. 8. Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his Mercy he saveth us Tit. 3. 5. Where there is not this perswasion and belief the true notion of Christianity vanishes and the conceit of Merit comes in its room Wherefore there is a Necessity that we believe and be perswaded aright as to this matter We are Worthless Creatures of our selves but there is a Worthiness derived to us from the Unspotted and Meritorious Righteousness of him that is the Eternal Son of God He that knows not this he that believes not this deserves not the Name of a Christian I should have been glad to have found something of this nature in this Gentleman's Christianity But he endeavours to seduce his Readers by other apprehensions he tells them that the bare assenting to this that Iesus is the Messias is the Summ Total of the Christian Faith and the Gospel requires no more Lastly The doctrines of the Resurrection of the Final Iudgment and of Eternal Glory in heaven are contained in such passages of the New Testament as these Christ will raise up his at the last day Iohn 6. 44. The Lord Iesus Christ shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing 2 Tim. 4. 1. Father I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory Iohn 17. 24. And are not these Truths the proper Object of our Faith now under the Gospel they so peculiarly belonging to the doctrine and belief of the Messias Can we believe in him and yet not believe these Great things which are brought to light by his preaching the Gospel For though they were in some measure discovered and revealed before i. e. the General Doctrine concerning a Future State and the Endless Happiness accompanying it was not unknown yet Christ's Words and those of the Apostles do more abundantly assure us of the truth of them especially Christ's Rising from the dead and ascending into Glory have irrefragably confirmed the reality of them according to that of St. Peter We are begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Iesus Christ from the dead to an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us 1 Pet. 1. 4. Who but the Vindicator could imagine that these Evangelical Doctrines are not Necessary Matter of Faith to Christian Men Who but he could fancy and which is more publickly assert that the belief of the Messias's being sent from God without being acquainted with his gracious appointment as to our Future Rewards is all that is required as necessary to constitute a Christian Believer Especially when it is said He that comes unto God must believe that he is a Rewarder Heb. 11. 6. Observe it he must believe then it is not indifferent but a Necessary Article of faith CHAP. II. The foresaid Articles and Doctrines are proved to be Necessary matter of Christian Faith Not that a man is supposed Actually to exert his Assent and Belief every moment That we may be True Christians All these Fundamental Truths must be imbraced and none excluded The late Writer's forgetfulness It is prov'd that he grounds his notion of One Article upon the Weakness of Vnderstanding and Capacity in the Generality of people Herein he follows the Steps of the Racovians who submit the greatest Mysteries to the judgment of the Vulgar and if they will not bear that Test reject them The Doctrine of the Trinity how said to have no Difficulty in it It contains in it no Contradiction This Proposition Jesus is the Messias is not more intelligible than any of the Articles before mentioned THUS I have briefly set before the Reader those Evangelical Truths those Christian Principles which belong to the very Essence of Christianity I have proved them to be such and I have reduced most of them to certain Propositions which is a thing the Vindicator call'd for p. 16. If what I have said will not content him I am sure I can do nothing that will And therefore if he should capriciously require any thing more it would be as great Folly in me to comply with it as it is in him to move it From what I have said it is evident that he is grosly mistaken when he saith Whatever doctrines the Apostles required to be believed to make a man a Christian are to be found in those places of Scripture which he hath quoted in his book p. 11. The places which he quotes are made use of by him to shew that there is but One Article of Belief viz. that Christ is the Messiah but I think I have sufficiently proved that there are Other Doctrines besides That

more And my End is this to hale in Socinianism after a new manner You see what the Musing of this Gentleman comes to and I was so unhappy a man as to find it out to take notice of it and to discover it to the world in a late Discourse which I publish'd and thereby I have extremely exasperated this New Undertaker and his Adherents I do not wonder at it for now their Intrigues are laid open their Racovian Plot is detected and all their Measures are thereby broken But to keep up their hearts a Vindication as it is call'd of this Treachery is publish'd by him who was appointed to be the Chief Tool in this work Here he makes it his business to defend his New Paradox and to shore his Notion up again with some crazy props Throughout the whole he is pleas'd to Criticize with some Magisterialness and Pertness on the Reflections which I made on his book And now it is my turn again to be Critick and I shall discharge the Task with all impartiality and integrity It is true there is nothing of any Moment nothing Weighty and Argumentative in what he hath offered and therefore some in whose Judgment I could confide would have prevailed with me to add no more on this Subject which they were perswaded I had before sufficiently cleared but partly to shew somewhat further the great Danger and Mischief of this Writer's Opinion partly to prevent the Seduction of some well-meaning persons who may be apt to be led away by his smooth Pretences for though his Cavils and Evasions be weak yet they may chance to light into the Hands of some Weak Readers such as are not well establish'd in their notions Wherefore not on the account of his Petty Objections but for the sake of these persons I reassume this Argument and partly to lay open the Wilful Mistakes and Gross Dissimulation as I take it of this Writer and partly to gratifie those Gentlemens expectations who with some impatience seem to long for a Reply I have once again undertaken to employ the Press upon this occasion But the Chief and Principal Design as well as Motive of my appearing again in this Cause is to assert and defend the Christian Faith which this Author hath misrepresented maim'd and abused To which purpose I will set before the Reader the Heads of his pretended Vindication and in the face of the world make it appear how falsly and perfidiously he hath acted in the Cause of Religion And may it be the Readers Prayer as well as it is mine that this Enterprize may tend to the Glory and Honour of God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost Three Glorious Persons in One ever to be Adored Deity and to the Edification of the Christian Church Amen Ian. 27. 1695 6. ERRATA PAge 17. line 1. read World p. 22. l. 18. for Christ. r. Iesus p. 54. l. 20. r. Sylburgius p. 85. l. 9. r. Racovians p. 87. l. 23 after Iesus insert Christ. p. 116. line 3. after done make the other part of the Parenthesis p. 117. l. 18. after if insert the truth were known I believe it would appear that p. 120. l. 17. r. telling p. 125. l 8. r. him p. 128. l. 21. after hath insert had p. 131. l. 13. after religion insert who is so near a-kin to one that is voted a Socinian in the Brief History of the Vnitarians p. 135. l. 11. r. Socinianiz'd A Late WRITER's Unreasonable Opinions CONFUTED CHAP. I. The first General Charge against the Late Writer viz. That he unwarrantably crowds all the Necessary Articles of Faith into One with a design of favouring Socinianism He endeavours to shift off the Enditement but is cast by his own words His wilful mistake about the Article of the Deity He labours in vain to split One Article into Two It is shew'd that besides the bare believing of Jesus to be the Messias it is necessary to know and believe the Fall of Adam whereby Sin and Death entred into the World and were derived to his posterity It is necessary to know and believe Who the Messias is whether he be God or Man or both on which will follow the necessary belief of the Holy Trinity It is requisite to have a right conception concerning our Recovery and Restauration by the Messias i. e. to know what he undertook and did for us and to be acquainted with the Great Privileges bestow'd upon us by him It is of necessity to believe what the Messias requires of Vs. It is undoubted matter of our belief that our Salvation springs from the mere Favour and Grace of God through Christ Jesus and not from any works or merits of ours It is indispensably requisite that we believe the Doctrin of the Resurrection of the Final Judgment and of Eternal Life I Will now betake my self to the Task which is before me after I have told the Reader that I intend not to imitate our Nameless Author in his Childish Flourishes in his Spruce and Starched Sentences and in his Impotent Jestings which are sprinkled up and down his Vindication Nor will I follow him in his Impertinencies and Incoherencies in his trifling Excursions to eke out his two sheets and a half I will not resemble him in his Little Artifices of evading in his weak and feeble Struglings with a Strong Truth I will not personate him in the Confusion and Disorder of his Reply for it seems he had forgot that it is one sign of a Well-bred a Well-taught Man to answer to the first in the first place and so in order I will not imitate him in his Dry Common Places in his Set of Words and Phrases of Sayings and Apothegms which would have serv'd on any other occasion as the Intelligent Reader cannot but take notice Much less will I comply with him in his Angry fits and Passionate Ferments which tho he strives to palliate are easily discernible for he feels himself Wounded and is not able to disguise it I will betake my self I say to the present Concern with great application and mindfulness fully making good my Former Charges against his Book and clearing my own from those sorry Objections and Cavils which he hath since rais'd against it In the whole management I will sincerely acquaint the Reader first with his own words and then offer my Refutation of them and all along I will be careful to banish all Indecent Reflections unless those shall be counted such which are purely grounded on his own expressions and which his Freedom of Language necessarily and unavoidably administers to me The Main Charges are these 1. That he unwarrantably crowded all the Necessary Articles of Faith into One with a design of favouring Socinianism 2. That he shew'd his good will to this Cause by interpreting those Texts which respect the Holy Trinity after the Antitrinitarian mode 3. That he gave proof of his being Socinianiz'd by his utter silence about Christ's

to be believ'd concerning him The Mahometans call themselves Musselmen of rather according to the true account of the Arabick word Moslemim i. e. Believers and what difference is there between one of them and our Author's Believer The former believes that Christ is a Good Man and not above the nature of a Man and sent of God to give Instructions to the world and the Faith of the latter is of the very same scantling Thus he confounds Turky with Christendom and those that have been reckon'd as Infidels are with him Christians He seems to have consulted the Mahometan Bible which saith Christ did not suffer on the cross did not die for he and his Allies speak as meanly of these Articles as if there were no such thing The Alcoran often talks particularly see the Last Chapter of it against Christ's being the Son of God by Generation It is one of the First Principles of Mahometism that there is but One God neither begetting nor begot See Sulburgius's Saracenica This is it which our Author drives at when he labours to prove the Messias and the Son of God are terms synony mous as you shall hear by and by This reminds me of that Affinity and Correspondence which hath been between the Turks and this Gentleman's Party Servetus conferr'd notes with the Alcoran when he undertook to fetch an Argument out of it to disprove the Deity of our Saviour It is observable that those Countreys of Europe which border on the Sultan's dominions as Hungary Transilvania c. abound with Socinians and Antitrinitarians The inhabitants of these places accommodate themselves to their Potent Neighbours they make some approach to the Conquerer's Creed Some of these men have lately got footing in England and because they and the Great Turk disbelieve the Trinity therefore we must all be Proselytes to their opinion They are making way for this by taking away all the Articles of the Christian Faith but One. And our late Writer is the Instrument they make use of for this purpose This Great Mufti hath given us a Hopeful Draught of Christianity and it was fit the English Reader should know that a Turk according to him is a Christian for he makes the same Faith serve them both Nay in the last place let us take notice that this Gentleman presents the world with a very Ill notion of Faith for the very Devils are capable of all that Faith which he saith makes a Christian man yea of more for we read that they believed Iesus to be the Son of God Mat. 8. 29. They cried out to him Thou art Christ the Son of God Luke 4. 41. which latter words in both places denote his Divinity as I shall shew afterwards But besides this Historical Faith as it is generally call'd by Divines which is giving credit to Evangelical Truths as barely reveal'd there must be something else added to make up the True Substantial Faith of a Christian. With the Assent of the Understanding must be joyn'd the Consent or Approbation of the Will All those Divine Truths which the Intellect assents to must be allow'd of by this Elective power of the Soul True Evangelical Faith is a hearty Accepting of the Messias as he is offer'd in the Gospel It is a sincere and impartial submission to all things requir'd by the Evangelical Law which is contain'd in the Epistles as well as the other Writings And to this Practical Assent and Choice there must be added likewise a firm Trust and Reliance in the Blessed Author of our Salvation But this late Undertaker who attempted to give us a more perfect account than ever was before of Christianity as it is deliver'd in the Scriptures brings us no tidings of any such Faith belonging to Christianity or discover'd to us in the Scriptures Which gives us to understand that he verily believes there is no such Christian Faith for in some of his Numerous Pages especially 191 192 c. where he speaks so much of Belief and Faith he might have taken occasion to insert one word about this Compleat Faith of the Gospel Having thus represented how Defective how Narrow how Erroneous how Mistaken this Unknown Writer's Christianity and especially his Faith is I will now proceed to shew how Dangerous and Pernicious this sort of Doctrine is Here is a Contrivance set up for the bringing in of Darkness and Barbarism into the Christian world The only Necessary Point of Belief that the Old Testament delivers is according to these Gentlemen that there is One God and all the New Testament affords us as matter of Necessary Faith is this that Iesus is the Messias Carry but these Two Articles along with you and you are a True Christian. There is no Necessity at all of being acquainted with the Reveal'd Doctrine concerning the Cause of Mankinds Degeneracy and Corruption which gave occasion to the Messias's Coming into the world There is no Necessity of knowing whether this Messias be God or Man or both there is no Necessity of understanding whether he came to suffer and dye in our stead and to satisfie the Divine Justice and to purchase Salvation for us by his Blood There is no Necessity of believing that without Faith and Evangelical Obedience we cannot have any Benefit by the Messias There is no Necessity of being perswaded that our Salvation springs from the mere Grace and Bounty of Heaven There is no Necessity of believing the Privileges and Rewards both here and hereafter which are entail'd on Christianity There is but a Single Article of Belief and this is a very Short one too viz. that Iesus is the Messias and if you assent to This you are as Sound a Christian and as Good a Believer as this Gentleman can make you One would think that seeing there are so many Branches of the Evangelical Faith commended to us and urged upon us by the Apostles in their Epistles some of which our Saviour himself in the Gospel had made mention of one would think I say that a man that hath a True Sense of Christianity and is a Lover of Souls should endeavour to display before the world these Several Parts of the Christian Belief and should be earnest with men to embrace them All and not to omit or neglect any of them seeing they all so nearly concern their Everlasting Wellfare But here comes One that makes it his great business to beat men off from taking notice of these Divine Truths he represents them as wholly Unnecessary to be believed he cries down all Articles of Christian Faith but One. He at this time of day when Christianity is so bright strives to darken and eclipse it he hides it from the faces of mankind draws a thick Veil over it will not suffer them to look into it takes the Holy and Inspired Epistles which are as much the Word of God as the Gospels out of their way and tells them again and again that a Christian man or