Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
knowledge_n	law_n	sin_n	sinner_n	2,820	5	9.3094	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A97232	Chonoyterion he Sion. The refinement of Zion: or, The old orthodox Protestant doctrine justified, and defended against several exceptions of the Antinomians, methodically digested into questions, wherein many weighty and important cases of conscience are handled, concerning the nature of faith and repentance, or conversion to God: of his eternal love, and beholding of sin in his dearest children: of justification from eternity, of of [sic] preparations to the acceptance of Christ, of prayer for pardon of sin, and turning to God: of the gospel covenant, aud [sic] tenders of salvation, on the termes of faith and repentance. For the establishment of the scrupulous, conviction of the erroneous, and consolation of distressed consciences. By Anthony Warton, minister of the word at Breamore in Hampshire.	Warton, Anthony.	1657 (1657)	Wing W987; Thomason E914_2; ESTC R207476	171,315	250

deny thar the hearing of the Gospel goeth before Faith Now what shall we hereupon conclude that none but believers are to heat the Gospel I trow not For then there will be no hope of any mans conversion from infidelity or incredulity to Faith in Christ But that I may shew the weakness of his reasoning First I grant the major Proposition Sin cannot prepare for Christ The knowledge of sin may but not that which is absolutely and altogether sin or wherein nothing is to be found but sin for sin in this sense is opposite to all goodness Now whereas he assumeth in the minor Proposition and saith But all qualifications before Faith are sin Here I distinguish of sin and say that it is so vel per se vel per accidens either in it self and its own nature or accidentally because being otherwise good through the corruption and unbelief of him that committeth it it becometh sinful and evill as it proceeds from him Now of this latter sort is the hearing of the word both of Law and Gospel and all preparations wrought before Faith that is to say legal terrours confession of sin humiliation hope of pardon and the like For these are not evil but good in themselves and evil only by accident therefore in regard of the good that is in them they through Gods grace do prepare and dispose us unto our conversion and unto Faith in Christ I do wonder therefore that Mr. C. should say as he doth not only that all preparations and qualifications going before Faith are sin but that the preaching of such before Faith is sin Indeed it cannot but be great and grosse sin to preach and to stir men up to adultery whoredom rash swearing lying or to any thing that is simply and in it self sinful evil but otherwise I think no wise man will say that parents ought not to teach their children to know God and themselves to praise God and to perform all necessary duties both to God and man until they shall give good proof that they do believe in Christ There remaineth now only the last of Mr. C. Arguments which I shall briefly dispatch Object Christ saith he brings those Acts 2.37 from beholding of Christ to behold themselves and makes them cry out Men and brethren what shall we do c. For answer hereunto I say Answ that it cannot be concluded hence that men by the ordinary preaching of the Gospel are at all times without any sight of sin or any terrours wrought in their hearts by the Law brought to believe in Christ and so after this to see their sins For those Jews Acts 2. were by the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost bestowed on the Apostles convinced that Jesus whom they preached was the Christ And because they had consented unto and conspired his death hearing themselves accused of this by St. Peter they were pricked in their hearts with fear and sorrow knowing partly by the Law whereof they were not ignorant and partly by the Miracles which they saw that they were guilty of a most hanious murther But now that no such miracles and wonders are wrought what ordinary way is there to convince men of sin and of their danger thereby but by the preac●ing of the Law For by the Law cometh the knowledge of sin Rom. 3.20 Having thus examined Mr. C. Arguments and manifested the invalidity of them I will shut up this matter with shewing contrary to his Assertion that Christ is not alwaies first to be preached and that this is not the only way to bring m●n not only to Faith in Christ but also to the knowledge of themselves and of their sins and that therefore God never taught his people otherwise Unto this his Assertion I do oppose that which is to be read in St. Paul's Sermon unto the Athenians Acts 17. wherein he beginneth and preacheth the Law of nature unto them and thereby convinceth them of grosse idolatry and then sheweth them the necessity of repentance and preacheth Christ unto them It is not true therefore that Christ is alwaies first to be preached and offered and that men never come to see their sins until they do believe in Christ but rather on the contrary by seeing of their sins they come to see the necessity of Faith in Christ We read Acts 2● that Foelix the Governour of the Jews under the Roman Emperour sent for Paul and heard him concerning the Faith in Christ And as he reasoned of righteousness and temperance which ar● moral vertues taught and prescribed in the Law of nature and of judgment to come Foelix who was a most unrighteous and intemperate man trembled Now hence I infer 1. That it cannot be concluded that the Apostles did not preach the moral Law where it is said that they preached Christ or the Faith in Christ 2. That the knowledge of sin by the Law is necessary to prepare men for Faith in Christ For wherefore was it that Paul preached unto Foelix of righteousnesse and temperance but to bring him to the sight of his sins in which he lived contrary to those vertues that so despairing of salvation in himself being terrified with the judgment of God he might be dri●en to receive Christ by Faith and to put the whole confidence of his salvation in him Yet I do not deny but that the children of God after that Faith is wrought in their hearts do ordinarily come to a more full sight and apprehension of their sins that are contrary to moral equity honesty but that is by a more perfect knowledg of the law whereby they see themselvs guilty of more sins against it then they took notice of before and of more impiety in sinning against greater light Even as the more they do grow in the knowledge undestanding of the Gospel the more they do see what sins they are guilty of against the Gospel Yea and in general also the more they do by the Gospel see and apprehend Gods mercy towards them in Christ the more wretched sinners do they acknowledge themselves to have been The sum of all is this Gods chi●dren are prepared unto Faith in Christ not always we say not so nor only by the preaching of the Law and the terrours thereof but more immediatly and much more by the preaching of the Gospel by hearing whereof they conceive some hope of pardon and are thereby kept from being swallowed up of desperation and do desire and pray for the forgivenesse of their sins and salvation by Christ and do never cease meditating of the gracious Promises of God in Christ until at length Faith is by the Gospel as the proper instrument or means thereof wrought in their hear●s For it is not the Law but the Gospel that as the Apostle saith is the power of God unto salvation Rom. 1.16 to every one that believeth Again it cannot be denyed but that men sometimes have been prepared unto their conversion to Faith

Pauls conversion Acts 9 to prove that men come to know themselves that is their misery by sin by the preaching of Christ and that the preaching of the Law doth not prepare us for Jesus that we may believe in him For the ministery by which Paul came to see himself and to believe was the voice of Christ Answ I am Jesus of Nazareth Whereunto I answer that Pauls conversion was miraculous and extraordinary it cannot therefore be concluded from thence that men are ordinarily brought to Faith in Christ or enlightned to see their miserable estate by sin without the preaching of the Law But he goeth on forward and saith Object It is the sight and knowledge of Christ that brings men truly to see and know themselves not as they are in the estate of grace he meaneth not so but as they are in the estate of damnation for proof whereof he saith Saul Acts 9. thought himself a very holy and happy man till he met Christ in the way And biddeth us note that Christ taught him in the first place the knowledge of himself Who art thou Lord saith Saul I am Jesus of Nazareth saith Christ whom thou persecutest Christ did not tell him of his sin O thou art an accursed persecuting creature Dost ask who I am Thou hadst more need know thy self c. No no he discovereth Himself unto him And this I know was Gods usual dealing in the Gospel those whom he taught he taught them first to know Christ and this Christ our Prophet must teach thee if ever thou be taught Answ But I would know whether the Lord did not take another course with Adam when he was fallen Sure I am he first brought him to the sight and sense of his sin and misery by reproving him for the transgression of his Law before he comforted him raised him up with that Evangelical promise The seed of the woman shall break the head of the serpent And our blessed Saviour layeth it down for a general rule and direction Luke 24.47 That repentance and remission of sins must be preached in his name amongst all nations First repentance which cannot be without the knowledge of sin and then remission of sins by Faith in Christ Now as for the example of Sauls conversion which Mr. C. so much and so often urgeth it is not true which he saith as it were triumphantly Christ did not tell him of his sin O thou art an accursed persecuting creature c. For did he not plainly speak unto him and say Saul Saul why persecutest thou me And again I am Jesus whom thou persecutest It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks It 's evident that he did as manifestly and as soon if not before tell him of his sin in persecuting him as he told him that he was Jesus We may conclude therefore from hence that a man must be brought to know himself and his miserable estate and condition by sin either at the same time or before that Christ is preached and offered unto him But of this more hereafter only I will say this now that Paul was terrified and cast down indeed by those terrible words of Christ and by beholding his glorious Majesty but for the perfecting of his conversion Christ sent him to Ananias by whom he was to be taught and instructed what he was to do By him therefore he was taught all things necessary unto his salvation and so was ●●mforted and raised up again by Faith in Christ from his former terrours and fears I say therefore as Mr. C. doth It is Christ in the preaching of the Gospel that is glad tidings for sinners remission of sins for believers and this Gospel this glad tydings cannot rightly be held forth unto the world but withal men must be shewed that they are sinners and the emptiness of duties and of all other foundations must be discovered and the danger of not accepting Christ But I demand whether this is not to be done by shewing unto men their sins by the Law and their disability to do any thing of themselves that is pleasing unto God through the corruption that is in them by the fall of Adam For this impotency of doing good and the great wrath that is due unto us for our sins the Law re ealeth and maketh known unto us which when a sinner once apprehendeth then the Gospel is to be preached and he is to be exhorted to lay hold of Jesus Christ by Faith Object as the only means of salvation But let us examine another of Mr. C's Arguments and see whether there be any more force in that Beloved saith he God hath appointed the Spirit to be the means in the preaching of the Gospel to convince the world of sin Joh. 16.9 It is the Spirit of God that convinceth the world of sin and that in the preaching of the Gospel But hereunto I answer that our Saviour saith not Answ that the Spirit of God doth in the preaching of the Gospel only reprove the world of sin absolutely but of the sin of infidelity for thus he saith VVhen the Comforter is come he will reprove the world of sin because they believe not in me Now what shall we say that none believed in Christ before this coming of the Spirit and reproving of the world of unbelief Verily no for the Apostles with many other did before this believe in him For our Saviour speaks here of the coming of the Spirit in the miraculous gifts thereof as he came upon the Apostles and other believers in the day of Pentecost and afterwards until those gifts ceased in the Church when the Gospel had been by them sufficiently confirmed Besides the world of which our Saviour there speaketh though it was convinced of sin by the miraculous gifts of the Spirit yet it never believed for our Saviour calleth it the world that believed not in him Lastly If we should say they were unbelievers and worldlings before but afterward believed when they saw the miraculous gifts that were by Christ poured down and bestowed on his Apostles and others that reproved their infidelity yet it cannot hence be inferred that all in all succeeding ages are thus to be converted and brought unto Faith in Christ But of this more hereafter when I shall examine that which he alledgeth out of Acts 2.37 In the next place he reasoneth thus All preparations and qualifications whatsoever which are not of Faith Object are sin and I am sure Faith comes by the preaching of the Gospel not of the Law Therefore the preaching of qualifications before Faith is sin for all things before or without Faith are sin His Reason if we put it in form will be thus Sin cannot prepare us for Christ but all preparations before Faith are sin therefore no such preparations or qualifications can prepare us for Christ Here I would wish him first of all to consider that by reasoning thus he striketh himself as well as us For he will not

Free-grace do condemn us who teach that men must repent and believe if they will be saved for requiring such qualifications and preparations in them If the promise of salvation and justification saith Mr. Hobson had been tendred to us as a looking upon some qualification in us and not bringing in the bowels of it a power to produce all qualifications in us it had not been free but still a Covenant of works but it is free therefore there is a great deal of comfort to poor Souls And Mr. S. saith That Christ is offered to sinners as sinners and that no qualification is required of them that they may be saved by him Reconcil of God to man pag. 40. Mr. D. also telleth us That a man is to believe that God is his Father in Christ without any precedent qualifications Thus do they teach but we think it not good to speak thus confusedly of this matter knowing that many by these and the like speeches which they meet with in these mens writings are led into most dangerous errors To avoid therefore mistaking we say that salvation may be taken either pro salute inchoatâ or consummatâ that is either for our salvation as it is begun in us in our regeneration or in our conversion from sin to righteousness and from infidelity or incredulity to Faith in Christ or else for our salvation as it shall be consummated and perfected in us in heaven If we shall speak o salvation in the former sense we do not say That Faith and Repentance are precedent qualifications or previous qualifications or previous dispositions unto it for then we should be said to be saved before we are saved or saved and not saved which is a manifest contradiction For our salvation is begun in our conversion to God by Repentance and Faith in Christ It is no new light but the constant Doctrine formerly taught as well as now by all Orthodox Protestants that homo in primo puncto conversionis suae se habeat mere passivè et obedientialiter that is that man in the first instant of his conversion is no actor but a receiver of grace wrought in him by the Spirit of God but in the next instant actus agit being thus acted or wrought upon by God he also acteth or co-operateth and worketh with God And yet though we do constantly teach thus we do not reject all previous dispositions or preparations to saving grace or to the very first beginning of our salvation in our conversion to God to Christ For the Law Rom. 3.21 must ordinarily first be preached unto sinners to prepare and make way for the Gospel For by the Law cometh the knowledge of sin As long as men are ignorant thereof they are ready to rely on themselves do not see that they stand in any great need of Christ as it is to be seen in our ignorant people who put the confidence of their salvation not in Christ only and in his merits but in their good prayers good serving of God and good meaning boasting and bragging that they serve God truly and keep all his commandements Now our blessed Saviour offereth not himself unto such justitiaries as such or while they continue such but rejecteth them Matt. 9.13 and telleth them that he came not to call the righteous his meaning is those that justifie themselves and are righteous in their own conceits but sinners that is such as acknowledge themselves sinners unto Repentance and consequently unto salvation And in the same sense he telleth us Matt. 9.12 that the whole have no need of the Physitian but they that are sick hereby giving us to understand that as men slight the Physitian and will not send for him until they are afraid of sickness so neither will any seek to him or rely upon him for salvation until they feel their sins which are the deadly sicknesses and maladies of their souls Such poor and such distressed sinners therefore they are whom Christ inviteth unto him and promiseth to relieve them when he saith Matth. 11.28 Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will ease you And Esay 61.1 2 3. he telleth us that the Lord sent him to cure and to save not all in general or sinners as sinners as Mr. S. speaketh but poor contrite and broken hearted sinners for so he saith The spirit of the Lord is upon me therefore he hath annointed me he hath sent me to preach the Gospel unto the poor to bind up the broken hearted and to comfort those that mourn in Sion All these sayings of our blessed Saviour himself do evince and make it manifest that there are some previous dispositions necessary to the receiving of Christ even those which I have thus spoken of with some others Concerning which our own learned Divines at the Synod at Dort in their Suffragium Collegiale do speak excellently I 'le therefore set down their words at large as they are delivered in two distinct Theses I. There are certain outward works ordinarily required of men before they are brought to the estate of Regeneration or Conversion which are wont sometimes to be freely done by them and sometimes freely omitted as to go to the Church to hear the word preached and others of the like sort Rom. 10.14 It is manifest that such are required How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard Now that these are in our own power both reason telleth us seeing every one hath ability to move or not to move from place to place and experience proveth it seeing we see that men in outward things do either do this or that as they think good or omit them both They may sit still at home therefore when they should go to the Church they may stop their ears when the Minister is preaching the Gospel Mark 6.20 Acts 13.14 Herod heard John willingly The Jews refused to hear the Gospel Psal 58.5 The wicked do stop their ears like deaf aspes II. There are certain internal effects previous unto a mans Conversion or Regeneration which by the power of Gods Word and Spirit are excited in the hearts of men as yet not justified such as the knowledge of Gods Will the sense of sin the fear of punishment thoughts about their deliverance and some hopes of pardon God by his grace is not wont to bring men to the state of justification wherein we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by a sudden enthusiasm but being first subdued and prepared with many previous actions in the ministery of the word This we may see in those who upon the hearing of St. Peters Sermon feel the burden of sin are afraid do mourn desire deliverance and conceive some hope of pardon Acts 2.37 all which may be gathered out of those words When they had heard these things they were pricked in their hearts and said unto Peter and the other Apostles Men

the terrors of the law he be not first made to see in what a wofull case and condition he was by his sins to wit that he should have perished and been damned to unspeakable and unconceivable torments in Hell if God out of his surpassing love pity and compassion towards him had not provided and given him a Saviour Thus must we first be brought by the Law and the judgments and terrours thereof to apprehend our own misery before we can acknowledge the depth of Gods mercy and be inflamed with love towards him and stir up our selves unto thankfulnesse unto his Divine Majesty for the great and most gracious work of our redemption and salvation by Christ The preaching then of Hell and damnation and the rendring of a terrible account to a severe Judge is not the laying of the foundation neither of Faith nor of our justification and sanctification whereby we are made good Christians but a digging deep to remove the rubbish of self-confidence and spiritual pride and presumption that so the foundation of our conversions may be laid in the Love of God and of his comprehensible mercy towards us in Christ Jesus SECT VII Objections answered and the truth in this Controversy cleared AS long as any colourable specious and plausible objections against the truth remain unanswered men who have been taken and deluded by them will hardly be brought to renounce their errors no not when the truth shall be solidly taught and confirmed from the alone ground of all Divine and supernatural truth the holy Scripture Having therefore of late met with a Book of very high esteem with many intituled The exaltation of Christ in the dayes of the Gospel by T.C. and finding that the Author thereof doth teach that men are not at all prepared for Christ and Faith in him by the preaching of the Law but by hearing of the Gospel only I have thought good therefore not to passe over in silence but to examine those things he delivereth and the rather because his reasons and allegations do differ from those which I have before met with Exalt of Christ pag. 216. Edit 3 First he telleth us that though all are under the Law by nature yet it is the preaching of the Gospel that discovers it that is as he after explaineth himself that discovereth unto them that they are under the curse and condemnation of the Law See also before pag. 112. and so most miserable creatures He teacheth therefore that a man must first in the preaching of the Gospel see Christ and then by reflecting upon himself see his own misery which otherwise is not to be seen and discerned by the Law But in this he contradicteth St. Paul for he telleth us that by the Law cometh the knowledge of sin And he instanceth in himself Rom. 3.20 Rom. 7.7 and saith I had not known sin but by the Law for I had not known lust except the Law had said Thou shalt not covet Thus the Law sheweth us our sins yea and the punishment also Deut. 27.26 Gal. 3.10 that by them we have deserved when it saith Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the Book of the Law to do them 2 Cor. 3.7.9 And hereupon it is that the Apostle calleth it the ministration of death and of condemnation For as the Law at the promulgation and publishing thereof upon Mount Sinai was delivered with great terrour so it still of it self terrifieth and astonisheth the consciences of sinners accusing them when they do evil as both St. Paul Rom. 2.15 and every mans own experience teacheth But let us take notice of the Arguments of Mr. C. whereby he endeavoureth to make good that which he hath taught Object First he telleth us That a man never savingly seeth his evil condition without Christ And again That it is the Spirit of God that discovereth sin unto him Now the preaching of the Law bringeth not this Spirit but the hearing of Faith as witnesseth St. Paul Gal. 3.2 But here first I would know of him why he saith Answ a man never savingly knoweth his evil condition without Christ For our salvation consisteth not in knowing of our evil condition but in the knowledge of Jesus Christ John 17.3 Isa 53.11 For a man to know his evil condition by sin is to know that damnation is due unto him for his sin Now many a man hath attained to this knowledg who was never saved Salvation therefore doth not at all consist in this but in a mans flying unto Christ and laying hold of him when he seeth how miserable his condition is become through sin Now whereas he alledgeth the Apostles words Gal. 3.2 to prove that a man is not brought by the preaching of the Law but of Faith to be made partaker of the Spirit without which he cannot see his miserable condition by sin I answer him That the Apostle speaks there partly of the miraculous gifts of the Spirit which were by God bestowed on none but those that had heard the Gospel and made profession of Faith in Christ and partly of the Spirit of adoption which also is peculiar to believers Now thus indeed we do not receive the Spirit by the preaching of the Law but otherwise Rom. 8.15 as the same Apostle giveth us elsewhere to understand we did by the Law receive the Spirit of bondage to fear His meaning is that the Spirit of God which we received from him illightning our minds with the true knowledge and understanding of the Law did fill our hearts with fears and terrours and so did put us as it were in a state of bondage at or before our conversion unto Faith in Christ We have need therefore of the illumination of the Spirit that we may throughly understand the Law For as long as men are left to themselves their very knowledge of the Law is but shallow and superficial as it to be seen in the Pharisees and in all those who are only civilly honest which sort of men are either not at all or but a little troubled in their souls and consciences with the fear of their sins or of hell and damnation Whereas then Mr. C. saith The Apostle was once alive without the Law that is without the spiritual understanding of the Law but when the Commandement came sin revived and he died that is when Christ had opened his eyes to see into the spirit of the Law the spiritual sense thereof I trow he meaneth In all this I do agree with him but not in that which followeth when he addeth That we come thus to know the spiritual understanding of the Law only by the preaching of the Gospel For I have already proved the contrary to wit that when the Law is preached men come to understand it by the illumination of the Spirit opening their minds to see the true meaning of the several precepts thereof Object But Mr. C thinketh by instancing in