Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	apostle_n	sin_n	transgression_n	5,988	5	10.4357	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90811	Authentēs. Or A treatise of self-deniall. Wherein the necessity and excellency of it is demonstrated; with several directions for the practice of it. / By Theophilus Polwheile, M.A. sometimes of Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge, now teacher of the Church at Teverton in Devon.	Polwheile, Theophilus, d. 1689.	1658 (1658)	Wing P2782; Thomason E1733_1; ESTC R209629	246,682	521

ere shee was aware was perswaded by him to taste the forbidden fruit Thus Balaam after hee had consulted with the temptation yeelds to curse the people of God Numb 22.22 hee had a great minde to the reward that was promised and therefore consulted how far hee might yeeld It is dangerous entertaining thoughts how far wee may yeeld where wee should not yeeld at all While wee think to yeeld but a little wee yeeld altogether If you would therefore deny your selves follow this Direction Do not deliberate in a case determined already by God himself Cyprian being commanded by the President to deliberate whether hee would obey or bee killed hee made answer In re tam sanct a non est deliberandum in a matter wherein the glory of God is so much concerned I may not deliberate Take this course then when you are tempted to any thing that is sinful chide away the temptation with an angry denial say Get thee hence Sathan It is true Christ suffered himself to bee tempted again and again three times following before hee put the Tempter to flight but this is not imitable by us hee had strength enough whereby to overcome the temptation when hee would yet you see in the third temptation for our imitation he said Get thee hence Sathan If you give not a peremptory denial at the first you give the Devil some hopes of prevailing and you will never bee rid of a temptation till you have done it As for example A beggar comes to your door and is importunate for something you tell him you have nothing for him the times are hard with you you cannot serve every one that comes with much more to this purpose but all this will not make him bee gone till you say peremptorily let him stay never so long you will give him nothing and then hee goes his way Why thus you must do with Sathan which if you do within a while hee will leave you Resist the Devil saith the Apostle and hee will flye from you Jam 4.7 The French have a Proverb When the Spaniard comes to parley of peace then double bolt the door so when Sathan comes to treat of sinning bar up the doors give him no audience He shoots in Satans bow that thinks by parlying with him to put him off 2 Not to the omission of any known duty I say as in the former particular a known duty that which you know is either expresly or by consequence commanded else you are not to do it upon any termes under that notion for as wee cannot make that to bee a sin which God hath not made a sin so wee cannot make that to bee a duty which God hath not made a duty Where there is no Law saith the Apostle there is no transgression so where there is no Law there is no obedience Whatsoever therefore wee do as matter of obedience unto God must have a command from God else it is will-worship and that is abominable Cultus non institutus non est acceptus In vain do they worship mee saith our Saviour teaching for doctrine the commandements of men Matth. 15.9 God threatens the ten Tribes that they shall commit Whoredome and shall not increase because saith hee they have left off to take heed to the Lord Hos 4.9 10. that is as some in point of worship that worship which they thought was most suitable to their own politick ends that worship they set up but by this they provoked the Lord. It is not enough if it be no where expresly forbidden if it bee not commanded we are not to do it Though our ends and aimes be never so good wee may not do evil that the greatest good may come thereof Therefore when wee are moved to do any thing under the notion of a duty and we are not fully perswaded out of the word that it is a duty wee not onely may but ought to deliberate till wee can certainly inform ourselves And yet while wee beleeve it to bee a duty and cannot by any means bee convinced to the contrary though in reallity it bee not so yet wee must do it because an erring conscience bindes for till wee bee fully convinced that wee may and ought to omit it wee cannot omit in faith and if not in faith wee should condemn our selves to omit it But now on the contrary If it bee a duty and wee know it to bee a duty if now wee have a temptation to neglect it wee may not parley with this temptation but forthwith set upon the performance of it When thou saidest seeke yee my face my heart said unto thee Thy face Lord will I seeke said David Psal 27.8 I made haste and delayed not to keep thy Commandements Psal 119.60 When it pleased God saith Paul who separated mee from my mothers womb and called mee by his grace to reveal his Son in mee that I might preach him among the heathen immediately I consnlted not with flesh and blood Gal. 1.16.17 By faith Abraham when hee was called to go out into a place which hee should after receive for an inheritance obeyeà and hee went out not knowing whither hee went Heb. 11.8 This is that which God expects whensoever he commands us any thing that wee should obey without disputing without reasoning without answering again It is the Devils policy to gain time to prevail with us to put off duties for then hee knows it is more than probable that wee will omit them Some are alwayes promising but seldome or never performing semper victuri alwayes beginning to live but never live in good earnest All will come to nothing till wee come to an unchangeable resolution of doing our present duty The Eighth Direction 8 Never go to the uttermost extent of your lawful Liberty Virtus consistit in medio Vertue lyes in the middle betwixt two extreams there is a twofold middle 1 Of participation when that in the middle partakes of both the extreams as luke-warm betwixt hot and cold it partakes something of both but this is not the middle here meant there is another and that is 2 Of abnegation when that in the middle partakes of neither This is the middle here meant when wee are neither in the defect nor in the excess in the use of our lawful liberty Wee should sin not to use things indifferent at all and so likewise to over use them It is dangerous being in the extreams He that would not fall into the River must not go too near the brink Hee that will go as far as hee may go is in danger to go further than hee should go If wee go one mile in the way of lawful take heed wee go not two in the way of non-expedient All things are lawful for mee saith Paul but all things are not expedient 1 Cor. 10.23 There are many things indifferent and we may lawsully use them but we may sin in using them if wee observe not the rule of expediency This is the

every wicked servant will bee found to have been a slothful servant at the Day of Judgement Matth. 25.26 But 2 If this were true that some such persons act adultimum virium to the uttermost of their power yet it follows not that therefore it is fit that God should give them grace nor doth God give any one grace upon that account for when they have done all that they can in this unregenerate state what is it that they have done why nothing well-pleasing and acceptable unto God because as the Apostle says f Rom. 8.7 8 The carnal minde is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be whence hee concludes that they that are in the flesh cannot please God Now is it fit that God should give them grace for doing that which doth displease him Again as faith without works is dead so works without faith are dead also and if they be dead works and not the service of the living God as the Apostle saith they are Heb. 9.14 how can a man by such works deserve to have grace What a monstrous thing is it that vice should merit vertue that a man by sinning against God should deserve to bee partaker of his holiness That Natural men may doe some things that are materially good there is none will deny but that they can doe any thing formally good smells too much of the Pelagian Forge and is manifestly contradictory to the Word of God which tells us that whatsoever such men doe is sin Prov. 21.4 Titus 1.15 And therefore most certain it is they can doe nothing to prepare themselves for conversion nothing to move God either to vouchsafe them the means of grace or to make them effectual as these men vainly teach t Dr. Twisse against Hoard Lib. 2. This is the peculiar glory of Gods grace to make us perfect in every good work and to work in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ and this he doth according to his good pleasure Phil. 2.13 Hebrews 13.21 for Grace is not conferred according to works that was condemned as a pestilent Doctrine long agoe in the Synod of Palestine and all along in divers Councels against the Pelagians That the Gospel prevails upon some and not upon others to whom it is preached whom it still leaves in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity our Saviour ascribes it wholly to the good pleasure of God as the only reason of it I thank thee Father Lord of heaven and earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes even so Father for so it seemed good in thy sight Matth. 11.25 26. And Judas not Iscariot hearing him say that If any man loved him he would manifest himself unto him replies with wonder Lord how is it that thou wilt manifest thy self unto us and not unto the world as if hee had said There was nothing in us more than in them that could move thee to it we were by nature the Children of wrath as well as others It is not only true of Election but of Vocation also It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy The grace of God is preventing grace it meets us in the way of sin even while wee are running away from God we doe not seek it first but it seeks us and findes us out in our lost condition that wee might seek it afterwards and having found it may be careful to keep it as Isa 65.1 I am sought of them that asked not for me w Non ergo putandum est cum Pelagianis gratiam dari ex merito iis communicari qui eam antea quaesiverunt Non enim quaeritur gratia sine gratia quae prima homisem perditum in se quaerit invenis ut postea eam quaerat censervet inventam R. vet in loc Exercitor in Gen 52. I am found of them that sought me not I said behold me be hold me unto a Nation that was not called by my name Therefore if wee have any evidence of a real work of grace in our hearts in any measure wrought by the Spirit of God let us cry Grace Grace unto it let us say unto the Lord as Mephibosheth unto David 2 Sam. 9.8 What are thy Servants that thou shouldest look upon such dead Doggs as we are And thus much for this first particular of Self-denial in respect of inherent grace the not ascribing it to our selves as the cause neither the efficient nor meritorious cause of it In the next place to deny Self in respect of inherent grace is 2 Not to rest upon it as the righteousness whereby wee are justified in the sight of God It is not a righteousness inherent but imputed whereby we are justified Righteousness inherent is a necessary antocedent of glorification 2 Thes 2.13 the subject of reconciliation is an enemy Rom. 5.10 of Justification a Sinner Rom. 4.5 but of Glorification a Saint Acts 26 18 it is also a necessary concomitant of Justification I Corinth 1.30 Rom. 8.29 30. where God doth alter and change the state there hee doth mend the condition by the operation of his holy Spirit but it is not the formal cause of it as Bellarmine and other Papists teach Iustification is a gracious sentence of God whereby for Christs sake apprehended by faith he doth absolve the Beleever from Sin and Death and accounts him righteous unto life x Non est Physica transmutatio qualitatum in haerentium sed moralis vel relativa transmutatia status qualis est mutatio hominis qui per condonationem creditoris ex debitore fit non debitor Ames Bellarmin Enervar Tom. 4.132 It doth not denote any Physical or real change of disposition but a judicial or relative change of state such a change as consists in pronouncing of a sentence and in reputation But to him that worketh not but beleeveth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness Rom. 4.5 where this phrase Faith is counted for righteousness is all one with that in the sixth verse God imputeth righteousness without works What this righteousness is that is there said to bee imputed the Apostle afterwards tells us Cap. 5.19 where he saith that as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners even so by the obedience of one shall many bee made righteous by which hee shews that the righteousness whereby we are justified is the obedience of Christ his active and passive obedience and therefore not a righteousness inherent in our selves but imputed to us for 1. It is the obedience of Christ and 2. The text saith that we are made righteous by that obedience in the same manner as we are made Sinners by the disobedience of Adam which is by y Non potest intelligi quomode in obedientia Adami constitueret posteros

peccatores efficienter nisi illa in obedientia prius imputetur ipsis peccatum enim qu●d neque nobis inhaeret neque imputatur non potest in nobis quilquam efficere Ames Bellar. enervat Tom. 4.140 imputation As for the righteousness of Sanctification inherent in our selves it cannot justifie us because it makes no satisfaction to the Justice of God the righteousness whereby we are justified is such a righteousness as makes a full and perfect satisfaction to the Justice of God for all that it can justly require either by way of punishment for sin or by way of obedience to the Moral Law The Covenant of Works being broken man stands bound unto God in a two-fold Debt a debt of suffering for his first Transgression and of perfect and perpetual conformity to the Law both habitual and actual for time to come God will have the Threatning fulfilled as well as the Precept observed and the Precept observed as well as the Threatning fulfilled This the Justice of God requires and therefore it is neither suffering according to the Threatning alone nor being conformable according to the Precept alone but both together that satisfies Gods Justice therefore inherent righteousness alone cannot justifie because the Curse of the Law for sin remaines still to be suffered This God stands upon to have sin punished to the full according as he hath threatned and therefore the punishment must bee endured either by the Sinner himself or by another for him and in his stead that is able to bear it that so God may bee sufficiently revenged for all the wrong that sin hath done unto him therefore they doe miserably mistake that talk of Justification either by habitual or actual righteousness alone for that is not full satisfaction to the Justice of God and that which is not full satisfaction in this case is no satisfaction at all and where there is no satisfaction to the Justice of God there can be no Justification Suppose a man should attain to that perfect and compleat habitual conformity to the Law which is required for of that onely wee speak in this place yet this could not justifie him because it could not acquit him from his sin in losing that which hee had before This After-conformity would not make amends for the former that was lost This Conformity recovered is a debt as well as the former which was lost and the payment of one debt will not satisfie for the non payment of another But that conformity to the Law which is even in the best of Saints since the Fall is not z Lex non tantum actualem obedientiam sed omnimodam cum lege conformitatem requirit secus enim lues originalis peccatum non effet VVolleb l. 1. that perfect and compleat conformity which the Law requires for wee are renewed but in part there is a remainder of corruption still A law in our members warring against the law of our minde Rom. 7.23 Therefore if wee were to bee tried onely by the preceptive part of the Law wee could not bee justified for so long as any thing is lacking of that conformity which the Law requireth it is impossible that the Law should judge us righteous Therefore there remains nothing but a fearful expectation of a most dreadful sentence of condemnation to bee passed upon us if wee will venture to bee tried for our eternal estates by any thing that is in our selves For this reason holy men in Scripture have alwayes renounced their own righteousness David prayes Enter not into judgement with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified Psal 143.2 If God will not withdraw his anger saith Job The proud helpers do stoop under him How much less shall I answer him and choose out my words to reason with him whom though I were righteous yet would I not answer but I would make supplication to my judge Job 9.13 14 15. I know nothing by my selfe saith Paul yet am I not hereby justified 1 Cor. 4.4 And therefore he professeth That he accounted all things but dung that hee might win Christ and be found in him not having his own righteousness which is of the law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith Philip. 3.8 9. And indeed every man that sees himself in the glass of the Law will see a necessity of another righteousness than his own every man I say except the man St. James speaks of Who having beheld himself therein goeth away and streightwar forgetteth what manner of man hee was Jam. 1.24 And thus much of Denying-self in respect of Inherent Grace SUBSECT II. Of Denying-self in respect of Common-Gifts WE have seen what it is to deny Self in respect of Grace I shall now shew what it is in respect of Gifts And 1 What it is for those that want Gifts 2 What for those that have them 1 What it is for those that want Gifts And here I shall speak as before both Negatively and Affirmatively 1 Negatively For those that want Gifts to deny Self in respect of Gifts is not 1 To deny the excellency usefulness or necessity of them None are more apt to stight and contemn Gifts than those that are most defective in them And of these some do it out of ignorance speaking evil of the things that they understand not 2 Pet. 2.12 and Jude vers 10. Others out of pride being loath to acknowledge themselves to be wanting in any thing that is excellent Others out of a blinde devotion to Grace as if a good opinion of Gifts were some way or other derogatory from Grace and these think it a matter of Self-denial not to think well of any thing that is not grace But as Grace must have its due esteem so must Gifts also Gifts are excellent though not so excellent as Grace For 1 They are the purchase of Christ the fruits of his Resurrection and Ascention Ephes 4.8 When hee ascended up on high he led captivity captive and gave Gifts to men It was the manner of the Roman Conquerors in their Triumphs to ascend up to the Capitol in a Chair of State with their prisoners following at their Chariot wheels on foot having their hands bound behinde them and as they went along the Victor was wont to throw some Missilia certain peeces of Coyn and other rich gifts to be gathered up by the people Even so the Lord Jesus when hee ascended in triumph up to Heaven having spoyled Principalities and Powers hee made a shew of them openly Col. 2.15 and gave gifts unto men And this speaks the excellency of them Princes in their Triumphs do not give mean gifts but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Royal gifts they do not onely triumph in their Victory but in their Liberality also which makes their Victory far more glorious Even so the Lord Jesus to make his Ascention more splendid and glorious hee gave Gifts to men and these Gifts