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A70157 A just defence and vindication of Gospel ministers and Gospel ordinances against the Quakers many false accusations, slanders and reproaches. In ansvver to John Horwood his letter, and E.B. his book, called, A just and lawful tryal of the ministers and teachers of this age, and several others. Proving the ministers calling and maintenance just and lawful, and the doctrine of perfection by free justification, preached by them, agreeable to the scriptures. VVith the Quakers objections answered. And the Quakers perfection by hearkning to, and obeying a light within them, proved contrary to the scriptures. And their practices in ten particulars proved contrary to the commands and examples of Christ and his apostles. By a lover of gospel ministers and gospel ordinances. Gaskin, John, fl. 1660. 1660 (1660) Wing G290; ESTC R223664 109,852 161

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be the Lord they are all for ought I know or can hear cast forth as corrupt and unprofitable members and the Lord complaining by the Prophet Zephany maketh complaint against the Princes and Judges as well as the Prophets and Priests saying Her Princes are roaring Lyons her Judges are ravening Wolves and yet the Lord calleth them Princes and Judges for the wickednesse of the person doth not disanul his office being lawfully called thereunto neither in Magistrates nor Ministers untill they be degraded from that office You farther object in your paper That the Apostles did take only that which was freely given them I answer That our Ministers do take nothing but what was and is freely given either by their ancestors or otherwayes and who ever payeth the Ministers T●thes payeth nothing of his own but that which was freely given for no man in buying any Land or leasing any Land doth buy the Tithes because by Law they cannot be sold You farther object That the Apostles did work with their hands to maintain themselves because they would not be chargeable to others I answer That the Apostle Paul and Barnabas did work but the rest did not as appeareth by the Apostles words Or I only and Barnabas have not we power to forbear working by which the Apostle plainly sheweth that the rest did forbear working and they had power to forbear working but that the Apostle did because of the poverty of the Church of Corinth and because he would give no offence to any He became as a Jew to the Jew to them that are without Law as without Law he became made all things to all men that he might by all means save some to that end he caused Timothy to be Circumcised that he might gain the Jews Now why do not you Quakers follow the Apostle in that as well as in your Teachers working which I think is very seldome Besides as I said before the Apostles had extraordinary Gifts as well as an extraordinary Call and were able to Preach without Study but the Apostle writing to Timothy commandeth him to meditate upon those things Give thy self wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all and do you Quakers think that you are more able to preach without Study than Timothy was and that you can work on your ordinary Callings and preach too when Paul commandeth Timothy the contrary And now I answer your sixth Ground against the lawfulnesse of our Ministers and that is you say because they teach that none can be perfectly freed from sin while they live here For answer to which I say that you Quakers neither know nor understand what our Ministers preach wherefore that you may know and be better instructed I shall by the assistance of Almighty God shew you what our Ministers do preach and hold concerning this great point in controversie of being perfectly freed from sin and that according to what I do believe concerning the same according to that measure of light within me according to the Scriptures And I pray God to open your eyes that you may be able both to see and believe the same without which there is no salvation Wherefore know you that our Ministers do both Preach and Write that all and every one that doth by a true and lively Faith believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for Life and Salvation are perfectly freed from all sin here by Justification and that alone by the blood of Christ and are made perfectly righteous by the righteousnesse of Christ imputed and that all those who are so justified by the blood and righteousnesse of Christ are truly sanctified by the spirit of Christ Which Sanctification is perfecting all our life here and perfected at the end of our lives according to that of the Apostle Having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us clense our selves from all filthinesse of the flesh and spirit perfecting holinesse in the fear of God not perfected but is alwaies a doing Now that I may prove these two points and explain them I shall first shew you by the Scriptures that we are made perfectly free from sin and made perfectly righteous by the blood and righteousnesse of Christ for as Adam in the estate of innocency was not only without sin but made in an estate of righteousnesse being made in the Image of God which as the Apostle saith consisteth in knowledge and righteousnesse and holinesse so all that are saved are by Christ the second Adam made perfectly free from all sin by his death resurrection and intercession and made perperfectly righteous by his righteousnesse Wherefore I shall plainly prove both these to be by Justification in and by Christ alone according to that of the Apostle being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ And be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man is preached unto you the forgivenesse of sins and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses but to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted unto him for righteousnesse Even as David also describeth the blessednesse of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousnesse 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 All things are of God who hath reconciled us to himselfe by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministery of reconciliation To wit That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him and by one offering he hath made perfect or hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified You see the Apostle doth make our perfection to be by that which Christ alone hath suffered and done for us and not by what we work or do But I know this is a strange new doctrine unto you and hard for you to believe because you dote so much upon a Light within you and Righteousnesse within you wherefore I shall endevour to make this doctrine appear plain unto you if you will not shut your eyes against the Light or that the God of this world hath not blinded your mindes lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should shine unto you Werefore minde what I shall write from the Scriptures First I shall shew how this perfection by Christ was typed out in the time of the Law as in the scape-Goat the Lord commanded saying Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live Goat and confesse over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all their transgressions in all their sins putting them upon the head of the
the Apostle What doth it profit though a man say he hath Faith and have not Works shew me thy Faith without thy Works and I will shew thee my Faith by my Works according to Christs own words Let your light so shine before men that they may see you good works and glorifie your father which is in Heaven Also the Apostle Paul writing to Titus I will that thou affirm constantly that they which have believed in God might be carefull to maintain good works these things are good and profitable unto men as the Prophet David saith My goodnesse extendeth not to thee but to the Saints that are in the earth So that there is a necessity of good works though not for our Justification namely Gods glory it being the end of our Creation and Redemption and the good and benefit of others for we were not made for our selves but for the good and benefit one of another Also good works the fruits of Faith I conceive are necessary and profitable for those that do them in Faith to evidence aud manifest the truth of their Faith unto themselves though Doctor Crips and several others were of a contrary opinion for although it be true which Christ saith By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye have love one to another yet it is also true which the Apostle John saith We know that we are translated from death to life because we love the brethren He that loveth not his brother abideth in death also in that prayer which Christ taught his Disciples Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors Now when God hath given us a heart to forgive the wrongs and injuries of men against us it is a good sign of Gods forgiving of us and this the Disciples of Christ doth evidence when Christ said unto them If thy Brother trespasse against thee seven times a day and seven times a day return saying I repent thou shalt forgive him and the Apostles said unto the Lord Increase our Faith The Apostles apprehended that they had need to have their Faith increased to believe the forgivenesse of their sins that so they might forgive their Brother so many trespasses against them for if a man have no apprehension of Gods mercy in forgiving his sins he can have no true seeling bowels of mercy to forgive others But having by Faith apprehended the free love and favour of God in Christ in forgiving our sins our hearts are so warmed and inflamed in the same that we cannot but forgive others for as the Apostle saith The love of Christ constraineth us and ye your selves are taught of God to love one another Now I hope by this you will be convinced that this doctrine of being Justified and Saved only by the righteousnesse of Christ is no doctrine of carnal liberty to sin and to live idly without doing good works but contrary that it is the only ground and foundation of all good works But because I have often heard some of your Teachers say that a man is saved by the hearkning to the light within him and obeying the same which is a doctrine I have heard taught in the open street in Branford Market by Benjamin Wallis one of the Quakers teachers Wherefore I shall endevour to cleer that to your understandings if you will not shut the eyes of your understanding against the truth Now that there is a light in every man which is a false light by nature teaching him that by doing and obeying the Law of God he shall be saved I deny not but that this light is Christ that I deny but say it is the light that is naturally in every man since the fall of Adam For as Adam did lose the estate of Innocency by disobeying Gods Commandement in eating of the fruit of the tree of Knowledge of good and evill so did he naturally think that by obeying or doing he should recover himself again and therefore The Lord placed at the East end of the garden of Eden Cherubims and a flaming Sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life knowing that Adam naturally did think to recover his estate by eat●ng of the tree of Life as he lost it by eating of the tree of Knowledge of good and evil and this is natural to all the Sons and Daughters of Adam to believe that they shall come to an estate of blessednesse and happinesse by what they do and therefore the Lord when he gave the Law of the Ten Commandements gave it with Thunder and Lightning and Fire so that the Children of Israel were afraid and desired Moses that he should go neer and here all that the Lord our God shall say and speak thou unto us all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee and we will hear it and do it and the Lord said I heard the voice of the words of this people they have well spoken all that they have said Now Moses was to stand between God and the people in which Moses was a type of Christ The Lord your God shall raise up a Prophet among your selves like unto me him you shall hear which was Christ for God never gave the Law to that end that men should be Justified and Saved by it but that it might be the ministery of condemnation to drive them unto Christ for the Law is a School-master to drive us to Christ and so long as we live to shew us ous sins and be a rule of obedience unto us and yet the veil of Moses Law is still upon the hearts of the Jews and many of the Gentiles unto this day for as the Apostle saith The Jews which followed after the Law of righteousnesse have not attained to the Law of righteousnesse Wherefore because they sought it not by Faith but as it were by the works of the Law and thus you may see the natural light in many others did lead them and teach them this way of doing or working for life and Salvation The young man in the Gospel that came unto Christ said Good Master what good thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life Christ answereth him according to his question and saith If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandements and asking which Commandement said all this have I kept from my youth up what lack I yet and then Christ sets him such a task that he knew he would not do If thou wilt be perfect go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor and he went away sorrowfull Now the end of Christs words was to convince him of the impossibility of attaining eternal life by doing Also the Jews that came unto Christ at Capernaum said Minde What shall we do that we might work the works of God and Christ answered them plainly This is the work of God That ye believe on him whom he hath sent
whereby they beleive this blood of Christ shed for them and that Christ now liveth in Heaven to make intercession for them and this faith is not a dead idle faith but a lively working faith working love to God and man Faith worketh by Love But this faith doth not save as it is an act or work in us but as it apprehendeth and layeth hold on Christ the Object And what ever infallible knowledge you pretend unto without the knowledge of this you are in Ignorance and know nothing as your ought But the Devil hath beguiled you as he did Adam and Eve when he made them beleive they should be as Gods knowing good and evil but they became like the Devil by sin And as the Devil hath deceived you so hath the Pope your Grandfather deceived you by sending his Iesuits and Friers here to seduce and delude you as Mr. William Prynne that Patron and Defender of his Countries Laws and Liberties hath plainly proved in his Book called The Quakers unmasked in which he proveth that several Friers of the Franciscan order have been chief Speakers in your metings as Coppinger and others And I know none but the Pope and his Church and you Quakers that do pretend to an unerring infallible Spirit and I know none that hold and maintain more errors then the Pope and you Quakers whom I conceive are made drunk with Popish errors for all your pretending to an infallible Spirit that cannot erre by an inward light What I have here written is by the light within me which you advise me to consider and hearken unto because it convinceth of sin Concerning which we had some discourse when I affirmed that the Law in the heart doth convince man of sin in the estate of Nature according to the Apostle Paul his words The Gentiles which have not the Law do by nature the things contained in the Law which shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while else accusing or excusing one another Also those that accused the woman taken in Adultery Christ said He that is without sin cast the first stone and they that heard it being convicted in their own conscience went out one by one the Law in the Conscience convicted them of sin And as the Law in the heart convinceth men of gross sins though they never had the Law written So doth the Law written convince of lesser and smaller sins As the Apostle Paul saith I had not known sin but by the Law and that he meaneth the moral Law is plain for saith he I had not known Lust except the Law had said thou shalt not lust Also the Apostle writing to the Corinthians to reform the evil custome of men wearing long hair saith Doth not nature it self teach you that it is a shame for a man to wear long hair And if it had not been sin they had no cause to be ashamed and the Apostle saith That nature doth teach it to be a shame But I see some Quakers that are not ashamed to wear long hair for I have observed some of those men Quakers wear longer hair then ordinarily Ruffins or Roysters wear and in stead of shame do defend and maintain the same to be lawful But I shall not beleive them for all their pretended infallible Spirit but rather think they are such as Christ spake of whose light is darknesse If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darknesse like those Locusts that came out of the smoak of the bottomless pit who are said to have hair as the hair of women But this by the way But you objected then that Christ saith the Spirit will reprove the world of sin To which I Answer that Christ and the Apostle doth not contradict one another I shall shew how they agree The Law in the conscience convinceth them of sin by discovering what is sin as the Apostle expoundeth I had not known Lust except the Law had said thou shalt not Lust Rom. 7. 7. But the Spirit reproveth for sin by shewing or discovering sin to rest upon the conscience by reason of unbelief as Christ expoundeth the meaning of sin because they believe not in me that is the Spirit shall convict by their own conscience that because they believe not in him there is nothing but sin for because of unbeleif sin resteth on the conscience and by beleiving in Christ only sin is abolished and taken away Wherefore Luther saith If the whole world did believe in Christ God would see nothing but a meer cleansing according to that of the Prophet David Thou hast forgiven the iniquitie of thy people and covered all their sins Selah Psal 85. 2. This have written in love to thy soul and the rest of your profession to undeceive thee and others who are lead by a fallible erring spirit Ye erre not knowing the Scriptures I desire you to examine what I have written by the Scriptures and let them be the Judge between us Whether those that are lead by the Spirit are not subject to erre though the Spirit of God is infallible and cannot erre yet the man that hath the Spirit is fallible and doth erre and so I commit you and what I have written to the blessing of Almighty God and remain a friend and lover of thy Soul FINIS 1. Answ Acts 1. 20 21. 22. Act 1 23 24 25. Act. 14. 23. Titus 1. 5. 1 Tim. 4. 14. 1 Tim. 3. 1 Tim. 4. 22. 1 Tim. 1. 4. 1 Cor. 12. 28. Rom. 12. 7 8. Heb. 13. 7. 13. 17. Numb 16. 1 2 3. Numb 16 Matth. 23. 2 3. Acts 1. 17. 1 Tim. 5. 22. 1 Cor. 14. 18. Act. 22. 3. 1 Tim. 3. 6. ● Pet. 3. 15 16. Act 2. 3 4. Fox the Quaker 1 Tim. 4. 13 14 15 16. 2 Tim. 2. 15. Rom. 12. 7 8. 1 Cor. 12. 4 5 6 7 8. 1 Thes 5 21. Tit. 1. 9 10 11. Tit. 1. 12 13. 1 Cor. 9. 14. Math. 10 10. Act. 4. 37. Act. 5. 1 2 3. 1 Cor. 9. 4 5 7 8 9 10 11. 1 Cor. 9. 13 14. 2 Cor. 11 8. Gal. 6. 6. Luther on Gal. 6. ver 6. fol. 246. 1 Tim. 5. 17 18. 1 Tim. 3. 2. 〈◊〉 3. 8 9 10. Matth. 23 23. See Sir Henry Spelman Cancil Anno 855. 1 Object Answ Mal. 3. Ezek. 34. 3. Esa 56. ●0 11. Zeph. 1. 3 4. 2 Object Answ 3 Object Answ 1 Cor. 9. 4. 1 Cor. 9. 20 21 22 23. Acts 16. 3. Minde 1 Tim 4. 15. 2 Cor. 7. 1. Ephes 4. 24. Colos 3. 10. Act 13 38 39. Rom. 4. 5 6 7. 2 Cor. 8 18 19 20 21. Heb. 10. 14. 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. Levit. 16. 21. 22 23. Minde Esa 53. 4 5 6. Dan. 9. 24 25 26. Zach. 3. 8 9. Joh. 19. 30. Colos 2. 13 14. Colos 1. 21 22. Colos 1. 28. Heb. 10. Ephes 5. 25 26 27. Numb