Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	faith_n	work_n	work_v	15,333	5	8.0919	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80553	A vindication of the magistrates and ministers of the city of Gloucester, from the calumnies of Mr. Robert Bacon, in his printed relation of his usage there, which he intitles, The spirit of prelacy yet working, or truth from under a cloud. Together with ten questions discussed, which tend to the discovery of close antinomianisme. / By John Corbet minister, and chaplain to Major generall Massie. Published by authority.	Corbet, John, 1620-1680.; Nicanor, Lysimachus, 1603-1641,	1646 (1646)	Wing C6267B; Thomason E337_15; ESTC R200828	24,213	37

but in a great desertion and the want of a spirituall fight to behold the brightnesse of the Lord shining upon us Or when Faith revives a man from under the sad apprehension of his fall or backsliding it is done when he hath made search after his former evidences and discernes at lest the root of grace alive in the soule Q. 5. Whether Faith be a condition of the new Covenant Neg. according to Master B. 1. HEre we differ in opinion Master Bacon thus differenceth the Covenant of works and the Covenant of grace That the one promiseth life upon condition the other gives it upon free promise Answ The difference of the Covenants was wont to be made by their conditions In the first life is promised upon condition of workes in the second upon condition of beleeving The same place which works had in the first Covenant faith hath obtained in the new There is a law of works and a law of faith Faith is the Gospell duty and unbeleefe is the maine Gospell sinne But let us examine the difference made by him The Covenant of workes promiseth life upon condition the other gives it of free promise Answ A free promise doth not deny all conditioning as To as many as received him to them he gave power to become the sonnes of God even to them that beleeve on his name neither doth the free promise exclude the condition of Faith for the Law of Faith is free of the highest grace and doth exclude boasting and bondage 2 We are not required to the ratification of the Covenant to bring faith to God but the new Covenant is to give us faith to bring us to God 〈◊〉 Answ Neither to the ratification of the first Covenant were we required to bring works to God nor did any works before the Covenant merit or make way for the promise of life upon condition of works But God in the very making of that Covenant gave man abilitie to perform the tenure thereof On the same manner supposing Faith to be the Condition of the new Covenant it doth not infer that we must bring faith to God but 't is most necessarie that God work faith in us to the ratification of the Covenant Faith is not pre-required in the way of merit or previous disposition but at the very instant when God strikes Covenant with the soul faith though freely given is requisite to the existence of that Covenant And whereas he saith The Covenant doth not depend upon our beleeving but upon Gods promise and faithfulnesse I answer The Covenent doth depend upon Gods promise as the ground and upon our beleeving as the Condition To prove that the Covenant doth not depend upon our beleeving as a Condition he urgeth 2 Tim. 2.13 If we beleeve not yet he abideth faithfull and cannot deny himself If he will draw thence any thing to his purpose he must thus expound it if we beleeve not yet he will give life unto us because he abideth faithfull and cannot deny himself Whereas the sense is manifest if we beleeve not yet he abideth faithfull and will make good his promises to them who by faith receive them 3 In the new Covenant God tyes himself and not the Creature Ans The essentiall form of a Covenant requires the binding of both parties But how doth he prove this paradox Because we are in Gods keeping and not in our own Is not this sound reasoning We are in Gods keeping therefore God tyes us not Or because God doth uphold us above the power of falling away therefore we are not bound to persevere in beleeving And if God tyes not the Creature he hath let loose the rains to all licentiousnesse In the last clause he saith That faith is urged in the Ministery of the Gospel and given to them that shall be saved because no man is justified in his conscience before God till he doth beleeve Ans Here we have an Antinomian principle that Faith doth not receive and apply our pardon but serves onely to read our pardon Secondly he confounds Justification before God and that before Conscience which are distinct notions Qu. 6. Whether godly sorrow for sin be required of such a one as is the Covenant of grace Aff according to Mr. Bacon We agree in the tearms of the Question but first I shall observe that Mr. Bacons preaching did rather tend to undermine godly sorrow He had these passages Pharisaicall Repentance doth consist in Contrition Confession Humiliation and Satisfaction First in Contrition i. brokennesse of heart thus the great Pharisees of the world speak of it That there must be in those that do repent before they be accepted of Christ Contrition enough i. brokennesse of heart before they come to Christ Now I would fain know when we should come to brokennesse of heart enough that we may be judged fit to come to Christ I think none of them are able to give satisfaction And a little after You must not think to get a broken heart before you have got Christ but having Christ he will give you a Broken heart Here he makes Contrition a part of Pharisaicall Repentance and accounts them the great Pharisees of the time who require Contrition enough before men be accepted of Christ But those Preachers who in Mr. Bacons esteem are Pharisees do teach that true Contrition is wrought in respect of time neither before nor after the receiving of Christ but at the same instant without which there is no coming to Christ though he saith it is wrought after When Christ proclaims Come unto me all ye that are heavy laden can any then come to Christ till he hath a Broken heart And Contrition enough is required not in respect of quantitie and measure but for quality and kind which is wont to be set forth by quantitative tearms because 't is a solid deeper and more piercing sorrow then all worldly mournings and the greatest howlings of Hypocrites 2. Whereas he now saith that godly sorrow is required in case of sin he hath expresly declared the contrary in the forementioned Sermon in these words Humiliation for we speak of Pharisaicall Repentance for these things are spoken of those that repent to Salvation but in an other way is a certain casting down of a man or woman because of sin or the evill that doth accompany it This is found in Hypocrites and unbeleevers Gen. 4. Matth. 6.16 Isa 58. By this dejectment they think to come into the favour of God but by it may come into the disfavour of God I shall describe that Humiliation that is approved by God and found in the Saints It is a dejectment of a mans self upon the sight and knowledge of the glory greatnesse power and goodnesse of God in Christ Jesus So that as the knowledge of God in Christ doth increase in the soul the soul is abased as Isa 6. four first verses Thus he declares Pharisaicall humiliation to be a casting down of a man because of sin the

Christ Still from the purpuse Secondly those that without Christ doe nothing truely and sincerely which is contained in the Law 7. The Law is exceeding usefull to take men off from the damnable opinion of their owne righteousnesse This doth neither declare that a Christian ought to humble his soule by reflecting up the holy Law of an holy and jealous God nor that he is bound to the Law as a Rule 8. The Law in the Hand of a Mediator is a rule of life for what the Law doth command in the letter that the law of the spirit of life doth worke within which is therefore called the Law of Faith or the Law of Christ or the Law written in the heart Here he seems to speak somthing but all darke and confused The Law in it selfe and not as considered in the hand of a Mediator is the rule of life But the Law given in the hand of a Mediator doth shew that the exact righteousnesse thereof is not required unto justification Secondly he brings a reason which hath no connexion in these words For what the Law doth command in the letter without the law of the spirit doth worke within except he doth meane because the Gospell inableth the Law bindeth Is this to state a Controverted question Might not an Antinomian grant these positions if he would study to conceale himselfe Besides at the Dispute he did reject this Conclusion viz. That the Law doth bind a Christian to obedience for said he the Gospell doth inable him Which the understanding hearers remember I doubt not that I refuted by replying that t is the nature of a Law to binde and where the Law bindes not there is no sin Have we not reason to suspect unsoundnesse in this Point And as there is a distinction made between seperation and semi-seperation so t is necessary to distinguish between grosse and close Antinomianisme Q. 2. Whether good Workes be a meanes to obtain Salvation Neg. according to Master B. HErein we differ But this question was at first proposed in other tearmes Whether good Works may be called a Way to Salvation which Master Bacon had formerly denyed to my selfe and another Minister and at the first Conference more publikly disclaymed the distinction of Via ad Regnum and Causa Regnandi affirming that Jesus Christ is the onely way Whereas we meane by a way such a course as God hath appointed them to take whom he will bring to salvation without which salvation doth not ensue As the narrow way in the Gospell and the undefiled in the way Psal 119. And by good workes we declared to understand not onely the fruits but the principles of holinesse namely inherent grace But to indulge our adversary in an expression the Question was thus propounded Whether good Workes be a meanes to obtaine Salvation By which we understand not the onely or the chiefest meanes for I then declared in my Paper that Christ alone by his super-abounding merit hath purchased salvation for us and now further adde that according to his pleasure he dispenseth his grace and by his power preserveth his people to eternall life But holinesse is so necessary that if supposing an impossibility a man might be justified and not sanctified he could never appeare before the face of God in glory But this expression is rejected as unsavoury whereas a meanes doth imply no more then something aptly disposed and designed to a certain end Thus Gods Ordinances are a means to obtain salvation But holinesse is absolutely necessary follow peace with all men and holinesse without which no man shal see the Lord. But the word obtaine is most remarked which is the Scripture phrase 1 Cor. 9.24 So run that ye may obtaine Consider other places Phil. 2.12 Worke out your salvation with feare and trembling Phil. 3.14 it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the reward of victory 2 Cor. 4.17 our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh out for us a far more exceeding weight of glory That holinesse is a way to salvation is cleerly proved out of the Text which Master Bacon urgeth Ephes 2.10 Wee are created in Christ Jesus unto good workes which God hath ordained that we should walke therein for if we walke in them they are a way if a way there must terminus ad quem the end of our walking which is salvation But saith he to affirme that good workes are a meanes to obtaine salvation is to deny Christ the onely meanes I answer Christ is the onely meanes meritorious and the onely meanes principally efficient but this doth not exclude other means subordinate unto Christ as the Word and Sacraments and such things as flow from Christ by inevitable consequence as good workes being ranked in their own place Q. 3. Whether God be displeased with his people that are in Christ for their sinnes we meane such a people as are in the Covenant of Grace Neg. according to Master B. HEre we differ in opinion but this question was at first propounded in other tearms viz. Whether God be displeased with the sinnes of his people which Master Bacon affirmed Whereupon we urged his owne Doctrine publickly taught in these words You know that when we please men they will be pleased with us when we offend them they will bee offended with us they are up and downe but farre be it from us to entertaine such thoughts of God whom he loveth he loveth to the end he is not as man to be displeased the Lord help us that we rather consider that we are not sinners so much because of the acts of sinne but rather because of the sinfulnesse of sinne It is true to the naturall man to our understandings God is pleased with us this houre and not that houre but you must come up higher to the knowledge of God that he is the same to day and for ever Here he plainly denies the pleasure or displeasure of God for this or or that act and hereupon he brought forth this subtilty That God is displeased with the sinnes of his people but not with his people for sinne of which people he exacted so much explanation as that they are in Christ as if we conceived Gods people out of Christ but this is not enough he exacts more viz. we meane such a people as are in the Covenant of grace as if it were possible to conceive that Gods people which are in Christ are out of the Covenant of grace He states the Question on this wise 1 When we affirme that God is displeased or angry we speak after the manner of men for God is not subject to passion Answ to say that God is angry is spoken after the manner of men yet dispeasure is no passion but agrees with God in the highest perfection of his nature for God is equally perfect in the dislike of sinne as in the love of good 2. When we are chastened of the Lord 't is a signe of his love not of his displeasure