Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	good_a	sin_n	transgression_n	4,384	5	10.5404	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26998	The Protestant religion truely stated and justified by the late Reverend Mr. Richard Baxter ; prepared for the press some time before his death ; whereunto is added, by way of preface, some account of the learned author, by Mr. Danel Williams and Mr. Matthew Sylvester.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.; Williams, Daniel, 1643?-1716.; Sylvester, Matthew, 1636 or 7-1708.	1692 (1692)	Wing B1359; ESTC R1422	79,512	227

have of their own a Redundancy to save others But we all with thankfulness confess that God useth to bless the Houses of the Faithful the Children for the Parents sake and hath exprest this in the Decalogue and by many Promises Yea that he would have spared Sodom had there been but Ten Righteous persons there And a Potiphars House and a Prison may be blest in part for Josephs sake And when Parents are Dead this blessing may be on their Children through many Generations And God remembred Abraham when his Posterity provoked him David had a special promise for his Seed None of this is denyed by us But 1. There is no Merit in any mans Works but their Rewardableness by Gods free Grace and promise for the sake of Christs meritorious Righteousness Sacrifice and Intercession their Imperfection being pardoned through him and their Holiness amiable to God 2. No man shall be saved for anothers Merit or Holiness or Works that is not truly Regenerate and Holy himself The Eighteenth accused Point That no man can do Works of Supererrogation Ans Supererrogation is a sustian word of your own by which you may mean what you please 1. No man can perform to God more Duty than he oweth him It 's a Contradiction Duty is quod debetur 2. No man can profit God by any thing that he doth 3. No man save Christ lived wirhout all Sin And he that sinneth doth not all his Duty or keep all Gods Law perfectly And he that doth not all doth not all and more 4. There is no Moral good done by any man which was not his Duty and Gods Law commanded not For Gods Law is perfect and therefore obligeth to all Moral good And as Sin is the Transgression of the Law so Moral good is the conform Obedience to the Law 5. God hath not Counsels to Moral action which are not obliging Laws and make not our Duty For to keep them is Moral good and the Law were imperfect if it obliged not to all such good If the Counsel oblige ut norma officii it 's a Law If it oblige not it 's vain 6. But there are many actions that are neither Commanded nor Counselled nor forbidden But those are not Moral actions as being no objects of our Choosing or Refusing by Reasons Conduct The nictus oculorum our Breathing our Pulse the Circulation of the Blood c. are no Moral acts Commanded or forbidden but necessitated Man maketh it no act of deliberation and choice which Foot he shall set forward first or just how many Steps he shall go in a Day which of two equal Eggs he shall Eat and an hundred such These are neither Duty nor Sin Commanded nor Counselled nor forbidden neither virtuous or vicious 7. And there are innumerable actions that are not the Matter of any Common-Law or Counsel and so as such are neither Sin nor Duty which yet as Circumstantiated and Cloathed with Accidents are to this or that man either Duty or Sin This not understood maketh these Ignorant Casuists abuse the words of Christ and Paul about Chastity and Marriage And because Christ saith every man cannot receive this Saying and Paul she hath not Sinned He that Marrieth doth well and he that doth not doth better they gather that there are Moral actions which are not best and yet no Sin The true plain solution is from the two last Considerations 1. God hath made no Law commanding or forbidding Marriage or Celibate as such or in Common To Marry is no Sin considered meerly as Marriage 2. But God hath made Laws against hurtful and injurious Marriages and to guide men to know when Marrying is a Duty or a Sin 3. And if any ones case were so neutral as that it could not be discerned whether Marrying were a hurt or benefit it would be no Moral eligible or refuseable action 4. But to some it is a great Duty by accidents and to some a great Sin Therefore Paul never meant that it was no mans duty and no mans sin but only that simply as Marriage it was no mans duty or sin or the matter of a commanding or forbidding Law but only by accident it may be such to one more than to another That this is Pauls meaning the Papists must confess For 1. Do not they say that the Marriage of Priests Fryars and Nuns are Sin 2. If any one Marry an Infidel or utterly unsuitable Person without necessity against Parents wills or one that is impotent or hath the Pox or that he cannot maintain c. Is not this a hainous Sin What else signifie Gods Law and mans against unlawful Marriages And if one cannot live chastly without Marriage and Parents command it it is not a Sin to refuse The Law saith Let all things be done to Edification and whether ye Eat or Drink or whatever ye do do all to the glory of God And is it only Counsel and no Command to Marry or not Marry as it makes to Gods Glory or against it There are few actions of a mans Life that make so much to his hurt and utter misery as unwise and unmeet Marrying And is this on Sin May they not see Pauls meaning then if they were but willing It is hard to imagine a case in which so important an action as Marriage can be neither Sin nor Duty 2. But sometime men use the word Sin and Sinners for meer Wickedness and such Sin as is inconsistent with a state of Salvation And we easily grant that all Sins are not such Sins as these But Gods Law is perfect tho' man be imperfect and forbiddeth all Sin even the least 3. But see the Heresies of Popery This man here saith To do that which is Counselled is not necessary because one may nevertheless be saved But he who omitteth what is commanded unless he do pennance cannot escape Eternal pains 1. See here what a frivolous Counseller they make Christ when it 's not necessary to follow his Counsel 2. See here how they make Necessity to be only of that which a man cannot be saved without When Saul a Persecutor and Blasphemer an Infidel Murderer c. may be saved if he be truly Convicted Obedience hath it's Necessity tho' we knew that God would forgive Disobedience to the Convicted 3. See here how they damn themselves and all mankind every man living omitteth what is commanded many hundred times for which he doth not that which they call Pennance He is a Lyar that saith he hath no Sin specially of Omission Gods Law bindeth us all to Believe to Hope to desire Holiness and Heaven to love God and our Neighbours and our Enemies with a stronger degree of Faith Hope Desire and Love than we do Every Prayer and Meditation is sinfully defective Every hour hath some omission of improvement And all this is not remembred nor all confest to a Priest nor all known or observed by any Sinner And some omission we are guilty of at our very

Number of Sanctified and therefore not of the Predestinate if they so continue what can more harden them in their Impenitence than to tell them that they must all believe that they shall be saved How many hundred Protestant Books and thousand Sermons tell the World that it is the Preachers earnest drift to save Wicked men from such Presumption which makes men call them terrible Preachers Every man is bound to believe Gods promise to be true and that he himself shall be saved if he be a true penitent sanctified Christian and so continue and that else he shall be Damned and not to distrust God as unwilling to continue the Grace he hath given him The Six and Twentieth accused Point That every man hath not an Angel Guardian or Keeper Ans 1. We hold that every true Christian even the least hath his Angel who beholdeth the Face of his Father in Heaven And that Angels are Gods Ministring Spirits for the good of his Elect and that they guard us and pitch their Tents about us and bear us up in their Hands and keep us in and from Danger and rejoyce at the Conversion of a Sinner and that we live in invisible Communion with them and shall be like them 2. But whether every Christian have one Angel to himself alone that guardeth no other or one Angel guard Hundreds or Thousands Or whether some as Lower Officers are set over a few and others as General Officers are over whole Kingdoms we leave to the determination of the Infallible Pope who is bolder with Gods Secrets than we dare be 3. But till now I thought they had not been so presumptuous as to assert that every man hath a Guardian Angel Where is there one word of God for this Is every man an Heir of Salvation or one of Christs little ones or under his promise Had Cain and Judas such Angels and all the Sodomites Christ made it an argument of Terrour to Persecutors that they offend such as had such Angels with God And dare you paint them as Devils and Burn them or Murder them by the Dragons Dragoons if you believe that every man hath such a Guardian Angel Surely Saints tho' called Hereticks have such The Seven and Twentieth accused Point That the Holy Angels pray not for us nor know our Thoughts and desires on Earth Ans A false accusation We say not that they pray not for us nor that they know not our desires nor any of our Thoughts We say that Angels are no such Strangers to Saints and sincere Godliness as not to know that all Godly men desire the Hallowing of Gods Name the coming of his Kingdom and the doing of his Will on Earth as it is done in Heaven They that know what Grace is and what our Prayers are know much of our desires And we do not think that Angels know less of our Thoughts than Devils who we feel to our Trouble are not altogether unacquainted with them And those Angels that rejoyce at a Sinners Conversion are not unacquainted with it And as to their Praying we know not how it is that Angels express their desires to God but we all agree that they desire our welfare and therefore may be said to pray for it if all notified Desire be Prayer We suppose that they know and Love us far better than we know and Love each other But we read that the Heretical Gnosticks or their like did deceive men by Voluntary Humility and worshipping of Angels intruding into those things which they had not seen vainly puft up by a fleshly mind Col. 2.18 19. Therefore we dare not pretend to Papal Infallibility nor boldly to conjecture how far it is that our Thoughts are known to Angels nor how much they are ignorant of them nor when or how oft or how far or in what manner they pray for us How far particularly and how far only generally c. Had this knowledge been needful to us God would have revealed it Much less do we know what Angel of what departed Soul of a Saint hath the care or charge of our Sheep and of our Cattel and who of our Pigs and Geese and who of our Fruits and Corn abundance of these things we leave to the Infallible Church As we do their acquaintance in Purgatory while our acquaintance and Conversation in Heaven can reach no higher than the prospect which we have in and by the Glass of Scripture Revelation The Eight and Twentieth accused Point That we may not pray to them Ans 1. We may desire Living Saints to pray for us and this may be called Praying to them So a Child prayeth to his Father or Master But we pray not to dead Saints nor Angels 1. Because we have an hundred Commands to pray to God and not one to pray to them and where there is no Law there is no Transgression or Sin Therefore while we are sure it is no Sin to forbear it and know not but it is Sin to do it we go the safe way If they say it is against the Popes Law or his Clergy's we say with Paul it is a small thing to us to be judged of man who can but kill our Bodies we have one that judgeth us even the Lord. Let the Pope Damn us if he can 2. As the first Commandment forbiddeth us to have any God but one so the second forbiddeth us to worship so as the Heathens did their Idols because it is Bodily interpretative Idolatry and Scandal But the Heathens used to pray to their under Deities whom they judged to be much like that which the Papists judge of Angels and praying to Invisible Spirits is to imitate them as scandalously as praying toward Images No wonder therefore that you so usually leave out the second Commandment 3. Gods Word is the Rule of all acceptable Religious Worship tho' but a General Rule in many Modes and Circumstances and therefore we fear swerving from it 4. Angels themselves never demanded it nor Christ bespake it for them yea they twice forbad it John See thou do it not 5. Angels being more holy than we are more for the Glory of God and the hatred of Creature arrogance and Idolatry and as God calleth himself specially Jealous against bodily Worship like the Idolaters in the second Commandment so Angels are more jealous against it than we are 6. As Angels said See thou do it not so contrarily Satan tempted Christ with the offer of the Kingdoms and glory of the World to fall down and worship him Therefore we had rather hearken to the Angels than to Devils And fear they that do otherwise worship Devils for Angels because only Devils have sought such Worship And the Devil oft turneth himself as into an Angel of Light to deceive as his Ministers do into Ministers of Righteousness 7. We know not when Angels hear us and when they do not And therefore know not when and how to pray to them 8. As we are sure that

because not only they will not by pravity do what they have natural strength to do but also because they will not choose and do what morally they might have chosen and done as to the wills own power 6. And we still say that whenever a man sinneth it was not because it was naturally impossible to do otherwise as to touch the Moon to see without Eyes or through the Earth c. nor for want of natural faculties nor doth God by Grace give man other natural faculties making him an Animal of another Species But men sin because they will sin and they will because they are tempted and now vitiously inclined from which their wills are made free only in that measure that Gods Grace doth sanctifie them If our Priest would have told us what there is in all this Doctrine of Free-will that he dare accuse and what dare he not cccuse we should have seen cause to consider of his Arguments But now he citeth Scripture as in a Dream The Twentieth accused Point That it is impossible to keep the Commandments of God tho' assisted with all his Grace and the Holy Ghost Ans Still meer Confusion Protestants distinguish 1. Impossibility as natural or Moral 2. Of Grace as perfect or Imperfect and as determitately Operative or only Assisting and not Determining And they hold 1. That no Duty is Impossible or the performing of no Commandment by meer Physical Impossibility The reason is because God commandeth no Physical Impossibles Such as before named to speak without a Tongue to see without Light or Object to know things not knowable or revealed to read without any Teaching or Learning c. If a man indeed disable himself as put out his Eyes that he may not read or cut out his Tongue that he may not Preach the disabling act is vitiously aggravated from all the good to which he disabled himself as if it still had been his Duty But we cannot say that God still commandeth him when Blind to Read or when Dumb to Speak c. Indeed God changeth not his Law but recipitur ad modum recipientis The man hath changed his Capacity and is now no Subject capable of such an Obligation or Command tho' he be capable of punishment for disabling himself and Non-performance Sin is no further Sin than it is Voluntary by the wills Omission or Act immediately or mediately 2. But that it is Morally by our pravity now Impossible for any man to keep all Gods Commandments and never Sin what needs there more than sad experience of the matter of Fact 1. Did he ever know the man himself that from his first use of reason to his Death did spend every minute of his time as God commanded him and did Believe and Love God and Man and all good with as great Love as God commanded him And was as free from every Fault Thought Passion Desire Fear Care Trouble Pleasure Word and Deed as God commanded He would be no small Sinner that were so self ignorant proud unhumbled as to say that he is no Sinner 2. Why else do these Priests force all men to confess their Sins to them if men be such as never sinned 3. Why do they compose all their Liturgies and Offices for their Churches with Confessions of Sin and Prayers for Forgiveness 4. Why do they Baptize all if they have no Sin And in what Sence do they give them the Eucharist 5. How little use do they feign such men to have of a pardoning Saviour 6. In what Sence shall such say the Lords Prayer Forgive us our Sins or Trespasses 7. Doth not the Text expresly call him a Lyar that saith he hath no Sin as aforesaid And Christ condemn the Pharisee that justified himself and justified the confessing Publican But it 's like he will say that he did not mean that any man doth keep all the Commands but that he can do it tho' he do not Ans I again say 1. He can as to natural strength if he were but perfectly and constantly willing But it cannot be that he should be so willing without Grace and Grace is not perfect in this Life 2. The more he boasteth of his Power to keep all Gods Laws the more he condemneth himself that can and will not 3. And frustra fit potentia quae nunquam a nemine reducitur in actum If he confess that no man doth it he must confess such a Moral impossibility as the Prophet meant that said Can the Leopard change his Spots or the Blackmore his Skin Then may they that are accustomed to do Evil learn to do well But perhaps he meant not that it is possible to keep all the Commands for all our Lives but for some short time I answer 1. While a man hath the use of his Reason he doth not reach the commanded degree of Faith Love Joy Heavenlyness one moment of time But indeed when a man is asleep in a Swoun an Apoplexy stark mad c. he may for that time break no Command nor keep any But perhaps he speaketh but of sincere Obedience and not of absolute sinless perfection Ans If so he is a deceiver to feign that we deny it But their Doctrine of Perfection and Supererogation is contrary Obj. But he speaketh not what man can do without Grace but by it's assistance Ans Grace maketh no man absolutely sinless and perfect in this Life Let him know that Protestants do not only say that man by Gods Grace may keep Gods Commandments sincerely tho' not sinlesly and perfectly but that no man of Age and Reason shall be saved that doth not so 2. And that tho' all our Obedience be imperfect the Imperfections are pardoned and our Obedience accepted and rewarded for the Merits of the perfect Obedience Sacrifice and Intercession of our Saviour The One and Twentieth accused Point That Faith only Justifieth and that good Works are not absolutely necessary to Salvation Ans Many wordy Controversies are made about things that in Sence men are commonly agreed in 1. We all believe Gods Word that they were deceived that thought they could be justified either by the Law of Innocency or Nature or the Law of Moses or any meritorious Works of their own without or as a supplement to the Sacrifice Merits and free Grace of Christ our Saviour and Faith in him 2. By Faith is meant Christianity In the Gospel it is all one to be a Believer a Disciple of Christ and to be a Christian. The Christian Faith is that which is exprest in the Baptismal Covenant believing in and giving up our selves to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost To Christ as our Prophet Priest and King to be saved by his Merits and free Grace And this is put in opposition to the Works of Adam's or Moses Law or any other that are conceited to suffice and merit without the foresaid Redemption by Christ And is not this the true Doctrine of all true Christians 2. These

good Works that are our Obedience to the Law of Christ are but the performance of our Baptismal Covenant and the Fruits of Faith without which it is dead Hypocrisie and are of absolute necessity to Salvation to all that have time to do them Against the charge That we are Sinners deserving Hell we are justified by Christ believed in Against the accusation That we are Infidels Ungodly Hypocrites we must be justified by our Faith Godliness and Works or perish But we do also hold 1. That if a man be convicted as the Theif on the Cross and should die suddenly no outward good which he cannot do is absolutely necessary to his Salvation but only his inward Faith Love and Repentance and Confession if able 2. We do firmly hold that Works done with a conceit of obliging God by Merit in commutative Justice or as conceited sufficient without a Saviour and the pardon of their failings are such as more further Damnation than Salvation at least in those that hear the Gospel 3. And we are no Papists and therefore believe not that ignorant words of Prayer in a Tongue not understood and wearing Reliques and going on Pilgrimages and needless confessing to Priests and subjection to an universal Vice-Christ and living upon the Blood of Saints Murdering the Living and praying to the Dead and the Sons honouring their Days Relicks and Monuments whom their Fathers Burnt or Persecuted these are not Good Works necessary to Salvation as is plain Math. 23. and Revel 14.17 18 c. We do with Paul renounce all Works of our own that are thought to make the Reward to be of Debt and not of Grace and that are set in the least opposition or competition with Christs Merits or any place save commanded Subordination to him The Two and Twentieth accused Point That no Good Works are Meritorious Ans The word Merit is ambiguous and so abused by Papists that indeed the Protestants are shyer of it than the Fathers were lest the use of it should cherish the abuse 1. There is Merit of man and of God 2. And this in Commutative Justice conceited or only in Governing distributive Justice 3. And this is either according to the Law of Innocency or Moses or according to the Law of Christ Now Protestants hold 1. As to the Name that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worthy and worthiness are Scripture words and may be used and Merit is but of the same signification and we condemn not the Ancients that so used it But the worst Sence must not be cherished 2. Do they hold 1. That no Creature can merit of God in Commutative Justice that giveth quid pro quo to his Benefit God receiveth not from Man or Angels unless he will call Acceptance and Complacence Receiving 3. None but Christ merited of strict Governing Justice according to the Law of Senceless Innocence nor by any Works that will save man from the charge of Sin and desert of Death 3. All at Age that will be saved must have good Works according to their Capacity for Christ is the Author of Salvation to all those that obey him Heb. 5.9 Tho' they obey not an unknown Priest at Rome But all these Works are our Obedience to Christs own healing Government such as the Laws of a Physician to the Sick And we all agree that he will Judge that is Justifie or Condemn in Judgment all men according to their Works that is according to the Law and it's promulgation by which in their several Ages and Nations he governed them 4. Your own Doctors that know what they say tell us that by Merit they mean nothing but the Rewardable quality of their acts related to Gods promise through Christs Merits And doth any Protestant Church deny this The Three and Twentieth accused Point That Faith once had cannot possibly be lost Ans Still confused slander and deceit Protestants hold 1. That the Faith not rooted prevalent and saving is frequently lost such as you call sides informis 2. That even sincere Faith may be lost as to the Act for some little time that is suspended in a deliquium as Peters and theirs Luk. 24. that said We trusted this had been he c. 3. That many lose to the Death some degree of their habitual Faith 4. But they differ in the rest just as you do among your selves Dominicans and Jesuits 1. Some think that no one at Age at least in a State of such Faith as at present would have saved him doth ever totally lose it 2. Some think that many have but such loseable Grace as Adam had 1. As being not Elect to Salvation and therefore not in Gods decree of Preservation and Perseverance 2. As having a Faith not Rooted and Confirmed And that these may fall from a justified State But that 1. The Elect. 2. Nor the Confirmed never fall away This was Austins Judgment and his followers of which see Vossii Theses And is that Jesuit honest that feigneth this proper to the Protestants where the Controversie is the same among themselves The Four and Twentieth accused Point That God by his will and inevitable decree hath ordained from all Eternity who shall be Damned and who Saved Ans What a false Deceiver is this that would make us believe that this is proper to the Protestants when it is the Common Doctrine not only of the Dominicans but of the very Jesuits themselves and all their Church 1. None of them dare say that men are Damned or Saved without Gods foreknowledge nor against his absolute will by overcoming his Power 2. None of them dare say that this fore-knowledge of God was not from Eternity but that he knew one day what he knew not before 3. All that the Jesuits themselves say is that God decreed it upon this fore-knowledge and that he hath a Scientia media what will come to pass positis quibusdam if such and such things be done by man and that this fore-knowledge in order of Nature is before the Decree but both from Eternity But Cardin Cameracensis Petrus de Aliaco hath irrefragably confuted this imposing Priority and Posteriority of act on God tho' I think some Divine acts as denominated only Relatively from the order of Objects may be so distinguished 4. In all this we say not that God hath by his will and decree ordained from Eternity or in time that men shall sin or will and choose Evil but only who shall be Damned for sin which God never willed or caused but foresaw not as if he were an idle Spectator but a willing suspender of his own acts so far as to leave Sinners to their self-determining wills 5. But God being the cause of Good and Men and Devils of Evil our Salvation is of him and our Destruction of our selves and therefore God decreeth not Men's Salvation or Sanctification meerly on foresight of our Faith but decreeth our Faith it self Sin he permitteth but Faith he effecteth and decreeth