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
A85050	Vindiciæ mediorum & mediatoris. or, the present reigning errour arraigned, at the barr of Scripture and reason. Wherein is discovered the falshood and danger of that late borne opinion, that pretends to an immediate enjoyment and call of the Spirit of God, both above and against its owne fffects, [sic] cause, word, ministry, and witness, in all respects. Occasioned by a pamphlet, intituled, The saints travell to the land of Canaan, or a discovery of seventeen false rests, &c. By one R. Wilkinson, a preacher of this errour about Totnes in the West. In the treatise following, the reader shall finde, most of the maine fundamentall doctrinall truths that this age doth controvert, faithfully vindicated, cleared, confirmed. By F. Fullwood, minister of the Gospell at Staple Fitzpane in the county of Somerset.	Fullwood, Francis, d. 1693.	1651 (1651)	Wing F2521; Thomason E1281_1; ESTC R202060	131,348	337

the punishment Lam. 3. of his sin The consequence is cleare as the Sun for what the Spirit hath revealed to us we cannot have an ignorant unbeleif thereof We are to beleive every Truth that God hath revealed to the World in Scripture But there are many Truths in the Scripture that the Spirit hath not yet revealed to most if to any Therefore we are to beleive more Truth and Scripture then the Spirit hath yet revealed to us The Proposition is clear because all revealed Truth is to be beleived First by that Law of Reason that is implanted in every man by Nature Secondly by the Law of God that condemneth every spirit as foolish and bewitched that obeyeth not the Truth in believing of it Gal. 3. 1. But now how shall we prove the Assumption to them that deny the Scripture viz. that there is more Truth in Scripture then the Spirit hath yet revealed to any They will be forced to grant it will they but yeild a little to consult their own experience for they will acknowledge that there are some that are more enlightened inspired with the spirit of Truth then others even among themselves Now that revelation that hath honored them above and beyond their Brethren was either made known by a spirit of Truth or Error but they not acknowledging the later of these then that they have received from the Spirit of Truth must needs be Truth and that may be the Truth for their sufficient conviction that is not revealed by the Spirit to many There is some Truth in Scripture that is not yet revealed to some men all the Truth in Scripture ought to be beleived by all men therefore men ought to beleive more Scripture then the Spirit hath yet made clear and manifest to them But a word to hint at the absurdity and danger of this Opinion and I shake hands yea wash my hands of this And first we must needs infer that there is no sin * Ignorantia Juris of ignorance can possibly be committed for if I am bound to beleive no more then the Spirit doth reveal I can be ignorant of nothing that I ought to know for whatsoever the Spirit doth reveal I must needs know There can be no sin of unbeleif for so far as the Spirit perswades and enlightens I must and cannot but assent There can be no actual sin at all among the Heathens for they either have the Spirit of Christ or not The first is too absurd to be imagined Then if they have not the Spirit they cannot have the Law revealed to them by it therefore the Law concerneth them not and where there is no Law there is no Transgression The Man of sin himself as so cannot sin i. against the Gospel the Saints or Christ since he is not perswaded by the Spirit of Truth that these are true Neither do I well conceive how the People of God can sin either for so far as they receive the Truth from the Spirit so far do they not obey it and no further are they bound to regard it Or to conclude if the Saints can sin the Saints it seems are the onely sinners in the World upon this account However men may wallow and tumble in the grossest prophaneness and yet not lose their Cloak The Spirit hath not revealed it to me it will be said I am not yet convinced that what I do is sinfull or evil And Happy thrice happy are ye blinde and ignorant Indians rise up and cal this way above all other blessed it freeth you from sin and punishment also for where there is no Conviction of spirit there is no Law and where there is no Law there is no Transgression and where there is no sin there is no punishment As this Opinion lays a good Foundation for sin so for Ignorance and Error also Well might the Papist say that Ignorance is the Mother of Devotion it being so good a Preservative against sin and wickedness And for Error this will lead us to deny Jesus Christ and God himself the Resurrection of the Body Immortality of the Soul Heaven Hell and worse if possible and bring a man safely off and free from any sin or check upon this account plea ground and warrant I am not yet convinced hereof by the Spirit of God And to conclude it doth plainly levell the holy Bible with any other Book whatsoever whether godly or profane and make the Word of God of no better Authority then they which even the very very worst of which I am bound to beleive so far as the Spirit I mean by Scriptures shall convince and assure me of the truth thereof And yet which I greive to think and tremble to write this is a most commonly received Opinion among us in this Age. Ah! let us take heed of loosing that if such Errors as these once spread and prevail wherein our very Souls are bound up Religion it self CHAP. VIII Of the Scripture as it is the Rule of Faith WE now shal pass on in the defence of the Scripture to consider it respectively to our use thereof first altogether in the bulk whole therof as denied by this error in these two assertions 1. That the Scripture or Bible is not to be the Rule of Faith Page 128. 2. Nor the Judge and triall of the spirits page 66. line 2. 3. page 127. Both these are also known to every one that hath any knowledge of popish tenets to be ranke Popery The difference lies only in the different use hereof the Jesuist using them to advance his Pope and the men of this Errour making them a mean to carry on the designe of their spirit but of them in order Now in answer to the first viz. The deniall of the Scriptures to be the rule of Faith these popish assertions are found in the Jesuites Books Namely That the Gospell was written not to rule our Faith but to be ruled by it That it receiveth all the Authority it hath from the Church And that we must live more according to the Authority of the Church then Scripture c. Now may we but call the Church here the Pope and the Pope the Spirit a most easie mistake and in these and many other particulers the Abbettors of the Errour we are disputing against do willingly bow do obeysance to his holiness if not even fall down and kisse his Toe But there being nothing to be brought for this Errours upholding that I can think of at present that hath not already The truth proved received an answer upon an other occasion before I shall immediately betake my self for the strength and establishment of the contrary affirmative viz. That the Word or Scripture is to be the rule of our Faith For First we have cleere and pregnant scriptu●e for it 2. Tim 3. 15. The scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation through the Faith that is in Christ Jesus where observe 1. That Christ

delighteth not in the death of a sinner but rather that he repent not that any thing can happen besides the will and intention of God but for that God taketh more delight in the conversion and happinesse then in the disobedience and ruine of any of his creatures Judgement is therefore his strange work but mercy pleaseth him God is a Sun which never doeth hurt but only by accident the reason why God or the Sun doth hurt is ever unnaturall to the one and to the other and onely in the evill and perverse disposition of the object now the mercifull disposition in God towards sinners is declared and glorified by his commands of conversion which commands though we cannot obey which is our misery yet they ever aime at our good they are for our owne good alwaies and testifie for God that he could delight more in life then death our blisse and happinesse then Hell and misery So that were there no other ends but these such as concern God himselfe it might suffice us who by his commands though we cannot obey them yet manifesteth to the World his owne glorious Attributes his soverainty unchangeablenesse holinesse and mercy But Secondly In such his commands as we cannot obey God may intend some things concerning us Viz. even our conviction and tryall thereby First They may serve to convince us both of sinne and righteousnesse John 16. 5. 1. Of sin originall sin or our disobedience to such Commands as lye upon us in our naturall condition as wee are the seed and posterity of the first man Adam Eph. 4. 10 it is by nature insensible to us we nor knowing nor feeling it For first it Ephes 2. 1 2. is our death in its extent and so it leaveth us past feeling Secondly in its quality it is naturall to us and so it is not perceivable death transporting us beyond and nature holding us on this side sense in the Grave we complaine not of misery neither can we perceive or greive for naturall imperfections By nature therefore we being better conceited of our selves then to know or suspect our guilt of sin or lyability to any command this good end God may have in commanding though we cannot obey even to convince us of our sin of our irregular and rebellious walking against God and his commands all our dayes by the renuing and pressing his former commands that wee know not of upon us Thus God is most mercifull to us we knowing not sin but by the Law for we had not knowne lust except the Law had sayd Thou shalt not covet Rom. 7. 7. 2. And consequently such commands as these may convince us of duty and righteousnesse we being by nature dead in sin wee cannot know our Masters will or what he requireth at our hands and as we cannot so we know not how to walke so as to please him but when the command is opened to and pressed upon us we know by the Commandement being holy just and good that this is the will of God even our sanctification 2. Moreover commands serve as for our convertion so also for our tryall when not for obedience for we measuring our selves by such commands as lye upon us in unregeneracy we may be able to know both what we were and what we are how strong we were and how weak we are I know no plainer safer way for man now falne to know his perfection of strength in innocency then by comparing himselfe with such commands of God as then were layd and imposed upon him God would not impose injunctions of holinesse on man above his principles that would have seemed harsh and cruell nor yet beneath them for then Adam would have been more holy then required The commands being the rule and measure of our strength in innocency wee may as men consuming measure our selves and see how big and strong we are and how we are decayed how weak we are we like melancholly men are apt presuming too much upon our strength to think we can doe any thing before we try now the commands put us upon tryall and thus convinced of our unthought of insufficiency we are shamed of our boasting I was alive once saith Paul without the Law i. I counted my selfe of perfect vigor life and strength before the Law was brought close upon me before I knew what God required of me but when the commandement came I found my inability and weaknesse the strength and glorying of sin over me which made me hide my head in shame and sorrow when the commandement came sin revived and I dyed Rom. 7. 9 10. 2. Againe If we consider God as regarding the naturall seed and posterity of Adam under the distinction of Elect and Reprobate he hath ends and intentions in his imposing his commands upon them severally and as a Father that designeth one Childe for a Schollar the other for a Tradesman his intentions are different in the meanes of his Educating and bringing them up so that one God the Father of whom are all things hath in his word and providence not onely some generall ends towards naturall men as so and in common as we have heard but also respectively different intentions towards them as Elect and Reprobate For the end of Gods intention in such his commands and carriages toward wicked men thus differenced must needs be diverse Gods intentions never frustrate since the end of execution is so to wit salvation and damnation Quest But what are Gods different ends in his commanding the Elect and Reprobate Answ The Commands of God thus severally directed worke the will of God with respect unto himselfe Viz. The glory of his mercy in the one the glory of his Justice in the other with respect unto the creatures to the one kinde perdition to the Phil. 1. 28 other salvation and that of God and thus the ends are more ultimate 2. But the primary and more immediate ends of the commands of God upon men thus distinguished are found both together in that 1 Cor. 1. 18. For the Preaching of the Crosse is to them that perish foolishnesse but to us that are saved the power of God Here wee have two widely different ends come upon severall persons by the same names Salvation and Perishing both by the Preaching of the Crosse the reason hereof cannot be imagined to be in the meanes the Preaching of the Crosse but in the use and abuse thereof Therefore those that are designed to perish they count the onely way of Salvation foolishnesse but to those that must be saved it is the power of God i. unto salvation Vers 23. 24. 1. But a little more distinctly in order to the glory of Justice on reprobated men the commands of God have a double intention partly here to harden them as God by commanding Pharoah did harden Pharoahs heart Rom. 9. So men are hardned by the Sun-shine of the Gospell and by its commands fitted for destruction Read and tremble at Isa 6. 9

neither the spirit infuseth nothing into us while we pray that we had not some kinde of knowledg of before as the spirit in begetting a habit of praier in us at the first it brings things to our knowledge So in the very exercise it brings things to our remembrance viz. Our sins wants c. Gods Fulnesse Goodnesse and promises c. for petition 2. Our mercies priviledges hopes experiences c. For thanksgiving so teaching us how to pray 2. The spirits Office is to assist us in Prayer as well as to teach us to pray bringing things to our sense bearing up our infirmities So stirring up our affections to be carried up to God with our heart might and soul in a Heavenly powerfull importunity that the spirit as a spirit of Praier doth not any way incourage our expectation of an immediate Revelation the spirit only helping our infirmities For we know not what we should pray for as we ought therefore he directeth us the spirit himself making intercession for us with groanings which must be by us though they cannot be uttered Rom 8. 26. Obj. But holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost 2. Pet. 1. 21. Answ Those holy men of God were the men that God made speciall choise of by them to leave his Scripture in the World in so much that had God revealed himself immediately to them it left us no advantage to expect the like The end of all such extraordinary Revelations viz. a visible word to leave Joh. 15. 22. the word without excuse being now attained 2. But remember that these were the men the Prophets whereby God in times past spake unto our Fathers in diverse manners How we have already found and cleared that these diverse manners were all of them meanes and such as stood betwixt a mediate Revelation and an immediate inspiration 3. Lastly Let us consider the Phraze a little neerer it is said they were moved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not said they were inspired Not inspired that they themselves might know it but moved that they might declare it to others and moved in their declaration thereof They were moved i. 1. by Impulsion 2. Guidance As a Scrivener moves his Schollars hand to the paper first and then guides the hand in writing thereupon that it may write and write true So these holy men of God spake and wrote as they were moved by the holy Ghost 1. to speake and write Secondly In speaking and writing so that they could not choose but declare and rightly and truely declare the things that they had seen and heard So the blessed Apostles the great and honorable Pen-men of the Gospell had in a more especiall manner the performance of that promise the Holy Ghost shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you in that their great undertaking But were they not rather moved guided to and in then immediately inspired with the infallible spirit in their glorious Work but in what I have here written concerning the Spirit I leave with submission to wiser and better judgments and pass on to CHAP. IX Of the Word as Judge of Spirits THe fellow of what hath been lately handled comming now to triall is That the Word of God or the holy Scriptures Error is not the Judge or Triall of Spirits This is a Papisticall Tenet Toridem verbis Arg. Now the only Argument that I finde for this part is because it is imagined that thus we set or advance the letter above the Spirit The Judge as so being ever above the Prisoner which we rank into mood and figure thus That which sets the Letter above the Spirit is not to be allowed But that which makes the Word the Judge of the Spirit sets the letter above the spirit Therefore that which makes the word the Judge of the Spirit is not to be allowed Answ The second proposition in answer hereunto is denied by distinguishing as 1. There is a judging or condemning and a judging of or thinking or conceiving of things or persons Now we must be advised that it is not said that the word is to judge the spirit but to judge of the spirit though the first hath its truth and place 2. There is a vertuall and a reall Judge The Law is the vertuall Judge It with a secret kind of vertue even of and in it self condemning the guilty and accquitting the innocent aforehand as it is the rule and square whereby the reall Judge doth actually measure the actions of men and in order to his last and determinate sentence judge of them but observe this judging of may as well precede acquittance as judgment or condemnation And to apply the word or Scriptures in the present sense is not the reall but the vertuall judge i. the Law the rule and measure whereby we judge of our own or others spirits we our selves or others that cal our spirits in question being rather Judges Obj. But thus we go about and is not that worse to lift up men above the spirit of God Answ The answer hereunto will bring us to the nick of the very businesse for we must here be mindefull that the spirit that is now upon the stage is not known but doubted for that which we have the knowledg of what need we put upon tryall Indeed upon assurance of the truth and Divinity of the spirit we speake of the word cannot properly be called the Judge and Triall of it but rather its Proofe and Evidence But as our Spirits are suspitious questionable so only we judge of and try them by Scripture the truth the touch-stone The Law being not made for a righteous man Yet if a righteous man fall under the shadow of Suspition the Law must try and cleere him He is not tried for judgment but satisfaction he is not tried as a good and righreous man but as one that is feared doubted to be an evill doer The Law being made for man and not man for the Law it is inferiour to him yea even his servant in this respect as it serveth to try and judge of suspitious and doubted men No more is the word above but a Servant to the spirit as it is the Judge and Triall of suspitious spirits Moreover 2. The word doth never try any spirit in it self but in its effects it doth properly therefore not judge of the spirit but as it trieth its effects and judgeth of them We finding our waies our thoughts to be truth conclude therefrom that they are guided and acted by the spirit of truth we by the Scriptures likewise trying and measuring mens opinions and practises do thus consequently and accidentally only judge of the spirit Lastly While we make the word of God the Judge and Triall of the spirit we try the spirit only by the word as its own effect and whether it be unreasonable to judge of the fire by its heat the