Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	sin_n	sin_v	transgression_n	4,837	5	10.4181	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42464	Mysterious cloudes and mistes, shunning the cleer light, a little further disclosed in a short answer to Mr. John Simpsons long appendix, entituled, Truth breaking forth through a cloud and mist of slanders, wherein the charge of slander, so far as it concerneth, both himself and some others, is taken of and removed / by Tho. Gataker ...	Gataker, Thomas, 1574-1654.	1648 (1648)	Wing G324; ESTC R21793	15,658	16

or proceeding to examination of witnesses they were by the Committee entreated to deliver their minds in writing for the better clearing of themselves concerning such points as were suggested to have been either taught or maintained by some of them or to go for currant among their followers that so the businesse might be in a fair and friendly way if it were possible composed without proceeding in any such judiciary course But this they utterly at first refused to doe nor without much urging and pressing by the Committee could be induced at length to condescend unto And when they had by such importunity been drawn to undertake it and a day assigned them to bring in their answer how willing or desirous they were to clear what they had taught or to make manifest what their mind and judgement was may appear by their answers returned to some of the Questions in writing delivered unto them which out of the Copies remaining in the worthy Chairmans hands I shall here word for word insert Question 1. Whether the morall Law did oblige a beleeving Iew to obedience Answer That the beleeving Iew before Christ if any such one was meant was kept under the Law shut up unto the faith that should after be revealed Gal. 3.23 Quest 2. Whether the morall Law doth now as strongly oblige a beleeving Christian to obedience Answ That the beleeving Christian after Christs death if any such one be meant is not under the Law but under grace Ro. 6.14 Quest 3. Whether a beleever be bound to conform his life to the morall Law because God in that Law requires it Answ That the righteousnesse of the Law is fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Rom. 8.4 I through the Law am dead to the Law that I may live unto God Gal. 2.19 Quest 4. Whether he that maketh the Law his Rule be a Papist in heart whatever he be in practise Answ That though the Law be an eternall Rule of righteousnesse yet he that putteth himself under it contrary to Paul is so farre a Papist Quest 5. Whether the Law be a Rule by which unbeleevers shall be condemned and not a Rule by which they ought to walk Answ The Law abstracted from Christ is no Rule for unbeleevers to walk by for life Quest 6. Whether a beleever may make threatnings a motive to deterre him from sin and the promises a motive to encourage him to duty Ans. That to serve God for the hope of a legall reward and for fear of legall punishment is no Christian service or in Mr. Tindalls words That to serve God for fear of hell or the joyes of heaven are but shadows of good works Quest 7. Whether Peters person sinned in denying Christ or his flesh only Ans. That as it was in Paul so in Peter No longer I but sin that dwelleth in me Rom. 7.17 Quest 8. Whether a beleever in sinning breaks any morall Law Ans. Sinne is the transgression of the Law 1 Joh. 3.4 Quest 9. Whether when Peter wept bitterly for denying Christ he did it out of weaknesse of faith or duty to God Answ Peters weeping might be from weak faith and so from fear or from strong faith and so from love but whether we know not only we hope it was an Evangelicall duty· Quest 10. Whether a beleever be as well pleasing to God in the act of adultery or murder as before Quest 11. Whether a beleever in the act of adultery or murder may see the discharge of that sin in Christ and his part in Christ before his repentance and humiliation for it as well as after all the humiliation in the world Ans. 1. They are framed in very odious and ambiguous terms 2. That a true beleever seldome or never falls into such wilfull scandalous wickednesse because the love of Christ constrains him far above all legall motives 3. That if perhaps a beleever should fall so yet ought he not to adde infidelity to this other sinne Quest 12. Whether a beleever in the act of adultery or murder may enjoy as sweet communion with God as in the performance of any holy duty Ans. That the repetition of it is unfit for any Christian mouth and eare Quest 13. Whether God doth chasten a beleever for sin Ans. That the chastisement of our peace was upon him that is Christ and that by his stripes we are healed Esay 53.5 Quest 14. Whether a beleever falling into sinne ought not to pray for the actuall pardon of it in the sight of God or only for the manifestation of it to his own conscience and the continuation of it Ans. That when it shall be explained to us out of the Scripture what is meant by actuall pardon and what by the sight of God then shall we be better able to answer to this proposition Quest 15. Whether there ought to be dayes of fasting and humiliation appointed under the Gospell Ans. We know nothing to the contrary Quest 16. Whether a Christian ought to afflict his soul with sorrow for sin in a day of humiliation and whether it be sin to sorrow for sinne Ans. That all humiliation and sorrow for sin which is not of faith is sin Quest 17. Whether a beleever humbling himself for sin in these sad dayes seeking Gods face and returning unto him may not expect a blessing from God and the Nation for Christs sake in so doing and whether the doing of these duties for this end be the cause why our fasting and Prayer prevailes no more with God for the healing of the land Ans. That although a man pretend to humble himself yet if he make his humiliation repentance and reformation a fortresse and tower of defence the munition armour and wall of brasse to defend the Kingdome and Nation if he makes his repentance of such omnipotent efficacy that there is no thunder-bolt so great no wrath so furious in God but it will abolish it without so much as mentioning the Lord Iesus who only delivereth us from the wrath to come who if he had not delivered us from the desert of the sinfulnesse of our humiliation repentance and reformation the just wages thereof would have been everlasting fire we beleeve such humiliation is neerer the pride of Lucifer then true Christian humiliation 2. That among the great sinnes of the Kingdome we beleeve that the great esteem dignifying and exalting of our own works doings and duties to make our peace with God is a dethroning our great and only peace-maker and thereby a most dangerous enemy to the peace of this Kingdome Now besides that from some of these Questions it may be observed what wholesome and savoury documents their followers at least deduce from the tenents by these men maintained to let I say that passe let any intelligent and indifferent reader judge by most of their Answers whether these men desired to have men know their mind and judgement as this man pretendeth that his desire and endeavour was

to have done but that he was so interrupted that it was not possible for him so to do Sure in writing there was no body to interrupt him or them and Mr. S. himself being the principall spokesman among them was by some of the brethren in an orderly manner disputed with without any such interruption as he here complaineth of and was often also afterward heard at large Nor was there proceeding to any hearing of witnesses untill they had refused to give more clear and satisfactory answer unto these and some other of the Questions delivered unto them for unto many of them they returned no answer at all And if this mans mind therefore were not then fully made known as he pretends concerning those points himself was in fault in whose power and at whose choise it was to have fully in writing expressed the same had he been minded so to doe mean while that he had so taught as in the charge is related was then and there averred nor any exceptions taken unto those that witnessed the same These things then so transacted at a publike hearing and such points charged upon and testified against Mr. S. to have been delivered by him which himself cannot gain-say I suppose it to have been no “ breach of charity as hee chargeth it to deem that * from thence those exclamations of his might well proceed away with the Law away with the Law as also that horrid speech so I term it again and still shall do whatsoever colours Mr. S. shall please to varnish it over with thereby to smooth or smoother the horridnesse of it The Law cutteth of a mans leggs and then biddeth him walk which whether it be fitly paralleled “ with those passages of the Apostle * The motions of sinne which were by the Law and “ The letter killeth or whether it do not justly deserve such an Epithet I shall leave to any pious and impartiall Christian to determine for the speeches themselves are not denyed And as for some “ harsh expressions of Luther concerning the Law as the like also concerning Christ which in overmuch heat of passion seem to have fallen from him and I would rather men should read in the writings of Mr. S. and others of his way and strain then hear from me I suppose men moderately minded will hardly justifie them muchlesse take liberty to themselves therein to imitate him and yet further muchlesse to forge others thereby far harsher then those of his The next matte of charge against Mr. S. was that he should teach * That God doth not chastise any of his children for sinne nor is it for the sins of Gods people that the Land is punished Whereunto might further have been added that presumptuous speech of his in open Court then confidently uttred whereof my self was an ear-witnesse That he did not beleeve that any sinne of his own or of any beleever had any hand in the procuring of the judgements of God then upon the Land As also what in a paper was given in by him under his own hand conteining the heads of a Sermon Preached at Algate at the giving and taking of the Covenant occasioned it seems by that Question among others propounded whether a beleever may lawfully take the Covenant as it reqireth his confessing his sins deserving the calamities and judgements that now ly upon the Nation in these words I did professe that J thought what I had taught was a truth That nationall punishments do not come upon a Land or Nation for those sins for which Gods justice is satisfied in Christ Now concerning this which he cannot deny and yet would fain salv he maketh answer that “ some few weeks for want of experimentall knowledge he was a little clouded in his spirit concerning the doctrine of affliction but that his mistake was never charged upon him by his accusers which riddle of his what it means I cannot arread and that * yet in his darkest and most cloudy discourses he held forth enough to charitable and loving hearers to free him from this charge He might better have said that by these and the like assertions he staved people of and kept them aloof such especially as were forward to rank themselvs among the number of beleevers from deeming their sins to have any hand in the procurement of Gods judgements upon the state and from being humbled in that regard in the sight of God for the same Sure when he appeared in the Star-chamber he was far enough from holding out that that might free him from the charge belike his appearance there was within the compasse of those few weeks during which his spirit was under the cloud he speaks of And yet by * a long lacinious discourse to shew either the subtilty or sublimity of his wit in being able to argu either way he would make men beleev that he taught nothing then but what he holds now though he professeth now to have attained “ a more cleer and truly spirituall knowledge of the point And herein he seems to resemble * one that living sometime in the City did preach publikely that the plague was not infectious who being convented before autority and qestioned for such his doctrine his answer was that he denied not but that the plague-sores or blains might be infectious but his meaning was that the stroke of Gods Angel was not infectious But as his doctrin so delivered whatsoever his reserved meaning was did encourage people to repair over-boldly to those that were visited and that as was then deemed to the damage yea and death of not a few So it may justly be feared that these cloudy or rather peremptory assertions of Mr. S. have endamaged and endangered soules not a few in with-holding them from serious humiliation for their sins under the hand of God as wel upon themselvs in particular as upon the land in generall notwithstanding these his distinctions which he cometh out with now but not heard of then when this charge was given in against him at which time it seemed to be grounded upon Gods not sight of sin in any Beleever the principall subject of Mr Eatons book then justified among them else what reason should there be of Gods not inflicting evills nationall more then personall upon any in regard of sins satisfied for by Christ in both which † himself makes the case to be all one Mean while what hath bin affirmed is not here removed that this position in both branches of it was by witnesses produced proved to have bin delivered by Mr S. which is as much as I avert The like may be said of the next Point to wit * That if a man by the Spirit known himself to be in the state of grace though he be drunk or commit murder God sees no sin in him To this Mr S saith nothing but that † if he should name the party that gave this in against

three that appeared in Star-chamber before the Committee fore-mentioned whereof Mr S. was one and particularly that out of Mr Eaton then objected to them and defended that when Abraham denied his wife and in outward appearance seemed to lie in his distrust lying dissembling and equivocating that his wife was his sister even then truly all his thoughts words and deeds were perfectly holy and righteous from all spot of sin in the fight of God freely * To which may be added that wholesome exhortation then also averred to have been delivered by one of them likewise in the Pulpit which might posse for an use of the point Let beleivers sin as fast as they will there is a fountaine open for them to wash in Concerning which he granteth that † this was brought in against him that he should in a Sermon deliver those words just in the same terms as I have related them not as he now cutteth them asunder in relating of my relation nor doth he deny the uttering of them Only he addeth that † the party that gave it in being by some I know not who nor when demanded whether he did deliver it by way of exhortation was so ingenuous as to acknowledge that it was not delivered as an exhortation Then to justifie the matter 1. * He paralleleth it with those passages Rev. 22.11 He that is unjust let him be unjust still and he that is filthy let him be filthy still 2. He telleth me that † my learning might have taught me that the word Let is not alwayes used by way of exhortation but sometime by way of supposition and frequently signifieth as much as though and † so taken it is as seasonable a truth as he can in desire of my good leave upon my spirit who though professing my self a beleiver have sinned as fast as I can in his apprehension against the laws of love and the commandements of the Lord Jesus yet there is a fountaine opened in which if God give faith I may wash my selfe from these sins To all which sore charge and slight apologie I answer 1. That the speech it self whether delivered in way of exhortation or inference and one of the two it must needs be doth savour too strongly of an incitation and encouragement to sin and that wilfully which was all that in the term to exhortation I intended 2. That if the thing it selfe be so hideous that if the Devil himselfe should preach he would not make use of such an exhortation and yet by his own grant the words may be so taken then those surely have just cause to ●ake shame to themselves who use expressions in the Pulpit trenching so neer upon that which is so hideous that even the Devill himself would not so use that they cannot without some subtile nicety be distinguished the one from the other 3. That to draw Scriptures thus in as here and before to parallel and bear out such speeches as both that before and th●s here are is to play and dally with Gods word and to be boulder with it then Christian piety will well permit 4. That it is a poore shift to help out such a loose speech to tell us that let is not alwayes a note of exhortation when as the matter of the proposition and manner of the conceiving it in those terms sin as fast as they will sound overmuch and over loud in any ordinary construction to an incitement to willfull sin for which the though substitute in the room of let is but a very sorry salv As for this application of it to my self that I have sinned as fast as I can in his appr●hension and yet if God give me faith I may wash my self from these sins I take the former branch as a fruit of his own selfish fancy and the latter as a frothy flout and so leav them to him and this whole apology for my self to the cen●ure of those that are of understanding and abili●y to discry and discover the slights of imposters th●ough such colours as they are wont to glase over their unsound tenents withall and their shifts in varying from point to point as they find the bl●st of popular appl●use to blow And now Sir I addresse my self again unto you who that you may seem not without cause to have laid such a load of sin upon me that I could not possibly in your apprehension sin faster then I have done against the Laws of love and the commandments ●f Christ in the close of this your discourse tel your Reader * it might be exp●ted you should speake somewhat to my reproaches and railing speeches agai●st you but we know you say who hath said men have learned to reproach me and speak evill of me and I to suffer Sir what reproachfull and railing speeches other have suffered not some one or two but the maine body of Gods faithfull Ministers and Messengers among us from the mouths and pens of those of that faction which you have formerly adheared to and complyed with is too well known and I have at large † else where discovered But Sir where are those reproachfull and railing speeches that you here charge me to have used against you or why do you not produce them or point at least to the places where they are to be found you have raked and scraped together all to a tittle for ought I know or can call to minde that I have anywhere written of you what railings appear there in any part of it or who is able to say that I ever railed upon you either in publique or in private Sir it is none of my usage what yours is I wot not This charge of yours therefore I am well assured you are lesse able to make good then I am all that hath bin by me charged upon you For such erroneous points as have bin broached by you and others if I have maintained the truth of God against you or them and discovered the evill consequents of them I have therein done no more then what my duty to God and his people hath in my place required of me and that the rather for that I perceived divers of my people to be too much taken with them For your self the time was when having heard you once or twice in my place and upon invitation of you home had some conference with you I tooke so good liking of you that not long after motion being made for a weekely lecture in my congregation I recommended you to some of my people that were most active in the businesse who upon enquiry enformed me that y●u were like to settle either at Dunstans or Butolphs whether of the two I now remember not and so that businesse was at an end Some good space of time after I heard by reports of many some of mine own people among others who used to hear you that you were fallen into divers strange points tending to Antinomianism and that

some of my Congregation women especially were by hearing of you therewith infected that which afterward appeared to be no false report or groundlesse surmise but a truth For there repared to me one day two women of your Auditors living under my charge who were earnest with me to have use of my Church for a day of solemn humiliation affirming that they would bring none but Ministers to perform the duties of the day Demand being made who the Ministers were the answer was Mr: Simson and Mr. Randal why those because I had received some aspersions against Mr. Simson I give you their words which he would take off What aspersions I had confuted some of his points what points or point I had taught that sanctification was an evidence of justification and did he hold and teach the contrary yea and that which he had taught therein was the truth to wit that sanctification was no sure evidence of justification that which according to their weak ability they endeavoured stifly to maintain In conclusion I answered them that if it were so you should not with my consent come into my Pulpit by the leavening of my people to make me work for the unleavening of them againe They told me plainely if they could not have you in publike they would have you in private and so I was after told they had Now true it is that I had handled that point a little before purposely upon occasion of another that had neerer at hand fallen upon that argument and used some reproachfull terms concerning that evidence nothing minding Mr S. But Sir hence it appeares what by your hearers acknowledgement you then taught and that by your such teaching whatsoever you now hold or pretend to hold people were then tainted and some of mine own among others for I presume they were not here in alone who continue still stif both in this erroneous conceit and in that other which you now so deepely brand concerning Gods not seeing sin at all in his Saints which is not unlikely they sucked then together with the former from Mr Randall and your self whom they constantly followed But Sir if I had so exceedingly wronged you as you here pretend and used such reproachfull and railing language as you here intimate against you I marvel much what the reason should be that I never heard ought of it all this while before from you which had bin no difficult matter for you to have done either by word of mouth or by a few lines in writing you being not ignorant of the place of my constant abode whereunto by a continued state of infirmity I have bin confined now almost these three years That which yet I should not have mentioned save in regard of some reports that have bin cast abroad whether coming from your self or no I know not It is not long since I suppose about a twelv-moneth past that one of my people repairing to me as from your self acquainted me with your willingnes to bestow your paines some Lords day with me if I would give way to it I told him I thought it not so safe for me so to doe in regard of those erroneous opinions that you had bin charged with and had not cleared your selfe of He replyed that you now acknowledged your judgement in those points to be altered I told him again that if your judgement were altered from what formerly you had hold you might do well to make it publikely known thereby to undeceiv those who had formerly bin misled by you but that you should so prefesse did to me seem very strange for that within some few daies before I had bin informed by a Gentlewoman of good credit that it was reported by a Minister then about the City one in whose Lecture at great All-halows if I mistake not you succeeded as from your self that you had bin with me and made it appeare unto me that I had wronged you in charging you with what you had not held Now Sir whether both these or either of them came from yourself or no the latter whereof for the subject matter of it I am sure is untru your self best know I relate them both as they came to me wishing that the former of them may be tru and that God will be pleased to give you a right understanding in all things Thus Sir I have done with you and your charge against me not intending to waste further time about this busines which in regard of other more important employment formerly hinted both is and will be very precious with me but to leav and referre what I have here said to the consideration and construction of others thereof to deem and upon advised perusall to determine whether I have attracted such hainous and horrid guilt or no as you herein charge upon me by ought that concerning you and your teaching I have anywhere published And if it be demanded why this Apology came no sooner abroad since that being so short it might suddenly have bin dispatched the reason is because by occasion of mine other hard task the one half whereof I had not as yet overcome by reason of a long continued and late renewed infirmity being therein much retarded and was loth therefore to filch time from for any other not very necessary by-busines before I saw so much at least of it accomplished I had not leasure so much as to survey your charge against me nor was afterward able to returne so full answer thereunto untill I had a view of some papers concerning that busines of publike hearing whereof by reason of disability to stir far abroad I could not procure either fight or transcript but by others To conclude all Sir I shall beseech you in the fear of God advisedly to consider with your self what multitudes of people have of late bin drawn aaside into gross and pernicious errors by those whom you have sometime consorted and complyed with and by your self in likelyhood not a few as some of them profess it among the rest that you may be seriously humbled in the sight of God for what of this kind you have formerly failed and faulted in sincerely to his glory acknowledge your former oversights therein discreetly and prudently for time to come forbear such expressions as may in ordinary apprehension tend to the fomenting of liberty to sin and loosnes of life and piously prosecute the pressing upon all sorts the practice of repentance which God by his judgements present upon us doth so incestantly and so instantly call upon us for and that duty which God in his Law reqireth of them and whereunto in regard of Creation as wel as of redemption they ought to hold themselvs stil obliged that so you may if it be possible which with some peradventure yet is never like to be but that you may at least do what in you lieth to reduce those whom you have formerly turned out of the way and caused to stumble at Gods Law By so doing you will gain more sound peace and solid comfort in the end then by complying with the humors of people unstable and unsetled of whose mutability and inconstancy I doubt not but that you have had or seen some experience your self you shall be ever able to attain The Lord be with you and vouchsafe unto you and us all spirituall wisdome to carry our selvs aright and uprightly in all things to the honour of his grace in us and truth professed by us the preserving and building up of his people in either the faithfull discharge of our duty here and eternall welfare for and with our blessed Saviour hereafter Amen FINIS Imprimatur James Cranford Iuly 22. 1648. 1 pag. 1. 2 pag. 60. 3 pag. 62. * Preface to Gods ey on his Israel p. 17.18 * pag. 1. * p. 3. p. 52. p. 53. “ p. 17. * Preface to Gods ey c. p. 17. “ p. 28.30 * Rom. 7.5 “ 2 Cor. 3.6 “ p. 18. * Preface to Gods ey c. ● 18. “ p. 34. * Ibid. * From p. 36. to p. 43. “ p. 34. * H. Cl. † p. 42. * Preface to Gods eye c. p 18. † p. 43. † p. 44. * p. 50. * Gods eye on his Israel p. 25. * p. 57. † p. 57.58 † p. 58. * p. 56. † p. 58.59 † p. 59. * Psa. 32.3 4 5. * I. Saltmarsh of Free Grace p. 271. † Earburie See Oxford Account p. 36. † p. 59. * Psal. 32.5 51.3 4. † Ezr. 9.6.15 10.1.10.11 Nehem. 9. Dan. 9. † Prov. 28.13 Jer. 3 13. 1 John 1 9· * Levit. 16.216 p. 59. † Psal. 51.3 17. * p. 60. † ibid * Preface to Gods eye c. p. 18. † p. 61. † ibid. * p. 61. † p. 62. † ibid. * p. 62. † Preface to Gods eye c. p. 10.13