Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	covenant_n	new_a	testament_n	3,153	5	9.2672	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65814	A discourse upon I Peter IV., VIII wherein the power and efficacy of charity as it is a means to procure the pardon of sin is explained and vindicated / by John Whitefoot.	Whitefoote, John, 1610-1699.	1695 (1695)	Wing W1862; ESTC R26478	56,458	143

make use of Texts and Sayings in the Old Testament in a different Sence from that which did belong to them there As in Mat. 2.15 and 23. 2 Cor. 8.15 and elsewhere frequently And this Answer I take to be sufficient for this first Objection against our Interpretation of St. Peters words 2. Objection But another main Objection and that which is most like to be insisted upon against this Interpretation is that it seems to favour the Popish Doctrines of Merit Satisfaction and Justification by Works and to be repugnant to the Evangelical Doctrine of the most full perfect and sufficient Expiation and Satisfaction for the sins of the whole World made only by the Sacrifice of Christs death and applied only by Faith The covering and pardon of sin is the Effect of Gods grace granted only upon the consideration of Christs death upon condition of a true Faith in him wrought by the Spirit of God through the hearing of the Gospel Answer To this Objection I answer 1. That although some Papists interpreting this Text as I do may be found to alledge it among other Texts for the confirmation of some of the Doctrines mentioned in the Objection yet neither is this Sense vouched by all Interpreters of their Profession nor can any of those Doctrines be further evinced or confirmed from this Text so understood then it may be from other Texts before alledged for the Confirmation of the Doctrine against which the Objection is made Nor is the free grace of God or the sufficiency of that Expiation or Satisfaction which was made by the death of Christ any more abated by this Doctrine than it is by that which all the forementioned Texts import 2. The words Merit and Satisfaction are known to have been familiarly used in reference to Good Works by the most ancient of the Latin Fathers and particularly by St. Cyprian one of the most Primitive in a Catholick Orthodox Sense Both the words are Innocent in the Sense of the Fathers though they have been perverted by the Schoolmen And Justification by Works is certainly as true in St. James's Sence as 't is false in St. Pauls The late Controversies that have been concerning these Points do not so much respect the words as the extravagant Sense that hath been put upon them by the Schoolmen who have intangled and corrupted a great part of Christian Doctrine by their misinterpreting the Fathers determining the simplicity of their Popular Expressions by their own Capricious and Litigious Conceits into such Dogmatical Sense as was never thought of by the Antients But in the particular Controversies about Merit Satisfaction and Justification by Works there hath been so much of Logomachy or word-bate as might in my opinion be fairly compromised or accorded by Judicious Arbitratours whose minds were free from all prejudice but that against Contention and Division and were more zealous for Unity and Concord than for disputable and opinionative Truth But for to undertake that task in this place would not be reasonable That all Pardon of sin is founded upon the Expiation or Propitiation made by the Bloud of Christ and granted or obtained only by the Free Grace of God is not denied by any Sect or Party of Christians that I know of Although some Differences have been about the Conditions of this Grant For to say that this Grace is granted without any Condition or Qualification of the Receiver is in my Judgment to deny a great part of the Scriptures as well of the New Testament as of the Old destructive as well of the New Covenant as of the Old no more Antinomian than Anti-evangelical Doubtless it is of Free Grace that God will pardon a sinner upon any Condition Nor is it possible for us to do any thing sufficient to make Satisfaction for our sins or to merit the Forgiveness of them in rigor of Justice because all that is in our Power to do is no more then our Duty if God requires it And all that we do is much less And as the duty of Well doing in the utmost Extent is a just Debt of Thankfulness at least if not of Preceptive Obligation to Almighty God to whom we owe our selves and all that we have or can do So the Punishment we are liable to for neglecting our Duty or acting contrary thereunto in our Evil doings is another Debt by our Saviours account signified to us in that Form of Prayer which he hath taught us to use Forgive us our Debts as we forgive our Debtors Mat. 6.12 But it is altogether unreasonable one Debt can be discharged by the Payment of another especially when the Payment falls so much short of the old Debt as it doth in any thing we do Besides that upon a due account Charity it self and every Good Work that can be done by us doth increase our debt to God because it cannot be done without his Grace Nevertheless God of his Free Grace hath promised the Remission of sin upon certain Conditions declared in his Word amongst which this of Charity is one that by a common Synechdoche of a Part for the Whole includes all the rest And whereas in the New Testament Faith in Christ is more commonly propounded as the Condition of Justification importing the Remission of sin it is to be considered that this Faith is so far from excluding Charity that it is expressly said to include it by St. Paul himself the supposed Author of the Doctrine of Justification by Faith without Works Gal. 5.6 For in Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Vncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be to be understood in a Passive sense as most commonly it is elsewhere in Scripture and in other Books and as it is here rendred by the Syriack Translator and so meaning that Faith is actuated perfected and made effectual by Love or in the Active sense as our English Translation gives it signifying the Efficacy Energy or Operation of Faith only The Meaning of the Apostle by the Addition of these Words can be no other then to limit and distinguish the nature of that Faith which is available to Justification from an hypocritical dead and ineffectual Faith which is altogether invalid availing nothing at all to the Effect of Justification The Active sense of the Word as well as the Passive serving to declare the true Nature and Notion of a Justifying Faith to be Energetical and Practical i. e. producing such effects of the Will as are agreeable to the entire Object of it that is to the Authority of Christ his Doctrine and Precepts as well as such as respect only the Effect of Redemption or Expiation of sin by his Death And such is the necessity of this Charity by the Doctrine of the same Apostle that he elsewhere saith Though I have all Faith so that I could remove Mountains and have not Charity it profiteth me nothing 1 Cor. 13.3

Good Works doth plainly suppose a negation of any antecedent necessity of Conversion and Repentance which are the two first things which he treats of under that Title of Thankfulness unto the Effect of our Justification and Salvation unless it be reasonable to say that a man is obliged to be thankfull for a Benefit before he hath it or to the end that he may receive it Conversion unto God and Repentance by this mans Doctrine must be looked upon as a thing not in it self necessary to our Justification or Remission of sin but as a Duty of Gratitude for this Grace given unto us either before or without respect to our Conversion And we are to repent and turn to God not that our sins may be forgiven but because they are so not that we may be saved but because we believe and are confident that we shall be saved So the whole practice of Christian Piety Holiness and Righteousness before God must proceed upon an account of Thankfulness to him for his free Grace that requires none of these things at our hands as conditions of our Pardon or Reconciliation with his offended Majesty Not but that some other Ends and Reasons and particularly those which we mentioned before are also named by the same Author as part of the necessity of Good Works But all are reduced unto the general account of Thankfulness and exclusive of any Moral causality or condition of Justification and Salvation How well this Doctrine agrees with Natural Religion the Scriptures of the Old Testament or even with the design of the Gospel I must leave to be judged by indifferent Readers Because I hold not my self obliged in this place to engage any further in the great Controversie about Justification by Faith alone or to take particular notice of the Texts of St. Paul commonly alledged for the Solifidian Doctrine which have been exactly considered by so many of our own Divines and my own Sense of them elsewhere delivered in brief Besides that the covering of sins attributed to Charity in the present Text though it extends to the Effect of Justification in the most Eminent Sense of the Phrase yet is not by our Interpretation limited to that signification but extended as hath been said to the removal of punishments in this life and to the abatement of them both in this Life and that which is to come which are the Benefits that may be obtained by Charity without any perfect Justification of a sinner Now if any Person that reads this Discourse having not been prepossessed with any Prejudice against this Doctrine or doubt of the Truth of it shall think that the Work is over-done by the Allegation of so many Texts and Arguments for the Confirmation of it and so much pains taken in answering Objections against it and shall therefore charge me with loading the Readers with a tedious Accumulation of superfluous Arguments thereby abating the Perspicuity of the Matter as Cicero speaks upon occasion of his long Discourse Perspicuitas enim argumentatione elevatur Remque meâ sententiâ minimè dubiam argumentando dubiam facis Tull. de Oratore Lib. 3. to prove the Existence of a Deity I must answer that this Objection can only be made by him that is ignorant of the contrary Doctrine commonly asserted and contended for not only by Lutherans and Calvinists abroad but by several of our English Divines till of late years going that way And 2. Although the bad Consequences of that Doctrine have been strongly averted by the Authors thereof in some of their Discourses yet the Event and Effect thereof hath to my own Knowledge in a multitude of Persons with whom I have had Occasion to converse notoriously abated the exercise of Charity and the Zeal or Conscience of Good Works supposed by this Doctrine to be neither absolutely necessary nor available to the Salvation of a Christian Many Persons I have known who upon this only Ground have neglected and slighted the practice of Charity not only in their Life time but also at their Death comforting themselves against all fear of Peril by this Neglect from a mistaken Notion and Confidence of Justification by Faith alone without Good Works The Sense of this dangerous Errour was one thing that moved me to the Pains of this Plain Discourse Having visited divers Persons in their Last sickness earnestly moving them according to the Injunction of our Church Liturgy in that Office to Liberality towards the Poor with little or no Success upon a Misperswasion of the no Necessity and as little Validity of such Works to the safety of their future State And though I have known Some and do believe there are many of that Perswasion that upon other Considerations and better Principles have been very Charitable and Forward to Good Works yet I have also had a particular Opportunity of observing Knowing something more than other Men concerning the Neglect of this Duty from the Place of my late Habitation for some Years belonging to an Office of Registry kept for the Probate and Custody of Wills and Testaments made within the Jurisdiction of the Arch-deacon of Norfolk wherein I have observed this last Record and Testimony of Charity which should have made up the Neglect and Defects of that Duty before to have been either wholly omitted or very penuriously and disproportionably expressed in many and indeed most Wills of Considerable Estates But to take off all appearance of Scandal to our Religion upon this Account it hath been or may be made Evident upon a just Reckoning that the Publick Good Works and Donations of Protestants to pious Uses in this Nation since the Reformation have been more than Equal to any that ever were done by Papists within the same Compass of Time in any precedent Age This personal Apology for the present Discourse might perhaps have been spared but was piously intended to the best Advantage and greatest Concern of all Persons in the time of their Life and at their Death There being certainly no possible Use to be made of Worldly Goods so Acceptable to God or so Advantagious to the Owners thereof both in their Lives and at their Death as that which I am labouring to promote from this Text. FINIS