Selected quad for the lemma: sense_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	faith_n	justification_n	justify_v	7,231	5	9.1878	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95872	A very short and brief account of the free justification of God's elect, from the condemning power of the law, by that law change of persons, (flowing from an eternal act of grace, by way of covenant transaction between the Father and the Son;) which brought Christ as mediator under the curse and condemnation of that broken law, in the very room and place of elect sinners. : Whereunto are added, some questions concerning this point; : proposed to be answered by those that do so confidently affirm, that the elect of God are equally with others, under the same condemning power of the law, before faith. / By A member of a Church of Christ, in the County of Essex.	Member of a Church of Christ.	1699 (1699)	Wing V279dA; ESTC R185966	13,548	48

Redeemed and what are the ill consequences that follow if I say that Justice doth not charge these Redeemed ones but God is compleatly reconciled to them by the Death of Christ any more than the former Will it not amount to the same to say some are ordained to Eternal Life and Redeemed with the Blood of Christ as to say God doth not charge these Redeemed ones seeing we likewise affirm that none know that they are not under Condemnation before Believing and that whoever dies an unbeliever shall be Damned except any suppose that Terrifying Soul with Curse and Condemnation be the most effectual way to bring them to Faith in Christ and if so I am not in their Mind and I am sure the Gospel ought to be Preached and Grace proclaimed And I think it is the most effectual to propose the Truth as the object of Faith which the Gospel doth Reveal for Salvation God's pardoning Grace in the Blood of Christ and so Invite Sinners to come to God as reconciled in the bleeding Sacrifice of his Son Jesus This it is that offends some that have made the greatest Noise and have enfluenced others which in other words say the same things about words and because they cannot so directly strike at this free Invitation to Sinners to come directly to Christ without their Previous Qualifications which strikes so directly at their Idol self Righteousness therefore they are pleased to brand the Doctrine of God's free Justifying Grace with Nick-Names at their pleasure And I wish that some which see otherways be not frightned from owning the Truths they believed and received in the light of God's Holy Spirit for fear of being laden with Calumnies and Reproaches for it is a trying time and I do be-believe that those that are kept close to Christ in owning the simplicity of the Gospel shall meet with as great Trials as those that have gone before us for Christ will shake the Earth and the Heavens and remove those things that are made and Burn up the Hay Wood and Stubble Therefore let every Man take heed what he builds though upon the foundation of Christ 〈◊〉 Cor. 3.12 But to return to the Point in Hand there be various sentences and in various Courts where and by which God declares the non-Imputation of Sin to his Elect and all sentences of Court whatsoever do but declare God's Act of Grace in that Court where the sentence is pronounced and the last add final sentence will be at the great Assizes when Christ will publickly before Men and Angels pronounce them blessed Yet to conclude with some that they were not compleatly Justified till then would be great darkness so though God in his Word doth pronounce Believers Justified yet it will no more follow that they were not Justified before than the former if things be rightly weighed for this makes Faith a moral Condition of Justification as hath been shewn already and also denies Justification to be by the new Covenant or makes the Covenant of Grace conditional and that in a strict sence denies Faith to be a part of the Covenant Blessings but that Justification is by the Covenant of Grace Few do directly deny and I am as certain as I am certain that the Scriptures are true that the first pronounced sentence of Life to Sinners is by that Covenant Gen 3.15 And it is according to the Tenour of that Covenant for there are but two Covenants or Courts where the pronounced sentence of Life can be supposed to pass but by the works of the Law No Flesh shall be Justified Rom. 3.20 then is must be according to the Tenour of the Covenant of Grace if that be an absolute promise of Life then the sentence is an absolute sentence but that is an absolute promise of Life Gen. 3.15 Titus 1.2 1 John 2.25 Therefore the sentence is an absolute sentence past in the Court of Grace upon all the Womans Seed in their Covenant Head in direct opposition to the Serpents seed upon the Serpent and his Seed the Curse takes place having no Mediator to make up the breach and the promise in Christ takes hold of the Elect as soon as they have a being Rom. 9.13 Then except it can be proved that the sentence that passeth upon believing be according to the Tenour of the Covenant of Grace it will be in vain for to contend for that to be the first sentence of Life that is past upon an elect Person But I deny That believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt have Life or be Saved is the Tenour of the Covenant of Grace it is a part of the New Testament Ministry but not the Tenour of the New Covenant Then seeing there is no Law given that can give Life Gal. 3.21 then prove that the Covenant of Grace i● conditional or grant that the ●●otence of Life is absolute or deny that the Justifying Sentence of Life passeth according to the Tenour of that Covenant and then it will lye upon you to prove by what Covenant we are Justifyed But leaving this that which I desire your answer to is these following Questions which I desire you would answer to each particular distinctly as you tender the Truth and the Glory of Christ and respect my good and the good of others by clearing up the Truth that the simplicity of the Gospel may be preserved by God's Special help and protection Question I. DID the Chosen of God which were loved with an everlasting and unchangable Love when they fell in Adam into Sin by the breach of the Law equally with others Did they then come under the same condemning Power of the Law and under the same Curse and Wrath of God equally with the non-elect whilst on Earth If not the very same shew where it differs and then it may be we agree in the main though differ in expressions But if the very same Then Question II. HOW can they be under the Curse and Wrath of God and suffer here on Earth in that state as the effects of Sin and consequently of the Curse whilst under it and not penal as part of the punishment due to Sin Though not Hell it self yet something of the same Nature though not the same degree because not under the Justifying sentence of Life past in the New Covenant Therefore the Curse of Afflictions not taken away they are no corrections in a Covenant way but properly punishment in Wrath as taken in a strict Sense Then Question III. HOW can this stand with that perfect atonement made by our high Priest's own Oblation or doth it not exceedingly derogate from that perfect satisfaction he made to Justice and his compleat filling up the Law by Mediatorial Obedience Heb. 10. v. 10 12 14. and chap 9 v. 12.26 Again Question IV. DOTH not this imply a change in God for there is a mighty change some where that one that stands condemned in God's sight and under his Curse and Wrath having all his Sins

are Heirs by Grace though Children of Wrath by Nature as coming from fallen Adam's Loins So considered their State is a State of Wrath and liable and obnoxious to God's eternal Wrath and Displeasure That State strictly considered but the Persons of the elect in this sinful fallen Estate 〈◊〉 are not objects of God's Wrath but objects of his great Immense God like-Love even when they are dead in sins Eph. 2.4 Faith makes not their Persons excepted though it doth their Services the exceptation of their Persons in the beloved is a pure Act of God's Sovereign Will that will because he will and will on whom he will Thus it appears that the Elect are Heirs by Grace and the Testament it self gives them Right to Eternal Life as the free gift of God by absolute promise and to have Right to Eternal Life and all the Blessings of the Testament of Grace by Blood and to be under the condemning Power of the Law are plain contradictions as being opposite one to the other But if any say they have nothing in present possession I answer if they have Right to Justifying Righteousness that is enough to free them from Curse and Wrath in the sight of God's satisfied Justice For there can be no Right except God counts it so and if he counts it so that is enough to Justifie us in his sight for this Righteousness is without us and is not communicated but imputed and Christ as Mediator is the subject of this Righteousness but however the Elect have a proper Right to Sanctification and Glorification before Faith For there was a Grant to Christ in the Eternal compact he performing all old Covenant Conditions as head and Mediator which when he had performed he entered into Heaven by his own Blood having obtained Eternal Redemption Heb. 9.12 what he obtained as our great Executor and surety of the Testament was before granted and he obtained it on the behalf of them for whom it was granted It pleased the Father to intrust him with all fulness of Grace for the Elect as their Covenant Head that so it might be sure to all the Heirs of Promise The Father hath made it as sure in Christ the surety of this Testament as the Eternal God could make it to speak with Reverence Thus I have been shewing which way Sinners are made Righteous in a Mediator and though the Decree produced no immediate effect yet it produced its timely effects at that moment of time the Law was broken a Mediator stood Ready as fore-ordained to step in and stand in the breach to keep off the flood of Wrath from breaking out upon the Elect always remember the Law was put in the Mediators hand or else we make strange Work and set the Law and Promise together by the Ears when the Law could not give life it must march off as a Covenant of Life or Death to God's chosen Christ takes it in his own hand and makes it give way to the Promise Now I shall come to speak something of the Justifying Sentence which pronounceth the Elect Righteous in their Covenant Head and Mediator as grounded upon this preceding Act of Grace by way of Covenant Transaction between the Father and the Son which brought our Sins upon Christ and his Mediatorial Righteousness upon us and we are wholly passive both in our being made Righteous by Imputation which is an Act of pure Grace in God to Sinners and likewise in our being pronounced Just in that Imputed Righteousness which is a sentence of Grace and passeth in the Court of Grace Life by the free promise Now in pronouncing the Sentence of Life upon ungodly Law-breaking Sinners God sits Judge of his own Law as well as the Elect Sinners Cause and instead of pronouncing the Sentence of the Law upon the Poor Sinner to Condemnation God sits Inthroned upon a Mercy Seat in the Court of Grace reconciled in a Mediator in whom Grace and Justice most sweetly agree to pass the sentence of Eternal Life up on the Elect Sinner by absolute promise Gen. 3.15 Titus 1.2 1 John 2.25 This Sentence declares God's Eterna● Will that Christ as Mediator was t● die in elect Sinners Place and they t● live by an Act of Sovereign Grace Thus God as a righteous Judge Justifieth the Righteous only that is pronounceth none but such Just as are so Deut. 25.1 and yet he Justifies the ungodly not by dispensing with his Holy Law or making that void but in a way of Justice Magnifying and Honouring his Law declares an act of Eternal Grace by virtue of which Act his Elect did stand Righteous in his sight by Imputation of one Man's Obedience to answer the Law in their place as a Covenant Head opposed to Adam's one Disobedience who was a figure of this second Adam which was immediately to take the first Adam's place with Respect to God's chosen in him upon his failoure And it is Remarkable that with respect to Christ's Mediatorship God comes in the cool of the Day reconciled in him and sounds the Jubilee Trumpet from Heaven and pronounced the sentence of Life in the free promise upon Adam and all the Womans Seed in a better Covenant Head than poor A dam was when he was recking hot in Rebellion and had no Faith For till the sentence was past there was no Grace no Christ no promise Revealed for fallen Man to lay hold on and the case must be the same still for the object must precede the Act that is conversant about that object and if Life were not revealed in an absolute promise there were no footing for Faith for a conditional promise is most properly a Law He that doth the thing required shall live Thus Faith is made void and the free promise of none effect for the first thing lookt to must be the condition annex'd to the promise and then the promise claimed upon that condition Now suppose Faith be annexed to the Justifying sentence of Life then Justifying Righteousness and eternal Life in the free promise is not the object of Faith but Faith it self must first be lookt to and then the promise pleaded upon Faith as the condition of Life but this is not the Nature of Abraham's Faith that took God upon his word and staggered not at the promise nor considered not the unlikeliness or seeming Impossibilities but believed God upon his Word and the object of his Faith was counted to him for Righteousness Thus it is by Faith as an empty Hand or passive Instrument that receives all in the free promise as pure Grace and in no sense upon Faith as a condition annex'd to the sentence of Life Yet I own that this or that Individual Person is not declared to be a Justified Person and free from condemnation but upon believing as no Individual Person is declared to be elected nor Redeemed by the Death of Christ but upon believing Yet the Scriptures do plainly declare that some are elected and them are