Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sin_n	dead_a	death_n	trespass_n	4,131	5	10.6204	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85510	A modest vindication of the doctrine of conditions in the Covenant of Grace, and the defenders thereof, from the aspersions of arminianism & popery, which Mr. W. E. cast on them. By the late faithful and godly minister Mr. John Graile, minister of the gospel at Tidworth in the county of Wilts. Published with a preface concerning the nature of the Covenant of Grace, wherein is a discovery of the judgment of Dr. Twisse in the point of justification, clearing him from antinomianism therein. By Constant Jessop, minister of the Gospel at Wimborn minister in the county of Dorset. Whereunto is added, a sermon, preached at the funeral of the said Mr. John Grail. By Humphrey Chambers, D.D. and pastor of the church at Pewsie.	Graile, John.; Chambers, Humphrey, 1598 or 9-1662.; Jessop, Constantine, 1601 or 2-1658. Pauls sad farewel to his Ephesians.	1654 (1654)	Wing G1477; Thomason E817_1; Thomason E817_2; ESTC R207370	97,971	125

other passages in him 1. He tells us that in this Covenant there is and must be a mutual consent between God and us yea a consent testified by both parties for immediately after his definition of the Covenant in the substance of it which wee mentioned before he comes to consider the administration of it which he saith is dispersed by the Lord by voice and visible signes In testimonium mutui consensus inter Deum nos In testimony of this mutual consent which is between God and us The same he doth elsewhere more largely repeat as I shall shew you by and by How both parties do give their consent in making the Covenant he doth afterwards declare and withal the freenesse of the Grace of God in both The whole substance of the Covenant saith he is free In respect of God he properly makes the Covenant with us when he doth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit seal the Promise of free reconciliation offered in the Gospel and beginneth our renovation to eternal life doth daily carry it on and at last doth perfect it In respect of us who were dead in sins and trespasses the Covenant is received when the Holy Ghost is freely given to us whereby being raised from death to life it comes to passe that we not only have a will and power to believe the Promise of free grace concerning reconciliation by Christ and the renewing of us that we may enter into the inheritaace of the heavenly Kingdome but also do believe or receive faith it self So that the freenesse and absolutenesse of the Covenant doth not consist in this that there is no condition or duty required on our parts but none that is to be performed by our own strength as he some few lines after doth expresse himself Thus saith he it is certain that this whole Covenant is meerly of free Grace and doth not depend on any condition of our owne strength but on the free mercy of God in Christ apprehended by faith which himself doth bestow The offer or tender of a double Promise in Christ to wit of the remission of sins and sanctification and so the donation of Christ himself is in respect of God most free The acceptation on our part is also free because it is the action of God in us whereby he doth seal the Promise to our hearts so that being acted by him we do act being by him made Believers we do believe and being quickned or created by Christ unto good works we do walk in them Thus far Olevian in that place and who is there Sir of these whom you oppose that doth not say the same with him So that your quoting of him is at least to little purpose for your opinion I might farther shew you that he in another place repeating the same thing adds once and again that God in giving faith to his Elect and chosen ones doth thereby give with it to them also universam substantiam foederis the whole substance of the Covenant So that the remission of sin promised in the Covenant is not Antecedent but Consequent to faith which in effect is as much for the conditionality of faith in reference to the pardon of sin the salvation of souls as is contended for by those whom you oppose but I will not insist on that I shal for your and the Readers better information and satisfaction touching the judgment of this learned Divine in this point entreat you to observe 2. That as he doth plead for a mutual consent of both parties in the Covenant So he doth withal maintaine that when God for his part performes the federatory action as his phrase is Prius assensum à nobis stipulatur he doth first require our assent to the Promises and Duties or Conditions of the Covenant Thus hee expresseth himself more then once shewing withal that this Position is most agreeable to the Scripture of the Old and New Testament alledging to this purpose that voluntary and federal Contract betweene God and the people expressed by Moses Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God and to walk in his wayes and to keep his Statutes and his Commandments and his Judgments and to hearken unto his voyce And the Lord hath this day avouched thee to be his peculiar people as he hath promised thee Deu. 26. 17 18. Setting down at large several Reasons why the Lord is pleased thus to proceed in the administration of his Covenant and that in reference to both the Elect and Reprobate those which are sincere and those which are but hypocritical professors of and parties in the Covenant So that if you lay all the passages of Olevian together you may at least wise the indifferent Reader may see that you have gained nothing by him nor have your Adversaries lost him 4. Having dispatch'd Olevian in the next place I turn to Zanchy whom you alledg as being fully for you And I confesse at the first sight looking on him with a bare superficial glance he doth seem wholly to be yours especially if you pitch on one passage and do not compare it with others in the same place 'T is true he doth affirm that God saith Most absolutely without any condition of Faith and Repentance inserted I will betroth thee to me for ever But if you please seriously to weigh what he delivereth in his Commentary on the same Chapter and compare one thing with another you shall find that 1. The absolutenesse which he speaks of lyeth in this not that faith and repentance are not required on the Churches part to make up the match but that the making or dissolving of the Matrimonial federal Contract between the Lord and the Church shall not depend on any condition to be performed by the Church of her owne power and strength for the Lord doth undertake even for the Church to work in her Faith Repentance and ●ll other Graces requisite to the making and perpetuating of the match that it bee not broken so he speaks and doth declare himself in the end of that very Paragraph the beginning whereof you take hold of as serving our turne God promiseth both a new Marriage and also all things which even on the 〈…〉 are necessary for the making and confirming of● the Match And more fully afterwards He promiseth That he will cause that we shall be joyned to him in a perpetual mariage But the mariage cannot be perpetual unlesse as in God so also there be in us Faith and the Spirit of Christ continuing to the end by which this marriage is both contracted and preserved Therefore he doth promise that faith and the Spirit of Christ shall continue in us You may there at large see him assert That there are connubi● leges as he calls them Lawes of the marriage or conditions thereof which are to be observed by the Church for her part which God doth undertake to write in her heart that

proportion is there betweene the debt and the acknowledgment Thus God seemes to speak to us in the matter of repentance Only acknowledg thine iniquities The summe of all is That a man gives freely which he gives on condition when withal he gives ability to perform the condition else salvation given for and through Christ would not be free But such are the conditions we pleade for as our duties so Gods gifts and graces and therefore the gift of salvation notwithstanding them is free Againe That we give on condition the condition being the parties duty to whom we give is free else the portions that parents give dutiful children would not be free gift But such are the conditions maintained by us such as we owe of duty to God whether he give or no he giveth therefore freely though he require them 3. That we give on conditions the conditions being no way beneficial to us who give no way equivalent to the thing we give nor any way causal of our giving we give most freely But such also are the conditions defended by us as hath beene made apparent they no way benefit the Lord at all they are infinitely disproportionable to the gift of salvation he bestowes nor do they any way move him to bestow salvation but rather his will and purpose to bestow salvation moves him to bestow them that by receipt of them his people might be fitted for the salvation he intends them And therefore notwithstanding that they are required the gift of salvation is most free Thus have we done with your Argument from the freenesse of grace which that it may well stand with our conditions I hope is well cleared as also with your Arguments taken from scripture We come now to those you fetch from Reason The first of which was taken from the intent of Christ in dying which the Scriptures hold out to be the salvation of those for whom he died Now say you if he died conditionally it will follow that he willed not their salvation at all but their damnation as much or more then their salvation for he wills their salvation if they believe otherwise their damnation and it is natural to them not to believe This and all that followes in the Argument may make against the Arminians who hold that Christ hath purchased salvation for us but not faith and that he died for us conditionally i. e. that we should be saved if we did believe but did no way procure for us that we should believe and accordingly it is used by our Authors though in other terms to destroy the Arminians conditionality as you may see in Owen But conditional redemption in which the conditions are purchased as wel as the salvation which is that we maintain it no way oppugneth Put case an outlandish man should procure for his Sonne some inheritance in our Country to be enjoyed by him upon his infranchisement you cannot say he intended his Sons non-enjoyment of it as much as enjoyment because of the condition of his Infranchisement if that the Infranchisement be procured by the father as wel as the inheritance The purchasers intent I hope is ful and firme Notwithstanding the conditionality of the purchase when the condition is purchased as well as the thing So when we maintaine that Christ hath procured salvation for us to be enjoyed conditionally if wee doe believe You cannot inferre thence that he intended our damnation as much as salvation because we have no power to believe for wee maintaine also that Christ hath purchased for us that wee shall believe Sir Arminians say That Christ died for us that we might be saved if wee doe believe we that Christ died for us that we should believe and believing have life through his name Dare you say that Christ died for any so absolutely as that they should be saved whether they did believe or no I hope you will not though your parallelling the new Covenant with that with Noah doth naturally yeild such an inference as hath already beene shewed Your second Argument was the same with one you used in your former sermons where you asserted the absolutenesse of the new Covenant viz. That this conditionality infers a liberty of will But Sir that those who plead for conditions are no way maintainers or abettors of free will their writings sufficiently declare You make men believe that we preach not repentance as the grace of God by his Spirit wrought in our hearts in and for Christ which is most untrue and who of us denies faith to be the gift of God or that God out of his love to us in Christ freely worketh it in us that therby we may be enabled to receive Christ That we are not only halfe dead but quite dead and can do nothing that is good until the spirit quicken us cannot goe to Christ til God the Father draweth us cannot believe on Christ nor repent of sin until the Lord give it unto us and enable us thereto is a doctrine I have long agoe learned from their Sermons and often meete with in their writings And as for the inference he which chargeth the Patronage of free will on that kind of preaching that holds out life and salvation upon condition of faith and repentance let him looke to it how he will quit Christ and his Apostles from that charge whose Sermons are full of counsels commands and calls that require men to repent and believe if ever they would be saved Sir conditions to be performed by us of our owne strength and power which the Arminians maintaine argue a power in mans will indeede But conditions purchased by Christ for us and to be wrought by his Spirit in us which we maintain Inferre no power of free wil at all Your third Argument was taken from election That from this conditional redemption would follow that men are elected but conditionally so that Gods election should be undetermined and uneffectual and the will of God should be made subordinate to the will of the creature Sir God may be said to elect conditionally two wayes 1. So as that the condition be considered as anteceding his election moving him to will salvation to such a person This conditionality indeed subordinates the will of the Creator to the creature and causeth election to be undetermined and ineffectual But such kind of conditions we oppugne as Arminian Or 2. so as that the condition preceede indeed the actual enjoyment of the benefits to which men are elected but followes election it self And this consideration of conditions of election we propugne as no way evacuating either the efficacy or determinatenesse of Gods election nor yet in any wise subjecting the wil of God to the will of man therein Hear what Dr. Ames saith to this very thing It never was denied by our Divines that faith was maintained as a condition antecedent indeed to salvation but consequent unto or following election it self i. e. but hath been constantly

marry without advising with her Uncle about it she loseth her right to the Legacy given her which by the way may shew the weakness of that Argument that is taken from the word Testament which some use against Conditions as if Conditions could not stand with a Testamentary disposition Now such is Gods grant of salvation it is made in Christ it is made in him unto Believers it is not made to sinners as sinners as some aver but to repenting and believing sinners John 6. 38. 39 40. This is the will of him that sent me that every one that seeth the Son and believeth on him have everlasting life The Grant being made unto us as Believers I conceive we have not right unto the benefit granted until we doe believe Sure I am we cannot have right but by and through our union to him which union being an inestimable benefit we cannot have right before we have benefit 7. Because you are so ready to charge your Adversaries with nonsense and contradictions let us mind you of the old rule He that accuseth another of dishonesty must look well to himself and let the inconsequences which necessarily follow from your Doctrine be our last Argument I beseech you therefore to read me those riddles your Tenents seem to me to contain and to lead me out of those mazes and Meanders which I think your Positions lead unto at least to deliver your self out of them for perhaps my senses may not lead me to follow your clue unlesse I see better solutions then I have seene or heard from you hitherto I beseech you tell me then 1. How there can be Many yea or any true Believers who were never humbled when yet all men must see their Righteousnesse drosse and dung must be schooled by the Law to know their need of Christ before they can or will make out unto him 2. How the same man may be actually reconciled to God have wrath removed from him and be beloved of God with the love of complacency and yet at the same time in regard of the same evil works be an enemy unto God a child of wrath and have wrath abiding on him 3. How the same man may be actually justified and quickned and yet actually dead in regard of the same sins at the same time 4. How the same man at the same time can be a member of Christ one in him and united to him as he must be who is actually justified and a member also of the divel as he cannot but be who still remains an ungodly impenitent and unbelieving person 5. How faith in the work of Justification serves for any farther use then to assure us that we are justified seeing it doth not concur to the essence and being of it or to the constituting of us in a state justifiable and how we are said to be justified by Faith and not by Works when Works assure us of our being justified as well as Faith 6 How in the Petition Forgive us our debts we can pray for any thing more then assurance of pardon when actual pardon is passed long before And how sins can be actually pardoned before they be committed and the guilt removed before it is contracted 7 How God who promiseth pardon to Believers only and condemneth thousands for their impenitency and unbelief can without blemish of his Honour Truth and Justice give pardon to any in his impenitency and unbelief 8 How a man can be said to be bound by Covenant to keep or break the Covenant when yet in the Conant there are no conditions on mans part required to be performed 9 Why it doth not follow from your Tenents that a man may be actually Justified and saved without faith when yet you maintain actual Justification before faith and faith to be required not to the essence of it or interesting of persons in it but only to the assuring them of their interest therein 10. Why it follows not also from them that Christians may live as they list seeing you hold that no conditions are on their part required so that they cannot break the Covenant Whether Doctor Preston dares the Believer to sin if hee can I yet finde not but this I find That hee holds that the Believer may both sin and by sinning may break the Covenant as you may find in his Treatise of the New Covenant p. 458 459 460. c. These are some of the many for more might be named straites and intricacies your Positions lead your self and your followers into out of which how you will rid your self I wot not but sure I am that your Solutions hitherto given do yeild no manner of real satisfaction not only not to my self but not to any other of your godly and intelligent Auditors that I have yet met with Toward the close of your Sermon you ushered in your Authorities with this Objection But many good Divines call it a Conditional Covenant But Sir you are meal mouthed in the very Objection for not only many but the most part of Divines call it so All that I have ever yet met with Dr. Crisp Mr. Saltmarsh and your self exepted As for those Authors you bring I shall by and by shew your fowle play in citing some of them and your mistake of others and discover most if not all of them to be on my side and to be only against meritorious Conditions The like mincing you used in a passage in the beginning of your Sermon viz. That some good Divines say That Faith and Repentance are the way to glory Whereas if you be pleased to rub your poll I believe you may call to mind not only that some but most good Divines call these Conditions and say as much of good Works as you here allow to Faith namely that they are via ad regnum the way to the Kingdom though not Causa regnandi the cause of reigning I am sure Mr. Perkins Dr. Preston Bishop Davenant and most others I have read do call them so But you are politick in these expressions for thereby you would perswade your hearers that you had many on your side like some Travellers who passing on in solitary wayes keep a whistling and a hooping as if they had a great deal of company whereas alas they are either wholly alone or at most have but one or two Companions Now Sir for your reply to this Objection we shall refer it to the close of all and at present shall look into the Authours you bring and see whether they stand for the opinion for which you cited them or rather against it as shall be made to appear and then shall add some others to them You begin with the Fathers but there you are sparing in your citations you tell us the Question was rarely agitated then But you might have said that the Fathers if they faulted in any thing about the matter in Controversie it was in giving too much to Faith Repentauce and good Works by

both there and in this eleventh Argument he excludes both from the Covenant with Abraham and the work of Justification 2. Let but Martyr expound himself and then it will appear what conditions he denies and in what manner nor shall I lead you any further for discovery of this then this his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans Look then Chap. 10 on those words For righteousnesse to every one that believeth and you shall find the difference betweene the Law and the Gospel thus set down by him The Law is received by doing and most exact performing that which is commanded But the Gospel by a lively and efficacious assent of faith Moses also Deut. 30. writeth concerning the Law that hee had set before the people life and death manifestly teaching that if the Law be received and fulfilled it will bring eternal life with it But seeing we are shut out from this benefit the merciful God hath provided another word to wit of faith which if by assenting to it it be received bringeth life along with it From this place it appeareth that the promises of the Law were given from the supposition or condition of Works going before But in the Gospel if works are annexed to the Promises they are not so to be understood as either the merit or causes of those Promises But we must thus conclude That these gifts of God which are promised follow after the works though they be not perfect and absolute as they are commanded in the Law This place I hope will shew that Peter Martyr was only against the condition of Works and there too against their merit or efficiency for as for their presence he allowes that they are required in the Gospel But as as for the condition of faith he is not at all against it Turne to one place more Rom. 8. If we suffer with him c. Where setting down the differences between the Promises of the Law and of the Gospel he saith They do not differ in this as some think that the Promises Evangelical have no conditions annexed but the Legal Promises are never offered without conditions for as it s said Honour thy Father and thy mother that thou maist live long upon the earth And if ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the Land So we read also in the Gospel Forgive and it shall be forgiven give and it shall be given c. Wherefore seeing this is not the difference we must seek out some other It appeareth therefore to him that diligently considereth that the conditions of the Law might bee causes of the obtainment of the rewards promised for if they had been perfect and absolute as the Law required them they might be compared with the rewards themselves and had also had esteem of merit but seeing these cannot be performed by men God of his mercy gave in their stead Evangelical Promises which although they have conditions added yet are offered freely Wherefore if thou joyne these three things together that the Evangelical rewards are promised freely that the conditions cannot be compared unto or equalized with them that the Promises must be most firme and take away the account of merit you may see wherein these differ from those of the Law And thus I hope it is manifest that they were conditions of Works which Peter Martyr did deny that he did not deny them simply neither but only as meritorious and causal of the benefits promised that he held faith to be the Requisite or the Condition of the Gospel So that you must give me leave to take Martyr from you too and put him down with the forenamed Authors for a patron of our Cause 3. Next unto Peter Martyr you cite Olevian but whether with any more advantage to your Cause then the former or disadvantage to us is the businesse of our present enquiry If you please with second thoughts which are most commonly the best to look into him you shall find that when he denies conditions in the Covenant they are only such as first are performed by and proceeding from our own strength which we with him do acknowledg to be none and therefore also deny the same 2. Which arise from or carry along with them a consideration of dignity or worthinesse in our selves 3. Are of a meritorious nature Such conditions as these we together with him disclaim That these are the conditions which he doth deny is so clear and plain that he which runs may read If you begin with his definition of the Covenant of Grace you shall find him in the close thereof expressing himself thus Without the condition or stipulation of any good thoughts from their own strength Having spoken concerning God who makes the Covenant he comes afterward to consider the persons with whom this Covenant is made and shewes that the very Elect themselves to whom it doth especially belong are by nature children of wrath dead in sins such whose hearts are hearts of stone unable to think a good thought of themselves meer darknesse enemies to God slaves to sinne and Satan Now forasmuch as they are such God saith he promiseth he will not make any such Covenant with them which in the least part thereof should be founded on their own strength to perform it Wherefore lest the Covenant should fail and be of none effect men being miserable dead in sins having hearts of stone such as are not subject to the Law of God neither in deed can be Rom. 8. Who are not able of themselves to think any thought that is good but that it may remain firm and everlasting he promiseth such a Covenant the whole essence whereof doth depend on himself alone and is founded in his Son Jesus Christ He promiseth also such a manner of executing in us this his decree and purpose the strength and efficacy whereof doth not proceed from corrupt man but from himself alone A little after he sums up all that he had said concerning the nature and substance of the Covenant thus Wherefore if you look upon God the efficient cause and those to whom he promiseth the Covenant or if you consider the matter and form thereof you shall still find it is a Covenant of free grace and that it doth not Depend on any condition of our worthinesse merits or our proper strength The most merciful God did see the promise would be vain in respect of our vanity which should depend on the condition of our own strength What here he doth deliver so plainly and in such expresse termes you may if you please to look into him find him afterwards repeating againe and again Sir By these passages you may see you have not gained any thing by Olevian nor your Adversaries lost by what he speaks against conditions in the Covenant Now that you may further see that he speaks rather on their side whom you oppose then for you I shall intreat you to consider some