Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sin_n	mortal_a	nature_n	venial_a	6,243	5	12.3225	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37035	A commentarie upon the book of the Revelation Wherein the text is explained, the series of the several prophecies contained in that book, deduced according to their order and dependance on each other; the periods and succession of times, at, or about which, these prophecies, that are already fulfilled, began to be, and were more fully accomplished, fixed and applied according to history; and those that are yet to be fulfilled, modestly, and so far as is warrantable, enquired into. Together with some practical observations, and several digressions, necessary for vindicating, clearing, and confirming many weighty and important truths. Delivered in several lectures, by that learned, laborious, and faithfull servant of Jesus Christ, James Durham, late Minister of the Gospel in Glasgow. To which is affixed a brief summary of the whole book, with a twofold index, one of the several digressions, another of the chief and principall purposes and words contained in this treatise.	Durham, James, 1622-1658.	1658 (1658)	Wing D2805; ESTC R216058	1,353,392	814

imputation of Christs Righteousnesse Justification by Faith c. are things so essentiall unto the up-making of a sinners breach with God and that yet all of them are so great strangers even in the very name to the Popish way of justification and materially inconsistent with the same it cannot be of God More particularly we will find it overturn 1. the nature of Justification and at best it doth put in Sanctification in the room thereof and there is never any distinct ground la●d by which a sinner may come to receive a sentence of absolution before God but this to wit Justification is lost by the former Doctrine and they acknowledge no such thing distinct from Regeneration or Sanctification as if no such act as Justification were needfull or mentioned in Scripture as distinct from these and in effect it leaveth a sinner to a way of Salvation that wanteth Justification in it and therefore cannot profit him For by denying that which is the formall cause of Justification they deny it self seing that giveth it a being 2. It derogateth from the nature of Grace and that in severall respects 1. As to graces efficacie that it hangeth at mans free-will 2. As to its Soveraignity that it boundeth it to mans disposing of himself 3. As to its freedom in that it appointeth mans own satisfaction for the removing of punishment and his own merit for the obtaining of reward and as to its spirituall sublime way of working making it carnally to be conferred ex opere operato 3. It enervateth the merit of Christ For at the best it attributeth to that only the restoring of a Covenant of Works which may be entered keeped and broken according to mens working and as it were the procuring to men a new stock of habituall Grace with which they are to trade and procure their own happinesse by their after merit In reference to which if they fail Christs merit and their habituall Grace will not profit them Therefore the weight of obtaining life is laid there But the removing of the punishment and the obtaining of the reward they ascribe to humane satisfaction and good Works and that by reason of their own intrinsick worth without the imputation of Christs merit except in respect of the generall influence formerly alleaged yea they fear not to call Saints their Redeemers in so far as by their works of Supererogation they suppose them to have satisfied in some thing for them as Bellar. asserteth lib. 1. de indulg cap. 4. col 1161. and at most they are sanctified by Christs merit but after that they do for themselves 4. It wrongeth the Lord Himself 1. In His Grace as hath been said 2. In His Justice as if He were to be satisfied by creatures satisfaction and that in such things as many men would not be pleased with yea they scare not to affirm that such holinesse could not but have satisfied Him and merited although Christ had never suffered which sheweth also how little they respect Christs merit as the forcited Suarez pag. 484. and 486. afterteth 3. It wrongeth His soveragnity in that it tyeth Him in proper Justice to be mans debter and that not by vertue of His promise only but from the consideration of the intrinsick value and merit of mens good works that He were not just if He did not reward them 5. It wrongeth Gods Covenant for either it alloweth no Covenant at all or quite altereth the nature and tearms thereof and turneth it to Works as hath been said For it doth still make the stipulation on mans part the same which doth constitute the form of the Covenant of Works however one be enabled to perform that stipulation which certainly was by Grace even to Adam 6. It enervateth Faith excluding altogether that Faith that receiveth Christ and taketh hold on Him and closeth with the Covenant of Grace and leaveth no more to a Believer but a naked assent to the Truth of God which is in the devils and utterly secludeth Faith from any particularity of application in the making of our peace with God in any respect 7. It overturneth the Truth concerning mans naturall estate in giving him a free-will in reference to spirituall good and that before the infusion of Grace and in making this acting of free-will a necessary disposition to Justification and a necessary condition of merit 8. It corrupteth the holy Law of God 1. In its end as if now it were to be the condition of Gods Covenant upon which life is to be attained 2. In its meaning as if it did not condem naturall concupiscence and many other things are exempted by them from it that they may make the fulfilling thereof possible 9. It denyeth the true nature of sin and maketh many things that are contrary to the Law of God to be no sin as by its excluding of the remainings of originall sin and many others by that fond distinction of venial and mortal sins from being accounted sins that make men lyable to eternal wrath 10. It overturneth the nature of the Sacraments 1. In making these to be Sacraments which are not as Pennance Extream unction c. 2. In attributing other ends and another manner of attaining to these ends than agreeth with the Word or can quiet a conscience in reference thereto as the conferring of Grace ex opere operato 11. It doth not leave Discipline undestroyed for it abuseth the power of the keyes in this absolution to make up a Sacrament and confer grace and give Indulgences and such-like which no sober man will think a sufficient way for founding of his peace or to be a defence against a challenge in the day of Judgment 12. It doth altogether overturn that consolation that God alloweth His people For 1. there is great anxiety in the supposed way of attaining it 2. No certaintie of having of it and so it can yeeld comfort to none 3. According to their principles it may be lost and one that is justified to day may be in a stare of damnation tomorrow 4. It maketh their recovery difficult and almost desperat for as Bellar. in the forecited place asserteth it may have with it 20000. years continuance in purgatory Of this uncomfortablnesse and of all this matter more may be seen on Chap. 9. Lect. 1. 13. It excludeth knowledge and cryeth up ignorance So that Bellar. lib. de Iustific doth not fear to say that Faith ought rather to be defined by ignorance than knowledge per ignorantiam potius quam per notitiam 14. It overturneth and corrupteth the nature of holinesse and good works and all spirituall worship putting in I cannot tell what will-worship externall rites c. in the place of all practice mumbling and muttering unknown words for prayer afflicting of the body for mortification and many such like things have they These are but a part of the horrible absurdities of this way and yet we suppose are sufficient to demonstrate the truth of what we assert to

would blesse Him further that He hath freed us from this tyranny under which a great part of the Christian world doth lye and by which our own Predecessours were sometimes keeped in bondage 3. It would provoke us to improve the light and liberty of Truth which He hath conceded to us and to welcome the soul-comforting Doctrines of the free grace of the Gospel O what great odds is there betwixt the dispensations of the Gospel which we enjoy and that which our Fathers lived under and therefore how much more is required of us and how much greater will the condemnation of these be who shall ungratfully perish under this light Lastly let it stir us up with holy indignation against this contagion of Popery ought we to think this a light and indifferent matter which the Lord hath threatned as so great a wo to the visible Church and which he doth so significantly delineat in the hellish nature and hurtfull effects of it and let us commiserate the deplorable condition of many thousands of poor souls captivated under this tyranny and stung with the poison of these scorpions who yet cry not when they are bound And let us cry mightily to God to break this Covenant with death and to bring this agreement with hell to an end that the oppressed captives may be let go free and the Temple may be opened in heaven and that He may take to Him His great power and reigne that the Kingdoms of the earth may become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of His Christ even so Amen Concerning the comfortlesse grounds that Poperie layeth down for the comforting of poor afflicted Consciences IF we might take a view of such grounds as Popery layeth down for the quieting of an exercised Conscience what a labyrinth would it be found For 1. They deny all not imputation of sin or imputation of righteousnesse and place remission of sins only in the infusing of a gracious quality in the soul which they call gratia gratum faciens so that if the sin be mortall this is lost although the person were formerly just and must again be recovered If it be veniall he must satisfie for it 2. To this kind of remission they require attrition and contrition The first is a legall sorrow for fear of wrath the second is an intense sorrow for the sin committed the first proceedeth from servile fear this from filiall both these they lay down as necessary for attaining of the former remission or infusion of Grace 3. To this contrition they give a fourfold influence in the attaining thereof 1. Dispositively or a disposing influence as the materiall cause as they call it of this grace that is by this contrition as it is a vertue the soul is disposed for receiving of that grace or that that grace may be wrought in the soul out of that contrition as the pre-existent matter thereof 2. If concurreth instrumentally as it is a part of the Sacrament of Pennance by which the Priests absolution doth ex opere operato beget such grace in the heart of one that is contrite These two are laid down by Thom. supplement Quest. 5. Art 1. corp 3. It concurreth by way of satisfaction for the sin committed and so this inward contrition in the sensitive part is mans recompensing for his fault inwardly as he doth outwardly inflict punishment on the body ad recompensandam offensam quae in Deum committitur as Aquinas speaketh Quaest. 1. Art 2. 4. It concurreth meritoriously as an act of vertue even as other works do for procuring meritoriously something from God supp Quaest. 1. Art 2. even the first entrance into glory All which wayes will be unsatisfying to a conscience for neither of them looketh on Repentance as that which the Lord of His grace hath promised and knit pardon freely unto therefore that it may be meritorious there ariseth a new dispute wherein this contrition consisteth 1. Some old Schoolmen say it must be in summa gradu otherwise pardon is not to be expected 2. Others of whom Scotus is the head say that it is such a sorrow as is only known to God and so by it the conscience can have no quiet 3. The later Jesuits as Bellar. do p●●niten lib. 2. cap. 11. and Gregor de Valent. tom 4. disp 7. Quaest. 8. de contritione do reject both these as false and dangerous and because that contrition in such a degree is most rare therefore they have a twofold cure le●t there be no ground to quiet one at all 1. Bellarmine distinguisheth contrition in that which is intensive summa and appretiative summa and saith that though the first be not the second will be sufficient providing the sinner be still pursuing after the first to the uttermost so that if any thing be left undone which might be done for attaining thereof this ground will fail and the conscience can have no peace in this because in it there is a new sin and what shall satisfie for that This is also rare and considering that a wakened conscience will no● easily acquiesce in its own appretiative contrition as being equivalent for satisfaction that being only such as desireth to be intensively in the heighest degree as they expound it Therefore 2. the weight is laid on the power of the keyes and the Priests absolution in the Sacrament of Pennance which Greg. de Vall●ntiâ ●aith is communis Scholasticorum sententia that is that though contrition of it self be not sufficient yet by vertue of the foresaid absolution one that is attritus doth become contritus and so have the forementioned remission of sins bestowed on him Therefore they make Baptism simply necessary to the pardon of Original sin and pennance to actuall except when it is impossible and in this case the vow thereof doth supply To this sacramentall absolution they require particular confession of mortall sins d● necessitate ●almis to be made necessarily to the Priest before he absolve them which can be no little torture and so still this leaveth the soul to dispute the Priests Commission and the nature of that Sacrament which will not easily quiet it and also leaveth it under Aquinas his unanswerable Argument suppl Quaest. 1. Art 3. Where saith he the principles are diverse the one can never passe unto or become the other But the principles of attrition to wit servile fear and of contrition to wit filiall fear are diverse Ergo c. When this is done there is still a stick even by their principles in the uncertainty of this whether their contrition be true or not or whether that remission hath followed freely or not for this they say cannot be known but by particular revelation Therefore do they conclude that to supply all it is necessary to enjoyn satisfaction in work by pennances peregrinations dotations or such like whereby they make up equipollently the defects of their contrition and make all sure and if the person cannot satisfie himself because his sins are great

but by merit and that by their own proper merit therefore even these who are justified by this first Grace must go about the works of holinesse as the account upon which they must attain heaven even as Adam was to have done for life if he had stood in his innocency and in this respect they say that Christ merited to procure Gods promise to give life to our merits and to accept of them not as if His merit concurred therein to make them meritorious but as an universall cause influencing them that they may merit in a more excellent way as Suarez speaketh pag. 488. Therefore he distinguish young ones from others because they are saved by Christ only but saith that no promise doth hold forth the reward to any for Christs merit but for their own pag. 491. In which respect to them Christ hath merited a new Covenant of Works and strength of new to keep the same and they are to stand and fall in the obtaining of life promised according to their own performing of the condition of Works in the use of that first Grace and all that a man hath to ground his expectation of obtaining heaven upon is his conformity to this supposed bargain for which that place Mat. 19. is made use of If thou wilt enter into life In the last place because man can never be accounted perfectly righteous much lesse to merit any thing so long as he hath sin dwelling in him and his actions be defiled with the same Therefore lest their contrivance be marred with this they do account indwelling concupiscence not to be sin against the morall Law and many sins to be veniall and not mortall which therefore do not hinder a persons merit or acceptation nay not their perfection and fulfilling of the Law which they suppose to be possible These are the grounds they lay for the throughing of their Justification and from these they draw severall conclusions that seem contrary as that men may merit encrease and perseverance in Grace and that ex condigno that they may come to a perfection of righteousnesse in respect of their inherent holinesse and fulfilling of the Law of God that one may supererogate and so that there must be a store-house of satisfactions for though they say one cannot merit for another yet there being a consideration of merit and satisfaction both in all their good Works they may satisfie for another when they do or suffer more than might expiate their own guilt which would therefore be uselesse if it were not to be extended to other Saints as Bellar. feareth not to speak lib. 1. de indulgentiis cap. 4. col 1160. Upon this they found their Indulgences and treasure of Saints merits which the Pope by the fulnesse of his power doth apply to be imputed to these who want of their own yet this way of imputation is alway rejected by them in reference to our being justified by the merits of Christ They assert also as they may well do that this Justification is uncertain to any so that none can conclude whether he be really so or not yea they say that it may be lost and one justified so now may through the want of good works or his sinfulnesse perish or if he be again recovered it must be by absolution and the sacrament of Pennance wherein the first Justification is to be renewed and Grace again to be conferred So that although he get the first Justification by Christs merits only yet may that be fallen from as Adam fell from his Covenant-state if that habituall Grace be not improven in the practice of holy duties This is a short view of their contrivance of the way of Justification which we have laid down out of themselves and have cited Suarez most frequently because he pretendeth to a mid-way in these questions wherein many of their Schoolmen do run into extreams and they want not great confusion differences and contradictions among themselves in many of these tenets so that it is no marvell to find different expressions of their judgement in these things Let us now enquire if according to the former grounds a sinner that is pursued by the Law may with confidence expect to be justified and absolved before the Tribunal of Gods justice and we confidently assert that according to these grounds no flesh living can be justified which this one argument may make out No sinner can expect Justification or pardon of sin but according to the grounds and tearms laid down in the Gospel But this way is not such Ergo c. Or That contrivance of Justification which doth overturn almost fully most if not all the Truths of the Gospel and is utterly inconsistent with the same cannot be the way how a sinner may be justified But this is such c. For making out of this we shall first propose some generall considerations 2. More particularly touch some inconsistencies of the same 3. Remove some objections And 4. resume the conclusion The first generall we propose to be considered is this that the way which God hath laid down in the Gospel for attaining of life by Christ Jesus doth formally differ from that way of attaining life that He propounded to Adam hence these two Covenants of Works and Grace and their conditions are frequently and directly opposed in the Scripture as being different and opposit in respect of the account upon which men were to expect life See Rom. 10.6 7 c. Gal. 3. But this way laid down is in matter and form the same with the Covenant of Works in this respect because it soundeth a mans hope of expecting life and heaven upon the merit of his own works and his observing of the commands which these their grounds do confirm 1. That they do compare his working and merit by it to Adams before he fell and supposeth this to succeed now in the room of that as in the forecited Author lib. 12. cap. 19. pag. 487 is clear 2. That they state the tearms of life in these words If thou would enter life keep the commands and cast the labourers to receive their hire Matth. 20. And so from this they say Christs merits have procured the Lords re-entring of a Covenant with us wherein He promiseth happinesse to out working as the condition thereof ibid. pag. 488. and saith there is no promise of the receptation of a sinner but upon this account And 3. that they say the way now to life hath the same threatenings and promises that the first had and so they conclude it is the same with it And although they acknowledge Christ to have merited this promise to be made and this Grace to be given us whereby we may keep it yet doth that infer no alteration of the way or tearms held out in that promise in respect of the condition thereof although it shew a different ground upon which it is built and from which it floweth If therefore the Covenants differ and a sinner cannot