Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	law_n	life_n	sin_n	22,698	5	5.7840	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45162	Ultimas manus being letters between Mr. John Humphrey, and Mr. Samuel Clark, in reference to the point of justification : written upon the occasion of Mr. Clark's printing his book upon that subject, after Mr. Humfrey's book entituled The righteousness of God, and published for vindication of that doctrine wherein they agree, as found, by shewing the difference of it from that of the Papist, and the mistakes of our common Protestant : in order to an impartial and more full understanding of that great article, by the improvement of that whereto they have attained, or correction of any thing wherein they err, by better judgments : together with animadversions on some late papers between Presbyterian and Independent, in order to reconcile the difference, and fix the Doctrine of Christ's satisfaction.	Humfrey, John, 1621-1719.	1698 (1698)	Wing H3715; ESTC R16520	84,030	95

my Pacification Pag. 40. which Book I expected to have been answered by him or the Truth as to what concerns him acknowledged before this The last thing I will Note in Mr. Lobb is Though a righteousness he says which Answers the Obligation in the plural that is therefore both of the Preceptive and Comminatory Part of the violated Law of Works be necessary to our Justification yet we are not justified by the Law because we did it not our selves as the Law required but by the Gospel he apprehends in that the Gospel provides us such a Righteousness that is Christs Righteousness made ours by Faith as answers the Law that we may be justified Here is that apprehended which is as clearly thought as any one that will maintain the Common Doctrine can speak but I must Answer him That if the Gospel must provide us such a Righteousness as answers the Law that we may be justified by it then must that necessarily presuppose that it is by the Law we are to be judged but when indeed that is not so for if it be by the Gospel and not the Law as himself accounts that we are justified it is by the Gospel we must be judged for to be judged is either to be justified or condemned and accordingly it is not the Righteousness of Christ which answers the Law that the Gospel provides for us but it is the Righteousness of God that is manifested without the Law a Righteousness revealed in the Gospel in opposition to the Works of the Law that it hath provided for the Sinners Justification To be more full and satisfactory as we draw to an End The Law is sometimes taken strictly as it requires perfect Obedience to its Precepts that we may live in them and so it is opposed to the Gospel Or it is taken largly for the whole Doctrine of the Old Testament which contains Promises of Pardon and Life upon Mens Faith and Repentance as well as the Gospel In the first Sense St. Paul says the Righteousness of God is manifest without the Law In the second that yet it hath the witness of the Law and the Prophets For Moses tells us that God is Gracious Merciful forgiving Iniquities Transgression and Sin and the Prophets call on the People to Repent and cast away their Transgressions that they may live and not die which is all one with what the Gospel Teaches It is strange now that when this Doctrine of Faith and Repentance which is so plain in both Testaments The just Man shall live by his faith should be obscured by the Doctrine of Imputation which is a devised Doctrine not in Scripture I mean the Imputation of Christs Righteousness in the sense of per modum formae or formalis causae when in the sense of per modum Meriti it does but explain and confirm the same Insomuch as those Scriptures which are usually brought for such Imputation do effectually prove the contrary to it I mean that it is not Christs Righteousness imputed to us but our Faith or Evangelick Righteousness imputed to us for Righteousness that justifies us This may appear by the Explication of such as these Scriptures following The Jews being ignorant of Gods Righteousness and going about to establish their own have not submitted to the Righteousness of God That is not to that way of becoming Righteous which God hath founded or instituted and so declared in the Gospel which in opposition to their Righteousness is by Faith in Jesus Christ For Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believeth The Law in general was an Instruction in order to the coming of the Messiah that we should believe in him and obey him when come and thereby be justified and saved So the Apostle otherwhere Wherefore the Law was our School-Master unto Christ that we might be justified by Faith By Christs being the end of the Law then we may understand either The end or design of the Law requiring perfect Obedience which no Man does or can perform is to drive us to Christ But how drive us to him Is it to his Righteousness to be made ours No there is no such thing said any where but to him for Righteousness through believing Or and for Christ is the end of the Law in that he by the Obedience of his Life and Death fulfilling the same in our behalf hath freed us from the Condition thereof requiring only our Faith instead of That and so Righteousness now or Justification is to every one who without the Works of the Law does perform the Terms of the Gospel There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit That is They that are in Christ by Faith and their Faith is sound so as it causes them to walk sincerely before God they are freed from Condemnation For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Jesus Christ hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death That is for the Law of Grace which is the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ doth free such from the Curse of the Law of Works For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh God sending his Son in the likeness of sinful Flesh and for sin condemned sin in the Flesh That is The Law being not able to free us from Condemnation or to justifie us seeing thro' our Frailty we break it which else would do it God sent his Son to take our sins on him and by condemning sin in him or punishing him for them he hath bereft sin of its Damnatory Power over the Believer That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit That is that the Justification 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we should have by the Law if we could perform it may be had by our performing only the Conditions of the Law of Grace which is walking not after the Flesh but after the Spirit or not after the Law but after the Gospel Do we then make void the Law by Faith Yea we establish the Law The Law taken largely as before declares Gods Ordination of a Sinners Justification by Faith and Repentance as the Gospel does and thereby is most plainly established or accomplished But to say further The Law is established says St. Augustine by the fulfilling it Now Faith if it be sound does work by Love and Love is fulfilling the Law But how does Faith and Love fulfil it Not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not in the Rigour of it but the Equity or according to Acceptation thro' Christ When God then for Christs sake does accept of our Faith or our sincere though imperfect Obedience for Righteousness this is that julfilling the Law which is all that can be in this Earth and thereby the establishing of it As by one Mans Disobedience many were made

we are justified by the Righteousness of Regeneration and they are out We say and are right by the other Let me say this yet fuller again for when the Mind is prepossest with a contrary belief and the Intùs existens does prohibit alienum there is no hope for a New Notion to be received without inculcation which therefore is to be used and approved Thus far for certain you and I do agree Regeneration is one thing and Justification another when the Papist say they are the same We agree consequently that there is a double Grace and Righteousness of the one and of the other We agree still that one is Real Grace the other Relative and must be different The one I have said makes a change on the Person the other on the State only or Condition that is the one does endue the Soul with a New Quality which of a wicked Man makes him godly the other confers no New Quality but a New Relation upon that Quality Relative Grace as you say being founded on Real that is the Relation of a justified Person or righteous Man in Gods sight which brings a right to the Benefits or Reward due to a righteous Person or due to one if he had perfectly fulfill'd the Law of God This sure are we agreed in that Justification does confer a right of Impunity and Glory which is the Summ of those Benefits to a Person which was not due to his Faith and imperfect Obedience but that God does impute them to him for Righteousness so that this Right therefore does come to him not by Infusion I say in my Book but Imputation To be short and full Righteousness consists in a Conformity to a Law A Law hath its Precepts and Sanction Faith is a Conformity to and a Righteousness according to the Precept of the Law of Grace A Right to pardon and Glory is a Conformity to and Righteousness according to the Premium Sanction When a Man believes the Law of Grace or God by that Law does impute his Faith to him for Righteousness and thereby constitutes him righteous and with that Righteousness confers on him a Right to the Reward of it This Right to the Reward or Righteousness consisting in this Right is and can be only Relative Grace not Regeneration or Sanctifification which is Real Grace but the Righteousness of Justication and this distinguishes our Doctrine from the Papists A Right I must say it again to Impunity and Life is a Righteousness and that Righteousness not the Righteousness of Regneration but Justification The Papists I repeat do say it is by the One that we are justified We say it is by the Other Here you have my account of Justification Constitutive and hence you may have an account of that Text which is else so hard in Words and various in the Interpretation God justifies the Vngodly The Man who is justified is a Believer but notwithstanding his Faith and imperfect Obedience he is legally Unrighteous Ungodly a Sinner Now if Justification be only the Accounting not Making a Man Righteous how can God justifie the Unrighteous or him that is Ungodly The Judgment of God is according to Truth and it were impossible But when Justification is the Making or Constituing a Man righteous to wit not by Infusion I say but by Imputation and propterea as Contarenus before hath it the Accounting and Using him as such we see how the Believer though Ungodly is justified If any Catholick hereupon shall receive this and will express his Doctrine of Inherent Grace as I do and say that it is not by a Righteousness according to the Law of Nature which though insused and by the Spirit is Mans Righteousness still and imperfect but by the Righteousness of God which is ours and yet not ours as to what is imputed to it that is by a Righteousness of Gods making or instituting by the law of the Gospel that he is justified then were he in the right and I should embrace that Papist as I do you and Mr. Baxter Let a Man be a Calvinist or Arminian or Papist or Socinian the truth in his Mouth is truth as well as in the Mouth of our Dr. Bates or in the Confession of the Assembly As for the Scheme you offer in laying matters together upon supposition that Justification is not Constitutive or Making but only the accounting and using us as just I acknowledge it very agreeable but we must not yield to you you see all this while we must not that supposition it would undo us No we must for the fuller comprehending this Frame or Order of Things take more compass than you do and which may confirm what is spoken We must first then consider that there is an Act of Grace procured for us by Christ which is the Law of the Gospel whereby all Persons notwithstanding our sins shall upon their Faith and Repentance be pardoned and saved and in order hereunto this Law does Enact That such Persons as believe and repent shall as set before God be judged righteous according to this Act notwithstanding there is no Man but is unrighteous according to the Law of Nature and upon that Judgment of him to be righteous or upon that judicial Proceeding in the mind of God as we must suppose Justification to be he shall have the Benefit of the Act and no otherwise Now Sir the first thing in the applying the Act to the Believer therefore is this that upon his believing and repenting it Makes him righteous for else his being a sinner notwithstanding his Faith he could not be judged righteous but being made so he is judged so by the same Acts and is to be so used It is not the Pardon which makes him righteous because he must be judged by the Law and found righteous before he have that Pardon or Benefit of the Act which is That and Life And it is not Regeneration or Faith makes him righteous because that is prerequired as the Condition to his being made so and that is no Righteousness as yet But it is God by this Act imputing this Faith and Repentance which is wrought in our Regeneration for Righteousness that makes him righteous and being I say so made he does judge account and use him so in conferring the Benefits which altogether go in to Justification I proceed to another passage in your Letter I do not see at present say you how to avoid the dint and force of your Reasoning that Faith is the formal Cause of our Justification However I would not lay too much stress upon a Logical or Metaphisical Term. They that will grant we are justified by Faith is aplain sense without Tropes or Figures shall pass for sound in the Faith for me whether they call it the Form or formal Cause or no. I thank my Friend for this Item It is by Tropes and Figures our Protestants speak or dinarily when they say we are justified by Faith Objectivè in sensu

that now acknowledges Repentance necessary to Pardon and Faith to Justfication in some such words which are all manifest Abuse on both sides for neither does Mr. Report believe Mr. Rebuke a Socinian nor Mr. Rebuke believe Mr. Report an Antinomian they may as well say they are two Dears or two Birds as to say that either is a Socinian or Antinomian I must confess there is one Chapter in the Vindication about Christs dying in our stead that is so well so solid so appositely scriptured so brief and convincing against the Socinian that excepting all Application to his Adversary I have been seldom pleased and satisfied with any thing more and I must confess moreover my pleasure in reading the Book that I left not though it be ten Sheets unless for a spirt till I had done Yet does not all his Wit nor his Erudition recompence so ill an Example as the rendring evil for evil that is Abuse for Abuse which is not only a fault as to Men but a sin as to God and I pray God forgive them both and I pray them to forgive me the telling them of it I shall let alone therefore these Books mentioned and take notice only of these two more that is the Answer of our Presbyterian Brethren to Mr. Lobb set out by Mr. Williams and the Appeal of Mr. Lobb to the Bishop of Worcester and shall offer a few Animadversions upon some Passages which others it is like would not at least with that impartiality whether they offend or not as I do A great part I perceive of these Books is about the Phrase Commutation of Persons for Explication whereof the Presbyterian Brethren distinguish of a Natural Moral and Legal Change p. 12. and tell us that there is no change of Christs Natural Person into Ours or Ours into His and that Christs Qualities likewise are not made Ours nor Ours His which is most true without doubt but who ever thought otherwise Who ever questioned any such thing that there is need of such a distinction If any think that Dr. Crisp by Christs taking our Quality and Condition and we his did understand these Brethrens Moral Change as if the Accidents of one Subject could migrate into another they abuse the Doctor supposing him such a Blockhead as no Scholar is to be supposed No when he tells us that Christ was as compleat a sinner as we and we as compleatly righteous as he it must be construed only by way of Imputation We must not wrest any words of his to make him think otherwise It is true now here that in this Imputation of our sins to Christ he understands it not only quod reatum paenae but Culpae also which is his Error but as for this distinction of a Moral Change it does not affect him any more than the Brethren themselves so that they do thereby only beat the Air not him It is no more to the confuting Antinomianism than might be spared And as for the word Legal Change upon which they pitch they do it not without fear of danger as themselves acknowledge and have reason so that indeed in the Explication of this Phrase Change of Persons they should not have distinguish'd upon the word Change but the word Person The word Person is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lyable to a diverse Acceptation the word Change to none Change is Change but Person is not Person There is a Natural Person and a Legal Person which are two of their three Terms but the Term Moral as to Person hath no place here And it is Christ Natural Person tho' there be no Natural Change which comes in the room of our Natural Persons to bear the Punishment of our sins that is the Commutation of Persons as is necessary to the Explication of the Doctrine of Satisfaction If there be any change of Person else in regard to the Term Legal Person let any of the Brethren that can make it our By this Distinction mentioned it is one thing with them for Christ to take on him our Person and another our Quality State or Condition and our Brethren therefore do impugne Mr. Lobb's saying That Christ put himself into our Place State and Condition P. 31. when even these words are and may be used as well as sustaining our Person and suffering in our stead giving them the same Orthodox Construction Such Expressions must be taken not simpliciter but secundum quid not in regard to every thing but to one thing Christ did take on him our State Condition or Quality as we were lyable to Punishment or as obnoxious to the Curse for our sins and so became a Curse and Sacrifice for us But when Mr. Lobb says further that we were Sinners and destitute of Righteousness he must be construed to speak so also in regard to the Punishment due to us thereupon and that Christ took upon him that Condition only whereby he was lyable in our stead But to press him therefore with the consequence that Christ must be a sinner and destitute of Righteousness is to press him too hard for he is one we know that denies the Crispian Sense of Change of Persons as well as the Brethren And tho' they do here but take him on the hip upon a slip of Words they by and by do him plain wrong when upon the right Interpretation they make they say This will not content him for it will and does content him and he means no otherwise than they and as for their making him hold That Christ was changed to be a sinful Person destitute of Righteousness as they go on in the place A lapsus linguae is no Error mentis and the arguing him into what he abhors is not doing as good Men would be done by themselves They are in good earnest here too heavy upon him In these Papers of the Brethren there is a Letter from the Bishop of Worcester and part of some Letters from Dr. Edwards That which is quoted out of the Dr. seems to me open obvious and edifying That which is said by the Bishop is writ with Prudence and Caution with Ability and Authority but not with that openness altogether as I who speak as a Fool could wish The Commutation of Persons between Christ and us according to his Lordship may have a threefold sense One which implies Christ being appointed to Act in our behalf for our benefit which the Socinians will grant Another which implies not only his acting for our benefit but his being substituted in our stead in bearing our Punishment to become an Attonement for us that is to satisfie Gods Justice that so by an Act or New Law of Grace he might grant us Pardon and Life upon the Conditions of the Gospel which is the sound Sense of this Change of Persons according to Grotius this Learned Bishop our Presbyterian Brethren and Mr. Lobb also which he will not gainsay tho' whether he will have more to it let himself tell For