Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	apostle_n	gospel_n	word_n	2,638	5	3.8972	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41497	The pagans debt and dowry, or, A brief discussion of these questions how far and in what sence such persons of mankinde amongst whom the letter of the Gospel never came are not withstanding bound to believe on Jesus Christ (with some other particulars relating hereunto) : returned by way of answer to a discourse in writing lately sent without name (together with a letter subscribed only T.S.) unto Mr. John Goodwin, the author as yet unknown to him, yer (as appears by the said discourse) a person of worth and learning, and (as he supposeth) a minister of the Gospel / by the said John Goodvvin.	Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665.	1651 (1651)	Wing G1186; ESTC R30309	41,506	67

same into a way of having the Gospel even in the letter of it made known unto them by their enlightening those parts of the World with the Knowledg of it in which they preached it Nor can that of the Apostle claim the honor of truth where speaking of the Gospel he saith it was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the word so emphatically urged by you {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} i. e. preached unto every Creature which is under Heaven Col. 1. 23. but upon the account and warrant of such a construction But 2. neither will my Principles allow me to gratifie you with my belief of this your saying unless very rigidly understood and in such a sence wherein it will little accommodate your cause That the Light of Nature neither can nor ever could discover to Mankinde that there was or ever would be such a Man and Mediator as Jesus Christ c. What the Light of Nature hath de facto discovered unto Mankinde may much better be known and judged of then what it can or could discover I confess my apprehensions concerning the extent of the Power and Abilities of the Light of Nature carefully preserved prudently managed and industriously improved and imployed run very high and I judg that the greatest part of what this Light hath hitherto discovered unto Mankinde is not commensurable to the least part of what it is and hath been able to discover But what if it be granted That it neither is nor hath been able to discover that there was or ever would be such a Man and Mediator as Jesus Christ viz. in all particularities relating to his Person wherein the Gospel presenteth him to the World yet may it be able so far to discover him that a man by the discovery may be rationally perswaded through or by means of him to depend upon God for the Pardon of his Sins and Salvation of his Person yea and this to the real obtaining of both at the hand of God I have no ground at all to beleeve or think that such Jews who before and under yea and long after Moses did beleeve in God unto Salvation had Jesus Christ discovered unto them in any such Vision of Particularities as that exhibited in the Gospel The sum and substance of what they at least the far greater part of them apprehended knew or beleeved concerning Christ amounted not I suppose to much more then this viz. That God had found out and pleased himself in a way or means how to shew Mercy and to forgive the Sins and save the Souls of such who should put their trust in him and live righteously and holily in this present World For that God did not declare i. e. make plainly and fully known in the World upon what account of Righteousness or Justice he pardoned sin committed in the World before the great Attonement made by the Death of Christ until this Attonement was actually made is evident by this passage of the Apostle Rom. 3. 24 25 26. Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood TO DECLARE HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS THAT ARE PAST through the forbearance of God meaning that God through his great patience or strength of forbearance {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} remitted sin even long before any Satisfaction or Attonement made for it To declare I say at this time viz. when Christ suffered in the flesh his Righteousness that he might be just and a Justifier of him that is of the Faith of Jesus i. e. that he might appear to be and to have been just in justifying him i. e. every one or whosoever {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that was is or shall be a Beleever in Christ From this last clause {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that is of the Faith of Jesus i. e. that beleeves or depends on Christ for Righteousness relating in special manner to the beleeving Jews before the coming of Christ in the flesh it is observable that they are reputed by God and consequently ought to be so reputed by men also Beleevers in Christ not onely who know him by Name or in the hypostatical union of the two Natures or the like and beleeve on him under such a Notion as this for thus the beleeving Jews who were justified by God before the Coming of Christ neither knew him nor beleeved on him as was formerly said but also they that beleeve on God by or through him as Peter expresseth it 1 Pet. 1. 21. i. e. who either by Grace purchased or procured by him or by any Providence or Dispensation one or more issued by God for his sake or upon his account in the World are brought or prevailed with to depend on God for the forgiveness of their sins upon their Repentance And that the Jews I speak of when they did beleeve on God unto Justification did not explicitely or by Name beleeve in Jesus Christ seems to me very apparant from those words of Christ to his Apostles Joh. 14. 1. Ye beleeve in God beleeve also in me If they had beleeved in him as explicitely and distinctly as they did beleeve in God there had been no more ground why he should exhort or encourage them to beleeve in him then in God nor why he should have owned them in their belief in God more then in their belief in himself And that that their belief in God which our Savior here acknowledgeth in them was unto Justification I suppose that you neither will nor reasonably can deny Now then if such a Faith which had Jesus Christ onely vertually and interpretatively in it and none but God himself explicitely and directly was notwithstanding available to the Justification of the Jews who had better opportunities of means for an explicite Knowledg of him then the Gentiles much more reasonable is it to conceive that the like Faith will be accepted in the Gentiles to their Justification especially considering 1. That same Divine Attribute which the Scripture calls {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a non-acceptation of persons so frequently asserted and inculcated by the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures and 2. That the Justification of men is a judiciary act awarded according to the Tenor of a known Law by God Besides That Jesus Christ is in such a Faith by which men are actually enabled to come with acceptation unto God I presume you will not deny considering what Christ himself saith No man cometh unto the Father but by me Joh. 14. 6. That by such a Faith whereby a man beleeves 1. That God is 2. That he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him he is enabled thus to come unto God is the express Doctrine of the Apostle Hebr. 11. 6. And that the Heathen who never had the advantage of the letter of the Gospel were notwithstanding

you must take from me before I can surrender But Sir very briefly and according to the short tedder of my time to touch some of the more material Heads of your Discourse though haply not in the same order unto which I might be directed by your Papers but onely as they come to remembrance some days after my perusal thereof as not having leasure for a second review 1. By your Judgment which stands for a possibility of Repentance I presume you mean that which is true and accompanying Salvation because otherwise you should not counter-argue me in my Notion without Faith I perceive you are a man of the same conscientious confederacy with me in leaving the road when you judg the Truth lies beside it Notwithstanding at this turn I conceive you leave it without cause For if there may be a Repentance found and saving without Faith either it must be a work or fruit of the Law whether natural or positive it varieth not the case we now speak of or else of some third Covenant made by God with Men in order to their Salvation really distinct both from the Covenant of Works in the Law and from the Covenant of Grace in the Gospel For you cannot affirm it to be a work or fruit of the Gospel because you hold 1. That it is required of those to whom the Gospel is never vouchsafed And 2. That there is no Law or Commandment given unto such persons which are in no capacity of yeelding obedience to it which latter Principle will do you worthy service at many turns if you will work it accordingly That the Repentance you speak of is any fruit or work of any third Covenant is not I presume in your thoughts however I am not able to comprehend what this third Covenant should be That it cannot be any work of the Law or of the Covenant of Works is evident from hence because by the Works of the Law shall no flesh be justified whereas this Repentance is judged by you to be both justifying and saving Besides it is the common and known Opinion of learned Divines and doubtless of good accord with the Truth that the Law knoweth no Repentance For the Tenor of the Law is more district and inexorable Cursed is every man that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them Galat. 3. 10. By the way your Notion that Adam during the interìm between his Fall and the Evangelical Promise of the womans seed made unto him was obliged to Repentance is but a mistake Such an interìm supposed Adam was therein no more obliged to Repentance then the Devil is since his Fall The Premisses considered when I argued the Command of God to Beleeve from his Command unto Men to Repent Acts 17. 30. you had no commendable cause of that false demand Sed quid hoc ad Iphicli boves But I consider how hard a thing it is for a man not to be a little warm in a contest and I could for Iphiclus his Oxen return Balaams Ass in exchange but I shall not go forward with the bargain Certainly when God commands Men to Repent he doth in the very substance and import of this duty command them also to Beleeve in as much as that Repentance which he at any time commands is Evangelical and of a saving tendency and so can be no work of the Law unless it be the Law of Life I mean the Gospel From the said Premisses it further appeareth That the Gentiles to whom the letter or written letter of the Gospel never came and amongst whom the Name of Christ haply was never named may yet in sufficient propriety of speech and with largeness enough of Truth though not in that critical formality of the signification of the words {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and praedicare which you urge from Grammarians and Civilians a curiosity of dialect which the Holy Ghost commonly neglecteth yea and Grammarians and Civilians themselves a may be said to have and to have had the Gospel preached unto them The Gospel is said to have been preached unto the ancient Jews Heb. 4. 2 6. yet Christ by Name was not preached unto them nor known amongst them And as the Rock out of which Moses or God by Moses gave them water to drink is said to have been Christ viz. spiritually in type or representation in like manner yea and with much more pregnancy and neerness of signification and revelation the patience and goodness and bountifulness of God dayly vouchsafed unto the Heathen may be termed Christ And upon this account the Apostle clearly implieth that the goodness of God leadeth men to Repentance Rom. 2. 4. and consequently the Premisses evincing it unto Faith in Christ whether known or not known by them For God being by the Light of Nature known or at least {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} knowable to be infinitely just infinitely bent in hatred and severity against sin when notwithstanding he shall express himself in goodness and patience and bountifulness towards those who know themselves to be sinners hereby he sufficiently testifieth and declareth unto them that his justice and severity against sin have been and this must in reason needs be supposed to have been by a way or means proportionable to so great and glorious an effect satisfied and that he hath so far accepted an attonement for them that in case they shall truly Repent of their former sins and persevere repentant unto the end they shall escape the punishment due unto their sins and consequently be saved And what is this being interpreted but to have {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the effect or substance of the Gospel preached unto them The Scriptures in several places which I have not leasure at present to examine or discuss plainly insinuate a capacity in the Heathen yea in all men by the Light of Nature I mean where this Light is given and shineth by such a regular and rational process of discourse as that mentioned to attain or make out this Evangelical Conclusion That some Mediation some Attonement or other hath been made and accepted by God for the sins of men But I demand saith the Apostle Paul Have they not heard Yes verily saith he their sound went forth into all the Earth and their words unto the ends of the World He had said in the Verse immediately foregoing that Faith comes by hearing In this Verse he shews in an Answer which he gives to a demand or question put by him what hearing it is by which Faith comes or at least what hearing is sufficient to beleeve upon or to produce Faith This hearing he saith is the hearing of that sound and of those words which the Heavens and the Day and the Night speak and that are gone forth into the ends of the World as appears by the place in Psal. 19. from whence these words are cited If you

otherwise faithfully with a single and upright heart and as in the presence of God endeavored to satisfie your request touching the clearing and removing such scruples and difficulties which as you signifie rendered this Proposition of mine All men without exception stand bound to beleeve on Christ questionable or rather unquestionably false unto you Whether any thing that hath been said will turn to so happy an account unto you as satisfaction I cannot prophecy only I find you a man dis-ensnared from the superstition of vulgar credulity and that will not sell the Truth for the gain or price of that corruptible Crown of being reputed Orthodox and this is a door of hope opened unto me that such things which are agreeable both to the course and current of the Scriptures and no less to clear Principles of Reason will over-rule you into such acknowledgments which in the day of Jesus Christ will I question not be your honour and peace I confess I was extreamly unwilling to have been taken off from some other engagements lying upon my hand by such a diversion as the drawing up of this Answer to your Papers must needs occasion but God having over-ruled that inclination in me I have so much the more hope that he hath somewhat of consequence to do with his Providential interposure in this kind I may very truly say that the Work in respect of the undertaking of it was very signally and emphatically His having scarce had so much of my will in it as in that respect to bear that denomination of being called mine Notwithstanding being engaged it was once in my thoughts to have made some further attempt upon your Judgement by some other Arguments to evince an Universal Obligation upon all Flesh to yield the Obedience of Faith unto the Gospel and to beleeve in Jesus Christ But upon consideration judging you so propense in affection to the Truth as to be ready to meet it half way in its advance towards you and being a little unwilling too far to anticipate my intendments for a larger Discussion of the Particulars discoursed in your Papers I resolved rather to contain my self at present within the narrow bounds of this Answer The excrescency whereof to prevent I forbare the printing of your Papers with it and this the rather because I had no commission from you to publish them If your desire yet be to have them published my best assistance shall be yours for the procuring and best ordering of it The God of all Grace and Truth break up the Fountains of the great Depths of Spiritual Knowledg and Heavenly Understanding in his Word before both you and me and all others who love the Truth at a better rate then to fear the shame of being counted erroneous for the profession of it that the Waters of Life may flow out abundantly from us for the watering and refreshing of the dry and barren root of the World round about us From my Study Colemanstr London Decemb. 11. 1651. Yours in Jesus Christ as your self and your own Soul J. Goodwin Post-script To be read in Pag. 8. lin. 13. immediately after these words since his Fall THat Adam during the interìm between his Fall and the Promulgation of the Evangelical Promise unto him was under no Obligation to Repent is evident from hence because if so this tye according to your distribution must be upon him either by vertue of the Law of Nature written in his heart or else of some positive Law of God But 1. For any positive Law there was none made or given unto him by God during the time we speak of nor was there any of this import given unto him before I mean whereby he was commanded to repent in case he sinned or rebelled against God 2. If the Repentance we speak of was required of Adam as due by the Law of Nature then was it required either in order to his Salvation and as sufficient and available hereunto or else as matter of meer Duty without any reference to a Reward If it were required of him in order to his Salvation then was there a Principle vested by God in the Nature of Man whereby he was enabled to recover and save himself in case of sin and disobedience yea and this Principle must be supposed to have been carryed over by Adam unmaimed and in sufficient strength for action out of his estate of Righteousness or Innocency wherein he was created into that estate of Sin and Misery wherein he plunged himself by his Fall And if so then must it be supposed also to remain in the same vigor and strength in all his posterity for there is no reason to imagine a difference in this point between Adam fallen and his posterity And if so then all and every Person of Mankinde without exception must be supposed to be in a capacity of Salvation yea to be in an immediate capacity of doing such things which accompany Salvation And if so then Christ must of necessity be supposed to have dyed for them all in as much as without shedding of Blood there is no Remission and consequently no Salvation or capacity or possibility of being saved If it be said That that Repentance which we enquire after was required of Adam as meer matter of Duty and not in reference to any Reward intended to be given unto him by God thereupon 1. This I presume is contrary to your own sence who if I mistake you not conceive That the Heathen without Faith in Christ are in a capacity of such a Repentance which in reference to them is available unto Salvation 2. It seems contrary to the course and current of the Scriptures that God should require service or obedience from his Creature otherwise then in order to their Happiness See to this purpose Gen. 4. 7. Deut. 6. 24. 10. 12 13. Psal. 19. 11. 81. 13 14 c. Isai. 45. 19. Rom. 2. 10. besides many others FINIS a Multos hoc decipit quod Christum arbitrantur ubique exacte sollicité quomodo Aristoteles aliquis locutum fuisse quod est a vero al●●num Camero Myroth p. 72. Rom. 10. 18. Psal. 19. 4. Act. 14. 16 17. Rom. 1. 20. Hebr. 11 6. Rom 2. 4. a Tametsi eaim in mundo nibil reperietur savore Dei digaum se tamen 〈◊〉 mundo propitium oftendit cum sine exceptione omnes ad Fidem Christi vocat quae nihil aliud est quam ingressus in vitam Calvin in Job 3. 15 16. b Adeum modum habet Redemptis istae generis oumam de qua loquiatur quod illam homines reprobi ac deplorate impii non accipiant neque defectu sit gratiae Dei atque justam est ut illa propter filios perditionis gloriam ac titulum universalus Redemptionis amittat cum sit parata cunctis omnes ad illam vocentur Musculus Loc. De Redempt Generis Humani a Hic duo observemus Deum nullis