Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A27633
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The true state of Gospel truth, established upon the free election of God in Christ the agreement, and yet difference between law and Gospel, so, that the Gospel cannot be stiled law : the inconditionateness of the Gospel salvation : the procedure of the day of judgment : in the way of a conciliatory discourse upon Mr. Williams his concessions / by T. Beverley.
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Beverley, Thomas.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing B2185; ESTC R19088
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45,331
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46
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into Gospel Truth as stated and vindicated by Mr. Dan. Williams especially in Reference to the Doctrin of justification and the nature of his Proceedings with his Testimonies hereupon By Thomas Edwards Esq Price stitcht 1 s. 6. You may be supplied with Dr. Chancey's Three Parts lately Printed against Mr. Williams 7. You may likewise be supplied with Dr. Crisp's Works 8. Where is Sold Mr. Troughten's first and second Parts of Justification and Caâ—â—â— on Job in two large Volumes in Folio Price bound 40 s. And Poole's â—â—nâ—â—sis Crâ—â—icorum in two large Volumes bound 1 l. 10 s. A Right State of Gospel Truth Presented to Mr. Williams Occasion'd by some Assertions of his so called Defence of Gospel Truth I Have upon the View and Consideration of the Reverend Mr. Williams his Defence of Gospel Truth and the many excellent Confessions of the true Grace of God wherein we stand therein found Thought it necessary for my self as in a low and humble Capacity yet having appeared as a Reconciler upon the Account of the Sermons of Dr. Crisp not to come forth as a Disputant much less as a professed Adversary but as a Reconciler of some of the Collateral and Derivative Branches of that Grace and Truth I find in that Discourse to their Principals and to Prune what seems not to be so Reconcilable that the Whole may be seen in its Order and Beauty And herein I Labour to avoid not personal Reflections I am out of the Temptation of them where I Profess Honour and Esteem only but of any Aculeate Animadversions on or Encounter with particular Expressions wherein the Fundamental Interests of Truth are not lodged or concerned but I have set my self to Establish those grand Points of Gospel Truth which I am perswaded ought at all times to be set in a clear and full Light on all Just Occasions in the most stated and Solemn Discourses and at all other times so interwoven That they may shine out and give their Light both to Prayer and Preaching While there is just room and scope yet left for all those Scriptural Expatiations into Instruction Exhortation Expostulation Reproof as Methods of Direction into the ways of Righteousness but still so as they may be enlightned by these Springs of Gospel Light Truth and Grace which I am now undertaking to Conciliate them unto This I have endeavoured in the most plain and perspicuous Method And so that whatever may appear in Mr. William's Book of a contrary Sentiment and Inclination may be comprehended so as to be resolved in some Cases of Doubt in others Foreprized or Guarded against not to say Answered And herein I have made it my Business to level the Discourse to these Heads or Points 1. To state the Gospel Doctrin concerning the Eternal Councils of God with Relation to all his Elect who are the principal Concernees in all these Points Yet with necessary Respect to all others so far especially as what is said of others or in General is necessary to be considered as Ilâ—ustrating these things with Relation to the Elect. 2. I have made an Essay upon that noblest Point of Debate How far the Law upon its own Authority necessarily and indispensibly falls in with Ratifies and confirms the Power and Authority of the Gospel And how far the Gospel finds necessary to it self and to its great Ends not to make void but to Establish the Law And whether upon all this the Gospel can by it self be properly stiled a Law which I on great Reason make out in the Negative 3. I have offered great proof that the Faith Repentance Sanctification and Good Works the Gospel requires cannot be justly deemed or taken for Conditions or Qualifications but are Effluxes as from Electing Love and Grace so from the Righteousness and Death of Jesus Christ and his Victorious Resurrection through which the Holy Spirit is given and are as free as Election and Justification Themselves When they are considered in strict Relation to the Elect however in Relation to the Non-Elect or as generally spoken of They may put on such Notions or Representations as of Conditions or Qualifications 4. I have endeavored to Illustrate the Procedure of the Day of Judgment to be so described in Scripture that the Primary and Supream Representations and that subordinate all others to themselves are most exactly agreeable to the Free Grace of the Gospel not as a Law nor requiring any Qualifications or Conditions with Relation to the Elect but as gloriously appearing with its own Product and Effect as it shall be made to appear the Glorious Gospel of the Blessed God and by the appearance of Jesus Christ with his Saints in whom he will be glorified and admired at that day I begin with the first And seeing I direct this Conciliatory Discourse to them whom I suppose to acknowledge with me an Election of a certrin Number to Salvation and Glory I make this Appeal to them Are there not in Scripture highest Assertions of Eternal Love and Grace Independent upon Qualifications and Conditions in them who shall be made Partakers Do not all stand in a Frame and Connexion Election Calling Justification Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption All as free and as certain the one as the other It is true the Wisdom of God hath so contrived and ordered this Preaching the Gospel That it is to be published promiscuously to the Non Elect with the Elect and as I may say to Probe for the Elect and to draw them out with Efficacy and Power by the Spirit joining with the Word It is also most true These cannot be apply'd to particular Persons but as â—â—â—â—â—ing Grace singles them out by Calling Sprinkling the Blood of Christ on their Hearts and Sanctification but they are always True concerning the whole Number and Body and so concerning every single Person And they may and ought to be openly Asserted and Maintained in Doctrin and also to be offered in Preaching and Publication of the Gospel as occasion Requires to invite and draw Souls by so free Absolute and Independent a Grace declar'd to Lost Man in all the Election of God And who knows but it may draw this and that particular Person in a Congregation and therefore with great hopes of a Divine Co-Operation It ought to be as other Truths Promulged And I doubt not when God opens the Mouths of his Servants in the boldest and frankest Declarations of Truth as he will when the as 't were new Song shall be learnt and so taught by the 144000 on Mount Sion with the Fathers Name on their Foreheads it shall be Sealed with the greatest Number of Converts as it was in Peter's Sermon offering that Grace which thing I humbly declare my self to be waiting for as the great Consolation of Israel And there are undeniably many great Scriptures that set out the freest most absolute and Independent Grace throughout our Salvation from first to last as Patterns or Exemplars of all Scripture such
Nature whatever is not of God in Christ is this Flesh I say no such Flesh shall boast or Glory in his presence as having obtained the glory of God nor be justified in his Sight Now by all this it plainly Appears the Gospel is so distinct in each particular from the Law that it can no more return back into a Law according to Scripture Discourse when it speaks strictly of Law as Law then the Law become Gospel Yet I shall further argue it more particularly that the Gospel cannot be a Law in the proper Scripture Sense of a Law although it be to be acknowledged the Law can never cease to be because it is Eternal Righteousness and it hath and ought to have Power upon all the Reserve of the Light and Law of Nature and upon all the Improvements of it by Common Grace from the helps of Revealed Truth in the Word of God Yea even the very Saints and Servants of Christ are hereby kept within Bounds at any Time or in any Acts wherein the Grace of Christ is not present to them more abundantly they are hereby acted to their Duty and the Supream Wisdom and Grace of the Gospel subordinates it to its own Purposes both in the Elect and in the Non-Elect as hath been shewn And this Answers all Cavils about the Doctrin of Free grace as if the Teaching of it were Antinomianism and let men loose either to Carnal Licentiousness Ease and Security Till the grace of God should come and Work But even while the Eye of the Soul is supreamly upon Free grace the free gift of Righteousness and of the Spirit yet the Law binds every Soul to its Ultimum Posse the All it can do and the Gospel subordinates the Law to engage Men so to do and though this be no Condition or Qualification on which Free grace is determined yet it is oftentimes the way and method of Supream grace to come upon such motion and action of the Soul not for the sake of that but for its own sake therefore to excite thereunto And it is one of the Wise methods of Gods Government of the World to make it Habitable for his Elects sake to Influence the Hearts and Actions of men either by that light of Nature or by his Gospel All which I have prefixed as necessary to remove all Scruple and doubt of what is to come after in the proof of this that the Gospel is not a Law For by what is said it Appears the Gospel and the Law are joined one to and with another in sweetest Consent so that all in Christ are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or under the Law to Christ and neither entrench upon nor enterfere one with the other But if they are divided or set one in Opposition to the other either Antinomianism truly so called Or a Covenant of Works is brought in even as the Jews separating that Law from Christ turned it to their own great Ruin into a Covenant of Works and the Apostle intimates every where the great danger of turning the grace of God into Licentiousness or proclaiming a liberty to Sin that Grace may Abound if we do not join the Law under the Gospel But thus Joining and Setting them in a Consent and Union in the great End the glory of Grace from the Foundation of the World we Honour and Establish both and plainly Understand That the Gospel is only a Covenant of Grace a Ministration of Righteousness Life and Spirit and yet hath so many admirable Rules of Holiness such powerful Commands and Exhortations to it as also to Faith in Christ and Repentance so many dreadful Threatnings and Denunciations and so severe a Judicature at the last not in it self but by the Ministry of the Law In that the Law is so prepared as to serve it fully and adequately thereunto and it self only as hath been said is a Ministration of Righteousness and Life Obj. If any should say By what means can the Gospel thus Preach the Law and hold out all the Perfections and Severities of it both as to it self as a Declaration of Free Grace only or as to the Law as an Eternal Law of Righteousness and not be turned into a Law Answ The Gospel being the manifestation of Life and Salvation it must needs come with a great glory of Light and Truth on every thing wherein the whole nature of Life and Death Happiness and Misery the Humane Nature can be concerned in stands so that tho it is not a Law it is yet a Doctrin of the greatest Amplitude Compass and Extent in all things that pertain to Life and Godliness or on the other side to Sin and Death So that as the Apostle says it hath Brought Life and Immortality to light so it hath brought all the other things any way related thereto to Light So then it is out of all doubt when ever the Gospel comes a great Light comes like the Morning spread on the Mountains It is therefore called the Day spring from on high opposed to Night and Darkness and the Vally of the Shadow of Death and so that there is a support of and in all our greater illuminations of Natural Conscience by that eternal Word Enlightning every man that comes into the World and on this very account were those more Heroick efforts of Natural Light and Moral Philosophy by Seneca Plutarch Plotinus Simplicius about the very time of the spread of the Gospel-Light by the Apostles I come therefore to decide that noble Question as I stile it whether the Gospel can bear or comport with the true Notion or sense of a Law To answer this Question There must be first a due Understanding and Notion of a Law In the general Law may be applied to any Doctrin or determinate Frame Constitution or Settlement that cannot be changed or varied And thus the Gospel may be called a Law But this is but a very general and loose Notion of a Law There is a more strict sense of it and it imports three things 1. A rule of Action given by a just Authority that must be observed 2. It supposes a Power resident in the Person under that Command and therefore it expects Obedience without any further Assistance or Gift of Power to enable in the Obedience 3. Rewards or Punishments are suspended upon the Obedience or Disobedience and a just Judgment must accordingly be given But such a Law as this the Gospel a Covenat of Grace cannot be as may be argued upon these great Accounts Arg. 1. There can be no Law given no rule of holy Action â—ut it must needs merge and fall into the Eternal Law of Righteousness and be the same with it being so perfect and as hath been shewn 〈◊〉 Brâ—â—â— so that upon a supposal of a new proposal of Grace the acceptance and obedience of Faith is as much commanded by the Eternal Law as any of the most Natural Moral Duties of Fear of God or Righteousness and the same