Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	peace_n	spirit_n	unity_n	1,812	5	8.9331	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A97227	Vnbeleevers no subjects of iustification, nor of mystical vnion to Christ, being the sum of a sermon preached at New Sarum, with a vindication of it from the objections, and calumniations cast upon it by Mr. William Eyre, in his Vindiciæ justificationis. Together with animadversions upon the said book, and a refutation of that anti-sidian, and anti-evangelical errour asserted therein: viz. the justification of infidels, or the justification of a sinner before, and without faith. Wherein also the conditional necessity, and instrumentality of faith unto justification, together with the consistency of it, with the freness of Gods grace, is explained, confirmed, and vindicated from the exceptions of the said Mr. Eyre, his arguments answertd [sic], his authorities examined, and brought in against himself. By T. Warren minister of the Gospel at Houghton in Hampshire.	Warren, Thomas, 1616 or 17-1694.	1654 (1654)	Wing W980; Thomason E733_10; ESTC R206901	226,180	282

nothing but what is contrary to the light of nature and yet over the leaf desires the parliament to prohibit all names of obloquie under fitting penalties But I feare Mr. Ey●e who is so liberall in calling his brethren Arminians Socrat hist lib. 6 65. Papists Socinians would be the first that would come under the lash of such a law if it were made as Eutropius the Eunuch did of that Edict made by the Emperour at his request But let him tell us is it against the light of nature to call him an Antinomian who upholds the maine pillar of Antinomianisme and layeth the foundation stone whereon it is built is it lawfull to be an Antinomian and unlawfull to call him so that is so shall a man be covetuous and if his neighbour tell him of it and speak the words of truth and sobernesse in so doing is this against the light of nature is it a more insufferable injury to call Mr Eyre an Antinomian then to be so and is his credit more ne●essary then Christs shall a man call Christ a deceiver and vilify the Scriptures and worship a breaden god a doore an altar or a crucifix praeferre Mahomet or the Pope before Christ and must such an evill go unpunished and would he have the magistrate bring himselfe by connivence at such evills under the guilt of these sins then would England be a purgatory for the Orthodox and a paradise for the heterodox yet this is that he aimes at He would have a liberty for men to professe what errours they please but a restraint laid upon those that shall indeavour to confute them and if this should ever be established which I hope never will be I should not stick to say O Mariana tempora hi sunt vltimi sing●ltus moribundae libertatis Now for this good service and telling the Libertines that if they be elected they are justified already though they be of a dissolute life the covenant is absolute every one of them with a garland of lawrell in his hand is ready to salute him Tu mihi patronus tu mihi Christus eris A third passage is his incivility to Master Good who because Mr. Eyre had appealed to the people among many others that discovered their satisfaction for what he had said and objected propounded this question whether God was wel pleased with unregenerate men to whom he saith ironically enough he did not reply as Bazil did to Demosthenes the clark of the Emperours Kitchin that he should meddle with his broth and his sauce having a little before with petulancy stiled him an Inn Keeper though he be as Demetrius was a man well reported of all men and the truth it selfe and of M. Eyre in time past for which favour he is as much beholding to him as Amasa was to Joab when he tooke him by the beard and said Art thou in h●alth my brother And for his answer to the question that God was wel pleased with his elect in Christ whilest they be vnregenerate though he be not well pleased with their unregeneracy I may say had he himself minded the kitchin lesse and studied the question more he had either yeelded the cause or given a more satisfactory answer for if all the sins of an unregenerate man be pardoned what is there for God to be displeased with nor will the nature of a holy God allow him to love an vnregenerate person with that love which Divines call the loue of complacency though he may intend him good with a love of benevolence And now I shall intreate the reader if there be any acrimony or sharpeness in this epistle to excuse me in it having been in a manner forced to it to heale the exulcerations in Mr. Eyre his book and I shall indeavour in this following discourse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 laying aside all animosity And I willingly professe with Augustine Non pigebit me sicubi haesito quaerere nec pudebit sicubi erro discere proinde quisquis hoc letat vbi pariter certus est mecum pergat vbi pariter haesigit quaerat mecum vbi errorem suum cognoscit redeat ad me vbi meum revocet me ita ingrediamur simul veritatis viam tendentes ad eum de quo dictum est quaeramus faciem ejus semper I shall not be vnwilling where I doubt to inquire nor shall I be ashamed where I erre to learn therefore whosoever read what I have written where he is certain let him goe forward with me where he doubteth with me let him seeke with me where he seeth his errour let him returne to me where he discerneth mine let him reclaime and recall me so let us walke together in the way of truth making towards him of whom it is said Let us alwayes seek his face And I beseech the God of peace to tread down Satan under Rom. 16.2.8 our feete to heale our divisions to powre out upon all his people the Spirit of truth of meekeness of love and of a sound minde and to give us to avoid all curious and needlesse questions which neither serve to beget nor increase holinesse and to lay aside all contentions that we may keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace that wee may with vnited strength oppose the common adversary 4. Eph. 3. and not sheathe our swords in one anothers bowels least by intestine and vnseasonable differences we rend the Church of Christ and be justly blamed with that of the Poet Quumque superba foret Babylon spolianda trophaeis Bella geri placuit nullos habitura triumphos Now the Lord Jesus the great Apostle and high priest of our profession the great Prophet of his church double the annointing of his Spirit upon thee and leade thee into all truth settle confirme and establish thee in the love of it and keep thee sound in the faith and blamelesse in thy life until the day of the Lord Jesus which is the hearty prayer of Thy soules friend and servant in the Gospel of Christ THOMAS WARREN REader by reason of the great distance of the Authour from the presse many errata's have escaped the most material are corrected to thy hand the rest thou art intreated to amend as thou art here directed what ever else thou findest let thy intelligence cure and thy Charity cover p. 8. l. last for in r. is p. 9 l. 18. for our r. my item 2● l. for you r. he p. 10. l. 13. blot out the second so p. 13. l. 4. for Consistence r Coexsistence l. 17. for purposes 1. purposed p. 19. l. 31 for mna r man p. 11. l. 18. for have r. hath p. 22. l. 32 for dies 1. die p. 27. l. 2. after man adde he p. 36 l. 12. after were add not p. 37. l. 5. for hath r. have l. 21. blot out so l. 29. for once r. one p. 39. l. 29. for sin r. sinned p. 40. l. last for Christs r. Christ p. 49. l. 33.

faile of nor be led aside with the errour of the wicked fall from your own stedfastnesse but may grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Christ who is our hope shall be the prayer of him who is Your remembrancer at the throne of grace and your soules-servant in the worke of Christ THOMAS WARREN TO THE Christian Reader Courteous Reader IN this intervall of church discipline which is no small dammage to the church and a manifest injury to the Kingly office of Iesus Christ every bold adversary to the truth taketh liberty to question and denie the fundamentall articles of religion and being equally infranchized with the Orthodox in the liberty of the presse and armed with this advantage that the nature of man is more prone to embrace errour then truth and the Athenian itch having infecting the mindes of most men that they spend their time in nothing else but to relate or heare some new thing hence the world is at once infected with dangerous heresies and mens judgements are leavened with an antipathy against the knowne and received truths of Christ hinc illae lachrimae But to see Mr. Eyre and men of some name for learning walking in the throng of seducers and to list themselves among the common adversaries to religion and to become Satans decoyes to ensnare the simple and leade them from the simplicity of the gospel to see such men ascend the chair and turne professors and defenders of errour yea even panders to the flesh it is time for the lords servants to stand up as Champions for the truth But alas that complaint of Hierome concerning the seducers of his time may well be taken up Ardentius ab illis defenditur haeresis quàm à nostris oppugnatur Heresie is more zealously defended by them then opposed by us I confesse I prize the vnity of brethren and next to the peace of a good conscience the Churches peace provided that peace and truth may live together but where truth must be strangled to preserve peace it is better to ransome the life of truth though it be with the losse of peace For which cause I have appeared in this controversie not so much to vindicate my self defamed by Mr. Eyre as to rescue the truth which he doth under the shew of defending the freenesse of Gods grace therefore t●e more dangerously seeke to destroy his errour being of such consequence that it subverteth if received the whole order of the Gospel it opposeth a maine article of religion openeth a wide doore to profanenesse And next to this my respects to some to whom my ministery may be usefull hath drawn me forth to this vindication to whom I may say as Augustin Mihi sufficit conscientia mea Aug ad fratres in cremo vobis autem necessaria est fama mea The testimony of my owne conscience that I have not in that Sermon which M. Eyre doth oppose departed from the truth had been sufficient to me but to them a vindication of my selfe and it may be necessary What Mr. Eyres intentions were to rend the Churches peace and to trouble the world with the untimely birth of this errour I cannot tell sure I am that if it were not finis opperantis yet 't is finis operis the end of the work if not of the authour to unsettle christians in the doctrine of faith It may be because he reckons himselfe to be one of the manly sort of Divines he speakes of and not being content to lie in obscurity he is willing to raise an estate of reputation by letting the world see how able he is to defend an errour There are many who as learned Vossius well observes gloriosum putant toti antiquitati bellum indicere nec fl●ccipendunt si haeretici modo docti habeantur thinke it a glorious thing to oppose all antiquity nor doe they care to be accounted heretiques so they may have the repute of being learned And that his opinion viz. the Antedency of justification unto faith is repugnant to all orthodox antiquity is above contradiction Neither is there any one errour against which Scripture light doth more rise up in armes then this and I appeale to every intelligent reader whether it doth not run contrary to the very veine of the gospel which teacheth justification to be the effect not the cause of faith as he in terminis doth assert p. 78 79. that he seeth no absurdity to say that faith is from justification causally and justification by faith evidentially It was the complaint of Aug in his time sub laudibus naturae latent inimici gratiae but we may invert and alter the proposition and say sub laudibus gratiae latent inimici fidei enemies to faith shelter themselves under the praises of Gods free grace And herein I wonder much at Mr. Eyre that he should oppose grace and faith when he knoweth that the adversaries he opposeth hold not faith a condition of the Covenant either in an Arminian or Popish sense and that the Scripture saith that it was the purpose of God to justifie us by faith that it might be of grace Rom. 4.16 2 Ephes. 8. as the reader may see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the 4 to the Rom. 16 therefore it is of faith that it might be of grace and in 2. Ephes 8. by grace ye are saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God not of workes lest any man should boast I can scarcely have so much faith and charity to thinke that a man can live by faith that sets himselfe to destroy that grace of faith by which we live however 1 Eph. 18.19 ● 1 Rom. 17. 2 H●b 4. 3 Eph. 17. he is a small friend to this grace which the Scripture doth so highly commend as being wrought by the same almighty power that wrought in Christ when God raised him from the dead by which the just shall live and by which Christ dwelleth in our hearts that shall deprive it of the most vitall and noble act of it viz. of vniting us to Christ and intitling us to the righteousnesse of Christ unto justification I plead not for faith so as to set the crowne upon her head which is due to Christ alone shee is content to be the friend of the bridegroom neither seeketh she to share with Christ in the honour of Salvation Faith is content and all that have it to wither in their reputation it is fit that Christ should increase and we decrease we plead not then to have faith to be a corrivall with Christ to be a sociall and coordinate cause in the justification of a sinner And yet wee cannot but give it that office which God hath assigned to it to be an instrumentall cause of justification wherein it hath the praecedency above all other graces as being the only instrument ordained of God to receive Christs righteousnesse and so not only to

lovingly Christ invites us to come and how willingly he will imbrace every soul that comes John 6.38 For this is the will of the Father that whosoever come he should in no wise cast out The Spirit saith come Rev. 22.17 and the Bride saith come Whosoever will let him come and drinke of the water of life freely And to that end that faith may be wrought attend upon the Word of God for faith cometh by hearing it is the power of God to salvation and desire the Lord to draw thee unto Christ tell him thou art undone without Christ and there is nothing that thy heart is more set upon then Christ and if he will give thee Christ thou wilt be conntented whatever he do with thee and when the Lord seeth thee hunger and thirst after Christ and his righteousnesse and that nothing but a Christ will content thee he will say Be it unto thee according to thy desire if nothing but a Christ will satisfie thee why take Christ and let him everlastingly become thine and with his Christ he will give his Spirit if thou aske it to seal up this gift to thy heart to thy everlasting comfort Thus then being come to the end of this Sermon as it was delivered with as little variation as I could I shall prosecute this argument no further and if friends and enemies would have been so satisfied I had not troubled the Presse with this Sermon but I and it had been yet buried in silence but since it is the will of God I here submit it to the judgement of my Brethren and I doubt not but I shall receive from them a quietus est to discharge me from Mr Eyre's Arrest who hath in the Pulpit and Presse condemned this Sermon as wide from the Orthodox Faith which if he will undertake to shew and convince me wherein I promise him through the grace of Christ to be a thankful Proselyte Now the God of peace tread down Satan under your feet rebuke that spirit of Errour and division that is among you settle and confirme you in the truth as it is in Jesus to whose grace I commend you and rest in hope of your establishment JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH OR UNBELIEVERS NO SUBJECTS OF Justification CHAP. I. Being a Vindication of my Sermon preached at N. Sarum shewing that Union to Christ and Justification by Christ is not Antecedent to Faith ABout April which was Anno 1652. according to my course in the Lecture at New Sarum I preached the foregoing Sermon grounded upon the second to the Ephesians the 12. vers That at that time ye were without Christ being aliens from the common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world From which words the Point observed was this That a Christlesse estate is a Hopelesse estate for the explication and proof of the Point I referre the Reader to the Sermon it self That which I chiefly aimed at was to shew that the very Elect are said to be without Christ or in a Christless estate untill actuall faith because without union to Christ there is no communion with him but this union is the formall effect of faith or is made by believing After the Sermon Mr. Eyre took liberty to remonstrate and since in his Vindiciae Justifie he hath declared to the world that I said That the Elect themselves to whom Christ was peculiarly given by the Father before the foundations of the world for whom Christ gave himself a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour whose sins he bare on his body on the tree even to a full propitiation had no right or interest in Christ nor any more benefit by his death then reprobates till they did believe and that they are but dreamers who conceit the contrary To which I answer that as he hath a faculty to speak of others what they never said so he can hear what they never spake he hath innovated my tearmes of which as in our conference so in his Printed relation where he is no lesse peccant he was always wittingly as I conceive guilty which because I minded him of before the people he stiles in his Book a provocation of language which I gave him But to the matter because I intend not a strife of words I shall first readily grant him that the Elect were given to Christ by the Father before the foundations of the world and Christ to them if he understand it onely of an immanent act terminated in God himself and understand by it no more then an eternall purpose in God to give Christ in the fulnesse of time to die for those whom in his eternal counsel he had fore-ordained to eternal life and to give them faith whereby they may become his members but if he judge this to be actually done and that Christ and all the Elect were one mystical body and so justified from eternity I wholly dissent from him Predestination is only a love of purpose and intention not of execution it being an immanent act leaveth no positive reall effect upon the person predestinated Hence when God is said to give Christ to the Elect from eternity it signifies only the will and purpose of God constituting and appointing Christ to die for the Elect but he was not actually given till in the fulnesse of time he sent him into the world and although in his death he gave him to die for them yet was he not actually given to them that they should possesse the benefits of his death until actuall faith and I shall further manifest this when I shall prove that an immanent act of God purposing to justifie us is not our formal justification Secondly Whereas he saith that Christ gave himself a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour and bare our sins in his body on the tree even to a ful propitiation This I willingly acknowledge and blesse the Lord for if he understand it only of the fulness of satisfaction and not of an immediate discharge of the sinner for whom he died Christ did not satisfie the justice of God by divine acceptation but he satisfied the justice of God fully the dignity and excellency of his person did no way dispense with any degree of the extremity of the punishment due to our sin which was consistent with his Godhead and holynesse to suffer but it was to make the sufferings of one available for many And Scotus gives a considerable reason for it quia poenâ ab unà eximere Christum si valuisset valuisset etiam ex duabus Scotus in quar Sentent dist 46. Q. 4. Art 4. atque ita ex omnibus eum emancipare And I acknowledge there was not a deficiency but a redundancy of merit in his sufferings the justice of God cannot require any thing more at the hands of Christ our surety or of the sinner by way of satisfaction and in this sense he is well pleased with Christ as a publick

doubt not but you your selves have done execution upon his errour And I was glad though not so much in my owne behalfe as in respect of you of that letter which was signed by some of you bearing witnesse to the truth and desiring me not to be discouraged for that uncivill affront And although Mr. Eyre blame me for the like practise and that of all men I had least reason to be offended with it because I had done the same thing in another place I must tell him I tooke that liberty but once and that out of constraint for after I had privately borne witnesse against some Antinomian errours vented by one Mr. Symonds at Rumsey the next time I heard him he was advanced higher into familisticall blasphemie asserting A beleever was as righteous as Christ and that being one with him according to the prayer of Christ in the 17 Chap. of Iohns Gospel Lord make them one as we are one and having the righteousness of Christ imputed which is the righteousnesse of God himselfe he propounded it to the people to consider if a Christian were not a certaine divine person as the sonne of God is And to have been silent in this case had been my sin especially seeing the people were led captive by him into his former errours of Antinomianisme admirers of his person and of a ductile spirit But that I desired the people not to beleeve a word which Mr. Symonds taught hath as much truth in it though Mr. Eyre relate it as that had which was spoken to Christ concerning the Kingdomes of the world All this power will I give thee and the glory of them for that is delivered to me and to whomsoever I will I give it And he himselfe doubted of the truth of it for he addeth how justly I cannot tell yet in his passion to render me odious he relates it though he be commanded not to receive an accusation against an Elder under two or three witnesses But to returne unto you 1 Tim. 5.18 Right worshipfull to whom I have been bold to dedicate this little Tractate I beseech you in the bowels of Christ receive neither it nor me but so far forth as it is agreeable to the word of truth and if God hath not given me darkness for a vision I apprehend a marvellous beauty in the truth here offered unto you nay already imbraced by you which Mr. Eyre striving tanquam pro aris et focis seeketh to undermine I beseech you stand fast in the truth and in the love of it The raine fell as impetuously upon the floods did swell with as great rage against and the winds did storme with as great violence the house built upon the rock as that which was built upon the sands And the truth of Christ that is built upon the scriptures as an immoveable rock is capable of as much opposition from men and especially this of the free justification of a sinner by faith as any brain-sick opinion of men that lie in wait to deceive which hath no affinity nor confederacy with the word of God Having therefore such a sure word of prophesie you shall doe well if you take heed to it 2 Pet. 2 9. as to a light that shineth in a dark place Account it your great honour to honour God and your honourable profession by keeping the doctrine received and as you have hitherto done shew your selves to be men of understanding and not Children tossed up and downe with every winde of doctrine even so stand fast immoveable in the truth of Christ And Copy out that grace and faith in your lives 3 John 1● which you professe to have and practise that great commandement of loving one another as Christ hath loved you hereby shall it be known that ye are his disciples indeed though the Antinomians judge it a dark signe that cannot give a sufficient evidence to the conscience of justification and herein they contradict Christ and his Apostle who said By this wee know that wee are passed from death to life because we love the brethren 1 Iohn 3.15 Ephes 4.3 Rom. 16.14 study to keep the vnity of the spirit in the bond of peace Beware of dividing principles and dividing practises and marke those among you that cause divisions and offences and avoide them be thankfull unto God for the light of his gospel that yet shines amongst you be thankefull to the Lord that although errour walke abroad without a vizard there is so much liberty to professe and defend the truth Pray to the Lord which is all you have to do in things which might be better in the publike and praise God that they are no worse Prize the Churches peace next to the peace of a good conscience and yet buy not peace with the losse of truth And as God hath magnified his word above all his name do you esteeme it above your credit Remember Obed Edom that was blessed for the arks sake and though I know and beleeve some of you doe not count gain to be godlinesse yet you shall finde godlinesse to be great gaine the gospel is not so poore a guest but it is able to recompense those that lodge and entertaine it A Guest seldome bestowes his bounty but at his departure but there is no gaine to be expected by this guest at his departure but a losse that cannot be recovered I commend it to your care to preserve the ark amongst you faile in this and the vitall spirit of your corporation will be lost together with it And I beseech you have not mens persons in admiration affect not the word for the persons sake but the person for the words sake Let not knowledge be layed up for discourse but for practice not so much to inrich the head Luke 12.14 Math. 23.22 as to amend the heart Beware of covetousnesse least the cares of the world choake the good seede of the word Thinke not an hour more prrofitably spent in the Shop then in the church in enquiring into your debts then in searching of your consciences cast up your accounts often with God consider what religion will cost you make sure your evidences for eternall life have not a Christ to seeke when you shall have life to seeke Bee sure to do good or to receive good wheresoever you goe with whomsoever you deale let your publique trust make you men of publique spirits suffer nor your Taverns to be ful when your churches are empty and whilest you complaine of the badnesse of the times let them not be the worse for you what evill you cannot help to redresse bewaile let your sighes be more for your sins then your crosses incourage them that teach the good knowledge of the Lord and hide not your talents in a napkin but trade with them for your Master that at his coming he may say to you Well done good and faithfull servants enter into the joy of your Lord. Which that you may not