Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	old_a	speak_v	testament_n	2,229	5	8.1076	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45151	Peaceable disquisitions which treat of the natural and spiritual man, preaching with the demonstration of the Spirit, praying by the Spirit, assurance, the Arminian grace, possibility of heathens salvation, the reconciliation of Paul and James, the imputation of Christ's righteousness, with other incident matters : in some animadversions on a discourse writ against Dr. Owen's Book of the Holy Spirit / by John Humfrey ...	Humfrey, John, 1621-1719.	1678 (1678)	Wing H3702; ESTC R21932	66,481	118

have been more kind to the Nations I have some little light therefore here or I believe it to be so to offer to this very susceptible person There is a three-fold Government in one to speak accurately that God hath had in the world over man in reference to his chief end the salvation of his soul The first was by the Law of Nature the second by the Law of Moses and the third by the Law of Christ Before God gave his Law unto Israel the whole world was under that Law which is written in the heart God must govern man by that only when there was no other This Law now writ in mans heart we are to know is two-fold for Nature coming under a double consideration as entire and as fallen the Law must be double the Law of innocent nature or Law of Innocency and the Law of lapsed nature which is the Law of Grace or mercy toward man in regard to that condition To express it more fully there is Lex Naturae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Lex connaturalis gratiae The Law of Nature and the connatural Law of Grace as Suarez has it in his Book De Legibus I am pleased much with the terms though I found not that he did well understand them or explain them himself Only thus much he says that the Ancients before Moses who were governed by the Law of Nature only must have this Lex connaturalis gratiae together with it or comprehended under it or else no man then upon earth could be saved which is a truth so evident as makes the proof of that Law by that reason alone to be good When he terms this Law then a Law connatural I understand by it that this Law of lapsed Nature this Law of Grace or remedying Law is written in the heart of man in regard to his fallen nature no less than the Law of pure nature it self was The Law of Nature as I take it is the dictates of right reason declaring to us our duty to God to our selves and to our neighbours and the light of the same reason will dictate to us when we have failed in that duty to repent and turn to God with trusting to his mercy and pardon if we do so and not else We do find it legible in our hearts that God is good and wisely gratious to pity our infirmities and consider our lost estate and necessary frailty as that there is a God and any worship that is at all due to him There is mercy with thee that thou shouldst be feared And these Characters thus engraven in the heart of man is the same law of Grace in the practical contents as is more largely paraphrased upon by the Prophets in the Old and the Apostles in the new-New-Testament There is no difference at all in the Substance as Divines speak but in the Administration It is as one lately hath expressed it lively no otherwise than as a Book thrice Printed the second Edition is larger than the first and the third most compleat and perfect This I will say the Covenant was still on foot the Condition sincerity according to their light men were judged by it and many saved Here only is the difference that the foundation on which all this is laid the Mediation Righteousness and Sacrifice of Christ comes not to be revealed but in Types and darker promises till the promulgation of the Gospel Now I say that though the Heathen be not under or have not this Law of Grace in the third and last setting our or in the state under the Gospel yet they are under it or have it in the state of the Ancients or as they had it in the first promulgation and upon supposition that any of them do according to the light they have live up in sincerity to this Law I dare not be the man that shall deny but through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ procuring this Law or Covenant for them as for us and all the world they shall be saved even as we and we shall be saved even as they Not to leave this yet I have learned from Cicero that all Laws must be derived from the Divine Reason and Will I have learned from others that this Reason of God in his Government of all things agreeably to his own nature and the nature of his Creatures is the Eternal Law I have learned from the Scripture that there is a Law of Works and a Law of Grace I do learn by consequence that these Laws as frames of Gods Government over man must be reconcileable with the Eternal Law or the reason of his Wisdom and Justice and Goodness the one of them being fit for the estate of man in Innocency the other for his Lapsed condition How these Laws do now consist and not consist with one another while the Scripture saies sometimes we are freed from the Law and sometimes that it is established That not a tittle of it shall pass and that we are not under the Law but under Grace I do not intend here any full decision I will draw only one chief stroke towards it The Law may be considered as the Rule of man's duty or Measure of Good and Evil according to his own nature and Gods Or as the Instrument of God's Government over man or Measure of his dealing with us or judging of us according to our discernings It cannot be conceived but so long as the Nature of God and Man is the same and Good and Evil which consists in an agreeableness to them both is the same the Law of Nature must remain unchangeable as the measure of our moral actions But as it is the instrument of Gods Government in the world it is as certain that through the Mediation of Christ who hath satisfied his Father for our breach of it it is relaxed so as we are not dealt withal according to the tenour of the Law in the matters of this life or of that which is to come I distinguish these two things a Rule of Life and a Rule for Life A Rule for Life is expressed in these words He that doeth them shall live in them We are freed from the Law upon the later account we are made free to it in regard to the former That is we are under the Law so as we are still bound to live according to it but we are delivered from it so as through mercy and the merits of Christ we shall not be judged by it There is Norma vitae and Norma judicii The Law is of force as a rule of Life or Duty but we are not under it as a rule of Judgement We shall be judged saies St. James by the Law of Liberty and Paul saies according to my Gospel Blessed be God for this truth Now that the Government of God over the whole world is by the Law of Grace and not of Works thus much being said imperfectly only for light in the way does appear as the Sun