Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	bind_v	law_n	nature_n	1,568	5	5.4669	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86612	The pagan preacher silenced. Or, an answer to a treatise of Mr. John Goodwin, entituled, the pagans debt & dowry. Wherein is discovered the weaknesse of his arguments, and that it doth not yet appear by scripture, reason, or the testimony of the best of his own side, that the heathen who never heard of the letter of the Gospel, are either obliged to, or enabled for the believing in Christ; and that they are either engaged to matrimonial debt, or admitted to a matrimonial dowry. Wherein also is historically discovered, and polemically discussed the doctrin of Universal grace, with the original, growth and fall thereof; as it hath been held forth by the most rigid patrons of it. / By Obadiah Howe, A.M. and pastor of Horne-Castle in Lincolnshire. With a verdict on the case depending between Mr. Goodwin and Mr. Howe, by the learned George Kendal, DD.	Howe, Obadiah, 1615 or 16-1683.; Kendall, George, 1610-1663.	1655 (1655)	Wing H3051; Thomason E851_16; ESTC R207423	163,028	140

anything of that import during that time now if this be a good argunent which Mr. Goodwin urgeth viz that Adam was not bound to repent because there was no Law given to bind him to repent it is grounded upon this truth that there is no obligation to any thing without a command Now indeed in the following part of his Treatise he addresseth himself very handsomely to prove that all are bound to believe but it is not without much provocation from his adversary and it is not till much labour hath been spent as if he intended to let the world see that it is one of the last things he intendeth to be pertinent It is urged against him by an unknown Adversary thus All men are not bound to believe without the letter of the Gospel by which men are obliged and bound to believe which argument is firm and good and makes him cast about for an universal obligation to believe without the letter of the Gospel and he affirms that all men are bound to believe on Christ by a double law First by the Law of Nature Secondly by the Positive Law of God I shall examine both in their order First to examine whether all men by the Law of Nature be bound to believe on Christ He layeth down his method thus Nature requireth of men 1 That they seek after God that is the knowledge of his attributes and perfection of his being 2 After the best and richest discoveries of his will where they are to be found 3 To submit to every part of that will and pleasure being made known And then as the accomplishment of his invention he saith that the Gospel is the richest discovery of his will and they are bound to subject themselves unto it But though I grant all these things yet thus I answer There is no obligation to believe on Christ yet extant except the l●tter of the Gospell come and then the true state of the question is destroyed true it is the Gospel is the richest treasures of his mind and will but how is this made knowne to them that never come to enjoy the letter of the Gospel I further argue thus 1 Adam in innocencie was bound to do all these to seek and enq●uire after God and the richest treasure of his will c. but I hope he will not say that Adam was bound to believe in innocency if he do it is not without the positive dissent of the best of his side 2 It is strange to see the ways of these men to assume that to themselves as Orthodox what they explode in others as vaine and impertinent when Molin urged thus upon the question whether Adam had power to believe the law commands us to assent to and obey what ever the Lord saith or commandeth Corvin in in Molin cap. 11. § 7. then it must follow that if Christ was propounded and preached by the same law he should be accounted to stand bound to believe the Gospel this reasoning is rejected by Corvinus as vain and impertinent but is not Mr. Goodwins the very same 3 He saith nature binds to obey the discoveries of his will being known true but then being unknown no obligation to believe then it must be enquired into how men that never he the letter of the Gospel can come to the knowledge of the mind of God concerning faith in Christ Still here is little proof but meer trifeling Now such an assertion as this his adversary lays upon him That the light of nature cannot discover that ever there was such a man or Mediator as Christ Jesus but he is pleased to say that it is not pertinent to our purpose but I think very much For let this be granted then I urge though the law of nature bind us to do all the three forenamed particulars yet it doth not oblige us to believe in Christ because the light of nature cannot discover Christ and if not how can it oblige men to believe on Christ I see not because according to himself it bindes men to obey no further then is known but he saith further thus Though it be not sufficient to discover Christ yet it is sufficient to teach them that it is their duty to inquire after the best discovery of his will and being known it can tell them it is their duty to believe in Christ how he hath lost himself on his own circle true it may teach them to inquire but how to believe on Christ I see not because they are not bound to obey further then it is known and nature cannot discover Christ nor any way left for knowing him otherwise For the question supposeth them not to have the letter of the Gospel 2 He is much mistaken the law of nature upon that supposition that faith in Christ was discovered could not be said to be the dictator of that duty but the positive law that is newly discovered nature commandeth general obedience being a general law but a special law must be the ground of a special obedience if he consult with Corvinus he will grant this to pass for good divinity as I may illustrate it by this instance The Law of nature bindeth me to obey my Superiors and so us all this is a general law but as a ground of special obedience there is required a law positive that I may know wherein to obey them as to say Our Superiours for Politique ends forbid us to eat flesh in Lent ●hall he hence conclude that it is a dictate of nature not to eat flesh in Lent then it is against the law of nature to eat flesh in Lent but who can understand this therefore we must necessarily distinguist thus nature bindeth us to obey but their Positive law to obey in this or that particularity neither could the law of nature ever dictate to any man that he is bound not to eat flesh in Lent the case is much a like the law of nature binds us to obey God as our Maker but the law positive comes and bids us to obey him in believing Christ This obligation as it is particularized comes from the Positive law of God not from the law of nature for the law of nature could never dictate such a particularity of obedience as to beleeve in Jesus Christ And thus farre I can improve the smile he preduceth in Pag. 31 32. but how farre further it tendeth I see not for it vanisheth into smoak if we consider that the legislative power in any nation or kingdom doth not confine the discovery of their lawes to the Metropolis but as for those Laws by which mens daily and weekly transactions are to be guided they take such course that they shall be published at the Market-towns of every Shire or County where it is to be supposed that all respectively are led by their occasions or in a Sessions quarterly Justices of the Peace are in their charges to acquaint them with all those Penal Statutes and other Lawes requisite to

another page thus The heathen who onely have the benefit of the light of nature together with those impressions of good and evil which accompany it are and have been in such a capacity of having the Gospel Wherein it plainely appeareth that whatever be the praedicate yet the subject about which all his whole discourse proceeds is A man having only the light of nature and it needs must be so because otherwise what he saith will not reach every man without exception so that now the controversie appears thus Whether those stand bound to believe on Jesus Christ who have no further discovery of Jesus Christ then the light of nature works of providence the book of the creatures fruitful seasons afford unto them or whether these do make such a discovery of Christ to all men as that by it they are and stand bound to believe in Christ Mr. Goodwin affirmes in both I deny in both I therfore address my self to examine his proofs It seemes he was provoked to this treatise by a discourse written to him by a Gentleman of worth and learning so that several pages are spent in complements and anti-complements in which for me to trace him would be both irksome and useless That which first occurreth worthy to bee taken notice of in reference to the question wee find in the seventh and eighth pages of his treatise where in the close I find these words Pag. 8. When God commandeth men to repent certainely he doth in the same command them to believe in as much as that repentance which he commands is Evangelical Which words seeme to carry in them the force of an Argument But herein as all along I am put to a double task both to form his Arguments and answer them but I am not unwilling to do it the argument therfore if syllogistically propounded must run thus If God command all men to repent hee commands all to believe in Christ But he commandeth all men to repent Acts 17.30 Argum. Ergo He commands all men to believe The proposition is grounded upon this that no Evangelical repentance can be without faith in Christ as he contends pag. 7. The assumption is proved by Act. 17.30 And thus is he safely delivered of the first-borne of his strength Before I answer distinctly to this uncouth and impertinent Argument I must premise a few things that I may be rightly understood concerning Pagans repentance There is in every rational creature originally imprinted the love of his maker and thereupon the light of nature obligeth to love God which love will shew it selfe in obedience to his commands and in case of a fall into sin this love calls for sorrow for that delinquency and a displicancy with our selves that we should offend our Creator and incur his wrath and this I deny not to bee a part of the eternal law of God and nature lying on all men both living on earth and lying in torments yea upon the divels in their desperate condition seeing that it is a duty required of every offending creature as such and if any shall call this repentance I will grant that there is an obligation lyes upon all Pagans by the light of nature to repent but this is not Evangelical in order to life and salvation which the Gospel so frequently calleth for and in that cited text Act. 17. given by M. Goodwin of which saving repentance and Evangelical Mr. Goodwin directly and all along speaketh and this is that repentance which I treat of otherwise I should not be pertinent to Mr. Goodwins assertions and I desire to be understood as speaking of this Evangelical repentance in order to life and salvation And in this sense I deny that Pagans are obliged to repent by the light of nature and Mr. Goodwins quoted text proves it not for that text includeth not Pagans but those to whom the Gospel cometh as I afterwards shew neither doth it speak of the light of nature onely an Evangelical command and if Mr. Goodwin would but learne to conclude with the question and make his conclusion thus as it should therefore all Pagans are bound to believe by the light of nature or make his minor to run thus But God commandeth all men to repent by the light of nature his Argument would not be a birth but a miscarriage and though orthodox and good yet impertinent and uselesse in his businesse For to answer more distinctly I say Answ First What is all this if granted to him is yet Mr. Goodwin to seek in the rudiments of dispute one of which is to conclude with the question which is not whether all men be commanded to believe But whether those that never heard of the letter of the gospel be bound to believe The very conclusion of his Argument expressing a command to repent and believe supposeth the enjoyment of the letter of the gospel except he will say that the commands of the Gospel are not the letter of he Gospel Secondly to the assumption I answer it is deniable in that sense which he must receive if it doe him any good That is that God commands all every man without exception yea those that have only the light of nature and not the letter of the Gospel dispensed at all further then by the creatures but this is false and that text Act. 17.30 speaketh not any thing to this purpose And therefore Mr. Goodwin might with credit enough have suffered his Antagonist in that Adage Quid hoc ad Iphicli loves w th out that scurrilous retortion of Balaams asse in exchange but consider how hard a thing it is for one of Mr. Goodwins spirit not to be at once both tart and impertinent but in this it gives us a taste of what we are to expect in the remains of his works 3. To his Proposition I have nothing upon mine owne interest but their principles beget a scruple not easily satisfied and wee may doubt the conclusive validity of it it becometh not those of his way to explode a repentance which is without faith in Jesus Christ and this I prove many wayes 1 There is nothing more frequent with men of his way then this to ascribe to man certaine preparatives to faith and regeneration which will be found to come little short of repentance or however can no more be granted as truth then repentance it selfe Corvinus saith thus those that are prest under the burthen of sin and are weary and thirst after Christ and the saving grace by him are disposed to those benefits that the Lord conferreth on us by the Gospel And hee being urged by his Antagonist that the desires of salvation the groanes of a breathing conscience under the weight of sin are parts of regeneration hee thus replyeth a Hoc est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sunt effecta spiritus sed non regenerantis at ad regenerantionē praeparantis Ibidem That is the question they are the effects of the spirit but not of the spirit

meaning that a heathen man by the light of nature onely can make this regular discourse and discover all these particulars I fear it will need probation more then interpretation and that the world may take a little better notice of it they shall have a second view of it thus Men may know by the light of nature onely that God is just and that it is just for him to punish sin severely then they may read themselves in the heavens to be sinners and Gods suspension of wrath to be patience and forbearance and so read in the heavens that his justice is satisfied and that in such and such a way and yet by such a satisfaction that admits something to be done on our part ere we can enjoy salvation and then ex multis possibilibus out of the endlesse numbers of possibles which God might out of his liberty have chosen to be mans duty The light of nature can presently fasten upon this duty of repentance and cull it out from all the rest and that in the heavens is so legibly engraven the doctrine of perseverance that it must be also upon perseverance to the end A very fair progresse if it had but halfe so much truth as colour but I shall presently shew that no man can discover any one of those by the light of nature onely this being the foundation of the whole I shall with the greater intention bend my selfe to the work and take them all into examination in order as they lye First he saith God is knowable by the light of nature to be infinitely just and infinitely bent against sin But we find no such thing from any evidence of Scripture that something of God is to be knowne by the light of nature the Apostle alloweth but what that is or how farre this is known by the creation Rom. 1.20 I desire Mr. Goodwin to suspend his vote till we have heard the Apostle speak he telleth us Rom. 1.20 that the invisible things of God are seen by the creation viz. his eternal power and Godhead he goes no further not that I think that no more of God is seen then the Apostle mentions for his wisdom and goodnesse I conceive is also pregnantly seen yet he mentioneth enough to preserve men from idolatry and therefore contents himselfe with so much as is sufficient to his intended purpose yet we must observe also what kind of attributes be mentioneth namely such as will naturally and without any other medium be concluded from the creation by resolving all causes and effects into their originals as from creation we may presently resolve all into power that can bring a world out of nothing into wisedome to make all in such a stupendious order and goodnesse in giving to every creature some rayes of that goodnesse which is in himselfe Wee come now in the state of corruption to gaine the knowledge what God is by the use of medium's and they must be pertinent ones also as those things declare his power in which his power is shown But as for justice where is that shown in the creation Justice and mercy and long suffering are such relative attributes that they are not manifested or exercised in or upon man except he be in a further capacity then as meerly created We see God but in vestigiis in his footsteps in the creatures now we cannot make so much as a conjecture of him where he hath not already set his foot we may see his power in the creation because in the creation he hath troden in the path of his power But how shall we by the creation or light of nature see his justice when creation it selfe cannot appear to be an act of justice If Gods justice and mercy and longsuffering were knowable by the light of nature why did not God refer him to that when Moses desired God to shew him his glory or why needed Moses to ask that boon We find that his mercy Exod. 33.19.34.6 7 longsuffering as punishing iniquity as pardoning sin was not knowable by Moses a man well versed in the creation as a Historian until it was discovered and revealed by a higher dictator then nature Justitia Dei est virtus Dei quâ omnia rectè juxta eo quod ipso convenire dictat sayientia ejus administrat Arm. disp Priv. Thes 21. Equitas est secūdum quam à Deo omnia fiunt juxta non ā et praescriptum sap entiae ejus Episcop Part. 2. Disp 9 2. Suppose that a heathen man could know by the light of nature that God is just tanquam in actu primo yet how can he know that his justice consists in being infinitely bent in hatred and severity against sin Let Mr. Goodwin who hath greater advantages then the light of nature shew us what natural or necessary rule of justice there is that tyes God to be infinitely bent in severity against sin It is so generally received that I may affirme it his wisdome is the rule of his justice Arminius himselfe being judg will over rule this case and he saith The justice of God is the vertue of God by which he administers all things rightly according as his wisedome thinks convenient And Episcopius his second will adjudge the same way that which Arminius called general justice he calleth equity and thus saith The equity of God is that whereby all things are done according to the rule counsel prescript of his owne wisedome So that what in his wisedome he prescribeth to himselfe to doe and in his word declareth that he will doe it according Hic videmus justitiam Dei retribuentem ex oratiosa promissione Dei ex justa comminatione primum locum habere His justice binds him to do that and that is just and no other thing So that the justice of God which we call retribuent which directly falleth in with the case in hand retribuent I say either of mercy upon obedience or punishment upon disobedience taketh place upon his declarations of those wayes and methods which his wisedome hath presented concerning the sons of men that is either his gracious promises or severe comminations And this Arminius himselfe will award for us for he saith expressely thus Here we see the retribuent justice of God first to take place from the gracious promises and just comminations of himself Rom. 1.17 And this is no more then what we are forced to by the very dint of Scripture the apostle telleth us Ro. 1.17 That the righteousnes of God was revealed in the gospel and the wrath of God is revealed from heaven that is as the Apostle there taketh it a reward of mercy for faith and a punishment of severity for sin and sinners yet both these are justice God having prescribed this way to himselfe and declared it to us in the gospel that he will so reward the faith of believers Rom. 3.26 and severely punish the obstinacy of impenitents So that to justifie believers is an

constitutions of the Almighty God may say in this case as in Isa 44.7 who as I shall call and declare it and set in order for me the things that are to come to passe but to come to a close I shall in a line or two ingage him with two Arguments only to prove that the light of nature cannot discover to the heathen life upon the duty of repentance Arg. 1 That which the light of nature could not discover to Adam after his fall cannot be discovered by the light of nature to the heathen But the duty of repentance the light of nature could not discover to Adam after his fall Therefore the light of nature cannot discover it to the heathen The proposition is grounded upon his owne words in his postscript thus I see no difference in this case betwixt Adam and his posterity The minor or assumption is also his owne he saith in his postscript that there was no command to repent nor any thing of that import until the promise and therefore he was not obliged to repent And if the premises be both his the conclusion must be his Arg. 2 What the Apostle could not discover who had the advantage both of the light of nature and the letter of the Gospel the light of nature onely cannot discover to the heathen But the Apostles by the light of nature and letter of the Gospel could not discover life for the Gentiles upon repentance Therefore the light of nature cannot discover life upon the duty of repentance to the heathen The proposition is grounded upon this principle what a double advantage cannot do a single one cannot do alone The minor is cleare from Acts 11.18 indeed in all the tenth and eleventh Chapters wholly Thus have I touched upon every parcel of his pretended rational discourse that a heathen may as he saith make by the light of nature and after examination it appears that without his officious suggestion hee could not read one syllable of it I have been the shorter because I expect the provocation of his reply and I have sayd so much because it is the foundation of his whole Treatise But because Mr. Goodwin knoweth that it matters not what negotiating and busiy heads assert but how they prove he gives us a text or two or some few to prove all this which he seemes to pretend a serious examination of I shall do the like and thereby be enabled to survey both his understanding and ingenuity at once Now this I observe in the superficial survey of them all that they are all of them impertinent to this businesse for any that hath but an indifferent exercise of his reason may see that all those Scriptures which are produced as proofes for his assertion must expressly point at the want of the letter of the gospel and also at the cleare tye and obligation particularly to these duties viz. to believe and repent But all his Scriptures produced by him fail in one of these two either clearly implying the letter of the gospel or else not arising so high as believing and repenting as shall presently appear Rom. 10.18 The first text by which he proves his assertion is Rom. 10.18 but I demand have they not heard yes verily their sound is gone through all the world By which he proves that a heathen man without the letter of the gospel may be enabled to discover an attonement and a very futilous and absurd consequence we have at the first entrance The text saith have they not heard and yet this is produced as a proof that those that never heard of the letter of the gospel are yet bound to believe in Jesus Christ But I suppose this businesse will stick here betwixt us whether this hearing mentioned in this chapter be meant of hearing by the oral administration of the word or hearing the voice of the heavens and the creatures We are for the former he is strong for the latter in these words Pag. 10. The Apostle shews by what hearing Faith comes or at least what is sufficient to produce Faith it is the hearing of that sound and those words which the heavens the day and the night speak as appeareth by those words taken out of Psalme 19.4 And the Apostle further saith that that sound and those words uttered by the heavens are the words of eternal life as well as those words which our Saviour himselfe spake on earth onely not so clearely and plainely spoken In all which we have first his interpretation S●condly his illustrative confirmation Thirdly his ground and reason His interpretation is thus the hearing mentioned in Rom. 10. is the hearing of the sound of the heavens the day and the night His conformation is this those words and sound of the heavens are the words of eternal life as well as those words that Christ spake on earth His ground and reason is because the Apostle useth the expressions of the Psalmist Psal 19.4 where that text relates to the sound of the heavens His interpretation I challenge with insolent forgery Secondly his illustration with impious blasphemy Thirdly his reason with weak and fond absurditie all these charges I shall make good against him in their order 1. His interpretation is an insolent forgery against a cleare text and this I prove First by the current of Interpreters Secondly by the testimony of the best of his owne side Thirdly by the expresses that drop from his own pen. Fourthly by the opening of the text and chapter all along 1. It appeares a forgery against a cleare text if we reflect upon the unanimous suffrage of interpreters against him It would seeme a prodigy in any but Mr. Goodwin to obtrude upon a text such an interpretation to which upon the least colour of reason we are not lead by the least syllable and neglect another to which every word almost doth safely lead us What one expression in the whole chapter gives the least incouragement to this interpretation as the heavens the day or the night Reprehendit Iud●orum incredulitatem et publicationem evangeclii amplific●t per coelorom sonum Pet. Martyr in loc or any thing to that purpose mentioned in all that subject about which the Apostle treateth but of the letter of the Gospel in many verses particularly in verses 15 16 upon which this immediately followeth faith cometh by hearing and this question have they not heard Now it may help much in this difficulty if there be any in it to consider the persons of whom this question proceedeth whether of the Jewes or Gentiles or both jointly Mr. Goodwin knoweth well that interpreters are very much divided and that to dissatisfaction herein Junius Beza Deodato Galvin Paraeus Cornel. à Lapid Some are for the Jewes as Peter Martyr who saith he reprehendeth the infidelity of the Jewes and amplifieth the publication of the Gospel by the sound of the heavens and many are of his judgement as Iunius in his Parallels Beza the