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	power_n	1,223	5	5.0559	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A13556	Regula vitæ the rule of the law vnder the Gospel. Containing a discovery of the pestiferous sect of libertines, antinomians, and sonnes of Belial, lately sprung up both to destroy the law, and disturbe the faith of the Gospell: wherein is manifestly proved, that God seeth sinne in iustified persons. By Thomas Taylor Dr. of Divinity, and pastour of S. Mary Aldermanbury, London.	Taylor, Thomas, 1576-1632.	1631 (1631)	STC 23851; ESTC S118279	80,247	284

renewed obedience of it in earth and fulfill it perfectly in heaven Whence issueth a cleane contrary conclusion If Christ be the end of the Law wee are therefore faster tyed to the obedience of it than before Very false therefore is that position That the Law is at such an end as it can nore command a man in Christ than a dead man can command his wife or a Master his servant when hee is made free To which traditionary doctrine carried from woman to woman I answer 1. That the Apostle saith indeede Rom 7. 4. that by Christs death wee are dead to the Law namely in regard of the curse and of those rebellious motions excited in us by occasion of it and in regard of the terrour and rigour of it as a woman is from the threats and rigour of a dead husband but the Apostle saith not that the Law is dead either in respect of the direction of it or our obedience to those directions 2. As the Apostle saith we are dead to the Law so he sheweth the end of our freedome from so hard an husband namely that wee might be married to another i. to Christ raised from the dead the effect of which marriage is not a barren life but to bring forth fruit unto God the blessing of the marriage betweene Christ and the faithfull soule is fruitfulnesse before God so as this death of ours to the Law bringeth in a new subjection unto it which is indeed the height of our Christian liberty here and proceedeth from the spirit of freedome 3. His shift is too short to shuffle from the first covenant to the second and as false is it to say that the Law is the rule in one covenant and not in another as if the matter of the first covenant and second were not one and the same the righteousnesse and obedience of both were not one in substance differing in manner of apprehension and application Shall any live by vertue of the second covenant that doth not these things or that brings not the righteousnes of the Law in himselfe or his surety CHAP. 10. Resolving sundry other objections alledged to prove the abolition of the Law OBIECT 6. To whom all the commanding power of the Law under paine of the curse and the enjoyning of good workes for justification as also to whom the condemning power of the Law is abolished and ceased to them the Law is altogether made void and abrogated But to beleevers both such commanding power and condemning power is ceased And therefore c. And thus they further explaine it Suppose a justified man commit adultery or murther or be drunke the Law of God can take no hold of him nor the just God can punish him by the Law being utterly abrogated to such a person Answ. The former proposicion is apparently false for the Law both for ma●ter and forme stands in force to justified persons and retaineth on them a commanding power and enjoineth on them good works although the manner of commanding in the rigor of it is to them abated for how ord●●●rily did Christ and his Apostles command the workes of the Law to beleevers and that under strait penalties read Math. 5. and 6. Chap. and telleth his followers that when they have done so farre as they can all the things of the Law they have done what was their duty and that they were bound unto Luke 17. 10. 2. These confused men distinguish not betweene the condemning power of the Law and the Law it selfe yet this distinction cutteth the si●ewes of this obiection for can it prove the Law itselfe abolished because the condemning power of it is to some removed by Christ or if certaine uses of the Law bee abolished as in way of righteousnesse life and salvation or in way of terrifying accusing or condemning the iustified by faith must therfore the Law it selfe and all other uses of it be abolished 3. What beleever conceives himselfe under the commanding power of the Law to bee iustified by it or to expect to stand righteous before God by their obedience as these men vainely dreame no they have other ends of their obedience to the commandements of the Law As 1. To testifie their indeavor in obeying the righteous Law and will of God and their conformity to his image in the same 2. Not for the justification of their persons for that is onely by Christs compleat obedience made theirs by faith but for the testification of their iustifying faith according to the direction of the Apostle Iam. 2. 20. Shew me thy faith by thy works 3. Not for the attaining of salvation it● Pet. 1. 10. Give all dilligence to make your election sure How may we for if wee doe these things c. 4 Not to merrit any thing but to encourage themselves in the way of obedience by casting eye on the blessed remuneration freely promised and performed to duties of love to God and man begun and perfected by faith in Christ. Heb. 11 26. Moses had respect to the recompence of reward Yea our Lord himselfe for the joy that was set before him endured the crosse and despised the shame Heb. 12. 2. All these are other ends which beleevers propoūd to themselves in their obedience then to be justified by it 4. I answer it is utterly false and wicked that Gods Law taketh no hold of a justified person committing hatefull sinnes as of murder adultery and the like For although Christ have freed him from the curse and vengeance and the eternall damnation of his sinne Rom. 8. 1. Yet may the Law take hold on him for a stinging correction and a sharp punishment according to the scandall of his sin Did not the Law take hold on David when with so many other evills Gods sword was upon his house for ever for his scandalous sins Did not Gods Law lay hold on Moses Aaron then whom none was more faithfull in Gods house when for sinne they lay under sharpe rebukes and chastisement and were barred the land of Canaan Object But these were examples in the old testament before Christs death Answ. And are not beleevers in the new testament subject to the same law and penall statues of correction Were not examples of the old Testament examples to us that wee should not sinne as they sinned How could we sin as they did if we were not under the same Law Or what else but the law taketh hold on beleevers in the new testament when for the unworthy use of the Lords ordinances they are judged of the Lord even for this cause saith the Apostle Object Some say they were hypocrites that were judged Answ. As if they be hypocrites that must not be condemned with the world 5. But of all their assertions tha● is a● blinde as bo●de That if God call a beleever to account for the breach of his Law hee may say God hath nothing to doe to call him to account hee may refuse to be

the spirit all our worke is done to our hand and we have nothing left for us to doe and therefore the Law to us is as the seven green cords on Sampsons armes which he brake off as a thred of tow when it toucheth the fire and our selves as loose and at liberty from it as he was from them for the whole Law is abolished to us wholly Therefore we are to prove against them that true beleevers have both a true use of the Morall Law and besides their lively faith wherin they have received the spirit have need of the directions and doctrines of the Morall Law for the performance of the duties of it and that by these reasons If the same sinnes be forbidden after faith as before then is the Law in some force to beleevers But the same sinnes are forbidden them after faith as before And therefore the Law is in some force to them The proposition is cleare because the Law onely discovereth and revealeth sinne as the Gospell doth the remedy The assumption is also manifest because the Law is an eternall truth and is never at agreement with any sinne in whomsoever Concupiscence before faith is sinne and no lesse sinne after faith in the regenerate Davids murder and adultery were sins after faith and the same man that beleeved in God committed adultery with Bathsheba Object These were foule sins in themselves but not in him because he was justified Answ. Then Nathan was deceived in saying Thou art the man and David when he said I have sinned Had David sinne after faith then was David under a Law for obedience for every sinne is the transgression of the Law and where no Law is can be no transgression The like of Peter in the new Testament apparantly a beleever for Christ prayed that his faith should not faile yet after that fell into those foule sinnes against the Law rash swearing and false swearing and cursing himselfe which were foule sins in him as well as in themselves why should he else goe out and weepe bitterly Peter as full of shifts as he was to save his skin was to seeke in this shift to turne off all his sinne and sorrow at once that being a beleever and in the new Testament the Law had nothing to doe with him This argument our Novatians and Famelists can by no other shift avoid but by flying to a perfect purity in themselves for this is a dangerous and desperate principle of their Catechisme rife in the mouths of their Novices Be in Christ and sinne if thou canst and is very coherent with their other tenents for were the Morall Law indeed wholly abolished why should they not worship false Gods sweare breake the Saboth rebell kill whore steale what should hinder them from rayling and reviling all Ministers and people besides their owne sect as in a dead faith as onely morall men in state of death all this is no sinne abolish the Law and thou maist say Sin if thou canst But oh vaine men Can David sinne and for his sinne his flesh tremble with feare of Gods judgments Can Peter at the side of Christ sinne and that after so many warnings of Christ himselfe Doth Paul know but in part and after faith find a law in his members rebelling against the law of his minde and that after grace received the good hee would doe hee did not and the evill hee would not doe that did hee and are you in so high a forme beyond these worthies that you cannot sinne if you would Ponder a little these places of Scripture and if you be still mad of your perfection I will say of you as Ierom of your fellowes You had more need of physick to purge your braines than perswasion to informe your judgements Eccles 7. 20. There is not a just man on earth that doth good and finneth not 1 Kings 8. 46. For there is no man that sinneth not Object No Hee that is borne of God sinneth not Answ. The Apostle saith not simply and absolutely that he hath no sinne or sinneth not but hee sinneth not industriously hee makes not a trade of sinne he sinnes not as the wicked doe nor sinneth not in raigning sin nor sinneth unto death without returne and repentance because the seede of God abideth in him and destroyeth in him the worke of the Divell Prov. 20. 9. Who can say I am pure from sinne Who I can say so and I can saith every Libertine my sin may be sought for and cannot be found and mine saith another is washed off that it cannot be seene and mine saith a third is as a bottle of inke dispersed in the sea and not to be discerned And indeed thus it is in the justified in respect of Gods account and imputation but while they speak so magnifically of themselves in respect of the presence of sinne they onely blow up their bladder bigger which all the while is swelled up but with stinking winde and emptinesse But they would have some places out of the new Testament as men beyond the reach of the olde And so they may Iam. 3. 2. In many things we sinne all We all all Apostles all Christians sin that is transgresse the Law in many things by daily failings and errours and therefore all we in the new Testament since Christs death though we be justified by faith are under the rule and obedience of the Law because we sin in many things 1 Ioh. 1. 8. If we say we have no sinne we deceive our selves and there is no truth in us Wee Who The Apostle speaketh of carnall men say some of the Libertines as if the Apostle was a carnall man but the former verse expresseth who they be that have sinne those that walke in the light those that are in communion of Saints and have fellowship one with another and those that are justified and sanctified whom the blood of Iesus Christ his Sonne hath cleansed from all sinne If the same duties be required of all after faith as before and every conscience bound to the performance then the Law in the whole use is not abolished to beleevers But the first is true and therefore the second The former appeares because where any duty is commanded there the rule of that duty is implied and this rule is the Morall Law which bindeth all men to all duties of it both before and after Christ being an eternall measure of all that is right or crooked That it is a rule of duty before Christ they deny not and that it is a rule of duty since Christ I make it plaine thus 1. Because Christ himselfe did confirme expound establish and fortify the Law by his word and authority which was the scope of his large Sermon upon the Mount in Mat. 5. 6. and 7 chapters which had it beene to be utterly abolished he would rather have declaimed bitterly against the Law as our Antinomists

doe have rather commended the Pharises for weakning it by their glosses than have vindicated it and restored to the full strength and power of it 2. Our Lord not onely confirmes it in it selfe by his doctrine and life but also in the conscience of every Christian. Matth. 5. 19. He that breaketh the least of these commandements and teacheth men so to doe shall be least in the kingdome of heaven but he that shall teach and observe them shall be called great in the kingdome of heaven that is shall be honoured and counted a worthy member in the Church of God No saith the Libertine we must not teach the Law in the Church and those that doe are legall Preachers that lead men into a dead faith we must doe nothing because God commands us nay we not onely reverse the least of them but all at once and teach others so to doe See now if fire be more contrary to water or Christ to Belial than Christ to these sonnes of Belial that will be under no yoke of the Law no rule no obedience 3. The Apostles after Christ bring converted Christians every where to the rule of the Law and frequently alledge the Law to urge the duties of it and therefore the Law ceaseth not to be the rule in the new Testament for if it had they would not have pressed exhortations by the Law Rom. 12. 19. Dearely beloved avenge not your selves Why For it is written Vengeance is mine Rom. 13. 8 9. pressing the duty of love the onely debt beseeming a Christian he urgeth it by this argument because love is the fulfilling of the Law and repeateth all the commandements of the second Table not to repeale or reverse any of them but to confirme them as the rule still and comprehendeth them all in this Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe Ephes 6. 1. Children obey your parents and presseth the duty from the Law for this is the first commandement with promise Heb. 12. 28. Let us have grace to serve God acceptably with reverence and feare Why For our God is even a consuming fire Did not now the Apostles come as well with a rod as with the spirit of meeknesse did not they perswade men as knowing the terrour of the Lord did not they call mens eyes not onely to behold the goodnesse of God but also to behold his severity Rom. 11. 22. Dare now an audacious Libertine step out and tell the Apostles as they tell us that they were legall Preachers that they taught men popery and justification by workes and that they made men onely morall Christians because they held the Law before them as the rule of all duties both of piety and charity If Christ came not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it then the Law is not abolished for either Christ abolished it or none and either by his comming or not at all But Christ chargeth us not to thinke that hee came to abolish it Matth. 5. 17. For what is it to destroy the Law but to take from it that vertue and power whereby it is a Law and to make it of none effect And that Christ came not to destroy the Law is manifest because 1. It is his owne Law which must endure for ever in heaven Psal. 119. 2. Because it is holy just and spirituall Rom. 7. 13. Which words imply 1. That there is in it a supernaturall divine and unperishing vertue resembling God himselfe who shall as easily be destroyed as his Law 2. That it serveth to be a divine direction of all men in all holy just and spirituall duties 3. That it is an holy instrument of the spirit by which he leadeth out the faithfull into the practise of those duties 4. That whosoever have the spirit sent to dwell and rule and to write the Law in their hearts they cannot detract from the Law but the more spirituall themselves are the more doe they discerne the spirituall power of it and frame to the spirituall observance of it so did the Apostle in this place so David Psal. 19. 7 8. and 119. 39. Nay Christ came to fulfill it in himselfe and in his members 1. By preaching illustrating and inforcing the Law by vindicating it from false glosses and restoring to the full and first strength of it by all which he sheweth it to bee immutable and eternall 2. By plenary and full satisfaction of it and by his perfect and personall obedience both active and passive so as he fulfilled all the righteousnesse of it and left not one iota of it unfulfilled 3. By donation of his spirit writing the Law in the hearts of the elect and inciting them to new and cheerfull obedience of it for to this end the Saints receive the law of the spirit of life that they may not walke after the flesh any more but after the spirit If the Apostles after Christ did not abrogate the Law but establish it then it is not abolished to beleevers in the new Testament But they by the doctrine of faith did not Rom. 3. 31. Doe we abrogate the Law by faith God forbid nay wee establish it Where the Apostle cryes downe that grosse conceit of the contrariety of the Law and Gospell so as one of them must needs devoure the other as Moses rod did the rods of the inchanters True it is they are a distinct and divers doctrine but in God and his word is no contrariety And true it is the Law and Gospell will never stand together in the justification of a sinner before God yet they friendly concur and agree in Christian conversation wherein they are inseperable as also they are in Christian institution yea here they helpe one another as one hand doth another Whēce the holy Apostles who knew that the Gospell was not properly and substantially the Law yet usually in the publication of the Gospell confirme the authority of the Law See some instances Rom. 1. 18. The Gospel is the power of God to salvation and by it not onely the righteousnes of God is revealed from faith to faith but the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodlines not that the Gospell is a ministery of wrath but a witnesse that wrath hangs over the heads of wicked men rejecting the Gospell Rom. 2. 16. Christ shall judge the secrets of men according to my Gospell that is according to the witnesse of the Gospell preached by me 1 Iohn 2. 1. Brethren I write these things to you that you sinne not and what did he write else but the sweet tidings of the Gospell that is any confesse his sinnes God is faithfull and just to forgive them and that if any sinne wee have an advocate with the Father c For as no man can teach any duty of the Law but therin calls to faith for call to the love of God the substance of the first Table must not he be first beleeved and then

loved or to prayer how can they call on him on whom they have not beleeved and so in the rest so neither can a man preach faith without some reference to the Law for can a man beleeve a remedy without knowledge search of the wound nay it is the Law that fits us to prize Christ a physitian or else would we never meddle with him no more than he would seeke out for a garment that hath no sence of his shame or nakednesse What if the Law know not nor command one to die or satisfie for another yet it doth not denie or exclude or hinder the mercy of God revealed in the Gospell but maketh way unto it The Apostles therefore did not abrogate the Law by faith nay saith our Apostle we establish it From whence the argument will rise stronger If the Apostles did stablish the Law by the doctrine of faith then is not the Law abolished to beleevers in the new Testament But they did establish the Law by faith Quest. How doth faith stablish the Law Answ. 1. In shewing that all the menaces and curses of it are not in vaine but all fulfilled in Christ who was laid under them all to free us from them 2. It fulfils the Law because it bringeth before God the perfect fulfilling of the Law for justification though not in our selves yet in our surety in whom wee have perfectly fulfilled it and shall live by it the Law must be absolutely fulfilled by us in our surety or we cannot live 3. It stablisheth the Law because faith worketh by love which love is the fulfilling of the Law so as by faith being justified as we are in a stronger obligation to the duties of it so we begin a new obedience to all the commandements and there is no duty which a Christian is not firmely obliged unto Tell me saith Augustine what there is in all the ten commandements what it is that a Christian is not bound unto 4. Because by faith we can pray and by the prayer of faith obtaine the spirit of God by whom we are supplied with needfull strength to obey the Law so August faith obtaines grace by which the Law is fulfilled and Ambrose saith that faith stablisheth the Law because faith shewes those duties to be done which the Law commandeth to be done And thus have we strengthened our fourth argument which hath proved that the Apostles of Christ abolished not the Law but established it and therefore it is not without use and force in the new Testament In whomsoever must be a constant endeavour of conformity to the Law to those the Law is not abolished This is plaine because where any thing is to be regulated there the rule is necessary But every beleever after conversion must strive to a conformity with the Law 1. in his inner man 2. in his outward man 3. in his whole man 1. In his inner man he must delight in the Law of God Rom. 7. 22. both in his minde he must serve the Law of God verse 25. and in his affections hee must love the Law Psal. 119. 97. Oh how love I thy Law Psal. 1. 1. The blessed man delighteth in the Law of the Lord not onely in the knowledge of it which an hypocrite may but in the conformity of their hearts and affections with it they carry friendly affections to the Law Our Antinomists outboast all men in point of their justification But St Ambrose his rule denieth them to be justified because they are not friends with the Law And Mr. Luther whom they challendge as their friend and favourer rangeth them among unjustified and unregenerate men of whom he saith that they love the Law as well as a murderer loveth the prison and so well love these the Law and therefore by his censure rejected among the unregenerate 2. In his outward man and action the justified man must testifie that the Law of God is written in his heart so the Apostle 1 Ioh. 2. 17. He that fulfilleth the commandement abideth for ever What is this commandement and what is it to fulfill it The commandement is the same which he had delivered in the former part of the chapter consisting of two branches 1. To beleeve in the Sonne of God as our onely satisfaction our onely advocate and the reconciliati on for the sinnes of the world v. 1 2. That we embrace him as our unerring patterne of our lives and walke as he walked v. 6. Quest. How did hee walke Answ. 1. In the generall observation of the whole Law 2. In speciall In the perfect love of the brethren v. 9. and in the contempt of the world Now must Christ walk in the obedience of the commandements and must not the Christian Yes saith the Apostle Every Christian must fulfill the commandement Object What will you teach justification by workes Answ. No we call not men to legall fulfilling of the commandement but evangelicall as 1. when the minde delighteth in the Law of God as holy just and good 2. When the heart hides it to conforme unto it 3. When the affection desireth to fulfill it rejoyceth when he can attaine to any obedience and sorroweth when he faileth in it 4. When in his actions he beginneth that obedience which shall end in perfect fulfilling this the Gospell accepteth and accompteth a fulfilling of the commandement Thus the Apostle Rom 8. 4. The righteousnesse of the Law is fulfilled in us which walke not after the flesh but after the spirit that is Christ by his meritorious obedience to the death hath not onely freed us beleevers from the condemning power of sinne but from the commanding power of it and so renewed our nature as that the Law of God shall be fulfilled in us and that two wayes 1. By application of his owne perfect fulfilling of it unto us with whom we by faith being united unto him whatsoever is his being the head is ours also being members 2. By our sanctification it is fulfilled in us inchoately that is by obedience begun here which at last shall be perfected so as not the least motion or desire contrary to the Law shall be left in our nature Thus is the righteousnesse of the Law fulfilled not by us but in us even here below and is our rule both in earth and in heaven 3. In his whole man the beleever must grow up to the image of Christ and to the conformity of his holinesse which is no other but the perfect image of God expressed in the Law This growth in grace and sanctification is called the rising up to full holinesse as the Sunne riseth up higher till perfect day Prov. 4. 18. The way of the just is as the light which shineth more and more till perfect day But this cannot be done without the helpe of the Law the onely rule by which and the scope unto which it must be directed For 1. how should a beleever free from