Selected quad for the lemma: grace_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
grace_n	administration_n	covenant_n	intelligible_a	61	3	16.8323	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A32770	Neonomianism unmask'd, or, The ancient gospel pleaded against the other, called a new law or gospel in a theological debate, occasioned by a book lately wrote by Mr. Dan. Williams, entituled, Gospel-truth stated and vindicated ... / by Isaac Chauncy ...	Chauncy, Isaac, 1632-1712.	1692 (1692)	Wing C3754; Wing C3754A; Wing C3755; ESTC R19390	474,696	516

contains not the Genus or common Nature of a Covenant viz. to be an Agreement wherein two Parties do mutually consent nor the Parties wherein the Nature of a Covenant doth consist which is a Condition and Promise nor is there a Covenant in the more improper fence denoted viz. A Promise for if it be a Covenant of Grace it must be at least a Covenant of Promise 2. You say it 's a way ordained of God Here 's no Forma or Differentia for many things are ways and means which are not Covenants you should have said according to your Sence it's God's Agreement with Sinners upon Terms of Faith and Repentance 3. The Application of the means effectually is part of the Salvation it self 4. You say this Salvation is prepared by Christ you should have said By the Father in his Councel and Purpose for the giving his Son and blessing us with all Blessings in him The Life and Salvation is Christ and in Christ he is our Life the Father hath given us Life and this is in his Son 5. You should have said Which he hath promised to enable the Elect to comply with or else it hath nothing of a Covenant in it it carries only the force of electing Will and if he hath promised then to some or other either to Christ and then it brings in your Covenant of Redemption if to any other excluding Christ then to the Elect out of Christ For the Promise to make a Person comply must be made and must be in Nature before he doth comply Neonom I pray what do you say is the Covenant of Grace Antinom I shall tell you the Parties between whom it was made It was made by God in the Person of the Father with Man in the Person of the Son You speak improperly to talk of the Father and Spirit covenanting with the Son you should rather say The Father Son and Spirit covenanted with the Son For by this Notion you take in the Persons of the Trinity for you must take them all in the covenanting part and then there 's as much reason to take them in all in their stipitulating part because the Son is God and so the three Persons covenanted with themselves under the same distinct consideration in the Godhead But we say God essentially considered covenanted in the Person of the Father with Man in the Person of the Son His Son taking Man's part being his Representative as having his Nature in the same Person therefore as the Second Adam having all the Spiritual Seed in his Loyns and as a common Person foederally Neonom And what is a Covenant between these ●a●●sks Antinom It 's the Promise of Eternal Life made to Christ and to the Elect in him to be performed in and through Jesus Christ as the great Condition to all them that shall be saved by him Covenants are denominated from either part by a Synechdoche here chiefly from the Promise as the same is sometimes from the Condition The Covenant of Grace is a great Mystery c. Rom. 16.25 Col. 1.26 1. Because it was Eternal Tit. 1.2 2 Tim. 1.9 2. That though between God and Man yet being made with us in Christ it was between Equals Phil. 2.6 3. That though it was a Covenant of Works yet a Covenant of Grace to Christ a Covenant of Works and most conditional Isa 53.10 11 12. To us absolute and free being a Promise of the Gift of Christ and all Blessings in him 4. It is mysterious in respect of the several states that it hath had 1. Hidden 2. Revealed Hidden in God before the World was Revealed since the World 1. Less manifested in the Promulgation before Christ's coming 1 In respect of the few Emanations and Discoveries of its Brightness and Lustre in Absolute Promises to Adam Noah Abraham Jacob David 2 In regard of it's Vailed state First Under the Veils of Sacrifices Types Figures Secondly Under a Legal Moral and Conditional Administration 5. It is mysterious in regard of the various Names and Titles that it hath had from it's different Dispensations that under the Law was called Old and Faulty because it made but a partial Discovery of it's Glory and Lustre In the New Testament it 's called the New Covenant in respect of the new and clear Dispensation it 's called the Promise because it appears absolutely given forth in a Promissory way it 's called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Nature of it in relation to Sinners it's good News to them It 's called a Testament because confirmed by Christ's Death Neonom But you tell me not how you prove the Covenant of Grace and Redemption are all one Antinom 1. Because I know them not spoken of any where as distinct Covenants The Scripture of Isa 53.10 11 12. is a place wherein this Covenant is so clearly described between the Father and the Son it holds forth the Covenant of Grace fully and clearly the Promise of all Grace and Benefits that are contained in the said Covenant of Grace And the Apostle tells us expresly That this Covenant-Agreement was the Will by which we are sanctified through the offering of the Body of Jesus once for all Heb. 10.8 9 10. 2. That Covenant that contains in it the whole Matter and Form in Conditions and Promises of the Covenant of Grace doth not Essentially differ from it but the Covenant of Redemption doth It contains Conditions and Promises of Grace all things that pertain to Life and Godliness and it contains in it all conditions upon which we may be partakers of any Promises Christ's Person Offices Sacrifice Righteousness Active and Passive there 's no Covenant condition of Atonement Propitiation Satisfaction unto the Justice of God but it is here Christ is the Great Fulfiller of the Law and Satisfier of it he is the End of the Law for Righteousness to every Believer Rom. 10.4 3. From the Vailed Dispensation of the Covenant of Grace before the coming of Christ their Sacrifices and their Ceremonial Administration held forth in a Figure that it is made to Christ and confirmed in him as the Great Offering and Atonement Christ is there exemplified and set forth as the fulness of the Covenant of Grace both in respect of Promises and Conditions 4. When we plead any thing of the Covenant of Grace it 's the Promises of Life made to us in Christ as Yea and Amen to us in him in respect of obtaining and performance to us 5. Our Justifying Acts of Faith is fixed on Christ as the Summ of the Covenant of Grace as Satisfying for our Sins and as to whom the Promises were made and the great thing promised as the Fountain and Meritorious Cause of all Blessings he is given us as the Covenant 6. There is all Grace to be had in this Covenant frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora there is no Grace but is given forth and

God unto Salvation but not as the Cause this were to change the Covenant of Grace into a Covenant of Works our good Works are the effects of Grace the Reward of good Works are a Reward of Grace Good Works are necessary to Salvation as the Way not as an Instrument or Cause Faith is necessary to Salvation as an Instrument The Active and Passive Obedience of Christ is necessary as a meritorious Cause Calvin Mr. Antisozzo I pray do you now speak impartially to this Point Antisozzo I think I have met with his Scheme before now and as I take it it runs thus and the Question that lies before us is this What Influence the Sacrifice of Christs Death and the Righteousness of his Life have upon our acceptance with God The Gentleman that I once disputed with stated the Question so and resolved it as follows Antisozzo p. 580. All that I can find in Scripture about this is That to this we owe the Covenant of Grace That God being well-pleased with the Obedience of Christ's Life and the Sacrifice of his Death for his sake entred into a new Covenant with Mankind wherein he promises pardon of Sin and eternal Life to those who believe and obey the Gospel I think this is exactly your Scheme Mr. Neonomian Neonom Yes and something more D. W. p. 8. viz. That the Gospel barrs all Vnbelievers and dead Sinners from Pardon and Adoption and denounceth the continuance of Condemnation against them limiting it's Benefits to such as believe Antisozzo This Scheme contains three things 1. A Description of the Covenant of Grace 2. An Assertion that this Covenant of Grace is owing to the Sacrifice and Righteousness of Christ 3. A Supposition that this Righteousness and Sacrifice of Christ hath no other Influence upon our acceptance with God but that for his sake he enrted into such a Covenant with Mankind 1. His Description is this A Promise of the pardon of Sin and Eternal Life to those who believe and obey the Gospel Neonom You will not I hope deny this to be a true Description of the Covenant of Grace Antisozzo But I will for all your hast It is a Description so liable to Exceptions that it describes neither the whole of the Covenant nor a New Covenant nor upon the matter any Covenant at all Neonom If you prove what you say Eris mihi magnus Apollo I 'll strike out your Name from my Book and if I can be convinced I must subscribe yours Antisozzo You shall see what I can do presently 1. This Description gives us very little of a true Covenant of Grace For 1. Tho you think to put us off with a Promise of Pardon and Life to those that believe and obey the true Covenant of Grace hath given us a Promise of that Faith whereby we may believe and of that New Heart whereby we are enabled to obey the Gospel And First We have the Promise of the right Faith in the true Covenant John 6.37 Eph. 1.8 And least it should be said Faith is a common Gift as other things are the Apostle hath his reply ready Eph. 1.19 Secondly We have a direct and express Promise too of that New Heart from which we give to God new Obedience Ezek. 36. Ver. 26 27. c. 2. This Description gives but very little of the true Covenant of Grace there 's a Promise of Pardon and Life to them who believe and obey but Perseverance in Faith and Obedience is left to the Desultory and Lubricous Power of Free Will whereas in the true C●venant of Grace there 's an Undertaking that the Covenant shall be immutable both on God's part Jer. 32.38 4. God hath said He will not turn away from doing them good And 2ly He hath promised That they shall not depart from him c. p. 583. 2. As it describes not the whole of the Covenant so it describes not the Nature of a new Covenant 1. It describes no New Covenant in opposition to the Old Covenant of Works The Covenant with Adam promised Life upon condition of O●edience and those Commands as easie as those now given to Mankind and much easier too if we consider Adam's Natural Strength 2. We are told by you that Christ hath added to the Moral Law i. e. to the Moral Duties required by the New Law Faith and Repentance which is to lay more Load on those that were overcharged before So that as you make Covenants Adam's was much the better Covenant of the two but you have wisely shuffled in a Promise of the Pardon of Sin which may seem to give this Covenant a Preheminence above that of Adam But that will not mend the matter both because it 's better to have no Sin in our Natures than such a Remedy better to have no Wound than such a Plaister and also because the Promise of Pardon as you say is suspended upon the condition of Faith and Obedience which without a Supernatural real Influx of immediate Divine Power reduceth the Promise to an impossibility of Performance 2ly This Covenant described is no new Covenant in opposition to the Old Administration of the Covenant of Grace there were the same Promises then that we have now the same Moral Precepts that we have now Though the Word Gospel come in for a Blind yet the Apostle assures us the Gospel was preached to Abraham 3. Upon the matter it 's no Covenant of Grace at all p. 584. For 1. A Promise of Pardon and Life upon condition of believing and obeying is neither better nor worse than a Threatning of Condemnation and Death to them who believe not and obey not It may with equal right be called a Threatning of Death as a Promise of Life It 's no more of Grace than a Covenant of Wrath And therefore 2ly If it be lawful to consider Man as the Word of God describes him dead in Sins and Trespasses It 's no Covenant at all to him For what is the nice difference betwixt the Promise of Life to him that obeys when it 's certain before-hand he cannot obey and no Promise at all c. Neonom Well Sir pray let us call another Cause Do you argue like a Voucher to my Book Mr. Calvinist he is a sharp Man and he doth this only for Argumentation sake he is of my mind for all this Antisozzo No do not you believe that you wheadled me in to vouch for your Book I know not how but I shall stick the closer upon your Skirts for that I have not done with you yet Calvin I will then propound one Question to Mr. Antisozzo Whether the Covenant of Grace be owing to the Sacrifice of Christs Death and so be distinct from that he calls the Covenant of Redemption Because our time now is up speak only what your Judgment is in this Point Antisozzo Mr. Neonomian I must tell you I have narrowly pryed into this Paradox That the Covenant of Grace is owing to procured by and

are pardoned but yet continues to pray for a further manifestation of Pardon Did not David tell us what it is Psal 1.10 Restore to me the Joy of thy Salvation Neonom For were it so yet it is for our Sins it would sound strange to pray Forgive us the Sins of Christ Antinom Yes we pray for the Pardon of our Sins that were laid on Christ and though we do not pray to forgive us the Sins of Christ yet we pray to God to forgive us for the sake of Christ whose bearing of Sin and Satisfaction wrought we always plead believing But you will banter Christ's bearing Sins Neonom The Saints in Scripture esteemed them their Sins and themselves Sinners when they committed Sin and found it's Motions Jer. 14.7 Isa 59.12 Job 7.21 Psal 25.11 D. W. p. 25. Antinom So do we though they and we ought to acknowledge Sin always in Faith of the pardoning mercy of God in Christ we should ask Pardon in Faith nothing doubting but sometimes there may be but weak Faith next to none in God's Children and great Doubtings and therefore great Guilt lying upon their Consciences and from thence great Darkness in times of Temptation Thence did flow those Pathetical Expressions of many of the Faithful from God's hiding of his Face and the Weakness of their Faith as if they were reprobated ones and cast away and so it is even now sometimes And though we believe Christ hath born our Sins yet this is the greatest Ground of true Gospel-brokenness of Heart that they were our Sins and are now the Product of corrupt Flesh the Old Man remaining in us which we labour under endeavouring to get more and more into Christ by a strong Faith that the Body of Sin the Source of Corruption in us may be destroyed Therefore Repentance and Godly Sorrow is exercised even for our Sins laid on Christ Neonom 3. God reckons Sins to be their own he reproves them he forgave them 1 John 2.12 Jer. 33.8 Rev. 2.20 Rev. 3.19 2 Tim. 4.16 D. W. p. 26. Antinom Sins are Sins and our Sins we have said it again and again and therefore reprovable in us and to be forgiven in us by the Application of Pardon All this hinders not but that we be without Fault before God and our Sins cast behind his Back we have a Perfection and Fulness of Pardon and all Grace in Christ Jesus though Sin it self was never reconciled to God and therefore God sets us to the killing of it Christ destroyed Sin on the Cross as to the obstructing God's compleat Love to the Persons of the Elect so that it cannot condemn before God but it is Sin Yet in the Elect and will accuse and condemn wherever it is or at least the Law will by Reason of it and therefore it hath it's Influence this way sometimes on the Holiest Men. It 's in the Nature of Sin to condemn but God doth not condemn for Sin though he condemns Sin daily in the holiest Men and through Unbelief they are apt to think their Persons condemned of God himself When God denounceth Judgment against a sinful Church or Nation they are ordinarily hypocritical prophane and Apostate and therefore a mixt People many or most under a Covenant of Works and a People in their Sins which God awakens by Threatnings or Judgments themselves and therefore the places quoted by you affect us not The Force of your arguing lies here Those Sins that God calls our Sins and we ought to call our Sins are not laid on Christ and taken away but God calls Sins our Sins and we ought to call them so Ergo. The Major is utterly false For all places that we bring to prove that Sin was laid on Christ do call them our Sins and we speak of them as such and it's cause of Abasement in our selves and thankful Admiration of the Free Grace of God in Christ and so the Church acknowledge their Sins Jer. 14.7 8. Isa 59.12 16 17. Neonom Mark what will follow hence No Elect Members of a Church are justly censured for Offences and no Christian Criminal could be punished for they are not the Sinners the Sin is not theirs Antinom It is a shame to hear a Mininister argue in this manner Your Argument runs thus If the Sins of the Elect were laid on Christ by Imputation then no Church or Court of Judicature can proceed to condemn an Offender Ergo. Baculus stat in Angulo ergo pluit Doth Man see and judge as God doth Is there no difference between Forum Divinum and Humanum Ecclesiastick and Civil the Law before Man and his Administration of it knows no difference of Persons it proceeds secundum allegata probata Churches censures is in order to a Justification before the Church that by Faith and Repentance it may appear that God hath forgiven such an one that he belongs to Electing and Redeeming Grace and the Sinners Sin laid on Christ and when they find that they are soon reconciled to an offending Member And you say If Sins were laid on Christ no Christian Criminal can be punished A very sad Case indeed for then any Criminal condemned justly by Man's Law can never be saved For if Christ bore not his Sins he can't be pardoned nay may not a Godly Man through Temptation fall into a Crime whereby he may justly suffer in Foro humano and doth this hinder his Salvation by Christ And is it an Argument his Sins were never laid on Christ Are not these consistent a Sinner and condemned by Man's Law and an absolved Sinner by the satisfy'd Law of God Was not the converted Thief a Sinner justly condemned by Man though absolved by God because Christ bore his sins on the Cross and if he had repented before he had been hanged on the Cross would it have freed him from Man's Sentence Satisfaction to God's Law is not to Man's nor Satisfaction to Man's is not to God's Men stay not Execution of a Malefactor because he repents to Salvation but Man's Law must take it's course upon him I doubt not but the Ordinary of Newgate can teach you better Divinity than this A Man may be in one respect guilty and in another not And so likewise God deals with his Children two ways in case of their eminent Falls in a way of his common Providential Government of the World in foro mundi as he dealt with David that those Evils of Affliction Judgments in the Apprehension of the Men of the World should befall them and so in the Participation of external common Calamities there should not be any manifest difference between them and other Men. Therefore the Wise Man saith That Love and Hatred is not known by these things But notwithstanding all this the other and certain way of God's dealing with them is according to the Covenant of Grace which is the Secret of the Lord he fully pardons their Sins is reconciled to them in Christ will never leave or forsake them

Antinom Very good then sure if the Spirit be an Earnest of Glory it 's an Evidence of Glory for what is a greater Evidence of a state than an Earnest Yea you say it 's also a Witness of our state if it be a Witness it is by a Testimony and if it bear Testimony and such an one as we take to be a Witness to our state it is something to this purpose Christ is thine thy Sins are Forgiven it must witness something that may beget in the Soul a joyful sence of its reconciled state there contrary to you Assurance must come in the immediate objective Revelation of the Spirit by the Spirits speaking in the Promise believed God is thy God Christ is thine thy Sins are taken away or something to this purpose Neither is this absurd to say the Spirit speaks thus ordinarily by a Voice because it is so interpretatively the Lord speaks when he causeth his Word to speak effectually unto the Heart and whatever Truth of God is made efficacious by the Spirit the Spirit speaks by it If any word of Promise become a truely comforting Word the Spirit as Comforter speaks by it you have granted us here in a manner as much as we can desire in this Point excepting an Equivocating Expression viz. as a Worker of Grace and whatever Evasion you have there this I will say that you make the Spirit an Evidence in its Efficiency it self as an Efficient whereas Signs and Marks are but Evidences as Effects And is not the Spirit received in its first sensible Efficiency in and by the Promise a great Evidence Gal. 3.3 2 Pet. 1.3 Neonom Nor whether the Spirit witnesseth by and with the Conscience in the manifestation of our Graces for Assurance Calvin It is a strange thing that you should make such a loud Cry in the World against a Man for Errour when you in a manner say the same thing and the Word of God asserts it so positively that the Spirit is the Comforter and witnesseth with our Spirits that we are his Children and you say as the Worker of Grace i. e. of all Grace and therefore of this Grace and if it works it must be by some Word of Peace that it speaks and is believed and you say it witnesses by and with the Conscience the Conscience speaking in and by the Spirit and how is the Conscience made to speak Peace more than by the sprinkling of the Blood of Christ whereby an Evil Condemning Conscience is taken away what manifestation of Grace works Peace most the manifestation of the Grace of Christ or of our Graces And these must appear to be the Graces of Christ and slow from him or else they are no Graces the Witness of the Spirit and the Intelligible believed Voice of the Spirit particularly applying the Declaration of the Gospel of Peace must be in all and is the most settled ground of all comfortable Assurance Neonom Nor whether the Spirit of God may in some Extraordinary Cases give an immediate Testimony by a Voice or some Equivalent Impressions D. W. p. 164. Antinom 1. You grant that sometimes the Spirit may witness by Voice or Equivalent Impressions 2. The Extraordinary Cases you here speak of must be meant of some not so usual in an ordinary way 3. I would know whether then the Spirit is to be believed and how its Voice may be distinguished from the Voice of a False Spirit 4. Whether when you speak of a Voice you mean an Articulate sound or such a still Voice as the Spirit speaks by which is an Impression of Gospel Truth with a particular application to the Soul this as you say is Equivalent to a Voice and it is the Eccho of the Word of Promise in the Heart and this is not an Extraordinary nor unusual way bringing Souls to settled Peace and Comfort Neonom But then there was the Truth of Grace though it was doubted before and nothing utterly inconsistent with true Grace either in the Heart nor then appeareth to the Conscience Antinom So that there is first a Witness from our selves before there 's Witness from the Spirit but how comes it that this Witness from our selves hath not Credit enough with it to be believed For if it hath whence comes doubting Here 's truth of Grace and nothing appears to the contrary and yet the Person doubts Doth any Man doubt of any thing when he apprehends nothing to the contrary And you say there 's the Truth of Grace before the Spirit witnesseth who wrought this truth of Grace do you not say that it witnesseth to our state as a Worker of Grace Neonom I will tell you where the true difference lyes 1. Whether none attain Assurance but by the Inward Voice of the Spirit pronouncing the Actual Forgiveness of Sins without manifesting their true Grace and Sanctification This you affirm and I deny Antinom You should have made the first Question whether any Assurance is attainable till Death because Perseverance is one of your Infallible Marks and all others signifie nothing unless we can take up upon that and that must run out to the last moment before we can 2. We affirm that there can be no Assurance without knowledge that our Sins are Forgiven assign an Assurance without it if you can and your Assurance from marks must come to this if it be Assurance 3. This must be by the Spirits pronouncing of it or no way when you have found all that you can it 's God must speak peace or else it will never be and Peace of Reconciliation however you Banter God's Reconciling the World and the Spirits bringing home the Word of Reconciliation 4. Who ever spake of the Spirits manifesting Forgiveness without manifestation of the whole Grace of God that brings Salvation in Sanctification as well as Justification both comes under the Witness of the Spirit and therefore you are besides the Question and state it not right Neonom The next Question is Whether the usual way of attaining Assurance is by the Conscience upon Tryal discerning and concluding through the help of the Spirit that a Man hath those Graces or Signs which describe a Man Blessed and Pardoned according to the Gospel This I affirm and you deny Antinom 1. That I deny Sanctification to be a sign of Justification is false for that which is an undoubted Effect is a sign of the Cause and an Argument of it to conclude it by 2. It 's not the Question whether it be not the usual way of attaining Assurance de facto such Gospel Preachers as you are still putting them upon this way and telling them there 's no other safe way 3. The Question is whether this be the only way Whether another way ought not to go first Neonom I will now confirm the Truth by some Arguments 1. This is the way that God appoints to attain Assurance 2 Cor. 13.5 2 Pet. 1.10 Antinom This is one way who denies it and a Duty