Selected quad for the lemma: grace_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
grace_n	bind_v	conscience_n	forename_a	70	3	16.6424	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41128	The souls looking-glasse, lively representing its estate before God with a treatise of conscience : wherein the definitions and distinctions thereof are unfolded, and severall cases resolved / by ... William Fenner ...	Fenner, William, 1600-1640.	1643 (1643)	Wing F700; ESTC R477	127,214	226

morall law is still sinne therefore still it bindeth the conscience Do ye not remember what St James saith now under the Gospel he presseth it yet on mens consciences He that said Do not commit adultery said also Do not kill Now though thou commit no adultery yet if thou kill thou art become a transgressour of the law And though ye may call it a law of liberty in what sense ye please yet he telleth you Ye had best look to your words and deeds for ye must be judged by this law of liberty So speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty Thirdly That which being observed doth cause the conscience of the regenerate to excuse and being transgressed to accuse that bindeth their conscience For what else do you make binding of conscience but this But the law of God being observed doth cause the conscience to excuse being transgressed to accuse In many things we sinne all saith the Apostle Mark Our consciences do accuse us as we do sinne in many things so our consciences do accuse us when we do so I am a sinfull man saith S t Peter Luke 5.8 His conscience did accuse him of sinne Fourthly That which is the condition of Gods covenant of grace bindeth the conscience yea of the regenerate but sincere obedience to Gods law is a condition of Gods covenant of grace See Luke 1.72 To remember his holy covenant and the oath that he sware that he would give us That being delivered out of the hands of our enemies we might serve him without fear in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the dayes of our life Mark Sincere and universall obedience is a condition of the covenant of grace not onely for a manifestation to our selves that we are truly justified as these upstart patritians do hold but it is the condition of the covenant of grace Every covenant hath its conditions annexed and therefore it is called the book of the covenant Exod. 24.7 the words of the covenant Exod. 34.28 the tables of the covenant Deut. 9.11 The reason is this Because when a covenant is made the conditions are put into a book or a table and expressed in words Onely here is the difference between the first covenant of works and the second covenant of grace Both have conditions but here I say is the difference In the one grace giveth the covenant and grace giveth the condition of the covenant but a condition is annexed though Now hence we may argue and none but enemies to the Gospel can denie it If the covenant of grace do bind a mans conscience then certainly the condition of the covenant bindeth a mans conscience too But the covenant of grace bindeth the conscience of the regenerate and therefore the condition of it bindeth If you ask What is this to obedience the answer is That obedience is the condition of the covenant of grace as the forenamed Scripture expresseth Luke 1.72 Thus ye see the law of God bindeth the conscience of all the regenerate This is the third Use 4. Hath the word of God supreme power to bind conscience Then hence we may learn that no creature can dispense with it nor free conscience from guilt when a man transgresseth the word What a damned usurpation is it in the Pope to offer to dispense The Canonists say he may dispense de praeceptis veteris novi testamenti They are their own words he may dispense with the commandments of the old and new testament He dispensed with king Henry the eighth and undertook to free his conscience from guilt though he married his own brothers wife Gregorie the second undertook to free subjects from being bound in their consciences to keep their oaths of allegeance to Leo the Emperour O these are damned aspirings and they plainly declare him to be Antichrist who exalteth himself in this manner The word of God is the supreme binder of conscience And therefore not all the Angels in heaven can dispense with one idle word For ever O Lord thy word is settled in heaven Gods word is settled for ever in heaven and therefore ye may assoon remove the heaven from its place as one tittle of the word from binding conscience Doth the word say thus or thus thou hadst best do it If thou wilt not all the whole world cannot help thee thy conscience will condemne thee at the day of judgement without remedie Hath the word convinced thee of thy sinnes and made thy conscience say I am a sinner and am guiltie before God I tell thee then Thy conscience is bound and all the world cannot loose it But hast thou been humbled and emptied of thy self and doth the word pronounce pardon of thy sinnes in Christs name that thy conscience can say The Lord speaketh peace to my soul I tell thee Thou art loosed and nor hell nor devil nor sinne nor flesh nor any thing can bind thee Ye may see the power of Gods word in that speech of our Saviour Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven Matth. 18.18 That is My word which ye preach is of that nature that if that loose your conscience it is loosed indeed and nothing can bind it if that do bind it it is bound soundly indeed and nothing can loose it O this is a terrour to the wicked Doth the word of God say He that hardneth his neck being often rebuked shall suddenly be destroyed and cannot be cured O fear and tremble ye that harden your necks against the reproofs of the Almightie his word bindeth over your consciences to Christs barre Doth the word say Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge If thou beest such an one thy conscience is bound with this word and it will apply it to the soul before the tribunal-seat of Christ Doth the word crie out against any of thy courses thy conscience is bound as with chains and it is not all thy vain hopes and excuses can loose thee Again this is comfort to the godly Gods word is the supreme binder of conscience O ye blessed of the Lord the word of God tieth such a fast knot to your comforts that all hell cannot open it with their teeth The word of the Lord Jesus is with you who hath the key of David that openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth Yea but sayest thou My sinnes are against me What then mark what the word saith We have an Advocate with the Father Thy conscience is bound to believe that Yea but I have a very naughtie heart and I cannot tell what to do with it Mark what the word saith Believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved This bindeth thy conscience But I offend dayly Mark still what the word saith Christ bringeth in everlasting righteousnesse If thou beest unworthy to day there is righteousnesse for thee to day if unworthy worthy to morrow there is righteousnesse

Christ Jesus hath sealed up a new covenant in his own bloud conscience is freed from that former Rom. 3.28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law For though justifying faith never be without the sincere doing of the law yet the deeds of the law have no influence into justification Conscience is freed from seeking justification thereby Thirdly the conscience of the regenerate is freed from the rigour of the law They are bound in conscience to use the law as a rule of their life and in sinceritie to obey it but are not bound by the gospel to the rigour of it that they are freed from and so they are not under the law but under grace I grant that all carnall people who are yet out of Christ do all lie under the rigour of the law and as long as they submit not to Jesus Christ nor get into him they are bound in conscience to keep it though they cannot They cannot sinne in one tittle but conscience will condemne them before God They shall be condemned for every vain thought for every idle word for every the least sinne for every the least lust for any the least omission of good They lie under the rigour of the law and they are bound in conscience to keep it and they shall be countable for every transgression because they are under the law But the conscience of the regenerate is free from this rigour because they are under grace and therefore they are delivered from the law The Lord hath deliverd them by the body of Christ and therefore they are not bound by the gospel to all that obedience that the law in rigour requireth Fourthly the conscience of the regenerate is freed from the curse of the morall law For though the law doth condemne yet their conscience needeth not fear it because they are in Christ There is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus which walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Indeed those that are not regenerate not ingraffed into Christ they are still in the mouth of the gunshot the law doth condemne them and they have no shelter and their conscience is bound by it and they shall find one day that by it their conscience will condemne them to hell It may be now for the present their conscience is quiet and they choke it and so it letteth them alone yet they are condemned in conscience and one day they shall find it But the regenerate are by Christ freed in conscience from all this condemnation Thus farre we grant But the Antinomists and I know not what Marcionites would have more They cannot abide to heare that a regenerate person is bound to any sincere obedience to Gods law as the rule of their life They crie out against the morall law as once the Babylonians did against Jerusalem Down with it down with it even to the ground O ye do not preach Christ if ye talk of the law Beloved these are drunken opinions fitter to be preached among drunkards and Epicures and monsters then among the peculiar ones of God The law of God doth bind the conscience of all the people of God so that they are bound to make it a rule of life Nay the Scripture calleth it Christs bond whereby he bindeth his people to him The Kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his Anointed saying Let us break their bonds and cast away their cords from us Tush we will not be tied by his laws nor be so precisely strait-laced with such commandments as these Here the laws of the Lord are called bonds and cords Gods people are bound to him by them But the wicked they stand out and refuse to be bound Now if the law be called a bond I pray what bond is it but of conscience It is not a bond like a prisoners fetters to be put about their legs This is a spirituall bond that bindeth the conscience But let me prove it to you by arguments There be sundrie arguments to prove it First That which hath power to say to the conscience of the regenerate This is thy dutie and this must be done that bindeth the conscience But the law of God hath power to say thus to the conscience This is your dutie Who can tell better then Christ When ye have done all these things that are commanded you say We are unprofitable servants we have done that which was our dutie to do Mark He speaketh of Gods law things commanded now the law is nothing else but a ●atalogue of those things that God hath commanded us When ye have done all these things saith our Saviour know it is your dutie Here ye see the law hath power to say to the conscience This is your dutie But ye will object We are under faith and do ye tell us of law I answer as Chrysostome answereth out of Paul Do we then make void the law through faith God forbid Yea we establish the law See how the Apostle doth abhorre this thought God forbid saith he As if he had said Farre be it from me to teach such an abominable doctrine No no we establish the law Heare what Christ saith himself Think not that I am come to destroy the law I am not come to destroy but to fulfill it O thought some If we believe in Christ then we hope we shall have done with the law No no saith Christ ye shall as soon pull the heavens and the earth out of their place as disannull one tittle of the law Secondly That which hath this authoritie that the breach of it is a sinne bindeth conscience but the law hath this authoritie that neither regenerate nor unregenerate can transgresse it but they sinne therefore the law bindeth their consciences For the regenerate and all are bound in conscience to take heed of sinne Whosoever committeth sinne transgresseth also the law David was a regenerate man yet when he had defiled Bathsheba I have sinned saith he Joseph was a regenerate man yet confesseth if he should transgresse the Lords commandment he should sinne How shall I do this great wickednesse and so sinne against God But ye will object This is old testament What of that I hope you will not take up the old damned heresie again of the Cerdonians and Cainites and Apellites and Manichees and Severians and other such cursed hereticks condemned by the Church of God Their heresie was To hedge out the regenerate from the old testament And S t Augustine proved it against them That the morall law of God was ever the rule of obedience and shall so continue with the gospel to the end of the world and every transgression thereof is sinne The breach of the ceremoniall law was a sinne once but now it is not because once it bound the conscience now it doth not But the breach of the