Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	faith_n	justification_n	work_n	32,098	5	6.7418	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38042	Socinianism unmask'd a discourse shewing the unreasonableness of a late writer's opinion concerning the necessity of only one article of Christian faith, and of his other assertions in his late book, entituled, The reasonableness of Christianity as deliver'd in the Scriptures, and in his vindication of it : with a brief reply to another (professed) Socinian writer / by John Edwards ...	Edwards, John, 1637-1716.	1696 (1696)	Wing E214; ESTC R3296	60,720	171

Writer's passing by the Epistles and not collecting any Articles of Faith out of them shew his Contempt of them His Evasion viz. that the Epistles were writ to those who were already Believers is proved to be groundless If it were true it is nothing to his purpose The Epistles teach Fundamentals His other Evasion viz. that the Fundamental Articles in the Epistles are mixed without distinction with other Truths discovered to be of no force and Retorted upon him The true Reason why he went no further than the Gospels and the Acts. His other Excuses for rejecting the doctrines contained in the Epistles examined and found to be Sophistical He travels as far as China for Prudence and there borrows it of the Missionary Jesuites The Rom. 14. 1. which he alledges authorizes him not to impose upon Weak Christians His Evasions are inconsistent with themselves and accordingly not well approved of by the Party His Objection about the Apostles Creed fully answered Our Church's Iudgment concerning the Articles of this Creed This Profession of Faith hath several Articles in it which Socinians will not subscribe to Whilest he is censuring he commits a great Blunder He mistakes and misrepresents the Gospel-Dispensation BUT the Gentleman is not without his Evasions and he sees it is high time to make use of them This puts him into some disorder for when he comes to speak of my mentioning his ill treatment of the Epistles which he purposely omitted when he made his Collection of Articles or rather when after all his search he found but One Article you may observe that he begins to grow Warmer than before Now this Meek Man is nettled and you may perceive that he is sensible of the Scandal that he hath given to good people by his slighting of the Epistolary Writings of the Holy Apostles yet he is so cunning as to disguise his Passion as well as he can He requires me to publish to the World those passages which shew his Contempt of the Epistles p. 19. But what need I Good Sir do this when you have done it your self I appeal to the Reader whether after your tedious Collections out of the Four Evangelists your passing by the Epistles and neglecting wholly what the Apostles say in them be not publishing to the World your Contempt of them But let us hear why he did not attempt to collect any Articles out of these Writings he assigns this as One Reason The Epistles being writ to those who were already Believers it could not be supposed that they were writ to them to teach them Fundamentals p. 13 14. Vindic. Certainly no man could have conjectured that he would have used such an Evasion as this I will say that for him he goes beyond all Surmises he is above all Conjectures he hath a faculty of Shifting which no creature on Earth can ever fathom Do we not know that the Four Gospels were Writ to and for Believers as well as Vnbelievers Are we not particularly and expresly told by St. Luke that he writ his Gospel to the most Excellent Theophilus Luk. 1. 3. whom all grant to be a Believing Christian of some eminent rank Or if this Author be so singular as to question it he may be satisfied in v. 4. by the Evangelist himself And so the Acts of the Apostles we find are dedicated to the same Eminent Believer Acts 1. 1. By the same Argument then that he would perswade us that the Fundamentals are not to be sought for in the Epistles we may prove that they were not to be sought for in the Gospels and in the Acts for even these were writ to those that believed And yet it is clear that this Writer did not make use of this Argument otherwise he would not have confined the Fundamentals to the Gospels and the Acts. Here then is want of Sincerity in a great measure which hath been accounted heretofore a good qualification in a Writer Again granting that the Epistles were all of them writ to those that already believed yet what can this be to his purpose Must no Believers have any Fundamentals taught them What is the meaning then of 1 Iohn 2. 21. I have not written unto you because you know not the Truth but because you know it Suppose they have forgot the Fundamentals or have corrupted and perverted them as was the case of the Galatians who mixed the Law with the Gospal Legal Works with Faith and of the Dispersed Hebrews who had received the Christian Doctrine but were falling away from it Might not the Apostle yea did he not in his Epistles to these Persons remind them of the Great Articles of the Christian Faith Did he not when he writ to the Galatians assert the doctrine of Justification through faith in Christ's Righteousness without the Works of the Law Did he not in his Epistle to the Wavering Hebrews endeavour to establish them in Christianity by displaying the Excellency and Transcendency of the Priesthood of Christ by convincing them of the Efficacy and Perfection of the One Sacrifice of the Messias on the Cross whereby the sins of mankind are perfectly Expiated So St. Iohn's first Epistle was written on occasion of the Christian Churches converted from Judaism being endanger'd by certain Seducers that were crept in among them and labour'd to unsettle their belief concerning the Divinity as well as the Humanity of our Saviour Whereupon this Apostle who had clearly delivered the doctrine of the Holy Trinity in the beginning of his Gospel now more especially urges that Principal Article of their Faith the Deity of Christ chap. 2. v. 22 23. and also in express words asserts the Whole Trinity chap. 5. v. 7. Thus it is manifest that the Apostles in their Epistles taught Fundamentals which is contrary to what this Gentleman saith that such a thing could not be supposed and he would pretend That as a reason why he did not look for any Necessary Articles of Faith in the Epistles But we see how groundless his pretence is Hear another feigned ground of his omitting the Epistles viz. because the Fundamental Articles are here promiscuously and without distinction mix'd with other Truth p. 14. But who sees not that this is a mere Elusion for on the same account he might have forborn to search for Fundamental Articles in the Gospels for they do not lie there together but are dispersed up and down the Doctrinal and Historical part are mix'd with one another but he pretends to sever them why the did he not make a separation between the Doctrines in the Epistles and those Other Matters that are treated of there He hath nothing to reply to this and therefore we must again look upon what he hath suggested as a cast of his Shuffling faculty Or if he should excuse himself by saying that Necessary and Fundamental Principles can't be distinguish'd from those other Truths which occur in the Epistolary Writings any one may discover the insufficiency of such a plea because

to be believ'd concerning him The Mahometans call themselves Musselmen of rather according to the true account of the Arabick word Moslemim i. e. Believers and what difference is there between one of them and our Author's Believer The former believes that Christ is a Good Man and not above the nature of a Man and sent of God to give Instructions to the world and the Faith of the latter is of the very same scantling Thus he confounds Turky with Christendom and those that have been reckon'd as Infidels are with him Christians He seems to have consulted the Mahometan Bible which saith Christ did not suffer on the cross did not die for he and his Allies speak as meanly of these Articles as if there were no such thing The Alcoran often talks particularly see the Last Chapter of it against Christ's being the Son of God by Generation It is one of the First Principles of Mahometism that there is but One God neither begetting nor begot See Sulburgius's Saracenica This is it which our Author drives at when he labours to prove the Messias and the Son of God are terms synony mous as you shall hear by and by This reminds me of that Affinity and Correspondence which hath been between the Turks and this Gentleman's Party Servetus conferr'd notes with the Alcoran when he undertook to fetch an Argument out of it to disprove the Deity of our Saviour It is observable that those Countreys of Europe which border on the Sultan's dominions as Hungary Transilvania c. abound with Socinians and Antitrinitarians The inhabitants of these places accommodate themselves to their Potent Neighbours they make some approach to the Conquerer's Creed Some of these men have lately got footing in England and because they and the Great Turk disbelieve the Trinity therefore we must all be Proselytes to their opinion They are making way for this by taking away all the Articles of the Christian Faith but One. And our late Writer is the Instrument they make use of for this purpose This Great Mufti hath given us a Hopeful Draught of Christianity and it was fit the English Reader should know that a Turk according to him is a Christian for he makes the same Faith serve them both Nay in the last place let us take notice that this Gentleman presents the world with a very Ill notion of Faith for the very Devils are capable of all that Faith which he saith makes a Christian man yea of more for we read that they believed Iesus to be the Son of God Mat. 8. 29. They cried out to him Thou art Christ the Son of God Luke 4. 41. which latter words in both places denote his Divinity as I shall shew afterwards But besides this Historical Faith as it is generally call'd by Divines which is giving credit to Evangelical Truths as barely reveal'd there must be something else added to make up the True Substantial Faith of a Christian. With the Assent of the Understanding must be joyn'd the Consent or Approbation of the Will All those Divine Truths which the Intellect assents to must be allow'd of by this Elective power of the Soul True Evangelical Faith is a hearty Accepting of the Messias as he is offer'd in the Gospel It is a sincere and impartial submission to all things requir'd by the Evangelical Law which is contain'd in the Epistles as well as the other Writings And to this Practical Assent and Choice there must be added likewise a firm Trust and Reliance in the Blessed Author of our Salvation But this late Undertaker who attempted to give us a more perfect account than ever was before of Christianity as it is deliver'd in the Scriptures brings us no tidings of any such Faith belonging to Christianity or discover'd to us in the Scriptures Which gives us to understand that he verily believes there is no such Christian Faith for in some of his Numerous Pages especially 191 192 c. where he speaks so much of Belief and Faith he might have taken occasion to insert one word about this Compleat Faith of the Gospel Having thus represented how Defective how Narrow how Erroneous how Mistaken this Unknown Writer's Christianity and especially his Faith is I will now proceed to shew how Dangerous and Pernicious this sort of Doctrine is Here is a Contrivance set up for the bringing in of Darkness and Barbarism into the Christian world The only Necessary Point of Belief that the Old Testament delivers is according to these Gentlemen that there is One God and all the New Testament affords us as matter of Necessary Faith is this that Iesus is the Messias Carry but these Two Articles along with you and you are a True Christian. There is no Necessity at all of being acquainted with the Reveal'd Doctrine concerning the Cause of Mankinds Degeneracy and Corruption which gave occasion to the Messias's Coming into the world There is no Necessity of knowing whether this Messias be God or Man or both there is no Necessity of understanding whether he came to suffer and dye in our stead and to satisfie the Divine Justice and to purchase Salvation for us by his Blood There is no Necessity of believing that without Faith and Evangelical Obedience we cannot have any Benefit by the Messias There is no Necessity of being perswaded that our Salvation springs from the mere Grace and Bounty of Heaven There is no Necessity of believing the Privileges and Rewards both here and hereafter which are entail'd on Christianity There is but a Single Article of Belief and this is a very Short one too viz. that Iesus is the Messias and if you assent to This you are as Sound a Christian and as Good a Believer as this Gentleman can make you One would think that seeing there are so many Branches of the Evangelical Faith commended to us and urged upon us by the Apostles in their Epistles some of which our Saviour himself in the Gospel had made mention of one would think I say that a man that hath a True Sense of Christianity and is a Lover of Souls should endeavour to display before the world these Several Parts of the Christian Belief and should be earnest with men to embrace them All and not to omit or neglect any of them seeing they all so nearly concern their Everlasting Wellfare But here comes One that makes it his great business to beat men off from taking notice of these Divine Truths he represents them as wholly Unnecessary to be believed he cries down all Articles of Christian Faith but One. He at this time of day when Christianity is so bright strives to darken and eclipse it he hides it from the faces of mankind draws a thick Veil over it will not suffer them to look into it takes the Holy and Inspired Epistles which are as much the Word of God as the Gospels out of their way and tells them again and again that a Christian man or