A77854:249
Vindiciæ legis
Vindiciæ legis: or, A vindication of the moral law and the covenants, from the errors of papists, Arminians, Socinians, and more especially, Antinomians. In XXIX. lectures, preached at Laurence-Jury, London. / By Anthony Burgess, preacher of Gods Word.Vindiciæ legis: or, A vindication of the morall law and the covenants, from the errours of papists, Arminians, Socinians, and more especially, Antinomians. In XXIX. lectures, preached at Laurence-Jury, London. / By Anthony Burgess, preacher of Gods Word.
London: printed by James Young for Thomas Underhill, 1646
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
1. They could not come from faith, or one reconciled with God: and the person must be first accepted before the action, Heb. 11. Without faith it's impossible to please God.
2. It could not come from a regenerate nature; and therefore the tree not being good, the fruit was also bad. It's not in Divinity as in Moral Philosophy, where justa, & justè agendo fimus justi; but we have the esse or being first, and then the operari. It's a question worth the disputing, Whether the grace of God works the act of believing and other graces in us first, and then by them we receive the habits. The Papists, and Arminians, and some others go that way; but it is not consonant to Scripture, as may be showed hereafter.
2. It could not come from a regenerate nature; and therefore the tree not being good, the fruit was also bad. It's not in Divinity as in Morall Philosophy, where justa, & justè agendo fimus justi; but we have the esse or being first, and then the operari. It's a question worth the disputing, Whether the grace of God works the act of beleeving and other graces in us first, and then by them we receive the habits. The Papists, and Arminians, and some others go that way; but it is not consonant to Scripture, as may be shewed hereafter.
3. They could not be good, if you regard the end: They could do 1nothing for the glory of God. This made Theophylact say, We could not instance in one good Heathen; for, that which they did was for their vain-glory, & carnalis cupidit as non aliâ sanatur, one devil did but cast out another: and if they did intend some particular good end, as to relieve the miserable, to help the commonwealth, this was not enough; for the ultimate and chief end ought to be intended by them.