Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	life_n	see_v	write_v	5,407	5	5.3704	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26796	The harmony of the divine attributes in the contrivance and accomplishment of man's redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ, or, Discourses wherein is shewed how the wisdom, mercy, justice, holiness, power, and truth of God are glorified in that great and blessed work / by William Bates.	Bates, William, 1625-1699.	1674 (1674)	Wing B1113; ESTC R25864	309,279	511

Saviour tells us It behoved Christ to suffer he doth not say that the Son of God should suffer but that Christ. This Title signifies the same Person in substance but not in the same respect and consideration Christ is the Second Person cloathed with our Nature There was no necessity that obliged God to appoint his Son or the Son to accept the Office of Mediator But when the Eternal Son had undertook that charge and was made Christ that is assumed our Nature in order to redeem us 't was necessary that He should suffer Besides His Consent was necessary upon another account For the Satisfaction doth not arise meerly from the Dignity of his Person but from the Law of substitution whereby He put himself in our stead and voluntarily obliged Himself to suffer the Punishment due to us The efficacy of his Death is by vertue of the Contract between the Father and Him of which there could be no cause but pure Mercy and His voluntary Condescension Now the Scripture declares the willingness of Christ particularly at his entrance into the World and at his Death Upon His comming into the World He begins his Life by the internal Oblation of Himself to his Father Sacrifice and Offering thou didst not desire mine ears hast thou opened that is He entirely resigned himself to be Gods Servant Burnt-Offering and Sin-Offering hast thou not required Then said I Lo I come in the volume of thy book 't is written of me I delight to do thy will O my God yea thy Law is within my heart He saw the Divine Decree and embrac'd it the Law was in his Heart and fully possest all his Thoughts and Affections and had a commanding influence upon his Life And his Willingness was fully exprest by Him when He approacht to His last Sufferings For although He declin'd Death as Man having natural and innocent desires of Self-Preservation yet as Mediator he readily submitted to it Not my Will but thine be done was his voice in the Garden And this argued the compleatness and fixedness of his Will that notwithstanding his aversation from Death absolutely considered yet with an unabated election He still chose it as the means of our Salvation No involuntary Constraint was laid upon him to force him to that submission But the sole causes of it were his free Compliance with his Fathers Will and his tender Compassion towards Men. He saith I have power to lay down my life and power to take it up this command I received of my Father In his Death Obedience and Sacrifice were united The Typical Sacrifices were led to the Altar but the Lamb of God presented Himself 't is said He gave himself for us to signifie his willingness in dying Now the Freeness of our Redeemer in dying for us qualified his Sufferings to be meritorious The Apostle tells us that By the obedience of one many are made righteous that is By his voluntary Sufferings we are justified for without his Consent his Death could not have the respect of a punishment for our Sins No Man can be compelled to pay anothers Debt unless he make himself Surety for it Briefly The Appointment of God and the Undertaking of Christ to redeem us from the Curse of the Law by his suffering it are the Foundation of the New-Testament 3. He that interpos'd as Mediator must be perfectly Holy otherwise he had been liable to Justice for his own Sin And guilty Blood is impure and corrupt apter to stain by its effusion and sprinkling than to purge away Sin The Apostle joins these two as inseparable He appeared to take away Sin and in Him is no sin The Priesthood under the Law was imperfect as for other reasons so for the sins of the Priests Aaron the first and chief of the Levitical Order was guilty of gross Idolatry so that Reconciliation could not be obtained by their Ministry For how can one Captive ransom another or Sin expiate Sin But our Mediator was absolutely innocent without the least tincture of Sin original or actual He was conceived in a miraculous manner infinitely distant from all the impurities of the earth That which is produced in an ordinary way receives its propriety from second Causes and contracts the defilement that cleaves to the whole species Whatever is born of blood and the will of the flesh that is form'd of the substance of the Flesh and by the sensual Appetite is defiled but though He was form'd of the substance of the Virgin yet by vertue of an Heavenly Principle according to the words of the Angel to her The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee therefore also that Holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God He came in the appearance only of sinful flesh As the Brazen Serpent had the figure and not the poison of the fiery Serpent He was without actual Sin He foil'd the Tempter in all his arts and methods wherewith he tried Him He resisted the Lust of the Flesh by refusing to make the stones Bread to asswage his Hunger and the Lust of the Eyes in despising the Kingdoms of the World with all their Treasures and the Pride of Life when he would not throw himself down that by the interposing of Angels for His rescue there might be a visible proof that He was the Son of God The Accuser himself confest Him to be the Holy One of God he found no corruption within Him and could draw nothing out of him Judas that betrayed him and Pilate that condemned him acknowledged his Innocence He perfectly fulfill'd the Law and did alwaies what pleased his Father In the midst of his Sufferings no irregular motion disturbed his Soul but He alwaies exprest the highest Reverence to God and incredible Charity to Men. He was compared to a Lamb for his Passion and his Patience that quietly dies at the foot of the Altar Besides We may consider in our Mediator not only a perfect freedom from Sin but an impossibility that he should be toucht by it The Angelical Nature was liable to folly but the Humane Nature by its intimate and unchangeable Union with the Divine is establisht above all possibility of Falling The Deity is Holiness 〈◊〉 self and by its personal presence is a greater preservative from sin than either the vision of God in Heaven or the most permanent habit of Grace Our Saviour tells us the Son can do nothing of himself but according to the pattern the Father sets him Now the perfect Holiness of our Redeemer hath a special efficacy in making his Death to be the expiation of Sin as the Scripture frequently declares For such an high Priest became us who is holy harmless undefiled and separate from sinners And he that knew no sin was made sin for us that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him We are Redeemed not

the Word And accordingly all the Promises of Pardon and Salvation are conditional The holy Mercy of the Gospel offers Forgiveness only to Penitent Believers that return from Sin to Obedience We are commanded to repent and be converted that our sins may be blotted out in the time of refreshment from the presence of the Lord. And Heaven is the reward of persevering Obedience To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life There cannot be the least ground of a rational just Hope in any person without Holiness Whoever hath this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure By which it appears that the genuine and proper use we are to make of the exceeding great and precious Promises is That by them we may be partakers of the Divine Nature and escape the pollution that is in the world through lust Yet the corrupt hearts of men are so strongly enclined to their lusts that they turn the Grace of God into wantonness and make an advantage of Mercy to assist their Security presuming to sin with less fear and more licence upon the account of the glorious Revelation of it by our Redeemer The most live as if they might be saved without being Saints and enjoy the Paradise of the Flesh here and not be excluded from that of the Spirit hereafter But Grace doth not in the least degree authorize and favour their Lusts nor relax the Sinews of Obedience 't is perfectly innocent of their unnatural abuse of it The Poison is not in the Flower but the Spider Therefore the Apostle propounds it with indignation Shall we sin that Grace may abound God forbid He uses this form of Speech to express an extreme abhorrency of a thing that is either impious and dishonourable to God or pernicious and destructive to Men. As when he puts the question Is God unjust who taketh vengeance God forbid And is there iniquity in God God forbid He rejects the mention of it with infinite aversation Indeed what greater disparagement can there be of the Divine Purity than to indulge our selves in Sin upon confidence of an easie Forgiveness As if the Son of God had been consecrated by such terrible Sufferings to purchase and prepare a Pardon for those who sin securely What an unexpressible indignity is it to make a monstrous alliance between Christ and Belial And this abuse of Grace is pernicious to men if the Antidote be turn'd into Poison and the Remedy cherish the Disease the cause is desperate The Apostle tells us Those that do evil that good may come thereby their damnation is just Suppose a presuming Sinner were assured that after he had gratified his carnal vile desires he should repent and be pardon'd yet 't were an unreasonable defect of Self-love to do so What Israelite was so fool-hardy as to provoke a fiery Serpent to bite him though he knew he should be healed by the brazen Serpent But 't is a degree beyond madness for Men to live in a course of Sin upon the hopes of Salvation making the Mercy of God to be his bondage as if he could not be happy without them An unrenewed Sinner may be the object of Gods Compassion but while he remains so he is uncapable of Communion with him here much less hereafter Under the Law the Lepers were excluded the Camp of Israel where the presence of God was in a special manner much more shall those who are cover'd with moral Pollutions be kept out from the habitation of his Holiness 'T is a mortal Delusion for any to pretend that electing Mercy will bring them to Glory or that the all-sufficient Sacrifice of Christ will atone God's displeasure towards them although they indulge themselves in a course of Sin The Book of Life is secret only the Lamb with whose Blood the names of the Elect are written there can open the seals of it But the Gospel that is a lower Book of Life tells us the qualifications of those who are vessels of Mercy they are by Grace prepar'd for Glory and that there can be no benefit by the Death of Christ without conformity to his Life Those who abuse Mercy now shall have Justice for ever 3. From hence we may discover the peculiar excellency of the Christian Religion above all other Institutions and that in respect of its Design and effect The whole Design of the Gospel is exprest in the words of Christ from Heaven to Paul when he sent him to the Gentiles To open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified by Faith in Christ. One great End of it is to take away all the filthiness and malignity wherewith Sin hath infected the world and to cause in men a real conformity to Gods Holiness according to their capacity As the Reward it promises is not an earthly Happiness such as we enjoy here but Celestial so the Holiness it requires is not an ordinary natural Perfection which Men honour with the title of Vertue but an Angelical Divine quality that sanctifies us throughout in Spirit Soul and Body that cleanses the Thoughts and Affections and expresses itself in a course of universal Obedience to Gods Will. Indeed there are other things that commend the Gospel to any that with judgment compares it with other Religions The heigth of its Mysteries which are so sacred and venerable that upon the discovery they affect with reverence and admiration Whereas the Religion of the Gentiles was built on Follies and Fables Their most solemn Mysteries to which they were admitted after so long a circuit of Ceremonies and great preparations contain'd nothing but a prodigious mixture of Vanity and Impiety worthy to be conceal'd in everlasting darkness Besides the confirmation of the Gospel by Miracles doth authorize it above all humane Institutions And the glorious eternal Reward of it infinitely exceeds whatever is propounded by them But that which gives it the most visible preheminence is That it is a Doctrine according to godliness The End is the character of its nature The whole contexture and harmony of its Doctrines Precepts Promises Threatnings is for the exaltation of Godliness The objects of Faith revealed are not meerly speculative to be conceived and believed only as true or to be gaz'd on in an Extasie of Wonder but are Mysteries of Godliness that have a powerful influence upon practice The Design of God in the publication of them is not only to enlighten the Mind but to warm the Heart and purifie the Affections God discovers his Nature that we may imitate Him and his Works that we may glorifie Him All the Precepts of the Gospel are to embrace Christ by a lively Faith to seek for Righteousness and Holiness in Him to live Godly Righteously and Soberly in this present