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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	nature_n	soul_n	2,893	5	5.2542	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96661	Mount Ebal levell'd or Redemption from the curse. Wherein are discovered, 1. The wofull condition of sinners under the curse of the law. 2. The nature of the curse, what it is, with the symptomes of it, in its properties, and effects. 3. That wonderful dispensation of Christs becoming a curse for us. 4. The grace of redemption, wherein it stands, in opposition to some gross errors of the times, which darken the truth of it. 5. The excellent benefits, priviledges, comforts, and engagements to duty, which flow from it. By Elkanah Wales, M.A. preacher of the Gospel at Pudsey in York-shire.	Wales, Elkanah, 1588-1669.	1658 (1658)	Wing W294; Thomason E1923_1; ESTC R209971	189,248	382

of peace and salvation to the lost world but every mothers childe of us had continued in the bond of iniquity and had suffered the extremity of the curse in our own persons for ever For this is the very next bottome whereupon all Gospel-grace and whatsoever is necessary to the salvation of sinners doth stand and as it were the soul from which it hath both being and breathing The excellency of the cause hath a strong influence into the effect to make it excellent also If we look upon the nature and frame of man in the first Creation his body curiously wrought out of the dust of the earth his soul breathed into him from heaven to be both a living creature and made after the Image of God Gen. 1.26 2.7 and all this done with a word we cannot but say it is a very excellent and precious work David stands wondering at it Psal 139.14 15. How much more excellent and precious is the work of grace which is the fruit of Redemption our second Creation for the effecting whereof the Lord did not onely Let it be but as if that were not sufficient the second person must lay aside his glory and take upon him the form of a servant and not onely bear our nature but also our sin and curse even to the death Phil. 2.7 8. By this we should estimate the exceeding great worth of that grace which is brought unto us by the revelation of the Gospel If some good things of nature be precious much more are those of grace Deut. 33.1 c. Prov. 3.14 15. And if we cannot but wonder at some of the eminentest works of nature how much more cause have we to admire the beauty and glory of that great work of grace which the Apostle calls marvellous light 1 Pet. 2.9 See 1 Pet. 1.12 4 God will have a Church Although Adam and all his posterity revolted from God and ran away into the tents of Satan his utter enemy to his dishonour and their own ruine yet for all that he hath a designe to fetch back and recover a number of them to make them his own people and thereby to glorifie the riches of his grace towards them in an eminent measure Me thinks I hear the Lord speaking on this manner What hath the crooked Serpent of hell served me thus Hath he enticed Adam unto rebellion against me and cheated him into the curse of my Law Alas poor man I pitty thee that thou hast suffered thy self to be thus ensnared How art thou fallen from thy dignity Into what a gulf of perdition hast thou implunged all thy posterity Ier. 48.30 But I know Satan his pride his malice and his envy that he would not leave me a people on the earth to serve me I know his wrath but it shall not be so his lyes shall not so effect it I will take a speedy course to befool him in his own plot I will have a people that shall be for my praise in despite of him Having therefore predestinated from eternity a considerable number of this forlorn generation and finding them now among the pots covered all over with filth and shame through their Apostacy his infinite wisdome deviseth a way to recover them out of captivity He gives the Lord Jesus out of his own bosome tha● by taking upon him the curse due to them he might ransome them from the curse and separate them from the lost world which lyes in wickedness and under the power of Satan and so form them for himself that they might shew forth his praise Isa 43.21 These are the very matter whereof the Church consists I mean the invisible Church which may be defined a chosen company of the posterity of Adam whom God hath purchased with his own blood out of every Kindred and Tongue and People Mat 16.18 and Nation to be a peculiar people to himself Act. 20.28 Rev. 5.9 Tit. 2.14 Thus out of the ashes of this ruined world God raiseth up to himself a glorious Phenix Eph. 5.26 A Church which shall never dye but shall be established for ever Psal 102.28 125.1 5 The Church is very dear and precious in the eyes of the Lord Jesus They are the purchase of his own blood and thereby are become his peculiar people The costliness of any commodity puts upon it a suitable preciousness endearing it to the person which bare the cost of it Jacob served a hard service for Rachel and that inhanced her worth in his heart and increased his love to her so that the dayes seemed to him but a few Gen. 29.20 Michal Davids wife cost him two hundred fore-skins of the Philistims 1 Sam. 18.27 A great adventure an high exploit This doubtless rendred her the more dear to him which appears by his peremptory requiring her after she was unjustly taken away from him and had been some years another mans wife Probably seven years 2 Sam. 3.13 14 c. Jesus Christ served a very hard service and wrought a very great exploi● that he might purchase unto himself a Church to be his Spouse and having compassed her with much difficulty he looks upon her as his Sister his Love his Dove his fair One yea all fair the fairest among women the One the onely One the choice One his heart is ravished with her Cant. 4.9 she is as the poor mans little Ewe Lamb that lay in his bosome and was unto him as a Daughter 2 Sam. 12.31 A Kingdome or City wonne in battel with confused noise Hephzibah Isa 62.4 Multo sanguine ac vulneribus ea victoria stetit and garments rolled in blood Isa 9.5 is so much more dear to the Conquerour because it cost so dear The Kingdome of heaven the City of the great King is conquered out of the the hands of Satan at a very dear rate It cost the Lord Jesus strong crying and tears yea much blood and many wounds therefore surely it is very near to his heart and precious in his sight Isa 43.4 6 The condition of the invisible Church and all the members of the Lords chosen people is incomparably happy They are the onely renowned Society in the world for they are the Lords Redeemed ones This glorious design when once it takes place in poor lost sinners and is laid in their bosomes puts them into a glorious estate We may say of the Church as Moses of Israel Deut. 33.29 Happy art thou who is like unto thee O people saved by the Lord c. That we may take the length and breadth of this happiness let us look upon Redemption in its 1 Properties 2 Benefits 3 Priviledges Sect. 2. Three properties of Redemption and three Benefits issue from it 1 REdemption by Christ hath these three excellent Properties 1 It s free and gracious As the Israelites sold themselves to their corporal enemies for naught so we became slaves to our spiritual enemies without price and as they so we are redeemed without

accursed through sinne it 's a wonder that the first and second death have not fallen pel-mel upon them all and devoured them at once it s a wonder that the curse hath not dashed us all to peices and brought the whole world into a Chaos long agoe This is from the wise and good providence of God who for the preservation of the whole frame and for the comfort of his owne people doth snub restraine and moderate the curse and keepes it within certaine bounders as the Sea within its banks that it cannot overflow and destroy the earth We see that the horse the Ox and other such like creatures have not quite renounced mans service but are easily brought into subjection Yea the most savage creatures are not invincibly rebellions but God affords to man both skill and power to tame them Jam. 3.7 And 2. What a mercifull dispensation is this that such swarmes of curses should flie abroad in the world and yet so very few of them in comparison should touch us That so few are born blind deafe maimed idiots That nature is sustained in health strength vigour yea that we live upon the earth and enjoy the influence of heaven That the heaven over our head is not brasse and the earth under our feet iron yea that we are in any estate short of hel who might justly have been stript of all at once and made the common Butt of all his curses And further Isa 3. What a sweet providence is it that when the Lord inflicteth evils or judgments which are properly and in themselves the bitter fruits of the curse he doth not alwayes inflict them meerly as curses in reference to the sinnes of the persons but sometimes onely praeventions of sinne and the miseries which follow it as 1. Cor. 11.32 Or as exercises of patience as in the famous example of Job or as meanes which his divine wisdome is pleased to use for the manifestation of his owne glorie in some way or other Whereof we have a notable instance in the man which was blind from his birth Jo. 9.1.2.3 The disciples ask our Saviour whose sinne was the cause of that judgment his owne or his parents He answers neither of both but that the works of God should be made manifest in him his meaning is this you think this man is thus marked out for some notorious sinne either of his owne Or his Parents but you are mistaken for although sinne be an universal cause of all judgments ⸫ See Piscator and Gualter on the place yet in this case the Lord did not look upon the sinnes of either of them as the adaequate or next mooving cause of inflicting this blindness but he intended hereby the manifestation of his works the work of justice and severitie in afflicting him so sadly and so long the work of goodnes and mercie in bestowing the blessing of sight upon him and cheifly that this miracle wrought by me saith Chirst may be a cleare and undeniable demonstration that I am the Son of God seeing it could not possibly be done by any other hand ⸫ ab v. 32. To shut up this use let us not reckon our selves the lesse miserable because of these and the like providences but rather ascribe them to the indulgence of mercie and adore the glorie of his dispensations who suffereth us not to be so accursed as we deserve 4ly Hence I inferre that there is no justification to be had no nor any possibilitie thereof by the works of the Law It is a vaine thing once to expect it The Law curseth sinners how then doth it bless them but if it justifie them it blesseth them All men are under the curse of the Law therefore no man is under the acquittance and absolution of the Law This is one of the Apostles arguments in the verses before to look for justification and blessing from the Law is not onely to lose our labour but also to bring upon our selves more mischeif It s the way to inwrappe us more in the folds of the curse to implunge us into a deeper Sea of guilt yea to seale up the curse against our owne soules and to make it sure to our selves Observe what is the conclusion which the Apostle would prove from the text alledged out of Deuteronomie vers 10. before It is that those which are of the works of the Law are under the curse that is not onely those which break the Law or doe not keep it perfectly but those that depend upon it and reckon of justification by the works of it even these also are accursed so Rom. 3.19.20 The Law chargeth all men with sinne and thereby stoppes every ones mouth and makes all the world subject to the vengeance of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whence it followes unavoydably that no flesh shall be justified by the deeds of the Law Therefore the Apostle professeth that he would by no meanes be found having his owne righteousnes which is of the Law Phil. 3.9 As if he should say If I should appeare before Gods judgment-seat clothed in that habit he would abhorre me and I were utterly undone So then there is no justification to be had by the Law No man can possibly reach that conformitie to the Law of God either inward or outward in the frame of the heart or cariage of the life which will be able to plead his justification in the sight of God It is not any good qualitie within us or any goodwork that comes from us or both joyned together though never so excellent for kind or degree that can set us right in the court of heaven There is nothing at all which a man hath nothing at all which he doth or can doe for which God will pronounce him righteous but when he hath done all and is got up to the highest pitch the Law will tell him to his face that he is still Accursed This is needfull to be urged for not onely the world but the churches of Christ are full of justitiaries which carve unto themselvs an imaginary self-righteousness according to the Law Oh that these persons would open their eares to this truth and take it down Of these I observe 4 sorts I meane such as seek a Blessedness by the Law which they shall never find 1. Professed Papists which submit unto and hold fast the establish'd doctrine of the Church of Rome especially as it is set forth in the councell of Trent where they determine thus The alone formal cause of the Justification of a sinner before God or that which gives being to it is Righteousness implanted or a new qualitie of grace or frame of holines wrought in the soule which what is it else but personall and inhaerent conformitie to the Law of God They tell us further of a first justification whereby of unrighteous a man is made righteous and secondly whereby of unrighteous he is made more righteous The former if I mistake not they hold incompleat

as well as to the second both in religious dispositions and holy performances and let this be joyned with a glorious external profession of Christ and the Gospel yet he may still abide under the Law and so be a stranger to the grace of justification It is not any one of these or the like qualifications and workings nor all of them put together that can raise the soul into a justified condition but still it abides under the curse What high characters of more than ordinary holiness doth the spirit of God put upon the Jews Isa 58.2 they sought God daily they delighted to know his ways as if they were a Nation that did righteousness yet they are rejected and disallowed even in their choicest and strictest duties Jesus Christ professeth that he will send away many at the last day which have done wonderfull works in his Name Matth. 7.22 23. This is a fine spun but I fear too common hypocrisie to make graces duties reformations performances the matter of our righteousness before God Let Christians take heed lest while they reckon on the blessing they be found under the curse The issue of this use is to knock us all off from thoughts of justification by the Law seeing we are all under the curse of it Let us not make account of such a thing it will prove but a dreame and we shall be deceived Let us by all means shun this most perilous work Sect. 5. Vse 5 6. 5. IT 's no wonder then if the preaching of the Law be so unwelcome so burthensome yea I may say so hatefull and abominable to the greatest part of our Congregations If you would prophesie unto them of wine and strong drink speak unto them smooth and pleasing things and tell them of nothing but Gospel and promises and comforts you are very welcome oh this is excellent Doctrine But contrariwise the Ministery of the Law is as unwelcome to their hearts as water into a ship or fire into their bones and can ye blame them Ier. 5.14 alas the Law breaths out nothing but curses against the men of the world it s like the roll of the book which was spread before Ezekiel written within and without with lamentations and mournings and woe Ezek. 2.10 which way soever the Minister turns it it speaks cursing to wicked men it flasheth hell fire in their faces continually how should this be endured to hear themselves cursed to their faces all the day long therefore they hate him that rebuketh in the gate Amos 5.10 sometimes they break out into gross and open distempers they rage and storm and persecute us they smite us with their tongues and call us railers and preachers of damnation they go away with their hearts filled with gall and malice and their tongues with clamours and outcries against us they say to us as the possessed persons said to Christ Are you come hither to torment us before the time Matth. 8.29 Others can bite in their wrath but they grumble in their hearts and sometimes say they could wish that their Minister were more discreet and it were well if he would keep him to his Text. But truly he that threateneth the curse of the Law against a natural man is not gone far from his Text. Thus it is and thus it will be while Satan is the God of this world and sin reigneth in the hearts of the men of the world we canno● expect it should be otherwise Even John Baptist when he comes to cast down mountains must look to finde no better entertainment 6. Yet every hour we may strongly infer a necessity of preaching the Law although John Baptist be censured as a busie pragmatical fellow yet he must do his work for all that although the preaching of the Law be both tedious and odious to carnal men yet must we not neglect that piece of our Ministery in any case this Law-work must be attended in its due place for seeing man lies under this misery and danger its needfull that he should see and know it that so he may come to be affected with it as the case requires There is no wise man I suppose but would willingly be informed of any mischief that is towards him if he be under the displeasure of the supreme Power or in danger of some mortal disease or if he fear an adversary at Law every one would know the worst of his own cause for he may possibly by this means be put into a way to prevent or avoid it which otherwise ordinarily he cannot How much more needfull is this wisdome in the business of the soul Now the best and most regular way to attain this end is the Ministery and preaching of the Law it self that the wretched sinner by a particular home-application of it may get acquaintance with his wofull condition and so apply himself to the use of means whereby he may escape the danger Every natural man lies under the guilt of sin and therefore under the displeasure of the most high God sick of a mortal soul malady which brings him under the power of the second death cast in his cause before the judgement seat of heaven to his utter ruine and undoing It concerns him therefore to attend upon the Ministery of the Law that he may know how the case is with him A malefactor or trespasser amongst men may discover by searching into the Law of the Land what danger he is in so may the sinner by searching into the Law of God Whence I conceive I may be bold to conclude not onely the conveniency but also the necessity of the seasonable preaching of the Law in our ordinary ministration This is not a politick device of Preachers or purpose to screw into mens consciences that they may Lord it over them as carnal men are apt to judge but a way approved by God himself in order to the conversion of sinners and seconded by the practice of his servants in former times The Law is the Lords candle to reveal sin Rom. 3.20 and ●y consequence to reveal the curse due to sin It s the Lords hand to work wrath in the soul by striking it with conviction and with fear thereupon Rom. 4.15 God the great Law-giver hath put upon it such a beam of purity and authority that it is able to manifest sin to the conscience even in the most slie and hidden aberrations It 's the Lords Bayliff to hunt out sin in the several kinds degrees and colours of it and to lay his arrests upon the sinner It 's the Lords voice to call and fetch every Adam out of his thickets Gen. ● ● 10. yea it 's the Lords sword or slaughtering-knife whereby he kills and slays the sinner in himself that he may live unto God Gal. 2.19 Now that the Law may do all this it is not enough that the sinner have an overly and general knowledge of it but it must be opened and applied in some competent measure of

Christ testifies of the woman that was a sinner that her sinnes which were many are forgiven her Luke 7.47 Be thy sinnes never so many if they fill a roll that reacheth from the East to the West or from earth to heaven they can but wrap thee in the curse and Christ hath taken upon him the whole curse that he might redeem thee from it If thou hast multiplied to sin God will multiply to pardon Isa 55.7 he will cast all our iniquities into the depths of the Sea Mic. 7.19 If thou shouldest fill a thousand baskets with sand and cast them all into the midst of the Sea the waves would so sweep them all away that no remnant of them would appear so the streames of Christ's blood are able to wash away thy manifold sinnes that not one of them shall remain When the dew is fallen upon the ground thou mayest see infinite millions of drops but when the Sun breaks out and shines in its strength it licks up and scatters them all in a very short time and thou seest not one left So the Sonne of righteousness can dispel thy numberless transgressions as a cloud or a mist that they cannot be found Isa 44.22 Jer. 50.20 3. Long continuance in the state and trade and under the guilt and power of sin Oh I am a sinner of a long standing I am old and aged in sin Ierem. 2.33 Ier. 22.21 Eze. 23.43 I am soaked in iniquity I have served many apprentiships in it and am grown gray-headed I have drawn out a long train of vanitie and sin as it were with cartropes Isa 5.18 Methinks I feel the guilt of it so sodered into my spirit by dayly custome that it cannot be plucked out But stay a while poor soul if the Lord hath begun to draw thy heart to seek an interest in the grace of Redemption let not this dismay thee Although thou hast spent all thy dayes in a course of sin spun out a long thread of iniquity lived under guilt even to the age of Methuselah yet the Redemption that is in Christ is richly able to set the free He to whom a thousand years are but as one day can take of thy guilt of 1000 years standing There were means for cleansing an old Leprosie of long continuance and sacrifices to be offered to that end Lev. 13.11 and 14.2 The Israelites after the death of every Judge returned to their old trade of sin and ceased not from their stubborne way Judg. 2.19 Yet the Lord stirred them up Saviours still and though thou hast continued long in sin yet Christ continues still a Saviour The sinner that is 100 year old is accursed Isa 65.20 but the curse which thy Redeemer did undergoe is strong enough to shatter in peices the most inveterable curse and to turn it into a blessing The removal of guilt so deeply rivetted into thy soul by length of time seems to thee impossible but to him all things are possible To shut up this I would have the humbled soul to resolve thus Christ Jesus hath offered up himself to God through the eternal spirit and wherefore thus surely that he might by his blood purge my conscience from dead works and so deliver my soul from that eternal guilt and curse wherein it is intrapped Heb. 9.4 4. The advantage which Justice might have against the sinner for rejecting or neglecting the offer and season of grace Oh how often hath the Lord made a render of salvation to me by the Gospel how affectionately hath he invited me to come in and to take hold on the strength of this great Redeemer yet I have resisted the spirit and trampled this great grace under my feet or at least slighted it shamefully therefore I have cause to fear that the time is past and that mercy shall never reach to my soul Had I thoroughly closed at the first call or seen some reasonable time to lay down armes and submit I could hope that the Lord would have passed by all my former offences But that he should now accept me after the abuse of so much mercy such unprofitableness under his ordinances strong opposition against grace so unweariedly offered and settling my self on the lees of mine old sinful condition contrary to the light which I had received this is quite beyond mine expectation These and the like aggravating circumstances cannot but exasperate divine Justice and even compel it to vindicate its own honour and to avenge it self on such a notorious wretch as I am Surely the Lord hath determined to glorifie himself in my finall condemnation Thus the poor afflicted soul is apt to plead against its interest in this redemption But oh my dear heart be not so peremptory open thine eyes thou shalt see mercy glorying against Judgement James 2.13 None of these aggravations shall obstruct the sweet fruit of this glorious benefit but it shall break through them all True it is one of the Lords ends in suffering sin to abound and shewing forth so much patience to sinners is the manifesting of his Justice upon the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction Rom. 9.22 as in the case of Pharaoh Exod. 9.16 But what is this to thee who hast laid down thine armes and art gasping for mercie He hath another and a more desirable end in respect of thee namely that grace may much more abound and may raign thorough righteousness unto life Rom. 5.20 21. And what wilt thou say if the glory which he gets by delivering thee from the curse be double to that which he might have by leaving thee under it By this he onely glorifies his justice but by the former he glorifies both his justice and mercy this in rescuing thee from guilt and wrath that in laying the curse upon his onely Son that mercy might have free way to serve thee Why then dost thou not rather conclude thus surely the Lord which doth all things for his own glory will more regard a greater then a lesser glory my unbelieving heart saith it will be his choicest glory to destroy me being guiltie of such foul rebellions But the mercy of the redeemer saith No not so I have borne the whole curse for thee that justice might have no advantage by thy rebellion therefore I will rather raise up my glory by thy deliverance The Jews did alwayes resist the Holy Ghost Acts 7.51 and trample the grace of God under their feet even to the shedding of the blood of the Son of God yet a great number of them are and shall be ransomed by the merit of that same blood which they shed Zach. 12 1● 13 1● Ioh. 6.9 Peter having plainly confessed that Jesus was the Christ the Son of the living God Matt. 16.16 yet shortly after he rebukes Christ for speaking of his suffering and death vers 22. whereby although ignorantly he opposed the work of redemption and when the time of suffering came he disowned him with swearing and cursing Matth.