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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	call_v	father_n	lord_n	1,508	5	3.8210	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62017	Sō ̃ma thanatou, the body of death: or, a discourse concerning the saints failings & infirmities Wherein this position, viz. that absolute freedome from sinne is not attainable in this life, is both proved and improved, in three sermons preached in St Edmunds church in the city of New-Sarum; the first upon Wednesday Novemb 24. 1658. being the weekly lecture day; the two last upon August 14, 1659. being the Lords day. By Joseph Swaffeild minister of the gospel at Odstocke in the county of Wilts.	Swaffield, Joseph, ca. 1625-1681.	1661 (1661)	Wing S6231; ESTC R222442	50,170	146

further degrees of mortification Sin dwelleth in us and it will dwell in us while we live Therefore what St. Paul saith of himself in another case 1 Cor. 15.31 I dye dayly so let us in respect of our sins dye dayly Let us not look upon mortification as the work of a day or a moneth or a yeare but of our whole life time Let us therefore continue our indeavours therein and make a dayly progresse in this work and every day labour to weaken the body of sin more and more praying against it and watching against it and striveing against it in the strength of Christ So much for the use of exhortation Lastly Vse 4 I shall close up all with a few words of comfort to the people of God Consola who are apt to be cast down and disquieted in their spirits by reason of the remainders of corruption in them and their frequent falls into sin Besides what hath been already spoken in the explication of the Doctrine that though sin doth remain in beleevers in respect of its inherence and its infectious nature and its seduceing power yet they are freed from it in respect of its dominion guilt and condemning power and besides what hath been spoken before concerning the difference between the infirmities of Saints and the falls of wicked men which may conduce much to the comfort of the people of God under their failings and infirmities I shall now subjoyn three or four other comfortable considerations with which I shall put a period to this discourse First Sin cannot separate Saints from the love of God If any thing in the world could quench and extinguish the flame of Gods love to a beleeving soul that which carries in it the greatest contrariety to Gods holy and heavenly nature must needs doe it and that is sin But sin cannot doe it A state of sin before regeneration could not doe it much lesse shall an act of sin now you are in a state of grace be able to effect it For their is more malignity in a state of sin than in an act of sin Now saith the Apostle God commendeth his love to us in that when we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us Rom 5.8 If God love sinners while sinners then suerly his love to Saints cannot be broken off by sin If the time of their bloud was the time of his love as Ezck. 16.6 then surely his love to them when Saints is invincible inviolable he may indeed visit their iniquities with stripes and their transgressions with rods it is a branch of his Covenant Psal 89.30 31. never thelesse his loving kindnesse will he not utterly take from them nor suffer his faithfullnesse to fail Secondly God taketh notice of of and accepteth that good which is in his Saints notwithstanding their sins Indeed men are apt so to minde their vices that they forget their vertues a little evill makes men forget abundance of good Men are apt to pitch onely upon the weaknesses and failings of of the people of God and to overlook what is good in them like flies that pitch upon the sore and like vultures that flye over the pleasantest garden and pitch upon carrion so wicked men watch for the haltings of Gods people and feed their malice with their failings But God takes notice of a little good in the midst of abundance of evill of a little gold in the midst of abundance of oare of a little wheat in the midst of abundance of chaffe And it is worth our choicest observation that when the Spirit of God in the Scripture giveth us the characters of Saints he hideth their failings and taketh notice onely of their graces I will give you a few instances If you look into Gen. 18.12 you shall find that Sarahs speech was full of distrust and unbelief shall I have pleasure my Lord also being old There was but one word that of Lord the note of rever ence and respect to her husband and that the holy Ghost elsewhere taketh notice of 1 Pet. 3.6 she called Abraham Lord. And although Moses was sometimes passionate yet the holy Ghost stileth him the meekest man upon the face of the earth Numb 12.3 Now the man Moses was very meek above all the men that were upon the face of the earth And in Heb. 11.31 There is no mention of Rahabs lye but onely of her faith and peaceable behaviour towards the spies David fell fearefully and that more than once as you have heard before and yet you may see what a character God gave of him viz. that he kept his commandements and followed the Lord with all his heart c. 1 King 14.8 Asa also had his great imperfections and yet when an account is given of his raigne the holy Ghost giveth him this high encomium The heart of Asa was perfect all his dayes 2 Chron. 15.17 So Job The holy Ghost saith concerning him J●m 5.11 Ye have heard of the patience of Job Yes and we have heard of his impatience too in cursing his day Job 2. But this is not mentioned Iob was patient for the main though sometimes the extremity of his suffering extorted from him some expressions of impatience Indeed where the bent of the heart is right the infirmities of Gods people are not mentioned He that drew the picture of Alexander while he had a scarre in his face painted him with his finger upon the scarre so God is graciously pleased to put the finger of his mercy upon the scarres of his people What a precious cordiall may this be for the sinking and fainting hearts of Gods children mourning under the sense of their corruption Heoverlooketh what is theirs in them and takes notice onely of what is his own and when he comes to weigh them in the ballance of the Sanctuary he leaves out their corruptions and puts nothing into the scales but their graces He hides his eyes from what is sinfull and takes notice onely of what is good in them Thirdly Jesus Christ the High Priest of Saints is now in heaven at Gods right hand making intercession for them Heb. 7.25 Hence it is that he is also called an Advocate in that comfortable Scripture 1 John 2.1 If any man sin we have an advocate with the father even Jesus Christ the righteous He is entered in within the veile t Heb 6.19 20. and there he appeares before God and pleads the causes of his people presenting his own merit unto his father the merit of his death and passion whereby he hath made 〈◊〉 full satisfaction to divine Justice fo● all their sins It is upon this account that the bloud of Christ 〈◊〉 said to speake better things than th● bloud of Abel u Heb. 12.24 Abels bloud plead● against Cain crying for vengeanc● Gen. 4.10 The voice of thy brother bloud cryeth unto me from the ground to wit for vengeance It is as much as if the Lord had said although there be none else to accuse thee

heed how they imbolden themselves to sin by the falls of Saints recorded in the Scripture It is an argument of a base spirit for men to plead Noahs drunkenness Lots incest Davids adultery Peters denyall as examples to encourage themselves to sinne Salvian complaineth that in his times they pleaded Si David cur non ego Si Noah cur non ego If David committed adultery why may not I doe so too and yet besaved as well as he If Noah was drunk why may not I be so too and yet be saved as well as he The best have their faults and in many things we offend all Thus they did then and thus men will still strengthen themselves in their wickedness But let such persons consider First They doe wrest and pervert the Scriptures when they make such carnall inferences from the falls of Saints recorded therein I say they pervert and wrest the Scriptures to a quite contrary end than ever the holy Ghost intended them For there are but two speciall ends of Gods recording in the Scriptures the falls of his Saints and they are these First that their falls might be a meanes to preserve others from fainting under the burden of their sins that they may not when they fall despair of mercy or think their sinnes greater than can be pardoned Secondly that their falls may be warnings to others to preserve them from falling that they may be as sea-markes to warn others to take heed how they come neer those rocks and quicksands where others have been splitt and sunk and to avoid those snares wherein the most precious Saints of God in former ages have been ensnared Now these things are writen for our examples saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 10.6 Examples How Surely not for our imitation but for our admonition as verse 11. to the intent that we might not be surprized and overtaken with the like temptation d Ad nostram doctrinam instructionem cautelam referenda sunt Estius ad 1 Cor. 10.6 Vt iis lectis vel auditis admoniti sapriamus nè similiter peccantes similiter patiamur Estius ad verse 11. ejusdem capitis This is the use which the holy Ghost teacheth us to make of the falls of Saints And this use Nehemiah made of the sin of Solomon in marrying strange wives You may see his own words Neh. 13.26 27. Did not Solomon King of Israel sin by these things yet among many nations was their no King like him who was beloved of his God and God made him King over all Israel Neverthelesse even him did outlandish women cause to sin Shall we then hearken unto you to doe all this great evill to transgresse against our God in marrying strange wives q.d. If Solomons marrying of strange wives was a meanes to cause him to sin how much greater cause have we to fear the like effect of the like sin if we should fall into it Let us then make this use of the falls of Saints recorded in the Scripture Was such a man as Noah of whom the holy Ghost gives a very honourable testimony that he was a just man and perfect in his generation Gen. 6.9 overtaken with that beastly sin of drunkenness Was such a man as David a man after Gods own heart drawn to such foule sins as adultery and murder Did Moses the meekest man upon the earth breake forth into passion and speak so unadvisedly with his lips that he was shut out of Canaan for it Oh! how should their examples be warnings to us who come so farre short of them in grace to take heed of the occasions of the like sins and looke well to our own feet lest they also slip Surely it never entered into the heart of God to record the falls of his Saints that thereby others should have a cloak for their sins but that hereby others might become the more afraid of sin and the more watchfull over their own hearts Did David and Peter and others who were such strong Saints and like pillars in the house of God fall so dangerously Oh! then how neerly doth it concern us who stand in more slippery ground to look well to our selves and to take heed lest we also fall Thus you see they that take occasion from the falls of Saints which are upon record in the Scriptures to encourage themselves in sin doe grossely pervert and wrest the Scripture and doe in effect make God the patron of sin Therefore I beseech you take heed of it Secondly You will see but little cause to imbolden your selves in sin by the examples of the infirmities of Saints recorded in the Scripture if you consider how deeply they have smarted for thir sins It is true indeed the Scriptures tell us that many of Gods deer children have sinned fowlly but they hold forth that they have smarted deeply Truly a man that considers and layeth well to heart how severely God hath dealt even with his own people when they have sinned against him what frownes what hidings of Gods face and what broken bones their sins have cost them and how long some of them have roared upon the rack of Gods heavy displeasure before those broken bones have been set in joint again besides many temporall afflictions which they have undergone though not sub ratione penae as the fruits of vindictive justice yet as the effects of fatherly displeasure c Quamvis Deus absolvit vere penitentes propter Christi mortem ab omni pen a satisfactoriâ non tamen illos liberat ab omni penâ medicinali castlig●toriâ Daren in Coloss ed it Camah 1639. p. 127. would be loath to purchase the pleasure or the profit of any sin at so dear a rate much lesse would he imbolden himself to sin by their example Though it be true indeed that God never taketh away his loving kindness from his people nor suffers his faithfulnesse to fail Psal 89.33 yet if his covenant-people forsake his Law and walk not in his judgments if they break his statutes and keep not his commandements then will he visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes verse 30.31.32 The Scripture aboundeth with instances of this Moses his passion and unbelief shut him out of Canaan Numb 20.12 and 27.13 14. And Davids Adultery and murder intailed the sword upon him and his family to all generations and the child born in adultery must not live but dye and that for this very cause because by this deed he had given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme That 's the cause alledged by God himself 2 Sam. 12.10 11 12 14. And Zacharias for his unbeleef was struck dumb for a season Luk. 1.20 even because he beleeved not the words of the Angel which were to be fullfiled in their season Methinkes this consideration should startle such carnall wretches and cause them to stand in awe and not sin that although the children of God are by Jesus Christ delivered