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A50428 Sanctification by faith vindicated in a discourse on the seventh chapter of the epistle of St. Paul to the Romans : compared with the sixth and eighth chapters of the same epistle / written by Zachary Mayne ... to which is prefixt a preface by Mr. Rob. Burscough. Mayne, Zachary, 1631-1694.; Burscough, Robert, 1651-1709. 1693 (1693) Wing M1487; ESTC R11086 85,470 62

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seems to turn his Speech into a figurative Expression as I have noted above out of Doctor Hammond and chuseth rather to say Ye are become dead to the Law by the Body of Christ crucified for else there would have been no similitude in this Case for the Matter to which the Apostle doth assimulate the Case of every true Christian was to that of a Wife who was once bound to an Husband but by the death of her Husband became free to be married to another the word ye therefore answers to the Wife therefore when he says ye are dead to the Law the meaning is the Law is dead to you for else he would not speak of the death of the Husband but of the death of the Wife And accordingly the Apostle continues the Allegory in the next two Verses For when we were in the flesh Verse 5 the motions of sin which were by the law did work in our members to bring ferth fruit unto death But now we are delivered from the law Verse 6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We are cancelled to the Law signifieth saith Dr. Hammond the Law is cancelled to us that being dead wherein we were held that is the Law which was our first Husband being dead wherein we were held or to which we were obliged as a Wife to a Husband during his life that we should serve in newness of spirit that is according to a free ingenious Gospel-Principle of Love and not in the oldness of the Letter that is according to the severity and rigour of the Law written in Tables of Stone which was our old and first Husband So that in this Antapodosis or Reddition which is here made by way of Similitude to the Case of an Husband and Wife I take it we have these several Propositions clearly expressed or strongly inferrible 1. The Law is a Man's first Husband 2. The Law is every Man's Husband that is his Soul's Husband till he betake himself to Christ by Faith for there is no middle State every Man is either under the Law or under Grace 3. The Law is a rigid and severe Husband 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verse 6. Wherein we were held Gal. 3.23 24. Before Faith came we were kept under the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Law had set a guard upon us shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed shut up as it were in Prison in Salva Custodia Verse 24. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ and a severe Schoolmaster 4. That whilst we are under the Law and before we betake ourselves to Christ by Faith we can do nothing but Sin Verse 5. For when we were in the flesh the motions of sin which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death Whilst we are under the Law we are in the Flesh wholly carnal and then the motions of Sin did work and nothing but they and did bring forth Fruit unto Death This is the Issue of our Wedlock whilst we sinners have no other Husband but only the Law 5. That the Law was in very good earnest since killed as to the condemning power of it for all Mankind by the Body of Christ crucified 6. That every Man in the World where the Gospel is preached is declared to be free from the condemnation of the Law upon condition that he betake himself to Christ as an Husband and a Lord. And this I take to be the greatest thing in the Gospel 7. That till a Man repent and believe this Gospel and be joyned to the Lord Christ as one Spirit with him he can never bring forth fruit unto God Verse 4. Wherefore my brethren ye also are become dead to the law or rather the Law is dead to you by the body of Christ that ye should be married to another even to him that is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God This is the Fruit of the New Wedlock and without this change of State there can be no such Fruit. All these severally I take to be included in the Apostle's Similitude and so I come to the seventh Verse wherein the Apostle answers a terrible Objection which seems to arise rationally against what he had said What shall we say then Verse 7 is the law sin God forbid The Objection rises naturally thus You have said above That when we were in the Flesh the Motions of Sin which were by the Law did so work as to bring forth Fruit unto Death and that we need to be delivered from the Law even by the death of it as an Husband that so we may serve God with a new Spirit and bring forth Fruit to God Why what a strange kind of thing do you make the Law to be Quod efficit tale est magis tale That which is the cause of any thing and brings it forth into being is much more such a thing as that is which is produced and effected by it What shall we say then is the Law Sin or a sinful thing or the direct cause of Sin This Question or Objection the Apostle answers with an abhorrence Verse 7 God forbid and then gives a very substantial reason for it Nay I had not known sin but by the law for I had not known lust except the law had said Thou shalt not covet So that it is as much as if the Apostle had said 't is true if this bringing forth Fruit unto Death had been the natural and kindly Effect of the Law as a Cause it would be so it could no be freed from this aspersion of being a very sinful thing nay Sin itself in the abstract If innocent Man and the Law meeting together the natural product of the Law should be Sin the Law would indeed deserve the name of sinful and of sin but it is not the univocal natural kindly Product of the Law upon a Man but the accidental Effect of the Law upon a Sinner But sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence The Law is so far from deserving the name of sin or sinful saith the Apostle that I had not known sin but by the law for I had not known lust except the law had said Thou shalt not covet The natural Effect of the Law is first to forbid Sin and to command all that is holy just and good and in the next place to discover Sin to convince and condemn the sinner which is quite contrary to the promoting encouraging and producing Sin Well then having removed Sin far enough away from being the natural Effect of the Law he comes to shew how the Law did occasionally and accidentally produce Sin But sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence Verse 8 for without the law sin was dead or is dead there is neither of them no Verb substantive in the Original And here I think it a very fit occasion to set
are much the same What need of so much caution and exhortation to avoid a thing that shall never come to pass Why truly because though you may certainly avoid and escape the dominion and reigning power of sin by care and diligence watchfulness and holy activity still praying for depending upon and making use of the Grace of God yet if you be not thus employed however you may seem to your selves and others to have clean escaped those that live in error 2 Pet. 2.18 and to have escaped the pollutions that are in the world through lust the evil spirit will return and take with him seven other spirits worse than ever he was and will take possession of his swept and garnished old mansion and sin will again have dominion and reign over you To recite the whole Verse For sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the law but under grace Verse 14 Here the Apostle expresses the great reason why true Christians may be and are freed from the dominion of sin it is because they are not under the Law and seek not to be justified by the Law but under Grace Justification and Sanctification have one and the same Root Source and Foundation Jesus Christ is made of God unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 So the Apostle hath well confuted that Paralogism in the first Verse Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound by turning it into a Violentum He takes the Enemies Cannon and turns them upon themselves therefore you must not continue in sin because grace hath abounded and doth abound For sin shall not have dominion over you because ye are under grace I shall need here to say something to make it appear how the Dominion of Sin is destroyed by Grace and not by the Law though I know I shall have much more occasion several times to speak to this in the seventh Chapter which indeed cannot be made intelligible without the unfolding of this Mystery And first for the explication of it I shall give a parallel place it is Gal. 5.16 18. Verse 16. This I say then walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh Verse 18. If ye be led by the spirit ye are not under the law The Apostle had before been exhorting them to love one another because Love was the fulfilling of the Law and tells them further in Verse 15. If they did bite and devour one another there was a great danger they would be consumed one of another Now for prevention hereof the Apostle adds Verse 16. This I say then walk in spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh that is that lust of envy and bitterness Verse 17. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would Even in good Men there is a remainder of flesh as it is taken in an ill sence which hinders them from doing much of that good which they would fain do when they are more themselves But then the Apostle minds them of what he had said before in the sixteenth Verse as the Apostle loves to inculcate and repeat If you be led by the spirit or walk in the spirit which I take to be all one if ye be led by the spirit ye are not under the law Which I take to be all one with the other part of the sixteenth Verse Ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh And accordingly he reckons up the lusts of the flesh which when brought into act are the works of the flesh In the next Verse 19. Now the works of the flesh are manifest c. But the parallel I seem to my self to find in these words of the Epistle to the Galatians compared with those in Romans 6.14 appears thus in Ep. to Gal. t is If ye be led by the spirit ye are not under the law or ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh to be under the law and to fulfil the lusts of the flesh are consequent one upon another and therefore used as synonimous or equivalent Expressions and if so they fully answer the words that I am now upon Rom. 6.14 Sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the law but under grace Now if not to be under the law and not to fulfil the lusts of the flesh be all one then to be under the law and to fulfil the lusts of the flesh are all one for Contrariorum contrariae sunt rationes and if to be under the law and to fulfil the lusts of the flesh are all one that is in the way of inferring one another as Posita causa ponitur effectus being under the law is the cause fulfilling the lusts of the flesh is the effect I say if these are all one or rather if they do mutuo se ponere tollere then the Apostle's is a good Argument in the Text before us Rom. 6.14 Sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the law but under grace But I shall leave the Argument from a parallel which serves only to prove the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that so it is that he that is under the Law as his way of justification will certainly fulfil the lusts of the flesh and that sin shall not have dominion over him that is not under the law and come to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the reason why it is so which evermore proves the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is so Now the reason why it is so that he that is under the law will always and cannot but fulfil the lusts of the flesh and that he that walks in the spirit is led by the spirit or under the conduct of grace and the promise for justification and sanctification will not and cannot whilst such yield himself a slave to his lusts and suffer sin to have dominion over him is this because a sinner as we are all sinners that is under the law and betakes himself to the law for justification and goes no farther is not well schooled under the law so as to betake himself to Christ and Grace for a righteousness as the law is only a Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ that we may be justified by faith Gal. 3.24 he finds the law commands him to be holy persectly holy and threatens every sin with death and gives him no strength nor hope without perfect unerring obedience besides all the wrath that the law is charged with against him for his past sins And here the poor Man finding it his duty to abstain from all evil and do all that is good and having no strength and no hope but in the way of perfect unerring obedience besides the making amends and giving satisfaction for his past sins he grows sad and mad and desperate and falls to