Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	adam_n	sin_n	sin_v	19,442	5	9.9710	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28344	Vindiciæ foederis, or, A treatise of the covenant of God enterd with man-kinde in the several kindes and degrees of it, in which the agreement and respective differences of the covenant of works and the covenant of grace, of the old and new covenant are discust ... / [by] Thomas Blake ... ; whereunto is annexed a sermon preached at his funeral by Mr. Anthony Burgesse, and a funeral oration made at his death by Mr. Samuel Shaw.	Blake, Thomas, 1597?-1657.; Burgess, Anthony, d. 1664.; Shaw, Samuel, 1635-1696.	1658 (1658)	Wing B3150; ESTC R31595	453,190	558

covenant-keeping or punishments in case of covenant-breaking The one the Lord promises The other he threatens I finde no material difference in the conditions on Gods part in these covenants Life is promised in both in case of covenant-keeping and death is threatned in both in case of covenant-breaking Some indeed have endeavoured to finde a great difference in the life promised in the covenant of works and the life that is promised in the covenant of grace as also in the death that is threatned in the one and the other and thereupon move many and indeed inextricable difficulties What life man should have enjoyed in case Adam had not fallen And what death man should have died in case Christ had not been promised From which two endlessely more by way of consectary may be drawn by those that want neither wit nor leisure to debate them In which the best way of satisfaction and avoidance of such puzling mazes is to enquire what Scripture means by Life which is the good in the covenant promised and what by Death which is the evil threatned Now for the first Life containes all whatsoever that conduces to true happinesse to make man blessed in soul and body All good that Christ purchases and heaven enjoys is comprised under it in Gospel-expressions I am come that they might have life and that they may have it more abundantly John 10. 10. He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Sonne hath not life 1 John 5. 12. On the contrary under Death is comprised all that is injurious to man or mankinde that tends to his misery in soul and body The damnation of Hell being called death the uttermost of evils being the separation of soul and body from God John 8. 51. 1 John 3. 14. Sinne which leads to it and is the cause of it is called death in like manner Ephes 2. 1. And the separation of soul from the body being called death sicknesses plagues are so called in like manner Ex●d 10. 17. Now happinesse being promised to man in covenant only indefinitely under that notion of life without limit to this or that way of happinesse in this or that place God is still at liberty so that he make man happy where or how he pleaseth to continue happinesse to him and is not tied up in his engagement either for earth or heaven And therefore though learned Camero in his Treatise de triplici foedere Thes 9. with others makes this difference between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace In the covenant of Works which he calls nature life was promised and a most blessed life but an animal life in Paradise in the covenant of Grace a life in Heaven and spiritual And Master Baxter in his Aphoris of Justification page 5. saith that this life premised was only the continuance of that state that Adam was then in Paradise is the opinion of most Divines Yet with submission to better judgements I see not grounds for it seeing Scripture no way determines the way and kinde of this happinesse promised and in case that we take liberty to say that when long life is promised upon earth in many texts of Scripture that the promise is made good though it faile on earth in case it be supplied in heaven life being the marrow of the promise much more then is it made good when it is indefinitely promised without limit to a man whil'st on earth in case it be made good by his translation into heaven And indeed there are strong probabilities heaven being set out by the name of Paradise in Christs speech to the thief on the crosse and in Pauls vision in that rapture 2 Cor. 12. if we may make such a supposition of mans standing now he is fallen that he should not have continued a life of immortality on earth but have been translated into heaven He had that blessing from God as other living creatures to be fruitfull and multiply Gen. 1. 28. and how the world could have contained all those individuals at once which to eternity man should propagate cannot be imagined And to conceive that an end in time should be put to propagation when an animal life in the use of the creature should be continued is scarce consistent with reason But a thousand of these God can expedite when we are at a stand He promised life and he could have made it good and we see he limited not himself where or how to conferre it And what I have said of life promised the same I say of death threatned in case man upon sinne be brought into a state of misery Justice is done and the threat takes hold where and howsoever this misery be suffered whether it had been in sorrows and horrours on earth in separation of the soul first for torments and the body to follow or in a speedy dispatch of soul and body to hell Gods way of execution after the sinne committed on those that are not by Christ ransomed does not argue that the penalty in the covenant necessitated him to it might not he at once have poured out the whole of his vengeance on vessels of wrath when yet we know that he takes time for the execution of it A Learned Writer enquiring into this death that was here threatned saith that the same damnation that followed the breach of the second covenant it could not be When I suppose it rather should be said that in substance and kind it can be no other Infidels that were never under any other covenant then that of works and covenant-breaking Christians are in the same condemnation there is not two hells but one and the same for those that know not God and those that obey not the Gospel of Christ 2 Thes 1. 8. Neither is there any Limbus or distinct place for infants in original sinne and out of the covenant of grace Neither can I assent to that speech To say that Adam should have gone quick to hell if Christ had not been promised or sinne pardoned is to contradict the Scriptures that makes death temporal the wages of sinne It were I confesse to presume above Scripture but I cannot see it a contradiction of Scripture A burning Feaver a Consumption Leprosie Pestilence c. are in Scripture made the wages of sinne yet many go to hell and misse those diseases And if it be said Scripture so makes death the wages of sin that all must suffer it I answer Those Scriptures are all of them leges post latae appointed of God as his way upon mans fall neither absolute justice nor yet the penalty threatned necessitating him to that way of proceeding He takes the same way where his justice hath already satisfaction Those that are priviledged from death as the wages of sinne thus die God tied not up his own hands as States do their Judges and ministerial officers to one way of execution and this his way with the unbeleeving is voluntary and

inflicts the Lord 4. His way of dealing as a Father in love and not in vengeance Now turne to Heb. 12. 5 6 7. and there we shall see the Apostle 1. Quoting this Scripture 2. Checking them for not heeding it 3. Commenting upon it Ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children My sonne despise not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth If ye endure chastening God dealeth with you as with sonnes for what sonne is he whom the Father chasteneth not These words of the Apostle confirm all the Old Testament proofs before mentioned give a shrewd check to all those that would cast them off and are a full New Testament-proof of the point in hand our aversaries tell us that the children of God in New Testament-times have that great and happy priviledge to be free from all chastisements for sinne The Apostle on the other hand sayes that it is their happinesse to be chastised and would be their sorrow if they were without chastisement For this cause saith the Apostle many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep 1 Cor. 11. 30. There we see judgements inflicted the persons suffering and the cause of suffering assigned The judgements are set out 1. By the quality or kinde such as were visible on the outward man as their sinne was open so was their suffering 2. By their several degrees in which they suffered some weak languishing under infirmities some sick taken with diseases some fallen asleep surprised with death The persons suffering are set out 1. By their multitude many 2. By the application of the stroke Corinthians had sinned and Corinthians suffered The cause is implyed in the illative particle For and exprest in the foregoing words their unworthy addresses unto the Lords Table sinfully eating and drinking they eat and drink their own judgement and though it cannot be said that all were in grace that thus suffered yet there were some at least in grace among them in that the Lord chastened them in the world that they might not be condemned with the world The Lord Christ speaks fully to this in his letter from heaven to Laodicea the Church of Rev. 3. 19. As many as I love I rebuke and chasten As Scripture expresly holds out this truth so it is also clear in reason if God should not hold up his Sovereignty in this way of exercise of discipline upon his children his love could not be continued to them but would be withdrawn from them as we see in Christs words but now mentioned Rev. 3. 19. as also in those words of Solomon and the Apostle Pro. 3. 11. Heb. 12. 5 6 7. The love of God is such to his children and such a league of friendship is past between them say our adversaries that it will not suffer him to strike them We say his love is such that he cannot forbear to strike and will not suffer that they should sinne and carry it with impunity There are indeed some such parents that are so indulgent that children must neither have check nor stroke from them what course soever they take they scarce hear words much lesse do they suffer stripes These call this love but a wiser then they calls it by the name of hatred Prov. 13. 24. He that spareth the rod hateth his sonne but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes Pity will not suffer to make children smart But it is greater pity that the want of smart should bring them to the condemnation of hell Prov. 23. 13 14. With-hold not correction from the childe for if thou beatest him with the rod he shall not die Thou shalt beat him with the rod and shalt deliver his soul from hell A childe in sinne must either be beaten or spared Beating will not be his death but sparing tends to his condemnation The similitude is not ours but the Holy Ghosts One of the most terrible texts in all the Bible may be found as one sayes Hoses 4. 14. I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredome nor your spouses when they commit adultery He spares not some that he may for ever spare them chastening them in the world that he may not condemn them with the world He spares some and everlastingly destroys them 2. Otherwise God would be reconciled to the sinne of his people and in league not only with their persons but with their wickednesse which is most abhorrent to his holinesse We read of Gods reconciliation to the world but never to the wickednesse of the world God may be at peace with those that have sinned not imputing their trespasses but he will never be at peace with sin 3. It will not stand with his honour to suffer his to go on in impunity in these ways Their wickednesse will be said to be by his allowance Men in sin are ready to say as the Psalmist observe that God is such a one as themselves Psalme 50. 21. and that because they sinne and he keeps silence And men of the world will say the same if his people go on in sinne and prosper This the Lord sees and takes care this way to prevent Ezek. 39. 23. And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity because they trespassed against me therefore hid I my face from them He will make it appear that he is no patron to them in that which is evil 4. God hath given in charge to Magistrates his vice-gerents for to punish They are revengers to execute wrath upon them that do evil Rom. 13. 4. they are sent of God for the punishment of evil doers 1. Pet. 2. 14. They have no commission to spare upon supposal of any interest in God or grace when they are found in any acts that are wicked What they do God does they acting by his command and by vertue of his commission For further clearing of this point and if it may be to work a right understanding I shall lay down severall Positions 1. God considered in his absolute Sovereignty may inflict sufferings without injustice on his innocent creatures there is no absolute necessity that sinne should go before all manner of trouble Punishment cannot be without a fault that alwayes implies guilt where justice is followed Yet such is Gods Sovereignty that he may lay affliction where there is no transgression We do it upon our fellow-creatures we tread upon wormes that never did offend us God may much more do it upon his creatures yea God does it How much do bruit creatures suffer in the world and unwillingly suffer as the Apostle speaks Rom. 8. 20. and that from Gods hand that hath made them subject to these suffering that which God doth unto one creature he may do unto any creature that which he doth to the meanest he may do to the most noble creature As a potter may

be satisfied which how impossible it is for man to do and how injurious to the sufferings of Christ to attempt the doing of it let us guesse by the definition that Bellarmine gives of it Lib. quart de peniten cap. 1. Actio quâ is qui alierum laesit tantum facit quantum satis est ad injuriam compensandam sive is qui laesus est justè exigit All that we can suffer can never satisfie the wrong that our sinnes have done to the divine Majesty God may justly exact more then either on earth or in their imaginary purgatory any man can discharge As the sufferings of this life are not worthy of the glory that shall be revealed so neither do they match the evil that justly might be inflicted They are all just but not from Gods revenging justice In themselves they have the nature of curses but they are no part of the curse which upon the breach of the covenant of works and upon the transgression of the Law is menaced As a skilful Physician makes poison up into a medicine so doth God turne curses into blessings they serve not to kill but to cure his people 7. These sufferings are not yet barely as some use to speak from sinne but chastisements for sinne not only to prevent sin that it may not be committed but because men have allready sinned The Corinthians were chastened not alone least they should prophane the Lords Supper but because they had prophaned it God afflicted David not onely lest he should commit adultery but because he had committed adultery He threatens Eli and punisheth him not only lest he should be too indulgent to his sons but because he had been too indulgent to them It cannot be conceived how afflictions should prevent sin to come if they do not correct sin already past why are men afraid to sinne upon account of sufferings but because upon sin they have suffered Smart for sinne makes a childe of God watchful against sin The childe that hath seen his fathers frowne is afraid lest he should frowne againe that hath beene scourged knows what a father thinks of a fault and is afraid of a second It is here objected that it stands not with justice in this way to afflict beleevers seeing Christ in their stead hath made satisfaction and to punish one sinne twice is injurious Answ 1. These know that Socinians deny that Christ hath made any satisfaction and if these two cannot stand together viz. Christs satisfaction and beleevers correction they will soone assume that beleevers do suffer for which the Scripture is very full and therefore Christ hath not satisfied and so their dangerous errour will be supported 2. One truth must not be produced to the overthrow of another Christ satisfaction takes us out of the hand of condemnation and delivers from revengeful wrath but not out of the hand of discipline when God becomes a Saviour he doth not cease to be a Sovereign a father that is a Judge may lash his childe that he never intends to sentence If any will see further Objections raised and answered let him consult Mr. Burges of justification Part. 1. Lecture 5. pag. 33. CHAP. XIV Agreement between the Covenant of works and the Covenant of grace HAving asserted a covenant of grace and premised such things that may contribute some light towards a right understanding of it I must proceed to enquire into the respective agreement and differences between these covenants The former is an easie work there being no controversie or dispute raised about it and therefore I shall briefly passe it over They agree 1. In the general nature of a covenant both are covenants strictly so called as hath already been demonstrated 2. They have one and the same authour that is God He proposed the termes of the covenant to Adam for himself and all of his posterity and he enters covenant with the posterity of Adam in their fallen condition 3. The parties in covenant are in both of them God and man God propounding man accepting though there be as we have heard that would have it otherwise 4. In either of both there is a tendency to mans happinesse Life is given in promise in both as we see Rom. 10 5 6 c. where both covenants are distinctly considered what difference or agreement there may be in the life promised will after be spoke unto 5. In both of them there is a restipulation from man as there is an engagement from God as God engageth himself for reward so man is engaged to duty the former was never doubted the later hath been largely proved 6. In either of both righteousness is called for from those that enter covenant For the first it is not questioned in that it is a covenant of Works Failing in doing was death Interest in perfect righteousnesse is required in the latter which is called the righteousnesse of faith and is the righteousnesse of the Law performed not by our selves but by another Christ is the end of the Law for righteousnesse to every one that beleeveth Rom. 10. 4. Sincerity in inherent righteousnesse is required likewise both of these will be morefully demonstrated 7. Either of both are indispensable the conditions being not performed the penalty of the covenant in both is inflicted Adams posterity had experience of the one and all unbeleevers and impenitent ones will bear the other not believing not repenting brings death as sometimes not perfectly obeying That distinction of the covenant of grace calling for one thing and accepting of another afterwards will be considered 8. Neither of both covenants are personal as entered with any single person or persons and determined in him or them but both of them include posterity In the covenant of works it is not so expressly delivered but not to be doubted That covenant was entred with Adam for all his the latter is more expresse to the covenanters and their seed both in Old and New Testament-Scriptures which by a party is questioned but remaines largely to be confirmed CHAP. XV. Differences between the Covenants of Works and the Covenant of Grace HAving spoken to the agreement between these two Covenants I must now more largely enquire into the differences which will prove a work of greater difficulty there being so much opposition The first and leading difference is that being both of them between God and man they were entred into in a different estate and condition of man The first was entered in statu instituto in mans integrity when man had not at all by sinne incurred the displeasure of God or weakened his abilities for obedience Man then stood as he came out of Gods hand bearing in himselfe a lively resemblance of God The second was in statu destituto in mans fallen estate now in sinne under wrath dead in sinne and wholly disabled from yeelding obedience of this there is no controversie and therefore I need not make more words about it And from hence all