Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	apostle_n	sin_n	speak_v	5,697	5	5.3444	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34674	The covenant of grace discovering the great work of a sinners reconciliation to God / by John Cotton ... ; whereunto are added Certain queries tending to accommodadation [sic] between the Presbyterian and Congregationall churches ; also a discussion of the civill magistrates power in matters of religion ; by the same author.	Cotton, John, 1584-1652.; Allen, Thomas, 1608-1673.; Congregational churches in Massachusetts. Cambridge Synod.	1655 (1655)	Wing C6425; ESTC R37665	121,378	336

not therefore upon every leaning of your soule upon conditionall promises for so you may build upon a Covenant made upon a worke and so you and your Covenant may faile together But when you read how the Lord hath made such promises to such and such qualifications then consider that those things are indeed requisite to be found in you but who is there in heaven or earth that can worke them in you there is none but Jesus Christ and unlesse you have him to be in you you cannot have any of these things wrought in you But will a poore soule say I am not able to reach the Lord Jesus Christ therefore all the promises doe fall heavie upon a man and he seeth that they are too burthensome and too weighty for him he doth not say here is the qualification and here is the blessing promised to it and therefore I will take it to my selfe but one that is taught of God doth forthwith goe and pray unto God that he will set him in the way of those blessings and that so he will make him partaker of them he prayeth that God will give him his Sonne and that he will adorne him with his grace as a bride of Jesus Christ Thus while the soule doth looke towards Jesus Christ and grace in him the Lord doth secretly transforme him into the image of Christ by working such qualifications in him and then beareth witnesse to that sanctification which is wrought in his heart thereby enlarging his soule with strong consolation in Jesus Christ and in the same way it is that the Lord doth strengthen the faith of his people to believe that all those things which God hath promised are accomplished in Jesus Christ and the Law fullfilled in me so farre as Christ is in me and therefore I come unto God in prayer to make good those promises unto me in a right way which would have been preposterously applyed before Christ was given And this may serve for Answer to the 5th Question Quest 6. Wee come now unto a sixt Question If the Lord doe give himselfe first in the Covenant of his grace this may then be a doubt and a question in a Christian soule If God give himselfe before any blessing before any promise in order of nature though he giveth himselfe alwayes in a promise if wee cannot claime any blessing from God at the first in any conditionall promise therefore not by any condition in our selves but as we received all things from God so wee claime all things from him in Jesus Christ and so doe first seeke for him and for all things in him If thus to what use then serveth the Law of God which requireth such and such conditions in us doe we not abrogate the Law make it of none effect and roote it out from having any power over Christians And truly some under pretence of the Covenant of grace have thought it altogether bootlesse to bind Christians unto the Law of God and to looke at it as any part of the direction of their Course Now because this is an imputation usually reflected upon the Covenant of Grace let us Confider therefore and enquire to what use serveth the Law of God if God give himselfe first unto his people in the Covenant of his grace Answ Though the Lord giveth himselfe freely to the soule and his Sonne and all the blessings of the Covenant of grace without respect unto any worke of the Law yet the Law is of speciall and notable use unto all the sonnes of men both unto them that are not yet brought home unto God by converting grace and also to those that are regenerate in Jesus Christ The Apostle Paul did observe that the question would arise upon the doctrine of the Covenant of grace Gal. 3.16,17,18 For if the blessing of Abraham came upon the people of God by Jesus Christ to what end then serveth the Law which came 430 yeares after It cannot disanull grace to make the promise of God of none effect to what end then serveth it Some say it is of no use others say that it is of such use that they had rather renounce the Covenant of grace than it but the Answer is it is of especiall use both unto spirituall and carnall men First unto carnall men and they are of two sorts some belong unto the election of grace though they be not yet called others are not written in the Lambs booke of life but will in the end finally perish and the Law is yet of use unto both sorts of them For the Elect it is of use unto them to aggravate their sin and to multiply it unto them as it were that is to say to aggravate the apprehension of the hainousnesse of sin upon their Consciences and to set home the burthen of sin unto their soules thereby to drive them to feele their great need of the Lord Jesus Christ whom otherwise they should for ever have despised Thus the Apostle answereth in the place aforenamed The Law was added because of transgressions that they might cleerely appeare and be aggravated thereby that a man might plainly discerne how he hath made himselfe liable to the wrath of God by so manifold breaches of so many Commandments in one kinde or other the Law giveth cleere knowledge of sinne and so much the more doth it set on the weight of it upon the Conscience working feare in the heart Rom. 8.15 And hence it is that the Apostle telleth us Gal. 3.24 The Law was our Schoole-Master to Christ As a Schoole-Master driveth his Scholler through feare unto this or that duty either to doe it himselfe or if he cannot to get others to doe it for him so the Law of God driveth the soule through feare unto Jesus Christ not that it doth reveale Christ a Saviour of free-grace but the soule being once brought downe under sense of sin by the terrours of the Law will readily willingly hearken unto the newes of Christ a Saviour for being once made sensible of his owne inability to redeeme himselfe and unworthines to be redeemed from the wrath of God now is the soule fitted to heare the voyce of the Gospell now is the newes of Christ beautifull and glad tidings And of this use is the Law unto the Elect of God before they come under the Covenant of the grace of God 2. But of what use is the Law unto other men First the Disobedience of it is of use Secondly the Obedience of it 1. The Disobedience for if men had not knowne sin it had been some pretence though they had committed sin but when men have the knowledge of the Law and yet commit sin willingly now they have no cloake for their sin Rom. 1.21 compared with 32. where the Apostle speaketh of the great sin of the Gentiles and much more of the Jewes Who though they knew God and the judgement of God and that they which commit such wickednes are worthy of death yet