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	wage_n	4,685	5	10.8916	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29090	The doctrine of free-grace, no doctrine of licenciousnesse, or, That Gods free unconditionall pardoning of sinne is the best way to mortifie the power of sinne in believers asserted and cleared by Edward Bagshawe ...	Bagshaw, Edward, 1629-1671.	1662 (1662)	Wing B410; ESTC R5497	30,451	48

vers 20. Because by the Law is the knowledge of sinne i. e. A strict and impartiall view of the Law in its latitude and spirituall significancy and comparing of our Lives with it is so farre from discovering the Rectitude of our Nature and Actions that it rather serves to manifest the Obliquity and sinfullness of them both And therefore there must be some other expedient found out to Acquit or Justifie men in the sight of God vers 27. than an appeal unto the Law of Works and that is the Law of Faith as the Apostle speaks The Righteousness of God i. e. which avails before God vers 22. and is accepted by him is by Faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God whereby is meant either the Graces which God requires or the Happiness which he promises Men were not of themselves able to perform the one and therefore had no Right or Title unto the other whereupon it follows that all such as are Justified are Justified Freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in or by Jesus This Doctrine which doth so levell the Pride of man by putting his Salvation quite out of himself and therein is utterly contradictory to humane conception the Apostle foresaw would meet with great opposition and therefore that he might Assert and Clear this Fundamentall Truth from all possibility of Cavill he urges and answers three of the main Objections which either are or can be alleaged against it Object 1 The first Objection is taken from the Example of Abraham concerning whom the common opinion of the Jews was that he was Justified by Works which they gathered from Gods renewing his Blessing upon him after his signall obedience in attempting to offer his sonne For now I know Gen. 22.12 saith God that thou fearest God seeing thou hast not withheld thy sonne thine onely sonne from me And again Because thou hast done this thing vers 16 17. and hast not withheld thy sonne thine onely sonne In blessing I will bless thee Whereupon the Apostle James seems clearly to Affirm that Abraham was justified by his Works in that Question Was not Abraham our Father Justified by Works when he had offered Isaac his sonne upon the Altar To this Instance Answ the Apostle answers by directly denying that Abraham was Justified by Works for proof of which he quotes a place out of the Old Testament Gen. 13.6 That Abraham believed in God and it i. e. that Faith of his was imputed to him for Righteousness Which was spoken of Abraham long before he had received Circumcision and done that Signall and Heroick Action by which the Sincerity and Truth of his Faith was evidenced So that the Apostle James words cannot be understood as if he intended to decide whether Faith or Works did Justifie but onely that he determins what kind of Faith it was which Justified viz. not a Naked and Barren but an Effectuall and Working Faith And that Abrahams was such a kind of Faith he manifested afterwards in undertaking so Perillous and Dangerous a Task meerly in obedience to Gods Command From whence it follows that if Abraham who is stiled the Friend of God did attain to the esteem of being reputed Righteous before God meerly upon the account of his Faith then all others whose highest commendation is onely to be the Followers and Imitators of Abraham have no other way of obteining True Righteousness but by treading in the same footsteps of Faith which the Patriark Abraham walked in as the Apostle concludes Rom. 4.23 24. It was not written for him i. e. for Abraham alone that it was imputed to him But to us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the Dead Object 2 The second Objection against this Doctrine is taken from that seeming Absurdity and Contradiction which would follow should men think of being saved by the Righteousness of another For as every man is to be condemned onely for his own sinnes so it seems to be most Just and Equall that every man should be saved onely for his own Righteousness according to the Reasoning of God himself who doth not onely say that the Wickedness of the Wicked Ezek. 18.20 but likewise that the Righteousness of the Righteous shall be upon him Answ 2. To this Objection the Apostle excellently answers throughout the whole fifth Chapter of this Epistle by drawing a parallel between Adam and Christ who were the two great Heads and Representatives of all Mankind in their severall Estates Now if it shall appear that Adam destroyed his Race by the Imputation of his sinne then it cannot be Unreasonable to believe that Christ may save his Race by the Imputation of his Righteousness But that Adam destroyed his Race by the Imputation of his sinne appears clearly from hence in that Death which is the Wages of sinne vers 14. doth actually ceaze those who never Actually sinned and therefore could be but liable to it onely upon the Account of Transmitted Derivative and Imputed sinne as he Argues Death reigned from Adam to Moses even over those that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams Transgression i. e. over Infants From whence he inferres As by one mans disobedience Many i. e. All who descend from him by Naturall Generation were made sinners so by the obedience of one man Many i. e. all who are related to him by Faith and supernaturall Regeneration shall be made Righteous Nay by how much Christ is a greater Person than Adam the one being formed from Earth the other 1 Cor. 15.47 being the Lord from Heaven by so much shall the Obedience and Righteousness of that One more avail to Save than the Unrighteousness and Sinne of the other did to Destroy And this the Apostle clears in two Particulars 1. In Extent of the Pardon which is to many sinnes whereas the Condemnation was onely for One. For saith he the Judgment or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Guilt was by one i. e. Offence to Condemnation but the free-gift is of many Offences vers 16. unto Justification In Adam one sinne and that of the lesser sort stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a slip or so was sufficient to undoe a World But in Christ Many sins how aggravated and circumstanced soever shall not be sufficient to destroy one Soul 2. In the Excellence of the purchase Adam by his Sinne purchased Death and Damnation which is like a Motion down-hill very Naturall and easie to be conceived For that a Creature should die that a Sinner should be sentenced may without any Difficulty be imagined But Christ purchased Life Eternall which is like a Motion up-hill very Hard and exceeding Difficult to be comprehended From whence the Apostle concludes that where Sinne i. e. the Guilt or Demerit of Adams Sinne

and Fruit of Justification is made to precede it onely to show the Fixed and never-failing union betwixt them Now Faith produceth Holiness not onely because it is begot by the Spirit of God which is a Spirit of Purity but because it entitles us to all the Promises which are alwayes urged as Motives unto Purity Ye are clean saith our Saviour to his Disciples through the Word i. e. of Comfort Joh 15.3 which I have spoken to you and the Apostle having alleaged the Promise of God wherein he said 2 Cor. 7 1. he would walk and dwell in his People from thence he inferres having therefore these Promises let us cleanse our selves from all Filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit So Peter God hath given to us many Rich and Precious Promises 2 Pet. 1.4 that thereby we might be partakers of a divine Nature having escaped or fled from that corruption which is in the world through Lust. And John telling us that hereafter we should be like to Christ because we should see him as he is i. e. in his utmost radiance and lustre of Glory He then saith he that hath this Hope 1 Joh. 3.3 purifies himself as he is Pure A right Believer enters into Heaven with Christ and labours to live as a Citizen not of that world he is in but of that to which he belongs and prepares himself for the Reception of Glory by cleansing his Soul with the Infusions of Grace Jac. 2. Let every one then who would pass for a Believer follow the Apostle James Advice and try his Faith by his Works for as Water savours of the Vessell so all our Actions have a Tincture and Relish from Faith if that once be True and Sincere it influences all we doe and he that indeed believes in Christ lives onely in and to him But if our Faith be False and Counterfeit then we have crooked Ends we presently vary our Walking according to the worlds Compass and lye at catch for such Gales to drive us Rev. 3.1 as are blown upon us by Popular Applause In short like the Church of Sardis we have a name to live but indeed are dead So that where we see one Unholy in his Life we need not to dispute but he is an Unbeliever in his Heart and all the while he is so he ought to conclude himself Unjustified And so much for the second Point Doct. 3 The third and last Point in the generall Observation was this That a Believer must not think he hath arrived unto the Truth of his Profession untill he is Dead to Sinne. What it is to be Dead to Sinne the Apostle explains afterwards vers 6. when he calls it a crucifying of the old man together with Christ that the Body of Sinne may be abolished Col 3.6 and in another place a Mortifying of our Earthly members the importance of which Phrases amounts to this that a Believer must keep no truce with nor give any Quarter to Sinne he must not onely not hearken to its Motions but strangle them in the Birth and labour to bring himself unto that Temper that he may have as little appetite to Sinne as a Dead man to doe any Action of Life And the Reasons are Reason 1 First Because there is to be a conformity between Christ and a true Christian As all the parts of our Saviours life are written for our Example so his Death too ought to be Ours in Resemblance and Imitation we must in the Apostle Pauls language Rom. 6.5 be planted together into the likeness of his Death and that is by crucifying our Old man i. e. by gibbeting those Lusts which are the shame and Ignominy of our Nature Phil. 3.10 Paul therefore tells us that he laboured for nothing more than to attain unto a Fellowship in Christs sufferings being made conformable to his Death which consists not onely in suffering for him but in dying with him in that Part which is onely our Clogge and Hindrance and as a Mudwall keeps off the light of the Sunne so doth this Flesh onely stoppe the Entrance and hinder the actings of a Spirituall Life Therefore the Apostle Rom. 6.10 drawing a Parallel between Christ and a Believer enforceth it thus As Christ died and rose again so reckon ye your selves to be dead indeed to Sinne but alive unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord. So that the Death of Sinne is the Life of the Soul and therein a fit resemblance of a Risen Saviour Reason 2 Secondly The Promise of a Crown is onely made to Conquerours To him that overcometh Rev. 3.21 will I give to sit with me on my Throne Now to Conquer is not to fight or skirmish a little but to renew the combate and pursue it till we have got the Enemy within our Power So our Duell with Sinne should be ad Internecionem to the utter ruine and extirpation of it Since the Price is our Souls which we have no way to save but by killing this Adversary Heb. 13.4 The Apostle therefore exhorting the Hebrewes to endure Afflictions useth this as a Motive Ye have not as yet resisted unto blood fighting against Sinne. As if he had said Ye have as yet done just nothing for this Warfare against Sonne is never to be ended but with the Death and Destruction of one of the Combatants Reason 3 Lastly When we have done all Sinne will still be in us Rom. 7.20 So the Apostle Paul found when he complains that it is no longer I which doe these things but Sinne which dwelleth in me And then presently cries out in great passion like a man half distracted who shall deliver me from this Body of Sinne and of Death vers 24. meaning thereby those Reliques of Originall Corruption which like a Fatall Poison will not in this life be so totally emptied out of the Soul but still some drops will remain behind to embitter our Lives and to exercise our Graces The most we can doe will be to disarm this Enemy for we cannot 〈◊〉 him to pull him from the Throne since we cannot cast him out of the House For it alwayes lies within like Leaven spreading its infection or like Fire if not watched enflaming our whole man being it self first inflamed of Hell Sinne may lye quiet in the Soil like sparks raked up in Ashes which upon the Addition of new Fuell onely rageth the more There is saith Job Hope of a Tree Job 14.7 when it is cut down yet if the Root abide in the Earth by the Sent of Water it may flourish and spring afreshe so there is fear of Sinne because the 〈◊〉 of the ●●●●ter abides in us and is alwayes restless and importunate in its Actings As a Cloud however Thin and Empty at first yet if there be a rough Wind to scatter it it soon over spreads the whole Face of Heaven so Sinne in the Soul hath alwayes a Furious and Eager