Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	body_n	law_n	soul_n	4,073	5	4.9506	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70390	A sermon preach'd at Turners-Hall, the 5th of May, 1700 by George Keith ; in which he gave an account of his joyning in communion with the Church of England ; with some additions and enlargements made by himself.	Keith, George, 1639?-1716.	1700 (1700)	Wing K209; ESTC R14185	28,024	34

therefore cannot be saved by the Terms of it But God in his great Mercy has given us a better Covenant the Covenant of Grace and Peace in and through the Knowledge and Faith of Jesus Christ as he is the Word made Flesh or God incarnate the Terms of which are gentle and easie and full of Consolation God thereby declaring that he will pardon the Sins of all that sincerely repent and truly believe the Gospel of Christ and sincerely resolve and endeavour to keep his Commands and give to them eternal Life the which Terms God has graciously promised to help every one of us to perform by the Offer and Gift of his Holy Spirit as it accompanies the preaching of the Gospel But these new Terms of the Covenant of Grace the Light as it is an universal Principle in all Men by whatsoever Name they will call it or whatsoever Worth they will ascribe to it both Scripture and common Experience doth tell us doth not teach them He sheweth his Word unto Jacob his Statutes and his Judgments unto Israel He hath not dealt so with any Nation and as for his Judgments they have not known them Psal 147. 19 20. The Jews had this Advantage over the Heathen World that unto them were committed the Oracles of God Rom. 3. 2. the exceeding great and precious Promises 2 Pet. 1. 4. which the Heathen World to whom the Gospel was not preach'd had not and we have that Advantage now that the Jews then had But the Gentiles being without the Gospel are said to be without God and Christ in the World Ephes 2. 12. i. e. without an Interest in God and Christ and without Hope Aliens and Strangers to the Commonwealth of Israel The highest Acts of Obedience to any Light within us without the Gospel and without Faith in Christ crucified and rais'd again do not denominate us the Children of God nor prove us to have any just Title or Claim to the eternal Inheritance for whosoever are the Children of God they are so by Faith in Jesus Christ as the Scripture expresly declareth Gal. 3. 26. And the Gospel requireth that to obtain Salvation we must confess with our Mouths and believe with our Hearts that God hath raised Christ from the dead Rom. 10. 8 9. even him who died for our Sins who was delivered for our Offences and rose again for our Justification But the Light within as it is an universal Principle teacheth not Men these things these great Mysteries of our Salvation these lively Oracles these great and precious Promises nor these great Fundamentals of the Christian Religion such as the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity the Incarnation of the Word the perfect Atonement and Satisfaction that Christ hath made to the divine Justice and Law for our Sins by his bloody Passion and Death his Ascension and Exaltation and Mediation for us at the right hand of God in the glorified Nature of Man consisting of a glorified Soul and Body and that he is to be the Judge of the Quick and the Dead Also there are divers positive Laws and Precepts of the Gospel that the Light within as it is an universal Principle teacheth us nothing of The Knowledge and Faith of all these things are given us by the written Word preached and read outwardly and by the special Illumination of the Holy Spirit inwardly working in us a firm Persuasion and Faith of them giving us a savoury understanding and relish of them and great Joy and Consolation through hope by the Knowledge and Faith of them It proceeds from great Ignorance and Errour in many that they will not allow any real distinction betwixt the common Illumination given to all Mankind and the special Illumination given to Believers in the crucified Jesus Some will allow a distinction in degree but not in kind or specie but I say they differ in kind or specie though both come from one and the same Fountain the Father of Lights from whom all good Gifts flow both natural and spiritual and supernatural because they discover differing Objects i. e. differing Truths by way of Object that differ from these few Truths discovered by the common Illumination specifically or in kind for whatever Truth or Truths the common Illumination discovers to Heathens of the Being and Power and Providence of God as Creator and the Duty of Mankind to him as such the holy Scriptures without and the special Illumination of the holy Spirit within discovers far other and greater Mysteries of Truth in the inestimable Love of God by the Redemption of the World through Jesus Christ and the Duty that we owe to God and Christ thereby in the Belief of his Word and Promises the Obedience to his Commands and especially all and every of them given under the New Testament as that of Baptism and the Supper Obedience and Subjection to Christ's Government and Discipline he has established in his Church and to all whom he has set up to have the Rule over us in his House and Church But whereas they plead for the Sufficiency of the Light within and its Dictates without the means of Scripture and all outward teaching to qualifie Men to be Christians and Saints and Heirs of eternal Salvation from Jerem. 31. 33. where God promised to put his Law in the inward parts making the Law writ or put in the heart Jerem. 31. 33. to be the same and of the same extent and the same manner of heart and manner of writing with that in Rom. 2. 15. This is a miserable Mistake and a very gross and mischievous Errour That in Jerem. 31. 33. respects the People and Church of God but that in Rom. 2. 15. respects the Heathen World The Law writ in the hearts of the Heathen World teaching the moral Duties of Temperance Justice and general Piety towards God as Creator is I grant without the means or help of Scripture and antecedent to it but so is not the Law or Laws of God writ in the hearts of Believers whether Jews or Gentiles who believe in the crucified Jesus peculiar to the Christian Dispensation as Obedience to the Faith of the Gospel and to the positive Ordinances and Institutions of Christ of Baptism and the Supper and others aforesaid these Laws are not writ in our hearts without Scripture nor antecedent to Scripture but posterior to Scripture and by means of Scripture These positive and peculiar Laws of the Gospel writ in the hearts of true Believers and deeply printed and engraven in them are no other than the Copy or Transcript of the Laws outwardly writ or printed in the holy Scriptures which come to be transcribed into our hearts by what we daily and frequently hear preached to us and read out of the holy Scriptures and what we read our selves out of them the Spirit of God working with our Industry and Labour in our hearing and reading and well pondering and meditating what we hear or read causing it to take deep

same Form of words without receiving it the one from the other To plead for using a new Form or Method of words in Prayer every time that Men Pray is as improper and impertinent as to plead that every time we Eat we must have a new Dish or Platter to Eat out of and every time we drink we must have a new Cup to drink out of and if every day yea as oft every day as we Pray we must use a new extempore Form we may as well plead every day we must several times each day put on New Shoes and New Apparel which as it would be great waste so would it be very uneasie The method of words in Prayer whether extempore or in a Set Form is as remote an Accident to the substance of Prayer either for Matter or Life as a Dish or a Platter is to the Meat put into it or a Cup to the Drink that is in it the same Meat may be as good as when put into another Dish and the Drink as good as in another Cup and as several Habits of Garments may suit the same Person so several Forms of Prayer with respect to the external Form may suit the same Prayer both as to Matter and Life As Grace doth sometimes cause a variety in our words of Prayer when the Matter is the same so meer humane Art can and doth most frequently cause a variety for by meer humane Art six words can be varied some hundreds of times and yet the matter remain the same It is therefore a great mistake in many who think they who pray in greatest variety of words and modes of expression they Pray most by the Spirit or with Grace for as it can be done by meer Art without Grace so it frequently is so done and thereby many are greatly deceived especially when it is Varnished with great seeming shews of Fervour by gestures and tones that move and stir the natural and animal Passions and Affections But I remember I have heard two or three things objected by some against the matter of Common Prayer 1. Where the People say There is no Health in us But that is no more offensive then what the Scripture saith That it is not in Man̄ to direct his Steps i. e. It is not in Man as of himself but of the Lord so there is no health in us nor in any Man but what is of God and Christ It is not in us originally but by derivation and participation from God and Christ in whom all fullness dwells and of whose fullness we all receive and Grace for Grace 2. That they still are praying from Seven to Seventy Lord be merciful to us miserable Offenders but this I think is only made by the Quakers all others confess that they are Sinners and consequently as in themselves miserable and continually needing God's mercy for as St. James said in many things we offend all and as St. John saith if we say we have no Sin we deceive our selves but if we confess our Sins c. The Church of God in all Ages have confessed their Sins and the holiest Men have done so as Daniel Esdras c. The great remission of Sins in the most solemn and publick manner is reserved to the day of Judgment that great day of Assise what remission the best now have is but like the Criminal's Pardon from the King that he has by himself in secret that is not so Authentick till it be proclaimed in open Court at the Assise 3. Some object against that expression in the Common Prayer We are tied and bound with the chain of our Sins But I think none of the Dissenters the Quakers excepted can well so object many of whom commonly in their Prayers say They must carry about with them a Body of Sin and Death to the Grave which I think is more then what is here objected against I think it were more safe and warrantable according to Scripture to say that some remainders of Sin remain in the Faithful especially with respect to the Original Defilement by Adam's Fall as also with respect to some remaining part of those Habits of Sin we had contracted by our actual Transgressions than that the Body of Sin remains in them if they understand it of the whole Body or Complex of vitious Habits contracted by actual Sins which the Saints are said to have put off by Regeneration as when the Body or Bulk of a great Tree is cut down with its Boughs Branches Twigs and Bearers yet the Stump and Root or some part of it remains in the Ground which if due care be not taken continually to mortify suppress and subdue would spring up again to which that in Hebr. 12. 15. seems plainly to refer and with respect to such a remaining Part root or seed of Sin in the Faithful it is said by St. John 1 John 1. 8. If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us This remainder of Sin God hath seen meet to suffer to remain in the Faithful though he pardoneth the Guilt of it and hath promised to give them sufficiency of his Grace whereby still they may be able to mortify and subdue it for the tryal of their Faith and the Exercise of both their Faith and all other their Graces and Virtues in the way of Spiritual Conflict and Warfare against three grand Enemies the Devil the World and the Flesh that so through the Victory that the Faithful obtain by the Victorious Power of God's Grace their Reward may be the greater which yet is still the Free Gift of God according to 2 Tim. 2. 5. And if a Man also strive for Masteries yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully Not that Sin either in less or more is any proper Cause of the increase of our Virtues yet as in natural Effects one natural Agent commonly works the more powerfully in the presence of a contrary Agent if that contrary Agent be not too powerful its Agency serving but to excite the other the more effectually against it as Heat is increased by Cold and a little Water cast into Fire increaseth the Flame Now that this remaining part root or seed of Sin with what other is contracted by the daily indeliberate and for the most part involuntary infirmities that the Faithful are obnoxious to may be said to be a Chain whereby they are tied and bound in part though as to the main they are loosed and set free from the reign and prevalency of Sin by the virtue and prevalency of God's Grace as when a Man that has been bound Hands and Feet and in his whole Body by strong Fetters of Iron is loosed from the greatest and heaviest of them in his whole Body and Members yet some less Chain or Chains remain that though they neither do nor can hinder his acting and walking yet do in part incommode and retard him This is fitly represented by what is reported