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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	body_n	sin_n	spirit_n	9,196	5	5.3489	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49466	Remedy against trouble in a discourse on John XIV, 1 : wherein something is also briefly attempted for clearing the nature of faith, of justification, of the covenant of grace, assurance, the witness, seal and earnest of the spirit, and preparation for conversion, or the necessity of holiness / by H. Lukin.	Lukin, H. (Henry), 1628-1719.	1694 (1694)	Wing L3481; ESTC R13639	76,819	257

Matt. 26.70 74. And on the other hand we see what account Paul gives of himself Phil. 3.5 6. Tho he was then in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity and reckoned that he was then the chief of sinners So that in judging our selves or others we must use much caution and have respect not to our present frame or practice as it may be at some times but to what is the ordinary habitual frame of our hearts or course of our lives Gold may sometimes be so sullied with rust and dust as it may look worse than Copper doth ordinarily and on the other hand Copper may be so burnished and embellished that it may look more bright and give a greater lustre than most Gold doth So that there is required both judgment and attention of mind to distinguish the one from the other 3dly We must have respect to natural temper in judging our selves or others As it is said A little Sugar will serve for sweet Wine and a little Grace makes much more shew in some than in others it is true all are defiled by original sin But whether there be as the Philosopher says a certain Genius as I may speak or disposition to vertue or rather something like vertue some mens natural temper is quick and soon moved others are as Doves or Lambs in their natural temper but meekness in these Creatures not being from choice and judgment is no vertue in them In judging our selves we must consider how Grace falls in with Nature or how it strives against it A gentle gale with the Tide or Stream may make good riddance but it must be a brisk gale to carry a Vessel against them One undertaking to tell what mens natural temper was by his skill in Physiognomy he being asked what he thought of a certain person said he was of a very ill temper and natural disposition those present derided him for being so mistaken in his conjecture they looking upon him as a person of such an excellent temper But he himself did vindicate the man and told them he had judged right for his natural temper was very bad but he had corrected it by Philosophy Now there might be more of moral vertue in him than in Vespatian who for the sweetness of his Nature was called the Darling of mankind A little Grace will make a great shew in some Natures when a far greater measure will make but a little shew in others where it hath no help from Nature 4thly We must consider the circumstances wherein persons are what are their temptations on one hand and their advantages on the other hand Some enjoy more health than others when it is not because they have stronger bodies or are of a more hail constitution but it is by reason of their circumstances one can command his business and that he goes out only at seasonable times or he is so accommodated as to secure himself against the injury of the weather they work only so as may be for their health and need not tire themselves or over-heat themselves they have wholsome Diet and they have Cordials by them to relieve or fortify Nature when it is too hard put to it And by these means those who are more weakly prevent sickness whereas others tho they be naturally stronger are forced to be out at all hours in all weathers to endure heats and colds eat and drink what they can get have little wholesome diet if they ayl any thing have no Cordials or Remedies at hand to help themselves So it is with men in respect of their Souls some have a competent Estate and are put neither upon the temptations of adversity nor prosperity while others through straits in their Estates are put upon mean things and sometimes upon sinful shifts And others are rich and in great places and others are hardly able to judge of their temptations how hard it is to be high in the World and not high-minded to exercise sobriety and temperance in plenty and abundance Some have little to do in the World abroad or at home in trading or in their Families have few to deal with few Children or Servants others must go into all companies converse with all sorts of persons meet with provocations from some temptations from others to comply with their sinful humours for their own advantage they may have unfaithful Servants undutiful Children and so more trial of their Grace more exercise for it and so may discover some weakness of Grace tho not the want of it So some may have the advantage of good conversation may live in good Families or Neighbourhoods where they have good examples to provoke them to love and to good works and are oft called upon and admonished if they fail in any thing they may live under a lively Ministry whose Sermons may be as nails to fasten Eccles 12.11 as goads to excite or quicken they may have good books to read and time and opportunity to read them which is a great help to Christians whereas on the other hand some persons are cast into prophane places or Families or company where they meet with those that will be drawing and enticing them to sin scoffing at them threatning discouraging them and it may be such as they have some dependance upon they seldome hear an awaking Sermon or sound doctrine 2 Tim. 4.3 Ephes 4.29 such as may breed good nourishment or such discourse as may minister grace to the hearers seldom meet with a good book or it may be if they do cannot read it It is true we must hold fast Christ's Name and not deny his Faith even where Satan dwells and hath his seat Rev. 2.13 But we cannot expect that Grace should thrive much under such Discouragements and Disadvantages CHAP. VI. I Shall proceed yet further to shew how Christians that are sincere may be distinguished from others tho they have their sinful Infirmities We sometimes observe Persons of Good Families reduced to straits and go meanly but yet if they come to beg at our Doors if we meet them in Company we see something in them which bewrays or discovers what they are either in their Gesture Speech Civility So those that are born of God it may be in shew or appearance fall far below their Rank they may have sinful Infirmities Rom. 7.15 c. they may find Evil present with them when they would do good they may be led Captive to the Law of Sin which is in their Members they may not do the Good which they would but the Evil which they would not but yet the Spirit lusts against the Flesh they hate the Evil which they do they would do the Good which they do not they bewail their Bondage to Sin long to be delivered from the Body of Death and are thankful that they are so far delivered from it by Jesus Christ These things I confess discover our Spiritual State chiefly to our selves but it is that which

pleasure of but there is further a sweet smell or fragrancy in them which the sight intermeddles not with and there must be another sense of Smelling to enjoy the pleasure thereof So neither can we enjoy the pleasure of Wine without the sense of Tasting or of Musick without the sense of Hearing So likewise if a man do not understand any thing of Learning or have no Genius thereto he cannot take any pleasure in reading Books or in Academical Exercises which are better than Wine and Musick to others So if a man be not sanctified or renewed after the Image of God tho he would dispense with his Sin and admit him to Heaven he would say of it as of the Service of God what a weariness is it Mal. 1.13 he might be content to be there to be kept out of Hell as here he might be content to be in a place where there is a Sermon to be sheltred from a storm It was to no purpose for Barzilla● to go to David's Court when nature was so decayed in him that he could not enjoy any of the pleasures of it 2 Sam. 19.35 If it be said this doth not infer any necessity of Holiness here in this life for God can in a moment at death fit us for Heaven which is easily done when we lay down this body which is both a clog and a temptation to the Soul not only as it influences the Soul but as most of our sins are in order to provide for the body or to fulfil the lusts of the flesh I answer There is a necessity of Holiness here partly as there is such an inseparable connexion betwixt that and Faith which works by love and is dead without works this purifies the heart overcomes the world Gal. 5.6 Jam. 2.24 Acts 15.9 1 John 5.4 Heb. 11. Isa 43.21 Titus 2.14 Luk. 1.74 75. and the Apostle spends an whole chapter in setting forth the virtue of it Besides it is the pleasure of God to form a people for himself that they may in this world shew forth his praise and hath redeemed us to be a peculiar people to himself that we may serve him in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life He would have our light shine so before men that they seeing our good works may glorify our father which is in Heaven so that we do hereby keep up his Honour and a Remembrance of him in the world We have hereby likewise some prelibations or foretastes of future Glory which as I have already said we are not capable of without Holiness Numb 13.23 God would have some of the fruits of the Land of Canaan brought to the people in the Wilderness that seeing what goodly fruit it was they might be the more encouraged to go to possess it notwithstanding the difficulties and dangers that they were to encounter with and there is nothing that doth more raise our thoughts of future Glory than the earnest that we have of it here which we can no more understand without Holiness than we can the sweetness and virtue of Wine by hearsay without tasting We have hereby likewise a more lively sense of the Goodness of God to us in delivering us from the sinful state wherein we are by nature than we could have if we were perfected at once at death If a man be suddenly surpriz'd with an Apoplexy and immediately at once recovered from it he hath not such a sense of the Mercy that he hath received therein as one that is recovered by degrees from a Fever or some other Disease wherein he hath felt much of pain sickness weakness and hath not only known what it was to be revived by Cordials to be helped by Friends to to be eased by rest in his bed but after his recovery he can reflect with pleasure upon his former condition when it is past and more prize his present Ease and Health So those who have with the Apostle groaned under a body of sin and death will not only reflect with pleasure upon the supplies of God's Grace which they have had to strengthen them in their Spiritual conflict and to fortify them against temptations but will afterwards with more thankfulness acknowledge the goodness of God in giving them the victory through our Lord Jesus and bringing them into a state of perfection where they shall be freed from all annoyance of sin and temptations which they could never have so well understood had it not been for the experience which they had in that middle state wherein they found such a conflict while they were under cure and recovering by degrees So that it is a great mistake in any to think that holiness is not necessary if we may be justified without it or that justification is our great priviledge and holiness a burden imposed upon us which we must be content to submit to in consideration of so great a favour as the pardon of our sins Holiness is rather our honor and happiness Rom. 6.22 1 Thes 1.10 Acts 3.26 the prest of fruit of our being the servants of God here and Christ doth not only save us from our sins in delivering us from the wrath to come but by blessing us in turning us from our iniquities Thus have I briefly touched several things which more Learned men have treated of with more clearness and acurateness but I have not written to supply the defects of others or to add to what they have done but considering that this small Treatise might fall into the hands of some to whom it may not happen to read larger and more learned Books I have adventured to write something which I hope may be of some use to them for the right understanding of the important truths therein handled desiring my Readers candidly to interpret what hath been well intended and to bear with that weakness which I am as ready to own as any can be to charge upon me FINIS

Gal. 2.16 from that of the Apostle Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but by the Faith of Jesus Christ we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified So that Faith is in order to justification and the decree of justification doth no more infer our justification from Eternity than our glorification and tho there were a foundation laid for our justification in the Death of Christ so as it is certainly future Yet we are not actually justified till we believe but lie under the sentence of condemnation John 3.18 And whatever the value of Christ's Blood might he in respect of the dignity of his person who was God as well as Man yet his merit was not absolute but grounded upon an Act of Sovereignty transferring our guilt to Christ and his righteousness to us And upon the Covenant of Redemption as many call it betwixt the Father and Jesus Christ about the Salvation of sinners the sum of which we have Isa 53.10 God might appoint both terms and time of our participation of the benefits of Christ's Death and it is evident that our Salvation is for a long time deferred and the redemption of our bodies longer Why then should it seem strange to any that our justification should be deferred till we believe And for that of justifying the ungodly Rom. 4.5 it is true of those whom God doth justify in a strict sense for they cannot plead perfect Obedience But if we take ungodly in the ordinary sense wherein it is taken for an impenitent sinner it shews what those have been whom he justifies such they were in this sense it is said 1 Cor. 6.11 Matth. 11.5 Matth. 15.31 Matth. 21.31 the deaf hear and the lame walk the dumb speak the blind see Publicans and Harlots go into the kingdom of God and in that very place it is said their Faith is imputed to them for righteousness Which words we need not understand with the Papists as if Faith being a work John 6.29 That with other works were imputed for righteousness Nor with some Protestants by a Metonimy for Christ or his righteousness the object of our Faith nor with the Socinians that by Acceptilation as in the Civil Law it is called when some small thing is accepted instead of a Debt Faith is reckoned instead of perfect righteousness As for those Protestants that call Faith our Evangelical Righteousness as being that which the Gospel requires as the Law did perfect obedience they do not at all symbolize with the Socinians who do by their Acceptilation exclude the satisfaction of Christ for they hold a legal righteousness to be still necessary but lying wholly without us as being performed by Christ for us and so do not reckon Evangelical righteousness to be instead of that righteousness by or for which we are justified or any part of it but only a means of our being invested therewith But tho I would not as some do exagitate the Phrase or those that use it while they thus explain themselves for not to say with Jerome Sceteratum est minus Christianum est cum nonis sensum sanum esse alicujus ex verbis incommodè dictis statuere errorem yet it is not necessary to make use of it for the interpretation of this place there being another plain sense of it a thing is imputed to us when we are dealt with according thereto as I have already said So Faith is imputed to us when we are dealt with or treated as believers and it is imputed to us for righteousness though not instead of it or as the matter of it but as it is a means of it in any way whatever as it was said before we have believed that we might be justified As it is said John Preached the baptism of repentance for remission of sins Mark 1.4 or as Christ is said te be given for a Covenant of the People not that he might be a Covenant as some have rashly expounded it as if Christ in a strict literal sense must be all in all Isa 42 6. Whereas it was only that there might be a Covenant with the People he being the Surety or Mediatour of it So Faith is reckoned to us Heb. 7.22.9 15. that so we might be righteous or might be justified God having suspended our justification upon that And it doth result from thence by vertue of the Gospel Grant as our guilt doth result from our sin by vertue of the Law tho I would not be thought to ascribe the same causality to our Faith in justification that I do to sin in our Condemnation Now God is pleased to suspend our Justification and Salvation particularly upon our believing 1st That we may return to him by the same way whereby we departed from him Gen. 3.6 We fell from God by believing the Devil rather than God and we are recovered again by believing God rather than the Devil and setting to our seal that God is true Jo. 3.33 2dly God deals with us as with rational Creatures and will not force his favour upon us but will have us accept of it Jo. 1.12 Act. 8 37. and by Faith we receive Christ and his benefits and this is that believing with all the heart which is required when we do freely and heartily embrace that offer which is made to us in the Gospel 1 Tim. 1.15 Rom 4.16 accounting the Gospel worthy of all acceptation 3dly It is of Faith that it might be of Grace Faith receiving all from God as Love gives all to him so that thereby we give the whole glory of our Salvation to him Now I come to shew you what matter of comfort it is to have our Sins pardoned Our Saviour bids the sick of the Palsie be of good chear Matth. 9 2. because his sins were forgiven It is true as Diseases are not always cured when sins are pardoned For that saying that where sin is pardoned the punishment is remitted it doth not imply that all suffering is removed where sin is taken away but that what persons suffer after pardon of sin is not properly Penal in the sense of the Papists so as to make up what is behind of the sufferings of Christ to satisfy for our sin So neither is the removal of Diseases or other Afflictions an evidence of the pardon of sin but it is likely Christ speaks not here of Pardon of sin improperly so called or the removal only of Temporal punishment but of pardon in a strict sense and as when the King asked life God gave it him even length of days for ever and ever So Christ Psal 21.4 who doth exceeding abundantly above what we ask or think Eph. 3.20 when he desired cure for the disease of his body cured his Soul likewise which is a singular favour and matter of great comfort 1. It is a comfort in all our Afflictions It is true afflictions are in

themselves part of the curse as death it self is but a death having lost its sting is now ours for our advantage or gain so are all afflictions 1 Cor. 3.22 Phil 1.21 Gen 49 7. Deut. 33.8 Rom 8.28 2 Cor 4.17 and as Levi's curse was turn'd into a blessing so are our afflictions working together for our good working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory I know some suppose that the merit of Christ being not absolute as I said before the Law was relaxed only so far as was agreed on by God and our Mediator and so we were delivered only from everlasting punishment and not from temporal but afflictions still remain properly punishments But I think the ordinary notion of Protestants about afflictions agrees better with the Scriptures and so proceeding from love they are as the wounds of a friend Rev. 3.19 Prov. 27.6 Psal 141.5 or rather as the smiting of the righteous which is not for wounding but for healing 2. We have all our outward comforts hereby sweetned to us we may eat our bread with joy and drink our wine with a merry heart Eccles 9.7 when God accepts our work There are two things wherein worldly men think they have the advantage of good men that is wisdom and joy But sure those that are wise to salvation 2 Tim. 3.15 have the advantage of the wise men of the world 1 Cor. 2 6. Eccles 2.26 who with all their wisdom come to nought God gives to those that are good in his fight wisdom and knowledge and joy for getting and using riches and comfort in the enjoyment of them God doth not only fill every man's Cup or assign him his measure of the things of this life but he mingles their Cup as he pleases mixing it with Sugar or with Gaul and Wormwood so that every condition and every outward blessing is as God is pleased to make it And there is nothing doth more sweeten these things to us than the sense of God's favour in the pardon of our sins not only as we value gifts according to the mind or good will of the giver but when our sins are pardoned all the blessings of this life are but as the provision which Joseph had sent to his Father for the way till he should come to Aegypt where he should have all the good things of the Land Gen. 45.18 c. whereas the greatest abundance that wicked men have is but as the handful of Meal and Oyl in the Cruse which the Widow and her Son were to eat and die 1 King 14.12 Or like the Tyrant's Feast to which he set the man that envied his greatness and plenty with a great Sword hanging over his head in an horses hair with the point downward which took away all the comfort of his Banquet Israel was not to rejoyce for joy as other People when they had gone a whoring from their God Hos 9.1 So it is not for those to rejoyce that have not their sins pardon'd but are subject to bondage continually through the fear of death Heb. 2.15 3. We have freedom of access to God Rom. 5.2 may come with a filial boldness to him as a Child to a Father to find mercy Heb. 4.16 and obtain grace to help in time of need or for seasonable help when ever we put up our prayers to God the answer comes in when it may be most seasonable as God heard not that is answered not Abraham when he prayed but when Lot was in the greatest danger whom Abraham seemed to have chief respect to in his Prayers Gen. 19.29 When our sins are pardoned God may notwithstanding the strictness of his Justice and the severity of his Law please himself in shewing mercy Mich. 7.18 which he takes so much delight in 4. We have the continual Feast of a good Conscience which will be a rejoycing to us not only in the time of affliction 2 Cor. 1.12 Job 18.14 but in Death it self which is so terrible to others As Christ bids his Disciples lift up their heads because their redemption drew nigh when the hearts of others failed them for looking for the things that were coming upon them Luc. 21.23 28. It is true a good man's Conscience may accuse him as to some particular acts though his sins be pardoned 2 Sam. 24.10 as David's did for numbering the people but there is provision made in such cases that every particular sin shall not break the peace betwixt God and us 1 Joh. 2.1 2. but it is not our Conscience accusing us in reference to some particular acts but in reference to our spiritual state that is so terrible and affrighting Heb. 10.30 when we are kept continually in a fearful expectation of judgement and fiery indignation CHAP. IV. NOW tho this be so great a privilege and happiness to have our sins pardoned if we know it not we cannot take the comfort of it Therefore I will further enquire what assurance we have thereof by Faith There is a great complaint that many if not most of our later Writers and Preachers have deserted the first Reformers in the Doctrine of Faith who commonly taught that it was a persuasion or confidence of our own Salvation in particular by Christ and that every believer in his first believing was to apply the promise to himself But now it is commonly taught that assurance is not essential to Faith and that Christians may live long in the want of it And this they say doth very much weaken the hands of Christians there being so many graces to be acted so many duties to be performed so many afflictions to be endured which do require Assurance to encourage and enable us thereto And if those that suffered so much in the beginning of the Reformation for the profession of the Truth should have had such a Faith as is now ordinarily taught and not that Assurance and confidence wherein they then pleaded the Essence of Faith they could not have gone so well through their sufferings Again they say by this Doctrine that men may have Faith without Assurance we teach men to rest in such a Faith and to content themselves without Assurance and then to plead their own experience to confirm their Doctrine that Christians may believe sincerely tho they have not Assurance tho against the experience of the People of God both in the Old and New Testament who did ordinarily profess their own Assurance of Salvation Now I will not go about to justify what every particular person may say in heat of Disputation or when they speak of things which they have only dry notions but no experimental knowledge of But for our encouraging persons to allow or indulge themselves in the want of Assurance by saying that there may be true Faith without it we think they have less reason for their complalnt than those have that say we weaken the