Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	law_n	life_n	righteousness_n	6,721	5	7.6152	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42450	An examination of the case of the Quakers concerning oaths propounded by them, A.D. 1673, to the consideration of the King, and both Houses of Parliament : with a vindication of the power of the magistrate to impose oaths, and the liberty and duty of all Christians to swear by God reverently : humbly submitted to the judgment of His Most Sacred Majesty, and the two Houses of Parliament / by Charles Gataker ...	Gataker, Charles, 1614 or 15-1680.	1675 (1675)	Wing G305; ESTC R40267	35,338	42

receive and submit unto the Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures manifest that this pretended Light within them which is directly opposite to the Light which hitherto hath enlightened all the World which did not extinguish it by Atheism or wink against it with wilful folly is of God we cannot but conclude that the use of Oaths is still as warrantable from the very Nature and benefit of them as ever it was And as the superstitions which though contrary to the common Notions of a God and to the natural principles of Piety yet by Satans malicious subtilty and the vanity of Mans mind are ingrafted upon the stock of natural Religion do not extirpate the root of natural Religion which will maintain true Piety to Gods Glory when by good husbandry the corrupt grafts are cut off and the root and branch are cultivated aright for the service of the true God so the various abuses of Oaths frequent in all Ages with prophane despisers of God and by vicious custom too general with Professors of Religion do not in themselves directly and should not by consequence eliminate the religious practice of Swearing For the banishment of a Sacrament as the Latines call an Oath out of humane Society is a step to supersede all Worship of God and to remove an Oath out of all procedures of Judicature is no little artifice to extinguish the fear of God in the World SECT V. Concerning the summe and end of the Gospel THat we may yet draw nearer to an end and hit our Mark close and deep it will be fit to consider the intimate and peculiar quality of the Gospel to which these pretenders to Evangelical perfection say that an Oath is irreconcileable The Gospel as it stands in opposition to the Law of Works Rom. 3. ● 28 ● 5 ● whereby Man was to seek Righteousness and Life by his own perfect obedience is called by St. Paul the Law of Faith whereby Man being by the general corruption of humane nature and by his singular sinfulness obnoxious to Gods wrath which is the Messenger of Death obtains Righteousness Luk. 1. ●9 〈◊〉 Cor. 5. ●8 19 〈…〉 3.9 and Life by Faith on Christs Blood The Gospel then is a way of peace a word of reconciliation a ministery of Righteousness Peace and Life which are purchased by the Death of Christ and by the Blood of his Cross The primary ends of the Gospel are these two inseparable benefits which our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ hath compassed by his Death and works by the power of the Gospel upon the Consciences of Believers Reconciliation and Reformation of Man who was in a state of enmity with God both active and passive by his Sin Rom. 5. ●0 Col. 1. ●1 22 〈◊〉 Pet. 3. ●8 2. ●3 Tit. 2.11 ●2 In one word this is the Reduction of the lost sheep or the fugitive servant unto God in the way of Peace and Holiness The saving Grace therefore of the Gospel teaches all mankind which is enlightened with its beams to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and piously in this present World We are moreover to observe that from the first foundation of a Church which immediately was after Mans Sin and Sentence began to be built upon the promised Messiah who is the Rock of Salvation common to all Ages God did set up a way of Worship which had relation to Christ the Lamb of God 〈◊〉 Pet. 1. ●9 20. fore-designed by God and manifested in Gods own season This instituted Religion in several shadows drawn out by Gods hand in such proportions as he thought fit conteined the Salvation by Christ and the Doctrine of Faith and Repentance of which the Law given to Man in his state of integrity made no words and gave no hopes of Salvation that way The Gospel therefore first in the cloudy Pillar which was the guide of Patriarchs and Prophets and then in the brightness of its Revelation by Christ since all is accomplished and preached to the Nations superadds to the Law Rom. ●● 17 the Righteousness of God from Faith to Faith but it pares off nothing of the Religion and Righteousness which Man owes to God and to his Neighbour by that natural dependence upon God and that order to his neighbour Act. ●● 26 which God established by Creation of Mankind after his own Image and of one blood to bind them together This indeed is that which we call the Law of Nature which God unfolded and taught the Patriarchs the first Fathers of Families and founders of humane Society And the grace of the Gospel is so far from loosening the Bond of this Law that on the contrary by addition of the inestimable benefit of Redemption to our deep engagement by Creation it ties more strictly the Redeemed of the Lord who are enlarged from the bondage under Sin and made the Servants of Righteousness to yield up all their Members once abused to the service of uncleanness and iniquity Rom ●● 19 to become now the servants and instruments of Righteousness unto sanctification This then being the end and efficacy of the Gospel to clear the light of the Law of Nature and to strengthen the holy bonds of Love to God and Man how is it imaginable that the Tongue is restrained now by the Gospel from being still made an instrument of Religion and Righteousness Since the Evangelical Prayer of our Saviours framing for our use is that Gods name should be hallowed in all the World can we think that silence and total abstinence from taking up the name of God in an Oath with reverence upon just occasions sanctifies or magnifies the Name of God Mal. ●● 11 Or is it consonant to that enlargement of Gods honour which is the effect of the Gospel in regard of persons and to the maintenance of it by all acts of Piety which our Saviour professes to have been his work and care that Heathens and Infidels should still by the Law of Nature be bound to acknowledge and honour the Name of God by Swearing in a due manner and Christians should have their hands tied from lifting up to Heaven 2 Cor 14. and their Tongues from calling upon his Name and giving him the Glory due unto it Indeed the Apostle says what participation is there between righteousness and the transgression of the Law what communion of Light with Darkness or what agreement of Christ with Belial Let it therefore first be proved that an Oath is the transgression of the Law Ma●● 33 before it be cast out of the Kingdom of God as inconsistent with the Righteousness thereof ●●h 5. ● which Christ commands us to seek Let an Oath which is indeed a Light according to the Apostles sentence because it doth discover and manifest somtime Truth and somtime many shameful things which are done in secret be proved to be an unprofitable deed of Darkness or else let

it or at least may warrantably imitate it The Ceremonial part of the Law which concerned the Typical Service and Sacrifices of the Temple ceased as to the design and Virtue of it when Christ by his Gospel published the accomplishment of our Redemption wrought by his Death and Resurrection The Political Law of Moses which was peculiarly accommodated in many particulars to the seed of Jacob called Israel as they were by Covenant made God's Tenants of Canaan ceased when they ceased to be the Politick People of God Both were openly abrogated as to their exercise and practice by the utter devastation of the Holy City with the Temple it self by the dissolution of the Policy by the ejectment of the Nation out of their Land and dispersion over the face of the Earth in which state of exile Hos 3.4 accompanied with bondage they yet remain without King Prince Sacrifice Image Ephod and Teraphim that is without any setled Form of Government and without any means to serve or to consult God as formerly they had done But for the Law of Moses so far as it prescribes Offices and exercises of Piety Charity Justice Humanity and Prudence it obliges Christians not upon the same account it did the Jews to wit as it was a part of the Covenant made in Horeb but as it is a clear explication and improvement of the Law of Nature by deduction of particular Precepts from general Principals of Religion and Righteousness Therefore St. Rom. 13.8 Eph. 6.1.2 Paul charges Christians with obedience to the Law the second Table whereof he ingrafts into the Gospel And which is yet more considerable to manifest our concernment in the Law he establishes the liberal maintenance of the Ministers not only upon the Ordinance of Christ but also upon two Laws of Moses 1 Cor 9.8.14 according to the Spiritual meaning of the one and the Reason and Analogy of the other And when we hear him speak thus ver 9. Doth not also the Law say these things We must remember that as St. Paul says elsewhere Rom. 3.19 We know whatsoever things the Law speaks either for conviction or for direction It speaks unto them that are under the Law We therefore who have and hear by God's bounty Moses and the Prophets as well as the Apostles are under the Law Luk 16.29 not as a Covenant of Righteousness and Life by Works for in this respect We are not under the Law Rom. 6.14 but under the grace of the Gospel but as an obligatory Rule of obedience to the Will of God declared therein therefore St. James calls the Law recorded by Moses a Perfect Law of Liberty the doing whereof must be added to the hearing if we desire to be happy St. James also calls it The Royal Law one Commandement whereof being broken the whole Golden Chain is broken by which we must order our lives Jam. 1.25 2.8.12 and shall be judged Now St. James knew that the third Commandment running in the Negative Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain did include the Affirmative Precept of Swearing reverently and keeping legitimate Oaths which were Duties known well by the light of Nature but reinforced upon the Jews by the Law Now is it imaginable that St. James the Apostle of the Circumcision writing to the Jews should so far forget himself as after this high commendation of their Law expresly prohibit what the Law enjoyned and by a total abolition of swearing cancel the Third Commandment as a thing that hath no further any place or use under the Gospel This intolerable inconvenience is easily avoided if according to the scope of the Apostles discourse easily gathered from the Context and considering that impatience is the Parent of rash Oaths we say that St. James did very wisely joyn his inhibition of Swearing in heat and haste upon the Sallies of Passion to his exhortation unto patience Jam. 5.8.12 and yet he did not abolish the Third Commandment nor banish Oaths out of Christendom I confess I have unawares transgressed mine own limits and expounded St. James before the method I prescribed to my self did require it but I shall have the less to say hereafter Indeed being ingaged to shew how St. James and indeed all the Apostles do oblige Christians to their observance of and obedience to the Law in those Precepts which concern all Nations who are by Christ set at liberty from the Judaical Yoke of Ceremonies and carnal Ordinances amongst which none was so mad yet as to rank an Oath I could not but observe the incongruity of the Apostles prohibition as it is over-stretched by the Quakers with his own honouring of the Law and to prevent any scruple which might arise through misunderstanding of the Apostles restraint of us from swearing by this distinction of imprudent and passionate Oaths belched out in rage from deliberate swearing upon weighty Causes either arbitrarily or out of obedience to Authority but always with due reverence to God I have open'd a way to reconcile St. James to himself and the Law to the Gospel And now I proceed Secondly To refute the dangerous errors of the Quakers which they lay for a foundation of their abstinence from swearing They affirm the Righteousness of the Gospel exceeds that of the Law This Affertion they maintain by the example of one Walter Brute who as Mr. Fox relates in his Martyrology defended his refusal of an Oath because his Master Christ taught Christian Men that in affirmation of a Truth they should pass the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees of the Old Testament or else he excludes them out of Heaven Matth. 5.20 To the words recited out of Matth. 5.33.37 Walter Brute subjoyned Therefore as the perfection of the antient Men of the Old Testament was not to forswear themselves so the perfection of Christian Men is not to swear at all because they are so commanded of Christ But though Walter Brute was mistaken in the sense of Christs Commandment yet his words mount not to such an height of Error as this position of the Quakers For W. B. doth well note that our Saviour says our Righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees but not that of the Law of Moses And to the right understanding of Christs Sermon in the Mount we must take notice that Christ doth not unfold to his novice Disciples the Mysteries of the Gospel but first corrects the Jewish vulgar error of Happiness consisting in the full enjoyment of the Temporal Blessings promised in the Law and prepares them for the Cross to be suffered for Righteousness and that they might not be deceived by a counterfeit or defective Righteousness he establishes the Law and the Prophets to be the Rule of Righteousness and then proceeds to clear and vindicate the Law of Moses from the corrupt Glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees whose new Model of Righteousness was so defective