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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	cast_v	divide_v	satan_n	2,466	5	9.6262	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55308	Speculum theologiæ in Christo, or, A view of some divine truths which are either practically exemplified in Jesus Christ, set forth in the Gospel, or may be reasonably deduced from thence / by Edward Polhill ..., Esq.	Polhill, Edward, 1622-1694?	1678 (1678)	Wing P2757; ESTC R4756	269,279	440

Christ The Jewish Rabbins distinguish of a twofold Work of God they call his ordinary Works of Nature opus Bereshith from the first words of Genesis and his miraculous works opus Merchebha from Ezekiels Chariot A miracle is a work lifted up above the Order and Power of Nature it is a specimen of Creation something is made out of nothing What second causes cannot reach that is done by the first no Man no Angel can do such a work These are but parts of Nature and therefore cannot in their Operations exceed Nature Quod est totaliter sub ordine constitutum non potest ultra istius naturae ordinem agere it is only Gods Prerogative to work Miracles He that set the order of Nature can work above it he can lift Nature off the hinges and set it on again and when he doth it he doth it as becomes his infinite Wisdom upon very great and weighty Reasons When he brought his People out of Egypt then his wonders appeared when he delivered his Law on Sinai his wonders appeared again In those great dispensations he shewed himself not in the ordinary dress of Nature but in Royal State and Majesty much more did he do so when his Son very God was manifested in the flesh Then the water was turned into Wine the Wind and the Seas did obeysance to their incarnate Creator the blind received their sight the lame did walk the Lepers were cleansed the deaf did hear the dead were raised the devils were cast out of Men. Here the right hand of the Lord was glorious in Power Nature did as it were leap and triumph in miraculous elevations above it self at the coming down of its Creator to redeem the world a mighty train of wonders attended on that greatest wonder of all God incarnate a life of Miracles ensued upon his miraculous Conception Now touching the Miracles of Christ there are three or four things to be taken notice of 1. The Miracles of Christ were true and that upon a double account The one is this They were true in the History of them they were really done we have them upon Record in the Sacred Volume of Scripture they were not done in a corner or before a few but openly and before multitudes there were thousands of eye-witnesses from whom the truth of them hath been handed down in all ages of the Church There is no colour at all to imagine that those first reporters did utter an untruth or go about to put a cheat upon the world their own integrity would not suffer it neither was the thing it self indeed practicable How should so many thousands for the most part unknown to and distant from each other ever agree and conspire together in the very same story Or if they could what should they propose to themselves or which way could they think that a Relation of things to have been done openly if false should ever pass in a contradicting World They knew very well that there were innumerable prying malicious Enemies round about them who would persecute them for that Relation though true and brand them as lyars for it if false Christianity was then a poor persecuted thing and it would have been strange folly and madness in them to have ventured their lives and estates meerly to broach a lye unto the world especially seeing it must have been such an one as would have been surely discovered to be such and severely punished upon the Authors In all reason therefore what the first Witnesses spake was true and what after-ages heard was but the Eccho of their report The Miracles wrought by our Saviour were so great that none of the Adversaries ever durst deny that they were done The Jews did not deny it P. Gal. de Arc. l. 8. c. 5. their ancient Rabbins take those words of the Prophet Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped the lame shall leap as the hart and the tongue of the dumb shall sing Isa 35.5 6. to be spoken of the Messiah Their own Josephus speaks of Jesus as one more than a man and a worker of great Miracles only the Jews out of their desperate malice against our Saviour defamed his Miracles as done by Magick and as Dr. Lightfoot tells us Harm fol. 30. it is said in Talm. Bab. that Ben Sarda which is a blasphemous name they give to Jesus of Nazareth did bring inchantments out of Egypt in incision in his flesh But there cannot be a vainer thought than to imagine that Satan should contribute wonders to confirm that Doctrine which he knew would utterly ruin his Kingdom When the Pharisees said that Christ did cast out Devils by Beelzebub He answered two things First that Satans Kingdom if divided could not stand Matth. 12.26 And then that they in saying so did maliciously oppose their light and run into the unpardonable sin vers 31 32. But when the Jews saw that this pretence would not serve their turn they betook themselves to a contrary shift and said That the Messiah when he came should do no Miracles at all The Pagans did not deny Christs Miracles In Pilates Letter to the Emperor Tiberius there is an enumeration made of his Miracles In the Epistle of Lentulus to Tiberius he is stiled Magd. Hist Cent. 1. l. 1. c. 10. Homo magnae virtutis The Pagans conscious to themselves that the thing was not to be denied Aug. de Consensu Evang. l. 1. c. 9. cryed up Aesculapius and Apollonins in opposition to Christ and withal framed an impudent lye that our Saviour had Magical Books according to which he did his Miracles Such devices as these were I suppose first started by Julian the Apostate and by him instilled into others The Mahometans fairer than the other confess Christs Miracles to have been done and that from God Morn de Ver. Christ Relig. c. 33. Their Alcoran saith That Gods Spirit was a help and witness to Jesus that the Soul of God was given to him Thus it appears on all hands that the matter of Fact touching our Saviours Miracles cannot be denied The other is this They were true for the nature of Miracles they were not as the Devils wonders are meer Spectrum's or Apparitions but real Miracles things which are above the order of Nature and lye within the line of Omnipotence only the matter mode and end signally declare them to be such Some Miracles of Christ such as raising the dead were such for the matter of them that no conatus of nature no concurrence or conjunction of created Powers could ever have effected them no not in Millions of Ages some of them such as Curing the sick Nature might have done but in a tract of time and with the help of second Causes But our Saviour dispatched them out of hand instantly immediately with a word or a touch To operate after this sort is only proper to God who is excellent in

Scarcely for a righteous man will one dye yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to dye But God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Rom. 5.7 8. Sometimes possibly though but rarely one may dye for a righteous good Man who is a blessing to the place where he lives But this was Christs Prerogative to dye for Sinners this was the supereminency of Divine Love to give him so to do Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends Joh. 15.13 Thus our Saviour A greater proof or effect of Love than death there cannot be but Love is then in an higher and more excellent degree when that death is as in our Saviours case it was for Enemies than it is when the death is for Friends Damon and Pythias two intimate friends were willing to dye one for another but Christ died for Enemies In Creation God overcame Nullity but in Redemption he overcomes Enmity it self and that in a wonderful way He assumes an humane Nature and in it pours out his precious blood to melt and break that horrible Enmity which was in us against him If we would see more of this Love let us turn our eyes upon the evils removed and the good procured by our Saviour Christ All evils are either Moral such as sin or which waits upon the other Physical such as punishment all of them are removed by our Saviour who saves from Sin and Wrath. Man was under the guilt of Sin and so under the Wrath of God Wrath in the threatning hung as an horrible Tempest over his head and within there was the dreadful Eccho of it in Conscience But the Sufferings of Christ were so satisfactory and meritorious for us that as soon as we return and believe on him all our guilt is done away It 's true the guilt in it self in the intrinsecal desert of punishment is perpetual because sin cannot cease to be sin but it doth no longer redound upon our persons to oblige us to punishment The heavy burden is now lifted off from Conscience the black Cloud of Wrath is dissolved the cursing Law hath nothing to say against us There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Rom. 8.1 It 's true afflictions may fall upon a Believer but there is no Condemnation there is not a jot of Wrath in them they are rather Castigatory than Penal managed in the hand of Mercy rather than Justice In the issue it appears that there was Love and Faithfulness in them that even in those afflicting paths Mercy and Truth are found all things shall work together for good unto the Believer Afflictions and all These serve for excellent purposes to fan off his Vanity melt away his Corruption alarm his spiritual Watch refine his golden Graces cast him into the Image of a meek suffering Christ unearth unself him and elevate his affections towards the everlasting rest which is above Affliction after it hath budded and blossomed with such precious fruits is no longer evil but an excellent good It 's true also that death Temporal will seize upon him but the curse is gone the sting out death which at first was a punishment now hath a blessing in it It was Originally introduced by sin but through the admirable Grace of our Saviour it carries away those reliques of sin which no Tears Prayers Watchings Pious endeavours could utterly extirpate whilest we are in the body it throws down the earthen walls into their mother-dust But who would not dye and with Hilarion bid his Soul Go out that he might be rid of sin There is indeed a passage out of a Temporal life but it is into an Eternal one The soul when it leaves its old friend the body flies into the blessed Region there to enjoy God in an immediate manner to read truth in its Original and taste goodness in the Fountain the body which at present dissolves into dust shall wake again and be made like to the glorious body of Christ Mortal shall put on immortality corruptible incorruption death shall be swallowed up in victory it is no longer an evil to the Believer Again Man was under the Power of Sin and so under the Tyranny of Satan Sin was a Lord a Ruler over him not only over his outward man whose members were the weapons of it but over the inward too It had strong-holds in his Reason and a throne in his Will he was a drudg a slave to his lusts hurried up and down by one Corruption or other wandring in error or swelling in pride or pining in envy or boiling in malice or burning in lust or drowning in sensual pleasures some way or other serving his Iniquity Satan the Ruler of darkness hath a Palace in his heart and keeps possession there upon all occasions he blows up Original Corruption into sinful motions motions into consents consents into acts acts into habits Thus he carries on the sinner in a circle of sinning till inevitable ruin overtake him but in and through Christ there is deliverance from this horrible servitude The Holy Spirit comes and rescues the sinner it opens his eyes to see himself standing as he doth at the brink of Hell and Death it melts him into tears and godly sorrows for sin it breaks down the strong-holds and throne of sin in the heart it casts out Satan and the hellish furniture it translates the poor sinner from the power of darkness into the Kingdom of Christ into a Region of Grace and Power where Sin and Satan cannot have the Victory Those precious Promises that sin shall not have Dominion that Satan shall be bruised under our feet are now sealed and experimented in the heart The poor Captive is now brought out of Bondage into the true liberty of Holiness and Obedience Here we see the matchless incomparable Love of God which delivered us from so many great Evils Hezekiah being rescued from Death made his acknowledgments O Lord thou hast in love to my soul delivered me from the pit of corruption or as the Original hath it Thou hast loved my soul from the pit of corruption Every Believer who hath tasted of the great Salvation may say Lord thou hast loved me from Sin Satan Death Hell by delivering me from all these evils Moreover as all evils were removed so all good things were procured by Christ Temporals were so the world owes its standing to him Justice but for his expiatory Sacrifice would have dashed it down about the sinners ●ears Sin but for the Cement of his blood would have unframed all things in nature that right to the Creature which we forfeited by our iniquity was restored again by his Merits The Believer shall now have so much of the world as infinite Wisdom and Mercy more competent Judges than humane Reason and Will shall think a fit portion for him and what he hath he shall have with the Love

die and in that other which is a kind of Commentary upon it Cursed is he that continueth not in all things These Threatnings which were the sanction of that eternal Law touching which our Saviour assures us that one jot or tittle of it shall not pass away are not to be confounded with those conditional Threatnings which are extant in Scripture and were by God used to induce men unto repentance Now that Truth might be salved there was in Christs Sufferings a conjunction of a Satisfaction and a kind of execution of the Law Indeed an execution of it in the rigour or strict letter of it there was not neither could that be but upon the Sinner himself yet there was a kind of execution of it in an equitable sense in our Sponsor Jesus Christ his Satisfaction though it was not the idem the very same which the letter of the Law called for yet in infinite Wisdom it was accommodated to the terms of the Law as far as the decorum of his Sacred Person could admit of in the threatning there was Death and a Curse and both these were in the sufferings of Christ hence the Apostle saith That sin was so condemned in his flesh that the righteousness of the Law was fulfilled Rom. 8.3 4. It was in a sort executed in our Surety that in the same sufferings there might be a satisfaction to Justice and a compliance with Truth He that considers these Conjunctions will have cause to cry out with the Psalmist Mercy and truth are met together righteousness and peace have kissed each other Psalm 85.10 5. That poor lapsed man with his blind eyes and hard heart utterly uncapable in himself of Heaven may be made meet for it there was in Christs sufferings a conjunction of Satisfaction and Merit Justice was compensated and Grace impetrated Indeed the Socinians blind with their own corrupt reason cannot see how these two should stand together ubi est satisfactlo ibi non est meritum Satisfactio est solutio debiti de jure meritum autem opus indebitum Soc. Satisfaction being the payment of a just debt and Merit the doing of an undue work To which I answer It is true that when one pays a finite sum for his own debt there is not there cannot be a merit in it but when Jesus Christ paid down sufferings of an infinite value for us there cannot but be an immense merit in them Infinity is an Ocean and may run over in effects as far as it pleases those sufferings had a kind of Infinity in them enough to pay divine Justice and over and above by a redundance of merit to purchase all grace for us Hence the Apostle saith That the Holy Ghost is shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ Tit. 3.6 Christ ascended up to Heaven in the glory of his Merits and from thence poured down the Holy Spirit on men that their blind eyes might be opened upon the mysteries of the Gospel and their hard hearts might be melted into repentance Thus a fair way is opened to make fal'n man capable of Eternal Life 6. Because the inward vital principles of Grace in men must needs flourish most when there is an outward excellent pattern of Holiness set before them there was therefore in Christs sufferings a conjunction of Merit and Example the Merit procured the principles of Grace and the Example by its divine beauty drew them out into imitation Vix fieri posse videtur ut unâ eâdem re satisfiat simul exemplum relinquatur Socin Prael cap. 20. Socinus thinks that a Satisfaction and an Example can very hardly meet together in the same thing the like scruple may be made touching Merit and Example and the very truth is Satisfaction and Merit are a Cup which we cannot drink of a Sea in which we cannot trace or follow our Saviour Nevertheless infinite Wisdom laid one plot under another and under inimitable Satisfaction and Merit couch'd an incomparable pattern of Holiness for us We may clearly see in him how we are to mortifie corruptions bear afflictions learn obedience by sufferings and obey unto the death In these he hath left us an Example that we might follow his steps 1 Pet. 2.21 Having seen the contrivance in these rare Conjunctions let us now consider how the Divine Wisdom set Ambushments for our spiritual Enemies I mean Sin Satan the World and Death all which are in a very admirable manner overcome by Jesus Christ Sin which meritoriously was the bloody crucifier of the Son of God was crucified together with him when he suffered it was in his flesh condemned as an accursed thing worthy to die no sooner are we in him by Faith but it loses its kingdom and by a divine Virtue from his Cross it droops and languishes away in us Satan the arch-enemy at Christs death seemed to be a Conqueror that God Incarnate should be slain by his hellish Instruments that the whole Church should die in its Head looks like a mighty Victory when the Head shall die what shall the Members do when the Sun the great Globe of Light in the spiritual World shall be turned into blood what should remain but that darkness which Satan hath the power of Upon the death of the Duke of Guise Henry the Third broke out thus Nunc demum Rex sum Now at last I am King Upon the death of our Saviour Satan might suppose himself absolute Prince in the lower World a greater Adam than the first being fallen no man can probably stand before him But here infinite Wisdom shews forth it self Satan is taken in his own snare by that very death of Christ which was procured by his own Agents is he utterly overthrown Christ upon the Cross did spoil Principalities and Powers and triumph over them in it Col. 2.15 The satisfaction in his sufferings paid off divine Justice and the Merit in them procured that divine Spirit which is able to bind and cast out Satan from the hearts of men The Cross was now turned into a triumphant Chariot and as an Ancient hath it there were two affixed to it Du● in cruce affixi sunt Christus visibiliter sponte ad tempus diabolus invisibiliter invitus in perpetuum Orig. Christ visibly freely for a time the Devil invisibly coactively for ever that Cross was a final Victory over him He was overcome not by a man only but by a man suffering bleeding dying upon a Cross the Lord reigneth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Cross as some of the Ancients read that 10th verse in the 96 Psalm through death he destroyed him that had the power of death that is the devil Heb. 2.14 The Devil was destroyed by Death his own weapon and overcome in that which he had the power of The wicked World at the death of Christ triumphed and insulted even to blasphemy He saved others himself he cannot save Matth. 27.42 as if all his miraculous power were now