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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A76282 Metamorphosis Christiana: or, The old man changed into the new. An occasional discourse. Beare, Nicholas. 1679 (1679) Wing B1563A; ESTC R172674 33,570 43

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Metamorphosis Christiana OR THE OLD MAN Changed into the NEW An Occasional DISCOURSE Bene vixisse magnum est Hieron He that Converteth a Sinner from the Errour of his Way shall save a Soul from Death and shall hide a multitude of Sins James ult ult LONDON Printed for James Collins in Essex-street without Temple-Bar 1679. To the much Honoured JOHN BASSET Of Heanton-Court Esquire Recorder of the Town of Barnstable and Burgess for the same Colonel of the North-Division and one of the Deputy-Lieutenants of Devon SIR I Here present you with a Discourse which has no other pretence to your Patronage but onely the good Intention wherewith it is offered and Sir you may remember that this hath sometimes made a cup of cold water a Present to a mighty King acceptable and preferred the two Mites of the poor Widow as an Offering more grateful than much larger Gifts Sir the reason of this Address proceeds not from an Ambition of appearing in Print for I have often declaimed against the Scribbling of the Age nor in satisfaction to the Importunities of Friends the usual pretence in the like cases nor yet purely in gratitude to those many Favours you have obliged me withal the Common-place and thred-bare Complement of Dedications Sir I look'd back and lo the too visible Ruines of our late Contentions I look'd forward and saw the face of things tending much to the same way I thought my self concern'd to move toward the prevention of the growing evil as knowing that an ordinary Physician and mean Medicine may overcome a Disease in its beginnings which being become chronical and inveterate will triumph over the most exquisite Preparations So that the whole Plot drives at nothing but the advancement of Peace and Love among Neighbours and Christians and Sir when I resolved to adventure it abroad to try mens eyes and second thoughts as well as ears I presently considered that Sphere wherein you stand that commanding Influence you have with us and withal your own example the patern of those Vertues which you will find though very imperfectly described within Whereupon I have presumed to prefix your Name to the Front as the surest Expedient to make the Doctrine at least in its first and more private Design successful Sir I have no more to add but this May you be like your Father in every thing but shortness of days is the devout prayer of Your most Humble Servant Nich. Beare Metamorphosis Christiana Gal. ult 15 In Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Vncircumcision but a new Creature AMong the Beings of the lower World that which gives Man the Preheminence is his Reason that divine breath of the Almighty which impowers him with the noble Faculties of Vnderstanding and Will Among Men that which chiefly exalts some above the rest is Vertue and Grace there are other pretences which are eagerly contended for the Jew talks much of the Seed of Abraham one of the peculiar Darlings of Heaven upon whose account God cannot but respect his Off-spring being by no less than a Miracle produced and to this add by way of advancement the plea of Circumcision the great and stable Precept as they call it of their Law which in their opinion must exalt them above all mankind beside The more polished Gentile does not a little vaunt of Athens the seat of Learning and having had his Education there looks with scorn on the Inhabitants of any other part of Greece and amongst them most of all despises the Scythian to a Proverb Barbarous The man of Liberty derides him in Chains These by the Apostle are noted as the most remarkable pretences to Priority all which he does here refell by an higher and more noble Claim even the qualification of the Rent 'T is the not the Lineage of Abraham nor the loss of the Fore-skin not thy pretence of Education at the foot of Gamaliel nor thy living under the Doctrine of the greatest Sage at Athens not thy plea of Birth nor that of Liberty there is somewhat that will advance thee much beyond these by which thou shalt outshine other men as the Moon does the lesser Host of Heaven viz. the new Creation in Christianity the All in All. Neither Greek nor Jew Circumcision nor Vncircumcision Barbarian Scythian bond nor free but Christ is all and in all and here neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Vncircumcision but a new Creature 'T is undeniably evident that the great occasion of this Epistle as of many others was the different Factions between the Jew and the Gentile advanced by the false Prophets and countenanced by the staggering of the true as is too notorious not onely in the case of S. Peter here in chap. 2. ver 12. but also of the other Apostles who as S. Luke tells us affirmed the necessity of Circumcision as a qualification previous to the preaching and benefit of the Gospel untill S. Peter was by a Miracle convinced Acts 10. and the truth by a Councel determined chap. 15. It grieved S. Paul as indeed it must a Minister of God to see the present Church thus miserably shattered he thinks all his endeavours too little to heal those sores he undertakes to his face the Head of the College Gal. 2.13 he not onely preaches down this as an Error but in confutation writ with his own hand a large Epistle wherein he sets up this as his standard like the Cross with the Motto of Constantine promising Victory here he prescribes this as the most sovereign Balsam to heal their wounds as the best Cement to knit and unite their Affections a new creature Scripture is the best Interpreter of it self who would be beholding to the scantlings of the Chanel when he may be admitted to the fulness of the Fountain I shall give you therefore the sense of the Text from these parallel places Gal. 5.6 Neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but faith which worketh by love Where as the Learned Grotius notes we are not to understand this grace single but in conjunction with others Likewise from the 19 verse to the end of the chapter he gives us an account of the meaning of the Phrase in Eph. 4.23 where he uses these words Put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Where he further proceeds to a specification of both in a third Epistle Col. 3.8 where he expresseth himself thus Put off all these anger wrath malice hlasphemy And verse 10. Put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him And verse 12. Put on as the elect of God bowels of mercies kindness humbleness of mind meekness long-suffering forbearing and forgiving one another And above all put on charity From the whole waving the present