Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	believe_v	faith_n	justify_v	18,143	5	8.5818	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41726	A sermon preached before the King at White-Hall on Christmas-Day, 1684 Humfrey Gower ...	Gower, Humphrey, 1638-1711.	1685 (1685)	Wing G1459; ESTC R3870	19,094	36

then as if he had not received it But then again what proportion is there between finite Performances and infinite Rewards Nay tho we undergo the sharpest afflictions in the discharge of our Duties Rom. 8. 18. we are to reckon with St. Paul that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed as in one place 2 Cor. 4. 17. that far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory as he expresseth it in another So that it must be agreed as a thing evident both from Scripture and right Reason that Man has no Natural and Original Title to an happy Everlasting Life But yet for all that it is most certain that God did bestow on him an Immortal Soul not with a design to destroy it again but on purpose that he might live for ever with himself in Eternal Glory But the Apostate Seraphim envied so great a Privilege to a New-made Creature so far inferiour to himself and Man was presently cheated of it soon tempted to forfeit his Inheritance by violating an easie Precept that had been given him as a trial of his Obedience and the Condition of all the Happiness that was promised which leads to the Second Proposition contained in the Text. For to our Comfort we know that God did not desert Man miserable Man fal'n as he was helpless and hopeless in himself but immediately reach'd down his hand from Heaven and rais'd him from the groveling condition wherein he lay set him on his feet again and bid him look up and make a new Adventure for a Crown of Glory He remits the forfeiture of the broken Covenant and vouchsafes to enter on a new Treaty with his revolted Creature affording him a better Hope Heb. 7. 19. a better Covenant established upon better Promises Heb. 8. 9. Thus was it the happiness of the Creature that God still proposed and pursued in all his dispensations towards the Sons of Men. It is true indeed that under the Oeconomy of the Law the Kingdom of Heaven and Eternal Life were but imperfectly discover'd through Veils and Signs and Types Mysteries and Metaphors Shadows Clouds and Darkness suitable to the meaner genius of that Discipline which was but imperfect as Eusebius expresseth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Dem. Evang lib. 1. c. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. ibid. and agreeable to the weakness of that Childish People who were to be managed and conducted by it But it is absurd to conclude from thence That the utmost Felicity proposed to the Jews was only a fat Land and a long Life Milk and Hony Peace and Plenty and at the last the Burial perhaps of Men but the Death of Bruits If this were all the Swine they loath'd were as happy as themselves But they were Men a Nation highly favour'd and honour'd by God far above all other Families of the Earth a Peculiar and Chosen People to whom were committed the Oracles of God and to whom pertained the Adoption and the Glory and the Covenants and the giving of the Law and the Service of God and the Promises whose are the Fathers and of whom as concerning the Flesh Christ came They were our Elder Brothers as it were and the First-born of the World and that Inheritance which we now all so happily enjoy in common seemed for a good while to be entail'd only on the House of Jacob. The very Points in controversie between the Pharisees and the Sadduces sufficiently prove that the Expectations of another Life had been of old receiv'd and entertain'd by that People And our Saviour put to silence those that ventur'd to deny it by a plain proof of the Matter drawn from the very Pentateuch that small Portion of Scripture which the Sadduces would own for Authentick Canon Many places there are in the Books of the Prophets which cannot receive a full Interpretation without the supposition of a Future State amongst which Prophyrie himself cannot hinder but that of Daniel will still be one Dan. 12. 2 3. Many of them that sleep in the Dust shall awake some to Everlasting Life and some to Shame and Everlasting Contempt St. Aug. de Civ Dei lib. 20. c. 23. to which as the Father observes our Saviour makes a just Parallel in those words John 5. 28 29. All that are in the Grave shall hear his Voice and shall come forth they that have done good unto the Resurrection of Life and they that have done evil to the Resurrection of Damnation The famous Petition of the Thief on the Cross and our Saviours gracious Reply to it together with many plain and direct Passages in Josephus and the most Ancient Rabbins concerning a Future Felicity for the Pious and Misery for Irreligious Persons put it out of all doubt that the Doctrine of a Future Life was far from being so strange and unreceiv'd a Thing amongst the Jews as some would represent it We need not therefore wonder to find in the Catalogue of Old Testament-Saints recorded in the Epistle to the Hebrews Heb. 11. 35. Many that were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection But then these gracious Purposes of God for our Eternal Good were far more illustriously manifested in the Gospel through which Christ hath brought Life and Immortality to light ● Tim. 1. 10. And that makes way for our Third Proposition That the Life intended for and proposed to man could not be obtain'd by the Law of Moses and therefore all must be devolv'd on the Fourth the Mercy and Promise of God which by Faith of Jesus Christ is given to them that believe I need not lead you from the Text or Chapter of which it is a part to find abundant proof of the Impotency of the Law of Moses It is the Argument almost of every Verse Verse 10 11. As many as are of the Works of the Law are under the Curse No Man is justified by the Law in the sight of God The same had been avouch'd twice or thrice in the former Chapter Chap. 2. 16. It is needless to allege more Testimonies of the Truth of a thing so evident It is the Argument not only of this Epistle but in a manner of the whole Book of God It is the very Foundation of the Gospel If it be otherwise Christ died in vain Heb. 8. 2. and our Faith is vain For if that first Covenant had been faultless there should no place have been sought for the second Here therefore happily begins our Fourth Particular the Oeconomy of the Gospel Rom. 11. 32. For God hath concluded all under Vnbelief that he might have mercy upon All Or in the words of my Text The Scripture hath concluded all under Sin that the Promise by Faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe There was no room for Repentance for second Thoughts allowed by the Tenour of the former

Covenants In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die That was the unrelenting Rigour of the first Law and the rigid Condition of the Law of Moses is carefully remembred by the Apostle in this Chapter Gal. 3. 10. Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them A very uncomfortable and frightful Sanction it is sufficient of it self to represent that Law as a Schoolmaster as it is stil'd qualified not only to bring but to drive us unto Christ Thanks be therefore to God through Jesus Christ our Lord who by the propitious Mystery of this Day and the saving Consequences of it hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law Himself being made a Curse for us who did all that could be requir'd in the greatest Rigour and yet suffer'd too the greatest that we who of our selves could do nothing as we ought to do might yet suffer nothing but being by him enabled to do all things may be made Heirs even joynt Heirs with himself of Eternal Glory And this it is that makes up our present Rejoycing The Birth of Christ was the Death of the Law For He was the End of the Law and put an end to it also as it is taken in competition with the Gospel For we well know that it is not always so and therefore can easily reconcile those different and contrary Accounts which are given of it in the New Testament As it is considered absolutely in it self without regard and subordination to our Blessed Lord who gives strength for the fulfilling of the Moral part of it and is the substance and accomplishment of the Ceremonial it is represented full of Terrors as to Man and under Characters of Disparagement and Diminution to it self Thus it is said to be abolished and disannull'd that it was but until John that it was given by Moses who was faithful but as a Servant whereas Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ who is Lord and Heir of all things That it stops every Mouth and makes all the World become guilty before God that it cannot Justifie or make Righteous It is not only reflected on as a less excellent Ministry a Covenant not faultless unprofitable decayed waxen old a Shadow and vanishing away but it is likewise severely censured as an unsupportable Yoak and that which worketh Wrath and Death It is said indeed to be weak but for all that we are told that it is the strength of Sin a Letter that killeth and the Ministration of Condemnation and Death that it is a Curse and Emnity which Christ abolished and slew the oldness of the Letter and dead that there was made of necessity a change of the Law and accordingly that we are not now under the Law but under Grace At this rate is it expos'd and vilisied when consider'd as opposite to or distinct in part or in whole from the Dispensation of the Gospel But there is another view of it and a much better prospect when it is represented as it was intended to be a Dispensation preparatory and subordinate to the Gospel A Law of Life and Manners improv'd fulfil'd and enforced by our Saviour who plentifully furnisheth out Grace and Strength to enable us to live up to the Precepts of it in an Evangelical Perfection And thus it will soon appear that the Law is not against the Promises of God according to my Text. For we find our Blessed Saviour making a solemn and very early Protestation even in his first Sermon that he came not to destroy but to fulfil the Law that not a jot of it should be unfulfill'd that it is easier for Heaven and Earth to pass away than one tittle of the Law to fail And St. Paul establish'd the Christian Faith by the Law of Moses as well as by the Prophets and thus now the Doers of the Law shall be justified and we read often of the Righteousness of the Law and that it is not made void through Faith God forbid saith St. Paul yea we establish the Law And thus the Law is holy and the Commandment holy and just and good Thus too it is Spiritual to be delighted in a Commandment ordain'd unto Life and a means to bring us unto Christ King David himself who composed so many Hymns on purpose to celebrate and adorn the Law and that long Alphabetical Octonary the 119th Psalm on that single Subject could not say more in honour of it than what I have already or may further be alledged for that purpose from the Scriptures of the New Testament But then the Law is understood to be a kind of Gospel a Dispensation typical and significative of Christ According to what the Great Father tells us * Quid est enim quod dicitur Testamentum Vetus nisi occultatio Novi Et quid est aliud quod dicitur Novum nisi Veteris revelatio St. Aug. de Civ Dei l. 16. f. 26. That the Law was but the Gospel mask'd and the Gospel nothing else but the Law reveal'd Indeed the whole Old Testament in a manner is a Mysterious Shadow a Prophetical and Figurative Representation of the New Which some observing and finding what excellent use our Saviour and his Apostles made of the History and Prophecies of the one Testament to confirm and illustrate the Doctrines of the other have indulged so long and unwarily to the contemptation of the Allegorical that they have quite neglected and at last utterly lost and even renounc'd the first and Literal Sence But this is an unreasonable affection of an extravagant and sottish Extreme It was the infinite Wisdom and Power of God that so contriv'd ordered and overrul'd Affairs in the first Ages of the World that they might aptly prelude typifie and represent that great Undertaking which he was to set on foot in the latter Times Hereby making the Age of the Patriarchs and the Law but a long Preface or Introduction to that of the Gospel Indeed to speak properly we are to Date the Gospel from the time of the first Publication of it which was immediately after the Fall as we all know From that happy Moment all the hopes of Heaven of a future Endless Life of Bliss depended wholly on the Birth and Death of the Messias Christianity therefore commenced about Four Thousand Years before the first Christmas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Dem. Evang. l. 1. c. 8. Il 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I mean before the actual Incarnation and Nativity of the Son of God It is then no Novel and Upstart Doctrine not a Modern or New invented Discipline but far the most Ancient the Senior Religion of the World Almighty God for wise and weighty Purposes did not think fit to put the Gospel Dispensation presently in practice with all the Power and Demonstration all the Lustre and Advantages with which in the Fulness of time it was to appear and be recommended to the World