Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	death_n	sting_n	victory_n	6,058	5	10.0485	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42350	The Christians labour and reward, or, A sermon, part of which was preached at the funeral of the Right Honourable the Lady Mary Vere, relict of Sir Horace Vere, Baron of Tilbury, on the 10th of January, 1671, at Castle Heviningham in Essex by William Gurnall ...	Gurnall, William, 1617-1679.	1672 (1672)	Wing G2258; ESTC R10932	62,221	185

ready she was to be dejected from an over deep sence of her unworthiness will find reason to believe that this Man of God gave this Testimony of her to her as a Cordial to revive her Humble Spirit and therefore brings it in with And this to your comfort I add But I am too troublesom I fear to your Honour my hearty Prayers are that as you have begun so you may go on in living your Mothers Holy Life and that then yon may in a good Old Age dye her happy death with much Peace and Honour And that so long as you shall have a Posterity live on Earth your good Mother may never be Dead but may from Generation to Generation have those descending from her that will keep her Name and Pretious Example alive by a due Veneration of the one and Pious imitation of the other Madam I am your Honours most Humble Servant W. GVRNALL Evenham March 13. 1671. ERRATA PAge 51. Line 25. read Bewrayed pag. 87 l. 2O r. on p. 97. l. 22. r. sloughs p. 110 l. 11. r. Sin 1 Cor. 15.58 For as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. WHAT Luther said of Justification by Faith that may we concerning the Resurrection of the dead Articulus est Ecclesiae stantis aut cadentis it is an Article with which the Church standeth or falleth Yet so foul an errour had taken the head of some Members in the Church of Corinth as to deny this grand Truth which S t Paul calls in another place one of the principles of the Doctrine of Christ how say some among you there is no Resurrection of the dead v. 12. And is it not strange that such who professed to believe the Resurrection of Christ should deny their own but much more that any in the Church of Corinth especially in those early days should have such a darkness found upon their minds who stood so near the rising Sun and that while S t Paul himself was yet alive who had planted this Church by this we see though Truth is errours elder yet errour is not much Truths younger Though the Gospel-Church was purest in the Primitive times yet it soon began to corrupt in its Members Not unapt therefore was his saying who compared in this respect the gathering of Churches to the gathering of Apples which when first gathered may appear all fair and sound but then within a while some amongst them begin to speak and others to discover their rottinness No doubt this Church of Corinth and so others gathered by the rest of the Apostles appeared in their Members very sound in the faith and fair in their lives at their first embraceing of the Gospel yet some we see did thus soon discover corruption in both Now to recover the tainted and especially to preserve the sound from this dangerous infection the Apostle sets himself to defend this Article of our Faith well knowing that this was a blow made at the root of Christianity which must needs fall to the ground if this cannot be maintained and he doth it with such invincible arguments that if any Heretick shall now deny it the reason cannot be deficiency in the proof here given but rather a criminous conscience in himself which makes him on his own defence deny a Resurrection for fear of the Judgment which attends it Now the Apostle having done this and withal shewn the glorious array in which the Saints shall arise out of their beds of dust he then v. 55. sings his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or triumphant song over Death and out-braves this King of Terrours to his face that is wont to keep the hearts of poor Mortals in the miserable bondage of a slavish fear O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory As if he had said Death do now thy worst we fear thee not thou mayest indeed get us into thy hands but thou canst not long keep us in thy power fall we shall into the Grave but we fall to rise again and when we arise out of our Graves then shalt thou Death fall into thy Grave never to arise again Then v. 57. he sings with an holy ravishment of joy the praises of God and Christ our Redeemer by whose atchievement this glorious victory over death is won The sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law but thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ This indeed is our David who cut off the head of this Goliah with his own sword killed Death by falling dead upon it he unstung this Serpent by receiving its sting into his own blesed body He overcame this great Conquerour by submitting himself for a time to be conquered by it when Christ lost his life then his whole Army of Saints won the day Death now to them is no death that which was their punishment as Sinners is now their priviledge as Saints That which stood amongst the threatnings of the Law and was the most formidable of them all hath now changed its place and is got amongst the promises of the Gospel All things are yours or Life or Death 1 Cor. 3.21 So pretious an oyl doth our Apostle extract from this slain Scorpion so sweet an honey comb doth he find in this dead Lyons breast and gives it into the hand of the Saints to go eating of it to their unspeakable joy and comfort but is this victory over Death only matter of joy and comfort unto Believers Oh no Blessed art thou O Land when thy Princes eat for strength and not for drunkenness and blessed art thou O Emanuels Land when thy Saints feed on the priviledges and promises of the Gospel not to make them drunk with Pride nor to lay them asleepin Sloth but to rèfresh them to run the Race set before them and the Joy of the Lord becomes their strength the Apostle therefore goes on to improve and close up his discourse on this subject with an Exhortation to Duty Therefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast always abounding in the work of the Lord that is be stedfast in the faith of the Gospel and especially in the belief of this particular Article of our Christian faith the Resurrection of the dead and then live up unto this belief walk and work as for God while you live as believing you shall when dead rise again Now my Text hath the nature of a powerful Argument to inforce this Exhortation upon them for as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. In which words these two things are observable First the Nature and Quality of the service or work of God it is a Labour the Apostle changeth the the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Work which he had used in the Exhortation immediately preceding into this of Labour and that not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies any ordinary labour but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉

which imports the hardest of labour Negotium quod nos caedit quasi vires frangit saith an Etymoligist and this we may conceive to pre-occupate an Objection of such that could be willing to do some work but afraid of meeting with too much labour Secondly Here is the reward that sweetens this labour and may make the Christian more easily submit unto it For as much as ye know your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. In which first here is the certainty of the reward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 knowing or ye know your labour is not in vain It is not an uncertain surmise taken up by a self-flattering hope from some easie ground of a weak fortassis or may be but ye know it upon infallible grounds ye doubt no more of the being of another World where God will reward his faithful labourers then ye do of the being of this which you see with your bodily eyes and live at present in Here you know it though here you do not receive it Secondly the transcendency of this reward 't is a great reward as well as sure For there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this Phrase an elegant figure in Rhetorick wherein more is meant than is spoken the words sound low but the sense is high You shall not lose your labour that is you shall be infinite gainers by it you shall receive a reward greater than now you can conceive Thus in our own Language we are wont to speak when we would make one willing to do a work we set them about we 'll say to him you shall not repent doing of it you shall not be a loser or work for nothing in which we intend more than we express that it shall redound to his great advantage Thus here under this expression your labour is not in vain is intended no less than Heaven that exceeding great and eternal weight of glory which no tongue of men or Angels can express how great it is First of the first the nature or quality of the Christians work his work is a labour and so will every one find it that means to be faithful in doing of it Man is born to labour and the Christian is not born again to be idle God sends not his servants into the World as a Play-house but Work-house and such a work it is which he appoints them as is not an idle mans business that may be done sitting at his ease on the chair of sloth but requires his greatest pains and diligence therefore Christianity is in Scripture compared to the most toylsom imployments is it a labour to run a race which strains all parts of a mans body what is it then to run this spiritual race which is every step of the way up-hill and straineth not legs and lungs as the other doth but faith and patience which is a harder exercise Is the Husbandmans work laborious to plow up his stiff ground and with many a weary step to go sowing his heavy land especially in a wet season what then is the Christians labour who is to plow on the Rock to break up an heart by nature harder than stone and whose whole life is a wet seed-time he living in a Valley of tears Is the Souldiers work laborious and hazardous who must be content to lye hard and fair hard and which is more prepare for hard blows and knocks yea wounds and death it self then the Christians cannot be easie who must deny himself and take up his Cross and follow Christ and that cheerfully amidst all his losses and crosses For this Captain non amat gementem Militem loves not a Souldier that followeth him groaning and grumbling But for the further clearing and amplifying this point it will not be amiss to descend to some particulars to discover what it is that makes the Christians work so laborious and difficult and in the next place why God hath charged Religion with so much labour and so many difficulties First of the first The vast circumference of his duty the more strings an Instrument hath the more art is required to handle it well the larger the Field is the more labour it will cost him that is to Till it in a word the greater the Servants charge is and the more business which lies upon his hánds the more care is needful to tend it and where the care must be great the labour cannot be little because care is it self one of the greatest labours O how great then is the Christians labour whose care and duty has no less compass than the commandment of God which is of such vast comprehension that the Psalmist who saw an end of all perfections could see no end of it Psalm 119.96 I have seen an end of all perfections but thy commandment is exceeding broad The Commandment here includes both Law and Gospel and the Christians duty extends to yea diffuseth it self over both First the Law Moral this is bound upon the Christian in point of duty to make it his rule as strictly as it was upon innocent Adam himself though not upon such strait conditions and dismal consequences The Christian is bound to it upon peril of contracting sin though not of incurring death and damnation the Christian hath no more liberty to transgress the Law than Adam had though he hath a promise of pardon upon repentance when he hath sinned which Adam had not how indeed can we imagine that Christ who was made a curse for sin would come to be a cloak to sin now is it an easie work for the Christian to keep his heart in a sincere compliance with and respect to this Law in his daily walking a Law which is so large as reacheth from Heaven to Earth commanding us to keep a conscience void of offence to God and Man a Law so pure and precise that forbids all sin omissions of good as well as commissions of evil that indites him for a Murderer that doth not feed his Brother yea his Enemy as well as he that stabs him to the heart him that doth not pray to God as well as him that doth curse him the barren Heath without good fruit as well as the Dunghil-life of the profane sinner filled with the stinking weeds of gross crimes that condemneth sudden passions as well as deliberate sins that bindeth the soul to its good behaviour as well as the hands Is it an easie thing to hate every false way to be ready to every good work to have respect to every Command which yet he must have that will not be put to shame Psal 119.6 willing in all things to live honestly Yet this he must do that will keep a good conscience Heb. 13.18 is not here enough to fill the Christians head with care and his heart continually with an holy fear and trembling But this is not all his work for secondly the Evangelical Law is also bound upon the Christian the sum of which the Apostle gives us in