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
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A54829 A collection of sermons upon several occasions by Thomas Pierce ... Pierce, Thomas, 1622-1691. 1671 (1671) Wing P2167; ESTC R33403 232,532 509

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

meeknesse as we have Christ for an Example paying Obedience from without us to publick Sanctions where none from within us is strictly due Every Christian like Christ Himself is to be actively Obedient in many things though not as necessary yet as conventent though not for conscience yet for the benefit of conformity though not for private yet for publick satisfaction though not to avoyd Sin in Himself yet not so much as to occasion it in other men But however this Reason may passe for good methinks 't were easy to give a better To wit that our Saviour being laden with the Iniquity of us all to use the words of the Prophet Esay was in all our behalfes to stand in need of a purification Being made Sin for us as St. Paul speaks to the Corinthians 2 Cor. 5 2. and at last numbred with the Transgressors and so made subject to the Levitical as well as the Moral Law of Moses born as he was of a Iewish parent a branch sprung forth from the Root of Iesse He was first to fulfil and then to abrogate the law of Rites or rather to abrogate whilst he fulfil'd it And this may help us to give a Reason besides the Poverty of his Parents why they offered not a Lamb but a pair of Doves For what needed the Type where the Antitype was present What place could there be for a Lamb out of the Fold when behold the Lamb of God that came down from Heaven The Lamb to expiate for our Souls as well as the Shepherd to direct them § 8. The Thought of which should s●●ve to fill us not with Gratitude only and Love but even with wonder and admiration That the Lawgiver himself would be obedient unto the Law thereby to free us from the Law as the strength of Sin and so to free us from Sin as the sting of Death and so to free us from Death as 't is the Victory of Hell That the Holy of Holies and King of Kings would meekly take upon him the Form as well of a sinner as of a servant and become legally unclean whereby to take away from us our great uncleanness for according to the Hebraisme by which the Hellenisticks are wont to speak nothing worse can be meant by the legal uncleanness of a Iew than that external obligation to the performance of a Duty which by an arbitrary Law is incumbent on him And to This our blessed Saviour without the least stain of guilt did submit himself not at all for himself but for Us alone For Us it was that he descended from out the Bosom of the Father for Us he poured out himself so far forth as to be empti●d of all his Glory that we might drink of his Fulness Grace for Grace For Us it was that he was cloyster'd in Marie's Womb for Us that he was folded in Marie's Armes for Us that he was put upon several Iournies whilst yet he could not either go or with ease be carryed To wit from Nazareth to Bethleem and from Bethleem to Ierusalem and that upon more accounts than one not only to be purified but presented unto the Lord. This as I said in the Beginning was the second Action of the Day and so deserves the second Place in the consideration of the Text. § 1. To give you the History of the Action from that which gave it its Original I must goe back to take my Rise from as farr as Exodus Where after Sundry dismal miracles for the freeing of Israel out of Aegypt the last and greatest was shewn at midnight When the sword of the Lord did cut off all the first-born among the Children of the Egyptians from the first-born of Pharoah that sate on his throne to the first-born of the Captive that lay in the dungeon But the first-born of Israel being miraculously preserv'd were immediately claimed by their preserver who besides the common Interest which he had in them as his Creatures did farher devote them unto Himself by a peculiar right of Redemption too And though by way of Commutation He took the Levites unto Himself in stead of all the first born of the Children of Israel Yet were not the Levites so full a Ransome but that they were farther to be ransom'd by the summ of five Shekels § 2. Now put all this together and it will prove an Adumbration of the holy Child Iesus who though the Lord and the Redeemer was yet presented unto the Lord and Redeemed this Day with a piece of Silver For He was sure the Fist-born who is expressed so in Scripture by way of Eminence and whom the First-born of Israel were but intended to represent He presented Himself as our Elder Brother and so again the first-born to redeem us from the Fury of the Destroying Angel He as the First-born or Heir of all things was presented this day to receive his right of Primogeniture by claiming the Heathen for his Inheritance and the uttermost part of the earth for his possession He again was the first-born who presented Himself unto as many as would receive him that he might give them power to be the Sons of God To sum up all in a word He is call'd the First-Born of every Creature Col. 1. 15. who was begotten of the Father before all Time And the first-born of his Mother brought forth into the world in the fulness of Time He was again the first-born by vertue of his office as Mediator The first that was born of a pure Virgin the first that ever was born without the least stain of Sin the first and last that was born both God and Man Many wayes the first-born he was brought on this day to be presented unto the Lord not as a Servant only or Sacrifice but as a King and a Priest too on whom his Brethren depended for Life and Fortune so to claim his own Right and so to communicate it to Us that whether Paul or Apollo whether Cephas or the World whether life or Death whether things present or things to come All might be ours as we are Christ's as Christ is God's § 3. From the whole History of the Action so farr at least as our Lord was concerned in it it will be easy enough to gather These usefull Considerations § 4. First that the Dayes being accomplish't when both the Mother and her Babe might have the freedom to goe abroad The first Journy they took was not to Nazareth but Ierusalem She brought Him to God's House before her own Implying this Caveat to Christian Parents that they suffer not the Devil to take the first Hansel of their Children but acquaint them with God in their very Nonage and so present them unto Him by a Religious Education That they devote them to his Service even as early as Hannah devoted Samuel That their enmity to Sin be as soon bespoken as the Child Hanibal at the Altar was bespoken by his