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
A62877	True old light exalted above pretended new light, or, Treatise of Jesus Christ as He is the light which enlightens every one that comes into the world : against the sense both of the Quakers, Arminians, and other assertors of universal grace, whose light is proved to be darkness / delivered in nine sermons, by John Tombes, B.D., and commended to publick view by Mr. Richard Baxter.	Tombes, John, 1603?-1676.	1660 (1660)	Wing T1824; ESTC R21431	110,239	95

the mean time by that which hath been said 1. It is necessary for our good that we should be sensible of these two things 1. That sin is an imbittering thing that takes away the relish and pleasure of all the goods we have under the Sun and of our very lives themselves Agag thought if he had escaped death then bitternesse had been overpassed and therefore he came to Samuel delicately 1 Sam. 15. 32. But experience shewed that there is often more bitternesse in life then in death Nor is it likely to be otherwise as long as sin remains for that 's a root of bitternesse Heb. 12. 15. a root that beareth gall and wormwood Deut. 29. 18. While there is sin in our eating and drinking there will be bitternesse in our meats and drinks While there is sin in our nuptials there will be bitternesse in our marriage society All states and conditions here will have their frets their gnawing worms and eating mothes When God corrects man with rebukes for iniquity he makes his beauty to consume away like a moth Surely every man is vanity Psal. 39. 11. 2. That we have little cause to glory in our birth It is the property of many to boast of their birth it is the manner of all Parents to rejoyce at their childrens birth But the sense of sinne should take away our glorying in our selves the sight of our black feet should abate our high conceits of our white feathers and the sense of trouble should allay the excesse of our joy in posterity and rather provoke us to imitate them that wept at births and sang for joy at burials Were it not that God makes women forget their travell they would breed no more and were it not that God hides from the eyes of men the evils that accompany life they would choose strangling rather then life and were it not for the consolations of Christ the burdens especially of the godly would be unsupportable especially when they complain with Paul Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Earth is but a reall dungeon though to some it is an imaginary Heaven 2. It is necessary 1. That we seek our good in other enjoyments then this world Who would make his bed upon thornes Who would choose his dwelling on the mast of a ship where winds and stormes and perpetual tossings take away all rest Surely our best enjoyments our best habitation here are no better We project many things and promise much to our selves in Wealth Wife Children Friends Houses Preserments and other things but upon a just account we find all but ciphers which make no summe How often doth Solomon tell us when he had cast up his reckonings that vanity of vanities all is vanity Eccl. 12. 8. And why should we set our eyes then on that which is not Prov. 23. 5. Surely the true light holds sorth better counsel Luk. 12. 33. Provide your selves bags which wax not old a treasure in the heavens that faileth not where no chief approacheth nor m●th corrupteth a treasure of Gospel grace the new Covenant the heavenly Promises the Communion of Christ the fellowship of the Spirit and the life of Faith and these will never deceive our expectations It were a good wish if righly minded by the users God send us the light of Heaven 2. Let us prize the light of Christ and make use of it to prevent lessen hear deliver us out of all the present evils Paul had learned to do so Phil. 3. 12 13. I know how to be abased and I know how to abound every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungery both to abound and to suffer need I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me It is indeed the inlightening of Christ which clears up all to us in the most stormy and cloudy day it will make us look abroad and travell with strength in our journey and run the race which is set before us and after Pauls sad complaint take up with his conclusion I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 7. 25. O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the Law But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15. 55 56 57. Every man hath Light from Christ sufficient to make him inexcusable SERM. V. Joh. 1. 9. That was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world Sect. 1. A Natural Light from Christ is yeilded to be in every man and the Opinions of Freewillers of its sufficiency are set down LIghting every man that cometh into the world is meant either of such light which is by Christ as Creatour termed natural and this is conferred upon all men without exception of any person or of such light as is by Christ as Mediatour and this is conferred though not on every single person yet on all sorts and Nations of men and it is termed supernatural Concerning the former sort of light it is yeilded that there is natural light from Christ given to every man who comes into the world by humane birth ' This light is the light of reason and knowledge agreeable to humane nature which if it were not conferred on every man he should not be rational but should be degraded into the rank of beasts It is true which the Psalmist saith Psal. 49. 20. Man that is in honour and understandeth not is like the beasts that perish But this only shews that man by extinguishing his light doth brutifie himself not that he was without all natural light in his originnl All experience shews that each person even the most natural fool hath some light of reason by which he can apprehend some things pertaining to humane being and some way expresse his mind though in respect of civil or moral or religious affairs he be unteachable All the difficulty is how farre it extends in all or may be improved by them that use it best In this matter there have been various opinions The Pelagians of old are said to have held that each person had so much ability by his own free-will and by his natural light as that he might love God and keep the Law and resist temptations though after by Councils and the writings of adversaries they were driven to yeild a necessity of teaching and outward proposition of divine truths to men to that end Some of the Schoolmen and later Papists do hold that each man hath so much light and power in him that if he do what he can God is ready or bound to give him grace necessary to salvation And this way go Arminians and other assertors of the power of free-will in them that never heard of the Gospel of Christ preached to them conformably whereto in the Pagans debt and Dowry p. 20. it is said

are flesh whereas Christ saith he that is now born of the Spirit is Spirit and the new birth which makes us no longer flesh and blood in that sense is not the birth of water and of the Spirit mentioned Joh. 3. 5. but the power of God by which he will raise us up 1 Cor. 6. 14. the birth of water and of the Spirit Ioh. 3. 3. 5 6. is here in this life the other is not till the resurrection therefore the same is not meant by flesh and bloud 1 Cor. 15. 50. And flesh Ioh 3. 6. but in the one place that weakness is meant which is removed by the power of God and the voice of Christ at his coming to judgement the other that sinfull blindeness ignorance concupiscence which is consequent on humane generation and is removed by the preaching of the Gospel made effectual by the Spirit of God Whence I argue If that which is born of the flesh by humane generation be flesh that is corrupt ignorant depraved with proneness to errour and evil concupiscence so as that it must be born again of water and the Spirit afore it can enter into the kingdome of God then every man that cometh into the world by meer hnmane generation is void of light to guide him in his way to God and to salvation untill Christ enlighten him But the antecedent is true as hath been shewed by opening the Text Joh. 3. 6. therefore also the consequent Sect. 3. Vacuity of light without Christ enligtening is proved from Rom. 8. 7 8. Rom. 3. 9 10 11 23. 1 Cor. 2. 14. Mar. 7. 21. Iam. 1. 14. The same thing is further proved from the words of Paul Rom. 8. 7 8. Because the carnal minde or minding of the flesh is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God In which speech the Apostle assignes the reason why the minding of the flesh is death Now by flesh is to be understood the sinfull pravity that is in man for neither meer natural weakness such as was in Adam and Eve afore they sinned nor the doing of natural actions without sin nor the minding of these are enmity against God or death or impossible to be subject to Gods Law But the minding of the innate pravity whose works are set down Gal. 5. 19. Now such are all that are not in the Spirit ver 9. and that by birth Joh. 3. 6. Therefore all that come into the world are flesh and till they be in the Spirit are void of that light which might bring them in subjection to the Law of God and so need Christs enlightening The same may be further confirmed from the allegation of the Apostle Rom. 3. 9 10 11 12. where to prove that all both Jews and Gentiles are under sin it is alleadged out of Psalmes the 14. and 53. that it is written there is none righteous no not one there is none that understandeth there is none that seeketh after God they are all gone out of the way they are altogether become unprofitable there is none that doth good no not one which cannot be true if understood without limitation sith then the Scriptures should be false that say that Noah was a righteous man and walked with God Abraham was one that God himself testified of to have feared him Abel obtained testimony that he was righteous God testifying of his gifts Heb. 11. 4. Of David God said I have found David the son of Jesse a man after mine own heart which shall fullfill all my will Act. 13. 22. Therefore it must be understood of all afore they are enlightned and converted and so proves that all without exception are void of saving light till Christ do enlighten them and being universal is to be conceived to be from their humane generation If any say that many of the things there said as that with their tongues they have used deceit their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness ver 13 14 c. cannot be said of Infants it is granted in respect of the actual practice yet in respect of their disposition inclination and aptitude to commit them they may which is further urged from ver 23. where he concludes that all have sinned and are come short of the glory of God Hereto I shall adjoyn the speech of Paul 1 Cor. 2. 14. where he saith that the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned In which speech he expresly makes natural men not only non-intelligent of the things of God afore they have the Spirit of God by whom Christ enlighteneth but also uncapable of knowing them because they are discerned spiritually that is by the Spirit All the difficulty is who is meant by the natural man There are that understand by it not every man that is unregenerate but the most sensual and such as are guided by their senses altogether But the Text opposeth the natural man to the spiritual and makes all the inability to be from the defect of the Spirit of God and therefore understands the most rational man by the natural man if he want the Spirit of God Nor is the conceit of him that by natural man understands the weak Christian and by spiritual the strong Christian opposed to babes in Christ 1 Cor. 3. 1. right For though the Apostle saith he could not speak unto them as spiritual but as to carnal to babes in Christ yet doth he neither make babes in Christ an equipollent term to carnal as all one with it or deny babes in Christ to be spiritual But as the Apostle saith Rom. 7. 14. be was carnal though he were a strong man in Christ because he was in part carnal his flesh did sometimes draw him to fin against his will so babes in Christ may be spiritual and yet carnal in part by reason whereof he could not speak to them under the fin of contentions as to spiritual persons but as to carnal But that the term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 notes a natural man or one that hath no more then his own soul to guide him is besides the reasons in the Text made more probable by Jam. 3. 15. where to the wisdome from above is opposed that from the earth from the soul from the Devil Iude 19. Soalary men are described such as have not the Spirit in neither place is the word fitly rendered sensual But were it yeelded that 1 Cor. 2. 14. the word translated natural man signifie a weak Christian sure it followes if a weak Christian cannot know the things of the Spirit of God without Christs enlightening much less a man not so much as a babe in Christ Yea the Apostle faith 2 Cor. 3. 5. he was not sufficient of himself to think any thing as of himself But besides these Texts when our Saviour