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
A86270	Repentance and conversion, the fabrick of salvation: or The saints joy in heaven, for the sinners sorrow upon Earth. Being the last sermons preached by that reverend and learned John Hewyt, D.D. Late minister of St. Gregories by St. Pauls. With other of his sermons preached there. Dedicated to all his pious auditors, especially those of the said parish. Also an advertisement concerning some sermons lately printed, and presented to be the doctors, but are disavowed by Geo. Wild. Jo. Barwick.	Hewit, John, 1614-1658.; Wilde, George, 1610-1665.; Barwick, John, 1612-1664.	1658 (1658)	Wing H1637; Thomason E1776_1; ESTC R209722	86,537	249

sting O grave where is thy victory 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 Though these things buz about his ears like bees provoked or irritated yet they have lost their sting If the old serpent bruise his heel yet his head is broken if the Devil give us a false alarm by persecutions yet we are souldiers fighting under Christs Banner listed and registred into the Book of Life at our Baptism he hath bought and redeemed us by his most precious blood and no one can ravish us from him What soul can be so sordid as to fear the arm of flesh when he is guarded by the spirit of Christ that doth not only intercede for sinners but of sinners makes them become just That is not only Advocate of a bad cause but also renders it good That doth both pray and pay for us so that his pardoning of us is not onely a work of his mercy but also an effect of his justice Besides these obligations we have an infinite number of incitations to the love of Christ if we will but recollect our selves and seriously consider how often he hath delivered us from imminent danger caused inexpected overtures of evil intended to us that we might avoid them for according to the old Proverb Praemoniti praemuniti forewarned forearmed and afflicted us here that he might save us hereafter Now 't was the wish of that famous pillar of the Latin Church St. Augustin Hic ure hic tunde hic seca modo in aeternum parcas Cut saw burn my body here so thou savest my soul hereafter Now for shame let it not be said that God hath showred down his blessings on the sand Let us not be so bestial as to drink of the stream and ne'er think of the fountain without elevating our thoughts unto God the source of all benedictions But when we say God doth good unto us to the end that we may love him not that he stands in need of our Love but he will have us love him in regard that we cannot be saved if we hate him Nay farther that we love him proceeds from him as a gift for 't is he that kindles in us his love He doth not only bestow and confer his bona upon us but he gives us a hand to receive them grace to use them and vertue to glorifie for them so that Deus primo dat quod jubet and then jubet quod vult first he gives what he commands viz. Love Love is the gift of God and then he commands what is most agreable to his will and pleasure This first degree or step of Love though it be holy and useful yet 't is but principium amoris divini 't is but the prologue to the Love of God for he that loves God only for profit is like an infant or child that prays only for his break-fast and to speak properly such persons love not God but themselves Such love is but mercenary and injurious to God a palpable affront put upon the Deity Therefore he must know that hath gained this first degree he must proceed for non progredi est regredi to be at a stand is to be retrograde he must therefore I say ascend the second step The second degree of our Love toward God is to Love him 2 Degree not only for our profit but also for himself i. e. laying aside all consideration of his benefits that he is daily pleased to confer on us and though we expected no profit from him yet to love him supra omnia Holy David spake of this Love in the 69 Psalm Let all those that love thee rejoyce in thy name He counsels us to love God for his name because he is the supream Wise in his counsel just in his actions true in his promises whose habitation is in glory inaccessible enjoying a Soveraign perfection God whose life was without beginning and his duration without end his eternity without alteration his greatness without measure and his power irresistible That created the World by his Word governs it by his vertue and will reduce it to a Chaos of ruine when it is his pleasure Who in one sole vertue and perfection which is his Essence encompasseth all other vertues that are infused into all other creatures All other vertues do concentre in this punctum and the more they deviate from him the more eccentrique they are God therefore is to be loved for these preceding considerations more then for the good that he is pleased to confer upon us Our Saviour instructeth us the same in that most absolute pattern that he himself hath set before us in which he commands to beg the sanctification of his Holy Name and the advancement of his Kingdom before we put up a petition for our daily bread We naturally are enamoured with beauty now Light is the first of beauties without which there is no distinction between beauty and deformity God therefore being the primum lumen it follows necessarily that he be also the prime beauty He is the Father of Lights Pater Luminum saith St. James and holy David the Psalmist in the 36 Psalm 9. For with thee is the Fountain of Life in thy light shall we see light Wherefore in laying his hand to the stately Fabrick of the World when he reduced the Chaos of confusion into a beautiful and harmonious order he began first with the light as that by which his nature is best represented He is the Sun of Righteousness a Sun that never comes to the West never sets nor casts a shadow all things are naked unto him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things are bare-neckt unto him 't is in the Original being a metaphor taken from the mode in the Eastern Countreys where they go bare-neckt such a Sun as doth not only clarifie the sight but gives it also And judge you what a splendid sight-offending lustre this is that the Seraphims assisting at his Throne cover their faces with their wings as Isaiah saith 6 Chap. 2 vers not being able to endure so glorious a splendor And if at the coming and appearance of the humanity of Christ the Sun shall be benegroed in darkness as a petty light at the coming of a greater how if you cast an eye upon the life of God! The life of God ours is but a shadow if compared to it nay a nihil for our life is a flux or succession of parts But God possesseth and hath full and entire fruition of his eadem instanti and all together And his only begotten Son was willing to lay down his life for the redemption of us miserable and wretched sinners That Son that Isaiah calls Chap. the 9. Father of eternity was content to assume this frail flesh of ours He became Son of Man that we might become the sons of God He was born in a stable that we might

whence they had their birth so we say that in the book of Scripture divers matters histories examples judgements threatnings laws instructions and exhortations which like little rivers rejoyce the City of our God and serve to divers uses in the Church But after all Jesus Christ is the mark whereat all aim the Centre whither all return and guide our faith in him to find and obtain rest So Moses and the Prophets give their testimony Luk. 24.27 and the end of the Law is Jesus Christ Rom. 10.4 and to this intent speaks St. Paul 1 Cor. 2.2 that he will know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified because that is the summary and principal end of all the knowledge of the Scriptures which faith not onely beholds as a thing to be consented to but embraces it as the only subject where to find salvation and life Certainly faith believes the creation of the world the genealogy of the fathers the confusion of tongues in Babel the captivity of Israel in Egypt the exploits of the Judges and Kings given to the people of God for Liberators and from all these things there may be gathered divers instructions for this life but to find in this recital the means of our reconciliation with God of the remission of sins and the eternal glory it is not possible because it is not in any of these properly Where the Eternal offers and presents the gifts of his heavenly grace that is a Word of God which he pronounced to Adam with his own mouth after he had transgrest the commandment Thou shalt dye the death in the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat thy bread Gen. 3.19 These things were conformable to the Law and Word of God all these fearful menaces which the friends of Job with so much preparative denounced to the hypocrites and wicked but these are so far from begetting or keeping up faith which as 't is requisite should be accompanied with peace and consolation that contrariwise they put the conscience into trouble they fill the sinful soul with fear and in stead of giving us access to God go chasing and banishing us behind his face as we read of the people of Israel who not able to abide the thundring voice of the Eternal giving his Law upon the mountain stood afar off and said to Moses Exod. 20.19 Speak thou with us and we will hear thee but let not God speak with us for fear we dye This very part of the word that commands obedience and prescribes a rule for works proposing blessing and life to those that accomplish it Do this and thou shalt live Luk. 10.28 Whosoever doth these things shall live by them Levit. 18.5 is not that where our faith rests because as it promises life to the observers so it denounces malediction against all those that do not abide in all the words of the Law to fulfil them And thus our conscience guilty of many transgressions cannot find nor affirm her assurance nor seek for remission of sins where there is nothing presented but wrath and judgment And therefore the Apostle in the Epistle to the Romans and in that which he writes to the Galatians retires our faith from the Law and tells us openly that the Law is not of faith Gal. 3.12 that all they that are of the works of the Law are under the curse Gal. 3.10 11. that the Law was not given to quicken but contrary that it is the minister of death and of condemnation none being able to be justified before God by the works of the Law declaring with David those to be blessed to whom God imputes justice without works Psal 32.1 2. Nevertheless it ceases not to serve faith because by it comes the knowledge of sin and that it serves as a School-master to lead us to Christ Rom. 3.23 in whom we are freely justified by the grace of him by the redemption which is in Jesus Christ whom God hath proposed a mediator by faith in his blood by whom the remission of sin is announced to the end that in whatsoever we could not be justified by the Law whosoever believes might be justified by him Act. 13.39 For to him all the Prophets give testimony that whosoever shall believe in him shall have remission of sins by his name Act. 10.43 Hither it is properly that our faith is invited Whosoever is thirsty let him come to me and drink Joh. 7.37 Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy loden and I will refresh you Matth. 11.28 So that this Gospel of peace this word of reconciliation ministry of spirit and of life power of God unto salvation to all that believe Rom. 1.16 Which opens to us the Abysses of compassions of love grace and the good pleasure of God which deduces to us the coming the incarnation the suffrances the justice and the death of the Redeemer of the world and which represents to us the Holy Spirit applying and sealing by the preaching of the Gospel and the Sacraments these divine and heavenly benefits in our souls and rendring us assured of our reconciliation with God of the abolition of our offences of the imputation of the justice of Christ and of the gift of heavenly life The Gospel is the word of life saith St. Paul Rom. 10.8 It looks at the whole word of God but it embraces only his good will It approves all his truth but it runs only after his gratuity and then 't is best pleased and content when both are met in Christ in whom gratuity and verity are met justice and peace have kissed each other Psal 85.11 by whom the gratuity of God is multiplied upon us and his truth endures for ever Psal 117.2 We do not then reject any part of the word nor we do not tear the faith in pieces but in this general object we observe what is most proper and most particularly belongs to it by reason of the differing parts of it Be then the Word of God a Paradise to the faithful soul but so as among so many fruits of different tast and vertue she may find one tree of life that may fully satisfie the hunger of justice that she so seeks for let the Scripture be her Orchard but yet let there be one apple-tree whose shadow she desires sitting down under it and the fruit sweet to her palate let the truth of God be her garden of aromatique drugs but let there be one Rose of Sharon whose sweet smell may recover her fainting heart and which she may put in her bosome no otherwise then a bundle of myrrhe Cant. 1.13 He knows well enough that his Redeemer is living But if the Gospel be the particular object of faith from whence shall we say that Job learned this science and from whence he could draw the foundations of an assurance so firm since this was not but many ages after his death that the Gospel was publisht to the world or that the Saviour of the world was come to

accomplish the work of our redemption The Law and the Prophets endured till John but since his time the Kingdom of God is Evangelized Luk. 16.16 Many Kings and Prophets have desired to see the things which were seen when Jesus Christ converst in the world and they have not seen them Luk. 10.24 And therefore Jesus Christ prefers the least that were under the Gospel before the greatest that were under the Law St. John pointed at him with his hand and shewed him to the World to be the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins for which cause he was raised above the Prophets and because he had not seen nor shew'd the glory and vertue which followed his death and his resurrection he was therefore set below the Apostles And St. Paul saith that the grace which hath been given us in Jesus Christ from eternal times is now manifested by the apparition of our Saviour Jesus Christ who hath destroyed death and put into light both life and immortality by the Gospel It seems then that this mystery of our redemption hath been hidden from precedent ages and that the ancient Fathers have had nothing but shadows and figures of things that were to come And yet Jesus Christ himself gives this testimony to Abraham that he desired to see this day of his and hath seen it and rejoyced Joh. 8.56 and St. Peter 1 Pet. 1.10 that the Prophets have enquired and made diligent search concerning the salvation of souls the reward of faith and by the Prophetick spirit in them have declared the sufferances which were to come to Jesus Christ and the joyes which were to follow them And for this reason it is that the Son of God sayes He had the testimony of Moses and the Prophets and that the Scriptures of the old Testament bare witness of him Joh. 5.39 To know then how that must be understood to resolve us in this appearance of contrariety and to begin our undermining at the foundation of Papistical errors touching the state of the souls of the Fathers deceased before the coming of Christ let us learn then from this confession of faith so fair so firm so clear as it can be in the noon day of the Gospel that we have no other faith nor other means of salvation then what the ancient Patriarchs had before us and that the ancient Covenant contracted with them in the substance and truth is the same thing with the new one contracted with us that are fallen into these later times all the difference which is in them consisting only in the order and the means of the dispensation which according to the diversity of times hath made it assume divers visages for as the Apostle Heb. 1.1 2. God hath heretofore many times and after many sorts spoken to the fathers by the Prophets and in these later times by his Son Jesus Christ. Where he seems to distinguish the times by the coming of the Son of God betwixt the preceding ages and those that were to come after The first part hath had divers seasons and divers manners according to which this dispensation hath been ordered The first season is counted from the fall of Adam unto Abraham during which we had no declaration more express of this eternal alliance of God with men then that which is contained in few words but of an high and full signification The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the Serpent Gen. 3.15 upon which promise confirmed declared and entertained by the usage of sacrifices and carried from hand to hand and from father to son during all the first age of the world this faith was sustained and the hope of the faithful founded In the second season from Abraham to Moses during which Job lived a true Son of Abraham both according to the flesh and to the promise this general promise was as it were restrained in the family and posterity of this Holy Patriarch when God made this alliance with him that he would be their God and they his children and discocovered to him that from him should go forth the Redeemer of the World when he said that in his seed all the Nations of the World should be blessed Genes 12. giving him beside the sacrifices the particular seal of the circumcision as a sign of the justice of faith Rom. 4.11 The third was from Moses to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ where in a more especial and ample manner God was pleased to instruct his people exposing and confirming his Covenant unto them after divers fashions in which are remarkable two principal parts having reference each to other and ordained one for the love of the other Like the two Cherubims who being placed one right against the other and extending their wings one toward the other did both of them look toward the propitiatory Exod. 25.20 the one was the Law promising life and everlasting benediction under the condition of a most perfect observation of his commands A condition impossible to corrupted nature whose imaginations were nothing but evil at all times and yet very necessary and useful to make men know the duty wherein they were obliged to make them sensible of weakness and to make them comprehend the horrour of that condemnation into which their transgressions had precipitated them by that means to conduct them to the second part of the Covenant which was all of it purely Evangelical as that which under divers figures and ceremonies did represent mans reconciliation to God and his plenary deliverance by the ransom of that infinite merit of the sacrifice of the death and passion of Christ After this in the fulness of time came the great Redeemer of our soules who abolished the first means that he might establish the second abolish'd I say not wholly but in part not in the substance but in the accidents For as for the first part he exacts no more as it were by force of maledictions that perfect obedience of the Law but supplying the defects of nature by the abundant effusion of his spirit of grace he draws from sanctified hearts a voluntary obedience And in the second he hath caused the body to succeed the shadows the truth the figures the thing the signes all these things having been fulfilled in the death of Christ And from hence may we easily comprehend the difference that there is betwixt the new Covenant and the old between the faith of the Fathers that lived under the Law and theirs that live under the Gospel For it is the same thing in substance Having God for the Author his grace and mercy for the cause and the satisfaction of Christ for the meritorious foundation The same things promised grace and glory God is to us both a Sun and a Shield he gives both grace and glory and withholds no good thing from such as wait upon him Distributed in general by the same means and the preaching of the word Hearken and your soules shall live Isai 55.3 the

of God that we understand not what it is to love him This Tree of Knowledge grows not in our Eden This flower springs not up in our Garden 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a gift dropt out of Heaven proceeding from the Father who is Love and Charity as St. John saith This is a divine liquor the true Nectar that God poures into our souls guttatim drop by drop as in narrow-neckt vessels Wherefore to accommodate our selves to our native slowness we 'll endeavour to infuse into our spirits by little and little so by degrees to arrive at the highest degree and Apex of Love There are five degrees of this our Love to God 1. The first is to love God for the good he doth us and we expect to receive from him still 2. Secondly To love him propter seipsum or sui ipsius gratia for his own sake because he is most excellent and most amiable 3. Thirdly To love God above all things nay your own selves but to love nothing in the World but for his sake 4. Fourthly To detest and abhor himself for the Love of God 5. Fifthly to love him as we shall in the life to come when we shall be in glory with this love the Saints are extasied and assist at the Throne of God in secula seculorum We call these Degrees of Love and not species or kinds because the superior contain the inferior as the chiefest white differs from the other parcels of the same colour that are less clear and transparent not in specie but in gradu we must remount up these degrees or stairs and rest our selves a little upon every one of them 1. The first degree and lowest is Five degrees by which we are brought to love God To love God for the good he doth us upon this step of Love was King David when in the 116 Psalm and in the 1 verse I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplication and so in the 18 Psalm for God will have respect and love from us because he extends his bounty so liberally to us 'T is God that created us 't is God that preserves and keeps us being created that nourisheth our bodies that cherisheth our souls that redeemeth us by his Son that governs us by his holy Spirit that instructeth us by his word that hath vouchsafed to admit us as his servants nay his friends and children and which is more the same with himself Plato playing the Philosopher with the grace of God Plato blessed God for three things thanked him for three things 1. That he was created a man and not a beast 2. That he was born a Graecian and not a Barbarian and 3. That he was a Philosopher Now we that are instructed in the School of Christ a School of more strict discipline So ought we for these especially make another kind of distribution of the grace of God and return him thanks for these three things 1. That of all Creatures we were created men 2. That of all men Christians And 3. That among those that are Christians he hath made us in the number of the true elect And if you please you may add a fourth That he hath adopted us by his Son Jesus Christ before the foundation of the World having been carefull of us not onely before we had any existence but even before the world had its creation Now if God did manifest his love to us before we were how liberally will he extend it to us how bountifully will it flow from him when we invocate and call upon his Sacred Name and affect him with a filial and reverential love Now the smaller our number is the larger is our priviledge the more extensive and diffusive is his bounty and goodness to us to endow us with sight among so many blind persons as the portion of Jacob in Aegypt solely enlightned in the midst of obscurity Cimmerian darkness like the fleece of Gideon that was only bedewed with the grace of God when the rest of the earth was dry and destitute of it God hath encircled us with abundance of examples of stupendious caecity or blindness that he might raise our estimation of light and that we might make a farther progress in the way of salvation that so whilest it is called to day we may steer the ship of our souls by the Lanthorn of his Word All these vertues the constellation of all these graces depend upon one Soveraign and Prime one viz. reconciliation with God by the passion of our blessed Jesus This is the Chanel through which the graces of God stream unto us 'T is Jacobs Ladder that joyns Heaven and Earth together that rejoyns God and Man The Angels ascending this Ladder represent our prayers that we piously dart up to Heaven the Angels descending signifie the blessings of God that are distilled in answer to our prayers Jacob sleeping at the foot of the Ladder intimates unto us the quiet and tranquillity of conscience that we enjoy under the cool and comfortable shade of his intercession Before man was environed with horror and astonishment he could not cast his eye aside but he met with an object of fear If he look't upon God he discerned a consuming fire a supream Justice armed with revenge against sinners If he cast his eye upon the Law he immediately perceived the arrest of condemnation If he viewed the Heaven he concluded himself excluded thence by reason of sin If the World he saw his irreparable loss of dominion over the Creatures if himself a thousand spiritual and corporal infirmities At the signes of Heaven and the Earth-quake he was ague-struck with fear Then Satan Death Hell were his inveterate foes that either drew him to perdition or did behel and wrack him with the expectation of them But now every person that hath confidence in Christ Jesus changes his language and speaks in a more pleasing dialect If he look upon God he 'll say 'T is my Father that hath adopted me If his thoughts pitch upon the day of Judgement he 'll bespeak himself thus My Elder Brother sits there and he that is my Judge is also my Counsellor If he think on the Angels he cries out They are my guardians Psalm the 34. If he view the Heaven he terms it his habitation If he hear it thunder he 'll reply 'T is the voice of my Father If he consider the Law The Son of God saith he hath accomplisht it for me If he swim with the flowing tide of prosperity he 'll say God hath reserved better things for me If in the low ebb of adversity Jesus Christ hath endured far more for me God exerciseth or proves corrects or afflicts me making me therein conformable to his Son If he thinks on Hell the Devil or Death then he will triumph over all with the holy Apostle in the 1 to the Corinth the 15 Ch. and the 55 56 and 57 vers O Death where is thy