Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	member_n	mind_n	sin_n	13,999	5	5.1303	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A79887	An antidote against immoderate mourning for the dead. Being a funeral sermon preached at the burial of Mr. Thomas Bewley junior, December 17th. 1658. By Sa. Clarke, pastor in Bennet Fink, London.	Clarke, Samuel, 1599-1682.	1660 (1660)	Wing C4501; Thomason E1015_5; ESTC R208174	34,512	62

earth and walketh up and down in it Job 1. 7. yea as a roaring lion he walketh about seeking whom he may devour 1 Pet. 5. 8. No place can exempt us from his tentations whilst we live in this world He assaulted Adam in Paradise Lot in the Cave David in his Palace Josuah the high Priest in the presence of the Angel of the Lord Christ in the wildernesse Peter in the High Priests hall c. But when Death comes these Egyptians which you have seen to day ye shall see them again no more for ever Exod. 14. 13. Satan shall never more molest Gods children after this life is ended Hence saith Saint Ambrose Diabolus per quod potestatem habuit victus est The Devil who had the power of death Heb. 2. 14. hath by death his power abrogated and abolished Sixthly Death frees them from Gods frowns which sin often exposeth them to here and which to a child of God is more terrible than death it self For if in Gods favour is life as David affirms Psal. 30. 5. then in his frowns is death yea if Gods loving kindness is better than life Psal. 63. 3. then his frowns are worse than death There are no outward or corporal afflictions but a resolute and Roman spirit will stand under them the spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity Prov. 18. 14. but the frowns of God and tokens of his displeasure are intolerable A wounded spirit who can bear It made David roar Psal. 32. 3. Hezekiah chatter Isa. 38. 14. yea Christ himself to sweat drops of congealed blood and to cry out in the anguish of his soul My God my God why hast thou forsaken me But after death the light of Gods countenance shines perpetually upon them and shall never admit either of a cloud or Eclipse when Lazarus died he who lay groveling at the rich mans gate was found in Abrahams bosome in a place of warmest love For seeing by Death Gods children are freed from corruptions therefore after death they have no need of Gods frowns or corrections Seventhly Death frees them from the very being and existence of sin At death the spirits of just men are made perfect Heb 12. 23. The death of their body delivers them from the body of death Death and sin do not meet in a child of God but so part that when the one comes the other is gone for ever As when Sampson died the Philistines died with him so when a child of God dies all his sins die with him Hence Ambrose saith Quid est mors nisi peccatorum sepultura what is death but the grave of our sins wherein they are all buried Thus death doth that at once which grace doth by degrees Grace indeed when it is once wrought in the heart under the conduct of the spirit it resists and fights against sin and gives it such mortal wounds that it never fully recovers again It dejects it from its regency but cannot eject it from its inherency It frees us from the raigning of sin but cannot free us from the remaining of sin After regeneration sin hath not dominion over us But yet there is a law in our members warring against the law of our minds and many times leading us captive unto the law of sin that is in our members so that we cannot do the good that we would but the evil that we hate that do we Rom. 7. 19. 23. But when death comes it wholly extirpates sin root and branch and not one or some few sins but all sin and that not for a time only but for ever when the souls of Gods children are dis-lodged from their bodies this troublesome and incroaching inmate shall be dis-lodged and thrust out of doors for ever Hence one saith Peccatum peperit mortem filia devoravit matrem Sin at first begat and brought forth death and death at last destroys sin as the worm kills the tree that bred it And as Bernard saith Death which before was porta inferni the trap-door of Hell is now introitus Regni the porch that lets us into heaven And Mr. Brightman saith what was before the Devils Sergeant to drag us to hell is now the Lords Gentleman-Usher to conduct us to heaven Thus I have shewed you in these seven particulars what are the evils that Gods children are freed from by death Now in the next place I will endeavour to shew you the priviledges that at death they are invested in and the good things that they are put into the present possession of But yet this must be premised that if I had the tongue and pen of men and Angels yet should I come far short of that which I aim at For whatsoever can be said of heaven is not one half as the Queen of Sheba said of Solomons magnificence of what we shall finde in that City of Pearl To expresse it saith a reverend Divine is as impossible as to compasse heaven with a span or to contain the Ocean in a nutshel And Chrysostom speaking of the happinesse of the Saints in heaven saith Sermo non valet exprimere experimento opus est words cannot expresse it we must have trial of it before we can know it But yet that which I shall say of it is contained in these six particulars First Death invests Gods children with perfection of all graces Here we know but in part we prophesie but in part But when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away 1 Cor. 13. 9 10. It 's true when God first regenerates and sanctifies us we have perfection of parts there is no grace wanting that is necessary to life and salvation For God doth none of his works by the halves But yet we attain not to perfection of degrees till death comes whilst we live here we are exhorted to adde grace to grace 2 Pet. 1 5 6 7. and one degree of grace to another We are commanded to grow in grace and in the knowledge of eur Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 3. 18. To make a daily progress till we come unto the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ Ephes. 4. 13. But yet when we have done all that we can our faith is mixed with doubtings our love to God with love of the world our tears in repentance need washing in the blood of Christ our humility is mixed with pride our patience with murmurings and all our other graces have defects in them But in death they are all perfected and thereby we are put into a far better condition than we were capable of in this life Secondly Death puts the Saints into the present possession of Heaven a stately place into which there never did or can enter any unclean thing No dirty dog ever trampled upon this golden pavement It 's called Paradise Luke 23. 43. Indeed Paradise which God made for Adams palace though the stateliest place that ever the eye of mortal man

Fifthly his parents were not onely thus careful betimes to bring him up in the knowledg and fear of God but to have him instructed in humane learning also that thereby if the Lord should please to lengthen out the thrid of his life he might be the more useful and serviceable in his Generation For which end First they took care to have him taught the first grounds of learning and that betimes in his childhood whereby he excelled and out went not onely many of his contemporaries but divers that were older than himself Secondly when he was thus fitted at home they placed him forth at a Boarding-school in the family of a godly Minister that so whilest he went forward in humane he might make a further progresse in divine learning also Thirdly when they thought fit to take him back under their own wing being exceeding tender of him and not daring to trust him in a publick school by reason of those many evil examples that he might meet with there they provided a godly and learned Tutor whom they maintained in their own house to have the oversight and education of him These were his Priviledges Now fot his improvement of them But before I mention that I must tell you with what parts God had endowed him whereby he was enabled to make a good improvement of these opportunities and therein especially these three things were remarkable First that he had a quick Invention Secondly A strong and active phansie Thirdly A diligent and industrious spirit And by help of these he quickly learned to read and write and so proceeded to the grounds of the Latine tongue and after he had made a good progresse therein the care of his Tutor was to acquaint him also with the sacred Languages of the Greek and Hebrew and then he applied himself to the study of the Arts first of Logick then of Philosophy Astronomy Geography and being denied the opportunity of travelling abroad he spent some time in reading History and the Travels of sundry persons both by Sea Land And lastly being admitted a member of that Honourable Society of Grayes-Inne he betook himself to the Study of the Law and made no inconsiderable progresse therein by all which if God had lengthened out his dayes he might probably have been very serviceable to his Countrey All which being considered I may say with a reverend Divine That it 's a blessed institution of younger years when reason and Religion are together fashioned and moulded in a tender mind But that which gave him the greatest lustre and was as it were the Diamond in the Ring is yet behind which I shall reduce to these three Heads First his Piety to God Secondly his Dutifulnesse to his Parents Thirdly his Charity to the poor His Piety to God manifested it self both In his Life and At his Death In his Life by First his constant and diligent attending upon the publick Ordinances wherein he was not an idle and carelesse hearer but could in the evening give a good account of what he had heard in the day Secondly His careful sanctification of the whole Sabbath insomuch as if through inadvertency any unfitting and unseasonable speeches had proceeded from him on that day his heart smote him for it and it made him more cautious for the future Thirdly Besides his joyning in Family-prayers and with his Tutor his manner was to retire daily into his Closet where he first read a portion of Scripture and that not cursorily as too many do but endeavouring to understand what he read and when he met with any hard place he used to enquire of his Tutor therein following the advice of a worthy Divine The difficulties which we meet with in reading the Word of God saith he should not weaken but waken our more diligent search not being contented with the first oar that offers itself to our view but digging deeper and deeper we should search till we become owners of the whole treasure which will sufficiently pay us for all our pains After the Scripture read he betook himself to prayer in which duties if he was disturbed he was displeased with it and what at one time he omitted he used to regain at another all which he carried on with such privacy that scarce any besides his Tutor knew of it Fourthly to these also of late he adjoyned Meditation which is an excellent Character of a godly person For as the Philosophers stone they say turns all metal into gold as the Bee sucks honey out of every flower and as a good stomak sucks some wholsom nourishment out of the food that it receives into itself So doth an holy heart so far as its sanctified convert and digest all into spiritual and useful thoughts and meditations and we shall find by experience that when we go to sleep with some holy meditations in our minds it will be an excellent preservative against foolish dreams and ●●●●cies and we shall finde our hearts in the better frame when we awake As he that rakes up his fire over night shall find it again in the morning Psal. 119. 15 16. Prov. 6. 22. Now of his dexterity in this kind I shall anon give you an example which he hath left in writing behind him Fifthly he reverenced and loved godly Ministers and Christians and liked that Ministry best that was most plain powerful and searching I remember that Luther in his me observed two sorts of Divines one was Theologus Crucis the poor Divine that preached plainly and told men faithfully how things stood with them The other was Theologus gloriae the Divine that hunted after praise glory and preferment concerning whom his prayer was A Theologo gloriae liberet suam Ecclesiam Dominus that God would deliver his Church from vain-glorious Divines Peter so preached that his hearers were pricked at the heart Act. 2. 37 38. and Steven's hearers were cut at the heart with his words Act. 7. 54. And truly this was the more commendable in this young Gentleman seeing there be so many at this time and in this City that are like those Greeks that counted the plain preaching of the Cross foolishnesse 1 Cor. 1. 22. 23. so that neither God nor his Ministers can please them except they speak tinkling and tickling words But such should get their ears healed as Demosthenes advised his Countrey-men of Greece to do before they can hear Gods Word with profit They must learn of Bees to passe by Roses and Violets and to sit upon Thime though it be bitter and to preferre sound rebukes before smooth flatteries Sixthly he was willing to be admonished and reproved for what was amiss in him being herein of Davids mind Psal. 141. 5. Let the righteous smite me it shall be a kindnesse and let him reprove me it shall be an excellent oil which shall not break my head He was one of those that had an obedient ear to reproofs of whom Solomon speaks Prov. 25. 12. As an ear-ring of