Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	law_n	light_n	moral_a	3,394	5	9.2992	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47642	A practical commentary, upon the two first chapters of the first epistle general of St. Peter. By the most reverend Dr. Robert Leighton, some-time arch-bishop of Glasgow. Published after his death, at the request of his friends	Leighton, Robert, 1611-1684.	1693 (1693)	Wing L1028A; ESTC R216658	288,504	508

word is a Lamp unto my feet says David and a Light unto my paths not onely comfortable as Light is to the eyes but withall directive as a Lamp to his feet Thus here the Apostle doth not onely furnish consolation against distress but Exhorts and directs his Brethen in the way of Holiness without which the apprehension and feeling of those comforts cannot subsist This is no other but a clearer and fuller expression and further pressing of that sobriety and spiritualness of mind and life that he joyntly exhorted unto with that of perfect hope ver 13. as in separably connext with it if you would enjoy this Hope be not conform to the lust of your former ignorance but be holy There is no doctrine in the world either so pleasant or so pure as that of Christianity 'T is matchless both in sweetness and holiness The Faith and Hope of a Christa in have in them an abiding precious balm of comfort but this is never to be so lavish'd away as to be poured into the puddle of an impure Conscience No that were to lose it unworthily As many as have this hope purify themselves even as he is pure 1. Ioh. 3 3. Here they are commanded to be holy as he is holy Acts. 15. Faith first purifies the heart Empties it of the love of sin and then fills it with the Consolation of Christ and hope of Glory 'T is a foolish misgrounded fear and such as argues inexperience of the nature and workings of divine Grace to imagine that the assured hope of salvation will beget unholiness and presumptuous boldness in sin and therefore that the doctrine of that assurance is a doctrine of Licentiousness Our Apostle we see is not so sharp sighted as these men think themseves he apprehends no such matter but indeed supposes the contrary as unquestionable he takes not assured hope and holiness as Enemies but joynes them as nearest friends hope perfectly and be holy They are mutually strengthened and increas'd each by the other the more assurance of salvation the more holiness the more delight in it and study of it as the onely way to that End and as labour is then most pleasant when we are made surest it shall not be lost nothing doth make the soul so nimble and actitve in obedience as this oyle of gladness this assured hope of glory Again the more holiness is in the soul the clearer always is t●is assurance as we see the face of the heavens best when there are fewest clouds· The greatest affliction doth not damp this hope so much as the smallest sin yea it may be the more lively and sensible to the soul by affliction but by sin it always suffers loss as the Experience of all Christians does certainly teach them The Apostle exhorts to Obedience and enforceth it by a most persuasive Reason His exhortation is 1. Negative not fashioning your selves 2. Positive Be ye holy That which he would remove and separate them from is Lusts This is in Scripture the usuall name of all the irregular and sinfull desires of the heart both the polluted habits of them and their corrupt streams both as they are within and outwardly vent themselves in the Lives of Men. The Apostle St. Iohn 1 Ioh. 2 17. calls it the Lust of the world and Verse 15. love of the world And then Verse 16. Branches it into those three that are indeed the base Anti-trinity that the world worships the lust of the eyes the lust of the flesh and the pride of Life The soul of Man unconverted is no other but a den of impure Lusts wherein dwells pride Uncleanness Avarice Malice c just as Babylon is described Revelation 18.2 or as Isa. 13.21 Were a Man's eyes opened he would as much abhorre to remaine with himself in that condition as to dwell in a house full of Snakes and Serpents as S. Austin says and the first part of conversion is once to rid the soul of these noysome Inhabitants for there is none at all found naturally vacant and fr●e from them thus the Apostle here expresses it of the believers he wrote to that these lusts were theirs before in their Ignorance There is a truth in it that all sin arises from some kind of Ignorance or at least from present Inadvert●nce and Inconsideration turning away the mind from the light which therefore for the time is as if it were not and is all one with Ignorance in the ●ffect and therefore the works of sin are all called works of darkness for were the true visage of sin seen at a full light undress'd and unpainted it were impossiable while it so appear'd that any one soul could be in love with it but would rather flye it as hideous and abominable but because the soul unrenewed is all darkness therefore it is all lust and love of sin no order in it because no light as at the first in the world confusion and darkness went together and darkness was upon the face of the deep 't is so in the soul the more Ignorance the more abundance of Lusts. That light that frees the soul and rescues it from the very kingdome of darkness must be somewhat beyond that which nature can attaine to all the light of Philosophy naturall and morall is not sufficient yea the very knowledge of the Law sever'd from Christ serves not so to enlighten and renew the soul as to free it from the darkness or Ignorance here spoke of for our Apostle writes to Jews that knew the Law and were instructed in it before their conversion yet he calls those times wherein Christ was unknown to them the times of their Ignorance though the stars shine never so bright and the moon with them in its full yet they do not all together make it day still 't is night till the sun appear Therefore the Hebrew doctors upon that word of Solomons Vanity of vanities all is vanity say vana etiam Lex done● venerit Messias Therefore of him Zacharias sayes that the day spring from on high hath visited us to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the way of peace A naturall Man may attaine to very much acquir'd knowledge of the doctine of Christ and may discourse excellently of it and yet still his soul be in the chains of darkness fast lockt up under the Ignorance here mention'd and so still of a carnal mind in subjection to these lusts of Ignorance The saving light of faith is a beam of the sun of Righteousness himself that he sends into the soul by which he makes it discern his incomparable beauties and by that sight alienates it from all those lusts and desires that do then appear to be what indeed they are vileness and filthiness it self makes the soul wonder at it self how it could love such base trash so long and so fully resolves it now on the choyce of Jesus Christ the cheif

apparent of Eternal flames 'T is an Everlasting Inheritance too but so much the more fearful being of Everlasting Misery or so to speak of Immortal Death and we are made sure to it they who remain in that Condition cannot lose their Right although they gladly would escape it they shall be for●'d to enter Possession But 't is by a new and supernatural Birth that men are both freed from their Engagement to that woful Inheritance and invested into the Rights of this other here mentioned as full of happiness as the former is miserable Thefore are they said here to be begotten again to that lively Hope God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ hath begotten us again And thus are the Regenerate the Children of an Immortal Father and so entituled to an Inheritance of immortality if Children then Heirs heirs of God This Sonship is by Adoption in Christ therefore added joynt heirs with Christ Rom. 8.17 we Adopted and He the only begotten Son of God by an Eternal Ineffable generation And yet this our Adoption is not a meer extrinsecal denomination as is adoption amongst Men but accompanied with a real Change in those that are adopted a new Nature and Spirit infus'd into them by reason of which as they are Adopted to this their Inheritance in Christ they are likewise begotten of God and born again to it by the Supernatural work of Regeneration They are like their heavenly Father they have his Image renewed on their Souls and their Fathers Spirit They have and are acted and led by it This is that great Mistery of the Kingdome of God that puzled Nicodemus it was darkness to him at first till he was instructed in that Night under the covert whereof he came to Christ. Nature cannot conceive of any Generation or birth but that which is within its own compass only they that are partakers of this Spiritual Birth understand what it means to others it is a Ridle an unsavory unpleasant subject 'T is sometime ascribed to the subordinate means to Baptism called therefore the Laver of Regeneration Tit. 3.5 To the Word of God Iam. 1.18 It s that Immortal Seed whereby we are born again by the Ministers of this Word and the seals of it as 1 Cor. 4.15 For though you have ten thousand Instructers in Christ yet have ye not many Fathers For in Christ Iesus I have begotten you through the Gospel As also Gal. 4.19 But all those have their vigour and efficacy in this great work from the Father of Spirits who is their Father in their first Creation and Infusion and in this their Regeneration which is a new and second Creation 2 Cor. 5.17 If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature Divines have reason to inferre from the Nature of Conversion thus exprest that Man doth not bring any thing to this work himself 't is true he hath a will as his natural Faculty but that this Will Embraces the offer of Grace and turns to him that offers it is from Renewing Grace that sweetly and yet strongly strongly and yet sweetly inclines it I. Nature cannot raise it selfe to this more then a man can give natural being to himselfe 2. 'T is not a superficial change 't is a new life and being A moral man in his changes and Reformations of himselfe is still the same man though he Reform so far as Men in their ordinary phrase call him quite another Man yet in truth till he be born again there is no new nature in him The Slugard turns on his bed as the door on the hinges sayes Solomon Thus the Natural man turns from one custome and posture to another but never turns off But the Christian by vertue of this new birth can say indeed ego non sum ego I am not the same man I was You that are Nobles aspire to this honourable Condition add this Nobleness to the other for it far surpasses it make it the Crown of all your honours and advantages And you that are of mean birth or if you have any Crack or stain in your birth the only way to make up and repair all and truly to Enoble you is this to be the Sons of a King yea of the King of Kings and this Honour have all his Saints To as many as received him he gave this priviledge to be the Sons of God Joh. 1.12 Vnto a lively Hope Now we are the Sons of God saith the Apostle 1 Ioh. 3.2 But it doth not yet appear what we shall be These Sons are Heirs but all this lifetime is their underage yet even then being partakers of this New Birth and Sonship they have Right to it and in the assuronce of that Right this Living Hope As an Heir when he is Capable of those thoughts hath not only Right of Inheritance but may rejoyce in the hope he hath of it and please himself in thinking on 't but hope is said to be only of an uncertain good true in the world's phrase 't is so for their Hope is conversant in uncertain things or in things that may be certain after an uncertain manner all their woldly Hopes are tottering built upon sand and their Hopes of Heaven are but blind and groundless Conjectures but the Hope of the Sons of the Living God is a living Hope That which Alexander said when he dealt liberally about him that he left hope to himself the Children of God may more wisely and happily say when they leave the hot pursuit of the world to others and despise it their Portion is Hope the thread of Alexanders life was ●ut off in the midst of his Victories and so all his Hopes evanished but their hope cannot dye nor disapoint them But then it s said to be Lively not only Objectively But Effectively Enlivening and Comforting the Children of God in all Distresses Enabling them to encounter and surmount all difficulties in the way And then it is formally so it cannot fail dyes not before accomplishment Worldly Hopes often mock Men and so cause them to be ashamed and Men take it as a great blot and are most of all ashamed of those things that discover weakness of judgment in them now worldly Hopes doe thus they put the fool upon a Man when he hath judged himself sure and laid so much weight and expectation on them then they break and foyl him they are not Living but Lying Hopes and dying Hopes they die often before us and we live to bury them and see our own own Folly and Infelicity in trusting to them but at the utmost they dye with us when we dye and can accompany us no further But this Hope answers Expectation to the full and much beyond it and deceives no way but that happy one of far exceeding it A living Hope living in Death it selfe The World dare say no more for its devise but dum spiro spero but the Children of God can add by vertue of this living Hope dum exspiro