Selected quad for the lemma: reason_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
reason_n	law_n	sin_n	transgression_n	2,676	5	10.9658	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94343	A cluster of Canaans grapes. Being severall experimented truths received through private communion with God by his Spirit, grounded on Scripture, and presented to open view for publique edification. / By Col. Robert Tichbourn. Decemb. 25. 1648. Imprimatur Joseph Caryll.	Tichborne, Robert, Sir, d. 1682.	1649 (1649)	Wing T1148; Thomason E543_5; ESTC R203789	224,783	259

in the spirit Now the freedome the Lord Christ hath made for the soules of believers from this law of Creation under the Covenant of workes It is double Namely from the condemning power the ruling or reigning power of the law in the conscience Of the first of these there is the least scruple and not being so fully within that I desire to hold to I shall wave it and keep only to the latter Namely how Christ hath freed the. Believer in his conscience from the ruling or reigning power of the law of creation in the letter only For light in this consider the 4th verse of Rom. 8. and so forward taking in the latter part of the 3. verse it wil appeare to be the designe of God in sending Christ in the the flesh that Christ in the Spirit might rule in the soules and spirits of his people God sending his Sonne in the likenesse of sinfull flesh that the righteousnesse of the law might be fulfilled in us who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit That is to walke after the rule which is not the flesh but the Spirit and so goes on to shew the difference between● flesh and spirite making it all along a part of our redemption in Christ to live in the Spirit making the Spirit our light and our life our rule and our strength In Rom. 8.14 There the Apostle speaks plainly and makes it a demonstration of our sonne ship to be ruled by the Spirit For as many as are ledde by the Spirit of God they are the sonnes of God Hee speakes in verse 16. following of the seale of the Spirit But here he speaks distinctly of the ruling power of the Spirit that hath power of a man to lead the man as it pleaseth and that is the terme here sonnes of God led by the Spirit of God that this Spirit is sufficient to rule the consciences of believers wee may plainly see in Rom. 6.14 Sinne shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the law but under grace I know not what can be more plaine then this here is a promise sinne shall not have dominion over us And the reason given is that part of the redemption of Christ to the soule of a believer from the ruling power of the law to the ruling power of the spirit of grace Marke the inference therefore sinne shall not have dominion over you because sinne shall not find you under the ruling power of the law in your conscience which affords no st●ength against it but sinne shall finde you under the law of the spirit of grace which is in Christ the law of life to the soule and death to sinne therefore sinne and death shall be swallowed up of victory in you by the spirit of Christ as it was for you in the death of Christ Sinne hath its repulse in the soule from the change of the law that rules the law of sinne and death turned into the law of spirit and life I can doe all things through Christ that strengthens me saith the Apostle I am not delivered from the dominion of sinne because I have the light of the law of creation to discover sin● but I am under the law of the spirit of life and grace not only to discover but to destroy sinne Sin hath not dominion because that which opposes it is Christ not I. Thus I have endeavoured to let you understand that light God hath given mse in this part of the redemption of his blood for his Sonne to deliver us from the ruling power of any law in our consciences but the law of love in the spirit of life But that I may be rightly understood I desire you to remember a clause that I laid down in the beginning where I endeavored to open these verses the clause is this That the Believer in the blood and spirit of Christ hath a perfect freedome from the law so farre as it is freedome to be delivered I laid it so downe that I might have here roome to distinguish betweene the ruling power of the law and the matter and substance of the law In the first sense the ruling power of the Law I doe really believe from what hath beene delivered already and some further reasons that I shall discover That the conscience of a believer is by the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus made free from the law of sinne and death But for the second part the matter or substance of the law which I take to be the whole revealed will of God and is in its utmost power and purity written in the heart of every believer Not only the whole revealed will of God in his word made flesh and dwelling among us but made Spirit and dwelling in us Thus to give you a little light I shall be more full in what followes give me leave to adde some further reasons to prove the former thing As first If the law in the letter be the rule in the conscience of a Believer then Moses not Christ must be the King for sayes the Text Moses was faithfull in his house as a servant but Christ as the sonne Moses may rule till Christ comes but as Christ had none to help him in the work of redemption no more will he in the work of ruling Secondly If Moses be to rule where Christ hath redeemed where is the making good of Gods Covenant to write his law in our hearts what benefit in the promise of the comforter that spirit of truth to lead into all truth Thirdly If the law rule and Moses be King the strength must be in our selves to obey for neither Moses nor the law in the letter can give any strength If either could Christ hath dyed in vaine and if strength be in our selves then Gods designe in sending Christ is lost which is to justifie his people freely by his grace so as there may be no roome for flesh to boast in not the law of works but the law of faith to be pleaded as appears in that third chapter to the Romans Lastly If the Law be to rule in the spirits of Gods people then obedience to that law must quiet satisfie the hearts of Gods people Now as the Apostle in Gal. 3.2 This only would I learne of you Received yee the Spirit by the workes of the law or by the hearing of faith So say I and appeale to the consciences and experience of every Saint that tasts the joyes of life in God received it you by the the workes of the Law or in the seale and workings of the spirit of life in which you are freed from the law of sinne and death So I shall come to that second part the matter and substance of the law Under this comprehend the whole revealed will of God in his word but to distinguish betweene that part of Gods word more distinctly known by the ten commandements from any other part of the revealed will

in it 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. FINIS Jan. 25. 1648. I Have delightfully looked upon these Clusters of Canaans Grapes and have helped them to the Presse that they may be Wine for Common drinking I onely minde the Reader that these Grapes yeeld the New Wine of the Gospell Let him take heed hee puts it not into the Old Bottles of envy or of malice of prejudice or of contempt if he doe His Bottles will breake and though the Wine because 't is saving Wine cannot but be safe yet himselfe will be a looser yea in danger to be lost Whereas his profit and Salvation are I beleeve on this side the glory of God the highest end of the Author in this publication as they are of the Licenser Joseph Caryl A Cluster of Canaans GRAPES CHAP. I. Love to all Saints shews union with Christ JOHN 13.35 By this shall all men know that yee are my Disciples if yee love one another THE fore-going verse holds out a Command from Christ that all his Disciples those which love and follow him should love oee another And to this command our Saviour holds forth his love as a pattern and incitation to us to love one another That you love one another saith Christ Verse 34 as I have loved you Our Saviour spake these words a little before bis death that they might be of the more force and make the more impression upon the soules of his Disciples as if he should say remember my dying love and let it live in your bosomes as a precept and example for you to love one another In this 35. verse our Saviour advances love holy spirituall love and makes it a Beacon of discovery This love it is the love of Christ within us for without him we can doe nothing Now Christ makes a double discovery by this love The first is he discovers God his Father and our Father and himselfe to us Secondly by this love he makes a discovery of Saintt to the world as they are in union and communion with him the latter of these is that which is held forth in this verse namely A Saint manifesting to the world his union with Christ by his love to every fellow-member as bearing Christs image The point that naturally flowes from these words is this That love to all Saints is a plain manifestation of our union and communion with Christ When I say all Saints I admit of no distinction but only Saintship living in the Spirit up to their interest as Disciples and followers of Christ Not Saints of such or such a judgement in point of worship nor Saints of a higher or lower growth nor Saints distinguished by their various formes of discipsine but as branches of the true Vine which in their union with Christ bring forth the fruits of the beauty of holinesse and the power of godlinesse Christ gives this as a generall command to all his Disciples to love one another Joh. 15.17 our Saviour tells us this As I am in the Father so are you in me and this is a good foundation of love therefore love one another as I have loved you Joh. 15.12 And in 1 John 4.21 And this Commandment have we from him that he who loves God loves his brother also as if the holy Ghost had said Those that truly love God will love his image where-ever they find it Our Saviour in John 17.20 21. prayes upon this principle he prayes for all that shall beleeve in him his love is not stinted onely unto Apostles or Disciples persons of greatest gifts and graces but it runnes as strongly to the weakest beleever So in the 10. verse of that 17. of John All mine are thine and thine are mine and I am glorified in them Christ by an eye of love beholds that union which the weakest beleever hath with him and beholds his glory in that union Here wee have Christ the purest founntain of love for our pattern his love runnes to all in union with him so should our distinguishing love extend to all that hold the head Christ Jesus and walk in the light and life of the Spirit This truth is so cleare from the first Text that it needs not any more to prove it though the Scripture be abundant in it 2 Thess 4.9 as that 1 John 4.19 20 21. and John 15.12 So take in 1 Thess 4.9 the Apostle makes it as it were a needlesse thing to write to them their duty in this to love their brethren in Christ For sayes he you your selves are taught of God to love one 〈◊〉 nother as if he had said you know nothing of God if you know not this duty if you know your union with Christ you will know that that love which made you one with him hath made you so with every of his members So in that 1 John 2.10 11. 1 Joh. 2.10 11. the holy Ghost there speakes the same thing with the first Text and makes love to the brethren to be a discovering Beame of Christ the Lord of Light and Glory in us The Text is plain Hee that loves not his brother abides not in the light but is in darknesse and walkes in darknesse not knowing whither be goes because he is without Christ the light of life who is the light of that soule hee lives in which soule loves Christ and all that is like him In all these Scriptures you may observe how the heart of Christ and all those that wrot from the Dictates of the holy Ghost is upon this very thing God calls himself the God of Love fils his children with his Divine nature by his Spirit and would have them beare his Name too that the world may know that the Father of Love hath begotten Children of Love in his own likenesse I am afraid we all live much below this eminent discovery of our interest in Christ by our love to all Saints in that latitude which Christ intends it therefore to stirre up and engage our hearts more in this glorious and heavenly duty and priviledge let us in the Spirit of Christ seriously weigh these Reasons and Considerations following First Reason or Consi ∣ deration 1 the Onenesse of all Elect beleevers in the originall love of God consider if we all have not one Fountaine of life and were not all in the first Adam involved into one death of transgression Was there any fallen soule lesse guilty in the fall of the first Adam then another Or was there any that God saw more worthinesse in then in another to move him to chuse such a soule Surely no For then that Word of eternall Truth could not stand in Ephes 2.8 For by grace are we saved not of our selves 't is the gift of God

in the Margin things to gird about them and here they rest content they saw their nakednesse a great advantage truly but having girded themselves with fig-leaves they knew no want of God for in verse 8. when they heard the voyce of God and that in the coole of the day they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord amongst the trees of the garden and when God came so neere to them as they were falne to confesse the reason why they fled from his presence they acknowledged they were afraid verse 10. Compare these first appearances of nature in our first parents after their fall with the experiences of our owne naturall hearts and others and it will appeare in all that is miserable what exact Images we are by nature of these our first parents They were naked so are all by nature of any righteousnesse to stand in the sight of God they knew they were naked so doth many a desperate finner whose conscience f●ies in his face but the remedy they sought was only an apron or girdle of fig-leaves So doth our naturall hearts licke their woundes whole and cover their nakednesse by legall and formall duties and performances girding our loines strengthening our hearts in them and covering our nakednesse so as the eye of man cannot discerne it and in this posture as our first Parents hid themselves amongst the trees of the garden from the presence of the Lord so we shrowd our selves under publick externall Ordinances after the fashion of the world and resting in beggerly rudiments to defend us from the presence of an angry God and yet not withstanding all this when God comes close to the soule though it hath girt it selfe about with fig-leaves it s owne righteousness yet it is not established but doth confesse in all the actions under such a state it was afraid because of its nakednesse and this feare doth inflame the misery of it and causeth it to fly and hide it self from the presence of God here is the first buddings of nature and truly it is an exact miserable condition for it is wholely in selfe and wholely out of God the reliefe this soule findes is in flying from and being out of the presence of God now sure I am every Saint experienced of Gods love will call this state a state compleatly miserable knowing that all its life happinesse lies in a close communion with the bosom of God a continual beholding of his face in Christ yet this state thus compleatly miserable is not Adams alone but all his seede in him of which by nature is all the world as is fully expressed in verse 23. of this 3. Chap. of the Romans For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God The misery of this state of nature may be farther amplified in cōfidering thar Antipathy that is in all to that holy just and good law of God and that impossibility which is in man to performe it one place saith speaking of the law it is that which neither we nor our fore-fathers could beare we could not stand under it to justifie our selves by it The Apostle in Rom. 3.9 to vers 19. speaks plainly this generall evill state by nature and the fruits of it in many particulats in oppolition to all the laws of a holy God And in vers 19. speaks plainly that the Law makes all the world guilty and so makes his inference in the 20th verse that none can be justified by the deeds of the law and then he gives his reason for it which is this For sayes hee by the law is knowledge of sinne Gods pure nature discovers the impure nature of fallen man so in the following verses speaks of a blessed and a justified state for a poor soul under another head But all this speakes the miserable irrecoverable lost state of a naturall man in himselfe the fruits of this tree of nature we may see in that 2d of Ephes the three first verses Though it be a dead tree yet at beates fruit but it is the fruit of death trespasses and sins walking in them according to the course of this world and the power of the Prince of the Aire that spirit which workes in the children of disobedience who are by nature the children of wrath Any of these particulars rightly understood and set home upon the spirit of a man will make it crye out as the Apostle O wretched man that I am and in me that is in my flesh is no good But certainly if ever we come to see that sinke and masse of sin and corruption that is in us by nature and that wages of sinne which is death wee shall then acknowledge if ever God discover his thoughts of eternall love to us that it is all free-grace The second demonstration of the point is To consider a Saint under a state of grace in Christ the second Adam To take this in the beginning as it stands in the word let us turne backe to that 3d of Gen. 15. where Christ is promised in the seed of the woman and what to doe to breake the head of the Serpent that is to kill and overcome him The Apostle in 1 Cor. 15.21 sayes be must reigne till he hath put all his enemies under his feete And in this conquest over his owne and his peoples enemies hee doth the will of his Father we have his owne word for it John 4.30 This doth exceedingly set forth the free grace of God that when he found all man-kinnde in a state of rebellion so soone as ever he had enquired into the fault hee makes a promise of the Lord Christ in whom the state of a poore soule is better then in innocency As if the Lord had said Adam though thou didst run from me was affraid because thou wert naked yet now establish thy heart in beholding my fulness which is thy cloathing cast from thee the workes of thy owne hands that fig-leave righteousness thou hast begirt thy selfe with and lay hold on the workings forth of my eternal love in this promise of Christ The Serpent hath been too hard for thee when he found thee in thy own strength but I will give out Christ that great gift of my love and he shall as he is one with me from eternity in my everlasting power and fulnesse make warre with the Serpent and in that warfare though the Serpent shall bruise his heele wound his flesh yet he shall breake the head of the Serpent and overcome him This must needs be free-grace to make such a promise to fallen Adam and his posterity that ranne from the presence of God and were content with fig leaves for a covering of their nakednesse You may see in nature there is as little desire of Christ and his righteousnesse as there can be of discerning for here is a flying from the presence of God and a satisfying it selfe with its owne righteousnesse and certainly this righteousnesse is nothing but menstruous rags that