Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sin_n	dead_a	life_n	trespass_n	5,011	5	10.5955	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75620	Theanthrōpos; or, God-man: being an exposition upon the first eighteen verses of the first chapter of the Gospel according to St John. Wherein, is most accurately and divinely handled, the divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ; proving him to be God and man, coequall and coeternall with the Father: to the confutation of severall heresies both ancient and modern. By that eminently learned and reverend divine, John Arrowsmith, D.D. late Master of Trinity-Colledge in Cambridge, and Professor of Divinity there.	Arrowsmith, John, 1602-1659.	1660 (1660)	Wing A3778; Thomason E1014_1; ESTC R10473	267,525	319

understood here because no man partaketh of that till he be gone out of the world and here is light spoken of given to them which come into the world But the other four sorts of light that remain they are all taken in the light of Reason the light of Conscience the light of the Word and the light of Grace These are the severall Lights that come from Christ But I must shew you That these are not divided amongst mankind nor communicated in a like measure to all that so I may answer the first Quaery It is true That all do partake of the light of Reason and Resp the light of Conscience but yet there is a difference and That all partake of the light of reason and Conscience though not alike inequality even in that light because Reason and Conscience are more vigorous in some then in others What shall we say of Infants and of Ideots we must say Even these have some light from Christ but not like to other men Infants have the gift of Reason though not the use of reason that gift they have from Christ Ideots have the use of reason in some lower degrees I and of Conscience too in some lower acts though neither Reason nor Conscience be so vigorous in them as in other men To go on The light of the Word that is not equally dispenced to all as appeareth Psal 147. two last verses He shewed his word to Jacob his statutes and judgments Inequality in dispensing the light of the word to Israell he hath not dealt so with any Nation as for his judgments the Heathens have not known them Israell had the word when the Heathens had none He that causeth it to rain upon one City and not upon another sendeth the word to one City and Nation and not unto another He causeth the Word plentifully in some places to dwell as in this * London City at this day but in other places there is a famine of the word So as the light of the word is not equally dispenced now amongst them that do injoy the light of the word The light of grace is dispenced but not in a way of equality Many injoy the light of the word that never injoyed the light of grace both before and since the So of the light of grace Incarnation Before the Incarnation The Hebrews in the wildernesse had the light of the word yea and confirmed to them by many miracles and yet the light of grace withheld from them Therefore it is said Deut. 29. 3 4. The great temptations which thine eyes have seen the signes and those great miracles yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear unto this day Here were means but no grace to improve them They had not an heart to perceive nor eyes to see nor ears to hear And since the Incarnation ye have Christ testifying Matth. 3. 11. He answered and said unto them namely to his Disciples It is given to you to know the Mysteries of the Kingdome of Heaven but to them it is not given given to some not given to others So have you the resolution of the first Quaery The second Quaery is Whether sufficient light be given Quary 2 to every one yea or no Here we are to distinguish both of Sufficient and of Light Sufficient is Considerable two wayes First in reference to Inexcusable Secondly in reference to Salvation Light is two-fold Convincing Light Converting Light Now the Resolution of the Quaery will lye in these two Respons Propositions First That Christ doth dispence convincing light sufficient to leave every one without excuse Secondly Christ doth not dispence converting light to every one sufficient to bring him to salvation First Christ doth dispence Convincing light to every one 1. All have light convincing sufficient to leave them without excuse sufficient to leave him without excuse So much the Apostle saith Among the heathen which had no other light but that of nature no other knowledge of God but that which flowed from the works of Creation and Providence Rom. 1. 20. The Invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even the eternall power and Godhead So that they are without excuse If the very Gentiles had enough to leave them without excuse then much more such as live under the dispensation of the Gospell because there goeth a Clearer light with the word then doth accompany the works of darknesse As the Sun-beams discover a great deal more then the Moon shine because it is a stronger light so the light of the Gospell and Word being stronger then the light of nature are more convincing then the other so as every one be he Jew or Gentile be he Heathen without the Word or a Professor of Christianity under the word hath light enough to convince him and to clear God in his proceedings against him I say not onely to convince him but to clear the Justice of God because there is no man that walketh up to the utmost of his Life No man may go to God saying I have done all I was able to do and therefore I challenge a reward at thy hands This to be sure He hath enough to convince him and to leave him without excuse Secondly Christ doth not dispence to every one Converting 2. All have not converting light sufficient to bring them to salvation light sufficient to bring him to Salvation There is no light sufficient to bring to salvation but that which Christ calleth the light of Life John 8. 12. I am the Light of the World he that followeth me shall not walk in darknesse but shall have the light of Life Every man by nature is not onely blind but dead dead in sins and trespasses and therefore must not onely have life but such a life as may quicken him The light of life Indeed if light alone will serve the turn any kind of Illumination then acceptation of the will and illumination of the understanding and morall perswasion might prevaile to bring a man to God Hîc opus est medela suadela non sufficit Here is need of quickning therefore light will not serve the turn It must be a quickning light that sufficeth to Conversion This Christ doth not dispence to every one for if He did every one would come home to Christ No man can have possession of Christ that is not over-powered to believe Sufficient grace and over-powering grace is all one Till a man be over-powered he can never close with Christ for salvation Now because this over-powering grace is not bestowed upon every one therefore it is clear that sufficient grace the Life of light is not dispenced to every one that cometh into the World Without Christ no salvation without faith no closing with Christ All have faith saith the Apostle That is all might have faith if they would say some

I undertook for the explication of this point Come we now to apply it Vse First let us all learn from hence to extoll and magnifie 1. Learn to glorifie God for so great a gift as adoption is and adore the goodnesse and bounty of our Lord Jesus Christ in giving the poor sons of men so great so excellent a gift as this of adoption is To them that receive Him to them gave He power dignity priviledge prerogative to become the sons of God You see it is a free gift Look to all the progresse of salvation from first to last and you shall find free grace running through every passage of salvation even as blood runs through every vein in the body of a man Christ himselfe is the great gift of God and all other things are the gift of Christ God together with him giveth us all things else Have we any newnesse of heart in us It is He that giveth it He taketh away the heart of stone and giveth an heart of flesh Have we Ministers after Gods owne heart It is God that giveth the increase Have we any thing to suffer or to do To you it is given to believe and to suffer To the first This great priviledge of Adoption What but free and undeserved love could have moved Christ to bestow such a favour upon us He himselfe was the onely begotten Son of God and might have contented himselfe with this dignity for ever and yet He is pleased to become the first begotten of many Brethren The naturall Son of God made way for the poor sons of men that they might receive the adoption of sons It is a greater favour then any Adam had to thank God for this that we receive from Christ Adam was rather in the condition of a servant then of a Son He lived under the Covenant of works Do this and live And therefore it was that Adam was in a possibility of falling from his happy Condition as ye know he did and of being turned out of the house The servant abideth not in the house for ever but the son abideth for ever Joh. 8. 35. If ye will say he was a son as indeed he was it was but a son by Creation He bore the Image of God had the divine stamp upon him but here is a further sonship by adoption There is a mysticall union of believers to Christ as their head which Adam had not But if ye will distinctly see the heighth and excellency of this priviledge that so we might know what we have to blesse and magnifie Christ for so much the clearer Let us compare this Divine adoption with Civill adoptions which are in use amongst the sons of men And see how farre this Excellency reacheth in four or five particulars First in Civill adoption there is alwayes some need on 1. In civill adoption there is some need on the Adopter's part the Adopter's part No man will go and take a stranger's son and adopt him unlesse he want a son of his own or unlesse his owne son be so unworthy as he thinketh him not fit to be trusted with an estate But it is seldome done but in case of Orphany where there wanteth Children The law saith That adoption is Actus lega is naturam sequens c. A legall act Imitating nature Invented for the comfort of them that have no Children of their owne But now look to this spirituall adoption and ye shall find God had no need he had a son of his owne The Son of his bosome the Son of his love the Son of his delights in whom he did take pleasure from all Eternity and might have taken pleasure to all Eternity though there had been no such Creature as Man made in the World And yet He was pleased to adopt the sons of men not because He wanted a son but because we wanted a Father And therefore in this respect we have great cause to say as the Apostle doth Behold what manner of Love the Father hath shewed us that we should be called the sons of God 1 Joh. 3. 1. Secondly there is commonly on the Adopted his part 2. On the adopted his part there is expected some worth some worth As there is some need on the part of the Adopter so some worth in the Adopted When men make their choice either they have regard to some excellency or some relation or something that is a motive to their affections to pitch upon such a child rather than another to adopt for an heir When Pharaoh's daughter adopted Moses it is said Moses his beauty moved her the Text giveth you that hint Act. 7. 20. Moses was exceeding fair When he was cast out Pharaoh's daughter took him up and nourished him for her own son The very beauty of the Child had an operation upon the Lady's heart So Mordechai adopted Hester What was the reason First she was near akin to him then very beautifull Hest 2. 7. He brought up Haddassah which is Hester his uncle's daughter for she had neither father nor mother and the maid was fair and beautifull whom Mordechai when her father and mother were dead took for his own daughter So here is something in the Adopted that moveth the Adopter But what is in us to move God unlesse we speak of moving him to indignation Beauty we have none for we are defiled all over with sin over-spread with a leprosie all our faculties are in sin and all sin is in our faculties our very Righteousnesse is as a menstruous cloath What then are our Abhominations Our Civilities and Formalities are but as dung as the Apostle accounts of all for Christ If they are but as dung What then are our oaths and lies and prophanenings of the Lord's day The truth is we have nothing lovely in us and yet behold we are called the sons of God What love is here Thirdly The adopting father may leave an Estate but 3. The Adopter cannot convey a Disposition to inable to manage the Estate rightly he cannot convey a disposition to him whom he adopteth to inable to manage it aright therefore is there often mistakes they think they pitch well and it proveth ill Such as are adopted they come leightly by their estates and they set leightly by them But herein lyeth a further and higher excellency of this divine Adoption God together with an Inheritance conveyeth a Disposition that rendreth one fit for the managing of such an estate Ye have an expression that soundeth that way Col. 1. 12. Giving thanks to the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light He doth not onely give us an inheritance but maketh us meet to be partakers of that inheritance Our adopting Father stampeth his own Image upon every adopted son He maketh every believer Patrizare to imitate his Father which is in heaven which the other cannot do Fourthly In Civill Adoption the Adopted son cannot 4. The

this Tomb for nothing And so indeed the creature hath no satisfaction in it A man comes and thinks to find much and he hath there nothing but a sad lesson for himself to carry away with him Wherefore let us no longer play the Prodigall seeing there is bread in our Father's house let us not go to feed upon husks the creatures are no better All is vanity and worse they are not onely vanity but vexation of spirit which ariseth from the disappointment of a man's hopes when a man is vexed when he is frustrated looks for much and finds a little That is his case here a man looks for contentment and findeth trouble As our Saviour in the daies of his flesh it is said He went to the fig-tree expecting Mar. 11. 13. fruit and found none therefore he was provoked and cursed the tree Many a one leaves the creature with a curse which he sought after with expectation of satisfaction from it Oh! it is a cursed preferment and pleasure saith he even of that very thing which he thought would have fully satisfied his soul when he first enjoyed it But now this fulness of Christ is such as there is no vanity in it no vexation from it nay so far is it from vexation that it giveth satisfaction which nothing else can give Psal 36. 8. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatnesse of thy house and thou shalt make them to drink of the rivers of thy pleasure For vexation in the one here is satisfaction in the other and for those drops of pleasure which men find in the creature here is rivers of pleasure such are those everlasting joyes that are in Christ For the pleasures of the creature here are Rivers every man may have his fill If it were a Cistern an Army might come and empty that But here is enough therefore I need not to envy another's satisfaction there is enough for all that come to Christ I have now done with the first Observation of the first part of my Text. The Second hath diverse Branches The first that offers it self is the Partakers hereof and those are a great many We all saith the Apostle here We all have received even grace for grace A short Observation is to be taken from thence namely Observ That all the members of Christ are partakers of some spirituall endowments We all have received of his fulnesse Not one but Christ imparts something to in his measure Therefore it is clearly said by the Apostle Ephes 4. 7. Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ Here is grace and grace to every one and grace from Christ to every one yet to every one in his measure not alike measure to all but some measure to each One star saith the Apostle differs from another in glory Not a Star but receiveth light from the Sun the 1 Cor. 15. 41. one receiveth more light than the other Therefore there is a different glory in the Stars The Lord Jesus shineth upon every believing soul but not upon every one in a like lustre You know there was a time when Esau question'd his father's store strongly Hast thou but one blessing my father Gen. 27 38 but no man needeth to question the store of this everlasting Father he hath more blessings than one he hath some blessings Christ hath blessings for every Member for every Member of his We have all received Therefore it is said Mal. 2. 15. And did not he make one yet had he the residue of the spirit Some read Abundance and some read Residue of spirit both well God hath given endowments of spirit to an hundred and he hath a residue of spirit for a thousand more and when he hath endowed a thousand thousands he hath a residue of spirit for ten thousand millions more Ephes 2. 5. Which is the head Even when we were dead in sins hath he quickned us together with Christ by grace ye are saved Here is one head but many members The Head is Christ the Believers are the members All the members of the body they are compact together saith this place The whole body is joyned together by the bones that meet in the joynts and let into one another Compact by that which every joynt supplieth So the souls of believers as they are all knit to Christ their Head so they are let into one another by a spirit of love And something every joynt supplieth therefore every joynt hath its particular work As there is a vegetative power in the soul that putteth forth it selfe to every member One member to the proportion of an arm another of an hand another of a finger So there is a working of the spirit of grace in the whole body of Christ that brings every member to its proportion one to this degree another to that which God hath predestin'd him to Therefore it is that the growth of every member upon the increase of the body helps to the edifying of it selfe in love Look then that as in the body every member shares with the soul that bringeth it to the perfection due to that member So doth every believer share with the spirit of Christ in some spirituall indowment fit for his station It may be of great use to us First It may serve as an Antidote against scornfulnesse and contempt Secondly As a spurre to improve First The consideration of this truth That all the members of Christ partake of some spirituall indowment We 1. Spirituall indowments are as Antidotes to keep us from scorning and contemning one another all have received serveth as an Antidote against scornfulnesse and contempt of one another If every man hath received his part Who art thou that despisest thy brother Prov. 17. 5. Who so mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker And he that is glad at Calamity shall not be unpunished It pleaseth God to make him so therefore to mock him is to reproach God so to contemn the poor Saint for want of those parts to expresse himselfe by that thou hast thy reproach is to the Spirit of God God hath purposely dispenced his gifts and graces so that there is no believer but hath some and none that hath all indowments in an eminent way None hath all that he may not think to stand alone And none but hath some that every one may have use of another that the highest should not contemn the meanest The head should not say to the foot I have no need of thee As it is in Countries Non omnes fert omnia Tell us one Country produceth Wines another Sugars another Spices God hath purposely so done this that one Kingdome might have interest one with another In the like manner God hath ordered things in his mysticall body and given to all his members severall indowments that they might not contemn one another As it is in a materiall building where there is a sort of stones laid