Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	john_n	light_n	shine_v	3,435	5	9.5724	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45701	The Christians best garment: or, The putting on of the Lord Jesus Christ Wherein the absolute necessity, excellency, and usefulness of Christ, as a garment, to believing souls, is briefly open and applied. Secondly, the naked, miserable, lost, and undone condition of all unbelievers, who have not put on this garment, discovered. Thirdly and lastly, some few brief, but powerful motives to perswade us to the putting on of this garment, with directions how to live to the glory of Christ here, that so we may live with Christ hereafter in glory. By a godly, able, and faithful servant of Jesus Christ.	Hart, John, D.D.	1664 (1664)	Wing H930; ESTC R216385	16,154	50

The Christians best Garment JOHN HART D.D. THE CHRISTIANS Best Garment OR The putting on of the Lord Jesus Christ Wherein the absolute necessity excellency and usefulness of Christ as a Garment to believing Souls is briefly opened and applied Secondly The naked miserable lost and undone condition of all Unbelievers who have not put on this Garment discovered Thirdly and lastly Some few brief but powerful Motives to perswade us to the putting on of this Garment with directions how to live to the glory of Christ here that so we may live with Christ hereafter in glory The third Edition By a godly able and faithful Servant of Jesus Christ John Hart. Rom. 13.14 Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ Col. 3.4 When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in glory London Printed for E. Andrews at the White Lion near Pye-Corner 1664. THE Christians best Garment OR THE Putting on of the Lord Jesus Christ Romans 13.12 13 14. The night is far spent the day is at hand let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armour of light Let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof IN these Words beloved which I have now read unto you we have these two parts In the first place we have some things which the Apostle endeavours to perswade Christians from In the second place we have some things which the Apostle endeavours to perswade Christians to The things perswaded from are the works of darkness the things perswaded to are these 1. That we put on the armour of light and that we walk honestly 2. The Apostle having exhorted us to this two-fold duty 1. The casting off the works of darkness and the putting on the armour of light here sets down expresly some Christian directions how this is to be done and that two wayes 1. Negatively and then 2. Affirmatively 1. Negatively not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envy 2. Affirmatively by putting on the Lord Jesus Christ and denying of the works of the slesh and the motives here laid down whereupon the Apostle enjoyns this duty are these in the 12. verse The night is far spent the day is at hand therefore saith he let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armour of light Where by the way we may observe that works of darkness are very unsuitable and unseasonable to the times of the Gospel light and darkness are contrary In the words then you see 1. Here is a duty exhorted unto and that is laid down in the 12. verse And then 2. you have here also the Apostles amplification and illustration of this duty here exhorted unto and that is set down particularly in the 13. and 14 verses The duty exhorted unto you see here is two-fold 1. Here is something to be cast off And then 2. Here is something to be put on 1. The things to be cast off are the works of darkness 2. The things to be put on are the armor of light Let us cast off the works darkness and let us put on the armor of light And as the exhortation is two-fold so likewise are the reasons whereupon the Apostle grounds his exhortation also 1. The night is far spent And 2. the day is at hand Before I proceed to the observation give me leave a little to open the words unto you and first I shall endeavour to shew what is here meant by the night and then secondly what is here meant by the day by the night here may be meant the times of darkness and ignorance in which the Gentiles lived in before the breaking forth of the Gospel of Christ and those times may very well be compared to the night for these three reasons First In the night men cannot so well see their way and therefore may the more easily wander out of their way for it is onely the want of light that makes men to erre 2. In the night no thing is visible or discernable but darkness all light is then extinguished the blind man is not able to value or judge what a mercy it is to have the fruition and enjoyment of the light of the Sun 3. The night is the most suitablest time and season for the doing of evil in Job 24.14 15 16. The murderer saith Job rising with the light killeth the poor and needy and in the night is as a thief The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight saying No eye shall see me and disguiseth his face In the dark they dig through houses they know not the light They that are drunk saith the Apostle are drunk in the night 1 Thes 5.7 In Psal 25.20 The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty And then secondly by the day here is meant the times of the Gospel it is night in the soul till such time as the day light of the Gospel breaks forth and shines into it Matth. 4 16. The people which sate in darkness saw a great light and to them that sate in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up In John 13.19 Light is come into the world and men love darkness rather then light and why so the reason is saith he because their deeds were evil For every one that doth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved Ephes 5.8 Ye were sometimes darkness saith the Apostle but now are ye light in the Lord walk as children of light In 1 Pet. 2.9 God hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light Luke 1.78 79. The day-spring from on high hath visited us To give light to them that sit in darkness In Acts 26.17 18. The Apostle was sent to the Gentiles to turn them from darkness unto light In 1 John 2.8 The darkness is past and the true light saith the Apostle now shineth In Acts 17.30 The times of Heathenisme are there called the times of ignorance and it must néeds be night in such souls wherein Christ the Sun of righteousness never did arise as it is never day in the worid until the Sun ariseth so it is never day in the soul till Christ the Sun of righteousness ariseth with healing in his wings Now there are several useful and profitable points of doctrine which naturally from hence for our instruction and edification I shall onely name them and so procéed to that which I chiefly intend The first point of doctrine is this that works of darkness are works of the night night works Secondly that the times of the Gospel are times of light Thirdly that in the day of the Gopel all these works of darkness are to be cast off when the Sun shines

in the Church of God doth not do Gods work but the Devils the spirit of God is not a spirit of division but of love of peace and a pure minde and as the Apostle Jude calls seducers and false teachers ungodly men and separates from the Church are said by Jude in his 19. verse to be sensual and not to have the spirit And before I pass this point I hope it will not be amiss to shew you the wickedness and sin of those who go about to make divisions in the Church of Christ And first of all sowers of divisions are renters of Christ it is a horrible violence offered to the Body of Christ a dividing of Christ as St. Paul calls it in 1 Cor. 1.13 it would make Christ seem to be the head of two bodies a most monstrous conceit indeed Secondly it resisteth the commands of Christ which is love and opposes the very end of Christ in dying for sinners which was that all his Saints should be one Thirdly division in the Church is very dishonourable and injurious to the Church for how can a body be rent and torn without prejudice it hinders also the peace of the Church Schismaticks saith one more opposes the peace of the Church then heathens do if the body be rent and torn it is surely with much pain and smart and tearing and renting in the church will surely cut the very heart of one that 's a true Member of the Church It makes the Saints mourn and to be sure it makes the Devil laugh therefore let us labour to be rentless and seamless as Christ is To this end in the first place labour after holiness division and separation is a badge and mark of unholiness children in unholiness are ever men in malice Secondly be not overtaken with new fancies and novelties those new lights which hath set the Church of God so much on fire in these our dayes have all been taken out of the dark Lanthorns of old Hereticks and Iesuits all those lights which receive not their light from the word of God are all false lights and vapors that onely appear on purpose to draw men out of the way Truth should alwayes be imbraced though it be never in so old a dress they are itching ears that are most taken with novelties Lastly divisions beger sensuality sensuality usual follows seperation even at the heels separating themselves saith Jude sensual not having the Spirit not to speak any more of this our own sad experience hath too manifestly witnessed this for a truth What horrid impiety desperate villanies have been commited by wicked and ungodly seducers in our dayes my heart trembles with the very thought thereof Fifthly Christ is a spotless garment there is not so much as a spark or spot in this garment and therefore it is that the Saints are said in Scripture to be cloathed in white robes Rev. 6.11 and that he offered himself without spot to God Heb 9.14 and the Saints are said to be cloathed in fine linnen white and clean Rev. 19.14 And as Christ is spotless himself so he takes away all spots and defilements from his people they are washed in his blood and therefore are said to be clean by Chritst himself John 13.10 John 15.3 and therefore he is called the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world John 1.29 It was onely a sinless Saviour that could satisfie for and take away the sins of sinful men If Christ had not been without spots himself he could never have taken away our spots he that was manifest saith St. John to take away our sin in him was no sin 1 John 3.5 Christ hath suffered for us saith St. Peter 1 Pet. 2.21 22. who did no sinne neither was guile found in his mouth it is onely the blood of Christ that washes and needs no washing if he had not been without sin he could not have saved us from our sins nay he himself then had stood in need of a Saviour and although he took upon him our nature and was made slesh yet the nature of Christ was a pure nature in it self and therefore that of the Apostle doth most sweetly express this where he sayes of Christ that he in the likeness of sinfull flesh condemned sin in the flesh Rom. 8.3 and though he was in all things like unto us yet saith the Apostle Heb. 4.13 he was without sin Christ was not born in sin as we are he was conceived by the Holy Ghost and borne of a pure Virgin its true Christ was a sinner yea the greatest of sinners by imputation he having all the sins of all the Clect of God laid upon him But first had not Iesus Christ been sinless in himself he had never been able to have unvergone so heavy a burthen Christ suffered not for But first had not Iesus Christ been sinless in himself he had never been able to have undergone so heavy a burthen Christ suffered not for his own sins but for our sins He his own self saith the Apostle bore our sinnes on the Cross We indeed saith the converted thief on the Cross do suffer justly but this man hath done nothing amiss Luke 23.41 He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.21 He did no violence neither was there any guile found in his mouth Isa 53.9 Sixthly Christ is a comely garment a garment that will never be out of fashion He is the same yesterday and to day and for ever there is nothing so lovely and amiable in the eyes of Christians as Christ is Christians I beseech you consider you are never well drest till you have put on this garment nor you shall never be blest without it Seventhly Christ is a lasting yea an everlasting garment a garment that will last thee as long as thou livest and will never be the worse for wearing but will alwayes be the better for wearing the more thou wearest this garment the more glorious it will be and as this garment will last thee as long as thou livest so thou mayest carry it along with thee when thou dyest thou canst not carry any thing out of the world with thee for naked camest thou into the world and naked shalt thou go out of the world but if thou hast put on Christ as a garment in thy life thou canst not leave him behind thee when thou dyest thou shalt carry this garment with thee into the next world I should come now to shew you how this garment is to be worn but I shall speak of that by way of Use and Application Now the Uses that I shall make of this useful point shall be these Is it so that Iesus Christ is a Christians garment then in the first place I beseech you observe the miserable and wretched condition of wicked and ungodly men men out of Christ they are naked and have not as we use to say of some poor people a rag to