A10659:336
Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulness of sin. The life…Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulnesse of sinne. The life…
Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulness of sin. The life of Christ. Being the substance of several sermons preached at Lincolns Inn: by Edward Reynolds, preacher to that honourable society, and late fellow of Merton College in Oxford.Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulnesse of sinne. The life of Christ. Being the substance of severall sermons preached at Lincolns Inne: by Edward Reynoldes, preacher to that honourable society, and late fellow of Merton Colledge in Oxford.
London: printed by Felix Kyngston for Robert Bostocke, 1631
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Having thus opened at large the life and state of original sin, it remains in the last place to show, how the spirit by the commandment doth convince and discover the life of actual sin: in omitting so much good, in committing so much evil, in swerving and deviating from the rule in the manner and measure of all our services. And this it doth, by making us see that great spiritualness and perfection, that precise, universal, and constant conformity which the Law requires in all we do. Cursed is every one that abideth not in all things that are written 1in the book of the Law to do them. Perfection and perpetuity of obedience are the two things which the Law requires. Suppose we it possible for a man to fulfil every tittle of the Law in the whole compass of it, and that for his whole life together, one only particular, and that the smallest and most imperceptible deviation from it being for one only time excepted, yet so rigorous and inexorable is the Law, that it seals that man under the wrath and curse of God. The heart cannot turn, the thoughts cannot rise, the affections cannot stir, the will cannot bend; but the Law meets with it, either as a Rule to measure, or as a Judge to censure it. It penetrates the inmost thoughts, searcheth the bottom of all our actions, hath a wideness in it which the heart of man cannot endure. They were not able to endure, saith the Apostle, the things 2which were commanded; and Why tempt you God, saith Saint Peter to those that preached Circumcision, and put a yoke upon the brethren, which neither we nor our fathers 3were able to bear? Circumcision it self they were able to bear, but that yoke which came with it, namely, the Debt of the whole Law was by them and their fathers utterly4 unsupportable. For this very cause was the Law published, that sin might thereby become exceeding sinful, that so Gods grace might be the more magnified, and his Gospel the more accepted. Let us in a few ⟨p. 227⟩words consider some particular aggravations of the life and state of actual sin, which the spirit by the Word will present unto us.