A10659:626
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.
But if Christ be not only a Saviour to Redeem, but a Rule to Sanctify, what use or service is left unto the Law? I answer, that the Law is still a Rule, but not a comfortable, effectual, delightful rule without Christ applying, and sweetening it unto us. The Law only comes with commands, but Christ with strength, love, willingness, and life to obey them. The Law alone comes like a Schoolmaster with a scourge, a curse along with it; but when Christ comes with the Law, He comes as a Father, with precepts to teach, and with compassions to spare. The Law is a Lion, and Christ our Sampson that slew the Lion; as long as the Law is alone, so long it is alive, and comes with terror, and fury upon every Soul it meets: but when Christ hath slain the Law, taken away that which was the strength of it, namely the guilt of sin, then there is honey in the Lion,1 sweetness in the duties required by the Law. It is then an easy yoke, and a Law of liberty, the Commandments ⟨p. 416⟩are not then grievous, but the heart delighteth2 in them, and loveth them, even as the honey and the honey comb. Of it self it is bthe cord of a Judge which bindeth hand and foot, and shackleth unto condemnation; but by Christ it is made the ccord of a man, and the band of Love, by which He teacheth us to go•, even as a nurse her infant.
But if Christ be not onely a Saviour to Redeeme, but a Rule to Sanctifie, what use or service is left unto the Law? I answere, that the Law is still a Rule, but not a comfortable, effectuall, delightfull rule without Christ applying, and sweetning it unto us. The Law onely comes with commands, but Christ with strength, love, willingnesse, and life to obey them. The Law alone comes like a Schoolemaster with a scourge, a curse along with it; but when Christ comes with the Law, He comes as a Father, with precepts to teach, and with compassions to spare. The Law is a Lion, and Christ our Sampson that slew the Lion; as long as the Law is alone, so long it is alive, and comes with terrour, and fury upon every Soule it meetes: but when Christ hath slaine the Law, taken away that which was the strength of it, namely the guilt of sinne, then there is honie in the Lion,