A86531:189
The saints dignity and duty· Together with the danger of ignorance and hardness. /…The saints dignitie and dutie· Together with the danger of ignorance and hardnesse. /…
The saints dignity and duty· Together with the danger of ignorance and hardness. / Delivered in several sermons: by that reverend divine, Thomas Hooker, late preacher in New-England.The saints dignitie and dutie· Together with the danger of ignorance and hardnesse. / Delivered in severall sermons: by that reverend divine, Thomas Hooker, late preacher in New-England.
London: printed by G.D. for Francis Eglesfield, 1651
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
First of all, where the body of sin is lessened and weakened, there no sin can command the whole soul: but howsoever it ⟨p. 59⟩may command part of the man, yet there is no part that will be wholly commanded by it. This Saint Paul expressly showeth Rom. 7. from the 15. verse to the end of the Chapter. It is true, (saith he) with my flesh, that is, with my unregenerate part (for by flesh there he doth not mean his body, but the natural part both of soul and body) I serve the law of sin, but with my mind (that is, with the regenerate part of soul and body) I serve the Law of God. Wherever there is a death of sin, there will be a part in every part of a man, that will not be subjected or commanded by any sin. This I take to be the meaning of that 1 joh. 3. 9. Whosoever is born of God, doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. That is, so far as he is born of God, that same part in him, which is the seed of God, the off-spring of God, it cannot sin; sin cannot command that, though it command all the rest. Thereupon it is called the divine nature, and the spirit, because as the Spirit and the divine nature will not be mastered by corruption, so the regenerated part of a man will not be commanded by any sin whatsoever.
First of all, where the body of sin is lessened and weakned, there no sin can command the whole soul: but howsoever it ⟨p. 59⟩may command part of the man, yet there is no part that will be wholly commanded by it. This Saint Paul expresly sheweth Rom. 7. from the 15. verse to the end of the Chapter. It is true, (saith he) with my flesh, that is, with my unregenerate part (for by flesh there he doth not mean his bodie, but the naturall part both of soul and bodie) I serve the law of sin, but with my minde (that is, with the regenerate part of soul and bodie) I serve the Law of God. Whereever there is a death of sin, there will be a part in every part of a man, that will not be subjected or commanded by any sin. This I take to be the meaning of that 1 joh. 3. 9. Whosoever is born of God, doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him, and hee cannot sin, because he is born of God. That is, so far as he is born of God, that same part in him, which is the seed of God, the off-spring of God, it cannot sin; sin cannot command that, though it command all the rest. Thereupon it is called the divine nature, and the spirit, because as the Spirit and the divine nature will not be masterd by corruption, so the regenerated part of a man will not be commanded by any sin whatsoever.