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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
body_n	dead_a	soul_n	spirit_n	13,984	5	5.8732	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65061	Gods drawing, and mans coming to Christ discovered in 32 sermons on John 6. 44 : with the difference between a true inward Christian, and the outward formalist, in three sermons on Rom. 2. 28, 29 / by ... Richard Vines ...	Vines, Richard, 1600?-1656.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1662 (1662)	Wing V550; ESTC R3255	240,330	368

which is said to contain better promises then the former hath this as the first I le write my law in their heart and put it in their mind that is in their inwards Hebr. 8. 9. 10. But instead of lighting a candle to the sunne I shall endeavor shortly to make a brief Anatomic of this Jew or Christian that is one inwardly and how he is distinguished from him that is so outwardly 1. There is in every true Christian an inward and spiritual man this is called The new man Ephes 4. 24. The inward Rom 7. 24. 2 Cor. 4. 16. A dead man may have inward parts but he hath not an inward man because there is no soul so an outward Christian may have inward parts a dead knowledge a dead heart dead affections but no inward man because there is no work of grace in him and this is called an inward man because as corruption spreading over the whole man is called the old man so this inward renewing grace spreading into and over the whole man the mind will affections is called an inner man and this inner man is that which knows God believes in Christ loves fears thirsts after grace delights in Gods Commandments and hath a continual opposition to the old man counter-lusting counter-desiring and counter-standing it Christ dwells in your hearts saith the Apostle The holy Spirit is within you saith Christ but as the soul never is in a dead body because where it dwells life is so Christ never is in a man that is dead where he is life is there is an inward man he that hath not in him this inward man cannot be a Christian inwardly Secondly There is an inward work of God that goes to the forming and begetting of this inward man Outward Ordinances may make a Christian in the Letter but an inward work makes a Christian in Spirit I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts Jer 31. 33. A new heart will I give you and a new spirit 〈◊〉 put into you Ezek. 36. 26. I will put my Law into their minds and write it in their hearts Heb. 8. 10. These are Covenant-promises performed to all that are Covenant people In this inward work we have but the Ministry but the writing is by the Spirit as it 's said 2 Cor. 3. 3. Ministred by us but written by the Spirit of the living God Thirdly In this inward man wrought by an inward work consists the being of a true Christian for without this he that is called a Christian is no more a Christian than he that acts the part of a King is a King the name of a Christian is given or may follow from the outward profession but the nature is in this inward man He that begets communicates his Nature to the begotten he that paints a man imploys Art only but communicates no Nature God in a Christians new birth communicates holiness which is the Divine Nature but in an Hypocrite there is nothing but Art as I may say or some outward work for the outward forms may be painted yet inward forms cannot the lineaments of a Christian may be drawn to the life upon the white wall of an Hypocrite but the inward man which is that quod dat esse gives being to a Christian that cannot be but in a true Christian Fourthly He that is inwardly a Christian hath some marks of difference and distinction from the outward Christian forma dat distingui this inward work diff●renceth him from all sorts of them that are nominates and Christians outwardly First He is distinguished from the carnal Jew or Christian that professes Christ but lives in sin for though the outward Jew or Christian may hate some sins Thou abhorrest Idols thou hatest Popery and dost many good works yet that is out of some peculiar and particular indisposition to a particular sin and some particular approbation or liking of some good works but this hate of any sin or this inclination to a performance of any good works ariseth not from an inward nature or gracious principle as it doth in him that is a Christian inwardly and the reason is that contrariety to sin which is in a true Christian arising from this inward gracious Nature is to the whole species or kind of sin and is irreconcileable to any sin whatsoever as contrarieties of Nature are to the whole kind as light is contrary to all darkness and fire to all water so that this contrariety to sin arising from the inward man is universal to all sin though not an universal victory yet there is an universal contrariety victory argues strength contrariety argues nature hence it is that an outward Christian may hate one sin and love another becsuse there is not a gracious Nature in him which would be contrary to all And so also he may do good works but not out of a Nature that is in him for if it were from an inward Nature there would be an universal sympathy with and inclination towards God and all that is of God his Children his Commandments 1 Joh. 5. 12 3. Therefore saith the Apostle I delight in the Law of God according to the inner man Rom. 7. 22. not a particular good inclination but the Law in the whole of it It 's the victory of a Christian over corruption may not be full the performance of good may not be perfect but the inward Nature of a Christian is to be judged by the universal contrariety of his inward man to all sin and his universal inclination to God and holiness and that universal contrariety will beget a combate against all sin and that universall inclination to God an endeavour to all good but whether that combat be victorious or that performance be perfect though it may be much to shew the strength of a Christian yet it shewes not his inward nature but the other this universal contrariety to sin can be in no man but him that hath an universal sympathy with God and his whole law and image in his children they are both in him that is a Christian inwardly and they argue an inward nature of grace in him in which nature he differs from the carnal Christian who may oppose some sins and do some good works out of other principles and reasons Secondly This inward Christian is distinguished from a moral man that to his dogmatical faith and profession of Christ addeth moral vertue for there is as great difference between grace and virtue as between the sweet flowers spread upon a dead carkass and inward life a man be full of virtue 〈◊〉 and emptie of grace as a room exquisitely painted without light moral virtue is like flowers of needle work that are made by art but never grow from any living root natural temper disposition education produce moral virtues but now this inward man of a Christian is as I may say made up of Christ the knowledge faith love the tastes and rellish of Christ are

we rest not upon that grace meerly of having the Gospel preached and the Fountain declared to be opened unto us but there must be a divine hand to enable the will of man to come to this pool when it is moved Of any Text in Scripture this is most clear to prove the miserable impotency of sinful man to this point of salvation he cannot comply with this of himself No man can c. And if this do not suffice we will argue the point a little further Isa 53. 1. Who hath believed our report and to whom is the arme of the Lord revealed Here is Isaiah the Prophets report but there is an arm must be revealed both which must go together the report revealed by the Ministry and the arm of the Lord revealed must go together for else though they saw so many miracles the means of believing yet they believed not saith our Saviour quoting this Text John 12. 39. And whereas every one taught and drawn of God doth come and no man can come except so drawn it manifestly proves that as the coming is mans act and the free act of man for I think man is never more willing then when he is convinc'd indeed and enabled to come to Christ yet the drawing is Gods power that must first be and the drawing of God that is first in time for man doth not come that he may be drawn but because he is drawn therefore he comes And therefore this drawing of man to faith in Christ sounds like a work of Almighty power or a work of omnipotence Ephes 1. 19. The exceeding greatness of his power towards us that believe according to the working of his mighty power whereby he raised Christ from the dead and lifted him to glory The exceeding greatness of his power The Hyperbole of it here is a thrusting and crowding of words together a power that is compared to the raising of Christ Christ I say who bore our sins in his body on the tree though he lay under our sins for the death of Christ must be considered a little further no such load could depress him the Lord would have the stone rolled from his grave for him to rise again This was a work of mighty power and yet according to this God puts forth his hand in drawing of man to Christ so that as I conceive it cannot but argue that the free grace of God giving and the great power of God drawing makes faith to be above man and takes it from mans merit and mans power And truly it could not else be rightly said in Ephes 2. 8. Through faith not of your selves if this faith were of our selves The Root of this impotency shall be shewn you in five particulars First there are some footsteps of the Law of God remaining that were written in the heart of man In Rom. 2. 15. they shew the work of the Law written in their hearts that as by the rubbish that you see you conjecture what building there was before and by the defaced lines you may guess at the picture so you may by the common Notions left in mens minds judge of right and wrong and the differences between justice and injury without which no society could be of any men in the world but would be herds of wilde beasts rather then men but of Christ there appears nothing written naturally in the heart of man nothing at all concerning a Saviour and a Mediatour but an utter darkness and silence of Christ and consequently of Faith in Christ Secondly therefore man when his conscience is angry having something of the Law in it and accuses as it doth for sins against Nature common Law and common Light and when it accuses and troubles him being altogether ignorant of the righteousness of God by faith in Christ and how he should be saved and justifieed knows not till it be revealed by the Gospel for therein is the righteousness of God revealed Rom. 1. 7. For who can so much as guess by the pregnancy of natural light that God in his Covenant of Salvation should pitch on such a way as Christ a Sponsor or Surety the Mediator between God and man that he should make expiation for sin truly no more then Moses or an Israelite could have so much as found out the way of healing the biting of the fiery Serpents by a figure set upon a pole to be looked unto no man could imagine no mans reason could have found it out had they wandred in the wilderness never so many years and yet this was Gods way and a Type of Christ signifying what man could never have found out to conceive of compensation for sin by a Mediator which was a thing impossible and had not been known therefore man being ignorant of this must of necessity fly to his own plaisters and fig-leaves for if by nature he may be convinc'd of sin yet by the dictates of natural conscience he can never find out any righteousness and satisfaction to Gods justice then it must follow that he must fly to making a medicine of his own righteousness which is of works for that only comes by man to be found out as being next to hand in this case that I say or nothing as being his only hope and this bulrush the drowning man takes hold of and holds it fast as for life and so comes of necessity to settle on his own righteousness being ignorant of the righteousness of God which is by faith in Christ And this the Apostle tells you Rom. 10. 3. For they being ignorant of the righteousness of God went about to establish their own righteousness and so submitted not to the righteousness of God where you see the righteousness that is our own maintains our pride in that word submitted not and rising from ignorance of that of Gods righteousness to which we must submit by way of humiliation which is a cause that men believe not And then Thirdly and pray mark there is a double Revelation of Christ the one is a revealing of him by Gospel-doctrine the other is a revealing of him by spiritual light The revealing of Christ by Gospel-doctrine to the natural knowledge of mans corrupt understanding cannot procure or produce any other then literal knowledge of Christ The Scripture calls it knowledge in the letter as to know the Gospel as a History may be known to be true whereof a man hath a dogmatical knowledge you have many believers and these by knowing the Gospel by a natural light are differenced from Heathens But this doth not nor never will produce a saving faith most men have a literal knowledge we see in ordinary experience all men have some knowledge and Scholars a great deal yet being seen by natural light though revealed in the Gospel will not reach so far as to beget faith saving faith in Christ But the other revealing of Christ by the light of the Spirit of God conveying the knowledge of him into the mind and heart

Gentile grant in Chap 1. that they did or possibly might know God by the foot-steps that he had left of himself in the Creation and the government of the world but that knowledg amounted to no more than of his Being or Properties not of his Worship especially that which you call positive and so they neither glorified him as God nor shewed that wisedom which as Philosophers they professed for professing themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they became foolish ver 22. As for them that assert the Sun and Moon to be Preachers of Christ the Mediator to the Heathen I think I may joyn them together with that Philosopher who had a conceit that the heavens do make an harmony by their motion which Musick I dare say he never heard As concerning the Jew the Apostle brings him in cap. 2. ver 11. pleading his difference from the Gentile and it is granted cap. 3. ver 1. that much every way is the advantage of the Jew and the profit of Circumcision For Circumcision verily profits if thou keep the Law cap. 2. ver 25. but if as we say of some Planets their great light be joyned with ill Aspects and irregular motion so if you that have a form of knowledge and truth in the Law if thou be a breaker of the Law and live contrary to thy own Principles then thy circumcision is made uncircumcision for an honest heathen that is uncircumcised is better than thou and shall condemn a dishonest though circumcised Jew ver 26 27. and the reason is because God measures not men by their external accomplishments which they have by being Churches and the priviledges of them but by the inward power of godliness accompanying their outward profession For he is not a Jew that is one outwardly c. In which words there is First A distinction Secondly A description or definition Thirdly An estimate or valuation First The distinction is not between divers persons as of a Jew and no Jew Circumcision and no Circumcision for that sounds as a distinction of Christian and Heathen but it is of one that it a Jew and no Jew of Circumcision that is and yet is not Ci●cumcision as of Christians that are and yet are not Christians for so it is always when you speak of equivocals So the Pou●●rai●re of Caesar pictured in the Table is not Caesar so he is not a Jew that is one outwardly Secondly The description of both is the Jew that is no Jew is one that is so by 〈…〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or visible profession or if you will o●ten●●tion o● Religion but he is nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in secret or inwardly if he have not that which in our Covenant is exprest in these words the law written in his heart and put into his mind the circumcision that is not circumcision is the visible mark they carry in the flesh but no inward purity of heart and mortification of lust the one of these is in the letter the other in the spirit What is the meaning of this phrase How comes this word not in the letter to signifie outwardness in opposition to Spirit or inward grace so it signifies in the new testament or in Scripture and I think peculiarly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a line made by a pencil as well as a letter made by pen and so may signifie a meer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a portraiture or mathematical body that consist of lines of no depth and substance an outward form and nothing else or a writing with Ink as the Epistle 2 Cor. 3. 3. the Epistle of Christ not written with Ink but by or with the Spirit and so the Scripture that knowes another writing viz. by the Spirit in the heart doth fitly oppose thereunto that other manner of delineation which is outward by pen or pencil and so circumcision by a mark in the flesh is said to be in the letter not that the Apostle decries the ordinances of the Jewes or their profession in sensu composite but only in sensu diviso when the form goes without the power for even Christianity which is not so outward in all respects as Judaisme was hath a form of doctrine a form of worship or else no sacraments and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a form of godly conversation so it s called whatsoever they that call themselves Antiformalists but are indeed Formalists do quibble to the contrary Thirdly The valuation that is made of both these the Jew or the circumcision outwardly that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may have the praise of men The Apostle before his knowledg of Christ valued himself at a great rate by those things that were but outwardly as a visible Church-member past all contradiction but the Jew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the circumcision of the heart the power and purity of Godliness within hath the commendation of and acceptance with God I shall need say no more for the general opening of these words only before you go any further change the scene and lay the measure to your silves he is not a Christian that is one outwardly in form whose baptisme is the sprinkling of his face with water but he that is a Christian indeed reputatively and as to Church-membership thou maist have praise of men for thy profession for man sees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the outside but God measures the real members of his covenant by their faith for it s his peculiar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Father that sees in secret Math. 64. The observations to be made upon the words shall be short and plain and the Uses we will take altogether at the close Observ 1 First Here we have an excellent example for preaching of distinguishing doctrine especially to such professors whose pride and outwardness in the true Religion makes them seem to themselves to be some body when they are indeed nothing distinguish a Christian professor from the Heathen a Protestant from a Papist and you shall say too little to them that are Christians inwardly and too much sometimes to feed the pride of them that are so outwardly they that know no more of Christianity but that which is outward will be ready to object when you be● them down so flat that which the Apostle inferrs as the Jewes objection against his distinguishing doctrine Rom. 3. 1. what advantage then hath the Jew or what is the profit of circumcision I Answer as the Apostle doth much every way but when I have said all all saving grace is discriminant and differencing and so should all saving doctrine be sharp but wholsome cutting but convincing teaching others what they should be by shewing what manner of men they are that have the praise of God As to a visible station in Church order the Apostle distinguishes 1 Cor. 5. 12. between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that are without those that are within that is within the pale of the Church both the