Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	adam_n	enter_v	world_n	4,060	5	4.8464	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62844	Christianity not mysterious, or, A treatise shewing that there is nothing in the Gospel contrary to reason, nor above it and that no Christian doctrine can be properly call'd a mystery / by John Toland.	Toland, John, 1670-1722.	1696 (1696)	Wing T1763; ESTC R7180	73,824	208

antient Christians 22. HAving so dispatch'd these adequate Ideas and I know not what real Essences we come now to the main Point upon which the whole Controversy chiefly depends For the Question being whether or no Christianity is mysterious it ought to be naturally decided by the New Testament wherein the Christian Faith is originally contain'd I hearti●…y desire to put the Case upon this Issue I appeal to this Tribunal For did I not infinitely prefer the Truth I learn from these sacred Records to all other Considerations I should never assert that there are no Mysteries in Christianity The Scriptures have engag'd me in this Error if it be one and I will sooner be reputed Heterodox with these only on my side than to pass for Orthodox with the whole World and have them against me 23. Now by searching the Scriptures I find some of the Evangelick Doctrines call'd Mysteries in a more general or in a more particular Sense They are more generally so call'd with respect to all Mankind for being certain Matters of Fact only known to God and lodg'd in his Decree or such Events as were quite lost and forgot in the World it was impossible for any Person tho never so wise or learned to discover them for the things of God knoweth none but the Spirit of God as none can find out the secret Thoughts of Man till he tells them himself Such Revelations then of God in the New Testament are call'd Mysteries not from any present Inconceivableness or Obscurity but with respect to what they were before this Revelation as that is call'd our Task which we long since perform'd 24. If any should question this let him hear the Apostle Paul declare for himself and his Fellow-Labourers in the Gospel We speak says he the Wisdom of God hid in a MYSTERY which God ordain'd before the World for our Glory which none of the Princes of the World knew c. And to shew that this Divine Wisdom was a Mystery for want of revealing Information he presently subjoins Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither have entred into the Heart of Man the things which God hath prepar'd for them that love him but God hath reveal'd them to us by his Spirit The most perspicacious Philosophers were not able to foretel the Coming of Christ to discover the Resurrection of the Body nor any other Matter of Fact that is deliver'd in the Gospel And if they happen'd now and then to say something like the Truth they did but divine at best and could never be certain of their Opinion It is a most delightful thing to consider what Pains the enquiring Heathens were often at to give a Reason for what depended not in the least upon any Principles in their Philosophy but was an historical Fact communicable by God alone or such as had undoubted Memoirs concerning it Of this I think it not amiss to add the following Example 25. The same Experience that taught the Gentiles their mortal Condition acquainted them also with the Frailty of their Natures and the numberless Calamities constantly attending them They could not perswade themselves that the Species of Man came in such deplorable Circumstances out of the Hands of an infinitely good and merciful Deity and so were inclin'd to impute all to the Wickedness of adult Persons till they perceiv'd that Death and Misfortune did not spare innocent Children more than Robbers and Pirates At last they imagin'd a pre-existent State wherein the Soul acting separately like Angels might have contracted some extraordinary Guilt and so for Punishment be thrust into the Body which they sometimes compar'd to a Prison but oftner to a Grave This was likewise the Origin of Transmigration tho in process of Time the Sins of this World became as much concern'd in that Opinion as those of the other But nothing is more ingenious than the Account which Cebes the Theban gives us of the Matter in his most excellent Portraiture of humane Life He feigns Imposture sitting in a Throne at the Gate of Life in the Shape of a most beautiful Lady holding a Cup in her Hand She obligingly presents it to all that are on their Journey to this World and these as civilly accept it but the Draught proves Ignorance and Error whence proceed all the Disorders and Misery of their Lives 26. This Point was a great Mystery to these honest Philosophers who had only Fancy to guide them and could not pretend to Instructions from the Mind of God but the thing is now no Mystery to us that have the Mind of Christ. We know that Adam the first Man became also the first Sinner and Mortal and that so the whole Race propagated from him could be naturally no better than he was By one Man Sin enter'd into the World and Death by Sin 27. But some Doctrines of the Gospel are more particularly call'd Mysteries because they were hid from God's peculiar People under the Mosaick Oeconomy not that they knew nothing concerning them for the Law had a Shadow of good things to come but they were not clearly and fully reveal'd till the New Testament Times being vail'd before by various Typical Representations Ceremonies and figurative Expressions Christ tells his Disciples Many Prophets and Kings have desir'd to see those things which you see and have not seen them and to hear those things which you hear and have not heard them Paul says we use great PLAINNESS of Speech and not as Moses who put a VAIL over his Face And then expresly adds that this VAIL is taken away in Christ which could not be truly affirm'd were the things reveal'd still inconceivable for I know no Difference between not hearing of a thing at all and not comprehending it when you do In another Place Paul has these remarkable Words The Preaching of Jesus Christ according to the REVELATION of the MYSTERY which was kept secret since the World began but now is made MANIFEST and by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the Commandment of the everlasting God MADE KNOWN to all Nations for the Obedience of Faith 28. These Passages alone sufficiently prove the Assertions contain'd in N o 6 and 7 of this Section viz. First that the Mysteries of the Gospel were certain things in their own Nature intelligible enough but call'd Mysteries by reason of the Vail under which they were formerly hid Secondly that under the Gospel this Vail is wholly remov'd From which Thirdly follows the promis'd Conclusion that such Doctrines cannot now properly deserve the Name of Mysteries 29. It is observable that the hottest Sticklers for the Fathers do cite their Authority only where they think it makes for them and slight or suppress it when not favourable to their Cause Lest it should be maliciously insinuated that I serve the holy Scriptures after the same manner I shall here transcribe all the Passages of the New Testament where the