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	moses_n	sin_n	6,757	5	6.1647	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41434	The two great mysteries of Christian religion the ineffable Trinity, [the] vvonderful incarnation, explicated to the satisfaction of mans own naturall reason, and according to the grounds of philosophy / by G. G. G.	Goodman, Godfrey, 1583-1656.	1653 (1653)	Wing G1103; ESTC R4826	120,015	119

a higher beginning In aeterno principio aeternitatis in the eternall beginning of eternity you must give me leave is sometimes I speak in unusuall termes when neither the words nor apprehension of man can otherwise serve to express or conceive the mysterie And to what can the regeneration or new birth of man be better resembled or compared then to the creation See then how they agree and concur together After the creation of the heaven and the earth and the confused masse of the waters the first thing created for ornament and beauty was light Gen 1. 3 Light is but an accident and must presuppose a substance and though it be light yet in respect of the substance it is in effect but a shadow Saint John therefore doth better express this light together with the fountain of this light in the fourth verse of this Chapter speaking of the Word In him was life and the life was the light of men and as in the creation before this light was created the state of the world is described by Moses Gen. 1. 2. And darkness was upon the face of the deep which is most truly explicated by Saint John in the 5th verse of this Chapter The light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not this darkness betokeneth the state of sin the death of sin as Adam soon after his creation committed sin whereupon followed the sentence of death And out of this death of sin it was the great mercy of God that man should be awakened and that by degrees first with the sound and noyse of the law which came with Thunder and Lightning to strike terror into man as the bellowing of beasts designed for slaughter and sacrifice might shew them their own condition for death is the wages of sin and thus far Moses proceeds Man being now rowsed a little awakened with this great sound of the Law trembling and fearing he listens and finds that this sound becomes a voice Vox hominē sonat the voice betokens a man and here after the great terror and threatnings of the law he begins to conceive hope that he may find bowels of compassion and then expects mercy and pity This was the office of Saint John Baptist whose time was an interregnum between the Law and the Gospel and who was Vox clamantis in deserto the voyce of a cryer in the wilderness described by S. John in the 6th verse of this Chapter Hitherto we have heard the sound of the law and the voice of a Cryer but all this will not suffice to discover the secrets and mysteries of God we must then listen and we shall find that this voyce doth tend and end in a word and that this word may be fitted to mans capacity it is necessary that this word be made flesh Verbum caro and in him should dwell all the treasures of Gods wisdom And as this word was of an extraordinary condition so it is necessary that there should be tongues of an extraordinary nature and form fit to express this word Linguas attulit qui pro verbo venit and this was the holy Ghost who came down in the form of fiery cloven tongues to testifie of this word and here you have the full hight and perfection of the state of grace and this is the scope and the object of Saint John which is implyed in his name for it signifies the grace of God So that Moses comes as far short of Saint John as time doth of eternity and in other respects especially for the object Saint John as far exceeds Moses as the fruit doth the blossom or the substance the type or the body the shadow Moses by a propheticall spirit and speciall illumination describes the creation of the world and the making of man and so descends downwards and writes only the History of his own time but our Apostle transcends and as he begins with the eternity of Christ so in the Revelations he prophesies of the Church even to the worlds ends and after the dissolution of this world then to remain glorious for all eternity And as they had several ends so they proceeded severall ways Moses according to the office of a Law-giver sets down many judgements of God upon the committing of the first sin as the sentence of death the expulsion out of Paradise the murder of Abel the vengeance upon Cain the deluge the confusion of tongues the burning of Sodom the captivity of Egypt besides the heavy yoak of Gods own law that they should begin with circumcision the shedding of bloud that they should be so many in number commanded with such strict observances with such severe punishment and notwithstanding all this yet could he not so much prevaile as to bring the Israelites into the land of promise But our Apostle Saint John according to the nature of an Evangelist in every page brings many tokens signes and assurances of Gods mercy and goodness they are so many that I will not reckon them and as upon the creation man committed sinne so in our regeneration he that knew no sin became a sacrifice for sin Mans nakednesse did then appear but now he is clothed with Christs righteousness Paradise was then lost but now he recovers a better inheritance and that it might appear how in every point and parcell a full restitution should be made as in Paradise there was the tree of life and pleasant fountains and waters so the like are described in the heavenly Jerusalem as Paradise was kept shut by an Angell with a fiery sword so on the contrary the heavenly Jerusalem hath many doores all standing wide open there is free entrance none are excluded as you may read in the latter end of the Apocalypse besides those frequent and daily works of mercy practised by Christ whose custome was deambulare benefaciendo he had no other imployment but onely to doe works of mercy curing all manner of diseases feeding many thousands raising the dead blessing sanctifying and teaching men in the wayes of salvation and to reckon them up in particular were endless onely I conclude with our Apostle in the last words of his Gospell where he confesseth that the world would not contain the bookes that might be written of Christs Acts. Thus our Apostle doth every way inclose and incompass Moses and so far doth the last Evangelist exceed the first Law-giver both in the object whereof they treat for the world was created of nothing but the word was begotten in the understanding of God not six thousand years are yet past since the world was created but the word was begotten from all eternity so Moses ends with his own time but our Apostle proceeds to the eternity of the Church by comparing the first pen-man of Scripture with the last it is memorable to consider the difference between the beginning of Scripture and the end of Scripture between Genesis and the Apocalipse for it

in all naturall works God useth meanes and why not in supernaturals it is most credible that the same wise God observes the same wise course for the effecting of his own will nor can this disparage God for the means are none other but such as God himself doth appoint thus is God the beginning the end and the meanes that God may be all in all Thus it appears that meanes must be used to purchase our redemption i. e. that a price or ransome must be paid for our sin but where should we procure this ransom if we have it not of our own where shall we borrow it who will be bound for us or become our surety it is true that God hath locked up in the bowels of the earth as it were in Natures coffers great treasures of Gold Silver precious Stones Minerals and these serve to make our Coyn which carries the price of all things whereby these worldly commodities are bought and sold in the Market and these will serve to pay for the ransom of Princes or to corrupt Magistrates and to buy their consciences or for any other worldly or finister imployment and answerable hereunto God hath his coyn in the materiall heavens his Golden Sun his Silver Moon and as the Chimists observe there is not a Planet which hath not a speciall influence upon some Metalls Thus do Gods treasures in the heavens cause the generation of ours in the bowels of the earth but alas all these are temporary the rust doth consume them and therefore they are not currant mony to purchase eternity neither yet do they serve in the exchange and remission of sins After the Metals we will consider the Vegetatives the beauty and sweetness of fair and delicious flowers the odoriferous and aromaticall fruits the pretious drugs and all whatsoever else the earth doth afford these may very well be Natures incense or sacrifice to God but alass their odours do vanish like vapours and cannot wash away the spots and cleanse the uncleanness of sin After the Vegetatives we come to the Beasts such as have motion and sense and in them by their slaughter and sacrifice in the Mosaicall Law we finde the just deserts and rewards of our sin that death is the wages of sin so that God in the Law did institute sacrifices to betoken the truth of things to succeed for it appears that the spots and staines of sin have so far defiled and made such a deep impression in man that they cannot be washed away but by the effusion of bloud it is bloud and bloud only that must serve to scoure them From beasts come we to Man for whom the whole world was created and in whom the whole world did transgress and having now found out the principall party we must lay hold on him he is our Prisoner and untill we proceed first against him we cannot touch upon the accessaries death being the wages of sin therefore man must dye but seeing the sin was of infinite malignity as being committed against an infinite Majesty it requires either an infinite price and ransom or an infinite punishment and satisfaction therefore the death of poor silly man alone cannot suffice though we must take it in part of payment yet it cannot discharge the whole debt We must then ascend higher and if meanes be used in the redemption of man as it is a work of the highest nature so needs it must have the most excellent meanes This whole world is sublunary and serves for our inferiour uses to cloth the back and to fill the belly it cannot reach so high as the heavens or the work of our redemption the Angels are only our gardians they attend and assist us and being so meanly ministeriall it were high presumption to make them our redeemers for they cannot be sufficiently thankfull for their own beeing much less are they able to satisfie for the sin of others which sin being infinite requires an infinite satisfaction and therefore none but God alone can suffice for in justice there must be a proportion between the offence and the punishment but if the punishment should be infinite either in the torments or in the continuance then there were no place for Mercy but it should be wholly excluded which being one of Gods attributes it must ever subsist therefore it was necessary that some infinite Person should suffer and seeing that the work of Redemption is far greater then the work of Creation and therefore we call the time Hebdomada major for in the Creation there was no resistance of Gods Power for there was nothing but in the work of redemption our sins stand in opposition and thereby hinder Gods action and therefore God is pleased not to use any of those generall attributes which performed the work of the Creation as the omnipotency in making the providence in preserving the justice in punishing but a Person in the Deity must be ingaged and the more to interest him in the cause and the more for the satisfaction of justice there must be an Hypostaticall union of the Godhead and Manhood in one Person whereby the weakness and guiltiness of man supported by the power and al-sufficiency of the Godhead might make a full satisfaction for sin and though it be not agreeable to justice that an innocent should dye for the nocent yet by the free oblation of himself it seems very reasonable and just and thereby he becomes a true reall propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of the whole world and as man using means under God repentance and sorrow for sin laying hold on Gods Mercies in Christ shall receive the full benefit so I doubt not but the cursed Angels the very Devils themselves may finde some mitigation of punishment even by Christ's Passion for God could infinitely increase their Torments as their sins have justly deserved and it is the mercy of God to binde them up in chaines that they might not be permitted to do more mischief whereby they might further provoke and incurre Gods heavy wrath and vengeance against them and that they are capable of some mercy or at least of some mitigation of punishment they are Gods creatures they partake of a spirituall nature and are in the compass of Gods generall mercy which may abundantly suffice all and I do ascribe all the mercies of God to Christ. Thus then for our redemption no less then a Person in the Deity can suffice and as this is necessary in respect of justice which requires a due recompence so in regard of the purchase which is no less then the Kingdom of heaven and a Crown of Glory and therefore could be of no less undertaking and performance then of a Person in the Deity and that it should be the second Person because he is the word or the wisdom of God and the sin was committed against the wisdom of God by tasting the Tree of knowledge and though God be life in himself imparts