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	sin_n	transgression_n	6,929	5	10.8054	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63641	Antiquitates christianæ, or, The history of the life and death of the holy Jesus as also the lives acts and martyrdoms of his Apostles : in two parts.	Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.; Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. Great exemplar of sanctity and holy life according to the christian institution.; Cave, William, 1637-1713. Antiquitates apostolicae, or, The lives , acts and martyrdoms of the holy apostles of our Saviour.; Cave, William, 1637-1713. Lives, acts and martydoms of the holy apostles of our Saviour.	1675 (1675)	Wing T287; ESTC R19304	1,245,097	752

thither but yet worshipped God at home and used their own Rites and Ceremonies Every seventh day they publickly met in their Synagogues where the younger seating themselves at the feet of the elder one reads some portions out of a Book which another eminently skilled in the principles of their Sect expounds to the rest their dogmata like the Philosophy of the Ancients being obscurely and enigmatically delivered to them instructing them in the rules of piety and righteousness and all the duties that concerned God others or themselves They industriously tilled and cultivated the ground and lived upon the fruits of their own labours had all their revenues in common there being neither rich nor poor among them Their manners were very harmless and innocent exact observers of the rules of Justice somewhat beyond the practice of other men As for that branch of them that lived in Egypt whose excellent Manners and Institutions are so particularly described and commended by Philo and whom 〈◊〉 and others will needs have to have been Christians converted by S. Mark we have taken notice of elsewhere in S. Mark' s Life We find no mention of them in the History of the Gospel probably because living remote from Cities and all places of publick concourse they never concerned themselves in the actions of Christ or his Apostles What their principles were in matters of speculation is not much material to enquire their Institutions mainly referring to practice Out of a great regard to wisdom and vertue they neglected all care of the body renounced all conjugal embraces abstained very much from Meats and Drinks some of them not eating or drinking for three others for five or six days together accounting it unbecoming men of such a Philosophical temper and genius to spend any part of the day upon the necessities of the body Their way they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worship and their rules 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doctrines of wisdom their contemplations were sublime and speculative and of things beyond the ordinary notions of other Sects they traded in the names and mysteries of Angels and in all their carriages bore a great shew of modesty and humility And therefore these in all likelihood were the very persons whom S. Paul primarily designed though not excluding others who espoused the same principles when he charges the 〈◊〉 to let no man 〈◊〉 them of their reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels intruding into those things which he hath not seen vainly puffed up by his 〈◊〉 mind that being dead to the rudiments of the World they should no longer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be subject to these dogmata or ordinances such as Touch not taste not handle not the main principles of the Essenian Institution being the commandments and doctrines of men which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will-worship and humility and neglecting of the body not in any honour to the satisfying of the 〈◊〉 Besides these three greater there were several other lesser Sects in the Jewish Church such as the Herodians supposed to have been either part of Herod's guard or a combination of men who to ingratiate themselves with the Prince maintained Herod to be the Messiah and at their own charge celebrated his Coronation-days as also the Sabbath when they used to set lighted Candles crowned with Violets in their windows an opinion which S. 〈◊〉 justly laughs at as trifling and ridiculous Probably they were a party that had 〈◊〉 Herod's interest and endeavoured to support his new-gotten Soveraignty For Herod being a stranger and having by the Roman power usurped the Kingdom was generally hateful and burdensom to the people and therefore beside the assistance of a foreign power needed some to stand by him at home They were peculiarly 〈◊〉 in pressing people to pay Tribute to Caesar Herod being obliged as S. Hierom observes by the Charter of his Soveraignty to look after the Tribute due to Caesar and they could not do him a more acceptable service by this means endearing him to his great Patrons at Rome In matters of opinion they seem to have sided with the Sadducees what S. Matthew calls the leaven of the Sadducees S. Mark stiles the leaven of Herod Probable it is that they had drawn Herod to be of their principles that as they asserted his right to the Kingdom he might favour and maintain their impious opinions And 't is likely enough that men of so debauched manners might be easily tempted to take shelter under principles that so directly served the purposes of a bad life Another Sect in that Church were the Samaritans the posterity of those who succeeded in the room of the ten captivated Tribes a mixture of Jews and Gentiles they held that nothing but the 〈◊〉 was the Word of God that Mount Gerizim was the true place of publick and solemn worship that they were the descendents of Joseph and heirs of the Aaronical Priesthood and that no dealing or correspondence was to be maintained with strangers nor any unclean thing to be touched The Karraeans were a branch of the Sadducees but rejected afterwards their abominable and unsound opinions they are the true Textualists adhering only to the writings of Moses and the Prophets and expounding the Scripture by it self peremptorily disowning the absurd glosses of the Talmud and the idle Traditions of the Rabbins insomuch that they admit not so much as the Hebrew points into their Bibles accounting them part of the Oral and Traditionary Law for which reason they are greatly hated by the rest of the Jews They are in great numbers about 〈◊〉 and in other places at this day There was also the Sect of the Zealots frequently mentioned by Josephus a Generation of men insolent and ungovernable 〈◊〉 and savage who under a pretence of extraordinary zeal for God and the honour of his Law committed the most enormous outrages against God and Man but of them we have given an account in the Life of S. Simon the Zealot And yet as if all this had not been enough to render their Church miserable within it self their sins and intestine divisions had brought in the Roman power upon them who set Magistrates and Taskmasters over them depressed their great 〈◊〉 put in and out Senators at pleasure made the Temple pay tribute and placed a Garrison at hand to command it abrogated a great part of their Laws and stript them so naked both of Civil and Ecclesiastical Order and Authority that they had not power left so much as to put a man to death All evident demonstrations that Shiloh was come and the Scepter departed that the Sacrifice and Oblation was to cease the Messiah being cut off who came to finish transgression to make an end of sins to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness SECT III. Of the EVANGELICAL Dispensation The gradual revelations concerning the Messiah John the Baptist Christ's forerunner His extraordinary

as many persons and in as many capacities and in the same dispositions as the Promises were applied and did relate in Circumcision to the same they do belong and may be applied in Baptism And let it be remembred That the Covenant which Circumcision did sign was a Covenant of Grace and 〈◊〉 the Promises were of the Spirit or spiritual it was made before the Law and could not be rescinded by the Legal Covenant nothing could be added to it or taken from it and we that are partakers of this grace are therefore partakers of it by being Christ's servants united to Christ and so are become Abraham's seed as the Apostle at large and prosessedly proves in divers places but especially in the fourth to the 〈◊〉 and the third to the Galatians And therefore if Infants were then admitted to it and consigned to it by a Sacrament which they understood not any more than ours do there is not any reason why ours should not enter in at the ordinary gate and door of grace as well as they Their Children were circumcised the eighth day but were instructed afterwards when they could enquire what these things meant Indeed their Proselytes were first taught then circumcised so are ours baptized but their Infants were consigned first and so must ours 16. Thirdly In Baptism we are born again and this Infants need in the present circumstances and for the same great reason that men of age and reason do For our natural birth is either of it self insufficient or is made so by the Fall of Adam and the consequent evils that Nature alone or our first birth cannot bring us to Heaven which is a supernatural end that is an end above all the power of our Nature as now it is So that if Nature cannot bring us to Heaven Grace must or we can never get thither if the first birth cannot a second must but the second birth spoken of in Scripture is Baptism A man must be born of 〈◊〉 and the Spirit And therefore Baptism is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the laver of a new birth Either then Infants cannot go to Heaven any way that we know of or they must be baptized To say they are to be left to God is an excuse and no answer for when God hath opened the door and calls that the entrance into Heaven we do not leave them to God when we will not carry them to him in the way which he hath described and at the door which himself hath opened we leave them indeed but it is but helpless and destitute and though God is better than man yet that is no warrant to us what it will be to the children that we cannot warrant or conjecture And if it be objected that to the New birth are required dispositions of our own which are to be wrought by and in them that have the use of Reason Besides that this is wholly against the Analogy of a New birth in which the person to be born is wholly a passive and hath put into him the principle that in time will produce its proper actions it is certain that they that can receive the new birth are capable of it The effect of it is a possibility of being saved and arriving to a supernatural felicity If Infants can receive this effect then also the New birth without which they cannot receive the effect And if they can receive Salvation the effect of the New birth what hinders them but they may receive that that is in order to that effect and ordained only for it and which is nothing of it self but in its institution and relation and which may be received by the same capacity in which one may be created that is a passivity or a capacity obediential 17. Fourthly Concerning pardon of sins which is one great effect of Baptism it is certain that 〈◊〉 have not that benefit which men of sin and age may receive He that hath a sickly stomach drinks wine and it not only refreshes his spirits but cures his stomach He that drinks wine and hath not that disease receives good by his wine though it does not minister to so many needs it refreshes though it does not cure him and when oyl is poured upon a man's head it does not always heal a wound but sometimes makes him a chearful countenance sometimes it consigns him to be a King or a Priest So it is in Baptism it does not heal the wounds of actual sins because they have not committed them but it takes off the evil of Original sin whatsoever is imputed to us by Adam's prevarication is washed off by the death of the second Adam into which we are baptized But concerning original sin because there are so many disputes which may intricate the Question I shall make use only of that which is confessed on both sides and material to our purpose Death came upon all men by Adam's sin and the necessity of it remains upon us as an evil consequent of the Disobedience For though death is natural yet it was kept off from man by God's favour which when he lost the banks were broken and the water reverted to its natural course and our nature became a curse and death a punishment Now that this also relates to Infants so far is certain because they are sick and die This the Pelagians denied not But to whomsoever this evil descended for them also a remedy is provided by the second Adam That as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive that is at the day of Judgment then death shall be destroyed In the mean time Death hath a sting and a bitterness a curse it is and an express of the Divine anger and if this sting be not taken away here we shall have no participation of the final victory over death Either therefore Infants must be for ever without remedy in this evil consequent of their Father's sin or they must be adopted into the participation of Christ's death which is the remedy Now how can they partake of Christ's death but by Baptism into his death For if there be any spiritual way 〈◊〉 it will by a stronger argument admit them to Baptism for if they can receive spiritual effects they can also receive the outward Sacrament this being denied only upon pretence they cannot have the other If there be no spiritual way extraordinary then the ordinary way is only left for them If there be an extraordinary let it be shewn and Christians will be at rest concerning their Children One thing only I desire to be observed That Pelagius denied Original Sin but yet denied not the necessity of Infants Baptism and being accused of it in an Epistle to Pope Innocent the First he purged himself of the suspicion and allowed the practice but denied the inducement of it which shews that their arts are weak that think Baptism to be useless to Infants if they be not formally guilty of the prevarication of Adam

himself to his house who received him with gladness and repentance of his crimes purging his Conscience and filling his heart and house with joy and sanctity for immediately upon the arrival of the Master at his house he offered restitution to all persons whom he had injured and satisfaction and half of his remanent estate he gave to the poor and so gave the fairest entertainment to Jesus who brought along with him Salvation to his house There it was that he spake the Parable of the King who concredited divers talents to his servants and having at his return exacted an account rewarded them who had improved their bank and been faithful in their trust with rewards proportionable to their capacity and improvement but the negligent servant who had not meliorated his stock was punished with ablegation and 〈◊〉 to outer darkness And from hence sprang up that dogmatical proposition which is mysterious and 〈◊〉 in Christianity To him that hath shall be given and from him that hath not shall be taken away even what he hath After this going forth of Jericho he cured two blind men upon the way 5. Six days before Easter Jesus came to Bethany where he was feasted by Martha and Mary and accompanied by Lazarus who sate at the table with Jesus But Mary brought a pound of Nard Pistick and as formerly she had done again anoints the feet of Jesus and fills the house with the odour till God himself smelt thence a savour of a sweet-smelling sacrifice But Judas Iscariot the Thief and the Traitor repined at the vanity of the expence as he pretended because it might have been sold for three hundred pence and have been given to the poor But Jesus in his reply taught us that there is an opportunity for actions of Religion as well as of Charity Mary did this against the Burial of Jesus and her Religion was accepted by him to whose honours the holocaust of love and the oblations of alms-deeds are in their proper seasons direct actions of worship and duty But at this meeting there came many Jews to see Lazarus who was raised from death as well as to see Jesus and because by occasion of his Resurrection many of them believed on Jesus therefore the Pharisees deliberated about putting him to death But God in his glorious providence was pleased to preserve him as a trumpet of his glories and a testimony of the Miracle thirty years after the death of Jesus 6. The next day being the fifth day before the Passeover Jesus came to the foot of the mount of Olives and sent his Disciples to Bethphage a village in the neighbourhood commanding them to unloose an asse and a colt and bring them to him and to tell the owners it was done for the Master's use and they did so and when they brought the Asse to Jesus he rides on him to Jerusalem and the People having notice of his approach took branches of Palm-trees and went out to meet him strewing branches and garments in the way crying out Hosanna to the son of David Which was a form of exclamation used to the honour of God and in great Solemnities and signifies Adoration to the Son of David by the rite of carrying branches which when they used in procession about their Altars they used to pray Lord save us Lord prosper us which hath occasioned the reddition of Hoschiannah to be amongst some that Prayer which they repeated at the carrying of the Hoschiannah as if it self did signifie Lord save us But this honour was so great and unusual to be done even to Kings that the Pharisees knowing this to be an appropriate manner of address to God said one to another by way of wonder Hear ye what these men say For they were troubled to hear the People revere him as a God 7. When Jesus from the mount of Olives beheld Jerusalem he wept over it and foretold great sadnesses and infelicities futurely contingent to it which not only happened in the sequel of the story according to the main issues and significations of this Prophecy but even to minutes and circumstances it was verified For in the mount of Olives where Jesus shed tears over perishing Jerusalem the Romans first pitched their Tents when they came to its final overthrow From thence descending to the City he went into the Temple and still the acclamations followed him till the Pharisees were ready to burst with the noises abroad and the tumults of envy and scorn within and by observing that all their endeavours to suppress his glories were but like clapping their hands to veil the Sun and that in despight of all their stratagems the whole Nation was become Disciple to the glorious Nazarene And there 〈◊〉 cured certain persons that were blind and lame 8. But whilest he abode at Jerusalem certain Greeks who came to the Feast to worship made their address to Philip that they might be brought to Jesus Philip tells Andrew and they both tell Jesus who having admitted them discoursed many things concerning his Passion and then prayed a petition which is the end of his own Sufferings and of all humane actions and the purpose of the whole Creation Father glorifie thy Name To which he was answered by a voice from Heaven I have both glorified it and will glorifie it again But this nor the whole series of Miracles that he did the Mercies the Cures nor the divine Discourses could gain the Faith of all the Jews who were determined by their humane interest for many of the Rulers who believed on him durst not confess him because they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God Then Jesus again exhorted all men to believe on him that so they might in the same act believe on God that they might approach unto the light and not abide in darkness that they might obey the commandments of the Father whose express charge it was that Jesus should preach this Gospel and that they might not be judged at the last Day by the Word which they have rejected which Word to all its observers is everlasting life After which Sermon retiring to Bethany he abode there all Night 9. On the morrow returning to Jerusalem on the way being hungry he passed by a Fig-tree where expecting fruit he found none and cursed the Fig-tree which by the next day was dried up and withered Upon occasion of which preternatural event Jesus discoursed of the power of Faith and its power to produce Miracles But upon this occasion others the Disciples of Jesus in after-Ages have pleased themselves with phancies and imperfect descants as that he cursed this Tree in mystery and secret intendment it having been the tree in the eating whose fruit Adam prevaricating the Divine Law made an inlet to sin which brought in death and the sadnesses of Jesus's Passion But Jesus having entred the City came into the Temple and preached the Gospel and the chief Priests and

said Tacitus out of Plato whose words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is naturally certain that the Cruelty of Tyrants torments themselves and is a hook in their nostrils and a scourge to their spirit and the pungency of forbidden Lust is truly a thorn in the flesh full of anguish and secret vexation Quid demens manifesta negas En pectus inustae Deformant maculae vitiisque inolevit imago said Claudian of Rusinus And it is certain to us and verified by the experience and observation of all wise Nations though not naturally demonstrable that this secret punishment is sharpned and promoted in degrees by the hand of Heaven the finger of the same hand that writ the Law in our Understandings 17. But the prevarications of the natural Law have also their portion of a special punishment besides the scourge of an unquiet spirit The man that disturbs his neighbour's rest meets with disturbances himself and since I have naturally no more power over my neighbour than he hath over me unless he descended naturally from me he hath an equal priviledge to defend himself and to secure his quiet by disturbing the order of my happy living as I do his And this equal permission is certainly so great a sanction and signature of the law of Justice that in the just proportion of my receding from the reasonable prosecution of my End in the same proportion and degree my own Infelicity is become certain and this in several degrees up to the loss of all that is of Life it self for where no farther duration or differing state is known there Death is ordinarily esteemed the greatest infelicity where something beyond it is known there also it is known that such prevarication makes that farther duration to be unhappy So that an affront is naturally punished by an affront the loss of a tooth with the loss of a tooth of an eye with an eye the violent taking away of another man's goods by the losing my own For I am liable to as great an evil as I infer and naturally he is not unjust that inflicts it And he that is drunk is a fool or a mad-man for the time and that is his punishment and declares the law and the sin and so in proportions to the transgressions of sobriety But when the first of the natural laws is violated that is God is disobeyed or dishonoured or when the greatest of natural evils is done to our Neighbour then Death became the penalty to the first in the first period of the World to the second at the restitution of the World that is at the beginning of the second period He that did attempt to kill from the beginning of Ages might have been resisted and killed if the assaulted could not else be safe but he that killed actually as Cain did could not be killed himself till the Law was made in Noah's time because there was no person living that had equal power on him and had been naturally injured while the thing was doing the assailant and the assailed had equal power but when it was done and one was killed he that had the power or right of killing his murtherer is now dead and his power is extinguished with the man But after the Floud the power was put into the hand of some trusted person who was to take the forfeiture And thus I conceive these natural reasons in order to their proper end became Laws and bound fast by the band of annexed and consequent penalties Metum prorsus noxam conscientiae pro foedere haberi said Tacitus And that fully explains my sence 18. And thus Death was brought into the world not by every prevarication of any of the Laws by any instance of unreasonableness 〈◊〉 in proportion to the evil of the action would be the evil of the suffering which in all cases would not arrive at death as every injury every intemperance should not have been capital But some things were made evil by a superinduced prohibition as eating one kinde of fruit some things were evil by inordination the first was morally evil the second was evil naturally Now the first sort brought in death by a prime sanction the second by degrees and variety of accident For every disobedience and transgression of that Law which God made as the instance of our doing him honour and obedience is an integral violation of all the band between him and us it does not grow in degrees according to the instance and subject matter for it is as great a disobedience to eat when he hath forbidden us as to offer to climb to Heaven with an ambitious Tower And therefore it is but reasonable for us to fear and just in him to make us at once suffer Death which is the greatest of natural evils for disobeying him To which Death we may arrive by degrees in doing actions against the reasonableness of Sobriety and Justice but cannot arrive by degrees of Disobedience to God or Irreligion because every such act deserves the worst of things but the other naturally deserves no greater evil than the proportion of their own inordination till God by a superinduced Law hath made them also to become acts of Disobedience as well as Inordination that is morally evil as well as naturally For by the Law saith S. Paul sin became exceeding sinful that is had a new degree of obliquity added to it But this was not at first For therefore saith S. Paul Before or until the Law sin was in the world but sin is not imputed when there is no Law meaning that those sins which were forbidden by Moses's Law were actually in the manners of men and the customs of the world but they were not imputed that is to such personal punishments and consequent evils which afterwards those sins did introduce because those sins which were only evil by inordination and discomposure of the order of man's end of living happily were made unlawful upon no other stock but that God would have man to live happily and therefore gave him Reason to effect that end and if a man became unreasonable and did things contrary to his end it was impossible for him to be happy that is he should be miserable in proportion But in that degree and manner of evil they were imputed and that was sanction enough to raise natural Reason up to the constitution of a Law 19. Thirdly The Law of Nature being thus decreed and made obligatory was a sufficient instrument of making man happy that is in producing the end of his Creation But as Adam had evil discourses and irregular appetites before he fell for they made him fall and as the Angels who had no Original sin yet they chose evil at the first when it was wholly arbitrary in them to do so or otherwise so did Man God made man upright and he sought out many inventions Some men were Ambitious and by incompetent means would make their brethren to be their

Princes in the conspiracy of Dathan that 's for the Temporal And to encourage this Duty I shall use no other words than those of Achilles in Homer They that obey in this world are better than they that command in Hell A PRAYER for the Grace of Holy OBEDIENCE O Lord and Blessed Saviour Jesus by whose Obedience many became righteous and reparations were made of the ruines brought to humane Nature by the Disobedience of Adam thou camest into the world with many great and holy purposes concerning our Salvation and hast given us a great precedent of Obedience which that thou mightest preserve to thy Heavenly Father thou didst neglect thy Life and becamest obedient even to the death of the Cross O let me imit ate so blessed example and by the merits of thy Obedience let me obtain the grace of Humility and Abnegation of all my own desires in the clearest Renunciation of my Will that I may will and refuse in conformity to thy sacred Laws and holy purposes that I may do all thy will chearfully chusingly humbly confidently and continually and thy will may be done upon me with much mercy and fatherly dispensation of thy Providence Amen 2. LOrd let my Understanding adhere to and be satisfied in the excellent 〈◊〉 of thy Commandments let my Affections dwell in their desires and all my other Faculties be set on daily work for performance of them and let my love to obey thee make me dutiful to my Superiors upon whom the impresses of thy Authority are set by thine own hand that I may never despise their Persons nor refuse their Injunctions nor chuse mine own work nor murmur at their burthens nor dispute the prudence of the Sanction nor excuse my self nor pretend 〈◊〉 or impossibilities but that I may be 〈◊〉 in my desires and resigned to the will of those whom thou hast set over me that since all thy Creatures obey thy word I alone may not disorder the Creation and cancel those bands and intermedial links of Subordination whereby my duty should pass to 〈◊〉 and thy glory but that my Obedience being united to thy Obedience I may also have my portion in the 〈◊〉 of thy Kingdom O Lord and Blessed Saviour Jesus Amen Considerations upon the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple 1. THE Holy Virgin-Mother according to the Law of Moses at the expiration of a certain time came to the Temple to be purified although in her sacred Parturition she had contracted no Legal impurity yet she exposed her self to the publick opinion and common reputation of an ordinary condition and still amongst all generations she is in all circumstances accounted blessed and her reputation no tittle altered save only that it is made the more sacred by this testimony of her Humility But this we are taught from the consequence of this instance That if an End principally designed in any Duty should be supplied otherwise in any particular person the Duty is nevertheless to be observed and then the obedience and publick order is reason enough for the observation though the proper End of its designation be wanting in the single person Thus is Fasting designed for mortification of the flesh and killing all its unruly appetites and yet Married persons who have another remedy and a Virgin whose Temple is hallowed by a gift and the strict observances of Chastity may be tied to the Duty and if they might not then Fasting were nothing else but a publication of our impure desires and an exposing the person to the confidence of a bold temptation whilst the young men did observe the Faster to be tempted from within But the Holy Virgin from these acts of which in signification she had no need because she sinned not in the Conception nor was impure in the production expressed other Vertues besides Obedience such as were humble thoughts of her self Devotion and Reverence to publick Sanctions Religion and Charity which were like the pure leaves of the whitest Lily fit to represent the beauties of her innocence but were veiled and shadowed by that sacramental of the Mosaick Law 2. The Holy Virgin received the greatest favour that any of the Daughters of Adam ever did and knowing from whence and for whose glory she had received it returns the Holy Jesus in a Present to God again for she had nothing so precious as himself to make oblation of and besides that every first-born among the Males was holy to the Lord this Child had an eternal and essential Sanctity and until he came into the World and was made apt for her to make present of him there was never in the world any act of Adoration proportionable to the honour of the great God but now there was and the Holy Virgin made it when she presented the Holy Child Jesus And now besides that we are taught to return to God whatsoever we have received from him if we unite our Offerings and Devotions to this holy Present we shall by the merit and excellency of this Oblation exhibit to God an Offertory in which he cannot but delight for the combination's sake and society of his Holy Son 3. The Holy Mother brought five Sicles and a pair of Turtle-doves to redeem the Lamb of God from the Anathema because every first-born was to be sacrificed to God or redeemed if it was clean it was the poor man's price and the Holy Jesus was never set at the greater prices when he was estimated upon earth For he that was Lord of the Kingdom chose his portion among the poor of this World that he might advance the poor to the riches of his inheritance and so it was from his Nativity hither For at his Birth he was poor at his Circumcision poor and in the likeness of a sinner at his Presentation poor and like a sinner and a servant for he chose to be redeemed with an ignoble price The five Sicles were given to the Priest for the redemption of the Child and if the Parents were not able he was to be a servant of the Temple and to minister in the inferiour offices to the Priest and this was God's seizure and possession of him for although all the servants of God are his inheritance yet the Ministers of Religion who derive their portion of temporals from his title who live upon the Corban and eat the meat of the Altar which is God's peculiar and come nearer to his Holiness by the addresses of an immediate ministration are God's own upon another and a distinct challenge But because Christ was to be the Prince of another Ministry and the chief Priest of another Order he was redeemed from attending the Mosaick Rites which he came to 〈◊〉 that he might do his Father's business in establishing the Evangelical Only remember that the Ministers of Religion are but God's 〈◊〉 as they are not Lords of God's portion and therefore must dispense it like Stewards not like Masters so the People are 〈◊〉 their Patrons in paying nor

faults of Parents and Kings and relatives do bring evil upon their Children and subjects and correlatives it is but equal that our children may have benefit also by our charity and 〈◊〉 But concerning making an agreement for them we find that God was confident concerning Abraham that he would teach his children and there is no doubt but Parents have great power by strict education and prudent discipline to efform the minds of their children to Vertue 〈◊〉 did expresly undertake for his houshold I and my house will serve the Lord and for children we may better do it because till they are of perfect choice no Government in the world is so great as that of Parents over their children in that which can concern the parts of this Question for they rule over their Understandings and children know nothing but what they are told and they believe it infinitely And it is a rare art of the Spirit to engage Parents to bring them up well in the 〈◊〉 and admonition of the Lord and they are persons obliged by a superinduced band they are to give them instructions and holy principles as they give them meat And it is certain that Parents may better stipulate for their Children than the Church can for men and women For they may be present Impostors and Hypocrites as the Church story tells of some and consequently are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not really converted and ineffectively baptized and the next day they may change their resolution and grow weary of their Vow and that is the most that Children can do when they come to age and it is very much in the Parents whether the Children shall do any such thing or no. purus insons Ut me collandem si vivo charus amicis Causa fuit Pater his Ipse mihi custos incorruptissimus omnes Circum Doctores aderat quid multa pudicum Qui primus virtutis honos servavit ab omni Non solùm facto verùm opprobrio quoque turpi ob hoc nunc Laus illi debetur à me gratia major For education can introduce a habit and a second nature against which Children cannot kick unless they do some violence to themselves and their inclinations And although it fails too 〈◊〉 when-ever it fails yet we pronounce prudently concerning future things when we have a less influence into the event than in the present case and therefore are more unapt persons to stipulate and less reason in the thing it self and therefore have not so much reason to be confident Is not the greatest prudence of Generals instanced in their foreseeing 〈◊〉 events and guessing at the designs of their enemies concerning which they have less reason to be confident than Parents of their childrens belief of the Christian Creed To which I add this consideration That Parents or Godfathers may therefore safely and prudently promise that their Children shall be of the Christian Faith because we not only see millions of men and women who not only believe the whole Creed only upon the stock of their education but there are none that ever do renounce the Faith of their Country and breeding unless they be violently tempted by 〈◊〉 or weakness antecedent or consequent He that sees all men almost to be Christians because they are bid to be so need not question the fittingness of Godfathers promising in behalf of the Children for whom they answer 29. And however the matter be for Godfathers yet the tradition of baptizing Infants passed through the hands of 〈◊〉 Omnem aetatem sanctificans per illam quae ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 similitudinem Omnes 〈◊〉 venit per semetipsum salvare omnes inquam qui per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Deum infantes parvulos 〈◊〉 juvenes seniores Ideo per 〈◊〉 venit 〈◊〉 infantibus infans factus sanctificans infantes in parvulis 〈◊〉 c. Christ did sanctifie every age by his own susception of it and similitude to it For he came to save all men by himself I say all who by him are born again unto God infants and children and boys and young men and old men He was made an Infant to Infants sanctifying Infants a little one to the little ones c. And Origen is express 〈◊〉 traditionem ab Apostolis suscepit 〈◊〉 parvulis dare Baptismum The Church hath received a Tradition from the 〈◊〉 to give Baptism to Children And S. 〈◊〉 in his Epistle to 〈◊〉 gives account of this Article for being questioned by some less 〈◊〉 persons whether it were lawful to baptize Children before the eighth day he gives account of the whole Question And a whole Council of sixty six Bishops upon very good reason decreed that their Baptism should at no hand be deferred though whether six or eight or ten days was no matter so there be no danger or present necessity The whole Epistle is worth the reading 30. But besides these Authorities of such who writ before the starting of the Pelagian Questions it will not be useless to bring the discourses of them and others I mean the reason upon which the Church did it both before and after 31. 〈◊〉 his Argument was this Christ took upon him our Nature to sanctific and to save it and passed through the several periods of it even unto death which is the symbol and effect of old age and therefore it is certain he did sanctifie all the periods of it and why should he be an Infant but that Infants should receive the crown of their age the 〈◊〉 of their stained nature the sanctification of their persons and the saving of their 〈◊〉 by their Infant Lord and elder Brother 32. Omnis 〈◊〉 anima 〈◊〉 in Adam censetur 〈◊〉 in Christo recenseatur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every Soul is accounted in Adam till it be new accounted in Christ and so long as it is accounted in Adam so long it is unclean and we know no unclean thing 〈◊〉 enter into Heaven and therefore our Lord hath desined it Unless 〈◊〉 be born of Water and the Spirit ye cannot 〈◊〉 into the Kingdom of Heaven that is ye cannot be holy It was the argument of 〈◊〉 which the rather is to be received because he was one less favourable to the Custom of the Church in his time of baptizing Infants which Custom he noted and acknowledged and hath also in the preceding discourse fairly proved And indeed that S. Cyprian may superadd his symbol God who is no accepter of persons will also be no accepter of ages For if to the greatest delinquents 〈◊〉 long before against God remission of sins be given when afterwards they believe and from Baptism and from Grace no man is forbidden how much more ought not an 〈◊〉 be forbidden who being new born hath 〈◊〉 nothing save only that being in the 〈◊〉 born of Adam in his first birth he hath contracted the contagion of an old death who therefore comes the easier to obtain 〈◊〉 of sins because

and miserable to all eternity It was a sad calamity that fell upon the Man of Judah that returned to eat bread into the Prophet's house contrary to the word of the Lord He was abused into the act by a Prophet and a pretence of a command from God and whether he did violence to his own understanding and believed the man because he was willing or did it in sincerity or in what degree of sin or excuse the action might consist no man there knew and yet a Lion slew him and the lying Prophet that abused him escaped and went to his grave in peace Some persons joyned in society or interest with criminals have perished in the same Judgments and yet it would be hard to call them equally guilty who in the accident were equally miserable and involved And they who are not strangers in the affairs of the world cannot but have heard or seen some persons who have lived well and moderately though not like the 〈◊〉 of the Holocaust yet like the ashes of Incense sending up good perfumes and keeping a constant and slow fire of Piety and Justice yet have been surprised in the midst of some unusual unaccustomed irregularity and died in that sin A sudden gayety of fortune a great joy a violent change a friend is come or a marriage-day hath transported some persons to indiscretions and too bold a licence and the indiscretion hath betrayed them to idle company and the company to drink and drink to a fall and that hath hurri'd them to their grave And it were a sad sentence to think God would not repute the untimely death for a punishment great enough to that deflexion from duty and judge the man according to the constant tenor of his former life unless such an act was of malice great enough to outweigh the former habits and interrupt the whole state of acceptation and grace Something like this was the case of 〈◊〉 who espying the tottering Ark went to support it with an unhallowed hand God smote him and he died immediately It were too severe to say his zeal and indiscretion carried him beyond a temporal death to the ruines of Eternity Origen and many others have made themselves Eunuchs for the Kingdome of Heaven and did well after it but those that did so and died of the wound were smitten of God and died in their folly and yet it is rather to be called a sad consequence of their indiscretion than the express of a final anger from God Almighty For as God takes off our sins and punishments by parts remitting to some persons the sentence of death and inflicting the fine of a temporal loss or the gentle scourge of a lesser sickness so also he lays it on by parts and according to the proper proportions of the man and of the crime and every transgression and lesser deviation from our duty does not drag the Soul to death eternal but God suffers our Repentance though imperfect to have an imperfect effect knocking off the fetters by degrees and leading us in some cases to a Council in some to Judgment and in some to Hell-fire but it is not always certain that he who is led to the prison-doors shall there lie entombed and a Man may by a Judgment be brought to the gates of Hell and yet those gates shall not prevail against him This discourse concerns persons whose life is habitually fair and just but are surprised in some unhandsome but less criminal action and 〈◊〉 or suffer some great Calamity as the instrument of its expiation or amendment 3. Secondly But if the person upon whom the Judgment falls be habitually vicious or the crime of a clamorous nature or deeper tincture if the man sin a sin unto death and either meets it or some other remarkable calamity not so feared as death provided we pass no farther than the sentence we see then executed it is not against Charity or prudence to say this calamity in its own formality and by the intention of God is a Punishment and Judgment In the favourable cases of honest and just persons our sentence and opinions ought also to be favourable and in such questions to encline ever to the side of charitable construction and read other ends of God in the accidents of our neighbour than Revenge or express Wrath. But when the impiety of a person is scandalous and notorious when it is clamorous and violent when it is habitual and yet corrigible if we find a sadness and calamity dwelling with such a sinner especially if tho punishment be spiritual we read the sentence of God written with his own hand and it is not 〈◊〉 of opinion or a pressing into the secrets of Providence to say the same thing which God hath published to all the world in the 〈◊〉 of his Spirit In such cases we are to observe the severity of God on them that fall severity and to use those Judgments as instruments of the fear of God arguments to hate sin which we could not well do but that we must look on them as verifications of God's threatning against great and impenitent sinners But then if we descend to particulars we may easily be deceived 4. For some men are diligent to observe the accidents and chances of Providence upon those especially who differ from them in Opinion and whatever ends God can have or whatever sins man can have yet we lay that in fault which we therefore hate because it is most against our interest the contrary Opinion is our enemy and we also think God hates it But such fancies do seldom serve either the ends of Truth or Charity Pierre Calceon died under the Barber's hand there wanted not some who said it was a Judgement upon him for condemning to the fire the famous Pucelle of France who prophesied the expulsion of the English out of the Kingdom They that thought this believed her to be a Prophetess but others that thought her a Witch were willing to 〈◊〉 out another conjecture for the sudden death of the Gentleman Garnier Earl of Gretz kept the Patriarch of Jerusalem from his right in David's Tower and the City and died within three days and by Dabert the Patriarch it was called a Judgment upon him for his Sacrilege But the uncertainty of that censure appeared to them who considered that Baldwin who gave commission to Garnier to withstand the Patriarch did not die but Godsrey of 〈◊〉 did die immediately after he had passed the right of the Patriarch and yet when Baldwin was beaten at Rhamula some bold People pronounced that then God punished him upon the Patriarch's score and thought his Sacrilege to be the secret cause of his overthrow and yet his own Pride and Rashness was the more visible and the Judgment was but a cloud and passed away quickly into a succeeding Victory But I instance in a trisle Certain it is that God removed the Candlestick from the Levantine Churches because he had