Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	apostle_n	bring_v	sin_n	4,680	5	5.1414	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28844	Maxims and reflections upon plays (In answer to a discourse, Of the lawfullness and vnlawfullness of plays. Printed before a late play entituled, Beauty in distress.) Written in French by the Bp. of Meaux. And now made English. The preface by another hand.; Maximes et réflexions sur la comédie. English.	Bossuet, Jacques Bénigne, 1627-1704.; Collier, Jeremy, 1650-1726.	1699 (1699)	Wing B3786; ESTC R202902	73,555	157

that can find what that is in man that gives birth to sensual Pleasure and that restless and wandering Disposition which is more easily felt than described which flyes at every thing and fixes no where would discover there the secret source of the greatest Sins This St. Augustin was sensible of in the beginning of his Youthfull Passions when he said of himself I was not yet in love but I was inclined and thought it a fine thing to be so He sought out as he goes on some snare in which he might both take and be taken He found that sort of Life where there were none of these Snares troublesom and insupportable to him Now every thing in this world is thick set with these nets He was caught according to his hearts desire And then it was that he felt himself intoxicated with the pleasure of Plays Because in Them he found the Representation of his own Misery and fresh fewell for his flames His Example and Doctrine instructs us what ends Plays are serviceable to How natural a Tendency there is in them to cherish these secret Dispositions in mens minds whether this Brat of Sensuall Love be already brought to Maturity or whether it be in Embryo only and not yet come to the Birth St. Iames hath explained to us these two different Conditions of our Hearts in those very remarkable and significant Words Ch 1. 14 15. Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own Lust and enticed Then when Lust hath conceived it bringeth forth Sin and Sin when it is is finished bringeth forth Death Thus the Apostle hath been carefull to distinguish between the Conceiving of Sin and the Bringing it forth He makes a difference between the Disposition to Sin and the compleat Formation of it by a full Consent of the Will When it arrives to this last estate then according to St Iames his notion it bringeth forth Death and becomes perfectly Mortall But the Consequence of this Distinction is by no means that even the first Beginnings of Sin are Innocent From the instant that a man adheres never so little to the first Complacencies of Sensuall motions he begins to open his heart and engage his affections to the Creature When once those Motions are indulged and cherished by agreable Representations there is a helping hand lent to bring this unlawful Issue forward to the Birth And a prudent Confessor who hath the skill to make a Christian sensible of the first wounds given to his Conscience and of the wretched Consequences of a Danger which he is fond of would by such timely care and wise conduct prevent a world of Sin and Misery According to St. Augustine's sense of the matter this fatal Concupiscence spreads it self over the whole Man It runs if I may so say through every Vein and sinks in as deep as the Marrow in his Bones It is a poysonous Root which stretches it self to every Organ of Sense his Ears his Eyes his every part that is capable of letting in Pleasure feels the effect of it His Senses upon this occasion lend a mutual assistance the Delight of the one draws on and cherishes that of the other and this Union or Conspiracy rather makes up a Chain that draws him down into the bottomless pit of Sin We must as this good Man directs take good heed in considering the Operation of our Senses to distinguish between the Necessity the Usefulness the Quickness and lively Impression of the Sensation and the engaging our Affections in the Pleasures of Sense Of these four Qualities observable in the Senses the Three former are the Work of God that made us The necessity of Sensation proves it self by external Objects striking upon our Senses every moment The Usefulness of them continues the same Father we feel particularly in the Taste which is serviceable to us in the choice of Food and makes provision for our Digesting it The lively Impression or Quickness of our Senses consists in their readiness to Act or be Acted upon and in the subtle Contexture of their proper Organs These three Qualities we owe to God as their true and only Cause But it is in the midst of this Divine Frame that the forcible Inclination to Pleasures of Sense and it 's unruly Byass that is that evil Concupiscence brought upon us by sin erects it's Throne And this it is says St. Augustin which is an Enemy to Wisdom the Source and Spring of Corruption and Vice and the Bane of our Virtues The Five Senses are Five Avenues by which it goes out and ranges over their several Objects and through which it receives Impressions from without But this Father hath shewed that it is the same throughout because in every Organ there is the same bewitching Charm of Pleasure the same Intractableness of the Senses the same Captivity of the Heart the same Fondness for sensible Objects So that at what Part soever the Impression is made the Effect is communicated to the whole Frame Shews sieze the Eyes soft moving Language and passionate Airs of Musick pierce the Heart through the Ears Sometimes the Corruption flows in like a full Tide and at Other times it instills it self gently and by Drops but either way the Man is effectually Drowned at last The Disease is in the Blood and lurks within in the Bowels before it flames out and betrays any symptoms of a Fever outwardly By losing Strength gradually a Man is in danger of falling before he is actually down and this Weakening of the Parts that should enable him to Stand is in effect the beginning of his Fall He is but a very indifferent Physician who knows no Indispositions in Men but such as are actually felt and plainly discover themselves The case of our Souls is thus far the same with our Bodies there are Many Distempers which we are not presently sensible of because they are not grown to such a heighth as to discover themselves and Others there are of which we are never sensible at all because length of Time and Custom have made them Habitual to us or else they are grown to such an Extremity as even Stupifies us and is the beginning of Death which destroys all Sensation in us And this detects the Fallacy of that Argument so usual in behalf of Plays When we blame These as dangerous the Men of the World presently take Sanctuary with the Author of the Discourse in solemn Protestations that they have never found any Danger in them Urge them a little farther and they will not scruple to say as much of Nudities and that not only in Pictures but even in living Men and Women They fall foul upon those Divines who Preach against these things and reprove Women for them They pretend these Zealots have a stronger Genius this way than their Neighbours and that by this extraordinary Niceness they betray either too great Weakness or too quick a Sense of such matters For their own parts they

alledged in favour of Plays This Author that he might leave no stone unturn'd alledges also the Laws in favour of his Argument and pretends that Plays if they were evil would not be suffer'd to be Acted nor would Men who have any regard or conscience for the Laws frequent them But here again he forgets that the great † Casuist whose Authority he hath abused hath delivered his Judgment that Humane Laws are not obliged to suppress all sorts of Evils but such only as tend directly to the Detriment of Humane Society Nay even the Church it self Saint Augustine acquaints us Exercises the severity of her Censures not upon all sinners but only upon a few whose offences are the most enormous and scandalous Upon this very account she Condemns them who Act Plays and in so doing thinks the Plays Acted by them sufficiently condemned This Point is positively determined in the Rituals and the Practice of it is constantly observed Those that make Playing their business are debarred the Sacraments and not admitted to Communicate either in their Life-time or at the point of Death except they Solemnly renounce and forsake their Trade We pass them by at the Holy Table and look upon them as Men in a State of Notorious and Mortal Sin We exclude them from Holy Orders as Infamous Persons and by necessary consequence deny them the Offices of the Church and Christian Burial when they dye As for those who frequent Plays in regard Their Guilt admits of different degrees and some among them are more Innocent than others many perhaps being such as rather need bett●…r Instruction than deserve Censure and Reproof they do not come up to the same pitch of Wickedness and consequently ought not all to be treated with the same Severity But it does not by any means follow from hence that publick Dangers ought to be countenanced and authorized If men are not duly sensible how dangerous these things are it is the Priest's duty to inform them better but not to cherish and support them in their Ignorance and Insensibility The Vindicators of Shews as long since as St. Chrysostoms time have made a mighty Clamour as if the putting these things down were in effect to overthrow the Laws But for all that this holy Father peremptorily declared that the Spirit and Temper of the Law was perfectly opposite to that of the Theatres But We in our days have a great deal more to urge against them Since there are so many publick Decrees against Plays which others have made particular mention of in their Writings upon this Subject If Custom bear those Laws down and the Abuse prevail still notwithstanding such care taken to correct and suppress it the only Inference arising from hence is That Plays ought to be reckoned amongst those obstinate Evils which a famous Historian observes are always Prohibited and yet always Practised But after all Suppose that the Civil Constitution did Countenance and even Authorise Plays Allowing that instead of casting a Blemish and setting a mark of Reproach upon Players which yet hath been ever done they were favourable to them yet sure the whole Order of the Priesthood should think it becoming every one of Them to imitate the Example of the Chrysostoms and the Augustines The Laws of Civil Sanction have not been able to root out utterly the sin and mischief of Usury and Divorce and yet those great Men constantly and boldly maintained That what allowance soever the World gave to these Crimes they ought nevertheless to be avoided and were Condemned by another superiour Law even that of the Gospel which no Countenance of the Civil Power to the contrary could dispense with They declared that even that Usury which was esteemed Lawful because Authorised by the Roman Laws was yet unlawful because not agreeable to the Laws of Jesus Christ And that the Constitution of the Holy City and that of the World and Secular Power were very different things XII Of the Authority of the Fathers I have no design here to enter particularly into the several passages of the Fathers upon this Occasion nor lengthen out my Discourse beyond it's intended compass by enlarging upon so Copious a Subject I shall only say that it argues that Man to have read them very negligently and fuperficially whoever he be that shall with this Author take upon him to affirm that the only thing they find fault with in the Shews and publick Entertainments of their Times is the Idolatry and scandalous Impurities of them A man must have stopped his Ears very hard against the voice of Truth not to be convinced that their Arguments reach a great way farther They are levelled against the Unprofitableness of Sports and Play-Houses they blame them for the prodigious Extravagance the Hurry the Commotion and unsettled state of Mind they create so very disagreeable to the Character of a Christian whose calm Breast ought to be the very seat and sanctuary of Peace it self They reprove the vehement raising of the Passions the Vanity the Dressing the Garish Ornaments which they reckon among the Pomps abjured in Baptism They condemn that desire of Seeing and being Seen which draws both Sexes thither The unhappy meeting of those Eyes which look out for one another The too great Thought and Time thrown away upon Trifle and Vanity The loud Peals of Laughter and disorderly Mirth which make men forget the Presence of God the dreadful Account to be given even for one's least and seemingly insignificant Words and Actions and in short that all the Gravity and Composedness requisite in the Life of a Christian is ruffled and scattered by such Entertainments Proceed Sir as you have begun and tell us That the Fathers do not condemn all these things nor all that vile collection of Evils and Temptations which all meet together in the Theatres as their common Rendesvouz Perswade us that they do not pass any Censure even on things blameless in their own Nature when they have Evil couched under them and serve to introduce it Affirm with your wonted grace that St. Augustine hath not Lamented that revelling of the Passions and that contagious manner of expressing the Diseases of the Soul those Tears which so lively a Representation drawes from our eyes those Corruptions in us and all that other Delusion in Plays which he stigmatizes with the Name of Miserable Folly And now I would be glad to know who is able to lift up his Heart to God in the midst of all that hurry and discomposure of the Affections in which the pleasure of Plays intirely consists Who can have the Forehead to say that he comes thither for God's sake or to do Him Service Who would not be afraid in the midst of so many foolish Joys and Griefs to lose and stifle quite the Spirit of Prayer and indispose one's Mind by such dangerous Interruptions for that Exercise which Jesus Christ hath told us ought to be our continual