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	sin_n	sin_v	5,866	5	9.2680	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35343	A sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons at Westminster, March 31, 1647 by R. Cudworth ...	Cudworth, Ralph, 1617-1688.	1647 (1647)	Wing C7469; ESTC R22606	36,595	94

mens false imaginations who know not all this while that they look upon themselves instead of God and make an Idol of themselves which they vvorship and adore for him being so full of themselves that vvhatsoever they see round about them even God himself they colour vvith their ovvn Tincture like him that Aristotle speaks of that vvheresoever he vvent and vvhatsoever he looked upon he savv still his ovvn face as in a glasse represented to him And therefore it is no vvonder if men seem naturally more devoutly affected tovvard such an Imaginary God as we have now described then to the True Reall God clothed with his own proper Attributes since it is nothing but an Image of themselves which Narcissus-like they fall in love with no wonder if they kisse and dandle such a Baby-god as this which like little children they have dressed up out of the clouts of their own fond Phancies according to their own liknesse of purpose that they might play and sport with it But God will ever dwell in spotlesse light howsoever we paint him and disfigure him here below he will still be circled about with his own raies of unstained and immaculate glory And though the Gospel be not God as he is in his own Brightnesse but God Vailed and Masked to us God in a state of Humiliation and Condescent as the Sun in a Rainbow yet it is nothing else but a clear and unspotted Mirrour of Divine Holinesse Goodnesse Purity in which Attributes lies the very Life and Essence of God himself The Gospel is nothing else but God descending into the World in Our Form and conversing with us in our likenesse that he might allure and draw us up to God and make us partakers of his Divine Form {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as Athanasius speaks {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} God was therefore incarnated and made man that he might Deifie us that is as S. Peter expresseth it make us partakers of the Divine nature Now I say the very proper Character and Essentiall Tincture of God himself is nothing else but Goodnesse Nay I may be bold to adde That God is therefore God because he is the highest and most perfect Good and Good is not therefore Good because God out of an arbitrary will of his would have it so Whatsoever God doth in the World he doth it as it is suitable to the highest Goodnesse the first Idea and fairest Copy of which is his own Essence Vertue and Holinesse in creatures as Plato well discourseth in his Euthyphro are not therefore Good because God loveth them and will have them be accounted such but rather God therefore loveth them because they are in themselves simply good Some of our own Authors go a little further yet and tell us that God doth not fondly love himself because he is himself but therefore he loveth himself because he is the highest and most absolute Goodnesse so that if there could be any thing in the world better then God God would love that better then himself but because he is Essentially the most perfect Good therefore he cannot but love his own goodnesse infinitely above all other things And it is another mistake which sometimes we have of God by shaping him out according to the Model of our selves when we make him nothing but a blind dark impetuous Self will running through the world such as we our selves are furiously acted with that have not the Ballast of absolute goodnesse to poize and settle us That I may therefore come nearer to the thing in hand God who is absolute goodnesse cannot love any of his Creatures take pleasure in them without bestowing a communication of his Goodnesse and Likenesse upon them God cannot make a Gospel to promise men Life Happinesse hereafter without being regenerated made partakers of his holinesse As soon may Heaven and Hell be reconciled together and lovingly shake hands with one another as God can be fondly indulgent to any sinne in whomsoever it be As soon may Light and Darknesse be espoused together and Mid-night be married to the Noon-day as God can be joyned in a league of friendship to any wicked Soul The great Designe of God in the Gospel is to clear up this Mist of Sin and Corruption which we are here surrounded vvith and to bring up his creatures out of the shadow of death to the Region of Light above the Land of Truth and Holinesse The great Mystery of the Gospel is to establish a God-like frame and disposition of spirit which consists in Righteousnesse and true Holinesse in the hearts of men And Christ who is the great and mighty Saviour he came on purpose into the World not onely to save us from Fire and Brimstone but also to save us from our Sins Christ hath therefore made an Expiation of our sins by his death upon the Crosse that we being thus delivered out of the hands of these our greatest enemies might serve God without fear in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the dayes of our life This grace of God that bringeth salvation hath therefore appeared to all men in the Gospel that it might teach us to deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and that we should live soberly righteously and godlily in this present world looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Iesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people Zealous of good works These things I write unto you saith our Apostle a little before my text that you sinne not therein expressing the end of the whole Gospel which is not onely to cover sinne by spreading the Purple Robe of Christs death and sufferings over it whilst it still remaineth in us with all its filth and noisomnesse unremoved but also to convey a powerfull and mighty Spirit of holinesse to cleanse us and free us from it And this is a greater grace of Gods to us then the former which still go both together in the Gospel besides the free remission and pardon of sinne in the bloud of Christ the delivering of us from the power of sinne by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in our hearts Christ came not into the world onely to cast a Mantle over us and hide all our filthy sores from Gods avenging eye with his merits and righteousnesse but he came likewise to be a Chirurgeon and Physitian of souls to free us from the filth and corruption of them which is more grievous and burdensome more noysome to a true Christian then the guilt of sinne it self Should a poore wretched and diseased creature that is full of sores and ulcers be covered all over with Purple or clothed with Scarlet he would take but little contentment in it whilest his sores and wounds remain upon him and he had much rather be raied in rags so he might obtain but soundnesse and health within The