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	world_n	6,776	5	5.1990	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33236	A brief view and survey of the dangerous and pernicious errors to church and state, in Mr. Hobbes's book, entitled Leviathan by Edward Earl of Clarendon.	Clarendon, Edward Hyde, Earl of, 1609-1674.	1676 (1676)	Wing C4421; ESTC R12286	180,866	332

the autority of the Republic would not have bin so absolute if their injunction had bin to have committed Idolatry Mr. Hobbes is not of Seneca's mind who consulted nature as much as he Citius mori an tardius ad rem non pertinet bene mori an male ad rem pe●tinet bene autem mori est effugere male vivendi per●culum But he is too much a Philosopher to be swaied by the dictates of other Philosophers Let us therefore resort to the Scriptures and put him in mind of the example of those three in Daniel who chose to be thrown into the hot fiery furnace rather then to fall down before the Image which Nebuchadnezzar had set up or of Daniel himself who would not only not pray to the King but would not defer praying to God only for thirty daies nor would be contented to pray to him in his heart or in a private corner which he might securely have don but would be found upon his knees when he knew the penalty was to be thrown into the Lions den as he was And Mr. Hobbes will tell you that tho they did well they might have don otherwise Yet methinks he should not so easily evade all the denunciations made by the Prophets of Gods judgments against Israel and Iudah for their Idolatry when they were only guilty of it under the power and by the command of their Idolatrous Kings And yet that was no excuse for them the judgments were pronounced against the People and they underwent the punishment But he will say it was because they had forsaken God in their hearts and were as great Idolaters as their Kings Yet still the fault was his who took not care that they should be instructed in the true knowledg of God But no objection out of the Scripture can weigh with him Let us therefore resort to himself and to his own reason to convert or confute him And he seems not so fully satisfied in this latitude which he hath given himself as in other his bold assertions but is more perplexed then he uses to be To pag. 360. worship God not as inanimating or present in the place or image but to the end to be put in mind of him or of some works of his if that place or image be dedicated or set up by private autority he saies it is Idolatry but if by the Soveraigns autority it is not As if the autority of setting it up could make that which in it self is Idolatry to cease to be Idolatry He doth acknowledg pag. 361. that a scandalous worship of Images tho it is but a seeming worship and may sometimes be joined with an inward and hearty detestation of the image and proceed only from the fear of death or other grievous punishment tho it be no Idolatry is nevertheless a sin and if it be a sin no man ought to commit it for the safety of his life by all the precepts which Christ and his Apostles have left to guide us towards the next world But that confession keeps him not long in pain for it is a sin he saies pag. 362. only in men whose actions are looked at by others as lights to guide them by whereas the example of those we regard not works not upon us at all If a Pastor lawfully called to teach and direct others or any other of whose knowledg there is a great opinion do external honor to an Idol for fear unless he make his fear and unwillingness to do it as evident as his worship he scandalizeth his brother by seeming to approve Idolatry for his brother arguing from the action of his teacher or of him whose know●edg he esteemeth great concludes it to be lawful in it self And this scandal he saies is a sin and a scandal given Yet in the page before he saies as positively that pag. 360. it cannot be said that he that do's it scandalizeth or layeth any stumbling block before his brother because how wise or learned soever he be that worshippeth in that manner another man cannot from thence argue that he approveth it but that he doth it for fear and that it is not his act but the act of his Soveraign So hard a thing is it after such an excess to make any approch to truth without involving a mans self in contradictions He is very positive that pag. 362. in a Pastor who hath undertaken to preach Christ to all Nations by giveing such a worship to an Image it were not only a sinful scandal but a perfidious forsaking his charge And truly this obligation upon the Pastor to suffer in such a case is I think the only priviledg he grants him above other men for we shall find hereafter that he thinks himself qualified to preach as well as he And that he may not be thought too indifferent in the matter it self he doth confess that pag. 362. for an unlearned man that is in the power of an Idolatrous King or State if commanded upon pain of death to worship before an Idol he detesteth the Idol in his heart he doth well tho if he had the fortitude to suffer death rather then worship it he should do better And it is observable that tho he makes such a kind of worshipper the more or the less scandalous by his example he doth not presume tho he would be understood to do so to absolve him from sin For tho the notoriety and example may be an aggravation of the sin yet it cannot make that a sin that was in it self no sin nor can the secrecy of committing it make that which in it self is sin become no sin And therefore whether it amount to Idolatry or no no terror of death ought to prevail over any Christian to commit that sin Whether his Pedigree of Idolatry be well derived from the Gentiles is not worth the inquiry since he takes so little care for the shutting it out of the Christian Church For the Canonizing of Saints and the Popes assuming the title of Pontifex Maximus the remembrance of which office in the Roman State might have put him in mind to have retracted what he said before of the admitting the exercise of all Religions in that Republic and the abridging his Universal Jurisdiction tho he gives him more then ever Constantine is suggested to have granted to him and for the Procession of Images and the original of Wax-candles and Torches lighted and the information he gives us of Holy-water and some Processions I shall refer him to some of his friends of the Roman Church who in truth are in too great an arrear to him for which they make no excuse that I have heard but that they never think themselves concern'd to write against a Mahometan The Survey of Chapter 46. UPon his Forty sixth Chapter I shall not enlarge but heartily wish that he himself had enlarged more upon it as an argument which he understands more then most that he hath handled yet I think he knows more

soever Nor could it reasonably be expected that a man who is so declared an Enemy to Martyrdom should entertain a great reverence or esteem for the persons of Martyrs and therefore it cannot be wondred at that he very resolutly chargeth that glorious company whose memory every Christian Church celebrates with extraordinary devotion with want of Wit and understanding and with loss of their labour and boldly determines by his Prerogative of interpreting words according to his definitions and Etymologies whatever the constant and general acceptation hath bin that because Martyr signifies a witness pag. 272. and a witness must have seen what he testifies and the fundamental Article of Christian Religion being that Iesus was the Christ therefore that none can properly be called Martyrs of Christ but those that convers'd with him and saw him before and after his Resurrection and that whosoever did not so can witness no more then what others said and are therefore but witnesses of other mens testimony and are but second Martyrs or Martyrs of Christs witnesses And yet for fear that they might yet have too much honour he doth as imperiously declare that pag. 273. none can be a Martyr of the first or second degree who have not a warrant to preach Christ come in the flesh and who are not sent to the conversion of Infidels for that no man is a witness to him that already believes and therefore needs no witness but to them that deny or doubt or have not heard it And even to those that there is one only Article which to die for meriteth so honourable a name and that Article is that pag. 272. Iesus is the Christ. But a man maintaining every Doctrine which he himself draws out of the History of our Saviours life or out of the Acts or Epistles of the Apostles is very far from being a Martyr of Christ or a Martyr of his Martyrs whereas whoever hath laid down his life for the testimony of any Christian verity or rather then he would deny any such hath alwaies bin inserted in the number of the Martyrs by the judgment of the universal Church If Mr. Hobbes had bin conversant in the determination of matters upon the testimony of witnesses he would have known that in cases of the greatest importance it is not alwaies necessary that the witness must have bin present and have seen what he testifieth or else his testimony is not good They are very comp●●ent witnesses who declare what they have heard from others the question being only whether what they say be true which often appears to be more unquestionable by the testimony of what others saw and declar'd then what they saw or heard themselves and the truth of all matters of fact would be quickly lost or dangerously suspected if the death of half a dozen persons who were present could render the truth without evidence So that he could not in this assertion have any purpose to discountenance any other sort of witnesses but only Martyrs And I must complain of his extreme undervaluing his Readers in endeavouring to perswade them from St. Peters proposing or enjoining after the death of Iudas that the rest of the Apostles should ordain one to be a Martyr a witness with them of Christs Resurrection of those men who had accompanied with them all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out amongst them beginning from the baptism of Iohn c. which he saies makes it manifest pag. 272. that he which is to be a witness of the truth of the Resurrection of Christ must be some Disciple th●t conversed with him and saw him before and after his Resurrection and consequently must be one of his original Disciples that none else could be a Martyr He would have too just reason to upbraid the breeding in the Universities if there be any Novice in Logic there who can be imposed upon by such Argumentations They who are deluded by him have not passed through that course Education It is true that the method in which our Saviour chose to work the conversion of men was by matters of fact which he submitted to the examination of the senses and which was don in the sight of the Sun that there might be no want of witnesses His greatest miracles were don in the greatest company whom he had made Judges as well as witnesses of what they saw When he changed the Water into Wine it was at a Wedding which in that time and in that Country was alwaies celebrated in the presence of a great multitude and with notable Festivity These people saw the Water poured out and in the drinking found it to be excellent Wine better then the Wine that was first brought into the room and the evidence of so many witnesses could not but make the miracle believed which he expected not should be believed upon a less testimony When he rais'd the dead to life it was alwaies in the presence of them who had seen them living and dead the same eies which saw them die and sometimes buried saw them likewise rise from the dead and eat and drink and perform all the functions of life as other men The whole people saw his Passion and were witnesses of all the circumstances of it and all his Disciples and many other were witnesses of and conversed with him after his Resurrection And to supply all possible defects after his Ascension which was in the view likewise of many witnesses he sent the Holy Ghost upon them who taught and them who believed and which was a miracle little inferior to the rest he gave many of his witnesses so long a life to publish what they had seen and known that it is made a question whether Christianity be farther spread at present then it was before the death of all the Apostles And then they all for we may say St. Iohn suffer'd death tho he out-lived it sealed with their blood the truth of what they had preach'd and publish'd And afterwards the Scripture being likewise publish'd and abundantly attested there needed no more Martyrs of the History but only for the doctrine and they are no less Martyrs who suffer death rather then they will commit a Sin against which our Saviour hath pronounced damnation then they who assert his Passion and Resurrection And as hath bin said before the greatest number of the Primitive Martyrs were never question'd about the History of our Saviour of which the Persecutors had never particularly heard but were condemn'd for renouncing their Religion in which they had bin bred and denying those to be Gods who were worshipped as such by that Country for which Mr. Hobbes hath obliged himself to have no reverence and however they are challeng'd and made to be Martys for that Religion which now assumes the Soveraignty over all Religion there was not one amongst them who ever heard of any of those opinions which are since grown up between Christians nor suffer'd for any thing but what all the