Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	bear_v	die_v	live_v	5,060	5	5.3319	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31083	A sermon upon the passion of Our Blessed Saviour preached at Guild-Hall Chappel on Good Friday, the 13th day of April, 1677 / by Isaac Barrow ...	Barrow, Isaac, 1630-1677.	1677 (1677)	Wing B954; ESTC R12876	31,756	46

he subjoyneth Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God c. 11. But farthermore What can be more operative than this point toward breeding a disregard of this world with all its deceitful vanities and mischievous delights toward reconciling our minds to the worst condition into which it can bring us toward supporting our hearts under the heaviest pressures of affliction which it can lay upon us for can we reasonably expect can we eagerly affect can we ardently desire great prosperity whenas the Son of God our Lord and Master did only taste such adversity How can we refuse in submission to Gods pleasure contentedly to bear a slight grievance whenas our Saviour gladly did bear a cross infinitely more distasteful to carnal will and sense than any that can befall us Who now can admire those splendid trifles which our Lord never did regard in his life and which at his death only did serve to mock and abuse him Who can relish those sordid pleasures of which he living did not vouchsafe to taste and the contraries whereof he dying chose to feel in all extremity Who can disdain or despise a state of sorrow and disgrace which he by voluntary susception of it hath so dignified and graced by which we so near resemble and become conformable to him by which we concur and partake with him yea by which in some cases we may promote and after a sort complete his designs filling up as St. Paul speaketh that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in our flesh Who now can hugely prefer being esteemed approved favoured commended by men before infamy reproach derision and persecution from them especially when these do follow conscientious adherence to righteousness Who can be very ambitious of worldly honour or repute covetous of wealth or greedy of pleasure who doth observe the Son of God chusing rather to hang upon a cross than to sit upon a throne inviting the clamours of scorn and spite rather than acclamations of blessing and praise devesting himself of all secular power pomp plenty conveniencies and solaces embracing the garb of a slave and the repute of a malefactour before the dignity and respect of a Prince which were his due which he most easily could have obtained Can we imagine it a very happy thing to be high and prosperous in this world to swim in affluence and pleasure Can we take it for a misery to be mean and low to conflict with some wants and streights here seeing the fountain of all happiness did himself purposely condescend to so forlorn a state and was pleased to become so deep a sufferer If with devout eyes of our mind we do behold our Lord hanging naked upon a gibbet besmeared all over with streams of his own bloud groaning under smart anguish of pain encompassed with all sorts of disgraceful abuses yielding as it was foretold of him his back to the smiters and his cheeks to them who plucked off the hair hiding not his face from shame and spitting will not the imagination of such a spectacle dim the lustre of all earthly grandeurs and beauties damp the sense of all carnal delights and satisfactions quash all that extravagant glee which we can find in any wild frolicks or riotous merriments will it not stain all our pride and check our wantonness will it not dispose our minds to be sober placing our happiness in things of another nature seeking our content in matters of higher importance preferring obedience to the will of God before complyance with the fancies and desires of men according to that precept of S Peter For as much then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh arm your selves likewise with the same mind so as no longer to live the remaining time in the flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God 12. This indeed will instruct and incline us cheerfully to submit unto Gods will and gladly to accept from his hand whatever he disposeth however grievous and afflictive to our natural will this point suggesting great commendation of afflictions and strong consolation under them For if such hardship was to our Lord himself a school of duty he as the Apostle saith learning obedience from what he suffered if it was to him a fit mean of perfection as the Apostle doth again imply when he saith that it became God to perfect the captain of our salvation by suffering If it was an attractive of the divine favour even to him as those words import Therefore the Father loveth me because I lay down my life If it was to him a step toward glory according to that saying Was not Christ to suffer and so to enter into his glory Yea if it was a ground of conferring on him a sublime pitch of dignity above all creatures God for this obedience having exalted him and given him a name above all names We seeing Jesus for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour the heavenly society in the Revelations with one voice crying out Worthy is the Lamb that was slain who redeemed us to God by his bloud to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing If affliction did minister such advantages to him and if by our conformity to him in undergoing it with like equanimity humility and patience it may afford the like to us what reason is there that we should any wise be discomposed at it or disconsolate under it much greater reason surely there is that with S. Paul and all the Holy Apostles we should rejoyce boast and exult in our tribulations far more cause we have with them to esteem it a favour a priviledge an ornament a felicity to us than to be displeased and discontented therewith To do thus is a duty incumbent on us as Christians for He saith our Master that doth not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me He that doth not carry his cross and go after me cannot be my disciple He that doth not willingly take the cross when it is presented to him by Gods hand he that doth not contentedly bear it when it is by providence imposed on him is no wise worthy of the honour to wait on Christ he is not capable to be reckoned among the disciples of our heavenly Master He is not worthy of Christ as not having the courage the constancy the sincerity of a Christian or of one pretending to such great benefits such high priviledges such excellent rewards as Christ our Lord and Saviour doth propose He cannot be Christs disciple shewing such an incapacity to learn those needful lessons of humility and patience dictated by him declaring such an indisposition to transcribe those Copies of submission to the divine will self-denial and self-resignation so fairly set him by the instruction and example of Christ for Christ

this circumstance which crosseth the fleshly sense and worldly prejudices of men so as to have rendred the Gospel offensive to the superstitious Jews and despicable to conceited Gentiles for so Tryphon in Justin M. although from conviction by testimonies of Scripture he did admit the Messias was to suffer hardly yet that it should be in this accursed manner he could not digest so the great adversaries of Christianity Celsus Porphyrie Julian did with most contempt urge this exception against it So S. Paul did observe that Christ crucified was unto the Jews a stumbling-block and unto the Greeks foolishness wherefore to avoid those scandals and that we may better admire the Wisdom of God in this dispensation it may be fit to assign some reasons intimated in H. Scriptrue or bearing conformity to its Doctrine why it was thus ordered such are these 1. As our Saviour freely did undertake a life of greatest meanness and hardship so upon the like accompts he might be pleased to undergo a death most loathsom and uncomfortable There is nothing to mans nature especially to the best natures in which modesty and ingenuity do survive more abominable than such a death God for good purposes hath planted in our constitution a quick sense of disgrace and of all disgraces that which proceedeth from an imputation of crimes is most pungent and being conscious of our innocence doth heighten the smart and to reflect upon our selves dying under it leaving the World with an indelible stain upon our name and memory is yet more grievous even to languish by degrees enduring the torments of a long however sharp disease would to an honest mind seem more eligible than in this manner being reputed and handled as a villain to find a quick and easie dispatch Of which humane resentment may we not observe a touch in that expostulation Be ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves If as a man he did not like to be prosecuted as a thief yet willingly did he chuse it as he did other most distastful things pertaining to our nature the likeness of man and incident to that low condition the form of a servant into which he did put himself such as were to endure penury and to fare hardly to be slighted envied hated reproached through all his course of Life It is well said by a Pagan Philosopher that no man doth express such a respect and devotion to virtue as doth he who forfeiteth the repute of being a good man that he may not lose the conscience of being such this our Lord willingly made his case being content not only to expose his life but to prostitute his fame for the interests of goodness Had he died otherwise he might have seemed to purchase our welfare at a somewhat easie rate he had not been so complete a sufferer he had not tasted the worst that man is lyable to endure there had been a comfort in seeming innocent detracting from the perfection of his sufferance Whereas therefore he often was in hazard of death both from the clandestine machinations and the outragious violences of those who maligned him he did industriously shun a death so plausible and honourable if I may so speak it being not so disgraceful to fall by private malice or by sudden rage as by the solemn deliberate proceeding of men in publick authority and principal credit Accordingly this kind of death did not fall upon him by surprize or by chance but he did from the beginning fore-see it He plainly with satisfaction did aim at it He as it is related in the Gospels did shew his Disciples that it was incumbent on him by Gods appointment and his own choice that he ought 't is said to suffer many things to be rejected by the chief Priests Elders and Scribes to be vilified by them to be delivered up to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified as a flagitious slave Thus would our B. Saviour in conformity to the rest of his voluntary afflictions and for a consummation of them not only suffer in his body by sore wounds and bruises and in his soul by doleful agonies but in his name also and reputation by the foulest scandals undergoing as well all the infamy as the infirmity which did belong to us or might befall us thus meaning by all means thoroughly to express his charity and exercise his compassion toward us thus advancing his merit and discharging the utmost satisfaction in our behalf 2. Death passing on him as a malefactour by publick sentence did best sute to the nature of his undertaking was most congruous to his intent did most aptly represent what he was doing and imply the reason of his performance for We all are guilty in a most high degree and in a manner very notorious the foulest shame together with the sharpest pain is due to us for affronting our glorious Maker we deserve an open condemnation and exemplary punishment wherefore he undertaking in our stead to bear all and fully to satisfie for us was pleased to undergo the like Judgment and usage being termed being treated as we should have been in quality of an heinous malefactour as we in truth are What we had really acted in dishonouring and usurping upon God in disordering the world in perverting others that was imputed to him and the punishment due to that guilt was inflicted on him All we like sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all he therefore did not only sustain an equivalent pain for us but in a sort did bear an equal blame with us before God and man 3. Seeing by the determinate counsel of God it was appointed that our Lord should die for us and that not in a natural but violent way so as perfectly to satisfie Gods justice to vindicate his honour to evidence both his indignation against sin and willingness to be appeased it was most fit that affair should be transacted in a way wherein Gods right is most nearly concerned and his providence most plainly discernible wherein it should be most apparent that God did exact and inflict the punishment that our Lord did freely yield to it and submissively undergo it upon those very accompts All judgment as Moses of old did say is Gods or is administred by authority derived from him in his name for his interest all Magistrates being his Officers and instruments whereby he governeth and ordereth the world his natural Kingdom whence that which is acted in way of formal judgement by persons in authority God himself may be deemed in a more special and immediate manner to execute it as being done by his commission in his stead on his behalf with his peculiar superintendance It was therefore in our Lord a signal act of deference to Gods authority and justice becoming the person sustained by him of our Mediatour and