Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	body_n	flesh_n	sin_n	8,004	5	4.9322	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57956	A discourse of the use of reason in matters of religion shewing that Christianity contains nothing repugnant to right reason, against enthusiasts and deists / written in Latin by the Reverend Dr. Rust ; and translated into English, with annotations upon it by Hen. Hallywell.	Rust, George, d. 1670.; Hallywell, Henry, d. 1703?	1683 (1683)	Wing R2361; ESTC R25530	47,282	92

Sons of Soul However these Things be yet this is certain that among all Nations those Persons have been always had in the greatest esteem and Veneration who have been taken to be the immediate Offspring of God And this was it which put Pilate into such a great Fear when the Jews told him that our Saviour asserted himself to be the Son of God Joh. 19. 8. imagining according to the Opinion of the Gentiles that he might be the Son of Jupiter or Apollo or some other of their Deities and consequently that he ought rather to be reverenced then given up to be Crucified Ibid. Adds the greater Majesty to what he should deliver From hence it was that most of the Legislators among the Heathen that they might obtain the greater Credit and Veneration to their Laws were wont to tell the People they received them from some God or other As Mynias persuaded the Egyptians that he was taught his Laws by Mercury Minos intituled his to Ju piter and Zamolxis among the Getes to the Goddess Vesta Now albeit these were but Fictions yet from the Dictates of common Reason they all concluded thus much that there was no Law so binding or that carried greater Majesty and Authority then that which had Divinity stamped upon it Ibid. Nor could God signifie his will more agreeable to the Nature of Man Admirably to 〈◊〉 Purpose the forecited Lactantius discourses where shewing how highly Reasonable it was that Christ should take upon him our Flesh he adds Si verò sit Immortalis exemplum proponere homini nullo modo potest i. e. If he had been wholly Immortal he could not have offered himself as an Example to Mankind for some grave Person would be very apt thus to bespeak him you indeed do not sin because you are free from this Body you covet not because an Immortal Being wants nothing But I have need of many Things to maintain this life of mine You are not afraid of Death because it can have no Dominion over you You despise Pain because you are Impassible But I poor Mortal have reason to fear both because they bring upon me such grievous Torments as weak and infirm Flesh is not able to endure Therefore he that is a Teacher of 〈◊〉 ought to take away this excuse from men 〈◊〉 none may ascribe his sins rather to Necessity then his ownfault And that he may be every way compleat nothing ought to be objected against him by him that is to be taught As if any one should say you command Impossibilities he may readily answer Behold I do the same things I am clothed with Flesh whose Property is to sin yet I bear about a Mortal Body without sin I cannot for Righteousness sake either suffer Pain or Death because I am frail Behold Pain and Death hath Power on me and I overcome those things which thou fearest that I may make thee a Conqueror over Pain and Death I go first through those things which thou pretendest thou canst not bear if thou canst not follow me in what I command yet surely thou mayst follow me going before thee Thus all manner of excuse is taken away and every Man must confess that 't is his own fault that he is Vitious in neglecting to follow not only the Teacher of all Virtue but the Guide and Conductor to it And if any shall Object with that Impious Epicurean and ask Why could not God appear and at once take away all wickedness and sin out of the Soul and plant Virtue there To this Origen replies 1. That it may well be doubted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether such a thing be naturally possible or not 2. Supposing it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where will be the Liberty of our will and where that laudable Assent to the Truth and Aversation from Lies and Falshood For if we take away Liberty and Spontaneity we destroy the very Essence of Virtue So that no Course could have been taken more agreeable and suitable to the Nature of Man then what is made choice of in the Christian Religion Ibid. God cannot appear to us but under some corporeal Veil The Essences of all Things and so of Spirits are invisible and nothing can be the Object of our Senses but under some Corporeal Modification therefore the Evangelical Oeconomy requiring not only that the Person who should come from God to instruct the World should be intimately and Hypostatically united with the Divine Nature to conciliate the Greater Majesty to what he should deliver but likewise that he should appear to Men in some visible form and shape Divine Wisdom thought nothing a more sitting Mansion or Covering then a humane Body partly because an Angelical Body had been impassible and then that we might not lose that Natural encouragement and Provocation to Virtue flowing from the Example of one made after our own likeness who by those many endearing Circumstances he might make use of in the Flesh would more Powerfully captivate and attract Humane Souls to the Love and Obedience of him And therefore Ignatius in his Epistle to the Ephesians does justly condemn some Hereticks in his Time who said that our Saviour Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was only a putative Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that he did not take unto himself a true and real Body Pag. 44. Who spake very doubtfully of it When Socrates had brought as good Arguments for the Immortality of the Soul as he could yet Simmias thought he had Reason to say that to know any thing clearly of it in this life was either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Impossible or a thing extremely difficult But says he a Man must choose the best Reasons he can find which are least liable to Exception and he must venture to embark himself in these and Sail by them through this life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i e. unless he can be so happy as to be carried safer with less danger in a surer stedfast Chariot of some Divine Word i. e. Revelation which is not only a clear acknowledgment that meer natural Reason is at a loss but a kind of Vaticination of an indubitable certainty and perfect security of Immortal life to be expected from some Divine Revelation And accordingly is now put out of all doubt by our Lord and Saviour who has brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel Nor could that excellent Philosopher Cicero speak with greater Confidence for when he had weighed all things on both Parts he knew not what to say but this Harum igitur Sententiarum qu●… vera sit Deus aliquis viderit i. e. Which of these Opinions is true God only knows Pag. 46. Since God cannot execute this Solemn Judgment but under a visible shape That our Lord Jesus should appear at the End of the World in some visible shape and form and in that pass a Final doom upon all Refractory and Impenitent Sinners seems highly

Body without which the Happiness of Man cannot be Compleat And how ready God is to Pardon Sinners upon a true Faith and Repentance for this we are apt to doubt of when we consider the Malignity of Sin our own proneness to Revenge and how rare a thing it is to find forgiveness of a fault amongst men In like manner that he should establish the Belief of Rewards and Punishments after this life that by looking up to those we may be allured to Obedience and out of fear of these may be deterred from sin And that he should gain credit to all these things both by his Miracles and by his Death For Miracles are the greatest Testimony of Divine Presence And in that he yielded himself up to Death it is a Great sign of the Truth and Sincerity of his dealing with us Besides It is a clear Demonstration of the Divine Goodness towards us who spared not his own Son that he might do us good Nor can there be a stronger Argument to move us to Crucifie our Lusts and to lay down our lives for the Brethren But that our Lord by his Death became a Sacrifice for sins by which God declared his Placableness it was a design of Infinite Wisdom and Goodness to relieve and succour the Soul under the Arguments of Despondency and Distrust which it fetcht against it self from the Holiness and Justice of God the Death of Christ for that very End propitiating Divine Justice His Resurrection from the Dead is likewise very Consonant to Reason being an Ample Confirmation of his past Actions and also a Demonstration of the Possibility of our Resurrection and Return to Life after Death But that after his Resurrection he was exalted at the Right hand of God and that all Prayers and Praises should be offered to God by his Mediation and that he always makes Intercession for us this is likewise very agreeable to Reason For hence God not only makes known to us his kindness and Good-will but has placed our Brother at his Right hand a Person most dear to him and most tenderly affected towards us through whom we may with cheerfulness and full trust make our approach to God Christ in the mean while deprecating God in our behalf that we should acknowledge whatever Good befals us to proceed wholly and purely from the love of God And then in that all Power both in Heaven and Earth is committed into his hands and that he is Gods Vice-gerent and the Head of Saints and Angels it is a great Comfort to us because it is he that so dearly loves us who is possest of such mighty Power Moreover since there is without Dispute a certain Polity and Government among the Blessed Saints and Angels whom can we imagine to have better and greater Right to this Principality than Jesus Christ who is God clothed with Humane Nature And that both Devils and Men are sometime to be summon'd before the dreadful Tribunal of God is very Consentaneous for this very thought will strike Terror into the most daring Sinner and the Solemnity of the Judgment will vindicate God from all Suspicion of Malignity and Injustice because every Man's Conscience will testifie to him that his Misery proceeds from his own wretched Folly Nor can any thing be imagined more proper then that Christ should be appointed Judge for since God cannot execute this solemn Judgment but under a visible shape what fitter Instrument can there be for this Purpose then that very Nature in which long ago he has taken up his dwelling And lastly 't is no way discrepant from Reason that having subdued all his Enemies he should deliver up the Kingdom to his Father For his Mediatory Office being designed to this Purpose that lapsed Man may be recovered to the Life of God and invested with endless Happiness upon the perfecting this work the Determination of his Kingdom ought to follow Which yet is to be understood after this manner viz. That Jesus Christ God-Man shall from thence and for ever continue the Prince and Head of Saints and Angels Thus we have briefly run through the several Heads of Christian Religion and shall not further trespass upon your Patience What remains I shall dispatch in a Word From what hath been already said it appears clearly indecorous and unworthy of a Christian to draw in his Religion with his Mothers Milk and to attribute his receiving it not to the Ingenuous Disquisition of Reason but to the Laws of his Country his Education to the Dictates of some learned Man in whom he has an Implicit Faith and such like Prejudices as these And in Conclusion makes it his whole business pertinaciously to defend it not upon a due choice and difcernment between Truth and Falshood but upon some preconceived and prejudicate Opinion Whereas that is scarce worthy the Name of Faith nor grateful to God which owes its Original rather to some dull chance then either to the Evidence of the thing it self or the weight of the Arguments for it Nay certain it is that he who after an humble pious and attentive weighing of Things shall yet fall into Error is upon better grounds to be judged if not worthy of Praise yet at least of Pardon then he that shall blindly and fortuitously assent though to Truth it self To which the Holy Writings bear witness by commanding us to search the Scriptures to prove all things and to examine and try the Spirits And as our Apostle exhorts us to be ready always to give an answer to every Man that asks us a Reason of the ●…ope that is in us The End ANNOTATIONS Upon the forogoing DISCOURSE THe Pious and Excellently learned Author of this Discourse being himself so Great a Master of Reason made it his whole Business to imploy his Great Parts for the Honour and Advantage of Religion He was a well instructed Scribe for the Kingdom of Heaven and as a Faithful Steward of the Mysteries of God brought forth out of his Treasures things New and Old And finding Christianity attackt and assaulted by Deists and Enthusiasts he resolutely came in to her Aid and Assistance and by invincible Arguments hath made Good both the use of Reason in Matters of Religion and that Christianity contains nothing in it contrary to the Laws and Inscriptions of Right Reason Upon this Foundation the whole Discourse is setled and grounded on which I here offer such Annotations as may best serve to illustrate and confirm that high Sense and great Reason our Ingenious Author hath curiously and with most accurate Judgment drawn together Pag. 3 4. What ever is propounded to us as matter of Belief ought not so much as to be above Reason There are some who out of stupidity rather then a due Veneration of Religion make the choicest of its Articles so incomprehensible as to be elevated above Reason that is in their sense such as of which Humane Intellect can have no Conception Then which