Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A62456
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Just weights and measures that is, the present state of religion weighed in the balance, and measured by the standard of the sanctuary / according to the opinion of Herbert Thorndike.
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Thorndike, Herbert, 1598-1672.
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1662
(1662)
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Wing T1051; ESTC R19715
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213,517
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274
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raised Christ from the dead that shall raise the mortal bodies in which it dwelt here up to life is it not the sin which the fall of Adam brought into the world that first brought in death after it The same Spirit of holiness it is that our Lord according to promise sent his Disciples in his own stead and sent it with visible signs of his presence to make his word effectual in them first and by them to the conversion of the Nations And this means as no Christian can deny to bee sufficient to oblige all the world to bee Christians So there can bee nothing wanting on Gods part to render it effectual with those that embrace it For it is manifest that the Grace of God works the conversion of all by shewing the world sufficient reason to bee Christians A thing which can by no means bee done but by shewing them that they are the causes of their own damnation if they bee not They that are convicted hereof it is sure would bee perswaded by concupiscence not to act according to that conviction were there no more then conviction of reason to turn the ballance But when Gods Spirit manageth the motives of Christianity which it self provideth for this conviction consisteth in the works whereby God hath made good the preaching of our Lord and his Apostles what can bee wanting to the efficacy of it And this is signified in the Old Testament by ascribing the conquest of the promised Land to God and not to the strength or valour of his people So that wheresoever wee find that they are delivered out of their enemies hands by Gods assistance there wee are assured that the powers of darkness are not to bee overcome by Christians but by Gods Grace And the inclinations of mans heart to evil from the Mothers And therefore they inferre Original Sin by the Fall of Adam womb the frailty of humane flesh and the mortality thereof are so expresly delivered in the Old Testament that the Jewes themselves do acknowledge the effect of Adams transgression in them Neither is it possible to give any account of any necessity for the coming of our Saviour otherwise For whatsoever can bee required to convict the world that the tender of the Gospel shall bee made good to all that embrace or preserve it might have been as well without the death of the Son of God as by it Therefore the consent of the Church in this point hath been evidenced against Pelagius not only by the custome of baptizing Infants but by the Ceremonies which they were baptized with signifying the ejecting of the evil Spirit to make way for Gods Spirit Not that it was a Law from the beginning that all children of Christian Parents should be baptized Infants For it is evident that they thought it better to bee baptized at mans age Because then they are more able to understand what they undertake But because they never did presume of the Salvation of any that dyed unbaptized And therefore since the world came to profess Christianity and that the care and zeal either of Parents or Ministers could not so well bee trusted for the preventing of death by procuring Baptisme for Infants especially with that reverence which the Sacrament requireth it hath been agreed upon by the silent practise of Christendome to baptize all while they are Infants And this consent whoso infringeth in the overt act of Schisme which hee committeth hee involveth a presumption of Haeresie against himself For what could move a man to such an outrage who did believe that profession which saveth a Christian to include in it the Sacrament of Baptisme And thus it remaineth evident that it is a Covenant of unspeakable Wherein the Covenant of Grace consisteth Grace on Gods part which his Gospel bringeth notwithstanding that it requireth upon the condition of our Salvation that wee live and dye Christians First as tendring the assistance of Gods Spirit as well to undertake as to perform And then having performed as tendring a reward which our performance cannot challenge And both in consideration of Christ whose merits and sufferings are free pure meer Grace before all helps of Grace which they have purchased for us It is a thing prodigious and deplorable to consider that they That the state of Grace is forfeited by heinous sin who would bee Reformers of the Church should notwithstanding all this think it no state of Grace that can become forfeit by sin As if because without daily sin Christians do not live therefore that reconcilement with God were no reconcilement that can become void by gross and heinous sin But till that which hath been said of Justification and that Faith which alone justifieth bee destroyed there can bee no pretense for so dangerous a doctrine That which is granted upon a condition faileth with it And it must bee a secret which the Old and New Testament hath not revealed that shall make good our title to Heaven though wee make not good that Christianity which intitleth us to it And therefore when S. Paul is perswaded that nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Rom. VIII 28. hee supposeth us to bee such as hee describeth all along the Chapter afore Such as hee found himself resolved to bee Such as live not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit Of such hee might well bee perswaded that nothing should separate them from the love of God in Christ Knowing the helps of Gods All-sufficient Grace to bee promised all that so live not to fail till they receive them in vain Whence S. John saith that hee who is born of God sinneth not because the Vnction which hee hath from God abideth in bim and teacheth him all things 1 John II. 20. 27. III. 9. hee supposeth him that is born of God to bee the Son of God who shall bee no Son of God if hee sinne such sins as hee means And therefore hee supposeth this Vnction to abide in him which abideth not in them that sinne When our Lord saith to the Samaritane John IV. 14. that whoso drinketh of the water which hee shall give shall never thirst any more hee supposeth that the water which hee giveth is not vomited up again hee opposeth this water so drunk to the water of Jacobs Well which did make room for thirst in time Whereas this water so drunk shall spring up to life everlasting All Haeresies have the superficial sound of some Texts of Scripture to set against the whole stream of Scripture and the current Doctrine of it Hee that considers how much of the Old and New Testament that which I have said of Justification involveth will think it reason to measure the meaning of two or three Texts by that not to rack all the rest to the length of these As for the sense of the Church seeing the consent thereof is evident in the condition upon which wee are justified It is a part of
interest in one anothers body which cannot bee dissolved but by death Therefore it is celebrated with the Eucharist that they who mary with the resolution of Christians may bee enabled by the Spirit of God which the Sacrament promiseth to perform the same The charge of Superstition upon the Church of Rome is to The Superstitions of the Church of Rome bee justified by many particulars in tendring those things to God for his service wherein his service consisteth not In the first place the multiplying of Masses for the quick and for the dead without any pretense of the concurrence of a Congregation to the action much less of any Communion At this rate it matters not much in what language it is performed seeing there is no mans devotion required to assist the Priest in it The like is seen in the Vows of Pilgrimages and in the visiting of divers Churches for the gaining of Indulgences For had men nothing else in mind then that Service which is acceptable to God in all places why should they think themselves more acceptable to God for the travel which they undergo that they may perform it far from home whereby they forgo that opportunity for it which they know without bettering the mind which were it as it might bee would find means to better it self every where But there appears in it a carnal affection to the Memories of Saints out of a carnal affection to the things of thiâ— world wherein carnal men hope to bee assisted by the Saints in recompense of their voluntary devotions though Christianity allows them not the confidence to seek them at Gods hands The same is to bee said of an innumerable number of things that Monastical Orders observe nay of the overvaluing of the estate it self of continence or retirement from the world Which being no part of Christianity but a help and an opportunity for that wherein it consisteth satisfieth outside Christians with that which Pagans can do the outward work without that inward disposition which only Christianity formeth All these and many more observations which they set innocent Christians on work about must needs speak them superstitious notwithstanding that there is always in them a pretense of serving God according to Christianity For the more straw and chaff the less grain and where the intention of the mind is spent upon the shell of Christianity there can it not have strength to bring the kernel of it to ripeness The Ceremonies wherewith they overcharge the publick service of the Church are of the same nature For they that understand not the meaning of them and therefore distinguish them not from the Office which God accepteth must needs put that to the account of his service which is but the means to procure it But what shall wee say to them who think they oblige us The Superstitions of the Puritans when they allow the people to kneel to lift up their eyes and to hold up their hands at their Prayers Do they not think they oblige Almighty God in serving him without any other sign of reverence It is not possible that they should stand upon it to the disquiet of the Church if they did not Did they not take it for the service of God that the same Houses should bee Common and Holy Stables and Churches the same Vessels Chalices and drinking Cups the same Tables Altars and dining Bords it is not possible that they should trouble the Church about it as they do But it is plain enough that they serve him without reverence or devotion because they think so To these men all set times of fasting all the estate of continence all obedience to Superiors all works of Mortification and Penance stand suspected for Superstitious They would not think themselves far enough from the Papists if they should do the good works of Christians For fear of private Masses the Eucharist must bee celebrated thrice a year And wee must have the Opus operatum of a Sermon in exchange for the Opus operatum of a Mass But this is not reforming of Religion It is stocking up the Vineyard of the Church instead of Pruning it I need not say what is Reformation and at what point it stands The distance from the extreams makes the mean visible The truth is there will bee necessarily superstition in all Religions so long as the Church hath chaff and corn in it For they that are sensible of that obligation to God which they are not willing to discharge will always discharge themselves to God upon that which they are content to do for his service but which hee is not content with because it signifieth not the obedience of the inward man which hee requireth Not that there must needs bee Superstition in using things indifferent of themselves much less in using such as in reason may serve to advance attention and devotion in Gods Service But because as there may bee Superstition in using them So there is Superstition in thinking that by forbearing them a man does God service But to think Schisme acceptable to God rather then use them is without doubt as great superstition as any the Church of Rome teacheth Having shewed why the Church of Rome cannot bee charged Why the Pope cannot bee Antichrist with Idolatry I may from thence infer that the Pope cannot bee Antichrist I do not grant that either St. Paul in the second Chapter of his second Epistle to the Thessalonians or St. John in the Apocalypse speaks any thing of Antichrist But hee that exalts himself above all that is called God as St. Paul speaketh there must bee one that should make himself God according to the Idolatry of the Pagans And the fornication which the Whore of Babylon in the Apocalypse makes the Nations drunk with is necessarily the same Idolatry Therefore if the Pope teach no such Idolatry hee cannot prove Antichrist either by St. John or St. Paul The Fathers have thought that both of them prophesie of such a one as shall indeed bee a false Christ if ever there shall bee such a one Because hee shall impose a new Religion as from God upon all whom hee shall seduce But St. Johns Catholick Epistles where Antichrist is mentioned do not signifie that any such is to come And therefore wee are not tied to their opinion in the interpretation of a Prophesie which is no mater of Faith But though the Pope bee not Antichrist nor the Papists Idolaters How it is just to Reforme without the See of Rome yet I conceive I have shewed sufficient reason why this Kingdom and Church of England might and ought to Reform Religion without and against the consent of the Church of Rome supposing that which seems to bee manifest by all that hath followed that the Church of Rome would never have condescended to any such change And the Unity of the Church determining the measure and the bounds of Reformation they must needs be the same indeed as they