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	mortal_a	sin_n	4,407	5	5.1417	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53979	A sermon preached before the King & Queen at Whitehall, Decemb. 8th, 1689 by Edward Pelling ...	Pelling, Edward, d. 1718.	1690 (1690)	Wing P1100; ESTC R18267	10,271	37

A SERMON Preached before the King Queen AT WHITEHALL Decemb. 8th 1689. By Edward Pelling D. D. Chaplain to his Grace the Duke of Somerset By Her Majesties Special Command LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops-Head in St. Paul's Church-yard 1690. Imprimatur Carolus Alston R. P. D. Hen. Episc Lond. a Sacris Dec. 31. 1689. St. LUKE 1. 71. That we should be saved from our Enemies and from the hands of all that hate us THese Words of Zacharias do evidently relate to our Blessed Saviours Incarnation in Memory whereof the Zeal and Wisdom of the Catholick Church hath set apart this time of the Year that all Professors of Christianity may now especially offer up to God their most solemn Thanksgivings for that inestimable Blessing to the whole World It would be beneath the Piety of the Christian Religion should we pass over the Memorial of his wonderful Nativity without the most publick Expressions of Devotion which the most sensible Hearts can possibly give since he was once usherd into the World not only with the Miraculous Birth of John the Baptist to prepare his way as his Herald and Fore-runner but also by a Majestick Train of glorious Angels and by the whole goodly Fellowship of the Prophets which have spoken since Prophesy first began It was that which Zacharias now nay which our Saviour himself afterwards and his Apostles after him took notice of especially that in the Scriptures of Moses and all the Prophets there were things written which did plainly concern Him that those things which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his Prophets he fulfilled in Him and that to him give all the Prophets witness For this was a convincing Argument of his own Divine Authority and of the unquestionable Truth of his Religion that every thing was accomplisht in Him whatsoever was before spoken of the Messiah by those extraordinary Men whom God had raised up by his own immediate Power in all Ages to foretel things to come When we read in the Old Testament such and such things Recorded of the time of the Messiahs coming of his Birth Parentage Person Condition of Life Doctrine Miracles Sufferings Death Resurrection Ascension and of the strange and sudden Propagation of his Religion that was to be among Jews and Gentiles and when we find in the New Testament how accurately all was fulfilled in the Blessed Jesus and in him alone So that the History of our Saviour is a very plain Counterpart of the Prophets Predictions we have the highest reason in the World to believe that This was He who was to come and that we are not to look for another But of all these Predictions Zacharias here singleth out one which is to be the Subject of our present Meditations viz. That Promise made to Abraham Gen. 22. whereof this was a part That his Seed should possess the gate of his Enemies V. 17. He saith not thy Seeds as if he spake of many but as of One thy Seed which is Christ saith St. Paul Gal. 3. 6. And so the Sense of the Prediction is this that God would in his due time most certainly raise up an Eminent Person the Messiah of the numerous Posterity of Abrabam that should not only bless his People by turning them away from their Iniquities but should moreover protect and defend them by exercising his Victorious Power even over the strongest of their Enemies And this is the very Sense of Zacharias here though he exprest himself in somewhat a different Form of Words speaking now of the Messiah that was yet in the Holy Virgins Womb God hath raised up an Horn of Salvation for us in the house of his Servant David as he spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets which have been since the World began that we should be saved from our Enemies and from the hand of all that hate us In discoursing upon which Words it will be necessary for me to shew 1. What those Enemies are from whose Hand we were to be delivered by the Messiah 2. How the Prediction touching this Deliverance is fulfilled in the Blessed Jesus or how his Providence is shewed in saving us from our Enemies 3. And so in the last place to draw down this Consideration to our Christian Practice 1. What those Enemies are from whose hand we were to be delivered by the Messiah some understand it only of our Spiritual Enemies as of Sin which without the Grace of Christ must have Reigned in our mortal Bodies of Death which without his Victory over the Grave must have holden us to all Eternity and of the Devil who without the Power of Christ would have Captivated us by his Wiles and brought us into his Condemnation Which is the Reason the Author to the Hebrews gives of our Saviours partaking of Flesh and Blood That through death he might destroy him who had the power of death that is the Devil Heb. 2. 14. And indeed these Deliverances are of the greatest consequence by far and so the fittest for the Messiah to accomplish because they immediately concern our Immortal Souls and are in order to the endles happiness of our Souls in another World But yet by the Salvation spoken of in the Text must be meant also Deliverance from our Temporal Enemies or from such as visibly and forcibly oppose the Kingdom of the Messiah and the Truth of his Religion 1. For first Zacharias now spoke like a Jew as one that might expect as the rest of the Jews nay as the Apostles themselves for some time did a Glorious Temporal Deliverer that should set up his Throne upon the Earth and go in and out before them after a Pompous manner as David and other of their Kings had done Though as to this particular Circumstance they were mistaken because the Kingdom of Christ was not of this World yet those Predictions on which these their Expectations were grounded do plainly argue that the Messiah was not wholly to shut himself out of the World but that how Inglorious soever his suffering State might be yet being once exalted to the Right hand of God he was to be enstated King of Kings and all Power in Heaven and in Earth was to be given unto him Hence it follows that his Office was to be not only to make all due Provision for our Souls but moreover to take care even of the outward State of his Church by Exercising his Soveraignty over all by watching all Affairs here below by directing all Occurrences to the Interest of his Kingdom by subduing his and his Churches Enemies and by Defending his Faithful Servants so far at least as it serves for their Good and for his own Glory because the power of Defending is a very necessary part of his Soveraign Authority 2. For Secondly were it not thus what fair Construction can we make of a great many Prophesies relating to the Messiah that all his Enemies should be made his Footstool that they should