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	saviour_n	soul_n	4,582	5	5.0993	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60407	A sermon preached July 17, 1681, at the assizes in Huntingdon before the Right Honourable the Lord Chief Baron Mountague and Mr. Justice Windham, judges of the assize / by Benjamin Smith, Rector of Boxworth, in Cambridge-shire.	Smith, Benjamin, fl. 1681.	1682 (1682)	Wing S4021B; ESTC R37563	22,452	38

For this our Saviour Threatens the Jew Matth. 21. v. 43. Therefore I say unto you the Kingdom of God s●all be taken from you and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruits thereof Our Provocations are too like theirs God grant our Punishment be not the same too 3. A Christi●n love and Union among our selves This is an excellent Means of defence of the Faith and a pertinent and prevalent Method of Contending for it By this we secure our selves from all Assaults without and while Love compacts and cements the Body it makes it impregnable to all the fruitless Attempts of the Enemy Our Unity would be our Strength as well as as our Beauty and if our Adversaries could not Create a Party and form Divisions among us they would sit down in Dispair of ever prevailing and would be less frequent and brisk in their Attacks But while we Bite and Devour one another while we Rage and Raile at and mutually Subvert and Undermine each other whilst fierce Debates and Unchristian Censures and Spight and Malice and Wrath do swell the Spleen and Exasperate the Minds of men one against another we reproach our Religion by an unsuitable Deportment and expose our selves an easy Prey to the Cunning and Malice of our Enemies For the Gospel we Contend for is a Gospel of Peace and the God we serve is the God of Peace and the Badge of Christ's Disciples is to love one another If then to Contradict the Design of the Gospel be the nearest way to hasten its departure in vain do men pretend a zeal of Religion in Bitterness and Animosity or give out they Contend for the Faith while they violate the Laws of Christian Charity and Cast away the bands of Concord Love and Union It is much to be feared lest God in his just Indignation at these things should let in the Common Enemy among us and Cure the Rancor take off the edge of our spirits and teach us more Kindness a more tender regard one for another by involving us all in the same common Calamity and judgment I Am sure nothing more weakens our strength nor more roundly or successfully advanceth the Projects of the Enemy than our fierce and unmerciful Contests one with Another We pull down our Defence with our own hands and our selves sap and undermine those Walls and Foundations which they so much desire to see Levelled with the ground Hence it is that Rome hath always been industrious and vigilant to Create and foment Divisions among us for these present them with those advantages against us which all their own Prowesse or Policy could never have procured for them But a Christian Love and firm Union among our selves would be no less their Terror then their Confusion 4. To suffer resolutely the worst that man can inslict rather than forgo our Profession or deny the Faith This is that manner of Contention which I conceive the Apostle Chiefly aimes at in the Text by the use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I have already intimated and this is that Way in which every particular person may for himself and in his own Sphere victoriously Contend This will render all the Attempts of men in vain and whether they Fawn or Rage a mind resolved to endure the utmost rather than forgo the Faith will weather the storm and stand the shock and come off Triumphant in the end For the Rage and violence of men may bind the Hands or force the Body but the mind is free and no Compulsions can debauch the Conscience They Can reach this Temporal life tear the heart out of the Body but the Soul is beyond their reach and can never tear the Love of Christ and his Truth out of the Heart that is not willing to part with it When therefore all other means of Contending for the Faith either fail or are useless through the Anger of GOD or the Perverseness of Men the good Christian in his particular Sphere may Contend for it and be sure to preserve and keep it entire and inviolate by Patience and Constancy and a mind prepared to suffer whatever the Rage or Malice of Men can inflict For he that Can expose his Fortune to the Rapaciousness of Men his Body to the Tormentor and his Life to the death need not fear what man can do but may be sure to preserve his Conscience pure and his Faith sound unto the end And though Flesh and Blood may Recoile and fancy this Method least of any yet the Christian is supported with the greatest reason that Can be to encourage him to it This is the Path that our Saviour trod before us and through Tribulation and Sufferings the Captain of our Salvation was made Perfect He endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand Heb. 12. 2. of the Throne of God This way those great and famous Worthies in the Gospel those Primi Pilares Fidei nostrae the Ringleaders of our Faith stood up for the Faith and Sealed it with their dearest Blood and they loved not their lives unto the death And to the same Engagements Rev. 12. 11. our Saviour encourageth us and bids his Disciples fear not them which kill the Body but are not able to kill the Mat. 10. 28. Soul And the Apostle proposeth the example of our Masters Sufferings as the support of our Faith and Courage in the greatest Tryals For consider him says Saint Paul that endured such Contradiction of sinners against himself lest ye be weary and faint in your minds This the Heb. 12 3 thing we Contend for deserveth at our hands for the Faith is Precious and the Testimony of a good Conscience out-weighs the Terrors of death and the Love of God is better than life it self And this by our Covenant with God we engage our selves to and we Cannot be Christ's Disciples upon Termes short of these He that loves his Life more then Christ is unworthy to be a a Disciple of Christ and he that for Fear denyes the Faith denyes Christ the Lord and Founder of it And though our Master does not always Call his servants to Heaven in a Fiery Charriot and in Tribulation and sufferings yet he expects that they should all of them be always ready and resolved to go that way if he calls them and he will receive none that decline that way when he calls them by it For he hath said if any man come to me and hate not his Father and Mother and Wife and Children Luk. 14. 26. 27 and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own life also he cannot be my Disciple and whosoever doth not bear his Cross and come after me cannot be my Disciple Let us then rather dread losing the Faith than our Lives and rather fear being discarded by our great Master turned out of his Service or disowned by him then to be vexed and worried and killed by men If God calls us to suffer let us not think strange at the Fiery Tryal as Saint Peter calls 1 Pet. 4. 12. it but with Patience and Courage obey the Call and with a firm Mind and undaunted Resolution hazzard our lives to save our Souls quit the World to preserve the Faith The Enemy is at hand lodged under our very Walls what God may permit we know not what they would do is now sufficiently discovered and demonstrated to every one that is not of the Party or willing to be imposed upon T is time to think seriously of our Condition and to fortify our minds with Courage and Constancy against the impending Evil. 'T is time that our Breaches were Healed and our Contentions among our selves were Banished that we might all unite in the Common Defence and all Combine as one man to Contend earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints FINIS