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	soul_n	spirit_n	17,497	5	5.6554	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26964	The nonconformists advocate, or, A farther account of their judgment in certain things in which they are misunderstood written principally in vindication of A letter from a minister to a person of quality, shewing some reasons for his nonconformity, modesty answering the exceptions of two violent opposers of the said reasons.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1680 (1680)	Wing B1318; ESTC R1328	72,144	90

the Sign of the Cross You know not what remark to make on this but leave it to my self and every impartial Reader to think on it Though you do not know what Remark to make on my Objection yet I know what Remarks to make on your Confutation for plainly I observe in it falseness and weakness First there is a great untruth in it for though you say The Church of England has expresly ordered in that private form of baptizing to baptize Children without Godfathers and Godmothers or the Sign of the Cross yet there is no such thing expressed or mentioned in the Order but at the uttermost it is only supposed by a Mute and will you call silence expression Here I leave you to your self and serious thoughts so likewise to the thoughts of the impartial Reader how far you can stretch to bring in an Accusation If the Minister in private Baptism should sign the Infant baptized with the Sign of the Cross would he cross the intent of that silent which you call express Order yea or not I believe nothing at all which to do had it been an expressed or declared Order would have been a manifest violation of the same And then as to Godfathers and Godmothers they are both mentioned and interrogated and as clearly brought in for the Consummation of private Baptism as in publick Secondly There is a great weakness in our Confutation for my Objection lies against the manner of baptizing in ordinary and you answer me from the manner of baptizing in extraordinary as in case of any apparent danger of death What can only Parents whose Children are in danger of death have these scruples mentioned by me against Godfathers and Godmothers and against the Sign of the Cross and not multitudes besides them How shall the Children of these how scrupulous soever they be as you avouch they may come to their Christendom What shall these whether these Children be in imminent peril of death yea or not come with a lye in their mouths to the Minister and say Pray Sir baptize our Children according to the private order of Baptism for they are ready to die though they are not Well he comes and on the contrary sees their Children strong and well ought he now to baptize them according to the private or publick form Surely according to the publick because the pretended necessity of the private is found a falsity Here ergo the scrupulous Parents are at the same Bar as at the beginning and their Children as far from being baptized as ever and this too because the Minister will not and according to order ought not to baptize their Children without Godfathers and Godmothers and the Sign of the Cross Now what I have here spoken is not an idle Supposition and ● meer Imagination but I have reason to believe it a real truth i● matter of fact for I know the Person very well who has again and again been desired by Parents to baptize their Children and being unwilling and averse to intermeddle in that affair hath sincerely counselled the said Parents to have a recourse to their own Parish-Minister to do it for them whose proper office it was but they have replied He will not baptize our Children without Godfathers and Godmothers and we know not where to get them My last scruple was against the Order and Office for the Burial of the Dead wherein we have as much said as can well be signified and expressed by word or tongue concerning the most certain salvation and happiness of every one buried by the Minister though of the worst of men though of the most flagitious and facinorous persons so living and so dying What think you of S. Coleman the Traytor I am assured from an Eye and Ear-witness that he was buried in S. Giles's Church-yard by one of the Readers and by the Common-Prayer Book and so perhaps were the rest not of the Loyal but Liolan and lying Saints after him At every such Interment the Minister saith Forasmuch as it hath pleased God of his great mercy to take unto himself the Soul of our dear Brother here departed c. What can more plainly signifie the safety and bliss of such a Soul what can more fully declare the love and favour of God towards it and place it in Heaven You say It is no more than that of Solomon in the Ecclesiastes Chap. 12.7 Then shall the dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return unto God who gave it But surely in my judgment God his taking to himself and this too in mercy in great mercy every such particular soul whose body is committed to the ground sounds and imports much more than Solomon intended by his returning of the Spirit unto God after death for the whole verse is but a general description of death and to give us to understand that after death the Body goes one way and the Soul another the Body to the Ground and the Soul unto God that is ad Deum Judicem unto God as unto a Judge before whose dreadful Tribunal the Soul immediately after death shall be brought to appear and there shall be sentenced according to desert either to weal or woe for ever and ever This is quite another thing from God his receiving of every Soul departed in great mercy to himself which implies the happy and setled state and abode of such a Soul in the place of Gods abode to all Eternity You say To return to God and to be taken to him signifies to be put in the immediate disposal of God and for your Authority and Vouch you quote one Mr. Falkner I see by your often quotations of him you securely rely upon him as if he were an unerring Oracle and an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an unanswerable demonstration nevertheless I know not the man nor ever yet set eye upon any of his learned Lucubrations and therefore how truly or how falsly you have quo●ed or perhaps transcribed him I can neither affirm or deny I freely grant him to be a Reverend Person of great Abilities according as you have reported him notwithstanding my Faith and Perswasion depend not upon his sense and judgment nor indeed of any mans else though otherwise the most Renowned for Learning in the Age but only upon the Infallible Truth of Gods Word and therefore will follow him and you also as far as ye follow that but no further He saith according to your quotation Our Church acknowledgeth to be an act of mercy in God through the Grace of Christ who hath the Keys of Hell and Death that dying persons do not forthwith go into the power of the Devil who had the power of Death but do immediately go into the hands of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ to be disposed of by him according to the promises and conditions of the Gospel-Covenant c. These are his words but can these be verified

the Pharisees and some other people who are very like them I understand your Elegant Periphrasis and the biting Sarcasme in it Oh how sweet are your lips Honey and Milk are under your tongue yet what is the reason of all this rancour and bitterness what is the cause ye cannot speak peaceably of us or to us what is our desert what our provocation are we not abased sufficiently have ye not all in possession do ye envy our being and breathing amongst you Death hath eased you of many of us already and cannot you quietly expect a little longer and we shall all retire and trouble you no more I grieve and am sad to see you of this spirit but rejoyce and am glad my Soul is not under your power for if it were I might fear unplacable wrath never to be appeased would never forgive me neither in this world nor in the world to come But to come to our business you say I am much mistaken in the temper of the Church of England verily I am not at all mistaken for I see it evidently in her Children the Sons of the Church especially if all be of your temper for the Church of England neither does any thing nor leaves any thing undone meerly for a note of distinction and separation I know not what weight and stress you put upon the word meerly or else as good a Church and better than ever the Church of England was notwithstanding its Grandeur and Glory with the Pomp of that name has and that too by the counsel and command of infinite wisdom and reason upon the account of distinction and separation from others not more idolatrous and sinful than the Papists in their worship left off several Rites and Customs not only sinful and unlawful so some will dare to say of signing with the Cross but in themselves otherwise innocent and harmless I have a most unhappy memory and cannot recover the name of the Author a Christian Jew who apodictically and most elaborately discovers that many things were directed in their Law by God both to be done and left undone by the Nation of the Jews chiefly to difuse and take them off from the ways and practices of the Gentiles that were round about them But let infallible truth be the judge in this matter Levit. 18.3 After the doings of the Land of Egypt wherein ye dwelt ye shall not do and after the doings of the Land of Canaan whither I bring you shall ye not do neithet shall ye walk in their Ordinances Then Moses all along the Chapter enumerates many of those Heathenish doings from which the people of God were most religiously to abstain but in the next Chapter following some other things are mentioned which in themselves absolutely considered were neither sinful nor unlawful yet upon the score of Non conformity were forbidden them ver 27. Ye shall not round the corners of your Heads neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy Beard But why what evil in it Ainsworth gives us the true reason of this Inhibition This saith he is likely to be the manner of the Heathens especially in their mourning as these Laws compared with Chap. 21. v. 5. seem to imply and he brings in the Authority of Maimonides in these words It was the manner of Idolatrous Priests to mar their Beards therefore the Law forbiddeth to mar the Beard So again v. 28. Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the Dead nor print any marks upon you The aforesaid most Learned Expositor here again out of the same Maimonides informs us what these prints or marks were viz. When one did cut open his flesh and filled the cut place with Stibium or with Ink or some other colour and this was the custom at the Heathens and particularly this they were wont to do in sorrow and mourning for a S●ul departed as it is in Thargum Jonathan Now from these and other like Heathenish Rites God will keep his people and therefore it is said Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the Dead I could easily produce much more to the same purpose but I think it needless I excepted against what is annexed at the end of the Sacrament It is certain by Gods Word that Children which are baptized dying before they commit actual sin are undoubtedly saved You say Had you a mind you might wave the dispute Surely it would be your prudence so to do for though you affirm it evidently to be the Doctrine of your Church as appears from the Homilies and several passages in the Office of Baptism it self yet I apprehend it beyond the wisdom and learning of all the Fathers and Sons of the Church together to make good the Enunciation especially it being so indefinite and unlimited concerning the Children baptized without all restriction and yet so positive and peremptory in the Predicate I called for the U●i out of Gods Word viz. wherein I might be satisfied beyond all doubt of Christened Childrens Salvation before actual sin You should have designed the Holy Page this had been a direct and easie way of Confutation by which I must have been convinced and silenced and there had been an end of the Contest But I see you cannot bring your proof nor indeed offer any thing like unto it out of Scripture wherefore my Objection is just and I suppose unanswerable Secret things belong unto the Lord and surely the Salvation of Infants even as of the Adult is inter arcana one of Gods Secrets Why therefore should any presume to intermeddle with it and confidently pronounce concerning the whole Genus of such a sort of Infants that they are all undoubtedly saved Though they are young do they not make a number in computation which if they do certainly their number is great very great especially if that Observation be true that well nigh half of all born and Christned among us depart this life before they have committed actual sin These are a swarming multitude and yet shall all these undoubtedly be saved Far be it from me to limit the grace and mercy of God yet methinks even from this consideration we have some ground of a contrary suspition out of Gods Word at least of suspending our judgment in the matter before us For though the number of the Children of Israel be as the sand of the Sea a Remnant shall be saved Rom. 9.27 There are few that are saved only a Remnant a little end of the whole Piece some few choice ones only among those who are stiled the Israel of God shall be thought worthy of eternal life But I forbear to bring in any new Objections only give me leave to ask you this question How you can fairly wave this dispute how can you think it not incumbent upon you to make good the Assertion and justifie what you have assented and consented unto You tell me upon what account Because though it be contained in

that score deny his Babe Christendom He saith in such a Case the answer is plain that he ought not Though here he speaks without Book I mean the Common-prayer Book and against the Order of it in the Baptizing of Infants Whereas you say on the contrary in these words That odium he meaning me would load the Minister with that shall deny to Administer Baptism to them who come not according to the Rule of the Church are surely it should be is referring to odium besides our Argument 't is sufficient he the Minister hath no Title I think you mean hath no right for I am often at a loss to unriddle you so to do it that he is more serious in his function than to be knowingly unjust either to the trust the Church or God himself as I may say hath reposed in him If a Father come to have his Child Baptized but not according to the Rules of the Church The Minister has no Title so to do it and therefore in such Circumstances will be more just to the trust reposed in him than to Baptize the said Child If this be not the purport and intention of your words you speak unintelligibly but if they be you fight against your fellow Souldier yea and against Truth it self Shall we obey God or Man Christ hath said Go and disciple all Naions Baptizing them in the name of the Father c. and among others the Children of believing professing Parents simply because they are so This is the True Gospel trust put into the hands of Gospel Ministers well but the Church or man commands to Baptize them with God-Fathers and God Mothers and the sign of the Cross meer accidents and accessories forreign from the Nature and Essence of Baptism but only invented and imposed from Humane Tradition which therefore some weak and Scrupelous believers question and fear as a profanation of that Holy Ordinance and accordingly dare not so address themselves with their Children unto Baptism But now shall their Babes upon this account be denyed their birth-right Shall they be denyed a priviledge so excellent and so desirable Shall a pitiful order of the Church in Comparison over-rule and obtain Shall it be heeded and observed by the Minister more than the Regia placita of heaven it self God forbid I Objected against the order for the burial of the dead because what is there spoken to God and man though often at the interment of the worst of sinners is spoken of them as if they had been Saints and most devout Holy persons and their Souls then in a safe and happy State For first the Congregation by the mouth of the Minister speaks as it were to themselves one to another concerning the party deceased Forasmuch as it hath pleased God of his great mercy to take unto himself the Soul of our dear brother He is a Brother a dear Brother his Soul is now taken by God taken in mercy in great mercy and it is taken to himself And then when Corps is put into the Grave he continues his speech in these words we therefore commit his body to the ground in a sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to Eternal life Then Secondly the Congregation in the close of the Office by the mouth of the Minister speaks unanimously to God we meekly beseech the O Father to raise us from the death of sin to the life of righteousness that when we shall depart this life we may rest in him Christ Jesus as our hope is this our Brother doth What can be said more if the most Holy Martyr or confessour if Stephen again were carried to his Burial Let him be a Nabal a Cain a Judas yet here is if I might use the Word his Apotheosis his enthronization among the Crowned in Celestial glory You say I have only this to say That it is in the judgment of Charity we prenounce this of all I answer Charity with judgment is a gracious Excellency but without judgment it is the greatest absurdity and nothing else but the vain opinion of an over-pittiful simplicity But if Charity be with judgment then it must have some Rule of judging and if the right Golden Rule then this Rule is the Word for I know no other Now if Charity hath this Golden Rule of the Word to judge by then Charity can have no hope for some many flagitious abominable sinners so living and so dying when they are brought to be buried as suppose two Hectors falling out and fighting for a Miss and both killing one another in the place or let it be one of them which happens too too often suppose some High-way Gentlemen in the very Act of Robbery shot down stark dead the same moment by the Honest Traveller and thus I might instance in many like Cases Here if we will speak soberly and according to Truth we can have no hope nothing being written in the whole Bible from end to end to ground the least of any such hope upon Here to mention what happened to the Thief upon the Cross and what may be the dealings of God with the most profane wretch at the last Minute as you do and what may befall the most profligate persons inter pontem fontem as some others is a vain execuse and cannot afford the least shew or shadow of a just Apology As for the Thief upon the Cross a wonderful Act of mercy was extended to him at the last by an extraordinary priviledge at an extraordinary occasion but withal we know what a wonderful extraordinary Testimony he gave of his Faith and of the Change of his heart before expiration The order for the burial of the dead might have been proper enough at his interment but would it also have been as proper at the interment of the other his Copartner in sin Had he suffered in England supposing all things then as now he might have then been buried according to Liturgy For I see none else excluded but the unbaptized Excommunicate and laying violent hands upon themselves and yet even these also upon your grounds may equally be admitted to Christian burial I am sure the first of them the unbaptized may upon far better and as for the worst of the other who knows how gracious God may be in his dealings with them in the last Minute Who knows None can know and because none can know therefore none can hope for hope without knowledge is a meer Nullity As for what we know concerning such abominable wicked workers if we believe the Holy Scripture which saith Neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor Thieves nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor revilers nor Extortioners shall ever inherit the Kingdome of God which saith without regeneration and holiness no man shall see the Lord and every where to the like purpose it speaks their condition desperate and damned and therefore with silence but without hope we must leave them wholly to the disposition and