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	suffer_v	12,447	5	6.7408	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61575	The mysteries of the Christian faith asserted and vindicated in a sermon preached at S. Laurence-Jewry in London, April the 7th, 1691 / by the Right Reverend Father in God, Edward, Lord Bishop of Worcester.	Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.	1691 (1691)	Wing S5610; ESTC R21437	18,888	42

by us II. And so I come to the second Way by which we are to Examin the several Senses of Christ Jesus coming to save Sinners Which of them tends more to the Benefit and Advantage of Mankind or which is more worthy of all Acceptation And that will appear by considering these things 1. Which tends most to the raising our Esteem and Love of Christ Jesus 2. Which tends most to the begetting in us a greater Hatred of Sin 3. Which tends most to the strengthening our Hope of Salvation by Jesus Christ. 1. As to the raising in us a greater Esteem and Love of Christ. We are certain that the Infinite Love and Condescension of Christ Jesus in under●aking such a Work as the saving of Sinners makes 〈◊〉 most worthy of all Acceptation Some Men may please themselves in thinking that by taking away all Mysteries they have made their Faith more easie but I am certain they have extremely lessen'd the Argument for our Love viz. the Apprehensions of the wonderfull Love and Condescension of Christ in coming into the World to save Sinners And yet this is the great Argument of the New Testament to perswade Mankind to the Love of God and of his Son God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son c. This is indeed a mighty Argument of Love if by the only begotten Son be meant the Eternal Son of God who came down from Heaven as S. Iohn speaks just before but if no more be meant but only that God made a meer Man to be his Son and after he had preached a while here on Earth and was ill used and crucified by his own People he Exalted him to be God and gave him Divine Attributes and Honours this were an Argument of great Love to the Person of Christ but not to the rest of Mankind But Gods Love in Scripture is magnified with Respect to the World in the sending of his Son In this was manifested saith the Apostle the Love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the World that we should live through him Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be a Propitiation for our Sins The great Love we still see is towards us i. e. towards Mankind but according to the other Sense it must have been Herein was the Love of God manifested to his Son that for his Sufferings he exalted him above all Creatures He that spared not his own Son saith S. Paul but deliver'd him up for us all If he were the Eternal Son of God who came to suffer for us there is a mighty force and Emphasis in this Expression and very apt to raise our Admiration and our Love But what not sparing his own Son is there if nothing were meant but that he designed by Sufferings to Exalt him For not Sparing him supposes an Antecedent Relation of the highest Kindness but the other is only designing extraordinary Kindness for the sake of his Sufferings Therefore the Argument for the Love of God is taken from what his Son was when he deliver'd him up for us all he was his own Son not by Adoption as others are S. Iohn calls him his only begotten Son and God himself his beloved Son in the Voice from Heaven and this before his Sufferings immediately after his Baptism when as yet there was nothing extraordinary done by him as to the great Design of his coming Which shews that there was an Antecedent Relation between him and the Father and that therein the Love of God and of Christ was manifested that being the only begotten Son of the Father he should take our Nature upon him and for our sakes do and suffer what he did This is indeed an Argument great enough to raise our Admiration to excite our Devotion to inflame our Affections but how flat and low doth it appear when it comes to no more than this that there was a Man whom after his Sufferings God raised from the dead and made him a God by Office Doth this carry any such Argument in it for our Esteem and Love and Devotion to him as the other doth upon the most serious Consideration of it 2. Which tends most to beget in us a greater Hatred of Sin For that is so contrary to the Way of our Salvation by Jesus Christ that what tends most to our Hatred of it must conduce most to our Happiness and therefore be most worthy of all Acceptation It is agreed on all hands that Christ did suffer very much both in his Mind and in his Body In his Mind when it is said that he was troubled in Spirit that he began to be sorrowfull and very heavy and soon after My Soul is exceeding sorrowfull even unto death S. Luke saith that he was in an Agony wherein he not only prayed more earnestly but his sweat was as it were great Drops of Blood falling to the Ground What made this Amazement and dreadfull Agony in the mind of the most innocent Person in the World Was it meerly the Fear of the Pains of Death which he was to undergo That is impossible considering the Assurance which he had of so glorious a Reward so soon following after when so many Martyrs endured such exquisite Torments for his sake without any such Disturbance or Consternation But the Apostles give us another Account of it S. Peter saith he was to bear our Sins in his own body on the tree that Christ suffer'd for Sins the just for the unjust S. Paul that God made him to be Sin for us who knew no Sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him Hereby we understand how so innocent a Person came to suffer he stood in our Stead he was made Sin for us and therefore was to be treated as a Sinner and to suffer that on our Account which he could not deserve on his own If he suffer'd on his own Account this were the way to fill our Minds with perplexity concerning the Justice of Providence with Respect to his dealings with the most innocent and holy Persons in this World If he suffer'd on our Account then we have the Benefit of his Sufferings and therein we see how displeasing to God sin is when even his own Son suffer'd so much by taking the guilt of our Sins upon him And what can tend more to the begetting in us a due hatred of sin than to consider what Christ himself suffer'd on the Account of it What can make us have more dreadfull thoughts of it than that the great and mercifull God when he designed to Save sinners yet would have his own Son to become a Propitiation for the Sins of Mankind And unless we allow this we must put force upon the plainest Expressions of Scripture and make Christ to suffer meerly to shew God's Power over a most innocent Person and

Figurative 2. That which suits most with the Scope and Design not only of the particular Places but of the whole New Testament which is to magnifie God and to depress Man to set forth the Infinite Love and Condescension of God in giving his Son to be a Propitiation for our Sins to set up the Worship of one true God in Opposition to Creatures to Represent and Declare the mighty Advantages Mankind receive by the Sufferings of Christ Jesus 3. That which hath been generally received in the Christian Church to be the Sense of those places For we are certain this was always look'd on as a matter of great Concernment to all Christians and they had as great Capacity of understanding the Sense of the Apostles and the Primitive Church had greater Helps for knowing it than others at so much greater Distance And therefore the Sense is not to be taken from modern Inventions or Criticisms or pretences to Revelation but that which was at first deliver'd to the Christian Church and hath been since received and embraced by it in the several Ages and hath been most strenuously asserted when it hath met with Opposition as founded on Scripture and the general Consent of the Christian Church 4. That which best agrees with the Characters of those Persons from whom we receive the Christian Faith and those are Christ Jesus and his holy Apostles For if their Authority be lost our Religion is gone and their Authority depends upon their Sincerity and Faithfulness and Care to inform the World aright in matters of so great Importance 1. I begin with the Character which the Apostles give of Christ Jesus himself which is that he was a Person of the greatest Humility and Condescension that he did not assume to himself that which he might justly have done For let the Words of S. Paul be understood either as to the Nature or Dignity of Christ it is certain that they must imply thus much that when Christ Jesus was here on Earth he was not of a vain assuming humour that he did not boast of himself nor magnifie his own Greatness but was contented to be look'd on as other Men although he had at that time far greater and Diviner Excellency in him than the World would believe Less than this cannot be made of those Words of the Apostle Who being in the form of God he thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no Reputation and took upon him the form of a Servant Now this being the Character given of him let us consider what he doth affirm concerning himself For although he was far from drawing the People after him by setting forth his own Perfections yet upon just Occasions when the Jews contested with him he did Assert such things which must favour of Vanity and Ostentation or else must imply that he was the Eternal Son of God For all Mankind are agreed that the highest degree of Ambition lies in Affecting Divine Honour or for a meer Man to be thought a God How severely did God punish Herod for being pleased with the Peoples folly in crying out the Voice of God and not of Man And therefore he could never have born with such positive Assertions and such repeated Defences of his being the Son of God in such a manner as implied his being so from Eternity This in his Disputes with the Jews he Affirms several times that he came down from Heaven not in a Metaphorical but in a proper Sense as appears by those words What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before In another Conference he asserted that he was before Abraham Which the Jews so literally understood that without a Metaphor they went about to stone him little imagining that by Abraham the calling of the Gentiles was to be understood But above all is that Expression which he used to the Jews at another Conference I and my Father are one which they understood in such a manner that immediately they took up stones to have stoned him What means all this Rage of the Jews against him What for saying that he had Unity of Consent with his Father No certainly But the Jews misunderstood him Let us suppose it would not our Saviour have immediately explained himself to prevent so dangerous a Misconstruction But he asked them what it was they stoned him for They answer him directly and plainly because that thou being a man makest thy self God This was home to the purpose And here was the time for him to have denied it if it had not been so But doth he deny it Doth he say it would be Blasphemy in him to own it No but he goes about to defend it and proves it to be no Blasphemy for him to say that he was the Son of God i.e. so as to be God as the Jews understood it Can we imagin that a meer Man knowing himself to be such should Assume this to himself and yet God to bear witness to him not only by Miracles but by a Voice from Heaven wherein he was called his beloved Son in whom he was well pleased Could God be pleased with a mortal finite despicable Creature as the Jews thought him that Assumed to himself to be God and maintained and defended it among his own People in a solemn Conference at a very Publick Place in one of the Portico's of the Temple And this he persisted in to the last For when the High Priest adjured him by the living God to tell whether he were the Christ the Son of God for he no doubt had heard of the Result of this Conference in Solomon's Porch Jesus said unto him Thou hast said S. Mark more expresly Jesus said I am And this was the Blasphemy for which they put him to death as appears by the Evangelists So that this ought to be a Dispute only between Jews and Christians since it was the very point for which they condemned him to death And in his last most divine Prayer just before his Suffering he owns the Glory which he had with the Father before the World had a being And now O Father glorifie thou me with the glory which I had with thee before the World was Was this nothing but the Glory which God had designed to give him This is so far from being peculiar to Christ that it is common to all whom God designs to glorifie and takes away the distinction between the Decree and the Execution of it 2. As to the Apostles the Reason we believe their Testimony is that they were Men of great Sincerity and Plainness and of great Zeal for the Honour and Glory of God And according to this Character let us examin what they say concerning Christ Jesus He that was most conversant with him and beloved by him and lived to see his Divinity contested by some and denied by others