Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	brethren_n	know_v	life_n	4,656	5	5.3920	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43663	The moral schechinah, or, A discourse of Gods glory in a sermon preached at the last Yorkshire-feast in Bow-church, London, June 11, 1682 / by George Hickes.	Hickes, George, 1642-1715.	1682 (1682)	Wing H1857; ESTC R10895	13,920	39

Christian Religion because it is his Religion and to the First Day of the Week because it is the Lords Day All these things challenge a particular respect from us different from all other things of the same name and kind upon the account of their relation unto God and when we treat them with reverence for his sake the honour of it redounds to him because every action of that Nature is a solemn Ackowledgement and Declaration that he is the Great and Holy God These are all genuine duties and effects of Godliness or Religiousness as it is distinguished from other parts of Christian Piety But alas how little of it is practised in this Prophane Age How little Religious and how much Profane and Atheistical discourse is now to be heard in all Companies Nay how is the Worship of God which above all other things is ordained for his Glory dishonoured and profaned and almost perverted to the contrary End by the irreverent and unworthy carriage of man To see how many men behave themselves in the Service of God would tempt an indifferent man to believe that they designed not to acknowledge Wisdom Power and Goodness and their trust in and dependance upon his infinite Majesty but rather to deny him in the Action and declare to all the World that Religion is nothing but Superstition and that it is very uncertain whether there is a God or no or if there be whether or no he concerns himself in the Government of the World To this if we add the general practice of Rash and Vain Swearing on one hand and Solemn Perjuries on the other together with that utter disrespect which is now accounted brave and generous to cast upon all Things and Persons which belong unto God we must needs acknowledge that there are great numbers of men among us who tho' they may profess God yet in their Works deny him being so far from doing whatsoever they do to his Glory that there Actions tend and it is to be feared many of them are designed to extirpate the Notions of him out of mens Minds his Fear out of their Consciences and his Name and Religion out of the World II. So much for the first kind of Human Actions which immediately regard God from whence I proceed to the second which are such as regard our Neighbours and are practised in our Dealing and Conversation with them and in these Actions this is the Rule That they tend to Gods Glory when they tend to the Good of Men and are declarative of that excellent and comprehensive Virtue in us which the Greeks call Philanthrophy the Latines Humanity and the Christian Religion Love This is the general Supream Law which God hath commanded men that they should love one another according to that repeated Precept of our Saviour This is my Commandment and these things I command you that you love one another and that you love one another as I have loved you This reiterated Precept of our blessed Saviour made the Apostle say unto the Thessalonians Now as touching brotherly Love ye need not that I write unto you for ye your selves are taught of God to love one another and this saith St. John in his Epist Gener. is the Message that ye have heard from the beginning that ye love one another St. Paul in several places gives us the reason why our Lord so carefully enjoyn'd this duty upon us because it is the fulfilling of the Second Table of the Law By love saith he Gal. 5. serve one another for all the Law is fulfilled in one word thou shalt love thy Neighbor as thy self And love faith the Rom. 13. Worketh no ill to his Neighbour therefore love is the fulfilling of the Law This Character of Love which the Apostle gives us is indeed Negative but as all other Negatives are it is founded in positive sense so that his meaning is at large this love worketh no ill but worketh all manner of good to his Neighbour therefore love is the fulfilling of the Law In these two prime effects of love to do no ill and to do all manner of good are founded the Laws of Justice and Charity and in these two are comprehended all the duties which every man owes to other men For Justice powerfully restrains us from doing any harm or injury to our Neighbour and Charity pushes us on to do him all good Offices and Kindness and therefore all just and Charitable Actions which spring from the Divine Root of Humanity or Love must needs tend to the Glory of God and the manifestation of his Divine Nature who as St. John saith is love and who in the Saxon Tongue from which the Dialect of our Country is but one remove is called God because he is good as in our Saviours answer to the Ruler who called him good Master 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or man man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is one good save only God According to this Derivation of his Name the Apostle saith That Love is of God and that every one that loveth is born of God and he that loveth not or hath not the grace of Love in him knoweth not God for God is Love or made up of Love and kindness to men No man hath seen God at any time if we Love one another God dwelleth in us and his Love is perfected in us and hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit of Love In these words dwelleth and dwell the Apostle emphatically alludes to the Schechinah or Glory by which God manifested his Presence in the Jewish Tabernacle or Temple and the meaning of them is that we cannot give better Evidence of Gods abiding in us and dwelling in our Souls than by the Spirit and temper of Love if we would make it appear to the World that he is in us or that we are of him and conformed unto his Image and Example nay if we would maike it appear that we are acquainted with his divine Nature or declare that we believe he hath Loved us Nay would we shew our Obedience to his strictest and dearest Command which he hath exemplified in his Son or give a right proof to others that we love him as he hath loved us it must be by conforming all our dealings with men to the Rules of Justice and Charity which are the the genuine and immediate effects of Love Beloved let us love one another for love is of God and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him and this Commandment we have from him that be who loveth God loveth his Brother also Nay furthermore the best proof that we can give to our selves and others that we are Regenerate persons and have passed from a state of death unto life is our love to our Fellow-Christians for saith the Apostle We know that we have

passed from death unto life becanse we love the Brethren he that loveth not his Brother abideth in death From all this I hope it is plain that the best way for men to set forth the blessed Nature of God and the Conformity of their Spirits unto his is to be just and charitable in all their Dealings with all sorts of men When their Actions are conformed to this Rule they shew what God is and how like they are unto him and when they are not all their Religion is but Shew Pretence and Hypocrisie and as loathsome to Almighty God as Atheism or Prophaneness it self Thus in the first of Isaiah to which I refer you the Prophet lets the people of Israel know that Without Justice and Judgment and Charity their Sabbaths and Assemblies and Sacrifices and Offerings and Prayers were vain and loathsome unto him that be hated them and was weary of them and could not delight therein Nay from observing these two general Laws of Justice and Charity whereof the one keeps us off from doing any injury or harm and the other obliges us to do all the good we can to other men results all the happiness of Humane Societies and all the good that men mutually receive from one another in every Relation of the World This makes Princes as God upon Earth and Subjects as obedient and dutiful unto them as the Angels are unto God not only for Wrath but Conscience-sake It makes Husbands love their Wives as Christ loved his Church and Wives submit themselves unto their own Husbands as it is fit in the Lord. It keeps Parents from provoking their Children and obliges Children to obey their Parents in all things because it is well pleasing unto the Lord. It makes Masters so behave themselves to their Servants as to let them know that they have a Master in Heaven and Servants account their Masters worthy of all Honour and obey them not with eye-service as Men-pleasers but in singleness of heart fearing God and doing whatsoever they do heartily as unto the Lord It makes Bishops and Ministers look to themselves and unto the Flocks over which the chief Shepherd hath made them Overseers and their Flocks obey them that have the Rule over them in the Lord because they watch for their Souls In a word Justice and Charity which spring from one Root and which the Scriptures call by the name of Righteousness in all special relations exert themselves in special effects and might they govern the World they would quickly turn it into Paradise and make all Human Societies Kingdoms Churches Cities Colleges Companies Counties and Families so many Penuels where the Lord might be seen III. And so I proceed to the third sort of Human Actions which concern our duty towards our selves and they tend to the Glory of God and making of him shine in our Conversations when they are kept within the Divine bounds of Moderation or Sobriety which are to be observed in the Government of the Body and Soul The Government of the Body consists on one hand in keeping of it from the excessive desire and use of Pleasure and on the other from the excessive aversation and abhorrence of Pain Under Pleasure we may reduce all things that are very pleasant or delightful to the bodily Appetite as Meats in which our Moderation is called Temperance or in Drinks where it is more especially called Sobriety or in Carnal pleasures where it is called Chastity or in Riches and honours which we may call contempt of the World And under pain we may reduce all things that are very ungrateful and grievous unto it in bearing of which our Moderation is called Fortitude Patience and Constancy and it contains the Christian duty of taking up the Cross An as for the Government of the Soul there is one Rule which Sobriety prescribes to her also and that is not to think more highly of her self than she ought to think but to think soberly as the Apostle speaks and this is humility or lowliness of mind Now according to this comprehensive Scheme set before your Eyes a man who limits all his Actions of this kind within the bounds of Moderation and Sobriety and then tell me whether they do not make it appear that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Holy Martyr Ignatius called himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one in whom Christ is formed one that bears God about in his Soul The Temple of his Residence even the living Tabernacle of the Gospel Shechinah which is the Holy Ghost know you not saith the Apostle that you are the Temple of God and that his Spirit dwelleth in you Yes the Spirit of God resides in such men and every Temperate Sober Chast and Humble Person hath so much of his likeness and appearance upon him and shews so much of his Divine Nature in all his Actions that usually his presence strikes an awe into dissolute sinners and makes them uneasie in the midst of their Sensual enjoyments unless they chance to be such as the Apostle saith deny God in their Works being abominable disobedient and reprobate unto every good work And it is the great dishonor and misfortune of this Age to abound with men of all ranks and denominations who are past the common sense of God and Religion who as the Apostle saith Are alienated from the life of God because of the blindness of their heart and who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleaness with greediness Men who have nothing but the Habits and Figure of their Bodies to distinguish them from Beasts being utterly devoid of Reason that Divine Principle which Cicero saith is common to man and God There is nothing of God which appears in these men and their Actions but they shew themselves to be of their Father the Devil they are conformed unto his Image him they will glorifie and his works they will do Having now explained the true and genuine sense of Gods Glory and having in the second place made a division of Human Actions into their several kinds and shewn under each kind how they are to be directed to Gods Glory I now come to bring the application of all this to our Meeting and Feasting together that we may not fall short of the Apostles Rule who tells us that whether we eat or drink or Whatsoever we do me must do all to the glory of God These County-Meetings as they are in the general designed so they may in an especial manner be directed unto this great end as they are excellent means of endearing Country men together and of begetting Brotherly love and kindness among them to one another but most especially as they give the Richer sort an opportunity of providing for Poor The customary manner in which we meet doth declare this to be the principal end of this sort of Meetings for first we come together in the Church