Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	bring_v	know_v	life_n	4,258	5	4.2561	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27173	A sermon preach'd before the right honourable the Lord Mayor and the Court of Aldermen, at Guild-Hall, December the 27th, 1685 / by Luke Beaulieu ...	Beaulieu, Luke, 1644 or 5-1723.	1686 (1686)	Wing B1577; ESTC R16491	13,439	28

the sense of the Text and shew its design and reprove some mistakes about it First then to contend for the Faith includes the making an open and constant profession of it Not any ways to dissemble or detain the Truth in unrighteousness for any advantage in the World or for fear of Persecution like these false and dissembling Gnosticks who rather than venture any thing would say as others said and comply with false Religions sooner than expose themselves to danger The Apostle contrariwise would have Christians own what they were Confess Christ before men and not be ashamed for his Testimony As they believed in their hearts so to confess with their mouth as St. Paul speaks Or in words of St. Peter to be ready always with meekness to give an answer of the reason of the hope that was in them This is the duty of every man who is serious and upright in his Religion He is not to model it according to conveniences or to choose that which is most safe and profitable but as he is led by his conscience and his understanding so to act and declare himself For every one who doth not trifle with God and his own Soul doth believe that his Salvation depends upon his choice of the true Religion and that he must be faithful unto death to receive the crown of life And then upon this persuasion he never consults what is like to be the event but it is his Duty and his great Interest to embrace this Truth and to make profession of it and accordingly he acts and leaves the success to God But then hereupon we must observe these three things First That it should be the Faith once delivered to the Saints we so stedfastly adhere to That which hath the attestation of the Universal Church from the beginning and hath been accounted fundamental necessary to Salvation and so held universally as the Apostles Creed confirm'd and explain'd by the Primitive Councils That we should faithfully cleave to Rather affect to prove our selves Christians by our firm adherence to that Faith wherein we were baptized and which we profess living and dying together with the rest of the Christian Church I say rather lay the great stress upon this than upon others more uncertain and controverted Opinions which beget new denominations and much uncharitableness It is not our humours nor private fancies nor the Disputes of the Schools the Assertions of imperious Dogmatists nor the Decisions of latter Synods we are thus earnestly to maintain and to contend for but the Faith once delivered to the Saints which is never to change nor to increase and which good men hoped to be sav'd by for more than a thousand years together There is no new Revelation from God no new way to Heaven to be discover'd that which sufficed before Trent or Lateran or Dort is still sufficient That which hath been done or decreed in latter-ages is not the Faith of our common Salvation and not to be contended for with the same earnestness There are indeed Articles of Peace and terms of Communion in every particular Church the needs of Religious Societies and the Laws of Christian Magistrates make these useful and of great necessity a due regard is to be had to them and a good man is oblig'd to conform in every thing which God hath not forbidden But yet these are not of the same moment as Articles of Faith For instance That there is no Roman Purgatory although I firmly believe it as it is declared by our Church yet that cannot be so certain nor of so great an interest to me as what God himself hath revealed with the greatest perspicuity that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin And accordingly I am not to be so intent nor so concern'd in the denying of the one as in the professing and believing of the other Would Christians of different Communions thus distinguish between the Divine and saving Article which is a point of Christian Faith and the human decision and constitution it would much contribute to make up the breaches of Christendom and qualifie that mischevous and persecuting Zeal which lays a greater weight upon difference of Opinions than upon unity of the same Creed For the most part our loudest contentions are about that which is less material and more disputable contrary to St. Jude who would have us be earnest for what is essential the Faith once delivered to the Saints which is to be contended for not because it is ours and so to be maintain'd with anger and impatience of contradiction as we do those Opinions we are wedded to but because it is God's deliver'd by our Blessed Lord to the Primitive Saints for the common Salvation of Mankind Then if any deny and deprave that Faith they forfeit the benefits of it which are infinite and so are great losers and much to be pitied And if we our selves embrace and keep it stedfastly to the end we shall obtain the end thereof even the Salvation of our Souls And that 's enough to engage us to make a free and constant profession of it as long as we live Secondly This contending for the Faith by an open Profession is so far from including any thing of sighting or violence for the defence of Religion that it signifies the quite contrary the utmost meekness and patience in suffering for the Truth Many are very apt and forward to contend for their Faith or rather their Faction by a Zeal of opposition which is commonly violent and prompts men to clamour and rail to persecute and to shed blood Hatred Injustice Cruelty even Rebellion the most mischevous and worst of all Crimes are pretended to be all warranted when undertaken upon Religious accounts They think they may lawfully fight for what they call God's Cause and his quarrel But I say such men are not led by the Spirit of Christianity they follow the fierceness of their own and the dictates of their angry passions And this sort of Zeal hath ever been very pernicious to Mankind and destructive of Religion The Jews upon this Principle hated and destroy'd Christians with a mighty violence and in the same manner rebell'd against their Governours Their Zealots disturb'd the whole world and at last became a bloody scourge to themselves St Jude was too well acquainted with them and too well knew by his own experience the mischief of this sort of temper and of such proceedings to exhort Christian Converts to contend for Christ in that manner as the Jews did for Moses He knew that our Blessed Saviour would not let his Servants fight for him nor rescue him with the Sword from the hands of the Civil Magistrate That he told his Apostles they should not disturb nor oppose Princes but should be brought before Kings and Rulers for his names sake And that his promises of an Immortal Crown were not to fighting and martial courage upon his account but to meekness and patience and remaining

faithful unto death He that shall lose his life for my sake shall find it So here this Apostle who had the Example and the Words of our Saviour and knew full well his mind in this exhorts his afflicted Disciples not to follow the steps of those Hereticks who in time of trial fell away and as he saith would denie their Saviour rather than suffer for his sake but to persevere unto the end contending earnestly for the Faith they had received A Zeal of adherence to Christ to confess and own him before men which is here recommended doth not beget fierceness or wrangling contention in the mind but a peaceable constancy a resolution to be firm and unmovable in passive Graces As the greatest Victory of a Christian is to die for his Saviour so the noblest contention is to suffer for him Accordingly 'tis said of those Christian Conquerours whom St. John saw with Palms in their hands that they loved not their lives unto the death In the language of the Church certamina Martyrum the combate of Martyrs was their enduring patiently the pains and reproaches of their Martyrdom They were called the Athleaes or Champions of Christ and the constancy of their passions upon his account was their Victory Hence the sign of the Cross came to be so venerable and so frequently used amongst Primitive Christians in those days of severe trial They would by that token before Christ's greatest Enemies and Persecutors own themselves to be his Servants who for them had died on the Cross and declare that they were ready cheerfully also to lay down their lives for his sake He must labour hard with himself to overcome Flesh and Blood that would arrive to this resolution And therefore this is the most earnest contention a Christian can undertake for the Faith to lay down his life for it and sign and confess it with his blood And then thirdly we may observe as a consequent from this That if this be a duty and here enjoyn'd by St. Jude much more is it an incumbent duty openly to profess the Faith of Christ crucified when the doing of it is not attended with any such Persecutions or Dangers If under Heathen Emperours when Christianity was opposed and every-where spoken against yet its Professors were obliged freely and sincerely to declare themselves and own their relation to Christ though they died for it much more are they bound to this that live under Christian Princes under Laws that enforce their Obligations to confess that true Catholick and Apostolick Faith which was once delivered to the Saints If we are bound thus to contend for it in a way so difficult even by Death as the Moble Army of Martyrs if God should make it our case much more are we to profess it when we can do it with safety nay and have many encouragements and advantages in the world in the performance of this great duty God of his special favour to us hath made it our Interest even in this life We may now dwell in Churches and exercise our selves to all Godliness and be as virtuous and as devout as ever any Christians were without incurring any inconvenience We need not fear for our Faith lest it should be supprest if we our selves betray it not by our lukewarmness and indifferency for it We are even subject to the inflictions of our Magistrates for neglecting the duties of our Christian Worship And so we lose and suffer much more for not being faithful to Christ than for owning relation to him So that now when Divine Providence makes it so easie and so profitable we ought very seriously to mind this exhortation to contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the Saints by an open and constant profession of it And in the second place also by conforming our lives to its Rules and Precepts That mightily conduceth to the establishment of the Faith and requires a very serious Application and Endeavour of our side We must hold the mystery of Faith in a pure conscience as the Scripture saith and our hearts are to be purified by Faith It is a very preposterous Zeal to be earnest against the errors of other mens understandings whil'st the depravations of our own wills are unreformed A man shall raise loud clamours against anothers mistake not known to the person guilty of it whil'st he himself transgresseth knowingly in things which his own conscience checks and which are expresly forbidden by his Religion This looks very odd and such Zeal is to be suspected not to be so much for God as for a temporal design For our Faith laieth the great stress of our duty and of our hopes upon our own Works the choice we make of doing good or evil If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments Neither the Vnrighteous saith the Apostle nor Fornicaters nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor Thieves nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor Extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God They that believe this and remain impenitent in any of these sins they may dispute for their Opinions but they contend not for the Faith rather as much as in them lies they confute it with their own works For so St. Paul joyns together Faith and a good conscience and tells us that they that put away the one soon make shipwreck as to the other 1 Tim. 1.19 The seeds of Infidelity are in Vice it corrupts the very dictates of Reason Vile and vicious affections raise Objections against those Divine and Holy Truths which reprove and condemn them An ill Life and a good Religion sincerely profest are inconsistent So that in some cases it may be said of a Christian who grosly and wilfully prevaricates against his Rule in the words of St. Paul He hath denied the Faith and is worse than an Infidel Therefore when a man hath learned the Fundamentals of Religion and knows his Duty the great stress of his endeavours must next be laid upon the performance of it That he should fight under Christ's Banner against his own evil inclinations against all sin and immorality This contention St. Jude here recommends by describing those Hereticks against whom he writes as very impure in their lives and factious and ungovernable in their deportment They walked after their own Lusts filthy Dreams who defiled the flesh despised Dominion and spake evil of Dignities By exhorting Christians to contend earnestly for the Faith in opposition to these he means not only their false Doctrines but also their evil deeds against which he is most vehement And indeed it requires a more earnest contention for a man to subdue his own corruptions than to assent to a revealed Truth It is a thing of more difficulty to obey the holy Commandment than to embrace an Article of Belief Withal This Obedience to Divine Precepts is that which our primitive Faith most of all recommends that which is universally assented to by all sorts of Christians there is no controversie in this Points of