Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	cause_n	great_a	sin_n	4,172	5	4.8426	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49318	The reasonableness of the Christian religion a sermon preached at the visitation held at Stoakesly in Cleveland, in Yorkshire : being the first visitation of the Reverend Mr. Long, B.D. and Arch-Deacon of Cleveland / by Ja. Lowde ...	Lowde, James.	1684 (1684)	Wing L3302; ESTC R14296	20,988	54

2. Christ thus showed himself to be the power of God because he hath done that which nothing but the Power of God could do As. 1. He hath destroyed the Kingdome of Satan without us 2. He has subdued our wicked Lusts and Corruptions within us 1. He has destroyed the Kingdome of Satan without us this the Pharisyes themselves acknowledge that he cast out Devils but then they say it was by Belzebub the Prince of the Devils But Christ did very solidly and rationally confute the Weakness and Silliness of this surmize A Kingdome says he divided against it self is brought to Desolation and an house or City divided against it self cannot stand and if Satan be divided against himself how shall his Kingdome stand For he that can believe that the Devil should assist him whose great end and design was no other but only to destroy Sin and Wickedness and to encourage and promote Vertue and Piety in the World such an one may by the same Reason believe and assert any thing Christ came into the World to dissolve the Works of the Devil and to restore things to the State wherein they were before for God might have seem'd frustrated in his End and Design in creating Man if that Method of his Providence first instituted for Mans Salvation if it had been so utterly broken beyond the possibility of all recovery but now Christ hath given the Devil and all the Powers of Darkness to understand that he is able to produce Light out of Darkness and Order out of Confusion thus hath God restored man again to a possibility of Salvation notwithstanding all the former attempts and present endeavours of the Devil to the contrary 2. Christ by the Gospel has subdued our wicked Lusts and Affections within us and this was more then either the Jewish Sacrifices of themselves or the imperfect Rules of the Gentile Philosophy was ever able to perform He has not only himself overcome the Devil but also enables every true Christian to do the same this he doth by the assistance of his Holy Spirit whereby we become more then Conquerors over all Temptations Thus Christ doth at once instruct and strengthen us he teaches us what to do and enables us to do what he teaches precepts tho' never so excellent yet if they be unpracticable are altogether void and to no purpose but this is thepeculiar Priviledge of the Gospel that it enables us to perform that Obedience which it requires of us Thus is it the Power of God unto Salvation that is a Method every way sufficient in its own Nature for that purpose but then this is not so to be understood as if there was nothing left to be done by us for Christ has not so effected Mans Salvation that nothing now remains for us to do but idely to expect it the Grace of God indeed has brought Salvation but then it is by teaching us to deny all Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts which supposes our willingness and our endeavours too to learn Thus the manner of Christs appearance in the World could give no just Occasion of Offence to the Jews it being the most proper means to effect those great and worthy ends of his coming and to prove himself to be the power of God And as for Christs Death if it was no dishonour for him to be born neither was it any to die for the one seems naturally to follow from the other And supposing the Person suffering to be Innocent as Christ certainly was the manner of his Death cannot reflect any thing of real dishonour upon him so that all that can be gathered from Christs Crucifixion is only this his greater love to us and the Jews their greater malice and cruelty to him And further the Circumstances that attended his Death spoke him to be more then a common and ordinary Person then was the Sun darkened the Graves open'd the Vail of the Temple Rent and such general Convulsions of Nature every where appear'd that it caused a Philosopher thus to argue either that Nature it felf was dissolv'd or that the God of Nature suffer'd 2. The Death of Christ could give no just Occasion of Offence to the Jews if we consider the honorary consequences of it for by this was afforded the greatest matter of Triumph to the Christian cause imaginable for if Christ had not dyed he could not have risen again and it was a greater Argument of his Power to raise himself from Death then it would have been to have kept himself from dying Thus the Resurrection of Christ was the greatest Evidence of the Divinity of his Person and the Truth of his Doctrine And thus much as to the first general part of my Text in Answer to those Offences which the Jews took at Christ and his Religion 2. The second Scandal here cast upon the Gospel by the Greeks was the Imputation of folly And to the Greeks Foolishness HereI shall likewise vindicate theGospel from this Aspersion by speaking to these two particulars 1. I shall show what little Reason the Greeks had to impute Foolishness to the Christian Doctrine seeing this doth infinitely transcend the Religion of the Gentiles in the truth and certainly of its Principles 2. I shall show the Wisdome and Prudence of the Christian Practise The first of these shows the Improperness of the Objection as made by them the other the falseness of it in it self The first shows how unfit it was to be objected by the Greeks the other how impossible it is to be defended by any and both together I hope will sufficiently vindicate the Gospel from the least Imputation of folly 1. I shall show the reasonableness of the Christian Doctrine in Comparison of that of the Gentiles 1. As it is a practical Institution or a Doctrine of Morality so the very Heathens could not but testifie their profound Veneration for it all that their wit and malice could object against it in this particular being only that which was indeed a tacit acknowledgment of its Excellence viz. that it requir'd greater degrees of Holiness then was consistent with Humane nature and that it put its Professors upon endeavours after unattainable Measures of Purity and Piety And as to the Mystical part of our Religion what is there in it that doth not become the solemn and venerable Nature of a divinely reveal'd Religion Indeed if we must reject every thing as false and foolish because inexplicable and incomprehensible as to the modes then must we bid adieu to our Natural as well as our Christian Religion But the great matter of offence to the Greeks was Christ Crucified God and Man joyned in one Person and suffering for the Expiation ofSin God manifested in the Flesh is certainly a great Mystery so also is the Union of the Soul and Body a thing altogether Inexplicable As for his dying as a Sacrifice for Sin 't is certain that Humane Sacrifices were frequently practis'd among the Heathens and look'd upon

first thing to show what little Reason the Greeks had to impute Foolishness to the Gospel as to its Principles 2. I shall now show the Wisdome and Prudence of the Christian Practice and that upon these two Accounts 1. As the Christian Practice doth the best secure our Temporal Happiness here 2. Our Eternal Happiness hereafter 1 As it best secures our Temporal Happiness here and that in general by teaching us to act according to those two grand Principles of a Christian Life Prudence and Innocence The one teacheth us to do no hurt our selves the other as far as lawfully we can to avoid the receiving it from others however if our Prudence cannot secure us from Injuries abroad yet our innocence will give us the satisfaction of a quiet mind at home so that whatever Miseries befall us whilst we thus act we have this comfort within our selves that as far as Humane Frailty would permit we neither by our unadvis'd Folly nor wilful Wickedness incurr'd the Misery Thus are we taught by the Gospel to be Wise as Serpents and Innocent as Doves not to suffer as Fools nor live Apostates not wholly to neglect our own self-Preservation yet not so to regard it as to forfeit our Religion It teaches us in all Emergencies of Life to act so as becomes Men and as becomes Christians and so to avoid the Imputation both of Wicked and unreasonable Men. But more particularly Whatever is truly desirable here in this World may be reduc'd to some of these four Heads Health Riches Honour or Pleasure Now all these are ascrib'd to Wisdome that is Religion 3 Prov. 16. 17. Length of Days is in her Right-Hand and in her Left Riches and Honour Her ways are ways of Pleasantness and all her Paths are Peace 1. Health this is put in the first place as being the Foundation of all the rest It was Sin that first brought Death and Diseases into the World and it is that which still continues and promotes them thus the debauch'd and Luxurious Man does not only Sin against his Soul but his Body too and even those more retir'd and secret Sins of Envy Malice and Hatred these prey upon the vital Spirits and strangely discompose the Natural Temper and Disposition of Mens Bodies whereas on the contrary the calm even Christian Temper of Mind together with the Observance of those Evangelical Precepts of Moderation Temperance and Chastity do most naturally preserve Men in Health and either prevent or cure most Diseases So that our Saviour by his Sovereign Precepts did not only show himself a Physician of the Soul but Body too 2. Riches this perhaps may be counted a great Parodox by some to say that Justice and Honesty and an universall Practise of Christianity should tend to make Men Rich whereas 't is more generally believ'd that Hipocrisy and Dissimulation Violence and Oppression and an Universal neglect of Religion and Conscience that those are the more proper means to raise an Estate but when things are rightly consider'd we shall find that the Christian Practise doth really tend to make Men Rich and that both upon a Natural and a Moral Account 1. Upon a Natural Account both as it frees Men from those many Expensive Lusts and Vices as Pride Vain-Glory Ambition and the like which cannot be maintained but at a great Charge yea sometimes to the Ruine of that Estate that bred them and also as it engages Men to an Honest Industry in their several Places and Callings which is the most Proper and NaturalMeans of raising a great and good Estate 2. Upon a Moral or Divine Account as the Blessing of God doth Accompany Honesty and upright dealing 1 Tim. 4. 8. But Godliness is Profitable unto all things having the Promise of the Life that now is and that which is to come Thus tho' it be the future State wherein Godliness this Sun of Righteousness doth display its greatest Lustre yet doth it also vouchsafe to enlighten this lower World with its Golden Rays with the Promises of this Life as well as of another Life 3. Honour Romans 6. 21. What Profit had you of those things whereof you are now asham'd For Sin is both in its own Nature and in its Consequences Shamesul Whereas Vertue and true Goodness is always honour'd and esteemed even by those who otherwise have no great Love or Value for them and tho' there be a sort of Men in the World who look upon Religion as a Mean despicable thing not worthy of a Man of Honour as they call him Men who Glory in their Shame and count it a piece of Galantry of Spirit to Sin with an high hand in defiance of God and of their own Conscience yet thanks be to God these men tho' more in this Age then ever yet are but few in number in Comparison of those other more excellent Persons who both scorn and pitty such horrid folly And as for these Men who thus seem to pride themselves in their own debaucheries yet we have reason to suspect that they are not in Earnest when they thus speak that they do not really and indeed believe Sin to be so Honourable a thing as they pretend and that first because they then only Glory most in their Wickedness when they are in Company like themselves if there be any grave Religious Persons in presence they then commonly are more Modest and seem Naturally to show a kind of awful Veneration towards such Men. 2. When these Men would really and to purpose revile a Man they do not then reproach him with his Vertues but either with some real or pretended Vice and Wickedness thus the Devil himself could not cast cast any Reproach or Scandal upon upright Job as such but he must be first falsely represented and unjustly accused of Hypocrisie Doth Job serve God for nought before any thing of Reproach or Scandal could be fixt upon him 4. The Christian Practice doth the best secure our Pleasure and Satisfaction here in this World so that Religion is no such sower Melancholy disconsolate thing as some Men represent it God doth not envy Men the Enjoyment of just Pleasures and Recreations so far as they are Virtuous and Innocent and when they cease to be such they cease to be Pleasures truly so call'd but they are then only the Pleasures of mad Men consisting only in a fantastick Imagination or the Pleasures of Fools by which they purchase to themselves infinite and unspeakable Pains and Miseries And as for those Troubles of Conscience and Sorrows of Repentance which some Men are so much offended at in Religion these if rightly con sider'd are not truly chargeable upon Religion but upon the Violation of its Laws and breach of its Commands Nor are the Tears of Repentance so bitter as some imagine for the true Penitent weeps and at the same time rejoyces that he doth so his sorrow is kindly and Ingenuous and has always this Satisfaction going along with it that by