Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A45575
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A sermon preach'd at St. Marys Church in Cambridge, January the 6th being the feast of the Epiphany / by Francis Hare ...
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Hare, Francis, 1671-1740.
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1700
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Wing H757; ESTC R35443
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14,022
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Revealed are they all of Perpetual and Universal Obligation or not if some only which are they what Punishments are annext to the Violation of them when to be inflicted in this Life or another if in another the Soul must be immortal and immaterial and the Man must live again besides many other Difficulties which must be determined before we can know whether Man be actually accountable to GOD for what he does These all these are Questions of great Importance and such as the wisest Heathens could come to no certain Conclusions about Some of them indeed by an extraordinary Goodness of Mind have hit upon Noble Thoughts and very much resembling Truth but when well examined they appear to be what themselves could rather wish to be true than be at all sure they were so I shall give but one Instance of this and that is in that excellent Discourse of Socrates before his Death in which there are strange and surprizing Strokes of Truth about the Immortality of the Soul and the Rewards and Punishments of another Life Who can without pity see the weak Efforts of the best Reason who can forbear wishing him Success or not be sorry extremely sorry at his Disappointment who has such noble Conclusions in view but is utterly at a loss by what certain Steps to get at them One sees him through all along that piece very earnest in the search after and pursuit of Truth he sometimes takes such true Steps and pursues so closely that one can't help thinking every minute the next will be the last he seems so very near it and then loses his Scent a while and then comes on again which gives the Reader a very melancholy pleasure who can't but be in some sort disappointed himself every time he sees He is The Discourse thro'out must be own'd to be at first Sight very Beautiful but if one view the Picture nicely examine the several Parts of it the Proportions and Reasons on which they are built the whole will appear such a strange mixture of Truth and Error full of such inconclusive Arguments so like Dreaming of some Fairy Land that one can't but wonder how it could come from the Hand of so great a Master or be thought a finisht Piece by those that heard it In truth under all the Good-will he discovers for so good a Cause one can't but observe with how much Diffidence himself speaks of it much less can any body else be convinc'd by what he says unless such as come prepar'd to believe before they hear and can take up with Conclusions first and then look out for Premises by which they may seem to others to have come to them So great was the Blindness and Ignorance the World was under about things of the greatest moment I might proceed to shew that their Works also were Works of Darkness that their Manners generally speaking were as corrupt as their Opinions but the close Connexion there is between Religion and Morality makes this less necessary nor have I time for it if I would How far this Corruption was inevitable and invincible I will not now dispute Thus much is certain the World either had no means to remove it or at least did not know how to use them and consequently would never have remov'd it had not the Messiah in the fulness of Time been reveal'd to them In Him the People that walked in Darkness have seen a great Light they that dwell in the Land of the Shadow of Death upon them hath the Light shined 'T was He dispell'd these clouds which had so long hung over the Earth He enlightned the World after this long and universal Dark this black eternal Night Wherein this Enlightning the World consisted was the Second thing I propos'd to speak to which I shall do very briefly It consisted then in introducing a new State of things a State in all its parts opposite to that I have been describing in teaching the World all That is necessary for them to know of Divine things of the Nature of GOD and of Themselves in giving us just and true Notions of the Divine Providence of his Wisdom and Goodness in governing the World in laying down excellent Rules of Living well and teaching us the true nature of Moral Good and Evil and lastly in giving us a reasonable Worship worthy of Man and in some sort worthy his Creator Now the World is no longer at a loss to know what GOD is what he Requires of us and how he will be Served now we have a certain Measure of our Duty we have fixt unalterable Rules to go by we depend now no longer on our own Reason or the Authority of others we are directed by the highest Reason of the best Being by the divine and infallible Guidance of the Son of GOD. Before the World must either have follow'd the Dictates of some great Law-giver or found out the Rules of their Duty for themselves As to the former no Man ever had or could have an Authority to prescribe to the rest of the World nor was it safe he should as appears from the great Imperfections that are to be met with in the best Systemes of Human Laws nor could they find out the Measure of their Duty themselves for that requires vast Abilities capable of drawing a very long Chain of Consequences from a very few Principles and therefore if possible yet is it what much the greatest part of Mankind have neither Capacity nor Opportunity for But this is but a part only of what our Saviour has done for us to all this he has added great and precious Promises to invite us to our Duty and proportionable Threats to deter us from the contrary and that nothing might be wanting to compleat this great Redemption he hath wrought for us that no one might complain he had not all due Assistance to enable him to do what is required of him he hath graciously promised his holy Spirit to all them that call upon him O! how thankful ought we all to be for this great Goodness of GOD to us how careful not to undervalue it as some do who by a strange Ingratitude because GOD hath suffered them to enjoy the Light conclude there was no Darkness and that the World would have been sufficiently enlightned tho' GOD had done nothing of all this for them They deny the Necessity of Revelation and bring down the Sublime Perfection of the Christian Religion to that which they call Natural They can now prove to you from that all the Truths delivered in the Gospel and argue against Revealed Religion from that very Light it furnishes them with And so in truth beg the Question while to prove they don't stand in need of Revelation they produce as the Effect of their own unassisted Reason what was really borrow'd from it They distinguish not between Reason with and without the helps the Scriptures give it which yet are very different things as different as it is
A SERMON Preach'd at St. MARYS Church IN CAMBRIDGE JANUARY the 6th Being the FEAST OF THE EPIPHANY By FRANCIS HARE A.M. and Fellow of KING'S College CAMBRIDGE Printed at the University Press for Edmund Jeffery Bookseller in Cambridge 1700. Mr Hare's SERMON On the EPIPHANY Imprimatur THO. GREENE Procan HUMF GOWER Prof. Marg. S. BLITHE Aul. Clar. Custos C. RODERICK Coll. Regal Praep. LUKE II. xxxii A Light to lighten the Gentiles THE Hymn from whence these Words are taken is so well known by being made a part of the constant Service of the Church that I need not mention either the Author or Occasion of them Every body knows When they were spoken and by Whom sees Who it is they point to and is before-hand with me in the application of them to the Day Which the Church hath set apart to commemorate that great Mystery the Manifestation of the Messiah to the Gentiles a Mystery hid from Ages and Generations but now made known in the Persons of the Wise Men who by the Leading of a Star came from the East to Jerusalem to pay their homage to the New-born King For they were the First-fruits of the Gentiles in Them was this Manifestation not only signified and shadowed forth but actually begun so soon did the Messiah the Glory of Israel begin to be a Light to the Gentiles also This is a Day much to be remembred in it self and as 't is the last of the Solemnity of this Season so is it the great Reason we remembred those that went before it For what if Christ were in the fulness of Time Born of a pure Virgin what if he were Circumcised the Eight day and made obedient to the Law what had these things been to us or what Interest had we had in them if He that was Born and Circumcised had not been Manifested to us If we have any Sense of the Misery the Gentile World had hitherto and would have still continued to lie under if the Messiah had not been reveal'd at all and the yet greater Evils they must have undergone if he had been reveal'd in the manner the Jews expected we shall see abundant Reason to celebrate this Day and joyfully acknowledge the Goodness of God to us in that Manifestation of His Son which we now commemorate And if a Sense of being deliver'd from our Misery if a Sense of having the greatest Evils remov'd far from us be sufficient to excite Joy and Praise and Thanksgiving in us much more will our Rejoycing be increas'd much greater will our Obligations be when we consider the Favours and Blessings we do or may enjoy if it be not our own Fault in the room of those Evils which we must have been otherwise exposed to If the Messiah had not been revealed at all the World would still have lain in Sin in Blindness and great Darkness and had neither known God nor been known by Him they would have been still wandring after their own Imaginations and either not searched or search'd in vain for any real Happiness their Wisdom must still have ended in extreme Folly and they at last forc'd to sit down after having tired themselves in endless Mazes and Uncertainties in profound Darkness and in the Shadow of Death Such would have been the wretched State of Man had the Messiah never come or which is all one had never been revealed to us for such it was before He came as I shall shew more at large by and by and such it still is in those parts of the Gentile World where the Light of the Gospel has never Shone But Worse much Worse had our Condition been if the Messiah had been revealed in the manner the Jews expected then indeed He had been a Light to the Gentiles but not to Lighten and Comfort and give Life to far from that He would have been a Light Dreadful and Terrible to Burn up and to Destroy the Nations of the Earth as many as would not bow their Neck to the Jewish Yoke which was now in the fulness of Time to be laid on all People and be as they thought Universally Submitted to for they expected the Messiah should be a Mighty Deliverer a Glorious Conquerour One that should lift up his Voice on High that should be Dreadful to the Kings of the Earth and subdue all People to Himself They expected a Star should arise out of Jacob and a Sceptre out of Judah that should smite the Corners of Moab and destroy all the Children of Seth. These were the Expectations of the Jews which had they been fulfilled had the Messiah appeared as they flattered themselves He would they indeed would have had great Reason to Rejoyce for to see the Slavery they were under for in truth their Subjection to the Roman Yoke was little better to see that not only changed into a Glorious Liberty but to have themselves the Power of the World in their own Hands to see all Nations and Kingdoms fall down before them but above all to have it now their turn to Rule over those who at present Ruled it over them this would have been matter of great Joy to any People tho' they had been more Considerable had Suffered less and had had a better Temper than the Jews But how great soever their Joy would have been on this Occasion the rest of the World would have had little Reason to join with them their Portion would have been to Lament themselves and their hard Fortune their Sorrow would have rise with the Calamities this State of Things would have reduced them to and both would have increased in proportion to the Prosperity and Joy of this little People who confined to a narrow Corner of the World now made no Figure were no Terrour to their Neighbours but lived to themselves Despising and Despised But Thanks be to God this is not the Case their Expectations are so far from being fulfilled that the exact Reverse of them is come to pass They are so far from being the only People whom the Lord hath Redeemed so far from engrossing the Blessings of the Messiah to themselves that they are almost the only Nation that has had no part in them For God hath given them the Spirit of Slumber Eyes that they should not see and Ears that they should not hear They stumbled they fell and thro' their fall Salvation is come unto the Gentiles So great is the Goodness and Severity of God on them which fell Severity but Goodness towards us His Severity indeed is by no means matter of Joy to a Good Man far be those Thoughts from us we ought rather to pity their great Unhappiness and pray for the Time when God will have Mercy on his Ancient People but we ought to make this Use of it it should teach us to set a greater value on his Goodness who have received such undeserved and unexpected Favours from Him When we were no People when we sought Him not nor asked after