Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	david_n	king_n	son_n	5,341	5	5.7345	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35563	The question to whom it belonged anciently to preach and whether all priests might or did discussed out of antiquity : as also, what preaching is, properly / by Meric Casaubon ...	Casaubon, Meric, 1599-1671.	1663 (1663)	Wing C810; ESTC R5468	22,827	42

by moral apologues and fables which made Aesop so famous in his dayes And do not we read of wonderful things atchieved this way when no other oratory would prevail Did not Menenius Agrippa when the common people of Rome provoked by the cruelty of usurers were gathered together in a seditious manner and had taken arms to the great terror of the Senate and whole City pacifie them and to the admiration of all men by that famous apologue of the members of the body St. Paul Romans the twelfth hath much of it reduce them to obedience So Arsinoe the Queen as we read in Plutarch when nothing could allay her immoderate weeping and lamentation for the death of her son one of the Philosophers of those times found a way by such an apologue of his own devising to perswade her to patience And what use did Nathan the Prophet make of such a device or made story to make David his King who perchance would not have endured it another way sensible of his great unthankfulness towards his God who had done so much for him in that in despight of Gods Commandement Thou shalt not commit adultery he had seized upon another mans wife and because his plot would not take which he had plotted to save his credit as one sin doth often beget another was provoked to plot the death of her husband If therefore the chief end of preaching be to teach or to perswade conversion or reformation how it can be said that eloquence or studied oratory is the only way I leave it to the judgement of men who are more led which few are by reason then prejudice or prejudicate opinions For my part I think catechising if rightly used hath much the advantage of it There is another way too which with men who are more for reason then words is of great force and that is by short aphorismes My opinion is that the frequent reading of Epictetus especially as fitted anciently for the use of Christians may go much further to perswade a man that is rational then many Sermons such as he may hear in many Churches And so may Ludovicus Vives his Introduction to wisdome digested and compiled by certain short rational aphorismes It is true that much good may be done by Rhetorick but as much good so much evil also for which reason it hath been forbidden formerly in some judicatories But since speech and oratory as once among the Athenians when it ruled all there and since that among the Romans is now become in so much request among both great and small that nothing almost is accounted Religion or learning but what cometh out of the Pulpit and that this is the very way which the enemyes of the Churches peace and government since the Reformation of Religon have ever gone in England to gain credit with the people this way this popular way of preaching though perchance less of it otherwise might serve in some places if all other things were duly performed ought to be in great request unto all unto whom the peace and prosperity of the Church is dear and precious so that still care be taken so far forth as by good means it may be prevented that none be allowed or licensed to preach but such as are true sons of the Church However though for divers respects we maintain the necessity of this way yet it were very requisite I think that people should be made to understand every-where how much and how dangerously they are deluded when they are made to believe that there is no other preaching effectual to the conversion of souls and that this is the Word of God that which is uttered out of Pulpits so much commended and so necessary to salvation Which conceit when men are once prepossessed with it makes them to despise the true Word of God the infallible true Word of God I mean for Sermons also if Orthodox may be called the Word of God at large when it is read in the Church out of the Old and New Testament and this contempt of it bereaves them of the benefit which they might reap by it I am perswaded that all the blasphemies which some Papists have belched out against the Scriptures being put together will scarce make one half of what the Puritans and Precisians of England have done to advance the honour of Pulpit Preaching wherein they did conceive and they were right in that their advantage to lie Let them be beaten off from that advantage which may easily be done if care be taken and God be praised care hath been taken in London of late the chiefest City might it be so too in all other places it is to be hoped that the quarrel will soon be at an end But see I pray the Reader to give me leave the impudency of some of those men far be it from me to censure all The Author of that infamous Pamphlet called Puritanismus Anglicanus a man both for this and his other writings some of which have been Printed I am loth to say where of no small account among them that are bred that way the very first mark by which he doth describe and set out an English Puritan is that verbum Dei Prophetarum Apostolorum scriptis comprehensum numeris omnibus perfectum esse arctè tenent so he speaks accurateque defendunt Whereas in very deed of all things not a few that can be laid to the Puritans charge I know not any thing either more notorious or more detestable then this very thing that they so vilifie the pure Word of God comprehended in the writings of the Prophets and Apostles dayly read in Churches at the time of Divine Service as to make it of no use at all to the Conversion of Souls appropriating as much as in them lyeth that sacred title of Gods Word to their own Pulpit Preaching Which also they will often call the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and without any limitation whereby people deluded silly people are brought to believe that there is no other Gospel but what is Preached out of Pulpits and in case any of that Party though the occasion be never so just be prohibited to Preach that the Gospel doth suffer thereby and is in danger Another great and dangerous error in this business of Preaching which would be looked into is that many because they hear Sermons with joy and are eager after them through ignorance of the nature of speech in general and of former times withall without any further examination what operation it hath upon their lives they are ready to flatter themselves that this love they bear unto the Word must needs be an argument of grace and an effect of the spirit of regeneration and in this confidence they live secure and regardless of any thing else by which they might edifie and not only so but become proud insolent and censorious many of them Whereas there is nothing more certain then that it is the nature of speech