Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A59872
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The second part of the preservative against popery shewing how contrary popery is to the true ends of the Christian religion : fitted for the instruction of unlearned Protestants / by William Sherlock ...
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Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing S3343; ESTC R35181
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73,416
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99
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had not the necessity of dying been expresly excepted out of this Redemption for in Adam all die and it is appointed by a Divine Decree for all men once to die and could they show where Purgatory is excepted too then I would grant that those who are redeemed from the Curse of the Law might fall into Purgatory if that be any comfort to them and yet the case is vastly different between Death and Purgatory for though Death be the Curse of the Law yet we may be delivered from Death as a Curse and Punishment without being delivered from the necessity of dying and thus good men are redeemed from Death for their Sins are expiated and pardoned and then the Sting of Death is gone for the sting of death is sin and therefore when our Sins are pardoned Death cannot sting us can do us no hurt because it does not deliver us over to Punishment but transplants us into a more happy state The fears of Death are conquered by the promises of Immortal Life and Death itself shall at the last day be swallowed up in Victory when our dead Bodies shall be raised immortal and glorious so that thô good men still die yet they are redeemed from the Curse of the Law from Death itself as a Curse and a Punishment But the Popish Purgatory is a place of Punishment and nothing but Punishment and therefore is not reconcilable with the remission and forgiveness of sin Again I ask Whether there are two kinds of Punishments due to sin Temporal and Eternal of such a distinct nature and consideration that the Promise of forgiveness does not include both Nay that God cannot forgive both that only the Eternal Punishment can be forgiven but the Temporal Punishment must be satisfied for or endured by the Sinner if this were the case indeed then I would grant the Promise of forgiveness could extend only to Eternal Punishments because God can forgive no other and the forgiveness of Eternal Punishment does not include the forgiveness of the Temporal Punishment But if the Curse of the Law be Eternal Death and all other Punishments which can properly be called the punishment of sin for Correction and Discipline is not the Wrath of God and the Curse of the Law are only parts of the Curse and a partial execution of it if the only thing that makes Sinners obnoxious to Temporal Punishments is that they are under the Sentence of Eternal Death which God may execute by what degrees he pleases then to forgive Eternal Punishment must include the forgiveness of Temporal Punishments as parts or branches of it As suppose there were a Law that no man should suffer any Bodily Punishments but such a Malefactor as is condemned to die but when the Sentence of Death is past upon him it should be at the Prince's pleasure to defer the Execution of this Sentence as long as he pleased and in the mean time to inflict all other Punishments on him whatever he pleased in this Case to pardon the Sentence of Death would deliver such a man from all other Punishments too which by the Law are due only to that man who is under the Sentence of Death and in such a Constitution for any man to say that the Prince's Pardon extends only to Life but does not excuse from Whipping and Pilloring and perpetual Imprisonment would be to make the Pardon void since no man by the Law can suffer those other Punishments but he who is Condemned to Die and therefore he who is pardoned the Sentence of Death in consequence of that is pardoned all other Punishments too Thus it is here the original Curse against sin was In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die which by the Gospel of Christ is expounded of Eternal Death and there is no other threatning in all the Gospel against sin but Eternal Death and therefore all other Punishments are inflicted by Vertue of this Law and consequently he who is delivered from this Curse of the Law from Eternal Punishments is delivered from the whole Punshment due to sin unless they can find some other Law in the Gospel besides that which threatens Eternal Death which obliges a sinner to punishment Again since they acknowledge that Christ by his Death has delivered us from Eternal Punishments I do not think it worth the while to Dispute with them whether those Sufferings and Calamities which good men are exposed to in this World may properly be called Punishments or only Correction and Discipline but I desire to know Why they call Purgatory which is a place of Punishment in the other World a Temporal Punishment for this is an abuse of the Language of Scripture which makes this World Temporal and the next World Eternal as St. Paul expresly tells us The things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal 2 Cor. 4.18 And therefore Temporal Punishments signifie the Punishments in this World but the unseen Punishments as well as the unseen Rewards of the next World are eternal which is a demonstration that there is no Purgatory unless it be Eternal and then it is but another Name for Hell and therefore the state of the next World is called either Life or Death Eternal Life or Eternal Death those who believe in Christ shall never die 11 Joh. 25 26. Now I desire to know the difference between Living and Dying and Perishing in the next World for bad men do not cease to be nor lose all sence in the next World no more than good men and therefore Life can only signifie a state of Happiness and Death a state of Misery which is much worse than not being now if good men must not perish must not die but live in the next World they must not go to Purgatory which is as much perishing as much dying as Hell though not so long but if they must never die never perish they must never suffer the pains of Purgatory which is a dying and perishing that is a state of Torment and Misery while they continue there Let us then see how a Papist who believes a Purgatory-sire in the next World wherein he shall be tormented God knows how long for his Sins can prove that a penitent Sinner shall not be eternally damned Oh! says he Christ has died for our Sins and made atonement for them and we are pardoned and justified through Faith in his Bloud and what then may we not still be punished for our Sins If not what becomes of Purgatory If we may prove that we shall not be eternally damned for Sin which is the proper punishment of it For if to be pardoned and justified signifie to be delivered from punishment it signifies our deliverance from the whole punishment of Sin since the Scripture does not limit it if they do not signifie our deliverance from punishment then we may be eternally punished for Sin though we are pardoned and justified But we are redeemed from the
Image-Worship does consist only in mens gross Notions about it yet we see under the Law to prevent and cure this God did not go about to rectifie their Opinions of these things but absolutely forbids the Worship of all Images and of any other Being but himself which methinks he would not have done had there been such great advantages in the Worship of Saints and Angels and Images as the Romanists pretend and when God in the Law of Moses forbad all Creature and Image-Worship can we think that Christ who came to make a more perfect Reformation should only change their Country-Gods into Saints and Angels and the Virgin Mary and give new names to their Statues and Images Which whatever he had taught about it instead of curing Idolatry had been to set up that same kind of Worship which the Law of Moses absolutely forbad and condemned as Idolatry When God to cure the Idolatrous Worship of inferiour Daemons as their Mediators and Advocates with the Supreme God sent his own Son into the World to be our Mediator can we think that he intended after this that we should worship Angels and Saints and the Virgin Mary as our Mediators When God has given us a visible Image of himself his Eternal and Incarnate Son whom we may worship and Adore did he still intend that we should worship material and sensible Images of Wood or Stone By the Incarnation of his own Son God did indeed take care to rectifie mens mistakes about Creature-Worship and to cut off all pretences for it Those who pleaded that vast distance between God and men and how unfit it was that Sinners should make their immediate approaches to the Supreme God and therefore worshipped inferiour Daemons as middle Beings between God and man have now no pretence for this since God has appointed his own Son to be our Mediator Those who worshipped Images as the visible Representations of an invisible God have now a visible Object of Worship a God Incarnate a God in the nature and likeness of a Man and though we do not now see him yet we have the notion of a visible God and Mediator to whom we can direct our Prayers in Heaven which is satisfaction enough even to men of more gross and material Imaginations without any artificial and senseless Representations of the Deity And was all this done that men might worship Creatures and Images without Idolatry or rather was it not done to cure mens inclinations to commit Idolatry with Creatures and Images Whoever believes that the Gospel of our Saviour was intended as a Remedy against Idolatry can never be perswaded that it allows the Worship of Saints and Images which if it be not Idolatry is so exactly like it in all external appearance that the allowance of it does not look like a proper cure for Idolatry SECT II. Concerning the great Love of GOD to Mankind and the Assurances of Pardon and Forgiveness which the Gospel gives to all Penitent Sinners which are much weakned by some Popish Doctrines 2. THE Gospel of Christ was intended to give the highest demonstration of God's Love to Mankind and the greatest possible Security to all humble penitent Sinners of the Forgiveness of their Sins Hence the Gospel is called the Grace of God and the Gospel of Grace as being a Dispensation of Love and Goodness and therefore whatever lessens and disparages the Gospel-Grace can be no Gospel-Doctrine As to consider this particularly The Gospel magnifies the Grace of God in giving his own Son for us God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life 3 John 16. In this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins 1 John 4.9 10. And St. Paul assures us that this is such a glorious manifestation of God's love as will not suffer us to doubt of any other expressions of his goodness He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things 8 Rom. 32. So that the Gospel of our Saviour gives us much higher demonstrations of God's love and goodness than either the Light of Nature or the Law of Moses did Love is the prevailing Attribute of God under the Gospel-dispensation For God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him 1 John 4.16 Thus the Gospel of Christ gives a humble Penitent as great assurance of Pardon as his own guilty Fears can desire for Repentance and Remission of Sins is preached in the Name of Christ He has expiated our Sins by the Sacrifice of his Death God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us much more then being justified by his bloud we shall be saved from wrath through him for if when we were enemies we were reconciled unto God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life 5 Rom. 8 9 10. For as he was delivered for our Offences so he was raised again for our Justification And him hath God exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance unto Israel and remission of sins 1 John 2.1 2. So that if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous who is able to save all them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them 7 Heb. 25. These are the fundamental Doctrines of Christianity and therefore nothing can be a Gospel-Doctrine which weakens or overthrows them Let us then examine the Popish Doctrine of Purgatory and the Invocation of Saints and Angels as our Mediators with God and see how they are reconcileable with the Gospel notion of God's love and that security it gives us of Pardon through the Merits and Intercession of Christ 1. Let us consider the Doctrine of Purgatory which is but the outward Court or Region of Hell where the Punishments are as severe as in Hell itself only of a less continuance and yet as short as they are they may last many hundred nay thousand Years unless their Friends and the Priests be more merciful to them or they themselves have taken care before Death to pay the Price of their Redemption This is a barbarous Doctrine and so inconsistent with that mighty Love of God to penitent Sinners as it is represented in the Gospel of Christ that it is not reconcileable with any notion of Love and Goodness at all you may call it Justice you may call it Vengeance if you please but Love it is not or if it be it is such a Love as no man can distinguish from Hatred for my