Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	flesh_n	life_n	sin_n	9,447	5	4.7537	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49458	A sermon preached before the Right Worshipfull Company of the Levant Merchants at St. Olav's Hart-Street, Thursday Decemb. 15, 1664 by John Luke ...	Luke, John, 1633 or 4-1702.	1664 (1664)	Wing L3472; ESTC R3028	16,798	48

his assent Luther in his enarration of this Epistle thus writeth upon the place Ad hunc articulum de Resurrect mortuorum penes homines Confirmandum apud demortuorum sepulchrase baptizari sinebant and significandum testandum quod constantissimè crederent mortuos qui ibi sepulti jacerent super quibus se baptizari sinerent resurrecturos esse The Christians of old had a custome to administer or receive Baptisme over the dead that is to say upon the tombes and graves of Martyrs and other faithfull servants of God departed this life thereby signifying and testifying that they firmly believed both themselves and they over whom they were baptized should rise again to immortal life This sense preserves the original inviolate which may as truly be rendred super mortuis over or upon the dead as pro mortuis for the dead the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equally admitting either translation as any child of the Grammar is able to bring examples And hereto accordeth our old English translation of use in K. Edward the sixth's dayes Else what do they which are baptized over the dead if the dead rise not at all why are they then baptized over them Neither can any thing be excepted against this interpretation could the proof and certainty be produced of the history the custome whereon it is grounded But this the work we may sweat at do no good on 't Whom should we rather consult to reach home the interpretation to us then the Centuriators of Meydenburgh and the learned and laborious compiler of the Loci Theologici all Authors of the Lutheran perswasion The Centuriators Cent. 1. l. 2. c. 6. about the beginning have thus recorded In Corinthiaca Ecclesia super mortuis hoc est in eo loco ubi sepeliebantur mortui baptizatum esse ex 1. Cor. 15. constat That in the Church of Corinth they used to baptize over the dead that is to say in the place where the dead were buryed 't is manifest say they from the 1. Cor. 15. This you see is to bring the Text to assert the History but the Text being of obscure and doubtfull signification we want the History to clear the Text. The Author of the Theological common places Cap. 7. de baptismo alledgeth a certain Epistle of the Church of Smyrna and the testimony of S. Austin for the evidence of this story but when we have taken the pains to read the said Epistle and quotation out of S. Austin we find that to take place which the frequency of the accident hath now turned into a proverb minuit praesentia famam In S. Austin I find nothing so far applicable to the purpose as that I may not choose to save time in passing it by The Epistle of the Church of Smyrna extant in Eusebius l. 4. c. 15. concerning the martyrdome of their famous S. Polycarp writeth indeed that the Christians used to assemble at his tomb for performing festival celebrations in honour to his memory and for exercising preparing and confirming others to the same conflict for the holy Faith a custome well known to many here present to be in some part continued by the poor reliques of that once famous and flourishing Church to this very day but not a word of administring Baptisme there which if it had been used no doubt but the Historian who triumphs in relating the circumstances of honour done to the Martyrs and the holy Christian profession would with all advantages have recorded it to posterity Yet say they did administer Baptisme over the tomb of this single Martyr what doth that argue for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text written above an hundred years before the martyrdome of S. Polycarp Certainly the use of burying in Churches where the sacred Ordinance of Baptism is administred was very seldome if ever known in the world for several hundreds of years after neither then do I find it received in reference to any such testification which is here alledged Wherefore we will disturb this first opinion no farther we leave it asleep among the tombes and graves where we find it we object nonage minority against the custome it produceth it must not adde several hundreds of years to it's time without shewing the Register if ever such custome did obtain upon the intent here disputed 't is not above eleven or twelve hundred years old at the most and that 's not sufficient age to give suffrage for determining the debate The second interpretation is that of Baptismus Clinicorū * Haeres 28. Haec interpretatio prae caeteris arridet Doctori Donne conc ult in locum Epiphanius De Baptismo Clinicorum received and pursued by Estius Calvin Capellus and many other learned men among whom the forementioned Vossius in his Theses de Baptismo notwithstanding before in his thes de Resurrect he had assented to the former an argument not of his forgetfulness or inconstancy but of his uncertainty or doubtfulness in determining the difficulty I forbear citations which would deceive us of the time and fill a volume The story of the opinion in short is this There was a custome came early into the Church and continued till at least about the 400. year of our Lord that many who desired to be baptized into the Name of Christ thought good to deferre their Baptisme till the latter end of their life till they lay sick upon their death-bed hence by the ancient Church called Clinici Epist 76. whom S. Cyprian elegantly opposeth to Peripatetici for that they were fixed to their bed not able to walk up and down thinking according to the errour of Novatian destructive to all faith and repentance from a wrong understanding of that place of the divine authour to the Hebrews c. 6. v. 4. that if after they were baptized they then fell into sin there was no Sacrament remaining for them no hopes of reconciliation to God Wherefore conscious of their infirmity and proneness to evil the danger they were in of being again more or less defiled with the pollutions of the world the flesh and the Devil which they had renounced they chose to delay their Baptisme till the time of their death that so they might have a pure transmigration out of the body and before the commission of more sins depart this life in sure hope of resurrection to life immortal Thus the Emperour Constantine long deferred his Baptisme ●useb and his Son Constantius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 desired to be baptized at the point of death Athanas de synodis The same delay we find admitted by the Emperours Theodosius the Great Ambros in obit Theodos Valentin and Valentinian which last purposing to be baptized when he came home was prevented by death This rash and dangerous omission this neglecting God's time and chusing our own witnessed against by Almighty God in the death of many before they were baptized Saint Gregory Nazianzen with his