Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	good_a	life_n	sin_n	13,827	5	4.6650	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A46968	The true mother church, or, A short practical discourse upon Acts II, concerning the first church at Jerusalem	Johnson, Samuel, 1649-1703.; Johnson, Samuel, 1649-1703. Second five year's struggle against popery and tyranny.	1688 (1688)	Wing J847; ESTC R39039	9,628	23

an unwearied diligence and with an uncloyed appetite They could never hear too much of what their Blessed Saviour had done for them and what he expected of them As their knowledge increased so did their desire of knowing more for as the Text tells us they continued stedfastly in this duty But how distant is the practise of most Christians now a days from this Primitive Pattern For though we have the same Instructions of the Apostles treasured up in their Writings and conveyed down to us yet how coldly are they entertained by us How negligent are men in coming to hear them or if they do how listless and unconcerned are they in hearing them and how regardless of retaining and keeping them in memory after they have heard them My brethren Let us shake off this supine negligence which renders us so unlike these Ancient Christians and let us be in earnest as they were For have not we souls to save as well as they had and ought not ours to be altogether as dear and pretious to us And therefore let us though we have not the Apostles those Living Oracles present with us yet be as carefull to hear reade mark learn and inwardly digest their Written Instructions because by them they still speak to us and declare to us the whole Counsel of God And let us shew our selves to be Christians by being like those who have gone before us in that holy Religion 2. They continued stedfastly in fellowship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies not so much common society as communication and a free distribution to the necessities of others And in this they continued with the same steadiness and perseverance as they did in hearing the Doctrine of the Apostles They did not onely perform duties which cost them nothing but they made charity and the highest liberality one of their divine Offices They did not appear before the Lord empty but they offered to him that Christian Sacrifice with which he is well pleased And not onely this first Church of Ierusalem whose liberality was so great that no man counted any of his Possessions his own but they had all things in common And so much for the honour of Christianity that some men not unreasonably think it is recorded in the Creed and that that Article the communion or communication of the Saints refers to this matter I say besides this Church it is plain that others likewise had the same practice and made their Collections for the Poor at their Religious Assemblies at which time St. Paul wishes them to make the Collections which he had recommended to them as being the proper season for those good acts And this liberality and mutual supplying of one another's wants did plainly shew that they esteemed themselves as Fellow-members of the same Body and that they were perfectly united in their hearts and affections and tied together in the bonds of love and charity which our Saviour often mentions as the surest sign and mark of his Disciples 3. Another Religious Office in which they were as constant was breaking of bread that is receiving the Sacrament The bread that we break says St. Paul is it not the communion of the Body of Christ So great was the Devotion of these first Christians that none of their Religious Assemblies passed in which they did not make this solemn commemoration of our Saviour and shew forth his death They constantly kept up the memory of their dying Lord by this image of his broken and wounded and crucified Body and they would have lookt upon their other Religious Services as lame and defective without this They had so lively a sense of our Saviour's great Love in dying for them that they delighted to have the pledges and tokens of it often in their hands And that still renewed the sense of his infinite love and so disposed them to receive the Communion the more readily again Our Saviour's Bloud was still warm as St. Ierome says speaking of these early times and these first Christians endeavoured to keep it so by their devout and frequent remembrances of it And indeed it was their constancy in this holy performance which quickened and put life into all their other Religious Actions That astonishing Instance of our Saviour's Love which they beheld in the Sacrament inflamed their hearts with love and charity towards their poor Brethren and made them desirous to know nothing but Iesus Christ and him crucified And by it they were likewise mightily encouraged in their prayers and addresses to God for if he had given them his Son how should he not together with him give them all things as the Apostle argues What more prevailing mediation could they use to obtain the pardon of their Sins and the love and favour of God and grace to help in time of need than the bloudy Death of our Saviour which had purchased all these things for them And this frequent remembrance of our Saviour's Death was not onely a help to them in their other Religious Exercises which no question was a reason of their often receiving the Sacrament but likewise very instrumental to a good life For if men did but carry about with them the thoughts of our Saviour's Death how horrid would Sin appear to them which killed the Lord of life and glory And how dangerous which exposed that most innocent Person the Lamb of God to such bloudy Sufferings For as our Saviour said If these things be done in a green tree what shall be done in the dry If he suffered so deep for the sins of others what will become of us if God should punish our own sins upon our own heads And as our Saviour's Death contains in it the greatest arguments against Sin so it likewise lays upon us the greatest obligations to obedience to love and serve our Lord even to the death who emptied all his Veins and shed his last Bloud for our sakes This puts us in mind to be true to him who has done and suffered so much for us And therefore the ancient Christians in times of Persecution used to keep the Sacrament by them that it might be always in a readiness to strengthen their Fidelity to Christ and to bind them the faster to the Profession of his holy Religion And they not onely lookt upon it as that which would arm them with resolution and constancy in their Christianity but likewise as an obligation to a holy and innocent life This is the Account that Pliny gives to the Emperour Trajan of the Christians in his time that he had informed himself as well as he could of what the Christians did in their Assemblies and the sum of it was this That being met together upon an appointed day which seems to be the Lord's day they sung a Hymn of praise to Christ as to a God and bound themselves by a Sacrament that they would commit no manner of wickedness Which appears to be their receiving of the Sacrament From whence we