Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	grace_n	righteousness_n	sin_n	6,554	5	5.0016	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63882	A sermon preached before the King on Easter-Day, 1684 by Francis Lord Bishop of Rochester ...	Turner, Francis, 1638?-1700.	1684 (1684)	Wing T3283; ESTC R38918	14,934	35

unto Cyrus Thou art my Shepherd accordingly Cyrus took order for gathering the scattered sheep of Israel for raising them up from a kind of Civil Death from Slavery to Freedom from Banishment to resettle them in their own Country But allowing this Interpretation of the Text in its first literal meaning it does not follow but a higher sense should be put upon the words the Fathers and learned Antients contend with one voice that Christ is here that his plenteous Redemption his gracious releasing us from the Death of sin his raising us to the Life of Grace of Righteousness and of Glory were prefigured and typified by that restauration and temporal deliverance of the Jews 'T is Christ whose going forth from the bosome of the Father into the World is said in my Text to be prepared as the Morning prepared of God by his ever-fixt and never-failing Decree by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God the very Days of Christ's Incarnation his Birth and his Resurrection were appointed set-days as certain to come as they were surely expected by those that waited for the consolation of Israel who should no more be disappointed in their expectation than those that lookt for the constant returns of the Morning-light and this Day of his was to be as the Morning as the Day-spring from on high to dispel the darkness by the presence of his Light to disperse the Fumes that from ignorance and sin with its mortal effects had so long clouded the minds of men to dilate and spread over all the World the influence of his heavenly Doctrine both of Grace and Glory and as he is likened to the Light so he is also set forth in my Text by that other great Blessing from Heaven upon Earth the Rain And he shall come unto us as the Rain so says the Psalmist He shall come down like the Rain into a Fleece of Wool so gentle so refreshing and so fructifying even as the drops that water the earth an Emblem of Christ that Isaiah delights to use Drop down ye heavens from above and let the skies pour down righteousness But there is something more implied in his Coming unto us as the latter and former rain unto the earth For in that part of the Earth the Holy Land that flow'd with milk and honey it was one of their Blessings that these Rains came at set-times and seasons not so uncertainly as in these Parts of the World but the former rain about the time of sowing their Seed the latter rain about this very time in the Spring And if Christ be there compared to that former Autumnal and this latter Easter Rain 't is easie from our own thoughts to draw out the parallel That He came like the former Rain at his holy Nativity and like the latter Rain at his new Birth for so His Resurrection is called and thus compared as well as His Eternal Generation The Dew of thy Birth is as the Womb of the Morning The Words being thus explain'd I may prosecute the Design of them either of these two ways as there are two methods of handling any Article of the Christian Faith for Example this of the Resurrection may be treated of either first in an Historical way considering the Matter of Fact it self that makes up the Article so in my Text this Matter of Fact is supposed that Christ revived after two days or was rais'd up again the third day Secondly The Article may be enquired into as it is a Mystery of Faith or as it contains the Effects the consequence of these great things that Christ either acted or suffered for us so the power of his Resurrection as St. Paul calls it is also set down in these words He shall revive us He shall raise us up again and we shall live in his sight He shall come unto us as the rain as the latter and former rain unto the earth But thirdly Here is an Obligation upon our parts or a Condition imposed upon us if we mean to reap advantage from this revealed Doctrine of Christ's Resurrection and ours then must these Principles be pursued extremely home and we must go on throughout the whole course of our lives to practise accordingly Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord. First then I shall consider the Matter of Fact that makes up the Article of Faith as it is contained in this glorious Prophecy and in some others like it For the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy says St. John the Apostle and it was a great and just Appeal that the Prophet Isaiah made against Idols and their false Prophets Shew the things that are to come hereafter that we may know that ye are Gods Now if ever things to come were plainly and distinctly shewed long before these so important Transactions relating to our Saviours Passion and Resurrection were written as with a Sun-Beam were translated out of Hebrew into Greek by the Command of a Heathen Prince but by Gods special Providence some Ages before their Completion Whose voice could it be if not his that was before David who spake it in his behalf They pierced my hands and my feet Who was so pierced but he with the Nails on his Cross I may tell all my Bones as it follows there Could there be a more proper description of that Distortion he suffered during his Extension upon the cursed Tree 'T is as narally painted out in Isai 25. another of the four Evangelists as I may call the four Great Prophets of the Old Testament And he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim that the very Price should be set down beforehand the goodly price at which they valu'd him and what they should do with it Buy the Field of Bloud then that every circumstance of his Death should be so punctually foretold the very words they should contemptuously speak in the midst of his Passion He trusted in God that he would deliver him let him deliver him if he will have him The words stood a long time before where they stand now in the 22th Psalm the Passion-Psalm there you may also find the Souldiers parting his Garments among them and casting lots for his seemless Coat It looks more like a History than a Prophecy yet Greece from the Septuagint attests the words as well as does Judaea from the Original That there should be darkness over the earth and the Sun should not give its light they had warning of it Amos 8. 9. And it shall come to pass in that day saith the Lord God that I will cause the Sun to go down at Noon and I will darken the earth in the clear day Why there were many Eclipses say the Jews Not one by their good favour when the Moon was at Full as it was always when they kept their Passover and yet this prodigious Darkness is witnessed by several Heathen Writers of