Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	law_n	sin_n	spirit_n	23,097	5	6.5373	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58187	The pattern of pure and undefiled religion exhibited in the preaching and life of the holy Jesus, shewing the true genius and spirit of Christianity, with an introduction concerning the restoring of true religion by Jesus Christ and his kingdom / by George Raymond.	Raymond, George, A.M.	1689 (1689)	Wing R412; ESTC R33512	50,348	160

to be built upon it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de Isid Osir 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Simpl. in Epictet c. 34. whether there were two first Principles the one of good the other of evil which was the most ancient and universal opinion as Plutarch tells us or whence else those lapses and errours of the humane Soul should proceed whence it was that the brutish part had enslaved the rational and the sensitive appetite broke loose from the governing power They knew not the head of this over-flowing Nile but found themselves involved in the Inundation whilst their understandings reasoned tolerably well of Vertue their inclinations engaged them powerfully in Vice So that either despairing of liberty they tamely yielded to the torrent of inclination and custom or else with great perplexity but little success strove against the mighty stream and in so great a streight as was natural look'd up to God Plutar. de superstit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is the hope of Vertue but not the Patron of Sloth and Cowardize Although they sometimes magnified humane nature yet experience of their own infirmity at other times extorted this confession from them that a divine impulse was necessary to make a Man truly great and good Nunquam vir magnus sine divino afflatu Cicero 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pythag Aur. Carm. and that there is something divine in holy men that informs and guides them Which differs but little from that of St. John 1 Ep. c. 2.20 Ye have an unction from the holy one and know all things But the knowledge of their remedy was not equal to the sense and pressure of their Disease they could cry out with St. Paul Oh wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me but could not answer with him I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is the Redeemer of the World who by a divine strength hath relieved the weakness of Man and by the law of the spirit of life Rom. 8.2 made them free from the law of sin and death The Sun of Righteousness just before his rising upon the benighted World had emitted some twilight Rayes into the darkness of it by raising up some eminent Philosophers Preachers of Righteousness to check the superstition and madness of the Priests and to scatter some rayes of knowledge among the people thereby to prepare the way to the Eternal Word who was to bring with him the treasures of divine Knowledge and Wisdom But when this glorious Sun was risen he not only shed a divine light but quickening heat and influence upon the benummed and frozen World. He revived the dead restored the languishing redeem'd the Captive and enabled Slaves to break off their Fetters Joh. 8.36 and those whom the Eternal Truth set at liberty were free indeed He plentifully poured out that Spirit that rested on himself even the Spirit of wisdom and understanding Isa 11.2 of counsel and might of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. By the miraculous effusion of the Holy Ghost he awaken'd the stupid World and called them into his Church an unconquerable never-failing Principle of Eternal Righteousness By the abounding of this grace he hath provided Rom. 5.21 that as sin hath reigned unto death so righteousness may now reign unto Eternal Life The Gospel preached in the demonstration of the Spirit made a speedy and wonderful reformation in the understandings tempers and lives of Men and yielded a most powerful conviction that God was both able and willing to restore his lost Image in them And all the treasures of this divine Spirit are promised to those that humbly ask and are willing to receive them The Conscience therefore awakened by the light of Truth is no longer amazed or distracted but confiding in the divine aids and strengthened with his Heavenly Grace pursues its conflict with the Flesh to a compleat Victory Every good motion is from the same Spirit of Truth and Grace which hath made such admirable Conquests over Ignorance and Lust and he that hath the same Principle in himself can't but have a good hope of the same blessed Fruits The Soul that feels a divine strength cannot but expect from the same Fountain a constant supply and thus united to God in the same design of restoring his Image and animated with the holy Spirit can't fail to master all opposition for greater is he that is in us than he that is in the World. This therefore is the Foundation on which Christs Kingdom of Righteousness and Grace is built viz. Faith establishing the heart by a full and certain perswasion of these Fundamental Points viz. That God is Reconciled and Pardon and gracious acceptance sure to returning Sinners That a future Judgment and Eternal Life and consequently the difference of moral good and evil are indisputably certain and unquestionable realities That there is but one God the Creator of all things and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the only object of worship and Fountain of Blessing whom we must glorify in and worship through as he blesseth us by the Eternal Word and Spirit That the true service of God consists in the imitation of him of which the Life of Jesus is our Pattern that such Holiness is indispensibly necessary certainly practicable and can never fail of the divine acceptance That the corruption of nature and the power of inclination and custom are infallibly conquerable by the grace of God and God most ready to prevent and follow us with his grace and that he will never fail to assist and prosper our endeavours till they are crowned with Everlasting Success This is the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon these fundamentals of religious Belief must the Superstructure of Holiness and Happiness be raised and built Now Christians even of the meanest Capacities believing Jesus to be the Son of God and receiving that account the Evangelists give of him have thereby most evident demonstration lively perswasion and certain knowledge of these fundamental truths such as the most learned Philosophers could not attain unto and the generality of the World were extreamly far from This Foundation being laid sure God having made Faith of these truths to all men in a most easy and certain way and most powerfully and solemnly attested them by the miraculous effusion and demonstration of the Spirit that which remains for restoring Religion and Man for perfecting the Kingdom of Christ is to build upon this holy Faith the true Image of God and Spirit of Holiness to pluck up those prejudices that debauched Mens minds the Sources and Tap-roots of false Religion and to inculcate those truths which contain the true Spirit and Genius of pure and undefil'd Religion With this design the Doctrine and Life of Jesus travail viz. to introduce amongst his Followers that excellency of Spirit that was in himself which is the true Image of God the glory and the perfection of Man. And as this spirit

those better things we abstain from all that use and injoyment not only which makes an Inroad upon Justice or Charity but from that too which deadeneth and palls our taste for Spiritual things and abates our delight in them Such pleasures as make the mind soft and feeble and trifling and leave a fondness for and awaken our passions towards this World but cool and trash us in our desires and pursuits of a better Moreover that we not only be chearful and contented in every lot but that we daily contract our desires and Appetites and have our minds more free from importune and violent longings And then as the consummation of the habit that the sense of carnal and secular delights be swallowed up in the brighter and more gustful pleasures of Virtue and Holiness When we are crucified to the World and almost wholly indifferent as to the delights of it when we neither doat nor long nor fret nor envy nor yet swell with hope or seem ravished with injoyment but rather think meanly of all the entertainments of this World as having nothing agreeable to our Heavenly Mind nor worthy of a passionate regard To this consummate State we must be daily pressing forward and judge of our safety by our approach to it viz. as the sense of Worldly delights cooleth and that of Heavenly ones grows and swells Fourthly In the Life of Christ we Sect. 4 have an admirable Pattern of an Invincible Fortitude of a Mind as much above the terrours of sense as the delights of it that could no more be broken by the troubles and misfortunes of Life than soften'd by the injoyments and pleasures thereof He is become an Example to us how to maintain our Resolution and Integrity and to keep a due decorum in the midst of great sufferings or great fears and not to be vanquish'd by the frowns of the World any more than by the blandishments and allurements of it For Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs he drank deep of the Cup of Afflictions being assaulted on every side afflicted by God and persecuted by Men and pursued by the utmost art and malice of Devils He suffered contempt and contumely and the blasphemous contradictions of Sinners their insolent mockeries and barbarous insults and triumphs over him as baffled and conquer'd Save thy self thou King of Israel and come down from the Cross and we will believe on thee Luk. 23.37 and when he was not in their hands yet he had always reason to apprehend their malice and to fear their power His condition was mean and friendless and his Adversaries potent such as had persecuted former Prophets and openly declared their hatred of him such as had the Government in their hands and had used it against him by decreeing to Excommunicate those that should own him But in the midst of these his frequent Sufferings and continual fears he maintain'd a firm Resolution and a venerable decorum and left us an Example that we should tread in his steps He was neither fearless of evil nor stupidly insensible under it When his Passion drew nigh his Soul was troubled and sore amazed heavy and exceeding sorrowful Matth. 26.38 Though he refused not the Cup yet he pray'd if possible it might be removed Matth. 26.29 He resented the Hypocrisy the Ingratitude and Cruelty of his Enemies Many good works have I done for which of these do ye stone me Joh. 10.32 He did not dare and provoke their rage but prudently avoided it whilst innocently he might do so But he did not so fear the power of his Adversaries as to omit his duty or to do any evil thing for the avoidance of it He resolutely professed and taught the truth which they were not able to bear He encountred the errours and prejudices of the Age and reproved the Vices of it He did not sooth or flatter any party of Men but dealt plainly and spake freely and lanced smartly the ulcerated Hypocrisy of the Scribes and Pharisees that were the most potent and popular Faction He would not shrink from the truth nor mince the matter though they heard him with malice in their hearts and stones in their hands Joh. 10.31 He would venture again among them to raise Lazarus from the dead though they had so lately sought to stone him Joh. 11.8 He would go up to the Passover according to the Law though he fall thereby into the hands of the Chief Priests who will be sure to Sacrifice him to their rage When he was overtaken with evil he did not struggle and complain he was not over-born and sunk with it he indured all their taunts and reproaches without being discouraged and when he was reviled he answer'd not And he suffer'd with undaunted Courage and resolution and unbroken Patience a violent shameful and cruel Death Nor was it lowness of Spirit that made him silent for he was not afraid to confess the truth to the last But his Mind was exalted above the impression of evil by divine consideration Faith in God and reverence of his Government He knew the power they had against him was from Heaven Joh. 19.11 and he acquiesced in the equity and goodness of the divine determination and disposal Hence he maintain'd his Empire over the Passions free from the disquietude of anxious Fear or the torment of ouragious Anger the smart of peevish Impatience or the sinking load of melancholy despair He possessed his Soul in Patience steady in the greatest change of condition as one that expected it that was not mightily concern'd at it that consider'd chiefly how he might adorn every Lot and honour the supream disposer of it From whose great Example we learn not foolishly and imprudently to provoke Enemies or to throw our selves into their hands or bring our selves into a state of suffering but that we chearfully take up the Cross when God lays it in our way so as we cannot with a safe Conscience step over or beside it We learn too to consider the state we are in and not to flatter our selves with a constant immunity from the afflictions of it to expect as Jesus did the hour and the assaults of the powers of darkness At least always to remember that there is nothing unchangeable but God nor constant but his favour That we ever mix with the considerations of this state our lively hopes of a better for then only will these momentany afflictions seem light and short when the massy Crown of eternal glory is put into the counter-ballance That we learn to value our selves altogether upon our interest in God and in the World to come that so we may neither inordinately fear nor resent the loss of such things as leave our greatest concern and interest intire untouch'd and secure to us That we may then rejoice in our better portion and be thankful to the donor of it when he cuts us short in the possessions and interests of this Life Yea that we rejoice