Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
A26360
|
The Christian's manual in three parts ... / by L. Addison ...
|
Addison, Lancelot, 1632-1703.
|
1691
(1691)
|
Wing A513; ESTC R36716
|
123,157
|
421
|
has an Vnion with Him as being the Head of it so I believe there is a Common Vnion among the Members both those that are glorified in Heaven and those that in some degree are sanctified on Earth And this is called the Communion of Saints and is the first Priviledge of the Christian Church And by vertue of this all true Christians communicate in all Offices of Piety and Charity in doing good to one anothers Bodies and Souls And this they do upon the account that they have in common One God one Christ one Spirit one Lord one Faith one Baptism one Hope ARTICLE X. The Forgiveness of Sins As the Communion of Saints genuinely ariseth from the Nature of the Vniversal Church so Pardon of Sins follows from both For none shall have their Sins forgiven but those who live and die in the Communion of the Church For unless I abide in this Ark I shall certainly perish Now Sin as I have been instructed is of two sorts the one Original which is the sin of my Nature the other Actual which is the sin of my Conversation The former I brought with me into the World the latter I commit while I live therein And both these sorts of sin deserve Eternal Death and can only be pardon'd by the Merits of Christ For sin being a Transgression of the Law of God it can only be forgiven by him whose Law it transgresseth For Remission of sins is the second Priviledge of the Church which is preached to all in the Name of Christ and sealed in Baptism wherein I believe my Original Sin is presently pardon'd and that my Actual Sins committed after Baptism shall be pardon'd if I truly repent me of the same Now this my Belief of the Forgiveness of Sins supposes that I believe That God graciously and freely without any Desert on Man's part gave his Son to die for the World and That for the sake of his meritorious Death he remits the Fault absolves from the Guilt and acquits from Punishment all truly penitent and believing Sinners And I do further believe That he imputes to them the Obedience of his own Son and his Righteousness and by means thereof accounts them just in his sight I believe That all who are justified and thus acquitted have Holiness in some degree according to the Condition of this Life Which Holiness tho' it cannot altogether discharge them from sin yet it doth not suffer it to reign over them So that a justified Person is not under its Dominion nor yields himself a Vassal to it but resists its Commands and makes it die daily And for the greater security of the Forgiveness of sins God hath committed to his Ministers an indispensible Power and Charge to preach Faith and Repentance as the Condition of this Forgiveness He hath likewise appointed them to pray and intercede and also to baptize for the Forgiveness of sins and to administer the Lord's Supper in memory of that Blood which was shed for the Remission of Sins And indeed all that God hath left in the Hand and Power of his Ministers especially tends to make Men capable of receiving what they believe namely the Remission of sins ARTICLE XI The Resurrection of the Body It was the Hope of the Fathers under the Old Testament as well as it is of Christians under the New That there shall be a Resurrection both of the Just and Unjust And if it were otherwise Christians of all Men would be most miserable and all that I have learn'd and you have taught me concerning Christianity would be in vain But I firmly and truly believe That my Mortal Body shall be raised from the Corruption of the Grave by Vertue of the Resurrection of Christ And this my Belief is founded upon the Power and good Pleasure of God who both can and will raise from the dead the very same Body that died ARTICLE XII The Life everlasting The Enjoyment of Everlasting Life is the last Christian Privilege and that which crowns the rest And I have learned to understand by this Life the Enjoyment of all true Happiness in Soul and Body For I believe that the Faculties of the Souls of just Persons shall be perfectly enlightned and sanctified and that their Bodies shall live after the manner of Spirits and be exceedingly glorified And opposite to this Life everlasting I believe there is an everlasting Death which is the Portion of the Wicked And that as Life everlasting consists in the Fruition so I believe everlasting Death consists in the Loss of God's Presence and all other Comforts and is the enduring of the sting of Conscience and Torments of Hell for ever But as my believing all the Articles of the Christian Faith as they are summ'd up in that which is called the Apostles Creed supposes that I am to learn not only the Words but likewise the Sense of the Creed so it also implies that I should live like them that do believe for otherwise my consenting to the Truth of the Articles will stand me in no stead And therefore not medling with remote and learned Inferences I will draw such from each Article as are near and familiar short and edifying As for Example From my believing that God created me I infer I am bound to be obedient and subject to him By my believing that Christ redeemed me I think it my Duty to yield up my self to him as his Purchase and to be wholly disposed by him and employed only in his Service My believing Christ's Conception by the Holy Ghost and his Birth of the Virgin should make me diligent to fit my Heart for the Holy Ghost to overshadow and for Christ to be born in it My belief of Christ's Crucifixion should teach me to crucifie the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts and to destroy the Body of sin My belief of his Death and Burial should make me content to die for the sake of Truth being assured that if I suffer for Christ I shall also reign with him It should also keep me from being disheartned by Death seeing that Christ by dying hath taken away the Stinâ of Death which is Sin and maâ it an Entrance into Life My bâlieving the Resurrection of Chrisâ should make me actually rise froâ Sin to a New Life and utterlâ to forsake my Sins as Christ diâ the Grave to which after â was once risen from it he returned no more My believinâ Christ's Ascension and sitting â the Right-hand of God shoulâ teach me to set my Affections oâ things above and not on thing on the Earth The believing Judgment to come should makâ me careful so to walk as that may not be condemned in iâ My believing the Holy Catholick Church and Communion oâ Saints should render me mightâ circumspect to preserve Charity which is the Bond of Peace and to avoid all things destructive oâ Catholick Unity The Remission of sins which I believe should make me highly to esteem all those Ways and Means which
your heart by his Holy Spirit if you do not resist and quench it which gives you strength to overcome Temptations to sin and enables you to do what God requires of you And that you might have no pretence to refuse the Kingly Government of Christ as too heavy and difficult he has made his Yoke easie and Burden light having taken off from the hardness of the Law first given to Adam and instead of that sinless Obedience or the never committing the least sin upon pain of death which was required of him he now looks for no more than your honest and hearty Endeavour to do what you are able and accepts of sincere Repentance where you fail or miscarry And it being the gracious nature of Christs Kingly Office thus to govern and rule you and to subdue your Enemies it would be something worse if possible than disingenuity and ingratitude to disobey and hold out any disloyal passion or rebel-lust against him not to vow and pay unto him perfect Loyalty and entire Allegiance not to entrust him with your Protection not to have Peace or War with any but his Friends and Enemies not to pay him your Homage and Reverence not to give him a tribute of your Substance by Relieving his necessitous Members c. Now to keep you from flattering in these particulars and to oblige you to a cheerful discharge thereof Christ as your King hath promised and will not fail to prefer you in his Celestial Court to an eternal weight of Glory and to make you co-heir with himself of that Kingdom of Heaven which he went to take possession of at his Ascention and which he will give to all who by their impenitent continuance in iniâuity make not themselves unfit âo receive it Your duty herein âs to be exceeding careful not âo forfeit your share in that âingdom which Christ has purâhased for all that faithfully oâey him which certainly you âo if you continue impenitent ân any sin XIV And when you have thus âlainly consider'd the Mercies âhich in the second Covenant âre on Gods part made over to Man you are next to consider that those Conditions are âhich on Mans part are requiâed by God and which you âre to observe if ever you hope âo be partaker of the Benefits of âe second Covenant And âese you will find to be not â1 a perfect absolute exact Obedience so as never to ââfend in any kind this was tâ Condition of the first Covenanâ Nor 2. never to have foâmerly committed any delibârate sin Nor 3. never ãâã have gone on in any habituâ or customary sin for the timâ past though this be be moâ heinous and provoking anâ may justly throw you into thâ fearful apprehension of the Dâvine displeasure But it is thâ New Creature or a reneweâ sincere honest faithful Obâdience to the whole Gospeâ giving up the whole heart unâ Christ the ready performinâ of that which God enables yoâ to perform and bewailing yoâ frailties and cordially sorrowinâ for the iniquity both of yoâ past and present life and beseching Gods pardon in Christ iâ all that you have done amisâ sincerely labouring to mortiâ every sin and perform Uniform Obedience unto God and from every Fall rising again by Repentance and Reformation In short the Condition required to make you capable of the Benefits of the second Covenant is first by Faith to accept of Christ as your Priest to Save your Prophet to Teach and your King to Rule you Next to have all those Graces Faith Hope Charity Self-denial Repentance c. mentioned in the Gospel united and truly and sincerely rooted in your heart though mixed with much weakness and imperfection and perhaps with many sins which if not wilfully and impenitently lived and died in cannot debar you of the Benefits of the second Covenant But if you neglect these things your condition will be worse than if no second Covenant had been made for you shall theâ be to answer not for the breach of the Law only but for the abuse of Mercy which is of all sins the most provoking XV. Now if your guilty mind tells you that you have broken these Conditions and therefore forfeited the Mercies of the second Covenant then know that it cannot be renewed but by a worthy receiving of the Secrament and worthily you cannot recieve it till you repent oâ your sins and all those thing are to be accounted sins anâ transgressions of the Covenant which are disagreeable to you Vow of Baptism in which thâ general parts of your Duty anâ contained and it is a competent Rule by which all you actions ought to be measur'â Knowing then what in Baptism you have vowed to do by applying your actions unto that Vow you may easily conclude wherein you have done amiss Only take heed you deal not partially with your Soul by looking upon your sins in gross but do your utmost endeavour to discover the particulars Recal as far as you can all the passages of your life Consider all the instances wherein your Vow has been transgressed as wherein you have yielded to the Temptations of Satan and the World to gratifie the sinful lusts of the flesh How you have failed of that holy Conversation to which you solemnly bound your self when you promised to believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith every one of which Articles is a Pledge of good living And how you have wandred from those Commandments in which you vowd to walk all the days of your life XVI And you will find this partâcular search of your sins botâ proper and necessary in ordeâ to their Forgiveness which cannot be expected withouâ confessing and forsaking them But how either of those can bâ done without a distinct knowledge of your sins or how yoâ can distinctly know them without this particular search I aâ not yet so far under the poweâ of Fancy as to imagine Anâ albeit that by no possible diââgence you can discover or caâ to mind every sin committeâ since Baptism and albeit toâ there is no particular confeâsion requir'd of the sins when of you are insuperably ignoranâ yet ignorance of your sins will be no Plea when it is supine and occasioned through neglect and proceeds from a want of timely considering what you have done XVII In drawing up a List of your sins take heed of setting down such only as hang scandalously in the Eye of the World and âre so notorious as that the Sun bears witness of their commission But you are to search your Soul to the bottom to âifle every corner of your heart as knowing you have âo deal with God whose Law ân nothing more declares its peâuliar excellency than in reachâng mans thoughts and desires ând forbidding him no less to âovet than to steal his Neighâours goods and no less to lust after another mans Wife than to commit adultery with her And this consideration is argument enough to inclineâ you to an accurate search anâ enquiry first