Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	life_n	pass_v	sin_n	6,515	5	4.8294	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69658	An exhortation to peace and union a sermon preached at St. Lawrence-Jury, at the election of the Lord-Mayor of London, on the 29th of September, 1681 / by Gilbert Burnet ...	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1681 (1681)	Wing B5787; ESTC R20821	24,063	40

the acknowledgment of the truth Insinuating that instruction given in the spirit of meekness was the likeliest way to bring this about He also exhorts Titus to put the Cretians in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers to obey Magistrates to be ready to every good work to speak evil of no man not to be brawlers but gentle shewing all meekness to all men The chief scope of his Epistle to Philemon is to perswade him to be reconciled to Onesimus who being his servant had robbed him and run away from him He exhorts the Hebrews to provoke one another to love and to good works and in order to that not to forsake the assembling themselves together as the manner of some was and to follow peace with all men And to take care that no root of bitterness might spring up and trouble them by which many might be defiled For Dissensions are the buddings of bitterness in the mind and do both disturb and corrupt those in whom they grow up Nor was this a stile peculiar to St. Paul though it may be supposed that one reason which made him insist so vehemently on it repeat this exhortation so frequently was That he reflecting on his own temper when he was a Jewish Zealot knew that it was a venom which might by degrees creep even into a sincere mind and leaven and corrupt it under the colour of the being active in the cause of Religion and so transform a man and an honest man too into an enraged fury as himself was when under the power of those ill principles though what he did was the effect not of designed wickedness but of Ignorance St. James writes in the same strain against all furious Zealots who were apt to boast of their zeal and to face down the truth with their impudence and pretended to great wisdom for the justifying what they did He tells them that wisdom was not from above but was earthly sensual and Devilish and that where bitter zeal and strife was there was confusion and every evil work but the wisdom that was from above was first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to beintreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without Hypocrisie and that the fruits of righteousness were sown in peace of them that made peace St. Peter keeps in the same path He had formerly been under the sudden transports of ill tempered zeal when he smote with the Sword those that came to seize on our Saviour which he ought not to have done since they were sent out by those who had a lawful authority but it then appeared in him that the rages of indiscreet heat do not agree with that disposition of mind so indispensably necessary to a Christian which is a readiness to confess the truth though the danger in doing it were ever so apparent He therefore exhorts those to whom he wrote to lay aside all malice and guile and Hypocrisies envies and evil speakings that they would be all of one mind having compassion one of another that they would love as brethren be pitiful and courteous not rendring evil for evil nor railing for railing but contrariwise a blessing and that above all things they would have fervent charity among themselves which would cover a multitude of sins and he exhorts all to add to their godliness brotherly kindness and charity as if godliness could not be compleat without these St. John in all his Epistles seems to have had nothing more in his thoughts than to perswade those to whom he wrote to love one another which he does with the highest and most earnest Exhortations to it possible God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him he that loves his brother abideth in the light and there is no occasion of stumbling he has a serene and calm mind and is not hurried unto violent Transports Whereas he that hates his brother is in darkness and walks in it for it hath blinded his eyes it runs him on blindly to many Precipices it carries him to excessive Heats and makes him act like a mad man And no wonder if it end in bloud and confusion for he that hates his brother is a murderer he murders him in his wishes and will not fail to put these in execution upon the first opportunity and to sum up all By this we know says he that we have pass'd from death to life from the death of sin to the life of God if we love the brethren St. Jude gives a Character of the Incendiaries that were then in the Church who did separate themselves pretending to greater sanctity and strictness and yet were sensual and had not the Spirit which appeared in these Instances They were murmurers complainers who spoke great swelling words and had mens persons in admiration for advantage that is were given to Canting and did blindly follow their Leaders But as he exhorts the Christians to contend earnestly for the faith so in relation even to those grosly deluded and unruly dividers he charges them to have compassion of some and to endeavour to gain upon them in the mildest manner others whose tempers were rougher were to be rescued by sharper methods like the pulling one out of the fire and these different methods were to be applied discreetly as the condition of the person might require it And thus we see the Apostles in all their Epistles repeat these Exhortations with so much earnestness that upon the whole matter it must be concluded either this is not the Gospel or those that differ so much from these Rules are not true Gospellers I have enlarged on these things the more fully because I must conclude that if the Authority of such words does not prevail it is a vain thing to go about to perswade any to these duties by other Topicks Nor were these only Lessons given to Christians as political Precepts in that Infancy and weakness of this Religion which as their numbers increased and their power grew they might supersede But we clearly see the ancient Christians thought they were as much bound by them after the Emperors became Christian as they were before When the last Persecution ceased and the Calm and Protection of Constantine's Reign succeeded the Christians tho' many of them carried still the marks of the Cruelty of their Persecutions in the loss of their Eyes or Limbs yet endeavoured no Revenge on their Persecutors no not in Egypt where so many thousands of them had suffered and the Heathens for above an Age after that continued to be in the chief Imployments both Civil and Military And tho' this had made it easier for the Empire again to turn to Heathenism under Julian yet upon his death no Cruelties nor Violences were imployed nor did they think the Disturbance given by Arius and the small Party he then had was to be prosecuted with a higher severity than Banishment And