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	resurrection_n	soul_n	7,516	5	5.2855	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42830	Seasonable reflections and discourses in order to the conviction & cure of the scoffing, & infidelity of a degenerate age by Jos. Glanvill ...	Glanvill, Joseph, 1636-1680.	1676 (1676)	Wing G830; ESTC R23378	24,921	115

A Seasonable DEFENCE OF Preaching AND THE Plain Way of it LONDON Printed by M. Clark for H. Brome at the Gun in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXVIII A DIALOGUE A. MY Friends you are well met here I suppose your business now is walking and I am for a turn or two with you B. You may well guess so for you seldom meet us here in the Church upon any other occasion A. I wish you had spoken that Penitently So I am sure you ought to have done And if you had come a little sooner you had learnt that duty from a very good Sermon B. A Sermon 'T was never well with the world since we have had so much Preaching A. To the same purpose said the Idolatrous Jews to the Prophet Jeremiah that since they had left to burn Incense to the Queen of Heaven they had wanted all things and had never seen good days All times have afforded matter enough of complaint and I must confess there hath been a sort of Preaching that hath greatly contributed to the evils of ours but in this place and such like there is I hope no danger of hearing any of those pestilential Doctrines that once poysoned the publick Air. I am sure the true Primitive Christianity teacheth things that would cure all our maladies were they duly heeded and put in practice I need not tell you how earnestly it every where presseth Humility and Modesty Patience and Self-denyal Charity and Peace Mortification to the world and Conscientious submission to Governours These our Ministers preach and I suppose you will not say that such Preaching promotes the evils of the times if it do 't is very accidentally and so as the Grace of God is turn'd into lasciviousness and the strivings of his Spirit may contribute to mens greater hardness B. I speak not against Preaching but we have too much on 't A. We have more reason to thank God for the plenty than to quarrel at the abundance It would be very humorsome and foolish to complain that the Rivers run with more water than is necessary for our occasions and 't would have been absurd perversencss in the Israelites to have murmured because more Manna fell than they could use B. Do you not think then that there may be over-doing in this A. Yes doubtless when all religious offices are run into Preaching when that excludes the publick Prayers and Catechising when private Preaching days are set apart without Authority to humor the wantonness of vain people all these are over-doing B. But is not constant Preaching twice every Sunday besides occasional weekly Sermons too much A. It may be too much for the strength and health of the Minister it may be too much where the people will not frequent those afternoon Sermons or are prejudiced against them it may be so in Country Parishes and where no remarkable inconvenience ariseth from the omission of them But in Cities and great Towns as the times are they are in a manner necessary since without them people would idle more about and more would run to the Conventicles and 't would occasion the reproach of laziness on our Ministers and turn divers off from the Church that are kept in tolerable order by this double diligence There is not just so much Preaching set and stated by the Laws of Christ and the Church as must not be exceeded but so much is due as Edification Peace and Order require now this is more or less according as circumstances of times are and ours are such as make it very behooveful for Ministers to abound in this work what is grievous in it is to them who have much more labour imposed on them than former times expected and in stead of being advanced in proportionable maintenance and encouragement that is faln as much or more than their work is increast So that 't is indeed very hard upon them but wee the people have no reason to complain B. But Preaching being so frequent and common becomes contemptible by it and is so much the less heeded A. This is too true and 't is a great evil and discouragement to those that labour in the Word and Doctrine but what help fo rit To restrain and put a stop to the course of Preaching to cure this abuse would in likelyhood be followed with a train of greater Evils and as circumstances are it could not be done without manifest danger to the great Interests both of Church and State If the regular Clergy should leave frequent Preaching the Conventicle-meetings would swallow all and therefore upon the whole whatever is to be thought of the thing it self nakedly and abstractedly considered it is not I think any matter of just complaint that there is so much Preaching where the fault is not in the quality the plenty is no grievance C. For my part I must confess I seldom hear Sermons I love the Prayers of the Church and I care not much for Preaching A. It is a great unhappiness to mankind that we are so apt to run from one extreme into another In the late times and still among some Preaching and Hearing were in a manner all the Religion and the Prayers of the Church despised and excluded and now some on the quite contrary pretend to magnifie the publick prayers but vilifie Preaching and make Hearing nothing So that one duty and part of Religion is set up to conflict and destroy another And I observe that usually people of this pretence do in good earnest care for neither Preaching is an Evangelical Institution and the Commission given the Apostles was that they should go and teach all Nations and Saint Paul saith 't was necessary for him to Preach the Gospel and woe to him if he did it not and that he was not sent to Baptise but to Preach 1 Cor. 1. 17. viz. not to do the former chiefly Faith comes by hearing and how shall they hear without a Preacher This was the way whereby God conveyed his mind unto men in all times Noah was a Preacher of Righteousness and God spake unto them of old by the preaching of the Prophets I need not Preach more on this plain and well known Subject C. But ours I suppose is not like the Apostolical and Prophetical Preaching A. It is not indeed like theirs in respect of the immediate inspiration which the Prophets and Apostles had but our Ministers have not It is not like in respect of the Authority of an immediate mission assisted by the miracles they were inabled to perform it is not like in respect of the persons Preacht to who were chiefly Infidels or the circumstances of the action without the setled forms of decency which now are used but could not be then But as to the matter and the ends which are the main things our Preaching is as theirs was our Ministers Preach the same Jesus in the circumstances of his Birth Life Death Resurrection Ascension Mediation and all the rest the same doctrines duties incouragements rewards and punishments with the same design of persuading men in order to the glory of God and the Salvation of their Souls as