Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	mortal_a	sin_n	venial_a	6,152	5	13.8485	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31245	The truth and excellence of the Christian religion, with the corruptions and additions of the Romish Church a discourse, wherein the pre-eminence of Christianity is demonstrated above the religion of Jews or heathens, and the contradiction of popery to its main articles : and that religion prov'd in many instances to be a mixture of heathenish superstitions, and Jewish ceremonies : with a short vindication of Christian loyalty, and a brief historical account of Romish treasons and usurpations, since the Reformation / by a hearty professor of Reformed Catholick Christianity.	S. C.	1685 (1685)	Wing C126; ESTC R22983	60,383	154

procurement Oh says the Cardinal those persons were disaffected to the Catholick Interest and these are my good deeds with which I intend to present my Saviour A story that needs no other invective than the bare relation But I would not willingly accuse all while some only are liable to this charge For many Romish Doctors mean no more by merit than that obligation God hath by promise laid upon himself to reward our good works And this I think none that understand the Nature of the Divine Promises can gainsay These men we accuse only for the use of a proud improper term tho once us'd by the ancient Fathers in an innocent sence 2. By their Doctrine of penance and Purgatory Whereas the Scripture tells us that Christ hath pai'd down a compleat Ransom for our sins and it is through his Blood alone we can expect a freedom from the punishments we have deserved yet this Church hath Coind new distinctions between the temporary and eternal punishments of sin as if tho the latter be remov'd by the Blood of Christ the former must be satissi'd for by our selves either in this Life or in Purgatory To this end they have given the Priests a commission to injoyn penances for sin as satisfactions to Divine Justice and preventive of surther punishment Penances so Ludicrous and Trifling that it is a sign of great infatuation in any that can believe by such cheap and easy performances to appease the anger of an offended Deity Penances consisting of little observances such as numbering their Prayers by their Beads saying so many Avemaries at some priviledg'd Altars in abstaining from Flesh for so many days in whipping their bodies in wearing hair-shirts and the cords of the particular Orders and numerous other little pieces of solly and superstition By these means do they take off sinners from their grateful love and duty to the Redeemer and earnest believing-applications to the Lord Jesus who is appointed by the Father as the sole Mediator of his Church and through whom alone we can expect deliverance from punishments whether temporal or eternal Of the same nature is their Doctrine of Purgatory a state of torments in the other world equal in degree tho not in continuance to those of Hell wherein those souls must sry who have not satisfi'd for their sins here till their friends give money to the Priest to pray them thence By this means the interests of the Clergy are advanc'd and the grandeur of that Church promoted This hath enrich'd their Abbies adorn'd their Chappels fill'd their Coffers and made good provision for all the begging Orders among them For while they scar'd the people with such a terrible Doctrine and yet pretended a power of Praying them thence who would not give liberally to those who were able to deliver them from such extremity of torment A Doctrine which the honester of their Doctors acknowledg is not to be found in cripture and these who pretend to prove it thence have brought such lame and farfetch'd pro●●s as are as easily refuted as mention'd the only Text that can with the least probability be stretch'd to this sense is that of 1 Cor. 3. 15. He himself shall be sav'd yet so as by fire But this is but a proverbical speech and by the context the meaning plainly appears to be that he who holding the essentials of Christianity shall corrupt it by additions of other disagreeing Doctrines is in a very hazardous condition and tho his salvation is possible yet it is but as a mans whose house is on fire about his ears extreamly dubious and very uncertain which how applicable to the Romanists hath been excellently showed by others and will further appear by this discourse But were there such a place as this what a derogation is it to the blood and prerogative of Christ to think that money can procure a Release from thence The Psalmist I am sure tells us that they who trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches none of them can redeem his brother or pay to God a Ransom for him Psal 49. 6. 7. But this is but Old-Testament-Divinity and Purgatory hath been built since that time or rather the infallible Head of the Church will not be guided by the Laws of the Bible For tho St. Peter would not sell the gifts of the Spirit for Money yet a fair purchase of eternal Life may be bought of his Successor if God would as willingly consent as he And we may invert St. Peters words and apply them to the Romanists 1 Pet. 1. 18. They are bought with corruptable things and redeem'd by silver and gold from the imaginary flames of Purgatory tho not from that vain conversation receiv'd by tradition from their Fathers But we have not so learn'd Christ Scripture mentions but two places Heaven and Hell if we lead Pious and Holy lives we may receive death with a joyful welcome and need not allay our comforts by the fears of an after-reckoning in another world And tho we may have been guilty of many venial sins in a Gospel-sense through infirmity surprise and sudden temptation or of any more mortal ones of a deeper die yet upon our sincere repentance the Blood of Christ without the fire of Purgatory will cleanse us from all these and present us pure and spotless to the Father But if we die in an impenitent state we shall be presently doom'd to endless remediless torments and all the wealth of the Indies will never procure us a deliverance thence I might further mention their practice of selling Indulgences for money which happily occasioned the reformation by Luther By this they they have made easy composition for sins and the Taxa Cameroe Apostolicoe a book publickly printed amongst them sets down at what easy rates an absolution may be obtained for the most unnatural vices Now what a direct tendency hath this to make men set light by their sins tread under foot the blood of the Son of God and account the death and sufferings of the Lord Jesus perfectly unnecessary 3. By their doctrine of the sacrifice of the Mass as a formal expiation of the living and dead Tho the Apostle to the Hebrews makes the great excellence of Christs sacrifice above those of the Levitical Law to consist in this That it was so full and compleat that it needs no repetition Heb. 10. 12 14. Yet the Romanists have made it a great part of their Religion to offer him every day in the Mass as a propitiatory proper sacrifice and thus make his former sacrifice on the cross incompleat and imperfect or rather wholly unnecessary for Christ instituted the Sacrament before his passion and if he then offer'd up himself as a propitiation for our sins what need was there at all of his bloody death and passion It is acknowledged that the Eucharist may be called a sacrifice in the same improper sense as our prayers and alms-deeds and repentances