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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	number_n	place_n	propitiatory_a	30	3	16.7511	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26796	The harmony of the divine attributes in the contrivance and accomplishment of man's redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ, or, Discourses wherein is shewed how the wisdom, mercy, justice, holiness, power, and truth of God are glorified in that great and blessed work / by William Bates.	Bates, William, 1625-1699.	1674 (1674)	Wing B1113; ESTC R25864	309,279	511

the aged and infirm of tender Youths of delicate Women of the Honourable and obscure Yet in that difference of Ages and Sexes and States there appear'd such an equality of Vertue that it was Visible the same Heavenly Spirit inspir'd them all with Courage and by assuring them of Eternal Life made them despise present Death Such Heroical and frequent Constancy must be ascribed to the Breast-plate of Faith and Love of a Coelestial temper wherewith the Almighty had Arm'd them If it be said that some have died for a false Religion so that the extraordinary assistance of Heaven was not necessary to encourage the Christian Martyrs The Answer is clear There is a vast difference between the number of the Sufferers and manner of their Sufferings 1. Some few moved by Vanity and Melancholy or compell'd have suffered for a false Religion that was authorised by the Custom of their Country for many Ages But innumerable Christians animated by the example of their Crucified King freely sacrificed themselves for the testimony of the Gospel upon the first Revelation of it before any humane respects gave colour to it 2. In those who suffer'd for a false Religion were visible either Fear or Vain-glory Stubbornness or Rage But the Christians in their greatest Sufferings exprest Magnanimity without Pride Constancy without Fierceness Patience without Stupidity and such an admirable Compassion to their Enemies as persuaded some of their Tormentors to be companions with them in Martyrdom 2. The suddainness and universality of the change effected by the Gospel is a signal Evidence of the Divine Power that attended it The Apostle declares the admirable progress of it in all the world during his time In a few years with incredible swiftness it past through Judea Samaria Syria Greece and all the parts of the known habitable World Tacitus acknowledges that in the eleventh year of Nero great numbers of Christians were at Rome at a great distance from the place where the Gospel was first preach'd It appears from the Writings of the Primitive Christians that in the Second Century after the Death of Christ the Roman Empire was fill'd with Christian Churches The World was peopled with a new Generation Now what Secret Power produced that suddain and universal Change How came it to pass that the Gospel contrary to the order of new Things should be so readily receiv'd and in those places where the most insuperable obstacles oppos'd it In Corinth the Seat of Luxury and Voluptuousness in Ephesus where Idolatry had its Throne in Rome it self where Honours Riches Pleasures were ador'd Moses with all his great Miracles never conquer'd one Nation to the true God The Pharisees compast Sea and Land to make a Proselyte But the Gospel in a little time converted many Nations from their Opinions and Manners wherein they had been instructed and educated to those that were not only different but contrary The wonder in Esay was exceeded That a Nation was born in a day For the World was renewed as it were in a moment Such a quickening universal Efficacy was join'd with the Preaching of the Gospel that the Power of God was ●ver more visibly manifested in any work Therefore the Apostle mentions it as one part of the great Mystery of Godliness that Christ was believed o● in the World There is nothing but Supernatural as in the birth so in the progress of Christianity 3. The lasting Change made by the Gospel is the Effect of Infinite Power Philosophy though maintain'd by the successive force of the greatest Wits yet declin'd and came to nothing But Christianity attended only by its own Authority establisht its Dominion and rais'd an Eternal Empire of Truth and Holiness in the World The Reason of Man cannot inspire into its Productions a Principle of Life only that Power which conveys to Man an immortal Soul can derive to its Institutions a Spirit to Animate and preserve them And this Victorious Permanent Efficacy of the Gospel is more admirable in regard it prevail'd without the assistance and against the opposition of all The more it was opprest the more it prosper'd It gain'd credit and Disciples by Contradiction and Persecution it was multiplied by the Deaths of its followers The Cloud of Witnesses dissolving in a shower of Blood made the Church Fruitful Although some Persecutors have boasted of their utter abolishing the Christian Name in all parts of the Empire yet those inscriptions are the Proud Monuments of their Vanity not Victory Tyrants are perisht but Truth remains for ever By which 't is evident that as the Gospel had a higher Principle than what is from below so it was assisted with more than Humane Power To sum up in short what hath been amplified how Gloriously was the Arm of the Lord revealed in raising the World that for four thousand years lay in Wickednesse What less than a Divine Power could soften such an obstinate hardnesse as long custome in Sin brings What could pluck up errours that had taken such deep root in the Spirits of Men and were Naturaliz'd to them and plant a Discipline so austere and thorny to sense Who but the Almighty could cast out the Devil from his Empire and withdraw his Subjects that were captivated by the terrour of Laws and by the delights of the flesh What invisible Power made innumerable of the tender sex who were not by temper couragious nor by obstinacy inflexible nay who were so fearful that they could not see a drawn sword without affrightment yet so resolute as to despise all the instruments of Cruelty What is more astonishing than to see a flock of sheep encounter and overcome an Army of Lyons This was the Lords doing and ought to be marvelous in our Eyes Briefly the making a Crucified Person to Reign in the midst of his Enemies and to give Laws to the whole Earth is a Victory worthy the Lord of Hosts The Conversion of the World to Christianity was the effect of infinite Mercy and equal Power Lastly The Divine Power shall be Gloriously manifested in the compleat Salvation of the Church at the end of the World Jesus Christ as Mediatour is invested with Sovereign Power in Heaven and Earth and in that quality he shall exercise it till our Salvation is finisht For he must reign till he hath put all Enemies under his feet But we see not yet all things put under him Although those Persons and things that never degenerated from their Original are intirely subject to him the Angels obey his Will Universal Nature is Govern'd by his Providence The Heavens the Earth the Waters and all things produc'● from them never resist the Direction of his hand yet there are others that fell from their Integrity and some things consequent to Mans Rebellion which either oppose the Power of Christ or are not yet actually subdued and they are the Enemies of our Salvation Satan Sin and Death Now the perfect Freedom of

Compleatness of Christ's Satisfaction proved from the Causes and Effects of it The Causes are the Quality of his Person and Degrees of his Sufferings The Effects are His Resurrection Ascension Intercession at Gods right hand and his exercising the Supreme Power in Heaven and Earth The excellent Benefits which God reconciled bestows on Men are the Effects and Evidences of his compleat Satisfaction They are Pardon of Sin Grace and Glory That Repentance and Faith are required in order to the partaking of the Benefits purchased by Christ's Death doth not lessen the Merit of his Sufferings That Afflictions and D●ath are inflicted on Believers doth not derogate from their All-sufficiency THe Third thing to be considered is the Compleatness of the Satisfaction that Christ hath made by which it will appear that Gods Justice as well as Mercy is fully glorified in his Sufferings For the proof of this I will first consider the Causes from whence the compleatness of his Satisfaction arises Secondly The Effects that proceed from it which are convincing Evidences that God is fully appeas'd The Causes of his compleat Satisfaction are two 1. The Quality of his Person derives an infinite value to his obedient Sufferings Our Surety was equally God and as truely Infinite in His Perfections as the Father who was provoked by our Sins therefore he was able to make Satisfaction for them He is the Son of God not meerly in respect of the honour of his Office or the special Favour of God for on these accounts that Title is communicated to others but his only Son by Nature The sole preheminence in Gifts and Dignity would give Him the title of the first-born but not deprive them of the quality of Brethren Now the wisdom and justice of all Nations agree that Punishments receive their estimate from the quality of the Persons that suffer The Poet observes that the Death of a vertuous Person is more precious than of Legions Of what inestimable value then is the death of Christ and how worthy a Ransom for lost mankind For although the Deity is impassible yet he that was a Divine Person he suffered A King suffers more than a private person although the strokes he endures in his body cannot immediatly reach his honour And 't is specially to be observed that the Efficacy of Christs Blood is ascribed to his Divine Nature This the Apostle declares In whom we have Redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of Sins who is the image of the invisible God Not an artificial Image which imperfectly represents the Original As a Picture that sets forth the Colour and Figure of a Man but not his Life and Nature But the essential and exact Image of his Father that expresses all his glorious Perfections in their immensity and eternity This is testified expresly in Hebr. 1.3 The Son of God the brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person having purged by himself our sins is set down on the right hand of Majesty on High From hence arises the infinite difference between the Sacrifices of the Law and Christs in their value and vertue This with admirable Emphasis is set down in Hebr. 9.13 14. For if the blood of Bulls and of Goats and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purification of the flesh How much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the Eternal Spirit offer'd himself without spot to God purge your Consciences from dead works to serve the living God Wherein the Apostle makes a double Hypothesis 1. That the Legal Sacrifices were ineffectual to purifie from real guilt 2. That by their Typical Cleansing they signified the washing away of moral guilt by the Blood of Christ. 1. Their insufficiency to expiate Sin appears if we consider the subject Sin is to be expiated in the same nature wherein 't was committed now the Beasts are of an inferiour rank and have no communion with Man in his nature Or if we consider the object God was provoked by Sin and He is a Spirit and not to be appeased by gross material things His Wisdom requires that a rational Sacrifice should expiate the guilt of a rational Creature And Justice is not satisfied without a proportion between the Guilt and the Punishment This weakness and insufficiency of the Legal Sacrifices to expiate Sin is evident from their variety and repetition For if full Remission had been obtained The worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sin 'T is the sense of Guilt and the fear of Condemnation that required the renewing of the Sacrifice Now under the Law the Ministry of the Priests never came to a period or perfection The Millions of Sacrifices in all Ages from the erecting the Tabernacle to the coming of Christ had not vertue to expiate one Sin They were only shadows which could give no refreshment to the inflamed Conscience but as they depended on Christ the body and substance of them But the Son of God who offered himself up by the Eternal Spirit to the Father is a Sacrifice not only Intelligent and Reasonable but incomparably more precious than the most noble Creatures in Earth or in Heaven it self He was Priest and Sacrifice in respect of both His Natures His entire Person was the Offerer and Offering Therefore the Apostle from the excellency of his Sacrifice infers the unity of its Oblation and from thence concludes its Efficacy Christ did not by the Blood of Bulls and Goats but by his own Blood He entred in once to the Holy Place having obtained eternal Redemption for us and by one Offering He hath for ever perfected them who are sanctified Upon this account God promised in the New-Covenant That their Sins and Iniquities He would remember no more having received compleat satisfaction by the Sufferings of his Son 'T is now said that once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself And as it is appointed for all men once to die and after Death comes Judgment So Christ was once offered to bear the Sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin As there is no other natural death to suffer between Death and Judgment so there is no other propitiatory Sacrifice between his all-sufficient Death on the Cross and the last coming of our Redeemer There is one Consideration I shall adde to shew the great difference between Legal Sacrifices and the Death of Christ as to its saving vertue The Law absolutely forbids the eating of Blood and the peoples tasting of the Sin-offerings to signifie the imperfection of those Sacrifices For since they were consumed in their Consecration to Gods Justice and nothing was left for the nourishment of the Offerers 't was a sign they could not appease God The Offerers had communion with them when they brought them to the Altar and in a manner

Injur'd and Incensed to forgive their Enemies and all this for Love to God an affection unknown to all other Laws and Institutions Where-ever it came it miraculously transform'd Pagans into Christians which was as truly Wonderful as for the Basilisk to part with its Poison for a Wolfe to be chang●d into a Lamb nay for Dogs such were the Gentiles in our Saviours Language to be chang'd into Angels of light and purity An eminent instance we have of its efficacy in the Corinthians who in their Heathen-state were guilty of the vilest enormities But after their receiving the Gospel the Apostle testifys they were washed sanctified and Justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God Justine Martyr tells Triphon that those who had been stain'd with all filthiness and enslav'd by charming imperious lusts yet becoming Christians they were purified and freed and delighted in those Vertues that were most contrary to their former Vices This Alteration was so visible that the lives of the first Christians were an Apologie for their Faith And 't is strongly urged by Origen Tertullian Lactantius and others as a convinceing proof of the Divinity of the Christian Doctrine that it made the Professours of it Divine in their conversations The Creation of Grace was like the Creation of Nature when trees sprang up in an instant laden with fruits so in the converted all the blessed fruits of the Spirit Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance abounded This testimony even a Pagan Persecutor gives the common sort of Christians that they assembled to sing Hymns to Christ that they obliged themselves solemnly to injure no Person to deceive none to preserve faithfully what was committed to them to be alwayes true And as in obedience to the Gospel they gave a divorce to all the sinful delights of sense so which was incomparably more difficult they embrac't those things which Nature doth most abhor no Religion in the World ever exposed its followers to such Sufferings nor inspir'd them with such resolution to sustain them All other Religions were productions of the flesh and being allyed together if any time jealousy caused a discord between them yet an open Persecution was unusual But when Christianity first appear'd they all turn'd their Hatred and Violence against it as a foreigner of a different extraction How many living Martyrs were Exiles for the Faith and depriv'd of all humane consolation yet they esteem'd themselves more blessed in their Miseries than others in their Pleasures How many thousands were put to Death for the honour of our Redeemer yet the least thing is the number in comparison of the manner of their Sufferings If they had suffer'd a mild Martyrdome an easie sudden Death wherein the Combat and Victory had been finisht at a Blow their Love and courage had not been so admirable but they endur'd torments so various and terrible that had they not been practis'd upon them by their enemies it were incredible that ever Malice should be so ingenious to invent or cruelty so harden'd to inflict them If all the Furie of Hell had come forth to suggest new Tortures they could not have devised worse Neither was their mere suffering such Torments so astonishing as their readiness to encounter them and their behaviour under them They maintained their Faith in the presence of the most formidable Princes Some who might by favour were afraid to escape the common Persecution esteeming no Death precious but Martyrdom They contended earnestly to suffer and envied others the honourable Ignominy and happy Torments that were endur'd for their beloved Redeemer We have an instance of their Courage in Tiburtius who thus spake to his Judges Bind me to Racks and Wheels condemn me banish me load me with Chains burn me tear me omit no kind of Torment If you banish me the smallest corner of the Earth shall be to me as the whole World because I shall find my God there If you kill me by the same act you will give me the happy Liberty I sigh after and deliver me from a Prison on Earth to reign in Heaven If you condemn me to the fire I have quencht other flames in resisting Concupiscence Ordain what Torment you please it shall not trouble me since my Heart is fill'd with Love to suffer and desire it They were thankful to those who condemned them and regarded their Executioners with the same eye as St. Peter did the Angel that brake off his Fetters to restore him to Freedom They chearfully received them as those who brought the keys of Paradise in the same hands wherewith they brought their Swords They enter'd into the Fire with joy and were not only patient but triumphant in their Sufferings as if they had been glorified in their Souls and impassible to the Sufferings of their Bodies I have seen saith Eusebius the Executioners tired with tormenting them lie down panting and breathing and others not less fierce but more fresh succeed in their cruel Service But I never saw the Martyrs weary of Sufferings nor heard them desire a Truce much less Deliverance from them If the Judges were softened with their Blood and by the force of Nature were compell'd to be compassionate so as to offer them a release if they would but feign to deny Christ They were fill'd with indignation esteeming it the worst injury that their Persecutors expected they would be guilty of but the shadow of Infidelity to their dear Saviour They were ambitious of the longest and most terrible Sufferings for His sake to be Martyrs in every member They sang the Praises of Christ their Tongues being harmonious with the affections of their Hearts in the Flames they preach'd Him from the Crosses they rejoiced in him as their only Good in the midst of devouring Beasts Briefly They preserved an inviolable Faith to Him notwithstanding the most furious Batteries against them The barbarous Enemy might tear their Hearts from their Breasts but never Christ from their Hearts to whom they were inseparably united by Love stronger than the most cruel Death Now what less then the Divine Power could support them under those Torments which 't is almost incredible a Body made of flesh could endure I wil not Dispute whether it exceeds all Natural force to suffer such from a vitious Affection of Pride or obstinacy but the frequency of it exceeds all Natural Possibility 'T was not impossible for one of the Romans to hold his Right Hand unmoved over a burning Torch to extinguish in the King their Enemy all hopes 〈◊〉 drawing 〈◊〉 him the Secrets of his Country by the force of Torments but it was not Possible that many thousands such should have been in Rome For then that single Example had not been so wonderful in all Antiquity But the Noble Army of Martyrs who overcame in the most bloody battels was numerous beyond account and compos'd of all sorts of Persons of