Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	pass_v	sin_n	world_n	8,505	5	5.3728	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44287	The primitive origination of mankind, considered and examined according to the light of nature written by the Honourable Sir Matthew Hale, Knight ...	Hale, Matthew, Sir, 1609-1676.	1677 (1677)	Wing H258; ESTC R17451	427,614	449

Being to But the propriety that any Man can have in what he makes is still limited and qualified first because he is not himself his own he owes his Being to God and therefore without the help of Divine Indulgence his acquests are like the acquests of a Servant acquirit domino And besides the Matter is not his own whatsoever he makes he makes out of that Matter that was not his own But the propriety that Almighty God acquires in his Creatures is absolute because he himself is a Supreme and Sovereign Efficient none is above him and because the Matter out of which he effected Man and all Corporeal Existences was perfectly his own it was Matter of his own making 2. A right of absolute Dominion and Sovereignty over his Creature where the property is circumscribed limited or qualified the dominion is so too but an absolute sovereign property carries with it an absolute sovereign dominion in the Proprietor 3. An infinite irresistible power to exert the right of his Dominion according to his Will The two former Considerations give him a sovereign authority over his Creature a right jus disponendi but authority or right being divided from power to execute that authority and exact obedience to it is lame but the glorious God hath not only an absolute right of propriety and dominion over his Creature but an infinite irresistible power to rule order and dispose it according to his Will Almighty God tells us Jerem. 18. that as the Clay is in the Potter's hand so are Mankind in his hand yea and in a far greater subordination and subjection to his Power the power of the Potter over his Clay is a finite limited power we see in the same place it resisted and disappointed his intention by its untractableness But the power of God over his Creature is an infinite power he that by his power made him in an instant can in an instant dissolve or annihilate him And yet this infinite Power of God is under the management of a most wise and holy and pure and gracious Will and therefore though his Propriety be absolute his Dominion boundless his Power infinite yet the exercise of his Dominion and Power is full of Goodness suitable to the most perfect nature of God I am God and not man therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed Here therefore we have that great Question among some of the Ancients satisfactorily answered namely What is the Root of all Obligation in Mankind whence comes the Obligation in the Consciences of Men what is it that binds Men to keep their Faith their Promises It is the Law and Command of him that hath sovereign Authority to command and infinite Power to exact Obedience and to punish the want of it all other foundations of Obligation are but weak and deficient without this or in comparison to it 10. In this History of the primitive state of Man and his defection we have the Solution of that great Quaesitum that troubled the ancient Philosophers especially the Stoicks namely Whence or how came it to pass that not only that great disorder happens in things of this World especially in the nature and practices and customs of Mankind some would have it from Matter some from one thing some from another we see here a plain Solution of the Quaere That it came not from God no nor from Matter but by the defection and disobedience of the first Man which brought Death into the World and Sin and Corruption and Depravation and Disorder into the Humane Nature and brought disorder and discomposure upon the greatest part of this lower World which as it was principally made for the service of Man so it suffered a great Concussion and Breach by the Disobedience and Apostacy of Man and from this unhappy root ariseth all the Disorders and Confusions in the humane World for although the Fall of Man did neither alter the essential Constituents of Mankind nor wholly raze out the Engravings of those common Notions Sentiments and rational Instincts that were in them yet it did in a great measure impair and weaken them and brought in a very great deordination and discomposure setting up the lower Faculties in rebellion against the superior so that the wiser and more morate part of Mankind were forced to set up Laws and Punishments to keep the generality of Mankind in some tolerable order 11. This reasonableness congruity and consonancy to common Light and Reason in the Hypothesis of the Formation of the World and Mankind and the great preference that it hath above those Inventions of the ancient Philosophers touching the same the admirable Solution of many of those difficulties which are hereby solved doth give a very great valuation and esteem to the truth and Divine Authority of the Scriptures It is true their Authority is above the contribution of Humane Reason or any Supplies it can bring either to its Truth or Authority but yet when a Man shall see so great a clearness and plainness and reasonableness in the Holy Scripture touching this great Truth so many difficulties and absurdities thereby avoided so great a suffrage and attestation of Reason and common evidence bearing witness to this Truth and to such a Truth as could never be at first particularly discovered without Divine Revelation yet being discovered carries in it nothing of absurdity but a singular congruity both to it self in the several parts of it and to the common Reason It is true a great though a Ministerial and Humane Suffrage to the truth and excellency of the Holy Scriptures strengthens our Faith which God knows stands in need of all the contributions that may be to bear up our Souls against that root of Infidelity that is in us and may be instrumental and preparative to bring those to the belief and veneration of the Scriptures who are without and hardly perswadible but by those media that bear a congruity to their natural Light and Reason 12. And therefore we have infinite reason to bless and magnifie the gracious God that hath lent us his Holy Scriptures to inform us in things to be believed and to be done and to contain and preserve us infra cancellos certitudinis The Lord knows and we cannot choose but daily observe in our selves a strange mobility and instability in our Imaginative and Intellective Faculty roving after every thing and in many things that we know and much more in things we know not framing strange Chimaera's finding out many Inventions was the first effect of the departure of Mankind from a revealed Truth and searching after unknown and forbidden Knowledge And this hath been the course and walk and disease of our restless moveable unstable Mercurial Brains ever since in matters of Philosophy in matters of Religion The merciful and wise God therefore to keep in and regulate the extravagant and witless Spirit of Man and to give us the clear knowledge of things necessary and useful and to prescribe and

Beginning of the Assyrian Kingdom under Ninus was 631 years after the Flood and one Age after the Confusion of Languages in the time of Phaleg But which way soever we take yet we find a Beginning of the Assyrian Empire though they that suppose it 440 years before Belus thrust the Deluge and the Creation farther back than the Jewish Account 2. The Authority of the Holy Scripture by the Pen of Moses gives us the Original of the Babylonian or Assyrian Monarchy in Nimrod which possibly may be the Name in Hebrew of Belus the first Founder of it And here I do not take advantage of the Divine Authority of the Sacred Scripture but make use of it only as a History and singly upon that account hath greater evidence of its truth than any Heathen Historian whatsoever 1. The Writer thereof was most certainly nearer the times of the first Foundation of that Monarchy by above 800 years than any other Historian that gives us the account of the Assyrian and Babylonian Monarchy which is a great advantage in point of evidence touching the truth of any Historical Relation Again 2. He was not very far distant from the Place or Seat of that Monarchy the Wilderness and Palestine being not far distant from Assyria 3. He was descended from him that was the native of that Country namely Abraham who was born and lived many years in the Caldean Country and doubtless did bring along with him and transmit to his Posterity a fair Tradition of that Empire being contemporary with Peleg in whose time the famous dissipation of Mankind and distinction of Languages hapned 4. He was educated in Egypt the people whereof were greatly learned especially in Chronological Computations 5. The coherence and synchronism of all the parts of the Mosaical Chronology especially after the Flood bears a most singular testimony to the truth of his History and Computation for although he draws not down the lineal Descendents of Ham and Japhet down to his time but only mentions their Children and Grand-children for two or three Generations at most yet he draws down the lineal Pedigree from Sem in the Sacred Line down to his very Age together with their Births and Ages which are a great evidence of the probability of the rest of his Account So that if we take the History of Moses upon a bare Moral account abstracted from the Authority of Divine Revelation he hath greater evidence of the truth of what he relates than any Historian whatsoever that takes upon him the narrative of the Antiquity of Kingdoms or Empires the ancientest of which Historians were above 1000 years later than Moses But this I shall have occasion farther to improve hereafter The Objections against this late Original of the Assyrian or Babylonian Monarchy for it had its successive translation into these denominations are principally these 1. That it appears by the Account of ancient Historians that the Caldeans in whom the Assyrian Monarchy began and ended at the Taking of Babylon by Alexander had preserved Astronomical Calculations for about 400000 years thus Diodorus Siculus lib. 3. cap. 8. Quadringenta tria annorum millia usque ad ascensum Alexandri numerant and Tully in his second Book de Divinatione mentions the number to be greater Quadringenta septuaginta millia annorum in periclitandis experiendisque Pueris quicunque essent nati Babylonios posuisse 2. That it seems impossible that if their Monarchy began but in Nimrod or so short a time after the Universal Deluge that in the time of Ninus by some supposed the first by some the second King of the Assyrians or Babylonians the Empire could have grown so populous as to build that vast City of Babylon and that of Nineveh whose state and magnificence and amplitude were of incredible greatness or that his Widow Semiramis could at once bring into the field against Zoroastres an Army of 1700000 Foot-men 500000 Horse-men 100000 Chariots 2000 Ships as Diodorus Siculus out of Ctesias l. 3. cap. 5. And therefore as well Mankind as the Empire of Assyria must have had a longer continuance to have set out such an Army than the succession of an Empire for two or three Governours at most or the successions or propagations of Mankind within so short a time as this is supposed to succeed the Universal Deluge could afford To the first I answer 1. That some will have these Years to be but Months which they suppose to be accounted Years by the ancient Babylonians and Egyptians But as we have no certain evidence that they used to account a Month a Year but if we had yet that reduction will not serve for that number of Lunar Months reduced to Solar Years will arise to above 40000 Years which will over-reach the Creation of Mankind 2. Therefore we may with the same Tully and Diodorus Siculus pronounce it to be an incredible and fabulous Account warranted by no credible evidence but meerly their own fancy or imposture that because they held the World eternal would gratifie their people with a succession of an incredible Antiquity And it appears to be fabulous 1. For that in all this time they would probably have gotten the perfect Theory of the Planetary Motions and Positions which it is plain they did not if we believe the same Author for they were at a loss touching the true discoveries and periods of the Eclipses especially of the Sun 2. For that Calisthenes who was very curious in searching the famous Periods of the Babylonian or Caldean Celestial Observations at the very time when they pretended so great an Antiquity namely at the Taking of Babylon by Alexander upon a strict enquiry found their Astronomical Observations not to be above 1903 years old which he accordingly reported to Aristotle that employed him specially in that Enquiry as Simplicius reports in his Commentaries upon the Book of Aristotle de Caelo The prodigious Accounts therefore of the Caldeans of the Times past deserve as little credit as their Predictions of things to come who as the same Tully there observes flattered both Caesar and Pompey with long Lives and happy and peaceable Death both which fell out in the success to both extremely contrary 2. I come to the second Objection namely That it seems altogether impossible that the General Flood should put a period to all former Governments and indeed to the whole Race of Mankind except eight persons and yet that from these in so short a time such vast and powerful Monarchies especially as that of the Babylonian or Syrian should arise To which I answer 1. That if we should admit the Computation of the Seventy now much magnified by Vossius and others it would easily deliver us from that difficulty for whereas the Hebrew Computation gives the Universal Flood to be but 1656 years after the Creation of Mankind the Septuagint gives it to be 2262 years and whereas the Hebrew Account gives us about 300 years from the Flood to