Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	womb_n	word_n	work_n	22	3	4.9547	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80971	An off-spring of mercy, issuing out of the womb of cruelty. or, A passion sermon preached at Christs-Church in Oxford, by that late renowned ornament of the University, William Carwright.	Cartwright, William, 1611-1643.	1652 (1652)	Wing C713; Thomason E1287_2; ESTC R208967	9,757	37

AN Off-spring of MERCY Issuing out of the Womb of CRUELTY OR A Passion SERMON PREACHED AT Christs-Church in Oxford By that late Renowned Ornament of the University William Cartwright ACTS 2. 36. Let all the House of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ LONDON Printed by A. M. and are to be sold by Iohn Brown at the guilded Acorn in Pauls-Church-yard 1652. THE PUBLISHER TO THE Ingenuous Reader READER THe best description I can make of Oxfords Cartwright will be but as an heap of noysome dirt before the Gates of the Stately None-such My silence then as to this great Subject may be excusable but my offer to characterize him will be unexpiable besides it will be as needlesse to discourse to the major part of men and Scholars in this Land of the admirable qualifications of W. C. as laboriously to inform the People that England was once governed by Kings and that Government is now dismissed I may adde that the most comprehensive and sifting headpieces will finde it an hard task to produce an Adequate description of the Authour wherein he shall neither be undervalued nor idolized For my own part I would not offer to detain thee for a single moment by the interposition of these gross lines from the immediate Survey of this criticall piece were it not to assure thee that it is no bastard Posthume because it s printed according to a Copy written with the Authours own hand Reade one pause and then I beleeve thou wilt have no more power to leave off till thou hast through read him then he that runnes down an hill hath to stop himself till he come to the bottome However I am sure that upon a serious and candid view of the whole thou wilt freely declare that this Childe is very like his Father William Cartwr An Off-spring of MERCY Issuing out of the Womb of CRUELTY ACTS 2. 23. Him being delivered by the determinate counsell and fore-knowledge of God ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain THe words present unto us St Peters charging the Jews with our Saviours death You may therefore observe in them First The Patient or Person put to death together with his quality implied in this word Him by its relation to the precedent verse Jesus of Nazareth a man approved of God among you by miracles wonders and signs which God did by him Secondly The Agents or Contrivers of his death and these of two sorts 1. The supernaturall Agent God together with his manner of operation a thing of providence in these words Being delivered by the determinate counsell and foreknowledge of God 2. The inferiour Agents the Jews together with their manner of operation A thing of malice in these words Ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain So now if you will consider the Patient as God and man but united the Agents God and Man but separated they and their operations so disposed that one answers the other for God there man here for delivering there taking and crucifying and slaying here And for determinate counsell and fore-knowledge there wicked hands here I begin with the Patient and his quality imply'd Jesus of Nazereth c. 1. The Patient and his quality The guilt of the world was now such that for its originall and propriety as it came from us and was ours none but a man ought to make satisfaction and for its object and bound as it was immense against the immense none but a God could because the nature in which this infinite offence was was of it self finite and so bore no proportion to that immensity of Majesty which it injured He therefore that was to make the satisfaction had a necessity laid upon him to be both God and Man As man only his sufferings were unprofitable for he that hath need of a Mediator himself how could he perform the office of one to himself and others As God only his sufferings were impossible for he that hath nothing to suffer in how can he suffer Both natures therfore met or rather the God of nature took our nature into himself that he might both suffer by the flesh he assumed and give a price to these sufferings by the Divinity which assumed it And of this that he was both God and man his life and death sufficiently convinced the Jews For they were both such as if he that was himself the truth had came to bear witnesse of it That he was God appeared by his miracles he was Man by his sufferings Operatus ut fortis passus ut infirmus August de Pass Serm. 1. They saw the power of the Son of God combined and twisted with the infirmities of the Son of man One part priviledged and guarded by miracles the other unsheltred and liable to injuries He changed the course of nature by his actions and confessed the weaknesse of it in his passion To have done so and suffered so the Apostle thinks here demonstration enough to leave the Jews inexcusable of this slaughter As for doing of miracles his power was such that when he said Come forth the grave could no longer hold her dead Death it self grew impotent and never suffered him to call twice When he said receive thy sight or be ye opened immediatly the veil flew from the eyes and the barres fell from the ears with the word the blinde saw the man that wrought the cure and with the word the de●● heard the tongue that made him hear I do not say that all miracles prove the authour a God for I know some are reserved for the demonstration of Antichrist that man of sinne But the miracles of our Saviour were all of that stamp that if we consider either the actions themselves or his manner of doing them they must needs shew a personall presence of the Deity and a grace beyond that of Adoption A grace of union with the father For the miracles themselves they were such deeds as were both deeds and signs wonders in which the wonder was the least wonders that clouded the marvell with the mystery wonders that shewed more then was conceived and hid more then they shewed He knew what they said and what they said not and answered them when as yet they had but made the question in their hearts To go further His works were such devils obeyed him not out of will that they desired to do so But out of Impotence that they could not do otherwise they tried to resist and found themselves unable legions of them doubted him and legions when they had doubted him confessed him and did the office of Apostles without Apostles mindes But if you will not beleeve but the same works may be done by a limited power yet certainly they cannot the same way His manner of doing them must evidence him the Son of God however Those who work with depandance and in anothers power use to invoke some

higher then themselves and adjure by a name mightier then their own But Christ as one himself sufficing to himself made his own name the conveyance of his power and tbought it no robbery to be equall with God We reade often in the Gospel that Virtue went out of him Mar. 5. 30 Luk. 6. 19. So that he received not anothers power but used his own An Argument of his Divinity so forcible that he himself who did the works appealed from himself to his works John 10. 38. Etiamsi mihi non creditis operibus credite though ye beleeve not me beleeve the works But to shew his Divinity only by miracles was not enough Sic debuit per miracula Deitatem ostendere Leo Serm. de pass ut crederetur veritas humanitatis ipsius he was to shew his Divinity so as that his humanity might be beleeved too And this he did by many but chiefly by that greatest miracle of all his shewing that he who did these miracles could die and that so great power of God could come wrapt up in so much infirmity of the flesh You may now think that one who laboured thus by doctrine and miracles to bring the Nation of the Jews to salvation who not content with ordinary and each daies innocence lived at that rate of perfection that he reckoned lesse good among ill and thought nothing enough where there is room for more One that brought in Religion as the best policy of Kingdomes and that preached high virtues but practised higher still conquering the hardnesse of his precept by the seconding it with a more hard example You may certainly I say think that the Jews would have demanded this man of miracles this man himself a miracle greater then those he did for their King to go in and out before them But Qui vident videre nolunt though he was approved among them by miracles and they themselves also knew it they accused him of Treason and the common cry ran We have no King but Caesar Let me a●k you O ye perversest of Nations Did Angels appear at the birth of Caesar Was Glory to God on high on Earth peace good will towards men sung by them when he came into the world Was Caesar the glory of Israel and a Horn of salvation to his people But alas not to take him into the throne was not so great an ignominy To preferre a Robber a Murderer before him this was the Dregs of Scorn Away with this man and release unto us Barrabas And again Not Luk. 23. 18 21. him but Barabas What spirit of contempt is here It runs not thus Away with Jesus and not Jesus But away with this man and not him They account him so vile that as their superstition was not to name the thing they held execrable they endeavoured to abolish his memory before his person But what Barabbas O yee seeing who see not One that fed your multitudes Not one that robbed them of that which should have fed them What Barabbas One that cured your blinde or healed your halt and lame no one whose violences maimed them and by the frequency of his injury occasionally encreast the number perhaps of those miracles that Jesus wrought Did he use or deserve the whip Did Barrabas purge the Temple of theeves or make it their Denne Did he cast out Devils or do Acts by the instigation of the Prince of them A wicked generation they were to ask a signe but more wicked Matt. 12. 39. not to beleeve when they had so many given them Nor are they so quietly and civilly impious as not to beleeve that they go on to despight the Authour of Miracles by tempting him to do one upon himself If thou art the Son of God come down from the Crosse Why the very condition forbids the inference He therefore will not come down because he is the Son of God and came to obey his Father by whom he was delivered which cals me from the Patient to the superiour Agent God with his manner of Operation A thing of Providence Delivering by determinate counsell and fore-knowledge the second thing to be spoken of Him being delivered by the determinate counsell and fore-knowledge of God Secondly Superiour Agent and his operation Had not God from the beginning decreed the passion of his Son Jesus our redemption had been a thing of rashnesse altogether unworthy either the performance or acceptance of a Deity And chance being more eminent then care and love in the salvation of mankinde the death of our Saviour had been a ryot rather then a sacrifice As the devils craft projected and brought about our slavery by the labours and anxiety of malice So the wisedom of God was to exclude fortune from the businesse of our redemption by the counsell and contrivance of love By the subtlety of the Destroyer the sting of sin entring into one wounded the world and the infection of the person spread it self in equall widenesse with the nature By the wisedome then of the preserver the righteousnesse of one was to justifie the world and the merits of that person to extend themselves to the utmost skirts of nature too The Passion therefore of one Christ was purposely projected so numerous that not a single lamb was offered but the herd of the world that mankinde rather then one man suffered and so the Kingdom of that Prince of darknesse was dissolved Dissolved indeed occasionally by that which raised it sin Death destroyed death and iniquity loosed the bands of iniquity and the works of that malicious one overthrew themselves And to this stratagem was there not required the fore-knowledge and counsell and determination of the Deity The Schools have found out 3. waies by which the father is said to have delivered his Son 1. Praeordinando ejus passionem ex Aquin. p. 3. q. 47. Ar. 3 suâ voluntate by preordaining his passion from his eternall will and this is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 2. 8. that determinate counsell and foreknowledge of God in the Text. And according to this they say his thirst upon the Crosse was not of nature but decree preordained from everlasting not casuall or emergent for the time 2. Inspirando ei voluntatem patiendi by inspiring him with a willingnesse to suffer and hence it is that the Apostle saith he became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 obedient to the death even the death of the Crosse And this his thirst when he was stretch't upon it was not to fullfill any desire but that of our redemption 3. Non protegendo eum a passione by not protecting him from his sufferings but wholly exposing him to the bitternesse of them Insomuch that he who was one with the father complain'd of the fathers dereliction and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text the being given and delivered up into wicked hands But was not the Sons love the lesse in that his father thus gave him up It had been so

had no Law nor Scripture The Jews pretended to know and search both The Jews were inexcusable because they knew what they did the Gentiles were so farre excusable that Christ himself seem'd to pray for them as for a people not knowing what themselves did The imputation therefore of the Death is the Jews by excellence And our Saviours sufferings were in this the greater that they were from such a people For if we consider the whole Nation what were they The slaves of the Romans then and the refuse of the world ever A people as at this day hating all and hated of all A Nation that God chose as himself intimates not for any worth or bravery of spirit but that he might glorifie himself in the vile things of the earth and shew his strength in weaknesse no comfort then to our Saviour from the Authour of his passion nor the fall any way ennobled by the hand from whence it came He had that utmost of misfortune in death not to finde an honourable enemy Their behaviour then was viler then their persons The Religious and heavy malice of the Priests and Elders the solemn and severe impiety of the Scribes and Pharisees seriously advising that no tumult may disturb the feast You may think this was from the very chair of Religion The Court indeed pretended devotion but served a most impious design This fear of tumult in the solemnity as is observed by one of the Fathers was not that the people might not sin but that they might not save him They feared not Prophanation but a rescue These were wicked intentions I am sure what must the hands then be that executed them why stand a while and observe and then conclude Jesus taken if he may be said taken who came into their hands is hurried from place to place posted from Judge to Judge put over from torment to torment from the Garden to Annas from Annas to Caiphas from Caiphas to Pilate from Pilate to Herod from Herod to Pilate again Cruelty walking the circle and impiety if ever now treading the ring His apprehending joyn'd to his Agony his accusation to his apprehending and his condemnation to that Then his condemnation received by irrision irrision by stripes stripes by crowning with thorns 'T is not to be told with the same continuation that he suffered it Then carrying his Crosse extension nayling lifting up and after all this businesse and tumult of motion his rest only upon the Crosse A rest indeed such as wity cruelty when it imploys and tasks invention to serve it would at last give A rest by which torment ceased not but was continued A rest that detain'd the soul only to make it part with more torture the strugling Spirit escaping by parcels as water out of a narrow mouth'd vessell the man dying not once but long And were not these wicked hands But there is yet something behinde to make even the Crosse more infamous more a Crosse They crucified him as it is generally observed In medio terrae in the very center and navell of the earth In medio populi in the middle channell of flouds of people In medio malefactorum between theeves as the more thief In an infamous place on high without garments in the force of day that nothing could be hidden Lastly at the Feast of their Passeover those Nundinae Religiosae those publique Wakes of Religion and generall Mart of Sacrificing were not these if any wicked hands wicked indeed to the utmost if you consider only the Action But if the intention the book of Infamy wants a name to brand them For they did this to despight the Lord of life and to grieve his Spirit who was to seal them to the day of redemption And now after these hands Is this he that is more beautifull then all the Sonnes of men This that goodly person that whosoever looked on blest the Womb that bare him and the paps that gave him suck This that face that the Angels cannot look on and yet will not look off yes I adde to this their malice hath augmented that beauty Quae dabo magis ex horrido Seneca speciosa Miseries consecrate worthy countenances and make that which entire was our pleasure broken become our worship Perdiderunt tot mala they lost all their injuries That their spunge swel'd with gall and vinegar did as that froward Painters spunge perfect that work they thought to spoil For when he had drunk He said Consummatum est It is finisht and so by a largenesse of charity freely breathing out his saving spirit into the world revived the nations dead in trespasses Here me thinks I see the Crosse set up as the bound and pillar of the Law and hear God himself saying Hitherto shalt thou come and no further and here shall thy killing letter it self die Thus was it his determinate counsell that the Old Testament should be swallowed up in the New that all those Ceremonies of sacrifice should be buried in that immaculate sacrifice that he himself delivered and that the Sepulchre of Moses so long hid from the world should be found at last in our Saviour Christ Thus did the Sun of Righteousnesse set with more grace and sweetnesse then either he did rise or run his course with and enlightning his thorns in so many pointed Rayes of that his greatest work His death made glories and circles of lustre for all the rest of his actions Thus when the Jews by divine fore-knowledge had brought the Deity to that despicablenesse that they occasioned those miracles That He should be impleaded and condemned who is Judge of all He laden with curses that scatters blessings as Sunne-beams over the face of the world That health it self languisht and the very impassible suffered God who is wont to take his rise where men stop was pleased to strike miracles out of these greater then these For behold An Off-spring of Mercy issuing out of the womb of Cruelty A bundle of new miracles as farre beyond the former as they are opposite to them A condemnation that absolves us A curse that blesseth us A sicknesse that recovers us and a death it self that quickens us So much was his love stronger then death who Heb. 5. 8 9. though He were a Son yet learn'd he obedience by the things he suffered and being made perfect he became the Authour of eternall salvation to all them that obey him Among which number O Lord write our names for his sake who this day suffered to blot out that hand-writing that was against us Amen