Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	wonder_n	world_n	worth_n	31	3	9.2422	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33545	Fifteen sermons preach'd upon several occassions, and on various subjects by John Cockburn ...	Cockburn, John, 1652-1729.	1697 (1697)	Wing C4808; ESTC R32630	223,517	543

say we will not consider this as any true Motive to the receiving of Christ Because it is neither sufficient nor reasonable and he who embraceth Christ upon no other grounds than this his Religion is little to be valued or regarded Neither is it matter of wonder that such an one yield to the prevailing Tentations of Sin and refuse compliance with the Precepts of a strict and holy Living especially when he perceives them fallen into desuetude and that Vice and Ungodliness are more commonly practised for he that in these things hath no other Reason or Motive than the Custom and Fashion of the place he lives in will no doubt be still carried away with the Tide But what a shameful and unworthy a thing is it to be guided and directed in Matters of so great moment only by the Practice of others and the Custom of the place we live in The Apostle St. Peter commands us to be always ready to give an answer to every man who asketh a reason of the hope that is in us And truly it is a very slender and poor one when we have no other but that we were so Educated and that this Faith and Religion were professed and in fashion where we were Born and Bred. Indeed it is no small Happiness to be Born within the Church and under the light of the Gospel and among those who may educate us in the Christian Faith because hereby we have an early occasion of acquainting our selves with those great and important things which concern our Eternal Salvation And therefore we have always good reason to bless God for these excellent Advantages of our Birth and Education without which it 's like we should have never come to the true Knowledge of Christ. But yet this doth not excuse us from a reasonable Enquiry and Search into the Truth and Grounds of the Christian Faith when we come to Age and the Years of Discretion we should be ashamed to pin our Faith upon our Grand-mother's Sleeve we ought to fix it on a better bottom than mere Education we should search into the Grounds and Reasons why we should rather be of the Christian Religion than of any other and should labour to understand what Obligations are upon us to chuse Christ and none other to be our Lord and Master For unless we do this we do not act like Men our Faith is neither reasonable nor divine but unworthy both of Men and Christians and which will never endure the Shock of any Temptation That which should chiefly perswade us to profess Christ and to become his Disciples is the Consideration of his being sent from God and a serious Reflection on those undoubted Truths and irrefragable Testimonies we have received thereof Jesus Christ was foretold by the Prophets and when he was in the World God bare Witness unto him by the Appearance of Angels and several Voices from Heaven and divers other astonishing Signs he wrought many Miracles and did many things not only beyond humane reach but beyond the reach of Nature it self and he gave others Power to do the like his Death was accompanied with many amazing Wonders especially that of his Resurrection so that the World was astonished at it For Death had no Power over him for he rose from the dead and appeared unto many and last of all was seen to ascend up into Heaven When he was gone what he foretold his Disciples came to pass and as they preached the Gospel which he had taught them so God gave Testimony unto them by Signs and Wonders and divers Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Ghost which followed them So that the whole World was constrained to receive and believe their Doctrine We have as great Evidence and Certainty for these things as is possible to be had and is sufficient to reason any Man into the Belief of them And by these things it doth appear that Christ is no Impostour nor the Gospel a cunningly devised Fable but a certain Divine Truth which teacheth us that God hath highly exalted Jesus Christ and given him a Name which is above every Name that at the Name of Iesus every knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth and that every tongue should confess that Iesus Christ is the Lord to the glory of God the Father If we believe in Christ if we own him to be our Lord it should be for these Reasons and upon these grounds otherwise our Faith is not valid This is the first and true Inducement to the receiving Christ and if we embrace him and make him our Lord for this reason because he is sent of God and hath received all Power in Heaven and in Earth then we cannot but conceive an indispensible Necessity of yielding all Obedience and Service For God hath not made him a titular Lord he hath not given Him a Name of Dominion and Power only but he hath constituted him such a Lord as must be served and obeyed and the Power and Dominion which he hath received is not nominal but real actual and effective And consequently the Subjection which is required to be given him must be something else than Words and Complements it must be more than a barren and empty Profession it must be real Deeds faithful Services and an impartial and universal Obedience to his Laws and Commands or else whatever we profess or say he will never own or acknowledge us to be his true Subjects and Servants A son honoureth his father and a servant his master if I then be a father where is my honour And if I be a master where is my fear saith the Lord by the Prophet Malachy If we do really acknowledge another to be Lord and Master we must also acknowledge our selves to be his Servants And Servants owe Obedience therefore we reproach our selves so often as we call Christ our Lord and yet refuse to obey him Our Ingenuity in calling him Lord can never appear so long as we do not heartily and readily obey him For as God speaketh in the fore-cited place Offer it now unto thy Governour will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person Try I pray you and see if any Man will be put off as thou thinkest to put off Christ when thou hast no mind to obey him Will any Prince look upon those as good Subjects who pay him no Homage and refuse him the Acts and Testimonies of their Allegiance Will any Master count him his Servant who never minds his Will but doth his own And how unreasonable then art thou not to serve and obey him whom thou callest and believest to be thy Sovereign Lord and Master If we be perswaded that it is necessary to receive him whom God hath sent lest we be esteemed Rebels for resisting the Ordinance of Heaven We ought also to believe and be perswaded that it is absolutely necessary to obey him for it is all one not to

be stiled after it did import their relation to and interest in that state The word Behold denotes the certainty of what he foretells by saying the days are coming he lets them know that the Calamity approacheth and is not far off as indeed it fell out within Forty Years The greatness and dreadfulness of that Calamity he holds out by telling that it shall be then said Blessed are the barren and the womb that never bare and the paps which never gave suck For these words are not to be taken absolutely but with a respect unto these Evil days In times of Peace in the days of Prosperity it is a great Blessing and Comfort to have Children and especially it was thought so among the People of the Iews But in times of grievous Trouble and sad Calamity when War or Famine or Pestilence rageth they who have Children are more heavily afflicted than those who want them for besides the Evils which they suffer in their own Person they suffer also in the Persons of their Children and are affected with their Misery Moreover Women who are either with Child or who have young Ones sucking at their Breast cannot so easily escape Calamities or provide against them as others Some also do think that this may have a particular reference to what afterwards fell out at the Destruction of Ierusalem viz. That during the strictness of the Siege some were reduced to that strait that to preserve their own Lives they Eat the flesh of their own Children which could not but be very grievous to Parents However it is to be interpreted not with any relation to Peoples Spiritual or Eternal State for in respect of that there is no difference betwixt the having and wanting Children but it is to be understood wholly as to this Life and that too only in relation to Times of great Trouble and sad Calamity As to what follows that then they shall begin to say to the Mountains fall on us and to the Hills cover us This is a further intimation of the dreadful Calamity of these Days for People shall then be in such Consternation and Fear that they shall wish Death rather than Life and any kind of sudden Death rather than to live to see and feel such unspeakable Misery And as all this was foretold here and Matth. 24. so whoever is pleased to read Iosephus his History will find That all was actually accomplished upon Flavius Vespasian and Titus his Son their Invading Iudaea Besieging and Sacking of Ierusalem For if they do these things in a green tree what shall be done in a dry As it is a Proverbial Speech so it is here used by our Lord both for a Proof of the Prediction and also as a Reason why such Evils are inflicted Green Wood is neither proper nor profitable fewel but sure if they be forced to cut it down and make use of it they will not pass by what is dry and withered and good for nothing so seeing God has suffered his own Son to be thus treated who never displeased him they might assure themselves that such gross and notorious Sinners would not escape As St. Peter says If the Righteous scarcely are saved where shall the Wicked and Ungodly appear Our Lord by comparing himself here to a green flourishing and fruitful Tree doth point out the greatness of their Sin who thus treated him and persecuted him to Death with such Malice and Cruelty And he also clearly intimates to them that for this Cause all these Evils would come upon them A little before this time he laid it more plainly home to them by the Parable of the wicked Husband-men who when they saw the Son said This is the Heir come let us kill him and seize on the Inheritance And accordingly they caught him and cast him out of the Vineyard and slew him The Doom of these Husband-men the Iews pronounced with their own Mouth for when our Lord asked when the Lord of the Vineyard cometh what will he do unto these Husband-men They replied He will miserably destroy these wicked men and will let out his Vineyard to other Husbandmen which shall render him the fruits in their season Upon which he instantly added Did ye never read in the Scriptures the stone which the Builders refused the same is become the head of the corner This is the Lord 's doing and it is marvellous in our eyes Therefore I say unto you the Kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruits thereof Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken but on whomsoever it shall fall it will grind him to powder The Application was so plain and the meaning so obvious that it is said that the Chief-Priests and Pharisees perceived that he spoke of them Matth. xxi 38 39. These Predictions and the Event which in all things answered them declare what a heinous Crime it is to be guilty of shedding the Blood of Jesus and what a Provocation it was to the great God to see his Son crucified by Men. But some may perhaps say what is all this to us This was the Sin of the Iews long since committed and which can never be acted over again seeing Jesus the Son of God has his abode in Heaven and so is out of the reach of Men and therefore it is impertinent to insist now upon it They who say or think so must give me leave to say that they are mistaken and do deceive themselves for Christ may yet be Crucified and with as great Provocation to God nay with greater than was before Doth not St. Paul tell us Heb. vi 6. of some who crucifie to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to open shame and both by that Chapter and the 10th we are made to understand who they are that do it viz. They who Sin wilfully after they have received the Knowledge of the Truth They that undervalue the Death of Jesus and are not so affected with it as to hate and forsake Sin which was the cause of it but on the contrary cherish indulge and love it for they who do so by an after Act consent to his Death and are guilty of his Blood Not to speak what Jesus suffers in his Servants and Members by the Persecutions which they meet with for his Sake and for their Observance of his Laws Jesus still suffers immediately in himself when his Doctrine is despised his Authority affronted and his Power resisted They who question the veracity of his Doctrine confirmed by Miracles and Prophecies laugh at the Truth and Mysteries which he hath revealed and quarrel at his Ordinances and Institutions these Persons do violence to his Prophetical Office They who lessen the Merits of his Death and the worth and price of that Sacrifice which he offered they who advance their own Righteousness and put little or no Confidence in his Mediation and make the Mediation of others as necessary they