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	wrought_v	72	3	7.4595	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

the Old nor the New found World can yield it Many Discoveries have been made of late of Plants Stones Minerals and the like which were not known before but no place is found with the Qualifications of the Text. This is only to be looked for above it is saith the Text reserved in the heavens and that it is there we are the surer of it for no destroying Fire ariseth there no boisterous Wind bloweth there nor doth Subtilty Malice Cunning and Oppression take place there it is without the reach of Men and Devils and therefore we need not fear either to be put by it or to be justled out of it O happy Inheritance How blessed are they who are called to such an Inheritance The very hope hereof doth give greater joy than the actual Possession of all Earthly things How little may one be cast down with the loss of Temporal things who hath this heavenly Inheritance ensured to him Let not thy Crosses and Sufferings overwhelm thee with Grief seeing so great and so glorious an Inheritance awaits thee But then it will be enquired how came I to know it and by what means may I be assured of it Truly this is no Delusion there is undoubted Evidence of the Truth thereof viz. the resurrection of Iesus Christ. All this is done saith St. Peter by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead Though the Resurrection be only mentioned yet all the former acts of Jesus Christ are included as his Incarnation Birth Life Sufferings and Death But because the Resurrection was the last act of his Mediatorship upon Earth gave a lustre to the rest did demonstrate the Merit of them and was an evidence of their acceptance therefore it is put here alone instead of all the rest Jesus Christ by coming in the Flesh and by what he did in the Flesh hath wrought a perfect Redemption for us he was delivered for our offences and was raised again for our Iustification Rom. iv 25. And as he died to become a Propitiation for our Sins so he arose to witness that he had made a perfect atonement and that there is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit for as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation even so by the righteousness of one the free gift is upon all men unto justification of life Rom. v. 18. I say to all who believe for as Jesus Christ by his Death and Resurrection hath purchased Salvation for us so it is necessary that we have Faith in him his Death and Resurrection to the end we may partake of his Merits Faith in his Death takes away the guilt of our Sins and Faith in his Resurrection begets us to a lively Hope and entitles us to this Inheritance incorruptible undefiled and which fadeth not away He that believes has as great assurance as the Word of God can give him If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Iesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth Confession is made unto Salvation Rom. x. Faith unites us to Christ and brings us where he is if we believe we shall also rise with him and sit down with him in heavenly places at the right hand of God Our Thoughts therefore should much run upon the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and in particular we should frequently make remembrance of them by this Ordinance of the Lord's Supper which was appointed for this end both because those means wrought our Salvation and that the Effects of them are conveyed to us through Faith in them and the serious Meditation of them Men use to produce their Evidences and Rights to their Earthly Heritages and diligently to consider them when they are brangled or like to be justled out of their Possession Now the Devil the World and the Flesh envy this Happiness which hath befallen us and seek daily to put us by it by filling us with doubts and fears and making us question the greatness or certainty thereof Is it not fit nay necessary then to view the means by which this was effectuated and thereby strengthen our Faith in them that we may not lose our Hope but maintain it and assure to our selves this blessed Inheritance There is no place for doubting a Matter of Fact of which there is some publick Monument attested by an uninterrupted Tradition and to Commemorate which certain Days and Ceremonies are observed He who doubts after this is not to be convinced It is in vain to reason with him for he affronts both Sence and Reason by refusing his consent to reasonable things Things past cannot be seen they can be proved only by Tradition or History or some visible Effects He is most unreasonable who asks another Proof or who is not satisfied with this Now as there is an Universal uninterrupted Tradition of the History of Jesus Christ as it is witnessed by the Testimony of both Friends and Enemies to the Christian Religion so the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper which we have this day Received is a solemn publick visible and authentick Memorial of it for no other account can be given of its Institution no other Reason for the devout Celebration of these Sacred Rites from the beginning but the Death and Sufferings of Jesus Christ and his Death had never been so devoutly commemorated by the Apostles and Primitive Christians nay they had been ashamed of it if there had not been clear Conviction and Undoubted Proof of his Resurrection By this then it appears that the Gospel is no cunningly devised Fable that the History of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is certain and true and if this be true our Faith is not in vain nor is our Hope ill grounded then it is certain that we have an Inheritance incorruptible undefiled and which fadeth not away Why then do we stagger through unbelief why are we faint and wearied in our Minds why do we suffer Afflictions to overwhelm us why are we so backward to run the Race which is set before us why do we loiter so much about the things of this World and why are we so afraid of Death which is a necessary Passage to that blessed state to which we are called That we may not marr our own Happiness that we may not deprive our selves of the greatest Consolation even of this present Life that we may have courage to encounter Afflictions and Death it self and that at last we may obtain the Possession of that Inheritance to which we have a Right and Title let us not doubt but believe let us entertain a full assurance of Faith and look unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith who for the Joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the Shame and is set down at