Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	word_n	world_n	worthy_a	171	3	6.1523	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38612	Popular errors, in generall poynts concerning the knowledge of religion having relation to their causes, and reduced into divers observations / by Jean D'Espaigne.; Erreurs populaires es poincts généraux, qui concernent l'intelligence de la religion. English	Espagne, Jean d', 1591-1659.	1648 (1648)	Wing E3267; ESTC R3075	73,280	230

are men for whom it is difficult to be saved they are those which have the charge of soules For to save themselves they ought to save many others For whom it sufficeth not to have piety and other vertues which are common to all other Christians Their is need of knowledge and eloquence The want of morall vertues which alwayes render it more criminall repugneth not the essence of his office nor abateth the dignity of the Sacraments nor the efficacy of the word which he administreth Ignorance is the most formall crime of him who ought to instruct others A good man may be a bad Pastor The vulgar hold for a maxime That the good life of a Preacher edifieth as much or more then his doctrine This error is truely popular and more foolish then can be imagined It s true that workes ought to accompany words and woe to that man who practiseth not his owne doctrine But this is impiety to thinke that the actions of a Pastor are more considerable more perfect or of greater edification then his doctrine which is the rule which is more essentiall to his charge more fruictfull in instruction more necessary to salvation either the seeing of his example or the hearing his word Is the example of a man of greater weight them the Ordinance of God Is it from the Pastors example that wee receive the faith or from his Preaching Are his good works the power of God to salvation Doe they containe the remission of our sins Shall we be saved by them or by his doctrine He which finds more efficacy in a mans example then in the word of Jesus Christ is not worthy to be his Disciple CHAP. VIII That it is more profitable for us to be taught by men then by Angels Why the world values not prophets but after their death MAny could wish they might bee taught by Angels thinking that their instructions will be more profitable and their word more efficacious Wherein they are deceived For there are divers points whereof the Angels cannot speake with so great feeling nor with a knowledge so particular as men The diseases of the body and other kinds of the crosse the burthen of sinne the terrors of conscience the horrors of death the combate of the flesh against the spirit repentance it self and regeneration are things whereof they have no experience and therefore cannot be touched with such compassion towards sinners as men who feele the same infirmities This is a reason why the sonne of God would take upon him our infirmities to the end hee might have the more compassion and speake with greater efficacy furthermore that Angell which appeared to Cornelius the Centurion would not undertake to instruct him but sent him for this purpose to a sinfull mortall man This is the custome of the world and examples thereof are frequent in all ages to undervalue or even persecute Prophets while they live and to adore them after death The reason is that the eye of the flesh seeth in them the same visage as in other men the same naturall infirmities and a contemptible appearance especially if he be in his owne country or amidst his familiars Saul asked Samuel whether he was a man of God not knowing that he was so because he saw nothing extraordinary in his person The bald head of Elishai served as an object of mockery to the little children Many that looked on St. Paul as absent said that his presence had not so much force as his writings On the other side the most eminent servants of God are they against whom Satan hath prepared most ambushes The liberty of their censures renders them odious He that reverenced yesterday Iohn the Baptist willingly procured his imprisonment or death but after that God had taken them into his rest and that there was nothing remaining but the sound of their voice which seemeth to eccho still in their graves the world regretts at what it hath lost and endeavours to expiate its ingratitude with excessive honours Chrysostome was accused of adultery condemned chased out of his Church and confined in banishment where finally hee dyed The children of them which had driven him away fell downe on their knees before the dead body and desired pardon of it for their parents Such also have builded rich tombs in memory of the just who had persecuted them in their lives Great were the advantages of them who were conversant with the sonne of God who might heare him speaking with open mouth propose unto him the most difficult doubts and questions and learne from his mouth an infinite number of sublime and unheard-of doctrines But they payd him with outrages and many honour him at this day who would have helped to have crucified him if they had bin in his time CHAP. IX The want of particular instructions ALL the instruction which is sought for at this day from the mouth of Preachers is reduced to Sermons The most excellent amongst them out of the pulpit is no more then a private man in the judgement of the vulgar The common people believe that publique instructions are sufficient for them and as for the rest every Christian may order his actions according as they conform to them There is none so sottishly ignorant who doth not think himselfe capable to direct his owne conscience Notwithstanding mans life is full of occurrents wherein the wisest are subject to deceive themselves and the most conscientious by trusting over much to their owne judgement commit notable faults in the conduct of their affairs of houshold government or trading of judicature of publique policy and other vocations Witnesse Davids heedlesnesse in causing the Arke to bee carryed upon his owne Chariot Moreover publique instructions cannot expresse so many circumstances which often change the quality of actions And which is more not onely the points which lye in practise but also those which concern meerely beliefe being composed in publique frame not alwayes in the mind of the hearers so exact an impression as particular instruction auricular confession if it had not passed into superstition was an exercise of great profit CHAP. X. Of books of religion and of the time imployed in them to the prejudice of Scripture Of the multitude vanity kinds and reformation of them AMongst the abuses which keepe up the ignorance of the vulgar wee accompt also the reading of so many religious books whereunto the common people give their time and thoughts as to an exercise of great edification although the books of a good divine containe in substance the same matters which are in Scripture Whosoever shall read in Origen or Nazianzene the sacrifice of Abraham curiously painted out with all its circumstances with a representation as patheticke as Rhetoricke can furnish it with shal never be so lively touched therewith as by the simple recitall of Moyses A paraphrase of the new Testament is but a dead Letter in comparison of the vivacity of the Text. All this is said without derogating

of their conversation That so many naturall relations met in one man which might have brought the title of father and uncle together would have brought a thousand confusions in the world That the same proximity being disputed amongst them which are of the same blood would have produced divers strifes in families for the reason as that of the straight line which oblige the brother to marry his half sister that the woman who in case of injury or dissertion might find a refuge with their brothers had lost his refuge if the brotherhood had been confounded in the marriage And other reasons which one might alleadge for this law CHAP VI. Of the exercise of the mind in every point of Religion The default of the vulgar and of preachers herein The Scripture speaks by proofs GOd would that our knowledge should be discursive in part and that this faculty of the soule which passeth from one subject to another for to discern them compare them together and give judgement thereof might also be sanctified by this exercise in matters of Religion But because it is more difficult to reason upon a point then to conceive it nakedly and barely the common people is contented to heare that such a thing is true or good or just without searching why or how it is such The ignorant love onely to heare a thing affirmed or denyed insomuch that to the understanding of a proposition or assertion thus naked there is need of but a bare apprehension or understanding of words without other trouble of mind Whereupon they are delighted in maximes and proverbs because it is not needfull to conceive the sense thereof easie to whosoever understandeth the words For 't is to be presupposed they are grounded on reason and 't is enough to hold them for true without any other form of enquiry This same facility is the cause we have more talkers then preachers Provided they stretch out a point by a long train of equivalent tearms that they delate a text into Paraphrases that they heape togeather a great masse of sentences of Scripture they think they have worthily handled and the vulgar abide therewith satisfied But the interpretation thereof requires much more then this Certainly Jesus Christ himselfe and the most excellent instruments which have spok by his spirit have not contented themselves to pronounce the affirmative or negative upon any point but besides have shewed the reasons thereof If they teach that the worship of God ought to be spirituall they give this proofe thereof to wit that God is a spirit If the alleadge to make the Jewes see that the Messias ought to die and rise again the words of the Psalmest thou shalt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption they frame thereof an argument which imports that this Oracle cannot relate but to David or to Christ that the body of David had notoriously felt the same corruption which death brings to other men So that this prophecy could not belong but to Christ If they say that man is not justified by the Law they prove it by the end of the Law which is to manifest sinne If they declare that Circumcision doth not justifie they shew it by the example of Abraham who was justified before he was circumcised So that his circumcision being after his justification could not have produced it If they affirm that there was a Law before that of Moses they argue that where there is no law there is no sin Now we read that there was sin before Moses this is proved because that death which is the wages of sinne raigned from Adam to Moses If they maintaine free Election they produce the decree given before the infants had none either good or evil If they maintain that the Covenant of grace could not be disanulled by the Law they make it cleare that it did precede the Law foure hundred and thirty yeares If they publish that Christ is greater then the Angells they prove it by his titles which were never conferred upon them If they preach the weaknesse of the Jewish priesthood they take it from this that the Scripture hath substituted for it another of anorder altogether different to it after the order of Melchisedech for if perfection had been in the Leviticall Priesthood what need had there been that anothe Priest should arise which was according to the order of Aron If they teach that Jesus Christ ought to die they note that where there is a Testament there the death of the Testatour ought to intervene before the heires can have benefit thereof In brief if they speak of the resurrection or of other points of faith their discourse never consists in bare assertions but in reasons and demonstrative proofs CHAP VII Of Popular reasons as well in the Romane Religion as amongst the vulgar of the Orthodox Churches The difference betwixt the maximes of faith and those of charity THose which among the vulgar reason upon matters of Religion are accustomed to conceive them as reasons one may call popular These reasons are taken from the superficies not from the very substance of truth This is the reason why oft times they are found false although their facility render them plausible to the ignorant If it were needfull one might shew that the Romane Religion is for the most part propt up by popular reasons Popular is the comparison of Intercessours which are employed towards the Grandees of this world brought for the Invocation of Saints Popular is the question whether we ought to condemn our ancestours and so many souls which hold the faith we at this day disallow Popular are the marks under which they represent the Church For the antiquity multitude locall succession are not essentiall properties thereof Popular are the austerities fastings scourgings and externall mortification of the Monks profession Popular are the images and the title which is given them that they are the booke of Ideots The most ordinary reason which authoriseth the reason of the common people is that of charity Prayers for the dead have been covered under this pretence and many sometime have extended even to hell praying even for the damned not to deliver them wholly from pain knowing that is impossible but for to procure for them some diminution thereof whereunto charity carrieth them The maximes of charity are more persuasive and efficacious amongst the common people then the maximes of faith The reason thereof is because that those of faith are more removed from the appearance and have not so much relation with reason and naturall affection as those of charity which are more intelligible and more agreeing with the common notion of men Notwithstanding to say truth every act of Religion which is undertaken without faith is also without charity And the charity of the ignorant is a strange fire which is not acceptable at the altar But our discourse properly concerns them who being orthodox in points of Religion prop not up the belief of them but upon