Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	work_v	world_n	worm_n	16	3	8.1889	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55308	Speculum theologiæ in Christo, or, A view of some divine truths which are either practically exemplified in Jesus Christ, set forth in the Gospel, or may be reasonably deduced from thence / by Edward Polhill ..., Esq.	Polhill, Edward, 1622-1694?	1678 (1678)	Wing P2757; ESTC R4756	269,279	440

doubtless he permitted it not irrationally Quis audeat credere aut dicere ut neque Angelus neque homo caderet in Dei potestate non suisse Aust de Civ Dei l. 14.27 his will is ever irradiated with infinite wisdom What account then may be given of it If any at all be given I suppose a better reason cannot be given than this That he permitted it that way might be made for the coming of his Son in the flesh Hence that speech O foelix culpa que tantum meruit redemptorem In Sent. l. 2. Distinct 23. Estius gives other reasons but this saith he is ratio omnium potissima the chief reason of all That God might be made man The Learned Zanchy saith Comment in Col. 1. v. 16. Certum est It is certain that evil was permitted that the Son of God might take our flesh But to go on After the fall the Providence which watched over Noah Abraham Judah Ruth David with others the Ancestors of our Saviour did look at that excellent one who was to come from thence nay that Providence which keeps the whole world in its being and order respects him and his Satisfaction Justice would if unsatisfied have dashed down the World about the sinners ears but it is preserved upon the account of Christ it stands not now meerly by Power but by Blood Redemption is a buttress to Creation to keep it from sinking into a Chaos By Christ all things consist Col. 1.17 not only subsist in their beings but consist in their orders The blessings and prosperities which Providence dispenses and doles out unto sinners are all founded upon him It is observable in the Old Testament that they used this order in praying for blessings The Lord be with you Thus Boaz to the Reapers Ruth 2.4 The Lord be with you or which is all one The Lord be with us Thus Solomon in his famous prayer The Lord our God be with us 1 King 8.57 The form of words falls in with the precious Name of our Saviour Immanuel or God with us Were it not for Christ the true Immanuel God would not be with us at all to bestow any blessing upon us but because he is with us in the incarnate Word therefore he is with us to bless us It may also be noted That the Mercies and Deliverances which the Jews Gods own people had under the Old Testament either had a type of the great Salvation graven upon them or else had a type of the great Salvation graven upon them or else had a promise of the Messiah interwoven with them They were delivered out of Egypt but that was a type of deliverance by Christ Joshua brought them into Canaan but that was a type of entring into Heaven by Christ God promised them deliverance from Rezin and Pekah but the promise of the Messiah was interwoven with it Isa 7. 14 he comforted them against a dark and troubleous time but he ushers in the promise of the Messiah Isa 9.6 All their temporal deliverances pointed to the great Salvation The Apostle tells us That God doth gather together in one or sum up all things in Christ Eph. 1.10 In him the types had their truth the Promises were Yea and Amen The Law had its end all was summed up in him In a word all the Temporals in the World all the Spirituals in the Church are founded upon him He is the great Center where all things concur and meet together Again other Providences are to be reduced to that over the Church as being next to that over Christ the most excellent Providence of all The Saints which make up the Church are Gods Jewels His peculiar ones his Jedidiahs or beloved ones the Apple of his eye a special Providence must needs watch over them He is called the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob Cujus omnes gentes sunt quasi trium hominum Deus esset saith St. Austin He whose all Nations are was the God of three men a special care was over them no wonder if other Providences carry a respect to them they are graven upon the palms of his hands Isa 49.16 In all the works which he sets his hand unto he remembers and bears a respect to them the whole world fares the better for them The Jews say That the righteous are the foundation of the world they bear up the pillars of it Psal 75.3 Sanctum semen statumen terrae holy men do in a sort bear up the world Jacob tells Laban That the Lord had blessed him since his coming in the Original it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at my foot Gen. 30.30 Good men procure a blessing and their Masters are blessed at their feet remarkable is that in Moses's Song When the most high divided to the nations their inheritance when he separated the Sons of Adam he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel Deut. 32.8 When the world was divided Gen. 10. Israel was not in being yet a special respect was had of him that the Canaanites should have as much land as should be sufficient for Israel who afterwards was to inherit it The Jews say that the 70 souls which went into Egypt were worth as much as the 70 Nations of the world to be sure in proportioning out the world God had a singular respect to his own people nay he respected them not only in setting the outward bounds of the Nations but in limiting their inward desires also Thus God assures them that when they came up to appear before him no man should desire their land Exod. 34.24 For their sakes Providence would not only keep off the hands of the Nations round about them but stint their wills and curb their very concupiscences The Apostle to shew how great a share Believers have in Providence tells us in one place That all things work together for their good Rom. 8.28 The great plot of Providence is to make all serve them and in another that all things are theirs whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come all are yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods 1 Cor. 3. 22 23 being joynt-heirs with Christ the heir of all things they become in a subordinate sense heirs of all Fidelibus totus mundus divitiarum est the Saints have all the world for their possession at least such a proportion of it as most conduces to their happiness If it were possible saith Dr. Reynolds for any Member of Christ to stand absolutely in need of the use and service of the whole Creation Van. of the Creaturt fol. 28. All the Creatures in the world should undoubtedly wait upon him and be appropriated unto him The Moon should stand still the Sun go back the Lyons should stop their mouths the fire should give over burning the Ravens should bring him meat the Heavens should rain down bread the Rocks should

would be unjust a cruel Tyrant one like Hannibal who looked upon a ditch full of Humane blood as a fair spectacle Unto which I answer the Scripture is very pregnant our sins were laid upon him they were condemned in his flesh he bore them in his body he was wounded and bruised for them and that even unto death and that not a meer simple death but one that had a penal curse in it And if these phrases express not punishment no words can do it Yet for all this corrupt Reason is so desperate that rather than subscribe to the Sacred Oracles it will blaspheme and call God Tyrant Indeed an innocent cannot be punished for the guilty compulsorily but Christ suffered by consent Lo I come to do thy will O God Heb. 10.7 The Law of Redemption was in his heart he gave himself for us an offering and a sacrifice Eph. 5.2 And what is freer than Gift or what colour of Injustice can there be in such a Suffering The Reason and Justice of all Nations agree in this that one may by his own consent be punished for another It 's true he cannot justly consent to suffer in that which he hath not a just power over Men have not such a power over their lives as they have over their estates The only blemish in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of old who engaged life for life was this That they had not a just power over their lives to give them as a Compensation for others but Christ might justly consent he had power over his own life I have power saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 authority to lay down my life and authority to take it up again Joh. 10.18 Hence it appears that his consent to suffer punishment for us was a very just valid one it being in that which he had authority over and where there is such a just consent there an innocent one may suffer for the guilty It 's true an innocent one meerly as such cannot be punished neither did our Saviour suffer as such but as one in conjunction with us as our Goel and Sponsor who undertook to bear the punishment of our sins It could not be unjust for him to undertake it and after undertaking it could not but be just for him to perform it especially seeing his person could not sink under his Sufferings and his Sufferings could not be in vain or to no purpose He rose as a glorious Victor and out of his Penal Evils sprung that great Good the Redemption of a World 3. The Sufferings of Christ are to be considered in themselves and in their fruits Take them in themselves Justice appears in the proportionableness of them in punishing Justice holds the Ballance it weighs and measures out Penal Evils for Moral Judgments on Sinners are called the portion of their measures Jer. 13.25 as being inflicted in a due proportion Now the Sufferings of Christ were proportionable in divers respects 1. There was a proportion between the seats of Suffering in Christ and the seats of Sin in us Man sinned in his body Sin was organically and instrumentally there proportionably Christ suffered in his body no part of it but was racked upon a tormenting Cross because our Corporeal Parts had been weapons of Iniquity Justice made his the subjects of Misery Man sinned in his Soul there was the prime and chief seat of Sin proportionably Christ suffered in his Soul nay there was the prime and chief seat of Suffering because the main residence and venom of sin was in our Souls the greatest pressure and bitterness of wrath was upon his He was exceeding sorrowful even to death He was sore amazed and as it were fainted away yea for very anguish he sweat drops of blood and upon the Cross cryed out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me All this befel him who was fortitude and constancy it self Under the Law Justice had eye for eye tooth for tooth wound for wound stripe for stripe in Jesus Christ it had a Suffering body and soul as a Compensation for the sinning bodies and souls of Men. 2. There was a proportion between the Penal Sufferings in Christ and those in the threatning of the Law Christ suffered not the very Idem neither indeed could he do so because there was a change of person and in strictness Si alius solvit alind solvitur but his Sufferings came as near to those in the Law as could possibly stand with a just decorum to his Sacred Person as little was abated as might be This will appear by the many steps of his Humiliation He the Son of God very God assumed our frail Nature But might this infinite and wonderful Condescension satisfie Justice for the sin of the world no He must be under the Law and fulfil all Righteousness Well that being done might that obedience wherein so high an Honour was reflected upon the Law as that it was obeyed perfectly in all things and that by its Maker satisfie for sin No that alone was not enough there must be shedding of blood or no Remission But if there must be blood might not a few drops of his blood the same being of an infinite value do the work No the Law calls for Death without that he could not be an expiatory Sacrifice for us But if a Death must be might not a simple one being of so great a person serve the turn No the Law pronounces a Curse and that he was made the marks and tokens of Wrath were upon him and why all this but that God would have his Sufferings comply and come as near the terms of the Law as might be It 's true he did not bear the accidentals of punishment his Sufferings were not eternal but in the Law punishment is eternal only as it relates to a finite Creature which can never satisfie but not as it relates to a mighty Sponsor who could pay down all at once and swallow up death in Victory He suffered not the worm of Conscience or Desperation But the first of these is from Sin inherent and putrifying in Conscience and the second from the Imbecillity of of the Creature sinking under its burden neither of which could be in him He bore not the accidentals of punishment but as great a person as he was the essentials could not be abated There was in his Sufferings Paena sensûs when the fire of wrath melted him into a bloody sweat and paena damni when the Eclipse of favour made him cry out of forsaking Though God in his Soveraignty would relax the Law and introduce his own Son as a Sponsor to satisfie for us yet his Son standing in that capacity He would in Justice have him suffer as near the penalty in the Law as could be 3. There was a proportion between the Sufferings of Christ and the Sin of a World Sin is an infinite evil and his Sufferings to compensate it were of an infinite value Sufferings are not to be estimated

he would strip himself of his Orient pearl that he would give his Son his eternal Joy out of his bosom to assume an humane Nature and in it to bear the horrible stroke of Justice which was due to us for our iniquities In giving Laws and Promises God gives but a created Image of his Sanctity and Grace but in giving his Son he gave his essential increated Image to suffer in the flesh for us that his holy Image broken in the fall might be repaired again in us When we were off from God the Center of Souls and wandring in the foul ways of sin God out of his immense Love sent no less person than his only begotten Son to seek us and bring us back unto himself that we might be for ever happy in the fruition of him The greatness of this Love will yet further appear if we consider the manner how the Son of God was given for us The lower a man stoops and condescends to do another good the higher and more eminent is his Love the steps wherein the Son of God came down and humbled himself for us evidently declare the infinite height of that Love which made him stoop so low to compass our Salvation The first step was his Incarnation the word was made flesh he who was in the form of God took on him an humane Nature In the Creation infinite produced finite but here infinite assumed finite there Eternal brought forth Temporal but here Eternal took Temporal into it self and what a wonderful Condescension was this It 's true Reason in the Socinian laughs at it but Faith in the Christian must needs admire it Had the greatest Monarch on Earth confined himself to the poorest Cottage there it would have been nothing to God Tabernacling in the flesh Should the highest Angel in Heaven have put off his Perfections and come down into an humane Nature and from thence have passed into a brutal bestial one and so on into a tree or stone and at last into nullity it would not have been a Condescension comparable to that of the Son of God coming in the flesh His Sacred Person was infinitely more above humane Nature than an Angel is above matter or nullity it self and what unparallel'd Love was here The Creator became a Creature the Son of God assumed our nature and that after it was in us tainted with sin Dr. Bates of the Attributes fol. 171. The natural distance saith that excellent Man between God and the Creature is infinite the Moral between God and the sinful Creature if possible is more than infinite Yet the mercy of our Redeemer overcame this distance What an extasie of Love transported the Son of God so far as to espouse our nature after it was defiled and debased with sin He was essential Innocence and Purity yet he came in the similitude of sinful flesh which to outward view was not different from what was really sinful Thus he St. Austin calls Love junctura duo copulans a coupling of two together That after man had rent off himself from God by his Apostacy God should assume an humane Nature into himself to make up the breach and reduce Man into an Union with himself again Miror Deum in utero Virginis miror omnipotentem in cunabulis miror quemodo verbo Dei caro adhaeserit Cypr. de Nat. Christi must needs be Love in a transcendent excess infinite This made St. Cyprian overlook the wonders in Nature that he might ravish himself in the admirations of an Incarnate God The Condescension was here so great that God seems to neglect his own Majesty that he may comply with our necessities yet infinite Love would have the Son of God stoop a little lower and do honour to that Sacred Law which we had violated His humane Nature being an inmate in his infinite Person could not but have a right to Heaven and might have been immediately rapt up thither but Love set him another task He the great Lawgiver was made under the Law He who knew the Father in an infinity of light now knew him in a finite Reason He who embraced the Father in an infinity of Love now loved him in a finite Will He who was Lord of all was subject to Parents and Magistrates He who upholds the world went up and down as a man doing of good he stooped as low as the Ceremonial Law His pure flesh was circumcised he kept the Passeover and so obedientially stood under his own shadow This is a Condescension much greater than if all the Angels in Heaven had put themselves under the Laws of the lowest matter yet infinite Love would have the Son of God go down a little lower We have him hungry thirsty weary weeping suffering the contradiction of Sinners enduring the temptations of Satan all his life-through a man of sorrows at last we have him bleeding on a Cross hanging there as a spectacle of shame his hands and his feet were pierced his body was racked and tortured to death in a stinking Golgotha But which was the greatest of all he bore the Wrath of God and what was that Wrath which was due to the sin of a World or what those Sufferings which satisfied Justice for it What a great thing was the Passion of God and how much beyond the dissolution of a World Words cannot utter it thoughts cannot measure it That Love must be no less than immense which made the Son of God stoop so low to take us up out of the ruins of the Fall The Love of God will yet more appear if we take notice of the persons for whom Christ was given it was for man poor impotent man a creature worth nothing a bankrupt in Spirituals one void of all those Primitive Excellencies which at first Crowned the humane Nature for him it was that God was at so vast an expence as that of his own blood Spond Annal. Anno 431. 'T was great Charity in Paulinus Bishop of Nola that he would give himself in pawn to the Vandals for a poor Child but it was transcendent superlative Love in God to give his Son one worth Millions of Worlds and as rich in Excellencies as a Deity could make him to be emptied and humbled to death for poor worthless worms such as we are Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be rich saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 8.9 The Riches of a God were laid out to set up broken man again But further it was for Sinners for Enemies such as were in Arms against God such as had broken his Laws despised his Authority cast off his Soveraignty and as much as in them lay stained his Glory These were the persons upon whose Salvation infinite Love set so high a rate that rather than fail the Life of God should be paid down for it The Apostle notably sets forth this