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A69531 The dead mans real speech a funeral sermon preached on Hebr. xi. 4, upon the 29th day of April, 1672 : together with a brief of the life, dignities, benefactions, principal actions, and sufferings, and of the death of the said late Lord Bishop of Durham / published (upon earnest request) by Isaac Basire ... Basier, Isaac, 1607-1676. 1673 (1673) Wing B1031; ESTC R13369 46,947 147

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to God Witness Cain and Abel in the Old Testament and the Publican and the Pharisee in the New For the true Religion is chiefly inward for the substance and not only outward for the circumstance and ceremony the Religion of too many I had almost said of most formal Professors now a days an Artificial Religion as being moved chiefly if not only by outward Respects and Objects without any inward Life the want of which did make a wide difference betwixt Cain and Abel the Speaker here from whom to pass unto his Speech we shall interpret it by a three fold Exposition 1. Grammatical 2. Doctrinal 3. Moral 11. As to the Grammatical Exposition I am not ignorant that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Original may be verbum medium and so may be translated either in the passive sence he is spoken of as some few Interpreters have rendred it or in the active sence to which I am rather carried by the clear and strong current of almost all Interpreters and the Harmony of eight Translations both Antient and Modern who all render it actively He speaketh This Translation is confirmed by a clear Parallel Hebr. 12. 24. where comparison being made betwixt the precious blood of Jesus Christ and that of Abel 't is expressed in the active sence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not in the passive that the blood of sprinkling is better spoken of but in the active that it speaketh better things than that of Abel Ergo Abel being dead yet speaketh quod erat demonstrandum Enough of the Grammatical Exposition 12. We pass now to the Doctrinal Exposition The Doctrine is this That for the godly there is a life after this life for Abel being dead yet speaketh but we know that dead men are speechless and that speech is both a sign and an action of life Abel is not absolutely dead though dead in part he still lives We inlarge the instance from righteous Abel unto all the faithful the total summ is this That though good men die yet their good deeds die not but they survive and that in both Worlds First In this world to their due praise for their own good works praise them in the gates Secondly They live in the next world by their Reward and Coronation for their works do follow them So many good works so many living Tongues of good men after Death who are therefore styled in the Holy Gospel The Children of the Resurrection and again Abel still lives unto men in the memory of all good men for to such the memory of the just shall be blessed and the memory of their vertues calls for both our Commemoration and Imitation of them which leads me to the third point propounded which was the Moral Exposition 13. For I suppose none that hear this are so gross of understanding as to imagine a Vocal Speech of the Dead which would be a miracle but a Speech Analogical by such a Figure as the Heavens speak when they declare the Glory of God The parallel of St. Chrysostom upon the Speech of Abel our speaker in the Text the Father after his wonted Rhetorick amplifies it thus If Abel had a thousand voyces when he was alive he hath many more now he is dead speaking to our admiration and imitation But though the Dead Man's Speech be no vocal speech yet it is and will be a real speech for our conversion or condemnation to the end of the world for Abel being dead yet speaketh First He speaketh by his Repentance implied in his sacrifice not only for Homage due by all rational creatures whether Angels or men unto God their Creator but also as a tacit confession of sin to be expiated by the All-sufficient sacrifice of the promised blessed seed the Messiah to come and so Abel being dead yet speaketh and was by his typical sacrifice the first Prophet of the Old Testament The good examples of holy men are standing real Sermons For there are two wavs of preaching by word or deed The first is good the latter is better but both are best Secondly Abel being dead yet speaketh by his faith expressed here in the Text which faith is a never-dying Preacher to all Ages of the Church because it assureth all the faithful such as was Abel of both God's regard and reward of all his true Servants who follow Abel's faith Thirdly Abel being dead yet speaketh by his works of Righteousness the necessary and best evidences of a lively faith for which Abel stands canonized by God's own approbation and acceptance First of his person that he was righteous and then of his performance his sacrifice Therefore Abel is inrolled with Enoch vers 5. for his Communion of Faith Godliness and Happiness by which both Enoch and Abel pleased God The Jewish Rabbins and sundry Christian Interpreters offer as a tradition this sign of God's acceptance of the sacrifice of Abel to wit by sending Fire from Heaven as upon Aaron's and upon Solomon's and upon Eliah's sacrifice which kindled the sacrifice of Abel the younger Brother and not that of Cain who was the elder Brother Some Interpreters think that this acceptation of Abel's sacrifice was a designation of Abel the younger Brother to the Priesthood before Cain the elder Brother and that these were the occasion of Cain's envy and his envy the cause of Abel's murther By the way 't is worthy our observation that all that come to worship God are either Abels or Cains that is they come with faith or without faith and they speed accordingly Fourthly and lastly Abel being dead yet speaketh as in his Life by his Actions so at his Death by his patience and passion for as St. Stephen was the Proto-Martyr of the New Testament so was Abel the Proto-Martyr of the Old Testament for he died for righteousness sake Hence some Interpreters derive his name from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in Holy Tongue signifies to mourn because he was the first man that did taste of Death for which and for whom his and our first Parents Adam and Eve did begin to mourn As it is certain that sin though but a beast hath a voyce and which is more strange in a beast sin hath an articulate voice and by a counter-passion which is lex talionis sin doth not only indite the sinner but also indorseth upon the sinners bill the parallel punishment for time or place person or action so that many times the punishment becomes the Anagram of the sin This even natural men do confess witness Adonibezeck As I have done so God hath requited me which was also King David's case Blood for Blood such was the voice of sin and of their own Consciences Sin hath a voice indeed and that a loud voice for it reacheth as high as Heaven to God's ear and from thence rebounds with an eccho upon a man 's own conscience We read