Selected quad for the lemma: grace_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
grace_n	free_a	gift_n	offence_n	2,391	5	9.5104	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59840	A practical discourse concerning death by William Sherlock ...	Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.	1689 (1689)	Wing S3312; ESTC R226804	147,548	359

have no reason to think this any great hurt Nay indeed if we consider things aright the Divine Goodness has improved the Fall of Adam to the raising of Mankind to a more happy and perfect state for though Paradise where God placed Adam in Innocence was a happier state of life than this World freed from all the disorders of a mortal Body and from all the necessary cares and troubles of this Life yet you 'll all grant that Heaven is a happier place than an earthly Paradise and therefore it is more for our happiness to be translated from Earth to Heaven than to have lived always in an earthly Paradise You will all grant that the state of good men when they go out of these Bodies before the Resurrection is a happier life than Paradise was for it is to be with Christ as St. Paul tells us which is far better 1. Phil. 23. And when our Bodies rise again from the Dead you will grant they will be more glorious Bodies than Adam's was in Innocence For the first man was of the earth earthy but the second man is the Lord from heaven 1 Cor. 15. 47. Adam had an earthly mortal Body tho' it should have been immortal by Grace but at the Resurrection our Bodies shall be fashioned like unto Christ's most glorious Body The righteous shall shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of the Father that as we have born the image of the earthy we shall also bear the image of the heavenly 1 Cor. 15 49. So that our Redemption by Christ has infinitely the advantage of Adam's Fall and we have no reason to complain That by man came death since by man also came the resurrection of the dead That St. Paul might well magnifie the Grace of God in our Redemption by Christ above his Justice and Severity in punshing Adam's Sin with Death 5. Rom. 15 16 17. But not as the offence so also is the free gift For if through the offence of one many be dead much more the grace of God and the gift by grace which is by one man Iesus Christ hath abounded unto many And not as it was by one that sinned so is the gift for the judgment was by one to condemnation but the free gift is of many offences unto justification For if by one man's offence death reigned by one much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Iesus Christ. Where the Apostle magnifies the Grace of God upon a fourfold account 1. That Death was the just Reward of Sin it came by the offence of one and was an act of Justice in God whereas our Redemption by Christ is the Gift of Grace the free Gift which we had no just claim to 2. That by Christ we are not only delivered from the effects of Adam's Sin but from the guilt of our own For though the judgement was by one to condemnation the free gift is of many offences unto justification 3. That though we die in Adam we are not barely made alive again in Christ but shall reign in life by one Iesus Christ which is a much happier Life than what we lost in Adam 4. That as we die by one man's offence so we live by one too By the righteousness of one the free gift comes upon all men unto justification of life We have no reason to complain that the Sin of Adam is imputed to us to Death if the Righteousness of Christ purchase for us eternal Life The first was a necessary consequence of Adam's losing Paradise the second is wholly owing to the Grace of God. Thus we see what it is that makes us mortal God did not make Death he created us in a happy and immortal state but by man sin entred into the world and death by sin What ever aversion then we have to Death should beget in us a greater horrour of Sin which did not only at first make us mortal but is to this day both the cause of Death and the Sting of it No degree indeed of Vertue now can preserve us from dying but yet Vertue may prolong our lives and make them happy while sin very often hastens us to the Grave and cuts us off in the very midst of our days An intemperate and lustful man destroys the most vigorous constitution of Body dies of a Feavour or a Dropsie of Rottenness and Consumptions others fall a Sacrifice to private Revenge or publick Justice or a Divine Vengeance for the wicked shall not live out half their days However setting aside some little natural aversions which are more easily conquered and Death were a very innocent harmless nay desirable thing did not Sin give a sting to it and terrifie us with the thoughts of that Judgment which is to follow quarrel not then at the Divine Justice in appointing Death God is very good as well as just in it but vent all your indignation against Sin pull out this sting of Death and then you will see nothing but smiles and charms in it then it is nothing but putting off these mortal Bodies to reassume them again with all the advantages of an immortal Youth It is certain indeed we must die this is appointed for us and the very certainty of our death will teach us that Wisdom which may help us to regain a better Immortality then we have lost SECT II. How to improve this Consideration that we must certainly Die. FOr 1. if it be certain that we must Die this should teach us frequently to think of Death to keep it always in our eye and view For why should we cast off the thoughts of that which will certainly come especially when it is so necessary to the good government of our lives to remember that we must die If we must die I think it concerns us to take care that we may die happily and that depends upon our living well and nothing has such a powerful influence upon the good government of our lives as the thoughts of Death I have already shewed you what Wisdom Death will teach us but no man will learn this who does not consider what it is to die and no man will practise it who does not often remember that he must die but he that lives under a constant sence of Death has a perpetual Antidote against the Follies and Vanities of this World and a perpetual Spur to Vertue When such a man finds his desires after this World enlarge beyond not onely the wants but the conveniencies of Nature Thou Fool says he to himself what is the meaning of all this what kindles this insatiable thirst of Riches why must there be no end of adding House to House and Field to Field is this World thy home is this thy abiding City dost thou hope to take up an eternal Rest here Vain man thou must shortly remove thy dwelling and then whose shall all these things be Death will shortly close thy eyes