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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	article_n	faith_n	scripture_n	1,458	5	6.2186	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36270	A sermon preached before His Majesty on Good-Friday at Whitehall, March 24, 1664/5 by J. Dolben ...	Dolben, John, 1625-1686.	1665 (1665)	Wing D1831; ESTC R5322	28,655	60

of Nazareth appears every way to have been such a Person as all Predictions and Types have fore-shewed and to have been so used as they assure us he was to be and no other is pretended to answer those prefigurations in any degree Pilate was as good a Prophet as Caiphas and being over-ruled by the Spirit of God wrote more then he understood but not more then was true in this Title and Recognition Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews ANd now perhaps some of you are ready to say that I have spoken a great deal to my Text but little to my Auditory Why should I bring you back to the first Elements of Christianity who have been baptized into Christs death in your infancy grown up in the profession of his Gospel have had Christ in many Sermons evidently set forth crucified among you and received him often in the holy Sacramental representation of his Death After so many pledges of service and love enterchanged between you what reason have I to doubt of your being Christians I do not doubt it But give me leave to tell you There goes more to that then we generally imagine every man is not a Christian who believes his Creed nor does every one believe the Creed who supposeth and takes it for granted Many of us believe the Articles of our Faith as we do the Antipodes or the story of the Trojan War we care not whether they be true or no And such have need sometimes to be catechized in the grounds and more in the importance of their Faith And many others who explicitely believe the Truth are so far from obeying it that they hold it in unrighteousness and these ought often to be told that they believe enough to condemn but not enough to justifie and save them Suppose then that you have devoured all the scandal of the Cross and what is an offence to Jews and to Greeks foolishness is to you the wisdom and power of God the one appearing eminently in the contrivance of this Mystery and the other in the great things wrought thereby And now upon the whole matter your armes are open to receive Christ for the very reasons which provoke the Jews to reject and scorn him you can discern the Lord of Glory through the disguise and form of a servant contemplate him triumphing over the powers of Death and Hell in a servile ignominious Crucifixion and therefore because he came not down from the Cross you will believe him Pardon me if I say you may do all this and yet be Jews To make it appear let me mind you of the Jews miscarriages in this behalf We have found them blameable 1. For not accepting Jesus as their King 2. In the reason why they refused him Because he he was a Spiritual not a Temporal Prince Be faithfull then to your own souls and in this solemn season of self-examination ask your Consciences these two Questions 1. Whether you do sincerely own and receive Jesus for your King 2. If you find your selves faulty and deficient in that Duty Whether the reason why you do not cordially embrace him be any other then that of the Jews because his Kingdome and his Laws are spiritual and you are Carnal 1. Whether you do own and accept Christ for your King I know you are apt enough to admit his other Relations to you every one hearkens willingly to the glad tidings of a Mediator and a Saviour 'T is pleasant to think of a Sacrifice considerable enough to atone for our sins of such a High Priest entred within the vail interceding on our behalf at Gods right hand who will surely be heard when he prays and who hath already obtain'd eternal redemption forus Nay we can like well that he be a King too provided that as his Kingdome is not of this world so he trouble not us with it in this world pretend not to govern us till we come to heaven 'T is not amiss that he be powerfull enough to overcome our Enemies to spoil Principalities and Powers lead captivity captive and after that give gifts unto men when he hath through his Death destroyed the Devil who had the power of Death that he be able and willing to enstate us in eternal life and assume us to the participation of his Kingdom Tell me now I pray you what temptation had the Jews why they should not be as good Christians as we upon their own grounds if this be all what carnality of theirs would have resisted the proposition of such a Sacrifice to expiate for their sins Why should not a Pharisee be content that he might have an Advocate always pleading for him at the Throne of Grace What could move the grossest dreamer in the Sanhedrim to refuse a reversion of eternal glory in heaven after the enjoyment of those present selicities which he desired on earth There is something surely more then this in the accepting and acknowledging Christ for our King or else the Jewes would have accepted him too The Duty of a subject to a Prince is expressed in one word Obedience The Tributes of our Esteem Honor Reverence and Recognition are good circumstances in the performance of our main Duty but without it are follies or crimes I need not teach the Court how little Complements signifie you know that for the most part they are like Nil's in a Cypher us'd onely to amuse to conceal not explain our minds Nor shall I need to say here the profession of that Duty and service which we mean not to performe is no more then a Complement unless it prove a scorne too for in severe examination to acknowledg our Sovereigns Power and yet refuse his commands is at once to recognize and defie him to call Christ our Prince and not submit to his rule and Laws is but to bow before him cry Hail King of the Jews and crucifie him Obedience hereby appears to be the natural necessary Duty of a Subject to a Prince because it supports and maintains the end of the Relation between them enables the Prince to do his Office It is the end of all Government to procure the good of the whole Community but no Governour can do that unless he be obeyed without obedience the Scepter is but a Reed in his hand a Rod of weakness and contempt not of power 'T is folly to expect to sit quietly under our own Vines and Fig-trees enjoying all the benefits of peace and plenty unless we conform to those Laws which preserve peace and effect plenty by regulating every man in the orderly pursuit of his own honest ends without enterfering with those of his Neighbour 'T is madness to look that a King in his single Person should suppress Rebellions repel the force of invading Armies drive Enemies Fleets from his Coasts or conquer them upon their own But by the free and hearty obedience of his People He can do whatsoever his whole Kingdom can do Because thereby their entire

him before-hand for the reason that Christ was refused by their Fathers Fagius tells us divers of them confessed to him that they would not have Messiah come in their days because the Law would oblige them to forsake their Usury being return'd to Canaan and having no strangers left on whom to exercise it Just so it is with us we are enslaved by strong habits and the power of sin and so not free to apply our selves to a better Master we are bored through the ear and cannot abide to change though for liberty we have so long served our senses and fleshly appetites that our souls themselves are grown flesh Being used to Leeks and Onions gross foul feeding we loath Manna as insipid light Bread relish not spiritual delights because they are too subtil and too pure food rather for Angels then Men. And as spiritual entertainments are too fine so spiritual commands which undertake to purge the heart and soul are too severe for flesh and blood Repentance is a grim Duty Mortification that Metaphorical death is to us like the true one a King of Terrours Because to our fleshly concupiscences it is a true and real Death brings out those Enemies of Christ which will not let him reign over them and slays them before his face For this sad and killing malady this spiritual madness of ours I know but one remedy Had we the same reserve of Reason in our distemper as had that mad Philosopher who leaped into the Water which the nature of his Disease made him abhor we might finde a cure as he did could we be perswaded for trials sake to take up Christs yoke a while we should soon find it an Instrument not made to load and gall our necks but to ease and defend us from the pressure of our burden we should discover that no one Precept hath been given us by Christ but to make our life more comfortable and our duty more agreeable Meekness was prescribed to allay the storms of Anger to preserve a Person of that Dignity that every Christian is from discomposing himself forfeiting his Reason and his Reverence with Man-kind at every little accident and to cast out the Devil of Rage which makes us foam and tear our selves and place us quiet and in our right minds at the feet of Christ Not to look is enjoyned as an expedient to make the ancient Duty of not lusting more practicable it being much easier to keep a house from burning before then after the fire is kindled in it Resignation and Contentedness are commanded to deliver us from the Rack of covetous and impatient Desires and to be our Sanctuary in all distresses Humility will prevent Quarrels and Mercifulness will end them as soon as they begin Charity will reconcile us to God and Man and the Duty shall I call it or Priviledge of doing all the good we can to mens bodies and souls is a Dignity and a pleasure I had almost said too great for mortal Men it makes us Kings and Priests nay Angels the ministers and conveyers of Gods mercies and graces and subordinate Saviours to one another anticipating our future joys and blessedness giving us before-hand that Quality which alone shall possess our souls in Heaven pure and universal Love The Apostles themselves were carnal enough unapt to entertain the Spiritual part of Christs Doctrine and Kingdom continued even after the Resurrection to expect an earthly Rule under him But when the Holy Ghost had enlightened their Minds and rack'd their Affections from this Earth and Lees then they soon despised all the allurements of the World scorn'd them as dross and dung accounted nothing happy or pleasant but to serve Christ nothing great and honourable but to suffer and die for him The same Spirit of Grace did we not check and stifle his good motions unkindly grieve him by refusing and resisting his Addresses and Courtships to our souls would work the same blessed effects on us give us a true taste and delightfull relish of spiritual excellencies convince us that nothing is so lovely as innocence that harmless Dove-like temper nothing so happy as a Conscience always at peace with it self and with God nothing so honourable as to serve Christ whose Injunctions are but so many steps and degrees whereby we ascend nearer and nearer to God Assure us that Repentance it self is but the casting off an intolerable Burden Mortification but the pulling a Thorn out of our Flesh which grew there from the Curse subduing that Rebel part which is always infesting our quiet and giving us an entire Dominion over our lusts which Heathen Moralists say is the greatest Empire that mortal men are capable of and in sum that there can be no objection against that Obedience which makes our Lives comfortable and Death it self advantageous Lastly this would establish such a practice of Christianity as might remove the onely scandalous obstacle of the Jews conversion At this day they say Christians themselves keep them from being Christians add a new offence to the Cross which lay not in the way of their Fathers By not living such lives as the Prophets fore-told should be the effect of Messiah's Government and as Christ's own Doctrine and undertaking gave the World ground to expect What shall I do says a poor doubting Jew I see after so many Ages of vain which our Doctors talk of and indeed Jesus of Nazareth did so well answer all the Characters observable in Scripture that I began to turn my thoughts toward him But alas I perceive his own Scholars do not believe him They persecute us indeed for blaspheming his Name and yet they give us every day new cause to blaspheme him and not onely think him an Imposter because we see nothing come to passe which he promised no meeknesse no humility no patience no innocence and especially none of that love which he told us should be the badge and cognizance of his Disciples But on the contrary all the vices reign among the Professors of the Gospel which Jesus professed he came to extirpate and drive out of the world How can we choose but speak evil of His Name when Christians lye and cozen and swear falsly by it call his name over all their wickednesses and lusts slander backbite supplant rob and murder one another and all in Christs Name do all those things for which no Sacrifice will expiate with us and which Heathen honesty abhors to hear of for Christs sake and in zeal to his Glory If Christ taught these things he deserves all the Reproaches and Curses which any Jew can lay upon him and if he did not where shall I be instructed in his Doctrine for Christians seem to think he did teach them Furnish me I pray with some answer to this objection in charity to this Jew for your own credit and for Christs honour nay help me I pray you to defend mine own Sermon For perhaps another Jew will say I am willing to