Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	darkness_n	death_n	shadow_n	3,756	5	10.1492	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45575	A sermon preach'd at St. Marys Church in Cambridge, January the 6th being the feast of the Epiphany / by Francis Hare ...	Hare, Francis, 1671-1740.	1700 (1700)	Wing H757; ESTC R35443	14,022	33

Revealed are they all of Perpetual and Universal Obligation or not if some only which are they what Punishments are annext to the Violation of them when to be inflicted in this Life or another if in another the Soul must be immortal and immaterial and the Man must live again besides many other Difficulties which must be determined before we can know whether Man be actually accountable to GOD for what he does These all these are Questions of great Importance and such as the wisest Heathens could come to no certain Conclusions about Some of them indeed by an extraordinary Goodness of Mind have hit upon Noble Thoughts and very much resembling Truth but when well examined they appear to be what themselves could rather wish to be true than be at all sure they were so I shall give but one Instance of this and that is in that excellent Discourse of Socrates before his Death in which there are strange and surprizing Strokes of Truth about the Immortality of the Soul and the Rewards and Punishments of another Life Who can without pity see the weak Efforts of the best Reason who can forbear wishing him Success or not be sorry extremely sorry at his Disappointment who has such noble Conclusions in view but is utterly at a loss by what certain Steps to get at them One sees him through all along that piece very earnest in the search after and pursuit of Truth he sometimes takes such true Steps and pursues so closely that one can't help thinking every minute the next will be the last he seems so very near it and then loses his Scent a while and then comes on again which gives the Reader a very melancholy pleasure who can't but be in some sort disappointed himself every time he sees He is The Discourse thro'out must be own'd to be at first Sight very Beautiful but if one view the Picture nicely examine the several Parts of it the Proportions and Reasons on which they are built the whole will appear such a strange mixture of Truth and Error full of such inconclusive Arguments so like Dreaming of some Fairy Land that one can't but wonder how it could come from the Hand of so great a Master or be thought a finisht Piece by those that heard it In truth under all the Good-will he discovers for so good a Cause one can't but observe with how much Diffidence himself speaks of it much less can any body else be convinc'd by what he says unless such as come prepar'd to believe before they hear and can take up with Conclusions first and then look out for Premises by which they may seem to others to have come to them So great was the Blindness and Ignorance the World was under about things of the greatest moment I might proceed to shew that their Works also were Works of Darkness that their Manners generally speaking were as corrupt as their Opinions but the close Connexion there is between Religion and Morality makes this less necessary nor have I time for it if I would How far this Corruption was inevitable and invincible I will not now dispute Thus much is certain the World either had no means to remove it or at least did not know how to use them and consequently would never have remov'd it had not the Messiah in the fulness of Time been reveal'd to them In Him the People that walked in Darkness have seen a great Light they that dwell in the Land of the Shadow of Death upon them hath the Light shined 'T was He dispell'd these clouds which had so long hung over the Earth He enlightned the World after this long and universal Dark this black eternal Night Wherein this Enlightning the World consisted was the Second thing I propos'd to speak to which I shall do very briefly It consisted then in introducing a new State of things a State in all its parts opposite to that I have been describing in teaching the World all That is necessary for them to know of Divine things of the Nature of GOD and of Themselves in giving us just and true Notions of the Divine Providence of his Wisdom and Goodness in governing the World in laying down excellent Rules of Living well and teaching us the true nature of Moral Good and Evil and lastly in giving us a reasonable Worship worthy of Man and in some sort worthy his Creator Now the World is no longer at a loss to know what GOD is what he Requires of us and how he will be Served now we have a certain Measure of our Duty we have fixt unalterable Rules to go by we depend now no longer on our own Reason or the Authority of others we are directed by the highest Reason of the best Being by the divine and infallible Guidance of the Son of GOD. Before the World must either have follow'd the Dictates of some great Law-giver or found out the Rules of their Duty for themselves As to the former no Man ever had or could have an Authority to prescribe to the rest of the World nor was it safe he should as appears from the great Imperfections that are to be met with in the best Systemes of Human Laws nor could they find out the Measure of their Duty themselves for that requires vast Abilities capable of drawing a very long Chain of Consequences from a very few Principles and therefore if possible yet is it what much the greatest part of Mankind have neither Capacity nor Opportunity for But this is but a part only of what our Saviour has done for us to all this he has added great and precious Promises to invite us to our Duty and proportionable Threats to deter us from the contrary and that nothing might be wanting to compleat this great Redemption he hath wrought for us that no one might complain he had not all due Assistance to enable him to do what is required of him he hath graciously promised his holy Spirit to all them that call upon him O! how thankful ought we all to be for this great Goodness of GOD to us how careful not to undervalue it as some do who by a strange Ingratitude because GOD hath suffered them to enjoy the Light conclude there was no Darkness and that the World would have been sufficiently enlightned tho' GOD had done nothing of all this for them They deny the Necessity of Revelation and bring down the Sublime Perfection of the Christian Religion to that which they call Natural They can now prove to you from that all the Truths delivered in the Gospel and argue against Revealed Religion from that very Light it furnishes them with And so in truth beg the Question while to prove they don't stand in need of Revelation they produce as the Effect of their own unassisted Reason what was really borrow'd from it They distinguish not between Reason with and without the helps the Scriptures give it which yet are very different things as different as it is