Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
sin_n dead_a death_n trespass_n 4,131 5 10.6204 5 false
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
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

There are 3 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

most men doat so much because they have no care for nor hope of a better life 2. The state of a Life after Death that is the Life of Glory implied in these words He speaketh for Speech is the evidence of a living man Ergo Abel though dead in the Body yet is still alive in the Spirit The first is a Corrosive to the state of Nature but the Second comes in as a Cordial to all those who are in the state of Grace This Text appears much like the Israelites Guide in the Wilderness 't was a Cloud and that no ordinary Cloud but such a Cloud as was Dark on the one side and Light on the other side dark towards the Egyptians but Light towards the Israelites Even so is Death dark and sad to the Unbelievers and Impenitent but lightsome and welcome to all true Penitents and Believers 1. To begin with the first The state of Death Man in the state of Innocency was created capable of three Lives the Life Corporal Life Spiritual and Life Eternal The first is the Life of Nature a Transitory Life The second is the Life of Grace a Life permanent upon condition of perseverance in uniform obedience to God The third is Life Eternal the Life of Glory the Life of the Saints Triumphant of the Elect Angels yea the Life of God himself and therefore a Life immutable interminable 2. Two of these three Lives the Life natural and spiritual man had then in present possession and the third in a sure reversion after the expiration of but one Life and that a short one too but a span long this present life is no more by King David's just measure Behold thou hast made my days as it were a span long 3. Man by his Apostasie from God through the first original sin of willful incogitancy and through pride did soon deprive himself of all these three Lives at once and so according to the just sentence of God pronounced upon man aforehand for a fair warning Morte moriêris Thou shalt die the Death man was justly precipitated from that high state of Innocence into the base and damnable state of sin and misery whereby every man none excepted but the God and man Christ Jesus is now by original sin become subject to a threefold Death First Corporal Secondly Spiritual and thirdly without Repentance Eternal The first is Death Corporal which is a total but not final separation of the Soul from the Body the sad Real Text before our Eyes The second is Death Spiritual a far worse kind of death a state of sin which is a separation of the soul from the Grace and Favour of God which is life it self without which we are all by nature dead in trespasses and sins Children of wrath no better The third and worst of all is Death Eternal and therefore called in Holy Scripture The great Death the second Death because it is a final total and eternal separation of both Soul and Body from the Glorious Presence Beatifical Vision and admirable and unspeakable Fruition of God himself whom as to serve here on Earth is the Life of Grace so to enjoy in Heaven is the Life of Glory which is life everlasting 4. The first of these three Death Temporal none of us can avoid die we must die we shall God prepare us all for it But as the thing Death is certain for the matter so for the manner how we shall die in or out of our wits as in Frenzies c. where we shall die amongst Friends or amongst Foes when we shall die whether in youth or in old Age how we shall die whether by a suddain violent or painful Death which God in mercy avert from us all none of us all knows and therefore our best course is while we may by a lively faith timely repentance and real amendment of life to prepare for Death and then come Death in what shape it will and welcome we shall not die unprepared Yet it concerns us all frequently and seriously to think of these great Quatuor novissima Death Judgment Heaven and Hell 'T is Moses his passionate wish O that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end Since 't is appointed for all men once to die and after that comes Judgment The Vulgar Translation renders it statutum est Death is an universal Statute Law to all mankind and so it is both for authority of coaction and certainty of execution for it is grounded upon two of the greatest Attributes of God which are First God's infallible Truth for the Commination was directed unto man and that also in mercy to forwarn him that he might not sin Secondly God's exact Justice which requires the execution of the Divine Sentence to be done upon the same nature that had sinned Man did sin therefore man must suffer that is man must die and because the first man Adam was the Original Root and General Representative of all mankind Adam's off-spring therefore all men must die pray God we all may die well or if they live to the end of the world yet they must suffer a Change at the least at the last which Change whatever ever it be for 't is a Mystery will be equivalent to a Death so that there lies an universal necessity to undergo a Death some kind of Death In the Antient Register of the Macrobii those long liv'd Patriarchs Adam liv'd 930 years and he died Methuselah the longest liver of all Mankind lived 969 years and he died c. that is the burthen song of them all Neither Methuselah the antientest nor Sampson the strongest nor Solomon the wisest of men could exempt themselves from the fatal necessity of Death Seneca himself though but a Heathen Philosopher being ignorant of the original cause of Death yet observing the generality of the event of Death drew his Topick of Consolation to his Friend Polybius sad for the Death of his Brother from this necessity of Death But God be thanked we Christians have better Topicks of Comfort for the Death of our Christian Friends past or our own Death a coming by opposing through Faith against the terrour of our Dissolution by Death the consideration of our admirable and comfortable conjunction with Christ our Head after Death This glorious state is by St. Paul styled the manifestation of the Sons of God for which by a natural instinct the whole Creation groaneth with an earnest expectation of the accomplishment The word in the Original is very significant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which betokens the looking for some Person or thing with lifting up of the Head or stretching out their Necks with earnest intention and observation to see when the person or thing looked for shall appear as a poor Prisoner condemned looks out at the Grates for a gracious Pardon And if the Creatures inanimate c. do so earnestly
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
the Bread only dipt he answered No but he would receive it in both kinds according to Christ's Institution and being through weakness lifted up into his Chair and having a violent pain in his head for the ease whereof it was fast bound he would needs have it all undone and sit bare-headed and so he received it an hour and a half before his death from the hands of Mr. William Flower his Lordships Domestical Chaplain 3. And when being so near unto death he could not kneel he then devoutly repeated often that part of the penitent Prayer of King Manasses Lord I bow the knee of my heart 4. Having often reiterated his Invitation of Christ in the words of the Spirit and of the Church Lord Jesus come quickly His last act was the Elevation of his hand with this his last Ejaculation Lord wherewith he expired without pain according to his frequent prayer to God That he might not dye of a suddain or painful death such was his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Augustus his wish and I pray God for every one of us that from heart and mouth our last breath may prove like that of our late Bishop Amen His Burial The Ecclesiastical Office was solemnly Celebrated by the Right Reverend Father in God Guy Lord Bishop of Bristol The Political Offices were performed decently and in order which was in all publick actions the method of our late Lord Bishop when living and the same he enjoyed at and after his death the particular Narration of which I do civilly recommend to those Dunmviri the worthy Heralds for the Funeral pomp was very solemn who did constantly attend his late Lordship's state at London and all the way to Durham and there and at Auckland the place of his Rest where requiescat in pace and from thence God send him a joyful Resurrection at which prayer none but ignorant or malicious men will take offence for the meaning is no more but that the dead may enjoy a happy Re-union of the Soul with the body at the general Resurrection and a final and full consummation of both in bliss and after the utter abolition of sin by death a blessed conjunction of us that survive with them that are dead which is the Orthodox sence of our Office at Burials the ancient sence of the Primitive Church when we pray over the dead whose Souls in Christian Charity we hope are past the necessity of our Prayers for their Relief or Release from any imaginary first Pagan after Popish Purgatory The Summ of all The Text and Sermon is a dead mans real speech To hear a dead man speak now were such a Prodigy as would certainly both stir up attention and strike amazement into us and all the hearers yet that Great Chancellour of Paris John Gerson relates a strange History which happened about the year 1060. at the Funeral of a Grave Doctor there a man otherwise reputed for the strictness of his life at the interring of whom when the Priest came to the then used form R●sponde mihi or answer me the Corps sat upright in the Biere and to the amazement of all there present the first day cryed out Justo Dei judicio accusatus sum At the Just Tribunal of God I am accused and so laid immediately down in its first posture the astonished Company deferring the burial till the next day when the dead man with a hideous noise cryed out again Justo Dei judicio judicatus sum By the just judgement of God I am judged whereupon the burial was deferred a day longer and the dead man rose up the third time and cryed out his last Justo Dci judicio condemnatus sum By the Just judgement of God I am condemned whereat as the whole company was sadly affrighted so Brimo then an Eminent Doctor in the same University being effectually affected calling his Scholars together retired from the world and as the manner of those Times was then became the Founder of the Order of the Carthusians A strange Prodigy and a loud warning-piece to us all living to admonish us not to confide much less presume upon our outward Righteousness for I dare not deny Historical Credit to this premised Relation from John Gerson But blessed be God dead Abel in the Text and the dead Bishop on this Hearse speak better things This Hearse is now our Bishop's Throne or his Pulpit and so our Bier must be the last Pulpit of us all of the Clergy high and low all must come to this God knows how soon I may be the next God send us all an happy Nunc dimittis of which we may live and dye assured if we imitate them for they being dead yet speak and as you have heard at large do preach unto us all Faith Hope and Charity the only strait way to Heaven all evidenced by their works of Piety which if not imitated by us may justly rise up in judgement against us To Recapitulate and summ up our Bishops Vertues under three Heads I will remind you with 1. His Intellectual 2. His Moral 3. His Theological Vertues 1. As to his Intellectual Vertues his Natural understanding he was endowed with a sound understanding which he enjoyed to the last a great blessing for though for the outward manner of death all things come alike to all and there may be one event to good and bad both may lose their understanding at their latter end through the malignity or vehemency of some acute sicknesses which should teach us all in health to make good use of our understandings yet for a man to dye sanâ mente or in his right wits is a great comfort both to the dying party and to the surviving friends 2. His acquired learning witness his writings fore-mentioned and his diligent researches into the magazine of the best Antiquity I may truly say Here lies now dead before us one of our Chief Ritualists 3. He was punctual in his Methods for to my knowledge he loved Order in his Studies and Functions and he often repeated and generally observed the Apostles Canon Let all things be done decently and in order He was so exact in putting in practice the Discipline of our Church that he strictly enjoyned according to the Rubrick the daily Publick Offices of Morning and Evening Prayer within the Churches of his Diocess which since the decay of the Primitive Devotion of daily Communions in the old Christianity is instead of the Juge Sacrificium of the Jews the daily sacrifice of a Lamb Morning and Evening And 't is both our sin and shame that since God is graciously pleased under the Gospel to spare our lambs we Christians should in requital grudge our good God except in case of real necessity the Calves of our lips to praise him daily in the publick Congregations Without vanity I have through Gods providence travelled and taken an impartial survey of both the Eastern and Western Churches and can assert upon