Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
sin_n law_n nature_n transgression_n 6,060 5 10.0236 5 true
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
A54873 A funeral sermon upon the sad occasion of the death of Mordecai Abbott, Esq. preach'd the 17th of March 1699-1700 by John Piggott. Piggott, John, d. 1713.; Abbott, Mordecai, d. 1700? 1700 (1700) Wing P2220A; ESTC R28440 25,005 96

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

7. of our Bodies return to God that gave 'em and are fix'd in a state of Happiness or Misery Had not the Apostle believ'd this we cannot imagine that he would have esteem'd Death to be gain to him or that he would have been in any strait to determine and fix his choice for present Death or longer Life for the latter would have been much more eligible if he had believ'd that his Soul at death would have been as insensible and unactive as his Body and no doubt but he would rather have desir'd to continue in this World where he had enjoy'd Communion with Christ and often seen him by a steddy eye of Faith than to be hurried out of it by Death and render'd utterly incapable of any enjoyment of his Redeemer till the Resurrection But 't is yet more evident from another Expression of our Apostle that he was very far from the Opinion or rather Dream of the Soul 's sleeping with the Body till the Resurrection His words are these We 2 Cor. 5. 8. are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the Body and to be present with the Lord. q. d. We have good courage and are well arm'd against the fears of Death being well assur'd that we shall have upon our Dissolution an immediate admittance into the Presence of our glorified Lord for the Apostle supposes not only that the Soul is capable of existing while separated from the Body and of exercising her Faculties and Powers in such a state but that so soon as she leaves the Body she shall enter into the presence of Christ and behold his Glory But I pass on and shall briefly represent the force of the Apostle's Arguments against immoderate Sorrow for the dead The first of which is taken from the nature of their Death who die in the Lord 't is describ'd by the soft Character of a Sleep which as you have heard refers only to the Body Now the death of the Righteous may be thus set forth on the following accounts 1. Because the Body is then eased of all its Pains and freed from all Fatigue and Toil to which it was expos'd while animated with the Soul And therefore as Death is compar'd to Sleep so the Grave is compar'd Isa 57. 2. to a Bed where the righteous are said to rest In this Life the best of Men are frequently made uneasy by acute Distempers and corroding Pains and Death is frequently sought for because Life is a burden You that have frequently visited the Chambers of the sick cannot surely have forgotten the sighs of those Prisoners who have groan'd upon Beds of Down as if every part of their Bodies had been violently extended on a Rack It would be endless to reckon up the vast number of Diseases that affect the Children of God in this World for being tainted with original Sin as well as the vilest of the People they may expect the same Distempers and tho they tarry here but a few days they are ordinarily full of trouble and if their Bodies are not often indispos'd yet thro the Malice of Enemies and the Miseries and Unkindnesses of their Friends they are frequently made to bow towards the Grave before they drop into it For indeed the best of our earthly Comforts have their hidden stings but they shall give us no more pain and uneasiness after we are fallen asleep in Job 3. 17 18. Jesus For in the Grave the wicked cease from troubling there the weary be at rest there the Prisoners rest together they hear not the voice of the Oppressor 2. In Sleep no labour is expected from the Body so when Believers are overtaken with a mortal slumber Christ expects no Service from their Bodies While the Soul continues united to the Body we are oblig'd to yield the Members of the one as well as the Faculties of the other Rom. 6. 13. as Instruments of Righteousness unto God but in a state of separation there is expected neither Service nor Suffering from the Body So that while we continue on the Stage of this World the Advice of the wise Man is very proper Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do do Eccles 9. 10. it with thy might for there is no Work nor Device nor Knowledg nor Wisdom in the Grave whither thou goest All our vital and animal Operations shall cease when our Spirits return to God and our Bodies are reduc'd to Dust The one is fix'd in an unalterable state of Happiness or Misery and the other put into an incapacity for Action A middle place betwixt Heaven and Hell for departed Spirits is a groundless Imagination for it could not be said with truth that such as die in the Lord rest from Rev. 14. 13. their Labours if they were to pass into a refining Fire equally tormenting in degree but not in duration with that of Hell as those of the Roman Faction assert Therefore let us rather attend to the words of our Lord and follow Joh. 9. 4. his Example I must work the Works of him that sent me while it is day the night cometh when no Man can work 3. Death to the Righteous is disarm'd of its sting and being alter'd in its nature it may sutably be set forth by the notion of Sleep St. Paul tells us that 1 Cor. 15. 56. the sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law Death receives its destroying Power from Sin and Sin from the Law Sin being a Transgression of the Law which discovers its odious nature and denounces Damnation for it But Death approaches Believers without its sting Christ having yielded an indefective Obedience to the Law and suffer'd the penalty of it in the room and stead of Believers Hence says the Apostle There is therefore now no condemnation Rom. 8. 1. to them which are in Christ Jesus Christ hath redeem'd 'em from the Curse Gal. 3. 13. of the Law being made a Curse for ' em And the Apostle represents Believers as triumphing over Death in such terms as these O Death where is thy Sting O Grave 1 Cor. 15. 55 57. where is thy Victory Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Christ has remov'd the scandal of Death by dying and perfum'd the Grave by lying in it and passing through it 4. The Death of the Righteous is compar'd to a Sleep on the account of what shall follow thereupon for as men do awake after Sleep so they shall revive after Death as we are assur'd by a very remarkable Prophecy Hos 13. 14. and Promise I will ransom them from the Power of the Grave I will redeem them from Death O Death I will be thy Plagues O Grave I will be thy Destruction repentance shall be hid from mine eyes In which words we must consider the Prophet as personating of Christ and uttering the Triumphs of a mighty Conqueror which contain a glorious Promise