Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	father_n	heaven_n	miserable_a	2,524	5	10.2318	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26659	The church triumphant, or, A comfortable treatise of the amplitude and largeness of the kingdom of Christ wherein is proved by Scriptures and reason, that the number of the damned is inferiour to that of the elect / by Joseph Alford ...	Alford, Joseph.	1649 (1649)	Wing A921; ESTC R22399	57,799	139

powers of nature it could not be effected And this is it of which S. Paul so glorifieth through Christ of whom I receive my strength I am able to do all things and in this sense also we must understand the yoke of Christ to be easie and his burthen light light and easie to grace grievous and burthensom to nature C. You conjoyn and expound these things most aptly and as I apprehend our Saviour in these sayings made use of those figures which the Grecians do call an Hypocorism and an Hyperbole the one speaking of a thing with divination and extenuation the other with incredible inlargement and amplification M. Rightly observed for such extenuations are very much used in ordinary conversation and sometimes also in the Holy Scriptures as for example when Paul writing to the Romanes of the contumacy of the Jews What saith he if some of them have not believed he saith some of them when some of them onely had believed a remnant selected out of the rest and all the other as Paul witnesseth were blinded The same figure he also useth in the fifth to the Romanes For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous I doubt not but you perceive in both these places a manifest extenuation when he saith some of them did not believe and many are dead for he had said before that all were dead in Adam These things being thus clearly proved it is plain to all understanding that our Saviour in this similitude of ways and gates understood nothing of the Multitude or Paucity of such as should be saved And that you may more fully perceive that our Lord in that place of S. Matthew spake not of the life to come simply and absolutely or meant any thing of the last end of men suppose him to have said thus many shall come to destruction but few shall find life or many shall walk in that way which leads to everlasting death but few shall find the way to eternal life here the way we see is not the end And having made mention of the way he doth admonish us of our humane imbecillity and reduceth to memory our present misery that despairing of and despising our own weaknesses we might have recourse to the refuge of his goodness and clemency For who that is grown to maturity of years not to speak any thing of our impure beginnings unless afflictions compel him grace regenerate him and the Spirit of God renew him doth turn into that troublesom and unpleasant way of the cross who hath an affiance in and who is so inflamed with the love of God as being secure of the life present and that to come doubteth of nothing is solicitous after nothing who is careful of his neighbours good and goods as of his own and who is equally sensible of his losses crosses and afflictions as of his own who is so careful to honour God in the riches of his Mercy as he is industrious and plotting and toyling to inrich his own family and to enamil over a fugitive felicity yet this the Law this the Prophets this the Lord himself with strict severitie hath commanded us Thou shalt love God above all things and thy neighbour as thy self What shall I say then Is the whole Mass of mankind created to destruction and are we all excluded Heaven through the infirmitie of our nature God forbid for our Heavenly Father to all our spiritual evils languishings and relapses hath applied the medicine of his infinite Mercy for he himself testifieth of himself He sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him should be saved From hence Paul also proclaimeth it He sh●t up all m●n under unbelief that he might have mercy upon all Let us therefore 〈◊〉 out with the same Apostle Miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death and let us subjoyn also our acknowledgement with thanksgiving to him who doth deliver us saying I give thanks unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. You see now my Caelius the perverseness of their conclusion who thus argue Few ●nter in at the strait gate therefore few sh ll be saved And now you apprehend the safetie and sweetness of this conclusion Few find the way which leadeth to Eternal Life therefore God doth spread dilate and diffuse his grace otherwise mortal man must altogether inherit corruption as David saith If thou shouldst be extream to mark what is done amiss O Lord who is able to stand before thee Here now is the door opened into that large field of the mercy of God when through his benignity and their faith he conserveth the guilty That is a true saying Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Lavv to do them But this is no less true That Christ Jesus died for the ungodly and vvas made a curse for us that vve should be freed from the curse of the Lavv so that we are both accursed and blessed execrable by nature but sanctified by grace accursed in Adam but holy and happy in Christ to whom he honour and adoration for evermore C. To the Lord Christ the Authour and Life of our life be all praise and glory that by his wisdom hath brought to pass that thou hast so clearly illustrated this most difficult place that there remaineth no doubt no scruple no hesitation Now I perceive how aptly one truth agreeth with another and what a hollow and unsound reconcilement is made between truth and falshood M. If any other places of Scripture contain any appearing contrariety to this assertion name them Caelius that before dinner I may give answer unto and vindicate them C. I shall perform it with great willingness and with the best aid of my memory I shall choose such places as are most worthy of explication in this matter And first I will instance in that Parable of the Sower whereby our Lord doth insinuate unto us that a remnant onely shall be saved for as it is written in the thirteenth of Matthevv the fourth part onely of the seed did fructifie the rest perishing by divers accidents Wherefore I covet to hear what you can produce in answer to this allegation M. It is the truest and the justest office of an Interpreter to expend and consider the end purpose and intent of the Speaker This observation is necessary in all emergencies but then especially useful when we examine the sayings and Parables of our Saviour because not all can answer in every respect to the purpose of the speaker This some have attempted but with small success Let us therefore content our selves to enquire out the meaning and scope of the place for in that is contained all the doctrine and instruction that can be expected from the speaker For the similitude it self and the explication of it must be applied to the scope and intent not