Selected quad for the lemma: blood_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
blood_n	abel_n	cain_n	speak_v	1,452	4	5.5750	4	false

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

of the cry of Sodom and of the cry of the hireling's wages kept from him and here Abel's blood hath a voice that cries aloud for Justice in God's eares and as it were prefers a Bill of Indictment upon which God the just Judge immediately arraigneth Cain passeth Judgment and doth Execution upon Cain the Fratricide stamping a curse both upon his person and estate saying What hast thou done the voice of thy brothers blood cries unto me from the Ground and now art thou cursed from the earth which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brothers blood from thine hand When thou tillest the Ground it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth Now as sin hath a voice so grace hath a voice also calling upon us as for our Imitation of the vertues of the Saints departed so calling upon God for a gracious compensation of their works which follow them after death not at all by way of merit but of God's free mercy for what proportion betwixt man's works which are but temporary and therefore finite all our best works are no more and besides imperfect all and God's high reward which is Infinite both for weight and for duration to all eternity Some Interpreters add a fifth way by which Abel being dead yet speaketh to wit as a Type by his blood shed by Cain his Brother prefiguring the blood of Christ shed by his brethren the Jews And thus many ways Abel being dead yet speaketh And so all good men though dead yet speak by their good works of Faith and Patience In which blessed number this dead man before our eyes was through God's grace listed and so speaketh by his good deeds to his Generation and seems by his example to preach unto us all St. Paul's Apostolical Admonition Not to be weary of well doing for in due season we shall reap a reward if we faint not as our Christian hope is the deceased Prelate findeth it now to his everlasting comfort O how gladly would I make an end here and so come down Sorry I am that I must now pass and descend from the Literal Text to this our Real Text lying before us But 't is a Rule of Christian practice that when God hath been pleased to reveal his will by the event our humble resignation of our selves and friends and all with submission of our will to God's will is our duty and the best remedy to allay all our sorrows and to say in the words and with the spirit of Holy Job The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord which is part of our office for burial in all this Job sinned not no more should we if we would be followers of Job's faith and patience which God grant us all through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be ascribed from Angels from us and from all men all praise power Majesty and Dominion now and for ever Amen A BRIEF OF THE Life and Dignities OF THE BENEFACTIONS AND Principal Actions c. OF The Right Reverend Father in God JOHN Lord Bishop and Count Palatine of Durham c. LONDON Printed for James Collins at the Sign of the Kings-Arms in Ludgate-street 1673. THE Dead Man's REAL SPEECH BUt before we enter into this due Office of Commemoration for to preach or pray over the dead is Justa persolvere we must by way of prevention enter this solemn Protestation against this our censorious Age That we do abjure all manner of flattery passive or active being God be thanked settled above all slavish fear or base hope from the living much more from the dead Was King David a Flatterer for composing and publishing those goodly Epitaphs upon Saul and Abner who yet were no very good men or were the godly widows flatterers for shewing the Coats and Garments which Dorcas made whilst she was alive In the ensuing rehearsal our intention is and our endeavour shall be to publish nothing but vera utilia As for the verity as I am confident of the Ingenuity of my Instructors Persons of Quality and of good credit so as I said before I am convinced and confirmed of the verity of the matter by the last will a sacred thing in Law of our late Lord Bishop And as for the utility of this due office of Commemoration we commit our Meditations to Gods direction and commend them to your attention If there be any Adder that dare hiss against this dead Prelate or the liveing for giving the dead his due or shall object Was this man one in quo Adam non peccavit Was he a man all made of Vertues Had he no faults Our answer is that Proverb of Charity De mortuis nil nisi benè 't is an honest old say as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to gnaw on dead mens bones is an inhumane brutish unnatural humour Such Cannibals as do delight to feed on dead mans flesh by tearing of their Fame do take the Devils Office out of his hand Yet the Devil if one may say so was more a Gentleman more civil to Job for the Devil slander'd him indeed but 't was when he was alive and so might and did answer for himself Far be it from me to usurp the Office of a Coroner over the state of the Dead the Rule of Charity and practice of our Church in the Office for the dead have taught me better Divinity I know by experience that an evil eye looking upon the Dead through the wrong end of the perspective I mean Envy will not only spear out but also espy and that with aggravation the infirmities or faults of the dead I wish all such seriously to consider themselves and well to weigh St. James his Observation Was not Elias a man subject to the like passions as we are and yet by the Pens of the Prophets and Apostles dipt in Charity we read nothing but commendations of Elias nor of Job Ye have heard of the patience of Job not a word of his impatience tho' confessed by himself whom some think to be the Authour of the most part of that Book When I have done with the due praises of this Great Man some Shimei with his Serpents tongue may still hiss at though he can never hurt this dead man To stop all such foul mouths I wish them to reflect upon themselves and let them know that there must be faults as long as there are men and with a serious reflexion upon themselves let them fore-know that after him who lies here before us we must all every one of us be weighed in the ballance at last and for my own part I must confess I am perpetually afraid to have my share in that Article against Belshazzar I dread his Tekel that final doom Thou art weighed in the ballance and found wanting

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