Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	believe_v	eternal_a	see_v	6,178	5	3.7252	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30019	Discourses and essays on several subjects, relating chiefly to the controversies of these times, especially with the Socinians, deists, enthusiasts, and scepticks by Ja. Buerdsell ...; Selections. 1700	Buerdsell, James, 1669 or 70-1700.	1700 (1700)	Wing B5363; ESTC R7240	90,520	247

World And this may obviate several of those ●●o●e Notions which have been of late started by Ingenious Persons That 〈…〉 and V●●● Good and Evil are laid in the Opinions and Idea's of Men or settled by some positive Injunction of the Magistrate and therefore variable with the Clime Nation Season or ●●ace rather 〈…〉 arising from the Nature and Relation of Things And this Perfection of the Moral Law receives farther Advantage from the following * See the next Discourse on St. Matthew VI. ver 10. Discourse where is prov'd That the Moral Law obliges in Heaven an Hypothesis which has been little touch'd on and which deserves to be recommended to better Hands to be manag'd up to its due Worth But to return As our Saviour did no● thus impose more than what was commanded by the Moral Law so it was very far distant from the Design of the Gospel to exact less than what was written in the Law He did not make void any of the Commands of the Law nor warrant any Action that was not authoriz'd by it in its most strict Circumstances whatsoever the Antinomians and Libertines say For Fourthly There is no Privilege in the Gospel which makes void any of the Commands of God before given Because all Duties notwithstanding the wild Fancies of the Antinomians are equally enjoin'd under the Gospel as they were under the Law and every Conscience oblig'd to a Performance of them By all Duties I mean as in the former part of the Discourse things which the Holy Men of God perform'd in order to the attaining of Eternal Life Was Faith requir'd under the Law and was Abraham Justified by that So must we under the Gospel for without Faith it is impossible to please God Were good Works requir'd under the Law So are they under the Gospel too for our Light must so shine before Men that they 〈…〉 see our good Works and glorify our Father which is in Heaven Were a clean Heart and pure Hands necessary under the Law and are they not also under the Gospel For is there not a Blessing pronounc'd to the pure in Heart and are not they the Persons that shall see God Are not the Impure and Unclean those Ac●urs'd Ones who without true Repentance● must never see Him never inherit any Blessing with Him And in order to qualify us for this Beati●i●● Vision the Apostle is very urg●●● ●lea●se your Hands ye Sinners and purify your Hearts ●● Double-minded And so concerning all other Duties and substantial Requisites of the Law which excepting the Ceremonies of i● are all still in force under the Gospel And tho' we have no Burnt-Offerings upon our Altars as the Jews had under the Law ● yet have we not Souls and Bodies which must be offer'd up to God as a lively Sacrifice holy and acceptable which is our reasonable Service Instead of Heca●om●s are we no● to render up the Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving the Calves of our Lips not of our Folds and in lieu of a Propitiatory Oblation are we not commanded to do good and distribute for with such Sacrifices God is well pleased And assuredly we have the greatest Encouragement to this Observance of the Divine Commands because Fifthly This Observance shall be rewarded with Eternal Life as it is styl'd by our Saviour This Reward surely surpasses all the Hardships of our Duty in keeping the Commands of God as will fully appear if we briefly reflect on what is meant by Eternal Life This Life shall cause the noblest Change in both the Parts of the Saints Their Bodies shall be transform'd into spiritual and incorruptible Bodies fashioned like to the glorious Body of the Son of God Their Souls shall be highly exalted to the utmost Perfection in all their Parts and Faculties Their Understandings shall be rais'd to the utmost Capacity and that Capacity compleatly fill'd Now we see thro' a Glass darkly but then Fate to Face now we know in part then shall we know even as we are known for when God shall appear we shall be like Him for we shall see him as He is in all his Robes of Glory In this Life the Wills of the Blessed shall be perfected with absolute and indefective Holiness an exact conformity with the Will of God and a perfect li●e●ty from the S●avery of Sin In this Life their Affections shall be set to an unalterable Regularity and that Regularity shall receive absolute Satisfaction And as their inward Happiness shall be thus great so shall their outward Condition be answerable freed from all Pain Misery Labour and Want blest with an Impossibility of sinning and offending God any more full of Joy and Compla●●ncy in the Vision of God This is that Life Thus shall it be done to the Men whom God delights to honour to those who have honour'd him on Earth by keeping his Holy Laws which are of Eternal Obligation But that which makes up the Perfection of their Happiness is That this their Life shall be Eternal and there shall be no fear nor suspicio● that it shall ever end For whosoever liveth and believeth in Christ shall never dye whosoever keeps his sayings shall never see Death A DISCOURSE PROVING That the Celestial Law is the same with the Moral or That the Moral Law is a Rule for the Angels and Saints to act by in Heaven being a Sequel of the former Discourse St. MAT. VI. ver 10. In Earth as it is in Heaven WHich Words as they are a Part of our Saviour's divine and matchless Prayer are a Parallel between the Performance of God's Will in Heaven and the Manner by which it ought to be comply'd with on Earth The Will the doing of which is petition'd for in the Will of God's Commands and not as some imagine of his Decrees or Providential Dispensations only as far as that may be discover'd to be a part of the Will of his Commands For the State of the Blessed who are here recommended as a Pattern to us is too happy to leave place for afflictive Providences which are the only Try●●● of any one's Compliance with the Will of God's Decrees The Performers of God's Will in Heaven who are set forth as a Model to us on Earth are not the Persons of the Ever-blessed Trinity for God is not the Doer of that Will the Doing whereof we are to pray that ours may resemble because however a Superior may lay his Injunctions upon another yet he cannot because he is no other than the Person enjoining lay any Injunction upon himself As God cannot be looked upon as the Doe● of that Will the Doing whereof we are ●aught to pray that ours may be conform d with so neither can we look upon the Heavenly Bodies the 〈…〉 the 〈…〉 and the S●●rs as such which * As Lightfoot in his Hor. Hebr. seems to affirm 〈…〉 tho' unwarily enough have fancy'd to be here intended Because tho' these Heavenly Bodies are subject to Hi● Controul as all

would make a sober Heathen blush First because the Christian Religion is only a Law for our Actions which can invite and perswade alone but cannot force an Observance And the ill Actions of Christians ought no more to be imputed to Christianity it self than the Disorders of any Persons who live under Civil or Municipal Laws ought to be charg'd upon those Laws Secondly Tho' these Persons Lives are an open contradiction to Christianity yet it does not follow but that they may be convinc'd of the Truth of it in their Minds and Understandings For we may easily see that Men are not always determin'd by the dictates of their Reason but frequently by the biass and relish of their Senses and Passions Nor can we conclude that because Persons live as if Christianity was an Imposture that therefore they are fully perswaded that it is so Farther we find that they have often Remorses and sad Reflections on their Actions which can only rise in Minds satisfy'd of the Truth of that against which they practise For only the fear of being call'd to Account hereafter can make us sorrowful and amaz'd for having done amiss here under temporal Impunity Thirdly Morality Philosophy and the noblest Institutions which ever were lie under the same blemish with Christianity For the Lives of their Professors have seldom answer'd their refin'd Rules And it is scarce possible that they should do so till Man is subtiliz'd into a pure Spirit and rescued from those Passions and Inclinations which at present checquer and discolour our Natures As to the Zeal of these Persons it is false and counterfeited if their Actions are not conformed to their great Pretensions Thirdly 'T is no just Objection against Christianity That several Professors of it embrace it not out of Reason or Conviction but out of a supine Credulity and walk blindly on in the Christian Religion only because it is the Worship of their Country For the Christian Religion does not demand any such credulous Temper of Mind from its Professors All that it requires is an Understanding free from Prejudice and which is ready to pay attention to Reason Our Saviour at the Establishment of this Religion did not desire to be believ'd on his own Testimony If I bear witness of my self says he my witness is not true He appeals to his Miracles as the most glorious Credentials of his Celestial Mission for the Works which the Father had given him to finish the same Works that he did bore witness of him that the Father had sent him These Miracles he proposes to the Examination of the Spectators and if they could discover any Imposture in them that they were perform'd by the power of Nature or of Magick as was * Celsus apud Origen p 340. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz Christum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. ab Aegypto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 afterwards urg'd then he refus'd to be believ'd He does not fix the guilt of Unbelief purely in the Jews rejecting his Religion but in refusing to pay an Assent to it after that it was made suitable to Reason prov'd out of the Prophecies of the Old Testament supported by Miracles greater than every thing but their Infidelity If I had not done among them Works which none other man did they had not had sin but now have they both seen and hated me and my Father As our Saviour so his Apostles addrest to the Reasons of their Followers in order to excite their Faiths Thus St. Paul Prove all things hold fast that which is good And that Apostle which our Saviour lov'd after a most passionate manner advises the Church Not to believe every Spirit but to try the Spirits whether they are of God So that the Christian Faith does not consist in an implicit Credulity and blind Assent but in a well-founded and rational Belief arising from just Information and exact Reasoning on Things The saving Principles of Religion indeed are few and lie in a small Compass though not within so little Bounds as the Author of The Reasonableness of Christianity and * Hobbes de Civ Relig p. 386. c. par 6. c. Dico autem alium Arti culum Fidei praeter hunc JESUM HSSH CHRISTUM hommi Christiano ut necessarium ad salutem requiri nullum c. Mr. Hobbes contend for And tho' every one ought to give the true Reasons for his Belief yet the Saving Truths of Religion in many illiterate Persons if attended with a Moral Life Humility of Spirit and Fervency of Devotion may be as acceptable to God as in the most eminent Critick in Theological Matters who can give the nicest Resolution for every thing relating to them Yet notwithstanding this every one is oblig'd as far as lies in his power to examin and try the Articles of his Religion and to be a Christian not by Education Custom or Example but by Reason and Conviction So far is Religion that is the Reform'd Religion such as was taught by our Saviour and his Apostles from encouraging a supine Credulity or blind Belief Nor is the Sceptick's Fourth Objection valid That Christianity has been propagated by God only in a small part of the World and even where it has been promulg'd it is found but an indifferent Expedient to work any such extraordinary Effects on Men's Minds as might be expected from a Religion which God himself came down from Heaven to preach and to seal with his Blood As to the first part That Christianity is only known to a small part of the World it may be reply'd First That tho' God has been graciously pleas'd to promise that he will by his good Providence so order things that the sound of the Gospel shall be heard in the uttermost parts of the Earth yet has he not limited the Time when it shall thus be universally promulg'd Secondly That it is the fault in some measure of Christians themselves why their Religion is not diffus'd among the unconverted Nations because Voyages to these barbarous Climes are only undertaken upon Motives of Interest or Prospects of Commerce without any design to promote the Truths of Religion Thirdly The Christian Religion has been communicated to almost all the Civiliz'd World Most of the Territories of the four famous Empires have had the Gospel preach'd amongst them besides other Parts more lately discover'd While good Morals and Humanity while Humility Chastity Honour and Probity flourish'd so long the Christian Religion continued but when these were de●ac'd by Violence Ambition Pride Lust and Ill-nature it was time for Religion to take her flight up to Heaven or to some more hospitable Regions upon Earth For how could she subsist when her foundation Morality was remov'd Fourthly As to those places where the Christian Religion has not been heard of God will deal with them as a God of Mercy He who lives up to the Light of his own Reason up to a true Sence of the Dignity of his own Nature