Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	aaron_n	abraham_n	moses_n	32	3	5.9593	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57640	Balaams better wish delivered in a sermon / by William Rose.	Rose, William, fl. 1647-1648.	1647 (1647)	Wing R1940; ESTC R25527	34,950	42

BALAAMS BETTER WISH Delivered in a SERMON BY WILLIAM ROSE PROV 14.32 The wicked shall be driven away in his wickednesse but the righteous hath hope in his end MAY 8. 1647. I Have perused this fruitfull and profitable Sermon on Numb 23.10 and judge it worthy to be printed and published JOHN DOWNAME LONDON Printed by R. L. for SAMUEL MAN at the signe of the SWAN in Pauls Church yard 1647. To the RIGHT WORSHIPFULL Sir EDMOND BACON Knight and Baronet Right Worshipfull IT pleasing GOD in a gracious dispensation of mercy to lay his hand of visitation upon me so as I have been disenabled to that publike function of the Ministery to which I am set apart I boldly adventured on this more publick course willing to give some testimony of my desire to do my GOD the best service I was able though with the hazard of mine own repute being never such as I fear to be a loser May it please my good GOD to accept of these my weak endevours whose glory and his Churches good be ever my ayme and may you daigne them a gracious patronage for the unweighed censures of the many I passe not much Mine own sicknesse first pitched me on this subject and while I considered your body so enfeebled through infirmities and your many years the two most certain fore-runners of approching death it emboldned mee to tender this Dedication hoping you would willingly entertain such a wish and make it yours The ship that draws water but at one leak may be repayred but when it breaks in on all sides it threatens speedy wrack when the crazed aged body is become a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lucian a living sepulchre it portends the grave is neer We are at best but of b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. ad Apoll. a days continuance and you by the blessing of GOD have lived to the evening of age to the Sun-set of mans life it is now high time to think on sleep and making your bed in the dust I am confident diviner thoughts have long since deaded your affections unto the world Length of days c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pind. Olym. Od. 1. the cleèrest witnesses of wisdom have given you experience of the Wisemans conclusion Vanity of vanities and you who in your yonger years have had a care to live well now make it your chiefe to dye so It is not the thought of your end will draw it neerer nor the meditation of death will one minute shorten your life if so who might not feare a publick odium that should move you to such a thought For You d Deus amorem viri quem diligit in animos hominum dignanter resudit Malm. de reb gest Aug. lib. 4. who by the goodnesse of GOD have lived so generally beloved cannot dye but much lamented though there be neyther solemne Funerall to rayse the pomp nor mourning women e Horat. de art Poet. ut quae conductae plorent in funere Your endeared friends the poor whose wants have been by You relieved and widows will make lamentation In that desires cannot prolong your days on earth here shall be my Amen When the set period of your life is come may you lye down in comfort rest in peace arise to glory be happy to eternity So prays Your worths true honourer and humble servant in Christ William Rose BALAAM'S better Wish Numb 23.10 Let mee dye the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his THe LORD being now about to settle Israel in the land of Canaan the lot of their inheritance which he had entayled upon them by promise to their father Abraham their Prince and Priest Moses and Aaron for tempting the LORD at Meribah and the whole number of the men of strength for their infidelity must not take possession so he wears them out by long journeys for forty yeers in the Wildernesse and consumes them by fatall wars while they were wasted Yet to make his word good to their posterity hee drived out and destroys the Amorites before S●hon and then King with Og the King of Bashan their army coasting about the Wildernesse did now verge upon the borders of Moab Balaac being somwhat surprised with feare as successe strikes dread into the hearts of adversaries casts about to secure himself Poore man had he been quiet he might have been secure but his feare which made him forecast to prevent might betray him to a future ruine The LORD had not said it Israel had no commission signed against Moab but if he will oppose himself an enemy to them he may justly provoke GOD and them against him Hee sends to the Midianites with whom hee was inleague to consult for their future safety Who together sent Elders with the Ambassadours of Balaac to Balaam on whom they so doted as if he had commanded the power of Heaven and could curse and blesse whom he pleased Foolish thoughts the mannage and order of men and their affairs is from no other but from the wisdom and order of an eternall providence who giveth victory to some and layeth the honours of other in the dust Who is pleased to reveal the purpose of his proceedings to particular men which neither yet are principalls in the successe nor any way carry on the designe though he gives them to foreknow the event To Balaam GOD gives to foresee the happy and flourishing estate of Israel under the grace of divine protection and their successe ordered by Heaven which caused him to break forth into this patheticall peroration Let me dye c. The wicked man as wicked men may have had good words in his mouth the Wizz●rd had a good wish I dare joyn with him in his prayer praying it may be with a better spirit and affection My hearty desire to Heaven shall be when I shall have accomplished as an hireling my dayes and shall return unto my dust I may dye the death of the Righteous in the mean time the LORD grant mee the guidance of his grace I may so live that my last end may be like his The text presents us with Balaams wish concerning his end of this present life and the happinesse of his future being When we shall have premised somthing of this Balaam what hee was and a word or two of the phrese of speech wee shall fall upon these three mayn quaeries of the text 1 Who is the righteous man 2. What is the difference between the death of the righteous and the wicked 3 The ultimate end of either which will fully discover unto us the reason and cause of this his desire 1 To derive his pedegree to describe his countrey to descant on his name were but a dry discourse which would have more of pomp then weight more bulk then substance I shall onely touch at his condition to term this Balnam a Prophet is a better character then the Scripture yields him which entitles him at best but a Divinour

will worship which the Lord will not approve of who as it is most meet will be served as himselfe pleases again the knowledge of sin is by the Law Rom. 7. which in the nature of an exact rule shews both what is streight and what is crooked Sin being nothing else u Peccare est tanquam lineas transilire Cic. Paradox but as it were to passe the line to transgresse that rule of equity which is the bound of all our actions According to this Law the righteous man regulates himselfe in an universall constant full and finall obedience 1 He loooks to all and every precept I love all thy commandements and all false wayes I utterly abhor Psal 119.128 2. He hath not heats of Religion but is constant in his practice he worketh righteousnesse at all times 3 He takes the commondement in the full latitude and extent and looks to the letter and to the life of the Law 4 He continues and perseveres in this obedience unto his end perfecting holinesse in the feare of God Which end will discern between the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not Mal. 3.18 Which we come to state the difference of the death of the righteous and the wicked the maine thing the Text drives at wherefore I passed the other more briefly as taking them upon a firme supposall cleerly granted this will discover the very soul of the desire and the height of the blessing of Balaams wish The carnall eye will scarce discerne the difference for as dyeth the wicked so dyeth the righteous as dyeth the foole so the wise Eccles 2.15 that is the end of all natures debt must be discharged by a dissolution and a generall guilt of sin layes all under an equall forfeiture Death passes upon all men in that all have sinned Rom. 5.12 So that death following ever upon sn and both of them being as generall as humane nature we must finde some speciall difference Hath the righteous man a better death but yet it is as questionable which is the best x Suet. in vit Iulius Caesar on all occasions when he little thought his own end to be so neere even the night before he was slain in the Capitoll prefers a sodain death y Idemin Aug. Augustus calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a good death where the z Vbi moriendi sensumceleritas abstulit Cic. deam sodamnesse takes away the sense of dying and these two great Caesars according to their desires the last of them not violent yet both of them had a sodain death this they say he prayed against that he might dye a Nec morte violenta nec immatura quod Israelitis promissum fuerat Grot. ex Gemara neither a violent nor a sodain death which was promised to the Israelites to be sure this might be a wicked mans end how sodainly doe they perish they goe down quick into hell Psal 55.15 The Moralist thought to dye well b Bene mori est libenter mori Sen. Epist 61. was to dye willingly and c Optanda mors est sine metu mortis mori Sen. Trag. such a death was to be wished as was without the feare of death The good man may with Moses on the top of Nebo even see the Land of blisse yet be loth to depart the wicked may without any comfortable assurance of Gods favour without any ravishing apprehension of future happinesse and joyes after this life be willing to leave the world the very troubles and misery he may here meet with may move the man with the burthen at his back to call for death and to embrace it d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anacr hoping that may put an end to all his evills of which otherwise he cannot apprehend how to be acquitted for there the weary be at rest Iob. 3.17 Therefore they rejoyce exceedingly and are glad when they can finde the grave vers 22. when the sorrows of death may compasse about the good and they may finde trouble and heavinesse Psal 116.3 1 From the pangs of death which that expresse of humane feare speaks in my Saviour Father if it be possible let this cup passe from me 2 From the conscience of their own infirmity 3 From the feare of divine judgements at which the Prophet trembled Psal 119.12 Good Agathon death approaching being somwhat troubled his friends about said unto him and dost thou father feare to whom hee replyed f Doroth. doct 2 I have endevoured to keepe the Commandements but I am a man and how know I whether my workes please God for other is the judgement of God and other the judgement of men Some may thinke it a happy death to depart in a full age in a calme quietly upon their beds with their friends about them to have a solemne Funerall an honourable Interment a stately Sepulcher all these may a wicked man have when the good by some unhappy accident may be taken off the waters may swallow him up or the beasts devoure him the indiscriminating sword of the enemy or the noysome pestilence common calamities may sweepe him away the fury of persecution may uncaske his soule yet this makes not the end of the one happy or the other wretched the Divine must give us some more reall difference 1 The wicked man departs this life in the displeasure of the Almighty he laboured not to please him while here he lived and he must not looke to dye in his good pleasure he would live without Law and he must perish by the sentence of the Law he may expect no mercie at his death who contemned mercie while he lived if he hath m Psal 73.4 no bands in his death he hath no comfort having no hope to rest upon but what an evill life can afford which ever ends in misery if he be taken away in his green years yet his sins are ripe if he hath filled his dayes and lives while he be an hundred years old he shall be accursed Isay 65.20 He hath heaped up wrath against the day of wrath and God takes him away as with a whirlewinde both living and in his wrath Psal 98.9 2 The wicked goe down into the inward chamber or the closet of the chambers of death Prov. 7.27 that dungeon or prison where they are fast locked up in misery and iron reserved in everlasting chains untill the judgement of the great day Jude 6. the Prophet sayes they goe down into hell Psal 55. the second interpretation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is there in chiefe their grave is hell not onely the outward courts but the very depth of hell Prov. 9.18 3 The grave hath dominion over them Psal 49.14 They sold themselves slaves under sin and now death hath power over them the first transmits them to a second death and eternall misery the worme doth not onely feast upon them but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 death feedeth or banquetteth