Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	adam_n	sin_n	sin_v	19,442	5	9.9710	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42350	The Christians labour and reward, or, A sermon, part of which was preached at the funeral of the Right Honourable the Lady Mary Vere, relict of Sir Horace Vere, Baron of Tilbury, on the 10th of January, 1671, at Castle Heviningham in Essex by William Gurnall ...	Gurnall, William, 1617-1679.	1672 (1672)	Wing G2258; ESTC R10932	62,221	185

which imports the hardest of labour Negotium quod nos caedit quasi vires frangit saith an Etymoligist and this we may conceive to pre-occupate an Objection of such that could be willing to do some work but afraid of meeting with too much labour Secondly Here is the reward that sweetens this labour and may make the Christian more easily submit unto it For as much as ye know your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. In which first here is the certainty of the reward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 knowing or ye know your labour is not in vain It is not an uncertain surmise taken up by a self-flattering hope from some easie ground of a weak fortassis or may be but ye know it upon infallible grounds ye doubt no more of the being of another World where God will reward his faithful labourers then ye do of the being of this which you see with your bodily eyes and live at present in Here you know it though here you do not receive it Secondly the transcendency of this reward 't is a great reward as well as sure For there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this Phrase an elegant figure in Rhetorick wherein more is meant than is spoken the words sound low but the sense is high You shall not lose your labour that is you shall be infinite gainers by it you shall receive a reward greater than now you can conceive Thus in our own Language we are wont to speak when we would make one willing to do a work we set them about we 'll say to him you shall not repent doing of it you shall not be a loser or work for nothing in which we intend more than we express that it shall redound to his great advantage Thus here under this expression your labour is not in vain is intended no less than Heaven that exceeding great and eternal weight of glory which no tongue of men or Angels can express how great it is First of the first the nature or quality of the Christians work his work is a labour and so will every one find it that means to be faithful in doing of it Man is born to labour and the Christian is not born again to be idle God sends not his servants into the World as a Play-house but Work-house and such a work it is which he appoints them as is not an idle mans business that may be done sitting at his ease on the chair of sloth but requires his greatest pains and diligence therefore Christianity is in Scripture compared to the most toylsom imployments is it a labour to run a race which strains all parts of a mans body what is it then to run this spiritual race which is every step of the way up-hill and straineth not legs and lungs as the other doth but faith and patience which is a harder exercise Is the Husbandmans work laborious to plow up his stiff ground and with many a weary step to go sowing his heavy land especially in a wet season what then is the Christians labour who is to plow on the Rock to break up an heart by nature harder than stone and whose whole life is a wet seed-time he living in a Valley of tears Is the Souldiers work laborious and hazardous who must be content to lye hard and fair hard and which is more prepare for hard blows and knocks yea wounds and death it self then the Christians cannot be easie who must deny himself and take up his Cross and follow Christ and that cheerfully amidst all his losses and crosses For this Captain non amat gementem Militem loves not a Souldier that followeth him groaning and grumbling But for the further clearing and amplifying this point it will not be amiss to descend to some particulars to discover what it is that makes the Christians work so laborious and difficult and in the next place why God hath charged Religion with so much labour and so many difficulties First of the first The vast circumference of his duty the more strings an Instrument hath the more art is required to handle it well the larger the Field is the more labour it will cost him that is to Till it in a word the greater the Servants charge is and the more business which lies upon his hánds the more care is needful to tend it and where the care must be great the labour cannot be little because care is it self one of the greatest labours O how great then is the Christians labour whose care and duty has no less compass than the commandment of God which is of such vast comprehension that the Psalmist who saw an end of all perfections could see no end of it Psalm 119.96 I have seen an end of all perfections but thy commandment is exceeding broad The Commandment here includes both Law and Gospel and the Christians duty extends to yea diffuseth it self over both First the Law Moral this is bound upon the Christian in point of duty to make it his rule as strictly as it was upon innocent Adam himself though not upon such strait conditions and dismal consequences The Christian is bound to it upon peril of contracting sin though not of incurring death and damnation the Christian hath no more liberty to transgress the Law than Adam had though he hath a promise of pardon upon repentance when he hath sinned which Adam had not how indeed can we imagine that Christ who was made a curse for sin would come to be a cloak to sin now is it an easie work for the Christian to keep his heart in a sincere compliance with and respect to this Law in his daily walking a Law which is so large as reacheth from Heaven to Earth commanding us to keep a conscience void of offence to God and Man a Law so pure and precise that forbids all sin omissions of good as well as commissions of evil that indites him for a Murderer that doth not feed his Brother yea his Enemy as well as he that stabs him to the heart him that doth not pray to God as well as him that doth curse him the barren Heath without good fruit as well as the Dunghil-life of the profane sinner filled with the stinking weeds of gross crimes that condemneth sudden passions as well as deliberate sins that bindeth the soul to its good behaviour as well as the hands Is it an easie thing to hate every false way to be ready to every good work to have respect to every Command which yet he must have that will not be put to shame Psal 119.6 willing in all things to live honestly Yet this he must do that will keep a good conscience Heb. 13.18 is not here enough to fill the Christians head with care and his heart continually with an holy fear and trembling But this is not all his work for secondly the Evangelical Law is also bound upon the Christian the sum of which the Apostle gives us in