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	wage_n	4,026	5	11.2119	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45343	A sermon preached at St. Botolphs Aldersgate, at the funeral of Robert Huntington, Esq., who died April 21 and was buried April 30, 1684 by Timothy Hall ...	Hall, Timothy, 1637?-1690.	1684 (1684)	Wing H443; ESTC R11203	24,130	48

Truth 1. Prop. Man in his first Creation was not made Mortal or Corruptible Adam fell into a dying condition in the day that he Rebelled against the Crown and Dignity of Heaven I know the Question is much controverted Whether Adam were made Immortal or no This were to make Death necessary before Sin which the Apostle contradicts when he writes Rom. 5. That by one mans sin death came into the World and Rom. 6.23 The wages of sin is death Death is the fruit and effect of our Disobedience and passes upon all inasmuch as all have sinned Rom. 5.12 2. Prop. All men are now subject unto death as it is poenal The first Sentence reaches all Mankind Gen. 2.17 Most men look on Death as the common lot and condition of Mankind resulting from their frail condition and the jarring and warring Principles of their composition which for want of poise destroy one another They think it belongs onely to our Natural and not at all to our Moral Capacity reckoning it to be the consequent of their Being and not the demerit and punishment of our Guilt It is very true though the principles of our Nature are subject to Dissolution yet if we had not declined from the Law of our Creation we had not inclined to the Grave or Corruption but God had made our Life commensurate with our Holiness and prolonged our Time with our Obedience But alas Death now is not more Natural than it is Poenal All Mankind is Condemned as soon as Born Life is a Reprieve and short suspension of the execution of that Sentence which in the day of Adam's Transgression was pronounced on him and his descendants And oh miserable we if we improve not this small scantling of time to sue out our Pardon and make our peace with this incensed Judge of Heaven and Earth who though he be a Serene yet withal is a dreadful Majesty and will infallibly Execute the severity of the Sentence on every Offender who doth not timely accept and comply with those Terms and Articles of Peace which in the Preaching of his Gospel are tendred to them 3. Prop. Fear and Bondage are inseparable attendants on such a sinful and poenal state It cannot be avoided but that the expectation of Death in such a condition must be very troublesome This is a strait Yoak and will pinch the Necks of all the Sons and Daughters of Adam though some wear it more easily than others This will perplex our minds raise storms within and sink us frequently into deep despondencies for we know not how to cast it off in vain are all attempts to slip the Neck out of this Collar we are unable to deliver ourselves no man can free his own Soul We are in God's Chain and it is impossible to break it all our strivings will contribute nothing to its Removal but onely gall and torment us more 4. Prop. Whatsover bitterness and gall there is in Death it is from Sin that makes it more terrible than otherwise it would be 1 Cor. 15.56 The sting of Death is sin So many Sins as thou committest so many stings thou puttest into thy Death to render it more dreadful to thee Could a man dye and have no Sin laid to his Charge though there might be some pain yet there could not be Terror in his departure out of this World Well may Death be called the Terrible of Terribles when there is not onely an apprehension of the dissolution and divorce between the Soul and Body but there interposes and starts up the guilt of many Sins which confront the Sinner and stare him in the face nay those sins that had a gaudy and tempting dress will then be strip'd of all their feigned Beauties and appear in all their dreadful Circumstances agitating and terrifying the Consciences of men with the expectation and dread of future Evils When the Sinner dare not die yet cannot live what Convulsions must there needs be in his Breast which must terrify him like the cracks of a falling House What a calm and well-natured Death might a man have far beyond that Euthanasia which Augustus wished for himself if Sin and Hell and approaching Judgment and a gnawing Worm within did not drive him into Agonies and Despair Alas when nothing is in view to him but these things and the conclusion of the whole matter will with him be nothing short of hideous Darkness and a tormenting Fire having Heat but no Light gnashing of Teeth late Remorse incurable Wounds Self-hatred and all imaginable distresses even to be hated of God and to hate him for ever He must needs turn away his Face in the anguish of his Soul from beholding such distracting Objects These things our Sins procure for us and fill our Souls with all the anticipations of Hell 5. Prop. The Death of Christ applyed by Faith is the onely Soveraign Remedy to deliver us out of this estate of Fear and Slavery Our Heavenly Elisha hath cast Salt into those bitter Waters and so healed them Death to a Believer is a Serpent without a sting He hath fortified us against these Fears two ways 1. By giving us the example of his Dying His tasting of Death before hand keeps it from being a Cup of Trembling and wonderfully will this animate our Spirits under all dejections That our Lord walked in this dark Valley before us 2. By affording us the merit and efficacy of his Death This is very operative to this purpose to consider That our Redeemer and the Captain of our Salvation undertook our Deliverance by his own Death so that now there is no Condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 For being justified by Faith in the Death of Christ they have peace with God and in themselves Rom. 5.1 Thus has Christ changed the nature of Death that it should be more desirable than dreadful to a good Man being like Josephs Chariot sent for dying Jacob to carry us to the place of our hope and desire This made the Apostle ring that sharp and shrill Note in the ears of Death and send that bold and brave Challenge to the last eneny 1 Cor. 15.55 O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Death is swallowed up in Victory It is not now so much an Outlet of Temporal as an Inlet of Eternal Life Well might the Apostle write insultingly as a man offering Sacrifice for Victory and singing a Triumphant Song while his Feet stood on the Neck of his Enemy We know now to whom to have Recourse when our Spirits droop at the apprehension of our Decease not to Saints or Angels not to the Blessed Virgin her self but to her Son who is the Lord of Life that Brazen Serpent we are to look upon when that Fiery one of Death puts out his Sting and we are sufficiently Antidoted against all the Poyson that is spit at us Thus we see the Children though they cannot escape the stroak yet they are freed from

made a man miserable before he was so Meer apprehensions of it to them whow wamed the Divine Oracles signified little to lighten their burden 2. Others supported themselves with the thoughts of necessity and inevitable fate and many such like considerations But alas tho Philosophy has been stiled animi medicina yet their Precepts in reference to comfort have been compared to the influence of the Moon which doth rather rotten then ripen in respect of the Suns influence They were ignorant of Christ the Prince of Peace of the holy Paraclete and Comforter and unacquainted with the Life of Faith They knew not how with Ignatius to invite the Cross and Fire Breaking on the Rack Quartering of Members and all the Torments that either Men or Devils could invent When the Emperor threatned St. Basil with Death O that it might come was his ready and chearful reply When Eudoxa the Empress threatned Chrysostome he sent her word Nihil praeter peccatum timeo he feared Gods wrath because of his Sins but not at all her These are the men that tread on the Lion the Asp and the Adder And that we may be enabled to do the like take these following Directions these comforts and consolations of Gods own Prescription in the Holy Scriptures which as far exceed all Philosophical Remedies as the Sun doth a Glow-worm I am constrained to be short in them and must leave it to you to blow every blossom into a Flower 1. Direct Rectify your Apprehensions and Opinions of Death Is not thy fear of it grounded upon a mistake Fears are apt to agravate evils Levis est dolor si nihil opinio adjecerit We fright our selves with Images and Idaeas of evils and dress up Bug bears and Mormoes to Torment our selves withal Christ himself walking upon the Waters was by the Disciples trembled at as a dreadful Apparition It may be thou lookest on Death as some utter Abolition and Extinction of thy Being Remember it is but a departing which thou callest a Death See how God himself stiles it to the Father of the faithful Gen. 15.15 Thou shalt go thy fathers in peace It is but a going away not a perishing and not a going to wo and misery but a comfortable going to our Fathers It is hence called the way of all the earth Josh 23.14 Christ intimates his Death under this Notion It is expedient for you that I go away John 16.7 Death is a journeying from one Region to another See in what familiar terms God conferred with Moses about his Death Deut. 32.49 50. Get thee up into this mountain and die in the mount whither thou goest up and be gathered unto thy people Death it self is so embalmed and cloathed in the Holy Scriptures that there is even a sweetness and beauty in it therefore called an uncloathing a putting off the flesh He that has wore his Cloathes long till they are foul and nasty will he not willingly strip himself to put on a fresh Suit Children fear their nearest Relations and best Friends when they appear under a disguise to them but when their Vizard is taken off they rejoice at their presence To sweeten our departure to us it is called a rest and sleep Is there any hurt in that Would not a man tired out with a long days work gladly go to bed Under these Notions we may bury all fearful thoughts of Death Our friend Lazarus sleepeth but I go that I may awake him out of sleep John 11.11 What more desirable and refreshing than a good nights rest Sleep is the Nurse of Nature the sweet Parenthesis of all our Griefs and Cares Cloathe thy Death therefore in a Scripture dress and this will help to allay the bitterness and beautifie the deformity of it Sleep is a short Death and Death is but a long Sleep The Babylonians are threatned with death under the name of a long sleep Jer. 51.57 They shall sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake saith the King whose name is the Lord of Hosts It is a Judgment to be cast into a sleep like death but a Mercy that Death is like a sleep Nay death is not a perpetual sleep A good man when he has done his work falls asleep and awakes in the great morning of the Resurrection to receive his wages Hence the Grave is call'd a Bed Isa 57.2 It is Gods Ark and Chest wherein he keeps the Bodies of his Saints and he will open this Cabinet in the great day of the Resurrection and take his Jewels out he will scowre and furbish them up again making their vile Bodies like unto the glorious body of Christ The Jews call the Grave Beth Chaiim i. e. The house of the living and when they return from the Burial of their Friends they pluck up the grass and cast it into the Air using those words of the Psalmist Psal 72.16 They shall flourish like the grass of the earth The Greeks call their Church yards Dormitories Sleeping places and the Germans say some call them God's-acre because their Bodies are sown there to be raised again Be not then daunted with the gloomy thoughts of a total dissolution no it is but a little intermission a disappearance for a while a short and sweet nap in their Beds which are warmed and perfumed for them by Christ's Body laid in the Grave with whom also they look to Rise to Eternal Life And this leads me forward to the 2. Dir. Be established in that weighty and great Doctrine of the Resurrection Soul and Body old Companions part but for a while Thou art not so sure to arise in the Morning when thou liest down at Night as thou art to awake at that day 1 Thes 4.14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him What an Antidote is this against the worst of Death That Christ who did arise from the Dead shall come again and bring all his with him in Glory These Scripture Consolations come home to the very heart which the Philosophical ones did not being in Tullies Phrase Medicine morbo imbecilliores well therefore might the Apostle call on them to chear up and comfort one another with such words of truth ver ult The Courage and Constancy of the Jewish Martyrs was such on this account that they would not accept of Deliverance in their Tortures that they might obtain a better Resurrection Heb. 11.35 The Resurrection they knew would recruit and recompence them Lucian called the Christians miserable Caitiffs for being stout to the Death in the belief of this Doctrine on the same account all wise and good people must pronounce them of all men then most happy Remember what God said to Jacob Gen. 46.3 Fear not to go down into Egypt for ver 4. I will go down with thee and I will also surely bring thee up again 3. Dir. Remember Death is the common condition and lot of all mankind Now