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 world_n zion_n 16 3 9.0406 4 false
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A30673 Death improv'd, and immoderate sorrow for deceased friends and relations reprov'd wherein you have many arguments against immoderate sorrow, and many profitable lessons which we may learn from such providences / by Edward Bury ... Bury, Edward, 1616-1700. 1693 (1693) Wing B6204; ESTC R11343 169,821 306

There are 2 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

Heaven and Glory and of the Beatifical Vision for withou● holiness we shall never see God Let us therefore leave off sorrowing for petty Losses and Crosses and turn the whole Torrent of our Sorrow into this Channel even against our sins 4. Nay the mischief of Sin ends not here it also exposeth us to the wrath of God and makes him our Enemy that otherwise would be our closest surest and fastest Friend and did we ●now what it is to have God for our Enemy it ●ould send us trembling to our Grave for when ●is Fury is kindled it sets on fire the foundation of ●he mountains Deut. 32.22 'T is better have all ●he World to grapple with than with God if ●e frown upon us no Creature dare smile If ●e be for us who can be against us Rom. 8.31 ●f God have a Controversie with us who dare ●ake our part or move a Hand or Tongue in our Defence We cannot grapple with him he is ●oo strong for us we cannot flye from him as ●onah thought to do he will over-take us nei●her can we hide our selves from him Psal 136 ● c. We cannot struggle out of his hand ●or he is the Almighty and we but despicable Worms if he tread upon us he leaves us dead ●ehind him Before him the Holy Angels cover ●heir faces and all the Infernal Spirits tremble ●n his hand is the soul of every living thing and the ●reath of all mankind Job 12.10 If he with-hold ●ur breath we return to our Dust for we have ●o more than what he puts into us how then ●hall we contend with our Maker Can Chaff ●nd Stubble grapple with a devouring Flame One blast of his Displeasure can blow us into Hell yea Heaven and Hell and All into nothing ●nd how are we like to make our Party good ●gainst him when we cannot move a Finger ●wag a Tongue or fetch a Breath without his ●ssistance Well but let us well consider whether our Cause be good What cause hath God given us to take up Arms against him Hath he ●een a hard Master to us Or with-held our Wages Jonah thought he did well to be angry but was soon convinc'd Job had a mind to quarrel him and seems of any other to have the best Cause but when the Contest began h● soon threw down the Cudgels and lays his hand upon his Mouth Hath not God been our greate●● Benefactor and done more for us than all the World ever did or can do Is not he our be●● Friend and shall we become his profest Enemies Many good works have I done among you saith Christ for which of those do you stone me John 10.32 God gave us our Being when we had none and shall we hate him for it We were t●● Clay and he was the Potter and might have dash'd us into pieces with his foot He gave us Reason when he might have made us bruit Beasts as Dogs or Swine or more contemptible Creatures He hath given us Limbs and Senses when other● want them Peace and Plenty yea Life and Liberty and hath made our Lives comfortable to us when we deserve not the Ground we tread upon or the Air we breath in and shall we flye at the Face of God and thus requite the Lord our Maker Nay hath not Christ suffered more for us than any other hath or can do We had sold our selves Bond-slaves to Satan and neither Man nor Angel could have redeemed us out of our Slavery or have paid a Ransom sufficient for us but Christ laid down his Life to free us from the guilt of sin from the filth of sin from the Punishment due for sin from the Curse of the Law the Wrath of God the Slavery of Satan and from Everlasting Damnation And hath he for all this deserved our Malice and Hatred He hath bestowed more upon us than the World hath to bestow 't is he that sends us so many Ambassages for Peace and rains Heavenly Manna so plentifully about our Tents he gives us Promises such as the greatest Kings upon Earth cannot make and make good to their greatest Favourites as of his Spirit his Graces his Son and his Glory And is all this nothing Shall we foster sin in our Bosom that hinders us in the Enjoyment of those promised Blessings and expose us to the wrath of God and the everlasting Destruction of Soul and Body and expose us also to all Miserie 's Temporal Spiritual and Eternal God forbid Well we cannot make our Peace with God till we break our League with Sin and if God be our Enemy and our Enemy he will be if we are at Peace with Sin then we may expect he will treat us as Enemies Well may we fear that every bit of Bread we eat will choak us and every drop of Drink we drink may be our bane and that every Creature may wait for a Commission to end our days that the Floods may drown us as they did the Old World or the Fire consume us as Sodom or the Earth swallow us up as Korah and his Complices or the greatest Judgments that ever we read fell upon Mortal Man may be our Portion Oh what need had we then to leave sorrowing for other things and turn all our Tears into the right Channel that it may drown our sins that expose us to these Miseries and Mischiefs 5. Nay but this is not all for Eternal Death as well as Spiritual and Temporal is the Reward of Sin the everlasting separation of Soul and Body from God which is called The second Death and this is far greater than all the Miseries before mentioned for if the sinner be not reconciled to God which cannot be before sin be mortified he shall be cast into the Lake which burneth with fire and brimstone Rev. 21.8 This is the Natural Fruit and Effect of every beloved sin even the everlasting Damnation of Body and Soul a thousand thousand rentings of the Soul from the Body is not comparable to one renting of the Soul from Christ Sin doth that for us that all the Men on Earth and Devils in Hell could never do even pull us out of the Arms of God This threw Angels out of Heaven Adam out of Paradice and Millions of Souls into Hell This brought Death into the World and is the very Sting of Death and if this Sting be not taken out it will sting the Soul to Eternity This imbitters our Lives as you have heard while we are in the World and opens the Door to let us out of the World and will open Hell it self to let us in and is the only bar to keep us from coming out But if Sin were mortified we might with Old Simeon depart in Peace and with Ambrose say I am not ashamed to live nor afraid to dye And with Paul I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Death without his Sting is like Samson without his Hair or like the Drone-Bee without a Sting not
Blood and much ado to get with hard Labour Cloaths to their backs or Meat to their bellies or to redeem a little Time for their Souls good this must needs be an uneasie Life and many times all their pains cannot keep them out of Prisons or their Children from Beggery These Poor Men many times have when they go to Bed a bundle of Cares to lay under their Heads not much easier than a bush of Thorns and this is the Portion of many Godly Men. But Death will take this Burden from them for in Heaven there will be no racking of Rents no grinding of the faces of the Poor there will be Rest without Labour and Pleasure without Pain there is no domineering Tyrant no oppressing Neighbour these are gone another Road if Repentance prevent not to pay back those Tears with Interest they have drunk here so greedily Here is no Bond-slave or Servant to live in subjection no naked back nor hungry bellies to feed or cloath here is Nectar and Ambrosia God himself to feed upon Here in this World Fears and Cares keep Men working by Day and waking by Night but 't is not so in Heaven there neither Pains nor Cares are necessary they praise God for their Enjoyments not beg for a supply to their Wants Here the care of all the Churches are upon us as upon Paul and we sympathize with others that are in Misery as Nehemiah did and hence we can scarce open our Eyes or Ears but we let some Grief into our Hearts some Persecution or other we hear of in one part of the World or other some suffering Saints some Massacre some Oppression or Persecution which adds still to our Trouble some Friend or other in Prison their Goods seized or they ruined or those that have yet escap'd are in continual fears and expectations that it will be their condition Wars and Rumours of Wars fill us with Distractions But there are no such Disturbances in Heaven Here sometimes we fear God is removing our Candlestick and taking away his Gospel from us and leaving us up to Egyptian Darkness but this fear never troubles the glorified Saints they matter not the Pipe that can go to the Fountain The consideration also of the Divisions Rents and Schisms that are among Christians yea the holiest Men cause many sad thoughts of Heart when Ephraim is against Manasseh and Manasseh against Ephraim and both against Judah when one Godly Man Speaks Disputes and Writes so bitterly against another and are ready to dis-robe each other of their Graces But in Heaven Luther and Calvin the like we may say of other Dissenting Parties will agree one Heaven will hold that that now one Church cannot There will be perfect Love and Unity and no disagreeing Person or Party Here likewise loss in our Estates and disappointment in our Expectations or in our Affairs whether by the immediate Hand of God want of Fore-sight the carelesness of Servants or the malice of Enemies may disturb our Peace Hardship and Trouble also in our several Callings and Employments This makes us think that Part we Act upon the Theatre of the World is the hardest and most uneasie The faithful Magistrate that sets himself against the sins of the Times finds sad disappointments and the desired Reformation not attained he is ready to despond under his Burden The faithful Minister after all his hard Labour and Study to bring Souls to Christ finds not the wished Effect is ready with the Prophet Isa 49.4 to despond The like we may say of Parents Masters of Families and other Governours that do what they can to bring those under their Charge to Christ and cannot do it are ready to faint under their Burden But in Heaven all these Troubles will be over there will be no Contention in the State nor Trouble in the Church no disorder in the Family and nothing amiss in the Soul These things and many more cause our Trouble here and will do while we live but Death will prove the Funeral of our Troubles and the Resurrection of our Joys It was the rejoycing of a good Woman that was a Martyr that her Stake was put into the same hole that holy Mr. Philpot's was before her and it may be some comfort to us that we are going the same way to Heaven that our betters have gone in before us and we hope shortly to overtake them But that which makes our Lives uneasie is when God hides his Face from the Soul as sometimes he doth but in Heaven we shall never fear losing him we shall never look into the Casket and miss the Jewel we shall never see a frown in his forehead nor a wrinkle in his brow Now we find it a hard matter to wind up our Affections to God then it will be impossible to draw them off him then we shall leave all these Clogs behind us as Elijah did his Mantle when he ascended into Heaven And this is the Lesson this Providence teacheth us That our Troubles here may be sharp they will be but short the Righteous Man hath not long to suffer 5. But the Saints Happiness at Death consists not only in freedom from Evil but in the enjoyment of Good also What they are freed from you have heard what they shall meet with at Death rests to be spoken to but who can sing the Songs of Sion in a strange Land Who can describe that which eye never saw ear never heard tell of neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive of viz. the Joys that are prepared for those that love God Yet this I should speak to but seeing I have treated of this in another Book I shall be the briefer Were their Happiness only in their freedom from Misery it were no other than what bruit Beasts shall have whose Misery ends with their Life but Christ hath promised the pure in heart shall see God Mat. 5.8 which cannot be in this Life for no man can see his face and live Moses indeed by faith saw him that is invisible and some Glimpse of him a Believer may have but a clear Vision is only reserved for Heaven and by seeing God is meant enjoying him for without that the sight will bring little comfort for ought we know the Devils and the Damned may see him as Dives did Lazarus in Abraham's Bosom to their greater Torment But to see him as he is 1 John 3.2 is to enjoy him and this is the Beatifical Vision as Divines call it Yea we shall have as much knowledge of him as finite Creatures are capable of we shall apprehend him though not comprehend him for we may as well think to comprehend all the Water in the Sea in a Cockle-shell for what is finite to infinite Yet shall our knowledge of him be much enlarged for here the Apostle saith we see but in a glass but then face to face But how God will communicate himself to us we know not yet will he let