Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	adversity_n	find_v	great_a	42	3	2.1018	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52803	A chrystal mirrour, or, Christian looking-glass wherein the hearts treason against God and treachery against man, is truely represented, and thoroughly discoursed on and discovered : whereby the soul of man may be dressed up into a comeliness for God ... / published for publick good by Christopher Nesse ...	Ness, Christopher, 1621-1705.	1679 (1679)	Wing N445; ESTC R31077	117,479	262

2. to open blind eyes Isa 42. 6 7. by the Preaching of the Gospel Act. 26. 18. 2 Cor. 4. 4 5 6. Revel 3. 18. accordingly Christ in faithfulness to his Commission from the Father healed the blind-man whom they brought to him and besought to touch him Mark 8. 22. Christ himself became a leader of the blind he himself took the blind Man by the hand v. 23. which he might have commanded to be done by some other but he did it himself as holding it an honour yea a pleasure to do a Man in misery any office of courtesie and Christ leads him out of the Town as unworthy of the favor of being witness of so great a work of Mercy v. 23. 26. There he touches his blind eyes the first time and made him see Men as Trees v. 24. then he touches him the second time and made him see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 procul dilucidè longè latéque all things clearly v. 25. All which shews that you may expect the same kindness from Christ according to his Commission for your Spiritual Illumination and this he doth for you gradually and not all at once when you can but darkly discern the Plague and Leprosie of your heart in the Looking-glass of God at the first you must come believingly to him again till you see all clearly 10. The second Encouragement The poor and rich are alike welcome to Christ for while he was going along with the Ruler to heal his dying Daughter he neglected not the poor afflicted Woman that had not one half-penny left her wherewith to help her self Mark 5. 22. 26. no doubt but Jairus the Ruler of the Synagogue could have wished the poor Woman farther off at this time than to be within reach and touch of Christ because she hindred his Saviour from hasting to his Daughter that was hasting to the very point of death but this sweet Providence to the poor Woman must come in as a Parenthesis for the exercise of the Rulers Faith and Patience his Daughter must be dead outright the poor Woman must be healed and he confirmed thereby ere his desire be accomplished that God may be glorified in all and that it might be made manifest that Christ was no respecter of Persons Act. 10. 34. not regarding either Wealth or Wisdom Sex or Countrey c. which outward things neither help nor hurt neither please nor displease him but as they are found in a good or in a bad person otherwise they are insignificant Cyphers without a Numerical figure Grace in Rags is as acceptable to Christ as Grace in Robes 11. The third Encouragement is That which separateth from the Congregation of God and from Communion with Men doth not separate from Christ but rather driveth to him as the filthy issue did this poor Woman she had a legal Uncleanness upon her and therefore was to be separated both from touching and from being touched by any Levit. 15.7 11 19 25. neither of those could be done without Levitical pollution yet adventures she to draw near to Christ that she might touch him she touches Christ and had a blessed success Thus must you do though your way hath been before the Lord as the uncleanness of a removed Woman Ezek. 36. 17. yet will he have pitty for his Holy Name v. 21 22. He will pitty you for his own Names sake when he cannot do so for your sake and in that very Month of your filthiness find you Jer. 2. 23 24. though he find you in your Blood he will not leave you so but makes that time your time of love and biddeth you live when in rigour of Justice he might bid you dye even to all eternity Ezek. 16. 4 5 6 8. Oh be of good comfort the Master calleth you Mark 10. 49. Draw nigh to him in duty and he will draw nigh to you in mercy Jam 4. 8. Sanctifie him in your Approaches Levit. 10. 3. and he will satisfie you with his Salvation Psal 91. 16. The Lepers that were separated from the City for their Leprosie could say one to another Why sit we here until we dye 2 Kin. 7. 3 4. and Esther said I will go unto the King and if I perish I perish Esth 4. 16. though it was not according to the Law for her to do so yet found she favour and sweet success Esth 5. 2. But sure I am 't is according to the Gospel that you should draw nigh to Christ who holdeth out his Golden Scepter for you to touch it 12. The fourth Encouragement is Though all other means and men fail you yet Christ will not fail you Thus the Woman had spent all that she had upon Physicians which had all failed her Mark 5. 26. and had proved Jobs miserable comforters to her who instead of lightening her burden had loaden'd her more they were Physicians of no value that mistaking her disease had applyed Corrosives instead of Cordials and through want of skill it may be though there might be a good intent they had almost killed her and not cured her Job 13. 4. 16. 2. Then when all failed Christs holy hand is reserved for a dead lift and faileth not when the Psalmists flesh and heart both failed yet his God never failed Psal 73.25 26. When he was ready to swoon away in himself having a death upon his helps and a damp upon his hopes then the joy of the Lord was his strength Neh. 8. 10. God was the Rock of his Heart whence flowed his Spiritual joy that same precious commodity which no good can match and no evil can over-match you shall never find failing in him that yet forgives your failings Psal 89. 33. Isa 54. 7 8 9 10. Deut. 31. 6. Josh 1. ● Hebr. 13.5 'T is five times over in Scripture 13. The fifth Encouragement is Though your issue of sin be an old issue and that flux of filthy matter hath been long upon you eve● from a Child as before though you had i● twelve years as the Woman had hers or twenty thirty yea forty years yet may you come with hope of Cure to Jesus Christ his Name Jesus ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sano signifies an healer and he is a none-such Saviour yea for None-such Sinners even a Manasseh in the old Testament found healing mercy with and from him whose issue had run long and the filthiest matter imaginable below that sin unto death for he had been first a defyer of God secondly he had been a Murderer of Men and thirdly he had been a Worshipper of Devils 2 Chro. 33. 1. 12. When the Rod spake he heard it as Mic. 6. 9. who would not hear the word v. 10. Adversity whips many a Soul to Heaven which otherwise prosperity had coached to Hell and a Mary Magdalen in the New Testament found healing mercy from Christ out of whom he had cast seven Devils Mark 16.9 As a Woman had first brought in death to wit Eve so this Woman

5. 6-9 unto chance 1 Sam. 6. 9. For Chance is a Scripture-word Eccles 9. 11. Luke 10. 31. And 't is said Ruth 2. 3. that her hap hapned Hebr. to light in Boaz's field this was a mere chance in respect of Ruth who being a stranger knew not whose field it was yet was it ordered by a sweet and secret Providence of God in order to her Marriage to Boaz afterwards That which is to us but casual and contingent is yet by God Almighty both fore-appointed and effected That which is Casualty to man is no other than Counsel to God and what is Chance to the ignorant man is no less than the Lord to religious Job chap. 1. 21. The Lord giveth and taketh All Chances and Changes are as much in God's hand as is Time it self Psal 31. 15. Psal 91. 10. No evil shall chance unto thee So this Chance may be understood in a way of subservieney and subordination to Gods Providence Yet to ascribe evil to Fortune is far worse as if she were a Goddess and ordered all things both good and evil We do not finde that the very Philistims in the place before-quoted while they dreamed of a Chance did worship this Fortune as a Goddess Neither was she ever held to be so Hesiod mentions her not in his Theogonia till Homer made her so giving her a Soveraignty over all humane Affairs and the succeeding Poets that are said to lick up his Spewings say Sed te Nos facimus Fortuna Deam coelóque locamus Juvenal Satyr 10. 5. The third Discovery is Your heart will deceive you in making you to look more at the stroak that is given you than at God who strikes it Not much unlike the Dog that runs at the stone which is thrown at him but mindes not the hand that throwes it Oh! how prone is poor man to snarl at and quarrel with that tryal and trouble that is sent to afflict him saying to it Art thou come to torment me before the time as Matth. 8. 29. and many times may curse it whereas he should chiefly curse his Sin which is the procuring cause of his Misery You may pore too much upon the matter of your Affliction and too little upon both the Procuring and the Efficient Cause thereof your own sin is the former that sends for it and God's Justice against your sin is the latter that sends it Hence it is that we cannot say to our affliction as Laban said to Abraham's servant Come in thou blessed of the Lord thou art welcome Gen. 24. 31. Thou art Gods Angel or Messenger wherefore standest thou without I know that when thou hast delivered thy Message and done thy Errand thou wilt be gone and stay no longer and though thou be like a froward Guest at an Inne that is displeasing enough while he stays there yet pays nobly for all at parting may you be but able to do thus then you Accept of the punishment of your Iniquity as God saith Levit. 26. 41. then do you kiss the Rod yea and the Hand too that lays it on As the Scholar on his Death-bed did his Masters hand crying Istae manus me ad Paradisum portant Those very hands that have given me blest correction helps me to Heaven Your heart will deceive you if you look not beyond your Affliction at Gods faithfulness in your Affliction saying with David I know that out of thy very faithfulness O Lord thou hast afflicted me Psal 119.75 as if he had said Lord thou hadst not been faithful to my Soul without afflicting my Body 6. To ascribe any thing whether good or evil to fortune is the grand overthrow of all true Piety as it is an Atheistical debasing of Divine Providence Cicero himself acknowledges that it was ignorance of the Causes of things that brought in the names of Nature Chance and Fortune as if all things were either from themselves which is called Nature or Chance or only so disposed by Fortune this fictitious goddess and not by the true God that orders all from the highest Angels to the lowest worms Augustine argues excellently How can this goddess Fortune be sometimes good and sometimes evil Is it saith he because when she is evil she is no more a Goddess but is turned suddenly into a malignant Devil De Civitat Dei lib. 4. cap. 18. Sir Walter Rawleigh calleth Fortune the God of Fools a Goddess which is most reverenced when good but most reviled when bad of all other Poetical Gods or Goddesses though Hesiod who told the birth and beginning of all those counterfeit Deities hath not a word of Fortune yet after Homer had made her the Daughter of Oceanus or of the Sea as if she had her Ebbings and Flowings like it she grew so great with the blind world as to be accounted Omnipotent insomuch as all the concerns of Men even from the highest Prince down to the lowest Peasant were but Fortunae ludus ludibria the very sport and pastime of Fortune tossing them like a Tennis-ball up and down hither and thither at her pleasure abasing Wisdome by making the possessors of it miserable and advancing Folly for Fortuna favet fatuis Fortune favours fools by making the owners of it prosperous and successful This made the great but ignorant Demetrius cry out Oh Fortune thou hast exalted me and thou the same now goest about to destroy me A●rel Vict. de Pertinace Yet among all the Philosophers I finde Plato most Divine in this point saying Nothing ever came to pass under the Sun whereof there was not a just preceding Cause 7. But Philip M●lancton saith more plainly Quod Poetae Fortunam id nos Deum appellamus that which the Heathen Poets call Fortune we know 't is no other than God and his Providence as Exod. 21. 13. God hath delivered him into his hands that is Divine Providence gives up some men to be slain for some secret sin neither repented of nor punished by the Magistrate by some extraordinary casualty the Hebrews therefore use the name of God where others use Fortune because what men think to be done by Fortune is indeed done by the Providence of God though a man be killed at unawares as Deut. 19. 5. or by an errour or mistake Numb 35. 11. yet it is Gods Providence that it should be so for he is the Lord of our lives and we are guilty of death by sin Rom. 6. 23. whereby we make frequent forfeitures of our lives and 't is therefore the Lords great mercy that we are not ever and anon destroyed Lam. 3.22 Homo proponit Deus disponit man purposeth to knock down a tree but God disposeth of his stroke so that he knocks down a man the very slipping of the Axes head from the helve or handle is the work of God disponit Deus membra pulicis culicis God orders the very bitings of gnats and flyes saith Austin even Lottery is guided by Providence Prov. 16.

must be the first witness of Christs Resurrection you may not then despair of healing Mercy 1 Tim. 1. 13 15. Omnipotenti Medicio nullus insanabilis occurrit morbus to an Almighty healer no disease can be found incurable Jehovah Rephekah I am the mighty God that healeth you Exod. 15. 26. If he will he can make you whole Matth. 8. 2. 14. The sixth Encouragement is That he certainly will do it he will assuredly heal all those that come to him humbly and touch him believingly as the woman with the issue did for first Christ never sent any such away unhealed while he was on Earth and secondly he hath now more power and love rather than less that he is in Heaven a glorified Christ in his state of exaltation must needs be a fully accomplished Saviour for poor sinners if he were so sweetly qualified to heal all that ever came to him for healing while he was in the form of a servant and in his state of Humiliation This poor Woman comes trembling to Christ but goes away triumphing from him Faith in Christ finds a sweeter welcome than it can expect Christ turns himself towards touchers as he did towards her that came behind him Matth. 9. 22. May you but find a praying heart he will undoubtedly find a pittying heart put in for a share of Mercy as she did with Jairus while Christ is dealing Mercy 15. Finally seeing your heart is naturally an evil Treasure and Fountain and hath the issues of death not of life Prov. 4. 23. in it as there is saltness in every drop of the Sea and bitterness in every branch of the Worm-wood so there is sin in every action of the unrenewed Heart Omnis vita infidelium peccatum est saith Augustine The whole life of an Unbeliever is sin whatsoever an unclean person touched though it were holy flesh Hag. 2. 12. it was unclean so every action of such his very plowing and praying is defiled with sin all his works are dead works be they for the matter of them never so praise-worthy as not flowing from a principle of life within As the fountain casteth out its bitter waters so the heart doth wickedness Jer. 6. 7. 't is the stews of unclean the shambles of bloody the shop of couzening and a very forge or mint of all sinful thoughts 't is the source of sin a very Seminary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and seed-plot of all iniquity as in the first Chaos Gen. 1. 2. c. there were the Seeds of all created things so there is in the heart the seeds of all folly vanity and villany in that Sea is not that great Leviathan the Devil onely who hath both a strong hold of it and his strong holds in it 2 Cor. 10. 4. but also creeping things crawling lusts innumerable as Psal 104. 26. making that which should be the Temple of God to be a den of Thieves a Palace of Pride a very raging Sea of sin Isa 57. 20. yea a little Hell of black and blasphemous imaginations Homo in se infernum habet saith Luther Every Man naturally hath an Hell in his heart if there may be a beam in the eye Matth. 7. 3 4 5. surely there is a whole Wood in the Heart Si trabs in oculo tunc sylva in corde saith the Father and if the Tongue be not a City or a Countrey of evil onely but a whole World of evil Jam. 3. 6. a new-found World of iniquity how many such Worlds then is the heart the tongues treasure 16. Oh then Christ must be the true Hercules to cleanse this Augaean stable of your filthy heart by drawing that blessed River of Repentance through it to wash it clean 't is a touch of Christ that must stop your issue of death And that you may press to be a toucher as well as a follower of Christ take these following Motives 1. Adam touched the Tree of Knowledge and catch'd death and will not you touch the Tree of Life that you may live and not dye Gen. 3. 2. Secondly Satan will touch you with his deadly touches 1 Joh. 5. 18. and have you not then need to touch Christ Thirdly Christ comes near to you in the Gospel that he may be touched Rom. 10. 8. Fourthly he stretches out the Golden Scepter of the Covenant of Grace that you may take hold of it as well as touch the top of it Esth 5. 2. Isa 56.4 6. Fifthly then neither evil nor Devil shall touch you 1 Joh. 5.19 God charges both as David did his Souldiers Beware that none touch my Absalom 2 Sam. 18. 5. 12. If you be in Christ and keep with him and within touch of him you are out of the Devils reach he may indeed touch yea bruise your heel Gen. 3. 15. but he can neither break your Head nor your heart Sixthly what pressing from all places in the Countrey of those that have the Evil is to the Court for a Royal touch upon touching days How much should there be to Christ the King of Kings and true Allhealer Seventhly the touch of the Loadstone is admirable whereof no reason could ever be rendred but the touch of Christ that makes the Heart point Heaven-ward is more admirable Eighthly Daniel was touched by Gabriel over and over again Dan. 9. 21. 10. 10 16 18. Oh get Christs touch Matth. 8.3 both upon your eyes Matth. 9. 29. and upon your ears yea and upon your tongue Mark 7.33 but especially upon your Heart 1 Sam. 10.26 This is not all but you must get Christs All-healing Touch upon your Children as Parents do the Kings touch for their diseased Sons or Daughters Mark 10. 13. All these have the Kings-Evil so called The evil of the Devil that King of the bottomless pit Revel 9. 11 is upon them all our lips are polluted Isa 6. 7. Luk. 22. 57. our tongues are set on fire of Hell Jam. 3. 6. and so are all the rest till Christ who is touched with our infirmities Hebr. 4. 15. touch and heal them CHAP. III. Of the Hearts Falshood and Treachery 1. THe second thing is the second Malady The heart is as full of Treachery as of Treason and of falshood as of filthiness and therefore stands in need of the second Remedy to wit of keeping with all diligence as a false and deceitful Thief that hath given his keeper the slip many times is watched and warded first of the Malady The Heart of Man is a false and treacherous Heart it was no less than so in Jeremy's day Jer. 17. 9. so superlatively fallacious and surely 't is much more so in our day that are cast upon the dregs of time and on the fag-end of the World 1 Cor. 10. 11. the dregs of things are always the worst of things and so are the dregs of time the old World was worst a little before its destruction by water Gen. 6. 5 11 12. all flesh had corrupted their way and all the thoughts