Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	apostle_n	sin_n	wage_n	4,685	5	10.8916	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12260	A sacred septenarie, or, A godly and fruitful exposition on the seven Psalmes of repentance viz. the VI. XXV. XXXII. XXXVIII. LI. CXXX. CXLIII. the 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. of the penitentials. Seruing especially for the direction and comfort of all such, who are either troubled in minde, diseased in body, or persecuted by the wicked. The second impression. By Mr. A. Symson, pastor of the church at Dalkeeth in Scotland.	Simson, Archibald, 1564-1628.	1623 (1623)	STC 22568; ESTC S107775	256,267	548

to Pharaoh H● that c●mmitteth sinne saith Christ is a seruant to sinne as by the contrary He that is borne of God sinnes not because the seed of God is in him The worke of sinne seemes pleasant and againfull but in the end yee shall find it both vnplesant and painfull Vse when you get your wages payed you from your master the Deuill ye shall know the truth of that saying of the Apostle The reward of sinne is death Rom 6.23 Ibid. 21. And in another place What haue ye gaine whereof now ye are ashamed whose end is death The deuill may giue you the bait of present pleasures but he lets you not see the mischieuous hooke lying vnder the bait Vse 2 Let vs refuse therefore to worke any longer task vnto Satan and betake vs to a better Master and better seruice and work in the Lords vineyard Iohn 6.27 Labour after that meat which perisheth not whose fruits shall be eternall life Of iniquity Some thinke these to be hypocrites as in the 41. Psalme verse 7. All they that hate me whisper together against me euen against me doe they imagine mine hurt But here it imports more when he cals them workers of iniquity A manifest practice of their wicked deuices in their actions against Dauid What iniquity is for iniquity is that which is contrary to equity and iustice and equity is defined by Cicero Suum cuique tribuere whereas iniquity is to defraud any man of his due Whereby yee see that God abhorreth all iniuries wee can doe to our neighbours Doct. God abhorreth all iniuries done to our neighbours 1 Ioh. 4.20 Mat. 9.13 and esteemes then his seruice to be true when it beginneth at our neighbours For how can we loue God whom we see not saith the Apostle when wee loue not man made to the Image of God whom we see And our Sauiour saith I will haue mercy and not sacrifice So that he refuseth the principall part of his seruice which consisteth in sacrifices if they bee not conjoyned with mercy to our neighbours and in Isaiah Isai 66.3 he that kelleth a Bullocke or a Lambe offers a gift as though he had killed a dogge or a sowe and onely because of their iniuries Woe to this sinfull generation Vse who make no conscience but doe all manner of iniuries to whom they may and doe not spare either fatherlesse or widow or strangers or the gray haires or pupils or Orphans and yet vaunt of their religion Note I wish rather they would professe Papistry or Paganisme that their confession and profession might be answerable and that they would either professe as they liue or liue as they professe for it is shame that a good faith should be backed with had works For the Lord hath heard the voyce of my weeping Doctr. The neerer we draw to God the further we must flee from all his enemies The argument whereby he repelleth the wicked from his is taken from his familiarity with God and sure it is the nearer we draw to God the further will we flee from all his enemies what makes vs such associates with the children of the Diuell but that wee are strangers to God and when once we haue drawne in friendship and seruice with him then we hate the other partie Next Prayer ioyneth vs to God yee shall know that the principall mean by which we can frequent with God is Prayer for if God giue vs the Spirit of Prayer then he giues vs an accesse to the throne of his grace Many yea the most part of the world know not what prayer meaneth others pray perfunctoriously and hypocritically and their prayer turneth into sinne The benefit of true prayer But happy are those whom Gods most holy Spirit teacheth to pray and those onely can pray aright The voyce There is ascribed to prayer a voyce Doctr. The voice of prayer more mentall then vocall which is not so much vocall as mental alwayes it hath a piercing voyce which pierceth the heauens and preuaileth mightily with God and is so importunate that it will not come from heauens gates till and answer be giuen as Ezechias Moses c. Of my weeping As Dauids prayers were not dumbe His prayer was not dry but had a voyce so they are not dry but full of teares those sappy prayers be acceptable to God which proceed not from a barren and dry heart but from an heart well watered with the clouds of heauen hears planted at the Riuers of waters which wee should all pray after Hee hath this comfort that God heard his prayers Doct. Our prayers in faith will surely be heard not that he heard them wit eares as he who planted the eares doth heare but hee heard his praier when he granted yeelded to his petition And this is a great prouocation to vs to make vs pray in faith and then wee may perswade our selues God wil heare them Thinke ye not that a mother will discerne the voyce Simil. but much more the weeping of her owne childe nad the Ewe discerne the bleating of her owne lambe amongst a thousand and will not God regard the praier of his own childe being in affliction Vse And this certaintie that we haue to be heard should hearten vs all to pray Whomsoeuer Christ cured he asked if they beleeued then said Mat. 9.29 Marke 7.9 Be it to thee according to thy faith And again I saw not greater faith in Israel It is then superfluous to pray except thou beleeue Infidelitie is the cause why we lacke many good things Vse Distrust is the cause we receiue nothing from God for wee doe God great iniury in vttering forth words to him when eyther we doubt of his power that he cannot or of his loue that he will not bestow good things necessary to vs. Verse 9. The Lord hath heard my petition the Lord will receiue my prayer Why he repeateth three times that he was heard HE repeats the hearing of his prayer three times for two causes First to let vs see how frequently he vsed the exercise of praier for he diuide the day in three Morning noon and at euening tide did I call vpon thee and the night in three for he beganne the night with prayer I arose at midnight and called vpon thee and he preuented the breake of day and the morning watch Secondly that by his threefold repetition he might perswade himselfe of the acceptation of his prayers that they were heard of God which is a great matter for God heareth not sinners Ioh. 9.31 but If any be a worshipper of God and doth his will him heareth he then if the Lord heare our suifs grant them Vse we may perswade our selues that we are in his fauour Ester 7. When Hester obtained her suite at Ahashuerosh it was an argument she was acceptable to him So is it with vs in our petitions to God VERSE 10. All mine

that both soule and body meet together and praise him world without end Lawfull to craue continuance of our life Thirdly that it is lawfull to craue the continuance of our life to the end that wee may praise God Would we desire the continuance of our life that we may continue in sin God forbid Likewise wee may desire death not for being weary of temporall paine or feare of shame but with the Apostle that we may be dissolued and be with Christ and be freed of the burthen of sinne by our death Yet in both our desires let vs submit our selues to the good pleasure of God and say with our Sauiour Thy will be done not as I will Luke 22.42 but as thou wilt Fourthly wee see in his sicknesse he seekes the continuation of his life at Gods hands who hath the issues of death in his will and would teach vs 2 Chron 16.12 2 King 1.2 neyther with Aza to put our trust in the Physitians neyther with Ahaziah to goe aske counsell at Beelzebub but with good Hezekiah turne to the wall 2 Kin. 20.2 and beg the prorogation of our life with Dauid from God Difference betweene the de●re of the godly wicked Finally ve see what shall be the difference betweene the desire of the godly and the wicked in their contrary desires of the continuation of their life for the wicked being tyed to the bed of sicknesse craue longer life to the end they may enioy their riches longer and vse or rather abuse them in the meane time neuer conceiuing or nourishing an hope of celestiall good things But the godly that they may record fruitfully the praises of God in the congregation of the righteous and preach out his praises besides that the feare of death is in the reprobates because they see by it an end put to all their earthly felicities whereas the Elect of God feare it because by it they are drawne from among men with whom they might haue magnified the name of God If ye desire to reade any more of this subiect reade the forenamed booke of Meditations in the Meditation of death VERSE 6. I fainted in my mourning I cause my bed euery night to swimme and water my couch with my teares THis argument is taken from the person of the Supplicant which is set downe by hyperbolique Metaphors The greatnesse expressing his great wearinesse his teares and mourning his sobs and sighing The place the place wherin he mourned his bed the measure swimming and watering of the same the time all the night The time The adiūct the adiunct thereof the dimnesse of his eyes vers 8. and the obiect of his sorrow his enemies or rather Gods enemies I fainted It may seeme a maruellous change in Dauid who was a man of such magnitude of minde to bee so farre deiected and cast downe whereas hee preuailed against Goliah against the Lyon and the Beare through fortitude and magnanimitie and now hee is sobbing sighing and weeping as a childe It is another thing to haue to doe with creatures than with the Creator But ye must vnderstand that he hath to doe with diuers persons when men and beasts are his opposites then hee is more then a conqueror but when hee hath to doe with God against whom he sinned then hee is lesse then nothing Contrition the first step of repentance First he saith as the word beares by all Interpreters he sighed or sobbed which is the first degree of repentance for inward contrition in the heart must precede all the outward signes of repentance and is most acceptable to God because it is secret and onely knowne to himselfe And herein shall a Christian try and discerne himselfe A perfect tryall of a reformed heart if there neuer passe a secret cogitation of his minde which is not accompanied with a sob vnto God Hezekiah said hee mourned like a Doue Isay 38.14 and chattered like a Swallow Moses spake nothing by his voyce Exo. 14.15 and the Lord said 1 Sam. 1.13 Why cryest thou Anna her lips moued but her voyce was not heard God regards not words but thoughts Doctr. Sobs and sighes are best sacrifices Next yee see that sobs and sighes are more acceptable to God than any seruice wee can doe to him and in these Dauid wearied himselfe for his sinnes taking such paines in chastising himselfe and as the Papists translate it he labored in his sobbing to humble both his soule and his body whereby wee should learne that this is the most profitable labour when we can worke vpon a rebellious heart to subdue all our affections to the obedience of God and mortification of the same Vse We should take paines with our hearts This should make vs ashamed that we can take paines vpon any thing but not vpon our owne heart we will weary our selues vpon any earthly vanitie or pleasure but we are wearied of the seruice of our God yea euen of the smallest point of repentance and humiliation before God We cannot spend our selues better since we must be spent vpon something than vpon that principall part of his seruice which hee liketh best that is in chastising of our body and mortification of our affections for it is said Isai 57.15 Vpon whom shall the Spirit of the Lord rest Vpon a contrite heart Therefore wo bee to those that weary themselues in the workes of sinne and adde drunkennes to thirst Vse Wo to such as weary thēselues in the workes of sinne Isai ● 11 and can neuer be satisfied nor goe to their bed till they haue accomplished some wickednesse In my mourning First he sighed and sobbed for his sinne and now hee mourneth for the same Looke whereunto our follies tend The pleasures of sinne euer end in displeasure for which either we must of necessity mourne in this life or eternally in the life to come True it is that the reprobate as also naturall and vnregenerate men shall poure forth many thousand teares for the plagues and iudgements which God layeth vpon them which are but the fore-runners and beginnings of their euerlasting mourning in hell but the mourning of the Elect preuenteth many sorrowes which would befall them so Doctr. Mourning for sin will keep vs frō many other mournings Exo. 12.30 if wee haue grace to mourne for sinne it will keepe vs from many other mournings The Egyptians had an vniuersall mourning thorow all their houses at the slaughter of their first borne but if they had mourned for the wrong done to the Israelites they needed not to haue mourned for the plague that came vpon themselues The measure of the mourning I caused my bed swimme The measure of his mourning is expressed by the washing and swimming of his bed with teares which indeed is an hyperbolique speech and doth expresse vnto vs the vehemency and greatnesse of his griefe and that he did not esteeme light