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	word_n	4,593	5	4.4164	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37274	Sermons preached upon severall occasions by Lancelot Dawes ...; Sermons. Selections	Dawes, Lancelot, 1580-1653.	1653 (1653)	Wing D450; ESTC R16688	281,488	345

habitations The Lord could take your souls from you before ye depart this place if ye depart in safetie before ye come into your houses or before you goe to bed or before you rise in the morning but if you injoy to day and to morrow and the next day despise not the riches of his bountifulnesse and patience and long suffering knowing that his bountifulness leadeth you to repentance Be not like to the wicked Iob 21. which take the Tabret and Harpe and rejoyce at the sound of the Organs and spend their dayes in wea'th and then suddenly goe down into the Grave Nor like those in Eccles 9. 12. which do not know their time but like fishes which are taken in an evill net and like birds that are caught in a snare so they are snared in the evill time which falleth upon them suddenly nor like the evill servant in the Gospel which saith in his heart my Master doth deferre his coming and begins to smite his fellow-Servants and to eat and to drink with the drunken lest death come upon you in a day when ye look not for it and in an houre that you are not aware of and cut you off and ye receive your portion with Hypocrites in the Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Blessed is that man whom the Lord when he cals him from hence shall find waking but woe yea thrice woe be to that man whom the Lord when he cometh shall find sleeping verily I say unto you it had been good for that man if he had never been borne wherefore once again I say use this golden opportunitie to the honour of your God redeem the time because the dayes are few not for a day but even all your dayes which is the fourth note and which I can but touch let it be your care not how you may be rich in this world but how you may be rich unto God not rich in goods but in goodnesse let your chief study in this life be how he may be saved in the life to come Alas it was but a cold comfort to Adrian the Emperour when he was readie to dye to jest with his soul doubting what should become of it Animula vagula blandula hospes comesque corporis quae nunc abibis in loca Pallidula rigida nidula nec ut soles dabis jocos What speeches but this or worse then this can any expect will proceed from you in your sicknesse when you are ready to leave the world if in your health you have not studied to make your election sure if in your life ye offer to God nothing but dregs there is little hope you will set forth good wine at the houre of your death late repentance is oftentimes counterfeit never so accepted with God we must blossom in the spring if wee will bring forth fruit in harvest it is no commendation to offer to the world and Satan the flower of our youth and sacrifice to God the withered stubble of old age to turn to God when we can scarce turn our selves in our beds and to leave this world when it is ready to take a farewell of us wherefore have your loynes still girded about and your lights still burning and you your selves waiting and expecting nay desiring not only for that time when your souls and bodies shall be separated but much more for that great day when they shall again be united and conjoyned let these and the like be each of your meditations and prayers How long Lord how long holy and true as the heart desireth the water brook so longeth my soul after thee O God my soul is a thirst for God even for the living God when shall I come to appeare before the presence of God into thy hands I commend my spirit for thou hast redeemed me O Lord God of truth yea thou art my helper and my redeemer O my God make no long tarrying but come Lord Jesus come quickly The 5th and last thing which was observed out of these words was this That death to the Children of God is but a change to a better and more blessed state for so with Mercer and other learned Divines I take the meaning of the words to be when it is said my changing and not to be meant of the resurrection as some would have it Death is the wages of sinne saith the Apostle Rom. 6. 23. not only a temporarie death which is a separation of the body from the soul but an eternall death which is a separation both of bodie and soule from God for so it was told our Grand-father before he tasted the fruit of the forbidden tree whensoever thou shalt eate thereof thou shalt dye the death seconded after the fact with this iudiciall sentence dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt returne Gen 3. and so by the transgression of one death reigned over all unto condemnation Rom. 6. 14. But behold the abundant Ocean of the riches of the mercie and bountifullness of our God who by the balme of Christs blood hath so tempered this popson that like Treacle which is made of venemous wormes it becomes a preservative against poyson and hath broken the teeth of this Lyon that we may say with the Prophet the Lyon and the Lamb may dwell together hath taken the sting from this Scorpion that we may even now in some sense say O death where is thy sting thus by the grace of God the punishment of sin is to us turned to a freedom from sin it was said to our first Parents saith Austin thou shalt dye if thou sinne now it is said to a Martyr dye lest thou sinne then it was said if thou transgresse the commandement thou shalt dye the death now it is said if ye refuse to dye ye transgresse the commandement that which then was to be feared that they should not sin is now to be undergon lest they sin then death was gotten by sinning now justice is fulfilled by dying Behold the great difference of death in the godly and the wicked to the wicked it hath the same force which before it had to the godly it is like a sleep which resteththeir bodies and makes them more lively then before to the ungodly it brings a taile or sting with it and that is condemnation to the godly it is as it were a Bee without a sting to the godly it is terminus a quo of miserie and vexation to the wicked it is the beginning of sorrow and damnation to the ungodly it is Sathans Cart to carry them to Hell to the righteous it is like Elisha's fierie Chariot to mount them to Heaven to the wicked it is Sathans Serjeant to carrie them to Tophet which is prepared for them to the godly it is the Lords Messenger to remove them to their expected home let then the ungodly feare and tremble when they heare of death and let them

whom none spake ill it was spoken of a Lacedemonian Woe to you when all men speake well of you saith Christ Luk. 6. 26. Elias was called a troubler of Israel Jeremiah a seditious person and a disheartner of the people Paul an Heritick a mad man Athanasius a Witch a Murtherer an Adulterer yea Christ himselfe that immaculate Lambe who had done no wickednesse a Glutton a Wine-bibber a Sorcerer a boone Companion with Publicans and Sinners The Disciple is not above his Master If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub much more will they call them of the houshold But hic murus abeneus esto Nil conscire sibi Let a man have the Testimony of God and a good conscience and we may scorn all Dogs barke they never so loud I know well we are men while we are in this World and not Angels in respect of purity of nature and therefore cannot promise unto our selves an immunity from falling Let the old Catharists the Novatians Donatists and Pelagians and the new Puritanes of Rome who hold an absolute perfection in this life make Ladders for themselves to climbe into Heaven as Constantine bad Acesius a Novatian Bishop here is no room for them in this World For as in the most beautifull face that ever was there hath been some blemish Venus her selfe was not without a Wart which though every man do not note yet by a skilfull Painter it may be observed which made Zeuxis when at the request of the Crotonians he was to draw the Picture of Helena to be set in one of their Temples to send for five of the most beautifull Virgins that could be found and from them all to frame a Picture by reducing the quintessence of all their beauties into one Modell So in the most mortifyed man that ever lived there are some dregs of sin which though the bleared eies of mans understanding cannot see them yet the al-seeing eies of God can easily discerne them But what then because we cannot be perfect Saints must we therefore be right Devils because the perfection of the Law is so high above our reach and so far beyond our Horizon that we cannot chuse but say it s too wonderfull and excellent for us we cannot attaine unto it shall we therefore neglect it or not take it for a Lanterne unto our Feet and a Light unto our Paths Because we cannot be without sin shall we therefore be Servants and Bond-slaves to sin and serve it in our mortall Bodies and obey it in the lusts thereof and as I feare some do as if out-lawed by God and man say with them in the Psalmist Come and let us breake their Bonds in sunder and cast away their Cords from us and give liberty to our selves to do what we list letting the Reines loose to all licentiousnesse Ut cum carceribus sese effudere quadrigae Fertur equis aurigae neque audit currus habenas It s one thing with John to sin and another to commit sin It s one thing with Paul to walke in the flesh and another to walke after and war after the flesh It s one thing to stumble another thing to fall in the high-way another to fall away and walke or run in a bie way we cannot promise to our selves a priviledge from sliding and stumbling no nor from falling in the way with Eutychus we may get a dead fall a fall from the third Loft from desire to consent and then to act Here are three Lofts and the least in the rigour of Justice is death least it prove a breake-neck fall in case we shall so fall with Eli and Jezabell we are not to lie on the Ground but arise betime and redeem the fall by running the faster Let us keep diligent watch over our thoughts words and actions that we do not only abstaine from evill but as much as humane frailty will permit from all appearance of evill and even in things lawfull oftentimes for avoiding of scandall restraine our liberty after the example of the Apostle in eating of flesh and refusing wages for preaching the Gospell that we may take away occasion from them that desire occasion 2 Cor. 11. that we may stop the mouths of mad Dogs and that they which speake evill of us as of evill Doers and blame our good Conversation in Christ may not only be ashamed but by our good workes which they shall see be occasioned to glorify God in the day of the visitation 1 Pet. 2. 12. 1 Pet. 3. 16. The better that any Profession is the worse is the man that doth abuse it There is no Profession but may give wall to the calling of a Minister though many in contempt of it with those foolish Suitors in the Poet Penelopen relinquunt ad ancillas confugiunt So then a lewd and unworthy Minister is one of the worst Creatures under Heaven I remember a Story in the golden Legend in the life of Macarins This Saint travelling in a desart found the Skull of a man and asked whose it was the Skull made answer that it was a relique of a Pagan that was slaine in that place and where is thy Soule said Macarius in Hell said the Skull but it suffers the least degree of Hels punishments for in Hell there be three Roomes in the highest where are the least torments are the Pagans that never heard of Christ in the middle where the paine is doubled are the Jewes who crucified Christ and persecuted the Preachers of the Gospell in the bottome of Hell where the Torments are trebled lies the false Christian which outwardly makes a shew of Religion and in his heart denies the power thereof For the truth of this Story credat Judaeus apella he that beleives that every word is Gospel that comes out of a Friers mouth may give credit to it if it please him But for that which the Skull is feigned to report I can easily assent unto it because it is agreeable to Divinity The Servant that knowes not his Masters will and doth it not shall be beaten with fewer stripes but the Servant that knoweth his Masters will and doth it not shall be beaten with many stripes If a false Christian then surely a wicked Minister who by his profession should be a Guide of the Blind a Light of them that sit in darknesse an Instructer of them which lack discretion a Teacher of the Unlearned may deservedly have the lowest Room The Lord cals them stealers of his word so Austine expounds the place Jer. 23. 30. Eos dixit Deus furari verba sua qui boni volunt videri loquendo quae Dei sunt cum mali sint faciendo quae sua sunt Aug. de doct Christ lib. 4. cap. 25. Our Saviour compares him to unsavory Salt which is good for nothing not for seasoning of Meates not for the Land not for that for which the Mire and the Clay in the Streets is good the Dunghil In