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
A96627	The vvay to life and death. Laid down in a sermon, 1629. before the Lord Major of London then being. / By N. Waker M.A. late minister of Jesus Christ at Lawndon in Buckinghamshire. Now published for the reasonableness of the advice therein given, touching the five controverted points, viz. predestination, general redemption, freewill, conversion, and perseverance of the siants. Directing a safe way for the practice of private Christians, as confessed by the disputants on both sides.	Waker, Nathaniel.; Waker, John.	1655 (1655)	Wing W281; Thomason E1639_1; ESTC R209056	41,542	102

him obtained it may be but never to its worth valued and esteemed And elsewhere Facilius possumus dicere quid ibi non sit quam quid sit non est ibi mors non est luctus c. We can more easily say what there is not there then what there is there is no death no mourning c. Let us labour to walke in the way then we shall experimentally feel it and then even laugh at our scanty expressions when the soule being filled with admiration shall cry out How full of glory art thou O Lord and this heavenly Paradise of thine I have heard of thee by thy Prophets and Apostles but the one halfe hath not been resolved Oh blessed is the man that heareth thy wisdome seeth and enjoyeth thy glory But by the way note here that life is referred to mortification not as the proper cause He that lives after the flesh shall dye by his own merit but he that lives after the Spirit shall live by Gods mercy and the merit of Christ for he that lives after the flesh acts by a principle of his own but he that by the Spirit from an hgher principle and that imperfectly So Rom. 6. ult the Apostle sheweth death is an effect of sin life a consequent of righteousnesse in a different manner death followeth sin as a just reward of it as a debt The wages of sin is death but righteousnesse produceth life as a consequent not of debt but of grace The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord that as he attributes nothing to man in the latter so he wholly cleareth God in the former But ever remember what the good Father saith Acquiri potest aestimari non potest It may be gotten but cannot be valued It 's possible for to attaine it but it will cost thee deare thou must enter in through many tribulations Vnicus qui introivit sine peccato non exivit sine flagello thou must deny the world and be crucified to that hate father mother life thine own life but that is not all thou must mortifie the deeds of the body Now if any desire to enter into life I must first aske him whether he can drinke of this cup and be baptized with this Baptisme he must mortifie this body this old man corruption is strong for it 's a man politique for an old man a man that is naturalized in us and pleads prescription The old man with all his members pull out the right eye cut off the right hand teare and re●t the heart asunder crowne the head with thornes pierce the hands feet with nailes and the side with a speare the face must be spit upon buffetted The body and all the deeds of it Put off the old man with his deeds Col. 3. and here mortifie the deeds of the body and the deeds of the body are manifest Never tell me of a good heart if the actions are naught as the understanding blind the will obstinate the affections disordered the life dissolute this man is out of the way to life What! a good Christian and a drunkard a swearer a scoffer at the good wayes of God It 's impossible Is the tree good that is fruitlesse Do you call that a good ground that bears nothing but briars and brambles The body with the deeds all the deeds must be mortified Away then with that sweet morsel under the tongue if thou willingly entertaine but one sin constantly suppose contemplative adultery thou art an unmortified man Againe these must be mortified not trifle or deale more gently with them pull up these weeds by the very roots therefore it must be with paine and shame and constant for it is an act of the whole life prescribed here to the Romans so to the Colossians It may be their acquaintance will reproach thee and thy best friends forsake thee And all this we must do in our persons not buy it out or do it by our deputies we by the Spirit and there is no other way but this to life Nor do I make the way straiter or the gate narrower then Christ and his Apostles have done Nor do I here dishearten any but require them sedulously to set about the worke better know it now then hereafter when it is too late Eternall life is the gift of God that the Scripture shews and reason manifests that it is in the power of the donor to prescribe what conditions he will to the receiver but the wretchednesse of the world is such they desire the blessing without the condition like Ruths kinsman that would have the land without the woman like that man in the Gospel would have eternal life but the condition is too strict therefore go a way sorrowful Thus how contrary are we to our selves how unreasonable to God In the former we would do the work but not have wages live after the flesh but not die and in the latter we will not do the labour yet hope for the reward as Balaam will follow the wages of iniquity yet die the death of the righteous But if we do the one the other will follow And surely had we made our own termes how could we in modesty have made them more easie God could do no lesse then demonstrate his purity love of vertue hatred of sin God delights not to make us sad without cause Certainly he cannot require any thing lesse then mortification without the impeachment of his honour therefore we cannot perform lesse without the endangering of our happinesse So then I must tell our debauched sinners Vse For Repr that suffer all manner of abominations to raign not to be named among Christians and are so far from crucifying them that they harbour and keep them close extenuate defend them are careful to satisfy their lusts and blow them up to a greater flame that will be ready to give the stab to those that crosse and contradict them in their waies there is a thing in Religion called Mortifying the deeds of the body which they were never acquainted withal without which there is no life I must tell our plausible Atheists that are enemies to the power of godlinesse that have no grace and vertue but what was born and bred with them it is not their plausible carriage will do it there is a mortifying crucifying watching fasting striving denying thy self or no entrance into life I must tell our carelesse procrastinators of repentance It 's not enough to dislike sin and so let it alone in time to dye it self and therefore they will not task themselves with such an unpleasing torment but you must mortifie it The filthy adulterer resolves when he hath no more marrow in his bones nor vigour in his body to leave his adultery the drunkard his company when his patrimony is spent the oppressour his extortion when his covetousnesse is satiated Sinne though it be left in regard of the outward act yet in this case it is not mortified

Titius his liver devoured by vultures of the continual turning of Ixions wheel and the rolling of Sisiphus his stone or of those infernal Furies ready to torment those whom Charon should waft over and Ridentem dicere verum quis vetat even these mythological expressions hold some proportion with the truth But I will draw my water out of a purer fountain surely it must needs be an ill-favoured brat that is born of two such hideous Monsters the Devil the father and corrupt nature the mother it must needs be terrible that is the wages for such work so contrary to God and goodnesse Death is nothing but a privation of life and a subjecting the creature to those miseries which are contrary to the comforts of life And by life we do not onely understand the conjunction of soul and body but all that perfection and blisse which was either actually conferred unto man or to be communicated to him so that in this monosyllable is contained the whole world hell with all the torments of that earth with all the miseries therein But is there any death in heaven Surely it is a death to lose heaven and it contains that also so that look how variously sin reflects on God so do his judgments on us that we may read our sin in the judgment But that I may proceed orderly I will borrow a distinction of Philo Lib. leg alleg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is a death of the man and a death of the soul the first is a separation of soul and body the second a deserting of vertue and assuming of sin But all misery is called by the name of death because of all death is most unavoidable most bitter Death in regard of the kind is either corporal or spiritual Death Corporal Sen. which kinds are to be considered in degrees inchoation In regard of inchoation and perfection both which kinds are to be considered in regard of losse and pain You shall dye that is a corporal death in regard of inchoation for in this we are mistaken that we look forward upon death whereas a great part of it is already past in hoc enim fallimur quod mortem prospicimus magna pars ejus jam praeteriit Death is behind us a great part of it the life of to day is the death of yesterday We dye daily Every little publick or personal crosse is a petty death and a harbenger sent by that insatiable enemy of humane nature to take possession of his right Thus you shall lose the good temperature of body inwardly and outwardly all those comforts of nature whereby life is maintained in a word true dominion over the creatures that in regard of losse Either you shall lose the world or have it with a curse your table shall become a snare and so some even dye with laughing with a pleasant gale of wind are carried upon rocks and sands pampered in fat pastures for destruction and carried down the pleasant River Jordan into the Dead Sea In regard of sense inwardly ye shall be perplexed with grief and sorrow and wearinesse outwardly with famine pestilence sword both wayes with ten thousand calamities as waves of the Sea coming in the neck one of another which as they be vexatious in themselves so certainly shall they be unto you insomuch that your life shall be an hard apprentiship groaning daily under the iron yoke of bondage Ye shall dye And Consummation that is a natural death in regard of consummation This inexorable Sergeant that rides on the pale horse will ere long knock at your door and by violence pull your soul out of that Tabernacle of clay when the soul shall be kept in chaines of darknesse till the judgment of that great day and the body in the grave as in a loathsome dung-hill till that general Assize In regard of losse here is a deprivation of life and all that supports it meat drink apparel society and all the comforts of nature and though there be no poena sensûs in the body which is kept in that hideous prison yet there is in the soul Luk. 16.25 for the glutton cryes Crucior in hac flamma nay and it may be this accursed corporal death will take you away in the acting of your sin with Zimri and Cosbi so that you shall not live out half your dayes but be haled to execution as soon as your crimes are committed and it may be before you go feel the very flames of hell in your soules as Cain and Judas did But this natural death of the body though horrid unto nature Death spiritual in regard of inchoation yet it 's nothing to the spiritual death of the soul that being a more excellent creature and having a more eminent life To proceed then that is spiritually in regard of inchoation God shall be separated from your soul the light of his countenance shall not shine upon you the understanding being full of darknesse the heart of uncleannesse the conscience void of serenity the whole soul out of order full of confusion destitute of true comfort In regard of sense a servitude and subjection of the soul to your spiritual enemies and the powers of darknesse made a vassal unto Satan who worketh effectually in such a slave to the world which is the devils slave yea unto sin which is worse then the world or the devil In which regard it comes to passe though a man retain that natural liberty of his will which is essential to it and cannot be lost yet that liberty which pertaineth to the perfection of humane nature to exercise acts spiritually good and so savingly acceptable unto God this is utterly lost man being dead in sins and trespasses and the uncircumcision of his heart But all these are but the beginnings of sorrowes And of consummation or eternall death that which is here principally meant is the consummation of spiritual death And now had I but the keyes of hell and death to shew unto your bodily eyes a glimpse of that infernal fire and those hideous monsters that dwell in those horrid vaults I should either lose my auditory or it may be so prevail with some that they would beware how they came into that place of torment But I desire that my speech may work in you such fear of those paines that you never feel them and that you may be terrified so now that hereafter you may be secure consider what Abraham saito to the rich glutton Son remember We likely remember it not till it be too late and therefore smart for it because we do not remember it You shall dye then that is first immediately when your soul and body are parted your soules shall be haled by the Devil into that place of torment St. August speaking of the rich glutton saith The soul likewise grieves when separate from the body for verily the rich man grieved in hell when he said I am tormented in this

for denying thy Lord. Make a bath of tears with Mary for entertaining so many Devils in thine heart for get a while to eate thy bread by fasting and abstinence be revenged on thy selfe for sin past and keep under thy body for time to come It 's one of the nailes that crucifies the flesh and a meanes to take down the ranknesse of this fertile field singulare putatis aratrum But if thou canst not weep and command tears at least get that dolorem appretiativum Value your sins at such a rate that they deserve tears of blood Wish that thy head were a fountaine and thine eyes as Conduit-pipes Intreat God to accept the desire for the deed and the blood and tears of Christ for all But men now adayes can mortifie without renting the heart fasting a day shedding a tear But withall remember to mortifie too else thy tears will be no better then Esaus thy fasting like Ahabs Purge not that thou mayest surfeit repent not that thou mayest sin returne not like the dog to the vomit if thou do thy latter end will be worse then thy beginning But blessed is the man that sorrows after a godly manner for this works repentance never to be repented of Blessed are they that mourne now that sowe in teares for they shall reape in joy they shall finde triumph in torment joy in tribulation refreshing in fasting life in death Bern. Filii hujus seculi vident cruces nostras non consolationes The sons of this world see our crosses but not our comforts If any thing were better then life God would not deny it you he accounts you Martyrs in manner Mortificare opera carnis genus Martyrii est horrore quidem mitius sed diuturnitate molestius To mortifie the deeds of the body is a kinde of martyrdome milder indeed in its horrour but more troublesome in its long continuance Certainly they that keep such a Lent shall have a glorious Easter at the day of their resurrection when all teares shall be wiped from their eyes and they shall remaine and raigne with God in blisse for ever And thus I have travelled through these Propositions in their absolute consideration We considered these words in their opposition Here are two contrary wayes that tend to two contrary ends They cousin themselves that think to fare as well as the best The word considered in their opposition and yet sin as bad as the worst and they fill themselves with unnecessary fears that live strictly and carefully and yet comfort not themselves in Gods promises 1. It doth no whit prejudice the godly in their comfort that God is so severe against the wicked Cains profanenesse doth not hurt Abel he is accepted Though Judas be a devil the rest fare not the worse So at the last day while the wicked wish the hils and mountains to cover them the godly lift up their heads Abraham and Moses make use of their interest with God even when he is provoked against Sodom and Jasrel 2. The wicked are not priviledged by Gods mercies on the godly as we see in the Wise and Foolish Virgins Gods mercies Christs merits the precious promises and priviledges of the Gospel availe them nothing Gods mercies are limited to certaine conditions therefore let not wicked men boulster up themselves in these heed not lying vanities We consider them in their coherence Therefore we should mortifie sin 3 And in their coherence because if we live after the flesh we shall die It 's not absurd to propound life and death as Motives to obedience God did so to Adam in Paradise Yea to men already converted our Saviour doth so Feare not him that can kill the body c. So the Father at banquets would talke of hell to keep men from security So the Apostle here to men already converted If ye live c. The meditation of death is not unprofitable for them They are not out of danger of Gun-shot though they are in a Cittadel or strong Tower yet they have some flesh and are subject to spiritual security presumption or prophanenesse The Tower cannot be demolished but they may looke out at the windowes and battlements and be wounded Hence we may conclude that a Christian may take comfort in an holy life Here is an Antidote against Presumption and Despaire None can presume but they that mortifie and that is not presumption but hope none can despaire but such as live after the flesh and that is a feare upon good grounds And now to draw to a conclusion The agreement 'twixt Armin. and their adversaries in the rules of practise How happily might these two Propositions put an end to our unhappy controversies were men of peaceable spirits The Areopagites in Athens in a doubtful case wherein they were loath to passe sentence differred it in diem longissimum it may be for an hundred years I would to God we could do so in these that I am sure are doubtful but this is to suspend men in a Neutrality to beleeve nothing S. Augustine answers some well that would not beleeve unlesse all objections were cleared Sunt innumerabiles objectiones quae non sunt finiendae ante fidem ne finiatur vita sine fide There are innumerable objections which must not be dispatched and answered before faith c. Moderation in these mysteries is to be shewen if any where Neutram partem affirmantes sive destrueren tes sed tantummodo ab audaci affirmandi praesumptione revocantes Affirming or denying neither of the two but onely restraining us from bold presumption in taking either part But now every novice can determine in these things when the wisest men demurre and can as exactly chalke out Gods secret wayes as if with S. Paul they had been rapt up into the third heaven and taken a transcript of the book of life Either side is confident and it may be in conclusion it will prove neither so nor so and so it comes to passe that religion is turned into nicities and disputation bearing things certaine and fastening upon uncertaine like Zeuxes that pictured an old woman so to the life that he laughed to death at the veiw of her So I thinke our gracious Soveraigne hath taken a Religious and Wise course to silence these controversies more fit for Schooles then Pulpits or rather fitter for heavens perfection then for earthly frailty to determine Et Elias quum venerit solvet haec dubia If I should enter upon the controversies I should contradict authority or if I might I would not so far presume upon mine own weaknesse or if I had ability and liberty I durst not so far abuse your patience Onely let me advise all especially the unlearned which with much study cannot so much as attaine the stating of the questions to turne their cavilling about the Theory into Practice Surely there is no such vast difference in the points as they are handled by moderate men on both sides whatsoever