Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	bear_v	life_n	live_v	4,791	5	5.2156	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50012	The divine Epicurus, or, The empire of pleasure over the vertues compos'd by A. LeGrand ; and rendred into English by Edward Cooke.	Le Grand, Antoine, d. 1699.; Cooke, Edward, fl. 1678.	1676 (1676)	Wing L949; ESTC R25451	59,225	137

according to its Language he was the greatest and most Holy of the Sons of Men and though he was conceived in Sin we have this assurance that he never bore the quality of a Criminal in the world He was a Virgin to the death and Impurity never made a breach upon his So●l He was a Martyr and lost his Head in the defence of Justice He was an Anchorite and past the greatest part of his life in Desarts In short He appear'd as an Angel upon earth and living amongst Men he entertain'd himself with those in happiness Repentance causes part of all these advantages unto Sinners it changes their wantonness into continence and teaches them to become Virgins after they have lost their C●asti●y It makes them Martyrs and causes them to feel the pains and miseries of those generous Champions who are dead for the cause of the Son of God It renders them Hermits in banishing them into Solitudes and making them find a retreat in their Hearts in the midst of their Cumbers and troubles in the world It exalts them to the quality of Angels it teaches them Purity sanctifies their dispositions and gives them a foretast of the pleasure of happy Souls Though the Crime be always odious and it is not permitted us to commit a fault that so we may reap advantage from it yet it is certain Repentance gives a new birth to our former Vertue derives good from our Sins and adjoyns a fresh sanctity to that which those had ravish'd from us This Apostle whose Avarice had fixt him to a table who deceiv'd almost all who came to him to inrich himself who was reckoned as a publick Robber and who even suck'd the blood of the poor by his extortions has deserved the name of the first of the Evangelists his penitence acquired him that honor and he became as famous in merits as he had been execrable in his usurious dealings The Church Universal is redevable to his labors his Writings are become her Oracles she reveres all the words that are there recorded and He who was known for an Imposture among his Citizens is become the assurance of the highest Misteries of our Faith His Repentance rend'red him in some measure presumptuous and made him aspire to a dignity which Faith and Hope could not dare to promise him Who can believe Adam and Eve were Ambitious amidst their tears and that those who had their Mouths open only to breath out sighs who covered their shoulders with Sack-cloth who wet the Bread they did eat with their weeping could have thoughts for grandeur Yet those glorious Slaves had hankerings after Liberty and remembring the honors they had lost they essay'd the utmost they could to recover them by their Repentance The torments they exercised upon their bodies the Sobbs they sent from their hearts made them hope to re-enter into their former Rights and Priviledges they assured themselves that Original Justice would follow their Repentance and they should regain the good affections of that God whom unhappily they had offended This Hope was not utterly Temerarious since that Almighty God shows such favor and mercy to the Penitent that he always hearkens to their Prayers and does more usually honor the repenting then the innocent Person When the Evangelists exhort us to appease divine Justice by grief and sorrow and to punish upon our bodies the sin we have committed he does not put us in the middle between Penitence and the Kingdom of Heaven but inseperably unites this vertue to Glory and seems to prefer the grace bestow'd upon us through our Affliction to that which we have conserv'd by our Innocence But though Penitence should not work this Miracle should add nothing to our first Grandeur nor make us dispute with the Saints the qualities that render them famous in the Church yet should we be oblig'd to acknowledg that in remitting our sins it puts us in a state above Calumny and has freed us from the blame which consequently would have follow'd them It makes us to hold up our heads in the midst of our enemies renders us insensible of all their reproaches and does not suffer us to pass for Criminals though we have been culpable Indeed it is to be unjust towards ones self to revive a Crime which we have wash'd away with our tears and to refresh our memories with what God himself has pas'd over with forgetfulness 'T is to be severely malitious to our selves to ripp up a fault which divine Justice has abolished and cancell'd and to give an infamous name to that which has left off being in Nature There is nothing more dreadful then to fall into the hands of the Son of God the Scripture speaks of Him as of an inexorable Judg and as if it had a mind to inhance and amplify the severity of his decrees it gives him all the qualities that may render him Rigorous It calls him a living God when He punishes the guilty and as if his justice exceeded his mercy and that he was more set upon the chastising of Offences then recompencing good works it says he acts freely that he is the absolute Master of his Creatures that his Power is above all their Laws and that he follows no other motions then those of his will in the exercise of his Justice Yet his rigour does not extend its self but to actual faults it condemns only those who persevere in wickedness who seek still to offend him after death and who still keep affections for Sin though they are under a state of Disability to commit it He will not be ma●ful of past faults for fear of being injurious to Penitence and of reviving those offences which Grief has detested Tears washed away and Punishments abolish'd From thence is it that the Prophet Esaias promises those who subdue and mortify the Body and who by Repentance appease the anger of God whom they have provoked that their sins shall be changed from their nature they shall become white as Snow and soft as Wool and what ought to tumble them down to Hell shall raise them up among the Blessed For as all things co-operate to the good of those that love God their Malice shall be turned into Piety their sins which merited eternal Punishments shall bring upon them as Ample Recompences and Grace taking away what was horrible in them makes thereof the occasion of their Felicity and Glory There is no person but receives an extream Joy and satisfaction when he finds himself clear from Servitude that his Tyrants cease to persecute him his vices are vanishing and Innocence taking new possession in his heart Who does not leap with joy when he sees his Safety arise from his Ruin his Miseries to be the cause of his Happiness and that his crimes which rank him in the number of those to be reproved crown him in Heaven Penitence still produces these wonders in the Church and animating Sinners against themselves it gives them a blessedness