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	sin_n	world_n	4,338	5	4.9247	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43652	A discourse to prove that the strongest temptations are conquerable by Christians, or, A sober defence of nature and grace against the cavils and excuses of loose inconsiderate men in a sermon preach'd before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor of London, and court of aldermen, the 14th of January, 1676/7 / by George Hickes ...	Hickes, George, 1642-1715.	1677 (1677)	Wing H1846; ESTC R34459	17,275	42

endure the most painful sorts of death rather than Worship a Cake of Bread Invoke their Fellow-creatures admit any Advocate in Heaven but Jesus or make the Gospel depend upon the dictates of the Pope how illiterate and wicked soever he may be But were there no other Histories extant but the Bible the number of the Saints recorded there that have embraced the most bitter Ignominious Deaths and despised the Torments and Shame thereof are more than enough to prove that there is no Temptation so dreadful but what may be born by Man and that 't is neither impossible nor so exceeding difficult for Christians to conquer the fear of Death as the profane and sensual part of the World to the dishonour of our Religion pretend it to be The second instance under which I shall bring examples to prove that no Temptation is irresistible shall be taken from the Sin of Uncleanness or fornication a Sin which the World is so apt to excuse and pretend a kind of necessity to commit because it is so natural to Flesh and Blood And yet as natural and hereditary as the Advocates of Uncleanness represent in to be 't is so far from being an irresistible Temptation that Joseph resisted the frequent importunities of his own Lady or Mistress although besides the quality of her Person and the danger of denying his own Youth and all other circumstances concurr'd to make him consent and Yield And were the dread of the Majesty of the Pure and Holy God impress'd upon the heart of the most lustsul Satyr but half as deep as it was upon his that Grace alone would be sufficient to check his sinful propensions and make him cry out as he did in the critical moment of Tryal How shall I do this damnable act and sin against my God But lest you should object that Joseph was an extraordinary person and had more than common assistance from God let us suppose the most ordinary unexperienc'd Christian surrounded with the strongest Temptations imaginable to commit this natural and therefore concluded unconquerable Sin Let us suppose him to have the most charming Beauty to entice him together with opportunity and all other Circumstances to heighten the Temptation and make it as outrageous as it can be imagin'd to be yet for all this if this Man should say that he were not able to rosist this violent Temptation he would lye against his Conscience and contradict the universal experience of the World For if at that instant God should say unto him as unto the Rich Man in the Gospel Thou Fool this night thy Soul shall be required of thee That dreadful Summons to appear so soon in the next World would make this mighty Temptation become none at all and presently drive out that unclean Spirit of Lust which possest his Soul before But much more if at the same time should come forth the Fingers of a Mans hand and write upon the Wall Mene Mene Tekel Upharzin Do this and thou shalt be immediately damned I desire any one of you to Answer in his heart for this Man what you think he would do You cannot but confess that his Amorous intentions and Countenance would be chang'd his jovial Thoughts troubled his Joints loos'd and his Knees like King Belshazzar's knock one against another Or lastly let us suppose at the same instant that an unexpected Message should come from his Prince threatning the Gibbet or the Ax if he proceeded to gratifie his sinful Desires such a terrible Message would undoubtedly be sufficient to extinguish his present Flames and restrain him from the Sin he intended to commit Or not to take the advantage of such frightful Enemies to his Pleasure as Damnation or Death let us rather suppose That a little Child much more a Grave and Reverend Person should unexpectedly come into the Room before he proceeded to execute his filthy Lust certainly instead of finding it impossible to resist the Damnable Sin he would find it impossible for him to commit it in their prefence unless he had made an utter shipwrack both of his Conscience and Honour and were become as shameless as a Beast Or let us suppose that a mighty reward imagin a Kingdom or some vast Sum of Money were offer'd him upon condition he would resist this pretended irresistible Temptation what do you think would find Strength and Resolution enough to overcome the unconquerable Temptation upon these terms and be glad to be hired by such a Reward to abstain from his Damnable Lust And therefore if all this be true Why should not the remembrance of our own Mortality as effectually Mortifie our Lusts and keep us from daring to commit a presumptuous Sin as if God himself should tell us we should shortly dye Why should not the consideration of Eternal Torments threatned in the Gospel be as perswasive against Sin as the consideration of them written by a Spirit upon a Wall Or why should not the Message of Eternal Death which we deliver from God prevail as much upon Men as the Message of temporal Death from a King Lastly why should not the presence of the Omnipresent God over-awe Men more than the presence of a Man Or why should not the Infallible Promise of Heaven and Infinite Happiness be a more powerful motive to Self-denyal than the Promise of a Kingdom or Treasure here below The shameful inconsideration stupidity and carnality of Mens hearts is the cause why Temporal expectations and proposals have more force upon their Souls than the hopes of Eternal Glory and that present or approaching sensible Pain or Loss fills their earthy Minds with more dreadful apprehensions than the prospect of Infinite Misery to come But to conclude this Instance with a more familiar Argument If the Temptations to this Sin be so very difficult to be resisted as Debauch'd Men pretend it is how comes it to pass that careful and Religious Parents suffer their Children to Sojorn in Mesech and dwell in the Tents of Kedar I mean to go abroad and converse in this wicked World How dare they expose their Souls which they tender next to their own to such certain dangers in an Adulterous Generation if to deny ones self and resist the Temptations of the Flesh be either impossible or next to impossible as the injurious Discourses of the unclean Spirits of this licencious Age upon all occasions represent it to be My third Instance to prove how capable the nature of Man by Gods Grace is to resist or overcome the most dangerous Temptations shall be taken from a Temptation to commit some Sin upon a certain proposal of gaining or loosing a Crown Among all the Trials or Temptations the World the Devil or our own Hearts can present unto us none can be more powerful or unconquetable than this For a Crown is the highest secular Interest the possession of it is both Government and Riches and by consequence the hopes of getting or fear of loosing that supreme degree

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proportionable to the Nature of Man or such as others before them had endur'd So for the future he likewise assures them that God who was faithful to his Promises would not suffer them to be tempted above their Strength but upon the due exercise of their patience and courage in resisting would make a way for them to escape in all their Trials and give them sufficient supplies of his Grace to support and overcome the violence thereof There hath no Tempation taken you saith he but such as is moderate or common to man for God is faithful who will not c. This is the true and obvious meaning of these words and therefore by good analogy both of Faith and Reason we may counclude that God who is acquainted with the infirmities of our Nature takes the same care of us in all other Trials and Temptations as the Apostle here assures us he doth in persecutions which are in this and many other places of the Gospel emphatically called Temptations because that of all the Trials which men can undergo for the sake of God and Religion those terrible pains and sufferings wherein persecutions consist are by far most difficult to be withstood by feeble Flesh and Blood But what need is there of proving so great a Truth by consequence and analogy when the promise of the Spirit that assistant form of Christians is the most general promise of the Gospel and one of the principal terms upon which we are encouraged to enter into Covenant with God For we bind our selves by our Sacramental Oaths to resist such Temptations as unassisted Humane Nature is not able to resist because we are assur'd from the beginning to the end of the New Testament That God will give his Spirit to them that sincerely ask it that the Graces of it are sufficient for us that he will perfect his Strength in Human Weakness and that he will make us more than conquerours in all Temptations and find out a way by which we shall escape A considerable part of the Gospel consists in such like promises of receiving sufficient assistance from God and indeed in had been inconsistent with his Wisdom and Goodness as he is the Author of the Covenant of Grace to require us to swear resistance against such Temptations as depraved Human Nature is not able to withstand unless withal ne would have given us concurrent supplys of supernatural Strength sufficient of support us in them and enable us to perform what he doth exact This then being certain that God stands bound in his Gospel to take special care to assist us in all Temptations and grant us sufficient supplys of his Grace I proceed to prove the Apostles consequnce That no Temptations how violent soever are irresistible by Christians or that no Temptation or Trial hath or ever shall happen by Gods permission unto any Person in Covenant with him but such as is suitable to the Powers of Human Nature strengthened by Grace and such as a reasonable considerate Man that duly uses and improves the present assistance of God may not easily conquer and subdue This assertion I shall prove two ways First by authority or precedent and Secondly by reason First by authority taken from the practice and examples of wise and sober Men in all Ages who have resisted the strongest and overcome the most difficult Temptations for the sake of God and therefore those Traiterous ungodly Christians who love to represent the cause of Virtue and Religion as desperate and indefensible contradict the experiences of Ages and belye the Records both of God and Man I shall but instance in three or four of the most violent assur'd Temptations which the Devils and their cursed Agents use as the strongest battery to subdue the souls of the bravest Men. The first whereof is the fear of Death which Bildad in Job calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the King of Consternations or Terrors and yet as terrible as are the approaches of this King of Terrors the brave adventures of those gallant Heathens who have met him with all his train of Terrors without astonishment and fear and sacrific'd their lives for their Country and Friends These generous souls I say who could scarce dye for higher ends infallibly shew that 't is so far from being impossible that 't is neither strange nor difficult for Reason without Grace or unassisted Humane Nature to overcome the fear of Death But then if we consult the Records of the Church we shall find the supreme motives of Religion to have made Cowards and common People valiant and the Spirit of God which the Jewish Writers call the Spirit of Might so to have fortifi'd the Courage of Women and Children as to make them dye with more Resolution than the Worthies of Greece and Rome The time would fail as the Author to the Hebrews speaks in telling of those that were ston'd sawn asunder (a) Vid. imadversios honorabilis doctis Nort. natchbulli u. aur in Ep. Hebr. c. 11.7 empaled and slain with the Sword And the Jewish and Christian Martyrologies the bloody Calendars of the Greek and Latin Churches the Histories of the Persecutions of the Jews by the Heathens of the Christians by them both and of the former and latter Reformers by the Papal See from the time of the Waldenses to this last Age are so many standing Acts and Monuments to prove that no tryals can happen to Men but what Humane Nature is able to bear and particularly that Death in all his array of Terrors is no such insuperable consideration when it stands in competition with our Duty to God The Spanish Christians in the time of Trajan behav'd themselves with such resolution and assurance at the Heathen Tribunals that his Procurator and their Judge Pliny mistook their constancy and perseverance for stubbernness of Opinion or a certain Superstitious obstination of Mind And afterwards in the tenth Persecution they so little regarded their Lives that they threw them away and offer'd unnecessary affronts to the Heathen Gods that so they might be sure to dye Martyrs in the Fact and have the honour to Seal the Truth with their Blood Insomuch that the Wise Council of (a) Ex. Consil Elib annv 305. siquas idola for gerit ibidem fuerit occisus placuit numerum eun nonre ipi Matyrum Eliberis was fain to make a Decree to correct such unwarrantable riotous Zeal and make them less prodigal of their Blood But both they and the more Primitive Christians of other Countrys would have dy'd had it been possible a thousand times rather than drop a grain of Incense bow before an Idol or do any other significant Action which Custom had made a sign of denying Christ And since the corruption of the Latin Church the noble Army of reformed Martyrs in these Western parts of the World have chosen to meet the King of Terrors in his most terrible appearance I mean in the dreadful Inquisition and