Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	believe_v	die_v	live_v	4,475	5	5.3700	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81152	Englands plus ultra both of hoped mercies, and of required duties : shewed in a sermon preached to the honourable Houses of Parliament, the Lord Major, Court of Aldermen, and Common-Councell of London, together with the Assembly of Divines, at Christ-Church, April 2, 1646 : being the day of their publike thanksgiving to Almighty God for the great successe of the Parliaments army in the West, especially in Cornwall, under the conduct of his excellency Sr. Thomas Fairfax / by Joseph Caryl, minister of the Gospel at Magnus neer the bridge, London, and a member of the Assembly of Divines.	Caryl, Joseph, 1602-1673.	1646 (1646)	Wing C752; ESTC R43612	28,502	54

duty upon a generall ground O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good because his mercy endureth for ever But because that which is every bodies work is usually no bodies work therefore in the next words he puts the duty into distinct hands Let Israel now say let the house of Aaron now say let them now that fear the Lord say that his mercy endureth for ever The Church of the Jews fals here under a three-fold distribution First Israel the body of the Common-wealth Secondly The house of Aaron the Ministers of the Temple Thirdly All that fear the Lord Converts and Proselites out of all Nations under heaven Having thus awaken'd and summon'd all to this duty he begins a narrative of the speciall grounds and reasons of it which appear in two branches First The readinesse of God to hear and help him from the 5. vers to the 10. I called upon the Lord in distresse the Lord answered me and set me in a large place The Lord is on my side c. Secondly The malice of his enemies in opposing him who are described 1. Their multitude All Nations ver 10. That is the Nations round about such as are named Psal 83. 7. Gebal and Ammon and Amaleck the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tire c. These have consulted together with one consent they are confederate against me 2. Their neernesse of prevailing They compassed me about David was never in such a straight or so near the borders of ruine as when Saul and his men compassed Him and his men round about to take them 1 Sam. 23. 26. when an enemy charges both in front and flank both van and reer they look like Masters of the field 3. Their frequency in renewing their assaults They compassed me about they compassed me about yea they compassed me about They compassed me about like Bees Four times they compassed him about and the fourth with an addition the last charge was hottest as setting their Rest upon it to shew how restlesse and uncessant they were in their opposition 4. He describes his enemies by the end which the Lord brought them unto They are quenched as the fire of thorns vers 12. Some read They are kindled as the fire of thorns both the Greek and the Chaldee translate so and it is usuall in the Hebrew for the same word to signifie contraries as to blesse and to curse so here to quench and to kindle The sense amounts to the same for that which is soon kindled is soon quenched Davids enemies were soon kindled as the fire of thorns a small matter set them on fire and they were quenched or consumed like thorns which in a moment are both flame and ashes 5. He describeth his enemies by the end which they intended him or by their design against him at the 13. verse Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall ruine was the project Malice knows not how to go lesse then destruction They thrust sore at him that he might fall The Psalmist having made this report of his dangers and deliverances of his enemies rising rage and fall gives glory to God vers 14. The Lord is my strength and song and he is become my salvation And all his people celebrate these mercies as well as share in them vers 15 16. The voice of rejoycing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous He in whom they rejoyced and who was the subject of their song stands forth in the next words The right hand of the Lord doth valiantly The right hand of the Lord is exalted The right hand of the Lord doth valiantly Davids joy now grows up to confidence and from telling over the former mercies of God he goes on to fore-tell those which were future in the Text now read I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. The words are a holy rapture or exultation of spirit his faith was too big for his heart he must vent it at his lips I shall not die but live c. There are two parts in this verse 1. Davids confidence of future mercy I shall not die but live 2. Davids conscience both of a present and future duty And declare the works of the Lord. There is a double reading of the words Some thus I am not dead but alive which translation is contended for as the best by a learned Interpreter and then the sense hath a mixture of joy and thankfulnes that he who could number so many enemies and so many dangers should yet passe the pikes untoucht and out-live them all I am not dead but alive O wonderfull Blessed be God for this We read I shall not die but live And so the words carry the sense of an high acting faith or of a faith raised up to a full-grown assurance Having told the story of his passed sufferings and salvations he believes above and beyond all possible sufferings I shall not die but live But was David immortall What man is he that liveth and shall not see death and shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave Psal 89. 49. Is it not appointed unto all men once to die And after David had served his generation did not he fall asleep Read we not often of Davids sepulchre How then is it that he promiseth thus much to himself I shall not die but live There is a two-fold death 1. A Naturall death 2. A Violent death David doth not promise himself priviledge from the former he waves not a submission to the law of nature But David did believe God would protect him from the later I shall not die that is a violent death I shall not die by the hand of these men I shall not die the death which they have voted me to in their counsels long ago Again Death may be taken under another distinction There is either A naturall or A civil death We may understand David of the later I shall not die a civil death as not a violent corporall death they shall not take away the life of my body so I shall not die a civil death they shall not take away the prosperity of my estate The two witnesses are said to be dead Revel 11. 8. and their dead bodies to lie in the streets when they were divested of all power and priviledge in holding forth the truth of the Gospel The state of the Jews in their Babylonian captivity is represented to Ezekiel by a valley full of dry bones Chap. 37. 1 2. A man may have breath in his body and yet the man scarce alive The Apostle speaks this sense 1 Thess 3. 8. Now I live that is now I live comfortably now I feel my self alive if ye stand fast in the faith So here I shall not die that is I shall not be miserable I shall not be trodden under foot or live at the curtesie and allowance of my enemies And when he saith I we are not to restrain it to Davids person

of great danger to escape death or to come off with our lives It is a mercy not to live in times when God visits a people only to punish their sinne and therefore some of the good Kings of Judah were promised that they should die before such troubles were borne even Balaam Numb 24. 23. prophecying of the sore calamities of divers Nations breaths out in compassion Alas who shall live when God doth this Who would desire to live in such a time The righteous is taken away from the evil to come Isa 57. 1. But to live in times when God visits a people for the purging of their sins this is a great mercy To live in such times and to get thorow them though but with an escape is a mercy But to get thorow those times with a conquest is a great mercy It is an honour to live in troubles which overcome us while we are contending for truth and righteousnesse But to live in troubles where contending for truth and righteousnesse we overcome is our happinesse To be in deaths often is an honourable life but often to conquer deaths is an Heroicall life Right Honourable and Beloved this is Englands mercy Life is the richest commodity of this life Life among Naturals is next in value to the soul and it is in value above all Civils Satans estimate may be taken in this point Job 2. Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life Life is sweet life is a treasure And there hath been much digging for this treasure We have gone thorow fire and water variety of dangers we have walked for four or five years not only in a valley of tears but of bloud in the very valley of the shadow of death and yet we are not dead but alive What though it hath cost much to preserve these lives who would die to save charges what though estates be shortned yet life is lengthned what though some of the lading hath been cast over-board in this storm yet the vessell is safe We are not dead but alive We if ever any may say it with a mixture of wonder and thankfulnesse England is not dead but alive There were many who looked upon her as dying and gasping out her last breath Many hoped and many feared England would have been in her winding-sheet before this time How often have we like Israel at the red sea been talking of our graves How often have we waxed strong in unbelief and concluded as David once did we shall one day perish yet we may say England is not dead but alive And what a mercy is it that we can read this text to the Parliament of England Ye are not dead but alive The Parliament hath had death standing at their doors death looking thorow the key-hole scarce suffering the door to shut lest if called it should not come in fast enough and yet we may say The Parliament of England is not dead but alive And which is most considerable as in it's greatest swounings and convulsions it alwaies retained life in it self and lived in the hearts and prayers of the faithfull in the land so it now liveth in the tongues and pens I know not in what state it is in the hearts of those with whom it was reckon'd among the dead The Parliament of England hath been praied to death cursed to death drunk to death devoted to death and voted to death I am sure a civil death in deepest consultations and yet it is alive and lives in the mouths of many whose throats were once an open sepulchre to swallow it up and bury it forever Let this mercy be remembred as that which is the mother-mercy or the instrument the parent of all our Nationall mercies The Parliament of England is not dead but alive For the City of London this great and renowned City what a mercy is it that we can say London is not dead but alive Death hath been hovering about your wals death waited when it should be admitted to look in at your windows Yea the death of this City hath been breeding in it's own bowels Some members have been contriving the death of the whole body and have themselves justly died for it And that which the Prophet speaks Lam. 4. 12. concerning Jerusalem The Kings of the earth and all the inhabitants of the world would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entred into the gates of Jerusalem may be inverted concerning London The Kings and Nations about us would not believe but that the enemy would have entred in at the gates of London before this time yet notwithstanding secret underminings and open threatnings This great City which holds much of the life of the whole Nation is not dead but alive This City hath not had so much as a mount cast up nor an arrow shot against it Lastly How many are there in this Honourable Audience who have gone forth with their lives in their hand who have as it were conversed with death Some I believe are here who have led Armies in the field who have been in the head of them in times of greatest danger and hottest assaults who have seen pale death on every side who have heard the groans and beheld the wounds of the dying let them all blesse God that they and we can say They are not dead but alive A great King 1 King 20. 32. made it his request and would have been glad of the grant I pray thee let me live Esther makes the same suit to Ahashuerus Chap. 7. 3. Let my life be given me at my petition and my people at my request And all that God himself promised some very good men in a time of common calamity was That they should have their lives for a prey as for great things they were not to be look'd for Jer. 39. 18. 45. 5. That we can say thus much we are alive is a mercy if we could say no more But if we can say more if we can say we are not only alive that is numbred among livers but we are alive that is numbred among rejoycers this would rise to a high prized mercy That 's a second Note which I shall briefly touch For a people after they have runne thorow great dangers to live enjoying great comforts and successes is an amazing mercy Not to be dead but alive is mercy but to be alive and prosperous what a mercy is that This calleth as much for admiration as thankfulnesse It was much that the Bush burned and was not consumed Exod. 3. 2. but that a Bush should burn and at that time blossom and bear fruit how admirable were that When Josephs brethren Gen. 45. returned and told their father Ioseph is yet alive had the report ended there Iacobs heart had been exceedingly revived but when they tell him Ioseph is yet alive and he is Governour over all the land of Aegypt how did this amaze the spirit of old Iacob

He was ready to die with joy to hear that his son was not only not dead but alive in such an estate of honour This day is witnesse This solemn meeting is a proof That the Kingdom the Parliament of England the City of London do not only live but prosper Ye are not escaped only as Job speaks Chap. 19. 20. with the skin of your teeth but with your Ornaments and Honours with your riches and priviledges Ye have not only breath and a being but strength and a wel-being ye are encompassed with blessings and the Candle of God shines upon your heads Though as the Psalmist speaks Psal 66. 12. Ye have gone thorow much fire and water yet God hath brought you to a wealthy place Ye are not enjoying a life only a life within one step or degree of death but ye live your lives ye have a life that hath abundance of life in it such livelines such vigour your affairs have not had since these troubles began What the Oratour spake with indignation of Catiline a conspiratour against the peace of his countrey Vivit etiam in Senatum venit the man hath honour whose life is more then his due The same may I say with much gratulation of you Noble Patriots Vivitis etiam in Senatum venitis Ye live and ye live still like Senatours Your Honour is great in the salvation which God hath wrought Your Sunne rises in the West Your victories abroad are stupendious Your union which this daies apparance is a great demonstration of I say your union at home is pleasant and harmonious the Two Houses with each other both with the City concentring in this solemn duty I would say this from the sense of this great mercy Right Honourable seeing the Lord hath given you your lives for a prey and added prosperity to your lives let the cause of God not only live but prosper in the land Improve your utmost that Jesus Christ may have not only a being or a breathing in the land and in your lives but that he may raign live gloriously both in the Land and in your lives The Apostle Iohn in his 3d Ep. to Gaius wishes that his body might prosper even as his soul prospered My wish is that all your souls and all the affairs of souls may live and prosper as God hath caused your bodies and outward estates to live and prosper My wish is that all the Churches of Christ may live and prosper even as the Common-wealth prospers The Church of Christ is the soul of that Common-wealth where it is Many Common-wealths have prospered where Christ hath had no Church at all but I think there was never any Common-wealth that prospered where Christ had a Church if that Church did not live up in the same degree of prosperity that the Common-wealth did I mean if the Church had not a flourishing life in it's capacity according to the flourishing of the State wherein it lived I speak not of the Church under the old notion of the Church-men but I speak of the Church as comprehending all the Saints and servants of Jesus Christ all the faithfull in the Land let them all have not only a life but a comfortable life This will answer the mercy of God in giving the State not only a being but such a comfortable being as it hath at this day I know Right Honourable it was farre from your thoughts ever to have spoken like that Roman Tyrant If I must die let fire and earth mingle let all go to confusion if I must die let all the world die too I doubt not but you would have rejoyced though your own lives had been the price to have known that England should live it would have been your comfort that the foundations of mercy to a future generation had been surely laid though in your own ruines Though as Iudah pleads with Ioseph for the return of Benjamin Gen. 44. 30. I verily believe that the life of the Kingdom of England is bound up in the Parliament of England and when this dies that must in the notion here intended But I am sure ye are further off from the speech of that other Roman Tyrant who said Let fire and earth mingle so I may live and prosper so I may have what pleaseth me no matter what becomes of the rest of the world I know ye abhorre to think much more to resolve Now we live and prosper let fire and earth mingle let justice and oppression mingle let Christ and Belial mingle let truth and errour mingle let light and darknesse mingle let good and evil mingle let confusion and disorder appear in the face and live in the body of the whole Nation if they will Therefore as the Lord hath given us in this mercy that you are not dead but alive so let it be I humbly beseech you your care in answer thereunto that the work of God that all who fear God that the cause and people of God that the flook of Jesus Christ may not only not die but live prosperously with and under your Government I now come to the second reading our reading of the Text I shall not die but live So it is a voice of holy confidence and it yeelds this plain Observation That The experience of former mercies and successes is a ground of hope for future and continued mercies and successes Faith turneth this experience I am not dead but alive into this confidence I shall not die but live Hope is the first-born of experience Rom. 5. 4. The Apostle argues so 2 Cor. 1. 10. He hath delivered us from so great a death A great death all death in it self is of one size but the waies of death and the dangers of death are of different sizes and dimensions He hath delivered us from so great a death deadly dangers and he doth deliver us what of that And we trust that he will also deliver us What God hath done and doth is easily believed he will doe The people of Israel being got thorow the red Sea kept a day of Thanksgiving and we finde that they grew confident of getting into Canaan presently Exod. 15. 13 14. Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation the people shall hear and be afraid sorrow shall take hold of the inhabitants of Palestina the Dukes of Edom shall be amazed c. Israel had set but a foot as it were beyond the red Sea and yet now they tryumph as if they had a footing in Canaan Was not Moses too forward in this and were not the people over confident No they had a just ground of hope that God would carry them thorow that Wildernesse because he had brought them thorow that red Sea David saw Goliah vanquished in the victory he obtained over a Lion and a Bear this uncircumcised Philistime shall be as one of them I beseech you let your faith

he meaneth himself and they who had adhered to him in that cause I and my friends I and the Common-wealth of Judah I and they shall not die but live A good man never reckons his happinesse alone But how would David imploy that his present and promised felicity How would he bestow that life that prosperous life He doth not say I will now live merrily I will eat and drink and take my pleasure he doth not say I have got down mine enemies I will now as some perhaps slanderously reported him neglect my friends He doth not say I have got power over my opposers now I will use this power to oppresse whom I please David could easier have died or been miserable all his daies among his enemies then to have lived and prospered to these ends Once more He doth not say I shall not die but live to declare my own great works Now the world shall know how succesfull I have been in this warre the Nations round about shall hear what my Generals and Chieftains have done stories shall report to after ages what gallant men Joab and Abishai have been No here is no mention of Himself or of These his declaration runs all upon the works of God I am not dead but alive or I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. The summe of all is as if David had said I well perceive that the design of my enemies was to take away my life or at least the comforts of my life they thought a being in the world too much for me and they were resolved a wel being I should not have but blessed be God notwithstanding all their projects and oppositions I am not dead my life is whole in me still and my state is well mended my enemies have not had their wils on me either to tear my soul from my bodie or to violate the comforts of either I am not dead and more I am alive I and my friends I and they who have embark'd in the same cause and run the same adventures with me We all thrive and flourish we are alive and lives-like And me thinkes from the mountain of this my present felicity I look upon the mercies of many years to come my faith begins to prophesie and my spirituall prospective draws before me the blessings of many generations even blessings for the children yet unborn as I am not dead but alive so I shall not die but live God hath not given me into the hand of these men nor shined upon their counsels against me and now I am confident that he will not The sense and faith which I have of these things pleases me exceedingly but that which is most content full to me and the very project of my soul is that my life shall run out in the honouring of my God that these victories which he hath given me over mine enemies shall overcome me to his service that the greatest work of my reign shall be to make a declaration of what God hath wrought I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. I shall now draw out some particulars from the generall sense thus given And first take an Observation rising equally from either reading That the design of malicious enemies is the ruine of their opposers When David saith I am not dead but alive he intimates that the enemy sought his life or when he saith I shall not die but live he implies the enemy would still go on pursuing his life Jacob fore-saw no lesse danger from his malicious brother Gen. 32. 11. I fear him saith he lest he will come and smite me and the mother upon the children Queen Esther in the sixth of that book shews the malice of Haman acting thus high We are sold I and my people to be destroyed to be slain and to perish If we had been sold for bond-men and bond-women I had held my tongue though the enemy could not countervail the Kings damage but that 's not the thing which will satisfie Haman We are sold to be slain and to be destroyed It is a vexation to malice not to do it's uttermost Some of the Talmudists have observed that the devil was as much wounded with that restraint which God put upon him that he should not take away the life of Job as Job was with all the wounds which the devil inflicted upon his body See he is in thine hand but save his life The devil would have gone to life unlesse he had been stopt Malice hath no bounds and it keeps none but those which an insuperable hand prescribes or imposes The children of Edom are not contented with defacing the beauty with breaking down the battlements or uncovering the roof of Sion their cry is Rase it rase it even to the foundation thereof Psal 137. 7. As Antipathy is not against any one individuall but against the whole kinde so it is not against any one good of the individuall but against all kinde of good which he enjoyes Thus the Prophet describes the Babylonian cruelty against Jerusalem Jer. 51. 34. Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon hath devoured me he hath crushed me he hath made me an empty vessel he hath swallowed me up like a dragon he hath filled his belly with my delicates he hath cast me out By that time all the lusts of wicked men are served they sweep all away That as the Prophet speaks which the Palmer-worm leaves the locust eats and that which the locust leaves the canker-worm eats so we may say that which ambition leaves covetousnesse takes that which covetousnesse leaves cruelty takes that which cruelty leaves gluttony and drunkennesse take and that which gluttony and drunkennesse leave wantonnesse takes away till all 's gone Hence it is that the Lord is so severe against the enemies of his people Revel 16. 6. Thou hast given them bloud to drink for they are worthy they must drink bloud for nothing would satisfie them but bloud And Jer. 51. 35. the Church is prophesied imprecating like vengeance upon Babylon The violence done to me be upon Babylon shall the inhabitant of Zion say and my bloud upon the inhabitants of Caldea shall Jerusalem say And again O daughter of Babylon who art to be destroyed happy shall he be who rewardeth thee as thou hast served us Psal 137. 8. In this glasse we may see the face of many of their hearts out of whose hands we rejoyce that we are delivered this day It is nothing but the want of power which hath hindered the execution of utmost rage And therefore where God giveth power what should stand between justice and the execution of it I would not blow up revenges but thus much I say It is as dangerous not to execute justice as it is to take revenge So much in generall from the design of Davids enemies it was death and ruine Take two notes from that reading I am not dead but alive First thus It is a mercy in times