Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	blood_n	shed_v	sin_n	6,839	5	4.9120	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A05342	A sermon preached before his Maiesty at Windsore, the 19. of Iuly. 1625. By Henrie Leslie, one of his Maiesties chaplaines in ordinary	Leslie, Henry, 1580-1661.	1625 (1625)	STC 15494; ESTC S108502	20,921	41

are the staires that lead vnto the chambers of death and the steps whereby the wicked doe descend into this pit of obduration But as S Austin saith in another case if the towne be on fire we should not be so curious to know how it came in as carefull to put it out Therefore in the last place let vs bethinke our selues of a salue for this soare Indeed it is a most dangerous desperate disease The stone in the heart is a great deale worse than the stone in the bladder for after hardnes commeth the heart that cannot repent Rom. 2.5 and without repentance there can be no saluation So that he who hardeneth his heart shill fall into euill Prov. 28.14 Eccles. 3.27 and as the Wis●man saith Cor durum habebit malè in navissimo It shal be in an ill case at the last day Therfore you see that as when God would shew mercy to a people he hath no more forcible meanes to expresse the same then to say I will take away the stonie heart so when he would take vengeance on any he hath no more grieuous way to doe it then by hardening of their hearts or giuing them vp to the hardnes of their hearts It is no maruell then that the Scripture doth so carefully dehort vs from this hardnes of heart and on the other part doth so earnestly recommend vnto vs the contrary to a hard heart Deut 10.16 Luc. 6.15 I●s 51.17 Isa 66.2 2. King 22.19 Ezech. 36.26 which is set forth in Scripture by sundry properties as that it is a circumcised contrite heart a good and honest heart a broken and contrite heart a relenting melting trembling heart a poore humble and obedient heart a tender heart a new heart sprinkled with the blood of Christ washed by his grace heated inflamed by his holy spirit In a word a heart of flesh or a soft heart that is soone checked controlled soone pierced soone made to bleed soon stirred vp to amendment Now that we may get such a heart these remedies are to be vsed which will be like a pretious balme to soften and supple our hearts 1. We must beware of frequent sinning and learne to make conscience of euery sinne since customable sinning is that which hardens the heart In the next place let vs labour after true ill mination for the hardnesse of our heart is from the blindnes of our mind vnlesse the mind be first inlightened the heart can neuer be softened After this we must lay our hearts open and naked to all admonitions threatnings exhortations of the word applying them to our owne conscience for that is the hammer that breaketh the stones it is the fire that melteth the hardest mettals it is the two edged sword that pierceth to the diuiding asunder of the soule and spirit This Recipe is prescribed by the Apostle a litle after exhort one another daily while it is called to day v. 13. lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulnesse of sinne Fourchly we must often enter into a consideration of our own estates for we perish for want of consideration because we mind not what we doe or in what case we stand to Godward No man repented saith Ieremie but why No man said what haue I done but as th● horse rusheth into the battaile so they into their sinnes Therefore it behooueth vs to examine our wayes to erectan inquisitiō keep an audit in our hearts looking vpon our selues continually in the glasse of the Law and therein meditating often vpon the Iustice of God his greathatred against sin vpō the truth of God's threatnings vpon the last judgement and the fearefull torments prepared in hell for hard-hearted sinne●s And if thou thus strike the rock of thy heart with the rod of the Law riuers of Water will gush forth 5. But lest after that in the Law we haue seen our miserable desperate estate we should presently raue rage against the Lord we must labo●r with the sight of our sinnes to get a sight of Gods mercie reuealed in the Gospell The remembrance of his fathers house made the heart of the Prodigall to relent so will the consideration of Gods mercies towards vs worke vpon our hearts when once our hearts are inflamed with the sense of Gods loue towards vs oh then the working of our bowels the stirring of our affections the melting and relenting of our repenting hearts Sixtly let vs obserue duelie the judgements of God for all afflictions whether vpon our selues or vpon others should stirre vs vp and make vs looke about vs. The famine the sword the pestilence are Gods three Champions to fight his battails to revenge his quarrels but especially the Pestilence that is called Bellum Dei contra homines These three should be vnto vs as the three arrowes which Iona. than shot to forewarne Dauid of the Kings displeasure As Dauid vnderstood thereby that the King was angry and so got vp and made hast to be gone So may we by those darts that come from Heauen fall so neere vnto this place perceiue that the wrath of God is kindled against vs And therefore we shall doe well to get vp as Dauid did and make hast to flee from the face of an angry God whose wrath is a consuming fire hiding our selues in the holes of that rocke Christ Iesus who is a propitiation for our sins But this is not all to perceiue by Gods judgements that he is angry In the next place we shall doe well to looke backe into our selues and enquire what we haue done that hath prouoked the Lord to wrath for he neuer strikes without a cause ● Sam. 21.1 So Dauid when the famine was vpon the land consulted with the Lord and he found that it was for the bloud of the Gibeonites shed by Saul Yea so much deuotion we may learne from the Assyrians After the king of Ashur had sent into Samaria new Colonies from Babylon Cutha Ana Hamath and from Sepharuaim there came Lions and destroyed them And they rightly apprehended the cause of it to be for that they did not worship the God of the land but serued idols in that place which the Lord of hosts had sanctified for his owne worship Wherevpon the king gaue order that one of the Preists should be carried backe 2. King 17.24 c. to teach them the manner of the God of the land Belike they knew that the Arke of God Dagon wold not dwel vnderone roof So if we search into the cause that hath prouoked God to wrath we will finde such as this and many more in ourselues So the consideration of Gods judgements will bring vs to the sight of our sinnes which is a good meanes to make our hearts relent Seuenthly let vs bath our hearts in the hot bloud of Iesus for the consideration of his death and passiō is a most effectuall meanes to make our hearts relent and resolue into the teares of vnfained contrition for did Christ for our sinnes shed his heart bloud did our sinnes make him sweat water bloud should not we ourselues shed bitter teares should not our hearts bleed for them Did the vaile of the Temple rend and the stones cleaue asunder when Christ suffered shall not our stonie hearts breake for whom he suffered Did the earth moue and shall our earthly minds stand immoueable No no if we could be setled in this without doubt that we were the men that crucified Christ as guilty of his death as was Pilat Iudas or the Iewes that our sinnes were the nailes that boared his hands and his seete and the speare which pierced his side and the thornes that pricked his head If I say this meditation could take place in our hearts bitternes of spirit with wailing and mourning should take place in like manner Thus Peter in his sermon Act. 2. strooke the Iewes as with a thunderclap from Heauen when he told them that they had crucified the Lord of glory so that 3000 of them were pricked in their hearts Act. 2.37 and cried Men and brethren what shall we doe Euen so if we be of the number of those vpon whom God hath promised to powre forth his spirit in the last dayes We shall looke vpon him whom we haue pierced and we shall lament for him as one mourneth for his onely son Zach. 12.10 Finally because a soft heart is the gift of God let vs haue recourse vnto him by earnest and frequēt prayer beseeching him of his fatherly goodnes that according to his promises in the new couenant he would take away this stonie heart from vs and giue vs a heart of flesh which may receiue the stampe of his word be pliable to the operation of his blessed spirit and tremble at his iudgements And vnto prayer we must sometimes adde fasting which is like scouring now thē to be joyned with ordinary washing When destruction was threatened against Niniveh the King proclaimed a solemne fast so hath our religious King done at this time Not as the king of Niniveh For that king did proclaime the fast vpon the warning of a Prophet but he himselfe gaue warning to the Prophets and like the good Kings of Iuda we haue seene him goe before the Priests in the zeale of Gods seruice I will not forestall the market but reserue the worke of the day for the day it selfe Onely giue me leaue to blow the trumpet in Sion for sanctifying of this fast and to ring a peale this day before giuing you warning that if ye will heare his voice meete the Lord by repentance in that day of humiliation yee must not harden your hearts AMEN

so far from being moued effectually by the word that he is rather prouoked to doe the contrarie Origen for such is the corruption of mans nature vt ea quae prohibentur magis desiderantur Our corrupt nature is like a restie horse who the more he is spurred forward the more he goeth backward and like a streame whch being dammed vp rageth swelleth and ouerfloweth all the bankes therefore is the commandement said to be an occasion of sin and Christ is called a rocke of offence and the Apostles a sauour of death Take an example hereof in Pharaoh he is commanded to let the people goe and the more he is vrged the stiffer and stubborner he is and the more he rebelleth against God And the same may be said of the Iewes God foretelleth what should bee the euent of Isaias ministrie namely that he should make their hearts fat and their eares heauy and shut their eyes So that even the word becommeth vnto them the meanes of hardning As the middle region of the aire is more cold by the Antiperistasis so the heart of a reprobate is more hard by the word though the word in it selfe bee full of vitall heart for to soften the heart As the hammer though it breakes the rockes yet the smithes stithie the more the hammer strikes vpon it the harder it is and as the heate of the sunne though it melt waxe yet it dryeth the clay and as the raine though it mollifie the earth yet hardens sand so the word breaketh melteth and mollifieth the hearts of the Godlie and yet obdurates dryes and hardens the wicked but accidentallie the fault being in their owne disposition Itpleased some to censure me that I did ill to alleadge the spirit of Compunction as a phrase equiualent to hardnesse of heart it being contrary vnto it Therefore vnderstand that I tooke not Compunction passiuely for contrition as when they are said to be compuncti corde Act. 2.37 but actiuely for a fretting against the word And so the Scripture takes it For Rom. 11.8 that which is viually rendred the spirit of slumber is not vnfitly by others translated the Spirit of Compunction And I appeale from their learning to the common sense of the meanest Reader whether in that place it be contrary to hardnesse of heart or all one with it for hauing said that the Jewes were hardned for confirmation thereof hee alleadgeth this as it is written God hath giuen them the Spirit of Compunction and after addes Eyes that they should not see and eares that they should not beare loyning in one two places the of prophesie of Isaiah This in Scripture is called the spirit of compunction which implyeth a kind of fretting chaffing and violent stirring against the word as in those that brast for anger at the Apostles Act. 5.33 That gnashed with their teeth at Stephen Act. 7.54 The second kind of this senselesnesse is in the conscience and respecteth the sinnes which a man committeth when a man is not touched with sense and sorrow for the same 1 Tim. 4.2 Isa 29.9 Psal 60.3 Isa 29.10 This is the seared conscience spirituall drunkennesse the wine of giddinesse or drowsinesse the spirit of slumber or deade sleepe for when any part of the body is seared with a hot iron it looseth all sence life and motion also when a man is drunken he knowes not he careth not what he doth And finallie those who are ouercome with drowsinesse or slumbering cannot easilie with stirring or pricking be awaked So he that is come to this height of hardnesse is without all sense of sinne he neither knoweth nor careth what euill he doth and hee is neuer moued with any stirring or pricking of his conscience Of such the Apostle saith Eph. 4.19 they are Past feeling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This seared conscience hath seuerall degrees There is the broade conscience when a man is not moued with any sinne except it be very heynous There is the sleeping conscience when a man is not touched with the sense of any sinne be it neuer so greivous for a long time Hieron yet at last tranquillitas ista tenpestas est this calme proues a storrne and he is awakened either by the preaching of the law or the terrors of death or some greivous calamitie and there is the slumbering conscience which hath some sense of sinne as Pharaoh had Exod. 9.27 when hee cryed out I haue sinned but neuer any sound sorrow for it he feeles not with Iob the terrors of God fighting against him and the inuenomed arrowes of the almightie sticking fast in his ribs This is but like the sweating of a stone in moist weather which notwithstanding retaines its naturall hardnesse and drynesse finallie their is the benummed consciene when a man hath neither sense of sinne nor sorrow for it but is like a man in a phrensie or one fallen into a pleasant sleepe who though he be exceeding sick yet he feeles no paine and as in some kind of sicknesse a man may die laughing so where this degree of hardnesse is a man may descend into the pit of hell triumphing and reioycing Whereof I will onely say with St. Austin quid miserius misero non miserante seipsum None are so desperately sick as they who feele not their disease when the pulse doth not beat the bodie is in a most dangerous estate that schoole will soone decay where the monitor doth not complaine that army must necessarily be surprised where watches alarums be not kept that towne is dissolute where no clockes are vsed But the conscience is to the soule as the pulse to the body the monitor to the schoole the watch to the armie the clocke to a towne And therefore when it is silent the soule is in a most desperate case The third kinde of this senselesnesse is in the affections and respecteth Gods Iudgements vpon vs for sinne when these cannot worke vpon a soule any good effect but are as it were lost labour as God accounteth them Isa 1.5 Why should yee he stricken any more yee will revoult more and more Indeede affliction is the most effectuall meanes for to make our heart relent and resolue into the teares of vnfained repentance either the crosse will doe it or nothing Moral l. 26. c. 23. as Gregorie saith aurem cordis tribulatio aperit quam saepe huius mundi prosperitas claudit which is the same with that of Elihu Iob 33.16 God openeth the eares of men by their corrections which he had sealed that he might cause man to turne away from his purpose Therefore we find that afflictions are the last meanes which God ordinarily vseth to convert obstinate sinners When neither the oile of his gracious bountie will softenour stony hearts nor his Word which is the sword of the spirit pierce them when neither the sweet sound of his gracious promises will allure vs to obedience nor the terrible thunder of his fearefull