Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	body_n	dead_a	sin_n	15,745	5	5.5153	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B02255	The godly mans request : or, Choice flowers gathered out of the Holy Scriptures, For the strengthning [sic] and support of weak and fainting souls in these times of trouble. / by I.C.	I.C.	1676 (1676)	Wing C49A; ESTC R173302	7,745	26

THE Godly Mans Request LONDON Printed for F. Cole T. Vere J. Wright and J. Clark 1676. THE Godly Mans Request OR Choice Flowers gathered out of the Holy Scriptures for the Strengthning and support of weak and fainting Souls in these times of trouble Psal 9. v. 12. Teach us O Lord to number our days that we may apply our hearts to Wisdome Isa 14. v. 6. A voice said cry and he said what shall I cry all fl●sh is grass v. 8. The grass withereth the flower fadeth but the word of God shall stand for ever The Fift Edition with Additions By I. C. LONDON Printed for F. Cole T. Vere J. Wright and J. Clark 1676. The Godly mans Request Psal 90. v. 12. Teach us O Lord to number our days that we may apply our hearts to Wisdome Isaiah 40. v. 6. A voice said cry and he said what shall I cry all flesh is grass and v. 8. the grass withereth the flower fadeth but the Word of our God shall stand for ever THis Psalm was compiled by Moses as you may seé by the Title at what time the spies returned from the Land of Canaan and God for the murmuring of the people pronounced that all which were above twenty years old should die in the wilderness except Calib and Joshua that encouraged their brethren to go into Canaan now when Moses heard the sentence of death pronounced against himself and all the Jews which came out of Egypt except only two Calib and Joshua that all should die before they came to the land which they sought he prayeth thus for himself and the rest Teach us O Lord to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts unto Wisdome That is séeing we must néeds dye teach us to think of our death that we may die in thy fear to live for ever in thy favour shewing us howthe consideration of our mortality will make us apply our hearts to godliness therefore Moses thinking of his death runneth to Wisdome as a remedy against death which intimates to us that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdome therefore we must come to some schoolmaster which teacheth us like John Baptist what we should do that we may grow in knowledge as we grow in years Teach me to number my days saith Moses that I may apply my heart to Wisdome As a man that hath a set time for his task listens to the Clock and counts his hours so we have a set time to serve God John 9. v. 4. Work while it is day the night cometh when no man can work That is this life is the day wherein we should work what work we have to do the Apostle tells us work out your salvation this is a long task therefore we have néed to number our dayes not to lose a minute least we be benighted before our work be done Teach me O LORD to number my days c. That is that we may still be numbring and counting our dayes and hours and minutes to see how fast we die that every day and hour we may learn something of wisdome unless we think upon death we cannot fashion our selves to a godly life though we were as well instructed as Moses this we find dayly in our selves that the forgetfulness of death makes us apply our hearts unto folly and pleasure and voluptuousness that contrary to his advice work your salvation we work our damnation we are so far from numbring our dayes that we do not number our wéeks nor our months nor our years muchless number our dayes Oh my beloved friends and Christians who shall he present at the reading of this little book my Prayers shall be to the throne of Grace That we may be so taught to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts to Wisdome To pray and fast and watch and hear and do as becometh him which shall shortly give account of his Stewardship with cheerfulness to his Lord and Master and receive that blessed and joyful benediction of love Well done thou good and faithful servant enter into the joy of thy Lord this shall be the reward of those that apply their hearts to wisdome There is no such enemy to Repentance as to think we have time enough hereafter which makes a man say when any good motion cometh into his mind I may stay yet a little longer and defer my Repentance for I am Young in my Youth if I do take a little pleasure why God is a merciful God and he will pardon my sins if I truly repent I may stay yet like the sluggard who turns upon his Bed like a Door upon the Hinges and saith as in Prov. 6. v. 10. Yet a little more sleep a little more slumber I may lye still a while this is not to number our days but to stretch our days to make them séem more then they are and they that do so never apply their hearts to wisdome so you sée what a preservative Moses used against sin and pleasure He kept a Kalendar as it were of his days which called upon him and said be diligent for thou hast but a short time here Five things I note in these words First that Death is the Haven of every man and woman whether they sit in the throne or live in a Cottage at last we must knock at Deaths door as all our fathers have done before us Secondly that man's time is set and his bounds appointed beyond which he cannot pass Thirdly that our dayes are but few as though we were sent into the world but to sée it shewing that it is an easie thing for a man to number his dayes they be so few Fourthly the aptness of man to forget Death as we have often experienced when one man shall say to another do you remember where you are to go to morrow the other shall answer again and say I protest I thought no more of it then of my Dying day and therefore Moses prayeth to the Lord to teach him to number his dayes Fifthly and Lastly that to remember how short a time we have to live we may apply our hearts to that which is good as every one had a day to come into this world so surely they shall have a day to go out of this world When Moses had spoken of some vvhich lived seven hundred years and another that lived eight hundred years and another that lived nine hundred years at last comes in Mortuus est he died Therefore the Apostle saith we have here no abiding City but we look for one to come as our Saviour saith My Kingdome is not of this world so we may say our dwelling is not of this world but the soul soareth upward whence she came and the body stoopeth downward whence it came our tabernacles are made to remove every man is a tenant at will and there is nothing sure in this life but death When Adam and Eve were thrust out of Paradice by reason of their sins God cloathed

them with the skins of dead Beasts which shewed them that now they were cloathed with Death and that as the beasts were dead whose skins they wore so they should dye also As Job 17. verse 14. I shall say to corruption thou art my father and say to the Worm thou art my Mother and Sister Which made Solomon to say that he should go the way of all the Earth To which Isaiah bears witness crying all flesh is grass chap. 49. vers 6. that is it falleth and is cut down like grass In this world we live and must dye In Heaven we shall live and not dye before Sin nothing could change us and now every thing doth change us First we war old then we war Dry then we wax weak then we wax sick so we melt away by Drops at last as we carryed others so others carry us to our Graves that is the last bed that every man shall sleep in We may well be called Earthen Vessels for we are soon broken we are like the Ice that thaweth a great deal sooner then it froze so these little worlds our Earthly tabernacles are destroyed first and at last the great world shall be destroyed too and all in it which was made for us shall perish with us what do you learn when you think of this but that which Moses saith apply your hearts to wisdome The second note is that the time of man is set and his bounds appointed that be cannot pass and Jeremiah saith they could not stand because the day of their destruction is come as all the promises of God are conditional to take place if we repent not The third point is that our life is but a short life as many little sculls are in Golgotha as great sculls that is as many young Children go to their grave as Old people the Parents mourn for the death of their Children as often as Children for the death of their Parents What a great change is this that in Fourscore years no one of us here that are hearers of this little Book shall be left alive but others shall fill our Rooms and tread upon us as we tread upon others now Man dyeth when he thinks his Sun is a rising before his Eye is satisfyed with séeing his Ear with hearing or his heart with lusting Death knocks at his door and will not give him one minutes respite to meditate an excuse before he comes to judgement which shews the Shortness and Vncertainty of Man's Life This was the Arethmatique of Holy-men in former times to reckon their dayes so that their time might seem short to make them apply their Hearts to Wisdome David numbred his days by a measure My life saith he is like a span long Psal 39. v. 5. when he measured his life he took not a Pole or an Ell nor a yard to measure it by but a short measure his short Span My life is like a span long As some came into the Vineyard in the Borning some at Noon and some at night so some go out of this Vineyard in the Borning some at Noon and some at night so that a pleasant life may be compared but to a glorious day and a sorrowful life to a cloudy day and a long life to a Summers day and a short life to a winters day now why hath God appointed such a short time to man in the world surely least he should defer to do good as his manner is for though his life be short yet he thinks he hath time enough to repent The Prophet saith our years are but threescore and ten as though they were but a little time to live if our life were but a year yet a Year is more by fifty one weeks then we use all the rest be lost for we defer our repentance till the last wéek of the year it is said of the Devil he is busie because his time is short but the time of man is shorter and therefore Christ saith in this thy day as though no day could be called thy day but this day and therefore all that thou hast to do thou must do this day Consider this all ye which travel towards Heaven had we not need to make hast which must go such a long journey in so short a time how can he chuse but run which remembreth that every day runneth away with his life how often doth the scripture put us in mind of our death and yet we no sooner remember it but in a very short time it s forgot again even so it is with us as the Fooll saith in his heart there is no God so we say in our hearts there is no death or at least death will not come before we be old of all numbers we cannot skill to number our dayes we can number our Shéep and our Oxen and our Coyn but we think that our dayes are infinite and therefore we never go about to number them we can number other mens days and years and think they will dye ere it be long if we sée them sick or sore or old but we cannot number our own Therefore the Devil doth never teach a man to number his dayes because he gains by the forgetfulness of death but the Lord which would have a man to apply his heart to Wisdome it is he which teacheth us to number our dayes and therefore Moses pray-unto him that he might apply his heart unto Wisdome as if he should say until men think upon death they never apply their hearts unto wisdome but busies themselves with worldly matters as though they were feathering a nest that should never be pulled down therefore the way to get wisdome is 〈◊〉 apply your hearts unto it as if it were ●our Calling and Living to which you are ●ound Prentices a man may apply his ears ●nd his eyes as many truants do their Books and yet never prove schollars but ●rom that day which a man begins to apply his heart unto wisdome he learns more in a moneth after then he did in a year before ●ay than ever he did in his life even as you ●ee the wicked because they apply their hearts ●o wickedness how fast they proceed how ●asily and how quickly they become perfect Swearers expert Drunkards cunning Deceivers So if we could apply our hearts as throughly to knowledge and goodness we might become like to the Apostle that teacheth us therefore when Solomon sheweth men the way how to come by Wisdome he speaks often of the Heart Give thy heart to wisdome let wisdome enter into thy heart get wisdome keep wisdome embrace wisdom wisdome is like God's Daughter that he giveth to the man that loveth her and sueth for her and meaneth to see her at his Heart thus we have learned how to apply Knowledge that it may do us good not to our ears like them which hear Sermons only nor to our tougues like them which make table-talk of Religion but to our hearts that we may say with