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	die_v	resurrection_n	4,690	5	8.8195	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12177	The Christians end. Or, The sweet soveraignty of Christ, over his members in life and death VVherein is contained the whole scope of the godly mans life, with divers rules, motives and incouragements, to live and die to Iesus Christ. Being the substance of five sermons preached to the honorable society of Grayes Inne, by that learned and faithfull minister of Gods Word, Richard Sibbes, D.D. and sometimes preacher to that honorable societie.	Sibbes, Richard, 1577-1635.	1639 (1639)	STC 22485; ESTC S117259	45,936	138

method Again our Saviour Christ in his ordinary speech delivered it a generall rule It is better to give then to receive VVhich containeth a direction to men to be publike and liberall Saint Pauls ordinary course was so Knowing therfore the terrour of the Lord wee perswade men c. VVhat an influence hath this into our conversations That I must do as I must give account at the day of judgment And so what use made hee of the glorious state to come in that house and building of God not made with hands not seen but apprehended onely by faith It inabled him to do and suffer all things that became a Christian to do and suffer If a man have that principle and mindeth it that all things worke together for the best to them that love God what can discourage him he knoweth in the issue all sh●●l be for the best and God will not fail him nor forsake him in his way but giveth his Angels● charge over him So Christs direction One thing is necessary how may it rectifie us when we trouble our selves about many impertinencies If these generalists were always present upon sollicitations to sin or discomfort It shall goe well with the righteous and it shall not go well with the wicked if wee take good courses it shall be well if ill courses sinne will be bitter it would be a marvailous helpe and advantage in all particulars of our lives The second general observation is this That as we must get good principles laid up in store upon all occasions so we must specially have gracious aimes Men are as their aimes are Noble spirits have noble aimes Christians are of an higher ranke then ordinary men and therfore they have higher aimes Religion giveth command to all other particulars and prescribeth to them a general end it taketh a man off from a false end and pitcheth him upon a true end It taketh him from himselfe th● great Idoll that Man naturally sette●h up above God and above Christ and above Heaven and Happinesse and telleth him that the true end of all is to live to Christ and that on good grounds for we are his and his by good title hee died for us that he might be Lord both of quick and dead As in state Policy those that are Governours in a state they prescribe ends of Trades and reduce them to a serviceablenesse of state If they finde any thing hurtful they look to it as it stands in reference to the common good So Religion considereth of all particulars as they have reference to Christ and the mayn end taking us off from false ends and prescribing the last and best end and directing all particulars to that end But wee shall see this better in the unfolding of the words The first thing hee begins in the general is to take us off from false ends None of us liveth to himselfe First to live to our selves is not altogether to be taken in a civil sense A man liveth to himself when he liveth privatly or retiredly Benè vixit qui bonè latuit So a man may do in some things especially in times of persecution but this ordinarily is not good A man is a creature for communion God hath fitted him for communion by speech other endowm●nts that there may be preserved a communion of Saints But because a retired life is sometimes good it is not here maynly aymed at Again secondly VVe live to our selves when we minde our selves altogether and not one another VVhen we have more respect to our selves then to God or to our Christian brother And this is even contrary to nature wee see in nature that a particular nature wil in some cases yield to a general and thwart it self The fire is a light body and in the natural motion of it mounteth upward yet this body wil go downwards to preserve whole the uniuersal nature from a vacuum from emptinesse that the fulnesse and solidity in nature may not be disturbed And we see heavy bodies goe upward for the same end As a man wil venture the hand to save his head and to save his body so it should be in society and government particular men should venture themselves for the Prince or State for the head or for the bodie But in a more large and religious sense To live to a mans self is to make himselfe his last end his Terminus reductivus to reduce all to himself and make Religion every thing serviceable to himself When a man will serve himself of God for base ends because his service will advance him As the Sichemites were circumcised for Dinah And to die to our selves is much like it A man dyeth to himselfe when he regardeth himself in death and is regarded much of no body else Persons that have an absolute being of themselves that have no kindred not much acquaintance or have been little fruitful in their lives die to themselves in a civil sense That is no man mourneth for them saying Ah my brother They were of little use in their lives and so little mist in their deaths And usually they that live thus to themselves they die to themselves little regarded little lamented Onely this often times they do most good when they die as we say of Swine They are never good till dead But this is meant in a theological higher sence No Christian dieth to himselfe that is dieth unregarded of God and of good men As hee liveth not to himselfe but to Christ so he dieth not to himselfe Precious to the Lord is the death of all his Saints He is not Despotos without Lord and Master but whether he liveth or dieth he is the Lords So much for the negative part which wee see may be taken both actively and passively But this clause w●l be better understood by adding the other Whether wee live wee live to the Lord Or whether we die we die to the Lord. What is it to live to the Lord First to acknowledge the Lord in all our wayes to be our Lord to whom we owe our selves And secondly Therupon to resigne our selves to the Lord in our whole carriage so as to obey him to give up our selves to be disposed of him and directed by him as hee pleaseth And then Thirdly to refer all things to his glory as our last end and to endevour that God and Christ may be known and magnified in the VVorld VVhen wee labour to practise what we pray for according to that first Petition hallowed be thy name his Religion and truth and whatsoever else is Gods may be advanced set high published and inlarged that he may be known and worshipped that he may be to us what he is in himselfe the great God Lord of quick and dead So by our giving respect to him sutable to our knowledge of him Fourthly and lastly He that liveth to the Lord comfor●eth himself in this that the Lord taketh notice of him in every thing For

but mortification We are not debters to the slesh saith the Apostle Therefore when a proud vindictive motion ariseth say I owe no suite or service to the flesh VVhat should these doe in a heart dedicated to God consecrated to Christ I am not mine owne much lesse Satans or lusts which be objects of mortification but no way worthy of my service Absolute deniall is required here Of other things a deniall is required onely as they stand in competition with Christ. In that case a man must sacrifice Isaac not onely his sinful selfe but natural self also his life and bodily liberty the dearest thing in the world and whatsoever is sweet for Christ. He having taken us off from our selves assigneth us to a true Lord. Wee live to the Lord and die to the Lord. It had not beene enough to say Wee ought not to live to our selves or die to our selves if he had not told whom we must live to and die to For naturally man will never leave any thing though but an apparāt good til he knoweth something better A man wil not part with a bad Master til he hath a better service Therefore he sheweth where to bestow our selves namely upon Christ who hath care of us both in life and death This is to be laid down for a ground had we not a better being in Christ then in our selves hee would never take us from our selves for God never biddeth us to our losse We have a better condition in Christ then we can have in the VVorld It is our gaine and advantage to live and die to Christ though it be to the losse of naturall self of civill selfe and whatsoever else yet it is our advantage It is Mercatorium not a losse but a trading VVee have a better for worse No man ever parted with any thing for Religion or a publike good but God made it up in a better kind Though God should not make it up in this world in the same kinde yet in Religion there be all things better then in the world If we lose honour here wee have honour from God If wee lose riches wee have them made up in grace here in glory hereafter If wee lose liberty we have it in the inlargment of a good conscience If wee lose friends wee get a God for a friend who can make our enemies fried̄s If we lose life wee are put into possession of eternal life and therfore wee need not stand at the bargain Wee have a better being in Christ then in our selves VVater is not lost when it emptieth it self into the Sea for there it is in its proper element A Christian is not lost when he loseth himselfe in his God in his Saviour For in him he hath a better being then in himselfe Hee is brought neerer the fountain I desire to depart and to be with Christ which is the best of all saith the Apostle Religion is a most excellent condition for as hee that saveth his life shall lose it so hee that loseth his life shall save it All our comforts have a better being in Christ then in● our selves and therfore wee should labour to have communion with him and to strengthen our faith in Christ and be in love with our happy condition in him which yieldeth comfort in life and death And all by vertue of the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ. As he saith afterward Christ both died and rose again that hee might be Lord both of the dead and of the living The resurrection of Christ is the consummation of all If Christ had not risen again where had our comfort bin But the very thought of it that we are ingraffed in one who hath not only purchased us by his death for we are the price of his bloud but to make it cleer that it is so is now in heaven as our head having overcome death and intending to bring al his body where he is as it was his will That where hee is wee should be also is a glorious thought The glory of Christian Religion is in the resurrection of Christ and to consider that we that are creeping here on earth shal be members of him that is glorious in Heaven Lord of heaven and earth who not onely died for us but is risen againe and wil make us all both in body and soule conformable to his glorious selfe as the Apostle saith to the Philippians cannot but infuse life and vigour into all our actions estates and conditions be they never so mean And have a wonderfull influence into the whole life of a Christian. THE SECOND SERMON ROM 14. 7 8. None of us liveth to himself and none of us dyeth to himself for whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we die we die unto the Lord Whether we live therefore or die we are the Lords FIrst the general scope of the Apostle is to take us off from our false ends None of us liveth to himselfe c. Secondly to assigne us to the true object to whom wee ought to dedicate our selves that is to the Lord. Thirdly the ground of all Whether wee live or die we are the Lords And then fourthly the spring of all Christ both died and rose againe that hee might be Lord both of quick and dead There is a conca●enation and knitting together of divine truths They following one another by a necessity of cōsequence As from the body of the Sunne there is a naturall issue of beames And as in plants derivation from the root into the branch so there is from Christ into all truths Grant him to be the second Adam and grant him Lord of the Living and of the Dead and it will follow wee ought to live to him If we grant we ought to live to Christ then wee must grant wee ought not to live to our selves For wee ought to live to Christ. Why to Christ because hee is Lord both of life and death Why is he Lord because hee hath purchased it by his bloud How doe wee know hee hath purchased it by his death satisfactorily because hee is risen againe and sitteth at the right hand of God to make all good for us Things are best to us when they are digested and made our own by the presence of good principles But here is the mischief Sin is ready and good principles are not ingraffed into us but if divine truths were as neere as corruption is then wee could withstand and repell all temptations As Travellers have the end of their journy in their thoughts habitually though not actually for every step they take is in vertue of their end So wee should consider that we are all Travellers in the way to Heaven and every step of our life should be to that end The ignorance of this maketh the life of most men to be but a digression from the mayne As if they were brought into the world onely to satisfie base lusts

The good things promised are everlasting likewise we may build upon them wee cannot build on riches here or life here but we may build on eternall life eternall glory and happinesse So that cast a Christian into what condition you will he hath God and Christ in covenant with him and the love of Christ and all the gracious promises and the things promised And these doe not vary life varieth We may live now dye to morrow but whether we live or dye these foure things mentioned are certainly ours A Christian cannot say of any thing here that it will be his long his estate is his now and many wayes there are to take it away his friends are his now but their friendship may decline any thing in the world may bee so ours to day as not ours to morrow And therefore were it not that in this varietie of conditions we had something that is afterward ●here were our comfort wee may out-live all com●orts here but wee cannot out-live our happinesse in Christ For whether wee live or dye wee are the Lords To speake of this a little as it yeeldeth comfort in death wee are the Lords not onely while we live but when wee dye Why because we have a being in Christ when we dye Christ is a living root because I live you shall live also This Lord is the Lord of life and therefore whosoever is one with the Lord of life hee can indeed never dye Death is only a change of a naturall graccious life here to a glorious life in another world from the Church warfaring here to the Church triumphant in heaven It is not properly death for misery dyeth Death it selfe dyeth wee doe not dye Death overthroweth it selfe but a Christians life is hid with Christ and when he dyeth he dyeth to live and is found in Christ at the day of judgement and shall bee for ever with Christ. Therefore it is no great matter what kinde of death a Christian dyeth because he dyeth in the Lord. Blessed are they that dye in the Lord. Hee sayth not them that dye a faire death A wretch an opposer an hypocrite may doe so and goe to hell But blessed are they that dye in the Lord because Christ is their Lord in death and so sayth the Apostle Heb. 11. All these dyed in faith Hee sayth not they all dyed a faire death for they did not but many of them dyed a bloudy death yet they all dyed in faith and so they dyed in the Lord. And therefore when wee read in the Histories of the Church that some were torne in pieces with wilde beasts that they gave the bodies of the Saints to the Fowles of Heaven as David hath it which may discourage some to bee Christians let us not thinke that any matter they died in faith And as the Psalmist sayth Pretious to the Lord is the death of all his Saints For he taketh notice of them in their lives not onely in their lives but the haires of their head they being all numbred Hee taketh notice of the teares that fall from their eyes and will not hee take notice of their bloud Hee taketh notice of their persons their haires their teares and will hee part with their lives for nothing No hee will be payd for the lives of his children when hee parts with them his enemies shall bee sure to pay for it Hee will bee avenged on them for it as the bloud of Naboth was on Ahab so hee will bee revenged on all the persecutours of his Church and take a strict account of every droppe of bloud that hath beene shed for their persons are pretious God taketh speciall notice of them they are his members his Spouse and neare unto him And then hee will not have them dye till they have done their worke Hee taketh speciall notice of them all their life And when they have done what they came for as Christ sayth of himselfe I have done the worke thou gavest mee to doe Then hee sendeth for them home They dye not at adventure but under the care of one that knoweth them well both in life and death And therfore it is that God so revenged the Persecutors of his Church for the bloud of his Saints from the bloud of Abel unto this day And as the death of his Saints are pretious so are all the things the Saints have their credit is pretious their goods are pretious God taketh notice of everie thing they part with for his sake As he and all his is ours himselfe his happines his spirit his priviledges so when wee are his all ours are his hee taketh care of our lives of our deaths of our credits of our riches of our estates wee part with nothing for him but he considers it and will reward it aboundantly Hee that dyeth in the Lord is a blessed man so sayth the spirit the flesh will not say so but rather will inferre who would bee so religious for such venture their lives and are counted as the off-scowring of the world The Divell will teach this Lesson and the world As they have lived in the flesh and will sell all to bee some body in the World though they goe to hell when they have done But saith the Spirit blessed are they who not onely die for the Lord as Martyrs but that die in the Lord whether to seale the truth of God with their blood or other wise they die happily so this is a ground of speciall comfort And as it is a ground of speciall comfort so it is a ground of direction Whether we live or die we are the Lords Therfore it may bee a foundation of living to the Lord. If we be the Lords surely we ought to live to him I● we be his all our endeavours whatsoever is ours are his Fructus and Fundus goe together the fruit and the soile and therefore if we be the Lords in life death we must not live to our selvs as our own but give our selvs to him not to anything else we are not our owne nor mans but the Lords And therefore wee ought not to yield up our selves to our selfe-wils selfe-wit self-love to be at or owne disposing and to live as we list We are redeemed from our selves yea from all our vaine conversations Some thinke Christ dyed and therefore they may be vaine especially at the solemn time of Christs nativitie The divell hath so prevailed with the world and will till there bee a new face of the Church they never honour the Divell more than when they seeme to honour Christ. For say they Christ came to set us at libertie Did hee so But it was to deliver us from wickednesse yea from vaine conversations and not to purchase us liberty to live as wee list Our tongues are our owne say they in the Psalmes I but Christ sayth they are not your owne they are his And if

his enemies Those that have the mark of the beast absolutely cannot bee Christs nor have communion with him but are enemies to Christ though under pretence of religion But where a man is truly Christs hee is none but Christs Satan is content with any part but Christ must have the whol heart Gods children have something in them that usurpeth some corruption in them which is not absolutely removed but it is but a rebell and they have an enemies minde to it all that is contrary to Christ is renounced whereas in them that bee carnall sin is as a Lord but in Gods children it is as a thiefe hee is there yet they owne him not but get strength against him he ruleth not there but as a Tyrant there is a renunciation of Lordship and dominion of sin though they have inclinations to this and that sin yet they have no liking to that liking no inclinations as spiritual to that inclination as carnall but make it an object of mortification They renounce all other Lords when all other men that have not the spirit of Christ are under the dominion of some reigning lusts And as it implyeth a possession so likewise an estimation as God esteemeth us so we esteem him above all And therfore God calleth his Church his Portion his Iewel and we call Christ our portion our treasure our pearle our all S. Paul counts all dung and drosse in comparison of the excellent knowledge of Christ. And all that belongeth to Christ he esteemeth And therefore the Church glorieth that God is their God and makes claime to him as S. Paul I live by the faith of the Sonne of God who loved mee and gave himselfe for mee And as Thomas My Lord my God This is the best evidence of a true Christian whose estate is no way knowne better than by his estimation Whom have I in heaven but thee or in ●arth in comparison of thee sayth David It implieth likewise a duty of resignation to Christ in life and death because we are not our owne and therefore are in all things to bee at his disposing to bee led what way hee pleaseth and to pursue his directions though to the crossing of our corrupt nature to be content to goe to heaven as he will lead us by faire wayes or foule wayes by faire death or bloudy death if by any meanes wee may attain to the resurrection of the dead as S. Paul sayth it Besides this wee must have a care to implead this and to improve it as the Apostle doth here Whether wee live or dye we are the Lords He will have care of us and therefore we ought to serve him It is a speciall after-part to bee able to make it good to God in all troubles and conditions whatsoever I am thine Lord save me I am thine Lord teach mee I am thine Lord protect me Avouch and make it good against the temptations of Satan urging thee to distrust I am not my owne I am Gods and Christs and therefore if thou hast any thing to say to mee goe to him that hath paid my debt Thus plead the goodnesse and graciousnesse of God Plead it against temptation to sin I am not mine owne I am bought with a price My body is not for uncleannesse but for the Lord. Plead it against our own Consciences in times of desertion search narrowly wha● we have of Christs in us and doe not cavill against our selves too much in times of temptation If wee have but desires of the soule to God lose not any thing that is good if I renounce my interest in Christ I am where the Divell would have me then hee can doe any thing with us And therefore plead it against our owne distastfull hearts in times of darknesse I give my selfe to him and my desires are to him my faith is little but yet something my love is litle but yet I love the Lord I believe help my unbeli●f We must take notice of any thing Christ hath wrought in our spirits that we may implead our interest on all occasions for if wee yeeld to despairing hearts in times of temptations we are gone Therefore say with Ioh If thou kill me I wil trust thee Lye at Christs feet if thou wilt damne me so it is I will lye here and wait here For if I have not present audience I shall have it God wai●eth to doe them good that wait for him Hee will try our spirits whether wee will take a seeming repulse therfore we must as the woman of Samaria grow on Christ and catch at his words And as the servants of Benhadad who retorted on Ahab presently Thy servant Benhadad And as we must implead our interest so we must improve it in the whole course of our life and in all conditions what soever if we have any losse or crosses yet the soul can say Christ is mine and I am Christs Though a man taking a journey lose things of lesse value yet if he hath a pearl left him he is content for hee hath that that will make him a man And therefore be not much disconsolate for any crosses They cannot take away my Christ my promises the comforts of the Spirit I have a Christ and in him all that shall be for my good Improve it in all opposition of flesh and bloud hell and the instruments of hell Satan and wicked men they are mine e●nemies but it Christ be my friend it matters not Christ can make our enemies our friends And all things are ours if we be Christs we have a general charter things to come are ours life ours death ours and therefore if wee be Christs make use of him As it is basenesse of spirit to rest in any thing in the world but Christ so it is basenesse of spirit for us that are Christs to bee dejected for any thing in the world wee have the treasure wee have the Mine wee have the Sunne what if we lose a beame we have a spring what if the streame bee dried up It Christ giveth us himselfe it is no matter what we lose But we are sure of him For in life and death wee are the Lords And therefore let us hence answere all objections Oh that we should have such grounds of comfort and stabilitie and yet make no more use of them I● these things were fresh in our thoughts nothing would ●iscourage us If you ask● how shal we know in particular that it is so indeed that wee are Ch●●st● I answer if we have given our selves to him by a contract of our owne if wee bee married to him you know mariage must have consent of both parties Those that give not themselves up to Christ to bee his they are not his They that live under the power of any sin against conscience as their Lord that love any thing better than Christ and will not part with it for Christs sake Christ is not theirs