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	drink_v	eat_v	5,781	5	7.4332	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93737	Divine arithmetick illustrated in the right and exact numbering of our days, or, A discourse of the near and continued approaches of death unto every one whatsoever with the same inference and application which the apostle in I Cor. 15 makes from and alike subject, that the knowledge and consideration of these things should exhort people to be stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord / by Richard Stafford.	Stafford, Richard, 1663-1703.	1697 (1697)	Wing S5117; ESTC R42707	17,947	18

which he is afraid to die For God will all one enter into Judgment and call People to an account for the same all one as if they did die in the very Act of such or such sins And so it is of the several deeds already done now in doing or to be done in the body Each thing now is just done and then it passes into Judgment for we shall be called in question and to give account for each days Transactions And if as Christ saith Sufficient unto the day is the Evil thereof So if we would have Boldness and Comfort at the last and great Tribunal we should in the mean while look well unto it and give heed and use our utmost diligence and endeavour that to counterpoise for the Evil of each day some Good should be done something for the Glory of God and for the Good of his Church and People as also for the Edification and Advancement of our own Souls in Righteousness and true Holiness That it may be pronounced at last to our endless and unspeakable rejoycing when all the days of this Life shall come to be rehearsed as they now pass though it will be hardly said as to the best Saints and Servants of the Lord for all come short of the Glory of God Rom. 3. 23. and of what he hath required sufficient unto the day is the Good thereof yet in each day somewhat was the Good thereof Every rising of the Sun and setting of the same sets us somewhat nearer to the general and final Audit the great day of Account and Retribution to every one according to his Works Yea so doth every minute and second which is the least reckoning of Time for as sixty minutes make an hour so sixty seconds make a minute and this Time is in continued flux and passing on until it comes to be determined and swallowed up in that last Period when Time shall be no longer Like as a little Brook or River loses it self when it ends and empties it self into the great and wide Ocean As the shadow upon the Dial is always moving though to us it seems very slow As the streams of a swift running River do continually pass by As the little sands in an Hour-glass are for the most part running Yea This whole sublunary Creation is made up of change and perishing things the World passeth away and the Fashion thereof and day after day and night after night they haste nearer unto the Eternal and Irreversible state of things so our selves Men and VVomen being a part thereof we are now in the same transitory and dying Condition and we do always approach yet nearer in time unto that state wherein as to the Earth as now it is and as to this Mortal Body and outward Flesh and Blood as to the manner of this short present Life we shall be no more But exhorting one another and so much the more as ye see the day approaching Here the Word of Exhortation is not confined to Ministers or Priests only but Indefinitely unto all Christians And so much the more Mark give heed unto and obey that as ye see the Day Approaching even the Day of Death and Immortality of Judgment and the succeeding Eternity Whether we Eat or Drink Sleep or Play Labour or are Idle the things which shall come upon us make haste and do Steal and Approach unto us nearer and nearer As it is written Fools make a Mock at Sin So there be some who make a jest of the World to come whereof the Scripture and those Instructed with the Ministry thereof do speak But it may be Proved and Demonstrated to such who have but any Sence as to Apprehend that there is a World to come in Reality whereinto many Millions of Souls have entered already and our Selves are just entering into the same It is not properly another World but only another part of this same World as a Room of an House For thus much is manifest even by Reason and Perspective Gla●●es that this Earth where we now in the Body do Inhabit is the least part of the World as a Point is unto the whole Globe This may be known as a Man And so it may be known because it is seen That the Day of Death to each Person is as certain as was the Day of his Birth and it will as certainly be as that once was And this thing of Death is the Gate or Door which lets and opens into what is called the Future and Invisible World And then do appear forth the things contained in Scripture which are the Objects of our Faith now But then they also will be Actually Present Visible and Manifested before us all one as the things which we now see handle and converse withal But let such Unbelievers and Scoffers Consider what is written To me belongeth Vengeance and Recompence Their Foot shall slide in due time for the Day of their Calamity is at Hand and the things which shall come upon them make Haste Deut. 32. 35. It is commonly-said of Old People That they have one Foot in the Grave already But this is certain and true of all People both Young and Old even Infants before they can stand or walk on this Earth that their and our Feet are continually sliding off from this Stage or Slippery place of the Earth even when we sit still or lye along upon our Beds we are always sliding off from this Earth In due time God hath fixed out and appointed the time when we shall be slidden off from this Earth And the Day of Calamity to Sinners and to such as have their Portion in this Life for Death to them is the beginning of Sorrows is at Hand It is not just already come but it is within Call and the things that shall come upon them make haste Looking for and Hasting unto the coming of the Day of God 2 Pet. 3. 12. Whether we do think thereof or not we do certainly run yea and fly towards it But the holy Ghost doth Teach and Instruct us by this manner of Speech Looking for and Hasting unto the coming of the Day of God that though we do move so fast towards it yet we should even prevent it in our Thoughts So we should think more Continually and Earnestly as we come nearer in time and see the Day Approaching Conceive the Case as so it will one time be that we were upon our Death Bed and Gasping for our last Breath and were Apprehensive every Minute or Quarter of an Hour that our Soul would take her Flight out of the Body we know not where What would our Soul for every Man's Soul is himself then give if she had it or do if she were able to be assured of the Peace and Favour of God How doth the Spirit then contract and gather it self as it were together and run and make towards the Father of Spirits Ones first Born Ten Thousand Rivers of Oyl Yea she would then

flat in my Mouth and then turn into Corruption and next to nothing These very same Eyes that see at this day shall sink into my Head and behold Man no more with the Inhabitants of the World And these Hands which have hitherto handled the Pen of the Writer shall either be tyed and bound up with Grave-cloths or they will be in that fixed and unmoveable Posture that there will be no need of tying or binding at all When we once come into the place of Skulls or dry Bones There will be then nothing to be seen of Personal Deformity or Lameness or who in the days of their Flesh were cloathed with a beautiful well-coloured or with a common or ordinary Skin We know not particularly when this shall be but we know certainly that once it shall be It is appointed to Men once to die It was Melancholly Tidings of Samuel to Saul Moreover the Lord will also deliver Israel with thee and to morrow thou and thy Sons shall be with me that is in the State of the Dead as God saith in Ezekiel of others that he would bring them down to the People of Old Time then Saul fell straightway all along upon the Earth and was sore afraid Because of the words of Samuel and there was no strength in him for he had eaten no Bread all the day nor all the night Truly such a Message to any of us would be apt to turn our Stomach against Food It would spoil our Supper and cause that we should not so well relish our moderate necessary Eating if God should say to any of us This night thy Soul shall be required of thee Luke 12. 20. Or if we did hear from any one for certain who is now in the State of the Dead To morrow thou shalt be with me we also would be sore afraid and our Souls would as it were before-hand shiver within us before they take flight into the invisible World as appears by Poor Malefactors when they come to the place of Execution There is no need to seek unto familiar Spirits as Saul did here which he did not neither until God had before departed from him and unto Wizards that peep and mutter Should not a People seek unto their God for the Living to the Dead Isa 8. 19. Which last doth seem to import as if it was an incongruous thing to seek to the Dead for the Living But the other is very Proper and Reasonable That a People should seek unto their God And truly If People would seek unto their God who gives his Answer now out of his written Word all one as he did of old Time from his Vrim and Thummim they may by that as also by Prayer know their End and the measure of their days in near upon as certain and exact a manner as if they should hear one speaking unto them from the Dead a Week Month Quarter half a Year or Twelvemonth hence or so many Years hence thou shalt be with me or such a Night of such a Year thy Soul shall be required of thee It hath been already alledged out of the written Word and by that common Knowledge which God hath given to every Man as also by an exact casting up of Numbers and so it would be proportionably if it should come unto more Years The utmost Period and Term hath been set down beyond which none doth usually pass and thou mayst at any time be cut short thereof Saith one God therefore kept the precise exact day of our Death to be uncertain and unknown because that he would have us think every day to be our last And if thou wouldest be certified herein for the Psalmist's Reason That I may know how frail I am This last thou mayest know altogether so well as if God had told and repeated unto thee the particular day thou shouldst die Wouldst thou know how frail thou art Why Thou art so frail that thou art subject and liable unto Death every day of the Week yea every hour and every minute The Sinner and Ungodly would know this Because he would Eat and Drink for to morrow we shall die Because he would proportion out his Pleasure and Sensuality accordingly and come in such a time towards the close of the day by a Partial Feigned and Temporary Repentance for there is hardly any Person so sinful but hath some little Hopes and would do somewhat towards the getting the Favour of God and to go to Heaven if he may be admitted Whereas as God has now ordered the Matter such base mercenary and selfish Souls may be deceived but God will not be articled with Even Godly and Righteous People have that which savours of Men and of the Fleshly and Corrupt Nature That if they were sure to live twenty thirty forty or fifty Years longer they would abate and diminish from their former Zeal and Fervency and Diligence in the Service of God But now the Father having kept the Times and Seasons in his own Power when he will Summon them to die and after that to Judgment the knowledge and consideration hereof doth oblige them continually to be upon their watch and duty that whensoever he cometh he may find them so doing To have their Loins be girded about and their Lights burning And ye your selves like unto them that wait for the Lord when he shall return from the Wedding That when he cometh and knocketh they may open unto him immediately And if he shall come in the second watch or come in the third watch and find them so doing Blessed are those Servants as the four and twenty hours are divided into four Watches each six hours making a Watch so Childhood Youth Manhood Old Age are the four Watches of the Term of Mans Life Be ye therefore ready also for the Son of Man cometh in an hour when ye think not Luke 12. 35 36 37. We should so live as if every day was to be our last day as if we should die when we go to Bed or as if we were to be executed and suffer death to morrow Morning So live the remaining part of this day and to your lives end as if certainly this was thy Condition For though it may be ten thousand to one that thou shalt not actually die within these twenty four or eight and forty hours yet certainly and without all doubt this is the Case and Condition of us all That e're long this earthly House must be dissolved and we must appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ to receive for the things done in the Body whither they be Good or Bad so that it will be near the same thing in God's account and to thine own Imputation and receiving seeing that of every day after years of Knowledge and discretion thou shalt be called to an Account as if thou wert to die for certain before another and second Revolution of the Sun over thine head How doth any Person presume to live in that Condition in