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	hand_n	soul_n	5,920	5	4.8872	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93743	Jeremiah VI.4. Wo unto us for the day goeth away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out	Stafford, Richard, 1663-1703.	1700 (1700)	Wing S5121A; ESTC R184558	19,699	26

Jeremiah VI. 4. Wo unto us for the Day goeth away for the shadows of the Evening are stretched out THE word Wo is often mentioned in Scripture especially in the Old Testament and is a relative Term significant of Evil and Misery to come For ●●at same Wo which is now denounced against such or ●●ch People will after this Life is ended fall down upon ●●em in Punishment and Misery Hence doth arise that ●●et Thought and Searching of Heart in the Creature to●ards the Creatour who is the Lord our God A doubt ●●d fear doth naturally spring up in our minds as if God ●ould inflict pain and make us miserable in the future State ●●d thereupon from this thing of Death which is the Inlet ●●d Entrance thereinto we expect no Good but Evil. Here a●●in our Spirits may be quiet and satisfied for it is evident ●●●re are several things which we are greatly afraid of at 〈◊〉 first apprehension and thoughts concerning them But ●●●●er we have experienced the very same thing it self we ●●d no dreadfulness or Evil at all in it but rather good ●●d conveniency So that according to the common say●●● herein We are more frightened then hurt and such may ●ath be Yea certainly so it is to the Children of God ●●o are Heirs of Salvation which includes in it self both 〈◊〉 and Immortality There is a visible reason of that natural fear of Death ●●cause it is altogether evil and to be abhorred what is seen to befall the Body as Pain Languishing Weakness distortion of countenance and then lying in the Grave and seeing Corruption and such like And yet all these Evil 〈◊〉 Terrible things do no more touch nor yet affect the man himself that is his Soul than when the Angel of the Lord smote Peter on the side and raised him up and his Chains fel● off from his hands As all this was no great hurt to th● Soul nor yet to the Body of Peter Even so it wil● be when the Angel of Death shall knock off these Chain of Flesh wherein and wherewith at present we a●● holden and fettered then also the Soul is Raised up o● of its earthly Habitation see Zech. 2. 13. and returns an● ascends up to God that gave it Nevertheless still there being a Wo pronounced in th● Text indefinitely against us which signifies as if it di● pertain to all Mankind both good and bad Saint an● Sinner and every one whither Godly or Ungodl● finding within himself some grief and vexation fe●● and anguish at this consideration of his present li●● going away and at last it will come quite to an en● We must not flatter nor delude our selves as if the●● was nothing at all to be feared in it for this Wo pr●nounced by the Spirit of God doth seem to presuppose a●● relate unto some future Evil. Again whatever is Nature General and Universal in every one as the fear of Dea●● is This same thing can never be in vain but there ●● some reality to which it hath Respect The Apostle saith As touching Brotherly love ye n●●● not that I write unto you for ye your selves are taught ●● God to love one another So here it may be reason●● There is no need to be taught out of the Scriptures H● that our present life and time goeth away For by t●● common knowledge and experience that God hath giv●● to every Man they are sensible already Nay t●●● must know it whither they will or not that their l●●● and their Time goeth away But God willing more bundant to shew unto the heirs of promise the Immutab●● of his counsel herein As also that the common and 〈◊〉 multitude of Mankind may be more without exc●●● if they have not provided for their latter end I● concerning this as here it too commonly happens that Man also knoweth not his time As the fishes that are taken in an evil net and as the Birds that are caught in the Snare so are the Sons of Men Snared in an evil time when it falleth suddenly upon them To give yet more repeated warning of all this God hath ordered it to be written also how that our Life and our Time goeth away For so it is expressed in the words of our Text Wo unto us for the Day goeth away for the shadows of the Evening are stretched out The words are Metaphorical and signifie the very same as what is aforementioned that our life goeth away But the Metaphor seems to be borrowed from the Sun that greater light which God Created and placed in the Firmament to Rule ouer the Day and to divide the Light from the Darkness For as long as that is above our Horison than it is Day but when it moves beneath the Horison then the shadows of the Evening are stretched out and the Night comes on Again it is not unknown to any one that is understanding in the Scriptures that the time of Mans present Life is often expressed by this manner of speech his Day If thou hadst known in this thy Day the things that belong to thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes To Day if ye will hear his voice harden not your heart as in the Day of Provocation and as in the Day of temptation in the Wilderness I have spread out my hands all the Day unto a Rebellious people For he saith I have heard thee in an accepted time and in the Day of Salvation have I succoured thee Behold now is the accepted time Behold now is the Day of Salvation In all these and alike places the word Day signifies all the time of Mans present life here on Earth And so it doth in this place of Jer. 6. 4. I shall not confine my self to the primary intent or exact coherence of the words as they are in the Text but I shall treat of them in the large and common signification aforementioned How that our Life and Time here on Earth passeth away and because I am given to understand that several do impute it as a fault and defect in my preaching In that I go on altogether in one continued discourse But I do not so much make mention of the words First Secondly Thirdly as other Ministers and Preachers do which as they say is more for help of the memory and for the edification of the hearers Therefore I who have thought good to become all things to all Men that I might gain Some have thought good to handle this our present Text in the following method of these two propositions and afterwards I may draw from thence some Practical Inferences which is commonly called the use or Application From the words Wo unto us for the Day goeth away I shall endeavour to shew together with the Reason or Reasons thereof that it is a melancholy and sorrowful consideration in all people to consider throughly how that our present Life goeth away And this I gather from the first introductory word Wo unto us Secondly Because

that we w●●● rejoyce in thy Salvation and in the name of our God 〈◊〉 will set up our banners even when we have scaled an● are ascended up into the Kingdom of Heave● Which from the days of John the Baptist Suffereth vi●lence and the violent take it by force He that overcometh I will his God and he shall be my Son And y●● ought in the mean while to praise our God for givi●● unto us exceeding great and precious promises For a●fording us the means of grace and for the hope Glory and for putting us into a possibility of seekin● now and at last of obtaining those great and glori●●● things that are spoken of thee O City of God Amidst all the castings down and disquietudes Soul Under all the thoughts which trouble us 〈◊〉 should go on still in the way of Duty with this Faith and assurance I shall yet praise God Though perhaps the affliction is so sore and the disappointment so vexatious that we are tempted in heart in like manner as Job's Wife did him curse God and die We may beat back and answer the temptation with a like saying of his Thou speakest as one of the foolish Women speaketh For this would be the utmost folly that can be if we should go the way and do those things to be miserable here and miserable hereafter also as that would be if we ●hould curse him whom we ought to praise What if we do now receive evil at the hand of God nothing ●s so sure as that we shall receive good at the latter and provided that like unto his Servant Job we do not sin in the mean while nor yet charge God foolishly I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God This thing health of my countenance is a relative term and doth answer unto and presuppose some sickness of Body or Mind which the Psalmist in probability was than under As sickness of Body is a forerunner of dying and Death the Subsequent word My God contains in it life for evermore For the same Creator that gave life at first will again renew and restore it Who turneth Man to Destruction will say return ye Children of Men. Herein he doth take care of and provide against the evil of Mortality Corruption and Dissolution The same God who is a very present help in the time of trouble is also all things sutable and proportionable to the several needs and requirings of his Creatures For thou hast been a strength to the poor a strength to the needy in his distress a refuge from the storm and a shadow from the heat Now what is more proper and sutable under scorching neat than to get into the shade and so when a storm beats upon us to get somewhat for refuge from it As it is written And when all things shall be subdued unto him than shall also the Son himself be Subject to him that put all things under him that God may be all in all So in the future state God will be all in all towards the making up the persection and happiness of his Creatures That he shall not be ashamed to be called their God By Providing for and securing unto them things worthy of so great and good a God and as much as a Creature can receive Behold what a mighty word of consolation is here As also it is a most quickening Exhortation to enforce that of the Apostle What manner of persons ought ye to be in all Holy conversation and Godliness looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God that ye may get the favour and love of God whilst ye are yet in the way But if these things are so as most certainly they are then some may be apt to put me in mind of my Text and ask how it comes to pass that a wo is pronounced for the day goeth away Which going away of the day doth set us yet nearer to these happy things Might it not be more properly said instead of that Wo pronounced Blessed and Happy it is for us that the day goeth away And truly because of that vanity and vexation of Spirit which is in all things under the Sun Because of that Tediousness and Irksomeness of life because of that finall variety of all the things below and it is all but almost the same thing over and over again In my thinking it would be Wo unto us if the day did not go away For we should be even weary and not able to abide here for ever if we might abide so in this state and as things now are But the answer to the former part of this objection may be had by discoursing on our second Proposition viz. Because that all the Wo's and Threatnings denounced in Scripture are therefore made known unto the Inhabitants of Earth in order that they may take warning and avoid that same Wo or Threatning we are to learn from the Scriptures and from out of the truth o● things how our conversation may be so ordered aright that the Salvation of God may be shewn unto us And then though our life goeth away we shall avoid the Wo that it will not belong unto us This is most certain that a Wo doth belong unto us and will at last fall down upon our head to our end●ess confusion and misery if we do not finish that work which God our Creator sent us severally on this this Earth for to do Said Jesus the forerunner who is entred before us into the vail I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day the night cometh when no man can work I have glorified thee on the Earth I ●ave finished the work which thou gavest me to do Christ's work was laying the foundation for all to build on He finished the Work which God gave him to do And so every Soul should Work out that which he hath wrought and accomplished for us Which same Work is to be done in this life that being the accepted ●ime for the Night or darkness of Death draws on and there is No work nor devise nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest And therefore if we neglect to finish that Work Wo unto us for the day goeth away for the shadows of the Evening are stretched out The Son of Man hath given to every Man his work and commanded the Porter to watch So that of necessary consequence there must be a Wo if that time should slip away and the same Work is not done for which that same time was originally set out and intended There is the same rule of contraries And seeing that the Scripture pronounces that Servant blessed whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing Then on the other hand that Servant or rather idle Person is cursed and a Wo is unto him if the Lord when he cometh shall not find him so doing but loytering or doing that which is sinful or evil There is a