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	heaven_n	soul_n	11,370	5	5.1820	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63572	Gods glory in mans happiness, with the freeness of his grace in electing us together with many Arminian objections answered / by Francis Taylor ...	Taylor, Francis, 1590-1656.; Taylor, Francis, 1590-1656. Gods choice and mans diligence.	1654 (1654)	Wing T279; ESTC R17346	100,184	248

examinandum All examination requires diligence Else will not that be found that we look for The Shepherd that hath lost but one sheep leaves ninty and nine in the wildernesse Luk. 15.4 and goes after that which is lost untill he finde it The woman that lost her peece of silver lights a candle V. 8. and sweeps the house and seeks diligently till she finde it The Judge that searcheth out a murder examines all the circumstances of the fact So must we ransacke all the powers and faculties of soul and body to finde out what God hath wrought in us and by us to assure us of our vocation The former reason required much reading to finde the notes of election in the Scriptures this requires many meditations to finde the same notes engraved by the Spirit of God in our own soules 3. Ad augendum To augment Diligence is required to encrease the graces of Gods Spirit in us when we have found them Without fuell the fire will decay rather then encrease Without food the strength of the body diminisheth Without the constant use of religious exercises the sense of Gods favour will be diminished in us The Sacraments the seales of Gods favour the one must be often thought upon the other often received The sight of his Evidences confirmes a man in his hope of the quiet possession of his Lands The right use of the Sacraments assures us of Gods favour As the Sacraments must be our food so Prayer must be our fuell to make the perswasion of Gods love to flame in us The more we seek Gods favour by fervent prayer the more will he assure us of it 4. To Act. Ad agendum Without action all the meditations in the world cannot assure us of Gods favour For whom God loves them doth he inspire with the fire of good affections which flames forth into good actions Now there are many impediments of good actions Some lets we meet withall abroad in the world Others we finde within in our own soules All these must be removed and this remove cannot be done without diligence Adde hereunto the manifold varieties of good actions to be done There are duties of Piety and duties of Sobriety duties of Equity and duties of Charity And can all these duties be done without diligence No certainly it is impossible Thus are we freed from Popish and Arminian cavils They exclaime against us for teaching that we may be assured of our election They call it a doctrine of security of liberty and of profanenesse They say we teach men to live as they list because they are sure of Gods favour We teach men with St. Peter that their election and calling to eternall happinesse may be certainly made known to themselves But we teach them withall as the Apostle doth in the text that it cannot be done without labour and diligence We demonstrate to them indeed that Gods favour cannot be lost for God sunchangeable This we acquaint them with for their comfort in the world But we shew them withall that the sense of Gods favour may be lost by negligence and then shall they live as uncomfortably as if they never had had it This we do for their caution against the temptations of Satan and provocations of the World Yea to make them the more carefull we tell them that the sense of Gods favour cannot be had nor being had cannot be kept without much labour and di●igence For the Devill hath many ●aetes to beguile us of this principall ●illar of our spirituall comfort and ●ively provocation to cheerfull obedience Theeves have not so many devices to cheat our rich men of their gold and silver as Satan hath to be●uile us of the feeling of Gods love Thus do we give to God his due and to Gods elect theirs Thus do w● maintain Gods constancy and keep Gods people from security Now let me urge every one tha● heares me according to the scope o● the text to be diligent to make hi● calling and election sure Whatsoeve● become of thee in the world make sur● thy happinesse in another world Thi● cannot be done without pain and perill but this must be done else wi●● thou never live with comfort Tho●● hearest the Merchant discourse of th● many stormes he hath endured at sea● how often the sea beneath opened he mouth to devoure him how ofte● the heaven above frowned upon him as if it would give him over to th● fury of the seas how often the eart● denyed him the sight of her as if s●● would never be trod upon more b● him how often the winds blew fierce ly upon him one crossing another as 〈◊〉 they contended whether should fin● him And all this he endured for gai● Thou hast read the Souldiers trouble● how he stands in sight of the enemy that seeks his ruine the bullets o● while whisk by his ear the swo● another while would shorten him by the head sometimes hunger bites him in the day and sometime cold strikes him in the night And all this he endures for gain Thou seest the Physitian toyle and endanger himself one while he visits the pox another while he trades in Spotted feavers yea sometimes he looks the Plague in the face And all this he endures for gain And wilt not thou endure any labour or run through any perils to be sure of heavenly treasures which no theef can steal which no mouth can corrupt which no fire can consume of which no death can disappoint thee Look upon the rich and great men of the world I mean not those humane Monsters inhumane Mahometans that leave not a brother alive for fear of injury But look on Christian and Religious people what care they have to make good their titles to settle their inheritances upon theirs And all this care is but for temporall riches Wilt not thou then be more carefull to settle thine interest to eternall glory If thou be quiet now yet the Devill will finde a time to trie thy Evidence and call thy title into question Sicknesse and death are times of weaknesse to thee wherein he like a subtill enemy displayes all his art and strength Provide thee arguments now that may uphold thy hope when thou art at the weakest Consider the misery of doubting persons at their death Think upon the anguish that their souls endure They apprehend God angry with them the Devill accusing them earth leaving them heaven refusing them hell clayming them soul and body parting friends weeping and themselves hopelesse going they know not whither What would they not give that they had made their election sure in the time of their strength or that they might be strong to do it yet Be thou warned by their folly Make thou all sure beforehand As worldly men get riches in health to cherish them in sicknesse and as the Bees get in Summer hony to feed on when stormes keep them within their hives so do thou in time of health get good grounds

out of which Gods calling delivers us So Davids preferment was the greater when he was made a King because he was taken from following the Ewes with young Psal 78.70 71 72. Gen. 32.10 Jacobs two bands were the greater riches because with his staffe only he went over Jordan The mercy of the caller is the greater because of the misery the called did endure before Our condition was obscure before now it is famous It was servil before now it is free It was full of impiety formerly but now God hath planted piety in us It was loaden with impiety at first yet now our hearts are set upon equity and righteousnesse This promotion of ours cals for the more inspection because of the high honour and great riches we are called unto What greater honour then to be Gods children What greater riches then the inheritance of the kingdome of heaven 1 Thess 2.12 Walke worthy of Go● who hath called you unto his kingdom● and glory Great disproportion there i● betwixt darknesse and light Eph. 5.8 Ye wer● sometimes darknesse but now are ye ligh● in the Lord. No lesse difference between life and death 1 Joh. 3.14 Yet we know that we have passed from death to life Every man is willing to understand his own honours And we count them but bad husbands that dive not into their own Estates and are ignorant of their own Possessions Look then how far spirituall honours and treasures goe beyond temporall the soul beyond the body immortall possessions beyond mortall so much the more reason have we to pry carefully into our vocation and all the circumstances of it and dependences upon it Lastly consider we the way which God cals us by and that is his word Great is the power of Gods word and worthy to be lookt into By it God made the world and all the creatures in it By it he brought all things out of nothing By it he brought light out of darknesse Yet hath Gods word a very different operation in calling of sinners The same Sermon reclaimes one and offends another One man obeyes it and another resists This diversity of operation proceeds not out of the diversity of the soil for we are all naturally corrupted But it comes from the assistance of Gods Spirit joyned to the Preaching of the Word or restrained from it And are not all these things worthy of admiration Vse 1 A sort of secure persons come here to be censured who slight Gods choise and calling They never look into the worth nor the price of it Yet are they wonderfull curious in observation of earthly things They fully understand what belongs to their inheritances There is no corner of their offices unsearched If new honours be bestowed upon them they know quickly how to take state upon them But although God dayly call men by the mystery of the Word yet do they never look into the worth of that heavenly calling Hence it comes to passe that this spirituall honour is slighted This is the cause why the means of salvation is neglected because men never look into the worth of our vocation Yet in the mean while worldly studies are embraced all means of gain and new projects are attended Yea such as often end in losse are embraced in hope of gaine because men enriously pry into every hole where worldly profit may hide her self but neglect to take to peeces and view the severall parts of our divine vocation Vse 2 Yet let their carelesnesse make us the more carefull Let their negligence make us the more diligent in searching the mysteries of our calling Let us looke into all the parts of it This is the way to make us thankfull to God that hath called us This is the way to make us profitable to men that are not yet called Let us when we look up to God that cals us remember his greatnesse Let us when we look downward to the misery out of which he hath called us remember the depth of it Let us when we look forward to the honour unto which he hath called us ponder upon the height of it Let us when we look backward upon the means whereby he hath called us consider the ineffectualnesse of them upon others So shall we finde the totall sum to be this That the highest God hath called us out of the lowest degree of misery to the greatest step of glory out of his own grace and free mercy One thing more ere we leave St. Pauls exhortation offers it self to our meditation He bids them not look upon other mens calling but their own Look upon your calling Remember how mean ye were once and how miserable whom God by his calling hath now made so high and glorious Such as be exalted by God must often call to minde their former meann●sse Such a meditation it was that made David a King to cry out Who am I O Lord God 2 Sam. 7.18 and what is my house that thou hast brought me hitherto And St. Paul a glorious Apostle remembers himself and leaves it written for others to read that he had been a blasphemer 1 Tim. 1.13 a persecutour and injurious A low meditation for an high Apostle yet very profitable to himself and exemplary to others Many and great are the commodities that arise to the highest of men from such low meditations as these Benefits of remembring our low estate First 1 Thankfulnesse it breeds thankfulnesse to God that hath preferd them As for generall favours that are common to us and others they do not so much affect us much lesse make us thankfull to God as those peculiar mercies which are proper to us and which others have no share in Thus the remembrance of our own particular basenesse first affects us with joy and then stirs us up to thankfulnesse towards God Secondly 2 Admiration of Gods providence it breeds admiration of Gods providence in us who raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill Psal 113.7 8. that he may set him with Princes even with the Princes of his people The changes that are wrought in others do not commend Gods providence to our cogitations so much as those that are wrought in our selves Gods providence then which though it work many strange things for others and it may be more strange then it works for us is slighted and neglected by us by calling to minde our former lownesse is highly wondered at by us and admired Thirdly 3 Patience it brings forth patience in all adversities that can happen unto us There can nothing happen to such as are exalted from a low to an high estate but the same or the like they have had experience of before If poverty fall upon them they have been poor before If want trouble them they have been in want before Experience makes a man better able to bear any calamity These things may be strange to such as never