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	life_n	sin_n	23,098	5	4.9745	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56674	The hypocritical nation described in a sermon preached at St. Maries in Cambridge, upon a day of publick fasting : with an epistle prefixed by Mr. Samuel Jacombe.	Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.; Jacombe, Samuel, d. 1659.	1657 (1657)	Wing P815; ESTC R2023	38,656	56

makes their consciences return as much to themselves while hee saith did you fast unto mee c. though this was not the first time neither that hee had told them so and they might have known so much before another as convincing a question following upon this 7. verse Nunquid non sunt verba quae locutus est Dominus c. so the Vulgar reads them agreeable to the Hebrew are not these the words which the Lord cryed by the former Prophets c. There is no doubt of it and I need not go far for proof for God himself directs us to it if wee will but look into the words of all his Prophets which are as so many comments upon the Text and as so many witnesses to the truth of what from it I have undertaken to make good some of which I shall have occasion to call in to attest what I affirm in the sequel of this discourse That wee may not therefore put a cheat upon our selves and think wee do God good service upon such a day as this while wee are an abomination to him and the hated of his soul because of our Hypocrisie I shall shew you 1 What is not Gods Fast which this people did observe What this humiliation is that God will not accept 2 What is Gods Fast which this people did not but should have observed Or what more is required to the pleasing God and being accepted of him While I speak of the former of these two I will not quite exclude all notice of the latter nor keep it altogether from your view till this be dispatched but shall reflect some light upon it as I am opening of this and so make fewer words necessary for the clearing of it when my discourse is descended to it and get a liberty thereby to croud into the narrow compasse of this hour some material considerations concerning the state of this people which will conduce very much to the illustrating of the whole businesse 1 Gods Fast is not meer abstinence from food from either the delicacies or the ordinary refreshments of nature which this people did most punctually and nicely observe and also tell us that to the afflicting of the soul of a man by which phrase the great Fast is expressed Levit. 16. there are four things required beside not tasting any food viz. abstaining from or laying aside their bathes their ointments their wives and their shooes i. e. every thing that might bee a pleasure and delight to their bodies And these may seem to bee included in that phrase ver 3. of this chapter Shall I weep in the fifth month 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 separating my self as I have done these many years but alas these severities amounted to a labour about nothing because while they would not for a world touch a bit of bread they drunk in iniquity like water and was filled with it even to an excesse and it broke out like a sore disease while they pined their body their lusts the body of sin was fat and well liking while they took down their flesh and made their faces look thin that which the Scripture calls flesh was lusty strong pampered and high fed Their proud and big thoughts were not taken down their inordinate covetous desires were not impaired their luxurious appetites were not retrenched nothing that was unreasonable in them was paired off moderated or abated And so their Fast was to no more purpose not being thus designed than if they had been feeding themselves with more plentiful than ordinary chear And if wee intend no more to day than what they performed wee had as good have gone and made a feast invited our neighbours and passed away that time merrily which wee are now spending only upon a sad ceremony If wee consider the simple act either of the one or the other of these things neither of them are good in themselves but as they are designed by us to certain purposes which are good so they come to bee acts of religion And fasting then from food is good and profitable 1 When in respect of the time past it is an act of sorrow and grief of anger and displeasure against and of revenge upon our selves for the abuse of those good things which God hath given us leave to feed upon to our refreshment but which wee have fatted our selves withall to an excessive fulnesse and wantonnesse When it is an expression of our repentance and disclaiming of our former courses an acknowledgement that wee deserve nothing at all but to have our daily food taken away from our tables and not so much as the scraps left behinde of that plenteous provision which God blesses us withall 2 When in respect of the time to come it is an act of mortification designed to the starving and pining of our lusts to the cutting off their provision and withdrawing of their nourishment to the learning of sobriety and temperate living to the practising denial of our own appetites and crossing our own desires And so it is not a businesse for a day or whose efficacie reaches but till night but hath a design upon the whole life wherein wee are to abstain as carefully from all excesse yea from all sin as wee do to day from all our food To which that of the Fathers doth most truly accord who calls fasting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a symbole of death it being that which tends to the destruction of the body and the taking away its life It should not only signifie that wee are dying to all earthly things but should bee an instrument of death to take away the life of our lusts and when it is so used as not to bee a whetstone to sharpen our stomacks against the next meal but to bee a knife to cut and slash off all the immoderation of our appetites and in general to wound and kill our sins it is a thing acceptable to God and hugely serviceable to our souls But let us here note two things 1 It is to bee used not only to the mortifying of some but of all our lusts and carnal affections Wee must withdraw the food of our appetites after vain glory and the praise of men riches and great honours in the world Wee must make it an instrument to dull and blunt the edge of all our inordinate longings and to the fixing such deadning considerations in us as may take us quite off from pleasing our selves So Clemens Alex. observes that a Christian knows very well the secret meaning and aenigmatical sense of fasting upon the fourth and sixth dayes of the week which are called by the names of Mercury and Venus viz. Wednesday and Friday 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Strom. lib. 7. he thereupon learns to fast through his whole life from covetousness and voluptuousness The choice of those daies was to give him a secret document and remembrance that hee should pine and waste away his covetous and voluptuous desires from whence spring all manner

peace Were they at all ashamed when they had committed all these abominations no they were not at all ashamed neither could they blush Jer. 8.10 11 12. And what was the reason of this confidence but that they thought their Temple-worship made amends for all vers 8. wee are wise say they and the Law of the Lord is with us which whether they bee the words of the Prophets or the people do signifie that they laid the greatest weight of their hopes upon that peace of Religion which respects God though they had no respect at all in their actions towards one another I shall not make bold to detain you any longer upon these observeables but leaving them to your private consideration I come to the second thing to bee briefly illustrated which is this that 2 These were the very sins which the Prophets note this people to have been guilty of after they were returned out of their captivity and when any one would have expected an amendment Very devout they were for ought that wee can read no complaints are brought in against them for not keeping the Sabbath not praying fasting offering sacrifice c. nay they knew themselves punctual enough in these things and so slided into the same deceit wherein their Fathers were caught and perished For in the very beginning of this Prophecie of Zachariah hee cries out turn you turn you unto mee saith the Lord bee not as your Fathers unto whom the former Prophets cried the very same words chap. 1. vers 2.3 4 c. And this was when the captivity was expired that hee made this proclamation unto them who as the 5. chap. 2.3 teaches us were still guilty of robbery and perjury with such like sins and yet they said they were innocent so Junius and Tremel read those words verse 3. This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth for every one that steals of this people saith as it i. e. as the rest of the earth that hee is innocent and whosoever sweareth of this people as it saith that hee is innocent they were no more sensible of these sins than Heathen people who knew but little of God and might more easily forget what was only taught them by themselves And therefore hee goes on to threaten them for such wickednesse and speaking of the woman vers 7. which sate in the midst of the Ephah by whom was shadowed that people hee saith this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wickednesse iniquity it self the Mother of all deceit theft and perjuries And afterward most plainly chap. 8. having told them how the case stood with their Fathers hee tells them that now hee was returned to Zion vers 3. and that hee would blesse them now as hee had cursed them before vers 13. but then hee saith these are the things that they must do Speak yee every man the truth execute the judgement of truth and peace c. vers 16 17. If wee look back to Haggai who prophecied but two years before these words in the 8. Zach. were spoken one being in the second the other in the fourth year of Darius hee will tell us no better newes of this people chap. 2.11 12 13 14. every thing that they did was as bad as those illegal offerings and impure sacrifices and hee seems to intimate that they had not with a holy minde composed to all obedience hitherto offered sacrifice to God and therefore hee could not accept them Now I think if wee compare this passage with what wee before gathered out of Zachary who as I said was his contemporary wee shall easily discern what the matter was that God was offended at in their doings At the first they neglected the worship of God and let the Temple lie waste building their own houses before it and when they were awakened by these Prophets to that work then they thought that all was well and that there needed no care of any other thing so the building of the Temple were but carried on unto perfection and thereupon continued in a world of wickednesse making their zeal for Temple-work eat up all their love to justice and mercy If wee should trace their foot-steps further wee should soon finde that when the Temple was compleated and finished they were but little better For Malachy who is called by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the seal of the Prophets because hee was the last and shuts up all complaining of the iniquity both of Priest and people sets down these sins as famous among the rest chap. 3.5 false swearing oppression of the hireling in his wages of the widdow and fatherlesse and turning aside the stranger from his right which together with other sins made way for that long captivity which indures to this day as those acquaint us upon whom the spirit of Prophesy was again poured forth For Christ comming and reproving the chief of them for devouring widdows houses for extortion rapine and blood for covetousnesse and oppression while they made long prayers and pretended a great deal of sanctity and religion he declaring also that faith judgement mercy and the love of God were more to bee regarded than their strict observance of daies and sacrifices c. They out of a great zeal for their religion which they thought hee did not speak honourably enough concerning most shamefully put him to death And I beleeve they thought themselves very religious persons and were serious in what they did only their great and unequally dispensed zeal for these few things made them beleeve themselves so good as not to see themselves sinners while they committed all manner of wickedness and easily to slide into the usual Hypocrisy i. e. partiality in obedience Their great zeal for those things made them take themselves for pious and devout persons but the partiality and particularity of it made them really to be such as our Saviour calls Hypocrites which appellation they took in such disdain that they conspired his death who would not let such as they passe for godly men I should be too tedious should I prosecute this through all the story This truth shines clear enough without borrowing any more light from other Scriptures that these have been often the wasting and destroying sins because commonly not observed in the midst of a blaze of religious duties which dazle mens eyes and make these sins seem either none at all or very little and contemptible which leads mee unto the third thing which I am to make proof of 3 That these are sins which pull down ruine and destruction upon a Nation and indeed are oft the chiefest cause of it The Poet never spoke truer word than when hee said Pindar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is as the Scholiast well notes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is scarce such a tall and impregnable bulwark such a safe defence to a Nation as justice and then I am sure it is like to bee laid waste when there is a