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	lord_n	sin_n	8,006	5	4.5115	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60521	The character of a weaned Christian, or, The evangelical art of promoting self-denial being an essay, alluding to the severities and advantages of infant-weaning, both pleasant and profitable / by S. S., ...	Smith, Samuel, 1620-1698.	1675 (1675)	Wing S4164; ESTC R19902	63,054	160

Creature which thus bewitches and insnares us 1. Do not smile upon it as being in deep friendship with it but draw a Veil over its false Artificial inticing Beauty Put the Creature into the very same Dress into which the Apostacy of the first Adam betrayed it This made it not to be valued and shall we not stand at a distance from it in its Temptations 2. Speak not kindly nor familiarly to your Lusts to renew their old Fondness and acquaintance The Nurse keeps a deep silence when she would wean off a Child from cleaving to her Chide away a Temptation when it whispers in your Ear as Satans Factor to decoy you Hanker not after your Lusts as David after Absolom but hew them in pieces as Samuel did Agag Have you betrayed the honour of Christ and the integrity of your Souls in cleaving to Vanity and will you yet countenance cocker and plead in defence of your Lusts 3. Sing to your hearts be quieting them in the Lord 's tender Faithfulness Compassion and Alsufficiency when you are under the severest Method and course of weaning Psal 101.1 David resolved that of Mercy and Judgment he would sing For all the ways of the Lord are Mercy and Truth to such who keep his Covenant The 32. of Deuteronomy which consists of Mercy and Judgment is called Moses weaning Song to reduce Israel from a pursuit of their Idols as lying Vanities and to reunite and knit them to the Lord. 4. Keep a Record of all you experiences how the Lord sustained you when your Spirits were sinking in your weaning distresses Isa 63.7 8 9 10 11 12. 5. Let your weaning Design be carryed on by degrees not with violence Judahs Reformation was not Lasting because it was set on foot by the rapid Motion and over-bearing Authority of Josiah only Jer. 3.3 4 10 11 19 21 22. 6. Use no severity which is not of Divine prescription 7. Withdraw out of sight the Fewel Baits and Provocatives of your Lusts 19. Again would you be weaned then Covet to be dissolved in Affection from Worldly Vanities before you be dissolved in Person Weaned Saints covet to dye but dissolute Epicures groan because they must dye as having not answered the end of their Being and placing their Portion and Felicity in sublunary Enjoyments They Carowse so long at the Devils Wassal-Bowl till being intoxicated with a Reprobate mind they meet their Eternal destruction with laughter in the Face Labour to be above the fond Love of Natural Life and the slavish Fear of Deaths Artificial Cruelty Life were not worth the accepting it is attended with so many miseries were it not to make Provision for Eternal Happiness Neither is Death to be dreaded by such who demonstrate the Temper and disposition of a Pilgrim Charles the fifth forbade Death to be named in his Court under the penalty of Death But Moses dyed at the mouth of God readily at his Command because he had long before put off his Shoes the servile fear of Death in casting away all defiling terrene Affections which cling about a Worldling and make Death unwelcome Saints may well bow the head in submission and covet to dye because then and not till then they are perfeclty weaned when the Lord kisses their Souls out of their Bodies as welcome Guests to Glory It was reported of Ottomans great Horse that wheresoever he set his Foot no Grass could grow in that place So soon as a Saint by Death sets his Foot within the Portal of Celestial Glory the Weeds of his Lusts dye at the very Roots the Pride of all Flesh is stain'd and vamshes Again take beed of being hardened in Sin by Antiquity of Custom or by the outward successes and prosperity of Sinners Jer. 44.15.16 17. The Prophet refutes this Plea at 20 21 22. Ps 73.1 to 15. Lastly Wisely and Faithfully Improve all the Lords weaning-strokes on your selves or others Let others who have been Thunder struck and blasted even while they have lain soaking at the Breasts of the World and have dyed lamenting their own Folly and the Worlds Treachery too late be your warning-Peals But we readily turn off the prognosticks yea the very Executive part of God's Wrath as if our selves were not concerned in the dreadfulness of either An instance of the former you have in Vespasian who when he saw a Blazing Comet and a gaping Sepulchre thought to wave his own destiny with this prophane Jest that the former portended only the Death of the King of Persia who at that time wore long Hair The latter the death of the old Empress Julia who having one Foot in the Grave must of necessity suddenly yield to the stroke of Fate Wherefore think you hath the Lord of late made such changes in overturning overturning overturning by Pestilence War and the desolating Conflagration of our City but only to awaken us out of that pleasing Dream of sensuality into which the pleasures and profits of the World had insensibly betrayed us And yet how sottishly stupid are Sinners bewitcht with the Sirene songs of Lusts and the Worlds Flatteries Though frequent Earthly disappointments sing out the Passing-Bell of our dying Comforts and write a mournful Epitaph over the withering Glory of Creature-Enjoyments Yet we mind it not but cross the Lords wise Holy and Gracious designs by our security and clinging faster to the Creature We still pursue the Vanites of the World little considering that they will prove our vexation or our Ruine Like dying persons we grasp the harder whatsoever Vanity takes us by the hand Like drowning Men we catch at straws though they sloat swiftly away upon an ebbing Stream Sinners will ye still proclaim your folly and Phrensy in cleaving to an Aguish Breast which is crackt and chapt with flaws of disappointment which can yield nothing but corrupt humors and windy crudities which will gripe and torment your Consciences which will inflame your Pride and sensuality to the certain Ruine of your Souls Wherefore hath the Lord stained the Glory of all human Pride but to bring us low upon our Knees that himself alone may be exalted in reigning over our hearts and affections in which he will indure no Corrival or Competitor Yet still we more eagerly Court lying Vanities by how much the Lord would Rend them from us as the Pillows of our Security and the Purveiors of our Lusts Let me therefore in the fear of God and Love of your Souls perswade you to sit Loose from the fancied felicity of the World It 's both our Curse and Folly that we make our Lives uncomfortable to gather only Fewel for our Lusts The World will deal as Treacherously with us as Absolom's Mule did by him when we have most need of relief it will run from under us and leave us hanging in despair 'twixt Heaven and Hell Labour therefore to be Divinely born of God then you will trample the World under your feet and become sick of Love to Christ so shall

because of the bitter effects of sin yet his heart is secretly espoused to it He may repent of his dissembled severity and wish that himself may die rather than that his corrupt inclination should be pinion'd or put into little ease Rather strive to break the heart of old Adam to kill the very Root of an Hellish-Nature seek the destruction of whatsoever is disgustive to the Constitution of the new Creature that there may be no more hope of reconciliation unto sin than of the meeting of Heaven and Hell together Lay not down your sins as Weapons at the Foot of God as a Conqueror when you can no longer naintain the fight but out of Loyalty execute them with your own hand Cast them not only away in a Fright upon the Hue and Cry of your Conscience but pursue them to the Horns of the Altar drag them thence where they expect Protection and Sacrifice them with chearfulness otherwise they will mar and defeat all your Religious Services and the hope of future Glory Formalists descend to Hell more unsuspectedly under the Garb of Religious Vows and severe threats against their Lusts Thus some Parents in a short Passion Rate their Children out of their sight when they have done a shrewd turn yet they can immediately turn their Faces aside and smile at their unlucky Wit or after a short time cocker them the more Satan as a cunning Spinster leaves on the Distaff of a depraved Nature such pretended good resolutions as a Lock of Wool as a Pledg or advantage of future returning to draw out the Web of Iniquity to a greater extension than before Thus many Sinners purchase the Infamous Title of Sceptical Futurists in Repentance as they prove themselves to be Platonick Lovers of Vertue only in speculation For their Vows of Reformation must be interpreted as we read the Hebrew Dialect altogether backward Thus the more they tamper with and strain the Rusty Wards of a dissembling heart with some false Key of slight Reformation the harder it will be to open to the Motions and convictions of Christs Spirit 7. Improve weaning-Considerations such as these That persons of strong and fond affections to Creature-enjoyments are usually persons of strange and deep afflictions It 's thought that Abraham was toying and sporting with Isaac a little before the Command came to Sacrifice him Usually we follow our Idolized Comforts to the Grave with Mourning as Phaltiel did Michal to Bahurim when Ishbosheth snatcht her from him When the Lord observes that we grow fond of Strangers and familiar with the Worlds Temptations he puts out the Candle of prosperity and Seals up the Star-Light of all Creature-Comforts with which we have wantoniz'd in our fond admiration that we may depend on Him Alone as the God of our Light Comfort and Salvation When a dark Night of Affliction Steals on us then we run home to nestle in the Bosome of Divine-Alsufficiency though we had our Vagaries before in Courting every forreign Creature-Comfort to support and gratify our fleshly sensuality I will go and return unto my place that is confine and shut up my self in Heaven I will get me out of sight and Call that their weaning being apprehended more grievous they may under the depth of their distress seek me more early and earnestly Hos 5.15 David the Man after God's heart was chastened every Morning because when the Lord came to feel his Pulse how his Love and delight beat towards him he found the Frame of his heart to vary and faulter His very flesh and heart failed that he might cling the closer in distress Then Whom have I in Heaven but Thee Thus Israel became Jezrael the scattered Flock and her weaning by Captivity was in order to her betrothing Some there are whom neither smiles nor frowns neither Blows nor Charms of Love will wean Yet it is more ingenuous to be estranged from our Lusts by the Gracious and Spiritual appearances of the Lord than by imbittering the Breasts of the Creature or forcing the Lord to put on the disguize of an Enemy to affright us Usually we will not be weaned till we observe the Image of Death to sit upon the Eye-lids of our dearest Comforts Make therefore a wise contemperament of Love and Fear in your own Souls be won by the former and awed by the latter Fear may enter as a rivetting Wedg the first contest with our darling Lusts but Love can only compleat the Conquest A Child is weaned rather by singing to it than by blows 8. Be convinc'd of the Lords Love and Compassion in weaning you then you will more chearfully comply with the severest method of estranging you from a fond nestling in the bosom of any Lust The Lord's End is that you may arrive to a masculine State and Spirit in your Christian course that you may be fitted for more eminent service Thus Covenant-afflictions which are the Lord's Graving-Tools whereby he polishes his Saints for Glory are to be preferred before common Mercies and Right-hand weaning strokes before Left-hand Comforts and enjoyments It is for our Spiritual advantage that the Lord thus instructs us with severity by desertions persecution of Worldly Men and the frequent Alarm of temptation Therefore we should suit our selves to him we should not be humorsome and discontented at this necessary though bitter work In measure will the Lord debate it with his people in such a season How doth he bear long with their froward manners as with Israel in the Wilderness Ephraim resisted the Lord's weaning-strokes yet he did not give him over to the hardness of his heart He rather pittyed healed and led him restoring Comfort to him when himself and others lookt upon his State as desperate The Lord applyed his Ear and when Ephraim bemoaned his youthful Pranks and Excesses then the Lord's Bowels were troubled for him and he had Mercy on him as a pleasant Child when himself was ashamed in bearing the Reproach of his Youth How doth the Lord sing to his Childrens hearts while he weans them in a dark night of Affliction Isa 66.13.14 As one whom his Mother Comforts so will I Comfort you And when you shall see this What The happy Effect and Issue of your Captivity that I weaned you from the enjoyments of your own Land for your Spiritual advantage your heart shall rejoyce and your Bones shall flourish like a green Herb though you despondingly said they were dry and scattered as Chips about a saw-pit Abraham made a Feast when he weaned Isaac so God and his Angels rejoyce to see a Nursling of Satan become a Weanling unto Christ Such are now Feasted with the hidden Manna of Divine Consolation in their Wilderness-distresses they are Beautified with the white-Stone of Absolution as a peculiar remark of favour and honoured with the new Name of the Lord's adopted Darlings yea themselves can now rejoyce to tear the Body of sin Limb from Limb and can sing Triumphantly in the Funeral of the

Old Man because it is the Festival of their Spiritual Liberty in their Conformity to Christ's Death and Resurrection therefore get a good Opinion of the Work and it will succeed accordingly For the Rod as Aarons often Blossoms and brings forth the precious Fruits of Righteousness Is not this more Eligible than for tasting only a little Hony in any unlawful delight without the allowance of your Heavenly Father as Jonathan to incur the Penalty of Death it self Therefore in the next place shut fast the Cinque-port of your Senses and clear up the Eye of your Faith to take a view of the Creatures Vanity in order to admiring God in Christ Watch your hearts if you would get them weaned Keep them with all Diligence Sobriety and Watchfulness must be conjoyned in Christs Nursery as well as in the Discipline of his Camp Labour to be well read in the Anatomy of your deceitful hearts to understand your Constitution Inclination and Disposition For Satan hath Snares of all sorts and sizes to suit and please the several humours of sensual Sinners He is a cunning Angler do not you nibble at his Temptations lest as those Fish which Frisk and Play in the fresh Waters of Jordan you unawares stream down into the dead Sea of Worldly corrupt examples 10. Take heed of the occasions of sin The Rechabites would not chew the Husk of a dry Grape lest they should be inticed to drink Wine Pray as St. Augustine that when thou hast a heart to sin thou mayest want a Temptation and when a Temptation is presented thou mayest want a heart to comply with it This is the very Dialect of the Devils Sophistry you may come within the smell of sin and yet not be infected but you cannot play on the hole of the Asp or Cockatrice and yet be safe or secure If Satan like Archimedes can but have so much scope in thy heart as to place there his Engine of temptation he will soon shake and dissolve the whole Frame of thy Integrity if it be meerly Moral Besides to venture on the occasion shews that there is a secret liking of that sin it leads to though we conceit our selves to be weaned from it Nor will the Lord ordinarily keep us from the sin if we keep not our selves from the temptation and then we are sure to fall 11. Let this weaning design be your daily work upon which you are most intent It 's dissicult and not rid off with lazy wishes Augustine while he prayed to be weaned from his youthful incontinency secretly wisht he might yet be spared in his vain excesses We say of every darling Lust let Reuben Live and not dye Indulge not therefore your flesh though it cry out in a render delicacy that you would pitty and indulge it You must not desist from the severity of this work for your hearts sullenness and frowardness That Parent who spares to correct the Child for its crying hardens and confirms it in its Rebellion Thus it proves the future grief and shame of the Parent as well as the present disquietment of the Family Be not slight and remiss in weaning-attempts If so you must begin again as the Nazarite who had transgrest against the strict Law of his scparation The work will prove more difficult uncertain and hazardous as to its happy Issue Carry thorow this weaning design begin not in the Spirit to end in the Flesh If a Man omit a stroke in swimming he is soon carried down the Stream 12. Improve the Christian Sabbath especially to promote this Design As 't is the fittest season so Satan most watches to render it unsuccesful He then uses the same stratagem which the Benjamites did Judg. 21.19 20 21. to snatch them up Wives from among the Daughters of Israel to inlarge their almost extinguished Tribe When Christians come forth in Spiritual Dances to celebrate this holy Festival to the Lord then Satan lies in Ambuscado behind the Vineyards of Worldly profits and pleasures Thence he sallies out with his Temptations to commit a Rape upon the Virgin-purity of our Souls which should be espoused only to the Lord. But do not drive on this Task of weaning only during the Sabbath-space How should Lusts which have been rooting all the Week nay possibly our Life-long be pluckt up in one hours formal attendance on the Ordinances 13. Therefore begin this weaning task betimes in Youth before you and your Lusts be grown into a strict familiarity hardly to be shaken off David complained that the Sons of Zerviah were too hard for him while he was newly entred on his regal power But do you execute your Lusts as the Jews did Christ early in the Morning You will otherwise by indulgence and connivence give them greater advantage against you It 's dissicult to pull up Weeds when the Garden is overgrown and they have spread their Roots by long neglect to clear the Ground So is it to break off a setled long confirmed habit in Vice Do not accustom your selves to lie soaking at the Breasts of Lusts and the World especially being prompted to it by a Natural Instinct Our corrupt Nature is not as green Wood which needs much help of Art to make it burn but as Touch-wood the least spark of Temptation which lights on us fires all that train of Corruption yea the Magazine of Hell which is stored up in our degenerate and wicked hearts Therefore improve the soaking Showres of Divine Mercy and Goodness to soften your hard hearts that you may more easily root up your Lusts Maintain also the Love of Christ shed abroad in your Souls This as a more intense Divine flame will overpower and extinguish the Fire-Balls of Lust and Temptations which Satan darts into your Spirits 14. Again go not out in the strength of your own Resolutions and Covenantings to Reform these without renewing Grace cannot work any estrangement from your Lusts Rather look up by Faith to a pierced crucifyed Jesus Fetch Life from his Death Be so sixt to his Cross by Meditation that if a Temptation pass by before you bow the head and Court you you may not be at leisure to observe it much less to descend and imbrace it Say as Nehemiah to Sanhallat Why should this Work of the Lord slack while I parle with Satan to neglect the Building up of my Soul in Holiness More earnestly implore the confirming Aid of Christ's Mortifying Spirit to superaded his anointing Grace to thy Baptismal Vow that thou mayest beincouraged to conflict more resolutely against the Temptations of Sin Statan and the World While the Lock of your Faith is growing and spreads in Prayer your strength to resist and Conquer your Philistin-Lusts will renew and not suffer you to be defeated of your Hopes of Triumph 15. Despise those Reproaches which sensual Sinners cast upon a weaned Frame It 's no more than you were forewarned of and fore-armed against when you first entred upon the Christian state They think