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	soul_n	13,508	5	5.1021	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12177	The Christians end. Or, The sweet soveraignty of Christ, over his members in life and death VVherein is contained the whole scope of the godly mans life, with divers rules, motives and incouragements, to live and die to Iesus Christ. Being the substance of five sermons preached to the honorable society of Grayes Inne, by that learned and faithfull minister of Gods Word, Richard Sibbes, D.D. and sometimes preacher to that honorable societie.	Sibbes, Richard, 1577-1635.	1639 (1639)	STC 22485; ESTC S117259	45,936	138

but mortification We are not debters to the slesh saith the Apostle Therefore when a proud vindictive motion ariseth say I owe no suite or service to the flesh VVhat should these doe in a heart dedicated to God consecrated to Christ I am not mine owne much lesse Satans or lusts which be objects of mortification but no way worthy of my service Absolute deniall is required here Of other things a deniall is required onely as they stand in competition with Christ. In that case a man must sacrifice Isaac not onely his sinful selfe but natural self also his life and bodily liberty the dearest thing in the world and whatsoever is sweet for Christ. He having taken us off from our selves assigneth us to a true Lord. Wee live to the Lord and die to the Lord. It had not beene enough to say Wee ought not to live to our selves or die to our selves if he had not told whom we must live to and die to For naturally man will never leave any thing though but an apparāt good til he knoweth something better A man wil not part with a bad Master til he hath a better service Therefore he sheweth where to bestow our selves namely upon Christ who hath care of us both in life and death This is to be laid down for a ground had we not a better being in Christ then in our selves hee would never take us from our selves for God never biddeth us to our losse We have a better condition in Christ then we can have in the VVorld It is our gaine and advantage to live and die to Christ though it be to the losse of naturall self of civill selfe and whatsoever else yet it is our advantage It is Mercatorium not a losse but a trading VVee have a better for worse No man ever parted with any thing for Religion or a publike good but God made it up in a better kind Though God should not make it up in this world in the same kinde yet in Religion there be all things better then in the world If we lose honour here wee have honour from God If wee lose riches wee have them made up in grace here in glory hereafter If wee lose liberty we have it in the inlargment of a good conscience If wee lose friends wee get a God for a friend who can make our enemies fried̄s If we lose life wee are put into possession of eternal life and therfore wee need not stand at the bargain Wee have a better being in Christ then in our selves VVater is not lost when it emptieth it self into the Sea for there it is in its proper element A Christian is not lost when he loseth himselfe in his God in his Saviour For in him he hath a better being then in himselfe Hee is brought neerer the fountain I desire to depart and to be with Christ which is the best of all saith the Apostle Religion is a most excellent condition for as hee that saveth his life shall lose it so hee that loseth his life shall save it All our comforts have a better being in Christ then in● our selves and therfore wee should labour to have communion with him and to strengthen our faith in Christ and be in love with our happy condition in him which yieldeth comfort in life and death And all by vertue of the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ. As he saith afterward Christ both died and rose again that hee might be Lord both of the dead and of the living The resurrection of Christ is the consummation of all If Christ had not risen again where had our comfort bin But the very thought of it that we are ingraffed in one who hath not only purchased us by his death for we are the price of his bloud but to make it cleer that it is so is now in heaven as our head having overcome death and intending to bring al his body where he is as it was his will That where hee is wee should be also is a glorious thought The glory of Christian Religion is in the resurrection of Christ and to consider that we that are creeping here on earth shal be members of him that is glorious in Heaven Lord of heaven and earth who not onely died for us but is risen againe and wil make us all both in body and soule conformable to his glorious selfe as the Apostle saith to the Philippians cannot but infuse life and vigour into all our actions estates and conditions be they never so mean And have a wonderfull influence into the whole life of a Christian. THE SECOND SERMON ROM 14. 7 8. None of us liveth to himself and none of us dyeth to himself for whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we die we die unto the Lord Whether we live therefore or die we are the Lords FIrst the general scope of the Apostle is to take us off from our false ends None of us liveth to himselfe c. Secondly to assigne us to the true object to whom wee ought to dedicate our selves that is to the Lord. Thirdly the ground of all Whether wee live or die we are the Lords And then fourthly the spring of all Christ both died and rose againe that hee might be Lord both of quick and dead There is a conca●enation and knitting together of divine truths They following one another by a necessity of cōsequence As from the body of the Sunne there is a naturall issue of beames And as in plants derivation from the root into the branch so there is from Christ into all truths Grant him to be the second Adam and grant him Lord of the Living and of the Dead and it will follow wee ought to live to him If we grant we ought to live to Christ then wee must grant wee ought not to live to our selves For wee ought to live to Christ. Why to Christ because hee is Lord both of life and death Why is he Lord because hee hath purchased it by his bloud How doe wee know hee hath purchased it by his death satisfactorily because hee is risen againe and sitteth at the right hand of God to make all good for us Things are best to us when they are digested and made our own by the presence of good principles But here is the mischief Sin is ready and good principles are not ingraffed into us but if divine truths were as neere as corruption is then wee could withstand and repell all temptations As Travellers have the end of their journy in their thoughts habitually though not actually for every step they take is in vertue of their end So wee should consider that we are all Travellers in the way to Heaven and every step of our life should be to that end The ignorance of this maketh the life of most men to be but a digression from the mayne As if they were brought into the world onely to satisfie base lusts

The good things promised are everlasting likewise we may build upon them wee cannot build on riches here or life here but we may build on eternall life eternall glory and happinesse So that cast a Christian into what condition you will he hath God and Christ in covenant with him and the love of Christ and all the gracious promises and the things promised And these doe not vary life varieth We may live now dye to morrow but whether we live or dye these foure things mentioned are certainly ours A Christian cannot say of any thing here that it will be his long his estate is his now and many wayes there are to take it away his friends are his now but their friendship may decline any thing in the world may bee so ours to day as not ours to morrow And therefore were it not that in this varietie of conditions we had something that is afterward ●here were our comfort wee may out-live all com●orts here but wee cannot out-live our happinesse in Christ For whether wee live or dye wee are the Lords To speake of this a little as it yeeldeth comfort in death wee are the Lords not onely while we live but when wee dye Why because we have a being in Christ when we dye Christ is a living root because I live you shall live also This Lord is the Lord of life and therefore whosoever is one with the Lord of life hee can indeed never dye Death is only a change of a naturall graccious life here to a glorious life in another world from the Church warfaring here to the Church triumphant in heaven It is not properly death for misery dyeth Death it selfe dyeth wee doe not dye Death overthroweth it selfe but a Christians life is hid with Christ and when he dyeth he dyeth to live and is found in Christ at the day of judgement and shall bee for ever with Christ. Therefore it is no great matter what kinde of death a Christian dyeth because he dyeth in the Lord. Blessed are they that dye in the Lord. Hee sayth not them that dye a faire death A wretch an opposer an hypocrite may doe so and goe to hell But blessed are they that dye in the Lord because Christ is their Lord in death and so sayth the Apostle Heb. 11. All these dyed in faith Hee sayth not they all dyed a faire death for they did not but many of them dyed a bloudy death yet they all dyed in faith and so they dyed in the Lord. And therefore when wee read in the Histories of the Church that some were torne in pieces with wilde beasts that they gave the bodies of the Saints to the Fowles of Heaven as David hath it which may discourage some to bee Christians let us not thinke that any matter they died in faith And as the Psalmist sayth Pretious to the Lord is the death of all his Saints For he taketh notice of them in their lives not onely in their lives but the haires of their head they being all numbred Hee taketh notice of the teares that fall from their eyes and will not hee take notice of their bloud Hee taketh notice of their persons their haires their teares and will hee part with their lives for nothing No hee will be payd for the lives of his children when hee parts with them his enemies shall bee sure to pay for it Hee will bee avenged on them for it as the bloud of Naboth was on Ahab so hee will bee revenged on all the persecutours of his Church and take a strict account of every droppe of bloud that hath beene shed for their persons are pretious God taketh speciall notice of them they are his members his Spouse and neare unto him And then hee will not have them dye till they have done their worke Hee taketh speciall notice of them all their life And when they have done what they came for as Christ sayth of himselfe I have done the worke thou gavest mee to doe Then hee sendeth for them home They dye not at adventure but under the care of one that knoweth them well both in life and death And therfore it is that God so revenged the Persecutors of his Church for the bloud of his Saints from the bloud of Abel unto this day And as the death of his Saints are pretious so are all the things the Saints have their credit is pretious their goods are pretious God taketh notice of everie thing they part with for his sake As he and all his is ours himselfe his happines his spirit his priviledges so when wee are his all ours are his hee taketh care of our lives of our deaths of our credits of our riches of our estates wee part with nothing for him but he considers it and will reward it aboundantly Hee that dyeth in the Lord is a blessed man so sayth the spirit the flesh will not say so but rather will inferre who would bee so religious for such venture their lives and are counted as the off-scowring of the world The Divell will teach this Lesson and the world As they have lived in the flesh and will sell all to bee some body in the World though they goe to hell when they have done But saith the Spirit blessed are they who not onely die for the Lord as Martyrs but that die in the Lord whether to seale the truth of God with their blood or other wise they die happily so this is a ground of speciall comfort And as it is a ground of speciall comfort so it is a ground of direction Whether we live or die we are the Lords Therfore it may bee a foundation of living to the Lord. If we be the Lords surely we ought to live to him I● we be his all our endeavours whatsoever is ours are his Fructus and Fundus goe together the fruit and the soile and therefore if we be the Lords in life death we must not live to our selvs as our own but give our selvs to him not to anything else we are not our owne nor mans but the Lords And therefore wee ought not to yield up our selves to our selfe-wils selfe-wit self-love to be at or owne disposing and to live as we list We are redeemed from our selves yea from all our vaine conversations Some thinke Christ dyed and therefore they may be vaine especially at the solemn time of Christs nativitie The divell hath so prevailed with the world and will till there bee a new face of the Church they never honour the Divell more than when they seeme to honour Christ. For say they Christ came to set us at libertie Did hee so But it was to deliver us from wickednesse yea from vaine conversations and not to purchase us liberty to live as wee list Our tongues are our owne say they in the Psalmes I but Christ sayth they are not your owne they are his And if

one thing more though it must be our chief aime to looke to Christ yet God allows us to look also to our own salvation how to be saved and happy in another world God hath joined these two together as one chief end and good The one that he might be glorified the other that wee might be happy and both these are attained by honouring and serving him And this is no self-love for wee cannot seek our salvation but in honouring God and yielding the means that he hath sanctified for us which is to cast our selves on him for our salvation in his way Thus our happinesse and Gods chiefe end agree together As when there be two lines a●bout a Centre one drawne within the other a third Line cannot be drawne from the utmost Line to the Centre without cutting the Line within because it is included within the other So our salvation and happines is within the glory of God and we live to Christ not onely in serving him but in seeking our owne soules and what a sweetnesse is this in God that in seeking our own good wee should glorifie him This likewise teacheth us to live to Christ in a way of humility and self-deniall God will not deny to teach the humble and lowly soule his ways And thus a gracious man is fit for all the counsel● of God as a carnal heart is fit for al the services of the Devil Therfore le●us dedicate our selves services to God for happy are they that can lose themselves in God and be swallowed up in the love of Christ. Certainly there is never better finding of our selves then when wee are thus lost And therfore I beseech you whatsoever our corruptions have been heretofore let us now know it is heavenly wisdome to seeke Christs glory in the use of the blessed means fanctified for that end Surely we have all been baptized and what is our baptisme but the renouncing of the world the flesh and the Devit Our life is for nothing but to live unto God And having entred into covenant in Baptisme in the name of the Father Sonne and holy Ghost that wee intend seriously to lead a new life Wee must not trifle with God he wil not be dallied with It is not onely sufficient that we have spent our precious time amisse but more then sufficient For time wil come if we belong to Christ in which wee shal lament for spending our time in the pursuite of our owne vanities For if wee live according to our owne lusts we are but Rebels under Gods livery Wee are but traitors fighting under his Banner And how can wee give account at the day of judgment of our lives that have been nothing else but a constant service for Christs enemies under the colour of Religion This would seriously be thought upon Therfore as wee know a great deale and are beholding to God for living in times and places where there is abundance of the truth revealed so wee ought to make it our life and course to honour him to be vigorous in his service and to stirre up the grace of God in us to awaken our selves and to live to Christ and to put this quaere to our soules whom doe I serve my self or Christ him or his enemies Out of the Text you may see that a Christian will learne how to carry himselfe not onely to himselfe but to Christ. His carriage to himselfe is to live as a Christian exercised in his duty and calling His carriage to Christ is to live to him and die to him And for this end he taketh this course to search out himselfe what is unsound and corrupt in him and when hee hath found himself then he abhorreth himselfe and judgeth himselfe And having found out corruption in his heart he not onely loatheth it but crucifieth it and this is the course that a Christian taketh with himself in the searching and ●iscovery of his sins And this being done hee setteth up Christ in the place of selfe which ruleth in all men till they be Christians indeed eyther by way of admission or covenant But when Grace hath once taken place in the heart then the soule begins to live to Christ and that conscionably intyrely and uniformly consulting with all things how to helpe and further that life Other men consult how they may keepe their honours and reputations in the VVorld But a Christian having other aymes deviseth not onely ways to live to Christ but how to be better more and more how to get into Christ and how to grow up in him knowing that by living to Christ here he shall live with him for ever hereafter This is the course of a true Christian that looketh to have benefit by Christ. THE THIRD SERMON ROM 14. 7 8. None of us liveth to himself and none of us dyeth to himself for whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we die we die unto the Lord Whether we live therefore or die we are the Lords WE have heard from the Apostles generall negative that selfe must be removed out of the way before we can live or die to Christ. Selfe indeed will come in every thing till the spirit of Christ be all in all in us It is lke Esau that came first out of the wombe it will appeare first in all consultations And therfore it is the method of our blessed Saviour Whosoever will be my Disciple let him deny himselfe and take up my crosse And it wil be easie so to doe when we have denyed our selves From the Apostles general affirmative wee have shewed that to live to the Lord is to acknowledge our selves to be his him to be ours and answerably to doe him service to resigne up our selves to him to seeke his glory and honour and credit in all things and to be wel perswaded that hee wil stick to us So that it is a comfort as wel as a duty To die to the Lord is to be willing to give up our selves to him when the time commeth● and to submit to him for the manner of our death whether hee will call us home to himselfe by a quiet or troublesome death by a bloudy or dry death with confidence that he wil receive our soules That we may be directed to pitch upon a right end VVe may know by the principles of nature A man is not for himself and from the order that God hath placed him in all things below are for him but he is for somthing above himself he is not of himselfe and therfore not to himselfe God onely is of himself by himself and to himselfe Every thing under God is of God and by God and therfore to God As Saint Augustine saith Thou hast made us for thee and our hearts rest not till wee come to thee As the Rivers never r●st till they discharge themselves into the Ocean And being not his owne end it is his wisdome and understanding to

his Members and in all degrees of nearnesse to him And because God in the second person hath done all therefore in the second person he ismore termed Lord than God the Father or the holy Ghost And therefore Acts 2. 36. God the father hath made him Lord and Christ. This is a poynt of wonderfull comfort and not onely a comfort but a direction how to carry ourselves It is not onely a poynt of dignitie and prerogative but a dutie First it is agrand cōfort we are the Lords and the Lords in a peculiar manner as before The Divel is the Lords the Earth is the Lords All is the Lords but wee are the Lords by eternal donatiō by purchase by conquest by voluntary yeelding to him And therefore it is a most excellent condition What is the Lord If we be Christs we have him for Lord that is Lord of life Lord of glory Lord of grace that is Lord of Lords King of Kings He is an independent Lord none is above him the Father and he agreeing together if you know one you know both Hee is an absolute Lord a free Lord he hath no dependance at all upon any creature whatsoever An eternall Lord we have an eternall being in him for wee are when we are dead And therfore the Apostle divideth it Whether we live or dye wee are the Lords We have a substance when we be dead and a Lord of equall continuance with our selves a king for ever Therefore it is a poynt of wonderfull comfort But you will say Freedome is a sweet thing especially freedome from government so as to have no Lord to controule us therfore how can this be so excellent estate to have Christ our Lord Beloved wee are creatures wee are neither of our selves nor by our selves nor ●or ourselves Besides wee have enemies greater than our selves the powers of hell and therefore if we had not a better above us what would become of us but to bee totally subjected under the power of enemies It is the happines of the inferior to be in subjection to be the superior It is the happines of beasts to be under man that they may be kept from destruction It is the happines of the the weak to have tutors governers It is the perfection of inferiors to yeeld a gracious subjection to that that is better than themselves For every thing is perfected by being subject to that which is better And therfore we especially in our lapsed condition seeing wee are our owne greatest enemies God in love will not trust us with our selves since the fall but wil have our hapnes to be dependent subject to another to a God in our nature an excellent Lord and therefore an excellent Lord because besides what I spake before Christ hath all the authority in heaven earth committed to him not only over us but over our enemies that they shall not doe us harme And indeed he cannot bee Lord of the Chruch but he must be Lord of all creatures in heaven and earth that no creature may prejudice his Church Hee hath universall authoritie over all things and all for the Chruches cause And then he hath all the good qualities of a Lord not only authority but wisdome and strength power bounty and goodnesse and whatsoever may make him a gracious Lord. And therefore it is our perfection to be in subjection to this Lord. To set forth a little the excellencie of this Lord. He hath the sweetnesse of all superiours whatsoever as he hath taken the name of all superiority that is sweet and lovely so he hath the affections of all and eminently more than all hee is a Lord as a Husband hee loveth more than any husband can doe Hee is a Lord as a King he can do more for us than any king He hath all power in heaven and earth and hell over the divels themselves All knees bow to him of things in heaven and in earth and under the earth And he is Lord as an Head Whatsoever Superiority is neare deare that hee is to his Church He requires service I but hee is such a Lord as enableth us to serve him helpeth our infirmities by his Spirit without him we can doe nothing but in him wee can doe all And as hee enableth us to performe service so doth hee reward every service every good thought nothing is lost that is done for Christ● sake not a cup of cold water Hee giveth strength to per●orme accepteth it as a worke of his Spirit and then rewardeth it He is so a Lord as he standeth for his so a Lord as he appeareth for us now in heaven against all accusations of Sathan Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods people for Christ maketh intercession for them He stood for his Disciples here on earth and upon any occasion was ready to defend them and hee is as ready in heaven to stand for his subjects and servants and will answer all accusations of a malitious world against his Chruch and children and will bring forth their righteousnesse to light as the noone day hee standeth for their credit and ingageth himselfe for the defence and protection of his Mount Sion his Church And to adde one thing more out of the text concerning the excellencie of this Lord he is an unchangeable Lord his love is as himselfe and his care as himselfe Eternall For whether we live or dye we are his What other people that are under a government can say so For all their governours love and care endeth in death In the meane time their mindes are variable their affections may dye before themselves as how many have beene cast off in their old dayes But God will not do so Forsake me not in my gray haires sayth David Hee is our Lord while wee live and he leaveth us not when wee leave to live but is our God to death in death and after death and for ever It is a relation that holds for eternitie As our Saviour Christ sayth of Abraham Isaac and Iacob He is the God of Abraham Abraham is dead Isaac and Iacob rotten in their graves I but their soules are in heaven and because he is their whole God their bodies shall be raised againe and united with their soules and bee for ever with the Lord. In all the vicissitude and entercourse of things in this world wee need something to sticke to and this the Christian hath to sticke to that never faileth him He is the Lords and the Lord is his hee is Christs and Christ is his Christ hath a love that is as himselfe unchangeable Whom the Lord loveth he loveth to the end The promises made in Christ are as Christ the promises of grace here and glory hereafter certain as his nature and love is unchangeable so the fruit of his love in his gracious promises is alwaies certain They are the everlasting portion of the Church