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
A80798	Captivity improved to spiritual purposes. Or spiritual directions, given to prisoners of all sorts whether debtors or malefactors Principally designed for the use of those who are prisoners in those prisons which are under the jurisdiction of the city of London, as Newgate, Ludgate, the Counters, &c. Though also applyable to others under the like circumstances else where. To which are annexed directions to those who have their maintenance and education at the publick charge, as in Christ-Church hospital, or cure, as in St. Bartholomew's and St. Thomas's, or reducement to a more thrifty course of life, as in Bridewel, or have been happily restored to their former sense[ ] as in Bethleem, alias Bedlam.	Cressy, Edmund.	1675 (1675)	Wing C6889A; ESTC R230962	54,833	136

be abated by some hope that when our soul shall be parted from the body it may be received into everlasting mansions through Jesus Christ our Lord In whose name and words c. A Prayer for Penitents by Bishop Taylour SON of David Blessed Redeemer Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world have mercy upon us O Jesu be a Jesus unto us thou that sparedst thy servant Peter that denied thee thrice thou that didst cast seven Devils out of Mary Magdalene and forgavest the woman taken in adultery and didst bear the convert Thief from the Cross to the joys of Paradise have mercy upon us also for although we have amassed together more sins than all these in conjunction yet not their sins nor ours nor the sins of all the world can equal thy glorious mercy which is as infinite and eternal as thy self We acknowledge O Lord that we are vile but yet redeemed with thy precious blood we are blind but thou art the light of the world we are weak but thou art our strong Rock we have been dead in trespasses and sins but thou art our resurrection and our life Thou O Lord lovest to shew mercy and the expressions of thy mercy the nearer they come to infinite the more proportionable they are to thy essence and like thy self Behold then O Lord fit objects for thy pity Our sins are so great and many that to forgive us will be an act of glorious mercy and all the praises which did accrue to thy name by the forgiveness of David and Manasses and St. Paul and the adulteress and the Thief and the Publican will be multiplied to thy honour in the forgiveness of us so vile so unworthy wretches that we have nothing to say for our selves but that the greatness of our miseries are fit objects for thy miraculous and infinite mercy Despise us not O Lord for we are thy creatures despise us not for thou didst die for us cast us not away in thine anger for thou camest to seek us and to save us Prepare us for death and take away the bitterness of it Pardon our sins and purge us from them first of thy Grace make us fit for the inheritance of the Saints in Light and then bring us to it for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ In whose name c. CHAP. V. Instructions suited to the Condition of those who have their Education in the Hospital of Christ Church HItherto I have discoursed such things as I thought proper for the Instruction of Prisoners and among those the worst of them Malefactors and if I had consulted the order of Dignity I should have placed these last but I purposed in this discourse to pursue the rules not of honour but of Christian Charity and therefore have allotted the greatest share of my directions to those that most need it the greatest offenders herein following the example of my Saviour who bestowed a great part of his time and pains upon Publicans and sinners and came with a design not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance I proceed now to such as may be supposed to be of a more teachable temper more succeptive of instruction and have more opportunities for it as living under a strict Discipline and under the happy opportunities of a very advantagious education in the Hospital and School of Christ Church And here before I proceed any farther it will not be improper thankfully to take notice of the goodness of God towards this City in that he hath from time to time raised up so many generous Spirits among us and enclined them to such noble instances of Christian Charity For there is scarse any necessity that humane nature is lyable to but here Provision is made for the relief of it If men be infirm in their senses and disturbed in their brains there is provision for them in the Hospital of Bethlehem If weak and infirm in their Limbs or wounded in St. Bartholomews and if Children be Fatherless or which is the next degree of misery to it discended of such Parents as have not where withal to bring them up they are cloathed and fed and Educated in Christ-Church an Hospital erected by King Edward the sixth a Protestant Prince to the confutation of that Vulgar calumny then and still common among the Papists that men of our Religion have renounced not only the merit but also the practice of good works and as this Hospital is of Royal extraction so is it of Honourable Government The Governours of it being always some of the most Eminent Senators and Commonours of London and in the House they have all things necessary for the feeding and cloathing and lodging and instructing of those Children Male or Female that are under their care and therefore to those that are here Educated My first Direction shall be to be thankful to God who hath so plentifully provided for them There is a gracious promise in the Psalmist When my Father and Mother forsake me the Lord taketh me up Psal 27. 10 and again to the same import Psalm 146. 9. the Lord careth for the strangers he helpeth the Fatherless And again Psal 147. He feedeth the young Ravens when they call upon him the observation is common out of Plin. 10. 12. and Aristo Hist Animal 6. 6. that of all other Birds the Ravens are observed soonest to forsake their young ones and therefore by an argument à majori ad minus If God so sufficiently provide for the young Ravens when the dams forsake them much more will he provide for us who stampt with his Image are much more valuable then many Ravens when our Parents either through want cannot or through unnaturalness will not maintain us Of this providence of God towards such helpless Children there are diverse instances in profane stories that famous one of Cyrus exposed by his own relations and by a wonderful providence nourished by strangers Of Romulus and Remus deserted by their Parents and nursed by a Wolf and harboured by a Shepherd Or if the credit of these relations be as suspected as the Faithfulness of their first reports There are instances in sacred writ to prove his Faithfulness to the abovementioned promise and that when Parents have forsaken Children he hath taken them up When Ishmaels Mother despairing of his life had forsaken him and laid him gasping his last for ought she knew or could do to help it in the Wilderness the Lord took him up He opened a new Spring of Water and opened her eyes to see it and so the Child was preserved Gen. 21. 19. When Moses his Parents also had forsaken him for they durst not stand by him any longer and laid him down among the rushy flags the Lord took him up He provided him of a Saviour the Kings own Daughter and of a Nurse the Child 's own Mother and so he was preserved too But to the Children here maintained I need not multiply instances of

Malefactors I proceed in the next place to those that are greater and have incurred the danger of death and these are to be considered under two several though near in time yet in nature very different circumstances before their Trial and after it Before their Trials we find them full of fears and sollicitudes and careful thoughts What the witnesses will depose against them what plea they themselves may make against their depositions what verdict the Jury is likely to bring and what sentence the Judge may pronounce upon them Now natural it is for men that are in trouble to be affected with such fears and sollicitudes as these and as it is natural so if these cares rise not to too inordinate a degree it is allowable too in the permissions of religion Jacob was afraid of his brother Esau and his fears made him seek to appease him by a present David was afraid of his Persecutour King Saul and his fears made him seek so many Subterfuges our Saviour himself had some natural reluctancy against that bitter Cup and he prayed very earnestly that it might pass from him and when St. Paul was accused by Tertullus and others he made very curious and artificial defences for his life And so may Prisoners too when they are Indicted very allowably make all just defences that their case will admit all such Pleas for themselves as their cause will bear and all prudent arts that their wit not aided by lies and falsifications can direct them to But while Prisoners are mindful of all those methods of defence which self preservation will put them upon as men they should not be neglectful of those religious considerations which become them as Christians They should with the same sollicitude prepare for that great account at the last day as they do for that at the Old Bayly they should remember that he that is to judge them hereafter is God and not man that there will be no need of witnesses to depose against them their own consciences which they sti●e now will impartially testifie against them then and supply the place both of witness and Jury too by bringing in a righteous verdict against them and making them as condemned of God so also self-condemned in the secret convictions of their then awakened spirit For the raising of such thoughts as these are within their souls let the Prisoners frequently consider and meditate upon every word in that suitable Text of Scripture 2 Cor. 5. 10. We must all appear before the judgment Seat of God that every one may receive the things done in his body whether they be good o● bad Some young sinners by the reason of the tenderness of their age are below the cognizance of such Courts as these and there are years at which sentence of death cannot be passed against an offender but all must appear before that judgment Seat both young and old Some sinners are so great as to aw Justice and when a Tyrant holds the Scepter and establishes iniquity by a Law no Court is so high as to take cognizance of him and to call him to account but none is great enough to deliver himself from the hand of God for hi● justice is armed with an infinite power whereby to execute the awards of his wrath upon the most obdurate sinners Some sins are so secret that the eye of man which sees not the heart can not discover them and therefore the justice of man cannot punish them but God searcheth the hearts and tries the reins and he will judge the secrets of men by Christ Jesus Men can only kill the body but he can cast Body and Soul into Hell-fire they can inflict only temporal death God eternal and everlasting Fire here may burn the body for a while which punishment is sometimes inflicted upon women for petty treason but as that fire burns the body so it consumes it and the fierceness of the flame and the pains of the offender have both a speedy conclusion but that fire burns for ever and the sinner hath an everlasting duration to endure those flames in This judgment and the consequences of it they should often meditate upon and no time more proper than this wherein they are to pass to that temporal judgment which bears some faint resemblance with the Eternal Now it is a proper time for them to set their souls in order before God to endeavour to make their peace with him by earnest prayer to seek his pardon and forgiveness and whether they live or die they will find the spiritual benefit of such thoughts as these are if the latter be their dreadful Lot they have by this means begun their preparation for death but if through the mercy of God the former be their more pleasing portion they may assure themselves that such men as are prepared to dye are by that means much more fit to live And now that I have brought the Prisoners to the Old Bayly it will not be long before they know their several Dooms Some have the Sentence of Death pronounced upon them Some are cast for their Lives but by the mercy of the Bench are set aside for Transportation or for Clergy or are left to the mercy of the King For the first of these the ensuing Chapter is designed to the others I now Address my self and first to those who are for Transportation who are usually the most in Number And here a very slender observation may soon suggest to us that the condition of convicts after their Transportation beyond these as differs little from that of those that are in Bridewell unless in the duration of their evils For when they are set down upon the place of their Banishment they are delivered to a seven-years bondage ingaged in hard labours exposed to great drudgeries and treated with very much scorn and contempt and insolence and usually the reason why this mercy is shewed to them for the sparing of their lives is because they are reputed to be but young Malefactors having never before been legally convicted of such crimes as are punishable by death and therefore before they proceed to the remainder of this Chapter I desire them to read what they find in the former Chapter concerning the breaking off their sins by repentance and improving their present afflictions of shame and slavery to spiritual purposes And to these directions I shall add these that follow First That they would be perswaded to observe the mixture of Judgment and mercy which is very apparent in their present condition mercy in that their lives are spared and Judgment in that they are to spend the remainder of their lives in so much hardship and misery and then to turn the expostulation of the Apostle Rom. 2. 4 5 6 7 8 9. into an exhortation to themselves and that they would not despise the riches of Gods goodness and forbearance and long suffering which ought to lead them to repentance neither treasure up to themselves

sinned and he repented of it in some degree and as an instance of it made restitution of the price of blood but had not recourse by faith and Gospel repentance to that blood of atonement and therefore died as a sad instance and dreadful example of horrid dispair and indeed no sin except that one unpardonable one against the Holy Ghost is exempted from forgiveness upon a true repentance And to take away doubt in this the Scripture hath particularly mentioned the greatest sorts as actually forgiven to sincere Penitents As particularly The Blasphemies of Saul the Fornications of Magdalen the extortions of Zaccheus the Murder and uncleanness of David the drunkenness and incest of Noah and the Robberies of the Thief upon the Cross But as there may be an error on this hand so there may be and possibly is more frequently on the other hand toc in relying too confidently upon the pardoning mercy of God in Christ without those Gospel preparations of heart which will sit us to receive it And this seems to be the sin of those very confident but very much mistaken fiduciaries mentioned and reproved by our Saviour Mat. 7. 21 22 23. Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven Many will say unto me in that day Lord have we not Prophesied in thy name and in thy name cast out Devils and in thy name done many wonderful works And then will I profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye that work iniquity And if they would guide themselves between presumption and despair it will behave them to take the Advice of St. Peter to Simon Magus so Acts 8. 22. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee He saith not and so certainly it shall be this possibly might be too confident a presumption to depend upon but if perhaps that an humble hope may be allowed to seek after The carriage of Benhahad to King Ahab may well become them The Kings of Israel are merciful Kings says he and so they The God of Israel is a merciful God this they may with fulness of Faith believe and peradventure he will save us this they may with an humble hope desire And to accommodate a little to this purpose that expression of Queen Esther They may go into the presence of God by humble supplication and prayer and say if we perish we will perish praying unto God we will perish imploring his Grace we will Perish rolling our selves upon his mercy in Christ Jesus and it is possible God may be more merciful to us then we are apt to think he will when we reflect upon the great defect of our death bed repentance The rest I shall refer to the Conduct of their spiritual guides of which number I am bound in duty to be one and shall request them often to read these seven Psalms 6 32 38 51 102 130 143. Paraphrased into Prayers by Bishop Taylour which I have provided for them at my own charge A small Treatise called The Penitent sinner provided for them by the care of the Court of Aldermen and these two Prayers the one taken out of Doctor Patricks Devout Christian the other from Bishop Taylour and with a small alteration accommodated to their condition A Prayer for condemned Malefactors written by Dr. Patrick in his Devout Christian O MOST holy and righteous judge of the whole world give us sinful and miserable wretches leave to prostrate our selves before the throne of thy Grace and to implore that mercy which we have formerly despised or abused We are not worthy we confess to lift up our eyes towards heaven and it becomes us in the greatest dejection of spirit to sigh and groan under the Load of our sins which have been so great and many so bold so presumptuous and shameles that when with an awakened mind we reflect upon them we are ready to sink into Hell and utterly despair of any mercy O God how have we hated instruction and our heart despised reproof And have not obeyed the voice of our teachers nor inclined our ear to them that admonished us How swift have our feet been to run into evil and how backward and averse have we been to any thing that is good O the injuries that we have done our neighbours the abuse of our selves and thy good creatures the prophane contempt or neglect of thee and the duties of thy worship and service * Here let them reckon up the blasphemies debaucheries and violences that they have been guilty of The remembrance of all this is dreadful the burden is intolerable How shall we appear before thee at whose rebuke the mountains quake since we cannot think of our appearance before an earthly judge without shame and affrightment of spirit O Lord work in us a greater dread of thee with a greater shame and confusion of face now that we are in thy presence For which end represent unto us essectually the wickedness the baseness and vileness of our evil doings as well as the guilt and just desert of thee O that we could hate and abhor them more than death which we expect shortly to suffer for them Bestow on us that ingenuous and godly sorrow which worketh repentance and unfeigned purposes of amendment of life If thou through thy great mercy and unexpected providence shouldest grant enlargement of it These purposes come too late indeed we may justly think to find acceptance with thee and therefore not without great fear and trembling and a great sense of our undeserving we look up unto thee acknowledging thy infinite goodness if thou wilt vouchsafe but the smallest hope of mercy Mercy mercy Good Lord cast us not quite out of thy sight for Jesus sake who gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity It is the beginning of some mercy and an earnest we hope of more that thou hast made us sensible of our offences Help us to manifest our sincerity by making free and open confession of our crimes and taking the shame of them before others and by acknowledgment that we are unworthy to live and by earnest admonishments to all to be warned by our example and to cease betimes to do evil and learn to do well O that we could glorifie thee O God a little in our latter end after this manner And till we come to receive our deserved punishment help us to spend our time in bewailing our sins in humbling our selves before thee for them in setting our hearts against them in studying and admiring with the greatest affection the holy life of our Lord Jesus in calling other offenders to repentance and exhorting them thereby to give thee glory Deny us not we beseech thee the grace thus to employ our selves that we may have some tast of thy mercy and the fear of death may