Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	brethren_n	know_v	life_n	4,656	5	5.3920	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01548	A sparke tovvard the kindling of sorrow for Sion A meditation on Amos 6. 6. Being the summe of a sermon preached at Sergeants Inne in Fleet-Street. By Thomas Gataker B. of D. and pastor of Rotherhith.	Gataker, Thomas, 1574-1654.	1621 (1621)	STC 11675; ESTC S102988	39,090	56

greatest sinner in the world and yet his meaning it may be was not amisse though the manner of speech improper hauing an eye to the guilt of our sinnes imputed to him and the burden thereof imposed vpon him But Saluian an Orthodox Writer sticketh not to say that Christ is maximus mendicorum the greatest begger in the world as one that beareth his part and hath his share in all the wants and necessities in all the straights and miseries that all his members in all parts of the world sustaine or endure For is he not in want saith he that complaineth of hunger and thirst and barenesse and pouertie and restraint of libertie Or who can be in greater want then he that sustaineth all these so oft as any godly man suffereth them He wanteth not indeed in regard of any miserie and yet he wanteth in regard of mercy he suffers not in his Deitie of himselfe and yet he suffers out of his pitie to his Yea looke we at an inferiour member Saul turned into Paul and become a member now of that body that he was a persecutor of before Who is weake or ill saith he but I am weake with him Who is scandalized but I am burnt with it In a word If any one member be honoured all the rest reioyce with it if any one suffer be it neuer so base an one all the rest suffer together with it Thus it is in the naturall body of man and thus it cannot but be in the mysticall body of Christ. 4. We ought to haue a fellow-feeling of our fellow-members afflictions because our sinnes may haue an hand in the procuring of their sufferings Neither need this seeme strange that our sinnes should be the cause of plagues and iudgements vpon others when wee the meane while remaine free our selues We see the like in the practise of Physicke and Chirurgery For is not the necke feared and rowelled oft for the rhewme that runneth downe into the eyes A veine is opened in the arme or the foot sometime to turne the course of the blood spending it selfe ouer-freely some other way sometime to ease the paine of the head and sometime to correct the distemperature of the whole body besides For Achans sinne many of the hoast of Israel were slaine and yet was Achan still vntouched Abimelechs whole houshold were plagued for his ouersight and thousands of Dauids subiects destroyed for the trespasse of their Soueraigne Ieroboams deare sonne died for his Fathers offence And God saith Theodoret when hee smote Pharaohs first-borne drew blood of the arme for the cure of the head which because it mended not thereupon came also after to confusion And why may not then the sinnes of our Nation also be in part the cause of those heauie disasters befallen our brethren in fomine parts which vnlesse therefore we take better to heart may in the next place light on vs. And so wee will passe to the fourth and last Obseruation to wit that it is a fearefull thing for men not to be affected with Gods hand vpon others especially vpon their brethren As not to mourne for the sinnes of others so not to be possessed with griefe and thought when Gods children are in danger and distresse It is somewhat to this purpose that Vrias saith to Dauid The Arke of God and Iudah and Israel abide in tents and my Lord Joab and my Lords seruants are encamped in the open fields and should I then goe home to make merry to take mine ease in my bed and my pleasure with my wife As thou liuest and as thy soule liueth I will not doe it He thought it a most vnworthy and vnbeseeming course for him to solace himselfe while his fellow-souldiers his Commander but Gods Arke especially attended by the Priests were abroad at fight in the field And surely not to repeat heere againe those places formerly pressed to this purpose that doe pregnantly proue the same or insist vpon the iudgements hereafter denounced against this people for their faultinesse herein when Gods Seruants shall be vp in armes constrained to stand vpon their guard at home or lye abroad in the field for their iust and necessary defence much more when they shall be beset and besieged by their blood-thirstie aduersaries expecting euery houre to come into their hands and most of all when they shall be discomfited ouer-runne subdued or surprised by them and brought vnto seruitude and thraldome vnder them it is a most vnworthy thing indeed for others not to bee affected seriously therewith though they be out of the reach or the report of the gunne or gun-shot themselues For I. It argueth a great want of Christian charitie and brotherly loue a want of bowels of tender pitie and compassion as in the rich Glutton toward Lazarus And what is more odious then an vnmercifull man What more against mans nature then to be inhumane When Humanitie taketh its denomination from man Or what is more abominable then an vncharitable Christian What more contrary to Christianitie then an vtter want of Charitie when as Charitie is the Badge or Cognisance of Christ and the very Character of a Christian. By this saith our Sauiour shall all men know you to be my Disciples if you loue one another But where there is no compassion there certainly there is no loue He that seeth his brother to be in want or in any distresse and hath no compassion on him hath no loue at all in him He is no Christian man therefore he is scarce a man that hath no compassion of other mens miseries 2. It argueth a want of spirituall life Hereby we know saith the Apostle that we are translated from death to life because we loue the brethren He that loueth his brother abideth in light and consequently in life For that light is life But he that loueth not his brother abideth still in death and in darknesse Sincere loue of the brethren and a fellow-feeling of their miseries is a sure argument of life the want of it an vndoubted signe of death It is but a rotten limbe a withered hand or a woodden leg that feeleth not when the head or but the hee le onely is hurt And surely those that haue no fellow-feeling of their fellow-members afflictions are at the best but as glasse-eyes or siluer noses or Iuory teeth that stand for a shew in the face or the mouth but afford little vse and partake not in paine because they partake not of life with the rest of that bodie which by Art only they are set in or fastned vnto It is no maruell if a peece of wood or glasse or mettall feele nothing though the head be slashed and cut to the very skull or the whole man be sicke at the heart 3. It argueth a want of loue

A SPARKE TOWARD THE KINDLING OF Sorrow for SION A Meditation on AMOS 6.6 BEING THE SVMME OF A Sermon preached at Sergeants Inne in FLEET-STREET By THOMAS GATAKER B. of D. and Pastor of Rotherhith LONDON Printed by I. H. for William Sheffard and are to be sold at the signe of the Starre in Corne-hill and in Popes-head Alley 1621. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFVLL Sir Randol Crew Knight ONE OF HIS MAIESTIES Sergeants at Law Right Worshipfull IT cannot but be most true of our times that the blessed Apostles spake almost sixteene hundred yeares since Hora est nouissima The last houre is now a running And wee are those on whom the ends of the world are fallen Towards the end whereof we were also long since forewarned by our Sauiour himselfe That Iniquity should grow rife and Charitie waxe cold That which had it not beene foretold vs yet Reason might enforme vs and our own daily Experience doth too euidently enforce on vs. For the older euery thing is the neerer it approacheth its end And in euery thing ordinarily the worst commeth last Old-age is the common receptacle of all bodily euills and maladies And howsoeuer Skill may encrease as yeers come on being gathered much by obseruation that asketh Time and continuance yet to omit that Iudgement also groweth weake commonly with the braine the seate of it Practise necessarily faileth as ability impaireth while age bringeth with it as an abatement of naturall heate so a decay of sense and consequently issuing a coldnes from the one and a numnesse from the other This Age of ours is the worlds Old-age That which we call Antiquitie was indeed the worlds Youth Time is growne gray with vs that was greene with them that then liued And no maruell then if into this last Age of the world as into a filthy sinke or common sewer of some great house or vast City all the Vices of former times be gathered together And as euill things are wont to waxe worse by continuance be growne rancker now then euer they were The Deuill himselfe it seemeth also bestirring himselfe and raging the more fiercely because he seeth his time to be but short Yea no maruell is it if according to the nature of Old-age though there be more light now then euer there was yet there be not heat 〈◊〉 answerable to that light nor affection to good things in any due proportion to the skill and knowledge of them if as the manner of old men is wee bee full of tongue but weake and feeble of hand hauing much speech and dispute but little performance or practise not a luke-warmnesse but a key-coldnesse nor a bare numnesse but a meere deadnesse as in the last ruines and decayes of Old-age is rather a lingring death then a lengthening of life hauing generally possest the hearts and minds of the most I need not make any long appeale to Experience for the iustification of this Charge For the rifenesse of Iniquitie of all kinde with all sorts who ●eeth not what an height Impietie and Impuritie are growne to in most places Euen so great that the rancknesse and ripenesse thereof seemeth to call ●loud for the sharpe fickle in the hand of the destroying Angell the Executioner of Gods Anger And the generall broiles as this instant in all parts almost of Christendome may well perswade vs that euen the bottomlesse pit is broken vp and set open and Satan and his limbes let loose for how long hee best knoweth who hath their tedder which in these euils is our chiefe comfort in his hand Meane while our Coldnesse and Numnesse appeareth in nothing more then in this that we are growne insensible of our owne euils and notwithstanding the ruefull and lamentable estate of the Church of God in most parts at the present and the insupportable afflictions that the Lords Faithfull Seruants our Brethren and fellow-members in Christ Iesus doe by occasion of these hurly-burlies daily endure yet the most regard it not nor take any notice at all of it saue as matter of newes and nouelty to furnish discourse or to feed their itching Athenian-like humors withall A great coldnesse and a strange numnesse indeed arguing an vtter want of zeale to Gods Truth and loue to his flock when nothing affecteth men but what they personally feele or feare may befall themselues Yea euen among those few to speak of that seeme to take these things to heart hard it is to finde a fellow-feeling affection any thing proportionable to the occasion giuen of it or such as could not but possesse vs were spirituall life and heat so fresh and so vigorous in vs as it ought To helpe therefore to re-enkindle this heauenly Fire that with many seemeth languishing and ready to goe out and to repaire this holy Heat so much euery where impaired through the Iniquitie of the times I here tender my Sparke taken from the sacred Censer and in that regard not mine owne Which howsoeuer it may seeme being so little as it is likely of it selfe to do little And yet a little sparke meeting with some kinde of matter may doe much and hath many times been meanes of raising a greater fire then could easily againe be quenched And a weake word may prooue powerfull and effectuall in this kinde accompanied with his Spirit of whom it was sometime said Did not our hearts glow within vs while hee talked with vs Howsoeuer I say of it selfe it may be deemed vnlikely to doe ought yet it may doe something and not a little by prouoking some others better stored in this kinde then my selfe to bring in greater plenty of fewell toward the raising maintaining and feeding of this Fire Some little effect I found of it which the rather encourageth mee now to publish it by some that seemed to be affected with it at that time when it was deliuered in your Worships hearing among others Since which time the notes of it lay by me not looked after among my loose papers till of late requested to reuise the worke of a Reuerend Diuine somewhat of the like subiect translated out of his owne language wherein he writ it into ours which worke I wish had lighted on a more skilfull Translator I was therby put in mind of them and hauing as well as I now could being aboue a twelue-month since it was preached by helpe of mine owne memory and the notes of some that then writ supplied them and so farre foorth perfected them as my present imployments would permit I thought good to adde this my Sparke to that Fire which that worthy man had so happily begun to kindle and I wish many others may second him and me in That being so done I make bold to present vnto your Worship partly as