Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	bring_v	sin_n	sin_v	5,307	5	9.1204	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93662	Aphonologos. A dumb speech. Or, A sermon made, but no sermon preached, at the funerall of the right vertuous Mrs Mary Overman, wife to Mr Thomas Overman the younger. Of the parish, formerly called, Saint Saviours, or vulgarly Mary Overis, in Southwarke. By B. Spencer, minister of Bromley.	Spencer, Benjamin, b. 1595?	1646 (1646)	Wing S4942; Thomason E1180_3; Thomason C.54.aa.1(3); ESTC R208123	32,914	87

of twelve in the pound Secondly The other sign of the Spirit is to have the mind of Christ which St. Paul so much urgeth Phil. 2.5 Let the same mind be in you which was also in Christ the spirit of God appeared like a Dove like a Fire and like a tongne Mar. 3.16 Act. 2.3 a Dove to shew simplicity a Fire to shew ardency and a Tongue to shew it loved to informe ignorance So did Christ he did no harm but much good and the zeal of Gods house did even consume him and his tongue never ceased to preach the glad tidings of salvation see then if you have pure simplicity without hypocrisie zeal without ignorance or partiality and a tongue ready to glorifie God then sure Christ is your life Thirdly the third sign is to love Christ for himselfe and all those that love Christ though I know not their persons or if I do yet to love them for this reason onely because they love Christ Thus wee passe from death to life if wee love the brethren 1 Joh. 3.14 And that it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without dissimulation Rom. 12.9 But before wee passe to that life there is a vale of death to be passed which though it be common to all yet it is not advantagious to all but onely to such to whom Christ is life therefore wee will first looke upon it as it is common to all then how it is a peculiar benefit to some First Death is common to all Statutum est omnibus semel mori It is appointed unto all men once to dye Rom. 6.23 the reason is Man sinned and the wages of sin is death Ob. But some will say if man had not sinned yet he would have dyed because no body consisting of elements can be eternall Ans Wee answer that this is more then can be proved for though it be true according to Philosophy yet it will make no axiome in Divinity for wee must know that Phylosophers spoke according to the effects which sinne had brought upon the creature and to that estate in which the offence left mankind which sin it may be was unknown to the Phylosophers Besides we find death to be the issue of sin And threatned onely for sin and therefore surely had not Adam sinned Gen. 2.17 he had not been mortall Besides a change might have been without death as wee see in divers creatures the Eagle by casting or breaking off her Bill the Snake by shiftting off his old rugged skin becomes more lively and active Lastly the Tree of Life for ought we know might be as well restaurative as sacramental an help to Nature as well as a type of Christ Obj. Why then do other creatures dye which sinned not Ans They are subjected to vanity for our sakes They were made for man and therfore for man subjected Rom. 8.20 that man by them might be served and not starved for want of them therefore there is no injury done to the creature by God but by man when he doth abuse them by cruelty or surquedry Therefore being that to dye is common to man it behooves man to expect it Mat. 24.43 to suspect it as a thiefe that would steal upon him this contemplation when it proceeds not from Panick feare is holy and pious I mean when I do not feare death so much as a debt of nature but as the wages of sin for so to fear it is childish for many go out of the world easier then they came in and the vitall parts are not so quick of sense as other parts are therefore a religious fear of death is profitable because it prepares us to dye by making us to cast up our accompt and make all even before-hand 1 Cor. 11.31 And to judge our selves that wee may not be judged that so as by sin wee have made life away unto death so by a true preparation we may make death a passage to everlasting life for as saith S. Bernard Cecidimus omnes super lapidem in luto unde inquinati et vulnerati sumus Wee are fallen upon a stone in the dirt by which wee are both defiled and wounded wee must therefore before wee dye be washed in the laver of regeneration and cured by the blood of the Covenant There be three sorts of People can never prepare well for death The first is the Epicure and Socinian who deny the soules immortality such were in St. Pauls time who said Let us eate and drinke for to morrow wee shall dye 1 Cor. 15.32 and though that these thought of no resurrection at all yet it will not excuse them who imagine the soule to have no subsisting after this life as to be capable either of joy or sorrow and therefore they count the Parable of Dives and Lazarus Jos Stegman Disp not to be a thing propounded in a figure which may have a corresponding reddition but a meer fiction as of the Poets Tartarus and Elysium whom the Popes policy in setting up Purgatory will condemn to have lessereligion then himselfe these men can never prepare for death but rather for the continuance of life because with death their happynesse ends like a birds or a beasts But this error is confuted divers wayes First from the very instinct of nature which desires perpetuity of name fame 2 Sam. 18.18 and family which is but the shadow of eternity in the soule so also because the soul is no bodyly thing and therefore not corruptible it finds no satisfaction in finite things and therefore except it be made in vain cannot cease to be till it hath enjoyed the object adequated to it Greg. Nyss and then it can neither because that object doth quicken it the more for the vision of God is the life of the soule which vision it apprehendeth when it is separated from the body therefore God is said to be the God of Abraham Mar. 12.27 of Isaac and Jacob though they were dead because they lived to him Heb. 12.23 so in the Epistle to the Hebrews the 12. and 23. there is mention made of the spirits of just men made perfect which must needs be in heaven by the sight of God though their bodyes be not yet raised If wee thinke not thus how shall wee prepare to leave the certainty wee have here to enjoy we know not what nor when Nor doe they rightly prepare for death who sleight it for it is the King of terrours It is not putting on the ignorant bravery of a Roman spirit who knowes not what comes after that gives Death right entertainment Desperate resolutions are not heroicall Christian vertues For see revenge of wrongs dares death a man in griefe wooes death and the feare of dying hath prevented the cruelty of it Some have dyed in pittying of others as some of Otho's friends did And Christs Disciples had a touch of this when they said hearing Lazarus was dead Let us goe that we

Now it is not so in this life For all that wee have here is either toilsome to get carefull to keep or fulsome to continue with as Seneca saith of satiety Cogita quamdiu eadem feceris Mori velle non tantum fortis miser sed etiam fastidiosus potest A man would die with wearinesse of reiterating the same thing though he were neither valiant nor miserable The best thing here is of a perishing nature but our inheritance there is incorruptible undefiled and fadeth not away and reserved in heaven where there is no feare of robbing 1 Pet. 1.4 or spoiling us of it either by the violence of the Souldier or the crast of the deceiver or the deceitfulnesse of the Lawyer But all things here are fading saving Grace and yet that hath much adoe to stick by us as saith Saint Paul I find a Law in my members fighting against the law of my mind Rom. 7.23 Who feels or sees not this decay except those whose eyes are too much fixed upon the worlds toyes whom the god of this world hath blinded Excellens sensibile destruit sensum They look too much much on the world and so are blinded by it They hold it not at a just distance from God and Godlinesse or look not upon it with a right spectacle of Gods Word which discovers to us all her adulterate ware That is the Reason why we see not the envie of honour the allurements of pleasure the inconstancy of riches the impediments of Poverty the temptings of the flesh the baits of beautie the infirmities of the body the certainty of evill and the danger of losing good What then is all this to what wee lose by being absent from the Lord whilst we are in the body 2 Cor. 5.6 Wee lose the blessed vision the sight of God the presence of Christ the full enjoyment of the holy Ghost the company of Angels and the Society of Saints all which we know but in part here but then we shall know even as we are knowne To ensure your self hereof look you that you have the fruit of this confidence that Christ is your life The fruit of this confidence and death is your gaine included in the word For which hath relation to that Resolution which this confidence bred namely to glorifie God in his body whether by life or death because Christ was his life and death was to him advantage And surely hee that desireth so to doe cannot chuse but find the other For Christ being his life makes him apt to glorifie God in life and in death And this he resolving to doe must needs produce this effect that death must be his gain For he that will lose his life for my sake shall find it Mat. 10.39 And not such a life simply but better an hundred fold in the happinesse of it and for the continuance everlasting The summe then of all is this Consider we are Christians which doth give us a right to a better life then nature can viz. a spirituall life in Christ and an eternall life with Christ To obtain either of these we must avoid the voluptuousnes of life naturall and let Christ be our contemplation and his example our pattern This is in mundo vivere vana mundi contemnere to live in the world Gal. 6.14 and yet despise it to use the world as not using it The world must be crucified to me as looking on it as a cursed thing Totus mundus positus in maligno and I must be crucified to the world by its hatred of me So that we must live as Saint Paul directs our loynes girded with truth lamps burning in our hand viz. shining in good workes and lastly watching in devotion lest we be found sleeping This being done we may bid death welcome for he brings advantage with him And if yet our infirmities present death formidable Consider what is death but a fall to rise like the setting of the Sunne A medicine to those miseries which sinne brought upon us For we having fallen by sinne into all manner of woe it was mercy as well as Justice in God to make us mortall lest we should live for ever miserable Pluto guessed well when he said Death was the Law of Nature Adrian said better and more full that Death was Paver divitum pauper is defiderium the feare of the rich and the desire of the poore Seneca said more divinely that it was Finis or Transitus an end to the wicked mans happinesse a passage to the good mans blessednesse Death cannot bite Innocence but smiles upon it Which made Saint Augustine to say He desired to see death as Christ had made it Secondly consider not so much the seares it has as the joyes it brings It is strange to see how light they made of it who had no such hopes as we have I meane the Heathen And we that count our selves the true Israelites need not be ashamed to borrow a jewel of these Egyptians Cato sent Caesar word that he feared more his pardon then his pain The joyes of death are such to those that live well as that they rejoyce when it draweth nigh For it is but a sleep and the grave a dormitorie where men rest from their labours In vitâ vigilant justi ideo in morte dicuntur dormire saith Saint Augustine Righteous men watch while they live and therefore are said to sleep when they be dead A certaine wise Roman said Non puerascam si Deus mihi largiatur He would not be a child again though God would permit it His reason was because now sayes he Ex hospitio ad domum discedam I shall goe from my Inne to my home For indeed the soule Non est ubi nunc est is not where it would be It looks ad futura to that which is to come And he that doth not beleeves not certainly the soules immortality nor the paine of death which being once apprehended makes us impatient to live in Mesech Ps 120.5 and desirous of dissolution with S. Paul Which gaine if thou wouldest make of death die to the world betimes He that begins a journey early makes a pleasure of it rather then a paine Such men are neither ashamed to live because they have lived well nor affraid to die because they are are but going whither they have beene alwaies travelling Remember therefore thy Creatour in the daies of thy youth Eccl. 12.1 before the evill day come Like the Bee and the Ant let not your provision be to make in the winter Christ taught us to prevent impediments of safety when he said to the people concerning the destruction of Jerusalem pray Mat. 25.20 that your flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabbath day because hee knew their opinion of the Sabbath would hinder their flight one way as the winter another So provide against this blustring day of death lest it hinder you in your passage to heaven

In a word let sin die before thee and then it cannot follow thee to judgment Feare not death but looke to the errour of your life break off sinne by repentance and entertaine Christ and death will be found without sting yea no crosse but a crowne no dart but a scepter shalt thou find in Christs hand or an olive in token of our victorie As confidently thou maist passe deaths teeth as once Ignat. did the teeth of wild beasts who said before hand when he was condemned I care not what death I suffer for seeing I am Gods corn I care not with what flaile of death he please to beat me out for I am willing to beground even by the teeth of these beasts that I may make cleane bread for Christ who became the bread of life for me How cheerfully may we then say Egredere anima mea egredere Goe forth my Soul Ps 142.9 to meet thy Saviour with David pray Lord bring my soul out of this prison that I may praise thy Name And with Saint Aug. Creasti nos ob te and Lord thou hast created us for thy selfe and I cannot be quiet til I come to thee And then shall begin that heavenly Epithalamium or wedding song of foure parts sung in Antiphona's and Responsories The Lamb saith Come and the Spirit saith Come and the Bride saith Come and thy soule shall say Come Lord Jesus come quickly So did this our deceased Sister Mrs MARY OVERMAN descended of an ancient and worthy Family of the Breretons marryed into an accomplished Family of the Overmans with whom though she found sufficiencie and satisfaction to her owne hearts desire yet she breathed after another life Not because she was sullenly faln out of love with the world but in love with Christ as appeared by her dying words which must eternize her memory when as a little before her dissolution this earnest and pious prayer departed from her first Lord when shall I come and appear before the presence of Christ my JESVS Dying MARY it seemes by this was ready for living CHRIST and living CHRIST as willing to receive dying MARY for soone after he took her to himselfe Who though she was weak in body yet was she strong in faith and hope which viaticum she had with her to strengthen her in her journey and to convey her soule into the hands of her Redeemer Herein as well approving as professing her selfe a true MARY in choosing that better part which now shall never be taken from her Next to Christ her Head in heaven she loved her Head on earth whom God had given her and like the Turtle loved her Mate yet was not like Rachel importunate for children nor yet dejected for want of them She spent her time not idly as many of her degree too usually doe even in these times whose miseries call to baldnesse and sackcloth but like another Dorcas she seemed to those that have seene her constant employment so farre from being idle that she was most an end well busied and full of good works So that as it was written of the Ladie Paula so it may be of Her too that she spent most of her time either in good workes or Gods worship Her chamber was not onely a shop of Confection as the fashion is but an Oratorie for Devotion Thirdly In a long and tedious consumption she behaved her selfe very patiently and knowing under whose hand she suffered opened not her mouth in any discontent and well perceiving it was the Lords doing thus to permit her to suffer she laid her downe and possest her soule in patience only with the meeke spirit of Iob intending Saint-like to imitate him in this her sanctified affliction in the depth of her consumption yet in the height of her devotion applyed ever and anon Jobs deploring words to her languishing selfe and like him wholy submitting her selfe to Gods dispoall said My months are moneths of vanity and sad nights are appointed for me And at other times in Davids words for she conversed much with dead Saints whiles she was living and had therefore learnt to use their language now she was dying when in his prayer he deciphered his miseries that he might the easier implore mercy Psalm 31.10 My life is consumed with greif and my years with sighing So that as Saint Ambrose said of one dying of such a disease so may we of hers that it seemd a martyrdome Yet was she not childishly afraid of death nor struggled she much to retaine life as some doe from whom God is faine as it were to teare away their soules but she offered up hers as a free-will-offering with a contempt of the world saying Away with all these things and with an earnest desire besides to be with Christ who having beene her life made death her gaine Which Text it seemes was some time since her owne meditation as appeares by her notes under her owne hand with this her devout paraphrase found upon them Heaven is my home I am a stranger here Which undoubtedly was the language of her heart as well as of her hand And if so what can we lesse perswade our selves she is then what she made her selfe by her pious endeavours a true a very MARY that is by interpretation Excellent Excellent in Contemplation thereby anticipating the joyes of heaven whilst she walkt upon the earth and excellent in action too her actions speaking her a perfect servant of the Almighty And therefore now no doubt after death a partaker of his glory with her fellow Saints for right dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of such Saints so deare that he takes them into his bosome And for our parts we may say of her as Saint Hierome said of Fabiola Ex annulo Ecclesiae monile perdidimus We even wee have lost a precious jewell out of the Ring of the Church But lost she is not I doe her wrong to say so of her whom God hath found She is not dead but sleepeth And her flesh doth rest in hope that what is sowne in weaknesse shall rise in power according to his mightie working who is able to subdue all things unto himselfe who bringeth downe to the grave and raiseth up by whom death is already swallowed up in victorie and so made an advantage to us Thus passed this precious Saint from sicknesse to perfect health from weaknesse to perfect strength from bondage to perfect freedome from trouble to perfect peace from losse to perfect gaine from heavinesse to perfect joyes In a word she is passed from death to life and from earth to heaven to be for ever in perfect happinesse where wee leave her safe and come to cloze with you Now therefore as the death of Christ doth for us make a gaine of death so may the death of good men and women worke some advantage also for us in that point and so their death may be a gaine to us Therefore Solomon sayes