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	wage_n	4,080	5	11.1858	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33961	Defensative armour, against four of Sathan's most fiery darts viz. temptations to atheistical and blasphemous impressions and thoughts, self-murther, despair, and presumption : wherein is discoursed the nature of these temptations, the several tempters to these sins, the arguments ordinarily used by the tempters in the inforcing of them, and some proper advice is offered to those who are exercised with them / by J.C. D.D. ...	Collinges, John, 1623-1690.	1680 (1680)	Wing C5312; ESTC R12985	145,095	356

of his Birth and Job 6. 8 9. Oh that I might have my Request and that God would grant me the thing that I long for even that it would please God to destroy me that he would let loose his Hand and cut me off So Elijah c. 3. Sometimes the Lust of Servile slavish fear when men and women have a Prospect of some great Evils that are like to come upon them and are not able to bear the thoughts of them nor to live in the view of them In this case we shall find Temptations also have prevailed upon Gods own People to desire Death though not to be the instruments of their own Death This was the Case of Elijah 1 Kings 19. 4. Jezebel sending a message to him had sworn by her Gods that by the next day she would kill Elijah as he had done by Baals Priests v. 3. v. 4. he goes into the Wilderness he goeth into the Wilderness and sits under a Juniper Tree and requesteth for himself that he might die and saith It is enough now O Lord take away my life for I am not better than my Fathers Now where any of these Lusts predominate at any time the Devil doth very ordinarily join his strength with it and makes frequent and violent impressions upon the Spirits of Christians putting them upon the murthering of themselves and where he meets with men or women that are ignorant or of base Atheistical hearts who do not believe there is a God or that there is such a thing as Eternity either an Heaven or Hell a place of Eternal happiness or Eternal torment or misery or an Immortal State of a Soul it is not at all to be wondered that he doth very often prevail For if they can but look upon death coming upon them any way as a freedom from misery and the grave as a place where the wicked cease from troubling where the weary be at rest where the prisoners rest together and hear not the voice of the oppressor it is but natural to them to cry out Wherefore is Light given unto him that is in Misery and Life to the bitter in Soul which long for death but it cometh not and dig for it as for hid Treasures and rejoyce exceedingly and are glad when they can find the Grave But now it being impossible that a Believer that knoweth the Scriptures and believeth them and agreeth to the Immortality of the Soul and the torments of Hell the truth of the Worm never dying and the Fire that never goeth out and that all Murderers shall have their portion in the Lake where this Worm this Fire is should ever look upon Death and the Grave in this dull notion Satan can never prevail with him So that no such Soul while he is possessed of any Liberty to use his Reason and to conclude from Principles can possibly be prevailed upon 2. Sometimes it may be The Motion may be first from the Devil who seeing a Man or Woman in great pain or misery or in great fears and expectations of misery may come to it and say as Job's Wife said to him Doest thou still retain thy Integrity Curse God and die I mean make some such Impressions upon a Man or Womans Spirit This possibly Men and Women at first discern and receive with great abhorrence cry Get thee behind me Satan tell their Friends and Neighbours of it beg of them to pray to God for them but the Devil reneweth his Motions and Impressions with great frequency violence and importunity until at length their own Lusts incline them to hearken either their over-eager desire to be out of their fears or out of their pain and at some more rest and quiet than they can possible arrive at and come to so as they yield CHAP. IV. By what Seeming Good the Soul tempted to Self-Murther may be drawn away and inticed What good greater than Life Eternal Life a greater good This can bait no Believer to such an Act why Immunity from some great Evil felt or imminent the onely appearing Good in the Case A Case arising from a Souls being possest of the Doctrine of Election Whether that can give this Temptation advantage It is denied BUt it may possibly be worthy of our Inquiry What can be a Bait fitting for such a Trap He who is tempted saith the Apostle is drawn away by his own lust and enticed No Man is enticed but by some appearing Good None can be drawn away from a Good nor enticed out of the possession of it but upon the view of a greater Good possible or probable to be obtained by parting with that which is lesser Now Life being in the Eye of Nature the greatest Good Skin for Skin saith the Devil and all a man hath for his Life One would think the Devil could not shew a Man or Woman any thing for the obtaining of which he should deliberately and voluntarily part with his Life To this I Answer two things 1 Though Natural Life in Pleasing Circumstances be the greatest Natural Good yet Life Eternal is a more Excellent Good So that if it be possible that a man should be cheated by his own heart or by the Devil so as to believe that the dispossession of himself of his Natural Life shall bring him into the possession of an Eternal Life he may upon that account be rationally perswaded to determine his own Life Thus the Devil imposed upon some of the Heathens who had by the Light of Nature but a dim Prospect of that Life and Immortality which the Apostle telleth us is brought to Light by the Gospel Dreaming that an happy State of the Soul in another Life was the common portion of all men or at least of all that lived up in any degree to the Rules of Moral Vertue and not understanding that the Wages of Sin was Death nor the right way to Eternal Life nor that of the Apostle That no Murtherer hath Eternal Life abiding for him no more than abiding in him they might easily be so cheated as Cleombrotus and others But it is not possible that a Believer one I mean who believeth the Scriptures should be thus enticed for by Faith he knows That the Law is Thou shalt do no Murther That no Murtherer hath Eternal Life That the Murtherer is one of those Sinners that have their portion in the Second Death Rev. 21. 8. and therefore not in the Second Life 2. Secondly Though Natural Life in pleasing Circumstances may be the greatest Natural Good yet this Natural Life as to particular persons may be so ill circumstanced that a present freedom from some Evil may to a Natural Eye appear a much greater Good in comparison of which even Life it self may be an Evil undesirable and abhorred Life is much rated by the happy or less happy Circumstances of it Even Nature it self would not desire a Life of Continual and Extream pain And indeed This Ease and Immunity from Evils which either at

this counsel may come too late the Enemy may be upon them What shall be done in this Case I shall conclude my Discourse referring to this Temptation with some Advice of this Nature 1. And here my first Direction must be of the same Nature as before The Evacuating of those Peccant Natural Humours of which the Devil takes advantage and this at the first Physicians will tell you That there is a Melancholick Deliration Melancholy may so far prevail as to put a Man or Woman out of the Conduct and Guidance of his Reason and who knoweth what a Man in those Circumstances may do and although it be true that Acts done in Distractions are not Humane Acts and possibly shall not be imputed to us yet let me tell you that these are sad issues of our Lives and oftentimes Men and Women are so rational by Times and in some Acts that it is a very hard judgment to be made by standers by whether such Miserable Creatures doing such an Act do it under the Conduct of their Reason for the avoiding of a great Misery as they suppose which they feel or fear yea or no. This therefore is the first thing to be done in this Case for the Removal of those Rises and Advantages which the Devil takes from this Temperature of Body When this is done 2. The next thing to be attended Is a just Enquiry into the Motive which the Devil urgeth to us to induce us to such an Act that ordinarily is the removing of our selves from the sense of some great Evil which either is upon us or like some black cloud hangeth over our heads and we apprehend is not avoidable for although we read of some amongst the Heathens that had got some imperfect Notions of the Immortality of the Soul and an happy Estate into which it should enter after Death out of hast to be there put an end to their Lives yet there are no Christians but are better instructed and know that although the Souls of Men and Women be indeed Immortal and that there is a Blessed Eternity into which the Souls of some Men and Women shall enter yet there is also a Miserable Eternity into which the Souls of others shall go And for the Blessed Eternity into which some shall enter the way to it is directed by Gods Word and not by our own Fancy and that it is no way to do it to die in a sinful Act which leaveth hardly any room for Repentance and speaketh the greatest Unbelief imaginable So that I say the general Motive prevailing with any to the least hearkening to this Temptation is the removal of our selves from the fear or present sense of some evils which either press or threaten us This being found out certainly there can be nothing imagined more effectual to deliver us from the dint of this Temptation then seriously to consider with our selves 1. Whether the destroying our selves will effect that end indeed delivering the Soul from such Evils 2. Whether supposing that it would deliverance might not be hoped for another way far more certain and more advantagious As to the First A Man or Woman must be more certain of his or her happy state after this Life then it is possible a Soul should be that doth entertain such thoughts or he can never be assured that the doing of such an Act should deliver him from the Misery under which he groaneth It is indeed very possible that a Soul should be under the assurance of Eternal Life whatever the Papists say but it is impossible that a Soul should be under this Assurance at the same time having it in his Heart and resolving to do that Act as to which the Scripture hath said That he that doth it shall not inherit Everlasting Life or hath not Eternal Life Now admit the Soul not to enter into Life he certainly goes into the Lake that burns with Fire and Brimstone where the Worm never dies the Fire never goeth out For a Man or Woman to leap out of the Miseries of this Life into the Pit of Hell to deliver himself from any degree of Misery either felt or feared is so wild and irrational an Undertaking as no Soul under the guidance of Reason can do it but one that believeth no Hell so that it is an Act agreeing onely to an Unbeliever or a Mad-man an Atheist or a Man Distracted 2. But Secondly Admit now that a Man or Woman destroying him or her self would bring him or her a deliverance from Misery in the Grave Job saith The wicked cease from troubling the weary be at rest The Prisoners rest and hear not the Voice of the Oppressor the Servant is free from his Master So then if Mens Souls expired with their Bodies Death would deliver them it freeth the Beast of the Field and all sensitive Creatures admit it would so free a Man or Woman which it will not yet certainly it is by no means elegible unless we can be freed no other way and to no better advantage Suppose a Man or Woman under a painful fit of the Gout or under an extremity of Pain in some particular Member or Joynt so as the cutting off an Hand or a Leg or a Joynt will certainly cure him yet who almost if it be but as to the pulling out of a Tooth will purchase his freedom from pain at that rate till he or she seeth that no other way will do Thou art under a great degree of Misery great bodily Pains or Torments or in danger of some great Shame Misery or Reproach Thou hast a Temptation to free thy self from the pressure of it by destroying thy self and which is the best thou canst fancy if thou beest an Atheist annihilating thy Being But is there no other way than this for thy Relief Is there not a waiting upon God an exercising of hope and confidence in him Is he not able to support and to bear thee up under these pressures To make thy burthen light unto thee and to take it off thy Shoulders when he shall think good Hath he not promised that he will not lay upon us more than he will inable us to bear that he will be with us in the Fires and in the Waters that the Waters shall not drown us nor the Flames kindle upon us If I can be delivered from an Evil of which I am afraid or which I feel a more certain and easie way than that which I am pressed to use which is both incertain and of greater disadvantage doth not all imaginable Reason dictate to me the use of it And certainly to a Soul possessed of the truth of what God hath revealed in his Word and under the conduct of Reason nothing need be added to repel so unnatural a Temptation as this is whereas therefore some are shy that persons under the prevailing of Melancholy should read Books of ●●rrible Arguments or hear Sermons of the Wrath of God against Sinners of Hell and Judgement

was made perfect through Sufferings And in the Greek there is no more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for every the Substantive is either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and then the sense is he tasted of every Death or which it may be is more probable it must be supplied from the next verse for every Son who was to be brought unto Glory But not to enter into that Discourse onely to caution you from laying too great stress upon Particles in Scripture 2. Consider what I before hinted That none of those who hold the utmost Extension of the Death of Christ as to the Objects ever said That all those for whom Christ died should be saved Those indeed who believe Christ died only for the Elect assert this but those who hold Christ died equally for all no more for Judas than for Peter and those that say Christ by his Death purchased a certainty of Salvation for some and a possibility of Salvation for all yet neither of them will say That all shall be saved for whom Christ died which hath made me often admire at Mens heats for these Opinions which if they could prove to be true have no more Significancy Indeed they seem to be calculated for nothing but the Assertion of a Power in the will of Man to chuse and do what God requireth in order to Salvation and so to be his own Saviour Now if this be all that any understanding Man pretends to in his asserting that Christ died for all how is it possible that any particular Soul can from his Belief of it conclude he shall be saved 3. Besides this Notion is pressed with the same absurdities as that which I first mentioned for he that believeth That Christ died for all and every Man and therefore for him must needs hold Universal Salvation though not upon the account of Creation yet upon the account of Christs Redemption and this is not onely to hold what God no where hath revealed in his Word but that which is directly contrary to the Revelation of the Word and that which is contrary to a multitude of Promises and Threatnings and will make them to be meerly superfluous and insignificant The conclusion is That thou hast no ground from any such Notion be it true or false to conclude any such thing as that thou art actually reconciled to God and shall be saved nor did ever any judicious Person so conclude but I fear thousands of ignorant ordinary Persons build their Hopes here and my self have by some been told so 3. A third Notion upon which some may be tempted to presume is The Vertue and Efficacy of Baptism The Jews you know rested much upon their Circumcision and I fear too many amongst Christians rest as much upon their Baptism and their being in it Regenerated and Born again To arm you against this Temptation I shall as to the other offer you some few things to be considered 1. None can be confident upon this account but they must consider Baptism either as it is the Door into the Church From thence it must follow That all those that are Members of the Church of God shall be saved Or Secondly As an Ordinance of God with which God doth constantly concur in washing away the guilt of Sin by Vertue of the Blood of Christ I shall shortly shew you that which of these two ways soever Men look upon their Baptism they can make no such conclusion from it 1. There is nothing in Scripture to justifie such a Conceit That all those who are by Baptism admitted into the Catholick visible Church shall be saved for I pray observe in this Notion of Baptism 1. It doth no more than Circumcision did under the Old Testament to which it succeeded Circumcision was the Door into the Church of the Jews as Baptism is the Door into the Gospel Church Now there is nothing clearer in all the Scripture than that all those that were Circumcised were not saved Judas was Circumcised yet a Devil a Son of Perdition The Scribes and Pharises Lawyers and Hypocrites against whom our Saviour in the Gospel denounced so many Woes they were all Circumcised The Apostle expresly tells us that Circumcision availeth nothing nor yet Uncircumcision but a New Creature That Circumcision verily profiteth Persons if they keep the Law but if they were Breakers of the Law their Circumcision is made Uncircumcision Rom. 2. 25. That he is not a Jew which is one outwardly neither is that Circumcision which is outward in the Flesh but he is a Jew which is one inwardly and Circumcision is that of the Heart and the Spirit and not in the Letter whose Praise is of God not of Men v. 28. 29. What is more plain than that of our Saviour Publicans and Harlots shall enter into the Kingdom of God and the Children of the Kingdom shall be cast out Luke 13. 26 27 28. v. 25. he is speaking to the Jews who were all circumcised all Members of the onely Church God at that day had in the World When once the Master of the House is risen up and hath shut the Door and you begin to stand without and to knock at the Door saying Lord Lord open unto us and he shall answer unto them I know you not whence you are● Then shall you begin to say We have Eaten and Drank in thy Name and thou hast taught in our Streets I hope all these were Sons of the Church and no ordinary Members of it but v. 27. He shall say I know you not whence you are depart from me all ye workers of Iniquity there shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth when you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God and you your selves thrust out And they shall come from the East and the West and the North and the South and shall sit down in the Kingdom of God And behold there are last which shall be first and first which shall be last So as this alone is no ground of Hope or Confidence to any Soul 2. This appeareth further from hence That many Persons be Baptized and Members of Churches in whom Faith and Repentance which the Word of God every where makes necessary to Salvation are most certainly wanting Many Persons are Members of the Church by Baptism who yet are Drunkards Whoremongers Lyars Unbelievers such as the Scripture hath expresly said shall have their Portion in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstone Baptism therefore in this Notion affordeth not the least ground of Confidence to any thinking and considerate Soul 2. Suppose we take Baptism in the Second Notion as it is an Ordinance of God instituted for something It is true the effect of Baptism what it is and how far it extendeth hath been a great Question amongst Divines Some ascribing to it the Justification of the Soul and the Remission of Sins to all but then they restrain it to Original Sin and so it onely as

for their Souls or to get Indulgences for them to help them out of the Imaginary Fire There are some of those Notions which drank in and imbraced by any are the grounds of this Presumption as to which I am now Discoursing The onely Question remaining is what Christians should do to avoid dashing upon this desperate Rock CHAP. IV. What to be done by Christians to avoid dashing upon this Rock of Presumption The first means to possess our selves of the falsehood of those Notious upon which these Presumptions are bottomed Three of them instanced in several Arguments to prove That Gods Creation of us Christs dying for all And the Efficacy of Baptisme cannot be without any thing more sufficient grounds for any upon which to hope for Pardon of Sins or Eternal Life and Salvation 1. THe first thing to be done is for Christians to possess themselves of the falshood of those Notions which are the foundations upon which their Presumptuous Hopes are raised and the Truths of God in opposition to them and here suffer me to run over all the Notions I before instanced in and to shew you the egregious Vanity of them I begin with the first of them That God will damn none of the Sons and Daughters of Men which he hath made This I perswade my self is in the heart of a great many more than will speak it out let me therefore shew you the exceeding folly and vanity of it in some particulars 1. In the first place if I could say no more yet this were sufficient That there is no such Revelation of the Will of God in any line of Scripture Where hath God said any where in Scripture The he will save all Men Now the strength of this lies here That Eternal Life being a Gift a free Gift of God and Christs that to which none is born Rom. 6. 23. John 17. 2. given by Christ to those whom the Father hath given him not to all but to those whom the Father hath given him it is the highest folly imaginable for any to hope God will give it him who is under no Circumstances such as God hath said he will give this great Gift to those that are under You would think that Man mad that should nourish an hope that you would give him your Estate when you never told him or any one else that you would give him a Groat and why are you then so secure for your Souls whose Interest is so infinitly more valuable Why should you think that God favoureth you and will save you when he never told you so either implicitly or explicitly Do you trust to the Goodness and Graciousness of the Divine Nature Or to his Relation to you as you are Gods Creatures he your Creator You may as reasonably think that all the Devils in Hell should be saved Why should not the Goodness of Gods Nature as well extend to them as you They are your elder Brethren the first of the Creation more excellent Beings by Creation than Man was Where is your confidence then because God made you if you can neither conclude it from the Goodness of the Divine Nature nor from your Relation to God as he is your Creator nor from any letter of his Revealed Will Whence can you lay the stress of your Souls upon this That God will save all 2. Yet something might be hoped from hence with more Reason If God had not expresly Revealed his Will to the contrary Surely you would think that Man or Woman much worse than mad that should hope you would leave him or her your whole Estate when you shall have said and sworn that you would not give him a Groat There is no clearer piece of the Revealed Will of God in Scripture than that some of the Sons and Daughters of Men shall perish Eternally Dan. 12. 2. Those that sleep in the dust shall awake some to Everlasting Life and some to Everlasting Shame and Contempt There shall be some to whom Christ will say Depart from me I know you not you workers of Iniquity Math. 7. 23 24. Some to whom he will say Depart from me you Cursed into Everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Matth. 25. 41. Some foolish Virgins against whom the Gates of Heaven will be shut v. 10. Some against whom he will come in Flaming Fire to take Vengance who shall be punished with everlasting Destruction 2 Thess 1. 9. Some that shall never enter into the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. some that shall have their portion in the Lake that burns with Fire and Brimstone Rev. 21. 8. Isa 27. 11. Yet certainly God made these Persons He did not make them to damn them but by their Impenitency and Unbelief they damn themselves As he did not make them to damn them so he did not make all with an Intention or Resolution to save them let them live how they pleased Now for us to build up hopes upon a foolish Notion expresly contrary to the Revealed Will of God is a most unquestionable Folly 3. If God would save all those that he hath made To what purpose thinkest thou hath he given out a Law to direct Mens Conversations fortifying it with Promises not onely of good things in this Life but of another Life and with threatnings not onely of Misery in this Life but of Eternal Misery in the Life to come to those that Presumptuously violate it The truth is this is a principle that none can possibly entertain unless he be turned Atheist and believes no Scriptures no Hell at all For was Hell prepared for none thinkest thou Settle thy self therefore upon this That God will most certainly turn into Hell some and those not a few of those Men and Women which he hath made 2. A Second false Notion that some presume upon is the Redemption purchased by Christ Christ they say hath died for All and by the term All they understand every Man and Woman Now to avoid this Rock I shall offer these few things to a Christians serious Consideration 1. That although it be true in the Scripture-phrase and way of Speaking that Christ died for All and for the World yet the Scripture no where saith that Christ died for every Man And the term All doth very ordinarily signifie Many or All under such and such Circumstances of such or such a kind It is said Matth. 3. 5. that Jerusalem and all Judea and all the Region round about Jordan went out to John that is very many or some of all sorts for none can imagine that every Man Woman and Child went out There is but one Text that foundeth like a Proof that Christ died for every Man it is that Heb. 2. 9. where we translate it That he by the Grace of God should taste Death for every Man but it must be restrained by the next verse where he speaks of many Sons being brought to Glory and therefore he the Captain of their Salvation