Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	cross_n	life_n	sin_n	4,107	5	4.3104	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A15393	Eliah's vvish a prayer for death. A sermon preached at the funerall of the Right Honourable Viscount Sudbury, Lord Bayning. By Ro: Willan D.D. Chaplaine to his Maiesty.	Willan, Robert, d. 1630.; Spencer, John, d. 1680.	1630 (1630)	STC 25670; ESTC S120043	16,811	52

employment in the seruice of God then he may say Egredere anima mea go out my soule why shouldst thou feare approaching vnto him whom thou hast serued so long when Elias can plead a sufficit then tolle animam may come after it O the secure life of good men when death is expected without feare entertained with chearefull welcome nay prayed and wished for with sweet deuotion In the second Argument take notice of his modesty he esteemes himselfe though wonderfully qualified no better then his Fathers If some small portion of Elias modesty were left in the world any blush of vertuous bashfulnesse the vile would not in the Prophets phrase presume aboue the Honourable nor the vpstart so highly disdaine their Ancesters preferring the false and fading beauty of recent opinions before the amiable wrinkles in the face of aged truth St. Paul says he serued God from his elders and progenitors from whom hee receiued his being and existencie from them hee tooke his piety and religion and he commends the deriuatiue faith of Timothy descending from his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice And here Elias making honourable mention of his Predecessors tels vs wee owe vnto them a double memory First of their liues as Adamants to draw vs to the imitating of their vertues Secondly of their deaths as monitors to put vs in minde of our owne mortality All vertues Morall and Diuine haue beene by our Ancestors most fully exemplified when a Poet would encourage a young Sparke to noble vndertakings hee doth it by this very way Te Pater Aeneas auunculus excitet Hector Let thy father Aeneas and thy vncle Hector bee thy Guides Would you learne faith and confidence in God thinke vpon your Predecessor Abraham the Father of the faithfull Desire you to leade a pure chaste life thinke vpon your Predecessor Joseph Would you meekly sustaine afflictions of minde and tormenting diseases of body thinke vpon your Predecessor Iob would you bee zealous in the cause of God and his Orthodox truth thinke vpon your Predecessor Elias The Wisemen of the East had but one Starre to guide them vnto our Sauiours cradle but we so many of our Predecessors as haue led holy and Regular liues so many Starres enlightning our way so many Loadstones to draw vs vnto goodnesse our Ancestors hauing runne their Race resigned the torches of their life and withall left vs the lampes and lights of their example 2. It is very good and wholsome for them also who spend their dayes in sinne and vanity to reflect their eye vpon theyr Predecessors Let the couetous ayming at wealth and doing no good with it thinke vpon his Predecessor Nabal who tenne dayes together lay as a block without sence motion or shew of life Let the Ambitious aspirer thinke vpon his Predecessor Absolon meeting with a tree in the forrest which heard not his fathers Caueat for his life but became the Reuenger of his ingratitude and the fatall instrument of his destruction Let the Lasciuious wanton wallowing in sensuall delights thinke of his Predecessor Zimri dying in the act of his sinne Let the Capacious Funnell able to do as much alone as Zerxes multitudinous Army dry vp an Hellespont thinke vpon his Predecessor Balthazar perishing in his carowsing Bowles Let the vayne-glorious boaster proud of what is not his own think of his predecessor worm-eaten Herode cut off in the midst of his glorious Harangue And let all true Repentant sinners thinke on theyr Predecessor Dauid whose bed swamme in teares and of the three sillables reconciling his angry God vnto him of his Predecessor Peter recouering more grace by weeping then hee lost by sinning of his Predecessor Mary Magdalen who became a Lebete Phiala of a Cauldron seething and boyling in lust a Christall viall of pure Chastity And let all disconsolate soules flying with Elias for shelten to the Iunipertree thinke of their Predecessor Jesus who dyed on the tree vnder his Crosse is the true shade Oh good and desirable is the shadow vnder thy wings Lord Jesus there is the safe Sanctuary to flye vnto the most comfortable refreshing of all sinne and sorrow whatsoeuer cups of affliction this life propines vnto vs is nothing to the bitter draughts hee dranke vpon the Crosse who inuites to heauen Let vs all thinke of our Predecessor treading the Paths of death before vs wee haue erred with our Fathers wee are Pilgrimes and strangers vpon earth as all our Fathers were wee must dye as our Fathers did For we are no better then our Fathers The third and last part is the prayer it selfe Tolle animam out of it there doe naturally flow these two Corallaries The first that life is no such Iewell but a good man may finde time and cause to bee weary of it or else Elias had neuer beene at tolle animam The second that there is a more blessed life after this life or else Elias could not haue bene so mad as prodigally to cast away his life present To the first Life may be considered two wayes First as God at first gaue it Secondly as wee now enioy it The life which God gaue had fiue prerogatiues two without man three within him without him God and his blessed Angels to protect him besides Paradise the pleasing seate of his Habitation Within him Knowledge Righteousnesse and Immortality his knowledge exceeding ours in three particulars First in amplitude and extent reaching to God the creatures and himselfe Secondly in the excellent manner not as we by coniecturall probability deriued from effects but by euident demonstration out of the causes Thirdly for duration or continuance ours is gotten with difficulty aud easily lost either by discontinued intermission and cessation or the braine and fancy may be distempered as in a Phrensy or the memory dulled as in a Lethargy Secondly man was created Righteous that Righteousnesse was the rectitude and integrity of the whole man whereby his soule was obedient vnto God his body to the soule This was the Crowne and Diadem of mans life Thou hast Crowned him with glory and worshippe adorned him with grace and holinesse An happy life was that wherein Methusalem liuing almost a thousand yeeres should not haue offended once whereas now the most righteous man fals seauen times that is often-times a day Lastly that was a kinde of Immortall life a thing is said to be incorruptible three wayes First in respect of the matter either which it hath not as the Angels are immortall those pure and immateriall substances or in respect of the matter which it hath as the Heauens the matter whereof they are made being insusceptible of any forme but one Secondly in regard of the forme so the body of Adam was immortall as the widdowes oyle lasted in the cruse without diminution so might his body haue endured without corruption and that by the third the efficient cause not by any inherent quality or disposition in the body but

Berill and the Hyacinth God his hands are full of blessings full of all goodnesse death it selfe which seemes to bee a priuation of God from his hand must needs be good from whom no euill can descend This may qualify his eschuing death by Jezabell but being past danger and out of his Persecutors reach what were the motiues to desire it now Jt is now enough The Expositors do vary finding not only seueral but contrary motiues some make it the euaporation of a discontented minde the weaknesse of a frayle man others attribute it to the deuotion of an holy man I will strike these seuerall flints each of them may afford a sparke to enlighten our text Chrysostome in his Rhetoricall way demands where is that spirit of Elias wher that terrible countenance that put Achab to silence where is that tongue the gouernesse of the Elements why sits he puling vnder a tree wooing death which will not come at his call Hee answeres by a similitude As a strong gale of wind filling the spread sayles of a ship hurries it from the intended port so a violent gust of feare rushing vpon the Prophet draue him into this sad melancholy Eucherius propounds it another way Whence came his potency to worke wonders whence his weaknesse to be weary ofhis life his power was from God weaknes was his owne God gaue him a parcell of his power marke I pray his bare word brought a drought vpon Palestine his prayer like a burning Feauer entred into the bowells of the earth and scorcht vp lakes Riuers Springs fountaines and left no moisture in them but being left a small while to himselfe all his courage is dryed vp to nothing From hence 2. lessons First that no prerogatiue of greatnes no profession of holynesse exempt men from common infirmities where is that Heretike Pelagius belching out this contagious poyson that a man may attayne such perfection as to bee free from all weaknesse and when hee prayes for forgiuenesse of sinne it is rather humiliter then veraciter Let him looke vpon Elias and bee confounded As the Curtezan Lais sayd Philosophers knockt at her gate as well as others so the best of men are ouertaken To goe no further then our patterne The seer is fallen blinde the guide hath lost his way the charmer is stung by the serpent the man of God becomes a man of passion fayling in the common Rules of ordinary goodnesse and wisdome for good and wise men may pray for better times then those they liue in but beare with patience all sinister and sad euents whereas our great Prophet whines and repines denoyd of hope that any alteration should better his condition because the would will not be guided by the Polestarre of his direction hee will stay no longer in it Oh lett the weakenesse of a Saint be our warning greene wood will warpe and shrinke if seasoned tymber hold not out and slender tressells must giue way when strong pillers bend vnder the burden Especially it behooueth vs which is the next poynt of instruction neuer to bee so deiected at the view of our fraylety as to forbeare our resorting to God in prayer St. Iames to encourage Christians to that holy duty brings in this very example Elias was a man subiect to the like passions as wee are Elias body was a clod of earth as ours is his minde obnoxious to the same perturbations yet he prayed so let vs for God is not the God of Elias onely but a God rich in mercy to all that call vpon him So I passe to the second motiue as the prayer proceedes from a Zealous deuotion Caietan his Glosse is that he was more affrayd of Gods honour then of his owne life and this is grownded vpon the reiterated Apology he makes vnto the Angell being in the wildernesse The children of Israel haue forsaken thy Couenant throwne downe thy Altar slayne thy Prophets I euen I am left alone and they seeke to take away my life By which it is probable his feare and care was cheefely for the honour of God least in the ouerthrow of his Person after so signall a victory and noble Conquest and triumph ouer Idolatry the Orthodoxe Religion might suffer some reproach or diminution Elias was the liuely patterne of Heroike Zeale Chrysostomes opinion is that soone after God tooke away Elias lest his Zeale should destroy this inferiour Globe he was so seuere against sinne that hee tooke no compassion of the sinners so the God of mercy least fire and stubble should dwell together he remoued him to the Company of blessed and holy spirits where he might see all good no euill St. Paul seemes to taxe Elias he doth it with a Notandum ye not what the Scripture saith of Elias that he made intercession to God agaynst Israel Good men pray for sinners not agaynst them Abraham prayed for the wicked Sodomites and doth Elias pray against the Idolatrous Jsraelits Ieremy prayed assiduously for his nation till hee was forbidden to pray any more and did Elias pray for the vexation of his country The Husbandman in the Parable entreateth his Master to spare the vnfruitefull tree doth Elias wish the destruction of men vndoubtedly holy men haue mercifull not cruell bowells when they call for punishments they are medicines not execrations but predictions either by outward afflictions to procure their conuersion or by death to intercept the progresse of sin or by some wholsome example to terrifie others from the like offence So Elias did and so he might pray against Jsrael And it is no maruell he praied agaynst them for he bends his Zeale agaynst himselfe rather then he would liue to see his God dishonoured hee is willing to resigne his pretious life This should bee the affection of all Gods Seruants to hold nothing so deare as the honour of theyr Master Let me parallell this story with another like it of St. Chrysostome Elias was persecuted by Iezabell a Queene Chrysostome by Eudoxia an Empresse both threatened with death The holy Father taking it into his meditations writing to his friend thus hee Resolues What if the angry Empresse banish mee my natiue soile and sweete country all the earth is the Lords and I shall be as neare to heauen any where as at Constantinople what if I bee throwne into the sea Ionah prayed in the whales belly say I shal bee sawne asunder the noble Prophett Esay vnderwent that condition What if my head bee taken from my shoulders Herodias heeles trip't off Iohn Baptists head what if I bee stoned to death Stephen the Proto-martyr passed to heauen through a showre of stones Suppose my Bishoppricke be taken away I will remember Job Naked came I out of my Mothers wombe and naked I will returne Memorable is that in Josephus when Titus had taken and sackt Jerusalem the Priests came beged their liues of him that mercifull Prince and Darling of mankind caused