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
A51172	A short essay of afflictions, or, Balme to comfort if not cure those that sinke or languish under present misfortunes, and are not prepared in these unsetled times to meet all events with constant and equall tempers written from one of His Majesties garrisons as a private advise to his onely sonne, and by him printed to satisfie the importuniry of some particular friends.	Monson, John, Sir, 1600-1683.	1647 (1647)	Wing M2464; ESTC R32108	35,191	138

ever takes them in the best sence is never severe nor positive in judging them by their outward condition in that the Corne is as much thrasht as the straw the Gold as much tryed though not wasted in the fire as the Drosse Nay many times much more for there may be a Rich Dives whose Cups over-flow with wine when poore Lazarus is glad to refresh himselfe with the common Element of water * Luke 16. a good tree may appeare withered blasted and dying with the violence of outward stormes or recoyling of the sap of Grace to the Root in some stronge temptation * Eccles 9.1 2. when the fruitlesse bay tree is green and flourishing so as with the wise man we may say none can judge of love or hatred by what is before him of no mans spirituall condition by his temporall in that all things sublunary come alike to all For it is not Gods dispensation of outward blessings but our use of them that makes the difference And though the shadow of his wings be a shelter * Ps 63.7 in the hot sun-shine of Persecution none but a David can then truly rejoyce in it and there finde comfort and refreshment Thirdly our charities are exercised by Afflictions when we teach as well by example as Precept in our cheerefull innocent and charitable undergoing them Thus Saint Paul propounds himselfe a paterne for us to transcribe 1 Cor. 4.6 that with those in the Revelations we might follow the Lambe wheresoever he goeth though not in equall paces yet in slow motions Joh. 14.4 who thus suffered to leave us an example and he that was the way sure best knew how to guide it that we might follow his patterne at least * Heb. 12.2 Jo. 14.6 if not commands for Regis ad exemplum the King is the great wheele in the State that carries the inferiour ones with him the examples of great men usually having a compulsary power in them even from a principle in nature Thus one Deere leads the whole heard one bird the flock one * Gal. 2.14 Peter a congregation And therefore we ought to carry the lanterne in the Poope to let the light of our Actions still shew the way we steere in the greatest stormes to recover a happy haven that other weather beaten Passengers may by it know how to ride out a Tempest and arrive the same port Thus a dead man sometimes makes a living Christian and propagates by suffering the blood of the Martyres being the generative seed of the Church Phoenix like one rising out of the urne and ashes of the other the effusion of one mans blood being as it were the transfusion of the same spirits into many or with Pythagoras one soule animating in a succession divers bodies ever gathering strength under pressures with the Camomile growing best when most trod on and with the Palme most spreading when oppressed with any waight Thus God defects and anatomizes some in them to read a Lecture to all and so truly makes our Crosses become a Crowne of rejoycing to others * 2 Thes 1.4.5 as the Apostle saith and our Afflictions but like the shaking of a ripe flower which by it sheds seeds from whence many more doe spring and grow till the hand of God doe pluck them to adorne his owne Garland with in heaven Fourtenthly Gods hand upon us cals for ours upon our selves humiliation as well as humility and not with the worme turne againe upon him that treads upon us but we must judge afflict our selves and be most forward in a holy revenge to crucifie those sins that most crucifie our Saviour and by their death to give life to the contrary vertues by our outward comportment shewing our inward affections and not onely beare when God layes it on but take up the Crosse to Crosse our selves when our sinnes or Gods threatned judgements cals for it not putting the evill day from us with joy and gladnesse eating of flesh and drinking of wine which is to be possessed with a strange devill if taken in excesse someties casting us into the water and sometimes into the fire when God cals us to weeping and mourning * Js 22.12.13 and baldnesse the true Emblems of Repentance not court our eyes with vaine objects suffering them to be burning glasses of lust to inflame the heart when they should be fountaines of teares to quench the inflamed wrath of God against us for our sins not feast to nourish when we should fast to mortifie sinne in us not ravish our senses with harmonious Musick when our sad consort should be made up of signes and grones the most melodious voyces for Gods quire though harsh and shrill in our eares not gratifie our Palates by plundering all the Elements of their luxurious dainties to furnish our Tables and with the ewe tree roote our selves in the graves and ruines of others when we should come neerest the invitation of Angels in their abstinence not rock our selves into a sleepe and lethargy of sin in Beds of Ivery but tame our rebell lusts by watching and holy vigilancy * Amos. 6. * Joel 2. Jsa 1 Jam. 4. * 1 Cor 11.32 For thus afflicting our selves with rods we shall avoyd Gods correcting us with scorpions and make our lowest descent here the ground of our Exaltation Like that of Christ who was therefore raised because he humbled himselfe to the greatest depth of Ignominy scorne and selfe abasement even all degrees of Punishment Paine shame and Death And the servant you know should not be above his Lord but as he was be made perfect through sufferings which made Solomon say * Eccl. 7. that the house of mourning is better then that of mirth for by the sadnesse of the countenance the heart is made better whereas unseasonable or immoderate pleasure like a surfet is ever the mother of some disease some grievous punishment And if we once come not only to please but pride our selves in them nay in our best graces even the correcting our selves in those excesses like a gangreene in a joynt it will corrupt the whole frame and cannot but ruine us that cast the Angels out of Paradise it selfe But if we cast our selves downe before God and like starres the higher they rise still lessen in our owne eyes he will raise us for like the best mines a Christian the deeper and lower he is in the earth in thoughts of mortality and mortification the richer it being the vallies not shelving hils that drink in and so become faire and fruitefull with the blessing from above Nay it is the bruised reed and smoaking flax that God studies to preserve * Mat. 12.20 when with Hugo Presumption robs us of our God and his protection envy of our neighbours and anger of our selves unlesse it be against our selves for then onely it turnes into selfe love Lastly and most properly God sends afflictions for the trial of

the only Olympus above the meteors and stormes of this world which for its inconstancy is in the Revelation Emblemd by a Sea and that of glasse for its frailty and brittlenesse in its forme circular and moving to shew the inconstancy of all things in it its matter fading vanishing and dying to teach us the perishablenesse and certaine mortality of all its beauties for as the Father is such are the Children all but empty glories nay man himselfe the Master peece of nature and comprehension of all other beings and perfections close bound up in a little volume if we looke into his materials the weaknesse and short continuance of the building we can account but as a vapour a shadow a bubble that soone vanisheth a walking peece of earth a well glazed pitcher soone broken a heap of ruine rather then a faire structure and in his greatest perfections a cipher or nothing In that honour is but a blaze or meteor many times made up of the basest matter a treasure without lock or key more in the power of another then the owner riches but Gold Gold but a well coloured peece of dirt which against nature rather then stay to make us happy will though a dull and heavy element take wings and flye away fame a hollow Eccho beauty a well glazed pitcher or fading flower friendship a dying happinesse joy but folly mirth a short madnesse all things in their longest continuance but a sound or flash of lightning that dyes as soone as borne a dim glasse darke resemblance or apparition of future happinesse for in the making of this goodly frame this out-building or suburbs of heaven as in a little note-booke God onely writ in short and illegible Characters drew in modell or little those everlasting inutterable ravishing glories that shall be revealed when the scene is to be opened the curtaine drawne the vaile of our soules our bodies done away even such as our cripled fancy our imped and pinnioned imaginations cannot soare to and therefore with a silent admiration a blindnesse occasioned by seeing the lustre of many suns at once let us expect to enter that immence infinite blessednesse by faith that cannot now enter into us into our finite capacities and begin our heaven in our holinesse the true way approach and gate to happinesse and from inward principles be constant in our outward sufferings for the name or cause of Jesus Act. 20. and so turne our enemies pitty at our pressures into wonder at our patience and our patience into an everlasting fruition of blessednesse and seale if Gods honour require it and our Countries good to that truth by our deaths we have made profession of in lives * Rev. 2.12 suffering all evill or punishment rather then commit any the least evill of sinne for such a temper of the soule when in the lowest center of misery will like fire to fewell turne all into it selfe into satisfaction if not complacency and with the wood in Exodus will convert these bitter waters into sweet and refreshing springs But if our weake faith doth not worke such miracles Exo. 15.25 let not our soules be vexed nor disquieted within us but trust in God as well for the resurrection of our joyes here as of our bodies hereafter who is the helpe of our countenance and our God * Psa 42.43 and having received presse mony past favours which are alwayes pledges of future mercies let us waite upon God fight unto death and not quit our colours for want of pay here but expect our triumphs hereafter when the enemy sinne and death are totally vanquished and in the meane time like Cloth in the fullers hand which must be thorowly whited and dressed to make up those robes of state the innocency of the Saints we must be for ever adorned with hereafter let us yeeld our selves to be trampled on and rinsed in severall waters many troubles still fearing that if the deluge of Affliction once begin to fall or abate a worse slime of sinne will cover the face of our earthly hearts and we for ever may stick fast in that mire without water to cleanse us if the fountaines opened to Iuda and Ierusalem for uncleanesse be stopt against us and then if the Baits of sinne delights of the world carry us along in those soft and boggy wayes and sinke us deeper how ever their entertainments are sweetned for the present with hony we shall ever finde the Bees sting in their taile their conclusion will be bitternesse and if our tendernesse shrinkes at the prickling of Afflictions here how shall we endure the wrack hereafter if not the sparkes of divine displeasure how the flames of hell fire for ever and ever Now to prevent this misery which is as immortal as the body the body as the soule the soule as God himselfe let us take lawfull pleasures here when God allowes them but not suffer them to take us yet sometimes please our selves in the want of pleasure it selfe * 1 Cor. 7.29.31 for what we sow in weakenesse shall rise in power * 1 Cor. 15. nay to Glory nay in Glory for as all Joyes here flow into the joyes of Heaven as rivers into the Sea so the faithfull Christian shall not loose his in death But his soule assoon as out of his body shall only goe from one Heaven to an other for the way to Heaven is Heaven so that as the Angels did not devest Heaven in coming to us good soules do invest Heaven in going to them the true joy that a Zacheus a soule in union with God and Christ apprehends here Joh 14.16 being that none can take from him For as one saith wittily crowd Heaven into a Map it s two Hemispheres are made up of joy and glory joy ushering in glory so that in the anguish of death agony of dissolution vision of horror nay sight of hell it selfe I shall see the face of God and all these will be but as Glasses that collect and reflect his ravishing rayes upon me adding joy to joy and glory to both and exchange for a great bubble blowne out with an easie breath for that childe and darling of time antiquity in blood for an empty aery title which is innobled onely by action and retaines nothing but the wax fit for any labell if wanting the stamp of true piety and worth for the hollow sound of fame a crowne that can never be lost for goodnesse and vertue will reflect a brave lustre upon the memory of a dead as well as upon the person of a living Saint a gallant eccho of praise when dead for his praising of God when living and though as one saith envy may sometimes mist the glasse of Reputation so that it shall not report a cleere light yet at the last judgement it will reverberate truly and we shall shine in a sphere all brightnesse and be known by a transparent light on every side what we were here what we are in heaven to the glory of God joy of the Saints shame and derision of of our enemies So great is the convictive Majesty of goodnesse in the beames of the setting sunne and though the highest perfection of the soule the most sublimed part of man here is full of imperfections blemishes and dying beauties which doe rather hide then shew the glory of a sanctified spirit or the true Image of God drawn in little there yet this way of taking God into us is our onely way of being taken into God and to make him our sheild and exceeding great reward Gen. 5. our defence here and Crowne hereafter when our Candles shall be put out in our earthen sockets our lofty blowne bladders empty themselves of breath and we sleepe in death a darke Gallery or shady walke onely leading betweene two lives the period and Omega of the earthly mans happinesse the Alpha and beginning of the Christians blessednesse the highest step to honour and birth day to eternity where we shall for ever injoy day without night satisfaction without satiety a tranquill happinesse in a happy tranquillity eternall blessednesse in a blessed eternity So be it Amen GEntle Reader though naturally men love the issue of their braines more then of their bodies in that they are many times longer lived more true and lasting records of the innobled soules they derive their pedigree from then the other yet the authour of this little worke chose rather to be forgotten then remembred by a peece that if examined by a cleer and open light will represent him with so many errours and ill drawn features to the world and designed it onely for himselfe and his but truly a civility to the law of friendship where desires are commands and the consideration of its usefulnesse in regard of the unhappy Harmony betweene its subject and these times made me first lend and now send it abroad and give it line beyond its authours intention though not liberty to goe but whether my hand directs for I have onely Printed a few Coppies to satisfie some private importunities and therefore if thou be one of that number its failings are now mine and thine and so intitle themselves to your forgivenesse which is the humble request of thine in all affection FINIS