Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	darkness_n	light_n	shadow_n	7,372	5	9.4624	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33300	Christian good-fellowship, or, Love and good works held forth in a sermon preached at Michael's Cornhill London before the gentlemen natives of Warwickshire at their feast November the 30, 1654 / by Samuell Clarke.	Clarke, Samuel, 1599-1682.	1655 (1655)	Wing C4505; ESTC R26025	19,446	26

poor by his sweet and attractive sermons he stirred up the hearts of others to relieve them The like we read of Saint Basil that in the time of a Famine he sold his Lands and all his other goods to relieve the poor and stirred up other rich Merchants by Scripture and sweet speeches to contribute to their necessities Thus having answered such objections as might lie in the way to obstruct and hinder your bounty and liberality at this your meeting I am come in the next place to give you some motives and arguments why you should take this present opportunity of provoking one another to good works for the publick benefit of our Country 1. Consider how much it may tend to the advancement of Gods glory when thanksgivings are returned by many unto God in your behalf The Italians boast that Italy is the Garden of the World and Tuscany the Garden of Italy How much trulier may I say that England is the Garden of the World For if Italy abounds with superfluities I am sure that England much more abounds with all manner of necessaries for the life of man It being a land as Palestine flowing with milk and hony which is the glory of all Lands and wherein God feeds us with the fat of the kidneies of Wheat Or if Italy abounds or exceeds us in temporalls I am sure England far exceeds in spiritualls being a Goshen whist the other is an Egypt A Land wherein through Gods infinite mercy we enjoy the light of the glorious Gospell of Jesus Christ whilst Italy sits in darknesse and in the region and shadow of death And as they call Tuscany the Garden of Italy I may call Warwickshire the Garden of England or England Epitomized in the Woodland and Fielden parts of it the one abounding with flourishing and fruitfull Pastures for Dairies the other with rich and fertill Arable Land for corn Yet this Garden in some places of it wants weeding and some tender Plants want nourishment and if God shall please to make you this day instrumentall for the promoting of either or both these works I may say with the Apostle Paul 2 Cor. 9. 12. The administration of this service will not onely supply the wants of the Saints but will be abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God in your behalf Give me leave therefore to bespeak you in the words of Cyprian Ne dormiat in Thesauris tuis quod Pauperi prodesse potest let not that sleep rust in thy Treasury which may be profitable to the poor And again Quod aliquando de necessitate amittendum est sponte pro Divina remuneratione distribuendum est That which a man must sometime necessarily part with Its wisdom for him to distribute it so that God may everlastingly reward him 2. Consider how exceeding advantagious your liberality in this kind wil be to your selves seeing hereby you make God your debtor Pro. 19. 17. He that gives to the poor lendeth to the Lord Yea Faeneratur Domino he lends upon Usury and the Lord binds himself to repay it and in that text gives him security under his owne hand for it That which he hath given will he repay him again The Hebrew word implies that he will do it fully and abundantly Mostly in this world but infallably in the world to come Quest But how doth the Lord use to repay such mercy and good works Answ. 1. With spirituall blessings Those that for conscience sake and in obedience unto God do such good works he will make them to abound in every grace Observe I beseech you what God by Solomon hath promised Pro. 11. 25. The liberall soul shall be made fat and he that watereth shall be watered also himself And what the Prophet Esay C. 58. 10 11. If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry and satisfiest the afflicted soul then shall thy light arise in obscurity and thy darknesse be as the noon day And the Lord shall guide thee continually and satisfie thy soul in drought and make fat thy bones And thou shall be like a watered Garden like a spring of water whose waters fail not And what by the Prophet David Psal. 112. 9. He hath dispersed he hath given to the poor his righteousnesse endureth for ever his horne shall be exalted with honor 2. With variety of Temporall blessings For God usually blesseth such 1. In their outward estate encreasing that Pro. 11. 24. There is that scattereth and yet encreaseth and there is that withholdeth more then is meet but it tendeth to poverty Bounty saith one is the most compendious way to plenty neither is getting but giving the best way to thrift For in works of mercy and charity our scattering is increasing no spending but a lending no laying out but a laying up Pro. 11. 24. The Emperor Tiberius the second being a valiant godly and liberall Prince the more bountifull that he was to the poor the more his riches encreased so that hee had such quantities of Gold Silver and pretious things as none of his Predecessors ever attained the like I suppose you are not strangers to that story of a certain godly and charitable Bishop of Millain who journeying with his servant was met by some poor people that begged an Almes of him The Bishop commanded his man to give them all that little mony that he had which was three Crowns But his servant thinking to be a better husband for his Master gave them but two Crowns reserving the third for their expences at night Soon after certain Noble men meeting the Bishop and knowing him to be a good man and liberall to the poor commanded two hundred Crowns to be delivered to the Bishops servant for his Masters use The man having received the mony ran with great joy and told his Master of it Ah said the Bishop what wrong hast thou done both to me and thy selfe Si enim tres dedisses trecent as accepisses If thou hadst given those three Crowns as I appointed thee thou shouldst have received three hundred As Melancthon relates the story And indeed such open-handed and openhearted Christians have more then once Gods word of promise for such an ample retribution Deut. 15. 7. If there be among you a poor man of any of thy brethren thou shalt not harden thy heart nor shut thy hand from thy poor brother ver. 8. but shalt open thine hand wide unto him ver. 10. Thou shalt surely give him and thy heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him because that for this thing the Lord thy God shall blesse thee in all thy works and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto And Psal. 41. 2. The Lord promiseth such a mercifull man that he shall be blssed upon the earth He shall not onely have the upper as before but the nether springs Hee shall be blessed with the dew of Heaven and with the fatnesse of the Earth And Psal. 112. 3. Wealth and riches shall be in