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
A95515	Vnum necessarium. Or, The doctrine and practice of repentance. Describing the necessities and measures of a strict, a holy, and a Christian life. And rescued from popular errors. / By Jer. Taylor D.D.	Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.; Lombart, Pierre, 1612-1682, engraver.	1655 (1655)	Wing T415; Thomason E1554_1; ESTC R203751	477,444	750

be pardoned so long as their vicious habit remains and they know that to overcome and mortifie a vicious habit is a work of time and great labour and if this be the measure of dying penitents as well as of living and healthful they will sink in judgement that have not time to do their duty But then why the Church of those ages and particularly S. Austin should hope and despair at the same time for them that is knew no ground of revelations upon which to fix any hope of pardon for them and yet should exhort them to Repentance which without hopes of pardon is to no purpose there is no sensible account to be given but this that for ought they knew God might do more then they knew and more then he had promised but whether he would or not they knew not but by that means they thought they fairly quit their hands of such persons 6. But after all this strict survey of answers if we be call'd to account for being so kinde it must be confess'd that things are spoken out of charity and pity more then of knowledge The case of these men is sad and deplorable and it is piety when things are come to that state and saddest event to shew mercy by searching all the corners of revelation for comfort that God may be as much glorified and the dying men assisted as much as may be I remember the Jews are reproved by some for repealing the last verse but one in the book of Isaiah and setting it after the last of all That being a verse of mercy this of sorrow and threatning as if they would be more merciful then God himself and thought it unfit to end so excellent a book with so sad a cursing Indeed Gods wayes are best and his measures the surest and therefore it is not good to promise where God hath not promised and to be kinde where he is angry and to be free of his pardon where he hath shut up and seal'd his treasures But if they that say God hath threatned all such sinners as dying penitents after wicked life are and yet that they must not despair are to be reproved as too kinde then they much more who confidently promise heaven at last It is indeed a compliance with humane misery that makes it fit to speak what hopeful things we can but if these hopes can easily be reproved I am sure the former severity cannot so easily be confuted That may this cannot 1. But now things being put into this constitution the inquiry into what manner of Repentance the dying penitent is oblig'd to will be of no great difficulty Qui dicit omnia nihil excipit He that is tied to all can be excus'd from none All that he can do is too little if God shall deal with him according to the conditions of the Gospel which are describ'd and therefore he must not inquire into measures but do all absolutely all that he can in that sad period Particularly 2. Let him examine his Conscience most curiously according as his time will permit and his other abilities because he ought to be sure that his intentions are so reall to God and to Religion that he hath already within him a resolution so strong a repentance so holy a sorrow so deep a hope so pure a charity so sublime that no temptation no time no health no interest could in any circumstance of things ever tempt him from God and prevail 3. Let him make a general confession of the sins of his whole life with all the circumstances of aggravation let him be mightily humbled and hugely ashamed and much in the accusation of himself and bitterly lament his folly and misery let him glorifie God and justifie him confessing that if he perishes it is but just if he does not it is a glorious an infinite mercy a mercy not yet revealed a mercy to be look'd for in the day of wonders the day of Judgement Let him accept his sickness and his death humbly at the hands of God and meekly pray that God would accept that for punishment and so consign his pardon for the rest through the bloud of Jesus Let him cry mightily unto God incessantly begging for pardon and then hope as much as he can even so much as may exalt the excellency of the Divine mercy but not too confidently lest he presume above what is written 4. Let the dying penitent make what amends he can possibly in the matter of real injuries and injustices that he is guilty of though it be to the ruine of his estate and that will go a great way in deprecation Let him ask forgiveness and offer forgiveness make peace transmit charity and provisions and piety to his relatives 5. Next to these it were very fitting that the dying penitent did use all the means he can to raise up his spirit and do internal actions of Religion with great fervour and excellency To love God highly to be ready to suffer whatsoever can come to pour out his complaints with great passion and great humility adding to these and the like great effusions of charity holy and prudent undertakings of severity and Religion in case he shall recover and if he can let him do some great thing something that does in one little body of action signifie great affections any heroical act any transportation of a holy zeal in his case does help to abbreviate the work of many years If these things be thus done it is all that can be done at that time and as well as it can be then done what the event of it will be God onely knows and we all shall know at the day of Judgement S. Aug. habetur de poen dist 7 In this case the Church can give the Sacrament but cannot give security Meditations and Prayers to be used in all the foregoing cases CAn the Ethiopian change his skin Jer. 13.23 or the Leopard his spots then may ye learn to do good that are accustomed to do evil This is thy lot the portion of thy measures Ver. 25. from me saith the Lord because thou hast forgotten me Give glory to the Lord your God before he cause darkness Ver. 16. and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains lest while you look for light he turn it into the shadow of death and make it gross darkness What wilt thou say when he shall punish Ver. 21. shall not sorrow take thee as a woman in travel And if thou say in thine heart Ver. 22. Wherefore came these things upon me for the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered and thy heels made bare I have seen thine adulteries and thy neighings Ver. 27. the lewdness of thy whoredoms and thine abominations Wo unto thee wilt thou not be made clean when shall it once be saith the Lord God Thus saith the Lord unto this people Jer. 14.10 Thus have they loved to wander they have not

contracted the habit of a sin especially of youthful sins unless the habit of vertue be oppos'd to the instance of his sin he cannot be safe nor penitent For while the temptation and fierce inclinations remain it cannot be a cure to this to doe acts of Charity he must doe acts of Chastity or else he will fall or continue in his uncleanness which in old persons will not be Here the sin still tempts by natural inclination and commands by the habit and therefore as there can be no Repentance while the affections remain so neither can there be safety as long as the habit hath a natural being The first begins with a moral revocation of the sin and the same hath also its progression perfection and security by the extinction of the inherent quality 4. Let the penitent seek to obstruct or divert the proper principles of evil habits for by the same by which they begin commonly by the same they are nursed up to their ugly bulke There are many of them that attend upon the Prince of Darkness and minister to the filthy production Evil examples Natural inclinations false propositions evil prejudices indulgence to our own infirmities and many more but especially a cohabitation with the temptation by which we fell and did enter into death and by which we use to fall * There are some men more in love with the temptation then with the sin and because this rushes against the Conscience rudely and they see death stand at the end of the progression therefore they onely love to stand upon Mount Ebal and view it They resolve they will not commit the sin they will not be overcome but they would fain be tempted If these men will but observe the contingencies of their own own state they shall finde that when they have set the house on fire they cannot prescribe its measures of burning * But there is a secret iniquity in it For he that loves to stand and stare upon the fire that burnt him formerly is pleas'd with the warmth and splendour and the temptation it self hath some little correspondencies to the appetite The man dares not fornicate but loves to look upon the beauties of a woman or sit with her at the wine till his heart is ready to drop asleep He will not enter into the house because it is infected with the plague but he loves to stand at the door and fain would enter if he durst It is impossible that any man should love to abide by a temptation for a good end There is some little sensuality in being tempted And the very consideration concerning it sometimes strikes the fancy too unluckily and pleases some faculty or other as much as the man dares admit * I doe not say that to be tempted is always criminal or in the neighbourhood of it but it is the best indication of our love to God for his sake to deny its importunity and to overcome it but that is onely when it is unavoidable and from without against our wils or at least besides our purposes * For in the declination of sin and overcoming temptation there can be but these two things by which we can signify our love to God 1. To stand in a temptation when we could not avoid it 2. And to run from it when we can This hath in it more of prudence and the other of force and spiritual strength and we can best signify the sense of our weakness and our carefulness by avoiding the occasions but then we declare the excellency of our purposes and pertinacious love to God when we serve him in hard battels when we are tempted as before but fall not now as we did then Indeed this is the greatest trial and when God suffers us so to be tried we are accepted if we stand in that day and in such circumstances But he that will choose that state and dwell near his danger loves not to be safe and either he is a vain person in the confidences of his own strength or else he loves that which is like a sin and comes as near it as he dare and very often the event of it is that at last he dies like a flie about a candle But he that hath fallen by such a neighbourhood and still continues the cause may as well hope to cure his feaver by full draughts of the new vintage as return to life upon that account * A vicious habit is maintain'd at an easie rate but not cur'd without a mighty labour and expence any thing can feed it but nothing can destroy it if there be any thing near it whereby it can be kept alive If therefore you will cure a vicious habit dwell far from danger and tempt not death with which you have been so long in love 5. A vicious habit never could have come to that state and period but by impunity If God had smitten the sinner graciously in the beginning of his evil journey it is likely that as Balaam did he also would have offered to goe back Now when God does not punish a sinner early though it hath in it more of danger and less of safety yet we may in some measure supply the want of Divine mercy smiting and hindring a sinner by considering that impunity is no mark of innocence but very often it is an indication of Gods extremest and final anger Therefore be sure ever to suspect a prosperous sin For of it self prosperity is a temptation and it is granted but to few persons to be prosperous and pious The poor and the despised the humble and necessitous he that daily needs God with a sharpness of apprehension that feeds upon necessity and lives in hardships that is never flatter'd and is never cheated out of vertue for bread those persons are likely to be wise and wary and if they be not nothing can make them so for he that is impatient in want is impotent in plenty for impatience is pride and he that is proud when he is poor if he were rich he would be intolerable and therefore it is easier to bear poverty temperately then riches Securo nihil est te Naevole pejus Epigr. l. 4. ep 84. eodem Sollicito nihil est Naevole te melius and Passienus said of Caligula Nemo fuit servus melior nemo Dominus deterior He was the best Servant and the worst Master that ever was Poverty is like a girdle about our loyns it binds hard but it is modest and useful But a heap of riches is a heap of temptations and few men will escape if it be alwayes in their hand what can be offered to their heart And therefore to be prosperous hath in it self enough of danger But when a sin is prosperous and unpunished there are left but few possibilities and arguments of resistance and therefore it will become or remain habitual respectively S. Paul taught us this secret that sins are properly made habitual upon the stock of impunity Rom.

be tied to any particular repentance relative to this sin the answer will not be difficult I remember a pretty device of Hierome of Florence a famous Preacher not long since who used this argument to prove the blessed Virgin Mary to be free from Original sin Because it is more likely if the blessed Virgin had been put to her choice she would rather have desired of God to have kept her free from venial actual sin then from Original Since therefore God hath granted her the greater and that she never sinn'd actually it is to be presum'd God did not deny to her the smaller favour and therefore she was free from Original Upon this many a pretty story hath been made and rare arguments fram'd and sierce contestations whether it be more agreeable to the piety and prudence of the Virgin Mother to desire immunity from Original sin that is deadly or from a venial actual sin that is not deadly This indeed is voluntary and the other is not but the other deprives us of grace and this does not God was more offended by that but we offend him more by this The dispute can never be ended upon their accounts but this Gordian knot I have now untied as Alexander did by destroying it and cutting it all in pieces But to return to the Question S. Austin was indeed a fierce Patron of this device and one of the chief inventers and finishers of it and his sense of it is declared in his Book De peccatorum medicinâ Cap. 3. homil 50. where he endevours largely to prove that all our life time we are bound to mourn for the inconveniences and evil consequents deriv'd from Original sin I dare say every man is sufficiently displeased that he is liable to sickness weariness displeasure melancholy sorrow folly imperfection and death dying with groans and horrid spasms and convulsions In what sense these are the effects of Adams sin and though of themselves natural yet also upon his account made penal I have already declar'd and need no more to dispute my purpose being onely to establish such truths as are in order to practice and a holy life to the duties of repentance and amendment But our share of Adams sin either being in us no sin at all or else not to be avoided or amended it cannot be the matter of repentance Neminem autem rectè it a loqui poenitere sese quòd natus sit aut poenitere quòd mortalis sit aut quòd ex offenso fortè vulnerató que corpore dolorem sentiat Li. 17. c. 1. said A. Gellius A man is not properly said to repent that he was born or that he shall die or that he feels pain when his leg is hurt he gives this reason Quando istiusmodi rerum nec consilium sit nostrum nec arbitrium As these are besides our choyce so they cannot fall into our deliberation and therefore as they cannot be chosen so neither refused and therefore not repented of for that supposes both that they were chosen once and now refused * As Adam was not bound to repent of the sins of all his posterity so neither are we tied to repent of his sins Neither did I ever see in any ancient Office or forms of prayer publick or private any prayer of humiliation prescrib'd for original sin They might deprecate the evil consequents but never confess themselves guilty of the formal sin Adde to this Original sin is remitted in Baptism by the consent of those Schools of learning who teach this article and therefore is not reserv'd for any other repentance and that which came without our own consent is also to be taken off without it That which came by the imputation of a sin may also be taken off by the imputation of righteousness that is as it came without sin so it must also goe away without trouble But yet because the Question may not render the practice insecure I adde these Rules by way of advice and caution §. 7. Advices relating to the matter of Original sin 1. IT is very requisite that we should understand the state of our own infirmity the weakness of the flesh the temptations and diversions of the spirit that by understanding our present state we may prevent the evils of carelesness and security * Our evils are the imperfections and sorrows inherent in or appendant to our bodies our souls our spirits * In our bodies we finde weakness and imperfection sometimes crookedness sometimes monstrosity filthiness and weariness infinite numbers of diseases and an uncertain cure great pain and restless night hunger and thirst daily necessities ridiculous gestures madness from passions distempers and disorders great labour to provide meat and drink and oftentimes a loathing when we have them if we use them they breed sicknesses if we use them not we die and there is such a certain healthlesness in many things to all and in all things to some men and at some times that to supply a need is to bring a danger and if we eat like beasts onely of one thing our souls are quickly weary if we eat variety we are sick and intemperate and our bodies are inlets to sin and a stage of temptation If we cherish them they undoe us if we doe not cherish them they die we suffer illusion in our dreams and absurd fancies when we are waking our life is soon done and yet very tedious it is too long and too short darkness and light are both troublesome and those things which are pleasant are often unwholsome wholesome Sweet smels make the head ake and those smels which are medicinal in some diseases are intolerable to the sense The pleasures of our body are bigger in expectation then in the possession and yet while they are expected they torment us with the delay and when they are enjoyed they are as if they were not they abuse us with their vanity and vex us with their volatile and fugitive nature Our pains are very frequent alone and very often mingled with pleasures to spoil them and he that feels one sharp pain feels not all the pleasures of the world if they were in his power to have them We live a precarious life begging help of every thing and needing the repairs of every day and being beholding to beasts and birds to plants and trees to dirt and stones to the very excrements of beasts and that which dogs and horses throw forth Our motion is slow and dull heavy and uneasy we cannot move but we are quickly tired and for every days labour we need a whole night to recruit our lost strengths we live like a lamp unless new materials be perpetually poured in we live no longer then a fly and our motion is not otherwise then a clock we must be pull'd up once or twice in twenty four hours and unless we be in the shadow of death for six or eight hours every night we shall be scarce in the shadows of life the other