Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	day_n	judgement_n	life_n	5,825	5	4.4491	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54719	The holy choice, or, Faith's triumph over all worldly pomp & glory a sermon preached in St. Maries in Scilly, Oct. 14, 1677 / by Nich. Phillips, twice chaplain to His Majesties garrison there ; and tendred at the council-table, Jan. 23, 1679.	Phillips, Nicholas.	1679 (1679)	Wing P2035A_VARIANT; ESTC R36675	17,484	30

and that there is Sca●… a man to be found in those bright Sun shine Days of the Gospel that is able to give such an evident Demonstration of his Faith as Moses did here under the Law In thusing tother c. Though we talk much in this Age of Faith of Faith and of our Dependance on Future good things yet t is on Sight on Sight and in the Enjoyment of the good things that are present that all 〈◊〉 Felicity is Plac'd and rather then we will suffer a light and Momentary Affliction here to be made partakets of an exceeding weight of Glory hereafter we will chuse rather on the Wing of a Short-liv'd Pleasure and Pro●● to be carried into the Infernal Pit of Everlasting Torments And though we boast much of the goodness of our fight and opened eyes yet that we are blind and cannot see a far of even beyond this present World we plainly manifest by our Loathness to part with our Earthly Goods and Possessions for the gaining of a Heavenly Crown and Kingdom So far are we from manifesting our Faith as did Moses by Choosing rather c. that we esteem no man to be a Child of God that is Afflicted and Persecuted We usually measure mens goodness now a days by their greatness their Saintship by their success and faithlesly think that God loves none but such as he suffers to flourish here in all Worldly wealth and felicity Surely did we believe the Holy Scriptures which for the main are nothing else but a History of the Churches Persecution but a Martyrology of the Saints Sufferings And had we hope as we profess to be Saved by a Poor Despised Mocked Scorned Scourged Crucified Saviour We would encertain a more Honourable Esteem of the Cross a Nobler Opinion of those whom he is pleased so far to Honour as to make them his fellow Sufferers and would not with those Barbarians Acts 27.4 Condemn all those for wicked Men on whose hands we see the Viper of danger to fasten Did we believe indeed that there is another World and were throughly perswaded that after the Dissolution of our Earthly Tabernacles there is a House not made with hands prepared for us in Heaven we would not by balking the Cross by complying with the Times humouring of Men and making our Religion a State one seek to prolong our Life and Liberty here on Earth but would be ready with St. Paul to run through Persecution of all sorts yea to die daily in expectation of that great Reward which is promised Matth. 5.10 to all that suffer for Righteousness save and would esteem the Reproaches and Scorns that are cast on us for Christs sake and his Gospel the greatest Honour that can be done us Did we make Gods Word our dayly study read and remember how it is written there That Gods People the Jews were after a long and hard Servitude in Egypt set at Liberty and brought into the Promised Land and how Pharaoh and his Jovial Courtiers that afflicted and kept them in Bondage were all either consumed by those heavy Plagues which God sout on their Nation or drown'd in the Red Sea we would wish rather with poor naked and pained Lazarus to be carried into Aaraham's Bosom than with rich dainty and delicate Dives to be cast into Hell-Fire yea would chuse with Moses rather c. Were we indeed true believing Christians we would not only rejoyce in hope of the Glory of God but would also with our brave Leaders the Blessed Apostles glory in our Tribulatious esteem our Sufferings for Christ's Cause to be the very Marks of the Lord Jesus as termed Gal. 6.17 our Persecutions for Righteousness sake the Earnest of the Heavenly Crown and Kingdom Matth. 5.10 our Chastisements for our Sins to be the very tokens of our Heavenly Fathers Love and Affection towards us Heb. 12.6 Though he be esteemed a happy man unto whom God gives Riches and Honour and gives him also power to eat thereof and Comfortably to Enjoy them yet he is indeed a happy man unto whom God gives Trouble and Afflictions and gives them withall Grace to make good use of them and to improve them to his Spiritual advantage And what ever men think of worldly felicity there is assuredly no Life so profitable as that which is a little sprinkled with the Salt of Crosses and though Egypt and the House of Bondage be no place for Gods Israel to dwell in and inhabit yet will the serving of an hard Apprenticeship here make them more highly to prize and esteem the promised Canaan I know not what cause others may have to hate and hurt their Task-masters and Oppressors but I find that I have great cause to love and pray for them yea in in some sort to prefer them before my Friends My Friends oft entice me out of the Heavenly Rode into the slippery path of Pleasure but mine Enemies Persecutors and Slanderers make me careful to keep the right way to Heaven and to take heed that I suffer not my feet to turn either to the right hand or the left from the Path of Gods Holy Commands for if I do I shall be sure to hear of it from them Though to flow in wordly wealth to be pointed at with the finger and to be croucht to by every one be an estate which flesh rebellious flesh would sometimes make me ambitious of yet when in my Mid-Night thoughts and secret retirements I seriously consider the deadly poison that lies in the honied Cup of Prosperitie and the wholsom healthful Potion that is contained in the aloed one of Adversity it makes me earnestly beseech God rather to give me a bitter Pill and to purge me with Hysop that I may clean than to give me a sugred Potion and to suffer me to roull in all wordly Felicity till with Jesurun I grow wanton and kick against him humbly to beg of him rather to restrain and keep me from future presumptions and sins by his gentle Chastisements and Corrections than to let me run headlong into all licentiousness by his seeming sweet but cruel Indulgence yea it makes me wish rather with poor naked and pained Lazarus to be carried into Abraham's Bosom than the rich dainty and delicate Dives to be cast into Hell-Torments and makes me to chuse rather with the faithful Moses to suffer affliction c. Credit me my Beloved Brethren the Love and Favour of God is infinitely better than the love and favour of the world and the Joys of Heaven are as far above those of Earth in worth as they are in height And all truly faithful Men such as have their eyes enlightned to see things afar off have esteemed it much better to be chastned of the Lord here and spared hereafter than spared here and reserved unto the day of Judgment to be punished hereafter halt and maimed to enter into Life than whole and sound to be cast into Hell To swim through a boiling River of Brimstone to be eternally happy than to dwell in a Paradise now and after death to be damned It was the Prayer of St. August Lord here cut massacre and burn me so thou wilt hereafter spare and save me And it was the Opinion of our late Glorious Kingly Martyr Ch. I. That our afflictions were infinitely better with Gods Grace to sanctifie and improve them than our prosperity with an unlimited appetite and the Reins let loose to all Licentiousness And it was the choice of the faithful Moses here rather to suffer affliction with the People of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season amongst the vicious Egyptians And thus to do like true Sons of Faith whenever occasion shall be offered us God give us his Grace and to him be all Glory now and for ever Amen HALLELVJAH FINIS

after a three months Seige begins to faint and craves for a Parly And thus Reason begins to shake the Fort of his Resolution and to perswade him to yield Further O Amram to defer the Execution of the Kings Command the killing of thy Son will but increase thy fear and prolong his misery The searching Eye of the Kings Inquisitors or the tatling Tongue of a false Friend or treacher ous Servant will shortly discover him and then with his thou wilt hazard thine own life also at least wilt loose that which most men count the life of their life thy Goods and Estate and have them Confiscated Better then to put an end unto his miseries and thine own fears by his speedy Death then to prolong both by a concealed and little better than dead Life Thus Reason assaults and with such good success that Faith is fain to retreat and leave the Field And Amram notwithstanding his first brave defence is resolved to yield and no longer to conceal his Son But though Amram's Faith hath left the Field yet she hath a small Citadel in his Heart which she still straitly maintains and though Amram be resolved no longer to conceal his Son yet he will not so speedily kill him as Reason perswades His Faith had still so much life left as to assure him that the Child had another Father who had a larger share in him than he had and was able to do more for him than he could And councels him since he distrusts his own Power as too weak to preserve him to cast him wholly upon Gods Care and Providence Thus Reason notwithstanding his first good success is forced again to retire and Amram is resolved to deliver his Son from out of his own Hands into Gods His curious and Gold-enameld Cradle he changeth into a rushy and dirt-dawbed Ark. And Moses is cast out from his Natural Fathers House and his perfum'd upper Chamber into the great Lower-House of his Spiritual Father and laid among the Flags by the River In the History indeed of which Moses himself was the Penman the contriving and executing of the means for his persecution are wholly ascribed unto his Mother and there is no mention at all made of his Father But though his Mother appeared Chief in the Execution yet his Father doubtless sate President of the Council and chiefly contrived the means for his preservation In perilous times wherein Tyrants make their Will their Law and it is no less than a mans Life and Liberty is worth to cross their Decrees Women as being less to be feared take more liberty to act in publick than men dare do Though his Mother Jochebed then appeared most in the execution of the means for her Sons preservation yet Amram was not wanting in contributing his utmost endeavours thereunto I am sure the Apostle hath made them joynt partners in their Sons preservation and tells us v. 23. that he was preserved by the Faith of his Parents By Faith Moses c. To Amram therefore as the Head and Chief since he is now past the fear of Pharaoh's Anger do I ascribe the using of the means for Moses preservation But doth not Amram's Faith in placing his Son among the Flags by the River seem to be quite vanquish'd and overcome What Could he deliver his Son into the Hands of a more cruel Executioner than Water And could he expect any pitty from so merciless an Element His Faith I confess was now fallen into a deep Swoon but yet it was not quite gone The Pitch and Slime wherewith he dawbed over the Bulrush Ark wherein he put his Son to fence it against the taking in off watter and that little Girle which sits yonder so sadly under a bush to watch what would became of him plainly testifies that his Faith was not quite Dead and that he had still some small hope left that his Heavenly Father would see to and provide for him And loe God who never fails to provide for such Children as are by faithful Parents cast wholly upon his Care and Providence and who taketh them up faith David when their Fathers and Mothers forsake them takes up this simple Soul from out of the dust and lifteth up this poor wretched Infant out of the mire and sets him among the Princes even among the Princes of Zoan For whilst Moses lay thus forlorn in his Ark of Bulrushes squaling among the Flags by the River Pharaoh's Daughter attended by her Maids of Honour comes down to wash herself in the River and espying this Ark among the Flags she sends for it and having opened it she was by the Tears of the sweet Babe that lay in it moved to tender Compassion towards it and gave Order to have it tenderly Nursed called him from the Place out of which she drew him Moses and afterwards adopts him for her own Son Thus Moses hath changed his poor enslaved Parents for a Noble Princely Dame his Thatch'd Cottage for a stately Palace and instead of being brought up as the Hebrews were enforced to bring up their Children in hard and servile Labour he is Princely educated and instructed saith St. Stephen in all the Wisdom and Learning of the Aegyptians Acts 7.22 But though Moses be now Heir to a Crown the Sun unto whom the Egyptians pay the tribute of their Adorations and Devotions yet before I present him with my humble Duty and Service he must give me leave to pay it first where it is most justly due and to fall down and adore the incomprehensible Wisdom and Power of that God who so frustrateth and fools all the Designs of worldly wise Politicians that he causeth the very same Means which they propose to themselves as the surest and safest way to bring to pass their desired Ends to be the very Instruments of their Destruction and Ruine and brings his determinate Councils and Purposes to pass not only against their minds but even by the very Means of those that are his greatest Enemies and Opposers What surer Plot could the Devil with his Jewish Consistory of Priests and Elders contrive for the keeping of Jesus from being King of the Jews than to accuse him of Treason against Caesar and to deliver him up into the hands of Pintius Pilate the Roman Governor of Judea And yet this very Plot of theirs doth God by his all-working and all-ruling Providence convert unto Christ's greater Glory and caused his Dominion thereby to extend not only over the whole Region of Judea but over all the Kingdoms of the World and to have the Heathen given him for his Inheritance and the ●ttermost Parts of the Earth for his Possession What better course could Joseph's Brethren have pitch'd on for the preventing of their foretold Homage unto him than to make a Slave of him and to sell him to the Ishmaelites And yet this enslaving of their Brother doth God by a strange kind of Providence convert to his Honour and their Shame brings him hereby