Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A96071
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Divine meditations on acquaintance with God By E.W. Esquire.
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Waterhouse, Edward, 1619-1670.
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1653
(1653)
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Wing W1045; ESTC R230808
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35,949
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68
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the old world Sin the hearts ake thus in Saint Paul crying out Rom 7.24 Psal 39.1 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Sin the feets snare against which David cautions I said I wil take heed to my ways Sin the tongues temptation to speak unadvisedly Sin the Catholick Cross to all that are crucified with Christ and mystical members of him Sin the breach of Gods Law the grief of his Spirit the price of his Son the torment of his Combatant and the triumph of his Crowned ones Sin the Monster of Paradise for there it was plotted the first born of life for therein it is acted the plague of this world on whose Stage it is attyred and thence maturated Sin something of nothing a tumourous bubble of pestilent pride scorching Lust and empty vanity evaporating in nothing but the Lust of the flesh Lust of the eye and the Pride of life Sin an evil inward in the thought outward in the act upward against God whom it contemnes and downward against earth whom it burthens and all to gratifie him who is Prince of the Air and rules in the hearts of the Children of disobedience Sin against the Creation whom it disorders against Redemption which it frustrates against Sanctification which it defies against Preservation which it contradicts against Salvation which it abjures Sin against which as the greatest evil God protests to prevent which Angels watch to recal from which the Spirit sollicites to direct how to avoid which the word is positive against which to practise the holy men of all ages are presidents yea to expiate which the blood of Christ the Lamb of God was shed and his soul for it made an Offering What shall I say more against this which is so dishonourable to God and ought to be execrable to his people but in the words of Moses Cursed be he that continues not in all the words of the Law to do them that is who desires not to give sin the foil by a contrary and constant course of virtue according to the will of God in his Word and the assistance he hath from God in this Race to complete this resolution for without that we can do nothing Wel then to be helped from this evil is a mercy a consequent of Gods peace with the soul that is clear from the Prophet Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace or neerer the Original in peace peace whose heart is stayed on thee because hee trusteth in thee He. O holy soul that keepeth thee never slumbereth his eye is on thy feet to keep them He keepeth the feet of his Saints saith Hannah On thine eye to hinder thy lust on thy hand to prevent thy cruelty on thy tongue to suspend thine obscenity on thy whole man to keep thee from sin that it raign not in this mortal body of thine He was with Noah in the Ark to keep him from despair of out-living the Floud which drowned the world with Moses in the wilderness to preserve him from disbanding his rude multitude whom God designed for Canaan and inclining him to bear the petulancies of popularities rather then chuse the contents of a private retirement He was with David in his flights from Saul and fights with Philistims And kept him from desponding upon assurance of a Kingdom for his reward He was with Jeremy in the Dungeon and with Jonah in the Whales belly to sweeten straights to his and to make them more pure in their enlargements He was with Peters tongue converting thousands at a Sermon and making his pride do pennance where it offended yea weep out its own retraction He was with Paul by grace sufficient for him when he saw the messenger of Satan tempted him by abundant revelations to be lifted up above measure In the fire he is with his and in the water he is with his yea with you O holy souls he is alwayes to the end of the world With you O holy souls to keep you in all your wayes to secure you in all your dangers to resolve you in all your doubts to support you under all your sufferings and with you to deliver you out of them With you as a Sun to enlighten as a shelld to defend as an Anchor to rest on as a Pilot to guide you and as a Champion to overcome your feares With you to keep you in your Race that you faint not and with you to reward you with fulness of joy in his presence This is second to the former priviledge the peace of God keeps from Evil. 1. Satan 2. Sin The third Viol is not yet past but behind that is Sorrow and Sufferings those it also preserves against not that they dash not on us but that they overwhelm us not not that they come not nigh but that they come not over us to overcome us Christ in the Ship priviledgeth not from tossing but drowning I will not fear the ranting Seas if my rebuking Saviour whose voice those waves and winds obey be embarqued with me Mistake not O holy soules your Lesson it is the voice of your Beloved that sayes In the world yee shall have Tribulation Job 16. last the Cross is your Saviours Sheep-mark and those that are of his flock brook his Eare mark their ear must not refuse the Tryal Christs side had if that was pierced they must expect like measure and those that will not follow him in the Regeneration have little cause to conclude him theirs in his Kingdome What O man wilt thou with thy Saviour wear the Crown of Glory and refuse that other of Thornes with him Wilt thou be acclamated for a Co-heir a King and Priest with Christ and not be spit upon and derided with him here Wilt thou drink the new wine with him in his Kingdom and decline the Vinegar and Gall here given him Dost thou hope to be drawn up after him and not resolve here to tread the Wine-press of wrath to endure the contradiction of sinners with him If this thou lookest for thou art on thy wander far from thy Mark thou art of the rich young mans pack who would keep Christ and his Wealth too or no Christ Cresianus es non Christianus there is one thing necessary which thou needest Deny thyself take up the Cross and follow Christ to Mount Calvary before thou come to Mount Zion And O that this Meditation were but canon with many such Zelots as Julian was who grasp Power and worldly greatness with as eager tallons as Lions and Panthers do Lambs and Infants and think they never have enough till they have too much Mammon for Christ to cohabit with These are they that are Saints as Peter was a Penitent after many denyals and perjuries not Saints because penitent as was he whom a Cock wakened when these stop their eares against good counsel and harden their hearts against reproof yea hate him that reproveth in the Gate These are they who
love Christ when he is with those in Princes Courts cloathed in soft Rayment sat in Royal Apparel on the Throne when the people cry him up but when he is traduced when in the High Priests Hall when trampled upon then they are gone like Summer birds in Winter they are all for a Pompous Reign on earth before that more glorious Reign in Heaven and therefore they will secure themselves by might and main against all danger and diminution here Do these consider Christ had never been glorious but by sufferings nor the Church been victorious but by the red Cross How much of holy Writ do these men make Apocryphal while they entail external prosperity to Saintship and think none worthy to live but those who look upon the Cross as a curse servile supplicium What think they of those words of the Lord Jesus In the world yee Who my holy Apostles as pure Saints as any such none excepted nay to whom compared those are but as Jewish Sepulchers shall have affliction not be afflicted but have affliction in the Abstract there shall be a kind of connaturality betwixt you and affliction What judge they of Saint Pauls peremptory position All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shal suffer persecution What of Saint Peters prediction of fiery Tryals and Encouragements to prepare for them Nay what of our Saviours Benediction on those that suffer for Righteousness sake Are these Tales and Figments Are these Legends and Foysts Are these Lillies of his field not to be compared to the Solomons of their fancy in all his Royalty I trow there is no man so fond but sees self more set up then Christ in this Pageant for take away sufferings and where is Faith where Charity where Martyrdome nay where is or to what purpose that animative reference of the Holy Ghost displaying Christ glorious in witnessing a good confession before Pentius Pilate his Judg who could wash his hand and protest Christs innocency and yet durst not deliver him from the rage of the multitude No wonder they cry down Scripture and Fathers and Church Stories who cry up such wild excentrick worldly subtilties for Religion and own Christ with their mouthes as the Jewes did him on the Cross only the more to reproach him Well let these stray from the fold as wildly as they will it is thy part O holy foul to keep close to thy colours Voti tunc Curistianis crat pro Christi nomine gladio percuti S. Hieâ—on in vita Pauli Eremitae de Temp. Decii Christ looketh thou shouldst not only he ready to own but of need be to dyefor him thou must expect sorrows perhaps not such as with Spira will make thee despair turn thy back on Gon as Ephraim did in the day of Battel but such as may exercise thy Grace correct thine out-goings mind thee of thine end admonish thee of thy duty rouze thee to get thine Evidence ready to make thy Calling and Election sure and by a holy end prepare thee for a blessed Exchange The Promise is to be secure not exempt not that yee shall not to be assaulted but not be overcome not that ye shall not be chastned but that ye shall not be condemned not that evils shall not come neer you but that they shall not domineer over you not that ye shall not be buâ—fetted by Satan but that Divine Grace shal be sufficient for you The Peace of God gained by Acquaintance with him is no plea of prescription against trouble and evil but this it doth it modifies evil so that it comes not noxiously neer a godly man as it is evil so it s kept at distance as it is a Mark of Divine love as it is a voice to reclaim as it is commanded to be Gods Monitor to us so we must welcome it as did David It is good for me that I was afflicted and pray for it as preventive Physick that keeps us from Plethorick Distempers Many men may thank God for their crosses without which they had never come to Heaven there is a most notable Story in the Legend of a blind woman who besought Saint Bridget to give her sight the Saint so called at her intreaty Quo presentor sum mundo co absenâ—ior sum Christo did and when she had seen four dages she desired Saint Bridget that she would take away her sight again adding this for reason The more I see of the world the less am I conversant with Christ 4. Lastly The peace in Acquaintance with God will keep thee from thr Evil of Evils Death eternal God suffers not his to fall into that pit out of which there is no redemption His as they have no part in the sin of the Damned so shall they not partake in the torment of the Damned 'T is not Go ye Blessed but Go ye Cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Divel and his Angels And indeed this is the Mercy of Mercies this is one part of the Recompence of Vertue and Godly life that it shall not only have comfort in seeing God gloriously waving the Banner of love over it but becoming its Guard to Heaven and nullifying Satans attempts on it this is that in which the mercy of God shines as at noon tide and comfortably exalts its self above Justice as that which crowns God and renders him Beloved and admired of all that know him But perhaps O man thou art curious to know what this Death Eternal is This is a vanity and if thou beware not may be the vexation of thy spirit but if thou wouldest ken the scantling of it our blessed Lord hath defined it to be utter darkness Matth. 8.12 where is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth it is exile from God and judgment to the society of damned spirits for ever Death Eternal what is it not that is absolute tristicity it is a living death and a dying life it is the wages of sin the sentence of Justice the utmost period of Plagues a most exquisite misery a most Merciless Torment an Eternal Passion Eternal Death it is misery to the eye for it shall not see God it is a worm gnawing on the heart for it shall consider the evil it hath done for which is inflicted that evil it suffereth it is a vexation to the senses which to augment the tortures of their condition shal be renewed and made more sensible it is an excess which shall never have end but be eternally what it is and impossible to be what it is not Death Eternal it is the region of Blasphemy the Caldron of Nimrods Nero's Judasses those chambers of ruine into which they descend who desert God by sin and are deserted by God in just Judgment Death Eternal it is a gulfe without bottom a doom beyond ransome a fire that burnes and is never extinguished and a restless craver never satisfied What shall I say other then that of the Psalmist Remember this yee that frrget