Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	destroy_v	devil_n	power_n	8,762	5	5.0803	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36854	A sermon preached in the metropolitical Church of Canterbury, October 17, MDCLXXII, at the funeral of the Very Reverend Thomas Turner, D.D., dean of the same church by Peter du Moulin ...	Du Moulin, Peter, 1601-1684.	1672 (1672)	Wing D2567; ESTC R10909	12,567	32

thou in the midst of thine enemies Is not liberty a great gain to a slave and a prisoner To a man that served his lust his belly his money his revengeful mind and the Devil by them what a gain is it by serving God to become Master at home to feel in his breast instead of a storm of unruly passions the peace of God which passeth all understanding and to find to his great comfort that where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty What a great gain is it to be made rich in good works rich in God What a great gain is it for us to give those goods which we cannot keep and thereby to purchase goods which we cannot loose To sow upon earth that which we shall be sure to reap in heaven To put out our money to Gods bank who will repay it an hundred fold And how great a gain is the practice of godliness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Godliness is a great gain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with sufficiency A great gain which brings along sufficiency and contentment for so the text must be understood Of that many a good soul could say much by feeling experience For although the great gain of godliness be not for this world as the kingdom of Christ is not of it Yet Christ who is the Sovereign Lord of nature as well as King of the Church engageth his Royal word that all that serve him and sincerely seek his glory shall not need to say What shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithal shall we be clothed because their heavenly Father knoweth that they have need of all these things Mat. 6.33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you This is the Charter of Christs Disciples that they may confidently cast their cares upon him for he careth for them and so forsake all interesses to follow him But this is the least gain that we get by Christ in this life The great gain is the beginning of eternal life For the spiritual life in a godly mans breast is of one piece with life everlasting after the temporal is ended To have at hand the directions of his word the counsels of his Spirit the comforts of his love the joyes of his salvation To have a free access unto the throne of grace at all times To make one already in the quire of Angels and Saints singing with them Holy Holy Holy Lord God of hosts heaven and earth is full of the Majesty of his glory To be joyful in hope looking up unto Jesus the Author and finisher of our faith who went up through the rough way of the Cross to glory to make us a plain way to the same This is the gain that comes to us even in this life by having Christ Join to these the comforts that we relish in all conditions Is it prosperity the true Christian takes it as an effect of Gods promise which was made good to this reverend godly Divine that by humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honour and life Pro. 22.4 and that godliness is profitable for all things having the promises of this life and of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4.8 In every morsel he will relish how the Lord is gracious In his health in his wealth in his hopeful family he will ever look more to the giver than to the gift and adore him in whom he liveth and moveth and hath his being and his well being Is he in adversity He will say I know whom I have believed God hath a hand in all this Psal 39. I will be dumb and not open my mouth to murmur for thou O Lord hast done it My cross is my Saviours livery My humble conformity to his sufferings will end in a conformity to his glory if I may have the same mind which was also in Christ Jesus who humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name Now that gain which we have by Christ in this life is but a preparative to that grand and unmatchable gain in Christ which his true Disciples attain unto by death Christ is a gain unto them to die two ways by avoyding the sting and the terrours of death and by a passage unto an eternal life of holiness and glory The sting and terrour of approaching death is most tormenting to those that have taken no pains to make Christ the gain of their life What a cutting of their heart is it when they have fixt it upon the beloved world and they must be violently torn off from the world Linquenda tellus domus placens uxor And of all the wealth which they have heapt up with anxious care and wicked labour they see they carry nothing away but a winding sheet But the worst sting of death is that which they feel in their conscience when it sets before them the years spent in deboish the unrighteousness of their purchases their contempt of Gods word their slighting of his service their blasphemous and unclean conversation and upon that pronounceth unto them as Gods Officer the doom of divine justice which must be shortly executed upon them It is true many of those sinners in grain die senseless Yet before their death the sting of eternal death meets with their consciences even in the midst of their jollities And many sinners of a lower form feel it all their lives time To heal consciences of that sting was the great end of the Son of God's coming and dying in our flesh As you have it illustriously set forth Heb. 2.14 That Christ took part of flesh and blood that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil And deliver them who through fear of death are all their lives time subject unto bondage This is the great remedy against that mortal sting of death sent by the Father of mercies to poor sinners A never sading remedy when sinners have the grace to receive it with a sincere faith effectual in an humble repentance and a serious amendment For then the soul reconciled with God looks upon death with quite another eye then before and saith O death where is thy sting Rom. 7. O grave where is thy victory Death do not look grim upon me I know who hath overcome thee Conscience do not think to fright me I know whom I have believed I have committed my spirit assoiled with Christs blood into his victorious hands And I know he is both willing and powerful to defend it against all the principalities and powers of hell that are roaring about me to devour me After that deliverance from the sting and the terrour of death followeth the attainment of eternal life and death it self is the passage unto it There is that difference between

the death of the reconciled and that of the unreconciled sinner as was between the Butler's and the Baker's of Pharaoh going out of the same prison the one to the gallowes the other to enter into the joy of his Master Oh the blessed hope of a soul arrived even into the mouth of that haven of salvation Psal 118. saying with a holy impatience Open me the gates of righteousness I will go into them and praise the Lord This gate of the Lord into which the righteous shall enter Lord Jesu thou art gone in before unto thy Father and our Father and to thy God and our God Oh make good now thy promise that thou wilt come to us and take us to thee Joh. 14.18 that where thou art there we may be also Let me have once let me have now the final completing of my Christian happiness 17.24 and of my gain in Christ It was a gracious speech of St. Ambrose on his death-bed to his friends weeping about him Non sic vixi ut pudeat me inter vos vivere Sed nec timeo mori quia bonum habemus Dominum I did not so live as to be afraid to live among you Neither do I fear to die because we have a good Lord. So did our Reverend dear Dean speak after him but went beyond him in his alacrity and being on the wing for heaven knowing that when this earthly house of this tabernacle was dissolved 2 Cor. 6.1 he had a building of God a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens Therefore did he sigh and long and pant for that eternal house and in that house he now dwelleth beholding Gods face in righteousness My brethren I make no doubt but that every one that heareth me is desirous that Christ may be to him a gain to die so that when his soul departs out of his body it may be received by Christ and brought into his eternal habitations Who can blame you But then I must beseech you to take great heed of dis-joyning the parts of my text For be ye sure that Christ shall not be a gain unto you in your death if you neglect to make him a gain unto you in your life Piety saith St. Paul is a great gain Do you labour to make that great gain by Christ Do you study to follow him who left us an example that we should follow his steps Do you learn of him that he is meek and humble of heart that you may find rest unto your souls Do you learn of him not to seek your glory but that of him that sent him Do you go about doing good as he did Do you love your enemies Do you pray for those that persecute you as he did for those that crucified him I tell you if you do not endeavour to be conformable unto him and to be guided by his doctrine and example in your life you shall not find him a gain unto you in your death The spiritual life of the Christian in this world and his eternal life in the next world is but one life all the difference is in the growth in earth it is growing in heaven it is full grown O let us now to our power make Christ a gain to live so and no otherwise he shall be our gain to die and to live for ever with him after our death The nature of this text requiring an illustration of the doctrine by example Now God sends us here an example which makes a comment upon the text It is true St. Paul speaks here for himself Christ is a gain unto me both to live and to die But he spake it for all to speak after him that could And when I look upon the life and death of our reverend holy and now glorified friend I find that he might have been exactly true in saying Christ is a gain unto me both to live and to die In his tender years he began to dedicate himself unto Christ And though by the means which he was born to and by the goodness of his ex●●●●●ion he might have applied his studies to 〈…〉 lucrative condition then that of the M●●●●●●y by which not one in fifty thrives in 〈◊〉 ●orld yet Christs espectial servant he would 〈…〉 that holy Office And 〈◊〉 ●●uth is God had separated him from the womb for the Ministery giving him the ●●oice●●●●●owments for so high a calling 〈…〉 ●herished in him by his Tutor no 〈…〉 great and good man Archbishop 〈…〉 There is 〈…〉 of all the graces requisite for the Episcop●● and pastoral Office in those hierarchical Epistles to Tim●thy and Titus but may be exemplified in this excellent Divine For he was blameless the husband of one wife vigilant sober of good behaviour given to hospitality apt to teach not given to wine no striker not greedy of filthy lucre not a brawler not covetous one that ruled well his own house having his children in subjection with all gravity not self-willed not soon angry but patient just holy holding fast the faithful word as he had been taught able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers Compare the rule with his practice the pattern with his qualities and let envy and detraction find an unconformity between them if they can He was at his first entrance into Holy Orders a most practical useful preacher which few young men attain unto A famous man for the pulpit near fifty years agoe and kept up that high genius to the very last His first step was into the domestick service of that rising active Bishop Laud who took a singular affection to his great parts of nature grace and study and kept him long for his houshold Chaplain But that excellent Judge and encourager of meriting persons King Charles the First being extremely pleased with his extraordinary pious and powerful way of rational preaching after he had heard him twice or thrice at the Court never left solliciting the Bishop to find some setled preferment for him to enable him to attend upon his own person And upon these easie terms came all his preferments And here it is most observable how Christ was a gain unto him for prosperity For in his whole life of above fourescore years he never opened his mouth for preferment never either directly or indirectly importuned any man for any thing never had contest with any competitor for any of his dignities Christ his great and good Master whose glory he sought as his only gain brought him to his fair places without his seeking For this partage of cares he had made with him Lord I will take care of thy service do thou take care of my well being And truly as he was a rare example of an easie advancement so was he a rare example of casting all his cares upon God because God cared for him Among the prosperities wrought for him by the fatherly care of God I must put in the first rank his matching with a wife