Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A55005
|
Memorials of godliness & Christianity in three parts : with a brief account of the authors life / by Herbert Palmer.
|
Palmer, Herbert, 1601-1647.
|
1670
(1670)
|
Wing P240; ESTC R27526
|
31,188
|
143
|
do nothing without sin 69. He can do nothing against his will yet he doth what he would not 70. He wavers and doubts and yet obtains he is often tossed and shaken and yet like Mount Zion 71. He is a Serpent and a Dove a Lamb and a Lion a Reed and a Cedar 72. He is sometimes so troubled that he thinks nothing is true in Religion and yet if he did think so he could not be at all troubled 73. He thinks sometimes God hath no mercy for him and yet resolves to die in the pursuit of it 74. He believes like Abraham in hope and against hope though he can never answer Gods Logick yet with the woman of Canaan he hopes to prevail with the rhetorick of importunity 75. He wrestles with God and prevailes and though yielding himself unworthy the least blessing he enjoyes already yet Jacob-like will not let God go without a new blessing 76. He sometimes thinks himself to have no grace at all and yet how poor and afflicted soever he be besides he would not change conditions with the most prosperous upon earth that is a manifest worldling 77. He thinks sometimes the Ordinances of God do him no good at all and yet he would rather part with his life than be deprived of them 78. He was born dead and yet so as it had been murther to have taken his life away 79. When life was first put into him is commonly unknown and with some not untill they had learned to speak and were even grown up to the stature of a man and with others not till they were ready to drop into their graves for age 80. After he begins to live is ever dying and though he have an eternal life begun in him yet he makes account he hath a death to pass through 81. He counts self-murder a most hainous sin yet he is continually busied in crucifying his flesh and putting to death his earthly members 82. He believes that his soul and body shall be as full of glory as theirs that have more and not more full than theirs that have less 83. He lives invisibly to those that see him and those that know him best do but guesse at him yet they somitimes see further into him and judge more truly of him than himself doth 84. The world did sometimes count him a Saint when God counted him an hypocrite and after when the world branded him for an hypocrite God owned him for a Saint 85. In fine his death makes not an end of him his soul which was created for his body and is not to be perfected without his body is more happy when it is separated from it then it was all the while it was united to it and his body though torn in pieces burnt to ashes ground to pouder turned into rottenness shall be no loser His Advocate his Surety shall be his Judge his mortal part shall become immortal and what was sown in corruption shall be raised in incorruption and glory and his spiritual part though it had a beginning shall have no end and himself a finite creature shall be possessed of an infinite happiness Amen A Character of visible Godliness A Godly man is one who being not ignorant of the wayes and Doctrine of God lives not only without scandal but approves and practises the general Duties of Christianity and those that are special to his condition More particularly A godly man is one that loves the word in the power of it and at least despises it not in the plainness of it that comes to the World not to censure and cavil but to be taught and ruled that professes not to allow himself in any known sin but resolves and practises self-denyal so far as it is made plain to him that Christ denies his desires He is one that loves those that seem religious and conscionable untill they prove scandalous and be manifestly discovered for Hypocrites and then esteems never the worse of the Profession it self and of those others whom he knows no harm by He is unwilling to believe all of such and though he see them faulty doth not streight condemn them to be altogether void of sincerity Mean time he is so far from rejoycing at their miscarriages that even particular scandals are amongst his greatest griefs But especially he is afraid to give any ill example himself as knowing himself made and redeemed to no other end than that he should live to Gods glory Therefore also he professes and resolves to do what good he can in his place and particularly to have his family know and fear God and believe in Christ He is one that accounts sin worse than shame or loss or any other misery and resolves to suffer rather than offend He esteems Godliness the greatest gain and contentment a necessary piece of godliness and that honour pleasure wealth to be sufficient to contentment which casts upon him while he first seeks his Kingdom and Righteousness And lastly who hath so much wisdome as to take more thought how to redeem time than to pass it away having somewhat setledly to do besides following his pleasures which he uses as his recreation and makes not his business Generall Considerations to excite to Watchfulness and to shake of spiritual drousiness 1. THe glorious and dreadfull Majesty of God with whom at all times we have to do who is a consuming fire and therefore his service and obedience to him is not to be slighted but to be performed with watchfulness reverence and godly fear 2. Our sins in number exceeding the hairs of our heads in weight the measure of the sand The vileness of sin generally and the unreasonable odiousness of ones own sins in many respects worse than any others we know 3. The fearful curses and punishments due to sin to our sins on earth and torments inconceivable and eternal in hell 4. The abominableness of sin demonstrated specially in that nothing could expiate it but the bloud and death of Christ not only man but God 5. The infinite love of God and Christ to sinful mankind in those sufferings of Christ for sin 6. The certainty of damnation still to those that carelesly despise or willfully abuse the grace of Christ to carnall security or willing customary sin 7. The manifest expressions of Scripture that multitudes even of those that live within the visible Church shall yet go to Hell 8. The Devils unwearied malice violence cunning going up and down like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour unto whom they that watch not must needs become a prey 9. The prodigious and desperate corruption that is in every ones heart ready to betray us even to the basest lust and most horrid wickedness 10. The fearfull frights of Conscience that God may awaken us withall out of our drowsie dreams 11. The sharp and stinging scourges even in worldly respects wherewith God may rouse us out of our carnal security and must and will with one or other if
Commandments and live and my Law as the apple of thine eye Which sentence by Gods blessing hath occasioned this whole Meditation whatever it is The Apple of the Eye is the tenderest thing in the World of Naturall things the Law of God no less infinitely more in Spirittuals As I therefore like not the word infinite but when we speak of God so those forenamed phrases seem to be Gods peculiar and that one main cause why common men so readily say They love God with all their heart I mean why they so easily deceive themselves in so saying is because they have adulterated the phrase with all my heart and prostituted to every base trifle Say if it be not so And then as Saint James blames for not saying If the Lord will c. though every one will grant such words necessary and pretended to suppose them so is it not blame-worthy to say in petty matters what should make a sacred sound in our ears and to our spirits 6. I wish I could loose my self in a holy trance of meditation every time I think of God and Christ as the Author Fountain Life Substance of all my happiness All-sufficient alone sufficient only-sufficient for my soul and all comfort and good Nothing wanting in God and Christ to Eternity No need of any creature No accession by any creature no one creature not all of them comparable to him or any thing without him Time lost happiness lost while converse with any creature further than according to his Ordinance as his instruments and servants 7. I wish I could forget all respcts to my self carnal natural while I have any service to perform to God as I have every moment though I cannot ever think so that I might shew I love God with strength My God with all my strength and never be weary of his immediate services especially or if naturally yet not spiritually Lusts are vigorous when the body languishes being spent Oh why is not grace more strong 8. I wish my heart may never recoil upon me with saying Thou mightest now or such a time have done thy God thy Saviour more service than thou didst even when thou didst somewhat thy body and spirits would have held out longer time and endured a geater stress of zeal And much less Thou didst wholly lose such an opportunity of doing or receiving good though scarce can any one do good who receives not some present payment at least in soul the enlargement of Grace and holy affections and least of all Thou didst wholly employ thy strength to sin or thou hast weakned thy strength by intemperance or any other foolish or sinfull practice 9. I wish that every day among my first thoughts one may be What special business have I within doors within my soul What sin to mortifie Whether lately raging and even but last day or night prevailing over me Or which I have had at least some late victories over that I may allot time to pursue it and by no means forget it in my paryer and arm my self against the encounter if there be any possibility of my being assaulted that day And what grace to strengthen wherein I have been exceeding feeble of late or even begun to obtain some vigour which it may easily be lost and will be if not with all care and means and prayers fomented and cherished that so I may prepare for it These are a Christians main businesses within himself alwayes Withall I wish to die dayly I mean not that I dayly wish for death but that I may foresee it more than possible and may prepare for it resolvedly contentedly that I may look at it as at a means of happiness and take such order as it may not cut me off from any main necessary imployment But each hour and minute to dispatch the substantials of my business and referre circumstances and event to the All-wise Powerfull and gracious Providence of the great Ruler and King of the whole world and of every creature 11. I wish to improve every relation I stand in towards any of mankind to the advancement of Religion that Glory may redound to Christ by my being a child to one a brother to another a neighbour to a third a kinsman a freind an acquaintance to any one That as well for the credit of Religion which commands to give to all their due honour and to love them as my self as for the Propagation of Religion I may be ambitious to approve my self the best Child or Subjâ—ct or Friend c. in the world I and careful also to insinuate my self as much as may be into the favour of every one I converse withall in the world of Superiours by submission and diligence of Equals by courtesie and fredom of Inferiours by affibility mixt with gravity and gentleness with necessary strictness And that I may not fail to entitle God to whatever ground I gain upon the affections of any that is to engage them thereby the more forwardly in his service in their own persons and towards all others and that I my self also may reap some spiritual benefit by them that so I may bless God for them and they him for me and others for them and me together 12. Particularly I wish that toward Inferiours I may never put lesse but rather more weight upon Gods Comandements than mine own and upon religious than civil observances and that because the best are not Angels I may bear with more patience failings in meer worldly than spiritual matters 13. I wish never to be one of those that feed themselves without fear but that whether I eat or drink I may do all to the glory of my God that is Seasonably Sparingly and with Choice for Health and Strength Not Gluttony Drunkenness or Riotous Curiosity That I may daily remember my business not to be to live to eat but eat to live that I may follow my business that is Christianity that I may not forget how slippery a place the throat is and how easily that glides down which after works disease that because the craving of the sensual appetite seeming but reasonable being but for ones self is of the betraying of Reason it self besides the quelling of Grace both Grace and Reason may combine together in the practise of this difficultest piece of self-denyal And that I may ever consider not only what a shame what an unthankfulnesse it is in the least degree to disable my self for the service of Him who allowes me liberally so much as can be fit for me how-much soever that be but also what pity to wast good Creatures to so vile a purpose as to weaken my body or overcharge my spirits with what was meant to strengthen and quicken them That from the observation of the untowardnesse of my mind when it is in the best temper I may tremble at the thoughts of the least intemperance which if it fetter not my body so as it cannot do its duty will at least hamper