Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	die_v	good_a	life_n	16,696	5	4.8534	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A15580	The saints aduantage or The welfare of the faithfull, in the worst times A sermon, preached at the Hage the 18. of May, 1623. before the most high, and mighty princesse, Elizabeth, by the grace of God, Queene of Bohemia, Countesse Palatine of the Rhene, &c. By Iohn Wing, an vnworthy minister of the gospel and pastor to the English Church at Flishing in Zealand.	Wing, John, of Flushing, Zealand.	1623 (1623)	STC 25847; ESTC S120119	54,386	92

devoure Herod in all his pompe magnificence and royallty the Angell of God guards Peter in restraint and bring 's him out miraculously and joyfully and this is left recorded of God to comfort vs inasmuch as nothing is more against nature then to be caged vp and kept in that we might know that our God can make that restraint more happy to his then another mans enlargement can be to him The byrd it is kept in a cage is safe and well provided for of all things meete to make him sing but the vulture and kyte often prey vpon those that fly in the open firmament of heaven Nay say it come to captivity Captivity which is a strayne of extraordinary restraint put case Gods childe be taken captiue and kept in slavery and that Gods enemy be the party in authority to detayne him there and to tyrannize over him in a strange land I make no question but the captivity of Gods people shal be found to be a condition more truly comfortable thē another mans eminency yea soveraignity though he were the King of that countrey wherein they are kept in bondage Daniell and Nebuchadnezzar shall decide it the one viz Daniell was the captive the other was the King let any man say who hath considered what is sayd of them both which of the two he would chuse to be Surely if the odd's had not beene extraordinary in the comparison and proportion of these estates Moses had made no good match in leaving to be a Courtier to become a Captive but he well knew that the meanest and most oppressed Israelite in Egypt was more happy then that mighty Monarch that kept them vnder Soveraignity in a Pagan is not comporable to slavery in a Christian Let God giue sentence by his revealed word and it wil be apparant to be a truth vndeniable and vndoubted A throne and a crowne cannot be so good to another as a cottage yea a dunghill to those that are the Lords Againe Persecution is not our persecution better then their pleasure and are not our very distresses beyond their delights I thinke the three children in the fiery fornace will soone satisfy vs for that Dan. 3. for they were in more comfortable plight in the midst of these feircest flames thē he was who cast them in and that the tyrant himself is forced to confesse also maketh decrees to confirme the same vnto others that out of his mouth all men may know the power and favour of the Lord to his owne in sweetening their extreamest bitternes and his wrath and vengeance against all vngodly ones in envenoming and poysoning their greatest sweetnes God hath many precious comforts for the persecuted but nothing but curses and plagues for persecutors The very infamy and reproach of such as suffer for the truth doth surpasse the honour and reputation of those that cast contempt vpon them for the Lord doth renowne the one and renounce the other Men fawne vpon mighty tyrants with glorious titles but God doth frowne vpon them as base and ignominious persons How many pages of his sacred booke are perfumed with the odour of their sweete names who haue beene disgraced for God and how many stories doe record the rotten and stincking memory of their oppressors the one goe for glorious martyrs the other for egregious and defamed malefactors And this made some who mockt the Apostles at the first Act. 2. when they had afterward better bethought themselues they left mocking and became disciples they gaue over reproaching and fell to professing the gospell and they had no reason thus to doe had they not knowne that it had beene more excellent to haue beene an infamous Christian then an honorable infidell But passing over all these and supposing the worst that can come Heb. 12.4 if the worst doe come to the worst if men must resist to blood and that Death must end all the foresayd afflictions of poverty jmprisonement captivity persecution infamy and whatsoever can be endured in this life Is not our Death better then their life yea God hath sayd it as it may appeare in that which he hath enforced from the mouth of a most wicked man to witnes it What say you to Balaams wish and that vpon his best thoughts when he had but the taste and seene as yet but the glympse of the happines and glory of Gods people even Balaam who came of purpose to curse and maligne them and therefore vnto him it may well be thought the life of Gods people was as bad as a death and worthy of his vtmost excecration yet noe sooner had God shyned a litle vpon him only with some litle light without all life of this truth but the man is more in loue with the death of the righteous then with his owne life and would gladly cease to liue as he did to dye as they doe his wish shewe's enough to make this good with advantage how earnestly doth he vtter it Num. 23 10. Let my soule dye the death of the Righteous let my last end be like vnto his and no man in common sence can wish any thing but that which either is indeede or in his apprehension for his owne welfare Moreover how many singuler respects are there wherein the death of Gods childe is to be preferred to the life of a wicked man Our death is precious Psa 116.15 Psa 15.4 Phi. 1.23 2 Pet. 2.10 1 Cor. 15. Their life is vile Our death desiderable Their life abhominable Thus in the last enemy which is death we overgoe the vngodly and are or ought to be soe farre from changing liues with them that we will not giue our death which is the worst that can befall vs in this world for their life which is the only darling they desire beyond all other to enjoy vpon the earth And soe we haue seene in all these particulers severally how the odd's is ours in all respects there 's more to be got by our greatest evills then by all their best good instance where you will it 's evident in every thing which can be named or conceited I will now speake but once more and that shal be of all and every of our evills summ'd vp together and gathered into a totall that as in the Items before soe now in them all at once it may appeare that the whole masse of our misery or the greatest measure therof that can be powred in pressed downe even till it run over vpon vs is more happy and much better then all the good things that can be cast vpon wicked persons yea though the whole world should empty all her fullnes and excellency to giue them the largest contentment that could be wished And we will giue you sufficient security for the truth herof in one that is beyond all exception to wit Iesus Christ who was a man of sorrowes a mirrour of miseryes in whome all kinde of calamity did combyne and settled it self

exactly to the vtmost by which words he meant to giue Peter to vnderstand what miseryes he was like for the truthes sake to vndergoe and how it came to passe accordingly by Gods permission of the Divell and the power and malice of his adhaerents the story of his denyall before Christs death and the relation of his life and death in the booke of the Acts of the Apostles doth abundantly evidence and declare But wherewith did Christ comfort Peter when he tolde him of this outward discomfort and danger why even with this very thing ver 32. but I haue prayed for thee that thy faith faile not which was as much as to say though many persecutions and perills may surprize thee to the endangering of thy life even vnto the death yet know thy soules estate shal be secured the power of grace in thee the assurance of glory to thee shall in no wise faile that shall stand fast for ever whatsoever becometh of thy temporall part which will perish And not to Peter alone was thus much spoken but our Lord Iesus Christ sayd as much to all that are of vpright harts when he spake that parable of the shepheard and the sheepe Ioh. 10. wherof we read in the gospell He compares himself to the good shepheard and his saints to his sheepe now because no creatures doe more miscarry through the violence cruelty and outrage of devouring beasts then sheepe doe and none are in so much danger to be torne in peices as they and no sheepe that men haue are in halfe the danger that Christs sheepe are Christ doth of purpose provide to prevent I say not the danger it self as if he meant that never wolfe or beare should come neere his folde but that feare that might follow the danger wherevnto they are incident saying my father who gaue them to me is greater then all ver 26. and none can take them out of my fathers hand as if he should tell them it were very possible easy and ordinary for tyrants to breake into the fold and fetch a way a sheepe or two and scatter if not devoure a whole flock but saith Christ though your fleeces should be shorne yea though your flesh should be torne and you taken from house home yea from the earth yet know that your best part is safest your soules shall none be able to touch or take out of my fathers hand who holdeth you fast and will not let you goe from himself Psa 73.33.24 vpon any tearmes but will hold you by his right hand and guide you by his counsell and afterwards bring you to glory though it may be through the butchers hands And the Apostle Peter himself tell 's vs it may well be out of the happy experience of the feeling of that which Christ sayd to himself before that the saints of God in those times did rejoyee and that in the middst of many heavy temptations with joy vnspeakable and glorious be cause they were secured touching their soules estate of that jmmortall and never fading inheritance which was reserved for them through the favour of God in the heavens and they preserved through the power of God vnto it In some vncomfortable heavines they were because of their present afflictions but the joy they felt by this blessed assurance of their soules estate was so much that it was vnspeakeable But now for the vngodly and the sinner on the other side the case is altered with them in this thing his body and state may be both very secure and every thing may goe with him as he would haue it he may be planted and rooted and grow rancke and encrease mightily in all contentments to the defire of his hart but in the meane while though all his externall things seeme to be built on the rock yet his soules estate is founded on the sand and that soe loosely that every puffe of wynde every waue of water beare's it downe by reason of the perpetuall perill wherein it is We haue too many witnesses of this wofull truth A whole world fell at once when they thought themsel ues firme and fast in the dayes of Noah neither were the bodyes of them all neerer drowning then the soules I will not say of all 1 Pet. 4. ● for the Apostle seeme's to me to controle it but of the most of them were to demnation The Prophet Esaiah Isa 5.15 bring 's in a merry crew of such as neither cared for nor feared any thing but passed their time with merriment and musike and soe exceeded in jollity as it pass●t but on a suddaine the next newes we heare of these good fellowes is that hell had enlarged it self and opened her mouth without measure to receive them as if hell were hungry for them and could not be satisfyed till it had them and are not they in most danger after whome hell is thus eager The rich glutton in the gospell was so well lyn'd and growne soe warme in his wooll having jun'd all his corne enlarged every barne and brought all things soe about that now he was at harts ease and could let himself a lease for many yeares of peace safety fullnes all kinde of contentment as if he thought that not a man among a thousand was better vnderlayd then himself and that as David once dream'd his rock was made so strong that their had beene no styrring of it alas alas what plight was his soule in all this while Noe sooner had he breathed out the words that argued his conceited safety but instantly another voyce was heard from heaven a voyce dolefull heavy and terrible arguing his dangerous nay his desperate nay his damned estate now jmminent and hanging over his head and jmmediately to be excecuted vpon him thou foole this night shall they take away thy soule was ever man neerer mischeife that thought himself so farre from it he talkes of many yeares happines God tell 's him of that perdition that the Propher speake's of destruction shall come vpon the wicked Isa and he shall not see the morning thereof that is such confusion as shall soone come and make quick dispatch of all when it doth come Thus are the soules of Gods saints bound fast vp in the bundle of life by the Lord himself the Lord of life who hath bound himself by his owne truth and faithfullnes yea sworne by himself and his holynes to saue them wholy harmeles at the worst that can come vnto them in this world But for the soules of wicked persons they are in wofull plight in their bodyes best estate and lye soe scattered neglected and vnregarded as things of naught that God in justice let 's them alone to be seized by Satans malice to be a prey to that devouring lyon who will soone make everlasting havock of them in hell And this is the third difference and the saints third advantage beyond all vngodly men wherein how easy is it to determine who

the extreamest that they can be And herein I joy and will joy maugre all the divells in hell and hell hounds on earth Would not this or the like speach vnto this make the eares of tyrants to tingle and their harts to tremble would it not vexe and torture their very spirits within them to here these voyces sounding from the mouthes of those who are vnder their heaviest vexations Ceartainely it would worke one way or other with them if they could but beleeue it either it would cause repentance vnto salvation and make them weary of their wickednes and most willing to become as one of them whome they thus abuse or to frett and fume and gnaw owne their owne bowells to see themselues defeated in all the jmpious purposes which being to make the Lords people most miserable of all men cannot by the most and worst and all they can doe make them any way soe miserable as themselues who in their owne opinion are more happy then any Doe you thinke it would not make their harts to boyle yea to burne within them and chafe them soe throughly that they should be forced to foame at mouth with indignation and distemper Were a man but in their bosomes to see how they frett and vexe jnwardly when they perceive God himself to laugh them to scorne in heaven and his people to laugh at them on earth to see that all the mallice and villany the divell can arme them withall cannot make anothers estate at worst so bad then their owne at best then would something appeare as the effect and efficacy of this truth which we haue told them it may be they would cease their bloody hands against the blessed of the Lord and begin to lay them on themselues as Iudas and some other of their praedicessors haue done But our God the God of heaven 2 Cor. 4.4 doth suffer the Divell the God of this world to blyndefolde their eyes that they should not see or know or acknowledg this truth soe by the ignorance therof they worke out at once Their owne perdition Phi. 1.28 and Our salvation and make Vs blessed Martyrs Themselues accursed Malefactors in despight of all that they contrarily intend and her of if they might or could be perswaded no question were to be made but they would quickly become either better or worse But it is misery enough that they cannot be brought to beleeue the same oh what saith the Apostle if our gospell be hid 2 Cor. 4.3 it is hid to them that are lost A heavy sentence inasmuch as by ignorance especially wilfull of any truth more sin is multiplyed against God more service is done to the Divell more mischeife to men Rom. 2. and consequently more plagues heaped on and wrath stored vp against the day of wrath to be powered by the mighty arme of Almighty God vpon the heads of all those that haue thus encreased their jmpietyes before him who shall not escape the full poyson of all those his envenomed vyalls which he hath revealed from heaven to be reserved in hell for them But we will now leaue these men as men left of God and not soe happy as once to giue vs the hearing or the Lord the beleeving of this truth but given over to be drunke with their owne delusions to their owne damnation perswading themselues soe well of their owne evill estate and being so ill perswaded of the good and blessed condition of Gods children that they meane to continue as they are and to proceede in their jmpiety against the Lord oppression against his people till they haue wrought out their owne eternall confusion by both and provoked the dreadfull indignation of the Lord God to come vpon them to the vttermost through this double jniquity committed against his highest majesty Vse 3 And in our last vse we will turne our speech to all manner of persons endeavouring to doe our best Instruction to all men to giue them that true information which floweth from this point wherof we now treat and the premisses of the same which haue beene so particulerly and plentifully related at large vnto vs. And the consequence of this truth for matter of instruction looketh both at the saints of God themselues and also at all others that are not yet revealed to be such For the former viz those who haue beene already found and approoved to be faithfull whose happy interest is therefore vndeniable in this heavenly truth it call's for their constant continuall and perpetuall perseverance in that their estate of grace and holynes the worst whereof is so good as we haue heard For if our first being in grace while we are yet but babes or beginners therein doe giue vs assurance of so much consolation doubtles if we continue hold out to the end as we grow and goe on in grace soe doth the sweete savour of this happines encrease and multiply vpon vs. But I hope the discovery of the comforts aforesayd is such as may saue me the labour of any further pressing of this point vpon them and that their taste of the blessednes of them is so pleasant as they haue sensible arguments within them sufficient both to perswade them to tarry where they are and to oppose and repulse all suggestions to the contrary And therefore I will not persue them with more words for whose sakes especially all that is past hath beene vttered and whose setled resolutions touching their state of grace are such and so vnmoveable as was the Apostles who sayd I am sure that neither death Rom. 8.38.39 nor life nor Angells nor Principalityes nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor heigh nor depth nor any other creature shal be able to separate me from the loue of God which is in Iesus Christ our Lord. This was his of himself and the Romans this is and ought to be ours of our selues of all true Christians therein we will rest and turno our last speech vnto those that yet are not turned to the Lord by any visible manifestation of that faith the vertue wherof doth giue them their part and portion in the saving peace and comfort of that which hath beene vttered And what can we vrge either more or lesse vpon them then that they should now at last learne to leaue their former sinfull and vngodly condition and cleave to the Lord in the power and truth of sincerity and sanctification that inasmuch as they are not yet cannonized of the Lord for saints nor haue their names written in the booke of life so farre as their life sheweth vnto men they might now once bethinke themselues what they are and come out of that estate wherein they cannot be happy And what more weighty or worthy argument can we vse then this which is soe powerfull to perswade if it be duely pondered of them For it is drawne from that which nature affecteth and desireth in all men aboue