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	life_n	time_n	18,635	5	3.9362	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02722	Tvvo sermons vvherein we are taught, 1. Hovv to get, 2. How to keepe, 3. How to vse a good conscience. Preached in Alldermanbury Church, London. Not heretofore published. By Robert Harris.	Harris, Robert, 1581-1658.	1630 (1630)	STC 12854; ESTC S105942	21,197	47

thou canst not claime kinred of Paul vpon such a Conscience with Turkes and Heathens thou maist Ob. The third ground is this My Conscience doth not onely checke me for what 's past but curbs and reins me in before sin be committed I dare not doe as the most doe nay I dare not omit good duty Should not I reade pray euery day I could not sleepe in the night c. I answere Sol. It must be considered whence that feare arises for t is certaine that very custome and education will make a child afraid to omit his deuotions when he goes to bed if we will establish the heart with comfort wee must make good two things First that we worke vpon right motiues not onely because such hath beene our custome such our education so is the will of our Parents c. but because wee need such helpes God loues such seruices and we finde strength comming vpon such performances Secondly that we heed the manner of performing as well as the matters performed not resting in the worke done but mourning for our dulnesse distractions coldnesse and other failings in the doing for this is once there 's nothing more shames and humbles an vpright man then his ouert and slight performance of his Masters worke Obiect The third ground they settle vpon is their peace their sinnes doe not daunt them nor their Consciences dampe them all is quiet within and they haue no doubts of their saluation Sol. I answer There is the Diuels peace and Gods peace there is a negatiue peace or cessation onely of torment and a positiue peace or fruition of comfort Therefore examine first the source and raising of thy peace for some are quiet because the conscience is either blinde and sees not the sword against it like Balaam or slothfull and sleepy and a very sore man may feele little in his sleepe or else either seared or deluded a deluded sence thinkes it feeles or sees what in truth it doth not and seared flesh doth not smart like other flesh not because it hath more life but lesse sence so here Secondly The meanes how thou commest by it there is no peace but in Gods wayes if I winne it not by praver digge it not out of Gods sauing wels and ordinances finde not the Word speaking peace to my soule I cannot haue it our peace comes in at the eare as the Church speakes and out of Gods mouth God creates peace by his word and lippe as Esay speakes vnlesse it beare his stampe and haue Holinesse to the Lord written vpon it t is not right t will not passe as currant Thirdly The effects of it holy peace workes thankfulnesse to Christ humility in vs mercifulnesse towards bruised spirits Obj The fourth ground is this I cannot abide vnconscionablenesse in others I can with no patience see men goe against Conscience Sol. I answer The Diuell is a great rifler and accuser of others consciences but a conscionable man is busiest at home mildest abroad be so or be nothing Obiect But I straine at the least sinne Sol. So did the Pharisee Conscience is not right vnlesse it straine at all sinne endeauour all duty as Paul speakes in both tables consider compare and so passe sentence and here an end of this Vse now to Instruction And here would all that heare me this day were as Saint Paul his bonds excepted It shall not be needfull to say much to those who haue felt heauen and hell both in their consciences they see the difference as for others what can I say when as men cannot beleeue me without experience If they would receiue others testimonies they may well conceiue that a good conscience is beyond all created goods and a bad worse then all positiue euils for first What so desireable to all liuing things as life What will not men part withall for life though it be from skin to skin yet conscience is such a thing as wise men prize aboue life they 'le dye a thousand deaths rather then lose conscience and whilst they liue they liue no longer then Conscience speakes peace Looke vpon an experienced man and when he hath lost his peace no meate no place no wealth no company no life is pleasant he onely liues because he dares not dye Secondly for an ill conscience What more terrible and hatefull to Nature then death yet death is sweet to a wounded Conscience did hee thinke that death would end his torments he would not liue nay though he apprehends a iudgement a hell at the heeles of death yet many times hee rushes vpon it and concludes that certainly hell can be no worse and probably better then an ill conscience Loe my Brethren what Conscience both wayes is one so sweet that Heauen would be no Heaven without it the other so bitter that Hell is no Hell to it in the iudgement of experience I can say no more to perswade mee thinkes now nothing should remaine but direction And the way to set you in Pauls circumstances is to guide you first to the getting secondly to the keeping of a good Conscience For the first resolue first on the thing and thus conclude What-euer it cost me what shift soeuer I make I must haue a good conscience It is not necessary to haue wealth a poore man may be honest here happy hereafter It is not necessary to haue health a weake man may to heauen Nay it is not necessary that I must liue my happinesse is not confined to this life but t is necessary to get a good Conscience without this I can neither liue nor dye be neither rich nor poore sicke nor well in few I cannot subsist I cannot be vnlesse this be a being to wish I neuer had beene without a good conscience and therefore what-euer it colt me I le goe to the price thus first resolue and this done then hearkē to the means which are these First goe to the right meanes there 's but one Physician for soules and consciences and that is God he onely made and hee onely re-makes good Consciences none else can come at Conscience can take out the poyson that 's there take off the guilt that is there and therefore wee must carry our wounded soules to him alleadge his owne covenant and hand and say Lord thou hast said that thou wilt take away our euill heart and giue vs a better now for thy truths sake make good this Word this Scripture This done thou must attend his method and run his course and dict he prescribes thou must follow this method First make thy Conscience bright and lightsome hee hath written a phisicke for conscience no physicke booke for conscience but his from this Booke thou must gather knowledge for darkenesse defiles the vnderstanding as Paul faies and darkenesse is timorous and staggering a man can haue no true no positiue peace whilst hee liues in darkenesle either all things or nothing shall be lawfull and where t is

have legges so vse Conscience and haue Conscience for by vse the heart is kept soft and will soone smite vs as Danids did by vse our inward light is exercifed and strengthened and wee made able to discerne Heb. 5.14 Nay vse and exercise doth both facilitate and delight for what 's done ordinarily and habitually is done with no small content sure with no great contention and reluctancy custome and exercise make the hardest of works at least sufferable On the other side difuse Conscience and though it continue in the roote yet the fruit will downe First the light of it will more and more decay like the fire that is not blowne Secondly the life of it will also weare as the dull sluggard liues not halfe so much as the diligent doth and this appeares if we consider those acts and euidences of life Sense and Motion For Sense a Conscience vnconsulted vnexercised vnexamined becomes like a sleepy legge when a man hath sate long hee feeles not his limbes the bloud and spirits being sometimes frozen and arrested with cold sometimes intercepted in their passage by too much suppression of that part so t is with the Conscience first load it and then let it lye still without motion and in fine it will not feele it selfe but be as dead and sencelesse as brawned yea seared flesh And this experience iustifies in many whose consciences lye bed-ridden and looke how some in that case of sicknesse voyd much filth and feele it not so these spue forth abhorred blasphemies and outrages and discerne them not As for Motion euen as the limbs by long sitting grow stiffe and starke that we cannot goe so the conscience vnfrequented t will rust like a Clocke which sleepes a winter or two and so loses its tongue not once telling you where you bee either in the day or night iust so a rusty Conscience t will neither counsell nor comfort checke nor excuse t will speake neither to matters past nor to come but lie as dead within a man as the dead childe doth within a woman Oh t is a most comfortlesse thing for a liuing woman to beare death in her bowels such a burden fils her with many feares for the present at least makes her too too heauy and vnweldy and puts her to great extremity in the cloze there being more adce with one dead birth then with two liuing children t is no better with a dead conscience the lesse that trauels the more we must with feares and anguish and therefore as wee call vpon women to stirre that their fruit may be stirring too so must we ftirre vp our selues that Conscience may be doing for a dead conseience makes but a dead estate a dead heart a dead man a dull life and dead it will be vnlesse we put it to vse Now before we can proceed to exhortation we cannot but bewayle and controll two sorts of men first such as vtterly disuse secondly such as searefully misuse their Consciences How many bee there of the first fort who liue and dye strangers to themselues They dare not for their eares aske their own hearts What is our case In what tearmes stand we with God Children are we or enemies In the wayes of life or death Where are we What are wee Which way goe we What will be the issue of our courses But looke how bankrupts put off reckonings so these allreasonings with themselues And as they keepe their spirituall estate close from their owne consciences so doe they in particular actions for first in shings to be done they rather consult others then themfelues which is but to sel ones eies and buy spectacles which see no more then the eye enables them Secondly in things already done they rather smother then consult conscience when Conscience takes the aduantage of solitarinesse and beginnes to question them they runne from it into company and hide themselues in the croude when Conscience beginnes a little to open its eyes and mouth after the reading of some booke the hearing of some Sermon the seeling of some inward or outward pinches they stoppe their eares diuert their thoughts sing whistle drinke game and doe any thing to out-talke and drowne Conscience This the practice of hundreds but how ill this practice is first the Causes secondly the Consequences will shew The Causes hereof First Pride Man would be somebody with himselfe and therefore is loth to looke vpon his owne staines and to see his owne face in the face of his conscience Secondly Hypocrisie Man hath such a desire to coozen that hee would if he could coozen himselfe and would faine make himselfe beleeue that t is not so bad with him as indeed it is Thirdly Vnbeliefe He lookes for no mercy in case he peach himselfe and therefore places all his safety in secrecy and so secret would he be that by his will his left hand shall not know what his right hath done These are the causes and what fruit can you in reason expect from such a roote Surely the issue cannot but bee bitter For First by disusing Conscience men come to lose conscience and consequently their armour against sinne take away Conscience and you can hardly set downe Atheisme Secondly by this meanes sinne is exceedingly aggrauated for no man can neglect so neere a Monitor as Conscience is without great presumption and wilfulnesse and secondly a mans reckoning no way furthered for doe what we can wee must come to an account and Conscience will know vs at last whether we acknowledge it or not nay by how much the lesse we regard it now by so much the more it will shake vs hereafter and rise vpon vs like a flame with so much the greater fury by how much the more it was for the present kept downe and stifled The second sort reproued are such as abuse conscience and this is done as sometimes otherwise so mostly thus First when Conscience is set lowest and bound apprentice to the outward man I meane thus when men doe not receiue all blowes that let driue at conscience vpon their name estate skinne c. but contrarily rather suffer Conscience to be wounded then the outmost skinne raysed Secondly when Conscience is thrust from its seate deposed degraded gag'd so violenced that it must not speake though friends God man call vpon vs. Thirdly when conscience is made a cloke for all vnwarranted both opinions and practices that is when men will put the name of conscience vpon the basest things Opinion shall bee Conscience Errour Conscience the swallowing of widowes houses Conscience as t was with the Pharisees Fourthly when Conscience is made a knight of the poast and must beare witnesse to any vntruth to any villany thus when men cannot tell what to say they appeale to God and Conscience God knowes their hearts their Conscience beares them witnesse they 'le take it on their Conscience t is so not so O the fearefulnesse of these practices how terrible haue