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	sin_n	sting_n	7,502	5	11.8545	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87089	Death's alarum: or, Security's vvarning-piece. A sermon preached in S. Dionis Back-Church, at the funerall of Mrs. Mary Smith (daughter of Mr. Isaac Colfe, formerly minister of Gods Word at Chadwell in Essex, and late wife of Mr. Richard Smith of London, draper) who dyed the 9th. day of Novemb. 1653. and was buried the 16th of the same moneth. By Nath: Hardy, Mr. of Arts, and preacher to that parish.	Hardy, Nathaniel, 1618-1670.	1653 (1653)	Wing H714; Thomason E725_4; ESTC R206763	23,164	36

the nature and press the practise of this duty 1. To illustrate the nature of this preparation be pleased to observe both the intent of the thing and the extent of the time by the former we shall see wherein this readinesse and by the latter when it ought to bee performed 1. The duty it self being of very weighty importance It should be a little inquired into what things are requisite to denominate a man ready for Christs coming The severall metaphors of a Bridegroome of a Lord and of a Thiefe under which the coming of Christ is represented to us may very fitly be made use of to this end and purpose 1. They are ready for the coming of the Bridegroom who have on their wedding garment And this is no other in a spirituall sense than that white rayment to wit of Christs righteousnesse apprehended by faith which our blessed Lord adviseth the Church to buy of him indeed when death cometh it will strip us of all other induments Job saith of himselfe and it is no more than what every man shall finde true Naked came I forth of my Mothers womb and naked shall I returne thither onely of this garment it cannot bereave us and he alone who is thus clothed may with comfort look death in the face 2. Againe he is ready for the coming of his Lord who hath discharged the trust reposed in and improved the stock left with him by his Lord Indeed thus to doe in reference to God exactly is impossible but yet this to endeavour is necessary and he onely is fit for death who hath beene carefull in life to employ his talents for Gods glory and to keep a good conscience in all things When the Lord cometh he expects an account of the Servants receipts and disbursments and how unfit will the idle or wastfull servant bee to make up his account That life must needs render a man unprepared for death which is spent in doing nothing or that which is worse than nothing in abusing the mercies we receive to the dishonour of him who hath bestowed them on us Finally he is ready for the coming of a Thief who keepeth himselfe and his family waking hath his doore locked bolted and barred and is furnished with weapons both of defence and resistance So must we prepare our selves for Christs coming by awaking our soules out of carnall and sensuall security by keeping our hearts with all diligence and by putting on the whole armour of God the condition of that man will be very sad whom death findes asleep in sinne without a spirituall guard and destitute of those graces which should arm him against its venomous sting If you desire a more distinct explication of this preparation let Christ be his owne expositor in that elegant Scripture where he adviseth his Disciples to have their Loynes girt and their Lamps burning The worke of preparation for death is both privative and positive in removing what may hinder us and procuring what may enable us to meet Christ at our death with comfort Both these we are taught under those metaphoricall allusions the former in the girding of our Loynes the latter in the burning of our Lamps 1. To be ready is to have our Loynes girt where by Loynes we may very well understand our affections and lusts which are to be girt by repentance and mortification The sting of death saith S. Paul is sinne so that we are never fit to dye till we have taken out the sting by subduing sinne he that liveth in any lust is so farre from being armed for death that he armeth death against himselfe death is a journey called therefore a going to our long home but how shall he be fit to go this journey who hath not laid aside the weight of sinne and girded up his loynes which will be a sore impediment to him More especially this girding of Loynes may referre to the expelling of worldly love out of our hearts To this purpose both that action of Christs drinking Vinegar and those words of his It is finished immediately before his death are not unfitly moraliz'd to teach us that by despising the world as vaine and bitter we are more prepared for the finishing of our life Oh how unwilling is he to goe out of the world whose heart is glued to it And therefore let it be our wisdome to hang loose in our affections from all earthly relations that as Seneca divinely if we be called to it Nihil nos detineat nec impediat quo minus parati simus quod quand●que faciendum statim facere no worldly thing may hinder us from being ready to do that presently which must be done at some time 2. To be ready is to have our Lamps burning to wit the Lamp of our Soule burning with the graces of Gods spirit the Lamp of our Life burning in the exercise of good works towards God and man Certainly he is very unfit to dye who hath not yet begun to live thy condition must needes be desperate if the lamp of thy life be put out before the lamp of grace be kindled S. John saith of them who dye in the Lord their works follow them to wit those good works which have gone before their death in the course of their lives he onely is fit to meet Christ in death who can say to him in Hezekiah's words Remember Lord how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart a renewed nature and a reformed life are the best preparatives to a comfortable and happy death 2. You see the duty it selfe The next thing to be considered is the time when we should make our selves thus ready it is that which must by no meanes be left out since though we all agree about the thing yet we differ about the time we must be ready for Christs coming that is acknowledged but when we should goe about it is not so easily determined The answer to this is not expresly given in the text but yet manifestly implyed in the context since the housholder no● knowing when the thief will come knowing he will come is alwayes expecting and providing for him and indeed this we shall finde in the ●parallel Scripture expresly supplyed where our Saviour bids his Disciples to watch and pray {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} alwayes It is that then which ought to be the wisdome of every Christian alway to be in a readinesse for the coming of Christ suitable to this is that resolve of holy Job when hee saith All the dayes of my appointed time I will wait till my change come not onely one or a few or some but all his dayes were dayes of watching for the approach of his change according to which is that counsell of S. Basil {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} we must every day of our life be in a posture ready to goe out of this life if our Lord

it is very hard to intertaine thoughts of going out of the world If the Mountaine be strong even David is ready to say I shall never be moved no mervail if presumptuous Babylon being in her chaire of state say I sit a Queene and am no Widdow and shall see no sorrow But yet very frequently this is the houre wherein Christ cometh so the threatning runneth against both literall and misticall Babylon Evill shall come upon her in a moment in one day and so it was verified in the rich Fool who bidding his soul to take its ●ase by reason of his worldly abundance had that very night his soule required of him and carryed to torment 3. The houre of bodily health and strength is a time in which men cast the thought of death behind them whilst they have colour in their faces agility in their joynts appetite in their stomacks health in their bodies How rare are their Meditations on Death Go preach your Lectures of Mortality say they to the weake and the lame and the sick as for us wee have no reason to trouble our selves with such melancholly thoughts What do you tell us of dying and rotting in the grave whilest our bones are moystned with marrow We feel no infirmity and therefore feare not mortality And yet how often doth Christ come by death in such an houre one dyeth saith Job in his full strength being wholly at ●ase and quiet his breasts are full of milk and his bones are moystned with marrow How many valiant and stout men hath death laid upon their backs on a sodaine tripping up their heeles Have you not sometimes seene a sturdy Oak quickly blown downe by a violent winde a strong and tall Vessell presently sunke by a leake So are oft-times men snatched away in the strength and vigour of their body by death 4. The houre of Youthfull age is a time wherein few make account of dying It is soone enough say young men to thinke of our death in the day when desire shall faile to look for a grave when they that looke out at the windowes are darkned and to feare the approach of both when the keepers of the house shall tremble these gravecloths are too sad for the freshness of our life we are young and may see many a fair yeare passe over our heads before death cometh and therefore think not that like the mad man in the Gospel we will spend our life among the tombs But alas how frequently even in this houre doth the Sonne of Man come In Golgotha saith the Hebrew Proverb there are soules of all sizes and our weekely bills for the most part afford a greater numbers of dead Children than aged men The Poets have a fable that Death and Cupid lodging together at an Inne exchanged their arrowes whereby it hath since come to passe that many times Old men dote and Young men dye The truth is death doth not summon us according to our yeares even the blossome is subject to nipping as well as the flower to withering That threat which Almighty God denounceth by the Prophet Amos is very often in this morall sense made good I will cause the Sun to goe downe at noone nay not onely so but even in the morning of youth doth the Sunne of many a mans life goe down To apply this let it then be the care of every one of us that Christs coming may not be to us in an houre wee think not of and to that end let no houre at least day of our life passe without a serious thought of the day and houre of our death Larkes in Theocritus are called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} because they carry the forme of a Sepulchre upon their heads Such should all Christians be having permanent impressions of death not on but in their heads and hearts The Indian Gymnosophists were so much in love with these thoughts that they caused their graves to be made before their gates so as both at their going out and coming in they might be put in minde of their death and truly however the most men in the days of their vanity account a life spent in meditation of death to be a miserable life a death rather than a life yet when the time of their death approacheth they will change their note and say as dying Theophilus did of devout Arsenius Beatus es Abba Arseni qui semper hanc horam ante oculoshabuisti They are happy men who set death daily before their eys Indeed by this meanes the coming of Christ as it will not be altogether sodaine so neither terrible to us nor can any man so use S. Cyprians words receive comfort at his death who did not before make account of dying A late writer hath in this respect piously fancyed that Clocks were invented to minde us not so much of the Sunne 's motion in the Heavens as the passing of our life here on Earth Since the sounding of the clock telleth us that the past houre is as it were dead and buried which at some time or hour of some day or other must be our lot Oh then what ever our present condition is let us still entertaine thoughts of our latter end Art thou in health and strength remember a wise and good man even then as Gregory Nazian. saith {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} will looke both upwards to heaven and downewards to his grave Doest thou enjoy the pleasures of life learn of Joseph of Arimathea to make a tombe in thy garden and season thy delights with thoughts of thy dissolution Finally art thou advanced to an high estate in this world forget not how low thy highnesse must come ere long and what one was appoynted to have in his hands at the inauguration of the Graecian Emperours namely in the one a burning firebrand presently consumed and in the other a vessell full of ashes and dead mens bones have thou in thy heart by renewed meditations of thy mortality To close up this part It is reported concerning the Maids in the Isle of Man that the first thing they spin is their winding-sheete which they weare about them as a girdle at their feasts well were it if we would in the midst of all our enjoyments gird our selves about with our winding-sheets fixing our thoughts upon our end that so by this meanes we may not have cause at last to sigh forth the foole's words Non putaram I did not think my death had been so neare Blessed is that man whom Christ when he cometh by death shall finde not as Jaell did Siserah asleep but as Jonathan's arrow came to David standing in the field and looking for it yea so looking as to bee fitting himself which leads to the Preparednesse required in every Christian for this coming Be you therefore ready For the better and clearer dispatch of this I shall endeavour both to unfold

well as old age Christ may send it to seize upon thee Hast thou not need then to be every where and at all times prepared Consider this oh vain man whoever thou art that puttest off thy preparation in hope that Christ will delay his visitation thou purposest to be ready when thou art old I but what if Christ come whilest yet thou art young Thou promisest to prepare thy self to morrow but what if thou diest to day Oh beware that thy promises beare not a date far longer than thy life It is storied of ambitious Archyas that having by fraudulent and unjust courses at length compassed the government of Thebes he with his complices kept a riotous feast in the midst of his intemperance a messenger cometh to him with a letter from a friend importuning him speedily to peruse it but he slighting the admonition and putting it under his pillow said {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} serious things to morrow when as the thing which the letter concerned was effected that night to wit deprivation at once both of his life and dignity by a combination of the Citizens This this my Brethren is I feare the dolefull case of too many who purposing to be serious and pious hereafter are snatched away before that hereafter come Couldst thou oh man assure thy selfe the continuance of thy life for a day a moneth a yeare thou mightest with more pretence of reason defer thy preparation so long but Cui sit exploratum se ad vesperum esse victurum saith the heathen Orator truly who can assure himselfe he shall live till evening nay who can justly promise to himselfe the next moment Be not then so foolish nay mad nay bruitish as ●o live an hour a moment in the estate wherein thou wouldst be loath to dye 4. That hour in which men make least account is commonly the time of the Son of Man's coming Be ye therefore ready Whilest the Croc●dil being asleep openeth his mouth the Indian Rat getteth in and cateth up his bowells whilest the Theban Centinel was nodding Epaminondas came and thrust him thorow when men are secure in their sins death stealeth upon them unawares At what gate there is the least guard smallest strength the besieger maketh his onset and endeavoureth entrance Oh feare lest in that day death approach to thee wherein thou art most regardlesse of death 5. All the time alotted you before Christs coming is little enough for this great work Be you therefore alwayes endeavouring to make your selves ready Tota vita discendum est vivere said the Philosopher we scarce learne to live well in the whole space of our lives nay Totâ vitâ discendum est mori saith the Divine our whole life is scarce sufficient to learne the art of dying well Were a short prayer or a single sigh a God forgive me or Lord have mercy upon me a valid preparation for Christs coming the work were easie and a little time might dispatch it but be not deceived God is not mocked This great work is not so facile a taske Doe but ask the servants of God who have taken much paines and spent many yeares in this work and you shall hear them complain that to this day notwithstanding all their prayers teares fastings watchings and struglings they finde themselves very unready for death and is it not a wretched presumption in any man to think he can fit himselfe for death as it were at an houres warning 6. When the Son of man cometh there will bo no opportunity for the doing of this work Be you therefore ready Likely it is at the approach of death many men w●ll be earnest suiters in Davids words Oh spare me a little one moneth one weeke longer but in vaine their request cannot be granted nor the time delayd Very apt to this purpose is the story of S. Gregory concerning ond Chrysorius a man as full of sin as he was of wealth who on his dying bed in a bitter agony of spirit cryed out Inducias vel usque mane inducias vel usque mane Truce but till the morning stay but till to morrow but with these very words he breathed his last Christ may sometimes stay long before he cometh but when he comes he will not stay {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} saith S. Basil excellently learne to be wise by the foolish Virgins example for whom the Bridegroome being come would not stay a moment and onely they that were ready went in with him to the Marriage 7. Your preparation for will be no acceleration of Christs coming and therefore be you ready It is the fond conceit of many that if they think of and prepare for death death will presently come to them upon which ground it is that they put off the setting both their house and soule in order but let not vain feares beguile thee thy death is not the nearer but onely it will be the sweeter graemeditati mali mollis ictus the blow will not come the sooner but it will be the easier nay indeed by being ready to die thou art the fitter to live and both thy life and thy death will be the more comfortable 8. Finally the Sonne of Man's coming will be most dismall and exitiall to all unprepared persons Be you therefore ready S. Chrysostom upon these words conceiveth that Christ representing his coming under the resemblance of a thief checketh our ●luggishness who are less carefull to be ready against Christs than the Housholders is against the Thiefe's coming whereas the Housholder's danger is onely the loss of his goods or money or jewels but ours of our precious souls Oh my Brethren if Christ when he cometh by death finde us unprepared wo to us that we were born our case will be like that of the foolish Virgins against whom the doore of Heaven was shut and no intreaty could prevaile for the opening of them nay like that of the man whom when the King came in he found at the feast without a wedding garment who was bound hand and foot and cast into utter darknesse yea like that of the evill servant in the end of this chapter when his Lord coming cut asunder and appointed him his portion with the hypocrites there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth And oh that any or all of these considerations might awaken our security and quicken our industry This Son of Man hath been pleased to call upon us often for the performance of this duty perhaps he will come to some of us before the next call Oh then delay no longer but be we ready whilest it is called to day and whilest this day he vouchsafeth to call upon us It was an excellent saying of an ancient when his corrupt heart tempted him to procrastination I will make use of the day to repent in and leave the morrow to God so do thou say Christ may come to morrow I will be

ready for him to day Thus let the remainder of out mortall life be a preparation for death and then our death shall be a preparation of us for an immortall life To close up all with reference to this dolefull occasion the interring of our diseased Sisters Corps In respect of her deare friends I may very well take up the latter part of this verse in an houre when they thought not the Son of Man came to her yea even then when they seem'd to hope and say the bitterness of death is past the danger of her child-bearing is over death seized upon her But though her dissolution was at this time unthought of by them yet I have good reason to believe it was neither unlooked nor unprepared for by her partly because as shee many moneths before knew what an hazardous condition she was to pass thorow so charity bids me hope that she made use of that time to provide for the worst chiefly because her foregoing life as to the general tenure of it was unblameable vertuous Et illi mors improvisa cujus vita f●it provida even sodaine death cannot be a sad consequent when a good life was the antecedent Her education no doubt was religious being the Daughter of a reverend Minister now with God and her conversation every way corresponding to that education Much of her time she employed in the pious services of reading meditation and prayer not neglecting the publique Ordinances those duties which belong'd to the relations in which God had set her of a Daughter a Wife a Mother a Mistress Sister Neighbour Friend she did not more intelligently know than conscienciously performe In a word like good Mary she chose that good part whilest her adorning was not that outward adorning of plaiting the hair wearing of gold putting on of apparrell in which she onely regarded decency not affecting curiosity but to use Tertullian's allusions Sericum pietatis byssinum sauctiatis purpura pudicitiae The fine linnen of purity the silke of sanctity the purple of modesty or to follow S. Peter's expressions The hidden man of the heart and the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which as in the sight of God is of great price so it was the grace wherein she surpassed most of her sex Thus she both lived and dyed like a lamb lived meekly and dyed quietly lived obediently in some measure to Gods commands and dyed submissively to Gods decree Let not then her affectionate consort and loving allyes mourn over her grave inordinately She dyed young indeed but yet not before her time because not before she was ready for death she was cut down betimes but yet not before she was ripe for the harvest Rather then do you nay let all of us here present thinke with our selves to imitate S. Peters words to Sapphira that the feet of them which has brought her to her long home are at the doore of our houses to carry us out also and therefore every one so to lead our lives and order our conversations aright that at what time soever Christ shall by death approach unto us his coming may not be unexpected to us nor we unprepared for his coming Amen FINIS Prov. 10 7. * The building and endowing a free Grammer School by and Writing-School in the Town of Lewisham together with an annuall Maintenance for 7. Schollars to be sent from thence to the University Hebr. 6. 10. 2 Tim. 4. 18. Salust Bell. Catilin Math. 16. 22. Phil. 2. 6. Mat. 26. ● 27. 38. Rom. 3. 4. John 10. 10. Cass l. 6. c. 28. 1 Thes. 52. 2. Pet. 3. 10. Cum inferre de be●et vi●ilare ●ontim ò id omi●it ne intolerabile quid praecipere videretur sed estote parati ad significandum continuam vigilantiam esse paratam Avendan in Math. Quod superius dix●rat {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} illud jam exponit per {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ille enim vere vigilat qui semper paratus est Gerard Contin 1st Gen. 1 Thes. 5. ● Je● 19. ●● Significatur inextectata improvisa Chald●●orum in Jerusalem irrup●io ●● pot● qui n●● per portas in quibu● sunt vigiles fed per ●urorum foenestras clan culum instar furis irrumpant Lapid in H●er Luke 21. 35. Tanquā laqu●us ●cil propter non apparentiam impraemeditationem Eu●h in Ma●h. Luke 21. 34. Dan. 6. 5. Acts 12. 23. Job 21. 13. Verse 38. Psal. 30. 6. Revel. 18. 21. Isa. 47. 7 8 9. Revel. 18. 9. Luk. 12 19 20. ●ob 21. 23 24. Eccles. 12. 3 4. Sic mo●itur juvenis sic moribundus ama● Dices ●u qui ●● juvenis kondu●●●n●c●ui noki ergo decip● non d●●●●itur mors ce●to tempore aetatis neque ●i●●t co● qui sunt in ipso fine ●tatis G●●g Nys●ad● e●s qui ciff Bapt. orat Bibl. patr. T. 9 Ap●th●g● Nec dignus est in morte acc●p●re solatium qui s● non cogitavit esse moriturum Cypr. Ep. 5 2. Chrefol Mystagog Greg. Naz. Orat. 28. 2d Gen. Revel. 3. 1● J●b 1. 21. Per primum prae●●pium jubemur c●hibere nos à malo impedimenta removere per sccundum excitamur ad bene operandum Tole● in Luc. Quid est lumbos ac incto● declina a malo quid lu●●rnas ardentes habere hoc est fac bonum Aug. Serm. 39. de verb dom Succ●●gere debemus lumbos id est expediti esse ab impedimentis lasciviosae vi●ae implicitae Tertul. contr. Marc. l. 4. 29. Ut divinum illud moriendi exemplum nos admonere● humanarum rerum contemptum amaritudinem morti praeire debere ut consumma●i ad mortem obeundam esse videamur Velasq. in Phil. c. 1. v. 21. Annot. 3● Sen. Epist. 26. Lucernas ardentes habere id est mentes a fide accensas operibu● veri●atis relucentes Tertul. contr. Marc. l. 4. c. 29. Rev. 14. 13. Isaiah 38. 3. Luke 21. 36. Job 14. 14. Bas. hom 2● Job 39. 25. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. Theoph. in Luc. Tolet ibid. Ho● diff●rt vitapraesens ab illa quam expectamus quo●a● totum bonum futurae vitae consistit in hoc quod est recte illam incipe●e praes●ntis vitae bonum è contra consisti● in rect● finiendo illam c. Avend in Mat. cap. 24. Greg. Mag. Brugens in loc. Qui rogat semper roge● etsi non semper precatu● paratum semper habeat precantis affectum Ambr. in Ps. 118. Serm. 19. Tertul ●●de spectac cap. 1. Impii runquam didicerunt bona facere nisi c●m jam non est tempus faciendi O cast Multi domos aedifican● cum tamen n●sciant an per unicum diem ea debeans colere ad incertam vitam parantur certam mortem non curantes Stella in Lu● Si inimicus tuus fic tibi minaretur in tali borá te expecto sufficeret tibi usque ad illam horam quiescer● tamen si sic dixisset observa me nam ubicunque te inv●n●ro te totis viribus invadam ●am tunc nullum tibi qui●tis dabatur tempus Avend in Math. Aul. Gell l. 13. c. 26. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Bas. hom 13. Plurarch in Pelopid Ci● de S●nect Stultum in tali ●ta●u vivere in quo quis non aud●● mori Aug Psal. 39. 13. Greg Dialog. l. 4. c. 38. Bas. ●om ●3 Math. 25. 10. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Chrys. in loc. Math. 25. 7. 22. 13. Ver. 15. Hodie poenitentiam ago craft●num Deo relinquo Apothegm in Bibl. pat M. Isaac Col●e Luke 10. 4● ● Pet. 3. 3 4. Acts 5. 9.