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	son_n	year_n	8,542	5	4.8430	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42721	The great mystery of providence, or, The various methods of God in ordering and over-ruling the actions of wicked men and devils to great and glorious purposes with the vindication of his holiness therein : being the substance of several sermons / preached by George Gifford.	Gifford, George, d. 1620.	1695 (1695)	Wing G694; ESTC R25460	29,026	38

saith God sets them in slippery places That man that shall now see Pharoah so stout and Herod so proud stay but a while and you shall see one drowned in the Sea and the other eaten up of Lice Again tho' God suffer good men to be afflicted of the wicked it is for their good it is to fit them for God and Glory it is to rub off their Rust and Rubbish and fit them for God And lastly I say as St. Austin doth Stay but till the Day of Recompence and there will appear no proportion between the Wicked's Prosperity here and their Sufferings hereafter So also between the Sufferings of Good Men here and their Eternal Happiness Geographers tell us the World is round notwithstanding all the Hills and Mountains in it but how can that be why they say all these Hills and Mountains in comparison of the circumference of the Earth are nothing So the Sufferings of the good and the Prosperity of the wicked may seem great to us here yet compare them to Eternity and they are nothing Suppose a Person is condemn'd to death for High-Treason and his uncharitable Friend shall come and make him merry and drunk whereby he forgets his Condition do you envy this poor man this Happiness when perhaps in two or three hours he must be hanged So if you could see a Wretch in Hell after 40 years of Prosperity on Earth he would tell you he had paid dear for his Happiness therefore the Prosperity of the wicked upon Earth is no more a stain to the Holiness of God than the Beams of the Sun upon a stinking Dunghill do reflect on the Sun It was an excellent Saying of Dionysius All things that are seen in the hands of second causes when they once come to God's hand he turns and orders them to excellent purposes Those things that are unjust in respect of Men yet are righteous as they are Instruments in the hand of God's Providence as suppose thy Child or thy Servant shall prove wicked and undutiful to thee this is unjust in respect of them but as they are Instruments to punish thy Sins they are just upon that account I shall conclude this first Inference by stirring you and my self up to the contemplating and admiring the Goodness Wisdom and Justice of God's Providence in governing the actions of wicked men this is the Masterpiece of God's Providence as Isa 27.29 This also cometh from the Lord of hosts who is wonderful in counsel Here we see in the highest sence Sampson's Riddle verified That God can bring Meat out of the Eater and Honey out of the Carcass and I tell you thô we now quarrel at Atheism Debauchery and Wickedness God shall make manifest at the last day that all these things have worked together for the Glory of God and the Good of them that serve him and that we could not well have been without the malice and spight of wicked men So much for the first Inference The second Inference is this That the concurrence of God in the Sins of wicked men doth not excuse nor extenuate their Sin nor diminish their Punishment I am here beloved upon another deep point of the Providence of God That the Providence of God his Decrees and his ordering and governing of sinful men do not in the least excuse them from Guilt or Punishment tho' God brings Good out of their Evil. St. Paul proposes and answers the Question Rom. 3.7 If the Truth of God hath more abounded thro' my Lye unto his glory why then am I reckoned a sinner and not rather as we be slanderously reported and some affirm that we say Let us do evil that good may come whose damnation is just That is why should God count them Sinners or punish them as Sinners that have been Instruments to serve his Providence This Objection some People make use of not only among Heathens but Christians you shall have them say I could not help it if God had not put me upon it I should never have done it I remember a Story of a Woman a Harlot that had three Bastard Sons which afterwards came to be very great and eminent Persons as Peter Lombard Gracian and Comestor and when afterwards she was come to Confession she said she could not confess her self sinful in this matter because her Sons proved all such brave Men. But I shall refute this Opinion by these Five Considerations First The Providence of God is not given to be the Rule of our Actions but his Commands the Rule of our Actions is his Command and not what he doth in his Providence as St. Austin saith We may will what God wills in his Providence and yet sin A Parent lies sick his good Son is troubled uses all means for his recovery God has decreed his Death he dyes the Son is troubled why the Son in all this does the Will of God tho' it do not agree with his Decrees so a wicked Son may wish his Father's death and God decrees it also he dyes yet tho' this Will in the Son was agreeable to God's secret and providential Will it is sinful The Rule of our Actions is not what God wills but what God has commanded us to do in his Word If God's providence would excuse Sin no wicked Men or Devils could have been guilty of Sin Secondly I answer Wicked men do not aim at the Glory of God in their Sins nor at the good God intends to bring about by them their aims are different from God's aim as herein Joseph saith to his Brethren Tou thought evil against me but God meant it for good Isa 10. the Prophet saith God would send a Heathen Prince against the hypocritical Nation of the Jews to punish them but 't is said He meant not so he doth not intend to do God's Work but all his End was to enlarge his Dominions Thirdly The Good that follows from wicked Actions is not a natural Effect of Sin but comes only from the over ruling power of God and so is meerly accidental to the Sin as for example Sin is directly naught no Creature can bring Good out of it when a man sins he is said to break God's Laws and so to reproach and dishonour God himself now if God contrary to the nature of Sin shall occasion Good by it Sin is ne'r the less Sin as for example Poison is ne'er the less Poison because a wise Physician knows how to make an Antidote out of it to expel Poison Fourthly It follows also that it is righteous with God to punish wicked men tho' they are Instruments to serve his Providence by their Sins God may use them and yet they deserve punishment because God punishes them for their evil Intentions and not according to the effect of their Sins Herod and Pilate and Judas all went to Hell when God had done with them so Absalom when God had by him punish'd David then he takes him away Lastly Doth not the Intention