Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	eternal_a	life_n	soul_n	14,602	5	5.1897	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01937	The man for heaven A sermon preached at the court to his Majesties houshold, anno Domini, 1637. By Iohn Gore, rector of Wendenlofts, and preacher of S. Peters in Cornhill, London.	Gore, John, Rector of Wendenlofts, Essex.	1639 (1639)	STC 12073; ESTC S103329	11,321	26

said of his Friend or Father Si bene essem sine te nunquam venirem ad te If I could bee well without thee I would never come at thee It is our illnesse and our weaknesse our lamenesse and our sicknesse that makes us to repaire unto Christ or else I am afraid wee would seldome or never come at him As for the Holy Ghost David cals him a Loving Spirit Psal 143. 10. a Spirit that loves the company and the conduct of a poore sinner let thy loving Spirit lead mee into the land of Righteousnesse it is not only a leading Spirit but a loving Spirit a Spirit that loves to lead us and to carry us into all truth into all goodnesse and to guide our sinfull feet into the way of peace wee read of divers that were condemned in Scripture for having to doe with Familiar Spirits and justly for what gracelesse wretches were they that durst bee familiar with those evill spirits that were the mortall enemies of their soules that durst to harbour those hellish Serpents in their bosomes that stung their Soules to death eternall And oh what a blessed and a happy thing it were if we were but halfe so desirous of the familiaritie and acquaintance of the Good Spirit as they were of the evill ones then as Iob speakes in the place fore-named Inde proventus erit bonus thereby good shall come unto thee Good to thy estate thou shalt prosper by it Good to thy children they shall flourish by it Good to thy name thou shalt have credit and reputation by it Good to thy body thou shalt have health and protection by it but speciall good shall come to thy Soule thou shalt have mercy and peace and salvation by it Thou shalt have his good Word to instruct thee his good Angels to guard thee his good Spirit to comfort thee and above all his good Kingdom to receive thee Therefore if thou lovest thy selfe and tenderest thy owne good let thy conversation with God bee Res familiaris a free a frequent and a familiar thing Lastly if wee take the originall word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the native and proper sense as it signifies the traffiquing and trading that one Merchant or one Citizen hath with another then it affords us this consideration That to converse or to have commerce with God is Res quest uosa the gainfulest trade and the richest marchandise under Heaven For if wee beleeve the Apostle Godlinesse is no vile commodity but exceeding gainfull yea gaine it selfe yea and great gaine too if not to the purse yet to the Conscience if not to the estate yet to the soule it is for it hath the promises not only of the life that now is but of that which is to come There bee many that say saith David Psal 4. 6. Who will shew us any good It is not the saying of one man or of some men but of many and of most men who will shew us any Good all their desire is to listen and inquire who can tell them of any good purchase any good bargaine any good fortune that may concerne them or come to their hands let the party that shewes it bee who hee will if hee shewes any good wee love him wee thank him for it Behold here is one Saint Paul by name that shewes us Summum Bonum the Greatest Good the truest and surest Gaine that is to be had in all the Christian World and that is to keep a Factory in Heaven as it were by the meanes and mediation of Jesus Christ to deale betwixt God and our own Soules in a secret and a sacred commerce to exchange our Prayers for his Favours our duties for his Mercies and so to drive a Spirituall trade in the City of God And this will bring us into such a way of profit that wee shall gaine Wisdome and Grace and Comfort and Credit in this life and a Crowne of Eternall Glory in the life to come and now judge your selves whether to have our conversation in Heaven bee not Res quaestuosa a gainfull thing I come now to the second generall proposition of my Text which is this How wee that live and converse upon Earth can bee said in proper sense to have our Conversation in the Heavens I shall answer it foure waies 1. Per Elevationem By lifting up our hearts and minds and Soules to God Wee read Levit. 11. 21. that those Reptilia those Fowls or other Creatures that crept on all foure were Abomination in Moses Law the people might not eat nor touch them but those that had legges and wings to leape withall and to lift up themselves from the Earth toward Heaven those were cleane in Gods account This was certainely a symbolicall type to signifie unto us that those Christians that are alwayes creeping as it were and crawling and groveling upon the Earth alwayes minding earthly things and setting their hearts upon the muck of this World they are uncleane and Abomination to the Lord But they that have the legges and wings of Faith and fervent Prayer to leape as it were from the Earth and to lift up themselves towards Heaven in their ejaculations and devotions to God they are those whom God accepts An Angell once cried Revel 8. 13. Woe woe woe to the inhabitants of the Earth Inhabitantibus non Accolis saith a Father not to the sojourners and strangers of the Earth as all good Christians are whose Home is Heaven and the Earth but a place of their pilgrimage for a time But the woes are to the setled Inhabitants of the Earth who so fixe their hearts on the Earth that they make it their Heaven like that Cardinall that would not change his part in Paris for his part in Paradise or like the Children of Reuben and Gad Numb 32. 3. that desired to make their stay on this side Jordan and let their brethren if they listed passe over into the Land of promise for their owne parts they liked well of the place where they were and did not desire to remove because it was a place fit for their Cattell In like sort they that make more account of their cattell than they doe of their conscience and doe more esteeme the pleasures and profits of a life temporall than the incomprehensible joyes of the life eternall they that so love the Earth that by their good wills they would not leave it for Heaven Woe bee to them three wayes first woe to them in life secondly woe to them in death thirdly woe to them after death or thus woe to their bodies woe to their soules and woe to both body and soule together in that woefull place of torment In a word therefore if we desire to escape this threfold woe and that it may bee well with us both here and hereafter let us doe by our af●ections as Husband-men do by their corne if it lie low in a damp room it is in danger to putrifie and corrupt and stink therefore

the end and consummation of thy life You know what our Saviour said to those Jews which beleeved on him Iohn 8. 31. Si manserit is in me If ye abide in mee then are ye my Disciples indeed They that only come to Christ and make profession of Christianity for a time and then like Demas fall away and embrace this present World these are but disciples in name only like Labans Images that were called Gods when they were but blocks Those and none but those are disciples in deed and in truth that do as their master did of whom it is said Philip. 2. 8. that Hee humbled himselfe and became obedient unto the death He was not only obedient in his death submitting himselfe to all the cruelty all the infamy all the extremity of pain and shame that God or man could lay upon him but He was obedient unto death that is as Beza expounds it unto his Dying day from the beginning of his Incarnation to the very end of his dissolution Here 's the Load-star that wee must all bee guided by let us beare the same mind and hold the same resolution that our Saviour did to become obedient to the death or as Iob speaketh Cap. 27. 5. not to leave our innocency till wee die then may we take it as an undoubted evidence and assurance to our soules that wee even wee our selves are of the number of those blessed Saints that have their conversation in the Heavens This is the first circumstance to bee considered that a mans conversation is Res continuata not a sudden or a momentarie but a constant and continued thing 2. A mans conversation is Res manifesta an open and a manifest thing the Conscience of a man that is secret knowne only to God but his conversation that is evident and apparent to the word So the meaning of the Text is that it is not enough for a man to have a care of his conscience inwardly towards God but he must have as great a care of his conversation outwardly to the World That like as it is said of our Saviour Luke 9. 53. They knew what hee was by his face because saith the Text his face was as though hee would go to Ierusalem So should a good Christian be known by his face that is by his outward carriage and conversation to bee one that is going to Jerusalem that is above If thou beest such a one let it be thy principall care to lead thy life in such a way as God doth best accept in the way of Godlinesse and honesty in the way of temperance and sobriety in the way of truth and sincerity that the World may see by thy life that as thou dost live and move in God so thou dost also live and move to God As Alexander once gave order that the Grecians and Barbarians should bee no longer distinguished by their garments but saith hee let the Greciens be known by their vertues and the Barbarians by their vices thus should a Christian bee distinguished from a carnall man not by his habit but by his heart not by his estate and condition but by his wisdome and conversation being such as St. Paul speaketh as becometh the Gospell Philip. 1. 27. The works of the flesh are manifest saith the same Apostle and so should the works of the spirit bee also As it is said of the Kings daughter Psal 45. 13. She is all glorious within and her cloathing also is of wrought Gold so should every Christian soule which is the Spouse of Christ and the daughter of the King of Heaven bee all glorious or rather indeed all gracious and all vertuous both within and without And as it is said of the Arke of God Exod. 37. that it was over-laied with pure Gold both within and without so should every Christian pray that he may have a good conscience as the overlaying of gold within and a good conversation as the overlaying of gold without providing things honest not only in the sight of God but also in the sight of men Rom. 12. 17. And this is the second circumstance to bee considered in our conversation namely that it is or ought to bee Res manifesta a manifest thing 3. A mans conversation is Res familiaris a friendly or a familiar thing You know there is no one thing that breeds so much entirenesse so much familiarity and acquaintance among all sorts of persons as living and loving and conversing together So the only way to bring a man into an humble familiarity and acquaintance with his God is to bee conversant in holy duties and to have his conversation in the Heavens It is the phrase of Iob and I do not remember that I find it any where but in that book Iob 22. 21. Acquaint thy selfe with God and thereby good shall come unto thee Asuesce cum Deo that is Accustome and inure thy selfe to walke with God as Enoch did to talke with God as Moses did to seeke the face of God as David did make nor thy selfe a stranger to God now lest he know thee not lest hee own thee not at the later day when thou and all the world will bee glad to claim acquaintance of Him But some may say What am I or what is my fathers house that I should dare to thinke of being acquainted with so great a Majesty as is the Lord that is too familiar a word I answer according to the common proverb volenti nonfit injuria That which is an injury to our thinking is no injury to him that is willing and desirous of it Now you shall observe that all the persons in the Blessed Trinity are so farre from taking ill at our hands that they do even desire and wish for sinfull mans societie God the Father he desires it Esay 1. 18. Come saith God let us reason together let us parley let us confer let us be familiar as it were and renew our old decayed acquaintance which hath slept so long and been so unkindly laid aside In the originall it is Adeste increpemus come let us chide together as one friend chides another for being strange and aloofe taking distaste without a cause And this is it makes God to chide us as he doth partly by word of mouth in the Ministry of his Word and partly by Act and Deed by sending his reall Judgements into the World to plague us for sinne which David calleth Increpationem Domini the chiding of God Psal 18. 15. and all for our aversenesse and aloofenesse in this kind that wee will not come at him to renew our acquaintance with him by a sound and serious humiliation as his mercy and our dutie doth require God the Sonne Hee desires our acquaintance likewise as you may read Iohn 5. 39. Yee search the Scriptures saith Christ and in them ye looke to have eternall life and yet ye will not come to mee that yee might have life We deale just with our Saviour as one