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	sin_n	wage_n	12,499	5	11.2125	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
a57873	Præterita, or, A summary of several sermons the greater part preached many years past, in several places, and upon sundry occasion / by John Ramsey ...	Ramsey, John, Minister of East Rudham.	1659 (1659)	Wing R225; ESTC R31142	238,016	312

and peremptory transgressors are sinners against their owne souls But how can this be may some men say seeing every sin is committed against God as the proper object it being nothing else then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a transgression of the Divine Law which is hereby injured and offended This is no Gordian knot that stands in need of the sword of Alexander to cut asunder The doubt is easily assoyled and wiped away with a wet finger for all sin is against God as the object against the soul of the sinner as the subject of it Against God for the dishonour the sinner for the danger against God as an offence the sinner for the guilt and punishment Three manner of wayes there are whereby men may be said to sin against their own soules Three manner of wayes 1. The purity of the soul 2. The peace of the soul 3 The safety of the soul First men sin against the purity of the soul for every sin hath a Macula a spot or stains not only adherent The purity of the soul but inhering also in the nature it makes an impression of a blot and blemish upon the conscience and after the manner of the Snaile leaves a slime behind it whereby it may be discovered and traced out There is not any noysomness or nastiness of nature that may compare with that of sin which is joined hand in hand with uncleanness There shall be a fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness Zach. 13.1 And goes under the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Pet. 2.20 pollutions or filthinesses in the plural number Hence is it compared to the loathsome vomit not of a man but dog to the durty mire and puddle wherein the unclean swine delights to wallow and welter it self The Dog is returned to his vomit and the Sow to her wallowing in the mire 2. Pet. 2.22 Sometimes we find it resembled by the unsavoury and poysonous damp which rotten carcasses exhale and breath forth from the open graves Rom. 3.13 elsewhere it is likened to the dirt filth that is gathered under the nails the stinking sweat of the body the very excrements themselves which nature severs from the purer nourishment and casts forth into the draught Saint James implies and intends as much in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness James 1.21 Secondly Men sin against the peace of their souls This being the grand incendiary that sets all on fire The peace of the soul and raiseth combustion both in the greater and lesser world the great make-bate and peace-breaker that divides betwixt God and the Soul Your iniquities have separated betwixt you and your God Isa 59.2 that divides betwixt the soul and it self as being the chiefest enemy to its own peace and comfort Vbi peccatum ibi procella Where sin goes before there a storm and tempest follow after no sooner was Jonah embarqued for Tarshish whether he fled through disobedience but forthwith God dispatched after him a blustering and a boisterous wind as a Pursevant purposely sent to arrest and attach him There is no peace saith my God to the wicked Isa 57.21 Thirdly Men sin against the safety of their souls The temporal and eternal safety For the wages of sin is death Rom. 6.23 The first The safety of the soul the second death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzen speaks of it and that by way of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being every way as due unto it as wages to the common Souldier There is not a presumptuous sinner but is a felo de se that in a most unnatural and desperate manner layes violent hands upon himself and is not onely accessory to his own ruine but the chief Actor and Author of it O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self Hos 13.9 Thou not I as is made good by the Antithesis But in me is thy help This is the true ground and reason of that passionate and melting wish of God in the behalf of his people Ezek. 33.11 As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live Turn ye turn ye from your evil ways for why will ye die O house of Israel That God who cannot die himself wills not the death of the wicked (a) Tertul. de Paenit cap. so he saith and swears as I live O faelices nos quorum causâ jurat Dexs O miserrimos si nec juranti credimus how happy men are we for whom God is pleased to swear how extremely wretched must we needs be if we will not believe him upon his oath Seek not death in the errour of your lives and pull not destruction upon your heads by the works of your own hands It is the wise mans counsel Wisd 1.12 what do wicked men but seek their own death in the errour of their lives What else do they but pull destruction upon their own heads by the works of their own hands What do they but perish wilfully and willingly through their own default for they are not inevitably compelled to sin by any outward force and violence nor are they any way necessitated by any fatal decree and destiny There is no predestination of men to sin but punishment no predetermining or preordaining to offend God by sin but to suffer for it as a just reward and recompence (b) Illius rei Deus ultor est cujus author non est Fulg. ad Monim lib. 1. Neq euim ipsa justitia justa dicetur si puniendum reum non invenisse sed focisse dicatur Justice it self should be unjust if God should be the avenger of that evil wherof he is the first Author should he make them guilty by his decree and then punish them for their guiltiness And as for those that maintain and hold that men are (c) Concil Arausic 2. Can. 25. Prosp pag. 902. predestinated to sin by an overruling and Almighty power if there be any that believe so great an evil non solum non credimus sed cum omni detestatione anathema illis dicimus We are so far from believing it our selves that we denounce the severest anathema and curse against such with all horror and detestation It is the Canon of the second Arausioan counsel and is reported by Prosper at the latter end of his Book 2. I come to the second proposition The second Conclusion the usurpation of the Priest bood under the law and the office of the Ministry under the Gospel is a sin against the soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is there that will mistake or miss the door and stumble at the very threshold ●et some such I meet with upon the first entrance into the point who take away the subject of the proposition and deny all usurpation me thinks I hear them buzzing and whispering in my ear yea rather lift

rendered in the Passive Act. 2.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be ye saved And the Apostle Saint Paul puts the matter out of question Eph. 2.8 By Grace ye are saved through Faith (e) Hoc est opus Dei ut credatis in eum quem misit ille Joh 6.29 Non dixit hoc est opus vestrum sed hoc est opus Dei ut credatis in illum quem misit ille ut qui gloriatur in Domino glorietur Aug. in Joh. Tract 25. not of your selves it is the gift of God This was the common opinion of the Heathen that there was a principle of vertue implanted in mans nature without going out of himself and borrowing ability from another (f) Deorum munus est quod vivimus nostrum quod faelicem Senec. That we live is the gift of God fancte vivimus Turpe est fatigare Deos Quid votis opus est Fac te Epist 31. that we live well is of our selves And to what end should we trouble and tire God with the importunity of our prayers Fac te saelicem Thou mayst be happy if thou wilt * Eum ut faceret homines liberos jecisse sacrilegos August de Cicer De civit Dei Lib. 5. Thus while they made men free they made them sacrilegious And there is much of the sume rank blood that runs in the veins of professing Christians the Pelagian and the Papist and if we compare the words of the Text with those that follow they will soon stop the mouth of both The Pelagian challenging Saint Pauls precept even at the first syllable Work out as a pregnant proof of the liberty of the Will And the Papist concluding the merit of Works from the working out of our salvation And yet both cunningly suppress what Saint Paul subjoins and immediately inferrs For it is God that works to will He doth not give power alone and leaves the will to elicite its own Act but works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where then is the Free will of the Pelagian And to do how then can the Papist evince their Works to be meritorious Let no man then put asunder these two parcels of Scripture whom St. Paul yea God himself hath thus joined together And as our Saviour speaks in another case Joh. 5.17 My Father works hitherto and I work so Gods working and mans working his efficiency and our concurrence and co-operation must both go hand in hand for though it be God that works the Will yet are not we stocks and stones that have no Will at all and albeit it be he that works the deed (g) Totum ex Deo non tamen dormientis non quasi ut non conemur non quasi ut non velimus Aug. de verb. Apost serm 15. Non quasi ut dormientes non quasi ut non conemur yet not that we should snort after the manner of sleepers (h) Qui fecit te sine te non justi●●cat te sine te Ibid. and no way second it with our endeavours That God who made us without us will not save us without us but we likewise must work out Secondly Necessity in the work the Act of working imports the necessity of the duty for the attaining of salvation as the end It is the speech of Eliphaz in Job 5.7 Man is born to trouble as sparks flie upward that is naturally and of their own accord And many men by nature are of an unquiet and restless disposition like unto Quick-silver that hath a principle of motion but not of rest Or as a Mill if no grist be cast into it it then grinds it self There is no earthly commodity that can be procured or purchased without the price of labour No penny can be expected at night unless men take pains in the vineyard and bear the burden and heat of the day Nor will the penny of eternal life be afforded upon other terms and conditions no salvation without working It is not enough to desire it and to let fall Balaams wish Num. 23.10 Let me die the death of the righteous and my last end be like his Yea it is altogether unreasonable and preposterous to bestow an hankering and faint velleity upon the end without the lawful use of the means Nor must we say of the water of Life as David sometime spake of the water of the well of Bethlem 2 Sam. 23.15.16 O that one would give me to drink of the water of the well of Bethlem which is by the gate But as the three mighty men brake through the Host of the Philistines and drew water and took it and brought it to David Even so we must not long and linger after Davids example O that some would give me to drink of the water of Life but we must break through all opposition and intervening difficulties that obstruct and block up the way and hinder us in the undertaking For as in nature the concupiscible and irascible faculties are both joyned and twisted together like to several threds of the same cord and cable in the inferiour and sensitive part of the soul So must the desire of the ultimate end be enforced and seconded with the use of the most propoitionate and proper means in the working out of our salvation God hath three several places in the World saith Saint Basil 1. Heaven that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods Store-house or Treasure the place of reward and recompence 2. Hell that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods Gaole or Prison where men are fast bound in chains of darkness 3. Earth a middle place betwixt both and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods Work-house for the working out of our salvation The necessity whereof is commended unto us under a threefold consideration First To evidence the truth of our profession to evidence and exemplifie the truth of our profession by the effects and fruits of it for as Faith justifies the person in the sight of God so do Works justifie our Faith in the eyes of men And hence it is that as Saint Pauls former Epistles contain confirm at large our entire justification by faith alone against the legal and Jewish Justitiary so the later Epistles of Saint James Peter and John precisely press and earnestly urge the exercise of Works and new obedience against the carnal Gospeller and loose Libertine as is well observed by Chemnitius It was a scornful Sarcasme that was cast upon the professors and profession of Christianity by him who was a second Elymas full of all subtilty and mischief that enemy of all righteousness Julian the Apostate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Gregory Nazianzen reports it You Christians have nothing else at your tongues end nothing in your mouths and hearts but Faith Faith Believe and then all is well And the selfe same charge and challenge that stale frump and jeer is renewed by our Adversaries of the Church of Rome the Papists who stick not to proclame us to the world with