Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	good_a	life_n	sin_n	13,827	5	4.6650	4	true

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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

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.

require us To cleare this more fully in two particulars 1. We must begin betimes to make our selves ready It is an undoubted maxime in re necessaria non d●u deliberandum where the matter is clearly necessary to dispute much or deliberate long about it is both needlesse and dangerous nothing of more needfull concernment or greater importance to every one of us than the being ready for Christs coming surely then just it is we should set about it presently and make it our first businesse Almighty God in his sublime speech to Job saith concerning the warlike horse that he smelleth the battell afarre off what nature teacheth him let grace us to smell that encounter we must have with death afarre off long before at least in probability it will come and that is in the dayes of our youth The life of man is not without good reason compared to a night Now among the Jewes there were foure watches in the night the first was called Conticinium when all things are silent the second Intempestum the unseasonable time of midnight the third Gallicinium which began at the Cock crowing the last Antelucanum about break of day by these foure watches of the night are morally resembled the foure ages of mans life Child-hood Youth Man-hood Old age and it is worth our observation that when Christ speaketh of our being ready for his coming he mentioneth onely the second and the third watch Thophilact's reason I confesse is most probable because the second and third watches are as it were the dead time of night when most men are in their soundest sleep so that he that is wakefull in those watches may be presumed not to sleep in the first and fourth and so to be ready in the second and third is as much as to be alwayes ready but there may be another apt allusion to our particular purpose as for the first watch he mentioneth it not because Child hood is in no capacity of performing this duty though even then it concerneth Parents to make their Children ready by bringing them to the Holy Sacrament of Baptisme and as for the fourth watch of Old age he specifieth not that neither because Rarissimi sunt qui ad extremum vitae differentes bene operari inveniuntur ita facientes They are very rare who are found ready at Christs coming and yet have not begun before the fourth watch Let it then be our care to begin at the third watch of Man hood nay sooner at the second watch of Youth to prepare and provide for Christs coming Happy is that man who fitteth himself for dying so soon as he cometh to know that he liveth and consecrateth the beginning of his rationall life to a religious Meditation of his mortall end 2. We must hold out to the end of our dayes in this ready posture daily endeavouring greater measure of preparation Those two excuses will be found alike invalid whensoever Christ cometh Fuisse futurum esse I resolved to be ready hereafter and I was ready heretofore since it is neither what thou wouldst be nor what thou hast beene but what thou art when death cometh Unbend not then the bow of thy pious endevor till the string of thy life break cease not running the race of piety till thou art put out of breath be alwaies preparing to meet Christ till he come to thee It is to this purpose well observed what a difference there is between the other life and this as to that life it will be sufficient bene incipere to begin well if we can but enter into that joy of our Lord it is enough he that is once entred into a possession of that blisse shall goe no more out but as to this present life the great care is bene finire to end well since incassum bonum agitur si ante vitae terminum deseratur That work is begun to no purpose which is left off before it is finished no● can this work of preparation be finished till life be ended But it may perhaps and not improbably be objected even by good Christians Alas the practise of this duty in this extent is impossible who is there that can at all times so order his conversation as to be ready for his dissolution We meet with many remora's to stop us in many avocations to turne us aside from this work the labour of our callings the care of our families lawfull recreations many worldly businesses take up our time so that we cannot alwayes be at leisure to thinke of and so provide for Christ's coming To resolve which doubt be pleased to take notice of a double preparation for the coming of Christ to wit habituall and actuall Actuall readinesse consists in the exercise of those spiritual graces and practise of those religious duties which are fit for us to be conversant in at the time of our death such as are selfe examination penitent humiliation believing invocation charitable condonation and the like and truly thus to be alwayes ready is not possible nor requisite It is not possible for our natures which at best are but in part renewed to be wholly taken up with divine performances nor indeed is it requisite since God hath given us time for secular as well as spirituall businesses yea for recreation as well as devotion and if Christ shall come by death to us when about our civill callings or lawfull refreshings our condition were not therefore to be adjudged desperate Indeed on the one hand because death may come at such times it should be our endeavour as much as may be to carry about us heavenly hearts in our earthly employments and on the other hand because the best of us are too deficient in this kinde we may nay ought to beg of God if it be his will that death may rather finde us praying than playing in our chambers than in our shops about devout exercises than worldly businesses In this respect that prayer of the Church From sodaine death good Lord deliver us which by our arrogant novelists among other passages of the lyturgie is causelesly denyed is fit to be made not onely by the worst but by the best of men to whom death may be and many times is so sodaine that they cannot be in an actuall readinesse for it and therefore if it be as doubtlesse it is a very desirable thing to have space before our death of renewing our faith repentance and charity yea and of expressing all these for the comfort and benefit of others that belong to us it must needes be a fit request for all Christians to put up that they may be delivered from sodaine death But besides this actuall there is an habituall readiness which referres not to the action but the disposition the exercise but the state of the person so that he who is by faith engrafted into Christ and by the spirit regenerated to a lively hope and so in a state of grace is

habitually ready for the coming of Christ according to this sense Brugensis with others giveth the interpretation of this text Paratus est qui semper eo statu consistit quem dominus requirit qui semper eum vitae tenet statum qui deo gratus He is ready who is in that estate which is required by and will be acceptable to Christ when he cometh to call him And thus it is our duty to be alwayes ready not daring to live in a state of impenitency yea to give God and our selves no rest till we have in some measure made our peace with him through Christ Looke as when we are enjoyned to pray continually the meaning is not that we should be alwayes upon our knees in the continued exercise of that duty but that we should be frequent in the work and have a minde disposed to pray upon all occasions so when we are enjoyned to be alwayes ready for death it is not that we should be continually in the practise of those duties which are proper for a dying man but that we should every day set some time apart for those exercises and alwayes be in a regenerate condition having the graces of faith and repentance really wrought in our souls By this time I hope you see what the duty is which here our blessed Lord calleth upon his Disciples to perform what remaineth but that I now after Christs example endeavour to presse the practise of it upon you And indeed so much the rather because it is that wherein I feare the most of us are miserably deficient It was Tertullian's Character of the Christians in his time that they were expeditum morti genus a sort of people prepared for death and that not onely naturall but violent and so in that sense which S. Paul speaks of high concerning himselfe when he tells his disconsolate friends that he was ready not onely to be bound but to die for the name of Jesus Act. 21. 13. But alas of how few Christians in our dayes can this be truly said and that in the lowest sense the most being so farre from a readinesse to lay down their lives in suffering for Christ that they are not in a readinesse to meet Christ if he should come in an ordinary way to take away their lives Alexander cashiered that souldier who had his weapons to sharpen when he was to goe to fight But Lord how many Christians in name have the worke of preparation to begin when their lives are almost at an end never thinking of doing good till the opportunity of doing it be past Suppose beloved our Lord Christ should now come against this City as he did once against Hierusalem to take vengeance on it and destroy it in what an unprepared condition should he finde the greatest part of the inhabitants some sporting with their wantons others burying themselves in their chests of gold some quaffing in their riotous bowles others belching out blasphemous oathes the most wallowing in some wickednesse or other Nay to come nearer suppose Christ should come by death to any of us here present this night this evening this houre are we ready for him could we give up our accounts with joy and look him in the face with comfort I feare the most of our Consciences tell us we should not be able to doe it Receive then I beseech you a seasonable word of advice and think for so indeed it is that what Christ here saith to his Disciples he saith to all Bee you ready And which should render this duty so much the more acceptable to us it wants not a therefore to enforce it indeed there are many and those weighty motives which may very well inferre the performance of this duty as not onely usefull but needfull to be done and that at all times For consider 1. The Son of Man will certainly come at some houre or other Bee you therefore ready In other matters we provide for those things whereof we have at most but a probability no certainty The Husbandman plougheth and tilleth and soweth his ground against the next yeare when yet he is not sure to reap the fruit of his labour Parents lay up Riches purchase Lands build Houses for their Children though they are not sure they shall enjoy them shall we provide for what onely may be or at most is but likely to be and take no care to prepare for what shall certainly be That rich man in the Gospel might well be called a foole when as he took so much care to build large Barnes and lay up Goods in those barns as a provision for the uncertaine years of his life but regarded not to make ready for his grave which he knew to be certain and proved to be so near Oh let not us incur this brand of folly by the like incogitancy 2. At what houre the Son of Man will come you cannot certainely know Bee you therefore ready nay alwayes ready It is true Christ will come nay he hath told us he will come no doubt for this reason that being praemoniti we may be praemuniti having notice of we may provide for it but when he will come he hath concealed from us and doubtlesse for this cause that we might alwayes stand upon our guard and be ready for him If thy enemy shall say to thee at such a time in such a place I will meet you it were enough to be ready at that time but if he say where or whensoever I meet you I will set upon you it concerneth to be alwayes armed for him Such indeed is both the wisdome and goodnesse of our blessed Lord that he hath forewarned us of the thing not of the time that knowing he will come and not knowing when we may be continually prepared It was the policy of Julius Caesar never to acquaint his Army before-hand with the time of their march Ut paratum momentis omnibus quò vellet subito educeret that they might be ready to march upon all occasions Such is the wise dealing of Christ with us and that for our good not revealing to us the time of our death that we may never be secure And therefore to use Aulus Gellius his comparison as a fencer not knowing at what part of his body the Antagonist will aime composeth his body and holdeth his weapon so as he may readily defend any part so must we not knowing in what day of our life Christ will come so order our wayes that we may be fitted whensoever he shall come unto us 3. There is no houre of your life wherein you can assure your selves that the Son of Man will not come Indeed as no place can exempt from death's approach it may come to thee in the Church in the Street in the Shop in the Field as well as in the Bed so no time can priviledge from death's arrest in the night as well as in the day in youth and manhood as