Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	great_a	sin_n	soul_n	8,809	5	5.0614	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87093	The epitaph of a godly man, especially a man of God or, The happines by death of holines in life. Delineated in a sermon preached at the funerall of Mr Adam Pemberton late minister of the parish of St Fosters Foster-lane : who ended this mortall, April the 8th, 1655. and was buried in hope of an immortal life the 11th of the same moneth. / By Nath: Hardy M.A. and preacher to the parish of St Dionis Back Church.	Hardy, Nathaniel, 1618-1670.	1655 (1655)	Wing H720; Thomason E844_15	25,148	39

resembleth death to an haven into which when the ship enters she is past all the danger of rocks of sands of waves or windes to which she was continually lyable upon the tumultuous seas Indeed death is that which delivereth our bodies from pains and aches our eyes from tears and our hearts from sorrows and in this respect S. John calls them who die in the Lord blessed because they rest from their labours to wit all labour both of minde and body with which here they are oppressed The truth is many are the afflictions as of all men so especially of the righteous in this life They are sure to meet with persecution from wicked men for their righteousness sake as the tree is beaten with sticks for its fruits sake yea such is the rage of persecutors that they care not to what sorrows of hunger cold nakednesse imprisonment banishment want they expose them besides Almighty God is pleased to chastise them for whilst he lets others alone in sinne to exercise their graces by adversity whilst others enjoy prosperity but when death comes it sets them free from all as being the last chastisement which God doth inflict upon and the last mischief which wicked men can doe to the godly But these are the least of those evils from which death delivereth a believer there are evils of another an higher nature and as the sense of them is a sadder trouble so the deliverance from them must needs be a greater gain such are divine dereliction Satanicall temptation the wickeds conversation and sins infection 1. In this life the godly are oft-times enforced to goe mourning all the day long because God hideth his face many clouds interpose that they cannot behold the Sun of righteousness shining on them but when the winde of death cometh it bloweth all these clouds away and puts them in such an estate wherein there shall be no interruption of their comfort 2. Whilst we live on earth we must expect assaults from hell we walk here amongst snares nor are we at any time or in any place secure from Satans suggestions but death puts us out of his reach whilest our souls soare aloft and so are like the flying-bird out of the compasse of his snare 3. How we are forced to be as lillies among thorns wheat among chaffe and being thus mingled with the wicked we complain with David Woe are we that we must dwell in Mesheck and in the tents of Kedar but when we die we shall be separated from the ungodly so that they shall no longer be to us as the Canaanites were to the Israelies Thorns in our eyes and Pricks in our sides 4. Finally so long as we continue in this world the bur of corruption will cleave to us but death rids us of it according to that of S. Paul He that is dead is free from sinne In this respect death is fitly called by S. Ambrose Vitiorum sepultura the grave of our sins And by Gregory Nyssen {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the expurgation of wickednesse since till the vessell be broken the muddy water of corruption cannot be wholly poured out Consuit the experiences of the Saints and you shall finde them still complaining of spirituall conflicts with their corruption We are besieged on every side as S. Cyprian observes and Oh how often is a breach made upon us if covetousnesse be knocked down lust riseth up if lust be quelled pride starteth forth if pride be subdued anger exasperateth thus are we forced to a continuall strugling with our sins but when we die the combate ceaseth and as for the present we are not under sinne so then we shall be without sin or so much as the motions of sin Indeed it very observable that as death came in by sin so sin goeth out by death filia devoravit matrem the daughter destroyeth the mother nisi primi parentes peccassent non morerentur peccarent justi nisi morerentur had not our first parents sinned they had not died if we did not die we should not be without sin sin delivereth to death and death delivereth from sin and so that which was onely the punishment becomes the period of sinfull evill And surely as S. Ambrose occasionally speaking of these words saith Lucrum est evasisse incrementa peccati lucrum fagisse deteriora ad meliora transisse it is no small gain to avoid the increase of sin nay our Apostle uttereth these words saith S. Cyprian Lucrum maximum computans jam seculi laqueis non teneri jam nullis peccatis vitiis carnis obnoxium fieri accounting it the greatest gain no longer to be subject to the sins of the flesh and intangled in the fetters of the world indeed this is as in it self so in the estimation of every godly man the chiefest gain and no wonder if accounting sin to be the greatest evil he esteem this the chiefest priviledge of death more rejoicing that it putteth an end to his sinnings though they were never so small than to his sufferings were they never so great In fine death is both a totall and finall deliverance from all evils except it self from which also we shall be delivered by the resurrection in which respect an Antient saith elegantly It is unjust to call it a death rather a recesse from death a separation from corruption a freedome from bondage rest from trouble ease of labours ut in summa dicam omnium consummationem malorum yea the consummation of all evils And yet in all that I have said I have told you but one half and that the lesse half of deaths gain there is not onely ademptio malorum but adeptio bonorum a removall of evil but the presence of good and so positively To die is gain For though the happiness of our persons doe not presently follow upon death but the resurrection yet there is an happiness conferred upon our souls immediately after death and if you would know wherein this consists I answer 1. When we die our souls goe to paradise a place of rest and joy and comfort Our first parents were cast out of paradise that they might die and we die that we may goe to paradise The Poet saw this when he said Parte tamen meliore mei Though my body rot in the earth yet my better part shall be carried above the skies Indeed the souls of them that depart hence in the Lord are immediately received into those celestiall habitations 2. When we die our souls go to God and Christ in whose presence is fulness of joy this is the reason why Gregory Naz calls death a benefactour because it presently sends us to God our Apostle in the next Verse save one tells us He had a desire to depart and to be with Christ thereby plainly intimating that when be did depart hence he should be with Christ to wit in his soul and

am not unthankfull He conferreth on me grace for grace I return him praise for his grace He is for my deliverance I for his honour He for my salvation I in subjection to his will Thus it was with the Spouse and thus will it be with every Christian who duly pondreth upon the mercy of Christ towards him and hath his soul affected with love and gratitude to Christ To end this If there were not in us any spark of love to Christ yet even self-love cannot but strongly oblige us to live to Christ inasmuch as this is the onely honourable profitable and pleasurable life 1. No life so honourable as this all actions are dignified especially by the end to which they tend whence the more noble the intention the more noble the operation and what intention can be higher or end nobler than the glory of Christ this is that which by a strange activity turneth our earthly into an heavenly our naturall into a spirituall life which is the most excellent of all lives To live to a mans lusts debaseth his life and maketh it no better than bestiall to live to Christ exalteth it and rendreth it no lesse than angelicall 2. No life truly profitable but this the way to live to our selves is to live to Christ whilst he hath the glory we have the benefit and as his name is advanced so our good is advantaged There is a strange riddle and a seeming contradiction in those words of God by the Prophet Ephraim is an empty vine and bringeth forth fruit a vine is then said to be empty when it is fruitlesse and can that which bringeth forth fruit be said to be fruitlesse But the next words to himself unfold the riddle and reconcile the contradiction since the fruit which is brought forth to our selves is no fruit What he said of the day wherein he had done no good Diem perdidi I have lost a day that may we say in this case that day and time of our life is lost wherein we live not to Christ Finally this is the most pleasurable life free from those cares and feares distraction and vexation with which living to the world and our lusts is encombred full of those joyes and sweet pleasures and delights whereof all others are ignorant He that can say To me to live is Christ may say To me to live is peace of conscience contentment of minde and joy in the Holy Ghost In one word this is the onely way to make both our life comfortable and our death gainfull And so I am fallen on The other branch of this Text that which is here proposed by our Apostle concerning his death in those words To me to die is gain To die whether violently or naturally by sickness or a sword be the manner or means of death what it will it is gain not onely not injurious but commodious no hurt but profit no losse but benefit To me and all such as he was whether faithfull Ministers or good Christians Indeed this is primarily true of that dying to which S. Paul being now in chains at Rome might especially referre I mean a violent death for the cause of Christ by heathenish persecution And so this is true of the death it self and true Martyrs may say the very {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to die is gain to thm Indeed to die for Christ is both an honour and a gain an advancement and an advantage S. Paul in this very Chapter tells the Philippians it was given to them to suffer as if this were a special choice gift an extraordinary gratification conferred by God upon a man when he calleth him to suffer and especially death for his truth yea the death it self gaineth an increase of the reward and a further accession of glory In this respect our blessed Saviour saith He that loseth his life for my sake shall finde it which is in effect He that loseth shall not lose yea the very losing his life in this quarrell shall be an advantage to him whilest he shall finde that life which infinitely exceedeth this Mors quippe integriorem facit vitam mors magis deducit ad gloriam to use S. Cyprians expression such a death shall not onely accelerate but accumulate the glory of that other life But besides this speciall it is according to a right construction true also in a generall notion not onely of them that die for but all that die in the Lord that death is a gain to them onely with this difference to Martyrs their dying is a gain and all Christians gain by dying Indeed this gain is not a direct and proper but onely an accidental effect or rather a consequent of death not flowing from but following after it that which death in its own nature bringeth forth is evill it causeth not gain but losse depriving good as well as bad men of the sweet comforts of this present life but in regard of the good Christ hath by obtaining for them a life after death made death of a curse to become a blessing of a punishment a benefit of a departure an entrance and of a losse a gain thus as the waters of Marah were sweetned by the tree so is the bitternesse of death allayed the sting of it plucked out yea the nature of it changed by the crosse of Christ This being premised I shall intreat you to walke awhile with me in this pleasant field of deaths gain which I shall endevour to illustrate both absolutely and comparatively privatively and positively 1. This will appear to be a truth absolutely Death is a gaine to a godly man if you consider both the evils from which he is freed and the good things of which he is possessed 1. Privatively death is a gain to true Christians in respect of those various evils from which it delivereth The evils of this present life are of two sorts to wit temporall and spirituall from both which death delivereth Many are the miseries under which we groan in this life but Mors pro remedio so S. Ambrose death is a cure for them all In this respect it is that Seneca saith aptly it is Nullius mali materia multorum finis The cause of none but the end of many evils Upon this account it was that death hath been even by the heathens looked upon as an advantage When those two famous carpenters Agamedes and Trophonius had built a Temple for Apollo at Delphos they begg'd of him a Reward To whom this answer was given by the Oracle That it should be conferred on them within nine daies within which time they died And when Cydippe begg'd of Juno a boon for her two Sons Cleebis and Byto she found them in the morning dead in their beds as if the Gods could not bestow a greater benefit than death by which men are freed from the calamities of life In this respect Seneca's comparison is very fi● who