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death_n hell_n sin_n sting_n 5,056 5 11.5139 5 false
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A12361 Iacobs ladder, or The high way to heauen Being the last sermon that Master Henry Smith made. And now published, not (as many forged things haue beene in his name) to deceiue the Christian reader, but to instruct and prepare him with oyle in his lampe, ioyfully to meete the Lord Iesus in his second comming. Smith, Henry, 1550?-1591. 1595 (1595) STC 22677; ESTC S122459 18,803 31

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come nigh them For Christ the very way truth and life it selfe hath tolde vs and therefore we ought to credit it He that heareth my words and beleeueth in him that sent mee hath euerlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but hath passed from death vnto life Lastly is not sinne a shrewd and sore enemie to encounter with I confesse it but to whome tell mee I beseech you euen to them in whose mortall bodies it raigneth to fulfill the concupiscences thereof To other in whom the ●oo●e of it is dead it is not so whether we respect this life or that which is to come for here the reliques of sinne are but as pricks in our sides to prouoke vs to better things and to stirre vs vp to hunger and thirst after righteousnes and for the life to come we shall be vtterly freed from the same and haue all teares wiped frō our eyes To bring all into a summe I say let all obiected be as true as any thing may bee yet all these and a thousand more such like are nothing to him that is in Christ. For the Apostle sayth There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus and it is hee alone that hath destroyed death and became sinne for vs that wee in him might bee made the righteousnes of God And surely such a one may in some good measure of comfort ioyfully say to the defiance euen of death it selfe and all other ghostly enemies whatsoeuer O death where is thy sting O graue where is they victorie The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the lawe but thankes bee vnto GOD which hath giuen vs victorie through our Lord Iesus Christ. Yea hee may say as the Saints and Martyrs haue sayd in the middest of fierie flames I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall bee able to separate me from the loue of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. Oh but death is terrible still I answer in such a cloud of witnesses and euidence of truth may I not in some sort and sense say O faithlesse generation how long shall I bee with you how long now shall I suffer you Is it fearefull to any but to a naturall man and to him that hath his felicitie here and in the things of this life Surely it is nothing terrible to him that is made a comfortable partaker of the fruits of the death of Christ who dyed and rose againe to the ende hee might destroy death and him that had the power of death euen the diuell himselfe But hel is horrible True but yet to thē for whom it is prepared but thou art in Christ exempted from it For why did he himselfe suffer hellish torments both in body soule to leaue the 〈…〉 to make it terrible or horrible to thee no but to free thee and all his from the feare of hell the feeling of euerlasting condemnation Oh but what shall I say touching my sin that is great and grieuous the peculiar wages of it is death eternall That is true in the nature of sin the iustice of God but with the Lord there is mercie that he may be feared Stand still a while and you shall beholde the great workes of God be not faithlesse but faithfull and beleeue the truth of the word What is more cleere then this where sinne hath abounded there grace hath abounded much more And though it be in a Prophet yet where haue we a more plaine plentifull or euangelicall promise then this Though your sinnes were as crimson they shall be made white as show though they were red as skarlet they shal be as woll If we haue the hād or writing of an honest man we think our selues bound to giue credit therto how much more shuld we beleeue the most true vnchāgeable word of the eternal To which not for any want in himself but by reason of the weakenes of our faith he hath bin willing the more aboundantly to shew vnto the heires of promise the stablenes of his coūcel to adioyne binde himselfe with an oath saying As I liue I wil not the death of a sinner yea I wil be merciful to their vnrighteousnes and I wil remember their sinnes and iniquities no more that so by two immutable things that is his inuiolable oath assured promise wherein it is vnpossible that God should lye we might haue strong consolation And as for these obiections or any the like what are they else but in trueth and substance the very euil reports that the spyes brought vpō the promised land And yet there was a very true testimonie giuen by Ioshua and Caleb yea the palpable proofes they had by the cluster of grapes and other things which they brought from thence were irrefragate witnesses Will you beleeue then because they are many that is flat poperie besides God forbiddeth vs to cleaue to a multitude to doe euill Will you feare thē because they are mightie That is to distrust God who is greater then al and to make them omnipotent which is blasphemie Wil you doubt because they double their assaults That is no end of temptation but this rather to ad an edg vnto our prayers that so through thē we may heare in our hearts that cofortable speech My grace is sufficient for thee my strength shal be perfected through weaknes And when we shall haue all our senses satisfied in the contrarie truth yea so farre forth as that our eyes may see our eares may heare our hāds may hādle the good things of God ouer and besides the faith we haue in him concerning them it is not grosse onely but impious not to beleeue But here in this life are many pleasures and certaine delights lawfull as houses friends wiues children goods honor and almost infinite such like That is very true but with this honie God inter●ingleth some gall least the soules of his seruants might run not to sin And who is he that can be ignorant of the vncertaine estate of al euery one of them Our friends fall away as a fruite that is ripe before his time or as the morning dewe Our houses are ouerthrowne and are like the ruines of a defaced hold not one stone of them being left vpō another Our wiues may be lewde in their lippes loose in their liues and wicked as was Iobs and wish vs to curse God die Our children not riotous only and disobedient but vnnatural also and rising vp against vs as Absalon The goods we possesse are not vnfitly by Salomon resembled to the Egle that taketh her to her wings flieth aloft into the ayre as for our honor which we make as it were some deitie vpon earth it is turned into shame in the twinckling of an eye or else forgotten as it had neuer been And wee