Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	hell_n	sin_n	sting_n	5,056	5	11.5139	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75308	The triumph of a good conscience. Or a sermon preached upon the 2. of the Revel. the latter part of the 10 verse. VVherein the nature of faithfulnesse is in part opened, and the doctrine of perseverance confirmed, and some cases of conscience cleared. / By Paul Amiraut, minister of the Gospel at East Dearham, in the county of Norfolk.	Amyraut, Paul, b. 1600 or 1601.	1648 (1648)	Wing A3038; Thomason E426_10; ESTC R204574	20,497	32

winds Therefore for God to bring forth judgement into victory this is victory indeed Chrysostome speaking of Enochs translation professeth that he wonders at nothing so much as this ☞ that Enoch with a body of flesh passing through the ayre which is the Divells territory and therfore he is called the Prince of the aire yet he should passe unmolested the Divell not throwing so much as a stone at the mud-wall of his body though he was his greatest enemie at that time even when he came jossling by and confronted him as it were in the place of his own dominion So it is a thing that may carrie us to the highest pitch of admiration to see a Christian passe through the hoasts of the Divells temptations with not only a body of dust which he may feed upon as a Serpent For dust is the Serpents meat but with a body of sin too which he may command as a Captain to fight under his hellish standard and yet to Come forth as Christ did out of Bozrah having his garment stained with the blood of his enemies Esay 63.17 c. His small and scarce appearing grace being like unto Ionathans arrowes which never returned emptie from the blood of the slaine and the fast of the mightie 2 Sam. 1.22 This is worth an Io paan and an Io triamphe Well may a Christian say in this case with the Apostle O death where is thy sting O Hell where is thy victory The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the Law But thankes be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Iesus Christ 1 Cor. 15.55 56 57. But sinnes of presumption doe not make way for such victories but on the contrary presumptuous sinners lye down at Satans feet as his bond slaves they are said to be overcome of sinne and to be taken Captives by Satan at his pleasure You therefore that pretend your sinnes are sinnes of infirmitie see whether you can shew the trophees and monuments of such spirituall victories as these are else you have some cause to suspect your selves It will not be sufficient in this case to alledge your forsaking of grosse sinnes as drunkennesse adulterie c. this doth not argue victory for these sinnes must not be subdued in a way of victory but they must be escaped in a way of flight And therefore you have that expression of Peter concerning some Apostates that had escaped the pollutions of the world and afterwards proved guilty of a Relaps Simele 2 Pet. 2.22 If an house were much infected with the plague though they were enemies an Armie of Soldiers would hardly compasse it about and lay sledge to it to subdue it but they would rather flie from it and keep a distance from it So such infections and pestiferous slnnes as these must be the obiect of our flight and not of our victories Neither can we be said to have escaped them by refraining from those sinnes unlesse also we avoid those occasions and appearances of evill that bring us neere them because they that flee from any thing must not come as neere as they can but must keep at as great a distance as they can For men to refrain from drunkennesse and yet follow tipling to professe to hate pride and yet delight in strange apparell to refraine from the act of uncleanenesse and yet to practise dalliance to abhorre Idolatry and to observe superstious Ceremonies is to come so neere those grosse sinnes as it cannot be said of us that we have escaped them And yet when we have thus escaped them we are not thereby in a capacitie to be crowned as spirituall Conquerors For the Apostates spoken of in that place of Peter had gone thus farre and yet afterwards made it appeare by their Apostacie that they never knew what it is to conquer sin But the subduing of our spirituall corruptions as our unbeliefe our spirituall pride vaine glory love of the world c. These are the victories wherby we must try our selves and unlesse we find that our sins have made a spiritual conquest of them it is to be feared our sins are not sins of infirmitie but sins of presumption 4. The children of Israel by reason of these Gibeonites could the better intend their higher imployments because they did their drudgery worke for them so whiles these sins of infirmitie doe keep the soul low in a way of humiliation and as it were help forward this submissive worke Christians that by are the better inabled to walke strictly and exactly in all the wayes of God Those that in the 7. of the Romans complain so much of the body of death which they carrie about them in the person of the Apostle Paul are such as walke not according to to the flesh but according to the spirit Rom. 8.1 If a man have a disease in his body that he is sensible of if it be but a weaknes or infirmitie and not a raigning disease hee 'l be very exact in observing the rules of his Physitian Simile set the most luscious meat before him if the eating of it should indanger the breking out of his disease he will not dare to tast of it and hee 'l be verie charie how he mistimes himself he will have a speciall care not to doe any thing that may give a vent to his trouble It is true notwithstanding all the care he can take his trouble will now and then break out but yet this is no supersedeas to his care but rather a whetstone of his diligence Indeed he that is sick of a burning feaver and such like diseases that have the upperhand of nature these doe make us carelesse of those things that belong to our health and cause us to pitch upon such things as doe feed our disease rather then upon such things as strengthen nature So here if thy sinnes be such as hinder thy exactnesse and cause thee to make provision for thy lusts they are sins of presumption but if they be such sinnes as are an occasion to further thy exactnesse and increase thy care to walke after the wayes of God if thou darest not neglect thy communion with God in prayer nor omit any duty nor walk excentrically to the rule of Gods word it is but an infirmity such a sinne as may very well stand and comply with the state of grace It is remarkable that the infirmities of the Saints have been chiefly discovered about those graces for which they have been most commended ☜ As Abraham is chiefly commended for his faith yet those infirmities of his recorded in Scripture as his carnall knowledge of Hagar his equivocating concerning nis wife Sarah were nothing else but acts of unbeleefe So Iob is chiefly commended for his patience yet all his infirmities we can read of were nothing else but acts of impatience what doth this intimate unto us but that the sight of their infirmities have taken advantage to studie the contrary

grace so much the more and advanced to so high a pitch in the practice of it that they did deserve rather to be commended for those graces then to be condemned for the contrary infirmities And if it be thus with us it is a good signe If thou beest addicted to pride and the sight of it makes thee to strive so much the more to be humble and to attaine to so much of humility that thou deservest to be commended for it rather then to be condemned for thy pride Thou shalt never stand indicted as a presumptuous sinner though thy sinnes may break out now and then And the like I may say of thy inclination to uncleannesse c. Fiftly and lastly The Gibeonites were enemies to the Israelites and yet carried the matter so that they made them believe that they came from farre So a sinne of infirmity is so neere grace that as Jacob and Esau strugled both in one wombe so do they conflict and grasple together in one soule yea in one and the self-same faculty of the soule There is never a sinne of infirmity but it is confronted by the contrary grace and that in the same subject yet Sathan puts such lies upon these sins of infirmity many times that they make us believe that there is a mighty distance betwixt us and grace and to call the truth of our conversion into question Thus David in the 77. Psal falling into a misprision of his estate and crying out as one that was cast out of Gods favour Simele in the 20. ver chargeth his infirmity with all Sin though but of infirmity will prove as a Thiefe in our candle it dimmes our light and steals away our love neither can I see how a constant and never interrupted assurance may comply with such a measure of sanctification as is yet imperfect whatever some may pretend to the contrary Now sinnes of presumption are quite contrary to this for though they are at a great distance from grace insomuch that he that is under the Dominion of those sinnes cannot justly claim the priviledge of a child of God yet Sathan put such lyes upon these sins that they make us believe that true grace they may very wel stand together according to that of Salomon Prov. 30. ver 12 There is a generation that is pure in their owne eyes though they be not cleansed from their wickednesse Thus the presumtuous sinner in the 29. of Deut. verse 19. will needes claime a right in Garizim the mountain of blessing when as notwithstanding he is bound to make his residence in mount Ebal the mountain of curses speaking peace to himself when yet he walks in the stubbornesse of his heart and the expression which the Holy Ghost addes is worth the observing it is said of him that he addes drunkenesse to thirst That is he doth as a drunkard Simele that is in love with drunkenesse and loath to pick a quarrell with it finding it to be loathsome and overcharging nature he doth therfore feed upon salt meates that may provok thirst that so his excesse in drinking may be the more pleasing to his Pallat and he through the abhorrency of nature may not be drawn to forsake it So a presumptuous sinner perswades himself of an interest in Christs death not as one that flees thither for refuge from the fury of the avenger of blood but as one that is loath to pick a quarrell against sinne which he knowes is terrible to the conscience and therefore might through the sting of a self-accusing spirit be imbittered unto him therefore he is desirous to perswade himselfe that because Christ died for sinners his sinnes will breake no square as if Christ did therefore come into the world to make sinne lesse dangerous then it was before and not rather to give us grace to subdue sinnes and to bring us to a greater measure of loathing and detestation of it as receiving a greater and more bloody tincture of guilt from his death then ever it could have had from the Law Heb. 10.28 29. Thus you see the differences betwixt sinnes of infirmity sinnes of presumption in which as I have eschewed the one extreme which is to strenghten the hands of the wicked so haue I laboured to avoid the other extreame in making the heart of Gods people sadd whom the Lord hath not made sadd Therefore come on you bruised reeds and smoaking flax which are so oppressed with the sense of sinne that you despise the consolations of the almighty come and view your selfe in this glasse and you shall see what little cause you have to bee dejected it is indeed a bitter thing to sinne against God but yet so long as your sinnes have not worse qualities then these aforementioned you have cause to lift up your heads and owne your evidences If your sinnes be so farre kept under as they are forced to officiate and help forward the worke of humiliation If they doe joyn with grace in the destruction of other sinnes for it is not unusuall for grace to call out a sinne of infirmity to perfect mortification If they give occasion to those spirituall victoryes which discover so much of the glorious power of God in the soule If they hinder not but rather further our exactnesse and lastly if they be such neer neighbours to grace as that grace and they may stand together in one subject Comfort thy self whatever the bulk of thy sin be thou hast not yet broke the Covenant and so long as Christ is the great Chancellour of Heaven and carryes a Chancery in his bosome thou shalt never take the foyle Indeed if thy sinnes beare the Eare-marke of Presumption I deare not open this City of refuge unto thee for God himselfe hath locked thee out so long thou continuest in that condition Deut. 29. ver 19. But yet for further satisfaction It will not be amisse to consider what to judge of those enormious sinnes of the Saints which are upon record Lots incest Davids adultery and murther and the like did they not break the Covenant in committing of them To this I answer That to break the Covenant is a sin unto death it is a spirituall adultery a forsaking of God that wee may goe a whoring after the Creature and into such sinnes the Saints of God cannot fall because the seed of God remains in them therefore they cannot thus sinne unto death I confesse these sinnes have a great deale of horror in them they are Sea-marks from which we must flee as their vertuous actions are land marks to which we must desire to approach in a way of imitation Nay if any one shall say that they did lye dead for a time without either the sense or use of grace I will not much gaine say him But this I confidently affirm that they were not radically dead that is they were not so dead but that there was a principle and roote of life left in them I may