Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A85870
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XI choice sermons preached upon severall occasions. With a catechisme expounding the grounds and principles of Christian religion. By William Gay B.D. rector of Buckland.
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Gay, William, Rector of Buckland.
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1655
(1655)
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Wing G397; Thomason E1458_1; ESTC R209594
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189,068
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322
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fragrant field unto the Lord. I speak not this to perswade any man wilfully to make himself miserable for our Saviour himself hath pronounced it to be A more blessed thing to give then to receive Neither doe I speak to commend or justifie the counterfeit zeal of those that mock the world with a false shew of wilfull poverty whiles shutting themselves up in a Cloister that they may seem to forsake the world they do indeed enjoy it in all superfluity Or at the least the worst of their misery is no more then that which that holy man prayeth for Pro. 30.8 Give me neither poverty nor riches feed me with food convenient for me If they have no excesse they are sure to feel no want but to be sufficiently provided for both for back and belly so long as they live there and are they not then very zealous think you in binding themselves to such a misery But my speech is to hearten all those with comfort on whom God hath layd affliction that they may bee so far from impatience as rather to rejoyce in tribulation Rom. 5.3 because it was their Masters common lot and portion for the Disciple is not above his Master nor the servant above his Lord it is enough for the Disciple to be as his Master and the servant as his Lord. Yea not onely the afflictions of life but death it self and the grave should be welcom and acceptable to us for Christ also hath passed them and by suffering hath sanctified them unto us so that the curse of death is turned into a blessing and the grave is become a bed of rest Rev. 14.13 and that Prophecie Is 11.8 is fulfilled The sucking child shall play upon the holt of the Asp and the weaned child shall put his hand upon the Cockatrice hole There is now no danger to Gods children in the hole of death that is the Grave for death hath lost his sting and cannot hurt us so that we may triumph and say O death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law but thanks be to God which hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15. In the last place let us learn not onely to admire Christs love to us nor onely to love him again nor only to love those that are like to him in suffering nor onely to love his sufferings themselves but withall to hate sin which was the occasion of his sufferings Sin was the occasion of Christs sufferings for had not Adam sinned Christ had had no cause or need to suffer If therefore wee love him wee cannot chuse but hate that which was to him the occasion of such a miserable life and such a shamefull painfull and cruell death David 2 Sam. 23. being an high Captaine though he longed for the water of Bethleem yet would not tast it when hee had it because it cost his three souldiers the hazard of their lives thathe might have it Much more we being servile souldiers though our soules long for the sweet waters of sin yet should we forbear to tast it because it cost our high Captaine Christ not the hazard but the very loss of his life that we might not have it God shewed Moses a tree wherewith he might make the bitter waters sweet Exo. 15.25 but behold I shew you a tree wherewith ye may make the sweet waters of sin to become bitter Look upon the tree of Christ remember his Cross and the pains he suffered thereon and the false sweetnesse of sin will quickly vanish and ye shall rightly rellish the bitterness of it If the delight of any sinne offer it self unto you cast Christ his Cross into it do but remember his sufferings for sin and all sin will presently grow distastfull For how can it choose but be hatefull to us if we consider how hurtfull it was to him The Jews would not put those thirty peeces into their Treasury because they thought them to bee the price of blood Mat. 27.6 but therein I must say they were deceived for Judas for that money did rather sell himself and his own soul then Christ or Christs blood For Christ was sold before even God had sold him before to death for the sin of man For when in the fall of man the devil offered sin unto God then did God threaten Christ unto him namely That the seed the woman should break the serpents head Gen. 3. And had not Christ been so sold before to death for sin not all the treasure in Jerusalem nor in all the world could have bought him Seeing then that Sin was the true and proper price for which Christ was sold how unworthy are wee the name of Christians yea how much worse are we then Jews if we suffer this price of blood to come into the treasury of our hearts If therefore any motion of pride arise in thy mind answer and tell it thou art the price of blood If any temptation of lust be offered to thine eyes answer and tell it thou art the price of blood If any provocation of anger or revenge be urged to thy hands answer and tell it thou art the price of blood If any greedinesse of gain move thee to wrong or oppression answer and tell it thou art the price of blood And whatsoever sin thou art tempted to answer and tell it thou art the occasion of my Saviours death thou art the price of Christs blood thou mayst not therefore come into the treasury of my heart O blessed Lord and sweet Saviour we do even with astonishment admire thy passing great love towards us we pray thee also by the fervent fire of thy great love that is upon us to kindle in us true love to thee again yea to all that are like thee in thy sufferings yea to thy sufferings themselves that we may patiently bear them whensoever they befall us But make us truly to hate sinne that was the occasion of thy sufferings We beleeve O Lord that by thy blood thou hast washt us from the guilt of sin wee beseech thee also make us more and more effectually find and feele that by thy spirit thou doest purge us from the love of sin that so our consciences may be comforted in all our life and especially in our death and our soules and bodies eternally saved in the life to come by and thorough thy all-sufficient sufferings and satisfactions For which unto thee with the Father and the Holy Ghost three persons one eternall God wee render all possible praise and thanksgiving and desire all honour and glory might and majesty may be ascribed for ever and ever Amen Finis Serm. 2. Trino-uni gloria Per me Gulielmum Gaium Martial At male si recites incipit esse tuus A SERMON preached at the Visitation held at Campden May 4. 1636. Text. JOH 13.17 If ye know these things blessed or happy are ye if ye doe them
may truly use Jacobs words here and say This is none other but the house of God and this is the gatef heaven Gen. 28.17 Two things we may especially observe in the Text the matter and the manner the substance and the circumstance of the businesse here related The matter and substance is the coming and appearing of the Holy Ghost in sensible forms The circumstance is manifold chiefly it may be referred to the time when and the persons to whom this apparition was made With these points of the circumstance I will begin so to make way to the substance of the matter which is the larger and weighter point and part First then for the time And when the day of Pentecost was fully come This day as it is commonly held was the day of the publishing the Law upon Mount Smai In memory whereof the Jews kept a solemn feast which they commonly called The feast of weeks Deut. 16.10 It got also this name Pentecost because of the number of fifty being fifty daies after their Pascha the fiftieth day after their coming out of Egypt they received the Law and that day they kept this holy feast in remembrance thereof And this day was the fiftieth after Christs resurrection For it is plain that Christ suffered on the Jews preparation day of their Passeover and that the Passeover that year fell on the Sabbath which is therefore called An high day or the great Sabbath Joh. 19.31 and that they reckoned their fifty daies from the first of or after the Sabbath Lev. 23.11 15. which was Christs rising day the first day of their week So then this Pentecost was the fiftieth day from their Passeover exclusively and the fiftieth from Christs resurrection inclusively What then Behold the truth answerable to the figure that shaddow fulfilled in this substance As on the fiftieth day after their Passeover and their deliverance from corporall bondage under Pharoah they received Legem timoris the Law of fear upon Mount Sinai so on the fiftieth after day the accomplishment of our Passeover the Lamb of God slain and risen and our deliverance from the spirituall bondage under Satan we received Legem amoris the Law of love upon Mount Sion For Christ also is a Law-giver even the giver of a new Law as he himself speaketh Joh. 13.34 A new commandement give I you What That ye love one another Which yet is not a new or another Law but the fulfilling and consummation of the old Love is the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.10 The end of the commandement is love 1 Tim. 1.5 This Law was given when the Holy Ghost was given For the fruit of the spirit is love Gal. 5.22 The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy Ghost Rom. 5.5 God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of love 2 Tim. 1.7 This is that Law of liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free Gal. 5.1 Free in regard of the outward man because the inner man is accepted In my mind I serve the law of God though in my flesh the law of sin Rom. 7.25 Free not in the tie of obedience which is still upon us but in the tax of disobedience that is punishment which he hath taken from us Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us Gal. 3.13 Well then brethren ye see your calling the sum of all is love Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart love thy neighbour as thy self the sincerity of the inside Truth in the inward parts Psal 51.6 For he is an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile Joh. 3. 47. Truth of heart supplyeth defect of hand for ye are called into liberty Gal. 5.13 The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath freed us from the law of sin and death Rom. 8.2 And where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty 2 Cor. 3.17 Stand fast therefore in this liberty of love Gal. 5.1 As free and not having the liberty for a cloak of malitiousness but as the servants of God 1 Pet 2. Not usin your liberty as an occasion to the flesh but by love serve one another Gal. 5 13. For indeed Love is the bond of perfectness Col. 3.14 binding not onely us one to another for the unity of the spirit is in the bond of peace Eph. 4.3 but binding us unto God and God unto us For he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him 1 Joh. 4.16 and that not for a time but for ever For this Law is not written with ink or in tables of stone corruptibly but in fleshly tables of the heart yea in the immortall table of the soul incorruptibly For though tongues cease or knowledge vanish away yet love never falleth away 1 Cor. 13. Now abideth Faith Hope Love but the chief of these is Love For Faith apprehendeth the promise hope attendeth the matter but Love sealeth and assureth confirmeth and strengtheneth both Again this coming of the Holy Ghost was the fiftieth day after Christs Resurrection and therefore the tenth day after his Ascension for he ascended not till the fortieth day Act. 1.3 and then he made his last promise of this which he now performed Ye shall be baptised with the holy Ghost not many daies hence Act. 1.5 He deferred it till the tenth day and on the tenth day he fulfilled it He deferred it till the tenth day that they might be exercised with expectation and whetted with delay For Gods delaies are nothing else but whettings His delay of judgements to the wicked is a whetting of his anger For if a man will not turn he will whet his sword Psal 7.13 Yea he will fourbish it that it may consume Ezek. 21.28 But his delay of grace to his children is a whetting to their zeal For the Physitian by restraint of dyet gaineth stomack health and strength unto his patient And God who best knoweth what is best for us by denying or by deferring grace oftentimes gives grace unto his children Else why did not St. Pauls threefold petition prevaile for his deliverance from that buffeting messenger of Satan but that he might receive a sufficiency of grace to strengthen him 2 Cor. 12. And else why did the prayer of the woman of Canaan suffer likewise a threefold repulse but even to whet her importunity and constancy that at the last she might receive that acclamation O woman great is thy faith Mat. 15.28 Again as untill the tenth day so no longer then the tenth day did Christ defer his promise but on that day he did fulfill it for God is not slack as some men count slackness 2 Pet. 3.9 Not so slack as to forget his promise Hath he said and shall he not doe it hath he spoken and shall he not accomplish it Numb 23.19 No but heaven and earth shall sooner passe away Patientia est non negligentia Aug. de ver ap ser 20. then one