Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	law_n	power_n	sin_n	15,642	5	5.6422	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88663	The king of terrors metamorphosis. Or, Death transform'd into sleep. A sermon preached at the funeral of Mrs. Elizabeth Nicoll, daughter to that worthy, eminently pious, and charitable citizen of London, Mr. John Walter deceased, and late wife of Mr. William Nicoll of London draper. By Thomas Lye rector of Alhal. Lumbard-street, London.	Lye, Thomas, 1621-1684.	1660 (1660)	Wing L3538; Thomason E1053_4; ESTC R207978	20,527	31

after a continuance in this Baca of teares and not desire rather to enter into our Rest Shew me a man that ever truly knew what life was and was loath to leave it and I le in him shew thee a prisoner that blesles himself in his fetters a slave that likes his chains and gally 2. There is all that in a Believers death that may tempt and inflame his desires 'T is that to a Believer which a night of rest is to the weary Labourer 2 port to the weather-beaten Mariner freedom to the fetter-gal'd Prisoner the marriage-day to the loving Spouse the day of coronation to the king Why then should not a Saint conclude with Vid Bressius Oh that my soul had the wings of a Dove to fly and make hast to that mountain of God and Paradice of eternal pleasures Or with that aged Father in Austin who when his friends endeavouring to comfort him on his bed of sickness told him they hoped he should recover answered If I shall not die at all well but if ever why not now Oh then Believers pant after an holy and an happy dismission never cease tutoring and screwing up your souls till in Gods strength you can resolve that if you might die to day you would not choose to live till to morrow Never think your souls in an hail condition so long as you are 10th to think of dying Take this only comfort from the prolonging of your dayes not that you live long but that you are in a sphear of doing your own and others souls more good and bringing your God more glory And because the quelling of the slavish fear of death and rendring of a Believer willing to depart is a business of such grand concernment give me leave to prescribe a direction or two viz. 1. If ever you desire that death should not be your fear but gain and so desirable be sure to make Christ your life This was Pauls method Phil. 1.21 23. He that would sleep in Jesus must live to him Labour to be acted by the Spirit of Christ and the immediate fruits thereof viz. faith love filial fear as thy principle Rom. 8.14 Gal. 2.20 steer by Christs word as your Compass your Rule Canon Gal. 6.16 Level at Christs glory as your highest end 1 Cor. 10.31 Our life as it gives way to death so it must make way for it As the tree falls so it still lies and as it stands so usually it falls If ever we hope to sleep sweetly in death we must walk fruitfully in life 'T is the sleep of a labouring man that is sweet Eccles 5.12 To live holily is the only way to die happily Mark the upright man and behold the just for the end of that man is peace Psal 37.37 2. Fix your eyes on the death of Christ Christ by his death hath wholly routed yea conquered death Christ precious body lying in the grave hath sweetly perfumed that house of corruption Christ by his death hath cut off all deaths succors Whereas death borrowed its sting from sin its strength from the law and curle of God Christ hath disarm'd them all of their destroying killing power 1 Cor. 15.56 So that now as he falsly thou mayst say truly the bitterness of death is past 3. Act and exert Faith to the uttermost Quartan Agues are not so much the shame of physick as the fear of death is of all natural skill and valour This is Faiths proper evil Faith alone professes this cure undertakes it and performs it throughly Faith is that that can turn fears into hopes sighs into songs tremblings into exultings Faith singles out this Giant as her chief prize and grapples with him not as a match but as a vanquisht underling sets her foot on the neck of this King of Terrors Faith concludes that a Christ hath taken all the poyson out of the cup of death and made it an wholsom potion of immortality to his people so that now their death is nothing else but the funeral of all their sins cares and sorrows and the Resurrection of their true joys and comforts 3. Is a Believers death a sleep Be exhorted to that high and Honourable duty of serving your generation before you fall asleep So did holy David Acts 13.36 write after his Copy 4. Is a Believers death no more then a sleep Adore and bless the infinite mercy and goodness of the Lord Jesus who by his death hath quite pluckt out the sting of death and soaltered both its name and nature That which was once a grim death is now to you nothing more then a sweet sleep 5. Is a Believers death a sleep Oh then prepare for death Sleep steals and creeps upon us unawares so does death To day therefore while it is called to day Boast not thy self of to morrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth Prov. 27.1 Thou wilt repent to morrow But what if this night thy soul should be taken from thee Luk. 12.20 Hast thou not heard of fishes taken in an evil net and of birds that are caught in a snare so are the sons of man snared in an evil time when it falleth suddenly upon them Eccles 9.12 To this end 1. Live in a constant and serious [z] Gaena Damitiani sunebris Et AEgytiorum Sceletus inter pocula meditation of approaching death This was that which Meses so earnestly plies the Throne of Grace for Psal 90.12 So teach us to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom Plato's Philosophy in this was true Divinity The whole sum of a wise mans life is the commentation on his death Not every sleet and stitting flash but a frequent deep and sixed Contemplation This was that which saved the soul of the young Prodigal who for several dayes an hour together sixt his eyes and thoughts on the ring with a deaths-head given him by a friend on that condition Ortelius reports of some people that they thought this duty so necessary that they used the bones of dead men instead of money that death might be continually in their eye Those sunera Pacuri are of remark in story He was used every night to be carried to his chamber as to his [a] Sie ordinandus est dies omnis tanqua vitam consum met Seu. grave and the word at the close of the solemnity was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Look not on death at a distance as that that shall come certainly but as that that may comesuddenly Look on every day as thy last Do not as those that have set dayes of truce and peace in which they hang up their Armes a rusting and do not watch their beacons But rather as those that live in perpetual hazard of war and of the enemies inroad Have all things in daily readiness for service at half an hours warning on the least alarm Stand as it were centinel with musket loaded match lighted piece cockt ready to discharge Live not one hour

come Isai 57.1 A Believers grave is nothing else but one of Gods privy Chambers where he is hid from the indignation to come Isai 26 20. 2. Private and Personal No trouble no oppression no persecution no racks no strappado's in the Grave The voice of the oppressour is not heard there Job 3.18 This life indeed is a cloudy blustring passage to Gods Jonahs but death is that Whale which doth not so properly swallow them up as carry and convergh them 't is indeed both their Ship and Pilot to conduct them safe to shoar Poor Saints here they are usually the worlds Gally-slaves this lower Orbe is to them but a larger kind of Tunis of Argier but they are manumitted there Their death ransomes them Here they are at the foot of every bloody Bonner Gardiner Nero Trajan Dioclesian Julian but death sets them out of gun-shot The rod is taken off their backs and a palm put into their hands Rev. 7.9 14. There Peter no more feares the Crosse Paul the Axe James the Sword Isaiah the Saw Elijah Jezebel the noble Army of Martyrs the Cole-house Dungeon Halter Faggot Flames Hence Cyprian when dying God be thanked for this Goal-delivery And I. Buisson Now shall I have a double Goal-delivery one out of my sinful flesh another out of my loathsome dungeon 3. From all bod●ly [o] Hic quot venae tot morbi weakness infirmities pains griefs passions [p] Diu vivere nihil aliud est quàm diù torqueri Aug. miseries By reason of these Saints whilst here are subject to panting hearts moistned eyes blubber'd cheeks Here usually ashes are their bread and tears their drink Here the Saints life is usually so miserable that 't is an observation of Hierom and the resolution of an ancient [q] Christus non ploravit Lazarum mortuum sed ad hujus vitae arumnas ploraevit resuscitandum Concil Tolet. 3. Councel concerning Jesus his weeping over Lazarus John 11.31 That it was not so much a grief for Lazarus his death as the consideration of his [q] Christus non ploravit Lazarum mortuum sed ad hujus vitae arumnas ploraevit resuscitandum Concil Tolet. 3. raising again to a miserable life that drew those tears from our Saviours eyes But now Death wipes every tear from a Believers eye Rev. 7.17 sorrow and sighing do then fly away Rev. 21.4 Death is the great Catholicon panacea salve for all sores the reall and lasting cure of all the Saints diseases maladies infirmities So that good man Laverock comforted his fellow Martyr John ap Rice Come saith he be of good comfort Brother for my Lord of London is our good Physitian He will soon cure thee of thy blindness and me of my lameness this day 4. From sin He that is dead is freed from sin Rom. 6.7 From their own sin and from the sins of others 1. From their own sin and that both as to its guilt and silth 1. From the guilt I mean the sense and apprehension of guilt Poor Believers whilst here many times lie under the stabs and throws of a wounded Con●cience their souls stricken through with Gods venemous Arrowes and made as it were dizy with the wine of astonishment As they are forced to lye down in sorrow so they fear they shall rise up in Flames This was the case of Heman Asaph c. Many very many of the children of Light whil'st here walk in such darkness Isa 50.10 But now Death delivers them from this midnight darknesse brings them into the face and presence sets them under the beams of the Sun of righteousness which shall never more be clouded Not a wrinkle more now for ever to be seen on Gods face not the least frown on Gods forehead Every score quite blotted out every debt cancelled and they no lesse fully the freely acquitted and discharged Jeremiah 31.34 2. From the raging power yea from the polluting pestring presence of sin Poor Saints here labour under the intollerable burthen of a corrupt heart and sinfull life How was Paul prest opprest with that weight that mountain the law of his members warring against the law of his mind This makes him cry out likea forlorn Caitif 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O wretched man that I am Rom 7.24 Paul that could rejoyce in tribulation could not but mourn under corruption This was that made the good man cry out Libera me a malo hoc est a me ipso Domine This made holy Bradford bewail himselfe as the living Christians of old when tied to dead carkasses But now when once death comes it soon knocks off these shackles takes off these weights that so easily beset us As the Martyrs formerly cheered themselves against the rage of their bloody persecutors Oh brethren said they our persecuters are sending of us thither where we shall never offend God more Death spares not one Agag alive Every Canaanite slain Every Egyptian drown'd Those corruptions they have seen to day they shall see them no more for ever Death presents them without spot or wrinkles Eph. 5.27 Totally frees them not only from the power but presence of sin The end of their living is nothing less then the end and period of their sinning 2. From the sins and corruptions of others Here the sinfulness and pollution of the times and places wherein Saints live specially of persons neerly related to them makes their lives grievous and is as it were a Coloquintida in the pot of their sweetest comforts Lots righteous soul vext with the Sodomites 2 Pet. 2.8 Rebeccah weary of her life because of the daughters of Heth Gen. 27.46 Woe is me saith David that I must dwell in Mesech Psal 120.5 Oh that I could leave my people saith weeping Jeremy Jer. 9.2 But now 't is not the least part of our happinesse by death that it brings us there where there are no ill neighbours There shall enter in nothing that defiles into those holy Mansions Rev. 21.27 Corrupt flesh and blood shall not cannot enter into the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 15.50 5. From temptations Satans winnowings buffetings solicitations to sin Here ever and anon a messenger sent from Satan to buffet Saints 2 Cor. 12.7 Anakims to fight them Midianitish women to allure them Satan going about like a roaring Lion seeking whom and how he may devour 1 Pet. 5.8 Here Gods Adam's never without an Eve and a Serpent In this Egypt Christs Joseph's alwayes dogg'd with the suggestions of a Potiphars wife But now the death of Saints Brings them into that heavenly Paradice where there is no Serpent The great Dragon the Accuser and Tempter of the Brethren is cast down thence and never to be admitted more Rev. 12.9.16 Here the Saints alwayes wrestling not only with flesh and blood but principalities and powers and spiritual wickednesses in nigh places Eph. 6.12 Here though they ate never totally overcome yet are they stoutly charged and assaulted and though 't is the Saints honour to conquer

dormit itn etiam anima post mortem somnus sensus tantùm excteriores occupat non animam discourses then To say nothing of divine Raptures and Extasies when the body is as it were laid by as useless and uninstrumental to the soul as appears in paul 2 Cor. 12.2 3 4. when Paul's soul had an ear to hear such words as his body could not find a tongue to express And in John Rev. 1.16 In a word in sickness yea in death it self when the soul walks in the very valley and shadow of death in the very act and article of its dissolution what a fresh vigour does the soul many times put on How does this divine flame blaze in the very socket How does it crect and rouse it self and plainly tells us that it means not to fall with the body but only to leave it as an Inhabitant a ruinous house till it be repaired as a Musitian to lay aside his Lute whose strings are crackt till it be new strung 4. By the Light of Scripture The souls which were under the Altar were not asleep though their bodies were for they cryed with a loud voice c. Rev 6.9 10. In death the body that handsome Pile of dust returns to the carth as it was but the spirit the soul Ista Divinae aurae particula returns unto God who gave it Eccles 12.7 and to the spirits of just men made perfect Heb. 12.23 Had the soul of the penitent Thief slept how could it have been truly said to have been with Christ in Paradice Luke 23.43 With Christ in Paradice i. e in the highest Empyrean Heavens Acts 3.21 beholding his face in light and glory John 17.24 Had Paul but dreamt of the souls sleep he would never have groaned so earnestly to be cloathed upon with his house from heaven 2 Cor. 5.1 4. Nor to have had the union of his soul and body dissolved and the communion with God which he then enjoy'd interrupted at least if not broken off had he not been sure that immediately on that dissolution he should be with Christ Phil. 1.21 23. Thus Negatively The soul sleeps not 2. Affirmatively The body sleeps Matth. 27.52 Or if you will the state of a Believers death much resembles that of sleep which leads me to the second thing I promised viz. 2. Confirmation Now I shall prove this point generally and particularly 1. More generally Sleep is the image of death and death is more then the image of sleep Lighten mine eyes least I sleep the sleep of death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Least I sleep Death i. e. least I die Psal 13.3 Our friend Lazarus sleepeth John 11.11 Our Saviour interprets his own words Lazarus is dead v. 14. Many are sickly among you and many sleep i. e. are dead 1 Cor. 11.30 An usual phrase among the Hebrews for being dead was this They slept with their Fathers 1 King 11.43 2 King 20.21 Luke retains the Hebrew form and tells us that Stephen and David gave up the ghost and fell asleep Acts 7.60 and 3.36 And hence it is that the Saints graves are call'd their beds They shall rest in their beds Isai 57.2 When a Believer dies he is but gone to bed gone down from a bed of ivory to a bed of earth from a pillow of down to a pillow of dust Hence also both the Greeks and Latines stile the places where the dead are laid up and buried [i] i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dormitoria sleeping places Thus more generally But 2. More particularly By spreading before you the Analogy proportion resemblance paralel that is between sleep and death A Believers death runs paralel to sleep in its Antecedent Concomitant Consequents 1. In its Antecedet or that which usually goes before sleep and that is Vestium Depositio When a man goes to sleep he usually [k] Somnum capiens vestes exuit 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 uncloaths dismantles disrobes himself In like manner Peter calls his death 1 a putting off of his tabernacle 2 Pet. 1.14 Paul stiles it a dissolution of our earthly house of this tabernacle 2 Cor. 5.1 An uncloathing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 4. When a Believer dies he laies aside not only the garment spotted with but even that which is made of flesh Thus Jubentius and Maximinus We are ready to lay off the last garment the flesh 2. In its Concomitant Or that which accompanies and attends on sleep and that is Quictis tranquilitas Sweet [m] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orph. de somn Tuque O domitor somne malorun requies c● nimi Sen. Her sur Rest and Repose When a man goes to his sleep we say he goes to his rest So Job 3.13 Now should I have lien still and been quiet Now should I have slept I should have been at rest 'T is true rest is more then sleep Sometimes a man sleeps when he doth not rest but is troubled in his sleep But when rest is joyn'd with sleep this is perfect sleep In death a Believer enjoys a perfect rest A state wherein Believers lie quietly in their beds of earth and have not so much as one waking moment or distracting dream Here indeed those Doves find no rest for the soles of their feet but no sooner are they lodged in the Ark of death but they are at rest They shall [n] Isa 57.2 rest in their beds Now there is a five-fold rest which a Believer enjoyes in and by his temporal death From labour from trouble from infirmities from sin and from temptations 1. From labour and toil No working in the Grave There the servant is free from his master The poor Israelite from his Egyptian Task-master No tale of bricks demanded there There the weary with labour is at rest Job 3.17 19. This life is the day of the Saints working They as well as their Master must work while 't is day Death is the night of the Saints resting When the Sun of our Life ariseth we go forth to our labour until the evening of death Psal 104.23 and no longer for then they that die in the Lord rest from their labours Rev. 14.13 This life is a continual motion death a perpetual rest Our life is a stormy passage a tempestuous Sea-voyage death brings us to a peaceable Port. 2. From troubles miseries calamities And these either publick or private 1. Publick and National No warrs famine pestilence no bloody battels no garments rould in blood no sodding of the Babe to satisfie the hunger of the Mother in the Grave If a Cloud of blood hover over a Nation If an Angel on a red Horse be ready to mount and march through a Kingdome If commission be given to the Sword to eat flesh and to drink blood the death of a Believer houses him before the storm Josiah dies in peace and sees not all the evil which God will bring on Jerusalem 2 King 22.20 The Righteous man is taken from the evil to