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	sin_n	sin_v	8,157	5	9.6294	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A21060	A vvorthy communicant: or, A treatise, shewing the due order of receiving the sacrament of the Lords Supper. By Ier. Dyke, minister of Epping, in Essex	Dyke, Jeremiah, 1584-1639.	1636 (1636)	STC 7429; ESTC S100166	228,752	658

We shall finde David in great anguish and distresse of spirit Psal 25. 17. 18. The troubles of mine heart are inlarged oh bring thou mee out of my distresses wringing pressing anguishes looke upon my affliction and my paine Here be troubles of heart distresses of spirit affliction and paine But what is it now that thus wrings distresses and paines David See the last words And forgive all my sinnes not forgive all my punishments Davids sin not his punishment was his paine Wee shall see the like in him 2 Sam. 24. 10. I have sinned greatly I beseech thee take away the iniquity of thy servant hee mentions not the taking away of any smart nay Vers 17. He is willing to beare it I have sinned let thine hand be against me He begs that the punishment may be laid upon him but begs that his iniquity may be taken away Let God be pleased to take away his iniquity and he is nothing solicitous for the punishment the offence of GOD troubled him more than his personall smart So that Gods heart were but towards him in the pardon of his sinne he did not care though Gods hand were against him in smiting him with temporall chastisement And this will better appeare if wee doe but compare Pharaoh with David Ex. 8. 8. Intreat the Lord that hee may take away the Frogs from mee the Frogs troubled him more than his sin against God Take away the Frogs but no mention at all of taking away his sin And when afterwards a confession of sin is extorted from him yet was it not his sin that disquieted him Exod. 9. 27 28. not take away my sin but take away the thunderings and the haile Lord sayes David Take away the iniquity of thy servant oh sayes Pharaoh take away these filthy Frogs and this dreadfull thunder A repenting heart is more troubled at sin then at thunder and Frogs It sees more filthinesse in sin than in Frogs or Toads or what ever else can bee presented more ugly to it A repenting sinner hath his eye upon God and upon his Law Hee sees the holinesse of God that he is a God of pure eyes that cannot behold iniquity Hab. 1. 13. Hee sees him a good gracious patient Father and so it cuts him to the heart to have offended such a Father and God He looks upon the Law and sees it to be Holy just and good and this gals him to the heart to have violated so holy and so pure a Law Now wicked men they looke wholly at the justice and wrath of GOD at the curse of the Law and so nothing troubles them but the feare of hell and death If these might be avoided the offending of an holy and good God the violating of an holy and a good Law would not a whit afflict or disquiet them Nay it is remarkable in David that though hee had upon Nathans message to him confessed his sin and Nathan upon his confession had pronounced the pardon of it yet after this he cries out My sinne is ever before me against thee only have I sinned Marke then that even pardoned sinne forgiven sin vexes and disquiets a true repenting heart It pinches him and disquiets him though it be forgiven it grieves him that he hath so played the foole and that ever he was such a beast to offend so gracious a God When the Prodigals Father sees him comming a far off he runs to meet him shewes compassion to him fals upon him and kisses him That kisse was the seale of his pardon as if he had said Behold I forgive thee all thy sin as when David kissed Absalom and Esau kissed Iacob they both did it in token of full reconciliation And yet for all this see how the Prodigall speakes he sayes not O Father from the ground of my heart I unfainedly thanke thee oh how great is my Fathers goodnesse thus to pardon me c. but Father I have sinned against thee I but his Father had kissed him and thereby testified that he had freely forgiven him what need hee confesse his pardoned sin Why is he not rather in the confession of praise than in the confession of sin Oh no A repenting sinner is so affected and grieved with the offence of God in his sinne that though God have pardoned and forgiven it yet he cannot but mourne for it and be afflicted with it that so holy a Law hath beene broken by him that so good a God hath beene offended by him Psal 25. 6 7. Remember O Lord thy tender mercies remember not the sinnes of my youth If God remember mercy hee forgets and forgives sinne If God forget it why doth David remember the sins of his youth Yes so will a true repenting heart doe it will remember the sin that God forgets it will mourn for the sin which God hath forgiven Now hereby may men try the truth of their repentance Pharaoh can say I have sinned yet was he not to be trusted and Saul can say so too as well as hee I have sinned and Iudas can say I have sinned as well as them both and yet not a true penitentiary of them all We may say as much and make large confessions before the Sacrament too and yet be farre from true repentance Deale honestly if thou be grieved indeed what is it that grives thee sinne or smart Such as is the object of thy griefe such is thy repentance As in the case of feare of sin so is it in the Qui Gehennas meluit non peccare metuit sed ardere Ille autem peccare metuit qui peccatum ipsum sic ut Gehennas odit August ●ep 144. case of griefe for sin In the case of fear Augustines saying is true He that feares hell feares not to sin but to burne But he feares to sin who so hates sin it selfe as hell To feare hell is to feare burning not sinning he feares sinning that dreads sinning as he dreads burning It is so in case of griefe he that is sorry because of hell is not sorry because he hath sinned but because he shall burne He is truly sorry for sin that is more grieved for sinning than he is afraid of burning If then sin meere sin without relation to hell be that which doth disquiet us and this be the thing that mainly troubles us that we have beene such beasts to offend God there is a cause of great joy in such sorrow it is an evidence of thy true repentance But if dread of hell and the feare of being damned bee the thing that workes this sorrow and griefe in us there is little cause of comfort in such repentance So may our repentance be tryed by the object of our sorrow 2 Secondly the depth and greatnesse of this sorrow will serve to try the truth of our repentance The sorrow of repentance is not a slight overly superficiall griefe but a deepe and an hearty sorrow That as David speaks of in that case Ps 73. 21. Thus

man blush and be ashamed when he had done amisse And we may truly say that blushing is the colour of Repentance Ezra 9. 6. I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face It is true indeed that men may bee and are ashamed that are far enough from repentance There is a shame of the face and a shame of the heart they have the shame of face but not the shame of heart And if they have the shame of heart yet there is a double kinde of that shame 1. First the shame of a thiefe Ier. 2. 26. As the thiefe is ashamed when he is found so is the house of Israel ashamed And so there is the shame of any infamous sinner which arises from the disgrace and discredit of his action that hee hath done such a thing by which hee hath crackt his credit or may bring himselfe to some shamefull punishment the whip stocks or the gallowes So wicked men may be ashamed of their sins in their heart and conscience because of that shame their sinne will bring them unto in hell 2. Secondly there is a shame of a sonne or childe a filiall gracious shame of heart and conscience and that is when a mans shame rises not from the shamefull consequents that follow sin but out of a sight of the filthinesse and loathsome basenesse of their sinnes they see them so nasty and so filthy that it makes them ashamed that they have defiled themselves with such filth And this is the shame that is in the cheeks of true repentance There is a great deale of difference betweene the shame of a thiefe when he is taken and the shame of a man that fals into a puddle into the kennell or the myre a thiefe is ashamed because some disgrace will light upon him or some punishment of shame A man that is fallen into the myre or kennell he is ashamed but his shame is from the filthy nasty unsavoury pickle that he is in So a wicked man hath shame of conscience because his conscience tels him he shall come to shame in hell but a true penitent man hath shame of conscience because his conscience tells him that he hath defiled and besmeared himselfe with loathsome filth And such a shame as this may prove a surer signe of repentance then sometimes sorrow may doe There may be a griefe and a sorrow for sin that may come from the sense and apprehension of wrath and such a griefe will not evidence true repentance but a shame for sinne out of the sense of the filthinesse and vilenesse of sinne is an unfailing evidence of the faith of repentance If upon examination we can finde such a shame in our soules if with Ezra wee are ashamed and blush to lift up our face not because our shamefull punishments are increased over our heads not because our trespasses will sinke us downe into hell but because Our iniquities are increased over our heads and our trespasse is growne up to the heavens such shame yeelds comfort But few are thus ashamed of sinne now how many glory in their shame in their sinne which should be and is their shame The Prophet Isaiah complaines of a brow of brasse Isaiah 48. 4. The Prophet Ieremy of an Whores forehead Ierem. 3. 3. And Zephany Of sinners that know no shame Zeph. 3. 5. Sinners have lost those few remaining sparkes of modesty they were wont to have and are so farre from being ashamed of their sins that they rather count it a shame not to sinne May not the Lord say of many now as he twice complains Ier. 6. 15. 8. 12. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination nay they were not at all ashamed neither could they blush And are not men growne to that height of Sodomes impudency Isay 3. 9. The shew of their countenance doth witnes against them and they declare their sin as Sodome they hide it not Is the drunkard ashamed of his drunkennesse They that are drunke are drunke in the night 1 Thess 5. Drunkennesse then had some shame it sought to mantle it self with the darknesse of the night But are men now ashamed of drunkennesse in the open day in the open streets So for swearers adulterers and others Such impudency proclaimes mens impenitency in an high degree such persons are as far from repentance as they are from shame 2 Secondly deepe sorrow and hearty griefe for sin Where consider two things 1. first The object of repenting sorrow 2. secondly The depth and greatnesse of it Both will try truth of repentance 1 First the object of repenting sorrow is sin It is sin that specially afflicts and disquiets a repenting soul that is the thing that wrings and pinches it Where was it that the prodigals shooe did specially wring him Luke 15. 21. Father I have sinned against heaven that is against God in heaven he doth not say Father I am in a depth of misery ready to perish with hunger in that pinching distresse that I would be glad to eate husks with Hogs But Father I have sinned This is the griefe of a repenting soule that Gods Majesty hath beene offended in and by his sinnes This was that which lay heaviest upon and sate closest to Davids heart He neither cries out of his discredit and shame in the world nor yet speakes a syllable of wrath or hell but Psal 51. 3 4. My sin is ever before me against thee only have I sinned and have done this evill in thy sight My sinne is ever before me not Hell and damnation is ever before me not the shame and reproach of the world but my sin is ever before me It is this Lord that pinches and disquiets mee that I have sinned and done this evill in thy sight A good heart feares more the committing of sin than the suffering of punishment following it Prov. 30. 9. Give me not poverty lest I be poore and steale and take the name of my God in vaine He doth not say lest I be poore and steale and bring my selfe under the Magistrates sword or thy wrath but he lookes only at the sin lest I steale and take thy Name in vaine He feares the prophaning of GODS Name more than the bringing of his owne name and person in question And to this purpose is that which Elihu charges Iob withall Iob 36. 21. Regard not iniquity for this thou hast chosen rather than affliction that is thou hast rather chosen sin and iniquity than poverty and affliction as if he had said inasmuch as thou hast vainely and rashly expostulated with God V. 20. desiring death rather than to beare this affliction thou art guilty of iniquity and sinnest in this thy choice This therefore implies that a good heart would rather choose affliction than iniquity to suffer affliction than to do iniquity Now as a good heart is more afraid of sin than affliction and punishment so likewise a repenting heart is more grieved for sinne committed then for sorrow to bee suffered