Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	life_n	live_v	word_n	8,182	5	4.3547	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49492	Six sermons preached before His Majesty at White-Hall Published by command. Tending all to give satisfaction in certain points to such who have thereupon endeavoured to unsettle the state, and government of the church. By the Right Reverend Father in God, Benjamin Laney, Late Lord Bishop of Ely.	Laney, Benjamin, 1591-1675.	1675 (1675)	Wing L351A; ESTC R216387	93,670	230

in want and contempt but to improve our industry to the best advantage both to our selves and others and may by that attain to some luster and splendor of riches honour and command to which no oppression or extortion or any lucky sin hath advanced us and that is though we have brought no corruption into the flesh yet we shall reap corruption from it This is a Doctrine which our daily experience abundantly confirms by the frequent turnings changes and vicissitude of things But that our desires should be so unchangeably fixed upon things so mutable must be some great delusion or in the Apostles phrase in a like manifest case a bewitching not to trust our own eyes in what we see every day But because though the World be full of Deceivers we are still the greatest deceivers of our selves let us take it upon the credit of others and those the wisest Kings Solomon and his Father David who may be the better trusted in this for that neither of them were any great enemies to the flesh Solomon when he had run through all the glories pleasures and delights of the world never any King drank deeper in that cup yet he at last wearied sate down to write a Book to teach others that all was Vanity and that is but another word to signifie Corruption And David as well of observation as experience I my self have seen the ungodly in great power flourishing like a green Bay tree I went by and lo he was gone I sought him and his place could no where be found Psal 37.36 And least we should think this the portion onely of the ungodly Psal 49.9 Wise men also die and perish together as well as the ignorant and foolish and leave their riches for others and it may be not that neither For riches saith the Wise man Prov. 23. make themselves wings and fly away from the owner And at another time the Owner too makes himself wings and flies away from them All things in the World are upon the Wing And it is a strange deceit the Prophet observes vers 11. And yet they think that their houses shall continue for ever And to give themselves a kind of Immortality they call them after their own names But they are oft times deceived in that too so far doth Corruption eat into all our designs The lewd people will be the Gossips and name the Child in despite of the Father and that little to his liking or honour We are not sure to enjoy that poor vanity to leave a name behind us upon that which cost us so much care and expense Lastly How well soever he speeds here and that the Glory of his house be increased yet this will be certain vers 17. He shall carry nothing away with him when he dieth neither shall his pomp follow him I do not think by this or any thing that can be said more to make you our of love with the flesh it is neither possible nor needful I shall only for a conclusion of this first part beg in the Apostles name that ye would not be deceived as all are who give more for a thing then it is worth To spend all our time and cost upon that which will be worth nothing or as ill no better then rottenness and corruption I make the more haste through this Field of the Flesh that we may stay the longer in that of the Spirit where our labour and tillage will be to better purpose for ye see the best that can be hoped for from the other is but to flourish as a Flower of that Field and that Psal 103.19 as soon as the wind goeth over it is gone Nullus flos nisi novus Corruption bloweth upon the most florid condition in it But the growth and increase from the field of the Spirit is incorruptible that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us 1 Pet. 1.4 for he that soweth c. When we see so great a Harvest and yet so few Labourers in the Field some strange delusion there must be wheresoever it lies we must confess the Apostles caution here was no more then needs Be not deceived God is not mocked For is it possible where so good wages are so few should set themselves at work unless they either mistrusted their pay Eternal Life and so mocked God that promised it or mistook the sowing and so deceived themselves Both these would deserve to be well considered but because they who have some diffidence of a life hereafter to come have not the confidence to say so I have not so much spare time as to spend in proving that which they will be ready to say they do not deny I shall therefore now endeavor only to undeceive them if it may be in the vain pretences they make to it in the sowing And here first it will be necessary that whatever else deceives them to see that a misunderstanding of the words give no occasion to it to know what this sowing to the Spirit is and how it comes to make a Title to Everlasting Life for there are no mean Competitors in the same Claim For 1. Christ is the Author of this life For as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive 1 Cor. 15.4 And 2 Tim. 1.10 Our Lord Jesus Christ hath abolished death and brought life and immortality to light 2. Another Competitor with the Spirit is the Gospel that is the immortal seed of this life Being born again by the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever 1 Pet. 1.23 It is the Power of God to Salvation 3. Faith puts in to the same Claim The Just shall live by Faith Rom. 1.17 And 1 Tim. 1.16 St. Paul professeth that Jesus Christ had set forth him as a Pattern to all them who should hereafter believe on him to everlasting life Is there yet another way to Everlasting life by sowing to the Spirit It is happy for us that there is any way to it but yet we may be at a loss and confounded where there are so many To remove that fear we must know that all these are but several name of the same thing though in divers appearances and Phases as the Astronomers word is Christ the Gospel Faith and the Spirit do all relate to life everlasting Christ as the Author of it provided all things necessary to it The Gospel as the Register of all that is to be known or done to attain it Faith is our submission and obedience to the Gospel The Spirit is the publisher and preacher of it Ephes 3.5 The mysteries of Christ which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men as it is now revealed unto the Apostles and Prophets by the Spirit And for this reason the Apostle expresly calls the Gospel the Spirit Gal. 3.3 For whereas they having already embraced the Gospel fell back to Circumcision and other rites of the Law severely charges them with folly Are ye so foolish having

be who must be allowed to hold special intelligence with God and by private illumination from the Spirit see clearer and farther into the darkest Mysteries than any of the Doctors or Rabbies They put me in mind of some though not the best sort of Creatures yet in the dark see better than others as the Owle the Cat and the Bat of which I have known Philosophers give this reason That rays of light do naturally stream from their eyes by which the Medium and Air about is inlightned This at best if there be any such is a light which none sees but themselves Now if those illuminated seers be such that their light is not where Gods Word should be in a Candlestick where it may be seen of all it is indeed no better than Owles light that shines only out of their own eyes A light in a Candlestick doth not only enlighten all the persons but all the parts also of the room every corner the darkest and most secret places it shines not only upon our cloaths and faces i. e. our outward fashion and demeanor but as God requireth truth in the inwards parts Psal 51.6 thither must the light go too to the most retired Closets and Cabinets within to the very thoughts and intentions of the heart It is sharper than any two-edged Sword that enters between the joynt and the marrow Heb. 4.12 Light will pierce through where no Sword can go at the least hole and crevise If all our actions of greatest secrecy receive not light and direction from Gods Word we do not set it in a Candlestick for there nothing is hid from the light thereof A Candle in a Candlestick as it gives light to every part of the room so it doth to all the work and business in it It shews not only the end of all eternal rest and happiness but is a light unto the paths that lead to it It holds us not only upon the gaze of the glory and joys of Heaven but carries us through the darker mysteries of faith and the more unpleasing ways of Repentance and Mortification The Gospel is not the power of God to salvation unless it be also the power of God upon all the steps and degrees to it In a Candlestick it is a light all over from one side of the room to the other Lastly From Gods Word in a Candlestick we do Totam lucem recipere take the benefit of the whole light in all the effects and operations of it It is a word of instruction a word of exhortation a word of comfort a word of reproof a word of promise and a word of command and so serves us in all our necessities It instructs the ignorant corrects the obstinate comforts the dejected dejects the proud quiets the passions invites by promises binds by commands If we pick and chuse lay hold on the word of consolation not of correction of promises not of commands We take the light as men do out of a dark Lanthorn from one side only no more than looks towards our private ends and interest But in a Candlestick the light dilates if self impartially in all the several powers of it there is no parcelling or dividing in that all or none we must totam lucem recipere So much difference we see there is between Gods Word in a Candlestick and under a Bushel and how much benefit comes by the one and how little by the other If we take not heed to this we fall into the common but dangerous error That when we have heard the Sermon we have done our duty for that time though we neither heed what or how we hear And yet according to that only Sermons are as St. Paul speaks of them in the person of the Preacher A savour of life or a savour of death As the evil servant was judg'd out of his own mouth so shall the careless hearer out of his own ears And more I could not say if I had more time It is that whereon life or death depends therefore Take heed what you hear THE Study of Quiet In two SERMONS Vpon the same TEXT Fitted to give an allay to the Heats of these Unquiet Distemper'd times In which are particularly conteyn'd necessary Instructions to the Student about Way and Means of attaining the fruit of his Study and setting him out of the danger and necessity of seeking it by the New device of COMPREHENSION London Printed 1668. A SERMON Preached before His Majesty at Whitehall March 12. 1664 5. 1 THESS 4.11 And that ye study to be quiet AND is a word that takes hold of something that went before without which the sense of that which follows is not full That which went next before is We beseech you to increase more and more We beseech you is that we are to take into the Text and then it runs thus We beseech you to study to be quiet But all the use I shall make of it now we have it here is but to give you a taste before-hand of the nature and quality of this duty That it is no trivial thing little to be regarded but that which obliged S. Paul Sylvanus and Timotheus for they all joyn'd in it to be so earnest as to beseech them to study to be quiet 2. And that which commends this duty the more is as we use to say Men are best known by the company they keep And brings in this Duty in the company of the best of Vertues Charity for that place S. Paul gives it above all Col. 3.14 Above all things put on Charity which is the bond of perfection To study to be quiet and to increase in brotherly love and charity for that led the way before are two duties bound together in the same Exhortation 3. Quiet is not only a fit companion for Charity but an Allie to it and grows out of it as the branch out of the stock for where brotherly love is there will be alwayes quiet too 4. To make all suit the better with Charity the Exhortation is advanced by a Dialect of Love VVe beseech you Paul Sylvanus and Timotheus were all Apostolical men and might command as S. Paul of himself in another case to Philemon Though I might be bold to enjoyn thee yet for loves sake I rather beseech you And lastly that which might very well set this edge upon their affections was that which happened to the Thessalonians at their first conversion for this Epistle was written immediately after The story we have in the 17. chap. of the Acts When S. Paul had preach'd the Gospel to them and with good success for v. 4. Some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Salas and of the devout Greeks a great multitude and of the chief women not a few But v. 5. The Jews who believed not moved with envy took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort and gathered a company and set all the City in an uproar and assaulted