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	lord_n	sin_n	21,606	5	4.7055	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41125	The sacrifice of the faithfull, or, A treatise shewing the nature, property, and efficacy of zealous prayer together with some motives to prayer, and helps against discouragements in prayer : to which is added seven profitable sermons / by William Fenner ...	Fenner, William, 1600-1640.	1648 (1648)	Wing F698; ESTC R478	35,874	88

earth no word no commandement no threatning condemnes him But if thy conscience condemne thee and tell thee thou lettest sin lie at the dore rapping at thy conscience day after day and month after month telling thee that yet thou art without Christ that yet thou never hadst any true faith in the Lord Jesus that yet thou hast not truely repented and turned from thy sinnes this will at last drive thy soule into heavie discouragements if not into finall despaire O beloved religion and piety and the power of godlinesse goe downe the winde every where What is the reason of it but because of these discouragements that men live and go in Men pray and pray and their prayers profit them not men run up and downe and come to the Church and heare the Word and receive the Sacraments and use the meanes of grace but to no end they are unprofitable to them they remaine in their sinnes still the ordinances of God bring them not out of their lusts and corruptions hereby they disgrace and discredit the ordinances of God in the eyes and account of the men of the world making them thinke as if there were no more power nor force in the Ordinances of God then these men manifest There is no life in many Christians mens spirits are discouraged these secret discouragements in their hearts take away their spirits in the use of the meanes that though they use the meanes yet it drives them to despaire of reaping good or profit by them Beloved I could here tell you enough to make your hearts ake to heare it First all your complaints they are but winde Job 6. 26. doe you imagine to reprove words and the speeches of one that is desperate which are as winde Jobs friends taking Job to be a man of despaire they accounted all his words but as winde Doest thou nestle any discouragement in thy heart thou maist complaine of sinne as much as thou canst yet all thy complainings are but as winde thou maist cry out against thy corruptions with weeping and teares and pray and fight against them and yet all thy weeping mourning and praying is but as the winde thou maiest beg grace thou maist seeke after God thou maist heare the Word receive the Sacraments and yet all will be to thee as wind all will vanish be unprofitable not regarded Secondly discouragements drive us from the use of the meanes If ever we meane to come out of our sinnes if ever we meane to get grace and faith and assurance and zeale we must constantly use the meanes 1 Sam. 27. 1. David saith there is nothing better for me then that I should speedily escape into the Land of the Philistims and Saul shall despaire of me to seeke me any more David thought in himselfe if I can make him out of hope of finding me certainely he will give over seeking of me So when the soule hath any secret despaire of finding the Lord that soule will quickly be drawne from seeking of the Lord in the use of the meanes What ever you doe then O be not discouraged lest you be driven from the use of the meanes if you be driven from the use of the meanes woe is to you you will never finde God then Be not driven from praier nor driven from holy conference nor driven from the Word nor driven from the Sacrament nor from meditation nor from the diligent and strict examination of thy selfe of thy heart and of all thy waies for these are the waies of finding the Lord If you nourish any thoughts and feares of despaire in you if you be discouraged you will be driven from the use of the meanes which is a lamentable thing therefore be not discouraged Thirdly discouragements will make you stand poaring on your former courses thus I should have done and that I should have done woe is me that I did it not it will make a man stand poaring on his sinnes but never able to get out of them So it was like to be with them in the Ship with Paul Acts 27. 20. In the tempest at Sea they were utterly discouraged from any hope of safety now indeed Paul told them what they should have done if they had been wise Sirs you should have hearkned to me and not have loosed ver. 21. as if he had said you should have done thus and thus but now doe not stand poaring too much on that you should have hearkned to me and not have launched forth c. but that cannot be holpen now therefore I exhort you to be of good cheare c. So beloved when the soule is discouraged upon these thoughts I should have prayed better I should have heard the Word of God better and with more profit I should have repented better I should have performed this and that religious and good dutie better but ah wretch that I am I have sinned thus and thus it is alwaies looking on this sinne and that sinne this imperfection and that failing when now I say the soule is discouraged it will be alwaies poaring upon sinne but it will never come out of its sinne alwaies poaring upon its deadnesse and unprofitablenesse but never able to come out of it O beloved be of good cheare and be not discouraged it is true you should have prayed better you should have heard the Word of God better heretofore you should have been more carefull and circumspect of your wayes then you were but now you cannot helpe it these things and times are gone and cannot be recalled such a one hath been a drunkard a swearer a worldling c. but he cannot helpe it now True he might have helped it and because he did not his heart shall bleed for it if he belong to God but doe not stand poaring too much upon it but consider now what you have to doe now you are to humble your selfe now you are to strive with God in all manner of prayer for more grace and more power of obedience and assurance and be not discouraged Fourthly if the soule be discouraged it will breed nothing but sorrow What is the reason that many Christians are alwaies weeping and mourning and sighing and sobbing from day to day all their life time and will not be comforted because of these discouragements 1 Thes. 4. 13. Sorrow not saith the Apostle as those that have no hope as if he had said sorrow if you will but do not sorrow as they that have no hope How is that it is a sorrow with nothing but sorrow from which they have no hope of inlargement or freedome O then my brethren suppose you have dead hearts suppose you want zeale you want assurance suppose it be so yet labour to attaine these graces sorrow and spare not weepe and mourne and powre out whole buckets of teares for your sinnes if you can but sorrow not with nothing but sorrow be not discouraged suppose that thou hast a dead heart that thou art an hypocrite that thou hast a rotten heart it is a heavie thing and a fearefull case indeed for which thou hast great cause of humiliation and sorrow but yet sorrow not desperately as men without hope be not wholly discouraged but as you sorrow for your sins so also labour with incouragement to get out and be rid of your sins Fifthly discouragements breed and procure a totall perplexity They leave the soule in a maze that it knowes not whether to turne it selfe When men come to be discouraged Oh what shall I doe saith one I am utterly undone saith another I know not what will become of me saith a third Oh I am utterly lost I shall perish one day one day God will discover me and be avenged on me for this and that sin I were as good go to hell at the first as at the last for that will be the end of me I have gon to prayer but that doth not helpe me I have gone to Sacraments but I finde no helpe still my soule lies under the power of sinne still my sinnes are as strong in me as ever Thus the soule is discouraged and cryes out Oh what shall I doe I know not what to doe What shall I doe sayest thou Alas thou hast things enough to doe if thou wert not discouraged Utterly undone No man thou mightest see that thou art not utterly undone but that thou art discouraged Dost thou not know what will become of thee yea poore soule there is mercy grace and peace for thee if thou wilt not be discouraged Sixthly discouragements whisper within a man a sentence of death and an impossibility of escaping As far as the discouragement of life goeth so farre goeth the sentence of death We despaired of life and had the sentence of death in our selves saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 1. 8. 9. he despaired of life in himself and therefore had the sentence of death in himselfe this was good but he did not despaire of life in God for then he should have had likewise the sentence of death from God in his conscience If you despaire in the Lord you have the sentence of death and damnation from God in your conscience take heed of this my beloved be not discouraged in God do not despaire in the Lord that will worke a miserable effect in your soules it will secretly whisper a sentence of damnation in your soules It is strange to consider how many poore soules rub on with these whispering sentences in their bosomes suffering their consciences day by day to tell them that they are rotten to tell them that they were never yet converted to tell them that they are yet in the state of damnation and yet they will not root out these discouragements O goe to the Throne of grace beg for grace and for mercy and for power against sinne and be not discouraged What wilt thou carry thy owne sentence of death in thy brest if thou wilt not rouze up thy soule and pray with more affection and confidence and shake off discouragements take heed lest thou carry the sentence of thy own death and damnation in thy bowels O therefore once more let me beseech you to take heed of these discouragements and now hearken to the voice of God which calleth upon you feare not Thou drewest nigh in the day that I called upon thee thou saidst feare not FINIS Object Answ Use Object Answ Object Answ Object Answ Doct. Quest Answ

ashes how can I strive with God I am sinfull and evill how can I contend with my Maker and so have beene discouraged in his wrastling he could not have used all his strength with God and so had never prevailed with God No Jacob he gathers all the arguments that he could make he gathers together all the promises he could finde in Gods Book or that he could heare off he displaies all the wants that he could shew he petitions all the graces that he could name he used all his strength and by his strength he had power with God If thy confession of thy sins be strengthlesse if thy petitions and thankesgiving for grace be strengthlesse if thou use not all thy strength in prayer thou canst never prevaile nor have any power with God For how can that man prevaile and have power with God that hath no power with himselfe Thirdly thou canst never pray and have a fearefull apprehension of evill in prayer thou canst not It is good to have a deepe apprehension of thy sinnes apprehend them to be as many hells as thou canst thou canst never apprehend them deeply enough but if thou hast a fearefull apprehension of them thou canst never pray When the Apostle would exhort the Philipians to continue in one Spirit and in one minde fighting together through the faith of the Gospell he exhorts them that in nothing they feare Phil. 1. 27 28. For if a man be terrified with his adversary with the power of his adversary and feares he shall never be able to withstand him but must fall before him through his subtilty that he can never be wary enough for him Alas he can never strive with hope and courage against him So beloved if we have a fearefull and discouraged kinde of apprehension of evill we can never pray so as to prevaile Apprehend thy sinnes to be as hellish and as damnable as thou canst Feele even the fire of hell in every one of them but take heed of a fearefull apprehension of them so to apprehend the evill of them as to thinke with thy selfe that because thou art guilty of these and these sinnes that thou shalt never get in with God again God will never be reconciled to thee these will eate out thine heart in prayer Fourthly we can never pray if we have any secret dispaire that there is any difficulty too hard for us to grapple withall or to get through in our prayers Howsoever a man prayes yet if he have any spice of these feares in him to thinke now I have taken a great deale of paines but am never the better I have prayed and prayed but have got no good I may goe on and doe thus and thus but shall never prevaile or speed all my labours all my prayers and indeavours will be lost this takes away the very spirit and life of a mans prayers Judas after he had betrayed the Lord Jesus he was discouraged from ever praying for mercy Why because he thought it was impossible for him to get it I have betrayed innocent blood saith he Matth. 27. as if he should say I shall never out-wrastle this sinne this sinne is my death I have brought the blood of the Sonne of God on me I shall never claw off this sinne now Judas thus despayring we never read one letter of any prayer that he made to God to get out of it no he thought it too hard for him to get mercy Despaire drives a man from that he did hope for because now he thinkes there is an impossibility in getting of it Beloved mistake me not there is a double desperation First there is a desperation of infidelity and that deads and drawes the soule from God Secondly there is a desperation of extremity And if ever you meane to come to God and to get any grace from God you must come with desperation of extremity desperation puts life into a mans prayers and indeavours As a Souldier when he seeth nothing but to kill or be killed that he sees his state desperate why this will compell a very coward to fight this will make a coward fight as if he would kill the Devill saith the Proverb it will make him fight like a spirit he will be afraid of nothing Take a Souldier that fights desperately for his life with a kill or be killed he feares nothing neither Pike nor Sword nor Gun why he fights for his life Therefore one notes that sometimes it is the nearest way to victory to be desperate in attempts and in fight Therefore when William the Conquerour came first into England at Hasting he sent back his Ships againe that so the Souldiers might have no hope of saving themselves by flying back And so at Battle at one encounter a little Army of the English slew a great Army of the French Why they grew desperate So could men pray desperately could they pray with a pray or be damned beg with a begge or be damned seeke to God for grace that you want with a speed or be damned then would their prayers be more earnest and powerfull to get grace O did men pray thus they would pray otherwise then they doe Men pray but they pray deadly coldly and lazily as if they had no need of prayer or as if they had no need of the grace they pray for they pray for grace but get it not they pray for zeale but have it not for repentance and holinesse but obtaine it not Beloved either get zeale and holinesse or else there is no mercy either get grace and repentance or else there is no mercy for thee Pray then when thou prayest for grace with a speede or be damned say unto thy soule either we must speede and get grace Soule or else we must goe to hell If men would pray thus with a speede or be damned we should never see nor God should never heare so many cold and dead praiers as now we pray Despaire makes a man a Munke saith the Papist but this despayre makes a man a good Christian I say never doth a man pray indeede till he feels himselfe in extremity hopeles and desperate in regard of himselfe so that he seeth no remedie at all but get Christ get grace or be damned for ever Get power and strength over these corruptions otherwise they will destroy and damne thee this would make a man pray for life Men pray coldly and faintly why because though they see they have no grace no zeale no holines no repentance no evidence of Christ yet they hope to be saved notwithstanding O beloved the divell hath blinded these men to the intent they may be damned But if men would pray desperate praiers with a pray or be damned seeke with a finde or be damned men would then pray other praiers then they doe Such praiers did David pray Psal. 130. 1. Out of the deepe places have I called unto thee O Lord Lord heare my prayer as if he should say Lord I am