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	sin_n	true_a	9,048	5	4.9749	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01344	Ioseph's partie-colored coat containing, a comment on part of the 11. chapter of the 1. epistle of S. Paul to the Corinthians : together with severall sermons, namely, [brace] 1. Growth in grace, 2. How farre examples may be followed, 3. An ill match well broken off, 4. Good from bad friends, 5. A glasse for gluttons, 6. How farre grace may be entayled, 7. A christning sermon, 8. Faction confuted / by T.F.	Fuller, Thomas, 1608-1661.	1640 (1640)	STC 11466.3; ESTC S4310	83,852	200

hand but it concernes every one of us to make a punctuall and direct answer thereunto Vpon examination all will confesse themselves guilty except a dumbe Devill or a Pharisaicall spirit hath possessed any Yet are there degrees of guiltinesse Some are guilty that they have not these graces at all but the opposite vices in stead of them in stead of knowledge ignorance All the reason Laban could render Iacob in cozening him with the elder sister for the younger was but pleading the custome of the countrey Gen. 29.26 And this is the best account some can giue why they receive the Sacrament It is an old ceremony a fashion of their Fore-fathers a custome of the Church that young men and maidens at such an age use to receive and so of the rest in stead of repentance obstinacy in sin in lieu of faith unbeliefe in place of charity malice an indifferency for desire and ingratitude for thankfulnesse these in no case must presume to receive but tarry till these vices are amended and graces in some degree begotten in them Others are guilty that though they have them in sincerity yet they have them not in perfection these are bound to come to Gods table his dainties are provided properly for such guests by his blessing these holy mysteries may worke in them what is wanting and strengthen what is weak And to conclude as the father of the lunatick child cryed out Mar. 9.24 Lord I beleeve help my unbeliefe so may the best of us all when we come to communicate call out with teares Lord I come with knowledge helpe my want of knowledge Lord I come with repentance help my want of repentance Lord I come with faith helpe my want of faith Lord I come with love help my want of love Lord I come c. VERS 30. For this cause many are weake and sicke among you and many sleepe RIght at this time there raged and raigned in the Church of Corinth an Epidemicall disease and my Apostle in my Text tels them the Fountaine from which it flowed namely from the unprepared and unreverent receiving of the Sacrament The words containe the punishment and the cause thereof I must confesse in the Heraldry of nature the cause is to be handled before the effect but because the punishment being the effect discovered it selfe first while the cause was yet unknown we will first treat thereof The punishment containes three steps to the Grave 1. Weaknesse 2. Sicknesse 3. Temporal death called sleep Learne God inflicteth not the same punishment for all but hath variety of correction In his Quiver some Arrowes are blunt some sharpe and of these some he drawes halfe way some to the head And the Reason is because there are divers degrees of mens sinnes some sinne out of Ignorance others out of Knowledge some out of Infirmity others of Presumption some once others often some at the seducing of others others seduce others God therefore doth not like the unskilfull Empiricks who prescribe the same quantity of the same receit at all times to all ages tempers and diseases But wisely he varieth his physick few strips to those that knew not his will and many stripes for them who knew his wil and did it not Sometimes hee shooteth halfe canon weaknesse sometime full canon sicknesse sometimes murthering Peeces death it selfe Let us endeavour to amend when God layeth his least judgement upon us let us humble our selves with true Repentance under his hand when hee layeth his little finger upon us lest we cause him to lay his loynes on us let us be bettered when he scourgeth us with rods lest we give him occasion to Sting us with Scorpions for light punishments neglected wil draw heavier upon us Let Magistrates and men in authority mitigate or increase the punishment according to the nature of the offence Let there be as well the stocks for the Drunkard the house of correction for the idle Drone the whip for the petty Lassoner as the brand for the fellon and the Gallowes for the Murtherer Let mercy improve it selfe to obtaine if not a pardon yet a lighter punishment for those in vvhose faces are read the performance of present sorrovv and promise of future amendment Let severity lay load on their backs vvhich are old and incorrigable sinnes so that there is more feare of their perverting others than hope of their converting Then shal the gods in earth be like to the God in Heaven and Magistrates here imitate the patterne which God setteth in my Text For probable it is that those Corinthians who are least offenders in the irreverent receiving of the Sacrament were punished with weaknesse the greater with sicknesse the greatest of all with death temporall called Sleepe in my Text The death of the Godly in Scripture language is often stiled sleepe And indeed sleepe and death are two twins sleepe is the elder brother for Adam slept in Paradise but death liveth longest for the last enemy that shall bee destroyed is death But some will object was Saint Paul so charitably opinioned to these Corinthians as to thinke that they some wereof were drunken at the receiving of the Sacrament that they slept that is dyed and went to Heaven me thinkes so strong a charity argues too weake a judgement I answer the Apostle had perceived in these mens lives the strength of unfained piety and though God suffered them to fall into a sin of so high a nature as this must be confest to be yet Saint Paul did Christianly beleeve that this sinne by Repentance and faith in Christ was pardoned and their soules eternally saved Let us measure the estates of men after death by the rule of their lives and though wee see some commit grievous sinnes yea such sinnes for which they are brought to exemplary death perchance by the orderly proceeding of the Law yet withall if wee had knowne that the drift and scope of their lives had beene to fear God wee may and must charitably conceive of their finall estate and that with the Corinthians in my Text they are fallen asleepe So much for the punishment wee come now to the cause For this cause many are weake All sicknesses of the body proceed from the sinne of the soule I am not ignorant that the Lethurgy ariseth from the coldnesse of the braine that the dropsie floweth from waterish blood in an ill affected Liver that the spleen is caused from melancholly wind gathered in the midriffe but the cause of all these causes the Fountaine of all these Fountaines is the sinne of the soule And not onely the sinnes which wee have lately committed and still lye fresh bleeding on our consciences but even those which wee have committed long agoe and which processe of time hath since scarred over Iob 13.26 For thou writest bitter things against me and makest me possesse the sinnes of my youth So that Iob being gray is punished for Iob being greene Iob in the autumn of his age smarts

it to those who goe out of the world for pain to bring others into it Yea of such persons who desire the Sacrament I find three sorts Some doe it out of meere fancy who desire it because they desire it like Davids longing for the water of the Well of Bethlem can give no account of their humour therein A second sort out of superstition A third out of a true faith and feeling of their infirmity Now Charity thinketh no ill hopeth all things VVe Ministers beleeve all to be of the later sort and will not think much of our paines to tender our service unto them when sent for But be it betwixt God and their consciences let them take heed how they abuse Gods Ambassadours and cause us to come on foolish occasions to feed their owne fancies You doe shew forth the Lords body The Sacrament solemnly celebrated doth represent and set forth the death and Passion of Christ This is the meaning of Saint Paul Galat. 3.1 O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Iesus Christ hath beene evidently set forth crucified among you That is Christ was so powerfully and pathetically preached unto them in the word his Death so done to the life in the solemne decent and expressive Administration of the Sacrament that the tragedy of Christs death nigh Ierusalem was re-acted before them Say not then in thine heart how shall I get to Ierusalem to see the place of Christs suffering see Faith can remove Mountaines Mount Calvary is brought home to thee and though there be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a great Gulfe or distance of ground betwixt England and Palestine yet if thou beest a faithfull Receiver behold Christ Sacramentally crucified on the Communion-Table say not in thine heart how shall I remember Christs Passion it was Time out of mind 1600. yeares ago Christ here teacheth thee the art of Memory what so long was past is now made present at the instant of thy worthy receiving stay Pilgrims stay would your voyages to the Holy Land had beene as farre from superstition as hitherto from successe go not you thither but bring Palestine hither by bringing pure hearts with you when you come to receive the Sacrament for there The Lords body is shewed forth as on the Crosse Till I come God till the Worlds end when hee commeth to judgement will have a Church on Earth wherin Pastors shall administer and people receive the Sacrament Witnesse his promise before his death Mat. 16.18 And the Gates of hell shall not prevaile against it and another after his Resurrection Mat. 28.29 And loe I am with you alway unto the end of the World with you in your selves and successour persons and posterity Indeed the Church may want things of Luster never of Essence It may want a glorious being never a being Deus non decrit in necessarijs The Church is like the sunne which may be clouded and eclipsed yet stil remaineth Psal. 89.37 A faithfull witnesse Besides Churches may fall away but the Church cannot the setting of the Gospel in one place will bee the rising of it in another This is meant Rev. 2.5 I will remove thy Candlesticke out of his place not I will quench or put out thy Candle but I will remove it so that it shal still remaine in one place or other Till I come And then Sacraments shall be celebrated no more but types shall give place to the truth and shadowes shall yeeld to the substance Then all the weeke shall be one constant Sabbath and yet therein no Sermons preached nor prayers made but all our Lyturgie shall be praising of God And now what remaineth but that we cry from our hearts with the Saints Come Lord Iesus come quickly VERSE 27. Wherefore whosoever shall eate this Bread and drinke this Cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord LOe these words present us with two principall parts 1. The sinne 2. The sinfulnesse of the sinne The sinne is the unworthy eating and drinking of the Bread and VVine of the Lord Is any man so wel stored with grace that he can eate these Sacraments worthily One may doe an action worthily in a three-fold respect first worthily Dignitate aequalitatis as the Labourer is worthy of his hire Luke 10.7 This exact worthinesse may claim and challenge a reward due unto it and the Denier or Detayner doth this worthy party wrong and injury Now no Saint can receive with this Gods justice-proofe worthinesse as appeares by their humble confessions not out of complement but consciousnesse of their faults Iacob Gen. 32.10 Iohn Baptist Mat. 3.11 Yea this worthinesse is waved by our Church Liturgy at the Communion both as I may say in our Grace before meat Wee be not worthy so much as to gather up the crums under thy Table and in our Grace after meat and though wee bee unworthy through our manifold sins to offer unto thee c. 2. The second is worthily Dignitate convenientiae aptitudinis or decentiae which consists though not in a perfect and exact proportion yet in some fitnesse meetnesse and likenesse unto that which is required such phrases are frequent in Scripture Mat. 3.8 Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of Repentance that is such as bear no open repugnancy and contradiction to the repentance you professe but in some sort meet and agreeing thereunto So walke worthy of the Lord Col. 1.10 worthy your calling Ephes. 4.1 worthy the Gospel Phil. 1.27 That is let not your life shame your beliefe breake not the Commandements against the Creed let not your practise bee {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} with your profession And wee must know that Peccata surreptitia sinnes of infirmity not through their want of wickednesse but Gods store of mercy may stand and subsist with this worthinesse of conveniencie In this acception wee understand in my Text to eat worthily that is so fitted and prepared as may beare some resemblance and agreement to the solemnity of the worke wee goe about 3. There remayneth a third kind of Worthinesse which is Dignitas dignationis the worthinesse of acceptance when God for Christs sake is pleased to take our actions in good worth That is well spoken which is well taken and that man is worthy who by God is accepted so to bee Indeed if base and ignorant people should cry one up to bee worthy and prize pebles to bee pearles hee is no whit the better for the over-valuing of him but if God pleaseth to esteeme men worthy things are as they are accounted by him his valuing of them puts worth into them I have blessed him saith Isaac of Iacob Gen. 27.33 Yea and hee shall be blessed God hath accounted them worthy yea and they shall be worthy as it is Rev. 3.4 They shall walke with me in white for they are

one sinne than for another and that sinne which hath cost us the slightest and shallowest Repentance is most likely to be the cause of our present sicknesse 6. Hearken chiefly to the Inditement of thy conscience for when wee hunt after that sin which causeth our disease and wee find our selves to be either at a losse or at a cold sent if once our conscience begin to spend her open mouth wee may certainely conclude that the game went that way and that that is the very sin for which at that time wee are punished Thus the Patriarks Gen. 42 21. Said one to another we have verely sinned against our Brother in that we saw the anguish of his soule where hee besought us and wee would not heare therefore is this evill fallen upon us Reuben did not impute it to the defiling of his Fathers bed nor Iudah to his Incest nor Simeon and Levi to their murthering of the Shechemites for these were but personall sinnes but all joyntly agreed that it was for their cruelty to their Brother a sin wherein all they were equally ingaged as they were equally inwrapt in the punishment If by these or any other meanes we attaine to the knowledge of that particular sinne for which wee are punished let us drown that sin in penitent teares and in the blood of our Saviour but if we cannot find it out let us imitate the example of Herod Mat. 2. Who that he might make sure work to kil our Saviour slew all the children in Bethelem and the countrey about it from two years old and under a plot probable to have taken effect if heaven had not beene too wise for hell In like manner let us indifferently and impartially repent for all our sins in generall if wee know not which was the Bee that stung us let us throw downe the whole Hive if wee know not which was the thorne that prickt us let us cut downe the whole hedge and so wee shall bee sure that sinne shall not escape which hath caused our present sicknesse Now whereas God might have tumbled the Corinthians down into hell-fire for their irreverent receiving of the Sacrament and yet was pleased to inflict on them bodily weakenesse and sicknesse and death we learn God oftentimes with his Saints commuteth eternall torments into temporall punishments Hee is therefore angry in this world that hee might not be angry in the world to come Et misericorditer adhibet temporalem paenam ne juste inferat aeternam ultionem If any object but why will God pardon talents and not tokens pounds but not pence and for Christs sake forgive and strike off eternall torment and yet not crosse the score of temporall punishment I answer 1. To make us take notice that wee have beene offenders 2. That by feeling the smart of what hee inflicteth on us wee may bee the more sensible of his favour how much paine he hath forgiven us 3. To make us more wary and watchfull in time to come But farre bee it from us to conceive that there is any satisfactory or expiatory power in the afflictions which wee suffer Satisfaction for sinne could not be but once and once was fully made when Christ offered himselfe upon the Crosse Let us therefore learne patience under Gods afflicting hand when hee layeth any sicknesse upon us Solomon said to Abiathar 1 King 2.26 Get thee to Anathoth to thine owne fields for thou art worthy of death but I will not at this time put thee to death because thou barest the Arke of my Lord God before David my Father Thus God dealeth with us when hee might justly deprive us of our life yea of our eternall life yet if wee have borne his Arke if wee can plead any true reference or relation to Christ our Saviour God will be graciously pleased not to take away our lives but onely to send us to our Anathoth to confine us to our beds to keepe us his close Prisoners and onely to deprive us of our health pleasure and delight Let us therefore patiently endure the aking of the teeth wee have all deserved the gnashing of the teeth Let us patiently endure a burning Fever for wee have all deserved Hell-fire Let us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a bodily Consumption for wee have deserved to bee consumed and brought to nothing GROWTH IN GRACE 1 PET. 2.18 But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ 1 PHilosophers make a double growth One per aggregationem materiae by gayning of more matter Thus Rivers grow by the accession of tributary Brooks heaps of Corne waxe greater by the addition of more graine and thus stones grow as some would have it though this more properly bee termed an augmentation or increase then a growth The other per intro receptionem nutrimenti by receiving of nourishment within as plants beasts and men grow Of the latter growth wee understand the Apostle in the Text and will prosecute the Metaphor of the growth of vegetables as that which the Holy Spirit seemes most to favour and intend in these expressions 2. Here is one thing presupposed in the text laid down for a foundation namely that those to whom S. Peter writes were already rooted in grace goodness These must be an Vnit at least before any multiplication a Basis before any building upon it no doubt they were such as to whom S. Paul writes Eph. 3.18 {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Being rooted and grounded in love such as the Colossians were Col. 2.7 Rooted in Christ and established in faith And such I trust you are to whom my discourse is directed or else it were in vaine for me or any to give you instructions for Growth in Grace 3. But why is it said in the Text first in Grace and then in Knowledge this seemes to be an {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Lanthorne is to go first Knowledge is to be the Vsher of Grace information in the understanding must goe before reformation in the will and affections I could answer the holy Spirit is no whit curious in marshalling these graces which he putteth first they need no herauld to shew their pedigree wch wil not fal out for precedency But to the point their is a two-fold knowledge one precedent grace as disposing one therto making capable therof the other subsequent is an effect therof a reward of it through Gods mercy These that have gracious hearts do daily better improve their knowledge in matters of salvatiō some herein arrive at a great heigth as David Psa. 119.99 I have more understanding than al my teachers for thy testimonies are my meditations 4 However see the Apostle puts grace Knowledge together What God hath joyned let no man put asunder We must grow according to both demensions both in heigth in knowledge in bredth in piety both in head and in heart both in speculation and practise we must not all run up in heigth like an Hop-pole

ought to be thy slave thy vassaile Iohn 1.5.4 For whosoever is borne of God overcommeth the world and this is the victory that overcommeth the World even our faith Bee not then so base as to make thy vassall thy mate Alexander denyed to marry Darius his Daughter though proffered unto him scorning to bee conquered by her beauty whose Father hee had conquered by his valour Let us not make the world our Mistresse whereof wee ought to be the Master nor prostitute our affections to a slave we have conquered Yea may some say this is good counsell if it came in due season alas now it commeth too late after I have not only long doted but am even wedded to this world Infant affection may be easily crusht but who can tame an old and rooted love Thinke you that I have my affection in my hand as Hunters their dogs to let slip or rate off at pleasure how then shall I unlove the world which hath been my bosome Darling so long Art thou wedded to the World then instantly send her a Bill of Divorce It need never trouble thy conscience that match may be lawfully broken off which was first most unlawfully made Yea though wert long before contracted to God in thy Baptisme wherein thou didst solemnely promise thou wouldst Forsake the Devill and all his workes the vaine pompe and glory of this World Let the first contract stand and because it is difficult for those who have long doted on the world to unlove her wee will give some rules how it may bee done by degrees For indeed it is not to bee done on a sudden matters of moment cannot bee done in a moment but it is the taske of a mans whole life til the day of his death Looke not with the eyes of covetousnesse or admiration on the things of the world The eye is the principall Cinqueport of the soule wherein love first arrives Vt vidi ut perij now thou mayest looke on the things of the world Vt in transitu as in passage otherwise wee should be forced to shut our eyes and wee may behold them with a slighting neglectfull fastidious looke but take heed to looke on them with a covetous eye as Eve on the forbidden fruit and Achan on the wedge of Gold Take heed to looke on them with the eye of Admiration as the Disciples looked on the Buildings of the Temple Matth. 24 1. wondring at the Eternity of the structure and conceiving the Arch of this World would fall as soone as such stones riveted to immortality might bee dissolved Wherefore our Saviour checketh them Verely I say unto you there shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not bee cast downe Excellently Iob chap. 31.1 I have made a Covenant with mine eyes that I should not behold a woman A Covenant But what was the forfiture Iobs eyes were to pay in case hee brake it It is not exprest on the band but surely the penalty is employed many brackish teares which his eyes in repentance must certainly pay if they observed not the Covenant Silence that Spokesman in thy bosome I meane that allurements of the flesh and Devill who improveth his utmost power to advance a match betwixt thy soule and the world And when any breach happens betweene thee and the world so that thou art ready to cast her off the flesh in thy bosome pleads her cause Why wilt thou saith it deprive thy selfe of those contentments which the World would afford thee Why dost thou torment thy selfe before thy time Ruffle thy selfe in the silkes of security it will be time enough to put on the Sack-cloath or Repentance when thou lyest on thy Death-bed Hearken not to the Flesh her Inchantments but as Pharaoh charged Moses to get him out of his presence he should see his face no more Exodus 10.28 So strive as much as in thee lyeth to expell these fleshly suggestions from thy presence to banish them out of thy soule at leastwise to silence them though the mischiefe is it will be muttering and though it dare not hallow it will still be whispering unto thee in behalfe of the world its old friend to make a Reconciliation betwixt you 3 Send back againe to the world the Love-tokens she hath bestowed upon thee I meane those ill gotten goods which thou hast gotten by indirect and unwarrantable meanes As for those goods which thy parents left thee friends have given thee or thou hast procured by Heavens Providence on thy lawfull endeavours these are no Love-tokens of the world but Gods gifts keepe them use them enjoy them to his glory But goods gotten by VVrong and Robbery Extortion and Bribery Force and Fraud these restore and send back For the world knoweth that shee hath a kind of tye and engagement upon thee so long as thou keepest her tokens and in a manner thou art obliged in honour as long as thou detainest the gifts that were hers Imitate Zacheus see how hee casts backe what the world gave him Luke 19.8 Behold Lord the halfe of my goods I give to the poore and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation I restore him foure-fold 4. Set thy affections on the God of Heaven the best wedge to drive out an old love is to take in a new Postquam nos Amaryllis habet Galataea reliquit Yea God deserves our love first because God loved us first 1 Iohn 4.19 It is enough indeed to blunt the sharpest affection to be returned with scorne and neglect but it is enough to turne Ice into ashes to bee first beloved by one that so well deserves love Secondly his is a lasting love Iohn 13.1 Having loved his owne that were in the world he loved them to the end Some mens affection spends it selfe with its violence hot at hand but cold at length God's not so it is continuing It is recorded in the honour of our * King Henry the seventh that hee never discomposed favorite one only excepted which was William Lord Stanly a rare matter since many Princes change their Favorites as well as their clothes before they are old But the observation is true of the Lord of Heaven without any exception those who are once estated in his favour hee continues loving unto them to the end Hearke then how hee woes us Hoe every one Esay 55.1 that thirsteth come yee to the waters and he that hath no money come c. How he woes us Mat. 11.28 Come unto me all yee that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Love his Love-letter his Word his Love-tokens his Sacraments his Spokes-men his Ministers which labour to further the match betwixt him and thy soule But beware of two things 1. Take heed of that dangerous conceit that at the same time thou mayest keepe both God and the World and love these outward delights as a Concubine to thy soule Nay God he is a jealous