Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	nature_n	sin_n	soul_n	6,631	5	5.2151	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61834	A sermon concerning death and the resurrection, preached in St. Maries, at Oxford, on Low Sunday, April the 28. 1644 before the committee of the members of the honourable House of Commons / by W. Strode ...	Strode, William, 1600 or 1601-1645.	1644 (1644)	Wing S5984; ESTC R33817	14,393	24

Advantage not as a Trapdore swallowing up in Destruction but as a Gate opening to everlasting Life And this is done first by recounting our looser dayes in bitternesse so shall we unlive the time we have lived amisse then by frequent Meditation and foretast of Death Think thine Eyes grown dim in the fainting twylight of life and thou shalt soon turn them aside from vanity think thine Eares grown deafe with sicknesse and thou wilt soon stop them against Idle words think thy Tongue grown stiffe with drowth and that thought will be a watch before thy mouth to Examine what thou lettest out and what thou lettest in think on the cold sweat of Death so thou wilt abhorre to swim in Lust think how naked thou must goe hence even as bare as thou camest onely with a shrowd as thou camest in with a Cawle and almost with as little flesh then thou wilt easily contemne all wordly pomp and subdue thy carnall Tumours Thinkest thou that Death drawes nearer when it is thought of or dares not to approach unlesse it be call'd no such matter this practice of dying dayly will not make us to die the sooner but so to live as that we may die the happier And this or the like practice belongs to our Christian Profession assumed in Baptisme where by the Covenant of Grace we become Dead in a third Acception Dead in Quality Dead to all Wordly and Carnall Lusts though we may sometimes fall upon them by Infirmity yet to pursue them is against our Profession The Desire is Dead and the Renunciation made against them is a kind of Death The spirituall Pharaoh with all his Hoast lies drown'd in the Font representing a Red Sea the Blood of Christ there Christ and We enter into Covenant he to free us from Sin and we to forsake it he to strike off the Dominion and Guilt thereof we the Service and Confederation Because by nature we are born Dead in Sin and subject to Corruption therefore by a second birth we are born Dead unto Sin the spirituall Death is a Countermine against the Naturall For by the Power of Baptisme the Old man together with his Lusts is taken and crucified nayl'd hand and foot to the Crosse of our Saviour quite disabled from acting what he would and at length with much adoe with striving and strugling with Gall and Vineger with Piercing or Breaking forc'd to die outright How then shall we that are Dead to Sin live any longer therein 't is the Use of the Apostle Rom. 6. 2. v. Is it not strange to heare that a dead man walkes is it not stranger to heare that he speakes and workes yes eates and drinkes abundantly and yet dead how is it then that the Old man so long since crucified dead and buried doth yet so frequently exercise the Actions of Life moving the Tongue to Idle words Lying Swearing the Throat to Excesse the Eie to Adultery the Hands to Oppression and all the members to severall Iniquity how is it that the Church of God is haunted with such Evill Spirits and Goblins sure there is some Spell or Magick in this foule Prodigie otherwise without the help of the Devill it could not be I grant that a rotten Tree after it is hewn down and laid in the Durt may put forth a Sprig a Leafe or so but they come to no Strength they never prosper Haire may grow on a Carcasse but such haire is never dressed nor keemed So may the Reliques of the Old man have a Counterfeit shew of Life but must not gather Head never be cherish'd within any Christian bosome Death frees us from all worldly Relations and Bonds as S. Paul disputes in the sixth to the Romanes it frees the Wife from the yoake of her Husband the Servant from the Task of his Master shall we then who are freed by Death forsake a fresh and lovely Spouse who died for our Love and be reunited to an old rotten Carcasse shall we forgoe this new Master who bought us with his blood for an Old tyrannous Canniball that feedes on our destruction God forbid So much for this point wherein you have heard that we are now dead already and in three respects Dead in Law through the sentence pronounced on sin that therefore we ought not to be over-sollicitous for much provision where we have no right to tarry longer Dead by the Course of Nature as appeares by the mutability of those elements whereof we consist and of things appertaining by dayly declynations insensibly but yet continually growing into sensible changes in our owne Persons and by the successive defluction of all mankinde from whence we should gather patience for the losse of others Caution for our selves but without Anxiety and above all godly Preparation for a better life Lastly that we are Dead by the Covenant of Grace Dead to sin and sin to us that therefore sin ought not to rule and exercise our Members Then if the Old Adam Die within us while we live we shall live in the New when we Dye as we were Buried in Baptisme we shall be Baptized in Buriall and returne with Bodies as clean from the Grave as we did with soules from the Font So from the Death of life I passe to my second Generall the Life of death Your Life is hid with Christ in God Death having lost her sting cannot kill us utterly some Life is left else it could not be hid You may then observe these three degrees of Comfort the safety of life in the Chamber of Death 't is Hid the ready Meanes of safety 't is hid with Christ the strong Author of the Meanes 't is hid with Christ in God The Subject is aptly disposed to a resurrection the Meanes are already prepar'd the Author is All-sufficient and Infallible First our Life is Hid then it is not quite extinguished but safe laid as coales rak'd up in Ashes safe though unseen alive though close covered It lies like Treasure under Ground not out of Minde though out of Sight and shall again be dig'd up if not for the worth of the Mettle yet for the Image of God which it beares Death is but a longer and sounder sleep and life is hid in sleep as well as in Death for in sleep the senses are fetterd as in Death all bodily Faculties Howsoever from the Captivity of one part an utter Destruction of the whole is not concluded When halfe the body is struck and possessed by a dead palsie there still remaines a living Body because there is life in some part So when the whole Body is seazd by Death there still remaines a living Man because there is life in the best part the Soule Abraham Isaack and Iacob have being enough to preserve their Names and our Saviour proves them to be also Living What though the Union of parts be Actually dissolved Yet the Dissolution is not Totall because there still remaines a possibility and a Naturall Desire of reuniting

or to new cast that which was before That Potentiall being which man had within the hand of his Maker before his Creation the same and more remaines after his Dissolution Look on Nature the Creature is potentially couch'd under her Power in the Seed look on Art so is the frame within the Artificers call in the wood look up to God so are they that shall rise within the Mold before him how grosse is it to beleeve Nature in her Naturall Effects Art in her Artificiall and onely to mistrust God in his workes Divine Ask not how the Bodies confounded one with another shall be sifted and sever'd for God is the Keeper of Bodies and Elements he knowes where every Atome lies what belongs properly to every Person and how to call it forth How vaine is it to question Gods Power in things impossible to our scant Apprehension yet to widen your Apprehension in this particular and to shew you an Answer to more then ever was objected Though all adventitious matter should be separated and none should remaine but that which issued from the loynes of our Parents and was also derived from our first Parents Adam and Eve God out of those few drops could raise distinct and proper bodies to all mankind Nihil Deo Impossibile nisi quod non vult saith Tertullian nothing is Impossible to God but what he will not doe and what he will that 's necessary Now God hath reveal'd his will by appointing and using the meanes of Raising us and hath past his promise by his Son Iesus that through him he will raise us up at the last day This is the Fathers will which hath sent me saith our Savlour that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up againe at the last day Ioh. 6. 39. v. so that now Gods Iustice and Truth are deeply at stake till there come a Resurrection His Iustice would have stood ingag'd however though no such meanes no such promise had been reveal'd if we grant there is a God it may be evinc'd out of morall principles that of necessity there must be a Resurrection though we knew not how for either there would be no difference of Vertue and Vice in respect of Reward and Punishment and so divine Iustice would be but a Bug-beare or else there would be need of a Resurrection that they who have been prosperous in their wickednesse might be called to account hereafter and they that have here suffered by Vertue might then shine in Glory But since the meanes are expressely revealed since Christ hath paid the price of our Resurrection and God hath promised to make it good since many Martyrs have died in defence of this Hope upon Gods word God is further ingag'd both to Christ and Them both in his Iustice and Truth to performe his purpose and promise And we may be sooner induc'd to yeeld that there is no God or that he was not at all our Builder nor Christ his Corner stone then that he should begin to build and not make an End or Promise an End and not fulfill it Wherefore without doubting let us here rest our Hope that as the Glory of the Father hath raised his Sonne so he will perfect his Glory in raising his Sonnes Attendants Thus you have heard the three Degrees of our Comfort the Safety of Life in Death in that it is hid the sure meanes of safety for that it is bid with Christ and the strong Author of the meanes in that it is hid with Christ in God It remaines now on our part that we be not affrighted with Death because it is no longer the Iaw of Destruction but the Gate of Life and a Passage into Everlasting Happinesse * If those bold Spirits that having heard of the Immortality of the Soule or at least her Rest from misery presently dispatched themselves out of this World without any other call or further warrant but onely this Notion if those undaunted Venturers had been likewise taught the Resurrection of the Body to a better Life and had such an occasion to spend their lives as is now offer'd to us the defence of Religion Lawes and Liberties doubtlesse their Courage had been so inflam'd that either through too much Valour they would undeservedly have found their seeking or have gotten such honour as might stay the desire of death by pursuing the death of others and by taking content in Acts of Glory I doe not wish any to run this Course unadvisedly a sober Expectation of Death or Victory in usefull Service both by charging and sustaining is Valour sufficient and not too much for any Souldierly Martyr Further since Christ by the wood of his Crosse hath sweetned our bitter waters and died for Sin to make Death easie since he hath risen againe to lead us the way into Life Eternall I cannot too much inculcate this other Lesson that we walk not disorderly in this our Pilgrimage least we turn the Gift of Life into double Death the Ioy of our Hearts into Horror and Iudgement our Rising into Bottomlesse Falling In it selfe nothing can be so sweet and desireable as the Appearance of the Lord Iesus in the Resurrection Why should we so confound the Conscience with unrepented Guiltinesse that we should need Mountaines to cover us from his Presence Let us rather amend our wayes and live carefully that we may die with Comfort and Rise with Ioy that the Hope of a Ioyfull Rising may remaine comfortably seal'd unto us in the time of our Hiding by Assurance of the Holy Ghost through Christ the Meanes and God the Author To whom be all Thankes Praise Dominion and Glory now and for evermore Amen FINIS Gen. 3. 19. Isa. 51. 6. Hom. Iliad {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} * Cics de contem morte