Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	reign_v	sin_n	sin_v	4,155	5	9.6123	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38163	Great salvation by Jesus Christ tenderd to the greatest of sinners and in particular to such as have been refusers of it, if God shall now at last make them willing to receive it / by Richard Eedes ...	Eedes, Richard, d. 1686.	1659 (1659)	Wing E243; ESTC R17583	114,819	292

the ancient Aegyptians that in their great feasts they caused a Deaths head to be carryed about the Table to put them in mind of their mortality a frolick that the Epicures and Belly-gods of our times that sit-down to eat and drink and rise up to play are not acquainted with it s reported of one of the Fathers and I think it is Hierome That he seemed alwaies to hear that saying sounding in his ear Surgite mortui venite ad judicium arise you dead and come to judgement The meditations of death and judgement are excellent corosives to eat out the heart of sin and no less Soveraign preservatives to keep us upright If we adde two more unto them which this Scripture prompts us to take in it will be more than a double fence it wil be a double bar to keep out sin and a double cord to draw to God and duty The second that my Text adds are Hell and Heaven Salvation and Damnation and these four put together are quatuor novissima the four last things and will furnish us with excellent matter for profitable meditation Some advise to meditate of Death some to think of Judgement some advise that we should remember Hell others that above all we should not forget Heaven but if they are of such force single to kill sin and quicken grace to help the Spirit and mortifie the flesh vis unita fortior when they joyn forces they will do their work more effectually I shall therefore lay and leave them before you as the fittest subjects of daily serious Meditation 1. Death shal be the first in order because it is first in time the great Statute of the Churches Magna Charta the Scriptures is recorded thus Heb. 9.27 It is appointed unto all men once to dye The Scriptures tell us examples tell us all former generations tell us experience tells us our own infirmities tell us that there is not that man living that shall not see death O what should dying men have to do with sin surely not to hugg it in their bosomes and lodge it next their hearts and let it reign in their mortal bodies and serve it in the lusts of it but to kill and crucifie and mortifie it to kill it before they dye to kill it which otherwise will kill them sin is the sting of death and it makes death to be the King of fears to a man in his sins O death how bitter is thy remembrance to such a one We dare not dye in our sins Balaam that lived the life of the wicked did choose to dye the death of the righteous sin unrepented of is the worst pillow that a mans head can lye upon on a dying bed and sinners if they can by the help of a seared or flattering conscience make a shift to dye quietly that no bonds appear in their death no desperate horrour open them an entrance into Hell yet the wicked shall not be able to stand in the Judgement nor the sinners in the congregation of the righteous they may elude humane justice or out-face and out-brave it in mens courts greatness may carry them off with power or poverty with pitty but righteous judgement shall be there dispensed by the searcher of hearts to high and low according to their works And this is certain that no unclean thing can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven ther 's no Purgatory to scour such as dye polluted but as death leaves them so shall Judgement find them Ther 's no knowledge nor wisdom nor invention in the grave saith Solomon O that they were wise to consider this that they would remember their latter end saith Moses on the behalf of Israel noting what David saith the onely way to apply a mans heart to wisdom is to pray to God to teach him to number his daies Psal 90.12 And in another place the Prophet notes that Jerusalems filthiness was in her skirts because she remembred not her latter end Lament 1.9 The onely way to have all in a readiness at death to have calling and election made sure and to have nothing to do but to dye when death comes is to write it in our memories and to be often drawing it out by meditation and conference some will wear a ring with a deaths-head upon their fingers some will keep a dead mans scull in t●eir studyes or closets some will have death pictured on their walls or windows some will have their Coffins in their chambers some will write Memento mori upon their books as their Motto remember death all to help our dulness and slowness of heart in believing that our end is near and our dissolution at hand but those that have gotten it deeply rooted in their hearts and are carefull to keep the memory of death alive and quick in their meditations are the onely champions that are like to give death a valiant encounter and to come off with victory and triumph Oh death where is thy sting Oh grave where is thy victory These are likelyest to give Paul's farewell to the world I have fought I have finished I have kept c. henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness 2 Tim. 4.7 8. and Rom. 8.38 I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor any other creature shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus The frequent Meditation of death is an excellent means to make us dye daily 2. Judgement is the second because it is deaths second after death cometh the judgement and it is sure that we must all come to judgement as that we must once dye We must all appear before the judgement Seat of Christ to receive according to things done in the flesh whether they be good or evil The word of God is abundant in setting this before us with all appurtenances that do accommodate it as 1. The Judge and his throne and attendants and his work 2 Thes 1.7 8. The Judge the the Lord Jesus 2. His throne Heaven shall be revealed from heaven 3. His attendants with his mighty Angels 4. His work of justice to render vengeance in flaming fire to them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and his gracious work to be made glorious in them that believe 2. The books by which we must b● judged of Scripture and Conscience Revel 20.12 And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened i. e. of Scripture and Conscience and another book was opened i. e. the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works 3. The causes that must be heard and tryed good and bad just and unjust Ecles 12.14 God shall bring every work into judgement with every secret thing whether it be good or evil 4. The whole process and final sentence Gods dealing with the good and evil to convict the one of sin unto Damnation

the other of righteousness unto life and the sentence passed on them both you shall find very punctually recorded Mat. 25. from 31. to the end Wherefore is the word so exact in all these but to assure us that there is nothing of greater certainty than death and judgement O what should those have to do with sin that must be brought to judgement If they be brought to judgement in their sins that is before they have confessed forsaken their sins before they have accused and condemned themselves they cannot stand in the judgement Can dust stand before a whirlwind or stubble before a consuming fire Solomon throws this judgement as a stumbling block in the way of licentious youth to stop them in their full careere and to be a means to teach the young man how to cleanse his way Eccles. 11.9 Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heart cheer thee in the daies of thy youth and walk in the waies of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know that for all these things God will bring thee to judgement The former part of that verse looks lovely in the eyes of a libertine and speaks to his very heart but it hath as sad a farewell as ever was heard In the former part the preacher speaks Ironically and in jest but in the last he speaks plainly and in good earnest thou maist if thou wilt do as thy list but do if thou darest for know this take it home with thee take it home to thy heart receive the point of this sword into the very heart of thy beloved sin and if it kill it not or give it a deaths wound tell thy self that thou hast a strong heart a heart that is sermon-proof tell God so desire him day night to take away thy heart of stone and to give thee an heart of flesh 3. Hell and condemnation is commended as the third subject of our Meditation for as after death cometh the judgement so after judgement cometh the death Had not men need to fear double least they dye a double death If men be so scared at the face of the death naturall what should they be at the thoughts of death eternal in comparison whereof the other death is but a shadow of death It was said of Jezebells children Revel 2.23 I will kill her children with death Though all dye yet believers are not kill'd with death as the Spirit directed John to say unto Sardis Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead Rev. 3.1 We may say the contrary of sound believers they have but a name to dye and are alive that 's the thing which kills the Soul that is but the name which kills the body This death beyond death is that which the Scripture calls the second death● Revel 21.8 The fearfull and unbelie●●ng and abominable and murderers and Whoremon●ers and Sorcerers and Idolaters and all Lyars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death and Revel 20.6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second death hath no power O what should men do with sin when if they will have it they must have hell to boote durst a malefactour play his pranks if the Judge lookt on him that must condemne him and the torments were in sight that were prepared for him If sinners did but see God frowning upon them and hell gaping for them if they did but see death before them and Judgement beyond death and hell beyond Judgement they could not surely sin with such a swinge as they do they could not sin so damnably without check and controule Sinners do but go aside once a day and seriously meditate on the great damnation that you have heard of and the Eternity of it but one half hour and if you do not walke the more warily humbly and circumspectly say I am a Lyar. One that writes the life of Mr. M● Fu●●●r it his Holy State Perkins reports of him that he did pronounce the word Damn with such an emphasis that it left an Echo in the ears of his hearers a long time after Oh that I could make such an impression of this Doctrine upon your Memories that it may stick like a barbed Arrow in your consciences that may never be shaken out untill you break off your sins and unfainedly turn to God who is ready to forgive abundantly and to give liberally 4. Heaven and Salvation is proposed as the fourth matter of meditation and both these last do follow Judgement which sends the Goats on the left hand to hell and the Sheep on the right hand to heaven The Libertines of the age would perswade us that there is neither Hell nor Heaven but what is in the conscience but let us assure our selves if there were no other Hell or Heaven there would be none there if a conscience excusing in well doing did not flow from a Heaven in hope and a conscience accusing for evil doing did not proceed from a hell in fear surely there would be no such consciences let the fancies of these vain men pass for strong delusions and let us mind the true sayings of the everlasting Gospel which tell us that as the wicked go into everlasting punishment so the righteous into life eternall Matth. 25. ult How positively and alluringly doth the Scripture speak of this blessed blessed making place calling it the third Heaven 2 Cor. 12.2 The throne of God I say 66.1 we are directed to prefer our petitions to him as our Father dwelling heaven Mat. 6.9 An house not made with hands eternall in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 the seat of the blessed The kingdom prepared for them from the beginning of the world Matth. 25.34 shadowed out by the Mount Sion Heb. 12.22 23 24. and the new Jerusalem Revel 21.10 to the end wherein many excellent things are spoken of this City of God But I have spoken so largely both of the Prison of Hell and the Paradise of Heaven in the antecedent Doctrines of Salvation Damnation that the less may serve here O what should those do with sin that make it their refuge to lay hold on the hope that is set before them Ther 's no sin in heaven and if unclean sinners should be carryed thither in their uncleanness heaven would not be heaven to them It s the Saints holiness that makes heaven their happiness and the grace they bring thither that prepares them for that Joy unspeakable and glorious When we meet with temptations to sin let us remember Hell with its forerunners death and judgement and that will prompt us to say with Joseph How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God Gen. 39.9 And when we meet with temptations from sufferings let us remember Heaven and that will prompt us to say with Paul I count that the afflictions of this present world are not