Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	serpent_n	sin_n	sting_n	4,692	5	12.2188	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36908	Dunton's remains, or, The dying pastour's last legacy to his friends and parishioners ... by John Dunton ... ; to this work is prefixt the author's holy life and triumphant death : and at the latter end of it is annext his funeral sermon.	Dunton, John, 1627 or 8-1676.; N. H., Minister of the Gospel. Funeral sermon.; Dunton, John, 1659-1733.	1684 (1684)	Wing D2633; ESTC R17002	124,862	318

that Golden Hesperides that the red Dragon Guarded for his Minions till slain by Hercules which all passionately enquire after the greedy Miser for Wealth the Ambitious for Honour the Luxurious for Pleasure all being Avaritious of Beautiful Apples no Labour no Danger seems difficult to obtain their desires whereas the poor Soul lyes Hunger-starved for want of the sincere Milk of the Word that it may grow thereby Convert we then our thoughts from these perishing things to a holy Covetousness after a more durable substance than this eyely Fruit which like the Apples of Sodom will fade into dust hunger we after that Tree of Life which beareth twelve manner of Fruits the Doctrine of the Apostles which are for the healing of the Nations through the vertue of the Lord of life our great Hercules pray we him to cut down both root and branch of this Hesperides and slay the Dragon which keepeth Possession and that he will please to replant us with better fruit to wit the graces of his spirit that we may grow up as fruitful Trees by the water-brooks of Repentance bringing forth our fruit in due season 34. Of Prodigality It is no Paradox to say That the Prodigal is very covetous in that all his Lavishments are to gratifie his greedy Passions that could he enjoy perpetual health and strength with the unlimited Addition of large Revenues as fuel to feed his sinful humours his luxurious Appetite would never be satisfied yet is he not so unprofitable a member in a Common-wealth as the covetous miser who defrauds his Genius to indulge his lustful eye being a Thief to the Common-wealth robbing it of Treasure which should relieve his Brother Whereas the Prodigal is his own greatest enemy others partaking of his wild Disbursements though not of his sin his whole life being as a Dream his profuse phansie feeding upon all kind of Delights which may cherish the flesh and pamper Nature till awakened by the storms and pinches of Poverty which haply makes him return by weeping cross to his Fathers house for better shelter and more wholsome Diet. O thou Almighty Giver who dispensest of thy goodness to every one as in thy wisdom thou knowest convenient for them if thou please to intrust me with two or three Talents suffer me not to be so prodigally vitious as to wanton them away upon my sinful Lusts or so wretchedly avaritious as to hoard them up unprofitably in the ground of my sensual heart but that I may improve them as thy faithful steward to the best advantage of thee my Lord and Master that when thou callest me to an account I may chearfully appear before thee not fearing thy Curse but expecting thy Blessing 35. Of Vain-glory. The Vain-glorious man is a bundle of Folly swadled up in ambitious Bravery whose airy thoughts words and gestures doth metamorphize his Soul by a kind of Pithagorean metempsuchosis into a puff of Vanity his wild phansie draws the circuit of his conceit beyond the Moon his words like wind bladders him up into a fond opinion of his frothy humor his gestures so affectionately mimical that they make him more than ridiculous Come not O my Soul into this aiery Element let not vain-glory swell thee like a Bladder in an overprizing conceit of thine own weakness but let Sobriety moderate thy Passions Temperance regulate thy Affections Humility bridle thy desires that thou mayest be a friend to thy self and not a foe to others 36. Of Presumption and Desparation The Serpent having bitten our first Parents with this infectious sin of Presumption afterwards sets upon Cain with that stinging sin of Desparation Both which are the great Master-pieces he useth to batter the Rampire of our Righteousness that so he may the more easily let in death into the heart the Souls Citadel one commonly follows the other as that little ravenous beast follows the Lyon for the reversion of his Prey 〈◊〉 the great design of Satan to hush a man 〈…〉 a carnal security that he may spend 〈…〉 and flower of his years in a presumptive way of sinning in hope of an after Repentance but if he chance to look back in the Evening of his age the Devil rouzes the Conscience as a sleepy Lyon to to fly in his face which returns him into his former way of Presumption or else exposes him to the devouring teeth of Desparation Shield me O my God with thy preventing Grace from such miscarriage that passing through the Red Sea of this World I may steer my course by the gale of thy favour between Silla and Carybdis the rocks of Presumption and the Gulf of Desparation till I safely arive upon the coast of Canaan the promised harbour of eternal Rest 37. Of Vertue and Vice Narrow is the way that leads unto life and few there be that find it but broad is the way that leads unto death and many there are that go in thereat At the entrance of the one stands Vertue in her sable dress like Rachel mourning for the loss of her Children and will not be comforted crying with Wisdom in the open places of concourse How long will ye simple ones love Simplicity ye Scorners delight in scorning and Fools hate knowledge Turn ye at my Reproof behold I will shew you the way of life though it may seem cragged rough and hard yet by it you shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven But at the other way stands gawdy Vice in her rich habiliments like Solomons Harlot curiously bedect with all sensual Invitements with which she commits a rape upon the Eyes of her Beholders her lips drop as the Honey-comb and her words are smoother than Oyl her feet go down to death and her steps take hold on Hell she opens unto them the gate of Vanity which leads into a spacious place where are Gamesters of all sorts sporting themselves with the Rackets of Pleasures and Profits in the Tennis-Court of this World till unwisely unwarily and unhappily they court their own Destruction Prevent me O my God in the day of Grace with thy blessing of wisdom that I may listen to the call of Virtue and not to the Courtship of Vice that I may creep with the fewest on the knees of humility in the narrow way to eternal life and not run with the most on the feet of Folly in the broad way to eternal death 38. Of the World As the Wilderness of sin was a place of tryal and trouble to the murmuring Israelites in their way to Canaan sufferin hunger and thirst with the sting of Serpents for Rebellion and Disobedience so is the World in general to us all full of variety of Vexation of Spirit for Sin and Transgression Some are hungry and thirsty and cold and naked pinched with poverty others surfeiting with prosperity throughfulness of flesh sticking in their teeth their fiery Lusts as so many Serpents gendred by Satan upon their Sin-bearing hearts sting them to death without the mercy of a Saviour Blessed

only Ephesus but all Asia gave their Worship How much greater is the World 's Diana vanity that not only Asia but the World it self prostitutes its Devotions She is Attended with three Golden Idols as vain as her self Pride Concupiscence and Lust the Worlds Trinity which entertains all Suitors with variety of Honours Pleasures and Profits To this Lady of Honour the Ambitious spirit makes his acquist esteeming himself as nothing without a bended Knee a popular Applause and a turgent Title which his Fancy feeds upon as the Camelion upon Air but if crost in his designs by any opposite to his assention he grows as lean as Envy can make him like the Birds that fed upon Zeuxis Grapes with pecking at shadows Hither also resorts to this glaring shrine the Idolatrous Miser whose Hydropick thirst after Gold like the Horse-leach after Blood cries Give Give his Heart is always digging with the Mold in this Earthy Mine never satisfied till Death Robs his soul from his silver Mountain and his Mouth is bunged with courser Earth Finally the Luxurious Gallant makes Court to this Goddess of Beauty who prodigallizeth upon her Wanton all her sinful Favours which may indulge the Flesh and please desire with her deeds of Darkness Enter not my Soul into these their secrets which lead down to the Chambers of Death but skip like a Hart over these Mountains of Vanity Soar with the Wing of Contemplation into a higher glory let thy aspiring thoughts transcend this Airy Arrogance as far as Light surpasseth Darkness Heaven surmounteth Hell where thou maist Tribute thy Devotions to a more Beautiful shrine the Blessed Trinity from whence thou maist derive everlasting Comforts eternal Honours which flie not away upon the Wings of Time durable Riches where neither Rust doth canker or Thieves break through and steal torrents of Divine pleasure which shall continually chear and refresh thy spirits where thou maist behold with perpetual contentment the loveliness of Beauty the splendour of Saints and the glory of Kingly Majesty 24. Of Infidelity The Fool hath said in his Heart there is no God so consequently neither Heaven nor Hell which Atheistical Opinion is too rife in the Hearts of many who live as without God in the World without hope of Heaven or fear of Hell so willingly incredulous are they of their own safety or Ruine that though they have the two Testaments Nature and Grace the Light of Reason and the Word of God to inform them the one convincing their Consciences the other to enlighten their Understandings yet are they such Passionate Zealots over their Lusts that they violently court the embraces of Hell like Pliny the re-search of his scorning Vesuvius they will doubtfully experiment their own destruction As in Mercy O Lord thou hast given me a Rational being capable of Divine Light as a true born Christian let not I pray thee the Powers of Darkness or my indulgency over sin muffle my Soul in unbelief to make me an Atheist but impress upon my Heart with the Seal of thy Spirit the true cognizance of thy self that I may know thee who Created me to be my Almighty Father thy Son who Redeemed me my Blessed Saviour the Holy Ghost who Sanctifies me my gracious Preserver That I may know Heaven a place of Honour a Kingdom of incomparable Love Hell a place of Horror a Lake of intolerable dolour let the beauty of the one invite my Affections the danger of the other fright me from sin and both be objects of my Souls safety 25. Of Pride Pride is a gaudy Brat of a Monstrous Nature begot by the Father of Lies upon a Presumptuous Heart whose Towring thoughts and Devil-like Disposition could not soar higher or center lower than God himself It was the Serpents suggestion to the Woman Ye shall be as Gods knowing good and evil A Temptation no sooner offered then embraced which brought a Curse upon her self her Husband and Posterity In sorrow shalt thou bring forth by the sweat of thy brows shalt thou eat Bread The Serpent not exempted Dust shalt thou eat upon thy belly shalt thou creep So that the Serpent was punished for Lying Adam and Eve for aspiring and eating Strangle O Lord in Love to our Souls such spurious Conceptions of the Serpents Pride in our Lustful hearts that they may not come to the perfection of Birth which will bring forth death But if we will not keep within the bounds of thy Commands but will through too much Curiosity peep into thy secreet Decrees and intrench upon thy Negative Precepts thou wilt make us acknowledge thee Righteous in thy waies and Just in thy Judgments 26. Of Hypocrisie Hypocrisie is similata sanctitas Vertue in appearance when Vested in her Saint-like Habit under which sin and Satan doth shrowd themselves to deceive the Innocent not unlike the Earth in the midst of Winter when Cloathed in her white Raiment spurious Broods of Toads Nettles and Adders lie mantled under her snowy Breasts but when the Sun ariseth in its vigour her Nakedness is uncovered and her Deformity appears So is it with our Earthy Hearts which Naturally brings forth mishapen Brats of Lusts veiled through the Devils Policy under the Garment of Hypocrisie transforming them as himself into Angels of Light Discover O my God to the Eye of my Soul such dangerous Impostors as sin and Satan that I may behold them in their Monstrous shape with detestation as the great Enemies of my Salvation and arise thou Sun of Glory with thy beams of Love upon my Soul and thaw away this rimy Robe from my frozen Heart that I may appear what in truth I am the greater Object of thy Compassions 27. Of Envy This Torturing Passion is like Prometheus his Vulture which continually Tyrannizes upon the Heart where it takes possession it soveraignizeth over the rest of the Passions not enduring any Competitor in the Common-wealth of Prosperity subjecting all the Lusts to be subservient to it if Covetousness come in competition with it for greatness of Reward Envy will be thankful to the Angel for one Eye to make the Miser stark blind If graceful Vertue sit in the seat of Dignity Envy will endeavour by Ambition to pull her down If Love cannot win Lady Beauty by fair Treatment Envy stirs up Raging Lust to deflower her If Thrift grow up in the Garden of Prosperity Envy presently sendeth forth Extortion to crop it If true Valour bear away the Prize of Honour Cowardise and Vain-glory are employed to asperse it by detraction This Envy is Attended with two sullen Passions Hatred and Malice the one is a sad sedement of continued Anger which settles upon the spleen causing it to swell upon every occasion in opposition to its object of discontent The other is ever hatching Mischievous designs for Envy's Practice Envious detractor Malicious sinner Hateful maligner who not only Robs thy self of quiet but also Thieves away from thy Neighbour his Goods and good Name If

began now to darken This darkness was so great that it spread over all the Land of Jewry some think over all the World so we translate it in Luke And there was a darkness over all the earth 2. About three which the Jews call the ninth hour the Sun now beginning to receive his light Jesus cried with a loud voice Eli Eli Lamasabachthani my God my God why hast thou forsaken me And then that the Scriptures might be fulfilled he said I thirst And when he had received the Vinegar he said It is finished And at last crying with a loud voice he said Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit and having said thus he gave up the Ghost I cannot stay on these seven words of Christ which he uttered on the Cross his words were ever gracious but never more gracious than at this time we cannot find in all the Books and Writings of men in all the Annals and Records of time either such Sufferings or such Sayings as were these last Words and Wounds Sayings and Sufferings of Jesus Christ And having said thus he gave up the Ghost Or as John relates it He bowed his head and gave up the Ghost And now we may suppose him at the Gates of Paradise calling with his last Words to have them opened that the King of Glory might come in 3. About four in the Afternoon he was pierced with a Spear and there issued out of his side both blood and water And one of the Soldiers with a spear pierced his side and forthwith came there out blood and water How truly may we say of the Soldiers that after all his Sufferings they have added wounds they find him dead and yet they will scarce believe it until with a Spear they have search'd for life at the well-head it self CHAP. VIII Giving an account of the manner and place of Christs Burial ABout five which the Jews call the eleventh and last hour of the day Christ was taken down And Mary caused certain Ministers with whom she joyned to take her dead Son from the Cross whose body when she once got free from the nails she kissed and embraced with entertainments of the nearest vicinity that could be expressed by a person that was holy and sad and a Mother weeping for her dead Son She now bathes his cold Body with her warm Tears and makes clean the surface of the Wounds and delivering a winding Napkin to Joseph of Arimathea gave to him in charge to enwrap the Body and embalm it to compose it to the Grave and do it all the Rites of Funeral He obeys her Counsel and ventures upon the displeasure of the Jewish Rulers and went confidently to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus and Pilate gave it to him Joseph therefore takes the body binds his face with a Napkin washes the body anoints it with Ointment enwraps it in a composition of Myrrhe and Aloes and puts it into a new Tomb which he for himself had hewn out of a Rock it not being lawful among the Jews to inter a condemned person in the common Coemeteries for all these circumstances were in the Jews manner of Burying But when the Sun was set the chief Priests and Pharisees went to Pilate telling him that Jesus whilst he was living fore-told his own Resurrection upon the third day and lest his Disciples should come and steal the body and say he was risen from the dead desired that the Sepulcher might be secured against the danger of any such Imposture Pilate gave them leave to do their pleasure even to the satisfaction of their smallest Scruples They therefore sealed the Grave rolled a great stone at the mouth of it and as an ancient Tradition saies bound it about with Labels of Iron and set a Watch of Soldiers as if they had intended to have made it surer than the Decrees of Fate or the never-failing Laws of Nature A Funeral Sermon FOR THAT FAITHFUL AND LABORIOUS Servant of CHRIST Mr. JOHN DVNTON Who Deceased November the 4th 1676. in the 48th Year of his Age. By N. H. Minister of the GOSPEL O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory 1 Cor. 15.55 LONDON Printed for John Dunton at the Black Raven in the Poultrey over against the Stocks-Market 1684. Introduction DEarly Beloved should a Stranger behold the face of this vast Assembly and see all the honourable Persons here present with the great number of Ministers that are come this day to attend this mournful occasion and such a great confluence of all ranks and qualities in this dejected posture they would say as the Inhabitants of Canaan did when they saw the Mourning for old Jacob in the floor of Arad This is a grievous Mourning to England and would certainly enquire what eminent Person what great Man is this day fallen in our Israel But you who knew the worth of this Excellent Person whose shadow lies there before you do rather wonder that all faces are not covered with blackness and all bodies with Sackcloth and come hither so fully prepared to Mourn that you even long till something be spoken of him that you may ease your hearts a little though it be with weeping I must needs confess I have been so surprized with sorrow my self that I thought it hardly possible for me to undertake this service but that I must have covered over my Affections and his Elogies as the Painters did Agamemnons grief for Iphigenia with a veil of silence But stay a while I beseech you and weep not so abundantly as I see many of you now do till I deliver an Errand from God the ground whereof you shall find in 1 Sam. 25.1 And Samuel died and all the Israelites were gathered together and lamented him and buried him in his house at Ramah DEarly Beloved the work in hand is a Funeral the Party deceased worthy Samuel the Mourners all Israel the place of Burial his own house at Ramah The whole passage penned either by Gad or Nathan as it should seem by the Chronicles at Gods appointment whose Eye follows every Mourner here and therefore it behoves us to follow his voice with our best attentions For my own part I am very sensible of the Difficulties I now sustain for the subject of our Discourse Samuels Funeral is enough to astonish any Israelite for matter it is not easie to say what will be most expediently said and for manner we have things almost incompatible to reconcile plainness and briefness in the same speech The Text gives some advantage by its plainness and fulness yielding matter of large use from two sorts of men of highest quality viz. from Samuel dying and from Israel mourning And first of Samuel he dies And in his death let 's read our own and grow to this conclusion Death is unavoidable Life and Death take turns each of other the man lives not that shall not see Death be he a King with Saul a Prophet with Jeremy a wise