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
A61120	Kaina kai palaia Things new and old, or, A store-house of similies, sentences, allegories, apophthegms, adagies, apologues, divine, morall, politicall, &c. : with their severall applications / collected and observed from the writings and sayings of the learned in all ages to this present by John Spencer ...	Spencer, John, d. 1680.; Fuller, Thomas, (1608-1661)	1658 (1658)	Wing S4960; ESTC R16985	1,028,106	735

therefore be a scandal to our Calling not a reproach to our own Names but let us be mindfull of our Vow and duty so oft as our Names are mentioned and as ready to answer to our Faith as to our Names Negligence in the wayes of God reproved THere is mention made of a Prince in Germany who being invaded by a more potent Enemy then himself yet from his Friends and Allies who flock't in to his help he soon had a goodly Army but had no money as he said ●o pay them but the truth is he was loath to part with it For which cause some went away in discontent others did not vigorously mind his businesse and so he was soon beaten out of his Kingdome and his coffers when his Pallace was rifled were found to be thwack't with treasure And thus was he ruin'd as some sick Men dye because unwilling to be at cost to pay the Physitian Now so it is that few or none are to be found but would be glad their Souls might be saved at last but where is the Man or Woman that makes it appear by their Vigorous endeavour that they mean in earnest What Warlike-preparation do they make against Satan who lyes between them and home Where are their Arms where their skill to use them their resolution to stand to them and conscionable care to exercise themselves daily in the use of them Thus to do is a rarity indeed if woulding and wishing would bring them to Heaven then they may likely come thither but as for this diligence in the wayes of God this circumspect walking this Wrestling and fighting this making Religion our businesse they are far from these as at last in so doing they are like to be from Heaven No way to Happinesse but by Holinesse ONe fitly compares Holinesse and Happinesse to those two sisters Leah and Rachel Happinesse like Rachel seems the fayrer even a carnal heart may fall in love with that but Holinesse like Leah is the elder and beautifull also though in this life it appears with some disadvantage her eyes being bleared with tears of Repentance and her face furrowed with the works of Mortification but this is the Law of that Heavenly Country that the younger sister must not be bestowed before the Elder We cannot enjoy fair Rachell Heaven and Happinesse except first we embrace tender-eyed Leah Holinesse with all her severe duties of Repentance and Mortification If we will have Heaven we must have Christ If Christ we must like his service as well as his Sacrifice there 's no way to Happinesse but by Holinesse Men deluded by Satan in not taking the right notion of Sin IT is with men in sinning as it is with Armies in fighting Captains beat their Drums for Voluntiers and promise all that list pay and plunder and this makes them come trowling in but few consider what the ground of the War is or for what Thus Satan enticeth Men to Sin and giveth golden promises of what they shall have in his service with which silly Souls are won but how few ask their Souls Whom do I sin against What is the Devills design in drawing me to Sin Shall I tell thee Dost thou think 't is thy pleasure or profit he desires in thy sinning Alas he means nothing lesse he hath greater plots in his head then so He hath by his Apostacy proclaimed war against God and he brings thee by sinning to espouse his quarrel and to jeopard the life of thy Soul in defence of his pride and lust which that he may do he cares no more for the damnation of thy Soul then the great Turk doth to see a company of his slaves cut off for the carrying on of his design in the time of a siege If therefore thou wilt not be deluded by him take the right notion of Sin and labour to understand the bottome of his bloudy design intended against thee Gods love to his Children in the midst of spirituall desertions And how so AS Ioseph when he spake roughly to his brethren and made them believe he would take them for spyes still his heart was toward them and he was as full of love as ever he could hold he was fain to go aside and weep And as Moses his Mother when she pu● her child into the Ark of bul-rushes and went a little way from it yet still her eye was toward it The babe wept I and the Mother wept too So God when he goes a side as if he had forsaken his children yet he is full of sympathy and love towards them It is one thing for God to desert another thing to dis-inherit How shall I give thee up O Ephraim Hos. 8. 11. This is a Metaphor taken from a Father going about to dis-inherit his Son and while he is going to set his hand to the deed his bowels begin to melt and to yearn over him though he be a prodigall child yet he is a child I will not cut off the entail So saith God How shall I give thee up though Ephraim hath been a Rebellious Son yet he is my Son I will not dis-inherit him Gods heart may be full of love when there is a vail upon his face The Lord may change his dispensation towards his children but not his disposition So that the believer may confidently say I am adopted and let God do what he will with me let him take the rod or the staff 't is all one to me so long as he loves me The day of Death becomes the good Mans comfort And how so THe Persians had a certain day in the year which they called Vitiorum interitum wherein they used to kill all Serpents and venemous Creatures Such a day as that will the Day of Death be to a Man in Christ this day the old Serpent dyes in a believer that hath so often s●ung him with his Temptations this day the sins of the Godly these venemous Creatures shall all be destroyed they shall never be proud more they shall never grieve the Spirit of God more the death of the body shall quite destroy the body of death so that Sin which was the Midwife that brought Death into the World Death shall be the grave to bury sin O the priviledg and comfort of a true believer he is not taken away in his sins but he is taken away from his sins and death is made unto him advantage Heavenly happinesse not to be expressed NIcephorus tells us of one Agbarus a great Man that hearing so much of Christs fame by reason of the Miracles he wrought sent a Painter to take his picture and that the Painter when he came was not able to do it because of that radiancy and divine splendor which sate on Christs face Whether this be true or no penes sit authorem but to be sure there is such a brightnesse on the face of Christ glorified and that Happinesse which

force he never suspected to be surprised by the treachery of his own family Every peaceable frame of Spirit and confident perswasion of Gods love is not a sure testimony that such a one is in the state of Grace IT is St. Pauls saying of himselfe That he was alive without the Law i. he had great quietnesse and ease of mind all things went well with him he was Cock a hoope sound and safe he thought himselfe in a sure and s●fe way but alass this was his ignorance his blindnesse just like a Man in a Dungeon that thinks himselfe safe when there are Serpents and poysonous Creatures round about him onely he doth not see them Or as a Man in a Lethargy feels no pain though he be at the selfe same time near unto the gates of Death And such is the condition of many persons They thank God they have no trouble their Soul is at much ease and quietnesse they doubt not of Gods favour and love unto them hence in the midst of their afflictions when they are but as it were peeping into the furnace of tryall they will say I thank my good God this is his doing I will submit thereunto c. When alass here 's nothing but words no assurance and it may be said of such as Christ of the Iews You say he is your Father but you have not known him so they know nothing powerfully and practically concerning the Mercies of God in Christ Iesus True comfort in the Word of God onely SEneca going about to comfort his friend Polybius perswades him to bear his afflictions patiently And why but because he was the Emperours favourite and tells him That it was not lawful for him to complain while Caesar was his friend cold comfort was this a poor Cordiall God wot to raise up a drooping spirit Good reason too For Caesar himselfe a little while after was so miserable so destitute of all outward comforts that he had not a friend to relieve him in the midst of his greatest extremity much lesse was he able to help his friend O but the sure word of God affords a better Cordiall that which is true comfort indeed It bids every true Child of God not to be over-much dejected under the greatest of afflictions because he is Gods favourite Gods Iewell Gods child Gods Inheritance It tells him that it is not lawfull for him to complain while God is his friend his refuge his Rock of defence his safeguard his What-not in the way of reliefe and succour and the Promises of God are his rich portion and inheritance so that like Iob though he lose all that he hath yet he loseth nothing because he loseth not his God in having of whom he hath all things God afflicting his Children for the improvement of their Graces IT is reported of the Lionesse that she leaves her young whelps till they have almost kill'd themselves with roaring and yelling and then at last gasp when they have almost spent themselves she relieves them and by this means they become more couragious And thus it is that God brings his children into sadnesse sorrow nay even into the very deeps of distress he suffers Ionah to be three dayes and three nights in the belly of a Whale David to cry out till his throat be dry his Disciples to be all the night in a great storme till the fourth watch and then it is that he rebuketh the winds and relieveth his children by which means he mightily encreaseth their Patience and dependance upon him improveth their Graces and enlargeth their faith and hope in Christ Iesus The readinesse of God to pardon poor Repentant Sinners IT was a custome amongst the ancient Romans that when the Judges absolved any accused person at the Barre they did write the letter A upon a little Table provided for that purpose i. Absolvimus We absolve him If they judged him guilty they writ C. i. Condem●amus We condemn him And if they found the cause difficult and doubtfull they writ N. L i. Non Liquet We cannot tell what to make of it not much unlike unto the term Ignoramus in our Common Law which the grand inquest writes upon a bill of Inditement when they mislike their Evidence as defective or too weak to make good the presentment But it is otherwise with the all-knowing God with whom we have to do he cannot be said to be ignorant of the many sins wherewith we provoke him dayly Abraham may be ignorant of us and Israel acknowledge us not but he knoweth us and all things else he knoweth us to be wretched and miserable so that he may well write Condemnamus and doom us to perpetuall torments with the Devill and his Angels yet such is his mercy to poor Repentant sinners that he invites and woes them to come in that they may be saved and so ready to pass by offences that instead of Condemnamus he takes up the Pen and writes Absolvimus My Son be of good chear thy sins be forgiven thee How it is that Ministers find so little success of their labours in Preaching the Gospel AS the Husbandman though he should be never so laborious in ploughing sowing and fitting the ground though he be never so careful to provide precious and good seed yet it the nature of the ground be barren as it will bear no seed or cause it to degenerate into Cockle all the labour is in vain Or as the Gardiner though he water and dress never so carefully yet if the Tree be dead at the root it is all to no purpose So though the Ministers of God are very earnest in praying preaching informing rebuking yet when the ground is barren the Tree dead at the root if the People be of a froward and indisposed temper if the God of this World hath blinded their eyes that they do not see nor understand nor feel the power of God working upon their souls What hope is or can there be of such a People Christ the eternall Son of God properly and significantly called The Word Iob. 1. 1. FIrst because his eternall generation is like the production of a Word For as a word is first conceived in the mind and proceeds thence without any carnall operation So the Son of God had his conception in the understanding of the Father and proceeded thence without any corporeall emanation 2. As a word is immateriall and invisible for no Man can see verbum mentis the Word of our thought So Christ is immateriall and invisible in regard of his divine Nature for no Man hath seen that at any time 3. As a Word if you take it for verbum mentis cannot be separated from the understanding but as soon as there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Understanding there must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word So Iesus Christ the second person

as no sins at all but at the time of our dissolution when we are ready to touch upon the brink of Death then sin appears in its colours in its true proportion small ones so great in the magnitude light ones so ponderous in the weight that the poor miserable Sinner finds them a burthen unsupportable too heavy for him to bear and looking about for help cryes out with S. Paul Miserable Man that I am Who shall deliver me c. Rom. 8. Godlinesse a very gainful Trade A Merchant that drives a rich Trade will by a bargain in one Morning get an hundred pounds or more whereas many other poor People are fain to work hard to get a shilling or eighteen pence a day Now every one would be of the gaining side It is the common voice of Nature Who will shew us any good How shall we come to be Rich Oh prize the Trade of Godlinesse then therein is great gain to be had As for the Works of Morality and common grace they are like the Trade of the poor labouring Man that earns some small matter that works hard and gets onely some outward blessings from God but Godlinesse is a full Merchants Trade that brings in hundreds and thousands at a clap and such a Trade God would have us set our hearts upon to look after great and glorious things As Cleopatra that Egyptian Princess said to Marcus Antonius It was not for him to fish for gudgeons but for Towns Forts and Castles so it is not for those that are acquainted with the wayes of Godlinesse to be trading for poor things for temporal transitory trash but for eternal life glory and Immortality Consideration of our secret Sins a motive to Compassionate others WE may read of a Iudge in the Primitive times who when he was seriously invited to the place of Judgment to passe Sentence upon another withdrew himself and at last being earnestly pressed came with a bag of sand upon his shoulders to the Iudgment Seat saying You call me to passe Iudgment upon this poor Offender How can I do it when I my self am guilty of more sins then this bag hath sands in it if the World saw them all This was not so well done as a publique Magistrate being invited to do Iustice yet as becoming a Conscionable Christian. And thus ought all good Men to do the consideration of their bosome Sins should work in them Compassion towards others saying within themselves Can I be as Judah to cry out upon Tamar Let her be burnt when I remember the Ring and the Staffe laid in pawn to her in secret How can I be extream against my weak brother when if my faults were written on my forehead I might deserve as severe a censure my self Ministers to preach the Gospel notwithstanding the discouragements of their Auditory And why so TUlly maketh mention of Antima●hus a famous Poet of his time who having penn'd some excellent quaint Piece read it openly before a Iudicious Auditory but whether through disaffection to the Person or disregard of the Poem they all left him except Plato which he perceiving resolved to go on with this confidence that Plato being there alone he cared not though all the rest were absent Thus Ministers are to preach the Gospel of Christ though they 〈◊〉 with many discouragements to the work of their Ministery though the Congregation be so thin that there may seem to be more Pews and Pillars in the Church then People and they as stupid and senselesse in the matter of attention as the Seats they sit on some high-way side some thorny some rocky hearers yet for all that there may be one Plato one good grounded Hearer who may prove the Crown of all his labours and in whose conversion he shall have much cause of rejoycing before Men and Angels in Heaven The mis-giving Thoughts of a Worldly-minded Man in reference to the enjoyment of Heaven A Begger asking an Alms if a Man put his hand in his pocket and take out a penny or two pence he hath hope to have that but if he chance to pull out a piece of gold then his heart fails because it is too much Cast a bone to a dog he falls to it presently but for a joynt of meat before him well drest in a fair large dish he dares not venture upon that So for these sublunary things as Riches Honours and preferments such as God casts many times to dogs Worldly men may fall upon them and think they are for their ●ooth but when they come to the dainties and infinite treasures of God Can a Drunkard that prizeth nothing but a little swilling drink Can a swinish filthy base low-spirited Man that never minded any thing but the satisfying of his unclean lusts think that God should make it the greatest work that he hath in the World to communicate the Riches of his goodness and grace to such a one as he is He cannot but have mis-giving thoughts and think that he hath no part in them An Heavenly-minded Man looks through and beyond Afflictions TRavellers tell us that they that are on the top of the Alpes may see great showns of rain fall under them which they over look but not one drop of it comes at them And he that is on the top of some high Tower mindeth not the croking of Frogs and Toads the hissing of Serpents Adders and the like venomous Creatures they are below Thus an Heavenly-minded Man who dwells in Heaven on Earth looks through and beyond all Troubles and Afflictions rides triumphantly through the storm of disparagements nay he boldly stares Death in the Face though never so ugly disguised as Anaxarchus said to the Tyrant Tunde tunde Anaxarchum non tundis beat him and bruise him and kill him it may but he will keep up his Soul in the very ruines of his Body Deliberation to be used in all our wayes HE that is to climb up some high ladder must not think that setting his Foot upon the lowest rownd he can skip over all the rest and be at the top without evident danger to himself Such is the course of our life just like a Ladder of many rownds set up to some high place the first step is or of necessity should be the thought of God and goodnesse and the last step the full assurance of Heaven but there are in the middle many other steps as of means consideration deliberation c. how to love God above all things and our Neighbours as our selves and how to demean our selves in the midst of a crooked and froward generation which if we miss and step over no marvel if we never come to the top but perish in the mid-way to all Eternity Heavenly mindednesse of a Child of God IT is recorded of Edward the First that he had a great desire to go to the Holy-Land but being

with the vicissitudes he had run through being asked by one by what meanes he preserved his fortune he replyed that he was made ex salice non ex quercu of the pliant Willow not the stubborn Oak alwaies of the prevailing Religion and a Zealous Professour Thus it is that the wicked State-Polititian sides with all parties If Religion be fashionable you can scarce distinguish him from a Saint He will not onely reverence Godly Ministers but if need be he will preach himself If cunctation prevail he acts Fabius If the buckler must be changed for a Sword he personates Marcellus If mildnesse be usefull Soderini of Venice was not more a Lamb then he If Severities are requisite Nero's butcheries are Sanctities compared with his Thus like a subtle Proteus he assumes that shape which is most in grace and of most profitable conducement to his ends onely he hath so much advantage of the Camelion that he can turn himself into white For he is often to be found wearing the Vest of innocency to conceal the uglinesse and blackness of his attempts Tyrants raysing themselves by a seeming compliance with the People A Thenaeus tells a pretty story of one Athenion born obscurely who as long as he was private and poor excel'd in a soft and tractable disposition but when by jugling he had obtained the Athenian government there was none more odious for a cruell barbarous covetous Tyrant Nero's quinquennium will never be forgotten not that which is reported of Caligula that there was never a better servant and a worse Master Thus it is by wofull experience made out that Tyrannically-minded Men personate goodnesse till they have accomplished their ends make a shew of all goodnesse till they have wrought themselves into the good liking of all those whom they intend to deceive And then off goes the Vizard of dissimulation and they appear in their native colours what indeed they are bloudy barbarous inhumane True Obedience IT is reported of the old Kings of Peru that they were wont to use a Tassell or Fringe made of red Wool which they wore upon their heads and when they sent any Governour to rule as Vice-roy in any part of their Countrey they delivered unto him one of the threads of their Tassell and for one of those simple threads he was as much obeyed as if he had been the King himself yea it hath so happened that the King hath sent a Governour onely with this thread to slay Men and Women of a whole Province without any further Commission For of such power and authority was the Kings tassell with them that they willingly submitted thereunto even at the sight of one thread of it Now it is to be hoped that if one thread shall be so forcible to draw Infidel-obedience there will be no need of Cart-ropes to hale on that which is Christian Exemplary was that Obedience of the Romans which was said to have come abroad to all men Rom. 16. 19. And certainly Gospell-obedience is a Grace of much worth and of great force upon the whole Man For when it is once wrought in the heart it worketh a conformity to all Gods will be it for life or death one word from God will command the whole Soul assoon as Obedience hath found admittance into the Heart The true improvement of Peace IT is observeable in Scripture that Moses Altar was but five cubits in length and five in bredth and three in heigth but Solomons Altar was much larger Now the reason hereof seems to be this because Moses was in a warfar in an unsetled condition in the Wildernesse in continual travel full of troubles and could not conveniently carry about an Altar of that bignesse But Solomon was on his Throne in a tranquill estate setled in quiet possession of his Kingdome and as his name was so was he a true Solomon that is Peaceable Thus it ought to be with all good Men that when they have more Peace and prosperity then others their service of God should be proportionable Solomons Temple must out-strip Moses his Tabernacle in beauty and glory and Solomons Altar must exceed the bignesse of Moses his Altar In their Peace and plenty their holinesse should out-shine others that are in want and misery when God layes not so much sorrow upon them as upon others they should lay the more duty upon themselves If God send them fewer Crosses and more comforts they are to return more service and commit lesse evill The true Christians confidence and contempt of Death OBservable is that speech of King Agag when Samuel sent for him Surely the bitternesse of Death is past Now the ground of this speech was either his ●alse hope as thinking that the worst was past because he was fetched off the Kings guard of Souldiers and brought to Samuel the Prophet who was Vir togatus a Man of Peace Or else if the Messengers did tell him why he was sent for then he set a bold face upon it and spake out of stomach intimating his resolutenesse and contempt of Death that he was resolved to die bravely and like himself This now was carnall gallantry And thus many a man may Agag-like contemn Death and all Gods judgments out of stoutnesse and stiffness of heart But all true believing Christians may and do gratiously despise Death and say thus from a principle of Faith and cer●ain hopes of Heaven Surely the bitternesse of Death is past certainly Christ by his Death hath taken away the bitterness of Death and hath sweetly perfumed our graves by the burial of his own blessed body so that we shall taste nothing but the sweetness of Death and may now couragiously and triumphingly sing and say not as Agag did Surely the bitternesse of Death is past but as S. Paul did O Death where is thy sting c. and to me to dye is gain Phil. 1. 21. Mans Nothingnesse JOsephus Phavorinus a learned Physitian of Italy marvelled at nothing in the World but Man and at nothing in Man but his mind And Abdala the Saracen King of Toledo being asked what he most wondred at upon the stage of the World answered Man One calls God an immortall Man and Man an immortall God Another sets him out as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little World and the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great Man Now these Men were not certainly so well-knowing of Gods word and Mans sin and of the matter that Man was made of as they should have been Whereas such as know God in his most excellent glory and Man in his best estate to be but Vanity turn'd from his Innocency to Iniquity must and do acknowledg themselves to be less then the least of Gods mercies such as he created being Nothing recreated being worse then nothing and without great Mercy on his part are like to fall again to Nothing Men of corrupt