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
A86270	Repentance and conversion, the fabrick of salvation: or The saints joy in heaven, for the sinners sorrow upon Earth. Being the last sermons preached by that reverend and learned John Hewyt, D.D. Late minister of St. Gregories by St. Pauls. With other of his sermons preached there. Dedicated to all his pious auditors, especially those of the said parish. Also an advertisement concerning some sermons lately printed, and presented to be the doctors, but are disavowed by Geo. Wild. Jo. Barwick.	Hewit, John, 1614-1658.; Wilde, George, 1610-1665.; Barwick, John, 1612-1664.	1658 (1658)	Wing H1637; Thomason E1776_1; ESTC R209722	86,537	249

sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of Death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Though these things buz about his ears like bees provoked or irritated yet they have lost their sting If the old serpent bruise his heel yet his head is broken if the Devil give us a false alarm by persecutions yet we are souldiers fighting under Christs Banner listed and registred into the Book of Life at our Baptism he hath bought and redeemed us by his most precious blood and no one can ravish us from him What soul can be so sordid as to fear the arm of flesh when he is guarded by the spirit of Christ that doth not only intercede for sinners but of sinners makes them become just That is not only Advocate of a bad cause but also renders it good That doth both pray and pay for us so that his pardoning of us is not onely a work of his mercy but also an effect of his justice Besides these obligations we have an infinite number of incitations to the love of Christ if we will but recollect our selves and seriously consider how often he hath delivered us from imminent danger caused inexpected overtures of evil intended to us that we might avoid them for according to the old Proverb Praemoniti praemuniti forewarned forearmed and afflicted us here that he might save us hereafter Now 't was the wish of that famous pillar of the Latin Church St. Augustin Hic ure hic tunde hic seca modo in aeternum parcas Cut saw burn my body here so thou savest my soul hereafter Now for shame let it not be said that God hath showred down his blessings on the sand Let us not be so bestial as to drink of the stream and ne'er think of the fountain without elevating our thoughts unto God the source of all benedictions But when we say God doth good unto us to the end that we may love him not that he stands in need of our Love but he will have us love him in regard that we cannot be saved if we hate him Nay farther that we love him proceeds from him as a gift for 't is he that kindles in us his love He doth not only bestow and confer his bona upon us but he gives us a hand to receive them grace to use them and vertue to glorifie for them so that Deus primo dat quod jubet and then jubet quod vult first he gives what he commands viz. Love Love is the gift of God and then he commands what is most agreable to his will and pleasure This first degree or step of Love though it be holy and useful yet 't is but principium amoris divini 't is but the prologue to the Love of God for he that loves God only for profit is like an infant or child that prays only for his break-fast and to speak properly such persons love not God but themselves Such love is but mercenary and injurious to God a palpable affront put upon the Deity Therefore he must know that hath gained this first degree he must proceed for non progredi est regredi to be at a stand is to be retrograde he must therefore I say ascend the second step The second degree of our Love toward God is to Love him 2 Degree not only for our profit but also for himself i. e. laying aside all consideration of his benefits that he is daily pleased to confer on us and though we expected no profit from him yet to love him supra omnia Holy David spake of this Love in the 69 Psalm Let all those that love thee rejoyce in thy name He counsels us to love God for his name because he is the supream Wise in his counsel just in his actions true in his promises whose habitation is in glory inaccessible enjoying a Soveraign perfection God whose life was without beginning and his duration without end his eternity without alteration his greatness without measure and his power irresistible That created the World by his Word governs it by his vertue and will reduce it to a Chaos of ruine when it is his pleasure Who in one sole vertue and perfection which is his Essence encompasseth all other vertues that are infused into all other creatures All other vertues do concentre in this punctum and the more they deviate from him the more eccentrique they are God therefore is to be loved for these preceding considerations more then for the good that he is pleased to confer upon us Our Saviour instructeth us the same in that most absolute pattern that he himself hath set before us in which he commands to beg the sanctification of his Holy Name and the advancement of his Kingdom before we put up a petition for our daily bread We naturally are enamoured with beauty now Light is the first of beauties without which there is no distinction between beauty and deformity God therefore being the primum lumen it follows necessarily that he be also the prime beauty He is the Father of Lights Pater Luminum saith St. James and holy David the Psalmist in the 36 Psalm 9. For with thee is the Fountain of Life in thy light shall we see light Wherefore in laying his hand to the stately Fabrick of the World when he reduced the Chaos of confusion into a beautiful and harmonious order he began first with the light as that by which his nature is best represented He is the Sun of Righteousness a Sun that never comes to the West never sets nor casts a shadow all things are naked unto him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things are bare-neckt unto him 't is in the Original being a metaphor taken from the mode in the Eastern Countreys where they go bare-neckt such a Sun as doth not only clarifie the sight but gives it also And judge you what a splendid sight-offending lustre this is that the Seraphims assisting at his Throne cover their faces with their wings as Isaiah saith 6 Chap. 2 vers not being able to endure so glorious a splendor And if at the coming and appearance of the humanity of Christ the Sun shall be benegroed in darkness as a petty light at the coming of a greater how if you cast an eye upon the life of God! The life of God ours is but a shadow if compared to it nay a nihil for our life is a flux or succession of parts But God possesseth and hath full and entire fruition of his eadem instanti and all together And his only begotten Son was willing to lay down his life for the redemption of us miserable and wretched sinners That Son that Isaiah calls Chap. the 9. Father of eternity was content to assume this frail flesh of ours He became Son of Man that we might become the sons of God He was born in a stable that we might

of God that we understand not what it is to love him This Tree of Knowledge grows not in our Eden This flower springs not up in our Garden 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a gift dropt out of Heaven proceeding from the Father who is Love and Charity as St. John saith This is a divine liquor the true Nectar that God poures into our souls guttatim drop by drop as in narrow-neckt vessels Wherefore to accommodate our selves to our native slowness we 'll endeavour to infuse into our spirits by little and little so by degrees to arrive at the highest degree and Apex of Love There are five degrees of this our Love to God 1. The first is to love God for the good he doth us and we expect to receive from him still 2. Secondly To love him propter seipsum or sui ipsius gratia for his own sake because he is most excellent and most amiable 3. Thirdly To love God above all things nay your own selves but to love nothing in the World but for his sake 4. Fourthly To detest and abhor himself for the Love of God 5. Fifthly to love him as we shall in the life to come when we shall be in glory with this love the Saints are extasied and assist at the Throne of God in secula seculorum We call these Degrees of Love and not species or kinds because the superior contain the inferior as the chiefest white differs from the other parcels of the same colour that are less clear and transparent not in specie but in gradu we must remount up these degrees or stairs and rest our selves a little upon every one of them 1. The first degree and lowest is Five degrees by which we are brought to love God To love God for the good he doth us upon this step of Love was King David when in the 116 Psalm and in the 1 verse I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplication and so in the 18 Psalm for God will have respect and love from us because he extends his bounty so liberally to us 'T is God that created us 't is God that preserves and keeps us being created that nourisheth our bodies that cherisheth our souls that redeemeth us by his Son that governs us by his holy Spirit that instructeth us by his word that hath vouchsafed to admit us as his servants nay his friends and children and which is more the same with himself Plato playing the Philosopher with the grace of God Plato blessed God for three things thanked him for three things 1. That he was created a man and not a beast 2. That he was born a Graecian and not a Barbarian and 3. That he was a Philosopher Now we that are instructed in the School of Christ a School of more strict discipline So ought we for these especially make another kind of distribution of the grace of God and return him thanks for these three things 1. That of all Creatures we were created men 2. That of all men Christians And 3. That among those that are Christians he hath made us in the number of the true elect And if you please you may add a fourth That he hath adopted us by his Son Jesus Christ before the foundation of the World having been carefull of us not onely before we had any existence but even before the world had its creation Now if God did manifest his love to us before we were how liberally will he extend it to us how bountifully will it flow from him when we invocate and call upon his Sacred Name and affect him with a filial and reverential love Now the smaller our number is the larger is our priviledge the more extensive and diffusive is his bounty and goodness to us to endow us with sight among so many blind persons as the portion of Jacob in Aegypt solely enlightned in the midst of obscurity Cimmerian darkness like the fleece of Gideon that was only bedewed with the grace of God when the rest of the earth was dry and destitute of it God hath encircled us with abundance of examples of stupendious caecity or blindness that he might raise our estimation of light and that we might make a farther progress in the way of salvation that so whilest it is called to day we may steer the ship of our souls by the Lanthorn of his Word All these vertues the constellation of all these graces depend upon one Soveraign and Prime one viz. reconciliation with God by the passion of our blessed Jesus This is the Chanel through which the graces of God stream unto us 'T is Jacobs Ladder that joyns Heaven and Earth together that rejoyns God and Man The Angels ascending this Ladder represent our prayers that we piously dart up to Heaven the Angels descending signifie the blessings of God that are distilled in answer to our prayers Jacob sleeping at the foot of the Ladder intimates unto us the quiet and tranquillity of conscience that we enjoy under the cool and comfortable shade of his intercession Before man was environed with horror and astonishment he could not cast his eye aside but he met with an object of fear If he look't upon God he discerned a consuming fire a supream Justice armed with revenge against sinners If he cast his eye upon the Law he immediately perceived the arrest of condemnation If he viewed the Heaven he concluded himself excluded thence by reason of sin If the World he saw his irreparable loss of dominion over the Creatures if himself a thousand spiritual and corporal infirmities At the signes of Heaven and the Earth-quake he was ague-struck with fear Then Satan Death Hell were his inveterate foes that either drew him to perdition or did behel and wrack him with the expectation of them But now every person that hath confidence in Christ Jesus changes his language and speaks in a more pleasing dialect If he look upon God he 'll say 'T is my Father that hath adopted me If his thoughts pitch upon the day of Judgement he 'll bespeak himself thus My Elder Brother sits there and he that is my Judge is also my Counsellor If he think on the Angels he cries out They are my guardians Psalm the 34. If he view the Heaven he terms it his habitation If he hear it thunder he 'll reply 'T is the voice of my Father If he consider the Law The Son of God saith he hath accomplisht it for me If he swim with the flowing tide of prosperity he 'll say God hath reserved better things for me If in the low ebb of adversity Jesus Christ hath endured far more for me God exerciseth or proves corrects or afflicts me making me therein conformable to his Son If he thinks on Hell the Devil or Death then he will triumph over all with the holy Apostle in the 1 to the Corinth the 15 Ch. and the 55 56 and 57 vers O Death where is thy