Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	sin_n	sting_n	victory_n	14,564	5	9.4854	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12361	Iacobs ladder, or The high way to heauen Being the last sermon that Master Henry Smith made. And now published, not (as many forged things haue beene in his name) to deceiue the Christian reader, but to instruct and prepare him with oyle in his lampe, ioyfully to meete the Lord Iesus in his second comming.	Smith, Henry, 1550?-1591.	1595 (1595)	STC 22677; ESTC S122459	18,803	31

come nigh them For Christ the very way truth and life it selfe hath tolde vs and therefore we ought to credit it He that heareth my words and beleeueth in him that sent mee hath euerlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but hath passed from death vnto life Lastly is not sinne a shrewd and sore enemie to encounter with I confesse it but to whome tell mee I beseech you euen to them in whose mortall bodies it raigneth to fulfill the concupiscences thereof To other in whom the ●oo●e of it is dead it is not so whether we respect this life or that which is to come for here the reliques of sinne are but as pricks in our sides to prouoke vs to better things and to stirre vs vp to hunger and thirst after righteousnes and for the life to come we shall be vtterly freed from the same and haue all teares wiped frō our eyes To bring all into a summe I say let all obiected be as true as any thing may bee yet all these and a thousand more such like are nothing to him that is in Christ. For the Apostle sayth There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus and it is hee alone that hath destroyed death and became sinne for vs that wee in him might bee made the righteousnes of God And surely such a one may in some good measure of comfort ioyfully say to the defiance euen of death it selfe and all other ghostly enemies whatsoeuer O death where is thy sting O graue where is they victorie The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the lawe but thankes bee vnto GOD which hath giuen vs victorie through our Lord Iesus Christ. Yea hee may say as the Saints and Martyrs haue sayd in the middest of fierie flames I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall bee able to separate me from the loue of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. Oh but death is terrible still I answer in such a cloud of witnesses and euidence of truth may I not in some sort and sense say O faithlesse generation how long shall I bee with you how long now shall I suffer you Is it fearefull to any but to a naturall man and to him that hath his felicitie here and in the things of this life Surely it is nothing terrible to him that is made a comfortable partaker of the fruits of the death of Christ who dyed and rose againe to the ende hee might destroy death and him that had the power of death euen the diuell himselfe But hel is horrible True but yet to thē for whom it is prepared but thou art in Christ exempted from it For why did he himselfe suffer hellish torments both in body soule to leaue the 〈…〉 to make it terrible or horrible to thee no but to free thee and all his from the feare of hell the feeling of euerlasting condemnation Oh but what shall I say touching my sin that is great and grieuous the peculiar wages of it is death eternall That is true in the nature of sin the iustice of God but with the Lord there is mercie that he may be feared Stand still a while and you shall beholde the great workes of God be not faithlesse but faithfull and beleeue the truth of the word What is more cleere then this where sinne hath abounded there grace hath abounded much more And though it be in a Prophet yet where haue we a more plaine plentifull or euangelicall promise then this Though your sinnes were as crimson they shall be made white as show though they were red as skarlet they shal be as woll If we haue the hād or writing of an honest man we think our selues bound to giue credit therto how much more shuld we beleeue the most true vnchāgeable word of the eternal To which not for any want in himself but by reason of the weakenes of our faith he hath bin willing the more aboundantly to shew vnto the heires of promise the stablenes of his coūcel to adioyne binde himselfe with an oath saying As I liue I wil not the death of a sinner yea I wil be merciful to their vnrighteousnes and I wil remember their sinnes and iniquities no more that so by two immutable things that is his inuiolable oath assured promise wherein it is vnpossible that God should lye we might haue strong consolation And as for these obiections or any the like what are they else but in trueth and substance the very euil reports that the spyes brought vpō the promised land And yet there was a very true testimonie giuen by Ioshua and Caleb yea the palpable proofes they had by the cluster of grapes and other things which they brought from thence were irrefragate witnesses Will you beleeue then because they are many that is flat poperie besides God forbiddeth vs to cleaue to a multitude to doe euill Will you feare thē because they are mightie That is to distrust God who is greater then al and to make them omnipotent which is blasphemie Wil you doubt because they double their assaults That is no end of temptation but this rather to ad an edg vnto our prayers that so through thē we may heare in our hearts that cofortable speech My grace is sufficient for thee my strength shal be perfected through weaknes And when we shall haue all our senses satisfied in the contrarie truth yea so farre forth as that our eyes may see our eares may heare our hāds may hādle the good things of God ouer and besides the faith we haue in him concerning them it is not grosse onely but impious not to beleeue But here in this life are many pleasures and certaine delights lawfull as houses friends wiues children goods honor and almost infinite such like That is very true but with this honie God inter●ingleth some gall least the soules of his seruants might run not to sin And who is he that can be ignorant of the vncertaine estate of al euery one of them Our friends fall away as a fruite that is ripe before his time or as the morning dewe Our houses are ouerthrowne and are like the ruines of a defaced hold not one stone of them being left vpō another Our wiues may be lewde in their lippes loose in their liues and wicked as was Iobs and wish vs to curse God die Our children not riotous only and disobedient but vnnatural also and rising vp against vs as Absalon The goods we possesse are not vnfitly by Salomon resembled to the Egle that taketh her to her wings flieth aloft into the ayre as for our honor which we make as it were some deitie vpon earth it is turned into shame in the twinckling of an eye or else forgotten as it had neuer been And wee

The time past is gone and thou canst not recall that to repent in the time to come is vncertaine and thou canst not assure that to repent in the present time is onely thine and thou maiest repent in that but anon that will bee gone too Therefore when Christ wept ouer Ierusalem hee sayd O if thou hadst knowne in this thy day calling none their day but this day if none can bee called thy day but this day then this is thy day of repentance or els thou hast none at al. Therfore one resembleth the mercy of God to the Poole in Iurie where the sicke and leprous lay for at one time of the day an Angell came and stirred the water and then he which stept in first was healed of his disease he which stept in first was healed none but he which stept in first so he which taketh time is sure but hee which foresloweth time oftener faileth thā speedeth for when golden opportunitie is past no time will fit for it yet as when Christ went about to cast out diuels they sayd that hee tormented them before the time so whensoeuer thou goest about to dismisse thy sinnes and pleasures though thou stay till thou beest sicke and old and readie to dye yet they will say still that thou dismissest them before the time but then is the time when the diuell saith the time is not yet for the diuell is a lyar and knoweth that what licour our vessels be seasoned with at the first they will tast of the same euer after Therefore linger not with Lot for if the Angell had not snatched him away he had perished with Sodom for his delay They were not wise virgins but foolish virgins which sought not for oyle before the Bridegroome came Samuell began to serue God in his minoritie Timothie read the Scriptures in his childhood Iohn grewe in spirite as he ripened in yeares so whether thou be old or yong thy repentance cannot bee too soone because thy sinne is gone before If thou lackest a spurre to make thee runne see howe euery day runneth away with thy life youth commeth vpon childhood age commeth vpon youth death commeth vpon age with such a swift sayle that if our minutes were spent in mortifying our selues yet our glasse would be runne out before wee had purged halfe our corruptions Thus much of the first step The second step in your iourney is to keepe the way as God taught the Israelites a way to Canaan sending a fierie pillar before them which they did follow wheresoeuer it went so when he ordained a heauen for men hee appointed a way to come vnto it which way he that misseth shal neuer come to the end As Herod sought Christ ouer all Iurie but none founde him but those which followed the starre so there is something still that leadeth men to Christ which we must follow or els we cannot come where hee is There bee many wrong waies as there be many errors but there is but one right way as there is but one trueth And therefore Iacob did not see many but one Ladder which reached to heauen and Iohn Baptist is sayd not to prepare the waies of the Lorde but the way shewing that there is but one right way in this life which Salomon vnderstandeth for the meane and therefore he saith Turne not to the right hand nor to the left implying that wee may erre aswell of the right hand as of the left as if hee should say some are too hotte as other are too cold some are too superstitious as other are too careles some are too fearefull as other are too cōfidēt there is as zeale without knowledge a loue without singlenes a prayer without faith and a faith without fruites Therefore the Apostle doth warne vs to examine whether we be in the faith not whether we haue a kind of faith but whether we be in the faith that is the true faith Therefore Paule saith Runne so it is not enough to runne but wee must know how we runne it is not enough to heare but we must care how to heare it is not enough to beleeue but we must care how we beleeue it is not enough to pray but we must care how we pray it is not enough to worke but wee must care how wee worke for we cannot doe good vnlesse wee doe it well as wee may see in this example Cain offered and God abhorred because he cared not for the manner God cared not for his offering Simon Magus beleeued Herod listened Foelix feared Saul obeyed Iesabell fasted the Pharisees prayed but because they did not beleeue so heare so feare so obey so fast so pray so as he which saith Learne of me whē they say that they haue fasted prayed and obeied Christ he will answer them as hee doth in Mathew I know you not Therefore if ye aske like the scribe how ye shal come to heauen the right way to heauen is the word which came from heauen But here some will say the word indeed doth containe the right way but many cannot finde that way without a guide Therefore I haue picked out of the worde that way which God calleth the right way the way which the word doth set thee in to heauen is to doe vnto other as thou wouldest haue other doe vnto thee to exercise good workes and yet beleeue that Christs works shal saue thee to pray without doubting and yet be content that thy prayer be not graunted to keepe within thy calling and doe nothing by contention to bring thy will vnto Gods will and suffer for Christ because he hath suffered for thee to repent not onely for thine open and grosse faultes but for to count euery sinne great to apply all things to the glory of God and of euery thing to make some vse Thus the worde goeth before vs like the fierie pillar and shewes vs when we are in and when we are out or else the broad way would seeme the best way and therefore all which care not for the word go like blinde men to hell for heauen looke but to the Papists which haue the word in an vnknowne tongue some clamber to heauen with merites some by Angels some by penance and some by pardons and euery man hath a way by himselfe and all out of the way As Naaman answered Elisha whē he was commaunded to wash himselfe in Iorden are not Abanah and Pharpar riuers of Damascus better then Iorden may I not wash there and be healed so they say are not pardons as good as works are not pilgrimages as good as prayers is not sacrifice as good as obedience is not reading as good as preaching may I not goe to heauen this way and that way as well as by the word No as no water but Iorden could clēse Naamans leprosie so no way but the word can bring to heauen For which cause the lawes of God are called the waies of God and the word of God