Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	witness_n	world_n	worthy_a	62	3	5.9374	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58223	The pilgrims pass to the new Jerusalem, or, The serious Christian his enquiries after heaven with his contemplations on himself, reflecting on his happiness by creation, misery by sin, slavery by Satan, and redemption by Christ ... relating to those four last and great things of death, judgement, hell, and heaven ... / by M.R., Gent.	M. R., Gent.	1659 (1659)	Wing R47; ESTC R5428	94,586	254

and the abominable stench he there was sensible of For his taste he had nothing administred it to sweeten the bitterness of death but Gall and Vinegar For his feeling we have spoken of that before if it were not altogether unspeakable what he felt In a word all heads are working and all hands busied in lengthning his torments and now tormentors and tormented both weary the one in doing the other in suffering he yeilds up the ghost But their malice doth not terminate with him though he be dead their malice still lives which we shall see presently break forth for though Joseph of Arimathea one of their councel but not against his life had begg'd the body of Pilate they also go to Pilate fraught with malice against his memory that had done their worst to his person and bespeak Pilate Sir This deceiver said whilst he was yet alive that in three dayes he should rise again therefore let his Sepulchre be made sure with a guard lest his Disciples come and steal him away by night and say he is risen Pilate grants their request and now they triumph in their villany and think perpetually to keep him there whom they had brought thither Is this the Saviour of the world say they that could not save himself Where now are these dreaming shepherds who spake so big of a quire of Angels that should sing his Nativity Where those Angels that they come not to his Rescue Where are those besotted vulgar that rob'd the trees of their branches and themselves of their garments to strow his way to Jerusalem and sang Hosanna's to him as the son of David a Saviour of the world have not we laid their Hosanna's in the dust and he whom they adored as a Deity executed as a Malefactor Is this he that would deliver Israel that could not himself We do not expect ever to be delivered by so mean a hand and so slender a retinue we expect a glorious Prince with a princely train of unconquer'd warriors not a Carpenters son and silly fisher-men God never gave us any promise or president of such a Saviour We know that 't was by a strong arm he delivered our Fathers out of Egypt and that he gave them Saviours afterwards when they were in Canaan such as by force of arms broke the bonds of their oppressors and are not we involv'd in as miserable slavery and bondage as ever our fathers were hath not the invincible Roman Eagle spread his wings o're the greatest part of the world and seized many kingdoms with his ravenous talons making Kings his Prey and Scepters his Conquest and who but a mighty Saviour can deliver us and our Countrey from so potent an adversary If this be he that undertook to do it or were sent from God for the purpose where 's his power to make him so where 's his red-coat Souldiers whose very garments might speak nothing but blood and death to our insulting foes where 's his Magazin and Money his Swords and Pistolls his Granado's and Murdering-pieces his Captains and Officers to lead his Army that they did not perfect that happy work but suffer their Lord and Master thus to fall O fools and slow of heart to believe what the Prophets have spoken ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory was he not long before prophesied of to come in the form of a servant not in the gayish magnificence of an earthly prince that he should be a man of sorrows and by his sufferings should purchase freedom and happiness for inthral'd mankinde How exactly doth your Prophet Isay pourtray to the life both his person and sufferings and writes of him in the Present Tense not the Future as a thing then really acted not after to be fulfilled as more becoming an Evangelist then a Prophet in giving rather a History of his sufferings then a Prediction of them but lest ye should not think one witness enough look upon all the Prophets that have been since the world began you will finde they did all unanimously breathe with one mouth the mystery of his coming and of that redemption which by his death he was to accomplish Was not his Birth long before prophesied of as to the time manner and place of it his person names and offices his tribe and Family his eternal Generation the union of his God-head with his Humanity his Humiliation upon earth his perfect obedience to his Father his riding to Jerusalem in triumph the childrens Hosanna's his Agony in the Garden the manner of his delivery the price he was sold for the flight of his Disciples the parting his garments the piercing his hands and his feet his revilings on the Cross his companions in death his patience in suffering his dying words for whom be should lay down his life and whom he should conquer and what clearer proof could ye desire then the mouths and attestations of so many witnesses and could ye be so blinde as not to discover this to be he that was of old design'd and foretold to be the worlds Saviour did ye not behold a majesty in the sufferer did not the refulgent beams of his divinity shine through the greatest clouds of his adversity and did not Humility and Glory go hand in hand through the several passages of his life and death that by miracles as well as miseries he might convince the world That he should abase himself so low as to be born of a Virgin that spake his humility but to have his incarnation publisht by an heavenly host and kings to rise to the brightness of his coming this his glory to suffer himself to be baptized in the common river of Jordan that speaks his humility but there to be proclaim'd the onely beloved Son and Saviour of the world both by the testimony of the Father and presence of the Holy Ghost this his glory to receive the slaunders of his Countrey-men that he cast out devils by Belzebub that spake his humility but to make the devils confess him to be the Son of the Highest this his glory to suffer death even the death of the Cross that speaks his humility but to make the foundations of the world to shake the Sun to vail it self in black the moon to hide her head the rocks to rend and the vail of the temple to part in sunder at his yielding up of the ghost this his glory to be laid in another mans Sepulchre that shews his humility but to make the Graves to open to receive him as their Lord and the dead to rise to attest his Divinity this his glory to suffer himself to be seal'd up in his Sepulchre with a guard of Souldiers to keep him there that was humility but in that house of death to have the visits of Angels and to rise from thence by his own power this his glory to sojourn forty dayes on that earth where he had been so cruelly handled speaks his humility but

but for a time they did not last alwayes every Day hath his Night every Summer its Winter every Spring his Fall and every Life his Death and as some nights are darker then other some Autumns more unseasonable some Winters more sharp and some Death 's more yea much more cruel then others be some men fall like fruit others are cut down like trees some cut up as the flower others by the root some men dye onely others with torment which is two or more deaths in one but among all deaths that ever were suffer'd never any so strange never any so sad as our Saviours was for in it both pain and patience met in their extremities pain did her worst to overcome patience and patience her best to overcome pain and yet neither had pain the upper hand though it kil'd nor patience lost though Christ dyed such was his passion that the whole world cannot sample it with its parallel for Christs pain was such as never creature felt and his patience so great as for all the forrow he felt on the Cross he is not said to have utter'd a groan there so that it may easily be discerned that patience had the victory because pain could neither make her leave the field till she list nor bring her to any conditions but her own which were most honourable Though God be crucified Life be dead and Righteousness suster all effected yet nothing done to advance the contrary party For through his body Death slue it self and Sin and Satan took their deadly wounds for now the flesh hath lost her life and sin in that his throne and death with it his sting and the grave with this his power and hell with them her keys and the devil with all his victory whilst he hangs despicably on the tree of shame the powers of hell are dragg'd captive after the triumphant Chariot of his Cross Well might he therefore say 'T is finished for the Satisfaction is full Salvation sure Sin is nail'd Hell foil'd Satan chain'd the World baffled the Flesh wounded Death slain the Grave buried and every Adversary-power conquer'd by Christ Triumphant over all all is finished mans redemption compleated and that perfected he came about This is a true saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners But what is all this to us what is it to know that Christ is a Saviour if he be not ours what to know that he came to save the world if we are not one of the world he came to save what to know that his death is satisfactory to expiate the Justice of his Father if we have no interest in it I answer that as Christ hath done his part so must we do ours if ever we hope to have part in his sufferings he never came to save any that had no minde of salvation or to use those means which he hath appointed for all those that shall inherit eternal life as he did both do and suffer for us 't is requisite we should either do or suffer something for him His love to us and sufferings for us were unspeakable and they justly challenge our deepest affection and admiration that he should purchase our happiness at so dear a rate as his own Blood that God should be in Gore that man might be in Bliss the Prince of Life should dye that the Childe of Death might live that he should suffer on a Cross that we might not in Hell Did he sweat for our guilt and shall not we weep for our own and dissolve into love and tears for our dying Lord. O my soul shew thy affection to him that exprest so much to thee love him above thy life to serve him think milstones light to suffer for him make tortures pleasures hate sin more then death the Crown of pride as his Throns thy hearts lust as his spear thy iron neck and evil works and wayes as his nails their habit as his hammer which drives them home into his heart and his hands and feet Think not any thing enough thou sufferest for his sake that suffer'd so much for thine Though violent Tongues were laid on our Credit Hands of Rapine on our Estates of Bondage on our Persons of Blood on our Lives be so far from shrinking at it that hadst thou for one a thousand souls give all to his service a thousand bodies all to his suffering a thousand heads all to his study a thousand hearts bate not one to thy Saviour a thousand lives lay out all to his honour Hadst thou for two two thousand hands let them all do his business two thousand feet let them all go his errands if thou shouldst not thou wert unworthy of such a Saviour Now that we may know the cause or causes of Christs coming and understand our own duty in order to the making it a happy coming to us be pleased to take notice of these following particulars There are saith one four causes of mans salvation The Efficient cause The Meritorious cause The Instrumental cause And the Final cause First the Efficient cause which is the love of God 'T was Gods love to the world that caused him to send his Son into the world Had he not loved the world he would not have permitted his Son to dye for the world And he that denied us not his Son who is Heir of all things will not deny us any thing whereof he is heir Secondly the Meritorious cause That is Christ 'T was his Merits that purchast our happiness his Blood that gives us a right and title to that glorious undefiled and unfading Inheritance which he aforehand hath taken possession of Thirdly the Instrumental cause that is Faith Christ is the onely cure of our leprous souls Faith the hand to convey his merits to us Suppose a plaister of a soveraign nature were laid by a man dangerously wounded be the plaister never so excellent he may dye of his wounds if it be not applied to him for without an active hand to apply the plaister to the sore the worth of it is not at all available Christ saith one may be compared to sope Faith to the hand of the Landress though sope in it self be of a purifying nature yet without the hand of the Landress it does nothing The Apostle tells us that we are saved by Faith but that we may understand what that saving Faith is which the Apostle speaks of we are to present it first in the Negative what 't is not then in the Affirmative what it is Not an Historical Faith onely for that the Devils and damned in hell have that shall never receive any benefit at all by the death of Christ they know that Christ came into the world and that he suffered and that a day will come in which he shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire when he shal● take vengeance on all the ungodly of the earth and compleat their torments Not a Temporary

shining on it well nigh puts it out so Vertue flames more brightly being blown on by the cold winde of adversity but is extinguisht by the sun-shine of prosperity like lime which is set on fire with water and as some report is quenched with oyl That prosperity doth draw more to ruine then adversity doth drive the Prophet David intimates where he sayes A thousand shall fall besides thee and ten thousand at thy right hand There is ten to one whose vertue the right hand of prosperity doth choak more then the left hand of adversity doth starve Afflictions are Gods troops and he their Captain intended for the perdition of the wicked for the purgation of the godly he will not lay any more on any of his servants then he shall enable them to bear alas the miseries of this life are not worthy of the felicities of the next nor may these crosses stand in competition with that crown nor are the greatest torments that can here be inflicted comparable to those endless and insufferable tortures which the wicked shall be sensible of the greatest that a Saint can suffer here is but the malice of men and devils the damned in hell shall taste the wrath of the Almighty The sufferings of the Saint and the triumphs of the sinner are but for a moment but the reward of the one and the plagues of the other are to eternity Suppose our life here spread with roses yet they are marcessible and if with thor●s yet they are dying The jewels of the Crown will receive a damp and the terrors of the Cross will soon be at an end Groans and joyes in this life are both expiring our troubles and our triumphs have both their setting The distresses of the world are a short and a sudden tempest and the delights of it are a shedding flower Now as an elegant Writer observes who would not rather endure the Hell of a few dayes miscries here and enjoy the Heaven of eternal happiness hereafter then enjoy the Heaven of a few days pleasure here and endure the eternal miseries of Hell hereafter Temporal pleasures are dearly bought with the loss of eternal and temporal sufferings are well requited with eternal pleasures That is a miserable happiness that must end in such miseries as must never end and those are happy miseries that shall soon end in endless happiness This life is but a journey towards death and but a short one and death is yet a shorter passage to a longer and a better life That life of joyes is worth the wishing that shall never have an end and that end of our life is full as worthy of our wishes that shall begin the joyes of that endless life and that end must be ere long for life is short Man that is born of a woman is but of few dayes and full of trouble He is of few dayes that he might not live too long in trouble and his dayes are full of trouble that he might not long for more of them then a few Mans dayes are full of trouble that a few might serve his turn and make him weary of them and his dayes of trouble are but few that he might not be too much wearied with them If it be mans misery that his few dayes are full of trouble 't is Gods mercy that mans days of trouble are but few The few dayes of mans life are full of trouble that man might be daily minded of his duty in seeking after another a better life and mans dayes of trouble are but few that man may not be wearied so as to leave seeking for the other life before that this doth leave him What but the happiness and glory of that better life held up the spirits of Gods afflicted servants in their greatest sufferings in this 'T was the recompence of reward that Moses had respect to which made him spurn at the treasures of Egypt and refused to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter and to slight all the discouragements and afflictions which he here met with Let the miseries therefore which accompany mortality wean us from all fondnesse towards this life present and the felity of life eternal make us the more earnestly to long after that The thoughts of the Elizian happinesse did so encourage a poor Grecian a meer Pagan at the instant of his death that he rejoyced much to think of going to Pythagoras and other learned Philosophers to Olympus and other skilful Musicians to Hecataeus and other approved Historians to Homer the prince of Poets and other famous Wits that were his followers that Poetical Paradise the Elizian Field could make a Pagan give his longum vale to this present world with notable resolution and shall not the real pleasures of the celestial Paradise the fulness of joy in the glorious presence of God encourage a Christian at his death to depart as comfortably as a faithlesse Grecian Shall fantasie in an Heathen be more powerful then faith in a Christian Is not the company as good which we believe to be at Gods right hand as that which he imagined to be in Elizio campo and are not the joys as many and as great Well therefore may a Saint chear up himself at his departure by thinking of his going to Saint Peter Saint Paul Saint James Saint John and to all that glorious company of Apostles and of his going to Elias and Elisha and Isaiah and Ezekiel and to Daniel and all that goodly fellowship of the Prophets and of his going to Saint Stephen the Proto Martyr and to Ignatius and to Justinus and to our Cranmer and our Ridley and our Hooper and our Taylor and all that noble army of Martyrs and of his going to that Reverend Patriarch Abraham the father of the faithful and to Isaac and to Jacob and to all the holy Patriarchs and of his going to the holy Angels and Arch-Angels and Thrones and Powers and Principalities and to the spirits of all just men made perfect Who can think of being thus transported and not be transported with the very thoughts of it Surely it must needs be a very consolatory Viaticum to the soul of a dying Saint to think of exchanging Earth for Heaven and the sordid company of sinners for the sweet society of Saints And this is it which makes the Saint entertain death as a friend whom the sinner fears as an enemy The Saints of God in all Ages have lookt upon him as a friend because by him they have been wafted to glory Moses sing when he was told his last Elijah had his Sufficit he desir'd his God to take away his life Old Simeon craved a dismission and St. Paul a discharge In the times of Persecution how did the Martyrs run in troops to the flames even to the amazement and admiration of their Persecutours which made a mortal Enemy to Christianity in the dayes of Queen Mary who speaking of some of the Primitive Christians and of the glorious Martyrs that