Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	womb_n	world_n	youth_n	17	3	7.4085	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49757	Christ's power over bodily diseases Preached in several sermons on Mat. 8. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. And published for the instruction especially of the more ignorant people in the great dutie of preparation for sickness and death. By Edward Lawrence, M.A. minister of the gospel at Baschurch in the county of Salop.	Lawrence, Edward, 1623-1695.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1672 (1672)	Wing L653; ESTC R223651	140,079	330

to resist or remove these because the irresistible Arm and Power of God works in them and therefore he may cry in his sickness Help ●riends help riches help honours But if God do not withdraw his anger the proud helpers stoop under him Job 9.13 The places of the world are called slippery places Psal 73.18 and they that know what God is and what sin and what the creature is know by the causes the slipperiness of them and see you sliding down as fast as you are rising up And tell me you great men of the earth where is the place which you can name and say Here I can stand and cannot slip into hell I tell you there are standers by can see your magnificent buildings scituated on the borders of hell your beds made at the very mouth of hell your tables spread over the pit of hell your horses prancing with you and Coaches ratling with you at the very edge and brink of hell Ah great vanities where-ever you are the mouth of hell is gaping upon you and there are thousands of diseases and deaths to loose you in We may hence then conclude with David Psal 62.9 That men of high degree are a lye and vanity and if we weigh nothing in the balance with them they will prove lighter then nothing and vanity Thirdly The vanity of strong men Solomon tells us Prov. 20.29 The glory of young men is their strength and men are apt to be very proud of their strength that they can leap and lift and run and wrestle and fight and excel others in bodily exercises But what is all this strength when God comes upon thee by sickness and with his strong hand opposeth himself against thee Job 30 21. Thy bones are now full of marrow and strength but when a disease comes thy strength will be dried up like a Potsheard or pitcher baked and burnt in the fire Psal 22.15 therefore when thy heart is lifted up in the sense of thy bodily strength consider Hast thou an arm like God or art thou stronger then he canst thou fight with a Fever or wrestle with the Falling sickness or out-run a Consumption No no this conflict will prove like that of Jobs with the Leviathan to teach thee to remember the battel and do no more David was a man of such strength that he tells us that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms Psal 18.34 but when he came to grapple with sickness then he was so feeble and sore broken that saith he Psalm 22.14 I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joynt Besides if thou live to it old age will creep upon thee shortly and then the keepers of the house viz. the hands and arms will tremble and the strong men viz. the limbs that support thee will bow as we read● Eccles 12.13 and at last death shall devour thy strength Job 18.13 and the very worms of the earth will be too strong for thee Let not therefore the mighty man glory in his might Jer. 9.23 for as David infers from Gods wasting men with sickness Psal 39.5 Verily every man at his best estate is altogether vanity 4. To convince us of the vanity of children these indeed are sweet comforts and it is a great mercy to be instruments in Gods way of bringing such an excellent creature as a man-childe or woman-childe into the world and I have often thought that when some do take too much pleasure in a horse or in a dog as a spaniel or the like that it 's a great blessing to parents to have such objects of their delight as their own children Hence saith Job O that I were as in months past when my children were about me Job ●9 2 6. and truely though the fare be but course yet it makes it more pleasant to have these plants about the table These are indeed sweet flowers but a sickness comes and then like a Posie they wither in thy bosome so that we must conclude with Solomon Eccles 11. ult that childehood and youth is vanity Lastly of the vanity of wealth and riches Oh how bare will sicknesses and death make a man Sirs a dead corpse is but a poor thing How poor doth a rich man go out of the world when sickness and death hath stript him of all his enjoyments and then as he came naked out of his mothers womb so naked must he return Job 1.21 Eccles 5.15 1 Tim. 6.7 look on the world with your hearts filled with the thoughts of sickness and death and then you will see the vanity of it look on thy self as stretcht on a bed of languishing see thy self lying in a Coffin or in a Grave or standing before the judgement-seat of Christ and then see how all the riches of the world appear before thee If a man look on his stately house and buildings what a pleasant dream is he in to see a sweet scituation wholesome air convenient rooms c. but let him see death coming up into the windows and then what pleasure hath he in his house after him when the number of his months is cut off in the midst So when a man is feeding himself with the pleasant thoughts of a feast let him remember that death is in the Pot and that death stands between the cup and the lip and then he will not be so apt to make his belly his God like those Phil. 3.19 So when men are proud of their Pedigrees and take pleasure in reckoning up their Kindred and telling of their Families let them take in these with the rest of their Relations saying to corruption Thou art our father and to the worms You are our mothers and sisters Job 17.14 and this will shew all to be but noble dust and rich earth and great vanity So much for the second End of Christs visiting men with sickness End 3. To fill our hearts with the sence of death Sicknesses are fit means for this purpose for sickness it self is a kinde of death for death is a privation of life a separation from that which is our life And now we know we have as it were a life in food friends and estates c. and sickness parts and separates us from these it stops the passage betwixt these and a man so that the pleasure and comfort of these cannot come to the man for his disease but the man stands as it were betweeen the two worlds at the end of this world and at the beginning of the other and all creature enjoyments are shut up from him and the great things of eternity stand open before him So that what the Apostle speaks of persecution is for the same reason true of sickness 2 Cor. 4.12 Death worketh in us when sickness comes death works apace it works away your health it works away your ease it works away your stomachs it works away your strength and at last works you into your graves

and hell afraid of them but a sickness and death comes and they are driven away in their wickedness Prov. 14.32 whose end Job describes cap. 24.29 Drought and heat consume the snow-waters so doth the grave those that have sinned So also we see godly people who are the blessing of their Age of whom the world is not worthy Hebr. 11.38 the world deserves not the prayers and counsels and examples of such men yet these perish though few lay it to heart Isa 57.1 for in this case there is one event to all Eccles 9.2 for as they lie at the graves mouth we cannot see the difference betwixt a skull that sleeps in Jesus and a skull that is condemned to hell and therefore it 's true of these gracious ones as was said of the good Patriarch Gen. 47.29 Israel must die or as we read of David Acts 13.36 After he had served his own generation by the will of God he fell asleep All these things are from Jesus Christ who sends sicknesses and death at his pleasure and many such things are with him Lastly It informs us of the great mercy of God that we enjoy our health and lives so long when he hath so many diseases in his hands to deprive us of both Hence he is called the Preserver of men Job 7.20 It is the Lord who is our life and the length of our daies who preserves us and keeps us alive Consider the many deaths and dangers we are preserved from that thereby we may see and acknowledge the greatness of this mercy Our Bodies and Souls were no sooner united in the Womb but thousands of deaths were ready to part us again we were liable to all the dangers that our Mothers were in in whose lives our lives were bound up besides multitudes of evils might have kill'd us there and a miscarrying Womb might have loosed us into Eternity And if we look through the whole course of our Age what year or week or day can we name wherein some have not died Oh infinite mercy that keeps us alive in a world of devouring devils and bloody men what multitudes of diseases might have bred in our own bodies what sudden deaths by Falls Fire Water Thunderbolts c. There is never a beam in our houses or beast in our fields or bit of meat on our tables or stones in the streets but methinks it 's like a Pistol charg'd and cockt if God say the word to strike us dead in the place where ever we sit ride walk lie down there is from thence a fall into Eternity We may well wonder when we read of the three Childrens preservation in the Fiery Furnace Dan. 3. and of Daniels safety in the Lyons Den Dan. 6. and yet I tell you our daily and hourly deliverances are as great only they are not so rare for to name no more Devils can as easily kill us as the Fire or Lyons could them and we have no more power to resist or escape these Murderers then they had the merciless Flames or greedy Lyons but as God miraculously preserved them so doth he wonderfully preserve us even in a croud of deaths and dangers Vse 2. Of Reprehension Secondly This Doctrine reproves those who in time of sickness do either for themselves or friends seek to Witches or Wizards for cure Christ makes them sick and they will go to the Devil to make them well but if Christ command all diseases to go and come at his will it must needs be a damnable sin to forsake Christ and the Ordinances appointed by him for our health and to seek help from the Devil This was King Sauls sin though in another case who consulted the Witch of Endor when he was invaded by the Philistins 1 Sam. 28.7 Then did Ahaziah in his sickness send to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron 2 Kings 1.2 And this is the horrid wickedness of many ignorant Atheistical wretches who when they have lost their goods or are visited with sickness seek to Conjurers and Wizards such as they call wise men or wise women to help and relieve them This sin is often condemned in Scripture Lev. 19.31 Regard not them that have familiar spirits Observe do not regard them but look upon them as the basest people in the Country neither seek after Wizards See Isa 8.19 Lev. 26.6 Observe the evil and danger of this sin in these four particulars First This is a sin which brings a man under the heavy wrath and curse of God Lev. 20.6 The soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits and after wizards to go a whoring after them I will even set my face against that soul and will cut him off from among his people Observe for this sin God will set his face against thee all his power and wrath is set and bent against thee O how canst thou hold up thy face when the face of God is set against thee and whereas thou thinkest thou art planted in thy Country and planted in the Church of God and planted in thy Family God will cut thee off from among thy people Thus poor wretch thy disease is perhaps abated and thou rejoycest in thy ease and health but remember thou hast got the Devils blessing and Gods curse Secondly This is that filthy sin of whoredom See again Lev. 20.6 The soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits to go a whoring after them Do not you account this a beastly sin for people to go up and down a whoring Well though thou thinkest thou keepest thy self honest and wilt say I thank God no body can touch me in my honesty yet although all thy Neighbours judge thee to be honest the Lord judgeth thee to be a filthy Whore and Whoremonger for though perhaps thou hast not defiled thy body with a Whore yet thou hast defiled thy soul with the Devil Lev. 19.31 Regard not them that have familiar spirits to be defiled by them and thou mayst be assured that the Devil will not heal thy body except it be to kill thy soul and thou dost hereby joyn that person to the Devil which should be united to Christ thou dost yield thy self to the power and will of the Devil Hence those are the most ignorant sottish prophane or covetous people that seek to Witches Beloved we should do nothing but what we may comfortably go from the doing of it into the presence of God in any duty or to enjoy his presence into Eternity Now as a wife can have no delight to go from a whoremonger into the presence or society of her husband so how canst thou comfortably go from a Wizard to Prayer to a Sacrament or to a Sermon or from a Wizard into Eternity Thirdly This sin is the most abominable sin of Idolatry Lev. 11.31 Regard not ●hem that have familiar spirits I am the Lord your God Implying that they that seek to such do deny God to be the Lord and do disown him from

you were born children of the Devil and you must be born again if ever you will be the children of God Good children know and love the God that made you and Jesus Christ who died for you to redeem and save you You can be afraid of the Rod and a Bugbear be afraid of sin and hell Perhaps you have godly parents who instruct and catechize you in the knowledge of God Why good children hear the instruction of your fathers and forsake not the law of your mothers God doth not love you as his children because you are pretty or witty children or because you are the children of rich parents but if you will love and fear the Lord then you shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation Good children look on the graves in the Church-yards and you shall see many who were no elder nor taller then you dead and buried before you as young as you are sick and as young as you are dead and as young as you are in heaven and hell therefore be Gods children whilst you are young lest you be sick and dead and damned before you be old 2. Exhort parents to do their duty in endeavouring to prepare their children for sickness and death Ephes 6.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 feed or nourish your children in the fear of the Lord. Beasts can take care to save their young ones lives but men and women and Christians should be careful to save their childrens souls when thy children dye if thou hast neglected their salvation it must if thy conscience be ever awakened cause stinging reflections in thy soul There is a story of a father who consented that his daughter should commit whoredom which she did and soon after dyed whereupon the poor guilty father cryes out I have damned my daughters soul I have damned my daughters soul Sirs do not teach your children to to lye swear to be drunk or covetous to scoff at Gods children or holiness lest one day you have cause to cry out when it is too late We have damned our childrens souls When your hearts are affected to see your children about you then see diseases and death at your doors ready to make your children orphans or you childless and consider withal how sad it is that such pretty sweet children should be for ever burned in hell Beloved I would not have you worse then Infidels in not providing for your childrens bodies and yet I would have you better then Devils in providing for their poor souls It is a pleasant sight to see parents live as if they were going with all their children to heaven It is comely to see parents sitting in their house and their children about them or to see them sitting in a Congregation and their children about them but how much more glorious will it be to see them sitting in heaven and their children about them though the relation will end yet the comfort of being a means to bring them thither will abide for ever Parents if you cannot make your children heirs of houses and lands labour to make them heirs of heaven do not onely teach your children how to live but also teach them how to dye thou art troubled sometimes to think Alas how will my poor children live I tell thee thou hast more need to think How will my poor children dye for there are few so poor but they can make some shift to live but there are millions so miserable that they know not how to dye 3. Exhortation to young men Vnto you O men I call and my voice is unto the sons of men Prov. 8.4 make it your care to prepare for sickness and death Solomon having taught that childhood and youth is vanity Eccles 11.10 he infers this Exhortation to young men Eccles 12.1 Remember now thy Creator in the daies of thy youth It is necessary for all young people to live as those that know that God will bring them to judgment Eccles 11.9 Consider you are never prepared for sickness and death till you are prepared for judgement Oh young men and women look upon your selves as going to judgment Heark do not you hear the great shout that calls you all to make your appearance before the judgment-seat of Christ Sirs be nothing now but what you would appear to be at that great day Wouldst thou be judged as a Drunkard or Swearer or Whoremonger or Worldling or as an enemy to godly Ministers and Christians at the day of judgment If not then be not such a one now do not think your selves too young to enter into a serious way of godliness For what if sickness and death will not stay till you are old Thou art not too young to be sick or to die Do not then think that thou art too young to go to heaven lest God think thee old enough to go to hell 4. Exhortation to old men to prepare for sickness and death The daies which Solomon calls evil daies are already come upon you Methinks I may allude to that of our Saviour Joh. 4.35 Look on the fields for they are white already unto Harvest When I look on old people I see a white crop of gray hairs which speaks them to be ripe for the sickle of death Sirs diseases and death have done a great deal of their work upon you already they have worn away your colour beauty and strength yet how sad is it to see an old man more unfit to die then a very childe that begins to live He is old and ignorant old and covetous old and malicious old and cruel old and yet a drunkard Oh poor man what hast thou been doing all thy daies Hast thou had fifty threescore almost fourscore years to prepare for sickness and death and to lay up treasures in heaven and hast thou done nothing else but been heaping up wrath in hell Heark old Father for I must needs honour thy hoary head the sick-bed death the grave call for thee Oh then repent and believe presently let not the Devil who long ago perswaded thee thou wast too young now perswade thee thou art too old for as old as thou art yet it is better for thee to go to heaven a young Babe of Christ then to go to hell an old slave of the Devil 5. Exhortation to rich and great men of the world to prepare for sickness and death Sirs there are messengers at your doors to fetch you where mountains of gold are worth nothing your riches cannot guard you against sickness and death God can as easily turn a Bed of Down into a Bed of Languishing as a Bed of Straw and a disease cares no more for the richest Velvet then the poorest Sheep skin and a sickness can as easily catch thee in a Coach as in a Cart and death enters into the stateliest Castle assoon as the poorest cottage Read your case Jam. 1.10 11. As the flower of the grass he shall pass away For the Sun is no sooner