Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	wonder_n	world_n	wrought_v	72	3	7.4595	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40891	XXX sermons lately preached at the parish church of Saint Mary Magdalen Milkstreet, London to which is annexed, A sermon preached at the funerall of George Whitmore, Knight, sometime Lord Mayor of the City / by Anthony Farindon.; Sermons. Selections	Farindon, Anthony, 1598-1658.	1647 (1647)	Wing F434; ESTC R2168	760,336	744

we suffer our selves to be over-swayed by a more potent affection to something else we shall never doe what we know well enough and are otherwise enabled to Now to walk in Christ takes in all these Faculty Power Will Knowledge Love Then you see a Christian in his walk rejoycing as a mighty man to run his race when the Understanding is the Counsellor and points out This is the way walk in it and the will hath an eye to the hand and direction of the understanding bows it self and as a Queen drawes with in those inferior faculties the senses and Affections when it opens my eye to the wonders of Gods Law and shutts it up by covenant to the vanity of the world when it bounds my touch and tast with Touch not Tast not any forbidden thing when it makes the senses as windows to let in life not death Jer. 9.21 and as gates shut fast to the world and the Devill and lifting up their Heads to let the King of Glory in when it composeth and tuneth our Affections to such a Peace and Harmony setting our love to piety our anger to sinne our feare to Gods wrath our hope to things not seen our sorrow to what is done amisse and so frameth in us nunc modulos Temperantiae nunc carmen pietatis as Saint Ambrose speakes now the even measures of Temperance now a Psalm of piety now the Threnody of a broken heart even those Songs of Sion which the Angels in heaven and God himself delight in and all these are vitually included in this one word to walk in Christ and if any of these be wanting what proffers soever we make what fancies soever we entertaine what empty conceptions soever we foster yet flesh and blood cannot raise it self on these wings of wind nor can we be more said to walk then they who have been dead long agoe For so farre is the bare knowledge of the way from advancing us in our walke that it is a thing supposed and no where under the command as it is meerly speculative and ends in it self no more then to see or feele or heare and so essentiall is this motion of walking to a Christian that in the language of the Spirit wee are never truely said to know till wee walke and that made imperfect knowledge which receives those things which concern our peace no otherwise then the eye doth colours or the eare sounds never being once named or mentioned in the Scripture but with disgrace If any man say I know him and keep not his Commandements he is a lyar 1 Joh. 2.4 so that to define our walking by Knowledge and speculation is a kind of Heresy which rather deserves an Anathema and should be drove out of the Church with more zeal and earnestness then many though grosse yet silly impertinent errors which p●sse abroad about the world but under that name For 1. this speculative knowledge is but a naked assent and to more and hath nothing of the will and the understanding is not an arbitrary faculty but necessarily apprehends objects in that shape and form they represent themselves nor is it deceived even when it is deceived I mean in things which concern our walk for the bill and accusation against us is not that we doe not but that we will not understand nolumus intelligere ne cogamur facere saith Aug. we wilnot know our way for no other reason but because we are most unwilling to take the paines and walk in it And therefore in every Christian peripatetique there must be something of the Seraphin and something of the Cherubin there must be heat as well as light love as well as knowledge for love is active and will pace on Hugo de Sancto vict where Knowledge doth but stand at gaze Amor intrat ubi cognitio foris stat love is active and will make a battery and forcible entrance and take the Kingdom of heaven by violence whilst Speculation stands without and looks upon it as in a Map What talke we of knowledge and speculation It is but a look a cast of the mindes eye and no more and doth but place us as God did Moses once upon mount Nebo to see that spirituall Canaan which we shall never enjoy and then what comfort is it to know what Justification is and to want that hand of a quick and active faith which alone can lay hold on Christ to talke of Election and never make it sure to dispute of Paradice and have no title to it to speak of nothing more then Heaven and be an heire of Damnation And then what a fruitlesse mock-knowledge is that which sets God a walking whilst we sleep and dreame makes the Master of the Vineyard work and sweat and stands idle it self all the day long which hath a full view of what God hath done before all Time and no power at all to move us to do any thing in this our day when we are well seen in the Decrees of God and little move in our own Duties when we can follow God in all his ways and tell how he worketh in us and are afraid of that feare and trembling with which we should work out our Salvation can speak largely of the Power of Gods Grace and resist it of perseverance and fall more then seven times a day This knowledge I say is but a bare assent and so far from being enjoyn'd us that as the case now stands ignorance were the safer choice and rather then thus to know him we may say with the Apostle Let him that is ignorant 1 Cer. 14.38 be ignorant still For in the second place as we use it it workes in us at the most but a weake purpose ●f minde a faint velleity a forc'd involuntary approbation which we would shake off if we could as we do a friend which speaks what we would not hear and calls that poyson which is as Honey to our tast For who can see such sights and not in some degree be taken with them Who can look upon the Temple and not ask what Buildings are these who can see the way to life and not approve it but you know I may purpose to rise and yet fold my hands to sleep I may commend the way and not walke in it Nay how often do we pray Give us ever of this Bread of life and yet labour most for this bread that perisheth which we at once revile and embrace and speak evill of it because we love it when heaven is but as a Picture which we look upon and wonder and refuse and hath no better place of reception then that common Inne of all wild and loose imaginations the fancy Christ is the way it is in every mans Creed and if this would make us walkers what a multitude of Sectaries what a Herd of Epicures what an assembly of Atheists what a congregation of fools I had almost said what a Legion of Devills might goe under that

alone but would not but wrought him out of the Earth and was the Potter which formed and shaped him out of the Clay with his own hands so in the great work of our Redemption he did not send a Moyses an Angel a Cherubin or Seraphim but tradidit proprium filium delivered up his own Son in this delivery gave a price infinitely above that which he brought motal sinfull men which were of no value at all but that he made them and he payes down not a Talent for a Talent but a Talent for a Mite for Nothing for that which had made it self worse than nothing his Son for those who stood guilty of Rebellion against him and his love for the world which was at enmity with him And thus he was pleased to buy his own will and love in us and by this his infinite love to bound as it were his infinite power his infinite wisdome and his illimited will for here his power his wisdome his will may seem to have found a non ultra he cannot do he cannot find our he cannot wish for us more than what he hath done in the delivery of his Son And now if we ask what moved his will not sure any lovelinesse or attractivenesse in the object there was nothing to be seen but loathsomnesse and deformity and that enmity which might sooner move him to wrath than compassion and make him rather send down fire and brimstone then his Son That which moved him was in himself not to be found in the world which stood out against him and when he did come would not receive him but was bound up in his own bowels of mercy and compassion he loved us in our blood and loving us he bid us live and that we might live delivered up his own Son to death For his mercy was the Orator to move his will and being mercifull he was also willing to help us Mercy is all our plea and it was his motive and wrought in him a will a cheerful will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint James it rejoyceth against Judgement though we had forgot our Duty yet would not he forget his Mercy but hearkned to it and would not continere misericordias Ps●l 77 ● shut up his tender mercies in Anger which is a Metaphor taken from martiall affaires for in a siege an Army doth compasse in a Town or Castle that they may play upon it in every place the Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shut it up as in a net This is it which the Prophet David calls claudere or continere to shut up his mercy in anger the Septuagint renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make a trench about it and besiege it Now the goodnesse of God and his love to his Creature would not suffer him thus to shut up his tender Mercies as a Fort or Town is shut up to be undermined and beat upon and overcome but as the besieged many times make sallyes upon the enemy so the love and mercy of our God brake forth even through his anger and gained a conquest against the legions of his wrath Let the World be impure let Men be sinners let Justice be importunate let Power be formidable and Vengeance ready to fall yet all must fall back and yield to the Mercy and Love of God which cannot be overcome nor bound nor shut up but will break forth and make way through all opposition through sin and all the powers of darknesse which besiege and compasse it about and will raise the siege drive off and chase away these Enemies and to conquer Sin will deliver up his Son for the Sinner And this was aenigma amoris saith Aquinas this was the riddle or rather the mystery of his love to pose the wisdome of the world I may say being Love and infinite it is no riddle at all but plain and easie for what can love doe that is strange what can it doe amisse that which moved him to do it shewes plainly that the end for which he did it was very good Dilexit nos he loved us is the best commentary on Tradidit Filium he delivered his Son for us and takes away all scruple and doubt for if we can once love our Enemies it is impossible but that our Bowels should yern towards them and our will be bent and prone to raise them up even to that pitch and condition which our love hath designed and if our love were of that nature Heavenly as he is Heavenly or but in some forward degree proportioned to his we should see nothing that were difficult nothing that were absurd nothing that might misbecome us which might promote or advantage them if our Love have heat in it our Will will be forward and earnest and we shall be ready to lay down our lives for them For Love is like an Artificiall Glasse and when we looke through it an Enemy appears a Friend Disgrace Honour Difficulties Nothing When he saw us weltring in our blood his love was ready to wash us when we ran from him his love ran after us to apprehend us when we fought against him as enemies his love was a Prophet Loe all these may be my children What speak we of Disgrace his Love defends his Majesty and exalts this Humility of his son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. saith Plato Love hath this priviledge that it cannot be defamed and by a kind of Law hath this huge advantage to make Bondage Liberty Disgrace Honourable Infirmity Omnipotent who can stand up against Love and say why didst thou this Had Marciou and Photinus and Arrius well weighed the force and priviledge of Love their needlesse fear I may say their bold and irreverent fear would have soon vanished nor would they have denied Christ to be the Son of God quia tradidit because he delivered him up for us but have seen as great glory in his Humility as in his Glory and would have faln down and worshipt God and man even this crucified Lord of life Christ Jesus Love will doe any thing for those whom it looks and stayes upon If you ask a coat it gives the cloak also if you defire her to goe a mile she will goe with you twaine and is never weary though she passe through places of horror and danger if you be in the most loathsome dungeon in the valley and shadow of death she forsakes you not but will go along with you Must the Son of God be delivered Love sends him down Charitas de coelo demisit Christum it was Love that bowed the Heavens when he descended must he suffer Love nayles him to the Crosse and no power could doe it but Love Must he be sacrificed Love calls it a Baptisme coarctatur how is Love straitned till the Sacrifice be slain Must he dye Must the Son of God dye Love calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his perfection Heb. 2.10 So though he be the Son of

excludes all stoicall fate all necessity of sinning or dying there is nothing above us nothing before us nothing about us which can necessitate or binde us over to death so that if we die it is in our volo in our will we die for no other reason but that which is not reason quia volumus because we will die We have now brought you to the very Cell and Den of death where this monster was framed and fashioned where 't was first conceived brought forth and nurst up I have discovered to you the Original and beginnings of sin whose natural issue is death and shut it up in one word the will that which hath so troubled and amuzed men in all the ages of the Church to finde out That which some have sought in Heaven in the bosom of God as if his Providence had a hand in it and others have raked Hell and made the devil the Author of it who is but a perswader a soliciter to promote it that which others have tied to the chain of Destiny whose links are filed by the fancy alone and made up of air and so not strong enough to binde men much lesse the Gods themselves as 't is said what many have busied themselves in a painful and unnecessary search to finde out opening the windows of Heaven to finde it there running to and fro about the universe to finde it there and searching Hell it self to discover it we may discover in our own Breasts in our own heart the will the womb that conceives this Monster this Viper which eats through it and Destroyes the Mother in the Birth For that which is the beginning of Action is the beginning of sinne and that which is the beginning of sinne is the cause of Death In homine quicquid est sibi proficit Hilar. in Ps 118. saith Hilary there is nothing in man Nothing in the world which he may not make use of to avoid and prevent Death and In homine quic-quid est sibi nocet there is nothing in man nothing in the world which he may not make an occasion and Instrument of sinne That which hurts him may help him That which Circumspection and Diligence may make an Antidote neglect and Carelesness may Turn into Poyson 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil as goodness so sinne is the work of our will not of Necessity If they were wrought in us against our will there could be neither Good nor Evill I call Heaven and Earth to witnesse saith GOD by his Servant Moses I have set before you Life and Death Blessing and cursing Deut. 30.19 and what is it to set it before them but to put it to themselves to put it into their own Hands to put it to their choice Chuse then which you will The Devil may tempt the Law occasion sinne Rom. 7.11 the Flesh may be weake Temptations may shew themselves but not any of these not all of these can bring in a necessity of Dying For the Qeustion or Expostulation doth not run thus Why are you under a Law why are you weake or why are you Dead for Reasons may be given for all these and the Justice and Wisedome of God will stand up to defend them but the Question is Why Will ye die for which there can bee no other Reason given but our Will And here we must make a stand and take our rise from this one word this one syllable our Will for upon no larger foundation then this we either build our selves up into a Temple of the Lord or into that Tower of Babel and Confusion which God will Destroy We see here all is laid upon the Will But such is our Folly and madness so full of Contradictions is a wilfull sinner that though he call Death unto him both with words and works though he be found guilty and sentence of Death past upon him yet he cannot be wrought into such a perswasion Tert. Apol. c. 1. That he was ever willing to Die nolumus nostrum quia malum Agnoscimus we will not call sinne ours because we know it Evill and so are bold to exonerate and unload our selves upon God himself 'T is true there is light but we are blind and cannot see it There is Comfort sounds every where but we are deafe and cannot heare it There is supply at hand but we are bound and fetter'd and can make no use of it There is Balm in Gilead but we are lame and have no hand to apply it We complain of our naturall weakness of our want of Grace and Assistance when we might know the Danger we are in we plead Ignorance when we willingly yeeld our Members servants to sinne we have learnt to say we did not doe it plenâ voluntate with a full Consent and will and what God hath clothed with Death we cloath with the faire Glosse of a good Intention and meaning we complaine of our Bodies and of our Souls as if the Wisedome of God had fail'd in our Creation we would be made after another fashion that we might be good and yet when we might be good we will be evill And these Webbs a sick and unsanctify'd Fancy will soon spin out These are Receipts and Antidotes of our own Tempering devis'd and made use of against the Gnawings of Conscience These we study and are ready and expert in and when Conscience begins to open and chide these are at hand to quiet it and to put it to silence wee carry them about for ease and comfort but to as little purpose as the women in Chrysostoms time bound the coines of Alexander the Great or some part of Saint Johns Gospel to ease them of the Headach for by these Receits and spells we more envenom our souls and draw neerer to Death by Thinking to fly from it and are ten-fold more the Servants of Satan because we are willing to doe him service but not willing to weare his Livery and thus excusando exprobramus our Apologies defame us our false Comforts destroy us and wee condemn our selves with an Excuse To draw then the lines by which we are to passe we will take off the Moriemini the cause of our Death from these First from our Naturall weakness Secondly from the Deficiency of Grace for neither can our Naturall weakness Betray nor can there be such a want of Grace as to enfeeble nor hath Satan so much Power as to force the will and so there will be no Necessity of Dying either in respect of our Naturall weakness or in regard of Gods strengthning hand and withholding his Grace and then in the second place that neither Ignorance of our duty nor regret or reluctancie of Conscience nor any pretence or good Intention can make sin lesse sinfull or our Death lesse voluntary and so bring Death to their Doores who have sought it out who have called it to them who are Confederate with it and are worthy to bee partakers thereof And Why Will you