Selected quad for the lemma: enemy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
enemy_n	death_n	sting_n	victory_n	1,403	5	9.4621	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12087	Vindiciæ senectutis, or, A plea for old-age which is senis cujusdam Cygnea cantio. And the severall points on parts of it, are laid downe at the end of the follovving introduction. By T.S. D.D.	Sheafe, Thomas, ca. 1559-1639.; Gouge, William, 1578-1653.	1639 (1639)	STC 22391.8; ESTC S114120	74,342	246

generatio alterius the dying of the seed is the life of the corne that springs from it Thou foole saith th' Apostle that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die Thus we see there is still happinesse in death The grave may be likened to the Gold-smiths Forge in it our bodies are refined and polished by Gods Almighty hand and by the power of Christs Resurrection and they are made of corruptible incorruptible and of mortall immortall and so that comes to passe which we have Rom. 8. 28. That all things worke together for good to them that love God it is true of afflictions which are the fore-runners of death and true of death it selfe and therefore the Apostle tells us that whether it bee life or death things present or things to come all are ours and well saith Saint Bernard Bona mors quae vitam non aufert sed transfert in melius O happy death that deprives us not of life but changes this for a farre better Dies mortis saith Seneca quem tanquam extremum formidas aeterni natalis est How art thou deceived in thy thoughts of death the day of thy death which thou so much fearest as thy last day to thee is the Birth day of eternity and Euripides answerably vivere mori est mori autem vivere to live is to die and to die is to live viz. eternally But now another block lies in our way another Objection which must also bee answered How blessed by that may some man say which is a curse and punishment for sinne that which God hath armed against us as was said before for the execution of that doome In the day that thou eatest thou shalt die the death To this I say first that the Apostle answers it 1 Cor. 15. 54 55. the most hurtfull creatures if once they bee disarmed and weakned cannot hurt us much lesse when they are overcome and slaine for us and to our hand as we say so is death Christ hath taken away the sting of it and conquer'd it and all adverse power that might stop our passage to Heaven And as when Goliah was overcome by David this victory made all the people of Israel for whom hee fought Conquerours and freed them from the power of the enemie so our David having overcome and conquered death we are safe being all more then Conquerours by and in him Now the second point followes which I proposed for the answering of this last accusation that Old-age is a neere neighbour to death viz. that other ages are as liable to it as this and many times as neere It is observed by one that there are three messengers of death casuality sicknesse and Old-age Casualities and the unhappy accidents that doe befall men and shorten their lives are indeed many somewhere whole Cities have beene overthrowne by earthquakes others burnt up by lightnings some by fire whole regions swallowedup by the earths gaping for them many men and places destroyed by the inundations of the sea and many other casualities happen daily a haire drunke in milke a stone in a grape a small bone in a fish have beene meanes of choaking some have dyed with suddaine joy Warres and the Pestilence how many thousands doe they devoure a multitude of such accidents there are but no age is more free from these messengers then this we speake of and that for these reasons First because this is an age of the best temper and greatest moderation and circumspection whereby divers of those dangers are avoided Secondly because it is not so much in bodily action as the rest Thirdly for that it mooves lesse stirres lesse abroad giving it selfe to retirednesse Fourthly it is not prest to the warres where death compasses men about and is daily and hourely expected Besides it is free from quarrells and lesse subject to surfettings to breaking and disjoynting of limbs or to deadly wounds c. Touching the second messenger of death Bodily diseases they are in other ages moe more sharpe and more incurable every man will grant it If it be said that though these two messengers should passe by Old-men yet their age it selfe will stand ready every houre to arrest them I answer that neither is that so for the Schooleman tells us that OLD-AGE sometimes equals all the other in yeeres and durance and whereas of the rest there is a certaine set period and end of this there is none for no man knowes when an Old-man shall die and cease to be an Old-man Saint Ierome tells us that Nemotam fractis viribus decrepitae senectutis est quin non se putet unum adhuc annum esse victurum that there is not any in strength so decayed and in age so decrepit as not to thinke he shall live yet one yeere longer Further we know that the yongest hath no lease no certainty of the number of his daies and therefore must still be in expectation of death as well as the aged for it behooves him that hath no set day for his debt to be at all times solvendo ready for payment Socrates was wont to say that to Old-men death stands before them continually in their sight but to young men hee lurks behind that unawares he may come upon them as an enemy that lies in ambush The third part of my answer remaines which retorts the fault if it be one of Old-ages being so neere to death upon the true cause of it viz. mens intemperance and disorder in the former part of their life I will briefly passe through the particular foregoing ages In Infancy many times the milke in the nursing or food when it hath left the brest is unholsome whereby an ill foundation is laid for the bodily constitution And heere by the way I cannot but blame the indiscreet peremptorinesse of some who doubt not to make this a generall rule or Maxim that God never makes the wombe fruitfull and the brest barren and thereupon stick not to conclude that no woman may put forth her childe to nurse true not of nicenesse and to shunne the paines and trouble of it Yet it cannot be denied that there are many cases in which the mother not onely may refuse this office which in it selfe is most naturall I confesse and lies neerely upon her but is a cruell mother to her child to say nothing of her selfe if shee doe otherwise for what weaknesse and how many deseases may bee derived from a mother in some cases I say and of some constitutions to the child to its utter overthrow and undoing and besides it is not true that the mothers breasts are never dry nor that there can be no other thing that may justly excuse her refusing to be a nurse But I leave the digression having but occasionally and by the way fallen upon it And now further I say that often through want of attendance the poore infant falls into many

may have longer time to goe on in the workes of our calling that God may by us bee yet more glorified in this world and that here now grace may grow and increase still more and more in us and so our glory bee answerable in the world to come The wisest and most valorous among the Heathen who could say much and have written also though to no purpose de morte contemnenda of the contempt of death who also that they might seeme no lesse couragious indeed than in word have many of them rush't upon this enemy and desperately encounter'd him as at this day some among us though better enformed of the danger of it doe in duello in single combat and other unwarrantable attempts they all I say may be likened to the man whom our Saviour taxes for his unadvisednesse In that going to warre hee consults not afore hand how able he is to meet him that comes against him Certainely death may bee counted as the last so the most potent and dangerous enemy when it is in its full strength that strength which God himselfe put into it immediately after the fall Gen. 2. And when we are naked and destitute of the armour of proofe Eph. 6. weake also as not strengthened by that victory wherein Christ our champion overcame this enemy for us For God hath set him upon us and strengthened him against us and what are we then of our selves to withstand him Yet our good God hath provided a remedy not that we should recover our former strength or be able of our selves to breake the Serpents head but that the seed of the woeman should doe it He it is through whom it comes that this enemy hath no power over us because hee hath destroyed the Divell who had the power of death and hath taken away the sting of it by his suffering for our sinnes and the rigour and curse of the law which is the strength of sinne and hath put out also the hand writing of ordinances that was against us By this great mercy of God we become conquerours over death yea more then conquerours Rom. 8. I but may some man say death when it comes may bereave us of our confidence in Christ. No saith the Apostle neither life nor death c. shall be able c. O but wee are in servitude to death all our life long True of our selves but we are delivered from this also by Christs death as in that place Thus we see that death is not misery It is as easie to proove that it is great happinesse Wee have it by a voice from Heaven Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. For the further manifesting of the point First let it be laid downe as a certaine truth that corruption is the way to generation Wee finde it to be so in things naturall Ayre becomes water but first it must leave to be aire water returnes to aire but withall it leaves to be water In things artificiall the mines bred in the bowels of the earth must first be digged up after by fire purged of their drosse then made malleable after cast into a mould for fashion and lastly filed and polished that they may become vessels for use The body of death is not destroyed saith Chrysostom as the brasse when it is melted and cast that a vessell may be made of it it loseth nothing but gaineth a better and more usefull fashion The Cedars which Hiram gave to Salomon for the building of the Temple were first cut downe squared and framed before they could become that glorious house of God The same is true of the point in hand The earthly Tabernacle must first be dissolved as we said before and then afterwards wee have a building of God And the seed that is cast into the ground must die and then be quickned and have a new body given unto it The way to the putting on of incorruption and immortality is the putting off of corruption and mortality Is it not a blessed thing that opens the gates of Heaven to us is it not the Merchants happinesse after his long travailes and his venturing on the Sea through many stormes and tempests that now at the last he is in the haven his ship full-fraught with rich wares and he neere his house and home the thing often wished and much longed for Death saith one is portus malorum the haven in which a man takes harbour freed from all former dangers Queri de cita morte saith Seneca est queri quod citò navigaris To complaine of a speedy death is to dislike that we have so soone passed the dangerous seas Can any thing more pleasingly befall the rightly affected soule then to be freed from imprisonment in the body and from the clog of that masse of clay which holds it downe and keepes it from its proper place to which it would mount up were it not so held Is not hee that runnes a race or travels a journey or workes hard all day glad when he is at the end of his labour and ●…oyle Or he that fights when he hath attained the victory Or would they be againe in the beginning or middle of their race journey or fight Pretiosa mors tanquam finis laborum tanquam victoriae consummatio tanquam vitae janua perfectae securitatis ingressio How pretious should death be to us saith S. Bernard death that is the end of our labours the consummation of our victory the gate to life and an entrance into perfect security S. Austin saith it is the laying downe of a heavy burden Is it not a happinesse to be deliver'd from sinning from the temptations of Satan the allurements of the world and the rebellion of the flesh against the Spirit in us Certainely death is a bed of peace and rest Isa. 57. 2. Who will or can doubt of the happinesse that death brings with it when he considers how many and great the good things are which accompanies it First the perfection of grace which before was weake and in small measure Secondly the mansion or place which Christ is gone before to prepare for us even a presence with God where there is fullnesse of joy c. Is not hee happy that is neare the thing he advisedly much desires I desire saith the Apostle to be with Christ. S. Austin tels us that he in whom this desire is doth not patiently die but lives patiently and dyes with joy and delight Hee saies S. Ierom that daily remembers and considers of his dissolution contems things present and hastens to that which is to come All the faithfull before the comming of our Saviour were in a joyfull expectation of his comming many Prophets and righteous men desired it they waited for the consolation of Israel as Simeon Luk. 2. After when hee was come what rejoycing was there Then the Angell brings tidings

of great joy and a multitude of the heavenly host joyned with him in a joyfull praising of God Glory be to God on high c. then Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seene thy Salvation After againe when Iohn Baptist had prepared the way and wone Disciples to Christ how rejoyced they at the sight of the Lamb of God Andrew to his brother Simon we have found the Messias and Philip to Nathaniel we have found him of whom Moses and the Prophets did write Both Iohn and Christ himselfe for the increase of their joy that heard them made this the summe of their preaching Repent for the Kingdome of God is at hand yet to bring it now home to our purpose all this was but the Kingdome of grace and if when that was at hand there was cause of so great joy as indeed there was then how much greater cause is there when the Kingdome of GLORIE is at hand and even come unto us how great joy and happinesse must there needs bee The truth is every mans death is suiting to his life if he be blessed in his life he is more so in his death which followes a good life In a word if thou shrink and draw back at the thought of thy death which is a common infirmity Tantam habet vim carnis animae dulce consortium of so great force in the sweet society betweene the body and the soule in case it be thus with thee it is because death comes not into thy frequent cogitations because thou diest not daily because thou receivest not the sentence of death in thy selfe Mortem effice familiarem saith Seneca ut si ita sors tulerit possis illi obviam ire be well acquainted with death that when he comes thou maist meet him as a friend and entertaine him with joy Facilè contemnit omnia qui semper cogitat se esse moriturum saith S. Ierom hee that continually thinkes of death easily tramples upon whatsoever may dismay him Or it is for that thou hast not yet learned of Saint Chrysostome Offeramus Deo promunere quod pro debito tenemur reddere be free in offering up thy selfe to God as a gift which wee are bound to yeeld to him as a debt Or because thy life hath beene vitious Mala mors putanda non est saith Saint Austin quam bona vita preces sit that death may not be counted evill which is foregon by a good life Thou art loth to die wherefore thou hast lived ill and so art unprepared for death know that the reason of this want of preparation is because thou art not throughly perswaded and resolved that thou shalt die nor dost truly beleeve it hap'ly thou canst say from a generall swimming thought of death that we are all mortall or the like but a firme and constant beleefe of it is farre from thee for otherwise thou wouldest live in continuall expectation of thy dissolution and prepare thy selfe for that day that houre knowing that then instantly thou art brought to judgement If newes be brought to a City that the enemie is comming against it and ready to besiege it shall we thinke they beleeve it when they make no preparation for defence Quotidiè morimur quotidie mutamur tamen aeternos nos esse credimus saith Saint Ierom we die daily and every day are we changed and yet we dreame of eternity even here in this life Or hap'ly the reason of thy feare of death is thou art fast glued to thy earthly portion thy riches thy pleasures thy honours thy friends Shake hand at least in contentment with these and all will bee well forsake them now while thou livest and then thou canst not in regard of them thinke death thine enemie or that it takes either thee from them or them from thee if thou have thy treasure in Heaven there thy heart will be and from thy heart and treasure thou wilt not be contentedly but wilt love and embrace the messenger and guide which conducts thee to them namely thy death But will some man say how can there bee happinesse in that which all men yea all the other creatures doe shunne for they all naturally desire to preserve their estate of being what they are and by all meanes avoid their being dissolved I answer first Death and dissolution is two waies to be considered either simply as it is an abolishing of a present estate or as it is a passage to a future better condition as it is the former naturally it is abhor'd but as it tends to perfection it is both in it selfe desirable and by the creatures desired and longed for before it comes and when it presents it selfe right welcome and embraced so was it by th' Apostle Phil. 1. 23 he desired to depart or as some translate it to be dissolved Why not in respect of death it selfe but because by this death he should passe to a better life he should live with Christ hee should bee deliver'd from his claiey house as that word dissolved imports or dismissed as Beza reads it and our newest translation that is set free from imprisonment in the body and from the miseries of this life and hence it is that the Apostle there professes that he shall gaine by death ver 21. he shall gaine Christ by it enjoy him fully and with him glory even the crowne which he aspires unto 2 Tim. 4. hence it is also that death is longed for and earnestly groned after as 2 Cor. 5. neither is this true which hath beene said onely of the faithfull among men but of the other creatures also with earnest expectation they grone and travaile in paine for the day of their renovation Rom. 8. 19 22. So then it is plaine that death though it be not simply and in it selfe good and desirable yet for that which commeth of it it is And this may be further manifested by similitudes with which the same Apostle doth furnish us First in the place afore-named 2 Cor. 5. 1. the body our earthly mansion is compared to a tabercacle a weake and moveable house or dwelling our heavenly habitation to a firme building not made with hands but eternall in the heavens and 1 Cor. 15. our interred bodies are likened to the seed which is cast into the ground and is there corrupted and dies I will apply these comparisons to our present purpose True indeed an old weake decayed house is not in this happy that it is taken downe better to be in that meane estate in which it was before then not at all to be but herein consists the happinesse of its demolishment that thereby it becomes a new faire building farre more glorious in it selfe and more profitable for use then before So againe the seed is not in that happy that it is corrupted and rotted in the earth but that corruptio unius is