Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
life_n book_n dead_a open_v 5,415 5 9.9361 5 false
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A38163 Great salvation by Jesus Christ tenderd to the greatest of sinners and in particular to such as have been refusers of it, if God shall now at last make them willing to receive it / by Richard Eedes ... Eedes, Richard, d. 1686. 1659 (1659) Wing E243; ESTC R17583 114,819 292

There are 2 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

the ancient Aegyptians that in their great feasts they caused a Deaths head to be carryed about the Table to put them in mind of their mortality a frolick that the Epicures and Belly-gods of our times that sit-down to eat and drink and rise up to play are not acquainted with it s reported of one of the Fathers and I think it is Hierome That he seemed alwaies to hear that saying sounding in his ear Surgite mortui venite ad judicium arise you dead and come to judgement The meditations of death and judgement are excellent corosives to eat out the heart of sin and no less Soveraign preservatives to keep us upright If we adde two more unto them which this Scripture prompts us to take in it will be more than a double fence it wil be a double bar to keep out sin and a double cord to draw to God and duty The second that my Text adds are Hell and Heaven Salvation and Damnation and these four put together are quatuor novissima the four last things and will furnish us with excellent matter for profitable meditation Some advise to meditate of Death some to think of Judgement some advise that we should remember Hell others that above all we should not forget Heaven but if they are of such force single to kill sin and quicken grace to help the Spirit and mortifie the flesh vis unita fortior when they joyn forces they will do their work more effectually I shall therefore lay and leave them before you as the fittest subjects of daily serious Meditation 1. Death shal be the first in order because it is first in time the great Statute of the Churches Magna Charta the Scriptures is recorded thus Heb. 9.27 It is appointed unto all men once to dye The Scriptures tell us examples tell us all former generations tell us experience tells us our own infirmities tell us that there is not that man living that shall not see death O what should dying men have to do with sin surely not to hugg it in their bosomes and lodge it next their hearts and let it reign in their mortal bodies and serve it in the lusts of it but to kill and crucifie and mortifie it to kill it before they dye to kill it which otherwise will kill them sin is the sting of death and it makes death to be the King of fears to a man in his sins O death how bitter is thy remembrance to such a one We dare not dye in our sins Balaam that lived the life of the wicked did choose to dye the death of the righteous sin unrepented of is the worst pillow that a mans head can lye upon on a dying bed and sinners if they can by the help of a seared or flattering conscience make a shift to dye quietly that no bonds appear in their death no desperate horrour open them an entrance into Hell yet the wicked shall not be able to stand in the Judgement nor the sinners in the congregation of the righteous they may elude humane justice or out-face and out-brave it in mens courts greatness may carry them off with power or poverty with pitty but righteous judgement shall be there dispensed by the searcher of hearts to high and low according to their works And this is certain that no unclean thing can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven ther 's no Purgatory to scour such as dye polluted but as death leaves them so shall Judgement find them Ther 's no knowledge nor wisdom nor invention in the grave saith Solomon O that they were wise to consider this that they would remember their latter end saith Moses on the behalf of Israel noting what David saith the onely way to apply a mans heart to wisdom is to pray to God to teach him to number his daies Psal 90.12 And in another place the Prophet notes that Jerusalems filthiness was in her skirts because she remembred not her latter end Lament 1.9 The onely way to have all in a readiness at death to have calling and election made sure and to have nothing to do but to dye when death comes is to write it in our memories and to be often drawing it out by meditation and conference some will wear a ring with a deaths-head upon their fingers some will keep a dead mans scull in t●eir studyes or closets some will have death pictured on their walls or windows some will have their Coffins in their chambers some will write Memento mori upon their books as their Motto remember death all to help our dulness and slowness of heart in believing that our end is near and our dissolution at hand but those that have gotten it deeply rooted in their hearts and are carefull to keep the memory of death alive and quick in their meditations are the onely champions that are like to give death a valiant encounter and to come off with victory and triumph Oh death where is thy sting Oh grave where is thy victory These are likelyest to give Paul's farewell to the world I have fought I have finished I have kept c. henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness 2 Tim. 4.7 8. and Rom. 8.38 I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor any other creature shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus The frequent Meditation of death is an excellent means to make us dye daily 2. Judgement is the second because it is deaths second after death cometh the judgement and it is sure that we must all come to judgement as that we must once dye We must all appear before the judgement Seat of Christ to receive according to things done in the flesh whether they be good or evil The word of God is abundant in setting this before us with all appurtenances that do accommodate it as 1. The Judge and his throne and attendants and his work 2 Thes 1.7 8. The Judge the the Lord Jesus 2. His throne Heaven shall be revealed from heaven 3. His attendants with his mighty Angels 4. His work of justice to render vengeance in flaming fire to them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and his gracious work to be made glorious in them that believe 2. The books by which we must b● judged of Scripture and Conscience Revel 20.12 And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened i. e. of Scripture and Conscience and another book was opened i. e. the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works 3. The causes that must be heard and tryed good and bad just and unjust Ecles 12.14 God shall bring every work into judgement with every secret thing whether it be good or evil 4. The whole process and final sentence Gods dealing with the good and evil to convict the one of sin unto Damnation
Christ 2. Cor. 5.10 and every one must give an account of himself to God Rom. 14.12 If any are left out of these expressions all and every one they may expect to escape judgement else not Here sometimes the rod of the wicked falls to the lot of the righteous and Gods servants are condemned as evil doers when the Benjamins mess and double portion is given to the wicked but then the just Judge of all the World will do all men right and distribute righteous judgement in giving to every one according to his works Rom. 2.6 7 8 9 10. Rendering eternal vengeance to the ignorant and disobedient and wil be made glorious in them that believe 2 Thes 1.7 8 9 10. 2. Greater also than condemnation by Gods Law as appears from the verse before my text and Ch. 10.27 28 29 30 31. To such as wilfully refuse this Gospel-Salvation There remains no Sacrifice for sins but a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries He that despised Moses law i. e. Gods law given by the Mediatourship of Moses died without mercy of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God and counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the spirit of Grace For we know him that hath said vengeance belogneth unto me I will recompense saith the Lord and again the Lord will judge his people It is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God So far the Apostle in that Scripture which thunder-claps though by the concurrent Judgement of expositours they are levelled at sinners against the Holy Ghost those that are guilty of that sin unto death yet many of the iniquities of that sin are though in a lower measure to be charged upon the neglecter of this great Salvation 3. It is superlatively the greatest of all condemnations two places of Scripture I shall quote and improve that are of this tendency and then shall pass to the further confirmation of it by strength of reason The first is 1 Thes 2.16 Where the Apostle notes that the Jews that killed the Lord Jesus and their own Prophets and persecuted the Apostles and envyed the Gentiles that in a word with the unjust Judge did neither fear God nor reverence Man did thus Fill up the measure of their sins till wrath came upon them to the utter most i. e. they sinned to the uttermost till they were plagued to the uttermost compare with this place that Heb. 7.25 which words are spoken of Jesus Christ the great high Priest of his Church the plentiful Redeemer and mighty Saviour He is able to save to the uttermost all them that do come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them what can be more equall than this that they that refuse mercy to the uttermost should have wrath to the uttermost that they which set light by that Salvation to the uttermost should indure the uttermost of Damnation The other place of Scripture that speaks to this point and serves to set out the superlative greatness of this Damnation is Matth. 3.7 They are the words of John Baptist to the Pharisees and Saduces that came to his Baptism O Generation of vipers who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come Where note that this dreadfull Damnation is called Wrath to come and therefore because the main of it is reserved for the life to come true it is that some notorious Malefactours have an entrance into Hell opened unto them while they are upon earth and are hang'd up in Gibbets for the astonishment of others that are so pursued by the hornets of their consciences stinging them with the pangs of the second death that with Cain and Judas they are driven by the Devil through hell internal into an hell eternal but the dreadfulness of perfected Damnation which the Devil believes and trembles to believe is reserved for an endless life in that which we call the World to come David saith Great plagues remain for the ungodly though upon the ungodly God raines snares fire and brimston storm and tempest and discharges whole Vollies of Wonderful plagues upon the children of disobedience Deut. 28.59 yet there is a reserve of more and greater and the biggest and worst are still behind As the Saints have usually the worst in possession and best in reversion and this life is a sowing in tears that they may reap in joy so usually the wicked have the best at first and worst at last as Abrabram said to Dives Son remember how in thy life time thou receivedst thy good things but Lazarus pains but now he is comforted and thou art tormented But to return to take into further consideration that expression of wrath to come Cast abroad your eyes in all the world and look back to the beginning of time and enquire whether ever sorrow were like unto that Weeping and Howling and Gnashing of Teeth which the Lord inflicts upon the Damned in the day of his fierce wrath 1. We read that for our first Parents disobedience the whole Creation was under such a load of wrath that ever since it hath groan'd under it Rom. 8.22 But there we read also that the creature groans under an expectation of liberty waiting when it shall be restor'd into the glorious liberty of the Sons God but when this Damnation takes place the Torments as they are easless so shall they be endless the worm dyeth not and the fire never goes out there is no hope of a deliverance 2. It s upon record that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed with Fire and Brimston but when the Cities were burnt the fire was extinguisht but the wicked are the chaff and stubble that must be burnt with unquenchable fire the damned who are the fuel that feed it shal be like the burning bush all on a fire but not consummed and therefore the fire must needs be everlasting The burning thereof is fire and much wood and the breath of the Lord like a River of brimston doth kindle it Isay 30.33 3. God overthrew the old World with a devouring floud but the Scripture makes mention of the rising and raging of it and then of its ebbing again and flowing no more But those souls that are drowned in perdition are cast into the Mare mortuum the dead and deadly Sea the Red and the Raging Sea of the Almighties wrath which hath neither bank nor bottome where they must be sinking and drowning for ever and ever 4. The Jews for their rejecting Christ were unchurched and Excommunicated but they are to be called again when the fulness of the Gentiles is come in But the sentence of finall Damnation shal be beyond the Anathema Maranatha that was but till the coming of Lord but this commences at the coming of the Lord and from thenceforth for ever Go ye cursed