Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	dead_a	die_v	live_v	11,283	5	6.6056	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44069	A cordiall against the feare of death delivered in a sermon before the Vniversity of Oxford May 28, 1654 / by Thomas Hodges.	Hodges, Thomas, d. 1688.	1659 (1659)	Wing H2318; ESTC R27407	21,172	40

need not slavishly to fear death I know nature is averse to and trembles at dissolution and the pure and holy nature of Christ did with submission to his fathers will decline suffering and feare dying and it is sufficient for the servant that he be as his Master A naturall ordinate moderate feare of death a Christian may have but yet he doth not slavishly feare death or hell he knows the one cannot hurt him and the other hath nothing in him a haire of his head shall not fall to the ground and not so much as the smell of hell fire shall ever passe on him Christians have no need to fear death it can let it do its worst but kill the body it cannot cast body or soule into hell fire and wherefore then should Christians feare it the shell the body may in death be broken or worm-eaten but the kernell the soul that is untouched the wormes cannot touch that Besides death is a hiding place or Sanctuary to Christians for a time till all the sore calamities of this miserable world are overpast and men in distresse do not fly from but to places and cities of refuge Againe they may look on death as a period of all evill as a forerunner as an in let to all blessednesse a darke entry leading them to the father of lights they find death in the Inventory of their good things 1 Cor. 3.21 22. For all things are yours whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world Revel 14.13 or life or death Even so saith the Spirit Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. Alacres accedunt ad mortem tanquam ad aerumnarum terminum melioris vitae exordium Corn. Alap They approach death cheerfully as the end of their troubles and the beginning of a better life How unhappy were Christians if they could not dye they would not live alway It is enough say they with Elijah a little altered take away our lives 1 King 15.4 that we may be better with our fathers nay that we may be ever with the Lord which is best of all Vitam habent in patientia mortem in desiderio they are patient of life or content to live but desirous to dye Of old it was grown to a kind of Proverb soli Christiani mortis contemptores Christians were the men who contemned death In the Martyrologie we find Justus and Pastor the one of seven the other of nine yeares of age offering themselves to Martyrdome for Christ A godly man dies willingly though at the stake saying with the first Martyr Stephen Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Act. 7.59 but t is observed by some that the rich fool dyed unwillingly this night saith the text do they require thy soul of thee he would not dye but he must Luk. 12.20 gr Farther Christians are freed by Christ and by his dying from the slavish feare of death and hell or temporall and eternall death For 1 Christ hath destroyed him that had the power of death i. e. the Devill non quod personam aut substantiam diaboli destruxerit annihilârit sed quia ejus regnum imperium destruxit Corn. Alap He hath not destroyed or annihilated the person or substance of the Divell but he hath destroyed his Kingdome and Empire Christ hath despoyled the Devill of that right or power which he sometimes had by permission or sufferance from God to tempt and torment them by reconciling them by his death unto God Now since Christ hath made our peace with God the Devils power to tempt us in this life is much limited and restrained if we be in Christ and his power to torment us after death is totally abolished He hath delivered us from the power of Satan Act. 26.18 from the power of darknesse Col. 1.13 Ita prostratus est saith Calvin speaking of the Devill ut pro nihilo habendus sit ac si nullus foret the Devill is so vanquished as if he signified nothing now as if there was no Devill at all as to believers And Christ conquerd the Devill beat him out of his Kingdome and Empire which he sometimes had over us his Subjects with his own weapon he slew him as it were with his own sword hostem suis ipsius armis confecit Christus saith Beza Christ by death overcame him that had the power of death when he hung upon the crosse See Colos 2.15 Ephes 4.8 he spoiled principalities and powers and when he ascended up on high he led captivitie captive and made a shew of them openly triumphing over them The Devill first got his power to torment us with death temporall and eternall and with the fear and horror of both by tempting us to sin and by that meanes tyrannized over man putting him to death cruelly and malitiously but now Christ became sin for us our sins were laid upon him and he died for our sins and by his death overcame the Devill the great Leviathan did bite at the flesh of Christ or his humane nature sed captus fuit hamo Divinitatis but he was caught by his divinity as with a hook yea the divine power of Christ is such a hook in his nostrills that he can and will hinder him from tyrannizing over and tormenting as formerly he did those that are Christs And truly the Devil hath justly forfeited his power for his malice against Christ and his presumption in setting upon Christ the Captain of our salvation when he once appeared but in the Similitude of sinfull flesh 2. Because Christ hath destroyed the power and dominion of Sin he hath by his death taken away the condemning power and purchased the Spirit to destroy the commanding power of Sin in his so that sin shall no more raigne in our mortall bodyes Sin shall no more have dominion over us since Christ dying for sin hath condemned Sin in the flesh 3. That Christ hath delivered true Christians from the feare of Death appeares in that he hath freed them from the damning power of the Law the strength of sin as to its condemning power is the Law but Christ in this regard as to those that are Christs hath nayled the Law to his crosse yea the law was not made for a righteous man sayth the Scripture 1 Tim 1.9 and such are justified persons by the death of Christ Farther t is said against such there is no law Gal. 5.23 and that we might be yet delivered from all our tormenting feares hear what the Apostle Paul sayth Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ 4 In that Christ by his death hath abolished death to the godly I had all-most said Name and Thing he hath taken away the sting of death he hath beat out the teeth of this evill and venemous beast Death came with open mouth upon Christ like a roaring Lyon as he went down that way but Christ hath slaine the Lyon and now out of the eater comes meat and out of

afraid to look death in the face of whom then should they be afraid they may by grace do what t is said the horse doth by nature even mock at fear when it cometh We may say as David doth the Righteous is hold as a Lion A righteous man may say with David Psal 3.6 I will not be afraid of 10000s of people that have set themselves against me round about or as in Psal 46.2 Although the earth be removed and the mountaines cast into the midst of the Sea I will not fear Although the greater world fall this lesser world need not shake or be moved And so we are here taught 3ly the great Blessednesse of Christians in miserable times these are the happy men and women in times of war plague famine Miser Christianus videri potest non potest inveniri he may outwardly seem miserable he shall never be truly miserable Are ye by Christ freed from the slavish fear of death temporall and eternall Use 2 then let not such men as you be terrified at the newes of the approach of death and be not unwilling to die when the God of our lives calls for you When once good old Simeon had got his Saviour in his armes he presently sings his Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Luk. 2.29 Rebeckah that went so willingly with Abrahams servant to Canaan to be Isaacs wife may rise up in the day of Judgment and condemn us if we hang back when our bridegroome the Lord Christ comes or sends for us She went to an earthly Canaan we to a heavenly she went to Isaac a type of Christ we to Christ himselfe she to Sarahs tent we to Abrahams bosome she to a moveable tent or Tabernacle we to Mansions to a building that has foundations whose builder and maker is God himselfe she went from her own kindred and fathers house to live and die in a strange country we go to our own country and fathers house to dye no more death shall no more have dominion over us Consider for I speak to those who are passible and mortall and to whom no day can bring a priviledge nor place be a Sanctuary from the arrest of death no though our breasts be full of milk and our bones of marrow consider I say 1. that death can but bruise our heel he cannot break our head when death hath killed the body he hath done all God sayes to this destroying Angell or Messenger of his when he hath taken away the life of our bodies stay now thine hand it is enough put up thy sword into the scabbard and therefore do not fear death for the sword of death is like the sword of the magistrate he beareth it indeed not in vain but to be a terror to evill doers and a praise to them that do well 2. Death will cure thee of thy body and soul diseases The long-sick writ upon his grave stone hîc ero sanus here I shall be well And as for sin the disease of thy soul death will perfectly cure that leprosie and stop that bloudy issue and be the death of that body of death within thee 3. As the fining pot for silver and the furnace for gold so shall the grave be to our drossy bodies our bodies like the China dishes after they have been buryed for some generations under ground shall be taken up and made vessels of honour fit for our masters use in heaven The soul is now indeed a Pearl but set in clay but at the Resurrection in the day when God makes up his Jewels when he takes them up out of the dust and dirt he will then set them in bodies of gold yea in bodies like the Sun for we shall be made like unto the glorious body of Christ Phil. 3. Revel 1.16 last And his body is like the Sun when it shineth in its full strength 4. Death is the beaten road to everlasting life Christ the King of heaven and earth went this way and it may suffice Christians to walke to heaven even as Christ walked in and by the way of death 5. Consider Death is Christs messenger he will not run before he is sent he is Christs Angel or Minister sent out for the good of them who are heires of Salvation In the 2 King 6.32 we read that when Jehoram sent a messenger to take off Elisha's head the Prophet bid shut the door for saith he is not the sound of his masters feet behind him But let us use death kindly and not handle him roughly at the door but rather say turn in turn in my Lord for is not the sound of his and our Masters feet is not the sound of Christs feet behind him 6ly and lastly consider that so long as thou art slavishly afraid of death and judgment thou art either not a son or surely a son under age thou art not made perfect in love I shall never think my soul in good case said one so long as I fear to think of dying And Luther in a Sermon on Luk. 21.25 saith that untill we can from our hearts desire the day of judgment we cannot say boldly that we are Christians he would therefore have us pray to God for this day thus fac si fieri potest ut hâc horâ veniat I desire it may come even this very hour But yet truly I think that the house of our soul may sometimes lie so unswept and out of order that we may be for a season willing that our Lord and husband should delay a little his comming But t is our duty and let it be our study and endeavour to set the house of our soule in order daily not knowing but that any day we may dye and not live To this purpose le ts meditate often on death thus le ts die daily thus le ts acquaint our selves with it and prepare for it and so shall we be at peace and so shall we not be afraid We read in the Gospell of one mad man who lived among the tombs the world think all mad that do so Joh. 19.41 42. compared with Math. 27.59.60 although but by meditation and yet we read that devout Joseph of Arimathea had his tomb in his garden where he probably used to walk And oh that my people were wise Deut. 32.29 that they would consider their latter end were some of the last words of Moses This is the way to prepare for death and watchfulnesse and preparation may prevent a surprisall may turn death into a sleep the longer and more we watch for death our sleep and rest will be the sweeter In vita vigilant justi ideo in morte dicuntur dormire August the righteous watch whilst they live and their death is a sleep And what weary long waking man is afraid of a sound and sweet sleep Use last And so I come to the last Use of the Doctrine If Christians ought not to fear death neither temporall nor eternall of whom or what then should believers be afraid Let us not fear the Devill he is an enemy but a conquered enemy but an enemy bound in chaines he is a Lyon but led in chains and so muzled that a child of God need not fear him Le ts not fear the day of judgment t is a time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord t is the day of Redemption of our bodies Let it be the object of our hopes not of our feares Le ts not fear the world not all the evill the men of the world can do unto us let us march on in the way of truth and holinesse and that although the whole world should be against us although our dayes should prove daies of darknesse of clouds and of thick darknesse daies of rebuke and blasphemy to us yet let us Christians whether Prophets or Prophets children or professors of the Gospell which is the truth and the Doctrine according unto godlinesse let us be zealous and couragious for truth against error and for holinesse against profanenesse let us quit our selves like men and be strong let us stand up to and for the truth our hearts never once failing us for fear of what may come upon us no not if it should come to a worship the golden Image or be cast into the fiery furnace cōsidering as one saith that Dei miles nec in dolore deseritur nec in morte finitur Gods souldier is neither deserted in sufferings nor ended in death And again quanto plus tormenti tanto plus erit gloriae the more torment the more glory For although we must not have amorem mercenarium yet we may have amorem mercedis though not a mercenary love yet a Respect to the recompence of reward Let us know that although t is a blessed thing to dye in the Lord yet t is a more glorious thing to dye for the Lord. Let us therefore look unto the cloud of witnesses of the martyrs of Jesus who have gone before us either in the Primitive or in the Marian times yea let us look unto Jesus the Author and finisher of our faith Heb. 12.2 who for the joy that was set before him endured the crosse and despised the shame and is now set down at the right hand of God from whom he came into this world that he might deliver us out of the hands of all our enemies that we might serve him without fear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. saith Dr H. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in safety in holinesse and righteousnesse all the daies of our lives To conclude all In all our qualms and faintings of heart le ts endeavour to revive and encourage our selves with this soveraigne cordiall and Antidote that it was one great end wherefore Christ took upon him flesh and blood which could suffer and dye that so by his death and resurrection he might not only rescue one day our bodies after death from the power of the grave giving us a glorious Resurrection unto eternall life but also might by his victorious death on the crosse destroy our Arch-enemy the Devill who had the power of death a deadly power or a power to kill and deliver us who through fear of death otherwise ought and should have been all our life time subject unto bondage FINIS