Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sin_n	body_n	death_n	sting_n	3,690	5	11.8999	5	false

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

or later overcome by them During the time of mans innocency the great Creator so temper'd the contrary qualities of the elements of which his body consisted that they were not as since at strife among themselves but when man had sinned that way might be made to the execution of the sentence of death God drew backe his hand and left them to their naturall worke in seeking their mutuall destruction And by that meanes now as one saith vivere mor●… est our living is a dying While we live and by living we come every day neerer and neerer to our dissolution This is now the weake estate of our earthly tabernacle to which the art of Physicke in diet and medicines may be as a prop to a decayed and tottering house but comes farre short of restoring it to the originall perfection in the creation Physick sayes Galen is an art of repairing not of building No this certainely requires the same hand which made man at the first and the way which God the Creator and recreator will take in it he hath plainely expressed in his word It is by demolishing in his time this decayed and daily decaying house and setting up a new The earthly house of this our weake Tabernacle must first be destroyed that we may have a building given of God not made with handes but eternall in the Heavens As the seed that is cast into the ground first dies and then is quickned so our bodies at the resurrection This corruptible shall then put on incorruption and this mortall immortality Perfect health man had but by his sinne he lost it Perfect health he shall recover but the way to it is death and the way to death is sicknesse and as the sting of death is sinne so the evill of sicknesse is sinne likewise and that not onely as the meriting cause but also as the thing to be prevented by it Would we alwaies live in health We know not our selves God that is better acquainted with our estate and condition sees that of all afflictions this of sicknesse is most beneficiall unto us and most necessary The reasons to note some of them may bee these The first to make us looke backe to see from whence we are fallen and why Another because other afflictions are not so direct premonitions of death which should be the meditation of our whole life A third for that this correction doth not onely minde us of our sinnes past and upbraid us with them that wee may repent but serves also for a curb or restraint to hold us in from rushing into the world of enormities and sinnes to which our corrupt and unbridled nature otherwise would carry us head-long for by sicknesse the flesh which rebels against the spirit is weakened and more easily observes that precept of not suffering sinne to reigne in our mortall bodies Fourthly health of body is an occasion of many evills especially when the soule is sicke or ill affected No where saies one can the corrupt heart dwell worse or more dangerously then in a healthy body Fiftly when we see a man in his bed of sicknesse how much doe wee finde him changed if there bee any sparke of grace in him from that hee was before Hee hates his former disorderly course and himselfe for it Hee resolves though hap'ly with great weakenesse and sometimes after recovery inconstancy yet he resolves or at least professes a resolution for amendment and he binds himselfe to God for it by many promises and vowes in health with most men it is farre otherwise Againe the want of health may be borne the more patiently both by aged and younger folke because health is a thing common with us to inferiour creatures not peculiar to man as Psal. 36. ●…6 Lord thou preservest man and beast From which place S. Austine observes that we should not bee proud of health and we may from the same ground that there is no cause of our being much dejected for the want of it Well then were it granted that old-age is followed with more diseases then the other this notwithstanding would be no disgrace to it a benefit rather as hath beene proved But by the concurrent judgement of Physitians it appeares to be otherwise For they tell us that old-men are not so subject to sicknesse as the younger and that the reasons of it are these One their temperance above others by which say they the most depraved and corrupt nature of man is preserved and held in a healthy constitution Another because they are sensible of the least causes of sicknesse and thereby become wary and suffer not the diseases to take root in them And the last is their cold and dry temper which frees them from hot fevers inflammations and corrupt humors Whence it is saith Plime that they are lesse subject to the pestilence Hereunto wee may adde the common Proverbe A Physitian or a foole A Physitian by experience and many observations or a foole for want of them Now we know none hath so much experience as the Old-man whose many yeares afford him opportunity and meanes to be to himselfe an Emperike a kinde of Physitian The carelesnesse of former ages have happily bred diseases in him and hee by his skill and knowledge gotten by experience practiseth the cure The other ages are as violent winds and stormes that by often beating upon this house of clay or as bad inhabitants that by their neglect bring it out of reparations and OLD-AGE is as the Carpenter to repaire it The IIII. Chapter Containing the next and last disgrace cast upon OLD-AGE and the answer THe last imputation is this that to the OLD-MAN death is at hand and knockes at the doore as it were ready to come in and ceaze upon him And here now we are fallen upon a meditation of Death and I rejoyce at the occasion imploring Gods helpe that I may bee profitably sensible of what I deliver touching this point and may bring it home to my selfe for my better preparation In it I will endeavour to prove first that to be neare to death is not a misery but a happinesse rather Secondly that were it an affliction as it is deemed to be the other ages are as liable to it as this And lastly that the former part of mans life ill order'd is one and not the least cause of Old-ages hasting to the grave Touching the first What is there in Death that may make it a misery to a good Old-man Is it that which David Psalm 6. and other where pleaded for the lengthening of his life In death there is no remembrance of thee c. And Hezekias Isaiah 38. The grave cannot confesse thee That indeed should bee a principall motive to the desire of life and the shunning of death The end of it should be not so much that wee may longer enjoy this world and the comforts of it as that we

evill and sinnefull pleasure taken in them must needes be the worst of all Now in every of these it is truely said and rightly judged to be a vitious rejoycing when a man thinkes without ground he hath atteined to that which is good Touching the other kinde of good which we said is the object of pleasure to wit that which is truely and in its nature good it is of two sorts the one worldly and corporall the other heavenly and spirituall and answerable are the pleasures which come of them either worldly or heavenly Concerning the worldly though often through the abuse of them they become carnall and divelish yet in themselves they are good and lawfull First because they are as a cordiall that releeves the infirmities of our weake nature or as an Inne after a long and wearisome journey Secondly they are the blessings of God to animate and incourage us to obedience God hath given man bread to strengthen him and wine to glad his heart Thirdly they are approoved of God in Scripture There is a time to laugh and to dance as well as to weepe and mourne And the same Preacher telles us that God answers man in the joy of his heart and this rejoycing is as it were the condiment of Gods outward blessings without which such a blessing will cease to be a blessing For what were it to have children riches honours and not to rejoyce in them Salomon confirmes this also when he sayes there is no good in outward blessings but for a man to rejoyce and doe good in his life Fourthly these pleasures are many times both the matter and occasion of praising God The matter when a man beholding the things in which he delights as the aforesaid children riches c. doth for them give God praise Occasion when we have used these pleasures so as that thereby we come to the service of God with fresher spirits and more cheerefullnesse Quest. But belong these pleasures to all men alike Answ. No To the faithfull alone they are sanctified onely The upright in heart can rejoyce who can rejoyce when God is angry There is no peace to the wicked As Iehu to Iehoram how can there be peace so long as c. So how can there bee true joy so long as our sinnes stand unremitted Now in the next place it will be needfull that we shew the great difference betweene these two corporall and spirituall pleasures and rejoycing First the corporall are subject to excesse whereby they become dangerous and hurtfull to the body and soule but the spirituall cannot be immoderate for they arise from heavenly contemplation Another difference is that they have a different pedigree the one proceeding from Gods speciall favour the other from worldly things A third when the corporall nature is satisfied those pleasures cease as when men have abated their hunger and thirst meates and drinkes afford no delight Contrary-wise the heavenly joyes and pleasures remaine and continue the object of them being at all times pleasing and delectable and the subject which is the soule and spirit of a man being alwayes capable of them Fourthly the sensuall pleasures are not at all times in season There is a time when to laughter wee may say thou art mad As there is a time to laugh so there is a time to weepe Ibid as namely when wee humble our selves before God for our sins or when any calamity is either threatned or inflicted That 's a time to fast and pray and to afflict our soules then no worldly pleasures may be admitted they are as poyson to our humiliation Then wee must sow in teares that after we may reape with joy Then the body must be kept under Whence it is that the Rich mans Epicurisme became the more odious and the greater sinne in that he fared deliciously every day he made no difference of times in his pleasures but the heavenly joyes are not limited or excluded by any time For even in the greatest heavinesse which is the godly sorrow for sinne the soule of Gods children partakes of joy and comfort the Spirit of God even then yea and by meanes of that sorrow and repentance assuring us and sealing up unto us the forgivenesse of our sinnes it being promised to such a turning to the Lord from which assurance also ariseth peace with God and unutterable joy and rejoycing in our hearts Fiftly another difference betweene them is in regard of the unstablenesse of the one and the firmenesse of the other While the comedy lasts the spectator laughs but the play and his pleasure end together Contrariwise the spirituall joy is a continuall feast Satan himselfe cannot rob the possessor of it it is setled upon him by the word of Christ your joy shall not be taken from you Sixtly and lastly in regard of purity Worldly pleasures and delights have alwayes some mixture of bitternesse while a man feedes his conceit with aboundance of temporall things his heart is fed upon by three devouring vultures much care in getting more feare in keeping and most griefe in loosing and as for greatnesse so greedily hunted after it is ordinarily a continuall vexation because of envy from inferiours thwarting of competitors and jealousies of Princes and such like How many great mens hearts have burst with the blasting frowne of a Kings fore-head Nay sometimes the disrespect of no very great one marrs all which is instanced in Haman Thus by way of preface over-long I confesse I have laid the ground-worke of my answer to the aforenamed imputation and now I aske whether of these two kindes of pleasures is it the want whereof they say is a disadvantage to Old-age The heavenly they will not they cannot say it For who may be more replenisht with this joy then the Old-man in whom the graine of mustard-seed hath had so long time to take roote and to grow up to a tree that reaches up even to Heaven the seate of everlasting joy and happinesse then hee whose daily exercise it is to stand knocking at the gates of Heaven of his house and home towards which he hath beene long travelling and for which he hath fetcht many a sigh and grone The other kinde therefore of joy or pleasure it is of which men belike are deprived by living long And of that what shall we now say If wee aske heathen Philosophers their opinion they will tell us that it is grosse and brutish both an inticement to vice and a nourisher of it that to bring pleasure into the company of vertues is to set a strumpet amongst chast and honest Matrons that to say it is our cheefe good is vox pecudum non hominum to speake like brute beasts not like men that the greater the pleasure the more it remooves the minde from its seat and state that it is a flattering enemie