Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sin_n	death_n	put_v	sting_n	3,229	5	11.9873	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

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