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
A78903	The godly mans ark or, City of refuge, in the day of his distresse. Discovered in divers sermons, the first of which was preached at the funerall of Mistresse Elizabeth Moore. The other four were afterwards preached, and are all of them now made publick, for the supportation and consolation of the saints of God in the hour of tribulation. Hereunto are annexed Mris. Moores evidences for Heaven, composed and collected by her in the time of her health, for her comfort in the time of sickness. / By Ed. Calamy, B.D. and pastor of the church at Aldermanbury.	Calamy, Edmund, 1600-1666.; Moore, Elizabeth, d. 1656?	1657 (1657)	Wing C247; Thomason E1616_1; ESTC R209627	96,958	299

and that no man knoweth love or hatred by any thing that is before him The best of Saints sometimes are upon the Dunghil when the vilest of men are upon the Throne The best of men are afflicted when the worst of men are in prosperity 2 That there is not so much evil in affliction or so much good in prosperity as the world imagineth For if there were God would not bestow so much prosperity upon the wicked and exercise his dear children with so many afflictions 3 That there will come a rewarding day in which it shall certainly bee well with the Righteous When I see a wicked man prosper I say Surely there will come a punishing day in which the wicked shall bee turned into Hell When I see a godly man in adversity I say Verily there is a reward for the Righteous verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth Such examples Psal 58. prove that there is another life besides this And that if the godly had hope onely in this life they were of all people most miserable I will not trouble you with a relation of her Christian carriage in the time of her health because it is sufficiently known to most here present I shall only take notice of her great care and diligence in making her calling and election sure Shee had not her Ark to build when the flood came nor her Corn to get when the seven years of Famine came Shee had laid up a stock of graces and comforts against the evil hour Shee had not her evidences for Heaven to get at the hour of death But shee had collected and composed them in the time of her life and when shee came to die shee had neither her graces nor her comforts nor her evidences for Heaven to seek shee had nothing to do but to dye Her sickness was very long and very painful concerning which I shall briefly acquaint you with these few particulars 1 God moved the hearts of very many godly people to take compassion of her sad and afflicted condition and to contribute liberally shee being poor towards her relief this merciful providence wonderfully comforted her She saw Gods love in it and was so much affected with it that she was for a little while really and exceedingly afraid notwithstanding her great torments by reason of a cancer in her breast lest she should have her heaven in this life and lest this mercy should bee all her portion The Lord recompence that labour of love and that Christian charity a thousand fold into the bosomes of those who manifested so much kindnesse to her 2 Her Patience was very great As God increased her pains hee increased her patience even to the admiration of such of us as were frequent spectators of it She was brought to such a sweet frame of spirit as to bee willing to live under all her torments as long as God pleased and to dye whensoever he pleased 3 Shee was a woman of a very fearful nature and in the time of her health had many doubts and scruples notwithstanding all her care forementioned about her salvation But in her sickness all her doubts vanished God chained up Satan The Devil had no power to tempt her shee felt a great calmness in her soul and had much inward peace and injoyed more of God and his consolations in the time of her sickness than in the time of her health 4 Shee was very forward in spreading and diffusing those graces which God had bestowed upon her and in giving good counsel to those who visited her I have heard her often and often perswading her friends to prize health and to improve it for the good of their souls to lay up against an evil day and to stock themselves with grace before sickness come Shee would frequently say O the benefit of health O prize health praise God for health and improve health for your eternal good 5 Shee was very well vers't in the Scriptures The Law of God was her delight and this kept her from perishing in her affliction Shee was continually fetching cordials out of the Word to comfort her under her great pains and to preserve her from fainting The twelfth Chapter of the Hebrews was a precious cordial to her so was the eight of the Romans and the 2 of the Corinthians the 4. Chapter and the 17 18. verses For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory While wee look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal 1 Cor. 15. 53 54 55 56 57. For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality then shall bee brought to pass the saying that is written death is swallowed up in victory O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law But thanks bee to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Phil. 3. 21. Who shall change our vile body that it may bee fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby hee is able even to subdue all things unto himself A little before her death shee said In the Lord Jehovah there is righteousness and strength righteousness for justification and strength for supportation Shee said that the Word of God was the best cordial in the world And that one minutes being in Heaven would make amends for all her pain and misery 6 And lastly I cannot but take special notice of the happy close of her life and of the blessed end shee made It is said of Job James 5. 11. Yee have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord c. This our Christian Sister did in a great measure partake both of Jobs pains and Jobs patience and made as happy an end as hee did though in another kinde In the morning of that day in which shee dyed shee fell into a slumber in which shee heard as shee thought one saying to her This day thou shalt bee with mee in Paradise Immediately shee awaked full of joy and though hardly able to speak yet shee uttered it to those who stood by and was much comforted with it Now though I am far from putting any confidence in dreams and doubt not that a man may dream hee shall go to Heaven and yet bee cast into Hell Though I do not think that comfortable dreams are sufficient evidences of salvation Nay when they are brought as proofs of erronious opinions I account them Diabolical delusions and when wicked men have them pleasant presumptions Yet notwithstanding when a woman who hath spent many years in the service of God and is visited by

mee again beseech you to take heed of worldly-mindednes This will quickly betray you into Apostacy from Christ and from the truths of Christ A man who loves the world will Judas-like betray Christ for thirty peeces Hee will part with his Religion rather than with his estate This sin is the root of all evill it exposeth a man to all temptations to hurtful lusts to all errors and all 1 Tim. 6. 9 kinde of sorrows It will drown your souls in perdition Hee that seeks things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 below shall have his Heaven below The Apostle saith expresly that they who minde earthly things their Phil. 3.19 end is damnation Therefore let mee once again repeat it Take heed lest you bee like the Thorny ground Let not the cares riches and pleasures of the World choak the good seed that is weekly sown in your hearts 8 Let it bee your morning and evening thought what shall become of you Momentum unde pendet aeternitas to all eternity and labour so to use things temporal as not to lose the things that are eternal Remember that this life is a moment upon which eternity depends and according as you spend this Momentancum quod delectat aeternum quod cruciat moment so you shall bee for ever happy or for ever miserable Remember that the pleasures of sin are but for a moment but the punishments of sin are everlasting 9 Look upon Sin as the greatest of evils greater than poverty imprisonment banishment or death it self chuse the greatest affliction rather than commit the least sin If Hell Anselme were on the one side and Sin on the other chuse rather to go into Hell than to sin against God For Sin is a greater evil than Hell because it is the cause of Hell and more opposite to God who is the chiefest good than Hell is For God is the Author of Hell which hee hath provided for all unbeleevers and impenitent persons But it is blasphemy in the highest degree to say That hee is the Author of Sin Look upon Christ as the greatest good greater than health wealth liberty or life Love Christ more than you love your estates or lives Hee that loves Christ more than the world will not for sake Christ to imbrace the world Hee that fears sin more than affliction will not sin to avoid affliction 10 Rest not contented with that measure of grace you have attained unto but labour to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ Remember that the Scripture doth not only perswade you to get into Christ but to grow up into Christ not only to bee Righteous but to bee filled with the fruits of Righteousness c. Remember Eph. 4 1● Phil. 1.11 that saying of Christ to whom much is given of them much is required Luk. 12. 48 God hath given you much you have plentiful means of salvation and you have had them for many years hee expects from you not only good fruit but much good fruit not only thirty-fold and sixty-fold but an hundred-fold Where the Husbandman bestows most cost hee expects most fruit The more a Merchant adventures by Sea the greater return hee looks for God hath done more for you than for many others and therefore hee expects that you should do some singular thing for him Hee looks you should bee more humble more heavenly more knowing than others If the Sun should give no more light than a little Candle to what purpose hath God given it so much light If you that have Sun-like abilities do no more good than those who have but half your abilities to what purpose have you them It is a true saying As our Crescentibus doni● crescunt rationes donorum gifts increase so must our account increase You shall answer at the great day not only for your gifts but for the measure of them Remember that God doth not only require service from you but service proportionable to the means and mercies you injoy Hee that hath but one Talent shal● answer but for one but you that have five or ten Talents must bee answerable according to the quantity as well as the quality of them 11 Labour to diffuse those grace● which God hath given you and to communicate them to those with whom you converse True grace i● of a spreading nature and therefore compared to leaven which diffuseth i● self into the whole lump and to Salt that seasoneth all those things with which it is mingled Assoon as the woman of John 4. 29. 30 Samaria had found out the Messias shee leaves her water-pot and goeth into the City to tell others what God had done for her Assoon as Cornelius had received the Message from the Angel to send for Peter hee calls together his kinsmen and neer friends that they together with him might bee made partakers of Gospel-grace A true Act. 10 24 Christian is like a Needle touched with the Loadstone A Needle truly touched draweth another and that will draw another and that another Whosoever hath his heart truly touched by effectual grace will labour to convert others and they others Philip will draw Nathaniel Andrew will draw Peter And Peter being converted will labour to strengthen his Brethren There is a natural instinct in all creatures to make others like themselves as fire will turn all things that come neer it into fire and there is a spiritual instinct in all converted Christians to convert others It is as natural to a true Christian to make others true Christians as it is for a man to beget a man True grace is not only of a communicative but of an assimilating nature See then that you labour by seasonable and religious admonitions and exhortations by communicating of experiences and especially by the shining pattern of a holy life and conversation to bring all those with whom you converse unto Jesus Christ That man hath not grace in truth who put sit in a dark Lanthorne 12 Labour to bee good in your Relations good Husbands and good Wives good Parents and good Children good Masters and good Servants Remember that that man cannot bee a good man who is not good in his Relation Hee cannot bee a good Christian who is not a good Husband or a good Child or a good Father c. Shee cannot bee a good Christian who is not a good Wife and so of the rest and the reason is Because the same God who commands the Husband to love God commands him to love his Wife the same God who commands the Woman to obey God commands her to obey her Husband There is the same stamp of authority upon our duties towards our Relations as upon our duties towards God therefore bee sure to make conscience of relative duties 13 Joyn works of mercy and charity together with your profession of piety and holiness For God hates a penurious niggardly and covetous professor of Religion Let that saying

deserved them For though afflictions are not alwaies sent directly and especially for sin yet sin is the original and foundation of all afflictions Quest What course must wee take to How to finde out the particular sin for which God afflicts us finde out what that sin is in particular for which God corrects us Answ 1 Sometimes wee may read our sin in our punishment Adonibezek though a Heathen King did this Judg. 1. 7. Threescore and ten Kings having their Thumbs and their great Toes cut off gathered their meat under my table as I have done so God hath requited mee I read of holy Ephrem that hee was converted by the sutablenesse of his affliction unto the sin hee had committed for hee saw clearly that his misery came not by chance but from God immediately and for sin As a man may sometime gather the disease of the Patient by observing the Physitians bill so hee may guesse at his sin by considering his punishment 2 Consider what that sin is for which thy conscience doth most of all accuse thee Conscience is Gods Vicegerent his bosome Preacher And when wee sleight the voyce of conscience God seconds it with the voyce of his rod which speaks the very same language that conscience doth 3 Consider what is the sin of thy Complexion and Constitution what is thy Dilectum delictum thy peccatum in delitiis thy beloved sin what is that sin to which thou art most of all inclined and if that sin prevail over thee and thou canst not say with David Psal 18. 23. I have kept my self from mine iniquity It is very probable that for the subduing of that sin thou art corrected of God 4 If ever thou hast been at the gates of death despairing of life consider what that sin was which did then most of all trouble and perplexe thy conscience or if ever thou hast been in a dream supposing thy self to bee dying and breathing out thy last what was that sin which did then most of all affright thee It is very likely that God by afflicting thee intends to get that sin more conquered and mortified 5 Consider what those sins are for which thy godly Minister under whose care thou livest doth reprove thee and of which thy true and real friends do accuse thee for if thou hast sleighted the voice of thy faithful Minister and friends surely God out of his love to thee followeth their advice with the voice of his Rod that thereby hee may open thine ear to discipline and command thee to depart from those iniquities But if thou canst not finde out that particular sin for which God afflicts thee labour to repent of every sin and then thou wilt bee sure to repent of that sin If thou canst not finde out the Bee that stings thee pull down the whole hive or the thorn that pricks thee pull down the whole hedge Do that out of wisdome which Herod did out of malice who because hee could not finde out the Babe Jesus killed all the children in Bethlehem from two years old and under that so hee might bee sure to kill Jesus Let us seek the utter ruine and death of all our sins and then wee shall bee sure to destroy that sin for which God afflicts us and when the cause is removed the disease will forth-with bee cured and the Almighty pacified and reconciled unto us 2 Let us labour that the good wee reap by our afflictions may abide upon us after The good wee get by our Afflictions must remain with us after our recovery our recovery from them There are very many who while they are under the Rod seem to bee very penitent and do purpose and promise to amend their lives but as soon as the Rod is removed they return like the Dog to the vomit c. Such was Pharoah whilst hee was plagued he confessed his sin and prayed for pardon but as soon as ever the judgement was gone hee hardened his heart Such were the Israelites Psalm 78.34 35 36 37. They were not stedfast they turned back Just like a truantly School-boy who while his Master is whipping him will promise any thing but when it is done forgets presently to do what hee promised Or like unto water which while it is upon the fire is very hot but as soon as ever it is taken off the fire presently groweth cold I knew a man who in the time of his sickness was so terrified in his conscience for his sins that hee made the very bed to shake upon which hee lay and cried out all night long I am damned I am damned and made many and great Protestations of amendment of life if God would bee pleased to recover him In a little while hee did recover and being recovered was as bad and as wicked as ever before And therefore let us labour that the good wee get by our afflictions may not vanish away with our afflictions but may abide on us after wee are recovered that wee may bee able to say with David It is good for mee that I was afflicted not onely that I am but that I was David praiseth God in health for the good hee had got in sickness and which still abode with him Let us say with the same Prophet Psal 66.13 14. I will go into thy house with burnt offerings I will pay thee my vows which my lips have uttered and my mouth hath spoken when I was in trouble Let us pray unto God that his afflictions may not onely skin over our spiritual diseases and coup up our sins but mortifie them and so change our natures that wee may never return to folly I will conclude this point with a famous saying of Plinius Secundus worthy to bee written in letters of gold A friend writes to him and intreats him to give him advice how to frame his life so as hee might live as becomes a good man Hee returns him this answer I will not prescribe many rules there is this one onely which I commend to thee above all other Ut tales esse perseveremus sani quales nos futuros profitemur infirmi Let us labour to continue and persevere to bee such when wee are well as wee purpose and promise to our selves to bee when wee are sick There is hardly any man so wicked but hee will in sickness make many and great promises of a new life and of universal reformation if God would restore him Now then if wee not onely bee such but continue to bee such when restored as wee promise to be when sick then wee shall bee excellent Schollars in the School of Affliction and God will either as I have already said deliver us out of affliction or send us to heaven by affliction So much for the first Truth supposed The End of the first Sermon THE Word of God is the Saints Delights SERMON II. PSAL. 119. 2. Unless thy Law had been my delights I should then have perished in mine Afflictions NOw I