Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	die_v	great_a	see_v	6,824	5	3.2450	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57146	Meditations on the fall and rising of St. Peter by Edward Reynolds ...	Reynolds, Edward, 1599-1676.; Reynolds, Edward, 1629-1698.	1677 (1677)	Wing R1266; ESTC R15342	19,547	140

and languish and though even now it can look undauntedly on the nails of a Cross yet presently it may be affrighted at the voice of a Maid He only that hath given faith unto us can give life and action unto our faith Christ is both the quickner and the object of our Faith by whose power it worketh and on whose merits it relyeth When He therefore is pleas'd to remove and withdraw himself Faith must needs be there unoperative where both its Object and its Mover is absent As we cannot see the Sun but by the light of the Sun so neither can we believe in Christ but by the Grace of Christ. Who can wonder that the outward parts of the body should be benum'd and stupid when the spirits and animal vertues which should enliven them have retir'd themselves Lord let me never barely promise but let me withal pray unto thee and let ever my purpose to die for thee be seconded with a supplication that I may not deny thee when ever I have an arm of confidence to lift up in defence of thy Truth let me have a knee of humility to bow down before thy Throne Lord give me what I may promise and I will promise what thou requirest MED IV. WEre not the other Disciples taught from the same holy mouth did they not with the same holy faith receive what they had been taught Why then should Peter give credit to the word of Christ so far as concern'd their weakness and yet distrust it in the presumption of his own strength What though he be the chief in following his Master may he not as well be the chief in falling from him I never knew a priority of Order priviledg'd with a precedence of Grace Yet such is the nature of Greatness that it conceits it self secure from danger and apprehends spiritual immunity in temporal honour How erroneous is the frailty of mans nature How ready to trust upon an arm of flesh confidence free-will supremacy even against divine predictions of danger and thinks it self sufficiently arm'd with that than which there is no greater cause of its weakness and ruin MED V. ONE would have thought that Peter upon the noise of a denial should have begun to tremble and not to boast to arm and not to presume to suspect his strength and not promise it But that a double warning should find a double presumption would make a man confident to expect an invincible resolution and believe that even naked and empty nature being so deeply engaged would have if not courage yet shame enough to persist in such a purpose which being broken could not but infer the discredit not only of a weak but of an inconstant spirit more faithless in the execution of a promise more impotent in its contempt of death than could well stand with the honestly or courage of a Peter But it is the justice of God to give over nature to faintings and falls when it relyes upon it self and to make him fear the least assault who hath not arm'd himself with that which should defend him against the greatest One tear or sigh though emblems of weakness could more have prevailed to strengthen Peter's Faith than so many fruitless boasts the gildings and flourishings of a rotten confidence A little Peble-stone will overturn and sink down a Goliah when all the Armor of Saul will rather cumber than profit in such a conflict MED VI. GReat Promises require great cares and he who hath deeply engag'd himself in any service must needs be either very vigilant or very faithless How is it then that after so many promises I find Peter sleeping even then when his Master is sweating and that that Garden should be the bed of so secure a rest which was the Theater of so exquisite and unimitable an anguish Can he follow Christ a whole night to his Judgment that cannot watch one hour for his comfort can he command his life to be laid down for Christs Truth that cannot command his eyes to be the witnesses of his sorrow so long as we are out of the view of danger we can make large promises of our strength to bear it but when once it draws near and creeps upon us we begin to look with another colour both on it and our selves and become either desperately fearful or supinely stupid Like untoward and forgetful children which never fear the Rod till they feel it MED VII I Cannot wonder that Peter should fall off being tempted who is already though unquestion'd so far behind that he should tremble at the terror of Death who cannot endure the trouble of a Watch. He must learn more to deny himself before he can take up his Cross. The nights of a resolved Martyr must be spent in the studies of patience not in security and ease he must first be a persecutor of himself and exercise a holy cruelty on his own flesh by cruncifying the lusts thereof before he can be able to overcome the wit and most exquisite inventions of his tormentors in a holy and undaunted patience The Soul must be first rais'd unto Heaven before the body can be willing to go down into the earth Had Peter watch'd and accompanied his Master he might have receiv'd further encouragement in his resolution to die for him and learn'd from the extremity of his anguish if not to hate life which could make a man subject to such expressless sorrow yet at least willingly to embrace the present opportunity of glorifying God by a constant death even for this respect that thereby he might be freed from the capacity and danger of those afflictions which he should there have seen flesh and blood lyable unto Of how many precious occasions of good does the too great love of our flesh and ease deprive us Every man would love God more if he could be more out of love with himself MED VIII I Cannot expect other but that he should follow Christ afar off who goes sleepily after him nor can I hope for courage from his tongue whose feet begin so soon to play the Cowards It is not likely that he will come near Christ in Golgotha that follows him afar off in the Judgment-hall if he be unwilling to seem his he will be quickly ready to deny him Behold the beginnings of Peter's backsliding in his very following of Christ To follow him indeed is a work of Faith but to follow afar off is nothing else but by little and little to go back from him See how the preparations unto Peter's fall second each other After sleeping he follows afar off and from that he comes to sitting still and that not in private to pray or repent but in publick to warm himself at that fire where his Conscience though not seared was yet made more hard He which prefers the heat of a fire compassed in with the blasphemies of wicked men the nearest pattern that can be of Hell to the sweet society of his Saviour with the

a large Country which is contain'd in a few significant words and the Motto may be Pondere non numero The same Renowned Author hath preacht many Excellent and Elaborate Sermons upon that Mysterious Prophecy of Zachariah And likewise he hath preacht many profound Sermons upon several Cases of Conscience Both which he hath unfolded with great dexterity of judgment many whereof I my self with others far better able to judg have heard him preach about twenty and six years since in Oxford both to admiration and satisfaction It 's much to be desir'd and hoped that it may be obtain'd for the publick good that the Reverend and Learned Doctor his only surviving Son who doth Patrissare to whom may be applied that of the Poet Vno avulso non deficit alter Aureus simili frondescit Virga metallo Virg. Would be prevail'd withal to print those Elaborate Sermons which questionless will much conduce to the publick good of the Church of God In the mean time let us be thankful unto God who hath given such Gifts and Graces unto men and let us make the best improvement of them whilst we have them and let us according to our Saviours example Work the works of him that sent us while it is day the night cometh when no man can work Joh. 9. 4. I shall not detain thee Reader any longer in a preliminary discourse from reading these choice Meditations Thy profiting by them is as well desired for thee as for him who desires thy Prayers and remains thy servant for Christs sake H. W. March 20. 1676 7 TO My Good Friend Mrs. NIXSON THe Season is of Joy the Gift of Tears This seems a discord unto common ears But he that makes the ficrcest wolf to sleep And feed in friendship with the weakest sheep Vnites remotest passions and can bring Waters of comfort from griefs bitter spring The Jolliest Baltaser on earth may borrow True Joy of him who seems o'rewhelm'd in sorrow Begin the Year and pass it in these Tears They 'l yield you joy against your greatest fears And kindly entertain your poor friends thrift A Renew'd Peter for a New-years-gift Your true Friend E. R. IMPRIMATUR Hic liber cui titulus Meditations on the Fall c. G. Jane R. P. D. Hen. Epis. Lond a Sacris Domest MEDITATIONS ON THE Fall and Rising OF PETER MEDITAT I. PRide and Presumption have been ever as well in the godly as in the wicked the forerunners of a Fall The first man Adam the first Apostle Peter both fell by these Had Adam given less ear to the proud perswasion of a weak Sex and Peter to the presumptions of a weak Confidence the one had not plung'd his posterity into a depth of wretchedness nor both themselves into a depth of sorrow High conceits and resolutions built on shallow ground can promise nothing but ruin on the head of him that rais'd them MED II. WHat can we expect from Peter but a triple denial of his Masters person amongst his enemies who dares even to his own face make a double denial of his Truth He that will adventure to deny the truth of Christs Word will quickly upon temptation deny the profession of his Truth You all saith Christ shall be offended because of me this night Nay Lord answers Peter though all yet never I. Yes Peter thou more than any for this very night thou shalt thrice deny me O no Lord I know mine own strength I am so confident of my love unto thee that neither life nor death can separate me from it I have a sword in my hand and I have a sword in my mouth my Blade and my Profession shall both follow thee unto death Peter hath not yet learn'd not to contradict his Master though once he got nothing but a Satan for it It is not one either rebuke or disgrace can root up the untowardness of a corrupt disposition Weak man seest thou not how thou hast already begun to deny thy Lord and even then hast enter'd upon a revolt when thou seemest most fortified and constant in thy resolution That man denies him who denies his Word he being no longer Christ than he is true Why then shouldest thou either distrust thy Masters word which told thee that all should be offended or else have any such confident presumption of thine own strength or uncharitable conceit of thy fellows weakness as to believe his prediction touching their falling and yet think he was deceiv'd in thee who art peremptory and confident of thine own standing That God which out of true weakness hath ordained strength doth here out of presumed strength foretel weakness and as he can make the mouths of babes and sucklings to confess him so can he suffer the mouth of an Apostle a Peter to deny him Shewing in both the dependance as well of strong as of weak on his Goodness The strongest Apostle being not able without his sustaining-grace to confess him and with it the weakest infant in the street being enabled to cry Hosanna unto him MED III. I Cannot be so uncharitable as not to believe That it was Peters Faith and Love which made unto Christ this promise of perseverance in his profession such fruit and sweetness had he found in those words of eternal life such power in that Son of the living God that he could not but think it blessedness to follow and enjoy his society even unto death who was able to sweeten and sanctifie death it self But behold in the same soul nay in the same action a mixture I had almost said a predominancy of faith and flesh The desire and the purpose come from faith the confidence and resolution came from flesh Self-dependance pride or any other carnal affection which is more deeply rooted in the particular nature of any man do often intermix themselves in his most holy actions It was faith that made Peter go down upon the Water but it was flesh that made him begin to sink Faith made him zealous in Christs Cause but flesh drew hls sword at Malchus his ear Faith made him follow Christ but flesh made him follow afar off Faith made him accompany Christ to the garden but flesh made him sleep when he should have sorrowed Faith made him promise perseverance but flesh made him peremptory in that promise in a word Faith made him resolute to confess but flesh to contradict his Master Vows and Promises unconditionally addressed cannot but prove dangerous to the strongest Faith God must first give us perseverance before we can promise it It is not in our power though it be our duty to perform it Though Peter may in the vertue of Christs promise be sure not to fall into Hell he cannot in the vertue of his own promise be sure not to fall into temptation though he can be secure that Faith shall have the last victory yet he cannot that it shall have every victory though it cannot die and be finally dried up yet it may ebb