Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	end_n	life_n	put_v	4,097	5	4.7885	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70235	The vanity of self-boasters, or, The prodigious madnesse of tyrannizing Sauls, mis-leading doegs, or any others whatsoever, which peremptorily goe on, and atheistically glory in their shame and mischief in a sermon preached at the funerall of John Hamnet, gent. late of the parish of Maldon in Surrey / by E.H. Minister ...	Hinton, Edward, 1608 or 9-1678.	1643 (1643)	Wing H2066; ESTC R7444	51,429	56

children this unwillingnesse to dye in Jeremiah (i) ●r 37.20 Therefore heare me now I pray thee and let my supplications be acceptable unto the King my Lord that thou cause me not to return to the house of Ionathan the Scribe lest I dye there Our Saviour foretelling Peter that bold professor Though all should be offended yet not I k Mat. 26.37 of his death foretold him also how unwillingly he would undergoe it Thou shalt be carried whither thou wouldest not (l) Iohn 21.18 And thus unwilling have the Saints been to dye not only when wealth and pleasures would have made them in love with life but even in such times as these when sinne and misery did abound in the world yet even then loath have they been to be took out of it just as Lot who though his righteous soule was vext day by day whilst he lived in Sodom (m) 2 Pet. 2.8 although he knew that a fearefull destruction was falling on it suddenly yet how strangely did he linger when God would take him out of it insomuch that the two Angels were constrained laying their hands on him to force him out So weak was the purest and best flesh that was ever made even our Saviours though united to the God-head that it begged If it be possible let this cup passe from me Ipsa vox non exauditi magna est expositio Sacramenti (n) Leo in Mat. 26.39 The mystery that Christ should be God and not be heard is to tell us that nature flesh and blood would not willingly purchase any good thing at so deare a rate as the price of its life and being Man then yes the best man nay God himselfe as he was a man being not able without some struggle and reluctancie to undergoe the last and sad departure of the soule from the body these deare intimate and ancient friends with what heart-breaking then and tormenting unwillingnesse doth a man formerly carelesse and customary in Religion yeeld up his soule Againe take notice how hard 't will be for him to resist the Devill who then especially recollects what malice and poyson is within him and vents it with most violence Vltimum magno scelus animo patrandum as Medea of her selfe (o) Sen. Med. Sad and present experience will tell you that when the besiegers of a Town heare that the siege is shortly to be raised by the reliefe of approaching succours whereby it must necessarily be for ever rescued out of their hands how fast and lowd will the Ordnance then thunder what underminings what stratagems what force will be then used then will they recollect whatsoever is man in them not a brain heart or hand which shall not be then imployed that their former hopes may not faile or their former labour be lost And can the Devill thinke you who hath besieged a soule for 30 40 50 or 60. yeares and all this while hath more then hopes of taking it be forced to remove siege ere hee hath tryed his utmost strength fury and policie And as the Devill will on our death-beds use his utmost endeavours so shall we formerly carelesse be utterly disenabled for resistance Alas we have not in time of health got unto our selves the whole armour of a Christian which is very improbable I will not say impossible to begain'd in the last sicknesse for the armour the chiefest whereof is the shield of Faith comes by hearing (p) Rom. 10.17 God therefore seldome very seldome bestowes his graces on those who in their health have not thrived by this Ordinance And this is the reason why many carelesse ones dye either without a Minister or happily having an ignorant loose one which knows not how to awaken a soule out of its damnable lethargy or lastly having a faithfull one cannot by reason of their present paines or feare of hell reape any profit by him and if any seemingly to us are by Gods blessing on a faithfull Minister brought to repent their repentance is scarce acceptable or sound 1. Not acceptable May not God say to such as he in the Comedy Cum nemini obtrudipotest itur ad me you make me your refuge not your choise nay you come not onely last unto me but you reserve that which is worst for me As in a barrell long drawn Non tantum minimum sed pessimum relictum what is left is not onely little but grownes and dregges the worst of all so offering your selves unto me on your death-beds you give me onely that little of your life that is left and this little is the worst part too made up of paines weaknesses feares and agonies nor this neither would you give me knew you how otherwise to bestow it What thank-worthy is it to be willing to leave your sinnes when you can keep them no longer to renounce the world and its vanities when you must be took from them to give means to the poore when you your selves cannot make use of them to forgive your enemies when you are disinabled to return their injuries or to perswade your wife and children to rely on my providence because you can no longer lay up for them 2. 'T is usually unsound Many at their last gaspe with teares in their eyes groanes in their hearts and confession in their mouthes miscarry and goe to hell which we assuredly conclude to be in heaven and have oft with joy related what good ends they have made looking onely at their last pensivenesse and not at their former lives by which onely may we guesse what followes death death being the Eccho to life so we usually dye as we live This sad truth my own reason and experience makes good Some have I known in extremity of sicknes being as they thought the last have made large confessions of their past errours and have profest strong resolutions of amendment for the future in supposition of recovery Oh! said they if it would please God to spare me suffer me to recover my strengh ere I goe hence adde unto my yeares mightily would I manifest how the Lord hath sanctified his visitation unto me by a reclaimed strict and exemplary life yet being restored againe to their former strength and liberty Dogges and Sowes as they are have suddenly returned to their vomit and mire this my experience tels me now my reason tels me that had these wretches died in this their repentance which the devill made them beleeve and they us was sound and true they must necessarily have gone to hell because their after relapses and wallowings proved them to be counterfeits Thus are we necessitated to fear the miscarrying of all these careless ones though they are permitted to dye in their beds with a long and ordinary sicknesse Oh then in what danger do they live and how do they walke upon the brinke of hell which care not through repentance and humiliation to make their peace with God in these dismall bloody dying times of ours when

in coelo angelos qui in coelo peccantes dejiciuntur in haec corpora quasi in se pulchra tot in coelo ruinae quot in terra nativitates Ep. Tom. 2. p. 124. This consideration also made the (m) Nat. Hist l. 2. c. 63. Naturalist conclude it an argument of natures bounty afford us such diversity of poysons whereby we may free our selves from the world and its crosses And though Religion allowes not of this atheisticall exchange of misery of leaping out of the Frying-pan as we speak into the fire even Hell-fire yet the miserable condition of man hath made some of the Fathers to bestow large-commendations on death that known speech of Ambrose is most remarkable Mors remedium potiùs poenae quàm vindicta culpae Death was brought on us rather for the ending of our punishment then for the punishment of sinne For a punishment saith he was it said unto man (n) Gen. 3.19 In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat thy bread but for his comfort was it added till thou returne to the earth And even in this respect also is it truly affirmed by our best Divines that though death considered according to its owne nature be a punishment yet as it is considered with relation to the faithfull it is not because to them the nature of it is changed and from a curseit is turn'd into a blessings for the sting of it Sinne is taken away in which its hurt and punishment consisted and whereas Arminius would therefore prove death properly a punishment even to the faithfull because though the right of holding them captive be taken a way from death by Christ yet from the actuall dominion of death we are not freed till the resutrection I could tell him might I stay so long that death hath not this actuall dominion over the faithfull he speakes of seeing by Christ we have gotten the victory over it so that we may not crouch to it as captives to their Governour but rather as Conquerours over a captive may we triumph O death where is thy sting t 1 Cor. 15.55 thy punishment thy dominion thought thou art an enemy the last enemy to be destroyed and art though by the Arminians to helpe forward our afflictions yet abundantly hast thou helped forward our good the good not only of our soules which hereby flye to heaven are made infinitely and eternally happy but of our bodies also which hereby have a thrice happy deliverance First they are delivered from the sense of misery from the paines of sicknesse the troubles of old age the crosses of the world and the misusages of persecutors Secondly they are delivered from the society of wicked men they are tooke from sojourning in Mesech and from dwelling in the Tents of Kedar which in this world is so loathsome so burdensome unto them Thirdly lastly they cease from their labors not only from their sufferings under which they unavoidably labour but from their labours of sinne they rest from their workes of wickednesse sinne by death loseth not onely its dominion but its habitation it shall not onely not reigne but no longer dwell in their mortall bodies and the reason is because their bodies shall be no longer mortall 'T was well askt why is earth ashes proud u Ecclus 10.9 so true is that common etymology homo quasi ex humo man is so cald because his foundation is in the dust x Psal 108.9 our first parents had no other materials nor ever since have we nay the bowels whence we sprang are nothing else Wonderfully and fearfully sayes the Psalmist y Psal 133 15. hast thou made me in the nethermost parts of the earth i. in my mothers womb and so truth is the Chaldee Paraphrast reads it hence the Hebrewes call women plainly earth so truely so verely earth are wee not onely made of earthy materials but cast also in an earthy molde So earthy and mouldring that that which we call life is it selfe but a wasting and dying a continuall fluxe and decaying no part of it being our own nay no part of it being but punctum continuationis the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the present moment which too is so neare nothing that as the Philosopher desinit esse antequam est it begins almost not to be before it is What is past of this we call life is lost what is to come is not gain'd this present instant onely remaining which was so fleet to that 't was gone assoone as I could tell you 't was come is vanish't whilst 't was spoke of Be not mistaken death consists not in the last gaspe last groan or fit these do not name or cause death but finish it just as it is not the falling of the last sand in this glasse which makes or names this houre but the falling of all the sand and the houre might be then said to make toward an end when the glasse was first turned 'T is not you know the last blaze of a Candle spends him because he is spending all the time he burnes and may truely be said even then to begin to go out when he was first lighted No otherwise is it with us death consists not in the last breath or sickenesse no 't is now upon you even upon the best and healthiest constitution every breath you fetch every step you move and every journey you take 't is towards the grave thither were you tending when you first set out even the first minute of your birth all of you beginning then to die when you first began to be But men resolving to be proud A Cavill answered and therefore willing to forget they are but dust and ashes may reply 'T is a very truth that in these times and places of Warre and sicknesse our earthy fraile condition plainly appears but at other times and in other places we know 't is otherwise Have there not bin and are there not even now amongst us many aged people Answ 'T is confest but yet there is scarce any of these aged ones which you call now living which on serious thoughts and recollection dare say they truely live that onely being true life which hath joy and contentment individuall with it which the cares and thornes of the world the weaknesses and infirmities of old age denying them denies them also truely to live So true is that of my Psalmist ſ Psal 90.70 The dayes of our yeares are threescore yeares and ten and if by reason of strength they be eigthy yeares then is their strength labour and pain If joy and content did not onely speak us truly and properly alive then they in hell may be said to be alive but on them the second death hath seized Aged men by reason of the troubles and cares the world hath brought on them are like those on the seas bent for a short voyage but vext and hindered by contrary winds and tempests for as such cannot be said

either as a judgement on their hard hearts which cannot repent they shall be cut off in the midst of their strength and sinnes as most interpret the words or wicked men though they die feeble and aged yet are they said dies dimidiare not to live out halfe their dayes because they are so deeply in love with the world and greedy of life that they would willingly live as long againe as already they had or lastly are so carelesse of their walking so little knowing how the precious time passes away that they are at their journeyes end ere they thinke they have gone halfe way thus being tooke away before they expected death they are tooke away also ere they could halfe provide for it Whereas if wee consider how fraile and brittle even naturally how subject to variety of casualties the frequent instruments of sudden death wee are how many continually fall on every side of us what store of blood-thirsty Papists and desperate Libertines rage and swarme in our land each whereof suae vitae incuriosus tuae dominus growne carelesse of his owne life becomes master of thine and upon these considerations alwayes keep e Sen. Ep. 66. in our view and minde approaching death we should never be unprepared for it Non subito moriuntur qui semper se morituros cogitaverunt i.e. those which with Saint Paul dye daily f 1 Cor. 15.31 for so also may he be understood cannot die suddenly If therefore thou art resolv'd to pray From sudden death good Lord deliver us pray also with David g Psal 92.12 Teach us so to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts unto wisdome i.e. bring them to wisdome make them wise Now a wise mans heart saith the Preacher h Eccles ● 5 discerneth both time and judgement the last time death and the last judgement at Christs second comming not that he punctually knowes the time when he shall die or when Christ shall in flaming fire be revealed from heaven no these times and seasons belong unto God alone but that he so well discernes the one and the other that neither of them shall take him unprovided to this purpose as it becommeth a wise sonne he gathereth in summer l Prov. 10.5 In the long dayes of peace and the glorious sun-shine of the Gospel he layes up against Winter i.e. either against times of blindnesse and persecution when the meanes shall be denyed him or else against death when his strength like that of Plants returnes to the earth there to be kept untill the Resurrections spring You therefore which desire to be freed from sudden death and by your prayer will witnesse this your desire witnesse it also I beseech you by your carefull endeavour to prepare for its comming pray that you may apply your hearts unto wisdome and manifest your selves to be wise sonnes by gathering in Summer O gather therefore gather apace whilst it may be yet said to be Summer For ought I know our Sunne may be declining and our Summer drawing towards an end darkenesse and spirituall blindnesse may be comming faster on us then the yeares Winter We have truth is at this time a great shine great store of excellent and faithfull Preachers but this may be but Vltimus lucernaefulgor the last blaze of a dying candle greatest at last The times are dangerous full of teares and dismall expectations what bloody and desperate designes are continually hatcht and discovered strange talke and projects abroad God knowes whether the Jesuites many yeares plot may now have issue the scales may turn sure I am our sinnes and hardened hearts deserve it nay doe we not see them swagge and much adoe to keepe even and did not the prayers and humiliations of some few good soules amongst us which sigh and cry both for their owne and the abominations of the land adde weight unto the right scale we were utterly lost O how suddenly may the freedome and liberty of injoying God in his Ordinances for want of valuing and rightly using them be tooke from us Let therefore you and me and him let every one of us resolve with his Saviour m Iohn 9.40 To worke the workes of him that sent us whilst 't is day because the night comes when no man can worke the workes of him that sent mee not of my Father Vt obligationem faciendi ipso missionis nomine declaret n Maldon in locum that he might shew the necessity of performing these workes from his purposely being sent for their performance So ought wee whilst 't is called to day the time of our life the time of our liberty or the time allowed us for comming in let us ply the businesses breeding faith and perfecting repentance not onely because they are the works of our Father works tending to his glory but also because they are the works of him that sent us to this end hath hee sent us into the World that we might repent and beleeve It concernes us therefore carefully to use all the meanes to attaine to this perfection ere we are took out of the world ere the night of death come on us when no man can work And for ought I know to the contrary this night wherein no man can work may as well include our last sicknesse the time of dying as that after it Death is a harder task and there is more to do in it then most men think of How much businesse we may then have and how little time allowed for its dispatch God onely knowes A carelesse man going on in the sinnes and courses of the world who thinkes it not worth the while in times of health and content to trouble himselfe with the melancholy of repentance will finde it employment more then enough on his death-bed for his weak heart and giddy head to set his house in order the chief thing in these troubles cared for by worldly Achitophels with patience to undergoe his present paines or to make the little and spiritlesse flesh God shall leave him willing to depart What no time then my brethren and quiet will he have to make even with God having run on 30 40 50. or more yeares in horrible arrerages what little leisure then will hee have to resist the Devill quiet his conscience or answer his clamorous sinnes I shall in a word shew you what a toile and trouble almost invincible 't will be for that man to dye well that hath lived ill acquainting you with these 2. things 1. How hard it is for such a one to be willing to dye 2. How hard it is for him dying to resist the Devill First see how hard it will bee for him to bee willing to dye Whatsoever is destructive to being or life nature abhorres the continuance and preservation of this being its onely appetite Such a one then as yet being in the state of nature cannot but mightily dread death Nay there hath been in the dearest of Gods

1 Sam. 21.6 and immediately breaks that Oath and Pacification and through the evill Spirit that was upon him sought again to smite him to the wall with his Javelin b vers 10. anon after David being certified by Ionathan of his Fathers murderous intentions c 1 Sam. 20. à ver 37. ad 41. was forc't to flie for his life and in his flight betook himselfe to Ahimelech the Priest for reliefe and succour and so well told he his tale that he got of him the Shew-bread and Goliah's Sword d 1 Sam. 21 àver 6. ad 9. But see the ground and Author of this great mischiefe Doeg was then in the Temple and heard all as 't is the peculiar lot of Gods people to fall into the hands of Doegs treacherous and deceitfull people this sneaking Parasite carries and aggravates the businesse to Saul I saw the Sonne of Iesse comming to Nob to Ahimelech the Priest and he enquired of the Lord for him e Sam. 22.9.10 and what of that 't was after treason and conspiracy the King enquired sed ea ratio est adulatorum ut si principem calentem videant velint eum incenderc ex stulto prorsus insanū facere f Pet. Martyr in loc but such is the condition of flatterers that they 'l blow a heated Tyrant into a flame and turne his folly into madnesse Upon this false information Ahimelech and the rest of the Priests with all of their Families were sent for g ver 11. they come Saul becomes both the accuser and the Judge and presently falls upon the tryall Heare now thou Sonne of Ahituh and he answered Here am I and Saul said unto him Why have yee conspired against me h ver 12.13 But wherein laid the conspiracy in relieving a man faithfull to his God and Prince And who is so faith full amongst all thy Servants as David which is the Kings Son in Law Conjuratio est consensus aliquorum contra rempub i Pet. Martyr Ib. The conspire which mischievously plot against the Common-Wealth he goeth at thy bidding and is honourable in thy house did he then begin to enquire of God for him k vers 14.15 i.e. is this the first time I enquired for him or being thy Son-in-law and thy faithfull Servant I did not so much enquire of God for him as for thee At last knowing he was to deale with a Tyrant whom reason law or right would nothing move hee gives over pleading and falls to begging Let not the King impute any thing to thy Servant for thy Servant knew nothing of this more or lesse l ver 15. What if you had Ahimelech would you not therefore have relieved him because the King unjustly persecured him would that have beene faire dealing think you If others had been of this minde he had never overcome the Tyrants cruelty But now I see that our Priests as they desire to be cald are not the first that would rather renounce a just cause then displease an unjust man Our cruell High-Priest violent and peremptory as he was did with his power so brow-beat and dare all the rest as one of themselves lately and publikely confest that they had but one voice amongst them all the rest being but his ecchoe's his dictates out-nois'd those of their conscience for woe had been to them who had done otherwise who had relieved any though never so innocent and religious whom his Grace had slung his Iavelin at sent his Citation for or once cal'd Puritane Rubet auditor cui frigida mens est But to goe forwards would this Priest his closing with Saul serve his turne no certainly For the King said Thou shalt surely die Ahimelech thou and all thy Fathers house m ver 16. The sentence is past between which and execution some respite ought to be but no such matter now he immediately sayes unto the foot-men that were about him Turne and slay the Priests of the Lord n ver 17. fearing happily lest cooling and comming to himselfe he might on better consideration not have been guilty of so much innocent blood But wherefore should they be slaine Because they knew when David fled and told it not unto me but where is the witnesse Doeg you 'l say did affirme it but is not this against the known Law o Deut. 17.6 At the mouth of two or three witnesses shall hee that is worthy of death die but at the mouth of one witnesse he shall not die But see the honest Guard farre honester then their master would not put forth their hand to fall upon the Priests of the Lord p vers 17. they well know he was but Gods Minister for their good mandatorius siquid vult facere contra mandatum id jubet esse irritum q et Martyr Ib. and whatsoever a Commissioner injoynes beyond his Commission is voide and ought not to be obeyed But if one won't another will the Devill will alwayes supply Tyrants with suitable instruments Doeg seemes to be glad of the office and resolute to doe whatsoever the King should command him never interposing that honest condition of the Israelites to Ioshua onely the Lord be with thee r Iosh 1.17 and forthwith he fals to work fell on the Priests of the Lord and slew on that day fourescore and five persons that wore a linnen Ephod ſ 1 Sam. 12.18 he slew the Priests the Priests of the Lord he slew men unarm'd men consecrated to God he slew old men and women he slew children and sucklings to whom Scythians and Parthians have shown mercy in the time of the cruellest warre and to make up the summe he slew so many innocents he slew them he their informer was their executioner first bely'd them with his tongue and then butchered them with his hand chuse which you will now either Saul or his instrument and you cannot but confesse there is cause more then enough of my Psalmists question and exclamation Why dost thou Saul thou envious malitious unjust bloody Tyrant or why dost thou Doeg thou sneaking base informing Parasite thou cruell murdering butcher why dost thou boast thy selfe in this so unheard of a mischief But happily on good grounds Davids wonder may be that any whatsoever should boast in any whatsoever mischief therfore I shal endeavor to make good the question in general And now me thinks I am brought into a wildernesse the subject I am fallen on is so large and fearefull should I let fly my Meditations with that bitternesse and liberty wherewith such mad and prodigious boasters ought to be took up I should lose both you and my selfe But the sutablenesse of my first questions businesse both to our times and our present occasion tempted me to so much over-largenesse that I could not but in equity promise brevity in the following questons that therefore I may bee as good as my word I shall not keep you long