Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	life_n	word_n	write_v	5,673	5	5.6270	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45343	A sermon preached at St. Botolphs Aldersgate, at the funeral of Robert Huntington, Esq., who died April 21 and was buried April 30, 1684 by Timothy Hall ...	Hall, Timothy, 1637?-1690.	1684 (1684)	Wing H443; ESTC R11203	24,130	48

be working while it is called to day Fear is an Affection which quickens to Action Noah being moved with fear prepared an Ark Heb. 11.7 They that fear not Death grow desperate their Language is Let us eat and drink for to morrow we die but they that are armed with this well-guided and bounded fear infer much more wisely saying Let us pray read hear repent believe obey for to morrow we die Thus you see great advantages may be made of this Natural infirmity and we may learn how to turn our Water into Wine to make those thoughts of Death which at some times lie very cold at our Stomachs to become very cordial and reviving against all sinful and immoderate dread of it Grace though it do not extinguish yet it corrects and regulates Nature and by the ways above mentioned mortifies this fear that it prove not a Temptation to Sin Stoicism hath attempted to do this but Christianity onely can and hath effected it In the School of Christ is best taught the right Cure of all our amazing and distracting fears 2. I come now to inquire into the grounds and causes of this fear As before I distinguished this fear it self so now I shall the causes of it into Natural and Sinful 1. Natural Causes Death on this account is dreadful because it is a future unavoidable evil to Nature As a future possible good is the object of hope so a future possible evil is the object of fear and much more it is to be dreaded when it is a certain futurity as death is which no ways can be declined Nature looks upon Death as its Enemy whose design is to divorce and separate Soul and Body two ancient Comerades no wonder therefore that it shun it when it knows it shall one day fall by the hand of it Memorable is the passage of that Martyr to the Executioner driving the Staple into the Stake Pray friend knock it in fast for Nature will be working And that this fear is greater in some than others from the very constitution and temperament of the Body is every days observation Our very natural Complexion renders us either more bold or fearful This is a natural Passion which though it may be Corrected and Sanctified yet it cannot be totally Conquered for Religion changes not the temperament of the Body Good men who are of this fearful temper and melancholy disposition and experience the tyranny of this Natural Passion have need to pray for the Sanctification of it I never thought Religion did depend upon the temper of the Body but I am sure the acting and exerting of it very much doth But these fears so far as they are Natural they are Lawful for they are not Transgressions of any precept and though they may be reckoned amongst our infelicities and weaknesses yet they come not into the number of our Sins and Crimes 2. There are sinful grounds of this fear of Death these chiefly are to be regarded and they are very many some I shall name and can do little more than in the gross produce them leaving you to enlarge on them and I am sure any man of thoughts may be very Copious on this Subject his own inward sense of things strongly will attest all to him This sinful fear proceeds 1. From the want of a holy fear the fear of the Great God As the fear of him is the less the fear of God in our Lives is the ready way to cast us into a slavish fear of Death It was one of the Judgments Threatned Deut. 28.58 65 66. If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name THE LORD THY GOD Then neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest but the Lord shall give thee a trembling heart and failing of eyes and sorrow of mind and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee and thou shalt fear day and night and shalt have no assurance of thy life 2. From the want of faith in the death of Christ springs this fear of our own death Even the children holy and religious persons who live soberly righteously and godly are sometimes beset with these uncomfortable apprehensions of Death being now and then plagued with the remainders of an unbelieving heart as if still Death were not subdued as if Death had conquered Christ and not Christ Death The Disciples were terrified and frighted and unbelieving thoughts did arise in their hearts Luk. 24.37 38. Fools our Lord calls them and slow of heart to believe ver 25. We trusted that it had been he which would have redeemed Israel v. 21. Here their Faith flag'd and hang'd the wing extreamly their Buckler was much battered and stood in need of beating out again Weakness of Faith gives strength to our Fears and doth both greaten and multiply them upon us Faith is not without its Conflict with sadness of Spirit and carnal fears Amalek sometimes is too hard for Israel and the House of Saul frequently prevails over the House of David 3. This Fear proceeds from want of serious meditation on Death and due preparation for it Our negligence and sloath in not finishing that Work which God has put into our hands to do way well make us loath to come to an account with our Lord. Bad Stewards are afraid of a Reckoning and Death coming thus suddenly puts all into Confusion Suddenness and fear are joyned together Prov. 3.25 Suddenness of Destruction is the description of a doleful and fearful Estate When men have laid in no Antidotes and Cordials against Death then like Nabal their Hearts die before they do This was Davids Case Psal 39. ult O spare me Stay a little that I may get strength to combat with this Adversary The best are too backward in their preparations for this Encounter with this grim and gastly Enemy and therefore are not without their fears But oh who can express that great fearfulness which needs must surprise Unregenerate men who are clapping many Stings into their Deaths by their repeated and continued Sins they take pains to make their End uneasie and with their Vices dress up Death in a terrible Vizard to affright them What ease can they live at whose Souls this Night may be turned out of their soft Beds where now they lye securely snorting into a Bed of Flames one would think these Men should eat their Bread with trembling and the thoughts of their danger should keep them waking There is no wonder that a sinful Cause should produce a sinful Effect and that Mens Terrors should be increased with their Offences Every wicked man must look Death in the face with pale cheeks It was a Copy of Julians countenance but not of his dying one when he said Vitam repescenti naturae tanquam debitor bonae fidei redditurus exulto What Solomon speaks of Prophane mens merry living That even in laughing their heart is sorrowful Prov.