Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	death_n	young_a	youth_n	25	3	7.4705	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86437	Contemplations moral and divine The second part.; Contemplations moral and divine. Part 2	Hale, Matthew, Sir, 1609-1676.	1676 (1676)	Wing H232; ESTC R229708	200,739	481

I have learned that I have here no abiding City but I seek one to come The benefits of the consideration of this Text are many 1. It will teach a Man a very low esteem of this present World and never to set the heart upon it Wilt thou set thy heart upon that which is not It is not an abiding City Either like the old feigned inchanted Castles it will vanish and come to little while we think we have fast hold of it or else we must leave it we know not how soon It is full of trouble and vexation when we injoy it and very unstable and uncertain is our stay in it 2. But let it be as good as it will or can be yet this Text tells of a City that is better worth our thoughts an abiding City a City that cannot be shaken where there are no Troubles no Thorns no Cares no Fears but Righteousness and Everlasting Peace and Rest 2. Consequently it will teach us to seek that which is most of value first and most and make that our greatest Endeavor which is our greatest Concernment namely to seek that City that is to come Peace with God in Christ Jesus and the Hope of Eternal Life It is true while we are in this City that continues not this Inferior World God Almighty requires a due care for Externals and Industry in our Imployments and Diligence in our Callings It is part of that service we ow to God to our Families to our Relations to our Selves and being done in Contemplation of his Command it is an act of Obedience and Religious Duty to him But this Consideration will add this Benefit even to our Ordinary Imployments in our Calling it will be sure to bring a Blessing upon it Seek first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof and all these things shall be added unto you It shall be given in as an advantage and over-measure 2. It will add great Chearfulness to the Imployments of your Calling and to those Worldly Imployments that are requisite for your support and subsistence when you shall resign up your endeavors therein to the Good Pleasure of Almighty God 3. It will remove all Vexatious Solicitousness and Anxiety from you when you shall have such Considerations as these Almighty God it is true hath placed me in this World as in a passage to another and requires of me an Honest Imployment for my support and subsistence or else hath lent me a reasonable liberal portion whereby I may comfortably subsist without much pains or labor I will use it Soberly Chearfully Thankfully If he bless me with Increase or greater Plenty I will increase my Humility Sobriety and Thankfulness but if it be not his pleasure to bless me with Plenty and Increase his Will be done I have enough in that I have there is another more abiding City wherein I shall have supplies without Want or Fears or Cares 3. This Consideration will give abundance of Quietness Patience Tranquillity of Mind in all conditions Am I in this World Poor or Despised or Disgraced or in Sickness or Pain yet this Text gives me two great Supports under it 1. It will be but short this lower World the Region of these Troubles and Storms is no continuing no abiding City and consequently the Troubles and Storms of this inferior City are not abiding or long 2. After this flitting perishing City that thus passeth away this sower life which is but the Region of Death there succeeds another City that indureth for ever a City not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens a State of Everlasting Blessedness where are neither Cares nor Tears nor Fears nor Poverty nor Sorrow nor Want nor Reproach I will therefore with all Patience Chearfulness and Contentedness bear whatsoever God pleaseth to exercise me withal in this life for I well know that my light Afflictions which are but for a moment shall be attended with a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory These Considerations will seem but dry and empty to Men that do not deeply and considerately weigh matters Ordinarily young heads think them at least unseasonable for their youth but they must know that Sickness and Death will overtake the youngest in time and that will undeceive People and render the best appearances of this World either Bitter or at least Insipid and without any pleasant relish and then the Hopes and Expectations of this City to come will be more of value to us than the best Conveniencies and Delights this lower World can afford Let us therefore in our health make it our business to secure our Interest in it and it will be our Comfort and Benefit both in Life and Death OF CONTENTEDNESS AND PATIENCE COntentedness and Patience differ in this that the Object of the former is any condition whether it be Good Bad or Indifferent the Object of the latter is any present or incumbent Evil. But though they differ in the Latitude or Extent of their Object yet they both arise from the same Principle which if rightly qualified gives both The Measure and Original of all Passions is Love and the Object of Love is That which is really or apparently Good If our Love be right it regulates all our Passions For Discontent or Impatience ariseth from the absence of somewhat that we love and value and according to the measure of our love to the thing we want such is the measure of our Discontent or Impatience under the want of it He that sets his love upon that which the more he loves the more he injoys is sure to avoid the danger of Discontent or Impatience because he cannot want that which he loves and though he love something else that may be lost yet under that loss he is not obnoxious to much Impatience or Discontent because he is sure to retain that which he most values and affects which will answer and supply lesser wants with a great advantage The greatest bent and portion of his love is laid out in what he is sure to injoy and it is but a small portion of love that is left for the thing he is deprived of and consequently his discontent but little and cured with the fruition of a more valuable Good He that sets his love upon the Creature or any result from it as Honor Wealth Reputation Power Wife Children Friends cannot possibly avoid Discontent or Impatience for they are mutable uncertain unsatisfactory Goods subject to Casualties and according to the measure of his love to them is the measure of his Discontent and Impatience in the loss of them or disappointment in them He that sets his love upon God the more he loves him the more he injoys of him and the surer hold he hath of him In other things the greatest danger of disappointment and consequently of impatience is when he loves them best but the more love we bear to God the more love he returns to us and Communicates his Goodness the more

and Pilgrimage not of my Repose and Rest but must look further for that Happiness And truly when I consider that it hath been the Wisdom of God Almighty to exercise those Worthies which he left as Patterns to the rest of Mankind with this kind of Discipline in this World I have reason not to complain of it as a Difficulty or an Inconvenience but to be thankful to him for it as an Instruction and Document to put me in remembrance of a better Home and to incite me to make a due provision for it even that Everlasting Rest which he hath provided for them that love him and by pouring me thus from Vessel to Vessel to keep me from fixing my self too much upon this World below But the truth is did we consider this World as becomes us even as Wise Men we may easily find without the help of any such particular Discipline of this Nature that this World below neither was intended nor indeed can be a place of Rest but only a kind of Laboratory to fit and prepare the Souls of the Children of Men for a better and more abiding State a School to exercise and train us up into habits of Patience and Obedience till we are fitted to another Station a little narrow Nursery wherein we may be dressed and pruned till transplanted into a better Paradise The continual Troubles and Discomposures and Sicknesses and Weaknesses and Calamities that attend our lives the shortness and continued Vexations occurring in them and finally the common examples of Death and Mortality of all Ages Sexes Conditions of Mankind are a sufficient instruction to convince reasonable Men that have the Seriousness and Patience to consider and observe That we have no abiding City here And on the other side if we will give our selves but the leasure to consider the Great Wisdom of Almighty God that orders every thing in the World to ends suitable and proportionable the excellence of the Soul and Mind of Man the great Advances and Improvements his Nature is capable of the admirable means the Merciful and Wise God hath afforded unto Mankind by his Works of Nature and Providence by his Word and Instructions to inable him for a Nobler Life than this World below can yield will easily confess that there is another State another City to come which becomes every Good and Wise and Considerate Man to look after and fit himself for And yet let a Man look upon the generality of Mankind with a due and severe consideration they will appear to be like a company of mad or distempered People The generality of the World make it their whole business to provide for a Rest and Happiness in this World to make these vain acquests of Wealth and Honor and Preferments and Pleasures of this World their great if not only Business and Happiness and which is yet a higher degree of frensie to esteem this the only Wisdom and to esteem the careful Provision for Eternity the Folly of a few weak melancholy fanciful Men Whereas it is in truth and in due time it will most evidently appear that those Men that are most sedulous and solicitous touching the attaining of their Everlasting Rest are the only true Wise Men and so shall be acknowledged by those that now despise them Wisd 5.4 We Fools accounted his life Madness and his end to be without Honor How is he numbred among the Children of God and his Lot is among the Saints When I come to my Inn I have this consideration presently occurs to me If my Lodging be good and fair the Furniture splendid the Attendance great the Provisions good and well ordered yet I streight consider this is not the place of my Rest I must leave it to morrow and therefore I set not my Heart upon it And again if my Inn be but poor my Entertainment mean my Lodging decayed I do not presently send for Painters Carpenters and Masons to Repair or Beautifie it but I content my self with it and will bear with the inconveniencies because I consider it will be but for a night and to morrow I shall be gone and possibly come to my home where I shall be better convenienced And although the truth is that this World is little other than our Inn to entertain us in our Journey to another Life and our stay in it is many times very short yea our longest stay here in comparison of Eternity is infinitely more short than a nights lodging at an Inn in comparison to the longest life here yet it is a wonderful thing to observe how much we are taken up with the concerns of this our Inn what a stir we keep about it what pains and cost we imploy in it how much of our time is laid out upon it as if it were our only home If our Lot cast us upon a handsome Lodging as it were and in it furnished with Wealth or Glory or Honor How we pride our selves in it how goodly we look upon our selves how happy we think our selves what care we have to make it more Rich Glorious and Splendid And on the other side if our Lot cast us upon a lower meaner Station if we are Poor or Sickly or Neglected or under Hatches what a deal of Impatience and Discontent and Unquietness appears Nay though our Lodging and Entertainment in this Inn of the World be pretty well and will serve till we take our Journey yet if it be not so Fine and Splendid and Rich and Comely as anothers if our Meat be enough to suffice nature if our Cloaths enough to protect us from cold if our House good enough to keep off the Storms and defend us from Injuries yet if these be not so good as such a Mans or such a Neighbors not so good as my Ancestors or Relations Lord What a deal of Unquietness and Complaining and Envy and Impatience and Turbulency of mind there is in Men What Designs and Frauds and Plots and Underminings and Undue Means Men take to advance their own condition and to depress others and all this while never consider that which would easily cure the extravagance as well of one hand as of the other Namely This is not my home it is but my Inn if it be Beautiful Splendid Convenient if my condition in it be Wealthy Honorable Prosperous I will not set my heart upon it nor think any better of my self for it nor set up my Rest in it It is but my Inn I must leave it it may be to morrow On the other side if it be but Poor Weak Infirm Ignoble Low I will content my self it is but my Inn it may serve for my passage I shall it may be leave it to morrow and then if I have taken that due care that becomes me in my provision for my Eternal State I am certain the case will be mended with me however my Inn be Poor Mean Inconvenient Troublesome it is but for a night my home will be better