Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	age_n	life_n	old_a	5,148	5	5.6715	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66401	Sermons and discourses on several occasions by William Wake ...; Sermons. Selections	Wake, William, 1657-1737.	1690 (1690)	Wing W271; ESTC R17962	210,099	546

And to conclude this Point The last cause that moves many to delay their Repentance is that thô they are convinced both of the Necessity of repenting some time or other and that it is highly reasonable for them to set presently about it yet when all is done their Lusts are too strong for them and they cannot so soon resolve to part with their Sins and enter on a Course of Piety and Religion There is something in the Nature of Sin so fatally bewitching to us that if once we suffer our selves to be overcome with the Habit of it 't is after that one of the hardest things in the World to recover our liberty and prevent our selves from being altogether hardned by the deceitfulness of it He that committeth sin says our Saviour Christ is the servant of sin Whether it be that the force and power of an Evil Course gains insensibly upon us till at last we have no more strength remaining to overcome it Or Whether it be that the longer we continue in Sin the more God's Grace is withdrawn and the less assistance we have of the Holy Spirit to extricate our selves out of it But this is plain that even the best Men find it a hard matter with all their Industry to keep themselves from its dominion and to fulfil their Resolutions though never so soon taken up of discharging their duty and living as becomes the Disciples of Christ. I do not in the least question but that we are all of us sufficiently convinced of the reasonableness of what I have now been inforcing of setting immediately about our duty and I believe there are but few if any among us who if they do not at this time yet have at least some time or other resolved to do so But I fear it would be a melancholly reflection to most of us to think how little we have fulfilled these Resolutions hitherto and may give us some cause to fear whether we may not be but too likely still to continue in the same careless and impenitent state for the time to come The truth is in such a degenerate Age as this wherein Vice is become almost reputable and to be religious esteem'd pedantry and preciseness When the Evil Customs of Men have prevailed so far above the Commandments of God that a Man must yield to be a little Wicked unless he will run counter to the general practice of the World and not a little negligent of his duty to maintain the Company and Conversation of the Times 't is not an easie thing for a Man to break through all these difficulties and resolve to save his Soul whatever censures or troubles he encounters for the so doing And therefore though we all of us know well enough what we ought to do and cannot but be sometimes apprehensive of the dangers we run by our not doing of it yet alas we still go on in the neglect of our duty Ever thinking and resolving to amend but never able effectually to set about it And thus have I given you such a general prospect as the time would permit of those Causes that so much indispose Men to a present Repentance I go on to the other thing I proposed in order to the Cure of it II dly To shew the Danger of deferring the performance of it For if such a delay as this be not only very unreasonable in it self but shall be also very fatal in its Consequence if there be really nothing in all those pretences that usually keep men from a present discharge of their duty and an infinite Hazard to be run by it Sure then we ought to begin immediately to do that which can neither be too soon begun nor at all delay'd without a very great danger Which we must some time or other do and which will still grow more difficult and uneasie to us the longer it is that we put off the doing of it And 1 st Let me ask him that thus neglects his Repentance and thinks it will be time enough to set about it hereafter when the heat of his Youth is past and he begins to come to a greater strength of Reason and Discretion to govern himself and to bring his Passions into subjection It may be gives it yet a longer delay and reserves the business of Religion for the Close of his Life and an immediate preparatory to the hour of his Death Is he sure that he shall ever arrive to that time which he thus warily sets out for this great Work I need not tell you how uncertain our lives are What Diseases what Accidents lay siege against us every Moment And if notwithstanding all this some do live to a good Old Age yet how many Thousands there are that fall in the strength and vigor of their years And we cannot say but that this may be our Condition as we are sure it has been the Condition of many Others who it may be as much flatter'd themselves with these Projects as We do now and are therefore in vain lamenting their mad Security in the Concern of their Salvation But this I must needs say a greater provocation there cannot be given to God Almighty to cut us off in the midst of our years and deprive us of that opportunity we so presumptuously set out for to repent in after a long life spent in Sin and Impenitence than thus to go on in our wickedness and designedly to live in a disobedience to his Commands till we are no longer like to continue in this World 2. But however 2 dly Let us allow of this that we had by some means or other an Assurance of our lives and could be certain we should arrive to that Time we thus lay out for the business of Religion Yet how are we sure that we shall not then be altogether as unwilling and much more unable to repent than we are now 1 st If we consider our selves only upon the Common principles of Nature without reflecting upon the Grace of God without which yet we can do nothing as to the Business of our Duty Even these will tell us That the more inveterate any Habit is the more difficult it is to leave it and the greater pains it will cost a Man to overcome it And he who finds it so hard a Matter to conquer his Lusts now what will he do hereafter when the Indulgence of many years more shall have rooted them in his very Soul and made his sins become even natural to him 2 dly But then secondly If we examine this matter according to the Principles of Christianity these will shew a yet greater improbability of our repenting hereafter than at the present It being not to be doubted but that as upon the Use of God's Grace He bestows a more liberal portion of it so by refusing and resisting the Motions of the Holy Spirit God withdraws his hand and lessens his Grace and it may be at last totally deprives Men of it The truth