Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	bear_v	life_n	live_v	4,791	5	5.2156	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43128	A sermon preach'd before the Right Honourable the lord mayor of London, and the Honourable the Court of Aldermen, and governours of the several hospitals of the city at St. Bridget's Church, on Easter-Tuesday, being one of the anniversary spittal-sermons / by William Hayley./	Hayley, William, 1657-1715.	1700 (1700)	Wing H1215; ESTC R25422	17,723	38

underwent a painful and ignominious death for us upon the accursed Tree and should we not account then that he has bought us with a price and that our Life our Bodies and Souls are his And if he may justly call us to lay down even our lives for his sake shall we be backward when he calls but for a small portion of what we can well spare to his poor Family that wants it Should any Man have so wonderful a love for another as to lay down his own Head to save him from Execution and should the Relations or Children of that very person fall to poverty and want would not he that was sav'd by him from Death reckon all that he had due to their relief Now our Charity is dispensed not to the Relations or Family but the very Members of our Saviour nay to himself for he alone still lives after Death and is sensible of this return And let this be considered and I think the obligation cannot be further improv'd Let a Man but reflect that the merciful Iesus was Scourged and Pierc'd and Crucifi'd for him and let him but fancy that the hungry the blind and the Lame in one word all the miserable are the Members the body of this bleeding and expiring Saviour and then let him be hard-hearted and cruel if he can I have been the longer upon this Topick for our Charity the gratitude we owe to our Saviour because I think it is the most moving one to a generous disposition and Charity should always flow from a disposition that is generous and above the narrow designs of interest and self-love but because we cannot have too many tyes to so excellent a Virtue and so great an ornament of our Nature I must pass on to those which may work even upon them who have some tincture of the Mercenary and Ambitious For II. The second motive to Charity contained in the Text is an Argument of interest viz. The Reward it shall meet with in the Resurrection expressed in these words inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the Foundation of the World Now this is an expression that hints to us both the greatness and the continuance of that Happiness which the Charitable Man is encouraged to expect The World has nothing greater than a Kingdom at least nothing that men generally think greater or covet more and therefore since our conceptions of a future state must be framed by notions taken up in this there is no other way to describe it but by an allusion to those things which are here the object of our desires or enjoyments And for this Reason eternal Happiness is call'd a Kingdom a Crown a Throne and the like because men who are in possession of these are supposed how truly they best know who have them to be in possession of all that is desirable in this Life but since these are expressions suited to our conceptions the meaning of them must be that the Joys of Heaven shall equal not what these things are in reality for perhaps that would not be worth our wishes but what our imaginations fancy they are or that the ambitious cannot promise himself such charms in a Crown as the charitable Man shall find in Heaven But then that Heaven may not lose its value with those men who judge best that is those who see the vanity of all even the greatest things on Earth the Scripture often supplies the defect of such similitudes as these by plainer Language and assures us that eye has not seen nor ear heard neither hath it enter'd into the heart of man to conceive the things that God has laid up for them that love him And we may add for them who love their Brethren too Such is the weight of the glory that shall one day be revealed in the Charitable Man and 't is not the least Article in it that it is a Glory which shall not be done away for 't is a Kingdom prepared from the Foundation of the World 'T is true these Words seem at first sight only to denote the Certainty of this Reward as that which the eternal purpose of God which cannot fail has prepared for good men but they very well imply the Eternity of that state and intimate that it is a part of that blessedness which God himself enjoys which was before the World and for that reason must be after it They are created things only that are mortal and what was from Eternity before this World was made must be to Eternity when it is dissolved So that these two Considerations seem to involve all that can possibly be desired in any state that it is perfect Happiness and that it will always be so and if this be the Reward of the Charitable Man then I think these three things are very plain 1. That what we give away in Charity is not lost it is not a waste made of the good things we enjoy as the selfish Man is apt to imagine who thinks that perished which is remov'd from himself 't is but lent and will be repaid in due time for he that pityeth the poor lendeth unto the Lord and look what he layeth out it shall be paid him again A little expectation will re-imburse us and we may throw our bread upon the waters and it will return to us after many days It will probably enough find us on this side the Grave but if not it will make a sure return beyond it The poor whom we relieve may never be in a capacity to recompense us but their surety always is and he will recompense us at the Resurrection of the just 2. What we bestow in Charity is better preserved for us than it can possibly be by any other method All the Matter of our Charity is subject to decay and is corruptible in it self 't is Charity only that can preserve it for ever The Bread we deal to the hungry and the Drink we reach to the thirsty would but mould and sour if we kept them by us The Garments wherewith we Cloath the naked would be eaten up by Moths and Rottenness if they were not employ'd And even our Silver and Gold is exposed to Rust and Rapine and at best can serve us no further than this present Life Now this is but an insignificant moment of the great duration of man which is to all Eternity And for this reason that Virtue must be of wonderful Advantage to us that can render these immortal and make them useful in another Life And yet this is certainly done by Charity and pity He therefore is the wise Man who does not lay up for himself treasure upon earth where rust and moth doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal but lays up for himself treasure in heaven where neither rust nor moth doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through and steal And he is the best friend to himself who is a kind friend and Benefactor to others who makes

to resist them But since human Nature is too apt to be insensible or cold or forgetful I shall crave leave to excite your Charity as it is a piece of gratitude to our Saviour on these four accounts 1. As he is one that loves us and that with such a degree of tenderness as human affections can never measure and human expressions can never describe he who is God blessed for evermore left the bosom of his Father to dwell among us he united himself to us not in appearance only but in nature took our flesh and blood upon him made us his Friends his Brethren and even Members of himself undeserving unprofitable and rebellious as we were And for no other reason that we can fathom but his own good will and unmerited kindness he distinguish'd Man from those Noble Beings that wanted a Redeemer as much as we for he took not upon him the nature of Angels but he took upon him the seed of Abraham Now the most natural effect of Love is to beget Love again and a Love resembling that which calls for it And can we see what has so lov'd us and what we ought so to love again poor and naked and hungry and griev'd and grant no compassion or relief And yet this is our case when we are hard-hearted and uncharitable to our afflicted Brethren 'T is our Saviour that suffers in them and calls for our help and when we commiserate their condition and supply their wants we are but obliging and grateful to him that first lov'd us 2. Our gratitude is due to our Saviour as he is our great Benefactor as one whose love has not been bare Benevolence but has flow'd to us in streams of unspeakable bounty he has not only pityed our ignorance and blindness but has illuminated our minds by a clear Revelation of the Will of God and the Duty of Man he compassions our weakness and he supports it by his constant Encouragement and Assistance he intercedes for our pardon daily when we do amiss and he as daily offers his Grace to enable us to do better he protects us and guides us in this World and has prepared Mansions for us in a future And can we live under these and infinite more continued blessings of the like nature and never think of doing any thing in return Benefactions do certainly create a debt and though may be civil Laws do not take notice of it or cannot enforce it yet the Law of Nature does oblige us to re-payment And if we can pay such debts as these only by communicating some of our conveniences perhaps only our superfluities to Creatures like our selves whose wants call for it and whose comfort and ease and sometimes even Life and Being depend upon it sure we ought to be pleased with the occasion and to close with it and rejoyce that our Saviour affords us any means especially so reasonable and so grateful ones of demonstrating our sense of his Love and our gratitude for his Benefactions 3. The compassionate Iesus is not only our Benefactor but our Deliverer too and has rescued us from the most intolerable Evils that human Nature could groan under from the tyranny of sin the wrath of God and everlasting death This is indeed one of his Benefactions but I mention it distinctly because our sense of Evil is much more quick and affecting than that of Good and deliverance from what hurts or torments us does infinitely more oblige than additions made to our happiness kindnesses and good turns that are done us in our prosperity very often lose their price with us our negligence overlooks them or our pride undervalues them or reckons them as due But the Evils we lye under convince us of our frailty and emptiness and represent our deliverers as fraught with favour and obligations How do we respect those who restore us to our health from a painful or a tedious sickness How do we honour them who deliver us out of captivity or imprisonment and bless them for the sweets of that liberty which we regain by their help And how do we magnifie that conduct and that courage which rescues us from a Tyranny on our Consciences or oppression in our Rights or Estates No Honour no Zeal no Service is thought enough and truly scarce any is enough to shew the inward feeling we have of such benefits Now would we but apply this Argument to the present case it would have more weight than it can in any other instance No Deliverer can free us from such Evils as our Saviour has done no Physitian can heal us like that Physitian of our Souls no Conqueror can retrieve us from such a Captivity as that we were under to sin or from such a Tyranny as that we were opprest with by Satan who led us away captive at his will And then the natural result must be that all that we can do to testifie our acknowledgment is here most justly applyed that whatever we can return is still too little and our mind must always owe what our actions cannot sufficiently express and this should make us desirous of occasions for our Charity ready in embracing 'em and zealous in promoting the end of them We should think we could never do good enough to express our thankfulness to him who has deliver'd us from so much Evil nor could we reckon our selves worthy of the Happiness we enjoy while we could see any poor Members of our Saviour in misery calling for our aid and yet unreliev'd 4. But there is one further reflexion that improves all that has been yet said and that is that our Saviour rescued us from misery by undergoing it himself and became our Deliverer by becoming our Sacrifice And this raises the Obligation to its full heighth and must put the Soul upon its utmost stretch to answer it All the other Topicks of gratitude carry along with them some invitation to the person that obliges us To love even the unworthy is the exercise of the most beautiful and charming quality of the mind to do kindnesses to those about us is a very pleasant way of being kind to our selves to succour those who want it and to relieve the oppressed is to succour our own persons and to relieve those yearnings which the misery of others creates in us by a kind of sympathy in human Nature But suffering has nothing in it to make it agreeable humanity shrinks at it and cannot be reconciled to it no resolution or courage embraces it for it self and therefore he that suffers for us cannot do it for his own but meerly for our sakes and so lays on us the purest and most improv'd obligation But this our Saviour has done and has suffer'd for us beyond what we can conceive because we cannot comprehend the dignity of him that suffered nor the weight of that wrath of God which he bare for us and had a perfect sense of in one word he laid down his life and