Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	body_n	life_n	sin_n	23,098	5	4.9745	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50326	A sermon preach'd before the honourable Company of Merchants trading to the Levant-Seas at St. Peter-Poor, Dec. 15. 1695 by Henry Maundrell ...	Maundrell, Henry, 1665-1701.	1696 (1696)	Wing M1356; ESTC R19829	14,143	34

every confident Undertaker and if they cannot be unfolded more presumptuously deni'd as if it were out of Malice and Revenge for their unsearchable obscurity But let every such curious and daring Enquirer hear the Advice of the Wiseman who is likely to be his best Instructor in the rules and measures of acquiring Knowledge Mike not thy self over-wise Vain Man Wouldest thou be wise beyond the Standard and Capacity of thy Nature Does this disoblige thee that there should be Mysteries in Religion above thy Understanding Will nothing content thee but thou must comprehend the Essence and Attributes of the Deity Foolish and Ambitious Creature Go first and study those things which are more proportion'd to thy capacity the Idioms and Elegancies of Languages the Histories and Polities of Nations the Practical Maxims and Cases of Morality and the ordinary appearances of Nature Search into the matter and motions of the heavenly Bodies the Formation of Animals the Virtues of Plants the seeds and mixtures of Earth and the fluxes and refluxes of the Waters And when thou hast gone through this School of Art and Nature and hast mastered all the difficulties that occur there then and not before begin to unriddle the Mysterious Doctrines concerning Religion and the Author of Nature But if there are many things even in this inferior scope of Knowledge which thou must confess to be too hard for all thy Study and Learning to overcome and which will baffle thy most diligent enquiry into them Why shouldest thou pretend too boldly to the Knowledge of more remote and sublime things Why shouldest thou think it a disparagement to thy understanding which is not able to give account of the meanest Plant or Insect to acknowledge something above its comprehension in the Nature of God and the Mysteries of Religion Let me therefore as earnestly as I may seasonably in this Generation Exhort you all in consideration of the narrowness and insufficiency of our human understandings not to be too curious or to expect to be over wise in Religious Mysteries but let us acquiesce in such a knowledge and discovery of those high and inaccessible Articles as may conduce to our Edification and Salvation and let us not by an endeavour to be over-wise in them weary and distract and perplex our minds For why should we thus destroy our selves But 3. Let me now apply my self to those who are guilty of the last and greatest excess forbidden in my Text who are the over-much wicked and obdurate Sinners And all such let me exhort by the terror of the Wiseman's denunciation to rouze themselves up from their dangerous security 'T is a Lethargick and treacherous sleep that lulls them so fast and will be sure to end in an Immature and which is worse in an Eternal death and what Motive can be sufficient to persuade men to the forsaking of their most beloved Vices if they will not do it for this strong reason for the prolongation of their Lives and for the escaping of Death What terrible pains and operations will not men sometimes contentedly undergo for these dear ends they 'l part with Limb after Limb cut off Right-hands pluck out Right-eyes and think themselves sufficiently rewarded for all if they can but avoid dying thereby and preserve a poor helpless trunk and remnant of Life And why will they not be equally prevailed with for the same reason to give up their Sins Those Sins which are the Gangreens and Mortifications of their Bodies and Souls and must if not cut off bring them to death before their time Why will they not part with these Right-hands and these Right-eyes their beloved Sins as willingly as they do those of their Bodies since there would be less pain in doing it and there is for it a greater necessity Strange and unaccountable infatuation That whereas Skin for Skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life yet he will not tho for the sake of the same dear possession be persuaded to part with his darling Vices What account canst thou give of such a proceeding thou soolish and obdurate Sinner That whereas God has hedged in thy way with thorns and placed death as a stop in thy progress thou wilt yet break through all those strong sences chusing to dye before thy time and to offer thy self up if I may so say a Martyr to the Devil What Apology canst thou make for such an extravagant conduct What reason canst thou find wherewith to answer the Wisemans question why thou wilt dye before thy time Is death so amiable a thing in thy eyes Art thou so enamour'd with the King of terrors that thou hastenest thus to meet him and to anticipate the day of thy dissolution No certainly this cannot be the true reason of thy proceeding no man can be thus in love with death but especially not the wicked man who must expect so sad a Catastrophe after death But the true cause of such an absurd Behaviour is this That men consider not the last issue of their actions they go on in their Vices as the Ox goes to the Slaughter reflecting in the mean time no more than that Beast does that they are tending to the Chambers of death Awake then ye harden'd and secure Sinners from this unthinking stupidity Arise and escape for your Lives Death and Hell are before you and why will ye die before your time If you love life and desire to see good days flee from those Vices which lead you into such fatal and murderous consequences Let the time past of your lives be accounted as over-much wickedness and walk from henceforth in the good and wholesome Paths of Virtue and Religion Thus will you escape that untimely end which the Wiseman here warns you of thus will you set out in a fair way to a long life here and in a sure way to an eternal One hereafter To which God of his Infinite Mercy bring us all through Jesus Christ To whom c. FINIS