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	sin_n	word_n	4,388	5	4.1531	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27065	The vain religion of the formal hypocrite, and the mischief of an unbridled tongue (as against religion, rulers, or dissenters) described, in several sermons, preached at the Abby in Westminster, before many members of the Honourable House of Commons, 1660 ; and The fools prosperity, the occasion of his destruction : a sermon preached at Covent-Garden / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Fools prosperity.	1660 (1660)	Wing B1448; ESTC R13757	102,825	412

discover or but justly suspect your selves of hypocrisie and self-deceit you would stick there no longer but presently change your vain Religion your seemings and formalities for the power of godliness and sincerity of heart But I suppose that some of you will say There lies the difficulty O that we could do it But how should it be done I answer If thou be really willing to be above Hypocrisie and a vain Religion the cure is half wrought at least And I will not tire thee now with many but help and try thee by these few directions In general Be but what thou hast promised and vowed to be in thy Baptism and what thou still dost profess to be as a Christian and it will serve the turn what that is I have told you before More particularly Direct 1. Deliberately renew thy Covenant with God and with a grieved heart bewailing that thou hast been a Covenant-breaker give up thy self presently to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as thy Creatour Redeemer and Sanctifier thy Owner thy Ruler and thy Father 2. Renounce sincerely the Devil the World and the Flesh and be at a point with all below and quit all conceits and hopes of felicity or rest on earth And absolutely devote and resign thy self and all thou hast to the will and service of thy Lord without any secret exceptions or reserves This is the property and plague of Hypocrites that secretly they have exceptions and reserves in giving up themselves to God They will follow him except it would disgrace them or undo them in the world he shall have all provided the flesh may not be too much pinched that is in plain English they take him not for God but for a second to themselves and the world and will give him but what the flesh can spare 3. Fix the eye of a lively faith upon God and upon the everlasting joyes and there take up thy whole reward and look for no other Quit all expectations of a reward from men Let it seem a small thing to thee what any mortal man shall think or speak of thee unless as Gods honour or interest is concerned in thine I have told you before that he is an Hypocrite that will not be godly without the Hypocrites reward and that can sail no further then he is moved by the wind of mans applause or of some other worldly end 4. Stick not in any externals of Religion nor in notions and barren uneffectual opinions So far art thou Religious as thy soul is engaged unto God and thy life imployed for him And so far thou dost truly worship him as thy heart is drawn up to him in love and as thou dost fear him admire him trust him and take thy pleasure in him Think not that it is a saving Religiousness to be of such or such an opinion or such a party or such a Church or to say over so many words of prayer or to keep a task of outward duties or to be of a ready voluble tongue in Preaching Prayer or Discourse Religion lyeth in the Heart and Life 5. Indulge not thy self in one known sin Retain no gross or willfull sin Plead for no Infirmity but make it the business of thy life to extirpate the relicts of the body of death Be willing of the most searching Word and of the plainest reproof and of all the help thou canst get against so dangerous an enemy 6. Stint not thy self in any low degrees of holiness but love and long and strive after the highest If thou bear a secret core of distast against those that outgo thee it is a mortal sign Thou must be perfect in desire or thou art not sincere 7. Walk alwaies as in the presence of the holy dreadful heart-searching God Remember that he seeth thy ends thine affections and all thy thoughts Be the same therefore in secret as thou art in publike sincerely search the Word of God and know what it is that he would have and that resolve on if all the world should be against it Unresolvedness is hypocrisie and temporizing or following the greater side for the security of the flesh is no better Never think thou canst be too holy or too obedient But make it thy study to do God all the service that thou canst whatever suffering or cost it put thee to Be not ashamed openly to own the cause of Christ In the presence of the greatest remember that thy master is so much greater that they are worms and vanity to him Take heed of culling out the easie and cheap part of Religion and laying by the difficult and dear Thy Religion must be as the heart in thy breast which is alwaies working and by which thou livest which cannot stop long but thou wilt die But the Hypocrites Religion is like the H●t upon his head for ornament and shelter from the weather and not for life in the night when none seeth him he can lye without it and in the day he can put it off for the sake of a friend and perhaps stand bare in the presence of a greater person that expecteth it So can the Hypocrite too oft dispense with his Religion 8. Be hearty and serious in all thou dost Hear and read and pray as for thy life Sincerity consisteth much in seriousness Remember thou art almost at another world while I am speaking and thou art hearing we are both hasting to our endless state O how should men live on earth that must live here for so short a time and must live for ever in heaven or hell These things are true and past all question and therefore for your fouls sake lose not heaven by trifling Pray not in jeast and serve not God in jeast and resist not sin in jeast least you be damned in good sadness When you are at work for eternity its time to do it with all your might O what unconceivable mercies are now offered you O what an excellent price is in your hands and nothing is so likely to deprive you of the benefit as dreaming and dallying when you should be up and doing as if this were not your business but your play and salvation and damnation were matters of sport O do but set your selves to the pleasing of God and the saving of your souls with all your might and ply it with diligence as your chiefest work and then you are out of the danger of the Hypocrite But if still you will give the world the preheminence and your flesh must be pleased and your prosperity secured and God must have but complements or the leavings your misery is at hand and vengeance shall undeceive those hearts that would not be undeceived by the Word And you shall remember to the increase of your anguish that you were told this day that your seeming trifling Religion would prove vain But I beseech you as you are men as you love your souls dismiss us with some better hopes and now resolve to be downright

their reason in sensuality and are fed as for the slaughter and think not seriously whether they are going till prosperity hath ceased to deceive them and Satan is content to let them see ●hat they have lost and he hath w●n the game They are of the Religion described by the Apostle 1 Tim. 6. 5. that taketh gain for godliness But if godliness must go for gain they will have none To oppress their tenants and devour widdows houses and cloak it with a long pharisaical lip-service or wipe their mouths with some customary complemental prayers and offer God to be a sharer in the prey this is the commonest Religion of the rich But they cannot endure to be so pure as to devote themselves to God in that pure and undefiled Religion which visiteth the fatherless and widdows in their affliction and keepeth men unspotted from the world Jam. 1. 27. What houses or company can you go into where Religion is more bitterly derided more proudly vilified more slanderously reproached or more ingeniously abused and opposed then among the rich and full-fed worldlings And if there be here and there a person fearing God among them he passeth for a rarity or wonder And a little Religion goes a great way and is applauded and admired as eminent sanctity in persons of the higher rank If a poor man or woman dwell as it were in heaven and walk with God and think and speak and live by rule it s scarce regarded poverty or want of a voluble tongue or the mixtures of unavoidable frailties or some imprudent passages that come from the want of a more polishing culture and education doth make their piety but matter of jeasting and reproach to the Dives'es of the world But if a Lord or Knight or Lady have but half their piety humility and obedience to God how excellent are they in their Orbs Nay if they do but countenance Religion and befriend the servants of the Lord and observe a course of cold performances with the mixture of such sins for which a poor man should be almost excommunicate what excellent religious persons are they esteemed 2. What families are worse ordered and have less of serious piety then the rich If our splendid gallants should be desired to call their families constantly to prayer to instruct them all in the matters of salvation to teach them the Word of God with that diligence as is commanded Deut. 6. and 11. and to help them all in their preparations for death and judgement to catechise them and take an account of their proficiency to curb profaneness and excess and to say with Joshua 24. 15. As for me and my house we will serve the Lord how strange and precise a course would it seem to them should they purge their families of ungodly servants and imitate David Psal 101. that would not let the wicked dwell in his sight should they spend the Lords dayes in as serious endeavours for the spiritual benefit of their families and themselves as poor men do that fear the Lord what wonders of piety would they seem 3. In their entertainments visitations and converse how rare is serious holy confere●ce among them How seldome do you hear them remembering their guests and companions of the presence of the holy God of the necessity of renewing confirming and assisting grace of the riches of Christ revealed in the Gospel of the endless life of joy or misery which is at hand How seldome do you hear them seriously assisting each other in the examining of their hearts and making their calling and election sure and preparing for the day of death and judgement A word or two in private with some zealous Minister or friend is almost all the pious conference that shall be heard from some of the better sort of them Should they d●scourse as seriously of the life to come and the preparation necessary thereto as they do about the matters of this life they would mar● the mirth and damp the pleasure of the company and be taken for self-conceited hypocrites or men of an unnecessary strictness and austerity inconsistent with the jocund lepidity and sensual kind of delight wherewith they expect to be entertained The honest heart-warming heavenly discourse that is usual among poor serious Christians would seem at the tables of most of our great ones but an unseasonable interruption of their more natural and acceptable kind of converse 4. What men do more carelesly cast away their precious time then these Dives'es do They think they have a license to be idle and unprofitable because they are rich that is to abuse or hide their talents because they have more then other men Forgetting that to whom much is given of them shall much be required Because they have no poverty or family-necessities to constrain them to a laborious life they think they may lawfully take their ease and live as droans on other mens labours as if they owed nothing to God or the Common wealth but all to their own flesh Their morning hours which are most seasonable for meditation and holy addresses unto God and the works of their calling are perhaps consumed in excess of sleep The next are wasted in long attiring and curious adorning of their flesh from thence they pass to vain discourse to needless-recreations to eating and drinking and so to their vain talk and recreations again and thence to the replenishing of their bellies and so to sleep And thus the words of the fool that Christ describeth in Luke 12. 19. are turned by them into deeds and it is the language of their sensual lives Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thine ease eat drink and be merry Sleeping and sporting and jeasting and idle talking and eating and drinking and dressing and undressing with worldly cares and passions intermixt are the very business and employment of their lives Thus contemptuously do they waste their precious hours while God stands by and time makes haste and death draws near and their miserable souls are unprepared and heaven or hell are hard at hand and this is all the time of preparation that ever shall be allowed them O do but look on these distracted piteous souls that have but a short uncertain life to provide for a life that hath no end and see how they forget or senslesly remember the matters of infinite concernment see how they trifle away that time that never will return how they sport and prate away those hours which shortly they would recall were it possible with the lowdest cryes or recover with the dearest price When they know not but in a laughter-or a merry jeast their breath may be stopped by an arrest from heaven or justice may surprize their miserable unready souls with the cards in their hands or the cup at their mouths when they have not the least assurance of being out of hell an hour and yet can sell this time for nothing and basely cast it away on toyes which

proudest and securest of them all For God shall wound the head of his enemies and the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his trespasses Psal 68. 21. He is not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness neither shall evil dwell with him The foolish shall not stand in his sight he hateth all the workers of iniquity Psal 5. 3 4. The ungodly that delight not in the Law of the Lord are like the chaffe that the wind driveth away They shall not stand in judgement nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous Psal 1. The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the Nations that forget God Psal 9. 17. Cannot you endure to hear and consider of these things How then will you endure to feel them God will not flatter you If all your greatness enable you not to repulse the assaults of death nor to chide away the gout or stone and all your honour or wealth will not cure a feaver or ease you of the tooth-ake how little will it do to save you from the everlasting wrath of God or to avert his sentence which must shortly pass on all that are impenitent And yet prosperity so befooleth sensual men that they must hear of none of this at least not with any close and personal application If you speak as Christ did to the Pharises Mat. 21. 45. that they perceived that he spake of them they take you for their enemy for telling them the truth Gal. 4. 16. and meet our doctrine as Ahab did Elijah 2 King 21. 20. Hast thou found me O mine enemy and 1 King 18. 17. Art thou he that troubleth Israel or as the same Ahab of Micaiah 1 King 22. 8. There is one man Micaiah of whom we may enquire of the Lord but I hate him for he doth not prophesie good concerning me but evil Or as Amaziah the Priest said of Amos to King Jeroboam He hath conspired against thee the land is not able to bear all his words Amos 7. 10. And ver 13. Prophesie not again any more at Bethel for it is the Kings Chappel and it is the Kings Court They behave themselves to faithful Ministers as if it were a part of their inviolable honour and priviledge to be mortally sick without the trouble of a Physician and to have no body tell them that they are out of their way till it be too late or that they are in misery till there be no remedy and that none should remember them of heaven till they have lost it nor trouble them in the way to hell nor seek to save them lest he should but torment them before the time And thus prosperity makes them willingly deaf and blind and turn away their ears from the hearing of the Law and then their prayers for mercy in their distress are rejected as abominable by the Lord Prov. 1. 24. to 33. and 28 9. 7. Yea if there be any persecution raised against the Church of Christ who are the chief acters in it but the prosperous blinded sensual great ones of the world The Princes make it their petition against Jeremy to the King We beseech thee let this man be put to death for thus he weakeneth the hands of the men of war and the hands of all the people in speaking such words unto them for this man seeketh not the welfare of his people but the hurt Jer. 38. 4. It was the Presidents and Princes that said of Daniel We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel except we find it against him concerning the Law of his God Dan. 6. 5. Were it not lest some malicious hearer should misapply it and think I sought to diminish the reputation of Magistrates while I shew the effects of the prosperity of fools I should give you abundance of such lamentable instances and tell you how commonly the great ones of the world have in all ages set themselves and taken counsel against the Lord and against his Christ Psal 2. and stumbled upon the corner-stone and taken no warning by those that have been thus broken in pieces before them How ready is Herod to gratifie a wanton dancer with a Prophets head In a word as Satan is called the Prince of this world no wonder if he rule the men of the world that have their portion in this life Psal 17. 14. and can command his armies and engage them and enrage them against the servants of the Most High that run not with them to the same excess of ryot 1 Pet. 4. 4. And as James saith as aforecited Do not the rich oppress you and draw you before the judgement seats Do they not blaspheme that worthy name by which you are called Jam. 2. 6 7. 8. And in all this sin and misery how senseless and secure are these prosperous fools as merry within a year or month or week of hell as if no harm were near How wonderful hard is it to convince them of their misery The most learned wise or godly man or the dearest friend they have in the world shall not perswade them that their case is such as to need a conversion and supernatural change They cannot abide to take off their minds from their sensual delights and vanities and to trouble themselves about the things of life eternal come on 't what will they are resolv'd to venture and please their flesh and enjoy what the world will afford them while they may till suddenly God surprizeth them with his dreadful call Thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided Luke 12. 20. So is he that layeth up riches for himself and is not rich towards God ver 21. II. I Should next shew you how it is that prosperity thus destroyeth fools Briefly 1. By the pleasing of their sensitive appetite and fancy and so overcoming the power of reason Perit omne judicium cum res transit in affectum Violent affections hearken not to reason The beast is made too headstrong for the rider Deut. 32 15. Jesurun waxed fat and kicked then he forsook God that made him and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation 2. The friendship of the world is enmity to God and if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him Jam. 4. 4. 1 Joh. 2. 15. And undoubtedly the more amiable the world appears the more strongly it doth allure the soul to love it And to the prosperous it appeareth in the most entising dress 3. And hereby it taketh off the soul from God We cannot love and serve God and Mammon The heart is gone another way when God should have it It is so full of love and desire and care and pleasure about the creatures that there is no room for God How can they love him with all their hearts that have let out those hearts to vanity before 4. And the very noise and busle of these worldly things diverts their minds

and hindereth them from being serious and from that sober consideration that requireth some retirement and vacancy from distracting objects 5. And the sense of present ease and sweetness doth make them forget the change that 's near Little do they think what 's necessary to comfort a departing soul when they are in the heat of pride or lust or taken up with their business and delights In the midst of bravery and plenty feasting and sporting and such other entertainments of the senses its hard to hold communion with God and to study the life to come in such a Colledge or Library as this Prosperity and pleasure make men drunk and the tickled fancy sports it self in abusing the captivated mind And these frisking Lambs and fattened beasts forget the slaughter they think in Summer there will be no Winter and their May will continue all the year Little do they feel the piercing griping tearing thoughts that at death or judgement must succeed their security and mirth O how hard do the best men find it in the midst of health and all prosperity to have such serious lively thoughts of heaven and of the change that death will shortly make as they have in sickness and adversit when death seems near and deluding things are vanished and gone The words of God have not that force on a sleepy soul in the hour of prosperity as they have when distress hath opened their eares The same truths that now seem common lifeless inconsiderable things will then pierce deep and divide between the joynts and marrow and work as if they were not the same that once were laughed at or disregarded Eccles 7. 2 3 4. It is better to go to the house of mourning then to the house of feasting do you believe this for that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to heart Sorrow is better then laughter for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth I beseech you take patiently your character and name here from the Word of God 6. Moreover these fools are by prosperity so lifted up with pride that God abhors them and is as it were engaged to abase them For The Lord will destroy the house of the proud Prov. 15. 25. Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord though hand joyn in hand he shall not be unpunished Prov. 16. 5. He scattereth the proud in the imagination of their hearts He hath put down the mighty from their seats and exalted them of low degree He hath filled the hungry with good things and the rich he hath sent empty away Luk. 1. 51 52 53. In the things wherein they deal proudly he is above them Exod. 18. 11. For every one that exalteth himself shall be abased and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted Luk. 18. 14. For God resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the humble 1 Pet. 5. 5. 7. But no way doth their prosperity so desperately precipitate them and make them the scorn of heaven and the foot-ball of Divine contempt as by engaging them in opposition to the word and wayes and servants of the Lord. When it hath drawn them to those sins which God condemneth and his Ministers must reprove and hath puft them up with pride which makes them impatient of his reproofs and hath increased their worldly interest and treasure and fleshly provision which he commandeth them to deny this presently involveth them in a controversie with Christ before they are aware and casteth them into the temptation of Herod when he was contradicted in his lust and they think they are necessitated to stop the mouths that dare reprove them and to keep under the people and doctrine and discipline of Christ that are so contrary to them and cross them and dishonour them in their sin and to pluck away this thorn out of their foot and cast it from them And thus their prosperity and carnal wisdom that is imployed to secure it engageth the earth-worms in a war with Christ and then you may conjecture how long they can endure to kick against the pricks and irritate the justice and jealousie of the Almighty and presume to abuse the apple of his eye and who will have the better in the end The stubble is more able to resist the flames and a fly to conquer all the world then these daring lumps of walking clay to conquer God or scape his vengeance Isa 27. 4. Who would set the bryers and thornes against me in battel I would go through them I would burn them together Isa 45. 9. Wo to him that striveth with his Maker let the potsherds strive with the potsherds of the earth Job 9. 4. Who hath hardened himself against him and hath prospered They all imagine a vain thing that set themselves and take counsel together against the Lord and his anointed to break his bonds and cast away his cords from them He that sitteth in heaven will laugh the Lord will have them in derision then shall he speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure He shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potters vessel Be wise now therefore O ye Kings be instructed ye Judges of the earth serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling kiss the son lest he be angry and ye perish in the way when his wrath is kindled but a little blessed are all they that put their trust in him Psal 2. They think it is but a few contemptible or hateful men that they set themselves against forgetting Act. 9. 4 5. Luk. 10. 16. 1 Thes 4. 8. that tell them all is done to Christ And Mat. 18. 6. Who so shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me it were better for him that a milstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drawned in the depth of the sea Mat. 21. 44. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken but on 〈…〉 it shall fall it will grind him to powder I will conclude this with A●●aziah's case 2 Chr●n 25. 16. A●● thou made of the Kings counsel● f●rbear why should'st thou be smitten Then the Prophet forbare and said I know that God hath determined to destroy thee because thou hast done this and hast not hearkened c. III. BEfore I tell you what use to make of the Doctrine of this text I shall first tell you by way of caution what use you should not make of it 1. Though the prosperity of fools destroy them do not hence accuse God that giveth them prosperity 2. Nor do not think to excuse your selves 3. Nor do not think that riches are evil for the things are good and mercies in themselves and being rightly used may further their felicity But it is the folly and corruption of their hearts