Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	cloud_n	young_a	youth_n	26	3	8.0126	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64956	The conversion of the soul, or, A discourse explaining the nature of that conversion which is sincere and directing and perswading all to cease their loving sin and death, and to turn to God and live / by Nathanael Vincent ...	Vincent, Nathanael, 1639?-1697.; White, Robert, 1645-1703.	1688 (1688)	Wing V403; ESTC R38014	195,915	409

allowed to act as others of the same age with us and enjoy our Sports and Pleasures and fulfil our youthful Lusts and Desires when Age comes on then 't will be time enough to turn to God and make Provision for Eternity Ans 1. Early Conversion is very acceptable 'T is the Duty of them that are young to remember their Creatour in the dayes of their Youth Eccles 12. 1. And God is very much pleased when he is thus remembred A mark of Honour is put upon them that have been Converted betimes Joseph Josiah Timothy and others are upon sacred Record because when very young and tender they did fly from sin turn'd to God and fear'd him and by his Word became wise unto Salvation 2. Early Conversion is more easie 〈◊〉 grant Nature in the Young as well as Old is utterly averse from it but yet 't is certain that long continuance and custom in Sin does make it harder to be forsaken Therefore sayes the Prophet Jer. 13. 23. Can the Ethiopian change his Skin or a Leopard his Spots then may ye do good that are accustomed to do evil Evil Custom is a second evil Nature and doubles the Cords which hold and hinder the Sinner from Conversion They that turn while young have not such habits of s●● to grapple with neither are evils so rooted in them as in those that are Older 3. Early Conversion prevents a great deal of Sin which impetuous Youth is apt to be defiled with When the Psalmist saies Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way Psal 119. 9. he plainly intimates that the way of the young man is naturally unclean and Nature being vigorous in him his Pollutions and Defilements exceedingly grow upon him But if he turn to God and take heed to himself according to the Words Direction and Command his Heart shall be made and kept pure his Vessel shall be possessed in Sanctification and Honour and though Youth be a dangerous Age the Grace of God shall be sufficient for preservation 4. You that are born of Christian Parents God has challenged a special interest in you from your very Infancy a The Scripture makes a difference between the Children of Christian Parents and the Children of Infidels and therefore that opinion which makes no difference between them must needs be an errour and contrary to the Scripture The Children of them that are Infidels are expresly said to be unclean but if the Parents or but one of them does believe the Children are affirmed to be holy 1 Cor. 7. 14. You are Holy to the Lord your faithful Parents as they gave themselves so they gave you their Seed unto their Lord to be peculiarly for his Use and Service Circumcision of Infants under the Law and baptizing them under the Gospel shews that obligations to Conversion are early and that the thing it self can never be too soon 5. You that are young and talk of having time enough remember that young ones may dye and often do and after death they are brought to judgment Eccles 11. 9. b Since feats of Youth must be brought into judgement what manner of persons ought young men to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness And if you dye before Converted you will dye in your Sins and the first death and second death will come together O young man consider that Childhood and youth are vanity the Thoughts and Counsels then are usually foolish and unreasonable Life is not to be reckoned upon for mans Life is but 〈◊〉 Vapour and Thine may be as a morning Cloud and as the early dew vanishing very quickly Therefore hasten thy flight from youthful lusts and turn to God without any further delay Obj. 4. Others do further Object That if once they are Converted they must bi● an eternal farewell to all Delight and Pleasure and live a melancholick Life their eyes must alwaies be full of Tears and thei● breathing must be a continual sighing they must ever be complaining of their Hearts and lamenting the miscarriages of their Lives and unto Joy they must become perfect Strangers And by such sad apprehensions as these Satan sills the Hearts of thousands with a mighty Prejudice against Conversion But to this Objection I thus Answer Ans 1. Conversion only banishes the Pleasures that are sinful and to take Pleasure in Sin how unreasonable is it should it be counted a Pleasure to anger the Almighty to lay our selves under a Curse which none can bear without being extreamly wretched should it be counted a Pleasure to expose our selves to all sorts of Judgments and Calamities in this life to wound the Conscience to damn the Soul for ever Is there any ease in Hell are those Burnings become desirable and should Pleasure be taken in Sin which if still delighted in will certainly bring us to those Torments Lovers of sinful Pleasures understand not Pleasures All these kind of Delights are to be shunn'd for they have as it were an intoxicating and stupifying Poyson in the mouth and a mortal Sting in the tail of them 2. Conversion spiritualizes and hightens the Pleasures that are innocent and lawful He that keeps within the bounds that God has set him consults his own Peace When God is eyed and served in the abundance of all things there is the greater Joy in that abundance as is intimated Deut. 28. 47. When the Creatures are improved for God this is one way towards the Cure of that Vanity and Vexation that Sinners find in them To Eat and Drink and Recreate our selves to the Glory of God designing by these actions to be fitter for our Lords work and use this puts a very great sweetness into both our Food and Recreations and this sweetness the greatest Epicures and Sensualists taste not of 3. That Godly Sorrow which is so much cryed out against is not without a satisfaction Did ever any one that truly repented repent of his Repentance Impenitency will be found a most destructive Madness and will be repented of in Hell at farthest but Repentance never not in this World less at Death and least of all in Heaven 2 Cor. 7. 10. Godly sorrow worketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Repentance unto Salvation not t● be repented of As God is pleased with th● Sacrifice of a broken and contrite Spirit s● the Heart that is broken may be glad o● this Contrition which is the work of a Co●forter and to find how God has chang● the heart of stone into an heart of flesh 4. 'T is the greatest mistake in the World to think that turning to God is nothing else but turning sorrowful Care is taken that the grossest Offenders if truly Penitent should not be swallowed up of over much sorrow 2 Cor. 2. 7. The Mourners are pronounced blessed for they shall be Comforted They that sow in Tears shall reap in Joy The Kingdom of God is Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost as well as Righteousness Rom. 14. 17. and this Peace passes all

from every thing but Grace and Grace then is perfected in Glory The end of the upright and sincere Convert is Peace Psal 37. 37. and a peaceful Death is the forerunner of an everlasting Rest If he should dye in a Cloud he would shine not at all the less brightly in another World all sin and fears and tears will be gone as soon as he enters into Heavens door and sees his Lord there If he sets as the Sun in the clearest Summers evening his Death is encouraging to others comfortable to himself but ten thousand thousand times more Comfort will he presently have as soon as ever he is got out of and is absent from the body and is present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 8. I have done with the Motives to Conversion And now for shame be silent all tongues that talk against turning to God! Apostate Angels be for ever mute what Adversaries and lying Spirits are ye in disswading Man from Conversion and in asserting that though he turn not he shall not surely dye And Carnal Reason confess thy self quite baffled with strength of Argument and that not one word more of good sense can be spoken against the Sinners Conversion which is so much for his Interest both in time and to eternity VSE V. Of Direction how Sinners may become true and thorough Converts It greatly concerns you to be sincere in turning for in this matter you have chiefly to do with God himself who can't be deceived with the fairest shews but understands perfectly the most secret thoughts inclinations and purposes of the Hearts of Men every upright Heart is open to him and he takes Pleasure in the uprightness which himself has wrought And if there be nothing but Hypocrisie under the greatest Profession that Hypocrisie is both observed and abhorred Any thing short of true and thorough Conversion will be a dangerous Cheating of your selves therefore that you may be Converts indeed I shall give you these Directions 1. Let spiritual Wisdom and Knowledge be valued as that which is of great price and usefulness He that is indeed a Convert is called out of darkness into marvellous light 1 Pet. 2. 9. In this Verse where my Text lies Converting the Soul and making Wise the Simple are joyn'd together the one is necessary and subservient to the other That Devotion of which Ignorance is the Mother is indeed a following of blind and deluded or crafty and deluding Guides but a turning to and a following of God it is not Be well Catechized and Instructed in the Principles of the Scripture-doctrine let a true Light be set up in your Understandings The Mind is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the leading Faculty 't is needful it be well Informed In the first Creation when Darkness covered the face of the deep God said let there be Light and there was Light Gen. 1. 2 3. and thus it is in the new Creation and Conversion 2 Cor. 4. 6. God who commanded the Light to shine out of Darkness hath shined into our Hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Search for Knowledge in the Scripture as you would search for Silver or hid Treasure and look up to Heaven for light and ability to understand it that you may know Christ and God in him and what you are to believe desire and do in order to your Happiness You can't be made wise to Salvation unless you are first made wise to Conversion And as you are to acquaint your selves with so you are firmly to assent to the Doctrine revealed in the Word of God and the more strongly you credit whatever the Word sayes the more powerful influence will this Faith have upon your Conscience Will and Life Vnbelief is the root of defection and departing from the living God Heb. 3. 12. If the arm of the Lord be revealed his Power shewn forth and cause the report of the Word all the Promises and Threatnings of it to be indeed believed this will have a mighty efficacy towards the Souls return to God again 2. That you may become true Converts be sensible that all Mankind are fallen by Iniquity and are estranged from God and you in particular are by Nature far off from Him. The Lord indeed made Man upright but he has sought out many Inventions Eccles 7. ult New wayes he thought to have found of being higher and happier but while through the subtilty of the old Serpent he catcht at a shadow he lost the substance and became both foolish and miserable Adam the first Man corrupted the humane Nature and as thus corrupted you partake of it so that you are by Nature Children of Wrath your Hearts are desperately wicked dangerously deceitful and returning to God is that which they have a strange and strong antipathy against The more you are sensible that your Hearts are thus depraved and alienated from G●● the more jealous you will be of them and the more earnest for that new Heart and new Spirit which the Lord has Promised in his new Covenant Ezek. 36. 26. Perceiving and being burthen'd with a Distemper is a good step towards a Cure especially if an able Physician is ready to heal any that will but make use of him A right sense that Sin has set you at a distance from God and that those who are far from him shall perish Psal 37. 27. will have a mighty tendency to your being brought nigh to him by the Blood and Spirit of the Lord Jesus And truly He that in the daies of his Flesh was so ready to heal corporal Maladies is much more willing to heal the corrupted Nature and to change and turn the Heart of every one that seriously cries Turn me and I shall be turned heal me and I shall be healed save me and I shall be saved for thou art my Praise 3. Let Humiliation for Sin be very hearty and very deep A Soul that never was truly humbled for its iniquities still retains a liking of them and is more easily tempted to return to them Humiliation serves very much to break the league with Sin the Covenant with Death and Hell. The Apostle Paul who at his Conversion was deeply abased was made to tremble and to be astonished Act. 9. 6. seeing his Sin the insufficiency of his Pharisaical Righteousness and that he was so far from Salvation that he persecuted the onely Saviour after this low Humiliation how thorowly was his Heart turned to God! how precious was Jesus to his Soul how circumspectly did he walk how abundantly did he labour how patiently and joyfully did he suffer for Righteousness sake how constantly did he keep the Faith and finish his course till he got the Crown In true Humiliation there is a mixture of fear and sorrow and shame and upon these does follow holy anger and indignation Look up to Heaven behold the great and glorious God against whom every one of your Sins have