Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	comfort_n	life_n	live_v	4,359	5	5.5637	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60149	Seasonable advice to youth A funeral sermon on Psal. 119. 9. Preach'd upon the death of Mr. Richard Walter, jun. In the eighteenth year of his age. January 13th, 1691/2. By John Shower.	Shower, John, 1657-1715.	1692 (1692)	Wing S3685; ESTC R220294	25,103	44

your Baptism yielding your Selves to the Lord as the most solemn and Important Transaction of your whole Lives And be sure * keep out of the way of Temptation as much as you can endeavouring to avoid those particular Snares by which you are most easily overcome Pretend not a Resolution against the Sin if you are willing to look upon the Temptation to walk upon the brink of the River and to come near the door of that House into which you know you must not enter It is impossible a Man should love to abide by a Temptation for a good end or without unspeakable Hazard It is vain Confidence on your own Strength to come as near Sin as you durst and the Event does commonly prove it so Especially * see that you well imploy your Time upon the Lords Day and take heed to your * Company all the Week Few of the Younger sort Miscarry but date their Sin and Ruin from the neglect of this Counsel * Begin with God every Morning by serious Prayer and Reading some part of the Holy Scriptures with some Practical Affectionate Book if but for a quarter of an Hour it would leave a serious Tincture on the Mind and a good Savour on the Heart and be of use to antidote you against Temptation and to preserve a Holy frame all the Day But * never desist your diligent Endeavours till you come to walk with God in his Love and Fear and as under his Eye all the Day long That the pleasing of God may become the Business and Pleasure of your Lives Lastly Do not delay Compliance with these Counsels but presently set about it can you begin too soon to cleanse your Hearts and Ways Is it too soon to be reconciled to God and delivered from the danger of Damnation Can you attain Peace of Conscience and Joy in the Holy Ghost and a well grounded Hope of Eternal Life too soon If you languish'd under a noisom Distemper that threatned your Life would you imagin you could be healed too soon And how much Sin and Mischief Shame and Sorrow and bitter Repentance may you prevent by taking heed unto the Word of God betimes How much larger Opportunities for the glorifying of God have Young Converts than late Penitents though they be Sincere What Advantages never to be retrieved have they lost who have out-sinned their Youth because their Time is gone and can never be recalled What Honour may you bring to God who remember your Creator in the days of your Youth What Ornaments to your Profession may you prove Of what usefulness unto others in this World being filled with the Spirit of God What attainments in Grace and the knowledge of Christ See Mr. Charnock Vol. 2. p. 57 58. and what additional degrees of Glory may you reach You may grow to a greater Stature being new born in Youth and bring forth more and better Fruit in Old Age You will have a longer time of Peace of Conscience and of the Comforts of the Spirit much sweeter fore-tastes of Heaven and improved meetness for it You may lay up Treasures of Experience to confute the Devil if he assault you on a Death-Bed c. And is it nothing to despise all these advantages of an Early Piety to secure the comfort and usefulness for the future part of your Lives Is it nothing to be prepared for a sudden Death and to provide against the Pangs and Sorrowful Reflections of a Death-bed Is it nothing when you come to Die to review your former Life with Joy saying Lord remember how I have served thee the God of my Fathers from my Childhood and Youth Is it nothing to bring God greater Glory in this World and receive a more weighty and sparkling Crown of Glory in the next Have you not been often told how much more difficult your Repentance and Conversion to God will hereafter be than now if you should be spared some Years longer Are your Hearts like to be better by longer continuance in Sin Will the Justice of God be less provoked will it not be more Will the Devil have less advantage against you when he hath had so much longer Possession To Day while it is called to Day if you will hear his Voice harden not your Hearts It is some hardning of your Hearts not to hearken to his Voice this day It is one step more towards final Impenitence and Unbelief against which there is no Remedy provided in the Gospel How hardly was that Man Cured Mark 9.29 who was possessed with a Devil from his Childhood The more you are alienated from the Life of God the harder will be your Recovery And how much greater is the provocation against God by every such Delay How aggravated and displeasing is your base ingratitude against the Blessed God and a Merciful Redeemer You reject his present Call slight his Kindness and refuse his Love and in effect tell him that though you have no mind to perish but that one time or other before you die you will accept it that yet you have other Business for the present to mind it will be time enough for that when you are more at leisure Your Youthful Lusts now call you your Secular Affairs and Settlement in the World now call you to other Thoughts and these shal l be first minded and served Your Compassionate Physician offers his Help and promises a Cure if you will but hearken and submit to him You tell him in effect that you like your Leprosie and are in love with your Disease You care not to be recovered to Health you will not as yet be Purged and Healed though one time or other you intend to call for his Assistance May he not most justly say unto you Let him that is filthy be filthy still You would not be purged from your filthiness therefore you shall not till you die How bitter will be the Thoughts of these repeated Calls neglected What cold Horror and Shivering Dread shall seize thee on a Bed of Languishing which some may take for true Repentance But Oh how little of that which by a large Charity we hope is so may the Righteous God accept and who can tell whether he does or no For such Men see themselves upon the brink of the Grave and stepping into Hell and know it is as much as their Souls are worth presently to make Peace with God by unfeigned Repentance No wonder then if they let fall some little Drops of a beginning Sorrow if they have some extorted Resolutions of Living better some sudden Remorse and Regret for those Sins that they are now like to be Damned for some quick and rash Vows of an Awaken'd Conscience with some Confusion of Face under the Fears of Death and Judgment But at such a time it is hard to distinguish between Religious Sighs and Natural Groans or separate their Repenting Cries for Mercy from their Howlings on their Beds through Bodily Pain 'T is true God

give up your Children to God by Baptism in Infancy you seem to profess a Desire they should be his as soon as yours you solemnly ingage and promise to bring them up in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord but how false to God and them must you appear if you do not season them with Holy Principles betimes if when you know they have Immortal Souls to Save and an Eternal Blessedness to obtain and endless Misery to escape yet bring them up in Ignorance without that necessary Knowledge that must make them wise to Salvation If you do not instruct them in the Rules and Obligations of their Duty that they may know the God of their Fathers 2 Chr. 28.9 and serve him with a perfect Heart If you do not mind them of the Evil of Sin the Uncertainty of this Life and the Assurance of an Everlasting State of the Truth and Consequences of the Fall of Man of the way of our Reconciliation to God and the Participation of his Image c. If you do not inculcate these plain and necessary Truths upon them if you do not bring them to the publick Worship teach them how to spend the Lords Day observe their particular Tempers Corruptions and Temptations and apply your selves accordingly with Wisdom and Seriousness for their good Of all others you have the most Power over them and Interest in them none have such Advantages and Opportunities to instruct and persuade them as you None are under so many Obligations of Duty and Interest of every sort as you It is therefore Unnatural and Unexcusable to neglect it You are not easily Apprehensive how much your present Comfort is concerned in it for if while they are Young you are negligent in your Duty to them they are likely enough when grown up to fail of theirs to you And it is but just they should not know their Duty to You if you do not instruct them in theirs to God These Arrows to which they are compared in Scripture Prov. 22.6 Deut. 4.9 11.19 and happy is he that hath his Quiver full of them should be directed right at first for accordingly they are like to Fly afterwards It may fall out otherwise but usually the gracious or vicious Habits of the First Age are transmitted to the next and the after Conversation is suitable to the Education of Childhood and Youth Besides the Sin and Mischief which you may prevent For we know not at what Period of Time a Child comes to the use of Reason and so cannot tell when God will impute their Follies nor whether they will tend or what Impressions they may leave But when he does not impute them to Damnation it may be he will so far as to cause Sickness or an hasty Death And therefore they should be instructed in their Duty so soon as capable and be restrained from the material Parts of any Evil even evil Words which they understand not Before I dismiss this Head let me mind you that are Masters of Families that you ought thus carefully to instruct your Younger Servants the care of whose Souls is committed to you by the Providence of God Your own safety and comfort and the good success of your Civil affairs is concerned in it as well as your Duty * Mr. H. Palmer Dr. H. Wilkinson on Job 13.26 p. 17. An Eminent Preacher in his time upon a like occasion in a Sermon at Aldermanbury made mention of a memorable Passage to this purpose That in the beginning of the Irish Rebellion there were some Popish Servants cut the Throats of those who had formerly been their Masters telling them that they should have taught them better Somewhat of Direction and Counsel I would now add unto the Younger sort Let me therefore beseech you First To make a Pause to stop a while and bethink your selves Employ some time in a serious Consideration of your Hearts and Ways according to this Word of God Think what sort of Creatures you are and how you came into this World Who was the Author of your Beings and the Original of all things What did he make you for but to Glorifie and Enjoy him How wretchedly uncapable you have rendered your selves of both And in order to your Relief what is to be done on your part and what may be hoped for on God's and how remediless your Case is if this Affair be not begun to be transacted before the only time is past wherein it may be done O try your Reason and use it in such Reflections Think in what a Condition you were born how you have lived what you have done and what you now are whether you are going and where you must shortly be Think what your sinful Folly hath already cost you what you have lost and the manifold Hurts and Mischiefs you have received by it What unthrifty Bargains you have made and what is the bitter Fruit of those things whereof you are now ashamed The Devil himself cannot persuade you but you must Die and you dare not say or think that there is not an everlasting Heaven or Hell You therefore sometimes wish to die the Death of the Righteous And will you not consider a little how impossible that is without being like them while you live Secondly Endeavour clearer Apprehensions and a better Vnderstanding of the Religion you profess as to the Evidence of its Principles the Nature Grounds and Reasons of it That you may know your own Case and what it is to be a Christian and what the necessary change does imply and how it is to be wrought That you may know the God from whom you have revolted whom you are to obey as your Sovereign Ruler and to enjoy as your chief good That you may know the Saviour that must befriend you for the Pardon of Sin and for Eternal Life That you may know the Holy-Ghost the Sanctifier by whom you must be Enlightened Quickened and Renewed How can you love and obey your Maker if you know him not what he is and how he will be served How can you believe on Christ if you know not who he is or what he hath Done and Suffered Purchased Promised Offered Prepared and is ready to be and do and give How can you bewail your Sin and Misery Loath your selves and seek for Grace if you continue Ignorant of such things as these It is by the Light of Holy Knowledge you must be recovered you are lost and perishing 2 Cor. 3.4 while this Gospel is hid from you If you are not sensible of your own Ignorance and Disease and where is the Remedy how will you come to Christ as your Teacher and Physician Thirdly To this end diligently study the Holy Scriptures and attend the Publick Preaching of the Word Deut. 17.18 with suitable Desires and Designs Apprehend the weight of the matters treated of and know that it is for your Life You know not the advantage of an affectionate Study of the