Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	darkness_n	day_n	let_v	4,092	5	6.7214	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57574	Early religion, or, The way for a young man to remember his Creator proposed in a sermon preach'd upon the death of Mr. Robert Linager, a young gentleman, who left this world, Octob. 26, 1682, with an account of some passages of his life and death / by T. Rogers.	Rogers, Timothy, 1658-1728.; Veel, Edward, 1632?-1708.	1683 (1683)	Wing R1849; ESTC R27563	39,498	63

unhappy an Education I cannot but have charitable thoughts of him believing that if ever Death-bed Repentance be sincere it is in those that being Young are not so hardned in Sin nor have resisted so many motions of Gods Spirit nor rejected so many offers of Grace as Older Sinners have done However let not Young ones presame upon the account of this or any like Instance but Remember their Creator in the Days of their Youth and health considering their Lives are in Gods Hand who is a soveraign and may as well not give them Hearts to repent when Old as not give them Time to grow Old How many are Nipt in the Bud or Cut off in the Flower of their age when their Hearts are filled with Wordly lusts and their Minds lifted up with worldly Hopes And they Dream of nothing less than the End of their Days and an Eternal State Were there the Reason and Judgment of Elder Men in the Heads of the Younger it might be an easiertask to deal with them but Youth is a slippery Age full of Passion Rashness wilfulness and so apt to despise the Counsel of those that are more Grave and experienced and to think it proceeds not so much from the Love they have to Young Souls as the Envy they bear to their Youthful pleasures But what folly is this and how much to be lamented in them if we cannot reclaim them from it Can you Sirs Clip the Wings of Time that it may not fly from you or put off the approach of Eternity that it may not hasten upon you Can your Lusts and pleasures prevent your Death or prepare you for it think seriously of it and you will be of my Mind Why then are ye not up and doing as soon as you can Why do you not Work out your Salvation as Hard as you can all your Time and strength are little enough for such a Work Let every Example of Mortality in others and this in particular mind you of your own Live like those that know you must die and so as you will certainly wish you had lived when you come to die You are growing up to be the Successors of us that are Elder and to fill up our places in the World when we are gone out of it May you out-do us in all that is good and praise-worthy may your Zeal for God and Holiness shame the degeneracy and Coldness of present professors Religion loses ground in this age if you keep it not up in your selves it will be quite lost in the next And therefore I must again inculcate what is the scope of this discourse begin betimes and give God your strength and the Morning of your Day never think it too soon to turn to him nor too long to serve him you will not count an whole Eternity too much for your own Happiness do not count your whole Life too much for his service The Lord himself give you Counsell who is able by the Power of his Grace to make you willing to take it which is the unfeigned desire of him who is Your Souls Friend and Servant for Jesus Sake E. Veal A Funeral Sermon ECCLES 12.1 Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy Youth while the evil days come not nor the Years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them VVHEN we seriously consider the miserable and uncertain State of Men since the Fall of Adam how many wide Breaches the Transgression of our first Parents has made both for spiritual and eternal Dangers to enter in upon us and yet how secure and careless Men are of their Danger it ought to affect our Hearts with a great Tenderness and Pity but it ought much more to affect us if we consider that of all others Young Men are generally the most careless though they are besieged with more Enemies and liable to more Dangers yet for the most part they are employed in mean Affairs that have no Relation to their Happiness and are forgetful of their God and the deplorable Condition of their own Souls Secure they are though they have in their Bodies the Seeds of innumerable Distempers one whereof when it shall be conceived and brought forth will destroy its own Parent They remember not that the Clock that is now wound up and performs its regular and daily Motions and goes well must have all its Wheels broken or when the Maker pleases run down again Happy were the Persons that might put a stop to them in their mad Career or awaken them to serious Apprehensions of their real Interest before the hour of Darkness and the day of Death It hath pleased God in whose disposal are the Lives of Men by the taking away of one young Man lately from the World in his fresh and tender Age to give me this occasion at the desire of his Acquaintance to speak to others of the things that immediately concern their eternal State and how they should by his Example be taught in their early days to repent of Sin and to prepare for a better World I hope the same God will make this a merciful Season to us that are yet among the Living that we may by the memorial of the Deceased be in a continual preparation for that time when we shall hear his Call and leave the World And that we may be so let us attend to the grave Counsel of this Preacher the wisest of Men that after a long Experience of all that had but a shew of Pleasure or was accounted worthy to be loved by the Sons of Men reap'd nothing but Vexation and Bitterness and a sharp Remembrance and therefore concluded that it was most useful and expedient to guard the Mind against those Follies and betimes to remember God In the former Chapter having explained what were the Comforts and Happiness of Life Vers 7 that the Light was sweet and that it was a pleasant thing for the Eyes to behold the Sun i.e. to enjoy a prosperous unafflicted State and all that our Hearts can well desire Yet he tells us that though we live many Years Vers 8 and rejoyce in them all yet we ought to remember the Days of Darkness for they will be many After we have satisfied our Appetites with all that is delicious and grateful we must retire into the next World and dwell for a long time in the gloomy Chambers of the Grave Then he upbraids the Follies and Neglects of Young Men that are immers'd in sensual Delights not thinking of the Day of Judgment and that great Account that must be made hereafter at the Bar of God And the Preacher concludes his Sermon of the Unsatisfactoriness and Vanity of all sensual transitory Things with this serious Application Remember thy Creator now in the days of thy Youth c. In which Words we may observe 1. The Duty it self To remember God 2. The time when it is to be practised Now in the days of Youth 3. The reason of this

early Fruit If we do not thus what Plea shall we make at his Bar and how shall we meet our Parents and our holy Friends in the day of Judgment The Time is coming when Riches and Honour Health and Beauty Credit and Reputation among Men will be of no value nor will Gold and Silver the Idols of this be currant in the next World We should not therefore be like those young People that are only serious in the House of Mourning or when they see their Friends carried to the Grave but in the next vain Company suffer the Impressions of their Mortality to wear off again We must be always sober in our Conversation as not knowing when we our selves shall be gone only this we may know that as the Years we have already lived are soon past so will those that are to come with the same swift Motion pass away The longest Life here on Earth is but as a Moment if compar'd with the future Eternity 'T is as a flash of Lightning to the whole Element of Fire just seen and then vanisht And can it after all this be too soon to serve our Creator with our best Affections to implore his Pardon to call on his Name when ere long there will be no more use of Prayer no more the Tenders of Sal●ation no more Time Sixthly If we would Remember our Creator now in the Days of our Youth Let us think with our selves how dreadful our Case would be should we be surprized by Death before we had done this If we cannot perform this Work now when our earthly House is in good Repair how shall we do it when the Foundations and the Building both will be destroyed and it may be struck to the Ground on a sudden as with a Clap of Thunder If we find our selves Indisposed for our ordinary Business with an aking Head or Tooth do we think to mind our Salvation when every Part of our Bodies shall be rackt with the most violent and painful Agonies and when we shall have no Intervals of Ease but be rudely treated by the Diseases that come before to clear the way for the King of Terrors Or shall we stay till the Blow be given or the Season past It may be we think there is no Danger or that we shall have time enough hereafter but our Disease is not the less for our Insensibility and to conceit our selves Well when in the Judgment of God and his Word we are much out of Order is the worst Symptom of our approaching Death What better would it be for a sick Man to fall into a Slumber and to dream of Health when he is given over as hopeless and not for this World any longer What better would he be to think his Candle will last for many Hours when it is just falling into the Socket and yeilds but a little dying Blaze which he through Mistake fancies a true lasting Flame What better would a Prisoner be to dream in the Night of Freedom and a Pardon when he sees the Officer entring in the Morning to carry him away to Execution And shall we be in a better State if we put off our Creator with Delays till Death enter into the Windows and deprive us of our Light and siezing on us by a Warrant from God hale us away to the Prison of the Grave and to the glorious awful Tribunal whether we will or not In what Mountains shall we seek a Refuge if we make no Provision for our selves till the Floods come and the weak Pillars whereon we now lean be wash'd away How many young Men are now awake and that for ever in the Flames of Hell that never would open their Eyes till they came thither That were taken away living and in the Wrath of God Ps 58.9 before their Pots could feell the Thorns before they had any real Sense of their near Danger And as the Case of that Person is very sad that when he has been newly rack'd and while he is yet sore and pained is to be carried again to the Torture So is theirs that are twice to dye whose Souls go trembling from the Body to more intolerable Pains that go from the first to the second from a Temporal to an Eternal Death How many are now in the Regions of perpetual Storms that thought because their Sun once shin'd they should always have good Weather and a clear Day For God's Sake then and for our own let us be Religious betimes and not suffer our selves to be bound with Cords in the Houses of our Enemies with more Sins lest we lose our Strength and God depart from us when we think like Sampson in the Hands of the Philistins Judg. 16.20 to rise and go abroad with the same Freedom that we did at other times The Lamp of our Life may be drown'd with too much Moisture or when we think all is calm be blown out with a sudden Blast or a stormy Wind and leave us in the Dark and when it has once expired there will be no Supplies of Oyl to make it burn again And then like the blinded Youth of Sodom Gen. 19.11 we shall reel to and fro and not find a Door of Hope till we feel the sealding Drops of Vengeance that will by degrees swell into a Flood and carry us away to the great Lake of Fire This will be the Consequent of our vain Delays and oh how dreadful will it be when instead of the Bosom of Abraham we shall find our selves in the cold Arms of Despair and instead of the Joys of Heaven have in our guilty Souls Mark 9.44 the Worm that never dyes If Men break in the World they may by the kind Assistance of their Friends and Benefactors be set up again If they be Imprisoned they may through the Mediation of the same be releas'd but what shall become of those that have no Friends that have nothing wherewith to pay their Debts and must languish and pine away in a tedious Bondage never to be eased of their Sorrows never to be released And such and more dreadful will be the State of those young Men that are surpriz'd in the moment of their Wickedness and laid in the Chains of Hell unawares Dare we then forget our Creator now when whole Troops of so great Calamities are upon the March against us and we know not when their Leader that rides upon the pale Horse Rev. 6.8 will give the Word and command them to fall upon us If we now disregard the Checks of our own Consciences they will hereafter challenge us to give them Satisfaction and be revenged on us for all the Affronts that we have put upon them Sleep on we may but it will be very sad if we awake not before the Decree for our Execution be gone forth and before the killing Sword is at our Breasts If we will take no Care even when our Feet stand in slippery Places Psal 73.18 we may

to pieces You must prepare to follow him that is gone but a few days before He with whom you liv'd and with whom you had familiar and sweet Friendship has now taken his Lieve of you and is gone into a far Country never to return again He whom you heard praying and discoursing but a little while ago is now silent in the Dust He whom you saw once brisk and lively you must now see no more till you and he meet at the Tribunal in the Clouds You have seen him that was as strong and as healthful and a few days since as likely to Live as any of you seized with a mortal Distemper and after a few uneasy Days and restless Nights carried out with a Train of Mourners and after a little Solemnity laid into the Grave I hope therefore that as often as you Remember your departed Friend which I perswade myself will be very frequent so often at the least you will with thankful Souls Remember your Creator that has been pleased when he cut off him to shew you greater Favour to prolong your time and to give you the Opportunity of hearing this and other Sermons when instead of these you might have heard the more doleful Sound and Voice of Death Your Companion has already heard his Sentence and is now in his everlasting State and you must ere long hear yours too therefore now Remember God but I am fully consident your serious Endeavours to do it will render it needless for me to give you a further Exhortation To us all this Example may be of great Use that we may betimes leave the pursuit of foolish transitory Pleasures and return home to our Duty that so we may like obedient Children when our Heaven●● Father calls without repining die and go to bed when we have lived a little longer we that are now together shall be separated with the black Vail of Death and from this World fly to the Regions of Immortality and as this Assembly will soon be dissolved so we that are here when we have spoken and moved and breathed a little longer must go to our Long Homes and sleep in the Chambers of the Grave Let us therefore pray that our passage hence to God may be sedate and peaceful and though we may not perhaps be suffered to see the Faces of one another again in such Meetings as these yet that we may all have an happy Meeting in the Assembly of the First Born and at the right hand of our Saviour in the next World If wee desire this as surely we all do if we would have Consciences calm and quiet when we come to dye if we would have a sense of the Divine Favour and Assistance when we are to perform our last Service and to wrestle with the Last Enemy if we would have some draughts of those Consolations that flow from the perpetual Fountain of delight and much of Heaven while we are below Let us Remember our Creator who if we flourish in his Courts now will in due Season transplant us into the Celestial Paradise and when we hope to go thither 't is no matter how soon we dye it will be no real Evil though it be in our youthful days Can we too soon be with God too soon at rest from Labour or shall be wronged if we sleep in Jesus while others are awake in this World to see many sad Objects that will pierce their hearts to see it may be the greatest Judgments fall upon their Native Country that ever yet fell upon a careless backsliding Generation shall we have any Reason to complain when we are safe Landed on the Coast of Heaven that our passage thither was too quick or shall we murmur that we were too soon wafted over while others were left in Storms and Darkness and had a more tedious uncomfortable Voyage No! we shall bless the Wisdom of our Pilot that taught us how to steer so swift and so near a Course and ever adore his Goodness when we look back and see what Dangers how many Shelves and Sands and Rocks were in the way and yet how safely we escaped all these on which so many split and were lost for ever If we now Remember our Creator when we leave this vexatious uncertain World we shall go to the Bosome of our Lord and to all those blessed Young men whom he gathered into his Garner betimes as knowing they were fully ripe for Glory With these and with the Glorious Angels and with all Saints shall we joyn our Anthems and together make up a Melodious Consort to Sing the Songs of Sion having remembred our Creator we shall go to a City whose Inhabitants are all of one mind and where they Sincerely love one another to a Church which has no mischievous Impositions no cruel informing persecuting Members and which is free from Corruptions and pure as well as great We shall go to a place where there are no bitter Censures no reproachful Ignominious Names and Titles where there is no misunderstanding among Friends no false Brethren no loss of Goods no fear of Evil. And when we are once free of the Society that is above none will dispute our Title When our Names are once enrolled among the honorable Companies of that Corporation and among the Twelve chief Tribes of the Children of that Israel we shall never lose our Priviledge nor have our Names blotted out We shall always enjoy our just Rights and Liberties and upon the continuance of our Charter praise the Goodness of our Eternal King and ever speak the sweet Language of the Place Hallelujah Salvation and Glory and Honour and Power unto the Lord our God FINIS