Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A60132
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An exhortation to youth to prepare for judgment A sermon occasion'd by the late repentance and funeral of a young man. Deceased September 29. 1681.
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Shower, John, 1657-1715.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing S3664; ESTC R214018
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26,182
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49
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life eternal life and begs your acceptance of it but he will then revenge your ungrateful refusal of his offered mercy Now he entreats you to be happy and have compassion on your selves But then he will be as deaf to your entreaties as you have been to his and that though you should urge him with the greatest importunity possible though you beseech him by the mercifulness of his Nature by the freeness of his Invitation by the Compassion of his Death by the merit of his sufferings by the kindness of his Sacrifice by the Grace of his Gospel c. Now you wil not believe his promises but then you shall experience the execution of his Threatnings Now you will not hearken to his advice and warning but you shall shortly feel the sad effects of your contempt and obstinacy Now you will not be constrained by his dying love but ere long you shall know the power of his wrath whether you will or no for though at present he offer you life yet upon your refusal he will shortly pronounce the Sentence of Eternal Death as yet he Invites you to him but then he will bid you depart Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels From that God after whose Image you were Created from that Saviour who redeemed you by his blood and from that Holy Spirit who would have sanctified you by his Grace Depart from me and all hopes of Salvation by me From me and all the blessed Company of Saints and Angels that shall live with me for ever Depart from me abandoned to an everlasting curse of which both Souls and bodies shall be the wretched unhappy Subjects into Inquisite Torments set forth by fire and such as were originally design'd for the Apostate Spirits of whom the Scripture doth suppose one to be the principal Ring leader of all the rest and who are therefore termed his Angels They who tempted you to Sin shall deride your folly and triumph in your Rain and be your Constant perpetual Tormentors since the fire is unquenchable and never goeth out Nevertheless how dreadful soever this Sentence must needs be it is not more intolerable in it self than unavoidable to the Sinner For where will you hide from his Alseeing eye or how will you resist the force of his Almighty arm as it will be in vain to think of supporting his wrath so every whit as vain to Imagine a possibility of escaping it Will the tears of a desparing Sinner extinguish the fire of Gods wrath and quench the flames of Hell will his wishing he had been wiser in the least avail when the Charge is proved and the Sentence past whither would you flee from the justice of the judge whither but to the mercy of a Saviour But this Saviour is now the Judge and become your Enemy A sight of whom shall awaken the most slumbering Conscience and make the never-dying worm gnaw your very heart when it shall mind you of the calls and invitations you refused and the warnings you slighted revive the convictons you stifled and remember you of the vows you broke and force you to reflect on the vanities of your youth and sadly look back on the time past of your ignorance and folly When for a light temptation you run the hazard of this heavy punishment when for a temporal pleasure you ventured an endless Torment for a mixt delight an unmixed pain for a momentary satisfaction an eternal Wrath for a short Sin an everlasting Sorrow O Eternity Eternity is it true or rather can it possibly be false that after millions of ages under the wrath of God it will not then be past the beginning of Sorrows but an everlasting vengeance will be yet to come and will ever be to come O cursed be my wicked Companions that inticed me to Sin and so to ruine or rather Curst be my own stupidity and folly that I would not be perswaded to believe what now I know and feel Oh that I were now on Earth again and had the benefit of one months space in order to a second trial Oh that I had never seen the light or that the Earth had open'd and and swallowed me up in my Cradle or rather Oh that in time I had received instruction and harkened to reproof that in time I had believed what I was told so plainly and warned of so Faithfully concerning God and his Righteous Judgment Now that this may never be the case of any one of us let me conclude with the advice of the Prophet Jer. 13.16 Give Glory to the Lord your God before he cause darkness and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains and while ye look for light he turn it into the shadow of Death and make it gross darkness FINIS
of outer darkness Beside 't is the sate of many the nearer they approach to Death that the less apt they are to believe it and so perish in their security and are totally unconcern'd about a future judgment But supposing the free use of Reason and an awaken'd apprehension likewise of what refers to their Immortal Souls and their Eternal abode I then add 5. That if through the inticements of youthful lusts you now neglect to prepare it is very probable and you may justly fear it that your passage by Death to this Judgment of God will be very uncomfortable and full of horror whether repentance on the brink of the Grave after a a wicked life may be Saving or no is not the question Thro' an extraordinary act of Grace whereof the penitent Theif was an instance it cannot be deny'd possible But when it is sincere and saving who can tell any otherwise than as in charity we must hope the best For as to the persons themselves on a sick and deathbed how can they in an Ordinary way be assured of their sincerity it is therefore probable that their last Sickness will be very uncomfortable tho' their Repentance should prove sincere and their Souls saved in the day of Christ For suppose when their sins stare them in the face and they did never till now bethink themselves of the necessity of a pardon That Satan should now tell them that their Repentance doth come too late to meet with that mercy they so long abus'd And that 't is all owing to their Fears of Death and the apprehended dreadful consequences of dying If he should tell 'em that the pleasures of Sin being lost and so the bait to intice them gone every thing about them looks sad and mournful and such a change of their condition from health to sickness and the Gates of Death must needs alter their resolutions and thoughts If he should tell 'em that the nearness of Eternity cannot but make a person who hath space to consider more apprehensive of another World and concerned about it than at other times and that if Sickness and Death were at a greater distance they wuold still be the same which is to sadly probable from the many Examples of those who have return'd to their former sins assoon as they return'd to their health and left all their repentance their holy thoughts and good resolutions in that Sickbed where at first they took 'em up If the Devil suggest such a Temptation as this to the Sick Penitent who hath hitherto walk'd in the way of his own heart and in the sight of his Eyes what can he reply or plead on his own behalf to make proof of the Sincerity of his Repentance to himself or to those about him However it may become us to consider seriously that God doth oftentimes in righteous Judgment open the Eyes of Great Sinners on a Death-bed and fill their Souls with an amazing horror from the fears and foresight of of his approaching vengeance When they cannot but apprehend that their Sinning season is now expir'd their mirth and jollity over their final Judgment at hand and their Bodies and Souls within a few hours to part and so be divided between the Grave and Hell you will then admit other thoughts of God and his terrible Judgment than at present in your careless health bitterly reflecting on your past follies in the days of your Youth and freely condemning your former choice the serious review of your vensual Joys which are fled as a shadow and vanisht like a cloud of smaok shall give you an unexpressible remorse and shame having barter'd away your Souls for such a thing of nought and ventured your Eternal Salvation for a trisling lust Was my God my Soul and my Salvation of no greater value will you then be forc'd say of no greater value than so easily to be parted with for the short satisfaction of abrutish forbidden pleasure must I leave this world I lov'd so dearly and bid adieu for ever to all its injoyments are all my good days past is all my mirth and joy concluded and nothing but Eternal sorrows to be expected must all my mirth and laughter be exchanged for tears and howling my ease and pleasure for insuportable and remediless torments must my guilty Soul be thus torn from my body and from all things in which it took delight to be drag'd and hurried to a dismal place where it will hate to live and yet cannot dye Must I sport and sing and revel it no more Must I brave it out in Pride no longer and relish the delights of sense no more no more for ever And which is worse infinitely worse must I make my appearance before my offended Judge whose threatnings I derided whose wrath I provok't whose commands I contradicted whose servants I reproch't c must I now appear before the dreadful tribunal of this Just this Holy this Inexorable Judge Is there no hope of escapeing in the crowd and so avoid a trial or is there no possibility of an excuse when arraigned before his bar or is there no method to be found to evade the Execution of his Terrible Judgment must I hear and hear to my Confusion that Epitome of Hell compriz'd into a Sentence Depart Depart from me ye cursed into Everlasting Fire Oh! what shall I be able to say for my self when my own Conscience brings the charge and reads the Indictment and I cannot disown or deny one Article of what I am accus'd All the mercies you have receiv'd from God all the instructive afflictions you have at any time met with all the awakening Sermons you have heard all the mottions of God's Spirit and the rebukes of your own which you have resisted all the calls of his Word the warnings of his Providence and the threatnings of his Wrath which you have slighted your knowledg of your danger your time and space to repent your former confessions of Sin your convictions of guilt your purposes to reform the reproofs you have had from others and the promises you have made your selves may all be muster'd up to your awakn'd thoughts to seize your Souls with horror and confusion when you are called by Death to pass to this Judgment of God And now Christians 't is probable you may suppose and hope that this will never be your case yet the present instance of this Vnhappy youth may convince you that 't is possible and more than possible For tho' I never saw him to my knowledg Save on his Death-bed yet having exprest his own desires that others might take warning by his Example I need not scruple to acquaint you with what I learn't from himself and is well known to his Surviving companions that during his health he did put the evil day far from him and yet was very apprehensive of a future Judgment and concern'd at his own unpreparedness in his last Sickness most heartily confessing and that with Tears that