Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	day_n	deliver_v	lord_n	4,080	5	4.2950	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35149	Two sermons preach'd before the condemn'd criminals at Newgate, 1695 by B. Crooke.	Crooke, B. (Banks), b. 1658.	1695 (1695)	Wing C7229; ESTC R24803	18,708	62

spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you and when you make many Prayers I will not hear and the reason of this carriage of our Merciful God is most plainly and emphatically given in the Text and is there set down as an act of just Retaliation towards us Then shall they cry unto the Lord and he will not hear them he will even hide his face from them at that time as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings That is though God may for some time seem to be slack as some Men count slackness though for a while he may seem to wink at the repeated Wickedness of ungrateful Mankind and appear by his slowness to Punish as if he never designed it yet this at last will be found a sad mistake and a time will come in which he will surely repay the deeds of the obstinate wicked Person on his own head and will then take example by him and as he in the time of Sin shut his Eyes and clos'd his Ears to God and would have none of his Counsel so in the time of Punishment God will do the same to him And 't will not be an Objection of any weight to tell us that these forecited places do not immediately relate to us Christians but concern the Temporal Calamity of the Jews and do denote that they had a time of Repentance and turning to their God allow'd them which if laps'd by their continuance in Sin they would thereby foreclose themselves and make the Sentence of their Calamity irreversible I say this will be no solution of the case in hand but rather a downright denying of the truth for we know that all things that relate to the Practice of Holiness or the Punishment of Sin all things of this kind that were written aforetime were written for our Example Israel after the Flesh was a Type of Israel after the Spirit that is a Type of Christianity and the Professors thereof and their Canaan did prefigure those Mansions of Rest and Happiness prepar'd for us above And therefore whatsoever did keep them out of that good Land or cut them off from it the same proportionably will cut us off from Heaven and cast us into Hell and this very thing throughout the 3d. and 4th Chapters to the Hebrews is all along urg'd the parallel is exactly and to a tittle carried on by the Apostle and Inferences are continually drawn from thence thus Unbelief or Disobedience says St. Paul kept them in the Wilderness barr'd them out of Canaan and made God swear in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest And then it follows Let us us Christians likewise fear lest a promise being left us of entring into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it And what is point-blank to the purpose in hand chap. 4. v. 7. Again he limiteth a certain day saying To day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts and then it follows v. 11. let us labour therefore to enter into that rest he means Heaven the resting-Place of Christians lest any man fall after the same example of disobedience or unbelief and 2 Cor. 6. 1 2. he quotes the very words of Isaiah and directly applies them to the state of Christianity We then as workers together with him beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain for he saith speaking of God I have heard thee in a time accepted and in the day of salvation I have succoured thee behold now is the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation So then to Christians there is a time of Salvation a certain prescrib'd time in which their Repentance and sincere Endeavours of Obedience shall be accepted and crown'd with Success and the opposite to this must be some other portion of time in which these blessed advantages being wilfully overslip'd will not be again obtained Some period of this nature there must be even to Christians else the Apostle's comparison of the limited time would not hold good and his last cited words would quite lose their Emphasis and Design Behold now is the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation But what the particular admeasurement of these limits are how far this day of salvation reaches and when 't will be clos'd and shut up by the approach of the unaccepted period is hard distinctly to determine and I am very willing now not to inquire into it but will pass on to the practical Application designed And 1st For you that by the Compassion of God and your Superiors are Mercifully withdrawn from the Condemnation you were under Remember and always bear it in your Mind That you have cryed unto the Lord and he has heard you he has not hid his face from you at this time though you have behaved your selves so very ill in your doings towards him Consider your selves as brands pluck'd out of the fire and regard not so much your Bodies deliver'd from the Grave as your Souls preserv'd from the nethermost Hell Look stedfastly back on the Danger you have escaped and with Tears of Gratitude in your Eyes stand amazed at the Patience Long-suffering and Forbearance of your God not tir'd out by so many Iniquities and repay it not with Falshood and Perjury but let such Gracious usage forcibly lead you to repentance You have as the Psalmist says been foolish people plagu'd for your offence and because of your wickedness you have been fast bound in misery and Iron You have for many days sate in darkness and the shadow of death and been even hard at death's door And you have cryed unto the Lord in your trouble and he has deliver'd you out of your distress he has brought you out of darkness and the shadow of death and broke your bonds asunder O that you would therefore praise the Lord for this his goodness and declare the wonders that he has done for you that you would offer unto him the sacrifice of thanksgiving and tell out his works with gladness And to this purpose make a careful distinction at this juncture between Nature and Grace between Passion and the just sense of your Duty towards God A joyful Surprize a glad Astonishment at your Deliverance may look agreeably well and much like Gratitude may throw you with extasie on your Knees and make you run over all your former Resolutions repeat and vow them all again to indulgent Heaven and yet this may be nothing but the effect of that warmth of Admiration which such a sudden turn in your Affairs will naturally produce and which without more solid fuel will soon again expire All the Motions of Wonder and Joy which seiz'd you at the first notice of your Reprieve were Animal and not Christian for Nature will exult at the unexpected Preservation of her self But I would have you turn them all into the right Channel Rejoice in the Lord fear his Justice and love and

do this in part in that part which you are able to do 't is folly to expect it in the whole the whole you cannot perform you have not time for it a part you may do and let me intreat you to do it freely so freely that you your selves may have a rational ground to suppose you would have done the whole if you had time and space to effect it 'T is in vain and beyond belief to say you would do what now you can't when you will not do what you can I do allow you have resolv'd to live a good life if you had been spar'd but spar'd you are not and therefore can never prove your selves as to this but something you may do and by it judge of all the rest Restitution to the utmost of your power and Confession to the Glory of God and hindring the progress of Wickedness in others is a necessary part of Repentance This you can do and if you refuse this you would have certainly refus'd all the rest if it had been left to your choice you would in a little time have return'd to your old Sins in spight of the Resolutions which not a due sense of Sin but your present Danger has extorted from you And believe me a Vow or an Oath for concealing a real Evil is a Confederacy and League with Hell and a Train of Satan to send others after you in the same pernicious Tract Humane Nature is sociable and Friendship is the life of Society but a conjunction of ill Men to ill Practices is the destruction both of Society and them that ingage in it and nothing can in this Case free your Souls but a generous Design and Desire to break the Infernal Combination that you may be the last that no more may be ruin'd by it as you have been And he that tho late yet does all he can to gain Christ may not lose him but he that in the very view of Death prefers Shame or Fear or the love of Wickedness or any other Passion before him will never have him and therefore say and do restore and confess every thing necessary to unravel thy former Wicked Life to take off the ill effects of thy Example to disingage thy Companions from the Evils thou hast brought them into or accompanied them in And let not the Spirit of slumber rest upon you do not willingly stupify your selves do not now 't is so very near put the evil day far off by endeavouring not to think of it much less by diverting the thoughts thereof by any thing really sinful as Drink vain Discourse or evil Company but rather employ the small remainder of your time to the best purposes in continually prostrating your selves before the Throne of Mercy in freely owning to all the Righteous Judgment of God upon you for your former Trangressions and in making your Departure hence as profitable to the Souls of Men as possibly you can by beating down all pernicious vain glorious thoughts of dying bravely as an impious World expresses a stubborn and hardened demeanor but with much Remorse and great Contrition with exemplary Humility and Penitence resolve to resign your Spirits into the hands of your Creator And O Righteous God how sincerely should they prepare how cordially should they behave themselves that in a few days are sure to appear before thee how unfeignedly should they discharge their Consciences before they stand at thy Just Tribunal and willingly lay down every weight of Sin that has so long beset them and which without laying down will soon sink them into the Dwelling of Everlasting Misery But O Lord thou Lover of Souls who dost not desire the death the utter destruction of thy sinful Creatures but rather that they should turn from their sins and be sav'd return thou O Lord and do not any longer hide thy face from them when they spread forth their hands unto thee assist them by thy Grace in this their extremity make them willing and ready to be reconcil'd unto thee before they go hence and be no more seen and then be thou fully reconcil'd unto them for his sake and through his Mediation who came to Bear and Atone for the Sins of the World thy beloved Son and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ FINIS