Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A28587
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Man's great duty, or, A discourse of the care every man should take to make sure the salvation of his own Soul by Samuel Bold, rector of Styple in Dorsetshire.
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Bold, S. (Samuel), 1649-1737.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing B3481; ESTC R34369
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57,671
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141
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with more Earnestness and better testifie the utmost force and strength of Affection than what you read Deut. 30.19 20. I call Heaven and Earth to record this day against you that I have set before you Life and Death Blessing and Cursing Therefore chuse Life that both thou and thy Seed may Live that thou may'st love the Lord thy God and that thou may'st obey his voice and that thou may'st cleave unto him for he is thy Life and the strength of thy days Are you not in express terms commanded To work out your own Salvation with Fear and Trembling Phil. 2.12 And to give diligence to make your calling and election sure that an entrance may be ministred to you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 1.10 11. And to seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness Matt. 6.33 And to strive to enter in at the strait Gate Luke 13.24 Now can any thing be so execrable as to choose to destroy and make your selves eternally Miserable rather than practically own God's Authority and obey him in that wherein he hath given the fullest discovery of his having a singular regard to your greatest and unconceivable Happiness The Command of God should sway and prevail with us to apply our selves to any thing tho ever so difficult tho we were perfectly ignorant of the Reason why he doth enjoyn and make it our Duty But how much more then should his Command influence us when we evidently perceive the reason of his Command is most expressive of his Love and doth apparently carry with it a wonderful force drawn from Principles so deeply rooted in our Natures as are our own Preservation and Happiness His interesting his Authority thus in this matter should not only prompt us to take notice of the tender regard he hath to our perfect Felicity but also how prone we are to be careless of and neglect it and with what heedfulness care and diligence it behoves us to attend to and follow it lest we should fail and miscarry in so important a Business Secondly It is a business of such weight and consequence that it is to render us capable of attending to it and to assist and quicken us to carry it on with Success that we are endowed with those faculties which are peculiar to us as we are rational Creatures and that we are entrusted with Life and Time after that we arrive to years of Discretion and that those advantages are afforded us which are singularly adapted to further us in it All these are Talents committed to our trust and those who will acknowledge them to be such must needs own they ought to be employed to the ends for which they are especially designed Now seeing they are peculiarly fitted both in their own Nature and by divine Appointment to promote our Salvation it must greatly concern us to use them for that purpose for which they were intended As the Members and parts of our Bodies are naturally fitted and particularly designed for the preservation nourishment and perfection of our outward State so our rational Powers and Faculties are directly and immediately prepared and appoited to be used to secure and advance the good and welfare of our Souls Our Understandings Wills and Affections are never employed so pertinently as when they are duly exercised about those matters which will contribute most effectually to our Salvation This is the noblest and most excellent use we can make of them And if they colud not be improved to this purpose it would not be a valuable advantage to be endowed with them This is also the great business for which God doth allot us time in this World We have indeed other things to employ our selves about whilst we are here in the Body but all other Businesses are subordinate should be subservient to this For this is the one thing necessary Life and Time are not allotted us meerly to Eat and Drink and take our Pleasure and Pass-time here or meerly to drudge and toil for the necessaries or varieties of a temporary State but chiefly to provide for a future and eternal Happiness by such ways as God hath prescribed For what is to be done by us in order to our Salvation must be done whilst we have our abode in this World It will be too late to think of busying our selves for our Salvation when we are removed hence The night cometh saith our Saviour when no Man can work Joh. 9.4 Whatsoever therefore thy hand findeth to do do it with thy might for there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the Grave whether thou goest Eccle. 9.10 So teach us O Lord to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto Wisdom Psal 90.12 Can we imagin it is for any thing else but to oblige us to and assist us in the minding of our Salvation and to excite and quicken us to a great regular and due concernedness for it that God doth afford us his Word Ordinances and the means of Grace Are they not all evidently designed to mind us that this is that for which we should be most concerned and to direct help and lead us in the true infallible and most suitable way unto Salvation Tit. 2.11 12 13. And is it not certain that our neglecting to improve Gospel advantages to this purpose will exceedingly encrease our Danger and render our State hereafter more than ordinarily Dolorous and Dreadful Wo unto thee Corazin Woe unto thee Bethsada c. Matt. 11.20 c. How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation Heb. 2.3 Lay aside the consideration of the Salvation of the Soul and People may attend to and follow all their other Businesses and Affairs every jot as well without the Gospel as with it Thirdly The salvation of a Man's Soul is a matter of the greatest consequence he can possibly concern himself about It is agreeable to the dictates of Reason and the Maxims of Prudence that we should be most concerned for that which doth most concern us And doubtless that which is of the greatest worth and excellency in it self in which all our Interests are wrapt up and without which there is no possibility of our being safe and happy is of the greatest Moment imaginable to us and is that which it behoves and concerns us to use our utmost care about and such is the Salvation of our Souls For if our Souls be safe and happy it is not possible we should be Miserable If we are really in the way to Salvation and have an Interest in God through Christ so that his power becomes engaged to keep us safely unto Salvation let what will happen unto us here it cannot make us unhappy It will not be long before we shall be perfectly out of the reach of every thing that can be called Evil And a well grounded hope of Salvation will make any thing Portable which can befall us in this World
Prudence You run counter to your own Profession You tear in pieces your most solemn and sacred Vows You cast contempt upon God himself and affront scorn and testifie your spitefulness against the very Commiseration and Love the Bowels and Blood of his only Begotten Son Instead of reaping advantage from the Death of Christ you do your utmost to Crucifie him afresh You do what you are able to put him to open Shame You manifestly judge and declare your selves unworthy of Eternal Life You destroy your own Hopes and render the Patience and Mercy of God other Peoples principal Support and Comfort on all occasions unconceivably Terrible and Frightful to your selves You forfeit what you pursue and you turn your present Possessions into real Curses And when you Perish everlastingly you will have and inherit your own Choice You must expect your Condemnation will be much more aggravated than other Peoples How little a while can you enjoy the Riches Pleasures and Vanities you prefer above your Souls and their Salvation And whether do you think you can fly for help and comfort when God and Christ shall abandon you to the insuperable lashes and accusations of your own guilty Consciences And to the never fading but incomprehensible Torments of a Damned State You profess you believe there is such a blessed and glorious Estate to be obtained as that is which the word of God doth give an account of But you do not heartily believe what you would have the World believe you do For were you really and fully perswaded of the truth certainty and excellency of what God hath promised to the Faithful and Obedient you would concern your selves in good earnest to get an interest in and right unto the same If you had a strong and firm perswasion of those things you would be throughly perswaded that the way God hath prescribed is not only suitable but absolutely necessary You would be reconciled to follow that course of Life he hath ordained for them to walk in who shall inherit them People do constantly act according to the predominancy of their Perswasion and Belief Lord What Multitudes who profess the Christian Faith are ruined by a secret but predominant Unbelief It is an evil Heart of Unbelief that makes to depart from the living God Heb. 3.12 You hehave your selves in this Matter as if you were quite void of Reason You are thoughtful enough in all other cases pretend to be prudent will think and consider ponder and project how to manage your little Half-penny Affairs to your utmost Advantage and would not by any means give People occasion to suspect you inconsiderate and weak silly and indiscreet in ordering your Worldly Business But as to what concerns your Souls and Eternity you live at random as if these things were of no moment to you Whereas if you did but deliberately weigh your Actions in the Ballance of the Sanctuary consider what you have done and what you are about to do and whether your Practices are consistent with or have any relation to Salvation it would be next to impossible that you should continue so unmindful of and persist in a course of Practice so plainly contradictory and fatal to your highest Interests Did you seriously consider on your ways you would soon perceive invincible Reasons why you should presently alter your course and betake your selves to a faithful and diligent observing of the Divine Testimonies Psal 119.59 An irreparable miscarriage admits of no Excuse yea is horribly aggravated when it appears to be the pure effect of voluntary Inconsideration How exceedingly will it encrease a and heighten the torments of Damnation when a Man shall be necessitated to accuse himself that he never considered what he did nor would not think what he was to do that he might be Saved What a groundless Confidence and desperate Presumption do you please your selves with if you provide your selves other claims to Salvation than God will approve of How come you to have reason to think you have enough to plead for your admission into the Kingdom of God because you enjoy outward Privileges and partake of Gospel Ordinances whilst you cast off all care that these may have their proper effects on your Hearts and Lives seeing our Saviour Lord and Judge hath expresly said Many will say to me in that day Lord Lord have we not Prophesied in thy Name And in thy Name have cast out Devils And in thy Name done many wonderful Works And then I will profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye that work Iniquity Mat. 7.22 23. Can a grosser Dotage be imagined than for People to live presumptuously in evil Courses and yet buoy up themselves with confident hopes of making amends for their transgressing of God's Laws and of providing themselves a safe passage to Heaven when they can tarry no longer upon Earth by ways of their own or other Peoples devising This was an Imposture which prevailed amongst the Pharisees of Old it does obtain amongst the Superstitious in these days it is the principal Fancy which supports the rude immoderate and unreasonable Heat People manifest for those matters of which we read not one Syllable in any of the Divine Oracles O! the senseless delusions with which Multitudes willingly suffer themselves to be cheated and this in a Business of the greatest Consequence imaginable With what ease and readiness do men of ill Lives reconcile themselves to confident hopes of Salvation perswading themselves that by a few new-devised ways of Corporal Mortifications and empty Abstinencies some ritual Observances or at most a pecuniary Indulgence they shall make a very good Comutation for all their Immoralities and purchase an easie Passport unto Glory Sirs What reason can you alledge for your entertaining and hardning your selves in your vicious Courses with Diabolical suggestions Why do you suffer your selves to be so tamely imposed on by your grand Adversary the Devil He does all he can to lead his Captives on smoothly and without any suspicion to that remediless Perdition where he designs they should be everlastingly Lodged When you please your selves that such seriousness of Spirit such holiness of Life such circumspect Walking as the faithful Ministers of the Gospel insist on and commend to People is not necessary to your being Saved Is it not the Devil who doth furnish you with these Insinuations When you plead the Goodness and Mercy of God in express contradiction to the whole tenor of his Word Whence doth this illusion arise but from your Minds being darkned with the Vapours and Steams which ascend from the Bottomless Pit Why will you so affront God and abuse his most Divine Excellencies to disguise the infernal Treachery of the Father of Lies and great destroyer of Souls Who but your most mischievous Enemy can prompt you thus to pervert the Declarations of God's Goodness to defeat the main intendment of the riches of his Grace Can you exercise your Reason can you