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	good_a	lord_n	5,923	5	3.9409	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89544	The reformed gentleman, or, The old English morals rescued from the immoralities of the present age shewing how inconsistent those pretended genteel accomplishments of [brace] swearing, drinking, [brace] whoring and Sabbath-breaking are with the true generosity of an English man : being vices not only contrary to the law of God and the constitutions of our government both ecclesiastical and civil, but such as cry loud for vengeance without a speedy reformation : to which is added a modest advice to ministers and civil magistrates, with an abridgement of the laws relating thereto, the King's proclamation and Queens letter to the justices of Middlesex, with their several orders thereupon / by A.M. of the Church of England.	A. M., of the Church of England.; Bouche, Peter Paul, b. ca. 1646.	1693 (1693)	Wing M6; ESTC R20084	100,071	189

of the Adversary let us run into God's House embrace his Mercy embrace his Ordinances honour his Holy Name and his Word obey his Commands fulfill all Righteousness and sanctifie his most Holy Day Let us break off our Sins by Repentance and stop those Judgements which threaten us who knows but the Lord will have Mercy and will repent him of the Evil that he hath designed against us that he will dispel the Clouds and make the Sun of Peace and Righteousness to break out upon us making us rejoyce for the time wherein we have suffered Adversity To this End it would not be amiss to cry out From Hardness of Heart from Contempt of thy Holy Word and Commandments from Fornication and all other Deadly Sin from Intemperance and Prophaning of thy most holy Day from all the Judgments which we have most righteously deserved from Lightning and Tempest from Plague Pestilence and Famine from Battle and Murder and from sudden Death Good Lord Deliver us And O Blessed Adorable and Glorious Trinity Remember not our Offences nor the Offences of our Fathers neither take thou Vengance of our sins but Spare us Good Lord Spare thy People whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious Blood and be not angry with us for ever Have mercy upon us Have mercy upon us Have Mercy upon us most Merciful Father Save and Deliver us from all our Sins Confirm and Strengthen us in all Goodness and bring us at length to Life Eternal Amen Amen! A Modest Advice to the Ministers and Civil Magistrates TO make the preceding Discourse the more Effectual it might perhaps be expected that I should add something to the Ministers and Civil Magistrates of this Church and Kingdom and that I should shew how far both of them are obliged in their several Stations the one by the Sword of the spirit the other by that of Justice to do what in them lies to suppress the Reigning Immoralities of the present Age Of which the Vices spoken against in the foregoing Treatise are not the least in Reality tho they may be so in all outward appearance by reason of that little notice the unthinking World takes of them To the Ministers of our Church there is a very little need to say any thing For besides those Worthy and Reverend Prelates whom God's Providence and the Care and Piety of our Princes has placed at the Helm there is a Clergy under them that for Learning Virtue and Sincere not meerly formal Devotion we may dare all the Churches in Christendom to shew its equal Our whole Nation and especially the Metropolis thereof has many of those pious Souls whose Lives and Doctrines go hand in hand to stem that torrent of Atheism and Prophaness which has of late years been so Impetuously breaking in upon us Their Practical Preaching and Moral but withall most Excellent Discourse● now in Print concerning the Reasonableness of the Christian Religion the Loveliness of all that is Good and Virtuous and the Deformity of all that is Bad and Vicious with the like is sufficient proof of their Zeal for the Honour of God and the Good of His Church so that we should wrong them if we thought they stood in need of Instructions to Direct them or of Motives to Incite them to do a Duty which is so Incumbent upon them as to press home for a Reformation of this Degenerate Kingdom when the Glory of their Great Master is so nearly Concerned therein But amidst these Excellent Persons there are it must be Confessed some others that give too open a Scandal to our Holy Religion by their Vile Principles and their Viler Practices Some of these are notoriously Bad and live in Direct Opposition to what they are bound to Preach to others Whilst Others spend their time in dry Notions and insipid Controversies which profit their Congregations but very little if any thing at all As for the first if the Common Obligations they lie under as Men endued with Reasonable Souls if the ordinary Ties of Christianity they are bound with in their Baptism or if the extraordinary Ones they are obliged with in their Ordination are not of force to put them upon mending these their Irregularities yet 't is hoped the Example of the more Strict and Conscientious will shame them to some degree of fervour and cause them to put on the Form at least if they will hot the Power of Godliness But if that will do no good upon them yet 't is presumed the Worthy Fathers of the Church will by their Care and Inspection either remove those that are a Publick Shame unto it or else prevent the Like Mischief for the future by admitting none into Holy Orders but such as they have sufficient Testimony of that they will not by their unsanctified Lives give cause for the contempt of the Clergy I say 't is presumed the Bishops will in their several Diocesses take care of those things which Confidence I ground upon those many excellent Charges which have of late been given in many Visitations After all this I cannot but wonder how any one can so far offer violence to his Reason and Conscience as to live in the Wilfull Breach of any known Duty when he has so many upbraidings from all hands to check him and stare his sins out of Countenance What a dreadful Account they must give of their Cure and that Charge of Souls which is committed to them Sacred Writ will sufficiently inform them and what a weight lies upon their shoulders tho at present so little regarded by them Bishop Burnets Pastoral Care lately published will put them in mind of if they can give themselves but time to read it over and calmly to consider thereon As for those who busie themselves about unprofitable Speculations and matters meerly Controvertal 't were to be wished they would leave off their Heats and Animosities throw aside all Prejudice and Faction for this Sect or that Party and give over Quarreling and Disputing about Modes and Figures about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Religion the Knowledge or Ignorance of which would neither promote nor hinder our Great Concern 'T were to be wished I say that they would lay aside all such Curious Niceties and Disputable Points fit for none but Schoolmen and wrangling Sophisters to employ their parts upon and that they would reason of Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come Preach up with the Primitive Christians the necessity and usefulness of a Holy Life lashing Vice and protecting Virtue where e're they find it tho their very Patrons were guilty of the one and their greatest Enemies Masters of the other Such profitable Rules of Morality would better become the Gravity of the Preacher as well as suit with the Capacity and Regulate the Lives and Practices of the Audience than an unintilligible Discourse of an Hour or two long about the Particular Tenets of Calvin Arminius or some other Learned Sophister of the Church which can neither

since his Actions are Diametrically contrary to the Royal Will and Pleasure specified at first by his Majesties Letter to the Bishop of London which was ordered to be Communicated to the rest of the Clergy and afterwards signified to the Civil Magistrate By the Queens most Gracious Message to the Justices of Middlesex and Lastly by a more forcing Proclamation in which they Recommended the suppressing Profane Swearing and Cursing as the first and chiefest of those Offences which were accounted more especially to hasten and bring down God's Judgments upon this Unfortunate Kingdom 21 But Thirdly there are many of those Profligate Wretches who dare own themselves Church-men and if they pretend to any Religion it is the Reformed Orthodox and Protestant Faith they are of The third Motive drawn from the Obedience due to the Church They appear openly in our Congregations and shew a bold Face in the most solemn of our Assemblies and intrude into the most Sacred of our Ordinances the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper But let those Profaners of all that is good and sacred be assured that the Church is not their Mother that within her Bosom there are cherished no such Vipers that her Sanctuary is no Asylum for such Vermine to have recourse to For her Doctrine's drawn out of the Pure fountain of God's Word (a) Article 39. her Articles (b) Homily 7. her Homilies and her whole Constitutions are directly Opposite to the Profane and gives no manner of Encouragement for him to persevere in his Extravagancies However the lewd World may esteem of things now yet when the Last Day comes no Question but the Church will say to those her Hangers on I know you not You would have none of my Counsel but despised all my reproof therefore Eat ye of the Fruit of your own way and be filled with your own devices If therefore any Man has any Zeal to stand up for her and to promote her Cause and to enlarge her Borders He cannot do it better than by a Sober and Conscientious Conversation to let his Communication be Yea Yea and Nay Nay 22. Come we now to consider the last Motive The fourth Motive drawn from the Judgments of God which if all the rest fail may prove strong enough to work upon the most obdurate and hardned Conscience unless it be Judgment Hell and Damnation-proof Men may be so brazen faced as not to blush at their being worse than Heathens they may be so resractory as not to be reduced by the strictest Humane Laws They may be so unchristian and so unnatural as to chuse to be disowned by their Mother the Church rather than part with their customary Vices But I hope they are not so much in the power of Devil as that the terrors of the Lord against such Offenders both in this Life and in another can make no impression upon them 23. Let those Wretches be never so free from the Laws of the Kingdom and the Censures of the Church 1. Judgments upon Swearers in this life yet the Hand of the Lord will find them out and even on this side the Grave pay them home for their rash Oaths and blasphemous Execrations We have some tho' not many fresh Instances of God's signalizing his Vengeance on such horrid Criminals For what was the reason of the small company of the Israelites killing 100000 Aramites in one day 1 Kings 20.20 If you consult Holy Writ you will find it was for Blaspheming God And what was the cause of Sennacherib's meeting with such an Unnatural and barbarous Death Was it not the Blaspheming the Lord Jehovah both by his General Rabshekab and by his own Hand-writing in a Letter he sent to Hezekiah And doth not God in our times take the Sinner at his word and cut him off in an Instant with the damnable Execration in his Mouth True it is such Instances of God's immediate Vengeance in this World are very rare and few examples of this nature are upon Record But let us take a view of the impenitent Blasphemer lying upon his Death-bed in his last Agonies and ready to give up his polluted Breath at his last gasp Let us there examine him what Fruitor Profit he has in those things whereof he is now ashamed Can you think his gentile Oaths and accomplished Execrations will now do him any advantage in that Eternity into which he is just ready to Launch No I am perswaded you will hear him tell you another story and if the Devil has not quite gagged his Conscience you will hear him in the bitterness of his Soul utter out this or some such complaint Damned Caitif that I am In what an unavoidably miserable condition am I involved What a lamentable prospect of endless Wo have I now in my sight What a horrible Scene is just ready to open and deliver me up to the devouring Flames Ob cursed Tongue How hast thou been employed for thine own Ruine Heaven thou canst not appeal to for the power thereof thou hast often defied God thou can'st not call upon whose Name thou hast often and shamefully prophaned by thine unclean Lips Oh Heavens Drop down upon me and crush me into nothing Oh Mountains fall upon me and cover me from the face of him that sitteth upon the Throne and from the Wrath of the Lamb Oh Earth Let thy Bowels gape and hide me in thy dark Caverns But alas in vain do I vent my wishes to those who cannot will not help me Come then ye Infernal Furies and hurry my accursed Soul to its deserved Mansions Come ye bewitching and infatuating Spirits and take your cheap Bargain home to your fiery Habitations Thus raving and despairing railing and cursing himself he ends his abominable odious and sinful Life 24. But if this is not melancholy enough to strike Horror into the Adamantine Heart 2. Eternal Judgments upon Swearers yet let him his prospect beyond this and the Grave For admit he may escape the thunderbolts of Divine Wrath tho' the Lightning may not devour him nor the Arrows of the Lord take hold of him in this life yet can he expect to escape the Judgment of God for ever Shall not Hell be his Portion and Eternall Misery his stipend for all his Blasphemies Shall he not with Dives lift up his Eyes in Hell being in Torments and roar out in vain for one drop of water to cool his inflamed Tongue That Fire that world of iniquity which delighted in venting out its Curses and Oaths here on Earth Will not the punishment be adaequate and suitable to the Crime And is it not fit that That Member suffer most which was chiefly instrumental in plucking down the misery upon the whole Consider this then ye that forget God that forget your selves and forgoe your own Interest both Temporal and Eternal for what vanishes like Smoke into empty Air consider ye that Glory in your Shame that Triumph in your wickedness that Out-dare Heaven with

the great Support and Pillar thereof There is no need to go far for Demonstration the quarrels and frequent disturbances which happen among the Prophane Sabbath-breakers and commonly on this very day declare how great the Combustion would be were the Kingdom swallowed up in Irreligion and become thereby its own Incendiary 32. To wind up all and draw to a Conclusion the celebration of the Lords-Day The second Benefit and Mischief considered together as it entitles the particular Observers thereof to the more peculiar Eye and favour of God so it puts the whole Community of People that call upon his Name nuder his more immediate Care and Providence The Ark of God where-e're it came was sacred and brought to a Religious * 2 Sam. vi 11. Obed-Edom and his godly family Blessings Plenty and Success and to the Sacrilegious Idolatrous and Prophane * 1 Sam. v. Philistins it sent the plague of Emerods and sores The inquisitive prying † Chap. vi Bethshemites were smitten for looking thereinto and the rude unsanctified * 2 Sam. vi Vzzah for his familiar touching the Seat of Gods Holiness was punished with immediate death The Parallel will hold good in the consideration of the Keeping or not Keeping Holy the Lords-Day The Lord of Hosts has in all ages of the World been jealous for his Honour and has declared that them that Honour him he will Honour but those that despise him shall be lightly esteemed 1 Sam. ii 30. But in nothing is he abused at this time more than in his Name and Day What the result of the first is I have already shewed and what the Effect of the Last is the Jews to look no further will sufficiently demonstrate As long as they received God's Ordinances and hallowed his Sabbaths and obeyed the Voice of the Lord their God and hearkened to his Precepts to do them He was their God and they were his People He went out with them and fought their Battles He delivered them from the Hands of their Enemies and Oppressors and setled them at length in a Land that flowed with Milk and Hony and became a Wall and a Hedge of Defence on the Right Hand and on the Left to keep them from them that lived round about them * Psal xci 5 6. That they might not be afraid for the terror by Night nor for the Arrow that sleeth by Day Nor for the Pestilence that walketh Darkness nor for the Destruction that wasteth at Noon Day But no sooner did they go a Whoring after their own Inventions serving strange Gods No sooner did they violate the Statutes of the Lord and defile his Sanctuary and pollute his Sabbaths but he left them to dye in the Wilderness to be led away into Captivity and at the last in his Wrath cut them off from being a People * Cap. xx 13. Ezekiel testifies that because the House of Israel in the Wilderness rebelled against the Lord their God and walked not in his Statutes and despised his Judgments and greatly polluted his Sabbaths therefore he poured out his fury in the Wilderdness to consume them And tho they were setled in the Promised Land yet because they were a backsliding People apt to abuse their Great God in his Worship and Day he leaves Cnnaanites in the Land to prove them as Thorns in their Flesh and Goads in their Sides For ever and anon upon their Revolt from the Holy One of Israel he leaves them to be oppressed by the Kings of Mesopotamia by the Moabites Canaanites Midianites Philistines and Ammonites to the Incursions of the Amalekites Syrians Egyptians and Edomites to be carryed away at last into Captivity the Ten Tribes by Shalmanaser into Assyria where we lose the very Memory of them and Juda by Nebuchadnezzar into Babylon That the Prophanation of the Sabbath was a Principal Cause of all this their Calamity none will doubt that believes what Nehemiah says Chap. xiii 17 18. What e●il thing is this that ye do and prophane the Sabbath Did not your Fathers thus and did not God bring all this evil upon us and upon our City Yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by prophaning the Sabbath And it is more than probable that for this very sin as well as for many others God rejected the Remnant of Juda and permitted them to be dispersed by the Romans and suffered their Sanctum Santorum and their Holy City to be laid level to the Dust and not one Stone left upon another 33. What remains then but that we take warning hence to be more Religiously Observant of this Sacred Day that we may like the Obedient Israelites be the Darlings and Favourites of Heaven that we may attract the Divine Overshadowing and win God himself to be our Sheild our Buckler our Refuge our Defence and our Invincible Rock on every side of us But if we should which God forbid persist in our Impieties and continue in prophaning the Lords-Day can we expect to escape better than the beloved people of God did Can we expect he will be more favourable to the Ingrafted than to the Natural Branches They were his chosen People his pecu iar Flock and the Lot of his Inheritance and did he write such bitter things against them and can we imagine He will be partial to Vs No certainly our Crimes are Equal and so will our Punishments be too He will add greater Plagues to what we have already felt and make our Punishment as Vniversal and General as is our Guilt This Land has already met with particular Judgments which have reigned in those Places where the Lords Day has been most prophaned The Plague the Fire and the Sword have already been our Portion Divisions and Schisms Factions and Rebellions have already been the Whips and Scorpions wherewith we have been scourged and wounded What remains but that for our Obstinate Perseverance in this as given as in other Crying Sins our Goodly Land be given over as a Prey unto our Enemies that our Heritage as it is defiled become also full of Devastations that our Candlestick should be removed that our Churches should be thrown down and that we should be forced in a Strange Land to wander from Sea to Sea Amos viii 12. and from the North even to the East to seek the Word of God and shall not find it Oh let the terror of these thoughts afrighten us to our Duty and if we have any regard for our selves and are not concerned whether we are saved or damned whether we prosper or go backward in our Affairs whether our Minds are spiritualized or no whether the sence of Religion be upheld or lost in us Yet as we regard the Welfare Peace and Tranquility of the Society wherein we live as we would not have that involved in a Common Heap of Ruin and Destruction as we would not willingly be the Cause of our Posterities Misfortune nor expose our innocent Babes to the rage

I 'll tell you what you are The Society whereof you are has a great Prevalence over you to make you of the same Mould with the whole If that he good you cannot but in Complaisance be or seem to be so too if That be Evil it would he no false Logick to conclude the Parts to be of the same Marke with the whole This is too evident to need Demonstration and were it to be doubted in other Vices yet in this of Uncleanness the Influence which one Debauch'd Companion has upon another to render him so too proves the Consequence to be too true A Loose Libertine and Licentious Conversation does easily incline a man to Joyn with the Multitude in one Common way of Lewdness and Debauchery Familiarity and Example Fear and Shame private Obligations and publick Engagements are as great Inducements to depraved Nature to comply with those to whom one stands Obliged in any of the former Respects And here I cannot chuse but blame such as out of a Frolick to see the Tricks of the Town and to experience the truth of what they Hear associate themselves with Lewd and Profligate persons running from Bandy-House to Baudy House from one Brothel to another 'till at last they carry the Coals of Fire so long that they are inflamed by Lust in good earnest 6ly To employ your Eyes and Thoughts and to help you to better Company I shall advise you in the next place to be frequent in reading and Meditating the Holy Scriptures for wherewithall shall a Young Man cleanse his way says the Royal Psalmist but by taking Heed thereto according to thy Word Herein you will see Life and Death Blessings and Cursings Promises and Threatnings Mercies and Judgments The one a Royal Priviledge appropriated to the Upright and Clean the other as a Punishment to the Man of Unclean Lips and a Lewd Conversation Herein you will see a Generously Chast and Continent Joseph exalted from a Dungeon to a Throne whilst the Incestuous Reuben is put by his Fathers Blessing Herein you will read of 24000 Israelites being killed in one day amidst their Whoredoms Numb 5. whilst Phineas for his Zeal in punishing the Delinquents atones for the Rest and obtains for himself a Covenant of Peace the Covenant of an Everlasting Priesthood Herein you will see the Cause of the Massacre of Schechem and his People who were for Dinab's Rape cut off Root and Branch in one day Herein you will have a view of the Untimely ends of Hophni and Phineas of Amnon and Absalom of Incontinent Jezebel and and many others who by their Whoredoms Adulteries and Incestuous Embraces provoked the Merciful God to plague them with sundry Diseases and divers kind of Deaths 7ly When you have done your utmost to resist and find notwithstanding the Carnal part to be predominant Mortify as St. Paul advises your Members which are upon the Earth Keep under your unruly Body and bring it into Subjection that you do not become Cast-aways As Drunkenness and Gluttony increase so do Temperance and Sobriety take away the Oyl from the Flames To feed low and abstain from rich and delicious fare to Eat and Drink only to satisfie Nature without endeavouring to humour your Palats or satiate your Appetite will by degrees moderate your Lusts Fasting for whole Days and then to return to a full Table and Excess is not the way to cast out this Devil for it is as a Worthy * Bishop Taylor Prelate of our Church observes a Flatulent airy Spirit which an Empty Windy Stomach gives Life and Motion to It must be a constant Abstinence in the moderate use of coarse and homely Fare such as will not be prejudicial to your Health that will be of greatest Force to subdue your Corrupt Natures and to beat down those Insurrections which ever and anon arise and raise a Civil War between your outward and your inward Man 8ly To that of Fasting and all the other forementioned Helps add that of Frequent Prayer All the rest without this are but as dead Letters Herein the Soul owns its weakness and acknowledgeth that 't is not in Man to direct his ways sensible whereof it sends up this winged Messenger of Prayer to crave for Assistance from above and never leaves intreating till some such Answer as this be given My Grace is sufficient for thee Be you instant therefore in imploring for the Spirit of Purity for Chast Thoughts and Temperate Reins Make such as these your daily and hourly requests Create in us a Clean Heart O Lord and renew a right Spirit within us wash us throughly from our Wickedness and cleanse us from our Sin Purge us with Hysop and we shall be clean wash us and we shall be whiter than Snow Purifie our Hearts and search throughly if there be any Wickedness in us And since your Prayers have no express promises of a success unless your own Endeavours back them take up Holy Job's Resolution of making a Covenant with your Eyes that you will not look upon a Maid And with David keep your Mouth as with a Bridle that you offend not with your Tongue Let your Hearts be filled with Chast desires and your Minds employed in Contemplating on the Goodness and the Mercy of the Lord which should lead you to repentance Let your hands be pure and so lift them up to the Throne of Grace and turn your Feet into the ways of Righteousness Eph. 6.13 14 15 16.17 Thus being Arm'd with the whole Armour of God your Loins girded about with the Truth and having the Breastplate of Righteousness being shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace and taking above all things the Shield of Faith whereby you will be able to withstand the fiery Darts of the Devil and the Helmet of Salvation and the Sword of the Spirit you will be the better able to grapple against your Lusts and be guarded against a Relapse which oft proves more dangerous and desperate than the disease 9thly The Last Antidote commonly prescribed against Uncleanness is Marriage By this holy Ordinance God has taken off all reason of Complaint and the Oppression Tyranny Injustice and all other Invectives cast upon the Deity for implanting in Man such Naturals which must be satisfied and for prohibiting the fullfilling of these by Express Laws are quite wiped away the Murmurings and Imputations of Cruelty Severity and the like are here silenced And if the Letcher after such a Liberty granted shall continue in his Unlawful Amours if he shall forsake his own to Climb up into an Adulterous Bed He has no plea drawn from the strength of Inclination the bent of his Constitution or the like to excuse himself withal not can he Charge the Sin any where but upon his own Corrupted and Vitiated Will St. Paul seems to intimate as much and declares this Honourable Institute was appointed to avoid Fornication Not is it enough to forbear all unlawful and forbidden Embraces nor