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	soul_n	time_n	4,764	5	3.5646	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26276	A sermon preached at Welde-House, in His Excellency the Spanish Ambassador's chapel: on the third Sunday of Advent, December 12. 1686. By the Reverend Father Br. James Ayray, Friar Minor of the Holy Order of St. Francis, chaplain and preacher in ordinary to His Excellency. With allowance and special order of superiors.	Ayray, James.	1686 (1686)	Wing A4297A; ESTC R208687	10,913	32

come So wretched Man is still put off with It is not yet time as soon as I shall have setled my Affairs in the World as soon as my Childern shall be disposed off as soon as I shall purchase this Estate that Office that Imploy as soon as I shall have gained this Law Suit as soon as I shall be at liberty and free from the Cares and Troubles of the World I will then begin to think of serving God and study the Advancement of my own Soul But Quis es tu who are you inconsiderate Creatures that do thus Capitulate with Heaven and imposing measures on your God do lay your vain and fruitless Projects for Eternity 2 Cor. 6.2 Ecce nunc tempus acceptabile Behold now is the time acceptable The future as yet is not and perhaps will have no Being for you but in your own senceless phancy Nay should it ever find an existence it may be incumbered with more and greater obstacles than now you meet with When those imaginary designs are brought to pass which now so powerfully impede your progress in the way of Vertue that working head of yours shall be fit to create new difficulties ten times more intricate and hard Your cares and solitudes your more urgent occasions if you make a right use of them will rather further you in the way to Vertue and what you now falsly deem a hindrance will certainly promote perfection All things do assist and co-operate with the Just omnia co-operantur in bonum iis Rom. 8.28 qui secundum propositum vocati sunt sancti and drawing advantages from all occurrences they providently do lay up a plentiful provision for the future Which is my Third and Last Point PART III. THis future or time to come besides that it doth hold us in suspence uncertain of our end whether good or bad giveth us moreover reason to question whether there shall ever be any time to come for us at all how it may continue and if its like to be favourable or averse The Son of God in the Gospel doth command us still to be upon our guard because we are wholly ignorant not only of the hour that must put a Period to our life but even of the day that is to be witness to our death vigilate quia nescitis diem neque horam Matth. 25.13 And Holy Writ doth suggest unto us one fatal moment which will turn all the delights of this world into bitterness Et in puncto descendant in infernum They whose chiefest study is an idle indulgence of their own slothful ease and who sencelessly content themselves in the injoyment of vain worldly Pleasures do often find themselves grasped with the cold hands of a sudden death when they imagined themselves most secure and in a moment they make a most sorrowful change parting with their darling Earth for the flames of a Hell Fire Job 21.13 Et in puncto descendunt in infernum All the moments of our life are subject to the decisive stroke of Death and every hour may send us a melancholy messenger to Eternity And as in time past every moment might have been our last so in this time to come every particle may be the sad beginning of our misery Wherefore be always watchful and keep your selves always in such a state as may send you to an Eternity that may be happy and not unfortunate let not Death surprize you unprovided lest that very instant you design'd for Vice be the last of your sinful life and the first of your pains The continuance of this future Hereafter is uncertain and should it conduct our gray hairs to the cold Tomb its durance were but a day in respect of Eternity Ps 89. tanquam dies hesterna quae praeteriit Imagine what 's to come by what 's already past and by that dram of life which hitherto you have lived guess at the instability of what 's to come hereafter How stupid then must that Man be whose chiefest design is to frame a wretched Fortune here and exposing himself to a thousand hazzards finds himself with all his projects dash'd in an instant Oh! were it not much better and more secure to labour for an Eternity of Bliss and studying to increase your Fortune lay the foundations of it in a kingdom that will last for ever Holy Job when most of all favoured with Prosperity dreaded the unlucky strokes of Adversity and being ignorant of the event still remain'd prepared for the worst of accidents Job 3.25 timor quem timebam evenit mihi quod verebar accidit A prudent force-sight renders Evils less troublesome and a prepared Will receives Misfortunes with a greater calmness minus jacula feriunt quae praevidentur A Will perfectly resigned kisseth the Rod before it strikes and placeth the disasters of this life in the number of Celestial Favours It is arm'd by Providence against the worst and plainly discovers the hand of God in all its Accidents and intirely relying on Divine Wisdom leaves it self to be conducted by that God whose Eternal Decree was the happiness of his Creatures 1 Tim. 2.1 omnem hominem vult salvum facere If doubts and fears still attend the present state of our Affairs the expectation of our Eternity must needs be anxious none can dive at once into all the parts of his life much less can he know his end I will now suppose you good believe you vertuous and deserving a Celestial Crown for your Duty and Obedience to your God But who knows the disorders that may follow a Will subject to inconstancy and a mind impatient of command may at length spurn at Heaven and contemn the Orders of his Maker Solomon the Son of so great a Father the miracle of Wisdom indowed with a Knowledge from above did lay so glorious beginnings as the World never knew or shall ever be acquainted with strayed at last out of the way began a Sinful Journey and such Crimes he did there imbrace as gave occasion to his lasting Posterity to suspect his final end O Devout Christians Who are you compared with this Prophet and Son of a Prophet Tu quis es O never more presume on your own force Phil. 2.12 but let the Admonition of the Apostle be your guide Cum metu tremore salutem vestram operamini With fear and trembling work your Salvation Do not imitate those persons over confident who promising themselves the Joys of Heaven do day by day remit the works of Pennance and falsely think the extremity of Time sufficient to redress the many disorders of their disturbed Consciences Oh! unhappy Souls you do but vainly imagine your Names register'd in the Book of Life for for all you know the Sentence of an eternal Death is ready to pass upon you Should you now at this very instant leave this Earthly Stage the assurance you have of Heaven would perhaps dwindle to a Nothing and your big hopes be

ad tumulum From the Cradle we are carried to the Tomb and are hurried out the World before we could well know the reason that first placed us in it and forgeting all past Transactions we live tepidly and without reforming the irregular course of our Life may die full of Years but Young in vertue What is once past can never be recall'd it is as if it never had been nor can God himself make that Day return whose succeeding Night hath once Eclips'd his Lustre recal to mind all your past Pleasures your Joys and Divertisements the Innocent Sweets you formerly tasted with so great a gust and the whole remain lies lock'd up in your Memory without any sign or mark else where The Life of Man is like a Dream and when awaked by Death he is convinced that the whole course of his Time hath been only Fancy and Illusion Ps 75. finding both his Hands empty after his supposed large possessions Dormierunt somnum suum nil invenerunt viri divitiarum in manibus suis And can such imaginary Smoak make us lose the thoughts of Heaven slight the menaces of our God and dispise his Friendship Can we for the love of such Trifles run the certain hazard of eternal Torments Quid nobis profuit say those unhappy Souls now arrived to their last and dismal home Quid nobis profuit superbia aut divitiarum jactantia quid nobis contulit transierunt omnia illa tanquam umbra The end of all our Pride the rich and gaudy remains of all our Wealth is an immortal regret for having fooled away our Hearts on such airy Vanities That Man whom to Day you see interred hath all his Pleasures with the empty titles of his Honour wrapt up in a Funeral Shrowd and a Winding-sheet will be the only portion shall fall to your lot of all those ample Possessions you now enjoy with so much Passion Notwithstanding what is past can never be recalled and is in effect as if it never had been yet once it had a Being and such a one as all the Powers under Heaven can never deface or take away Saint Bernard hath well expressed this in his First Book of Considera and 12. Chap. Quae priora transierunt non transierunt transierunt a manu non transierunt a mente Our past actions leave behind them their eternal Species in our mind nor can the damned in Hell during the long space of a whole Eternity L. 5. de consid c. 12. deface the Memory of an action perpetrated in a moment Quod factum est saith the same St. Bernard factum non esse non potest proinde si facere in tempore fuit sed fecisse in sempiternum manet Let the greatest discretion moderate and be the rule of your Life imitate the Saints themselves in their perfection yet all your endeavours may indeed make satisfaction but can never obliterate a Crime once committed The greatest perhaps amongst the Pains in Hell is that Sempiternal remorse the perpetual Remembrance of a past Crime foments in the troubled minds of those afflicted Souls And that Worm that eats and tears their disturbed Breasts is a Torture above infernal Punishments The memory of a Crime guilty of their Eternal Ruine begets a Grief beyond expression and the impossibility of a recalling creates a dispair not to be decyphered but the strange consequences that follow such light beginnings and the Eternity of Torments which must make an everlasting amends for a momentary fault will certainly extort a most horrid Rage The Succession of things denote the Beauty of Order and one thing preceeding the other doth hinder confusion But the mind of Man receives and retains innumerable things without a burden and rememorating things of an ancient standing still reserves the species newly imprinted Contemplate the Collection of all your past Actions and see what a store of Iniquities you have there laid up Turn over the great Wardrobe of your past Crimes and you will find it fill'd with Lumber with scarce any moveables worth regarding Should God communicate unto you the perfect knowledge of one single Sin Should he let you see that the Enormity of it is infinite because committed against a Majesty that is infinite the horror you would conceive would be extream and the deformity of one Crime rightly understood is able to disturb a Brain most justly seated What then shall the terror be to see all the Vices of our former Days stand rank'd in order and all their Ugliness attending on them represented to our view in Shapes most dismal To behold all our ill Thoughts our sinful Desires our vicious Habits our immodest Discourses our unjust Dealings our Deceits and Lyings our Pride and Vanity all our Distractions and Irreverences in the presence of our God the Good we have neglected and the Ill we have done with a thousand other things which will then distinctly shew themselves in their most deformed dress How great will then your terror be Job 15.14 your astonishment and confusion Terrebit eum tribulatio by how much the more satisfaction you did receive in the perpetration by so much greater shall be your pain and the distaste you thence derive equalizing the pleasure you formerly had shall augment your Grief and Torment as much as heretofore they pleased you This Landskip of your past Life exposed to view whilst the Eyes of your Soul contemplate the vanity of your conduct make some reflections on the words of St. Rom. 6.21 Paul Quem ergo fructum habuistis tunc in illis in quibus nunc erubescitis nam finis illorum mors est What Fruit therefore had you then in those things for which now you are ashamed for the end of them is Death If you cannot think on past Crimes saith St. John Chrysost without confusion your stock of Impudence must needs have been large when you did commit them and tho then your Passion did pervert your Judgment and Pleasure or Complaisance did induce you to please your Sense or Man before your God yet the construction you afterwards shall frame will certainly be opposite to your first Opinion when you shall find that Grief and Confusion will be the only remnant of all your Possessions Reflect on the incestuous Amnon whose Love changing countenance his Passion being once satisfied did hate his Sister Thamar more than ever he had affection for her Ita ut majus esset odium quo oderat eam 2 K. 13. amore quo ante dilexerat Our first Parents had no sooner committed that Sin the guilt of which they left as a Patrimony to all their Children but their Eyes opening they did discover their own Misery and fled each others sight You who lead a vitious Life and whose sinful Conversation doth grow into a Habit I fear you are not truly sensible of that displeasure which always springs from Vice nor do you foresee those Evils the Seeds of which you have