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	time_n	year_n	9,302	5	4.9795	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41030	The character of the last daies a sermon preached before the King / by John Fell.	Fell, John, 1625-1686.	1675 (1675)	Wing F607; ESTC R6424	13,719	28

8. 24. so a promise perform'd is not a promise all its obligation is ceast But tho our pacts and undertakings fall not under the notice of our senses it do's not therefore follow they are nothing Upon this transient blast of emty air hangs all the entercourse and traffic of the world If we will trust altogether to our eies and nothing to promises and words we must expect the self same diffidence from others and so be enemies and out-lawes to mankind Nor is the delaying of performance a prejudice against it T is true the morrow is to us a distant thing however suddenly expected and therefore Martial did not amiss to enquire of one who still undertook for the next day where his to morrow dwelt whether in Parthia or Armenia But with Almighty God every thing however distant it may seem is actually present and as whatever really is however contingently it happen'd certainly and necessarily is so whatever he has promis'd must certainly and necessarily be nay should be reckon'd on as already don But the discoursings of the mockers in the Text if they amount to any thing will run thus All things continue as they were since the beginning of the Creation therefore our Saviors promise of coming to judge the world is vain and frustaneous The weakness of which reasoning the Apostle effectually laies open by destroying every part of it First he denies the proposition or supposal that all things continue as they were since the Creation and Secondly he denies the consequence drawn from thence Tho all things did continue it no way follows they shall for ever do so and that the promise of a future change will not hereafter be accomplisht As to the Proposition it is observable that the Creation of the world is frankly here acknowledg'd tho it be to the evident disadvantage of the design'd Hypothesis If the world were once Created in that Act however transient it has shew'd its self liable to the greatest change since there are the same steps from not being unto being as there are back again the contrary way with this variety that it is easier to pass from a habit to its privation then it was from the privation to advance into the habit and therefore as the Universe did not exist heretofore so it may likewise not exist hereafter But the truth is the Origen of the World is a matter so notorious that even Epicurus and his followers could not over-look it and thought it a less absurdity to make a casual concurse of Atomes produce all the powers the motion the beauty and order of the World then to imagin it to have no beginning And to this they were induced not only by attending the chain of causes which in a succession of finite beings could not be infinite but more particularly from the observation of those evident marks of newness which appear every where thro-out the world and which are substantially urg'd by the Epicurean Apostle Lucretius in his 5 Book I mean the growth of Arts and Sciences the plantation of Countries the date of Histories the Analogy of Languages and the like But to pass forward Whereas t is urg'd by our Disputers that since the Fathers fell asleep all things continue as they did since the Creation t is obvious to reply that all things do not continue as they were because the Fathers are fallen asleep the destruction of all preceding generations being a very remarkable mutation in the Universe For however by constant successions the world has bin supplied yet since t is evident that all the parts are in perpetual flux and motion the whole which is nothing but an aggregate of those parts must needs be of the same complexion So that upon the matter the argument comes to this All things continue as they were since the Creation because nothing continues as it was since the Creation T is true the World has lasted a long time but so have divers other things which many ages since have perisht as also others which we see are perishing Let us consider artificial compositions for instance Buildings whereof the parts constantly decay and moulder and tho by diligent repairs the fabric is maintain'd so as to be habitable for several Ages yet at last in spight of all supplies it sinks into a ruine And thus it fares in that other fabric of our Bodies which we know are liable to a thousand accidents every one of which is able to destroy us and tho by the supply of food and careful tendance we are not only maintain'd in life but seem to grow and to be nurisht yet after a set period of years the whole drops down and by no art or care can be preserv'd So likewise in Societies that Aggregate of separate members allied together by civil bonds of union which we call the body Politic these we see preserve the same establishment and setled form of government for several Centuries of years and notwithstanding many shocks and great mutations recover their pristin constitution yet t is observ'd that there awaits even them a fatal period and that after 6 or 700 or at most 1000 years they are totally dissolv'd and overthrown From the which instances t is easy to collect that in Systems of all kinds whether artificial natural or political every thing is transient and engag'd to dissolution And tho the Universe in proportion to its vaster bulk have a much larger term assign'd to its duration then is prefixt to trivial little beings all equally must share in the same common law of fate and at length perish by inevitable ruine The age of Man is by David Ps 90. declar'd to be threescore years and 10 that of Nations and Governments is esteem'd as 100 unto 10 so that 6 or 700 years makes up their ordinary period Now whether the Universe go on by like progression and in accordance to the celebrated tradition its rate be as 1000 is to 10 and after a Millenary week and we know that the Apostle saies 1000 years is with God Almighty but as one day the everlasting Sabbath shall commence and 2000 years having past before the Law 2000 under it and 2000 in the Gospel the seventh thousand shall bring on the period of all accounts when time shall be no more I will not go about to calculate As God has conceled from us the day of our death and that of the destruction of Empires so has he of the Universe In the mean time t is sure more reasonable from the premises laid down to inferr the future destruction of the world and future doom then the denial of it especially since in consequence to what has bin surmis'd the times wherein the Gospel was first preacht are distinctively said to be the last times Act. 2. 17. and they who then liv'd to be those upon whom the ends of the world are come To which we may subjoin that our Savior has interpos'd his promise that the regular

is most happily acquir'd by an approch to drunkenness or frenzy and t will be no very advantagious barter to loose our understandings to advance our wit The Masters of Greek and Roman Rhetoric in their Institutions discourse indeed of causing laughter as a piece of the Art which they pretend to teach but they tell us t is only to be allowed in those causes which admit no other defence The Buffoon in a desperate exigence is to relieve the Orator impudence to supply the place of argument and wit fill up the room of sense as we see men who have no better weapon think it no shame to rake the canal and secure themselves by throwing dirt But what shall we say of those who have introduc'd this way of fight into the Christian Warfare those Schole divinity Drolls of this our Age who defend the Faith by destroying Charity attaque their fellow-men by those opprobrions methods of disputing by scoffs and railing accusations with which t were not allowable to oppose the Devil himself Jud. 9. T is certainly great pity a good cause should be asserted by such arguments as libel and reproch it such as cannot be urg'd but by the worst of Men and which even they will not produce till that all others fail them And were those flowers of Rhetoric weeded out of our late controversial books we should find large Volumes shrink into Manuals and be as little in their bulk as they are in their conviction Where ere this procedure takes place t is not at all material on what side the truth lies a Jest will as effectually provide an answer to a demonstration as to the most manifest inconsequence The brightest evidence and vertue disguis'd and render'd monstrous by burlesque like the Primitive Christians in the skins of wild beasts will easily be worried and destroied Nay so it fares that the most venerable persons things and actions are most liable to be thus expos'd and made ridiculous for whatever this beloved acquisition proves be it the gift of Nature meant certainly for better purposes or the product of drunkenness or frenzy or what is yet a shorter method of spight or malice it has a peculiar faculty to pervert the best and most useful things traducing sobriety for dulness gravity for foppishness order for formality learning for pedantry and is most immediatly prepar'd to cut the nerves of Government by despising Dominion and speaking evil of Dignities Jude 8. These are the men who as the roial Psalmist tells us make Songs of him who pretend therein not only to impunity but authoritative right and say they are those who ought to speake When these are once on the Tribunal nothing can scape their sentence the modesty of Virgins learning of Scholars wisdom of Counsellors integrity of Magistrates honor of Nobles the dearest interests of all conditions and estates are laught away as things not worth the keeping Nay Majesty its self is here obnoxious treated as our Savior was in order to his Crucifixion arai'd in a ridiculous robe arm'd with a reed instead of a roial Scepter then mockt and bowed to in reproch and then t is thought high time to hang it on a tree This leud familiarity ends in the worst contemt and nothing can be so unhappy as Autority when baffled The Coffee-house Rebell is more mischievous then he that takes the field and a Prince is sooner murder'd with a libell then a sword And therefore it will concern those who are in Autority to consider of what effect it may be that there are so many mockers of this form and level in these last times of ours My present enquiry is after those of a higher dispensation who set their mouth against Heaven and defy God and Providence which yet is but a natural emprovement of the other and no less powerfully if not much more destructive of Government and Lawes And therefore it will also be the Magistrates great interest as t is their highest duty to be concern'd herein To these ungodly mockers walking after their own lusts proud as they are and confident that the day of Judgment will either never be or is far off I shall not add more words upon that Head to their disturbance but mind them of another day which they cannot deny to be approching I mean the day of Death that sentence of the Lord over all flesh as the Wise man calls it which is the day of Judgment to each particular person as that of Doom is to the World And will these mockers ask in scorn where is this promise of his coming tho the Fathers are faln asleep do they hope by a peculiar privilege to continue still and reverse the general law of the Creation If the long day of the Fathers had a night who after 7 8 or 900 years went down to sleep in dust and when they did so there was no inquisition in the grave whether the date had bin so many hours but all their labors vanisht as they did in dull forgetfulness and silence shall our winter Solstice day whose Sun scarcely looks over the Horizon but instantly starts back again to dwell upon the other World so lye upon our hands as if the Sun were to stand still as it did in Joshuas time or to go back as it did in Hezechias that we might frolic it without disturbance in everlasting riot and excess The sensual Epicure describ'd at the 12 of St. Luke who said unto his soul Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thine ease eat drink and be merry tho he only overlookt and not deni'd a Providence was stopt in his carriere by hasty vengeance which pronounc'd this irreversible decree Thou fool this night thy soul shall be required of thee and then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided And let our jolly men of dissolute ungodly life who notwithstanding the concerns of their immortal soul are at leisure to make sport with every thing however Sacred who with scorn and greediness pursue unlawful plesures and bid defiance to Almighty Justice lay their hands upon their breast and ask themselves at what ensurance office they have secur'd a longer date of life how they come to know their soul shall not be requir'd or if it be how well they are prepar'd to give an answer to the question but now askt This very sentence at this moment is really pronounc'd against many thousands in the world who ere to morrows night will breath their last of which number not one single person that now hears me is sure that he is not Have they debated calmly with themselves what death is how many unwelcome circumstances are hudled up in that short word Can they willingly forego their houses and estates their tables and their beds and bid a long farwell to their dear company their paramours and flatterers lying gastly and cold and senseless imprison'd in a Coffin and immur'd in Earth To speak in the language of