Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A26784
|
The danger of prosperity discovered in several sermons upon Prov. I. 27 / by William Bates ...
|
Bates, William, 1625-1699.
|
1685
(1685)
|
Wing B1103; ESTC R15611
|
66,480
|
256
|
their Hearts of their revolting back to Pagan Idolatry and the Bondage of Satan And in the time of the Arian Persecution how many who by their Titles and Office were specially obliged to be valiant for the Truth and to contend earnestly for the Faith yet did accommodate their Profession to their aspiring Ambition and greedy Avarice The Standard of their Religion was the pitch of the State they had a politick Faith and appear'd either Orthodox or Arian as the publick Favour shin'd upon Truth or Heresy They rob'd our Saviour of the Honour of his Deity O astonishment rather than part with their beloved Dignities and Riches So powerful are humane Respects in those who mind earthly things Great force is requisite to pluck up a Tree that has its Roots spread and deeply fastned in the Earth and it cannot be so entirely separated but that part of the Roots will be broken thus when the Affections are deeply set in the World and by Pleasures and Riches fastned to it how hardly is it rent from it every Fibre of the Heart is broken with sorrow As Lot's Wife when by an Angel forc'd out of Sodom yet cast a lingring affectionate look after it and was turn'd into a Pillar of Salt The Separation is as bitter as the Possession is sweet and none are more unwillingly divorc'd from the World than those who enjoy the confluence of earthly happiness Now when secular Interest outweighs Duty when apparent Danger induces to deny the Truth of Christ how terrible and unavoidable will be the punishment of that disloyalty Our Saviour's threatning is universal Whosoever shall deny me before Men him will I deny before my Father which is in Heaven A most righteous and dreadful retribution They denied him as their Lord and he denies them as his Servants They usurp'd the Title of Christians the Relation of his Disciples and in the last Day he will publickly disown them When that sad Sentence shall come from their Judg Depart ye cursed I know you not what confusion what anguish will seize upon them They shall be banish'd from his glorious Kingdom excommunicated from his blessed Society and tormented with the rebellious Angels for ever 'T is true this universal and peremptory Threatning must be understood with an exception of those who after their falling away are restor'd by Repentance Sometimes a Christian that has deliberately and entirely devoted himself to Christ that has sincerely resolved rather to part with his Life than that for which Life is worthy the enjoying yet by strong temptations has been faint-hearted and denied the Truth like one that disannuls in the heighth of a Fever the Will he made in his composed Mind but afterward such have resumed new courage and have by enduring the sharpest Sufferings confirm'd the Truth and ascended to Heaven in a fiery Chariot Lastly The Prosperity of Sinners is the great temptation to delay repentance till their state is desperate Nothing fills Hell with so many lost Souls as the putting off Repentance till hereafter How many Diseases would be cur'd in time if they threatned present Death but their Malignity being of a slow operation they are despised as not worth the trouble of a Cure till they are desperate 'T is in Spiritual Diseases as 't is in those of the Body for Sin that is a sickness unto Death might be prevented by speedy Repentance but many not apprehending present Danger neglect the precious Remedy till they are desperately ruin'd To day if you will hear his Voice harden not your Hearts The Command respects the Season as well as the Duty As our Obedience must be entire without reserves so it must be present without delay even in our early Age and continued in the whole tenor of our Life The Worm of Conscience sometimes nips Security and there is a strange union of Contrarieties in the Breast of a Sinner that makes him inexcusable and incurable He complains of the bondage to his Lusts yet takes pleasure in it he is convinc'd 't wil be destructive yet voluntarily continues in that sweet captivity If Conscience be troublesome he pacifies it with an intention to reform hereafter and thinks that a future Repentance will be sufficient to prepare for a future Judgment And none are so easily and willingly deceived to their everlasting ruin by this pretence as those who enjoy the present World Prosperity makes them forgetful of the Grave and humane Vicissitudes and hardens them in deep Security 'T was the Divine Prayer of Moses So teach us to number our days as to apply our hearts unto Wisdom implying that the great Cause of Mens destructive folly is from not reflecting upon the shortness and uncertainty of their Time here Death is certain to the Old and Life uncertain to the Young There are many back Doors to the Grave and Men are led surprisingly thither The time of their residence here is fixed by the Divine Determination and concealed from their Eyes How many in their Youth and Prosperity have presum'd upon a long Life yet unexpectedly have returned to their Earth as a Wall covered with Ivy that falls on a suddain with its green Ornaments by its weight and weakness The Hour of Death is the hour of mens Destiny for ever There is no space of Repentance in the interval between Death and Judgment but the Soul immediately after its departure receives a decisive irrevocable Doom that is in part executed and shall be publick and entirely executed at the last Day Yet Men boldly venture to continue in their pleasant Sins upon the forlorn hope of a Season to repent hereafter Astonishing enormous Folly as if they were assured of Time and the Divine Grace And thus 't is fully proved how fatal and destructive Prosperity is to the Wicked The second thing to be consider'd is the Folly of prosperous Sinners Folly is the Cause of their abusing Prosperity and the Effect of their Prosperity abused The most proper Notion of Folly is that the Understanding mistakes in judging and comparing things from whence the Will slides into Error and makes an unworthy choice And according to the weight and consequence of things the more remarkable is the degree of Folly in not discerning their Differences Now when Men value and are delighted in temporal Prosperity as their Happiness and Heaven with its Glory Joys is neglected and vilified in the comparison 't is Folly above all wonder Folly of so rare and singular a Nature that if the judicative Faculty were not corrupted it were impossible they should be guilty of it This will appear by considering the essential and inseparable Properties of Man's Felicity 't is perfective and satisfying of Man in his supream Faculties 1. The perfection of Man does principally consist in the excellencies of his spiritual immortal part As in the various kinds of Creatures there is something that is their proper Excellency for which they were made and accordingly are valued as
fall and both defile and wound themselves Briefly they are truly miserable here even whilst they most pleasantly and contentedly enjoy the World they are accumulating the Treasures of Wrath and preparing new Torments for their Souls they stand upon brittle Ice and Hell is beneath ready to swallow them up in its deepest Gulph As 't is said by the Apostle concerning the Saints darkend by Sorrows here that their glorious Life is hid in God and shall illustriously appear with Christ at his second Coming So the terrible Death of the Wicked whilst they flourish here is hid from the Eyes of Sense but shall be revealed in the Day of Wrath. And to a wise Observer to a serious Believer the prosperous Sinner is the most unhappy and compassionable Object in the World for he perishes by such a flattering kind of Death that he is neither apprehensive nor affected with his Danger And when an illuminate Christian sees the Marks of Damnation in Sinners whom Prosperity deceives and hardens he cannot but be tenderly moved and is obliged most earnestly to pray to the merciful Father of Spirits whose Grace is Omnipotent that he would recover their lapsed Souls bleeding to eternal Death If there be any heavenly Charity in our brests it will melt our hearts and dissolve us in tears to prevent or at least to solemnize and lament their heavy Destiny 5. From hence we are instructed to judg truly and wisely of Afflictions they are the necessary and merciful Dispensations of Heaven to recover Sinners corrupted by Prosperity and to return them to God Sense tho its principal end is to preserve the Body is not always a fit judg of things beneficial to it the Appetites and Aversions are sometimes pernicious One in a Dropsy drinks to quench his Thirst and increases his Distemper A bitter Potion is rejected by a sick Child not considering that a Medicine not Sweet-meats can cure his Disease The pleasure of the taste is no certain indication of what is wholsome for Health much more uncapable is Sense to judg of what is useful for the Soul Reason is entirely renounc'd and fallacious Sense is in the Throne when Prosperity with its gaudy Allurements is esteemed as our Happiness and Adversity is abhorr'd as the worst Misery The Wise Man instructed by dear Experience tells us It is better to go to the House of Mourning than to go to the House of Feasting for that is the end of all Men and the living will lay it to heart Sorrow is better than Laughter for by the sadness of the Countenance the Heart is made better The Heart of the Wise is in the House of Mourning but the Heart of Fools is in the House of Mirth Prosperity irritates and fortifies the sensual vile Affections the pleasing of which is fatal to the Soul As 't is observed by the natural Historian that the sparkling Colour and delicious Relish of Wine tempts Men to drinking without thirst and from Intemperance innumerable Diseases flow Prosperity diverts the Mind from considering the things that belong to our eternal Peace and the Will from consenting to them The Thoughts are so scattered abroad that few are left at home duly to ponder the miserable Effects of Sin Now in this the Rules of natural and spiritual Medicine agree that one Extream is to be cured by another The Devil cruelly destroys the Souls of Men by the pleasures of Sin and God the wise and compassionate Physician recovers them by bitter Sorrows the most congruous and powerful means for that blessed Effect Affliction makes us retire within our Hearts and shuts out the noisy throng of worldly distracting Objects and then Truth and Conscience that were under unrighteous Restraints will break the Fetters and speak loudly and terribly to the Sinner Affliction fixes the Mind upon those Objects that duly considered are able to terrify the most determin'd and resolved Sinner There is no Man so prodigiously bad so perfectly a Brute but has at times some twinges of Conscience some workings in his Spirit some desires of Salvation Even Balaam who in the judgment of the Angel was more stupid than the Ass he rode on yet had some springings in his heart towards Heaven O that I might die the Death of the Righteous and my last end may be like his but these are fleeting and variable and so weak in comparison of the Opposite desires of the Flesh while Prosperity continues that they prove abortive Now affliction deads the flaming edge of the Affection to Vanity When the Sinner feels the truth of the divine Threatnings then he is effectually convinc'd of the Evil of Sin and understands by the beginning of Sorrows here what the Issues will be hereafter and retracts his foolish choice In the time of Affliction our Sins find us out and 't is most likely we shall then find our Sins out and with repenting tears acknowledg them and with hatred renounce them Now the consideration of the designed Benefit by Afflictions should reconcile them to our Wills and perswade us with patience and thankfulness to accept of them as the Testimonies of God's peculiar favour Our Saviour declares As many as I love I rebuke and chasten be zealous and repent God is often most angry when he makes no sensible discovery that he is so thus he threatens the rebellious Jews I will make my Fury towards thee to rest and my Jealousy shall depart from thee and I will be quiet and will be no more angry implying a final divorce a leaving them to their impure Idolatries without more correction If there be such a hardness of heart as the Fire cannot melt such a rust that the Fire cannot purify God will not waste his Judgments on such desperate Sinners He withdraws his chastising hand as hopeless of their amendment and that desertion is a fatal signature of Reprobation And on the contrary many times God's Love is most tender and compassionate to us when to Sense there is the least evidence of it Even the Heathens in the twilight between the darkness of Idolatry and the light of Nature discovered that Afflictions were the privilege of those that are singularly beloved of God And Christians have a more sure word for their instruction Whom the Lord loves he chastens and scourgeth every Son whom he receives There is not a stronger evidence of his fatherly wise Love than the discipline of the Rod and the afflicted returning Sinner may with an adoptive assurance come to the Throne of Grace By afflictions the World is less enticing and hurtful to us and Heaven is more amiable and desirable the things that are seen are vilified and distasted and invisible things are sought with our highest esteem and respect and zealous endeavours Those Lusts that spring and grow and flourish in Prosperity are blasted and wither and die in adversity Those who forget God when prosperous in the World are taught by the voice