Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A67572
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A sermon preached before the peers, in the abby-church at Westminster October 10, MDCLXVI / by Seth Lord Bishop of Exon.
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Ward, Seth, 1617-1689.
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1666
(1666)
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Wing W828; ESTC R10647
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21,004
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34
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and with Thousands of our Brethren who were better and more righteous than we Let us once more then return into our selves Let us consider our condition let us veiw over and ballance the grounds of our hopes and the reasons of our fears Let us take an exact account of our whole estate and interest in reference to all our concernments National and Personal Temporal and Eternal Let us deliberate and advise what is to be done and what to be avoided Did I say deliberate Whether we shall save our souls from utter darkness and everlasting burnings Whether we shall save the Nation from final ruine and desolation Nay rather Let us break off our sins by repentance and our Iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor Let us make our selves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness that-when we fail we may be received into everlasting habitations Let us lend unto the Lord that we may have treasure in Heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt nor theives break through and steal Let us fast the fast that the Lord hath chosen Loose the bands of wickedness feed the hungry cloath the naked he that hath two Coats let him give to him that hath none and he that hath meat let him do likewise Such an occasion scarce happens in many hundreds of years and for motives to charity they are all comprised in that great argument of the Judgment to come When the Son of Man shall come to Judgment and shall sit upon the Thnone of his Glory When all Nations shall be gathered before him and he shall set the Sheep on his right hand and the Goats on his left This shall be the mark of their discrimination He shall say to those on his right hand I was hungry and ye fed me thirsty and ye gave me drink naked and ye cloathed me sick and in prison and ye visited me Come ye blessed of my Faiher receive the Kingdom prepared for you And he shall say unto them on the left hand I was hungry and ye fed me not thirsty and ye gave me no drink c. Wherefore go ye cursod into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels The way is short and compendious to save all our interests What doth the Lord require of us but to do justly to love mercy to walk humbly before the Lord our God Let us be merciful therefore as our heavenly Father is merciful and let us humble our selves under the Almighty hand of God as we pretend to do this day Let us betake our selves afore-hand to our Judge and pour out our complaints before him Let us confess our wickedness and be sorry for our sins Let us lay hold on the feet of our Blessed Redeemer and give him no rest till he hath sealed our pardon Let us bathe with our tears the wounds that we have made Let us cry mightily to the Throne of Grace Let us wrestle and strive with our Redeemer and not les him go until he bless us Until he open our eyes to see the dangers we are in and through his mercy shew us a way to escape them Till he quicken us up to resolutions of amendment and carry us strongly through these resolutions Until he heal our back-slidings and make up our breaches Until he save our souls from death and our Nation from destruction To work our selves to these Resolutions and to fix us in them to make them abide upon us all our days let us remember what hath been spoken and let us frequently meditate upon that Sarcastical Concession of the Text Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the days of thy youth walk in the ways of thy heart and the sight of thy eyes But know that for all these things God will bring thee to Judgment FINIS I. II. III. IV. V. VI. Applic. general Esai 66. 15. Applic particular Esai 9.
Behold God calls upon us Turn you turn you at my reproof why will you dye O House of Israel As I live saith the Lord I desire not the death of sinners Our Lord Christ calls upon us Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you In the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles he stood and cryed Saying If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink The Spirit says come and who ever will let him come and take of the water of life freely The Gospel assures us That God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life Behold I set before you this day life and death blessing and cursing and as an unworthy Ambassadour in Christs stead I pray you be reconciled to God take his yoke upon you his yoke is easie and his burden light embrace now the tender of the Gospel only repent and believe in the Lord Jesus accept him for your Saviour and your Lord. Your Prophet to instruct you your King to govern you your Priest to save you and you shall be saved Saved from the fears and horrors of a Guilty Conscience condemned by its own witness Saved from the wrath of God and of the Lamb. You shall meet the Lord with Confidence We shall be able to stand with boldness in the Judgment to lift up our heads with joy because our redemption draweth near This is the way to save our own souls from perishing which is the General design of all our Preaching And this is the way to appease the wrath which is gone out against us and to preserve our Nation from destruction which is the particular and more immediate end of our present Humiliation whereof I am yet to speak THe hand indeed of the Lord hath been heavy upon us his wrath hath been kindled it hath waxed hot against the Sheep of his pasture and he hath plagued our Nation very sore His Judgments have been multiplyed his strokes have been redoubled and for all this his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still Warrs and Pestilences and those other fore-runners of Christ's coming to Judgment have been seen and felt amongst us and now when these have not been able to prevail To awaken a drowsie people to rowse up a Lethargic Nation to ferment a people setled upon their Lees. God has made anew thing in the midst of us he hath wrought a work in our days which makes the ears of all that hear it to tingle A work not to be parallel'd perhaps in all the circumstances since the Creation of the World How hath the Lord covered the Daughter of our Zion with a cloud in his anger and hath cast down from Heaven to Earth the beauty of Israel and remembred not his footstool in the Day of his Anger he hath swallowed up the habitations of his people he hath taken away his Tabernacles and destroyed his places of Assemblies the Ramparts and the Walls lament and languish her Gates are sunk to the ground her Barrs are destroyed Who can express the terror of this fatal Judgment the unexpected eruption the sudden increase the irresistible force the remorsless rage the insatiable voracity of this fiery Judgment the present sufferings the lasting miseries of private persons are inexpressible the publique damage the dangerous consequences it may be unconceivable What thing shall I liken to thee O Daughter of my People Whereunto shall I compare the day of thy Visitation To the destruction of Jerusalem to the great and terrible day of Judgment O the terrors and affrightments the shreikes and lamenations the agonies the confusions of that Day They that were on the house top durst not stay to take any thing out of their houses nor he that was in the field return back to take his Cloathes they that were in the City betook themselves to the Fields and Mountains where they beheld their flaming habitations where they trembled to behold the abomination of desolation raging in the holy places How were the wise men amazed and the strong men terrified despair seised them counsel and strength fled away from them there was no help in them they presently gave all for lost they stood affrighted at a distance gazing at the dreadful spectacle in vain they thought it to contend it looked so like the coming of the Son of Man The breath of the Lord kindled the fire he rode upon Cherub he came flying upon the wings of the wind He made the winds his Messengers and the flames of fire his Ministers He brought the Winds out of his Treasure and to point the flame directly upon the bulk and body of the City through his power he brought in the South-East wind as a theif in the night as pains upon a woman in travel as the lightning that cometh from the East and passeth to the West so came this flaming Judgment and so shall the coming of the Son of Man be I cannot endure to dilate upon this Argument Sorrow and anguish are in the consideration of it Animus meminisse horret luctuque refugit Great is the Judgment and there is reason for us to fear that it may be portending and symtomatical YEt who can tell but God may have mercy upon us but he may yet save us from destruction though our breach be great as the Sea yet is not in it self irreparable though our wounds be deep and gaping they are not desperate or uncurable hitherto we may say with the Apostle We are chastned but not killed afflicted but not in despair The signs and symptoms of an approaching final Judgment are not so decretory and peremptory that we should despair God's signal Judgments have hitherto been accompanyed with signs of mercies and this is a plain case that he is not fond of our destructions and that he had rather that we should live He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men He stands pausing and hoesitating as he did once before O Ephraim how shall I give thee up O Ephraim O England How shall I give thee up O England What mean else those Alternations and those mixtures and combinations of wonderful Judgments and of wonderful deliverancies and mercies which our ears have heard and our eyes have seen We have heard with our ears and our Fathers have told us what wonderful deliverances he wrought in their time of old We have seen vicissitudes great and prodigious mixtures and combinations marvellous in our eyes horrible destructions and wonderful restitutions succeeding one another raging Plagues at home and signal Victories abroad God hath filled us with bitterness and covered us with ashes But it is his mercy that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not If the arm of his Justice and Severity hath been made bare that it might be seen of all the people He hath not left his mercy without