Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A28167
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A lamentation over England and faithful warning to the inhabitants thereof by William Bingley.
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Bingley, William, 1651-1715.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing B2920; ESTC R25929
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19,983
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29
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Conscience from death and dead works to serve the living God in newness and purity of a Holy Life And now Oh that you all may be willing to take that good Counsel which was given by the Lord to a People of Old when he said by the Mouth of his Prophet Wash you make you clean put away from before me the Evil of your doings cease to do Evil and learn to do Well seek Judgment relieve the Oppressed judge the Fatherless plead for the Widdow Come now let us reason together saith the Lord though your Sins be as Scarlet they shall be as white as Snow though they be red as Crimson they shall be as Wool If you be willing and obedient you shall eat the good of the Land c. Isa 1. 16 17 18 19. These are the precious Promises of God to all who are willing to forsake the Evil of their doings and to turn to him with all their Hearts who desires not the death or destruction of any but rather that they may Repent and live And again the good Counsel and Advice of the holy Apostle ought to be minded and observed by you all which is on this wise Cleanse your Hands ye Sinners purifie your Hearts ye Double-minded be Afflicted and Mourn and Weep Let your Laughter be turned into Mourning and your Joy into Heaviness Humble your selves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up James 4. 8 9 10. And unless you thus humble your selves under the mighty Hand of God and turn to the Lord and forsake your sinful Wayes and evil Courses and wait to know a being washed in the Blood of Jesus Christ which cleanseth from all Sin that is the Fountain of God's free and great Love opened unto all Mankind you can never come to have a place in the Rest which God hath prepared nor in that Kingdom of eternal Glory which remains sure to the Righteous forever Now the Lord knows who searches the Hearts and tryeth the Reigns of all from whose all-seeing Eye nothing can be hid that I labour for and seek nothing more than your turning to the Lord with broken tender and penitent Hearts that you may find Mercy with God to your immortal Souls and that while you have dayes here in this world you may so live in his Fear Wisdom and Counsel as that when-ever your latter end cometh and Death looks you in the Face and summons you before the righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth you may lay down your Heads and go to your Graves in Peace with God and in a full assurance of a Habitation in that Eternal Joy where no Sorrow nor Sighing shall ever come These are the Desires and earnest Breathings of him whose Soul hath often been wounded and his Spirit grieved in the hearing and beholding the Wickedness and Abominations which have abounded and yet do abound amongst many unto this very day and also hath mourned and been bowed before the Lord in the sight and sence of that dreadful Day which will certainly overtake and come upon all those who continue in their Wickedness and Rebellion against God W. B. A VVarning to the Rulers and Magistrates c. ANd now all ye Rulers Magistrates and Men in Authority in ENGLAND and the Dominions thereunto belonging the Lord God of Heaven and Earth in whom Power and Authority remains forever To pull down and set up whomsoever he pleaseth is highly displeased with many of you not exempting the Wicked and Oppressive Rulers through the whole World because you have not feared before his eternal Power and Majesty by whom the Life Breath and Beeing of all Mankind and every living Creature is continued who can take it away and bring the highest and loftiest of Mortal Men to the Dust from whence they come at his Pleasure Neither have you waited to receive Wisdom and Counsel from him the great Counsellour to act and to discharge your selves as you ought to have done in so great Affairs and weighty Concerns as you have undertaken which if you had done ye would have encouraged Virtue and Righteousness in all and punished Vice and Wickedness where-ever it appeared and have been a Terror to Evil-doers and a Praise to them that were found doing Well and so would have eased the Oppressed by breaking the Bonds of Oppression and executed Justice and Equity in the Earth and thereby Truth and Holiness Purity and Righteousness would have been exalted among you and this would have brought Peace and lasting Satisfaction into your own Hearts and Joy and Tranquillity to the Nation in general But have not many of you done and acted to the contrary For instead of punishing Debauchery and Wickedness viz. Swearing Cursing Drunkenness Whoredoms Looseness and Prophanness in others which you ought to have done and to have been good Examples of Purity and Holiness in your Lives and Conversations to all are not many of you your selves living and taking delight and pleasure in the above-mentioned Evils and gross Abominations for which God the righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth who will not be byassed with Rewards will punish with everlasting Pain and eternal Flames if there be a continuing in them And many of you by your bad Lives and Conversations others having taken you for Examples have you not encouraged them in their Wickedness Is not that the cause which maketh Ungodliness abound as it doth among many at this day to the grief and sorrow of many who have truly desired to see the Current of Iniquity stopt And whether have you set up Judgment and Justice as you ought to have done Or executed it upon the Transgressors or eased the Oppressed or broken the Bonds of Oppression and have been a Terror to the Evil-doers and Encouragers of them that do Well But have not many of you punished and oppressed the Innocent and have executed your Cruelty upon them and have let the Transgressors and the Wicked go free And So are not Such found in the Steps of those against whom the Prophet of the Lord cryed out of old Saying Your Hands are defiled with Blood your Fingers with Iniquity your Lips have spoken Lyes your Tongues muttred Perverseness none calleth for Justice nor any pleadeth for Truth They trust in Vanity and speak Lyes They conceive Mischief and bring forth Iniquity Their works are works of Iniquity The act of Violence is in their hands Their feet run to Evil They make haste to shed Innocent Blood Wasting and Destruction are in their Paths The way of Peace they know not and there is no Judgment in their goings They have made them Crooked Paths whosoever goeth therein shall not know Peace and Judgment is turned away backward and Justice standeth a far off for Truth is fallen in the streets and Equity cannot enter yea Truth falleth and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a Prey And the Lord saw it and it displeased him that there was no Judgment Isa 59. 3 4 6
of hearkening thereunto you have evilly intreated them with Whipping Stocking Stoning spoiling of their Goods to the Ruining of many Families Imprisoning some to Death and Banishing others with many other gross and horrid Abuses wherewith you have entreated the Servants of the Lord for no other Cause than for the exercise of their Consciences towards God and reproving you for your Sins and crying to you for Amendment of Life which bespeaks you to be a People that hate Righteousness and love Iniquity chusing your own Vanities and slighting the Tender Mercies of the Lord God treasuring up to your selves Wrath against the Day of Wrath and so are bringing swift Destruction and Misery upon your selves Oh! My Soul mourns in the sight and sence of that dreadful Day which is coming upon you for your Transgressions and Rebellion against the living God and for your thus abusing and shamefully entreating them who have been sent unto you by the Lord who sought nothing but the good and everlasting Peace of your immortal Souls But none of these things have prevailed upon many of thy Inhabitants O England to soften your hard Hearts and to tender them before the Lord. For instead of ceasing from your Sins and Abominations which abound amongst many of you by true Repentance and Amendment of your Lives and Conversations and turning to the Lord who hath cryed to you many a time saying Turn you turn you why will you dye as he did to Israel of old but you have stopped your Ears as they did who were compared to the deaf Adder that would not hear the Voice of the Charmer charming never so wisely and so continuing still in your Abominations which the Lord would have gathered you from had you obey'd his Voice manifold Sins and Wickedness encrease amongst you as Swearing Cursing Damning Revelling Drunkenness Whoredoms and Murders with many other gross and shameful Impieties yea almost all manner of Wickedness Rebellion and Treachery both against God and Man abounds amongst many of you the Inhabitants of England for which God will bring Judgment Sorrow upon you yea such Sorrow as shall never have an end except you speedily Repent And those that can act these horrid Wickednesses and crying Sins which indeed make the Land Mourn without fear or shame as if they did not consider that there is a God who will punish for them are they not most esteemed and set up amongst many of you now a days and so that is seen to increase amongst many of you the Inhabitants of ENGLAND to the grief and sorrow of the hearts of many which the Prophet saw and concerning which he cryed out of old saying The Proud are counted Happy yea they that work Wickedness are even set up and they that tempt God are even delivered Mal. 3. 15. But let all such know who are guilty of these Evils your everlasting Thraldom and eternal Misery is coming on and will overtake you if ye speedily Repent not out of which you shall never be delivered And such as cannot run with the Multitude into those Evils and Abominations which provoke the Lord God of Heaven and Earth to Anger but live in the fear of God and a Life becoming Christianity as knowing they must give an Account and so must all the Sons and Daughters of men to God the Judge of all both quick and dead and must receive a Reward at his hand according to their Doings whether they be good or evil and so cannot rush into Iniquity with them as the Horse rusheth into Battel are become a Prey to the Ungodly and as objects of Scorn and Derision on whom the Wicked and the Ungodly execute their Cruelty and grievous Oppression yea Godliness and Piety is so little regarded amongst many who profess Christianity that a sober Life and a godly Conversation is become a Derision its Crime enough now a days among many for a man to have a civil Carriage and a sober Behaviour and to walk as one who fears the Lord to be scoffed at and vilified with reproachful Names as he passeth through Town or City So that Wickedness and Debauchery Looseness and Prophanness is encouraged and abounds Virtue and Sobriety are discouraged and decryed among many of you the Inhabitants of ENGLAND For we see many of you are living and spending your days here in this World in those things which are so contrary to Christianity Purity and Holiness without which none shall see the Lord as if there were no such thing to be known or minded by you And all those holy Admonitions in the Scriptures of Truth and the threatnings of Punishment and eternal Sorrow to the Wicked and Ungodly which the Scriptures are full of if timely Repentance be not known are slighted and disregarded by you as if they should never be fulfilled nor executed upon you And these are the Practices that have been and yet are found amongst you encouraged and upheld by you to this day against an innocent and harmless People whom God Almighty hath gathered and chosen out of the World the Ways and Abominations thereof to be a peculiar People to himself zealous of good Works who have always sought the good and peace of the Nation and the abounding of Justice and Equity therein and have often entreated the Lord and supplicated God on your behalf That he would not break in upon you the Inhabitants of ENGLAND by his fierce Wrath and sore Displeasure lest he should consume you all at once for your Sins and Transgressions against him who hath tendred Salvation but you refused it And many have laboured faithfully among you to turn you from Darkness to the Light of Christ which now shines blessed be the Lord forever and from Satans Power by which you have been and yet are captivated and prevailed upon to work Iniquity with greediness to the Power of God which would have Redeemed out of that Slavery and Captivity into the glorious Liberty and Freedom of the Sons of God had there been Obedience and Subjection yielded to it But this also hath been slighted and set at nought by many of you And those who have thus laboured and travelled among you for your good you have rewarded with Stocking Stoning and Imprisonments with many other gross and horrid Abuses as Jerusalem did of Old them that were sent to her And instead of turning to Christ the true Light that enlightens every man that cometh into the World John 19. You have made a scorn and a derision of it and have loved Darkness rather than the Light which manifests to you the Wickedness of your Evil Hearts and the Abominations that have lodged there because there Deeds are Evil John 3. 19 20. And so have hated the blessed Light that doth reprove for Sin loving your Sins for which you have been reproved better than the Light who hath reproved you And so have manifested your selves to be such as the Apostle spoke of Lovers of your own Pleasures Proud Blasphemers