Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	die_v	life_n	time_n	18,635	5	3.9362	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A46825	A sermon preached at the funeral of the right honble the Lady Frances Paget, the religious consort of the right honble William Lord Paget, (eldest daughter to the right honourable Henry Earl of Holland, who was beheaded for his loyalty to this King) in the parish-church of West-Drayton in the county of Middlesex, on the 12th of Nevember, 1672. By Jehu Jenny, M.A. and Vicar of Harmondsworth.	Jenney, John, d. 1697.	1673 (1673)	Wing J673A; ESTC R220733	15,009	28

the darkness But though there be an appointed time for this great and last change of man yet when that time will come is very uncertain Those infinite diseases and ca●ualties to which the life of man is incident so easily cut the thread of it fully evince that there is nothing more certain then the uncertainty of the hour of death One dies in his nonage another in the strength and vigour of his years and another in a full age one in his bed and another in the field Hodie mihi cras tibi The Bell went for such a one last but who shall go next God knows To any of us that are here in health this hour that for all we know before the next it may be said as St. Peter to Sapphira Acts. 5. Behold the feet of them which brought this honorable Person to her grave are ready to bear thee to the same place And therfore t is a point of the greatest 〈◊〉 to consider our latter end and prepare for it since its 〈◊〉 is so uncertain And perhaps in this case that advice of 〈◊〉 was not amiss to him that desired to know when was the best time to repent and reform his life in to whom he gave this answer that it was safest to do that the day before he died which was that present day for any thing he was assured of the contrary 2. As his particular coming at the hour of death is certain so is his last coming at the end of the World The son of man shall come in his glory and all his holy Angels with him and shall sit upon the Throne of his glory Mat. 25.31 And then we must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his Body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5.10 And St. Peter hath described this day with its attendant circumstances 2. Pet. 3.10 The day of the Lord will come in the which the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up This is an Article of our faith that Christ will come to judge the quick and the dead and is a deduction in Divinity that the belief of a God and of his providence and government of the world doth necessarily infer But of that day and hour when this judgment shall pass on the whole world knoweth no man Our Lord hath told us that this his coming will be as a thief in the night to allarm us to stand upon our guard and watch that we be not guilty of the improvidence and so overtaken with the surprize of the foolish Virgins We have the Doctrine of Christs coming and the use we should make of it both laid down by our Blessed Saviour in the 42. v. of this cb Watch therefore for you know not what hour your Lord doth come And again vers 44. Therefore be ye also ready for in such an hour you think not the son of man cometh There have indeed been some so bold as to adventure to define those times and seasons which the Father hath put in his own power and to pretend to a discovery of the Arcana Imperil of Heaven among the rest to determine when this day shall be but in that time hath overcome and outworn several their computations the presumption of their folly needs no other confutation To press you to that which is the natural result of this Doctrine diligence and faithfulness in doing your duty I shall only urge you with a double consideration about this coming of our Lord. I. It will be a severe and strict account our Lord will take of us when he comes He will bring every work into judgment with every secret thing Eccles. 12.14 All our irreligion and prophaness our injustice and oppression our intemperance and uncleanness There will be no imposing on him no prevaricating with him no palliating any fault cloaking it from him before whom all things are naked and open Heb. 4.13 Indeed if we be found faithful and that in the maine we are not tardy God will overlook I do not say he sees not but he will pass by our failings and infirmities our humane frailties But there be two things either of which if we be found guilty of it will go hard with us instead of an euge we shall have an apage Hypocrisie or Partiality 1. Hypocrisie and Insincerity in his Service whatsoever we do we must do it heartily as to the Lord. The heart is the chief part of the Sacrifice which if it be wanting God loaths the Oblation be it never so Costly To love the Lord our God with all the Heart with all the Soul and with all the Mind is the first and great Commandment of the Law Mat. 22.37 38. To bow and cringe in the Temple as the Syrian in the house of Rimmon and the heart to be at a distance is a Service f●…r for such a blind Idol than an all-seeing heart-searching God 2. Partiality A most unhappy error men are willing to deceive themselves with they think to do the will of God in a Figure will serve the turn and so give him a part for the whole If they are Zealous and forward in his Service and Worship he will wink at their Injustice and Oppression or if I am open-handed I may be wicked-hearted an Alms shall dispense for my Uncleanness my Loyalty atone for my Impiety and Debauchery if I have heapt up an Estate by indirect means and unrighteous practises to build a small Hospital or bequeath a petty Legacy to the Poor will sanctifie the whole lump of ill-gotten goods and effect my pardon for all my wickedness But God delivered to us the whole Decalogue and for the whole he will account with us I 'm sure we shall never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven with a maimed obedience If at the last day we shall plead any of this the good deeds we have done and think that they will expiate for whatsoever else we have omitted Christ will reply to us as to the Pharisees These ought ye to have done and not have left the other undone David's confidence was onely in a Catholick Obedience Psal 119.6 Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy Commandments 2. The Sentence that will be then past is final and decisive beyond any appeal or rehearing An error here is of most unhappy consequence there is no place for a second We shall then be adjudged either to an happy or a dismal Eternity to everlasting life or endless punishment Prayers and Tears Repentance and promises of amendment which if sincere are in this life effectual for Mercy and Pardon will then be unavailable so that indeed we have the Sentence of Life and Death within our selves 't is in our own choice whether we will be happy or miserable to

do that every man must labour in some calling or other if you bring up this levelling humour where 's the Gentleman was not he born like that Leviathan Job speaks of only to take his pastime in the World But a Reverend and modest † The Author of the whole Duty of Man Author hath made it out to be no Soloecism to assert a Gentleman to have a Calling the orderly disposal of his Family the preserving what in him lyes peace among his Neighbours the influencing all he converses with by a good example will not suffer him to be an exception to this general rule that every man in the world hath a Calling and to be diligent in it is every mans duty and that which is highly justifiable for the husband-man to be at his plough the trades-man in his shop the schollar at his book is to be so doing But here we must observe a double caution 1. That our general and particular Calling do not justle out or enterfere upon the duties of each other The wise Steward renders to each his portion in due season It is a sin for me to be in the market or in a worse place when I should be at the Church and on the other hand an indiscreet zeal must not make me neglect my Calling and to provide for my family such a profession renders me worse than an infidel 2. We must be sure keep within the bounds of our particular Calling for which we have an express command 1 Cor. 7.24 Let every man wherein he is called therein abide with God He that holds the plough must not touch the Ark the Apron and the Ephod the Shop and the Pulpit are distinct unless our Mechanick Preachers can confute St. Paul who saith that all are not Prophets nor all Apostles nor all Teachers The motion of a Christian must not be excentrick he must keep within bounds No man can climb the Throne or the Pulpit without a warrant from God lest it be said to him as the Egyptian to Moses Exod. 2.14 Who made thee a Prince a Judge over us who made thee a Preacher for No man taketh this honour unto himself but he that is called of God as was Aaron Heb. 5.4 Thus have I with all imaginable brevity gone through the several parts of mans duty shewed him what it is the Lord doth require of him to do justly to love mercy to be sober and temperate and walk humbly with his God So that by way of Application you will easily infer with me 1. That 't is not nihil agendo doing nothing Idleness is the Devils anvil on which he hammers us into any shape of vice or wickedness 't is a tempting of the Tempter a giving him the opportunity of throwing a temptation in our way and therefore it was St. Hieromes advice to be alwaies busied to prevent the Devils having this advantage over us Semper boni aliquid operis facito ut Diabolus te semper inveniat occupatum Had David been in the Camp or at Council-table when he walkt on the battlements of his house Bathsheba had washt her self without defiling uriahs bed Man is of an active nature if he be doing nothing he will quickly be doing something he should not Nor 2. Is it nil boni agendo doing that which is as good as nothing To spend a morning inter speculum et pectinem our eyes would ake and our hands grow weary should a Prayer-Book be our entertainment but a third part of that time the comb and the glasse take us up One meal consumes as much of our precious time as Luther spent of the whole day in prayer which was three houres Stratonitus said of the Rhoudians that they built houses as if they were immortal but feasted as if they were to live but a little while we who dwell in houses of clay feast as if we were immortal no life beyond this as if the indulging our sensual appetites were the highest satisfaction of our reasonable nature and the hoc agere of a Christian An empty visit wherein our entertainment is an idle and uncharitable censure of the actions of others and a debaucht Theatre share the rest of the day Than these the Emperours pricking of flies will be found a busie idleness more innocent Nor 3. Is it male agendo doing that which is worse than nothing doing evil committing sin This is the Devil's work and as he sets them to work from him they must expect their wages which what it is the Apostle lets them know beforehand Rom. 6.23 The wages of sin is eternal death This will not pass in the account it will not be well our Lord should find us so doing if he doth we shall have small thanks for our pains Which minds me of the third general of the text 3. The account will be taken of him the Lord of the family will come to take it himself though it be intimated that the time when he will come is very uncertain Here we must know that there is a particular and a general coming of our Lord to Judgement His particular coming to Judgment is on every one in particular at the hour of death Eccl. 12.7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it Where by the return of the soul to God we must understand its giving up an account of all its actions done in the flesh whether good or evil as certainly as the Body at death returns to its earthly Mother to be dissolved so assuredly the soul returnes to its heavenly father to be judged The general coming of Christ shall be at the last day when the dead bodies shall arise out of their graves and both soul and body receive the sentence of absolution or condemnation John 5.29 All that are in the graves shall come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation This latter is a ratification and publication of the former and a more full collation or infliction of reward or punishment Each of those Advents of our Lord are certain but the time of them very uncertain 1. His particular coming to Judgment is certain which is at the hour of death There is a Decree for this past and sign'd in Heaven Heb. 9.27 It is appointed for all Men once to die And you know what follows that And this Decree is irreversible like the Laws of the Medes and Persians Deaths vast spoils and large triumphs sufficiently prove its universal Empire 'T is not to purpose to insist upon this when there 's scarce any man living will shew himself so little a man as to question whether he be mortal The wise and the fool the King and the Subject the Pastor and his Flock the Honourable and the vile Person the Rich man and the Beggar all mustly down in the dust and make their bed as Job speaks in