Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	eternal_a	sin_n	wage_n	12,499	5	11.2125	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27472	A mirror that flatters not, or, A looking-glass for all new-converts to whatsoever perswasion, Roman-Catholicks, Conformists, or Non-conformists : that is, certain sermons of St. Bernard translated into English ... : together with a preface of the translator to all new-converts ...; De conversione ad clericos. English	Bernard, of Clairvaux, Saint, 1090 or 91-1153.	1677 (1677)	Wing B1982; ESTC R5454	46,594	72

their very shortness uncertain they often forsake us whilst we live and we must always leave them when we die Amongst all things that happen to men what is more certain than Death and what more uncertain than the hour of death Death has no compassion for Poverty nor no regard for Riches it spares no body neither for their Extraction nor their Manners nor for their Age neither only with this difference it stands at the doors of Aged persons and lies in ambush for those that are Young Unhappy therefore he who confiding in the darkness and slipperiness of his life takes a great deal of lost labour never adverting that what he labours for is a meer vapour that strait disappears vanity of vanities O thou that art ambitious hast thou at length got the Dignity thou hast been long gaping after Keep what thou hast And thou lover of Money hast thou filled thy Coffers have a care thou be'st not rob'd Has thy Field brought a plentiful Crop Pull down thy Barns that thou maist build greater turn all things topsy-turvy say unto thy Soul Soul thou hast many Goods laid up in store for many years But there shall be one that will say Fool this night shall they require thy Soul of thee but those things thou hast gotten whose shall they be CHAP. XV. That the Works which we do in time are as it were Seeds of Eternal Reward AND would to God the things that were gathered together only did perish and not which is far worse that their Gatherer did perish also For it were more tolerable to labour lost labour than such labour as will ruine us But now the wages of sin is death and he who sowes in the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption For our works do not pass as they seem to do but all temporal works are sown as seeds of Eternity The Fool shall be amazed when he shall see out of this small seed to rise up a plentiful Harvest whether good or bad according to the different quality of what was sown He that considers this deems no sin to be small for that he rather regards the future Harvest than the present Seed-time Men therefore sow when they know not what they do and when they hide Mysteries of Iniquity when they conceal Counsels of Vanity when in darkness they transact Works of Darkness CHAP. XVI That it is impossible for him that sins so to hide himself as not to be seen I Have Walls says he round about me who sees me Let it be no man sees thee yet notwithstanding somebody sees thee Thy bad Angel sees thee thy good Angel sees thee and one that is greater than both bad and good Angels God sees thee the Accuser sees thee a multitude of Witnesses see thee yea the very Judg himself before whose Tribunal thou must one day stand sees thee in whose sight to do amiss is as mad as it is dreadful to fall into the hands of the Living God Be not secure ambushes lie secretly hid which thou canst not hide thy self from ambushes I say lie hid which as thou canst not see so thou canst not be seen by them Hear the naked truth he who planted the Ear and he who made the Eye he looks upon thee The rayes of that Sun are not kept out by an heap of stones which himself created not even the very wall of this our body can exclude his prospect of the very truth All things lie open to his sight it is more piercing than a two-edged Sword Moreover he not only sees but also distinctly discerns the ways of our thoughts and immost affections Finally if he did not see more clearly than man himself the very bottom of mans heart and whatsoever lies hid in it one that were conscious to himself of nothing would not now so greatly fear the sentence of his Lord that is to judg him To me says he it is the least of all that I should be judged by you or by man's day but neither do I judg my self for I am guilty of nothing as far as I know my self but for all this I am not justified but he who judges me is the Lord 1 Cor. 4. v. 3 4. If by the interjection of a wall or by some counterfeit pretext thou gloriest that thou shalt be able to cheat the judgments of men assure thy self true crimes shall never escape his notice who is wont to accuse us even of false ones If thou doest so greatly dread thy Neighbours being conscious to thy life who perhaps does no less fear thy being conscious to his much less oughtest thou to contemn their knowledg to whom iniquity is more odious and corruption far more execrable If finally thou doest not fear God and reverest only the sight of men remember the man Christ cannot be ignorant of the deeds of men and what thou wouldst not dare to attempt in my presence much less dare to attempt in his and what thou wouldst not think lawful nay even would not please thee to presume to do in the sight of thy fellow-servant abhor to have so much as a thought of it thy Lord looking upon thee Or if thou wilt needs stand in more awe of an eye of Flesh than of that Sword which is to devour Flesh even that very fear which thou fearest shall happen unto thee and what thou dreadest shall come to pass Nothing is hid which shall not be revealed or secret which shall not be known Works of darkness being brought forth into the light shall be condemned by the light not only the abominable secrets of obscenities but also the unjust bargains of the sellers of the Holy Sacraments and the fraudulent sighs of Deceivers and subverters of Judgment he who knew all things shall make these things known to all when that Searcher of the heart and reins shall begin to search Jerusalem with Candels CHAP. XVII What we may judg will become of those who live wickedly WHat therefore shall they then do or rather vvhat shall they then suffer vvho have committed vvickedness vvhen they shall hear Get ye into eternal fire you vvho have done no vvorks of Piety For hovv shall he be admitted to the Marriage-Feast vvho neither girt up his loins that he might abstain from evil nor held a light in his hand that he might do good vvhen neither the integrity of Virginity nor the clarity of Lamps shall be able to excuse the bare vvant of Oil Or vvhat torment may vve vvell believe does expect those vvho in this life do not only bad things but perhaps the very vvorst of things if they vvho here received good things are so to be tormented that in the midst of scorching flames they shall not be able to obtain the least drop of cold vvater to refrigerate their burning tongues Let us therefore have a care vve do no bad things nor freely offend vvithin the Church out of a confidence of being included in the net knovving this that not

made you a Steward of a fair Estate you consider how he would have you employ it how much upon your own necessary expences and how much upon the poor c. The like for whatever Talents of Learning or natural Parts God Almighty has endowed you with studying to employ all to the greater good of the World after the example of the great Pattern of all Perfection our Blessed Saviour who went about doing good And you if you will be worthy of that high Name of a Christian must endeavour in this and all other regards to walk as he walk'd He that says he abides in Jesus Christ ought even as he walked himself also to walk 1 Joh. 2. 6. That is as Venerable Bede expounds those Divine words Non ambite terrena c. Not to seek earthly things not to follow after perishable gains to fly Honours to embrace all worldly Contempt for Heavenly Glory willingly to do good to all to injure no-body and patiently to suffer injuries from others yea to ask their Pardon of God who injure us never to seek our own but always to seek our Maker's Glory and to make as many as we can together with us to affect things above To do these and such like things as these is to follow the footsteps of Christ If the Conversion so frequently mentioned in Holy Scriptures with a promise of life eternal particularly in the 18th of Ezek. Why will ye dye O house of Israel because I will not the death of him that dieth saith the Lord God Return ye and live If this Conversion or returning to God Almighty signified no more but an embracing of the right Faith or true Religion it were an easy thing indeed especially for a great many to escape eternal death and to obtain eternal life But the truth is the Conversion to which eternal life is promised by Almighty God is a Conversion of another nature In three words it is the Conversion which is most excellently described by St. Bernard in the following Sermons Get that and you are eternally happy want that and the being of whatsoever Perswasion never so holy or never so good will not be able to hinder you from being eternally miserable A great enquiry is made which is the true and pure Church of Christ And no doubt but it is a Question of high moment and concern but according to the best of my understanding considering the present State of Religion in England it much more concerns all that sincerely and heartily desire to be eternally happy to enquire supposing me to be of the true Church of Christ what is still further necessary for my Salvation and to use the utmost industry for the acquiquisition of that main thing necessary whatsoever it is A Conversion to a few exterior Rites and Ceremonies is very easy and a forsaking all exterior Rites and Ceremonies is no less easy and we would all gladly be happy in the other World but we would gladly also have this happiness at as easy a rate as may be and therefore no monder so few of all Perswasions in good earnest labour to get their hearts and souls throughly converted unto God though this and only this be that which can indeed make us eternally happy because this is a work of immense difficulty to corrupt nature but rather innumerable multitudes satisfy themselves with little more than the exterior form of the Church or Perswasion they adhere unto Though all acknowledg that without an hearty Conversion to God Almighty in this World there 's no hopes of seeing him for ever in the next For example what Perswasion is there amongst us that does not acknowledg a true and hearty regard of Almighty God to be necessary to Salvation and that this our piety to God must express it self by hearty and devout Prayer And that Charity to our Neighbour is also necessary to Salvation and that this Charity must express it self by Alms-deeds and other good offices to our Neighbour according to his necessity and our ability And that also a moderate use of meat drink and other necessaries of this life is also necessary to Salvation And moreover do not all Perswasions agree that in case we have sinned not only hearty sorrow and repentance is necessary to Salvation but that this sorrow if it be true and hearty will express it self by some exterior acts of humiliation more or less for example by weeping mourning sighing frequent humble ejaculations to Heaven for Pardon fasting neglected Attire c. All this notwithstanding how few of the several Professors of Religion amongst us spend any considerable time in devout and holy Prayers or any considerable proportion of their Estates in works of Charity or notoriously deny themselves in eating drinking apparel c. In which great and main Substantials of Christianity if we did holily strive who should most of all abound this were the more ready way to bring us to be all of one mind rather than our quarrels and disputes oftentimes about matters of very small concern as to our eternal welfare To instance only in the duty or virtue of Repentance which we all acknowledg to be necessary to Salvation and one of the first works a New-Convert ought especially to be exercised in My Conscience tells me I am guilty of many and enormous wickednesses The acts of my several sins and abominable impieties are past but they have highly provoked my Creator and God against me have left foul footsteps behind them in my own Soul and have moreover done no small damage to the Souls of many of my poor Neighbours and Acquaintance How now must all these grand mischiefs be repair'd Surely I can never hope for eternal happiness from Almighty God in the next life vnless by some means or other I first appease his justly incensed anger against me in this And if no unclean thing can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven the foul footsteps my impieties have left behind them must be effaced before I partake of eternal Bliss And if I may not presume to offer my gift in God's Temple here below before I have first reconciled my self to my offended Brethren can I hope to be admitted into the Holy of Holies of the Great God above before I have made some repair of the inestimable damage I have done many of my poor Brethrens souls But what remedy of so many and so great evils I know none but a zealous return to the ancient Primitive Practice of Christian Repentance Let us not deceive our selves we offend the same God the Primitive Christians did and profane the same Sacrament of Baptism by our sins which they did by theirs and unless we will flatter our selves with vain hopes we must not think to expiate those sins with a few Paters and Aves which cost them whole years exercises in Penitential Austerities Quam magna deliquimus tam granditer defleamus c. As heinously says St. Cyprian Serm. de Lapsis And as greatly

as we have sinned so greatly and so grievously let us weep and lament for our sins To a deep wound let a long and careful Cure not be wanting let not our pennance be less than our fault Doest thou think that thou canst be able presently and forthwith to appease Almighty God whom with perfidious words thou hast denied before whom thou hast preferred thy Patrimony whose Temple thou hast sacrilegiously violated Doest thou think that he will easily have mercy on thee whom thou hast said that he was none of thine It behoves thee to pray unto him and to beseech him with all earnestness to pass the day in mourning and to spend whole nights in watching and tears to fill all time with doleful lamentations to make ashes thy bed to roll thy self in dust and haircloath and since thou hast lost the garment of Christ now thou shouldst desire to have no garment at all after the food of the Devil thou shouldst desire fasting zealously busy thy self in such good works whereby sins are purged give frequent Alms by which souls are delivered from death what the Adversary would have taken away from thee let Christ receive nor ought that Patrimony to be kept or loved by which one has been deceived and overcome The sad ezperience of frequent and easy relapses into bewailed wickednesses shew us how vain and frivolous that Repentance was by which they were pretended to have been abolished The sad wounds caused in our souls by our sins as is manifest by their so speedy breaking out again were only covered not cured As the Clergy of Rome complains of certain Priests Ep. 31. ad Cypr. who by a false sweetness precipitated the Reconciliation of Sinners How say they can they be cured in receiving the Grace of Absolution and the Indulgence of the Church if the Chirurgeon himself cut short the Pennance and make himself indulgent to their ruine and destruction if he cover only the wound and will not expect till the Remedies which have need of time close it Assuredly this is not to cure souls but if we will speak the truth 't is to kill them In fine let us make it our business to experiment in the inmost of our spirits this Repentance o● Conversion so excellently and fully described in the following Divine Sermons of St. Bernard and this is in one word to say all By this if we can attain it we shall fully appease our incensed God for our sins past perfectly secure our weak frail selves from relapsing into the same our repented sins and abundantly edify whomsoever we may have justly offended by our former unchristian Conversation FAULTS PAge 3. blot out line 18 and 19. p. 52. l. 16. for despair read desire p. 55. l. 24. for she r. he A SERMON Preached to the CLERGY Concerning Conversion CHAP. I. That no body can be converted to God unless he be prevented by the Will of God and by his Voice crying unto him within YOU are met together as I believe to hear the Word of God for indeed there does not occur to me any other cause of this your so fervorous a concourse By all means I approve of this your desire and congratulate with you for your laudable zeal For blessed are they which hear the Word of God but provided also that they keep it Blessed are they that remember his Commandments but to the end that they may do them For he has the words of Eternal Life and the Hour is come and would to God it were now when they shall hear his voice and they that shall hear it shall live For life is his will And if you desire to know it his will is our Conversion In fine hear himself Is the death of the impious my will says the Lord and not rather that he should be converted and live Ezek. 18. v. 23. By which words we evidently see how that true life is not to be had by us but by Conversion nor can we enter into it any other way Our Lord telling us plainly Vnless ye be converted and made like little ones ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 18. v. 3. And with good reason do little ones enter for the little Child conducts them who for this end was born and given us I ask then what voice is that which the dead hear and when they have heard it live for perhaps it is necessary to Preach the Gospel even to the dead And opportunely there occurs a short word but a full one which the mouth of the Lord has spoken as his Prophet testifies Thou hast said says he speaking without doubt to the Lord his God Be converted O ye sons of men Jer. 3. And indeed deservedly does Conversion seem to be required from the sons of men to wit absolutely necessary for sinners For to the supernal Spirits that praise which becomes the just is rather commanded the Prophet singing Praise thy God O Sion Psal 147. And in that the Prophet says Thou hast said in my judgment it is not carelesly to be passed over nor heedlesly to be heard For who dare compare what God has said to the sayings of men Verily the Word of God is lively and efficacious and his Voice is in magnificence and power In fine he said it and all things were made He said Let there be light and the light was made He said Be ye converted O ye sons of men and they were converted So it is indeed the conversion of Souls is the work of God's Voice and not of man's Simon the Son of John a Fisher of men although called and constituted for this very purpose by our Lord yet in vain shall even he labour all night and catch nothing until by the word of our Lord casting his net he shall be able to inclose in it a great multitude of Fish And I would to God we could also to day in this Word cast the net of the Word and experience what is written Lo he shall give to his Voice a Voice of power Psal 67. If we speak a lye it 's plain that 's of our own But perhaps even then also our words will be judged to be our own not our Lords if we seek our own Concerns and not the things of Jesus Christ Moreover although we speak the truth of God and seek the glory of God we must even then from him alone hope the effect and of him ask it that he would please to accompany his own Voice with a Voice of power To this internal Voice therefore I exhort you to listen with the ears of your heart and that you would make it your business rather to hear God speaking within you than man speaking without you For that is a voice of magnificence and power searching the deserts making to tremble the deserts shaking off the stupid torpor of Souls CHAP. II. That God's Voice offers it self to all and presents it self to the Soul that 's unwilling to hear it NOR need