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
A35029	A second call to a farther humiliation being a sermon preached the 24th of Novemb. last past / by the Right Reverend Father in God, Herbert, Lord Bishop of Hereford, in his Cathedral Church of Hereford.	Croft, Herbert, 1603-1691.	1678 (1678)	Wing C6973; ESTC R4769	18,017	45

run on dancing and capring till they leap into Hell Others there are who clean contrary are so dejected with any Affliction as if they expected their Heaven in this life and constant felicity in this mutable world where nothing continues in the same condition not only every year we see so great a change as from beautiful and delightful Summer to dirty cold and pinching Winter but every month a various face of the Earth every day an ebbing and flowing of the Sea and in the Heaven a change from glorious Sun-shine to dismal darkness How then can any one be so sottish as to expect that Fortune must give him quite contrary to the whole course of Nature a continued day without night a constant Summer without Winter Nay he would not have one storm surprise him nor a cold blast touch his tender flesh Others there are who instead of mourning and lamenting are murmuring and repining vexing and fuming As cold water cast on hot iron in the Forge makes it bounce and sparkle about so Assliction falling on these hot impatient persons they clamour and flie about at all that come near them they increase much the evil by their Passion afflicting themselves and all they have to do with As for this impatient sort of Men if they be neither Atheists nor Quakers sure they will acknowledge themselves guilty of sin and that the wages of sin is death eternal death and are they not willing to exchange and suffer a momentary evil instead of an eternal evil Had they not rather have a hand scorched or cut off than have the whole body cast into Hell flames Let them consider with what fury they fall on those who offend them in matter of Estate or Reputation and then reflect with what mercy God deals with them for their sinning against his divine Majesty Will not one Worm endure a trivial injury from another and must the infinite Majesty of God endure injury upon injury from dirty Worms without any Correction Were they not mad with passion sure they would rather give humble and hearty thanks for his mercy than brutishly murmur at his justice which really is mercy and not justice to inflict Flea-bites for Scorpions I wish these grumblers would rake and shovel together the trash and dirt of their foul Conscience on a heap see what a vast bulk that will make then let them borrow from Isa. xl 12. the Scales wherein God weigheth the Hills and Mountains put this mountain of dirt in one scale the dram of Gods merciful Correction in the other they will find their punishment to be so exceeding light and so unproportionable to their excessive sins as that in justice they have reason to expect far greater torments yet to come then doubtless instead of murmuring at the present affliction they will so dread those torments to come as most fervently to pray unto God with St. Austin Hic ure hic seca ut in aeternum parcas A man that hath a grievous sore in his leg and very much fears a gangrene sends himself for the Chirurgion and willingly stretches forth his leg to be lanc'd and sear'd yea and to be cut off to save his life So St. Austine knowing the dangerous corruption of his heart and fearing eternal death prays earnestly to God to lance cut sear do any thing to his body here to save his soul from everlasting flames hereafter There is no man in the world so impatient but had he a right apprehension of the eternal torment his sins justly deserve he would both patiently and chearfully suffer any affliction in this world to avoid that eternal evil to come And in like manner the weeping Lamenter at his sad affliction would he but fathome the Ocean of his iniquity and by that measure his deserved punishment not one more salt tear would drop from his mournful eye but his heart would be filled with gladness and his mouth with thanks-giving that he is not swallowed up in an Ocean of Torment Lastly as for those mad-headed persons who fear neither God nor men who put far from them the evil day who chaunt to the Viol and drink Wine in bowls who hearken not to the voice of the Charmer charm he never so wisely it were but lost labour to talk to them there is nothing else to be done but to pitty their madness and pray for their soberness and so commit them to the infinite mercy of God But I trust in God there are none here but such as fear God and tremble at his judgments Wherefore leaving these desperate ones I shall now proceed to the third thing proposed the method of Humiliation taken from holy Writ where we are told That the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdome And there is no product in the World more natural than fear springing from guilt and humiliation from fear The guilty conscience still fears the severe Brow of an incensed Judge and a fearful heart will soon teach the trembling knees to bend and supplicate for pardon Wherefore there cannot be a better and speedier means of Humiliation than to look into the sacred Records of God and there see what fearful judgments by the Divine Decree have been executed on rebellious Sinners which are there written for our example As that upon Korah Dathan and Abiram they with their whole Families Wives Children Servants and Kindred all in an instant swallowed up quick by the gaping and devouring jaws of the earth Or look on those horrible showers of fire and brimstone poured forth upon Sodom and Gomorrah consuming every creature both man and beast houses and goods reducing all to Ashes Consider I beseech you what hideous howlings what confused roarings the numberless multitude sent forth in the midst of those raging flames renting the Heavens with their piercing cries Or look on that universal Deluge upon all mankind Noah and his Family only excepted when the windows of Heaven were opened pouring forth not showers but whole catarracts of Water to overwhelm them in the midst of their festival jollities and whilest they run from the Valleys to the Hills for rescue the speedier floods get to the Mountain tops hurrying them along faster than they intended and hoising them up from earth even unto the clouds from whence those waters fell And then think what sad farewels the fondling Parents and tender Children the new married Spouse and enamoured Bride gave each other floting on those dismal waters and by the boistrous billows often dash'd together to receive a bitter parting kiss And with what vexation of spirit did they behold Noah and his Family securely sailing in the Ark of Salvation which in their desperate folly they had contemn'd with scoffing derision So sottish and faithless is sinful man never to believe and fear the approaching misery till swallowed up by it And as these are dreadful patterns of God's fury against impenitent sinners in former Ages so we read in the Revelation of great calamities

foregoing the terrible day of the Lord when mens hearts shall fail and melt away for very anguish and Death it self the terrour of men in prosperity shall be wish'd for in that excessive misery as a comfortable deliverance from the horrible Plagues then poured forth And yet all this put together is as nothing compared to those everlasting flames wherein both Bodies and Souls shall be tormented for ever and ever Reason and Experience both teach us that the anguish of the Soul must needs exceed the sufferings of the body by many degrees for you know 't is the Soul that gives sense unto the body the body without the Soul feels neither lancing nor burning If then the Soul be the fountain of sense and isso powerful as to infuse into a stupid dead lump of earth such smart and nimble feeling you cannot but conclude that the original sense of the Soul is capable of feeling far greater torment than the body We see daily Men in Duels tormented with anger and revenge in their Soul throw their bodies upon the point of their hated Enemies sword and receive deadly wounds one after another without any smaying as if they felt them not the greater torment of the mind making that of the body not sensible nor Death considerable but continue their fury to the last gasp All which plainly shews the anguish of the Soul far exceeds any pain of the body Beloved no man can express no nor fully conceive that horrour and raging madness of a Soul in Hell considering how that instead of that excessive and everlasting pain she might have enjoyed the everlasting glory of Heaven and the incomprehensible felicity the Saints possess in contemplation of God's infinite goodness and love to Man and then to remember how this endless felicity was cast away and endless torment incurred for the enjoyment of most silly momentary joys and base bestial delights This is that torment of torments that never dying Worm of Conscience which eternally gnaws and feeds upon the soul. What man with sensible ears eyes and heart hearing or reading and considering these things with a lively apprehension of that Supream Judge of quick and dead coming in the Clouds with all the Host of Heaven and carrying in one hand that glittering two-edged Sword which wounds to eternal death and in the other that just poising Ballance wherein shall be exactly weighed not only the grievous sins of Murther Adultery Perjury c. but every idle word and every idle thought which alone will make up a Mountain of Sands to weigh us down to the pit of darkness besides a vast number of foul and heavy Crimes to precipitate our guilty souls below the very center of Hell into some unknown gulf as bottomless as our sins are numberless What man I say not wholly petrified and become a very Statue but having a sensible heart in some measure to comprehend the terrour of this severe Judgment-day but will humble himself in Sackcloath and Ashes Yea Beloved had we but a lively full apprehension of it our very heart would be shivered into dust and ashes But yet our Humiliation must not end here in this servile slavish fear we must proceed on farther For though the fear of the Lord be the beginning of Wisdom yet love is the consummation of wisdom The Devils believe and tremble but Christians must believe and love Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul. Love is the fulfilling of the Law And certainly there cannot be any man so extream Ill-natur'd but if he firmly believe what Christ hath done for him must needs love him 't is impossible it should be otherwise What man guilty of Treason Condemned to be hang'd drawn and quarter'd and going to Execution should see the Kings only Son run after him with a Pardon from his Father the Son having undertaken to suffer that cruel death for the condemned person that so satisfaction might be made to Justice for the Treason committed Is it possible this condemned person should not love this wonderful loving Prince No 't is not possible yea so love him as to refuse the Pardon and rather chuse to die himself than suffer so noble so innocent and so loving a hearted Prince to die for his Crime And yet beloved this is much short of our case for this is but one mans dying for another both by nature of equal condition But we have the All-glorious Son of the Almighty God dying for us sinful Worms of the Earth yea and he knew full well when he suffered that shameful cruel Death for us how shamefully and cruelly we would requite this his infinite Love by doing many sinful things as hateful to him as death and so as much as in us lies Crucifie the Lord of glory afresh and put him to an open shame And do we now believe all this to be a real truth and yet go on day by day to do these sinful deeds so hateful to him that hath shewed such infinite love to us Beloved let us not delude our selves 't is impossible any man should be so barbarously ungrateful as to believe this and do thus Wherefore most assuredly we do not believe it And why do we not believe it Was there ever any truth so miraculously attested so convincingly proved by thousands of Witnesses both Christians and Jews Christians with love dying for the truth of it and Jews with hatred to this very day relating the fact Why then do we not believe it No other imaginable reason can be given but that the infinite greatness of such love as God to dye for sinful worms exceeds our belief had God done less for us we should have believed him sooner and served him better O the baseness of our corrupt hard-hearted Nature the more God doth for us the less we do for him who can sufficiently bewail this our miserable condition Such we are all by nature though blessed be God many by his grace are corrected and converted into a better state their hearts being purified by Faith and sanctified by Love humble themselves at our blessed Saviours Feet and there bitterly bewail their manifold transgressions and with all fervency of spirit praise glorifie his infinite love mercy This is true Christian Humiliation and Repentance when out of a due sense of Christs infinite love to us we heartily lament our sinful ingratitude towards such a gracious Saviour who laid down his life a Ransom for us The fear of Gods Judgments is good at first to strike us down to the Earth and make us enter into a serious consideration of our sinful ways and what we have justly deserved the everlasting flames of Hell But then to consider notwithstanding all our undutiful behaviour the infinite love mercy of God to lay on his beloved Son the Iniquities of us all that by his sufferings he might spare us and by his death restore us to everlasting life What heart can then chuse