Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	find_v	life_n	sin_n	7,038	5	4.6201	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35182	A sermon preached in Christs Church Bristol at the assizes for that city and county, holden August the 1st, 1676 / by Samuel Crossman ...	Crossman, Samuel, 1624?-1684.	1676 (1676)	Wing C7270; ESTC R31340	14,837	34

are the presages of much impending calamitie 1. The encrease of sin what diseases and infections are to our bodies personally such are common raging vices to Kingdoms and Nations publickly Apparent ill habits moral Pestilences If the former may be death to us the latter may be as truly ruine to them The Amorites sin was the Amorites undoing We are told in the Prophet Amos 9. 8. The eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdome and I will destroy it from off the face of ths earth saith the Lord. Thus is sin the abomination that maketh desolate wherever it cometh The Achan the accursed thing that always troubleth Gods Israel There is no delusion more frequent then for wicked persons to flatter themselves with hopes of favourable fair issues in their most villanous fowlest actions 'T is taken for granted some may be so bold so hardy as to say I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of mine heart to add drunkenness to thirst But it seems the Conclusion is too hastily drawn Gods reckoning and theirs agree not The Lord will not spare him but the anger and jealousy of the Lord shall smoke against that man Deut. 29. 19 20. so inseparable a connexion there is between the cause and the effect Cain quickly found it a real truth He hath no sooner done his bloudy work but the next tidings is My punishment is greater then I can bear Gen. 4. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my sin one and the same word is left in the Hebrew to express both in token that the sinner carrieth his punishment in his sin If he will needs have the one God will see that he shall also have the other The case it is plainly the same toward whole Nations that we finde here toward one Cain If there be any difference 't is this some pious learned persons who have most sollicitously observ'd the methods and history of Divine Providence have thought that God who sheweth many times such great patience toward particular persons in their sins proceedeth usually with a more visible severity when sin becometh common and National when all flesh shall have corrupted their way then is a time for God to take the case more immediately into his own hand then may we fear days of vengeance and visitation All ages all histories have jointly exemplified the reality of this danger thus Xenophon relateth the Persian Monarchy became ruined 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. In part through their impieties toward God in part through their injuries and evil courses toward men Thus the Grecians and thus after them the Romans they also fell As vice was seen to rise they and their Empire were as manifestly observed to decline and fall An hundred Walls as the Comoedian sportingly said in that serious matter are no desence to a vicious City It lieth still open and naked to all misery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus firmly was this great truth believed thus openly asserted among the Heathen by their own Poets For these things say they God hath visited and for these things God will yet visit So that if we either credit Gods word or mans experience we may safely say sin leads to ruine 2dly The decay of Piety that is likewise as hard an abodement we finde this very case propos'd as Moses's life or death a blessing or a curse and the sequel left to the peoples practical choice The Lord is with you while ye be with bim but if ye forsake him he will forsake you 2. Chron. 15. 2. As if the great Crisis lay perfectly here And the truest calculation of all publick welfare or misery were to be derived from our faithfulness or unfaithfulness to God Religion it is as those sacred ministrations in the Temple the preservatives of the City And on the contrary where the Holy fire goeth out where the Daily sacrifice ceaseth calamity seemeth there to follow as it were of course When Abraham gives over interceding then Sodom burns down to ashes indeed When Moses's hands fall down through faintness then Amalck prevaileth When there is none found to stand in the gap then God powreth out his indignation upon Israel When the Disciples fall to slumber we may too truly say then is Satans hour and the power of darkness I confess we neither need nor can believe that every stir and bustle that is preposterously made in the world about Religion goeth for real piety in the sight of God We have all of us more of dross then gold More of carnal passion and animosity then of spiritual devotion and zeal for God or Heaven Religion 't is a sacred concern and must be modestly not boisterously managed There is scarce any consideration sadder then that of those manifold dismal mischiefs that have been acted from mistakes of this nature But still there is such a thing as a cordate affection and forwardnesse for Religion Our bounden duty and of great price in the sight of God and wherever this first love is once lost we may justly fear Gods Candlestick is in imminent danger of being removed It were extreme arrogance and disrespect toward the common sense of mankinde for any of us to think that slights of Religion are safe things Italie saith the Poet hath smarted sorely upon this very account D●j multa neglecti dedere Hesperiae mula luctuosae And we finde Livy taking up the case into a peremptory standing assertion Omnia prospera eveniunt colentibus Deos adversa spernentibus all things saith he succeed well where Religion is duely observed and where that lieth neglected all things go usually as backward and ill But we shall close up this Consideration with a greater Testimony then any of these even that of dying Moses who taking his last leave of Israel and having forewarned them that in case of their revolt from God he would heap up mischiefs upon them at length sealeth up his whole Discourse with this moving Argument putting duty and mercy both together Observe saith he all the words of this law for it is not a vain thing for you because it is your life and through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the land whither ye go over Iordan to possess it Deut. 32. 46 47. May it be our care to approve our selves faithfull in the one may it be our lot to experience Gods goodnesse in the other The Application And now Honoured and Beloved I have but one Use to make of the whole but it calleth for the utmost seriousness at all our hands Such as you have heard such is the riseness such the contagiousness such the destructiveness of Sin In Gods most holy Name let us fear and tremble lest we also fall under this sad infection and so iniquity become●h our ruine If sovereign Antidotes be so greatly esteemed in times of common Pestilence unless we do most wretchedly prevaricate in the whole profession of Religion thus highly must we value thus

ecclipsed and multitudes no doubt unhappily cool'd and taken off from the due embracement of the Gospel Such sad spectacles both the one and the other have most ages afforded so prone have some been to believe a lie And so unable have others been to step over this stone of offence and to continue notwithstanding this sore temptation a sober constant love to deserted slighted truth 3ly And lastly Iniquitie that is taking the expression as some others at a greater latitude it then importeth Communem naturae humanae pravitatem the common pravity of humane nature As if our Saviour had said this as another Nilus shall overflow all its banks Exiliet fraenis Natura remotis The reins being laid loose mankinde shall be seen to run even wilde into all excess of vice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 't will not be the bare subsistence and being of sin but sin multiplyed and encreased measures of iniquity heaped and running over sin rampant with all circumstances of hainousness accompanying of it fulfilling that ancient similitude of the prophet the press is full the fats overflow their wickedness is great Ioel. 3. 13. Such saith our Saviour will be the forepart of the seene and the latter as dismal The love of many shall wax cold That love which is the end of the commandment that love which is the fulfilling of the whole law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it shall lose its vital heat and warmth It shall become in this hard season as it were frozen to death disheartned and driven off the stage by the violence of sin An issue sad enough but too likely to ensue where sin prevails Vera pietas extinguetur so Gerhard the prodigious torrent and inundation of sin shall even quench and discourage allmost all practice or owning of any piety or vertue We have in the words without any labour of more curious division the cause and effect the antecedent and consequent all of the same sad complexion sin upon sin and misery upon misery as devouring waves immediately following one another Iniquity shall abound and the love of many shall wax cold From the verse as it stands capable of a various aspect we have several weighty truths emergent such as may sadden us but such as must also concern us 1. Looking upon the words in their causality and influence they bear the former to the latter we may thence observe the growth and encrease of sin 't is an extreme prejudice and hindrance to all goodness Because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold 2. Looking upon the words as they stand in conjuncture with the times they point unto we may then observe All those seasons when people both might and should be best it may so fall out that they prove then far worst 3. The last view of the words is in some respects yet sadder Looking on them as one of the previous signes of Ierusalems destruction they plainly import The encrease of sin the decay of piety they are things fatal and ominous to any people presages of impending calamity where these go before we may justly fear the tragical sequels they here relate to Then shall there be great tribulation vers 21. 1. Looking upon the words in that causality and influence the former bear to the latter we may thence observe the growth and increase of sin 't is an extreme prejudice and hindrance to all goodness Because iniquitie shall abound the love of many shall wax cold sin 't is as the weeds in the field their encrease impairs the whole crop of corn or as that venemous tree the Arcadian Yew-tree which as Plinie relates casteth a deadly killing shade nothing kindly thrives wherever that spreads its branches That men as men owe to God a life of vertue and as Christians a life of more transcendent piety all our hearts and indeed the whole world must freely yield and Eccho Yes But alas where sin sets up its hellish standard how shall this be performed Humane nature is weak and example proves more then whole loads of arguments Pecorum ritu antecedentium gregem sequimur pergentes non quà sit eundum sed quà itur said Seneca very truly we are like sheep following the common tract of others though never so far out our way principles of good are but faint and weak even in the best when the iron age comes on indeed the next news is Vict a jacet pietas Vice goes up and the sacred interest of vertue that goes as fast down Dayly experience sheweth it in things natural Contraries we say abide not together They are of a contending nature the one chaseth away the other Thus where darkness cometh light is forced to go Thus where the extremity of cold prevaileth the more desirable warmth and heat are lost The case 't is parallel in a diviner sense after this manner saith the Apostle doth sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 7. 23. It fighteth and fighteth in earnest against the whole interest of holiness It seems to cry out againg piety as the Edomites did against Ierusalem Rase it rase it even to the ground Let but evil once get up and that will quickly bring down whatever is good Where the one usurps the other becomes dethroned To be truly religious in the best times 't is much but to be such in bad times 't is almost a miracle If ill words be enough as the Apostle observes to corrupt good manners ill words and ill works put both together are much more able to do it In such a common degeneracy one Lot one Noah is a great raritie in Gods own reckoning Thee that is thee only have I seen righteous before me in this generation Gen. 7. 1. To put the case into a familiar way of instance when Atheism and contempt of religion shall generally reign how shall an ingenuous person without very much conflict in himself be able to bear up any due acknowledgments of God in all his ways when almost all places shall run into drunkeness and excessive healths how shall the most sober person contain himself within the due bounds of temperance when uncleanness and all manner of wanton lusts shall appear Epidemical impudent and as the sin of Sodom how hard is it then to observe and honour chastity as it ought when people shall every where become effeminate and fond in their attire how loth shall we be to expose our selves to the scorn of others by continuing a plain decent modest habit when profane swearing shall grow the common dialect how prone will our own lips be to take up those unhappy accents when every novell wilde opinion shall grow the more creditable religion who can then without very much grace steadily consist with ancient sound doctrine Lastly to ask no more of these fadning questions when debauchedness and drollery shall grow the only gentile mode oh how ready shall we all then be to grow ashamed of holiness and the fear of God Thus may a