Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	grace_n	life_n	sin_n	23,865	5	5.0638	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26661	A sermon preached at the funeral of ... Mr. Georg Ritschel, late minister of Hexham in Northumberland by Mr. Major Algood ... ; with an elegie on his death.	Algood, Major, 1641-1696.	1684 (1684)	Wing A925; ESTC R20315	9,968	25

S. Paul * Act. 24. v. 25. go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will call for thee All delay in this great concern is too hazardous the present time is still the fittest and onely fit to Cast up the accounts of our soules In deed if we could arrest time if we could strike of the nimble wheels of its chariot and could Joshuah like command the sun to stand still and make opportunity waite our leisure then there were some thing of excuse for delay but since we can noe more command the future then we can call back the by past time it is but extreame madness to delay our hours It is now in our power under the influence of Gods grace to prepare for death to repent of our sinns and make our peace with God before we goe hence and be no more seene but it is not in our power to live till to morrow our dayes may close up with this day our life sett this very evening with the sunn nay the next moment If we loose this opportunity which presents its self it can never be recovered no not by most earnest wishes nor fervent desire nor a flood of Teares Remember the sad condition of prophane Esau for once despising the blessing he loosed it for ever and found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with teares To go on still in a sinful course of life with hopes that we may repent when we dye is to venture all upon a very uncertaine after game and just as if a mariner should be content to have his ship cast away upon bare hope that he may escape on a planck and gett safe to shore How fondly do such dispose of that time which is not in their power but in Gods hand whilst they vainly lett go that which God has given them The stork the brane the swallow know their seasons they know their appointed time and how much more should man a creature whom God has endowed with reason especially since it is so very uncertaine how long we shall enjoy this opportunitie All creatures under the sunn doe naturally intend their own preservation and desire that happiness which is agreeable to their nature and shall man their Lord be impiously careless of his eternal and everlasting welfare Death stands ready to snatch us away conscience persuades Hell threatens and heaven invites to prepare to lay up a good foundation for the next life for a long and happy home Lett us not then be secure but sett to work whilst it is called to day for as the wise preacher * Eccl. 9 10. tells us there 's no work nor device nor knowledge in the grave whither thou goest What a sad and fatal thing is' t for men to run head long to their long home like the rich glutton in the ghosple who never was sensible of his estate till he was in torment he then found to his sorrow that out of the pitt there 's no redemption He leads a life suetable to his Christian profession who dayly is in expectation to leave it The best guide of our life here is the often consideration of our death and what shall become of us when wee go hence Wee need not wonder to see men so very industriously carefull to avoide death it is naturally terrible but this is it which all good men and even Angels may admire at to see Christians so generally careless to lay up a good foundation for a future life For there 's nothing certainly which makes death so terrible as the estate which followes after if our long home be in heaven death is a joyful birth day and the day of it better then the day of our first birth but if it be in the Divels mansions it is but the beginnig of endless miserie Let us therfore be persuaded to make use of our time and learn in this our day the things which belong to our peace before they be hid from our eyes before our feet be manacled in the dust and our arms rott of from our shoulders in the grave Do that before death which may doe you good when you are dead but can never be done after Live the life of the righteous and dye the death of the righteous dye the death of the righteous and live for ever in a long and happy manner That I may press this further behold ther 's before your eyes a spectacle of mortality the body of our deceased Brother which wee are mett together to bring to its own house as the prophet Esay * Esa 14 18. calls the grave to lay it up in the dust after all its great labour long journeys and tedious travaile on earth his soule being gone before to take possession of its long and happy home I must therfore now leave the other and apply my self to this text To say nothing were to be injurious to his worth and to hide those vertues which shined bright in him and may serve for our imitation Whatever the envious may say or think it is no fault to commend them at their death who have bin commendable in their life It was the ancient custome of the church to celebrate the memorie of holy men that thereby others might be moved to follow their examples As for his extraction I must be silent in it he being a Bohemian borne and that perticuler unknown to us yett let me say a man of meane observation by his deportment might guess it was of more than an ordinary ranck I shall therfore onely speake my knowledg of him haveing had an intimacie with him for a bove twenty yeares togeather As for his moral honestie it was very exemplar I appeale to you all here present whether he has not left a good report behind him and a good name which is better then precious ointment not one of this parish or elswhere can I am confident complaine of any unjust dealing by him nor can the poore this day send cursses to his grave I may justly in his behalfe take up Samuels * chalenge whose ox has he taken whose ass or whom has he defrauded whom has he oppressed or of whose hand has he received any bribe to blind his eyes therewith and I promise to restore it So critical was he even to the minute parts of honesty that if thorough inadvertency he had done any thing which did but looke like unjustness though no person was prejudiced by the same it was an affliction to his mind And as he did practice honesty himself as if he had known nothing else so did he allwayes love honest men and sett a just value on such but when he found any man to be otherwise how would he condole his condition and heartily sigh for him his looke at the same time speaking the thoughts of his heart how sorry he was that any man should be a knave how seriously would he endeavoure to reclaime such In his conversation and friendship