Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
death_n lead_v young_a youth_n 45 3 7.7346 4 false
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A26784 The danger of prosperity discovered in several sermons upon Prov. I. 27 / by William Bates ... Bates, William, 1625-1699. 1685 (1685) Wing B1103; ESTC R15611 66,480 256

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

their Hearts of their revolting back to Pagan Idolatry and the Bondage of Satan And in the time of the Arian Persecution how many who by their Titles and Office were specially obliged to be valiant for the Truth and to contend earnestly for the Faith yet did accommodate their Profession to their aspiring Ambition and greedy Avarice The Standard of their Religion was the pitch of the State they had a politick Faith and appear'd either Orthodox or Arian as the publick Favour shin'd upon Truth or Heresy They rob'd our Saviour of the Honour of his Deity O astonishment rather than part with their beloved Dignities and Riches So powerful are humane Respects in those who mind earthly things Great force is requisite to pluck up a Tree that has its Roots spread and deeply fastned in the Earth and it cannot be so entirely separated but that part of the Roots will be broken thus when the Affections are deeply set in the World and by Pleasures and Riches fastned to it how hardly is it rent from it every Fibre of the Heart is broken with sorrow As Lot's Wife when by an Angel forc'd out of Sodom yet cast a lingring affectionate look after it and was turn'd into a Pillar of Salt The Separation is as bitter as the Possession is sweet and none are more unwillingly divorc'd from the World than those who enjoy the confluence of earthly happiness Now when secular Interest outweighs Duty when apparent Danger induces to deny the Truth of Christ how terrible and unavoidable will be the punishment of that disloyalty Our Saviour's threatning is universal Whosoever shall deny me before Men him will I deny before my Father which is in Heaven A most righteous and dreadful retribution They denied him as their Lord and he denies them as his Servants They usurp'd the Title of Christians the Relation of his Disciples and in the last Day he will publickly disown them When that sad Sentence shall come from their Judg Depart ye cursed I know you not what confusion what anguish will seize upon them They shall be banish'd from his glorious Kingdom excommunicated from his blessed Society and tormented with the rebellious Angels for ever 'T is true this universal and peremptory Threatning must be understood with an exception of those who after their falling away are restor'd by Repentance Sometimes a Christian that has deliberately and entirely devoted himself to Christ that has sincerely resolved rather to part with his Life than that for which Life is worthy the enjoying yet by strong temptations has been faint-hearted and denied the Truth like one that disannuls in the heighth of a Fever the Will he made in his composed Mind but afterward such have resumed new courage and have by enduring the sharpest Sufferings confirm'd the Truth and ascended to Heaven in a fiery Chariot Lastly The Prosperity of Sinners is the great temptation to delay repentance till their state is desperate Nothing fills Hell with so many lost Souls as the putting off Repentance till hereafter How many Diseases would be cur'd in time if they threatned present Death but their Malignity being of a slow operation they are despised as not worth the trouble of a Cure till they are desperate 'T is in Spiritual Diseases as 't is in those of the Body for Sin that is a sickness unto Death might be prevented by speedy Repentance but many not apprehending present Danger neglect the precious Remedy till they are desperately ruin'd To day if you will hear his Voice harden not your Hearts The Command respects the Season as well as the Duty As our Obedience must be entire without reserves so it must be present without delay even in our early Age and continued in the whole tenor of our Life The Worm of Conscience sometimes nips Security and there is a strange union of Contrarieties in the Breast of a Sinner that makes him inexcusable and incurable He complains of the bondage to his Lusts yet takes pleasure in it he is convinc'd 't wil be destructive yet voluntarily continues in that sweet captivity If Conscience be troublesome he pacifies it with an intention to reform hereafter and thinks that a future Repentance will be sufficient to prepare for a future Judgment And none are so easily and willingly deceived to their everlasting ruin by this pretence as those who enjoy the present World Prosperity makes them forgetful of the Grave and humane Vicissitudes and hardens them in deep Security 'T was the Divine Prayer of Moses So teach us to number our days as to apply our hearts unto Wisdom implying that the great Cause of Mens destructive folly is from not reflecting upon the shortness and uncertainty of their Time here Death is certain to the Old and Life uncertain to the Young There are many back Doors to the Grave and Men are led surprisingly thither The time of their residence here is fixed by the Divine Determination and concealed from their Eyes How many in their Youth and Prosperity have presum'd upon a long Life yet unexpectedly have returned to their Earth as a Wall covered with Ivy that falls on a suddain with its green Ornaments by its weight and weakness The Hour of Death is the hour of mens Destiny for ever There is no space of Repentance in the interval between Death and Judgment but the Soul immediately after its departure receives a decisive irrevocable Doom that is in part executed and shall be publick and entirely executed at the last Day Yet Men boldly venture to continue in their pleasant Sins upon the forlorn hope of a Season to repent hereafter Astonishing enormous Folly as if they were assured of Time and the Divine Grace And thus 't is fully proved how fatal and destructive Prosperity is to the Wicked The second thing to be consider'd is the Folly of prosperous Sinners Folly is the Cause of their abusing Prosperity and the Effect of their Prosperity abused The most proper Notion of Folly is that the Understanding mistakes in judging and comparing things from whence the Will slides into Error and makes an unworthy choice And according to the weight and consequence of things the more remarkable is the degree of Folly in not discerning their Differences Now when Men value and are delighted in temporal Prosperity as their Happiness and Heaven with its Glory Joys is neglected and vilified in the comparison 't is Folly above all wonder Folly of so rare and singular a Nature that if the judicative Faculty were not corrupted it were impossible they should be guilty of it This will appear by considering the essential and inseparable Properties of Man's Felicity 't is perfective and satisfying of Man in his supream Faculties 1. The perfection of Man does principally consist in the excellencies of his spiritual immortal part As in the various kinds of Creatures there is something that is their proper Excellency for which they were made and accordingly are valued as