Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	life_n	live_v	world_n	13,510	5	4.9137	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39739	A sermon preached at Christ-Church, before the governors of that hospital, on St. Stephen's day by William Fleetwood ...	Fleetwood, William, 1656-1723.	1691 (1691)	Wing F1250; ESTC R21005	20,165	36

himself John 9. 4. the works of him that sent me while it is day the night cometh when no man can work There is a Light and a Day and a Time given us all to work out our Salvation in to do the Will of God to perform his Commands and to perfect the business in he sent us hither for And behold as St. Paul says 2 Cor. 6. 2. now is the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation The Light and the Day is this life and the place is this world and it is now and it is here that we must walk in the ways of God and do the works of his Commandments Now while we live is the time of making matters sure now is the only opportunity of doing good which if we once let slip there is no more recovering it for there is no Eccl. 9 10. wisdom in the grave saith Solomon and he that goeth down thither shall come up no more to his house neither shall his place know him any more saith Job 7. 9. Since then it is agreed upon at all hands That it is all our Duties to do all the good we can as we have opportunity and that we have no opportunity of doing it beyond this life Why is not doing good the consequence of these two Premises How comes it that men know the necessity of doing it and the benefit of it when done and the time allotted them to do it in and yet there is so little done The reason I think is this That men promise to themselves still better opportunities than the present time they think affords them They put the execution of their good Purposes off from day to day and imagine that a more convenient season will present it self That to morrow and the next day may produce some new matter and change the circumstances of things to their advantage and waver about in these uncertainties till Life it self the great Opportunity is unexpectedly cut off and all their thoughts perish Whereas if they were as wise in this as in other matters they would rather argue thus I find I am obliged by Nature Reason and Religion and God be thanked by my own inclinations to do all the good I can and I know assuredly withall that the good to be done by me is to be done in this life while it pleases God to continue me in this World and because I can't possibly tell how long I have to live and what is like to be the number of my days and that every day produces some strange instance of the uncertainty of life and the suddenness of Death therefore I must put my designs of doing good in execution presently for fear I should be prevented my desires and resolutions may prove abortive if I defer them any longer therefore my Purposes shall be as soon as possibly they can Performances Can any Premises be plainer Can any consequence be juster and more reasonable than this I must do good whilst I have opportunity but I can't tell how long this opportunity may last or when it will end I am only sure of the Present time that which I have in possession is only mine therefore if I will secure my self I must do all the good I can immediately and whilst the time is in my hand the time to come is none of mine I am not Master of the ensuing Year nor can command the Month that 's entring If I bid the Morning hasten or the Evening slacken its pace because that I intend to do some good they neither hear nor mind me but proceed according to appointment and each of them may find me cold and sensless and incapable of either doing or receiving any farther good in this world And therefore when St. Paul advises to do good whilst we have opportunity he advises us to do it as soon as possibly we can and that we lose no Opportunity by delay It may otherwise happen to us as it did to the poor man that promised himself such ease and pleasure in the enjoyment of the Fruits and Riches he had treasur'd up Thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee and then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided We frame a great many fine projects in our heads contrive abundance of good designs and intend to do the Lord knows how much charity but the Sentence passes out from God upon us and cuts us off in the midst of all our Purposes and what is then become of all our good intentions We are gone to a place where great account will be had of all the good we actually have done and would have done if we had had but opportunity but little or none at all will be had of that which vanished in design and went no farther than the Brain But that may not be the worst in some cases where we shall give account for all the Abilities and Opportunities we had of doing good but over-slipt or quite neglected But Secondly There is an Opportunity of the Will as well as Time which must be taken hold of for tho the Opportunity of Time may be continued to a man yet the Will and Inclination may be changed The Will we know is very uncertain and tacks about with every new Variety of Accidents the Inclinations alter with and without reason as they see convenient and he that promises to himself at this time that Six Months hence he will have the Mind and Inclination to do such and such things understands his Temper but a little and is but indifferently acquainted with the inconstancy of humane Nature and the deceitfulness of his own Heart He may be sure enough indeed that if he be then of the same Opinion he is now that he shall do the things he now resolves on but for ought he knows his mind may be then averse from the purposes he now makes and therefore if they are good he had best fulfil them in their properest season which is Now when Time and Inclination meet and are agreed The Mind I say is humorous and fantastick toss'd up and down in great uncertainty and even the gravest soberest and most necessary Resolutions are oftentimes perverted by the most inconsiderable and trivial accidents and therefore we must strike in with the Inclinations presently and not permit the designs of doing good to cool and grow remiss Sometimes it happens that the mind is warm'd with some unusual supernatural Heat and is ardently enflamed with the desire of doing good and it looks like an Impulse from Heaven but if it be not presently complied with it returns no more but vanishes Sometimes a man returns from Church and the Sacrament and sometimes rises from his Prayers or from reading or hearing an affectionate Discourse sometimes is seiz'd upon the sudden with a heart full fraught with godly Purposes charg'd with good Intentions and excellent Resolves he finds himself sensibly affected with what passed sees the reasonableness and the

relieve him but he has the greatest ease and satisfaction in the World about him in his mind He remembers that whilst he was Possessor of his Wealth he did what good with it he could and that the Needy shar'd with him He can rejoyce with Job in his Affliction Job 29. 12. Because I delivered the poor that cried and the Fatherless and him that had none to help him the blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me and I caused the widows heart to sing for joy It intitles him to the hopes of receiving benefit from others it makes his State not half so troublesome in freeing him from the remembrance that would plague him if he had neglected doing good whilst he had Opportunity But now being well secur'd of that he is able to say with comfort Whilst I had it I us'd it as I should and now 't is gone no more will be expected The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. These are the senses in which this Phrase Whilst we have opportunity is to be understood We must do good whilst we have time when we have will and whilst we are able Before God cuts us off by death whilst our Inclinations are bent that way and for fear we fall into misfortune and become unable Lastly To the encouraging us to the doing all the IV. good we can we have the reward we are to set continually before our eyes implied in the word therefore Let us not be weary of well-doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not Therefore whilst we have opportunity let us do good to all men The practice here exhorted to is Pleasant Profitable and Necessary the Time we have to do it in is very short the Will inconstant and the Opportunities not many 'T is a thing we like exceedingly whilst doing and as well when done We shall all of us wish one day we had attended to this matter and they that have done most will wish they had done yet more and they who have done little or none will wish they had done nothing else It is that which makes us think on the time past with ease and comfort and on the life to come with hope and pleasure The Day of Trouble and the Day of Death are the two proper times to try the use and excellence of things and friendships in and in both these times there is nothing stands a Man in more and better stead than the remembrance of his Charitable Acts. The Soul is then exceeding busie and looking out continually for what may give it ease and quiet and finding all external Succours fail turns and descends into it self and there revolves the Actions of the life past to find what has been done that it can fasten on and can abide by what it can feed upon at present with content and what afford a comfortable prospect for the future The Splendors of the life past the pompous gay Appearances the Man hath made the mighty Friendships and Dependencies contracted the honourable Visits given and had the great Entertainments the numerous Train of Servants and Attendants with all that goes along with and that follows a magnificent Luxurious Fortune do then afford but little satisfaction to the mind upon Reflection It rather wishes that those things had never past There is fear at least and some suspicion due to the menagery of that life it was a state of danger liable to the disorders of excess and wantonness and to a great deal of folly and vanity at the best And if it scaped these Evils yet 't is gone and a man is never the better for all that 's past Even the necessary Provisions made for Children Wife and Family do but barely content the mind at present and free it from the perplexity that would arise from the thoughts of leaving those it lov'd in want but the recollecting this creates no new or extraordinary complacence in the mind these are not the things it cares to dwell on long or feeds upon with pleasure But the remembrance of its Acts of Charity is that it lives upon that it perpetually rolls about and that it turns to every moment The Tables that have been spread for the Poor the Portions that have been sent out to the hungry the Drink that has reliev'd the miserable thirsty the Cloaths that have been made for and bestowed upon the Naked the Counsel Visits and the helps that have supported those in Prison these things are fed on with delight these fill the heart with pleasure and contentment these cool the ragings of the Fever and support the weakness of Consumptions and abate the pains of our acute Diseases and make mens Beds in all their Sicknesses So that there is no one thing besides that is so much its own reward in this life that begets a man more good will that makes more Friends that creates a greater esteem that fits men for the assistance both of Strangers and the Neighbourhood that stirs and provokes the Prayers of all that want and all that see and hear of it and pulls down Blessings from the Throne of Grace than this kind benign disposition of doing good to the Poor nothing that is so faithful an Assistant in the days of Sorrow and of Sickness and the hour of Death as the doing Acts of Charity and the shewing mercy to the Needy The very pleasure and the profit of doing good are of themselves an argument of mighty force to draw men to the doing it but when we have the Promises of God the Hopes of Heaven and everlasting Happiness propos'd for our encouragement what is there that can sway against these powerful Motives I have now done with the Text and have shewed the reasonableness and the necessity together with the benefits of complying with its Exhortation It remains that I set before you an Example too and then conclude I am persuaded Gentlemen that the memory of This Lady upon whose account we now meet is much more dear and precious in your mind and that I do her greater Honours when I tell of her good Works of Charity that she hath done than if I could without those Works recount abundance of her other Qualilities and Titles It would be methinks but a very poor thing for me to be able to tell you that she was descended of Great Ancestours and married very honourably and had a great many lovely Children and kept a mighty sumptuous Table made most magnificent Entertainments and wore a world of fine Jewels and went in the richest Habits of her time kept I don 't know how many Coaches and Liveries without number I am ignorant of all and any of these Particulars but were they all true I should be nothing forward to recount them I should think I dealt more kindly by her Memory and better answered her Intentions in our meeting here to say she left a Shilling to the Poor nay