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
A63883	A sermon preached before the Right Honourable Sir Henry Tulse, Lord Mayor of the city of London and the court of aldermen, together with the governors of the hospitals at the parish-church of St. Bridget, on Easter Monday, March 31, 1684 by the Right Reverend Father in God Francis Lord Bishop of Rochester ...	Turner, Francis, 1638?-1700.	1634 (1634)	Wing T3284; ESTC R38919	18,664	40

they will change their Practice which savour'd too much of Pride and if they will take his Counsel To go and sit down in the lowest Room And having Preach'd to them Humility at their Publick Feasts then he goes on to Teach and shew them a more Excellent way as the Apostle calls it that is Charity Addressing himself to him that bade him to Dinner and with him probably many other Guests Friends Brethren or Kinsmen or rich Neighbours with an eye to some mean Advantage or pitiful Interest that they should make him a suitable Return either in the same kind or in equal value he does not forbid this mutual kindness between Relations as if it were a Crime in it self but he puts him in mind that all this may be no Virtue that this may be nothing to Charity nor yet advance one step in the way to Heaven But if in sted of the Rich he would Call the Poor in sted of his Kindred the Stranger that is in Want in sted of his Friends and Neighbours that do not need a Meals-meat from him and can afford him as good Cheer again he would make much of those that can do nothing to help themselves The Maimed the Lame the Blind such as cannot Retribute any thing to him their Entertainer and Benefactor then would the Hospitality be of the Noblest Kind it would be perfect Charity and he should be Recompensed at the Resurrection of the Just The words then are easily divided into these four Parts First Here is a general express Precept for Alms-Deeds A Charge to them that are Rich in this World that they be ready to give and apt to distribute Call the Poor 'T is spoken to the Master of the House and in him to all others of the like Ability Secondly Here is matter of Precept mixt and joyn'd with matter of Counsel and Advice concerning the Manner the Measures the Rules of Proportion and Decency to be observ'd in doing our Alms-Deeds Here are excellent Directions given us to do them presently and with our own Hands rather than leave them to be done by others after our Deaths to do them Diligently Chearfully Plentifully nay Openly sometimes as well as Secretly at other times to do them with all the Condescending Kindness of Entertainers for such good natur'd qualifications as these are implied in these words When thou makest a Feast Call the Poor Thirdly The Choice of fit Objects for the Charity of the Rich is here determin'd they must be such as are Poor indeed for such they are not nor are they properly so call'd that are in condition to help themselves they must be really helpless Creatures the Maimed the Lame the Blind Fourthly and Lastly Here is set before us the most forcible Inducement the strongest Motive to Charity the great Reward of it and the greater by far the later it is Repay'd the Danger is only least a Recompense be made thee too soon but if thou canst be Contented to stay a while here is offer'd the sirmest Security that thou shalt be Recompensed at the Resurrection of the Just First here is a general express Precept for Alms-Deeds A Charge to them that are Rich in this World that they be ready to give and apt to distribute Call the Poor 'T is spoken to the Master of the House and in him to all others of the like Ability For as Christ made this Exhortation to one of their Chiefs so by parity of Reason it extends it self to those and to those especially that bear Rule Men Renowned for their Power Leaders of the People by their Counsel Rich Men furnisht with Ability living peaceably in their Habitations These are the Titles of Honour which the Book of Wisdome bestows upon you and to such as you is this word of Command given by the Lord of Life that ye consider the Poor for to this the Providence of God in the Beautiful Ordering of the World and Ranging Mankind into several Degrees and Ranks has giv'n you a special Call to look down from your High but Slippery Places with an Eye of Pity upon those that lye at your Feet and can fall no lower such is the wonderful and useful variety of Gods Dispensations to Men that some even hired Servants in our Father's house have enough and to spare while many a Son and he not always a Prodigal is ready to perish with Hunger and though King David after very long Experience was able to say I have been Young and now am Old and yet saw I never the Righteous forsaken nor his Seed begging their Bread that is not Abandoned to a state of Beggery or craving of Alms without finding Relief such a heavy Curse as that was denounced by David only against the Children of the Traytor Judas to be Vagabonds and begg their Bread to seek it also out of Desolate Places yet that there should be some in a mean and low Condition is as necessary as that others should Abound for an equality of Wealth and Honour would be impossible and a Levelling Principle can never be reduc'd to practice For if all Men were Princes whom should each Govern if none were Poor who shou'd do servile Offices and who shou'd then supply the Necessities of the Rich I am apt to think that the greatest Alteration that ever happen'd in these Western Parts of the World except when Christianity came in was when That by degrees turn'd out Slavery the Roman Absolute Slavery under which an incredible number of Men were subject to their Masters as to so many Monarchs that had Power of Life and Death over them but what a Change would it be if not only Slavery were gone out of the World but Service also and Dependance of Inferiors upon those that are Exalted with Honour of the Needy upon those that live at Ease and in Plenty All those who know not now what it is to want the Scene being so chang'd would stand more in need of help than any do now of relief Consider it then as a Bounty of God to the Rich that the Poor shall never cease out of the Land 't is a Promise a Gracious Promise Deut. xv 11. And Bless Almighty God for providing you these not only as hewers of wood and drawers of water not only as helpers and supporters of your Temporal State for the daily pressing necessities of Human Life but as improvers of all your Spiritual Graces Objects of your Comiseration such as may call incessantly upon every tender Passion within you such as may stir up Resentments of Gratitude to that Good and Gracious Master who might with perfect Justice have laid you as low as others whom you see in the Dust such as may excite you to produce continual Acts of Love to that Blessed Saviour who shed his most precious Blood the Blood of God for the very least of these and has prepar'd a Receptacle in some of the many Mansions in his Father's House for many a wretch who

Afraid to let thy Light shine before Men since all manner of Good-Works that happen to be seen of Men are not therefore unpleasing to God but only such as are done with so vile a principal End as to be seen of Men and not with a primary Intent that those Men may Glorifie thy Father which is in Heaven Lastly When thou makest a Feast Call the Poor that is Call them to be thy welcome Guests thy humble Friends thy Spiritual Kindred since Christ has Call'd them his Brethren since he has made them Heirs and Coheirs with himself and thee Lay aside thy supercilious Demeanour toward them nay put off now and then that Awful Distance which Decency requires thee to keep at other times Let some of them at these good Times be seated at thy Table with thee thy Betters have us'd them more familiarly they have girded themselves and served them with a Real not an Affected Humility The Greatest Kings and Queens have not thought it too little for them to wash and kiss their Feet in Imitation of him that introduc'd the same significant Ceremony proposing it for a Pattern to his Followers and where can even Royal Dust and Ashes lay themselves low enough in an Office of Devotion to him in the Proxies or in the Persons of those that are his when he the Son of God he who thought it no Robery to be Equal with God yet took upon him the form of a Servant and was content to Abase himself even to kiss the Feet of the Traytor Jud●s But tho we are not obliged to fall so low to the Poor as always to set them above us yet there is one Complement essential to make it a Feast in all thy Gifts shew a Chearful Countenance says the Wise Man for God loves a Chearful Giver says the Apostle and then there is felt and enjoy'd true pleasure in the Act of Charity when Chearfulness dilates and enlarges the Heart of the Alm'ner as well as the Soul of the Alms-Man But now 't is high time for me to interpose one Caution and that Caution will naturally meet me upon my third Head of Discourse That fit Objects for the Charity of the Rich must be such as are Poor indeed for such they are not nor are they properly so called that are in condition to help themselves they must be really helpless Creatures the Maimed the Lame the Blind For to nourish Idleness the certain fore-runner if not the Companion of Wickedness is but mistaken Charity and those that have two hands left them to feed one Mouth are to be counted with those that are Rich enough if they are no way disabled from such our Alms would be more kindly withdrawn than extended to them or rather instead of these External Works of Mercy those which the Schoolmen call Internal should be applyed to them such as Good Counsel with Assistance toward their Settlement to make them some way useful to their Country or at least no longer Burthens of the Earth or if Advice be lost upon them another Office of Charity to their Souls at least even Castigation and Compulsion upon them is but their Due as well as our Duty to solicit it I must have leave in this place to lament the miserable Abuse of so vast a Fund for Charity as perhaps no Kingdom under Heaven can boast the like I mean that Yearly Treasure rais'd by virtue of that exceedingly well meant and ill manag'd Act for every Parish in the Nation to maintain their Poor who thereupon make themselves such on purpose and are become perfect Oppressors in the Land which they will not set their Hands to Cultivate how low soever the Husband-man's Trade is grown for want of Labourers that Honourable thriving Profession heretofore but now decayed and fallen together with your Rents which is all for want of Executing with that wholsome Statute-Law the same in substance with that Apostolical Canon If any one would not Work neither should he Eat But on the other side I must needs highly commend and congratulate this City so many Work-Houses to Chastise and Reduce the Vagrant and Vicious Poor so many Late useful Inventions to Employ the Willing-Poor and to put even such as are half Cripples in a way of getting their Bread so many worthy Active Undertakers to find 'em work that they may Eat the Labour of their Hands whoever they are that Engage in this Labour of Love to Gather the Dispersed from door to door and to make 'em live by themselves and their own handy-works they do as it were treat them every day and may the good Conscience of their own deeds be to themselves a continual Feast But the most goodly sight of all in this noble City are so many fair Hospitals either to i●close those whom the Hand of God has toucht with Lunacy or to breed up poor Children abandon'd to the narrow mercy of the wide World or to keep those from starving that are poor indeed the Maim'd the Lame and the Blind Let me but Read you a true Report c. Now I hope Strangers when they survey these M●numents of Antient and Modern Piety will not say that the Church of England owns any such Solifidian Doctrine as tends to the Disparagement of Good Works none will imagine that our Reformation is not a Soil for Charity to prosper upon where has it grown or flourisht more than it has among us both heretofore and of late I have been Askt abroad by way of Reflexion Who Built our Churches in London I have Answered The Old ones were most of them built before the Corruptions of Rome and since the Fire of London we know who Rebuilt ' em But no where does the City-Charity look more hopefully nor promises greater Advantages to the Publick as well as to the Poor than it does in those several Royal and Ample Foundations lately Repair'd and Restor'd to receive those wretched Infants expos'd to a Condition well nigh as deplorable as that whom the Prophet describes to these the King is insted of God and not only says unto them when they are as it were in their Bloud Live ●ut takes such honourable Care of their Education that they may not live in vain may God Almighty add to the King's Life those Years which the King by his Bounty and Goodness has prevented from being cut off from the Lives of these Little Ones or from being so misemploy'd as would in all likelihood have brought 'em to shameful Deaths And may his Majesty live to perfect his other most Royal most Christian Design in the Neighbourhood of this City that stately Pile whose Walls are now happily rising for the reception of Lame and Maimed Souldiers that after Brave Men have serv'd the King in his just Wars they may not want a provision and place of Retirement in their Old broken Age where they may end their Days in serving God and still praying for the Life of the King Such as these