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	lord_n	spirit_n	7,959	5	4.8028	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58368	Reflections on the publick.		1687 (1687)	Wing R711; ESTC R214735	5,347	4

are esteem'd Arbitrary and Indifferent things to be practis'd or omitted as we think fit And where is the Zeal Where are the efforts for the Recovering these cancell'd Duties But to Abolish or preserve a Ceremony or Notion What Zeal What Contention What Parties What Animosities If their meaning were honest 't is certain they would be employ'd in other Business they would promote a Union in the practice of Religion in the performing those Duties in which all Parties are agreed the Eternal rewards of another life would charm us beyond the Interest of this and we should take more care to go well out of the World than to live well in 't If this zeal pretended by all Parties were Heavenly and Real the Everlasting Glories of the upper World the Beauty of God the Charms of Vertue would heat and provoke us to take other Measures for our Eternity to build other Lives and draw another Scheme of Manners and Practice Instead of contending for the demolishing or support of a Ceremony we would receive the Stranger as the Brother of our Nature and cherish him as our own Flesh and cover his wants with Joy we would draw out our Souls to the Miserable and be in pain till we had reliev'd him the Charity of Angels would inflame our Breasts and we should burn with love to our Brother we should be in pain till the Captive were Redeem'd till the Oppressed were Reliev'd and the Miserable at Ease these things would testifie our Religion they would witness and demonstrate our sincerity for these Fruits seldom proceed but from an honest and good Heart Our Religion would then put on its Primitive Glory and shine radiant in its Antient Flames Heathens would again behold us with wonder and become Proselytes to the conviction and demonstration of our Practice the Sun would behold us with a kinder strength and maintain a more fruitful correspondence with this neither world the Seasons would again observe their disorder'd courses and all Nature would recover a new Strength and Vigour the Land would yield its Strength and the Earth would bring forth its Encrease and God even our own God would give us his Blessing The Triumphs of Martyrdom and the Glories of Confession if occasion were would again revive and the whole Earth would become a Holy Land as far as these practices were dissus'd the Angels would descend with joy and return with Triumphs and the boasted Ages deceas'd would no longer upbraid the Folly and Misery of the present And till this be attempted in vain do we talk of Religion in vain expect the wondrous Blessings that attend it If the interests of sincere and effectual Religion were not so far Superior to those of a false pretended one if this World could court us and make such proposals as the other does if its Meaning and Rewards were Eternal if it could satiate the Infinite Desires of a Soul that are as unmeasurable as Eternity it self we might with some pretence quit the offers and pursuits of the upper world But when of the one hand there is nothing offered but Delusion and Sorrow and to the greatest Men and those that have made most of this World nay even those Delusions if there be any comfort or support in 'em will not last long tho' the sorrows will if we are entertain'd with false propositions and real cheats with Arguments unworthy of Children or the stupidity of Beasts if we are opprest with the Experience and warning of so many Ages past the Judgment of all Religions and Philosophy that have pretended to any Reason or Sobriety if every one goes Arm'd with the Syllogisms of his own Experience and most with the Demonstrations of Misery and Ruine why are we any longer baffled with the lean pretences of Vice and the World why are we again repeating the ruinous Experiment and practising on our own Destruction Let us behold Virtue and the upper World Religion and Glory with other Eyes than hitherto we have done let peace of Mind charm let the Ministry and Attendance of Angels warm our Ambition let Palaces and Crowns and an Eternal Empire and Kingdom provoke our Glory let us chafe our Minds with Everlasting expectations and enrage 'em at the darkness and disappointments and deformity of Vice and this lower World. And while Kings are preparing to meet like the Northern Winds striving who shall have the largest Care and the heaviest Crown and the greatest weight of fall let all that are Wise expend a better Interest and pursue a truer Glory let them extend the Empire of Vertue over all the Follies of Vice and then celebrate the Triumphs of a real Conquest of the World. Thus employ'd our zeal will have firm effects and produce Fruits worthy of its warmths and becoming its true Nature we shall act like men Baptiz'd to the Philosophy of Christ and train'd up to another World we shall assert the Glory of our Nature and the Divinity of our Souls Angels will assist us with Joy and the result of our Labour would be Peace and Joy and Transport even in this Life and a fermented and unruly Happiness in expectation of the Joys of Eternity for the other World would often break in upon us even before Death our Peace would be as the River and our Righteousness as the Waves of the Sea and the Glory of the Lord would be our Rereward But if the Vigour and Spirits of our Zeal and Religion be exhausted in circumstantials and lesser Matters to which I allow their just weight and decent Importance as our Saviour did to the Tyth of Mint and that what we have done in defending them ought not to have been left undone yet if our Religion dwells there and flames out in nothing else it gives Argument of the greatest suspition that our Design is none of the best and our Religion none of the sincerest for that would carry us to farther and weightier instances of our Piety that would carry the face of another World in them and an Immortal Design If we pretend to a Zeal that 's worthy our Profession let 's set on other Lives let Purity and Chastity let Heavenly Mindedness and contempt of the World Triumph in our Manners and let Vice be the Object of our Rage and Scorn till then all our Impertinent or Knavish warmths for or against a Form or an Establishment or a Ceremony will signifie nothing but to manifest that we are not in earnest with our Religion and that there is nothing sincere but our Hypocrisie If we have any value for the Happiness of the World if we think it worth the while to retrieve the Honours of the Humane Nature and to stop the Inundations of Ruine and Shame and the dissolution of Manners and Society and the total extinction of our Reason and Happiness let us remember whereunto we were Baptiz'd let the Solemnities of those Sacraments we have past and the Religion of our Vows set us upon other Manners and give us other Designs and better Lives It 's no mean Enterprise with the assistance of God's Spirit to retrieve a dying World and restore the Humane Nature in its last Agony and Convulsion of Ruine and Shame All that concur to this work will be greater employ'd than the wild Macedonian or the first Coesar who labour'd to destroy the Fabrick of the World and gave Mankind to the Sword and Peace and Order to their Rage and Folly that our Histories might be full of their Fury and Mischiefs and Posterity be troubled with their Names and Follies But the Progresses we make in Virtue and the Advantages we procure it in the World are 〈◊〉 worthy our Institution and becoming our Baptism and the Sacraments of the New Testament Here we shew the Genius of our Master who train'd us up to another World and bid us pursue Immortal Rewards and an Eternal Heaven he has trod the rough and glorious Path before us he himself engag'd all the difficulties he has propos'd to us and shewd us how to practice and taught us how to live and how to dye and how to live for ever Thus we shall Triumph over the World and our selves and Folly and Misery and shall live in the Joy of Angels and the Wisdom of Men and the Comforts of the Holy Ghost FINIS