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	sin_n	true_a	9,048	5	4.9749	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50326	A sermon preach'd before the honourable Company of Merchants trading to the Levant-Seas at St. Peter-Poor, Dec. 15. 1695 by Henry Maundrell ...	Maundrell, Henry, 1665-1701.	1696 (1696)	Wing M1356; ESTC R19829	14,143	34

every confident Undertaker and if they cannot be unfolded more presumptuously deni'd as if it were out of Malice and Revenge for their unsearchable obscurity But let every such curious and daring Enquirer hear the Advice of the Wiseman who is likely to be his best Instructor in the rules and measures of acquiring Knowledge Mike not thy self over-wise Vain Man Wouldest thou be wise beyond the Standard and Capacity of thy Nature Does this disoblige thee that there should be Mysteries in Religion above thy Understanding Will nothing content thee but thou must comprehend the Essence and Attributes of the Deity Foolish and Ambitious Creature Go first and study those things which are more proportion'd to thy capacity the Idioms and Elegancies of Languages the Histories and Polities of Nations the Practical Maxims and Cases of Morality and the ordinary appearances of Nature Search into the matter and motions of the heavenly Bodies the Formation of Animals the Virtues of Plants the seeds and mixtures of Earth and the fluxes and refluxes of the Waters And when thou hast gone through this School of Art and Nature and hast mastered all the difficulties that occur there then and not before begin to unriddle the Mysterious Doctrines concerning Religion and the Author of Nature But if there are many things even in this inferior scope of Knowledge which thou must confess to be too hard for all thy Study and Learning to overcome and which will baffle thy most diligent enquiry into them Why shouldest thou pretend too boldly to the Knowledge of more remote and sublime things Why shouldest thou think it a disparagement to thy understanding which is not able to give account of the meanest Plant or Insect to acknowledge something above its comprehension in the Nature of God and the Mysteries of Religion Let me therefore as earnestly as I may seasonably in this Generation Exhort you all in consideration of the narrowness and insufficiency of our human understandings not to be too curious or to expect to be over wise in Religious Mysteries but let us acquiesce in such a knowledge and discovery of those high and inaccessible Articles as may conduce to our Edification and Salvation and let us not by an endeavour to be over-wise in them weary and distract and perplex our minds For why should we thus destroy our selves But 3. Let me now apply my self to those who are guilty of the last and greatest excess forbidden in my Text who are the over-much wicked and obdurate Sinners And all such let me exhort by the terror of the Wiseman's denunciation to rouze themselves up from their dangerous security 'T is a Lethargick and treacherous sleep that lulls them so fast and will be sure to end in an Immature and which is worse in an Eternal death and what Motive can be sufficient to persuade men to the forsaking of their most beloved Vices if they will not do it for this strong reason for the prolongation of their Lives and for the escaping of Death What terrible pains and operations will not men sometimes contentedly undergo for these dear ends they 'l part with Limb after Limb cut off Right-hands pluck out Right-eyes and think themselves sufficiently rewarded for all if they can but avoid dying thereby and preserve a poor helpless trunk and remnant of Life And why will they not be equally prevailed with for the same reason to give up their Sins Those Sins which are the Gangreens and Mortifications of their Bodies and Souls and must if not cut off bring them to death before their time Why will they not part with these Right-hands and these Right-eyes their beloved Sins as willingly as they do those of their Bodies since there would be less pain in doing it and there is for it a greater necessity Strange and unaccountable infatuation That whereas Skin for Skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life yet he will not tho for the sake of the same dear possession be persuaded to part with his darling Vices What account canst thou give of such a proceeding thou soolish and obdurate Sinner That whereas God has hedged in thy way with thorns and placed death as a stop in thy progress thou wilt yet break through all those strong sences chusing to dye before thy time and to offer thy self up if I may so say a Martyr to the Devil What Apology canst thou make for such an extravagant conduct What reason canst thou find wherewith to answer the Wisemans question why thou wilt dye before thy time Is death so amiable a thing in thy eyes Art thou so enamour'd with the King of terrors that thou hastenest thus to meet him and to anticipate the day of thy dissolution No certainly this cannot be the true reason of thy proceeding no man can be thus in love with death but especially not the wicked man who must expect so sad a Catastrophe after death But the true cause of such an absurd Behaviour is this That men consider not the last issue of their actions they go on in their Vices as the Ox goes to the Slaughter reflecting in the mean time no more than that Beast does that they are tending to the Chambers of death Awake then ye harden'd and secure Sinners from this unthinking stupidity Arise and escape for your Lives Death and Hell are before you and why will ye die before your time If you love life and desire to see good days flee from those Vices which lead you into such fatal and murderous consequences Let the time past of your lives be accounted as over-much wickedness and walk from henceforth in the good and wholesome Paths of Virtue and Religion Thus will you escape that untimely end which the Wiseman here warns you of thus will you set out in a fair way to a long life here and in a sure way to an eternal One hereafter To which God of his Infinite Mercy bring us all through Jesus Christ To whom c. FINIS

they can never arrive at any end of the Prospect Nothing in Religion shall be to them a Mystery Has God enacted Eternal and Immutable Decrees They 'l unseal the Mystical Book and the Records of Heaven shall not escape their observation Has God in a most stupendious and unspeakable manner redeem'd Mankind They must unfold the whole Mystery and they 'll hardly be contented to accept the benefit of that Redemption if they may not be allow'd to scan and unravel the whole Divine Art by which that glorious Work was Accomplished With such rude and irreverent Curiosity do men dare to treat the most Mysterious Articles of Religion But this certainly is a most presumptuous exorbitancy and may justly be censured as the excess forbid by Solomon in my Text it being the making our selves over-wise For the holy Scriptures seem to have drawn a Curtain before these Sacred Articles to admonish us not to search too boldly into them but to receive them as the constant Trials of our Faith and Motives of our Humility They give us the undoubted Testimony of God to assert and confirm their truth and that should be sufficient to warrant and command our belief of them which is all that God in this particular requires at our hands But if we will be over-wise and search too curiously after the nature and discovery of them all that we shall gain by it will be nothing else but this mournful Recompence we shall destroy our selves for these sublime Truths are placed above our Mortal heads like the Sun in the Firmament to the intent that they might warm our Hearts and influence our Lives but they will be sure like the Sun too to dazle our Eyes if not to strike us quite blind if we look too closely and obstinately upon them It was an aspiring desire of being over-wise that brought the Original Curse and Destruction upon Mankind And alike ill consequence will attend all those who are guilty of the same Sinful Curiosity touching Divine Mysteries which was our first Parents Transgression in reference to the Tree of Knowledge Such presumptuous discoverers may lose themselves in their researches as we may see by the sad Ship-wrecks of those who have been the boldest Adventurers that way but they shall never find the forbidden secrets which they so thirst and languish after They may disturb their Peace impair their Health subvert their Faith distract their Reason and according to the Wiseman's denunciation in my Text totally destroy both their Bodies and Souls but that 's all the fruit that they are likely to reap from their endeavour to make themselves thus Over-wise And thus much of the two former Cautions contain'd in my Text directed to the Good and Religious man But if it be so necessary for the Good and Pious man to observe such Limits and Cautions in his Applications to Religion How much more then does it behove the Wicked and Irreligious to lay the severest Restraints upon himself in Relation to his Vices Which leads me to the Third caution contain'd in my Text viz. Be not over much wicked neither be thou foolish That is Be not Persisting and Obdurate in thy Wickedness The holy Psalmist tells us that God's mercies are over all his works Extending their Benefits not only to his good and obedient Creatures but also to the wicked and rebellious ones He bears long with them spares and cherishes them and when their Sins cry aloud for the Vials of Wrath he nevertheless pours upon them the showers of his Mercy And what is the gracious end and design of this long-forbearance and mercy of God toward them No other but that which the Apostle assigns That he may thereby lead them to Repentance Rom. 2.4 But such is the Ingratitude of Sinners that it too often works a contrary effect upon them and that Patience and Long-suffering of God which both in the nature and design of it should persuade them to repent encourages them to become more excessive and obdurate in their Wickedness Thus every days continuance in Sin as it makes the Sinners condition more dangerous so it renders him more obdurate and insensible of his danger and that wickedness which puts him under the greatest necessity of Repentance does most of all disable and harden him against it In their first Essays and Practices of Wickedness Men are naturally apt to be diffident and fearful full of inward distrusts in the very commission of the evil and of bitter checks and remorses for it afterward They proceed to their first acts of Lewdness as raw and unexperienced Soldiers are wont to go into Battel that is with Chill Fears Paleness and Tremblings but when they have often try'd the danger and come off with safety they then bid defiance to the Almighty Job 15.26 They run upon the thick bosses of his buckler and what they at first attempted with so much fear and reluctancy they repeat afterward with Triumph and Shouting When they find that none of those Judgments which are denounced against Sin and which they were at first so apprehensive of fall upon their heads but that on the contrary they are crowned with Blessings they then begin to flatter themselves that God's threatnings are but empty Menaces of much seeming terror indeed but no real danger That he is no such dreadful Judge and Avenger as they at first mistook him for And by these steps they become over-much wicked and foolish that is hardened and secure in their Sins Eccl. 8.11 Because sentence is not speedily executed upon them therefore are their hearts fully set in them to do evil But hear the Wiseman's warning ye secure and obdurate Sinners Why will ye dye before your time Mistake not God's forbearance with you for an allowance of your actions think not that you are Pardon'd because you are Reprieved Or that God's Judgments against you are reversed because they are respited flatter not your selves with such deceitful expectations For if Solomon knew any thing this will be the sure tho it may be the slow Recompence of your over-much Wickedness it will bring you to a wretched and untimely end For the wrath of God is compared in Scripture to the raging of a Lion which tho it may be long before it can be provoked yet it will be sure to break out upon you at last in so much the more violent fury and destruction And admitting that the Divine Wrath should for a time pass you over yet the natural product of your own over much wickedness will it self do the work of that Vengeance and you will need no other Executioners but your own Vices for all Sin is naturally of a most deadly and pestilential Influence it is the fruitful Parent of surfeitings debilities and rottenness of Bones of an Infirm Life and an Immature Death And whilst both Nature and Providence thus combine against your safety how can you live out half your days How can you escape Solomon's