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	soul_n	word_n	8,618	5	4.1828	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A84322	The church-sleeper awakened, or A discourse on Act. 20. 9. being the substance of two sermons composed and preached at Corke in Ireland. / By Joseph Eyres master of arts, and a servant of God in the Gospel of his son.	Eyres, Joseph.	1659 (1659)	Wing E3949; Thomason E1902_2; ESTC R209968	16,328	119

Christ bids them watch and pray He knew full well that if they did not watch neither could they pray Math. 26.41 2. To hear him speaking unto you by the Ministery of the Word Our business is not only to poure out our complaints and requests into Gods bosome but likewise to receive answers and tidings of peace into ours Now the sleepy Hearer stops up the passages thorough which the Lord is wont to convey his grace into the soul I hope you are not of the opinion that the Lord now speaks to his people by dreams and that therefore there is no need of a waking attention Thus you see how the intercourse betwixt God and sleepy souls is interrupted and dammed up Surely that must needs be a very great sin that doth obstruct duty and renders the Ordinances of God frustraneous and ineffectual Secondly you are in the presence of the Angels who are wont to frequent the solemn and sacred Assemblies of the Saints which seems proveable from 1 Cor. 11.10 and to take notice of any disorders in sacred Conventions You cannot make a wry mouth laugh fleere in the Ministers face take a nap be guilty of a lascivious glance wanton look or any other immodest behaviour but it is done not only in the presence of the God of heaven but also in the presence of the Angels of heaven who are strict observers of you and have a watchful eye upon you Besides the Angels do with much wonder and delight make inspection into the profound Mysteries of the Gospel Eph. 3.10 manifested and made known to and by the Church 1 Pet. 1.12 if you did so too you would not be possessed with such a spirit of slumber as you are Thirdly you are in the presence of the Church You are now in Gods family not your own You may not take liberty to do that here which you would make no scruple of to do at home Any publick Assembly especially of Saints and they ingaged in a worke of the highest nature requires an aweful and respective behaviour in such as do attend it We may not offend any much less the Church 1 Cor. 10.32 We may not offend a single Saint much less a Society of such Besides the Church is an orderly Society all things in it should be done decently and in order 1 Cor. 14.10 Whilst one is singing another should not be snoring 2. Consider whose work it is that you are about We are not only in Gods presence but are also employed in Gods work Now we are commanded to be fervent in spirit whilst we serve the Lord Rom. 12.11 It becomes not Gods servants of any to be of a drouzy disposition especially when they should be diligent and intent upon their Masters business It s hard if you cannot watch with Christ one hour Christ did watch and pray in the Garden the Disciples should have done so too and have kept him company Matth. 26.40 It was a patheticall expostulation that of Christ Could you not watch with me one houre q. d. If any of your Friends and neer Relations were pained in body and perplexed in minde if they lay under the thousandth part of that agony and anguish of spirit that I lie under you would have watched with them and why then can you not watch with me Yea you would have watched all night with them untill the dawning of the day and is it possible that you can not watch with me one houre I could pray for you in a Mountain and cannot you pray with me in a Garden I could spend a great part of the night in prayer for you and can you not spend an houre of the night in prayer with me Me thinks it should not be such a tiresome task and intollerable The service of God doth deservedly require the utmost ardour and intenseness of spirit the most elevated inlarged inflamed affections that creatures are capable of Whatsoever our hand findeth to do especially in matters spirituall should be done with all our might 3. The work that you are emploied about is of loftiest consequence and concernment Your souls are concerned in it Life and death are before you We should hearken to the word of God as for our lives for it is our life Deut. 32.46 47. VVhat a man doth for his life he will do with the utmost vigour and vivacity VVith what panting and pressing earnestness doth an almost famisht and hunger-bitten begger cry for bread VVith what awakening heart-penetrating expressions doth a Prisoner at the bar plead for his life Not a word passeth unobserved by him he doth with much greediness of attention hearken to the Evidence of VVitnesses Verdict of the Jury Sentence of the Judge and no wonder for his life lies at the stake He must be either acquitted and live or else condemned and dye You who are here this day must be tried by that word which you hear by it your eternall estates and conditions must be cast Now whose eares would not be tickled with extraordinary delight at the hearing of the promises of life and whose eares would not glow and tingle at the denunciations and threatnings of eternall death But the mischief on it is the Church-Sleeper is like the Smiths dog whom neither the hammers above him nor the sparks of fire falling round about him can awaken 4. You are not wont to sleep whilst you are about your own work You rise up early and sit up late and do with much eagerness and unweariedness prosecute your own affairs The Husbandman doth not sleep with his Plough in his hand neither doth the Pilot sleep whilst he is at the helm guiding the Ship Though you sleep in the Church yet you do not sleep in the shop whilest you have any thing to do and customers to attend How contentedly will you refrain from eating drinking sleeping all the day long nay and a great part of the night too provided the merry penny may be coming in thewhiles You can sit chatting and discoursing with your Friends many hours and it s very late many times ere you can part but when you come into Gods presence to enjoy fellowship and communion with him you are nodding presently and there you sit like so many liveless logs and senseless statues I have heard of feasts that have lasted four or five hours but hardly of any Guests that were sleeping whilest others were eating But when people come to feast with God to make a meale upon an Ordinance they cannot hold open their eyes for their hearts You are not wont to sleep whilst the naturall glass is before you but when the pure chrystall glass of the Law is by the Minister held forth unto you and set before you as loth belike to behold what manner of persons you are you wink with the eye 5. VVicked men do not sleep whilst they are about the Divels work If Judas have a treacherous plot in hand out of doors he will though in the night and put his