Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	lord_n	mercy_n	soul_n	6,568	5	5.1684	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51223	Of religious melancholy a sermon preach'd before the Queen at White-Hall March the 6th, 1691/2 / by the Right Reverend Father in God John, Lord Bishop of Norwich.	Moore, John, 1646-1714.	1692 (1692)	Wing M2547; ESTC R9401	15,050	33

Divine Assistance nothing will oftner carry your Thoughts to Heaven than your present Disconsolation and Trouble whose length and acuteness will also make Heaven it self taste the sweeter when soever God of his infinite Mercy shall bring you thither 6. Let not these afflicting Thoughts discourage you from the Exercise of your Devotions nor tempt you to omit or negligently discharge any one Christian Office or Duty Go still on in the ways of Religion and do the work of the Lord notwithstanding these performances to your selves may seem flat and heavy and such as will neither be grateful to him nor procure good to your Souls Let your Prayers ascend up to Heaven continually altho at present you find no Answer or Return to your Petitions Is any among you afflicted says St. James let him pray Prayer is the natural and the only safe refuge for the afflicted It is a sure stay to the heart when nothing else in the World can support it Nay the listnesness to Prayer so grievous to weak Christians will be removed by nothing so soon and so effectually as by Prayer it self For Prayer refines the Thoughts purifies the Heart and exalts the Soul above its natural pitch so that he who did enter upon his Prayers with some coldness shall often receive wonderful joy in his mind before he comes to the end of them Nothing will make the Soul partake so much of the Divine Nature and so closely unite it to God as devont Prayer But further at these disconsolate Seasons especially let the matter of your Prayers be such as doth imply your reposing an extraordinary confidence and trust in God altho he seems now to hide his face from you for it will be a thing most acceptable to him and a strong proof of your Integrity that you cease not to do your duty even when you find little pleasure in it and still continue to cast your self and cause wholly upon him when he does appear to be afar off and to have no regard to your cries and your tears And here it may be fit to give you a Caution against long Prayers for your heads under this disturbance will bear nothing which requires length of attention let your Prayers therefore be frequent rather than long such as may cause delight and not prove tedious There is no time or place or imployment do so engage you but you may have leisure now and then to send up your desires to Heaven and if they be sincere and fervent they will prevail with God how short soever they are for it is not the multitude of yourwords but the honestdisposition of your heart which will incline him to hear you And this Advice is therefore to be insisted upon because melanch oly Christians have been observed to suffer by the length of their Prayers and their Fasts Moreover do not forsake the Table of the Lord notwithstanding there also you meet no comfort and should be altogether unable to move and effect your hearts with holy reflections upon the most cruel and shameful death of your Blessed Saviour for that heavenly Bread will refresh your Souls and encrease your Graces and replenish your hearts with joy as soon as ever God shall find you qualify'd for so great mercies What evil thoughts then soever are injected into your Minds so long as you persist in a godly course of life there can be no colour of doubt but God will love you and approve your Services For he nowhere hath said that Men shall be condemned for their ungovernable Thoughts over which they have no dominion but he hath promised that all those who are not weary in well-doing shall in due season reap everlasting Life Now should these perplexing Thoughts last as long as you live which is the hardest thing you can suppose in this case yet that as I said before would be no more an Argument of God's Anger than a Fevor or a Fire or the loss of a Friend or any other Affliction nor of the unsoundness and hypoorisie of your Mind who in this matter are only the Sufferer for as you did not invite them so they continue with you much against your consent Let not therefore your present Trials and Humiliations make you despair of finding favour with a God of boundless Mercy and most tender Compassions Persevere in your Duty and confide in his infinite goodness and at length the clouds which now darken your Minds shall all vanish and be succeeded by steddy and pure light your fears shall be turned into full Assurances of unconceivable Happiness and all the Disorders Tumults and Confusions in your Souls shall be changed iuto Eternal Peace and undisturbed and endless Joys Give me leave to conclude all in the words of the Psalmist who had been a Man of Sorrows from his youth and yet ever received Supplies from the Lord answerable to his Distress Ye that fear the Lord praise him for he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted neither hath he hid his face from him but when he cried unto him he heard Wait on the Lord be of good courage and he shall strengthen thy heart I will be glad and rejoyce in thy mercy for thou hast consider'd my trouble thou hast known my soul in adversities I will sing unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me yea I will hope continually and yet praise him more and more O how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee O love the Lord all ye his Saints for the Lord preserveth the faithful They that know thy name will put their trust in thee for thou hast not forsaken them who seek thee FINIS Mark 16. 16. 2 Cor. 5. 10. * Vide St. Basil de moderandis animi cogitationibus Tom. 2. p. 674. * Dum enim cogitatio mala in initiis est facile potest abjiti à corde Nam si frequenter iteretur diu permantat adducit animum ad consensum post consensum intra cer suum confirmatum certum est qui ad peccati tendat effectum Hieronym in Cantic Cantic Hom. 4. p. 117. † Reprime porro Cogitationem superbiae priusquam te superbia deprimat Destrue Cogitationem arrogantiae antiquam ipsa te subvertat Effringe atque exclude concupiscentiam pri usquam te concupiscentia ●●idat ac conterat Ephraem Syri Op. p. 404. * E●o mitis placidus benevolentiae plenus gratiae sine ullâ sermo ducatur contumeliâ Absit pertinax in familiari sermone contentio quaestiones enim magis excitare inanes quam utilitates aliquid efferre solet Disciptatio sine irâ suavitas sine amaritudine sit monitio sine asperitate hortatio sine offensione S. Ambr. Tom. 4. Col. 16. * Nolite litigare cum perversis ●ogitationibus vel perversa voluntate sed cum vobis insistae sunt aliqua utiii cogitatione voluntate mentem vestram donec evanescant fortiter o●cupate neque do●●atis neque contristemini de illarum insestatione quamdiu illas sicut dixi contemnendo superatis nullum eis ass●nsum Praebet●s ne occasione t●istitiae iterum r●deant ad memoriam suam importunitat●m resuscitent S. Anselm Ep. 133. p. 414. * Cum autem vultis orare aut aliquam bonam meditationem intendere si vobis tunc importunae sunt cogitationes quas non debetis suscipere nunquam propter illarum importunitatem ●onu● quod incepistis velitis demittere S. Anselm ib.

astray from his Ways to quicken our Returns to our Duty So that when Fear doth prevail upon a man to amend his bad life he puts his Passion to the very use for which he received it from God And having thus applied it to the end for which it was made an Essential Ingredient of his Nature we have no cause to question but God will own him and graciously allow his Obedience 2. We may observe That God hath enforced all the Laws he hath given to the Children of Men by Threatnings as well as by Promises But as promises are to work upon our Love so Threats are to excite our Fears God having made the Motives to our Obedience to answer the different Passions with which he hath endued our Souls Wherefore there cannot be the least reason to conceive that God should threaten Punishments against the disobedient which naturally act upon the fears of men and yet not be pleased with the Service which these Fears raised by the Penalties annext to his own Laws do bring forth No God therefore doth set Life and Death before Men that the fear of Death may make them chuse Life and he threatneth them with Everlasting Punishments that the Amazement and Horrour which the serious and due Consideration of them will cause in their Souls may powerfully engage them with all Speed and Care to labour to fit themselves to partake of the Divine Mercies 3. Our Blessed Saviour first and his Disciples after him in their Sermons do address themselves not only to the Passion of Love but also to that of Fear which they never would have done had they been conscious that the Sacrifices of Fear would not have ascended up to Heaven with a grateful Savour He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Doth not Christ here intend to bring Men to a belief of his Gospel and to yield Obedience to the Laws thereof as well by the fears of Damnation as the hopes of Salvation And when he had cured the man who had been afflicted with an Infirmity Thirty eight Years he bids him sin no more lest a worse thing come unto him The Argument our Lord used to engage the poor impotent man to live innocently was directed to the Passion of his Fear taken from the Danger of a Calamity greater than the very long Infirmity of which he now was cured that would befal him if he did still continue in his sins Knowing the terror of the Lord saith St. Paul we perswade men The Apostle well knew that the greatness of these Terrors exprest in the foregoing Verse That we must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad if fully and maturely weighed would be of irresistible force to recover Men from a lewd and prophane Conversation They must be brought to a state of extream Obstinacy or Desparation upon whom an Argument of such wonderful power and efficacy can make no Impression 2. I come to a second Case often complained of by some serious Christians which is a want of Inclination to holy things and a coldness in their Devotions They do not come to God's House nor address themselves to their Prayers with such an appetite as they do to the Business of the World but want earnest and fervent Desires for the success of the Petitions they put up to their Father in Heaven they cannot warmly engage their hearts in the Cause of their Salvation but find a listlesness to Spiritual Exercises which they apprehend to be a full proof of their Hypocrisie and that God will refuse their Prayers and Thanksgivings as vain and insincere Oblations Now before I proceed in the best and clearest Method I can to relieve Persons in this unhappy Condition I desire it may be first observed that why many have no more Zeal and Life in God's Service is their own fault for which they are greatly to be blamed Because this Dulness of Spirit that attends their Religious Exercises does come from their own Negligence and want of Consideration They take Care to make an Appearance in the Congregation but no care about what their Souls are there imployed They have not considered of what Infinite Importance it will be to them to serve God in the most acceptable manner nor how they should render their Service acceptable neither by what cause their Devotions have decay'd nor by what means they may revive and increase them Now if they neither consider where they are nor for what end they came it is no wonder that their minds should be flat and unactive all the time they stand before the Lord and very little concern'd for the prosperous Issue of the Prayers that are offered up by the Congregation As therefore it is high Presumption for such careless Persons to hope for any benefit by that part they bear in the Publick-Worship so they may cure their Malady by retiring from their Business and their Pleasures and by reflecting in good earnest upon the terrible Dangers whereunto they do every hour expose their immortal Souls But these are not the Men to whose Case I would speak at this time but I direct my Discourse to those who have frequently striven to remove this coldness from their Souls when they did approach the Heavenly Throne and yet have failed in their Attempt Now in abatement of their Trouble give me leave to lay the following Observations before them 1. That the difference of Degrees of Affections with which Men serve God does often depend upon the difference of their Tempers and Constitutions Some have such heavy Constitutions that it must be a great matter that will work upon their Hopes or Fears and it will require some time to make them very sensible either of their gain or loss But others have such a tenderness in their Natures and such quickness of Sense that the least things do much affect them A little Prosperity makes all their Spirits to mount and they are overflow'd with Joy and as small a Cross sinks them down and causes them to have sad and melancholy Perswasions of their Condition Now People of such various Dispositions notwithstanding they have equally endeavour'd to prepare themselves cannot serve God with equal affections but yet he may be alike pleased with what they both do Because he will measure their Obedience by the sincerity of their minds that lies in their own power and not by the difference of their Constitutions which was not made by themselves The Constitutions of some men being much warmer than those of others they easier take fire whether they are paying homage to God or doing business among Men. Where therefore Men have more heat in their natural Temper it is no wonder they should have more zeal in their Devotions But God will not reject any man because he is of a cold Complexion