Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	sin_n	soul_n	wage_n	5,338	5	10.9200	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48582	A sermon preached at the anniversary meeting of the Dorset-shire gentlemen in the Church of St. Mary-le-Bow. Dec. 1. 1691. By Tho. Lindesay, A.M. Fellow of Wadham Colledge in Oxon; and Chaplain to the Right Honourable the Earl of Essex.	Lindesay, Thomas, 1656-1724.	1692 (1692)	Wing L2310; ESTC R216735	15,770	41

his kindness may when he would not only find himself unable to give but him also whom he would oblige in an incapacity to receive A little time and small circumstances alter the whole state of humane things and what to day might prove a Blessing may at another time not only be an useless but an hurtful Offering However this we may be sure of that so long as we delay the doing good so long we still protract the poor Mans Pain and Misery And there is so much Sowerness in the mixture of such kindness that probably it may not be relish'd when it comes If I design to shew a favour Wisdom will prompt me to dispatch because by this I heighten the Obligation of the Deed and hasten and ascertain my Reward The timing of a kindness makes it If I give money to buy the Needy Food and the Market's gone and past and nothing's to be had I offer a stone instead of Bread 'T is but like Meat that 's plac'd upon the Hearses of the dead may serve for shew but can never be of use to them for whom it is there set If I would reclaim a Man from Vice I ought to watch the first motions of his Soul to evil Councel will come too late when frequent Acts have hardened him in his way How do I know if when I see one in a wicked course and like Foelix do put off my Reproof unto another season but that very Act may conclude the Fate of his poor Soul He may by that fill up the measure of his Sins and so be reprobated for ever And then either to check or to advise is but to call the Physician in when the sick Man's eyes shall rowl in death and the trembling joynts declare the whole Building 's tottering down Therefore the best timing Benefactions is to make the Object and our Bounty meet When e'er we see one need immediately to supply the want never to stop the Hireling's Wages nor the poor Man's dues For how do we know how great and pressing their Necessities may be And perhaps the defect but of one day may starve both the Virtue and the Man Thus much to shew when we may be said to have an opportunity to do good which is as often and as soon as the Object of our Charity requires 3. The Third thing to be considered is the Measure of the Duty which obligeth us to do good to all Men and more especially to the Houshold of Faith 1. And First we are to do good to all Men which general Charity I shall treat of under these two respects either as the words may signifie all Nations or else as they include both the good and bad And 1. First as all Men doth take in all ●●●ons of the World At the time our Saviour came on Earth there seem'd to be a general Errour crept into the minds of Men that all Humanity was to be confin'd within the narrow limits of a Country and that the Law of Nature did no farther bind them in this case than as they became form'd into particular Bodies or Societies of Men without the bounds of which the Rule did cease and the Obligation became void The Jews at the time of our Apostle's writing this Epistle entertain'd a general hatred to all Nations of the Earth besides themselves and had been so far mis-led by the Pharisees false Interpretations of the Law as hardly to permit a Gentile to live amongst them denied them all Traffick and Commerce and even the common Civilities of Men. What Gentiles were unto the Jews that Barbarians were unto the Romans they treated them with the same Civilities and both the name and usage which they gave them sufficiently declare they esteem'd them as little better than the other Salvage Creatures of the Earth And the Letter which Josephus mentions in the 12th Book of his Antiquities to be sent from one of the Kings of Lacedemon to Orias the High Priest gives us light into the sense of other Nations also in this matter In which the Reason given why they and the Jews should communicate to each other was because by an old Writing they had found that both were originally descended from one common Stock And thence we may easily infer that had there been no such Affinity and Kin they would not have thought themselves any otherways oblig'd And I could wish this temper of theirs had perished in the destruction of those Nations But they must have made but little observation in the World whose own experience cannot tell them that many even amongst us have been acted by the same Principle towards a Neighbouring People driven to us for Relief 'T is plain some look'd upon them only as Locusts sent for to devour the Land and the cry was Have we not poor enough amongst our selves but we must call in Strangers to take the Bread out of our own mouths and to rob and ruine us in our Trade All bowels of Mercy and Compassion seem'd to be swallowed up and lost in a National Interest and Concern And tho' they were Christians as our selves sufferers in the same common Cause and what was their Fate was our Danger at that time yet all would not suffice to perswade some they were sit Objects for their Charity whilst others grudgingly and repiningly did give It may not therefore be improper here to give such Reasons for a general Charity as may incline us to be of a better temper in such Cases for the future And 1. We are to do good unto all Men because we have the same common Parents and Original And this whether we Respect either God or Man 'T is true the Heathens knew nothing of their Rise from Adam but where they found the Descent to be the same they there did always think themselves oblig'd to shew all Acts of Kindness and Humanity But that God was the first Cause of all things that from him we had our Being and our well-being too was generally own'd by all the world The Writings of Heathen Authors are full of that Confession and St. Paul quotes one of their own Poets to this purpose Act. 17. v. 28. The light of the Divinity shone so clearly in their Souls that they could not but discern the Fountain of those Rays The swift Motions and the reflex Actions of their Minds gave them clearly to understand that there was something more concern'd in their Formation than pure Man And the Inferences which some drew from this were the very same which we should make that there was no room left for any Man to Boast or Pride himself in his Extraction or the mighty affluence of his worldly goods nothing to value our selves upon since the best part of Man was common unto all The same Reason dwelt under the Thatched Cottage as the Gilded Roof and shin'd as bright under the dark Veil of an Aethiopian Skin as in the fairest Case of Flesh and Blood that Nature ever yet produced