Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	wonder_n	world_n	year_n	61	3	3.9567	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26951	The life of faith in three parts, the first is a sermon on Heb. 11, 1, formerly preached before His Majesty, and published by his command, with another added for the fuller application : the second is instructions for confirming believers in the Christian faith : the third is directions how to live by faith, or how to exercise it upon all occasions / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1670 (1670)	Wing B1301; ESTC R5103	494,148	660

2. It setteth you at enmity with God and holiness because God controlleth and condemneth your beloved lusts and because it is contrary to the carnal things which have your hearts 2. By this means it maketh men malignant enemies of the godly and persecutors of them because they are of contrary minds and waies As then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit even so it is now Gal. 4.29 The world cannot love us because we are not of the world John 15.19 20. Pride covetousness and sensuality are the matter which the burning Feaver lodgeth in which hath consumed so much of the Church of Christ 4. It is the sin that hath corrupted the sacred Office of the Ministry throughout most of the Christian Churches in the world And thereby caused both the Schisms and Cruelties and the decay of serious godliness among them which is their present deplorable case Ignorant persons are like sick men in a Feaver They lay the blame on this and that and commonly on that which went next before the paroxism and know not the true cause of the disease We are all troubled or should be to see the many minds the many waies the confused state of the Christian Churches and to hear them cry out against each other And one layeth the blame on this party or opinion and another on that But when we come to our selves we shall find that it is The worldly mind that causeth our calamity Many well meaning friends of the Church do think how dishonourable it is to the Ministry to be poor and low and consequently despicable and what an advantage is it to their work to be able to relieve the poor and rather to oblige the people than to depend upo● them and to be above them rather than below them And supposing the Pastors to be mortified holy heavenly men all this is true and the zeal of these thoughts is worthy of commendation But that which good men intend for good hath become the Churches bane So certain is the common saying that Constantines zeal did poison the Church by lifting up the Pastors of it too high and occasioning those contentions for grandure and precedency which to this day separate the East and West When well-meaning Piety hath adorned the office with wealth and honour it is as true as that the Sun shineth that the most proud ambitious worldly men will be the most studious seekers of that office and will make it their plot and trade and business how by friends and observances and wills to attain their ends And usually he that seeks shall find when in the mean time the godly mortified humble man will not do so but will serve God in the state to which he is clearly called And consequently except it be under the Government of an admirably wise and holy Ruler a worthy Pastor in such a wealthy station will be a singular thing and a rarity of the age whilst worldly men whose hearts are habited with that which is utterly contrary to holiness and contrary to the very ends and work of their own office will be the men that must sit in Moses Chair that must have the doing and ruling of the work which their hearts are set against And how it will go with the Church of Christ when the Gospel is to be preached and Preachers chosen and Godliness promoted by the secret enemies of it and when ambiti●us fleshly worldly men are they that must cure the peoples souls under Christ of the love of the flesh and the world it were easie to prognosticate from the causes if the Christian world could not tell by the effects so that except by the wonderful Piety of Princes there is no visible way in the eye of reason to recover the miserable Churches but to retrive the Pastoral Office into such a state as that it may be no bait to a worldly mind but may be desired and chosen purely upon heavenly accounts And then the richer the Pastors are the better when they are the Sons of Nobles whose Piety bringeth with them their honour and their wealth to serve God and his Church with and they do not find it there to be their end or inducement to the work But instead of invitations or encouragements to pride and carnal minds there may be only so much as may not deter or drive away candidates from the sacred Function 5. Worldliness is a sin which maketh the Word of God unprofitable Mat. 13.22 John 12.43 Ezek. 33.31 prepossessing the heart and resisting that Gospel which would extirpate it 6. It hindereth Prayer by corrupting mens desires and by intruding worldly thoughts 7. It hindereth all holy Meditation by turning both the heart and thoughts another way 8. It drieth up all heavenly profitable Conference whilst the world doth fill both mind and mouth 9. It is a great profaner of the Lords Day distracting mens minds and alienating them from God 10. It is a murderous enemy of Love to one another All worldly men being so much for themselves that they are seldom hearty friends to any other 11. Yea it maketh men false and unrighteous in their dealings There being no trust to be put in a worldly man any further than you are sure you suit his interest 12. It is the great cause of discord and divisions in the world It setteth Families Neighbours and Kingdoms together by the ears and setteth the Nations of the earth in bloody wars to the calamity and destruction of each other 13. It causeth cheating stealing robbing oppressions cruelties lying false-witnessing perjury murders and many such other sins 14. It maketh men unfit to suffer for Christ because they love the world above him and consequently it maketh them as Apostates to forsake him in a time of tryal 15. It is a great devourer of precious time That short life which should be spent in preparing for eternity is almost all spent in drudging for the world 16. Lastly It greatly unfitteth men to die and maketh them loth to leave the world And no wonder when there is no entertainment for worldlings in any better place hereafter Direct 6. If you would be saved from the world and the snares of prosperity foresee death and judge of the world 〈◊〉 it will appear and use you at the last Dream not of long life He that looks to stay but a little while in the world will be the less careful of his provisions in it A little will serve for a little t●me The grave is a sufficient disgrace to all the vanities on earth though there must be more to raise the heart to Heaven Direct 7. M●rtifie the flesh and you overcome the world Cure the thirsty disease and you will need none of the worldlings waies to satisfie it When the flesh is mastered there it no use for plenty or pleasures or honours to satisfie its lusts Your daily bread to fit you for your work will then suffice Direct 8.

your honours and attendance Is a day that is spent or a life that is ●xtinct any thing or nothing Is there any sweetness in a feast that was eaten or drink that was drunk or time that was spent in sports and mirth a year ago Certainly a known vanity should not be preferred before a probable endless joy But when we have certainty as well as excellency and eternity to set against certain transitory vanity what room is left for further deliberation whether we should prefer the Sun before a squib or a flash of lightening that suddenly leaves us in the dark one would think should be an easie question to resolve Up then and work while it is day and let us run and strive with all our might Heaven is at hand as sure as if you saw it You are certain you can be no losers by the choice You part with nothing for all things you escape the tearing of your heart by submitting to the scratching of a bryer You that will bear the opening of a vein for the cure of a Feaver and will not forbear a necessary Journey for the barking of a Dog or the blowing of the wind O leap not into Hell to scape the stinking breath of a scorner Part not with God with Conscience and with Heaven to save your purses or your flesh Chuse not a merry way to misery before a prudent sober preparation for a perfect everlasting joy You would not prefer a merry cup before a Kingdom You would let go a l●sser delight or commodity for a greater here Thus a greater sin can forbid the exercise of a less And shall not endless joy weigh down a brutish lust or pleasure If you love pleasure take that which is true and full and durable For all that he calleth you to Repentance and Mortification and necessary strictness there is none that 's more for your pleasure and delight than God or else he would not offer you the rivers of pleasure that are at his right hand nor himself to be your perpetual delight If you come into a room where are variety of pictures and one is gravely reading or meditating and another with a cup or harlot in his hand is profusely laughing with a gaping grining mouth would you take the latter or the former to be the picture of a wise and happy man Do you approve of the state of those in Heaven and do you like the way that brought them thither If not why speak you of them so honourably and why would you keep holy-daies in remembrance of them If you do examine the sacred records and see whether the Apostles and others that are now honoured as glorified Saints did live as you do or rather as those that you think are too precise Did they spend the day in feasting and sports and idle talk Did they swagger it out in pride and wealth hate their brethren that were not in all things of their conceits Did they come to Heaven by a worldly formal hypocritical ceremonious Religion or by faith and love and self-denial and unwearied labouring for their own and other mens salvation while they became the wonder and the scorn of the ungodly and as the off-scouring and refuse of the world Do you like holiness when it is for from you in a dead man that never troubled you with his presence or reproofs or in a Saint in Heaven that comes not near you Why then do you not like it for your selves If it be good the nearer the better Your own health and your own wealth do comfort you more than another mans And so would your own holiness if you had it If you would speed as they that are now beholding the face of God believe and live and wait as they did And as the righteous God did not forget their work and labour of love for his Name so he will remember you with the same reward if you shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end and be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the Promises Heb. 6.10 11 12. O did you but see what they now enjoy and what they see and what they are and what they do you would never sure scorn or persecute a Saint more If you believe you see though not as they with open face If you believe not yet it is not your unbelief that shall make Gods Word of none effect Rom. 3.3 God will be God if you be Atheists Christ will be Christ if you be Infidels Heaven will be Heaven if you by despising it go to Hell Judgement sleepeth not when you sleep I'ts coming as fast when you laugh at it or question it as if your eyes were open to foresee it If you would not believe that you must die do you think that this would delay your death one year or hour If ten or twenty years time more be allotted you it passeth as swiftly and death and judgement come as surely if you spend it in voluptuousness and unbelief as if you watcht and waited for your change We preach not to you Ifs and And 's It is not perhaps there is a Heaven and Hell But as sure as you are here and must anon go hence you must as shortly quit this world and take up your abode in the world that 's now to us invisible And no tongue can express how sensible you will then be of the things that you will not now be made sensible of O then with what a dreadful view will you look before you and behind you Behind you upon Time and say It is gone and never will return and hear conscience ask you How you spent it and what you did with it Before you upon Etern●ty and say It is come and to the ungodly will be an Eternity of woe What a peal will conscience then ring in the unbelievers ears Now the day is come that I was forewarned of the day and change which I would not believe whither must I now go what must I now do what shall I say before the Lord for all the sin that I have wilfully committed for all the time of mercy which I lost How shall I answer my contempt of Christ my neglect of means and enmity to a holy serious life What a distracted wretch was I to condemn and dislike them that spent their lives in preparation for this day when now I would give a thousand worlds to be but one of the meanest of them O that the Church doors and the door of grace were open to me now as once they were when I refused to enter Many a time did I hear of this day and would not believe or soberly consider of it Many a time was I intreated to prepare and I thought an hypocritical trifling shew would have been taken for a sufficient prep●●●tion Now who must be my companions How long must I dwell with woe and horrour God by his Ministers was wont to call to