Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	work_n	year_n	yield_v	23	3	6.7438	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57546	The rich fool set forth in an exposition on that parable : Luke 12, 16-22 ... / by Nehemiah Rogers ...	Rogers, Nehemiah, 1593-1660.	1662 (1662)	Wing R1824; ESTC R5063	109,384	135

up your Reckonings They that cast up their Accounts daily have the easier work to do at the years end So it will be with you you shall find it so at the day of your Death Vse 2 Secondly Seeing Worldlings are so frequent in casting up their Reckonings and making up their Accounts I could wish and I would I could perswade them to do it seriously and in good earnest as this man in the Text is said to do nay somewhat better than he for he seems to take the Visus in gross Soul thou hast Goods layd up for many years Eat Drink and be Merry but we do not read that he did exactly look over his Bill of Parcels nor do it orderly The things that you must account for are your Receipts and Expences which are brought by some to three Heads Evil committed Good omitted Time pretermitted or mis-pent M●li commissi ●oni omissi Temporis amissi I cannot stand to inlarge upon these only I desire that these worldly Accomptants would spend a little more time then they do about their Accompts for they might then find strange Items Item received Riches and laid out Oppression received Plenty and layd out Riot Received Speech and layd out Swearing Lying c Received Sight and layd out Lusting c. Of my Goods expended so much in fulfilling the Lust of the Flesh so much in a year for the Lust of my Eyes so much for the pride of Life But what for Works of Piety Charity Surely very little it may be not one penny And to what will all this amount to what is the summa totalis Surely the Curse of God on Body Soul Name State O goodly Gains But we come nearer to the Text. Text. He thought within himself And for this thinking thus within himself as he did he is reproved by our Saviour and branded for a Fool Hence we may inferr Doct. Sinful thoughts are as well displeasing unto God as sinful actions The Lord is as well displeased with the sinful cogitations of the mind as with the wicked actions of the Body For the clearing and confirming of this Point take notice First In that God straitly warneth us to take heed of suffering an evil Thought to be in us as Deut. 15.9 Beware look to it there is danger in it Secondly That Sinners are frequently blamed and reproved for their thoughts as well as for their words and actions So Psal 36.4 Esay 29.24 59 7. Ezek 11.2 Hos 7.15 Matth. 9.4 1 Cor. 14.24 Thirdly They are not only blamed and reproved for them but likewise severely threatned God calls the Earth to w●tness even all the World to take notice of his Resolution to punish the thoughts of evil men Jer. 6.19 So he threatned to punish the King of Assyria for that it was in his heart to kill and destroy Esay 10.7 God denounceth a Woe against such Mich. 2. and Esay 65.2 6. So are Hypocrites threatned for what they think Psal 50.21 And upon this ground Solomon disswadeth all treacherous and false-hearted persons to beware of cursing the King even in thought Eccles 10.20 For God will discover it and revenge it God will judge men for their thoughts both here Gen. 6.5 2 King 19.35 36 c. Fourthly Nor hath God only threatned to punish for sinful thoughts but he hath likewise punished them severely This is assigned as the cause of the drowning of the Old World The maginations of the thoughts of mans heart were only evil continually Gen. 6.5 And as he threatned the King of Assyria for his stout thoughts so accordingly he punished him 2 Kings 19.35 36 37. Fifthly Lastly However thoughts may escape unpunished here yet at the last day Sinners shall be called to an account for them and hereafter Eccles 3.17 12 ult Rom. 2.16 1 Cor. 4.5 and punished accordingly Eccles 3.17 12 ult Rom. 2.16 1 Cor. 4.5 The inward thoughts conceived in the heart as well as outward deeds closely carried from the knowledg of the World and drove in dark and remote places shall be judged and sentenced The Reasons why the Lord is offended with thoughts as well as with words or actions are many Reas 1 First His holy Law and Precepts are violated and broken by them Exod. 20.17 Thou shalt not covet which must needs be understood of Concupiscence and lusts of the Heart and so St. Paul understands it Rom. 7.7 Where by Lust is to be understood the very first motions that arise from our rebellious Nature whereby we are stirred up to do evil and do wi●h delight think on any thing contrary to the Will of God albeit Consent of heart do not follow And our Saviour in expounding of the Law sheweth that the very Thoughts Purposes and Affections are retrained by it Mat. 5.22 28. Now the least Aberration or Swerving from the Rule of the Law is a Transgression of it and so a Sin for Sin is a Transgression of the Law 1 Joh. 3.4 And this is the Conclusion of the Wise Man Prov. 24.9 The Thoughts of Foolishness is Sin Sinners are Fools in Solomon's Language and all their Thoughts are Folly and Foolishness therefore sinfull and so displeasing unto God yea abominable to Him a● Prov. 15.26 Reas 2 Secondly He is as well displeased with them as with outward Actions for that they were the first Evils that ever were committed against God either by Angels or Men. The first Sin of Angel● did not consist in any bodily Act for they are no● capable of external Acts of Corporeal Agents but in the inward miscarriage and deviation of their Understandings and Wills And Man's Sin first began in the actual Aversion of his Thoughts from his Creator Eccl. 7. ult All Man's Actions that are voluntary as Man's Fall was have their first Rise from the heart and Thought is the first Motion of the Heart thereunto from which voluntary Act and Choice of his own Will not before corrupted but by that Act in consenting becoming corrupt he transgressed his Maker's Command Therefore it cannot otherwise be but that Thoughts must be highly displeasing Reas 3 Thirdly From the Thoughts of the Heart Prov. 6. and Motions of mens Minds proceeds all the mischief that men work there is no evill in the mouth or hand which was not in the heart first nor can the Flesh be corrupted unless the mind was corrupted before saith Ambrose For albeit at the first Man's Sin proceeded not from any previous Corruption that was in his Nature but from the voluntary choice and act of his own Will yet since his Fall all the evill of his Thoughts and Actions spring from the Corruption of his Nature whereof Thoughts are the first-born And from that corrup● Fountain they do spring as our Saviour shews Mat. 15.19 so St. James cap. 1.15 So that it is no wonder if God be therewith highly displeased And so much for the Confirmation of the Point Now let us apply it Vse 1 The

I served men but God who hath enjoyned me to be faithful in my place and when I look on this fire in the Chimney and consider how intolerable the burning of it would be to my Flesh I am put in mind of the everlasting and much more unsufferable burning of Hell-fire due to all impenitent Sinners and the thought of that Torment doth cause me thus to shed tears for my Sins Thus as the Bee can suck Hony out of that Flower which the Fly cannot See B. B. Hall's Occas Med. Dr. Tayler's Med. from the Creature so a good Heart as we use to say of a good Wit can make use of every thing and bring forth out of the good Treasury of his Heart things both new and old upon any Occasion See we then to it that our Treasury be never empty of good matters that we may have to find our thoughts employment The mind is aptly resembled unto a Mill which is alwayes grinding and if it have not wherewith to feed it it will fire it self If it hath Wind or Water it will go whether the Miller will or no yet he may chuse what kind of Grain it shall grind whether Wheat or Darnel And as the Corn is so will the Floure be If the Floure be bad the fault is not in the Milstones but in thee Miller that fed them with no better a Grist So if thy Thoughts Words and Deeds be bad the Miller thy Heart is to bear the blame for minding no better matters when thou hast so many Sacks of good Corn round about thee to feed thy mind withall and wherewith thou mayest set thy Mill on work God's Titles and Attributes his Word and Works both of Mercy and Judgment the Vanity of Life Certainty of Death and thy final Account are necessary thoughts to be minded of thee daily Set thy Mill a work with these feed thy mind with such profitable and necessary matter and then Mercy and Truth will be the Floure that thy Mill will yield Prov. 14.22 Fourthly Turn away thine Eyes from sinful and carnal Objects at least suffer them not long to dwell upon them Cassian relates that to preserve the cleanness of the Heart the Aegyptian Fathers taught that men ought to be surdi coeci muti deaf blind and dumb that so the Gates being shut the safety of the Heart might be the surer kept And Epiphanius speaking of the Practice of the Israelitesunder the Law who used when any dead Corps was carried by any of their Houses to shut their Doors and Windows he gives this to be the Moral Reason of the Law We are to shut both our Eyes and Ears when any Sin is proposed for that Sense is accessary to the Sin that opens the Door and lets the Temptation come in It is incredible what a deal of Pollution the Devil conveighs into our minds through our Senses which some resemble to the five Cinque-Ports where all his lading is taken in especially by the Ears and Eyes the Doors and Windows by which the poysonous Air of Wickedness is let in to infect the Heart By the Ear is received the Poyson of scurrilous Songs obscene Jests lascivious Stories which infect the mind with thoughts of Unchastity or false Reports and Slanders which breed thoughts of Revenge and Cruelty and therefore Christ's warning should in this Case take place Take heed how you hear Luke 8.18 A good Christian as he will not speak filthy Language so he will not hear it as he will not slander with his Tongue so he will not receive in his Ears a false Report Psal 15.3 as he will not murther with his hands so he stops his Ears from hearing of Blood Isa 33.15 But a special care is to be had of the Eye for as God tells Israel Their Eyes would cause them to go a Whoring Numb 15.39 so it fell out Lusting was the Issue of their Looking Numb 25. Thus David was betrayed by his Eyes in casting an idle Glance on Bathsheba 2 Sam. 11.2 and Joseph's Mistress was ensnared by casting her Eyes upon Joseph Gen. 39.7 Lust is quick-sighted and many thousand Souls have dyed of the Wound in the Eye for the Eye is an occasion not only of this Sin of Adultery but of most others I saw a fine Babylonish Garment said Achan I coveted and I took it Josb 7.21 Ahaz see● an Altar at Damascus and he liked it and caused another to be made like unto it 2 King 16.10 11. Thine Eyes and th●ne Heart are not but for thy Covetousness and for to shed innocent Blood and for Oppression and for Violence to do it saith God to Shallum the King of Judah Je● 22.17 The Eye poysoned the Heart with all these Infections and allured the Heart to all that Wickedness Job said that he made a Covenant with his Eye Job 31.1 and comforted himself in this that his Heart had not walked after his Eyes Ver. 7. And Nazianzen gloried in this that he had learned to keep his Eyes from roving to wanton Prospects We cannot b● too wary of this Organ for if the Flies of Aegypt get into our Eyes the Froggs of Aegypt will soon get into the Chambers of our Hearts and then the Caterpillars of Aegypt will soon destroy the Fruit of our Land the Actions of our Lives as one speaketh well And because all our Care is too little for the keeping of so quick a Member desire the Lord with David that he would turn away your Eyes from beholding Vanity Psal 119.37 If thine Eye spy not Nets laid for thee in every Corner it is because it self is become a Net saith Ambrose Fifthly See that your Affections be rightly ordered and set upon good Objects and kept in a good Frame and holy Temper Colos 3.2 Set your Affections upon things above not upon things that are upon the Earth We must get not minds only or thoughts only but sound affections to things heavenly they must be set upon them and fixed on them As our Affections are such of necessity will our Thoughts be What we love or take delight in we cannot keep our minds from thinking on Can a Maid forget her Ornaments or the Bride her Attire Jer. 2.32 No they cannot for that they love them and take delight in them and therefore mind them We usually say to some that mind not their business What think you on sure you are in Love As if Love took up all their Thoughts So Love to God and Love to his Word would take off our Thoughts from the Love of the World and worldly Vanities The Godly and Blessed Man spoken of Psal 1. is said to have his Delight in the Law of God and delighting in it he could not but he must meditate therein Day and Night Ver. 2. Oh How love I thy Law saith David It is my Meditation continually Psal 119.97 His Heart was filled with the Love of God and his Word and that so filled his Soul with holy Thoughts