Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	appear_v	zeal_n	zealous_a	16	3	9.1243	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45376	A discourse concerning zeal against immorality and prophaness deliver'd in two sermons in St. Michaels Church Dublin, October 29, and November 26. 1699.	Hamilton, William, d. 1729.	1700 (1700)	Wing H488; ESTC R216947	47,580	69

prevented seeing the case is so I think it plainly follows that those Men of Eminent Integrity and Virtue how low soever some of their Fortunes may be who without any prospect of Worldly Advantage nay to their manifest loss have resolv'd to encounter Difficulties and Dangers and undergo Calumnies and Slanders rather than Wickedness shall continue bare-fac'd and Vice spread every where without opposition any more Those Men I say deserve all Encouragement to themselves and their design The countenance and protection of our Governours and all who wish well to Religion 'T is true they have had no small share in Censures and Objections But what Person so innocent what Design to laudable as to escape them If Christianity the best Religion If the Blessed Jesus the Holiest Person that ever was have been and daily are Blasphem'd Revil'd and Slander'd What are you my Brethren that you shou'd hope to be Exempted from the Common Fate of the best Men in the World Has Satan entirely chang'd his Nature and laid aside his Malice Is he not only transform'd into the likeness of an Angel of Light but become really one Will he no more oppose Religion no more obstruct Reformation of Manners Or has the Old Serpent lost at once his Cunning and his Poyson Has he so often mis-represented Religion with great success and expos'd it to publick Hatred by Painting it as some frightful Monster And won't he still prosecute the same Methods which have hardly ever fail'd him and endeavour to defeat the good Designs of some Men by raising unaccountable Jealousies and Fears in others and labour to undermine by secret Calumnies and Slanders what he wants Power directly to oppose But yet if Two or Three sorts of Persons were silent very few Mouths wou'd be open'd against Societies for Reformation Those who take things upon Trust and Condemn without knowing the Merits of the Cause who have been impos'd upon for want of due enquiry by false Representations both of the Design and Persons concern'd in it Or those who being not truly Zealous themselves are angry that any shou'd go beyond them and thereby tacitly reproach their want of Zeal or they lastly who are enrag'd that their unlawful Liberties shou'd be check'd and restrain'd that any shou'd presume to Curb their Lewdness and Prophaness But the Clamours of these kinds of Men are ill grounded and unjust such as can be no surprize to any who are acquainted with the Corruptions of Humane Nature and consider the active indefatigable Malice of the Devil and therefore can never shake a prudent well establish'd Zeal And such I trust in GOD your Zeal will always be and that you will still find that Encouragement and Protection to which you are justly intitl'd by the Excellency of your Undertaking and Prudence of your Behaviour I am perswaded you did not enter into these Societies rashly and unadvisedly but weigh'd all the hardships and inconveniences you might reasonably expect on the one hand and consider'd the motives which excited your Zeal on the other and after mature deliberation chose the good part and resolv'd with great Constancy to adhere to it chearfully to bear Opposition Contempt and Reproach provided you might be able to put a stop to any one prevailing Sin But the same Christian Zeal which first mov'd you to Asscociate against Vice will oblige you to continue and persevere to become more Active and Zealous in suppressing it To this your Obligations are great as Members of the Christian Church into which when you were admitted you vow'd to continue Christs Faithful Servants and Soldiers to your Lives end But your belonging to a Society whose sole end is Reformation of Manners has much encreas'd them A Design the best and noblest in the World but which ought to be Prosecuted with a very constant prudent Zeal that the Enemies of Piety may not be able to insult may have no occasion to upbraid any of you either with Negligence or Imprudence And then will you more successfully promote your Great and Excellent End and in due time stop the Mouths of Gain-sayers These are the several orders of Men who are particularly oblig'd to be Zealously Affected in suppressing Prophaness and Vice not that any are exempted from it it is the Business and Duty and ought to be the Study and Practice of every Christian. Here all are Commanded and may without a Crime put forth their Hands to support the Ark. 'T is true they cannot they must not all attempt to do it the same way what is the Indispensible Duty of one may be a Great Sin in another to pretend to And tho all ought to shew their Zeal for Religion and Reformation yet they must take different ways of shewing it which leads me to the Third Particular I propos'd to speak to which was to point out those ways wherein we may best employ and shew our Zeal so as to attain the Excellent Ends it aims at Something of this I have hinted at already for by mentioning those several sorts of Men who are oblig'd to higher degrees of Zeal against Vice than others I did in effect shew how their Zeal is to express it self Thus for Example Are we Zealous Ministers of Religion Then must our Zeal appear both to GOD and Man in our Publick Preaching and Exemplary Life and in our Private Labours and Endeavours to infuse Piety and Zeal into others We must shew our Zeal by leading the way to others in the best manner Prudence directs and so far as our Duty requires And lastly our Zeal must express it self in Constant and Fervent Prayers to GOD for his Blessing and Assistance Again are we Zealously Magistrates Then are we to employ our Zeal in Vigorously Executing the Laws against Immorality and Prophaness We are to Countenance and Encourage all who are engag'd in the Service of Religion and Reformation and secure them from the rude insults of those who have made themselves their Enemies And to influence others to Honour Religion by the Brightness of our own Examples As for those of Inferiour Degree whose Station is Private and whose Condition is Obscure even they may many ways testifie the sincerity of their Zeal and make it very serviceable to Piety and Virtue The meanest Man among us has a Family to take care of and that he may preserve from the Infection of Reigning Sins He can Admonish can Reprove and Correct his Child or his Servant with Authority and good Effect He may also Exhort and Advise his Neighbour of his own Rank nay he may Reprove him too upon a Just Occasion and in a Prudent Manner and thereby contribute much to reclaim him Such a Man may especially be very useful to Religion by bringing the open Enemies of it to deserved Punishment He will unavoidably be often a Witness of Publick Sins He will frequently see the Lords-Day Prophan'd and hear GOD's Holy Name Dishonour'd and Blasphemed and that by those who are too Great

Reason why it shou'd be so for the more Men know of Vice when once throughly awaken'd from its Charms they more they will abhor and detest it Besides 't is what they are strictly oblig'd to in Conscience For having heretofore dishonour'd GOD obstructed Religion and made Men Enemies to Virtue They are bound if I may so speak to make what Restitution they can to all those for the Injuries they have done them Have they heretofore Prophan'd GOD's Name or his Word or his Day Then surely if their Repentance be sincere they will not only in the highest manner honour these themselves but be very assiduous to procure them all possible Reverence from others Have they entic'd others to Sin and been but too unhappily successful in it Shou'd not then their Zeal be constant and active as the Sun and Light and bring Men to a sense of their Duty that so they may be Instruments of saving more than they have been the Fatal Means of destroying Have they injur'd Religion by their Evil Examples Then surely their Lives for the future shou'd be bright and unspotted their Actions Eminently Holy and a most engaging Pattern of Piety they shou'd set to the World Had they almost miscarry'd and been ruin'd for ever by their Wickedness had not the Goodness of GOD miraculously interpos'd for their Deliverance Then 't is certainly their Duty to caution others of those Rocks whereon they had well nigh been Ship-rack'd Such was the Practice of those great Examples of sincere Repentance Holy David and St. Paul After the former had in very passionate terms bewail'd his Sins and implor'd the Pardon of GOD for them as the natural consequence of his Repentance he declares his Pious Resolution I will teach thy ways to the Wicked and Sinners shall be converted unto thee Psal. 51.13 And thus it was with St. Paul after his Conversion Did he once make Havock of the Church He afterwards labour'd more abundantly than all the Apostles to enlarge and strengthen it Was he once a bitter Enemy to Christianity a Blasphemer and Reviler of the Son of GOD He afterwards prov'd a most Zealous Advocate for the one a most Successful Preacher of the other Did he hale the Saints to Prison was he consenting to their Death To the same Religion they profess'd he adher'd faithfully unto Death and for it was Crown'd with Martyrdom himself And thus shou'd all true Penitents behave themselves whatever tends to the Advancement of Religon with all the powers of their Souls they shou'd pursue themselves and recommend to others with a most Industrious Zeal Then wou'd their Repentance be not only sincere but compleat available to their Pardon and cause Joy in the presence of the Angels Fourthly and Lastly They who have enter'd into Societies for Reformation of Manners and thereby avow'dly engag'd in the service of Piety and Religion are particularly oblig'd to be Zealously Affected against those foremention'd Dangerous Sins My Argument does not require that I shou'd undertake a just Vindication of such Societies and prove the usefulness of them this has been fully done by others and the great service they daily do Religion sufficiently proclaims it Yet we may in general observe that Vice is too potent an Enemy to be defeated by any single endeavours Vice which too often baffles the united Labours of the best Men in the World and is supported by a confederacy of all the Powers of Darkness Besides we cannot but be sensible that good Men have need of Companions to animate them to a work of Difficulty and Danger We are afraid to appear Champions for Religion are afflicted with an evil shame and easily discourag'd when alone But a competent number when join'd in a Society advise support and excite one another The Prudent Calmness of some restrains the Irregular Warmth of others whose Vigorous Zeal on the other hand like Fire communicates Heat and Life and Spirit to the Negligent and Indifferent gives flame to their Affections and enlivens their Souls Again 't is reasonable to believe that what the United Councils of many resolve upon and what is Prosecuted by their joint Endeavours will be more wisely undertaken and more successfully accomplish'd than if there were no such Union either in Council or in Action So that a great many good Men who wou'd otherwise be of little use to Religion do very much advance and promote it by thus joining together their Hearts and Hands for that purpose as those many little Stars which make up what we call the Milky way in the Heavens wou'd if separated wholly disappear but by their Conjunction afford a very useful Light to the World We are all sufficiently convinc'd of the necessity of Societies in many other cases for carrying on any design of Importance If a Prince is become too Potent for one Neighbour whom he is likely to Devour then many become Confederates to humble him Is any great Trade to be undertaken which is too difficult and expensive for any Private Fortune and Contrivance Then is it usually accomplish'd by a Society or Company Our Common Safety shews us the necessity of Parliaments which are but great Societies for Reforming the Common Wealth by redressing Grievances and making Useful Laws And is Religion the only that either does not need or does not deserve a Society to promote and secure it Is not suppressing Publick Impiety Lewdness and Prophaness bringing those who are openly Wicked and Proud of being so esteem'd to Punishment and removing from others the Pestilence of Evil Examples are not all these Matters of great Weight and Moment and which deserve the most serious Thoughts of the Prudent as well as the Religious And if these things can be better effected by Societies than any other way does not that fully evince the Usefulness or rather great Necessity of them If Reformation of Manners can be accomplish'd more successfully by other Methods than these of Societies it wou'd do great service to Religion to discover them to the World but since that has not yet been done 't is very reasonable that Persons of Piety and Zeal shou'd go on in the way they know till they be made acquainted with a better I own did every Man among us Conscientiously discharge his Duty in his Station and according to his Capacity were there no Negligent Ministers nor any Unfaithful Magistrates and did every other Person in his Private Capacity do what in strictness he ought to do then the whole Church wou'd be one great Religious Society and that wou'd supersede the necessity of any other But seeing that never was in any Age of the Church not in the most Primitive and Purest times Seeing that Ecclesiastical Discipline is fallen so very low that Church Censures are lost upon the greater part of Mankind And seeing we have no prospect of any publick alteration for the better but have cause to fear that every thing will become worse unless the impending Mischief be in time