Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	dead_a	raise_v	resurrection_n	7,131	5	9.0418	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58810	A sermon preached before the Honourable Military Company at St. Clements-Danes, July 25 by John Scott ...	Scott, John, 1639-1695.	1673 (1673)	Wing S2064; ESTC R38223	15,491	32

wise● than we and loveth us far better than we do our selves than that they should always jump with our childish hopes and keep pace with our extravagant fancies and if the Government of all events that besal us were put into our own hands would it not be our wisdom and our interest to resign it it back into Gods hands again who as we must needs acknowledged can carve a thousand times better for us than we for our selves why then should we be troubled that our affairs sometimes run counter to our humours and fancies did we understand the reason of Gods dealings and see what he seeth and know what he knoweth we should praise him on our bended knees for those crosses which are now the innocent causes of our repinings against him This therefore in Reason ought to satisfie us that we are under the Protection of a most wise and gracious Providence and that if afflictions do befal us they are but Rods in the hands of our Benefactor and tokens of love from a reconciled Father For what reason can we have either to fear or complain when we know our selves sheltered within the bosome of that Providence in which all the Divine Attributes like so many Guardian Angels do pitch their Tents about us Within this blessed Ark if we please we may live securely whilst all the floods of misery do swell and rove about us here we may sing Requiems in the loudest Thunders and sleep securely in the midst of storms for what should we be afraid of when we have Omniscience for our Pilot Omnipotence for our Convoy and All-sufficient Goodness for our Purveyer and Caterer by the help of this one confideration a man may bid defiance to misery and stand impregnable against all the Batteries of the world Fourthly and lastly Christianity armeth us against the evil of misery by assuring us of a blessed Immortality and verily were it not for the hope of this man were of all Creatures the most miserable For his very Reason by which he is capable of a larger happiness doth most commonly in this life prove an Instrument of grief and vexation to him and as for the Beasts they are as sensible of sensual pleasures as we they relish their morsels with as great a gust and enjoy their delights with as quick a sense as the greatest Epicures in the world Besides which their Harmony is not mingled with the sad discords of a wounded Conscience which often interrupts our mirth and puts a sting to all our pleasures And as for troubles the beasts only feel them whilst they are present and are not alarmed with fear at the approach of them nor vexed with despair in the presence of them nor wracked with fruitless cares of removing them to all which inconveniencies our Reason exposeth us So that were it not for the hope of a future happiness man that is the top of this lower Creation would be the most miserable part of it and we should have reason to envy the happiness of the pretty Birds that sit merrily singing on the trees and to wish that we could change conditions with the Fishes that sport and play in the silver-streams devoid of all those griefs and sorrows cares and anxities with which we are wrackt and tortured every moment the only thing therefore that maketh our life desirable and giveth it the advantage of Non-entity is this that how mean soever our condition is here yet we are born to higher hopes and are now but Candidates for an Immortal preferment and of this the Christian Religion giveth us the most certain assurance even by the Resurrection of Christ from the dead By this it is that we are begotten into a lively hope of an eternal Inheritance as the Apostle tells us 1 Peter 1. 3. and indeed this is a proof of the Immortal state beyond all other Arguments whether Moral or Physical for had not this Doctrine of Immortality been true it cannot be imagined that the God of Truth would have sealed and confirmed it as he did by raising the Author of it from the dead since in so doing he must have been guilty of cheating the world and seconding the most rank Imposture than which we cannot form a conceit more black or incongruous to the nature of God Wherefore now life and Immortality are as clear and evident as the Resurrection of Christ from the dead of which we have as full assurance as we can possibly have of any matter of fact in the world for the eye-witnesses of it confirmed their Testimony with their blood which is the highest pledge that a man can give of his honesty and there is no credit to be given to men if they may not be believed upon this security Thus Christianity you see hath sounded our hopes of Immortal happiness upon the surest Foundations in the world which hope is sufficient to raise any considering man above the reach of misery For would we but keep our thoughts within those higher and untroubled Regions we should be able to look down upon these little affairs about which poor mortals scramble with as much contempt and scorn as we do upon the toils and labours of a little world of Ants about a Molehil who are not altogether so ridiculous because they do not divide their molehil into little Empires nor desraud and murder nor be false and treacherous to one another for the greater share nor were they ever so extravagant as to march out in Armies to kill their neighbouring Ants so to extend their Dominion over the next handful of a turf but he whose hope hope hath mounted him to Heaven can from thence look down and sigh and smile at all these fooleries and slight and undervalue whatsoever sensual men poor souls do fear or hope or long for or pursue for he hath such a glory within the prospect of his faith and hope as do at one glimpse foil all the glory of the world and unsting all its miseries The sight of that flowery Canaan of Rest and pleasure that lieth before him incourageth him to march on with joy and alacrity through this howling desert of sorrow and misery and make the wilderness to seem a Paradise to him and at worst all the ill usage that he meets with here will but make earth more loathsome now and Heaven more welcome to him hereafter When therefore he is tossed in this tempestuous Sea he considereth with himself that a few Leagues farther lieth that blessed Port where he shall be crowned as soon as he is landed and concludes that when he is gotten safe on shore he shall then look back with pleasure and delight upon those threatning waves he now encountreth and for ever bless the storms and winds that drave him thither and so resolveth with St Paul That the sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared with the Joys that shall be revealed Rom. 8. 18. and thus you see what incomparable armour the Christian