Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	death_n	eternal_a	wage_n	6,951	5	11.2154	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27472	A mirror that flatters not, or, A looking-glass for all new-converts to whatsoever perswasion, Roman-Catholicks, Conformists, or Non-conformists : that is, certain sermons of St. Bernard translated into English ... : together with a preface of the translator to all new-converts ...; De conversione ad clericos. English	Bernard, of Clairvaux, Saint, 1090 or 91-1153.	1677 (1677)	Wing B1982; ESTC R5454	46,594	72

made you a Steward of a fair Estate you consider how he would have you employ it how much upon your own necessary expences and how much upon the poor c. The like for whatever Talents of Learning or natural Parts God Almighty has endowed you with studying to employ all to the greater good of the World after the example of the great Pattern of all Perfection our Blessed Saviour who went about doing good And you if you will be worthy of that high Name of a Christian must endeavour in this and all other regards to walk as he walk'd He that says he abides in Jesus Christ ought even as he walked himself also to walk 1 Joh. 2. 6. That is as Venerable Bede expounds those Divine words Non ambite terrena c. Not to seek earthly things not to follow after perishable gains to fly Honours to embrace all worldly Contempt for Heavenly Glory willingly to do good to all to injure no-body and patiently to suffer injuries from others yea to ask their Pardon of God who injure us never to seek our own but always to seek our Maker's Glory and to make as many as we can together with us to affect things above To do these and such like things as these is to follow the footsteps of Christ If the Conversion so frequently mentioned in Holy Scriptures with a promise of life eternal particularly in the 18th of Ezek. Why will ye dye O house of Israel because I will not the death of him that dieth saith the Lord God Return ye and live If this Conversion or returning to God Almighty signified no more but an embracing of the right Faith or true Religion it were an easy thing indeed especially for a great many to escape eternal death and to obtain eternal life But the truth is the Conversion to which eternal life is promised by Almighty God is a Conversion of another nature In three words it is the Conversion which is most excellently described by St. Bernard in the following Sermons Get that and you are eternally happy want that and the being of whatsoever Perswasion never so holy or never so good will not be able to hinder you from being eternally miserable A great enquiry is made which is the true and pure Church of Christ And no doubt but it is a Question of high moment and concern but according to the best of my understanding considering the present State of Religion in England it much more concerns all that sincerely and heartily desire to be eternally happy to enquire supposing me to be of the true Church of Christ what is still further necessary for my Salvation and to use the utmost industry for the acquiquisition of that main thing necessary whatsoever it is A Conversion to a few exterior Rites and Ceremonies is very easy and a forsaking all exterior Rites and Ceremonies is no less easy and we would all gladly be happy in the other World but we would gladly also have this happiness at as easy a rate as may be and therefore no monder so few of all Perswasions in good earnest labour to get their hearts and souls throughly converted unto God though this and only this be that which can indeed make us eternally happy because this is a work of immense difficulty to corrupt nature but rather innumerable multitudes satisfy themselves with little more than the exterior form of the Church or Perswasion they adhere unto Though all acknowledg that without an hearty Conversion to God Almighty in this World there 's no hopes of seeing him for ever in the next For example what Perswasion is there amongst us that does not acknowledg a true and hearty regard of Almighty God to be necessary to Salvation and that this our piety to God must express it self by hearty and devout Prayer And that Charity to our Neighbour is also necessary to Salvation and that this Charity must express it self by Alms-deeds and other good offices to our Neighbour according to his necessity and our ability And that also a moderate use of meat drink and other necessaries of this life is also necessary to Salvation And moreover do not all Perswasions agree that in case we have sinned not only hearty sorrow and repentance is necessary to Salvation but that this sorrow if it be true and hearty will express it self by some exterior acts of humiliation more or less for example by weeping mourning sighing frequent humble ejaculations to Heaven for Pardon fasting neglected Attire c. All this notwithstanding how few of the several Professors of Religion amongst us spend any considerable time in devout and holy Prayers or any considerable proportion of their Estates in works of Charity or notoriously deny themselves in eating drinking apparel c. In which great and main Substantials of Christianity if we did holily strive who should most of all abound this were the more ready way to bring us to be all of one mind rather than our quarrels and disputes oftentimes about matters of very small concern as to our eternal welfare To instance only in the duty or virtue of Repentance which we all acknowledg to be necessary to Salvation and one of the first works a New-Convert ought especially to be exercised in My Conscience tells me I am guilty of many and enormous wickednesses The acts of my several sins and abominable impieties are past but they have highly provoked my Creator and God against me have left foul footsteps behind them in my own Soul and have moreover done no small damage to the Souls of many of my poor Neighbours and Acquaintance How now must all these grand mischiefs be repair'd Surely I can never hope for eternal happiness from Almighty God in the next life vnless by some means or other I first appease his justly incensed anger against me in this And if no unclean thing can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven the foul footsteps my impieties have left behind them must be effaced before I partake of eternal Bliss And if I may not presume to offer my gift in God's Temple here below before I have first reconciled my self to my offended Brethren can I hope to be admitted into the Holy of Holies of the Great God above before I have made some repair of the inestimable damage I have done many of my poor Brethrens souls But what remedy of so many and so great evils I know none but a zealous return to the ancient Primitive Practice of Christian Repentance Let us not deceive our selves we offend the same God the Primitive Christians did and profane the same Sacrament of Baptism by our sins which they did by theirs and unless we will flatter our selves with vain hopes we must not think to expiate those sins with a few Paters and Aves which cost them whole years exercises in Penitential Austerities Quam magna deliquimus tam granditer defleamus c. As heinously says St. Cyprian Serm. de Lapsis And as greatly

as we have sinned so greatly and so grievously let us weep and lament for our sins To a deep wound let a long and careful Cure not be wanting let not our pennance be less than our fault Doest thou think that thou canst be able presently and forthwith to appease Almighty God whom with perfidious words thou hast denied before whom thou hast preferred thy Patrimony whose Temple thou hast sacrilegiously violated Doest thou think that he will easily have mercy on thee whom thou hast said that he was none of thine It behoves thee to pray unto him and to beseech him with all earnestness to pass the day in mourning and to spend whole nights in watching and tears to fill all time with doleful lamentations to make ashes thy bed to roll thy self in dust and haircloath and since thou hast lost the garment of Christ now thou shouldst desire to have no garment at all after the food of the Devil thou shouldst desire fasting zealously busy thy self in such good works whereby sins are purged give frequent Alms by which souls are delivered from death what the Adversary would have taken away from thee let Christ receive nor ought that Patrimony to be kept or loved by which one has been deceived and overcome The sad ezperience of frequent and easy relapses into bewailed wickednesses shew us how vain and frivolous that Repentance was by which they were pretended to have been abolished The sad wounds caused in our souls by our sins as is manifest by their so speedy breaking out again were only covered not cured As the Clergy of Rome complains of certain Priests Ep. 31. ad Cypr. who by a false sweetness precipitated the Reconciliation of Sinners How say they can they be cured in receiving the Grace of Absolution and the Indulgence of the Church if the Chirurgeon himself cut short the Pennance and make himself indulgent to their ruine and destruction if he cover only the wound and will not expect till the Remedies which have need of time close it Assuredly this is not to cure souls but if we will speak the truth 't is to kill them In fine let us make it our business to experiment in the inmost of our spirits this Repentance o● Conversion so excellently and fully described in the following Divine Sermons of St. Bernard and this is in one word to say all By this if we can attain it we shall fully appease our incensed God for our sins past perfectly secure our weak frail selves from relapsing into the same our repented sins and abundantly edify whomsoever we may have justly offended by our former unchristian Conversation FAULTS PAge 3. blot out line 18 and 19. p. 52. l. 16. for despair read desire p. 55. l. 24. for she r. he A SERMON Preached to the CLERGY Concerning Conversion CHAP. I. That no body can be converted to God unless he be prevented by the Will of God and by his Voice crying unto him within YOU are met together as I believe to hear the Word of God for indeed there does not occur to me any other cause of this your so fervorous a concourse By all means I approve of this your desire and congratulate with you for your laudable zeal For blessed are they which hear the Word of God but provided also that they keep it Blessed are they that remember his Commandments but to the end that they may do them For he has the words of Eternal Life and the Hour is come and would to God it were now when they shall hear his voice and they that shall hear it shall live For life is his will And if you desire to know it his will is our Conversion In fine hear himself Is the death of the impious my will says the Lord and not rather that he should be converted and live Ezek. 18. v. 23. By which words we evidently see how that true life is not to be had by us but by Conversion nor can we enter into it any other way Our Lord telling us plainly Vnless ye be converted and made like little ones ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 18. v. 3. And with good reason do little ones enter for the little Child conducts them who for this end was born and given us I ask then what voice is that which the dead hear and when they have heard it live for perhaps it is necessary to Preach the Gospel even to the dead And opportunely there occurs a short word but a full one which the mouth of the Lord has spoken as his Prophet testifies Thou hast said says he speaking without doubt to the Lord his God Be converted O ye sons of men Jer. 3. And indeed deservedly does Conversion seem to be required from the sons of men to wit absolutely necessary for sinners For to the supernal Spirits that praise which becomes the just is rather commanded the Prophet singing Praise thy God O Sion Psal 147. And in that the Prophet says Thou hast said in my judgment it is not carelesly to be passed over nor heedlesly to be heard For who dare compare what God has said to the sayings of men Verily the Word of God is lively and efficacious and his Voice is in magnificence and power In fine he said it and all things were made He said Let there be light and the light was made He said Be ye converted O ye sons of men and they were converted So it is indeed the conversion of Souls is the work of God's Voice and not of man's Simon the Son of John a Fisher of men although called and constituted for this very purpose by our Lord yet in vain shall even he labour all night and catch nothing until by the word of our Lord casting his net he shall be able to inclose in it a great multitude of Fish And I would to God we could also to day in this Word cast the net of the Word and experience what is written Lo he shall give to his Voice a Voice of power Psal 67. If we speak a lye it 's plain that 's of our own But perhaps even then also our words will be judged to be our own not our Lords if we seek our own Concerns and not the things of Jesus Christ Moreover although we speak the truth of God and seek the glory of God we must even then from him alone hope the effect and of him ask it that he would please to accompany his own Voice with a Voice of power To this internal Voice therefore I exhort you to listen with the ears of your heart and that you would make it your business rather to hear God speaking within you than man speaking without you For that is a voice of magnificence and power searching the deserts making to tremble the deserts shaking off the stupid torpor of Souls CHAP. II. That God's Voice offers it self to all and presents it self to the Soul that 's unwilling to hear it NOR need

that entring in she might see good things and visit that place For here she shall find abundant rest and shall also so much the less disquiet me as her self shall be quieted For he is no lier who has said Take my yoke upon you and you shall find rest for your souls In the Faith of this Promise let him speak to her now exasperated very lovingly and simulating a certain cheerfulness convening her in the spirit of meekness let him say to her Let thy indignation wholly cease I am not one that can offend thee my body is thine and I my self am thine thou needst not fear there is no cause thou shouldst be afraid Nor is it strange if perhaps she has returned but a froward answer so as to have even told him that many thoughts have made him mad but let him bear all patiently and dissemble what he is a doing of whilst amidst discourse bringing in one thing after another he may at length opportunely infer and say I have found a very fine Garden to day and a most pleasant place it would be good for us to be there for it must needs do thee hurt to toss and turn to be compunct with sad grief of heart in this thy Bed of sickness in this Couch of sorrow Our Lord will be present to him that seeks him to the soul that hopes in him he will hear his humble supplications and will give efficacy to his words The Will shall be moved not only to desire to see the place but also by little and little to enter into it and to make its abode there CHAP. XXI That the Soul ought to take up its rest in this Contemplation BUT you must not think that this Paradise of internal Pleasure is a corporeal place We go into this Garden not by our feet but by our affections Nor is here recommended to thee a plenty of earthly Trees but a pleasant and lovely Plantation of Spiritual Vertues 'T is an enclosed Garden where a sealed Fountain is derived into four Heads and out of one only vein of Wisdom does a quadrupartite Vertue proceed Fair white Lillies also flourish there and when the Flowers appear the Voice of the Turtle too is heard There Spikenard sends forth a most fragrant odour and other Spices too exhale their Perfumes The Southern Air breaths gently there but Northern Blasts are quite banished thence In the middle stands the Tree of Life that Apple-tree of the Canticles better than all the Trees of the Woods whose shadow refrigerates the Spouse and whose Fruit is sweet unto her Palat. There the nitid luster of Continency and the intuition of the plain sincere Truth irradiates the eyes of the heart and the sweet Voice of the interior Comforter gives joy and gladness to the hearing There by certain nostrils of hope is drawn in the most pleasant odour of the plentiful Field which our Lord has blessed There greedily are foretasted the incomparable delights of Charity and the Briers and Thorns being cut up which formerly galled the mind now superfused with the Unction of Mercy it happily rests in a good Conscience Which things in good sooth are not the rewards of Eternal Life but the wages of this Temporal Warfare nor do they belong to the Promises of the future Church but of that which now is for this is that hundred-fold which in this World is given to the Contemners of this World Nor must thou hope that this is to be made commendable to thee by my speech 't is the Spirit alone which reveals it in vain doest thou consult Books seek rather Experience 'T is a Wisdom whose value man knows not it is learnt in secret nor is that delicious sweetness to be found in the Land of those that live deliciously For it is the sweetness of our Lord unless thou taste it thou shalt never see it Taste says he and see how that our Lord is sweet Psal 13. 'T is an hidden Manna 't is a new Name which no body knows but he that receives it Not Learning but the Unction teaches it nor does Science but Conscience comprehend it 'T is an holy thing 't is a Jewel nor will he who began to do and to teach do that himself which he forbids us to do For he does not look upon them as dogs or hogs whom renouncing their former Wickednesses and Villanies he comforts by his Apostle saying Ye were indeed these things but ye are washed but ye are sanctified 1 Cor. 6. ver 11. only have a care that you do not return with the Dog to his vomit nor with the Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire CHAP. XXII That being refreshed with the taste of Contemplation he is made to understand Divine things IN the door then of this Paradise the Voice of the Divine Whisper is heard and the most sacred and most secret Councel which is hidden from the Wise and Prudent is revealed unto little ones The hearing of which Voice reason now does not only conceive but also gratefully communicates it to the Will Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after Justice because they shall be satiated Mat. 5. v. 6. A profound Councel this indeed and an inestimable Sacrament A faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation which is come to us from Heaven from the Royal Seats There was made a great Famine on earth and we all began to be in want yea were even come to extreme penury In fine we were compared to the Beasts without understanding and were made like unto them we insatiably hunger after even the very husks of Hogs He who loves Money is not satiated he who loves Lasciviousness is not satiated he who seeks Glory is not satiated In a word he who loves the World is never satiated I have known men who were satiated with this World and that even nauseated every memory of it I have known those who were satiated with Money and satiated with Honours satiated with the pleasures and curiosities of this World nor moderately satiated neither but even unto loathing of them And it is easy for every one of us through the Grace of God to obtain this satiety or fulness for abundance does not breed it but contempt So ye children of Adam by greedily feeding upon the food of Swine ye do not feed your hungry Souls but the hunger of your Souls For by this kind of food your needy appetite is only nourished with this unnatural meat your hunger only is fed And to speak out taking for example one of those many things which human vanity covets and desires I say Mens bodies shall as soon be satiated with Air as their hearts shall be satiated with Gold Nor let the Covetous man take this ill I say the same concerning the Ambitious the Luxurious and other vicious Persons And if perhaps any one does not believe me let him credit his own experience and the experience of many Who is there amongst you Brethren that would