Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	work_n	world_n	wrath_n	223	3	6.8873	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36093	A Discourse of eternitie, collected and composed for the common good being necessary for all seasons, but especially for this time of calamitie and destruction.		1646 (1646)	Wing D1597; ESTC R14406	48,185	170

of them but in things that belong to the eternall salvation of our souls how deep is our silence how flow our speech how unskilfull our expressions Thus we forsake Heaven for these things which at last will forsake us and trifle out our time in things that will not profit us Hovv farre are men novv adaies from that sweet resolutiō of Saint Hierome Let others saith he live in their statues in their costly monuments I had rather have St Pauls Coat with his Heavenly graces then the purple of Kings with their Kingdomes O that we would look thus lowly upon our selves we are Christians in profession O let us be such in practice seeing that God hath made us stewards of his treasures let us improve them to the benefit of our brethren Hath God given us abundance of his blessings Let us not hide our talents in a napkin let us send our good works before us into Heaven these slender gifts which thou doest cheerfully distribute in this world will procure thee an eternall compensation in the world to come That sweet speech of Saint John is worth observation blessed are those that dye in the Lord they rest from their labours and their works follow them When our dearest friends our sweetest pleasures our most glorious titles of honour the world it self yea even our life it self shall glide away like a river and turn to dust then shall our good works follow us non transeunt opera nostra saith one sicut transire videntur sed velut aeternitatis semina jaciuntur our good deeds die not with us but they are sowne in earth and spring in Heaven they are an inexhaustible fountain that shall never be dried up a durable spring that shall never fail They are acts of time short in their performance yet eternall in their recompence they build up for us through the mercies of our God an everlasting foundation for the time to come Loe then here we have set before us viam ad regnum the way to our eternity let us goe on herein without intermission presse forward with violence strive to attain the crown * Opulentia nimis multa est aeternitas sed nisi perseveranter quaesita nunquam inver itur B●rnard Eternall joy is an abundant treasure an everlasting wealth but it is not given save to them that seek it yea that seek it with their whole hearts Certainly did we as truly know as we shall one day undoubtedly feel the bitter fruit that our luke-warm profession our grosse stupidity and utter neglect of our everlasting state will produce and procure us in the end all our thoughts and language all our affections and inclinations would be more eagerly imployed and more faithfully exercised in our preparations for that building given of God a house not made with hands but eternall in the Heavens Oh how senselesse are we how stupid in our selves Illud propter quod peccamus amittimus pecca●um ipsum retinemus and wickedly injurious to our own welfare who for a small gain a sading pleasure a fugitive honour wound our consciences and hazard our souls to stand as it were on the brink of hell The whole world promised for a reward cannot perswade us to endure one momentary torment in fire And yet in the accustomed course of our lives we dread not we quake not at everlasting burnings But ô thou delicious and dainty soul who cherishest thy self in the joy of thy heart and the delight of thine eyes whose belly is thy God and the world thy Paradise O bethink thy self betimes before that gloomy day that day of clouds and thick darknesse that day of desolation and confusion approach when all the inhabitants of the earth shall mourn and lament and all faces as the Prophet Joel speaks shall gather blacknesse because the time of their judgement is come Alas with what a dolefull heart and weeping eye and drooping countenance and trembling loyns wilt thou at the last and great Assize look upon Christ Jesus when he shall most gloriously appear with innumerable Angels in flaming fire to render vengeance on them that know him not What a cold damp will seize upon thy soul when thou shalt behold him whom thou hast all thy life long neglected in his ordinance despised in his members rejected in his love when thou shalt see the judgement seat the † books opened Fiet apertio librorum scilicet conscientiarum quibus merita demerita univ●rsorum sibi ipsis caeteris innotescent thy sinnes discovered yea all the secret counsells of thy heart after a wonderfull manner manifested and laid open to the eye of the whole world What horrour and perplexity of spirit will possesse thee to view and behold but the ry solemnities and circumstances which accompany this Judgement vvhen thou shalt see the Heavens burn the Elements melt the earth tremble the sea roar the sun turne into darknesse and the moon into blood And novv vvhat shall be thy refuge vvhere shall be thy succour shalt thou raign because thou cloathest thy self in Cedar shalt thou be safe because vvith the Eagle thou hast set thy neast on high O no it is not now the greatnesse of thy state nor the abundance of thy wealth nor the priviledge of thy place nor the eminency of thy worth or wit or learning that cā avail thee ought either to avoid thy doom or prorogue thy judgement All states and conditions of men are alike when they appear at this barre There the Prince must lay down his crown and the Pear his robes and the Judge his purple and the Captain his banner All must promiscuously attend to give in their accounts and to receive according to that they have done whether it be good or whether it be evil Here on earth great men and glorious in the eye of the world so long as they can hold their habitations in the earth have both countenance to defend and power to protect them from the injuries of the times but when the dismall face of that terrible day shall shew it self then shall they finde no eye to pity nor arm to help nor palace to defend nor rocks to shelter nor mountains to cover them from the presence of him that sits upon the throne and from the wrath of the lamb Give me the most insolent spirit the most undaunted soul that now breaths under the cope of Heaven who now fears not any created nature no not God himself yet when he shall heare that terrible sound Arise ye dead and come to judgement how will his heart even melt and his bowels quiver within him when he shall have his severe judge above him and hell beneath him and his worm within him and fire round about him O then whosoever thou art die unto thy sins and unto thy pleasures here that thou mayest live to God hereafter * Sic tibi cave ut caveas teipsum goe out of thy self judge and condemn thine own

Make no long tarrying to turn to the Lord and put not off from day to day For suddainly shall the wrath of the Lord break forth and in thy security thou shalt be destroyed and thou shalt perish in time of vengeance But alas farre otherwise it is with us in our practice * Magna pars vitae elabitur male agentibus maxima nihil agētibus tota aliud agentibus A great portion of our time is crumbled away in doing ill a greater part in doing nothing and our whole life in doing that which we should not or in matters as we say upon the by And as Archimedes was secure and busy about drawing lines on the ground when Syracuse was taken so is it with us Now that our eternall safety lyes at stake we lye puzling in our dust I mean in our worldly negotiations But for our eternity shortly approaching we seldom or rarely think of it We are like Martha trouble about many things when one thing is necessary But this one thing is that which of all other things is least regarded and in the last place We seldom seek heaven till death doth summon us to leave the earth we have many evasions to gull our own hearts many excuses to procrastinate our repentance like Dionysius the Sicilian king who to excuse himself for the present delivery of the golden garment which he took from his god Apollo answered that such a robe as that was could not be at any season of the year usefull to his god it would not keep him warm in the winter and it was too heavy for the summer So many there be saith S. Ambrose who play with God and with their own soul You must not say they seek for the vigour and life of Religion in the hearts of young men For youth as the proverb is must have his swinge neither can you expect it in the company of the aged for their age and those distempers which accompany it make them a burden to themselves and dulls the edge of their intentions unto all their serious undertakings Thus both the summer and the winter of our age are unfit for Gods service But let us not thus cheat ourselves If God be God let us follow him let us not put off the day of reconciliation and say in our hearts To morrow we will do it when yet we cannot tell vvhat shall be to morrovv for vvhat is our life It is even a vapour that appears for a little time and afterwards vanisheth away Hence it was that Macedonius being invited a day before to a feast replyed to the messenger Why doth thy Master invite me for to morrow whereas for this many years I have not promised to my self one daies life Nemo mortem satis cavet nisi qui semper cavet No man dreads death as he ought but he that alwaies expects his summons and therefore we may truly judge such men wofully secure and wilfull contemners of the future good who can go to their beds and rest on their pillows in the apprehension of their known sins without a particular humiliation for them For how oft doth a sudden and unexpected death arrest men We see and know in our daily experience many lay themselves to sleep in health and safety yet are they found dead in the morning Thus suddenly are they rapt from their quiet repose to their irrecoverable judgement perchance from their feathers to flames of fire such is the frail condition of our brittle lives vvithin the small particle of an hour live and sicken and die yet so grosse is our blindnesse that from one day to another nay from one yeer to another we triflingly put off the reformation of our lives untill our last hour creepes on us unlookt for and dragges us to eternitie Saint Augustine striving with all his endeavours against the backwardnes and slownes of his own heart to turne to the Lord bitterly complained within himself Quamdiu quamdiu cras cras Quare non hâc horâ finis turpitudinis meae How long saith he ô how long shall I delude my soule with to morrows repentance Why should not this hour terminate my sinfulnesse We are every minute at the brink of death every hour that we passe thorow might prove for ought we know the evening of our whole life and the very close of our mortalitie Now if it should please God to take away our souls from us this night as suddenly falls out to some what would then become of us In what Eternitie should we be found Whether amongst the damned or the blessed Happie were it for us if we were but as carefull for the welfare of our souls as we are curious for the adorning of our bodies if our clothes or faces do contract any blot or soiling we presently endeavour to cleanse the same But though our souls lie inthralled in the pollutions of sin this alas we feel not it neither provokes us to shame nor moves us to sorrow Wherfore let us look into our hearts with a severer eye Let the shortnesse of our dayes stir us up to theamendment of our sinful lives and let the hour wherein we have sinned be the beginning of our reformation according to that of Saint Ambrose Agenda est paenitentia nō solum sollicirè verumetiam maturè Our repentance must be not onely sincere but timely also whilest we have the light let us walk as children of the light Let us not any longer cheat our souls in studying to invent evasions or pretences for our sins but rather lay open our sores and seek to the true Physician that can heal them All the creatures under the sun do naturally intend their own preservation and desire that happinesse which is agreeable to their nature onely man is negligent and impiously carelesse of his own welfare We see the Hart when he is striken and wounded looks speedily for a certain herb well known unto him by a kinde of naturall instinct when he hath found it applies it to the wound The swallow when her young ones are blinde knowes how to procure them their sight by the use of her Celandine But we alas are wounded yet seek for no remedy we go customarily to our beds to our tables to our good company but who is he that observes his constant course of praier of repentance of hearty and sincere humiliation for his sins We go forward still in our old way and jogge on in the same rode Though our judgement hasten hell threaten death stand ar the door yet we thrust onward still in dulcem declinanamus lumina somnum But alas miserable souls as we are can we embrace quiet rests and uninterrupted sleeps with such wounded consciences Can we be so secure being so near our ruine But you will say we have passed already many nights without danger no sicknesse in the night hath befalne us hitherto why then should any fear of death amaze or trouble us Admit