Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	adam_n	death_n	sin_n	8,695	5	5.8131	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67164	A sermon preached at the parish church of Solihull in Warwickshire, December 21. 1690 On occasion of the death of Anne, the wife of the reverend and worshipful Henry Greswold; precentor of the Cathedral of Lichfield, &c. and rector of Solihull aforesaid. By John Wright Master of Arts.	Wright, John, 1665 or 6-1719.	1691 (1691)	Wing W3701; ESTC R221256	21,352	34

Natures and to have made us mortal for one Man's Sin without our fault But we were made of Flesh and Blood of the Dust of the Earth and subject therefore by Nature to Dissolution and Corruption for that which is made of Dust may sure be resolv'd into it again And since it pleas'd God to deprive our first Parents because of their Sin of that Supernatural Priviledge of the Tree of Life which was granted them alone for a Sacrament or an Assurance of Immortality we have no wrong done us For human Nature is and always was in its Frame Mortal Adam's Body even in Paradise was in it self as vulnerable as capable of a violent Death or being prejudic'd by infectious Airs as ours are tho' it was more secured from them But now since Sin is come forth into the World and Men have corrupted their Nature by it and are left to their own Counsels to injure themselves and one another by violence and excess and to the Contingencies of things there must needs be Death tho' we could get a Preservative against all the decays of Nature So true is it that Sin brought Death into the world And 't is as true that he will now never leave coming to our Doors till he has fetcht us one after another all away And indeed considering this fallen and Apostate state of the World an Immortal Life were not desireable in it tho' our Bodies might be preserv'd by a Miracle and Mankind did not too much encrease For short as it is a little while gives wise Men enough of it but then it would be intolerable and it has pleas'd God to provide a better Place for us Now the assuredness that we must all dye that the pale Messenger must shortly close our Eyes and fill us full with Dust and Clay should cool our desires after this World teach us when we have enough shew us that these are not the Riches of a Soul which must shortly change this Life and put us upon an early Preparation for Death lest we render our Lives uncomfortable for fear of it and be affrighted and in Agonies when it comes within view and we see it approach us 3. The time when Death will befal us We are once at a certain time to dye It is appointed for men once to dye When and where and how each of us shall depart this World the All-knowing God foresees and has certainly determined For we cannot suppose it to be unknown or unresolv'd with him how he will proportion our Lives and what our Death shall be And if the very hairs of our Head then assuredly all our days are numbred Therefore with reference to the Period of Human Life we are told Job 14. 5. That the days of man are determined the number of his months are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass And Job 7. 1. Is there not an appointed time to man upon Earth are not his days like the days of an hireling And if we will allow God who governs the World to order and dispose all Events in it according to his Will and Counsel and by his disappointing or giving success to things to be the Author of all the Good or Evil which happens to Mankind as the Scripture makes him If a Sparrow does not fall to the Ground without him much less shall Man who as our Saviour teacheth is of more value than many of ' em My times saith David are in thy hands No Man can depart from this World no more than he can be born into it without his particular Providence No one can be guilty of his own murder but by God's forsaking him and giving the Man up to himself no sickness or distemper shall prove mortal but when God pleases it shall no Wrath or Malice of Men can destroy us but when God permits them and then he is said to deliver up a Man into the Hands of his Enemy no Wars Pestilence and Famine but are sent by God and directed by him where to strike Since then the Providence of God does peculiarly over-rule and determine all Events and especially the end of Man's days here on Earth and withal foreknows whatever shall come to pass we are then to believe that all things shall move on in that certain Track which God foresees and has appointed and that no one shall dye sooner nor live longer than that Period which God in his wise Predestination has determined for us Not but that God often prolongs the Life of the Righteous and cuts off the wicked Doers as the Scriptures frequently assure us But then they assure us too that God hath ordain'd the Righteous to be such and to leave the Wicked to their own Devices as the means of that their longer or shorter time which accordingly God hath fore-determined So that our using or neglecting those of Religion and a Holy Life as well as other ways of Self-preservation are neither in vain for the lengthening or lessening our Race here nor yet alter but pursue and compass the Goal which God hath prefix'd us Thus is that Matter resolv'd which Beverovicius the Learned Physician was so much concern'd about But then it is a thing which some would be glad to know viz. The number of their days and the time we have for yet to live and could we tell them they were to hold out yet fifty or sixty years it might be glad Tydings and then they would let loose all the Reins to Sin But if all that must dye betimes knew so how would it damp and chill their Spirits fill the rest of the World with mourning cast a Veil over all the Comforts of Life and put a stop to all their Industry in it For what would become of all Arts and Sciences Trades and Education if Persons knew they were to dye by that time they had made any Improvement or Progress And so a great part of Mankind would lay aside the necessary business of Life which I believe no dying Persons would much concern themselves for and Religion be little minded but against the time of Death As to the Bounds which God has set to human Life in general Moses tells us that in his time the days of man's age were seventy years And in the ordinary course of Nature our Bodies cannot hold out much more all beyond is labour and sorrow When Mankind were few they liv'd longer but now the World is stockt with Inhabitants should our Ancestors who liv'd Seven or eight hunder'd years ago and their immediate Children and Grand-children down to our times be alive now to enjoy their Estates the present Generation must needs be Beggars would not know where nor how to live and wickedness might come to the same pass as it did in the Old World when there was but one righteous Family left the most probable Cause whereof was the length of their Lives Whereas the shortning of them has made Men more governable sets

us how we can be able to discern and distinguish Spirits or converse with 'em whither it is we are to go since no Place as such can affect a Soul wherein the happiness of that State consists The knowledge of which things while all our Intelligence is to come by Sense cannot be conveyed to us Hence then were it wise in us to comply with all our Saviour's Directions for the fashioning of our Minds and to practise all those Graces and Vertues he requires of us as easily supposing that such Habits and Dispositions of Mind are necessary for us to rellish the Happiness of that state For there are many degrees and instances of Vertue required from us which are not necessary to nay scarce consistent with the happy and prosperous Condition of this World or our living in it For we are not to love it we are to live above it to stifle and suppress not only the extravagant and irregular but even the natural Appetites of the Body and to despise the Pleasures of it subduing the Flesh to the Spirit to enjoy this World with that great indifferency as if we enjoy'd it not to have our conversation in Heaven all our joys and affections our treasure and hearts there to love our Enemies and those who hate us and despitefully use us to forgive Injuries not to retaliate Evil for Evil but the contrary Which things we cannot think why our Saviour should require from us were it not that that Temper of Mind which these Vertues form in us is necessary to prepare us for the happiness of the other Life and so far as we abate of them so far shall we fall short of our Felicity in that State As for the Miseries of it we may well believe that they also are more than any thing we have seen or felt or can conceive They are represented by Lakes of fire and brimstone and though Fire cannot hurt a Soul yet if such Expressions be Metaphorical what will those sufferings be that are real Thus to dye is to enter into the strange Regions and new state of the other Life 3. 'T is our leaving these earthly Tabernacles behind us to return to dust our Bodies to sleep in the Earth tho' our Souls have taken their flight from it With reference to these was it said Dust thou art and to dust shalt thou return Yet 't is but for a time and though it be sown a natural Body it shall be rais'd a Spiritual for Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God neither can corruption inherit incorruption These earthly Bodies which we live in cannot subsist in that pure Light and glorious Region where God dwells and therefore to be fit to inherit Glory they must at the last day be spiritualiz'd free from all sublunary Passions to rellish none of the Pleasures of Flesh and Blood and the more they are refin'd here from Fleshly Appetites and Earthly Inclinations the more glorious will they rise again 1. This again should wean our Minds from all sensual Pleasures and worldly Affections For if we can like nothing but these things what shall we do when we come to leave 'em when they cannot be had For whatever clothing our Souls may have yet Flesh and Blood they shall not And altho' when our Bodies fall from us into Dust the particular Desires and slighter Inclinations of 'em may possibly depart from us as we see in long and tedious sicknesses and austerities Men care not much for bodily Pleasures Yet when the Soul is sensualiz'd as it is in old Sinners tho' the Body be decay'd and can esteem no other 't is uncapable of any happiness among Spirits or in a Body that is Spiritualiz'd and Glorified By how much therefore our Inclinations are sunk into Flesh and Sense by so much are we indispos'd for the happiness of the next Life which doth not consist in 'em and the more Spiritual our Nature is the more is it prepared for the Glories that shall be revealed 2. We should not hence pride our selves too much about our Bodies Either as to their Descent since our Pedigree is all alike Antient and no one knows what sort of Persons his Ancestors may have been however we know what we all in a short time must be Or as to their Beauty which if it be not overvalued but real soon whithereth away like Grass whereas Grace and Goodness gives the most pleasing Air to our very Aspect such as no Beauty Natural or Artificial can come near However 't is but a little while till we shall not know the difference betwixt the Dust of one Person and another Or as to their Apparel which besides that it often but indifferently sets off the Person the plainest Dress according to Peoples Quality being most becoming can be of no use in the other Life to cover a Man's Soul Or that we have an Estate to provide more largely for them than others have or can pamper them more Yet for all this they will fall into Dust and the sooner ordinarily for our too much Indulging Lastly we should believe according to the Scriptures that our Bodies shall spring up again more glorious at the Resurrection and in the mean time they are said in Scripture to be asleep The Soul must all the while be in an imperfect State without the Body and is not compleatly happy till they meet each other again to live in perpetual Harmony and Pleasures to which glorified Bodies will be highly Instrumental But if we make our Bodies the Servants of Sin and they carry to their Graves fleshly Lusts and sensual Affections they will rise to shame and everlasting contempt Thus we have heard what it is to dye In what sense we are to understand Death that we do not then cease to be And methinks when we see the Body of a worthy Friend or Relation lie before us pale and without Sense or Motion who but few Hours since may be was our Support and Comfort we cannot conceive that this must be all of the Person but that the Soul is alive somewhere tho' we did not see it go nor what Company did attend it nor what a State or Place it pass'd into 2. I proceed to the next thing The assuredness of Death to us all It is appointed for us Of this all Mankind is a Proof by the succession of Generations And our selves see that those who live the oldest yet Death follows them close at the Heels and at last gives them the fatal stroke There have been two indeed excepted since the beginning of the World but no more will till the end of it and then saith St. Paul We that are alive shall be changed Sin is the Cause of this for Death came into the world by it and in Adam all dye Had we been made Spirits at first we had had no Principles of Mortality in us and it had been hard to have depriv'd us of our