Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	age_n	youth_n	youthful_a	108	3	10.7986	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42097	A sermon preached in the Cathedral Church of Durham upon the revival of the ancient laudable practice of that, and some other cathedrals, in having sermons on Wednesdays and Fridays, during Advent and Lent / by D.G. ...	Grenville, Denis, 1637-1703.	1686 (1686)	Wing G1941; ESTC R2757	16,701	34

least interruption their whole Life indeed being but one intire act of sleep I shall rather enquire within the Church among Professors of our own Religion for some of those sleepers my Text aims at where it is notorious we may find too great a number who can thus sleep even at Noon-day resist the force of the Gospel the most powerful methods to reduce sinners nay become daily worse men more and more vile lewd and stupid to the reproach of Christianity in the very midst of the Glorious Light of the most purely Reformed Church in the whole World in point of Doctrine Discipline and Worship 'T is certain every unregenerate Man every impenitent Sinner whosoever is under the power of any Lust of Flesh or Spirit every one that is not awakened into so serious a sense of his Duty as sincerely and faithfully to oppose sin and to pursue vertue faithfully using the means which God affords him to mortify his corrupt Nature whereof a devout respect to this season of Advent may be an especial one and to revive and strengthen Grace in his Soul is I say such a Sleeper a sound sleeper in sin and security even upon the very brink of Destruction a Sleeper that ought to be awakened and warned of his danger And if nothing else will do it I beseech God to rouse him up by the Thunder of his Spirit and to drag him to repentance by the terrors of his Judgments if he will by no means be drawn by the Cords of his Love And here I must more particularly apply my self to such a sinner by considering him under a double capacity either as an old hardned sinner or a young Proficient in vice as one that hath been from his youth to the hoary head habituated to a course of Sin and Impiety or else as one that is newly entred into those ways that lead to the Chambers of Death and ready to sacrifice to the Devil the very prime and flower of his youth And here the old Man is first obliged to awake from sleep and rouse himself up out of his Impenitency He who has one foot already in the Grave should greedily catch at so fair an occasion and lay hold on that eternal Life which is yet notwithstanding all his past provocations graciously offered him And faithfully and wisely imploy and improve these few last minutes in Devotion and the exercises of Repentance remembring that he is just ready to launch forth into the Ocean of Eternity And that upon the right use of the last Hours his everlasting happiness doth depend and that that one hour spent as it ought here in this World may secure that for him which hereafter he cannot do unto all Eternity As the Tree falls let us seasonably consider so it lies And The Grave which is in a manner ready open to receive the old Man is no place for Repentance The hoary Head which is a Crown of Glory when it is found in the way of Righteousness and a mighty Aggravation of sin when it is met with in the way of vice ought to be a serious Monitor and doth loudly call upon old men to Repent Let them remember that they must repent now or never their youth their middle Age is gone and their last days only remain which it infinitely concerns them to manage well having spent the rest or else they must perish in sin and wickedness and their Ruin will be inevitable As they have been laden with sin and iniquity in this life let them assure themselves that without a speedy and hearty Conversion unto God they will in the other World be certainly laden with punishment Let them above others take care how they sleep any longer lest they awake no more If they resist this present Call their Ears may never hear another Death they may assure themselves how far soever the young man puts the evil days from him is near them even at the very door and so is Judgement likewise both which ought to strike them with all their Terrors If this does not suffice to awaken the old man dead in Trespasses and Sins I shall only mind him That he above all others ought to have the sound of the last Trump always in his Ears surgite mortui arise ye dead The young man in the heat of his youth and the midst of all his extravagance has sundry and great obligations to improve this season to reform his Life and enter into the ways of Wisdom which as the Wise Man tells us are ways of pleasantness and paths of peace As the old Man must dye so let me be his Monitor That he may dye and be hurried away to Hell in the midst of his sins many sad and lamentable examples whereof God sets daily before our eyes Let the young man know that tho' he rejoice in his youth and his heart cheer him in the days of his youth and he walk in the ways of his heart and in the sight of his eyes that for all these things God will bring him into Judgement As the Taper of an old Man is expiring by the course of Nature so is that of the young man as liable violently to be puft out As the one vanisheth so is the other often driven off the Stage of this World And the number of those that are suddenly snatched away in the midst of their heady and unadvised Courses do far exceed those who finish their Course and arrive to the usual Age of Man to David's Threescore years and Ten. Besides these and many more discouragements to be wicked common to youth in the Age of Giddiness and Sin while their natural Lusts and Corruptions are predominant There are as many and great Invitations to Goodness and Vertue and to remember their Creator in the days of their youth Nothing doth so indear us to God as early Piety As there is nothing more offensive to him and more preposterous in it self than to spend the Candle of our youth our Health and Strength in the Service of the Devil and to put at last the very Snuff upon Gods Altar St. John attained the Name of the Beloved Disciple and had the Honour to lean in the very Bosom of his Saviour because he gave to God the first-fruits of his strength and younger years and dedicated to his Redeemer the faculties of his Soul as well as the Members of his Body while they were untainted and undefiled by sin No worse Reception might the youth of this or any Age have with the Saviour of the World the Fountain of all Goodness the Author of all Blessings if they would but seasonably break off from the Chains of their Corrupt Nature and youthful Lusts the very bands of Satan and original of all their Misery and devote themselves to his Service which is perfect freedom here in this Life and whose enjoyment in the Life to come is accompanied with fulness of Joy and Pleasures for evermore Having dispatch'd what I propounded