Selected quad for the lemma: rest_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
rest_n	call_v	day_n	rest_v	3,348	5	9.4726	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60406	A Christian's work and time of working In a sermon preached on the death of Mr. John Sorrel the younger, of Hyde-Hall in Great Waltham in the county of Essex. By Benjamin Smith, vicar there.	Smith, Benjamin, 1642 or 3-1714.	1675 (1675)	Wing S4021A; ESTC R220555	39,208	48

be the same reason for us to be diligent in minding and hastning our work that we have to do that there was for him to mind and hasten his these words will be found to concern us and be to us as well as to our Saviour an undeniable reason of diligence in our work while we have life and time And this a short Enquiry into the sense and importance of the words will prove And in them we may consider these three things 1. That our Saviour had works to do I must work the works of him that sent me 2. That he took the present time and lay'd hold upon every opportunity that offered it self to do these Works in I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day 3. That the Reason why he did thus and so carefully lay'd hold on every season to do his Works in was least the night should prevent him the night cometh when no man can work 1. The first Consideration I shall wholly wave for thought it be worth our Enquiry what the Works were he had to do and by whom he was sent and how he that was in his own Nature God blessed for evermore could be sent by any since being God he could have no Super●or to send him and so upon the same Reason how the works he did he being God could be the works or by the appointment of any other but himself which may all be answered by considering the distinction of his Nature and his Office yet since the considering these is not pertinent to my present purpose the force of the words as to the business in hand lying in his diligence in working and in the reason he gives of it it may suffice to have observed that he had works to do without entring into any discourse concerning the nature of them or the accounts upon which he was obliged to perform them I shall pass therefore from this to what is more pertinent to the present purpose and consider 2. That he took the present time to do his works in and this is implyed in that expression I must work while it is day To wave here the curious Criticisms and Conjectures of some upon the day here mentioned by day here I understand the time of this life here upon earth and so our Saviour saying I must work while it is day the meaning is I must be doing the works of him that sent me now while I am upon earth now while I am in the flesh So Theophylact the day is this present life And Pis●ator to the same sense he compares the course of his life upon earth to a day and therefore is the time of Life called a day with an especial respect and relation to working The day is a time and the only time for work the night is appointed for rest and so is our life the only time of doing what is to be done in order to our Eternal state in death we rest from our Labours Our Saviour therefore would let no opportunity pass of doing good while it was day that is while the time of his life upon Earth lasted and that for the Reason which he gives in the next words The night cometh when no man can work And that is the thing which comes next to be considered to give an account why he was so diligent in working and the Text tells us 3. That the Reason why he did thus and so carefully lay'd hold on the present season was lest the night should prevent him the night comes when no man can work In what sense the night is here to be taken is easie to understand by what has been said of the day to which this answers For if that means the time of this life then by Night must here be meant the time of death for this Reason then our Saviour says he must work while he lived because death was coming in which we have a twofold Reason couched 1. From the nearness of it the night cometh it is not said it will come but it does come in that implying that it was now approaching and already upon his Journey towards him 2. From the effect of it when come No man can work As if he had said I must now do what I have to do while I have time and life my time is not long my death cometh and is at hand and when that 's once come these Works of mine must cease for in death no man can work parallel to which Resolution and Reason is the advice and argument of the Wise man Eccles 9. 10. Whatsoever thine hand findeth to do do it with all thy might for there is no work nor device nor knowledg nor wisdom in the Grave whither thou goest And having thus briefly cleared the sence and importance of the Words and considered the reason and foundation they stand upon there is no man but at the very first sight must needs conclude that the Case is ours We are under the same Circumstances that he was and the same Reason that prevailed with him to diligence in his Work is much more urgent upon us Had he Works to do so have we Was death approaching to him and was he mortal as he was a man certainly and undeniably so are we If then it was a good Reason for him to make hast to do his Work because he must dye undoubtedly the Reason is as strong towards us for we must dye too and after death there is no more working for us in our Works than there was for him in his It cannot be denied then but the words belong to us and are a necessary Rule of our practice and a strong Reason to spur us on to diligence in the work we have to do in this present Life I shall therefore take them since they cannot be denyed me and apply the meaning of them to our practice in this Doctrinal Proposition Doct. That we ought to be Diligent in doing our Work that we have to do while we have time and life because Death cometh where no Work can be done A Lesson needful to be learn't because it is of great importance to us in order to our Eternal welfare and so much the rather needful because the practice of too many tells us that they understand not this Lesson nor are convinc'd of the necessity of it Some do not understand their Work and so though they take much pains and are very busie their Work turns to no account because though they have done much they have done nothing at all of what God sent them to do Some understand not their time and though they may know their Work yet alwayes think it too soon to set about it yet and so drive off and delay till their day be done before they begin their work Both these ought to consider and weigh this truth that we ought to be diligent in doing our work while we have time the one to consider that we ought to be employed about

so it may be taken into two parts and yet either of them retain the force of a Reason to urge us to the duty under consideration 1. The night cometh 2. When it is come no work can be done in it 1. The night that is death cometh in which these things are imploy'd which may serve to heighten our diligence and to hasten us in our Work 1. The night cometh then death is certain and will undoubtedly be with us for in that it 's said it comes it undeniably proves that there is such a thing as death since that which is not cannot come And this is a thing not more certain in it self than it is evident and apparent to us That we are Mortal and when our part is acted must go off the Stage of this World constant and daily Experience teaches us and proves it to us This is the Path that is daily trodden by all sorts ages and conditions of men the Young and Old the Poor and Rich Bond and Free Male and Female all meet together in the Chambers of Death and lye down to rest in the dust This is the common fate of Man kind and that irreversible Decree past at the first Transgression from which no man ordinarily is exempt Methuselah ran a long Course yet after Nine hundred sixty and nine years he dyed and Abraham lived well and was the Father of the Faithful and the Friend of God yet after an hundred threescore and fifteen Years he gave up the Ghost and dyed And there want not dayly Memento's of our Mortality even in all those things that are daily obvious to our eyes the constant course of Winter and Summer and of Day and Night put us in mind of our putting off the Glories of this Life and of our sleeping in death The Winter strips the Earth of her glory and beauty and leaves her naked it hinders and determines her fruitful seasons and death takes down our Pride and Pomp and tyes our hands that we cannot work At night we uncloath and go to bed and how far soever we ramble in the day we then leave our Labours and confine our selves to a narrower compass to take our rest till morning And in death we strip and lye down in the Grave and our Bodies take their long sleep till dooms day morning wake us again Our great Estates and numerous Lands shrink up in death to six foot of Earth and our stately Seats and ceiled Rooms and costly Furnitures give way to a Winding-sheet a Tomb and a Coffin Thus Night and Winter are fit Emblems to us of Death and serious Memonto's of our mortal state The certainty then of this should mind us of the work we have to do and engage us to be diligent at it our time is stated and nothing is more sure than that its end will come and death will overtake us our Work is appointed and so is our time too why then do we waste or trifle away that time which hath its limits fixed and will certainly be determined by death Why then do we project great things for our selves here which death will strip us of and turn aside from that work that God has appointed us to do thereward of which no death can deprive us of This very Consideration that death is certain should make us more careful in our work and sit more loose and be more indifferent to any advantages or enjoyments of this life If our work be done death cannot rob us of the reward of that but may be embraced as an advantage being a Rest from our Labours and a refuge from every Calamity that here we are burdened with Rev. 14. 13. Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them But for all other things which are the advantages of this Life only death robs us of them all and brings the Great and Mighty into an equal state with the Poor Ignoble and Mean The Grave knows no difference and the Worm knows no distinction betwixt finer and courser flesh He that marches to the Grave in a stately array and with a solemn pomp and he that steals silently into the Chambers of death and makes no noise nor bustle at his going both find an equal Entertainment in the dust and both have the same Kindred and Relations there and both with Job must say chap. 17. 14. To Corruption thou art my Father to the Worm thou art my Mother and my Sister Our Greatness leaves us at the Grave and no distinctions remain after death but such as a faithful serving of God and a conscientious industry in our Works may give us Why then do we neglect our work that would live with us beyond death and are fond of things that perish as to us by it since the night cometh that is Death is certain 2. The night cometh Then Death is at hand it cometh Then it is hastning on towards us it 's already in the way and onwards in its journey to us And this the shortness of our Lives when they are at their longest plainly speaks If once we are born even by the course of Nature we have not long to live and threescore years and ten which is the age of a man is but a poor pittance of time if it be compared to the Eternity that depends upon it The very first step that we set into this World is onwards towards Death and to the Youngest as well as to the Old it may be said death cometh Our Life is compared to a Race as swift as short as that the starting-place is from the Womb and the Goal is the Grave and all the while between our Birth and Decease we are in our Race hasting on to death As soon as our day begins to dawn the night also begins to hasten its approaches and we do no sooner begin to live but we are going onwards towards death How should this Consideration then hasten us in our Work and make us more diligent and industrious our time is short and the end of it at hand our Work is great and we have much to do how unreasonable is it then for us to loyter or be idle and how much more for us to be doing of Evil which must be unravelled and undone again All our time is little enough for our business there can be none to spare for evil ends or for a forreign service our End draws on whither we mind it or no Prudence then would teach us to ply our Work that the end of our time and our work may meet together Let us always then be well employed that death may find us so when it comes and that time cannot be far off The night cometh that is death is at hand 3. The Night cometh And this implies that the time of death is uncertain the night cometh Then no man knows how near death may be all that is