Selected quad for the lemma: saint_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
saint_n	church_n	militant_a	triumphant_a	2,791	5	11.4510	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34193	Sermons preach'd on several occasions by John Conant.; Sermons. Selections	Conant, John, 1608-1693.; Williams, John, 1636?-1709.	1693 (1693)	Wing C5684; ESTC R1559	241,275	626

that should open mens eyes shall shut them and when those means that should soften mens hearts shall harden them Let us take heed that this be not the case of any of us If what should convince humble and reform us take no other effect upon us but that we are so much the worse the more remote from repentance the more obstinately and resolutely bent after our sinful courses the more incorrigible and irreclaimable our Charge would be heavy when the day of reckoning comes How dreadful and intolerable would the Sentence of Condemnation to be pronounced against us be when the means we have enjoyed shall rise up in judgment against us and our mercies shall condemn us 4. As the most necessary and important work that we have to dispatch is limited to a certain time and the duration of that time is in divers respects very uncertain so not to have improved that time but to have left our greatest business undone till it be too late and till the only season in which it was to be done be now over and irrecoverably gone is a most deplorable and dismal thing How affectionately did our Saviour weep over Jerusalem in this respect Luke 19.41 42. saying If thou hadst known even thou in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes When mercy was offered her and she was earnestly importuned to accept of it she did not know the day of her visitation as it follows v. 44. She slighted mercy and refused the gracious tenders thereof But wherein doth the misery of such a condition lie I answer in these three things 1. Having finally refused mercy having obstinately persisted in the refusal of it to the end they shall never have the like offers any more The day of grace with them is run out once for all and shall never never be recalled no more opportunities of making their peace with God to eternity The united Prayers of all the Saints in the Church Militant and Triumphant if they should all join together in such a Suit could not obtain the offer of mercy for the space of one hour for any finally impenitent Sinner He hath sinned away his mercies and 't is utterly impossible that he should recover what he hath wilfully deprived himself of Lament his loss he may and rue it he shall to eternity but retrieve it he never shall 2. Another thing in which the misery of this condition lies is that the punishment of such persons shall be dreadfully heightened upon the account of the mercy that hath been offered them which they have so wretchedly slighted and rejected The Gospel it self fully and clearly represents to us what a direful aggravation of their punishment this will be We have three severe and most remarkable Scriptures to this purpose This is the condemnation that is Joh. 3.19 the most sore and dreadful condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil Mat. 11.21 22 23 24. Wo unto thee Corazin wo unto thee Bethsaida It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you And thou Capernaum that art lifted up to heaven namely in the means of grace which she enjoyed but improved not Thou Capernaum which art lifted up to heaven shalt be brought down to hell it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day judgment than for thee How shall we escape Heb. 2.3 if we neglect so great salvation 3. The last aggravation of their misery is this That the thoughts of mercy once offered and rejected and of their having wilfully made themselves eternally miserable when they were in a capacity of being eternally happy if they had not stood in their own light and been wanting to themselves I say the thoughts hereof will be in their Consciences a never-dying Worm to torment them with unspeakable anguish to eternity So dismal and deplorable a thing it is not to have improved the time and opportunities afforded us for making our peace with God And so much concerning the Reasons why we must redeem the time I now proceed to the Application which was the last thing to be spoken to And here VSE 1. 1. If Time be upon so many accounts to be redeemed to be redeemed especially for heavenly things and to be improved for the good of our Souls what may they think of themselves who make little other use of their time than to dishonour God debauch their Acquaintance and Companions in sin and to bring swift ruin and destruction upon their own Souls who redeem time indeed but 't is for the satisfaction of their Lusts for gratifying their Corruptions for glutting themselves with sinful Pleasures and sensual Delights for heaping up sin upon sin for filling up the measure of their Provocations and making themselves ripe for judgment That spend their time in excess and intemperance in riot and drunkenness in chambering and wantonness in setting their mouths against Heaven in belching out horrid Oaths and Blasphemies in scoffing at Religion and deriding Piety that make it their business to sow the Principles of Atheism and to scatter the Seeds of Irreligion and Profaneness in all Places and Companies where they come to seduce poison and corrupt all they meet with and to make them twofold more the children of hell than themselves O how many such wicked Instruments such Agitators for Hell and Factors for the Devil have our times produced How doth City and Countrey abound with them and what swarms of them are there to be found in all Quarters of the Land Though such as these come seldom to the House of God yet in regard they sometimes drop in amongst others and in regard that no Congregation if numerous at least can be presumed to be without many lewd and vicious Persons though perhaps there may not be many that have arrived at the same height and excess of wickedness with those before-mentioned I shall propose these three Questions to all those who spend their precious time in lewd and ungodly Practises of what kind soever or rather I shall desire they would propose them to themselves 1. Let them ask themselves put the question to their own Hearts and Consciences Whether they think or can think that God made them and gave them excellent and immortal Souls to these ends If they think he did then it seems they are of opinion that God gave them a being to the end they might renounce their homage and disclaim their subjection to him and serve the Devil And that he still preserves them upholds them in their being to no other purpose than that they may still go on in the same ways of open rebellion against himself and defiance against Heaven Certainly it were an high disparagement and an horrid derogation to the wisdom and holiness of God for any man to imagine that God should make