Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sin_n	body_n	death_n	sting_n	3,690	5	11.8999	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56470	A sermon preached at the funeral of the Rt Honorable John Earl of Rochester, who died at Woodstock-Park, July 26, 1680, and was buried at Spilsbury in Oxford-shire, Aug. 9 by Robert Parsons ...	Parsons, Robert, 1647-1714.	1680 (1680)	Wing P570; ESTC R4950	23,584	52

his afflicting hand that his sufferings were most just tho he had laid ten thousand times more upon him how he had laid one stripe upon another because of his grievous provocations till he had brought him home to himself that in his former visitations he had not that blessed effect he was now sensible of He had formerly some loose thoughts and slight resolutions of reforming and design'd to be better because even the present consequences of sin were still pestering him and were so troublesome and inconvenient to him but that now he had other sentiments of things and acted upon other principles His willingness to dye if it pleased God resigning himself always to the Divine disposal but if God should spare him yet a longer time here he hoped to bring glory to the name of God in the whole course of his life and particularly by his endeavours to convince others and to assure them of the danger of their condition if they continued impenitent and how graciously God had dealt with him His great sense of his obligations to those Excellent men the Right Reverend my Lord Bishop of Oxford and Dr. Marshal for their charitable and frequent Visits to him and Prayers with him and Dr. Burnet who came on purpose from London to see him who were all very serviceable to his Repentance His extraordinary duty and reverence to his Mother with all the grateful respects to her imaginable and kindness to his good Lady beyond expression which may well enhance such a loss to them and to his Children obliging them with all the endearments that a good Husband or a tender Father could bestow To conclude these Remarks I shall only read to you his dying Remonstrance sufficiently attested and sign'd by his own hand as his truest sense which I hope may be useful for that good end he design'd it in manner and form following FOr the benefit of all those whom I may have drawn into sin by my example and encouragement I leave to the world this my last Declaration which I deliver in the presence of the great God who knows the secrets of all hearts and before whom I am now appearing to be judged That from the bottom of my soul I detest and abhor the whole course of my former wicked life that I think I can never sufficiently admire the goodness of God who has given me a true sense of my pernicious Opinions and vile Practices by which I have hitherto lived without Hope and without God in the world have been an Open Enemy to Jesus Christ doing the utmost despite to the holy Spirit of Grace And that the greatest testimony of my Charity to such is to warm 'em in the Name of God and as they regard the welfare of their Immortal Souls no more to deny his Being or his Providence or despise his Goodness no more to make a mock of Sin or contemn the pure and excellent Religion of my ever Blessed Redeemer thro whose Merits alone I one of the Greatest of Sinners do yet hope for Mercy and Forgiveness Amen Declared and Sign'd in the presence of ANNE ROCHESTER ROBERT PARSONS Jun. 19. 1680. J. ROCHESTER And now I cannot but mention with joy and admiration that steddy temper of mind which he enjoy'd through the whole course of his Sickness and Repentance which must proceed not from a hurry and perturbation of mind or body arising from the fear of Death or dread of Hell only but from an ingenuous love to God and an uniform regard to Virtue suitable to that solemn declaration of his I would not commit the least sin to gain a Kingdom with all possible symptoms of a lasting perseverance in it if God should have restored him To which may be added his comfortable perswasions of God's accepting him to his mercy saying three or four days before his death I shall die But Oh what unspeakable glories do I see what joys beyond thought or expression am I sensible of I am assured of Gods mercy to me through Jesus Christ. Oh how I long to die and to be with my Saviour The time of his Sickness and Repentance was just nine weeks in all which time he was so much master of his reason and had so clear an understanding saving 30 hours about the middle of it in which he was delirous that he never dictated or spoke more composed in his life and therefore if any shall continue to say his Piety was the effect of madness or vapours let me tell them t is highly disingenuous and that the assertion is as silly as it is wicked And moreover that the force of what I have delivered may not be evaded by wicked men who are resolv'd to harden their hearts maugre all Convictions by saying This thing was done in a corner I appeal for the truth thereof to all sorts of persons who in considerable numbers visited and attended him and more particularly to those eminent Physicians who were near him and conversant with him in the whole course of his tedious sickness and who if any are competent judges of a Phrensy or delirium There are many more excellent things in my absence which have occasionally dropt from his mouth that will not come within the narrow compass of a Sermon these I hope will sufficiently prove what I produce them for And if any shall be still unsatisfied herein in this hard-hearted generation it matters not let them at their cost be Unbelievers still so long as this Excellent Penitent enjoys the comfort of his Repentance And now from all these admirable signs we have great reason to believe comfortably that his Repentance was Real and his End happy and accordingly imitate the neighbours and Cosens of Elizabeth Luke 1.58 who when they heard how the Lord had shewed great mercy upon her came and rejoyced with her For so we must learn like the Ambassadors to some new Prince to turn our condolances into congratulations in conformity to an heavenly example For there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repents 1. A joy to God the Father who has solemnly sworn that he delights not in the death of a sinner but rather that he should repent and live who would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth 2. A joy to God the Son that good Shepherd mention'd in the verse before my Text who left the ninety and nine just persons in the wilderness and went after that which was lost till he had found it and when he had found it he laid it on his shoulders rejoycing and when he cometh home he calls together his friends and his neighbours on heaven and earth saying unto them Rejoyce with me for I have found my sheep which was lost 3. A joy to God the Holy Ghost after he had been so often griev'd so despitefully treated and so long resisted And 4. a joy to the whole Court of Heaven in the presence of the holy Angels v. 10. those

but nauseate savory and wholsome food Such as these I would beseech in their cooler seasons to ask themselves that question What fruit had you in those things whereof you are now ashamed for the end of these things is death And if any incourage themselves in their wickedness from this example resolving however to enjoy the good things that are present to fill themselves with costly wines and to let no part of pleasure pass by them untasted supposing with the Gospel rich man that when one comes to them from the dead when Sickness or old Age approches that then they will repent let such as these consider the dreadful hazard they run by such pernicious counsels It may be and it is but just with God it should be that whilst they are making provisions for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof and are saying to their souls Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years therefore take thine ease eat drink and be merry perhaps just then at the same time the hand of God may be writing upon the walls of their habitations that fatal sentence Thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee and then whose shall all those things be which thou hast provided And what sad reflections must such a one needs make upon his own folly when he sees that all that mirth and ease which he has promised himself for so many years must be at an end in a very few hours and not only so but that mirth turn'd into howlings and that ease into a bed of flames when the soul must be torn away on a sudden from the things it loved and go where it will hate to live and yet cannot die And were it not better for us to embrace cordially the things which belong to our everlasting peace before they are hid from our eyes Were it not better for us all to be wise betimes by preventing such a danger then to open our eyes as the unhappy rich man did when we are in the place of torment Be perswaded then with humble penitent and obedient hearts to go out of your sinful selves and meet the Blessed Jesus who is now on the way and comes to us in the person and in the bowels of a Saviour woing us to accept those easie conditions of pardon and peace offer'd in his holy Gospel rather then to stay till he become our Adversary and our Judge too when he will deliver us over to the tormentors till we have paid the utmost farthing i.e. to all eternity when those who have made a mock at sin all their lives and laugh'd at the pretended cheats of Religion and its Priests shall find themselves at last the greatest fools and the most sadly cheated in the world for God will then laugh at their calamity and mock when their fear cometh when it cometh as desolation and their destruction as a whirlwind And since they would not suffer his Mercy to rejoyce over his Justice nor cause any joy in heaven as the Text mentions in their conversion his Justice will certainly rejoyce over his Mercy and cause joy in heaven as it did at the fall of Babylon which would not be cured Rev. 19.1 in their confusion And O that there were such a heart in them that they would consider this betimes that in the midst of their carnal jollities they would but vouchsafe one regard to what may happen hereafter and what will certainly be the end of these things For however the fruits of sin may seem pleasant to the eye and to be desired to make one seem wise and witty to the world yet alas they are all but emty and unsatisfactory at present and leave a mortal sting behind them and bitterness in the later end like the book St. John ate Rev. 10.10 which in his mouth was sweet as honey but as soon as he had eaten it his belly was bitter And tho God should please at last to bring men back in their old age from their sinful courses by a way of weeping to pluck them as fire-brands out of everlasting burnings yet if men consider how rare and difficult a thing it is to be born again when one is old how many pangs and violences to nature there must needs be to put off the habits and inclinations to old sins as difficult saith the Prophet as for the Leopard to change his spots or the Ethiopian his skin and then when that 's done what scars and weaknesses even a Cure must leave behind I say he that duly considers this will think it better to secure his salvation and all his present true comforts by preserving his innocency or alleviating his work by a daily repentance for lesser failings then to venture upon one single chance of a death-bed repentance which is no more to be depended upon for the performance or acceptance then it can encourage any man not to labour because Elias was fed by Ravens or the Israelites with Manna from heaven If then there be any tho alas that need not be asked that have made the greatness of their Wit or Birth or Fortune instruments of iniquity to iniquity let them now convert them in their own conversion to that original noble use for which God intended them viz. to be instruments of righteousness unto holiness To these especially that are thus great not onely God but this great Person also by my mouth being dead yet speaketh for as St. Paul seem'd more especially concern'd for his brethren and kinsmen according to the flesh and even the rich man in hell tho sufficiently distracted by his own sufferings yet seems hugely desirous that one might be sent from the dead to his brethren that he might testifie unto them lest they also come into that place of torment so this Illustrions Convert after God had open'd his eyes to see his follies was more especially desirous of the salvation of those that were his brethren tho not in the flesh yet in the greatness of their quality and of their sins passionately wishing that all such were not only almost but altogether such as he now was saving his bodily afflictions and of great force me thinks should the admonitions of a dying friend be The ingenious Michael de Montaigne reckons him the best Physician who himself has had the disease which he pretends to cure and behold a greater than he says to St. Peter when thou art converted strengthen thy brethren which assures us that they which have themselves been in a condition to need a remarkable conversion are not uncapable thereby but obliged and the better qualified for such a charitable work Now these especially I would beseech as the Minister of Christ and as such tho we are reviled we bless tho we are defamed we intreat to suffer the word of Exhortation that they would not terminate their eyes upon the outward pomp and pageantry that attends them as the vulgar Jews did upon their Rites and Ceremonies but as