Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	deny_v	live_v	ungodliness_n	2,303	5	11.2667	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65571	Eight sermons preached on several occasions by Nathanael Whaley ...; Sermons. Selections	Whaley, Nathanael, 1637?-1709.	1675 (1675)	Wing W1532; ESTC R8028	120,489	326

consider these easie and obvious things and they will assuredly find but small reason to build their hopes of Eternal Life upon any struggle or remorse of Conscience at their Death which few bad men that have any tolerable sense of another World are and even Judas himself was not exempted from 4th Prop. The fourth and last Proposition is Were we sure that the hiring of Labourers at the eleventh hour did signifie the late calling of Particular Christians to the Faith and Obedience of the Gospel yet this will not reach the case of a Death-bed Repentance There is a manifest disparity between them in several respects For 1. They that were called so late as the eleventh hour were guilty of no delays but embraced the first opportunity they had of labouring in the Vineyard The reason they gave why they stood so long Idle in the Market viz. because no man had hired them implies that they were ready to be imployed V. 7. and that they chearfully closed with the first invitation that was offered to them and so doing they were not to be blamed that they were not earlier at work For this is as much as Abraham the Father of the Jewish Church or the Apostles the first Labourers in the Christian did They came as soon as their Lord called them tho they were not in the Vineyard till the middle age of their Lives And I doubt not if a poor Indian that never heard of Christ till he entred upon the last stage of his Life shall then become a serious and faithful Christian but that his reward will be great in Heaven But this is not the case of those who were devoted to the Service of God in their Infancy who have lived many years under the ministry of his Sacred Word and the obligations of the Holy Sacraments Who have resisted the motions of the Blessed Spirit and the admonitions of Parents and Friends never hearkning unto any till the Rough Messenger of Death comes and tells them roundly in their Ears that now they must die and away to Judgment And 't is no wonder they are then sorry that they spent their time so ill while Hell and Destruction look them in the Face but they cannot but say they had fair and frequent Warnings to have used it better 2. They who came so late into the Vineyard had yet one hour of Trial and this in proportion to the Day which God allows us to work out our Salvation in is the twelfth part of our Lives 'T is true this is but a short time considering what engagements we are under of serving our Creator and Redeemer all the days of our Lives but still it is much longer than a Sinner who defers his Repentance to his Death allows himself to do the whole work of Religion to break the habits of Vice to exercise all the virtues of the Christian Life and to put himself into a posture for Eternity He vows perhaps and declares upon the word of a Dying-man what great things he would do but alas his Breath goes away with his Vows and gives him not a minute to prove his Sincerity in 3. The last Comers into the Vineyard wrought an hour and therein performed the whole Duty they contracted for But what is this to the purpose of men that work not at all For furely to ask pardon for what they have not done to be sorry for what they have or to resolve to do better if they had opportunity will not bring them within the notion of Labourers and then it cannot intitle them to the reward This is the state of Dying Penitents their whole work lies upon their hands and that 's the ground of all their Sorrow and resolution to work if it were not too late which therefore are not working and to suppose that God will accept them as if they were is to say that the Master of the Vineyard who was all the day hiring Labourers into it was very indifferent what they did there and would surely have been as Bountiful if there had been occasion to those that did him no service as to them that did the most provided they were but sorry they had not serv'd him at all and were willing to work just when Night came and forbid them And thus I think I have sufficiently proved that this Parable has no Relation to the Case of a late or Death-bed Repentance which was the First General propounded to be spoken to The second was 2. That there is no other ground of Assurance in the Gospel that the Repentance of a Dying Christian after a whole Life spent in Sin and an obstinate Violation of his Baptismal Vow and Covenant will secure him of Eternal Salvation That the Gospel gives no such Encouragement to Men that Trifle with the Grace of God we may be as sure as we can be that the Gospel does not contradict it self and that not in trivial Instances but in the great and most essential parts of it I mean the design of its being revealed to men and the conditions it requires of them in order to Eternal Life and Happiness For 1. Did the Gospel assure us that God will accept of Dying Vows and sorrows instead of a Life of Virtue and Holiness it would shew us a notable way to evade and overthrow its own great and admirable Design the very end for which it appeared unto men which was to teach and oblige us to lead holy and virtuous Lives to deny Vngodliness and Wordly Lusts and to live Soberly Tit. 2.11 12. Righteously and Godlily in this present World while we are resident here and capable of doing Service to God and Men. This is the end of all the Institutions of the Gospel and particularly of our Baptism by which we are amitted into Covenant with God For therefore saith St. Paul we are buried with Christ by Baptism into Death that like as Christ was raised from the Dead by the Glory of the Father Rom. 6.4 even so we also should walk in newness of Life i. e. From our first entrance into Christianity till we have finisht our Course and are got beyond the Dangers and Temptations of this sinful World But where is this New Life when we are just a Dying Do we answer the end of our Baptism tho we never set a step in our Christian Race till our Life is run out Or does the Gospel whatever it obliges us to do dispence with us for not doing it This perhaps in some mens Opinion would advance the Grace but surely no man will say it commends the Wisdom of the Gospel For who does not see that the design of making us Holy is lost should the Gospel once declare that we may be dispensed with for not being Holy or that it is enough to secure us of Heaven to be truly sorry at the last that we have lived wickedly all our days And were this the true sense of the Gospel I cannot see what Answer