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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	soul_n	whole_a	worth_a	1,913	5	9.2236	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48314	A moniter of mortalitie in two sermons, by a consideration of the manifold and uncertaine surprizalls of death, guiding the pace and passages of a temporall life, towards the obtainement of life eternall, occasioned by the death of that hopefull young gentleman John Archer Esquire, sonne and heir to Sir Simon Archer, Knight of Warwickshiere and by the death of Mistris Harpur, a grave and godly matron, (wife to Mr. Henry Harpur of the city of Chester,) and of the death of their religious daughter Phabe Harper, a child of about 12 years of age / by Iohn Ley.	Ley, John, 1583-1662.	1643 (1643)	Wing L1884; ESTC R228694	42,269	56

with such vehemency of affection as to take it for a penance to them to bestow one day in sad and sober consideration of the weightiest matters that concerne their eternall welfare how could they let loose the reynes of their lusts and drive them on in the furious pace of Jehu and powre them out as they doe upon all objects of sensuall satisfaction if they did think that they were as uncertaine as their lives and their lives but like the vapour which from the pipe they puffe out of their mouthes and noses Alas how little roome and spare time is here for so many meetings for feasting for drinking dauncing for gaming and other prodigall expences of pretious time which if they knew what it were worth they would rather rob their eyes of sleepe that they might watch and pray in the night then ryot and revell out their dayes and sometimes their nights too in sensuall pastimes wherein their life may vanish like a vapour and they taken away in the very act of some sensualty * A● Gall●s and Ae●berius forementioned may passe from transient pleasure to permanent paine which will be so much more grievous to them as they have beene more addicted to carnall delights shewing themselves lovers of pleasures more then of God 2 Tim. 3.4 wheras if they had loved God more then their pleasures they might have enjoyed God and pleasures too not while a vapour appeareth which will quickly vanish away but for ever for in his presence is the fulnesse of joy and at his right hand are pleasures for evermore Psal 16. v. 12. The fifth Use of this vaine and vapour-like life of ours is to be a prop to our patience and so a cure of those unpleasing passions of Anger Envy and sorrow which as I have shewed before doe by their excesses much shorten mans life To the two first we may apply that of David Fret not thy selfe because of evill doers nor be thou envious against the workers of iniquity and the reason is because their time is but short they shall be soone out downe like grasse and wither like the greene herbe Psal 37. v. 72. And that though it be greene to day may be dried up to morrow as our Saviour Christ maketh the comparison Luk. 12.38 and if their prosperity last somewhat longer as some vapours vanish not so soone as others what cause to be angry or envious for that when they cannot have assurance to hold out untill the next houre If they thinke of the brevity and uncertainty of their time they will not be overjoyed in their owne estate if it were much better and longer then it is since their holding on from day to day is but a daily reprieve from that which every day may come upon them And if they thinke their death farre off it will make neverthelesse hast but much the worse speed for none dieth more unhappily then he that thinkes himselfe happy while he is here and thinks not how soon by death he may be snatcht away hence And for the third it may much conduce to compose us to patience against excessive sorrow under our crosses whether they be such as affect us with pain of sense or of losse For the former sort when they are sharpe we may the better beare them upon this consideration that what is usually violent is seldome permanent and that while life it selfe is so short as a vanishing vapour aggrievances cannot be long for death is an end of them as well as of us of us as well as of our deceased friends the losse of whom though the greatest temporall losse that can be for a true friend is as ones own soul Deut. 3.6 and a mans soule is more worth then a whole world Mar. 8.36 may the better be born upon the consideration of our uncertain and vanishing condition It may make much for the moderation of our griefe to thinke how little distance there may be betweene our friends funerall and our owne if God have taken them away it may be we have lost but a little of our enjoyment of their good company for if they be dead to day we may follow them and over-take them to morrow and our vapour of life cannot sooner vanish away then our soules may finish their voyage to the habitation of everlasting happinesse though as some make the measure the distance from earth to the heaven be 500. yeares journy were it to be measured after the manner of ordinary travile which is a great way on this side the rest of the righteous We should not then thinke the losse so great as if we had a long lease of our owne lives after theirs are expired and a certaine one too as it was to Hezekiah for 15. yeares reprieve from death after the sentence of death had passed upon him and if we take off the conceipt of our owne continuance whereof the greatest part is haply passed already we shall be disposed to more patience at parting with those who are most deare unto us who when they are dead can receive no good by our sorrowfull excesses for as humane Moralists can tell us it is pitty by the way that Christians should need to learne moderation of Heathens * Parcamus lathrymis nihil proficientibus faciliùs enim illinos dolor iste adjiciet quam illum nobis reducet Sen. consolat ad Polyb c. 23. p. 18. Immoderate griefe will send the living to the dead and not restore the dead to the living Now to draw to a Conclusion of that which will conclude us all in a narrow roome and it may doe it in a very short time if our life as S. James saith and we have shewed at large be but as a Vapour which may evaporate and vanish in a moment let us have the meditation of death so much in our minds that we may in our serious thoughts anticipate the pace of it though it be speedy and be prepared to meet with it at every step whether within doores or without in all we doe whether we eat or drinke or worke or rest let us still make account we are upon our last minute our lives being as uncertaine as a candle carried in the wind without a lanterne which may be put out with every blast This consideration with the love of God and feare of hell will keepe us upright in our walke towards heaven whither I would now by prayer commend you and dismisse you but that I suppose you expect some Comment upon that darke and dumbe Text before you and if custome did not call for it as a matter of conveniency conscience and friendship would claime it as a part of duty from me towards this worthy Gentleman deceased I yoke them both together Conscience and Friendship for friendship shall not engage me if I know it to goe one step beyond the limits to which conscience doth confine me though my words were of so much weight with all that heare me as

out of credit too so as if it were some base and beggerly rudiment and could not without indignity to the discipline of the Gospell be continued The cause of this dislike and disdaine besides the inconsideration and negligence of many hath beene an over-high estimation of it in some who have set it up above the preaching of the Word and that so farre as for it to put downe the afternoones Sermon and some to cry quittance with such contempt would excummunicate Catechising out of the Church and yet both pretend the edification or building up of the people in Religion strange builders they be doubtlesse who either refuse the foundation of Catechisticall grounds or admitting of the ground-worke permit not the super-structure of preaching to be placed upon it but since authority hath restored the Sabbath to its right of a double service from the Pulpit so that the sacred seeds-men are allowed according to Solomons counsell In the morning to sow their seed and in the evening not to let their hand rest because they know not whether shall prosper this or that or whether they both shall be alike good Eccles 11.6 It were to be wished that the other service were resumed to ordinary practise and if any have so far Idolized it as in a blinde zeale unto it to blaspheme preaching * Mr. Prin in the Epist Dedicat before his first part of the Antipath of the Prelacy Ep. pag. 13. saying that expounding of the Catechisme is as bad as preaching we must not for all that revenge the wrong done to it upon that exercise which is of so good use to edification as hath been shewed but as we keep up the reputation both of prayer and preaching though some have cried up the one to put downe the other so should we uphold the practice of preaching and catechising as usefull assistants the one to the other both being ordered so as in pious discretion they ought to be so as may most promote the glory of God and the salvation of souls and with this we may well conclude the forme of this Question and so proceed to a consideration of the matter of it and of that first in Generall then in Particular The latter will fitly fall into the handling of the answer to which I will reserve it and for the Former it may minister unto us an Observation for the moving of grave and serious questions such were those of our Saviour before cited out of his Sermon in the Mount to which we will adde another of his of a matter of more weight and moment then the whole world It is that in the 16th of Mat. 26. What is a man profited if he shall gaine the whole world and loose his owne soule or what shall a man give in exchange for his soule which importeth that if there could be such a bargaine made that a man might have the whole world for the sale of his soule he should for all that be a looser by it for he might notwithstanding bee a bankrupt a beggar begging in vaine though but for a drop of cold water to coole his tongue Luk. 16.24 for prevention of which losse and distresse the Apostle multiplies many materiall questions in Emphaticall manner concerning the meanes viz. an utter estrangement from communion with the wicked which he presseth in this sort What fellowship hath righteousnesse with unrighteousnesse what communion hath light with darknesse what concord hath Christ with Belial what part hath he that beleeveth with the Infidell 2 Cor. 6.14 15. In such Questions as these is alwayes somewhat presupposed expressed or prepared whereby the hearer may be bettered since they are good to the use of edifying Ephes 4.29 and that they may be so to us we will now make some application of them and therein we shall first addresse a direction and admonition for materiall and profitable inquiries and then a reproofe to vaine curious and wicked Questions For the first it will be matter of great advantage Vse 2. for a prosperous passage to our Land of Promise to have in readinesse a catalogue of such Questions as may most conduce to quicken our consideration and care both of our present and future state and by them every day to catechise our selves in some such manner as this What is my Constitution whence mine Originall whither by dissolution shall I be drawne or driven am I not composed of a mortall body and of an immortall soule was not that at the first from the dust and shall it not at last be resolved into dust againe and my soule immediately derived from God infused by creation and created by infusion into my body and of much more value not only then it but then the whole world besides what is it that uniteth them together is it not the breath of life and what is that either breath or life is it any better then a quick vanishing vapour at least vanishable every moment And when it is vanished and my soule seperated from my body whither goeth it what becometh of it is it not put into a state whether of woe or welfare immutable and the lot of an happy or unhappy change answerable to the choice of an holy or unholy course And though by death my body be not only vile and lothsome both to sight and sent but farre asunder from my soule whether it be in Heaven or Hell for though Hell and the grave have both one * Sheo● Name the regions of darknesse and of the first and second death are at a very great distance will it not become by concomitance perpetuall partaker of the same condition with my soule whether it be carried by the Angells into Abrahams bosome or hurried by the Devils into the infernall pit Thence will fitly follow the question of the converted Keeper of the Prison I say keeper of the prison rather then of the prisoners for they were miraculously enlarged their bands loosed the doores opened by God for their deliverance Act. 16.33 What must I doe to be saved and must I not as he was presently taught be saved by my Faith by Faith in the pretious blood of the Sonne of God And doth not that Faith engage me to love him above all either things or persons and that love oblige me to keepe his Commandements even to the deniall of my desires and delights were they as deare unto me as my right eye or right hand to the laying downe of my life for him as he did for me and the renouncing of my nearest friends * Licet parvulus ex collo pendeat nepos licet sparso crine scissis vestibus ube a quibus te nutrierat mater ostendat licet Pater in limine jaceat percalcatum perge Patrem siccis oculis ad vexillum crucis evola Hieron ad Heliodo●ū Tom. 1 p. 2. when they shew themselves to me most affectionately friendly to take up his Crosse though I should be sure to sinke under

it is day the night cometh when no man works Joh. 9.4 By day is meant the time of life while the vapour appeareth like a bright cloud Mat. 17.5 and by night the time of it's vanishing away by death wherin all things that had life and have it not are be-nighted and wrapped-up in darknesse yet there is betwixt the literall and figurative day and night this difference to be observed that the daies and nights have usually their turne in a proportionable measure of * In some places there is six months day together and six moneths night together Plin Nat. Hist l 2 c. 75. length and shortnes which mutually and interchangeably succeed one another so in our ordinary Clymats and in the extraordinary too where the day ‖ So in places of 50 degrees of latitude lasteth from the 10. of March till the 13. of September that is the space of 187. dayes of our account the night is as long and no longer but our day of life may be but the length of a few hours or which is much lesse minutes our night of death when we cannot work may be an age of many hundred years and to some it hath bin some thousands already besides there is no night naturall but is succeeded by another day so that if any thing be left undone there may be oportunity to redeeme the time and to make amends for precedent neglects but when the night of death is come there is not another day to follow it and to make supply for former failings It behoveth us then while it is day with us to be so much more intentively bent upon the businesse that belongeth unto us which is to worke out our Salvation with feare and trembling Phil. 2.12 wherein we worke the worke of him that sent us as our Saviour did as we have the lesse time for it such was his diligence and therein his example should be our rule and upon the same ground he that is most opposite to our Saviour even the great destroyer useth double diligence and makes all the hast he can to out-work the children of light in a quick dispatch of deeds of darknesse His wrath is great because his time is but short Revel 12.12 he is enraged so much the more as by the shortnesse of time he is the more restrained for that he cannot do so much mischief as he would do and if he had more time he might do We should out of love desire to be like our good Lord and Master Christ and out of duty doe as he for our imitation hath done before us and we should not for shame sit down in sloth while Satan goeth about with all the haste and speed he can possibly make to devoure whom he may yea our diligence should be much more then his since our businesse is a great deale better I meane not that which most doe but that which all should do and our time much shorter both for that which is past and that which is to come For the time past he hath bin busie at his worke for some thousands of yeares already and yet may be for some hundreds more to come he may have time to bestirre himself in his trade of temptation But for our time for what is past it hath bin but short and that which is to come may be nothing at all to us the next houre for ought we know may be none of ours Secondly as this consideration of our transient life may serve for a spurre to make diligent so it may be in stead of a rod for the negligent who endeavour not to make any good use of their time while they have it to whom may well be applyed the saying of * Non exiguum tempus babemus sed multum perdimus non accepimus vitam brevem sed fecimus nec inopes ejus sed prodigi jumus Senec. de brevit vitae c. 1. pag. 165. Seneca which is That they have not received so short a portion of life though it be very short even like a vapour as themselves doe make it by their prodigall and carelesse expence of it Wherof one great part is cast away in doing nothing as in our sleep and infancy another we trifle out in meere childish vanities a third is partly mis-spent in youthfull luxury and a good part of the fourth is called a Reformation if the humor be changed from dissolute excesse to covetous desires and worldly cares for riches and honours and when either sicknesse or age maketh men unserviceable for themselves to such ends that little which remaines is poorely imployed on that for which the whole measure if it had gone all one way had bin little enough For what time or pains can be too much to save our soules from hell to estate them in Heaven when we die and to unite them and our bodies both in fruition of perfect grace and glory for ever which must be procured while this vapour appeareth or not at all who that thinkes of the excellency of that jewell which our Saviour advanceth in value above the price of the whole world of the ineffable felicity which God hath prepared for those that sincerely love and diligently seeke him can conceive that the whole life of Methuselah would make too long an apprentiseship though under many such hard masters as Laban was to obtain an eternall freedom in the City of Jerusalem which is above For my part I cannot sufficiently admire the beneficence of Almighty God who sets so great happinesse at so low a rate that in that little time while a vapour appeareth a man may purchase the obtainment of a most solid and ever during felicity Nor the folly of most men who of this short and uncertain measure imploy the least part of it to so excellent an end If a man having his lands divided into foure parts answerable to the foure fingers of Davids hand-breadth of life Psa 39.5 should leave one part of it wholy untilled to bring forth nettles or other wild weeds as the field of the sluggard doth Prov. 24.31 and should sow in one of the other three parts Darnell in another wild Oates and allot but a fourth for pasture and tillage when the whole if well husbanded would be little enough for necessary provision to support himselfe and his Family what would his neighbours thinke or say of him Would they not note him for such an one as either yet had not proceeded to the age of discretion or were gone beyond it to yeares of dotage or relapsed back to a second childhood Or if a man who hath a charge of wife and children and servants and but a competent portion for them all did carelesly cast away one part of his meanes at dice puffe away another in smoake swallow downe another in superfluous draughts and leave but a fourth part of all for all other charges that concern himself and those that are committed to his keeping would wise-men judge any

otherwise of him then as a man of an empty skull or ill-tempered braines and unfit to have an estate committed to his trust though but for himself much more unfit that others should be put to depend upon his care or fore-cast Doubtlesse beloved it is much more foolish to mis-spend as most do the greatest part of this short and uncertain scantling of time then so to mis-imploy either lands or goods and yet their folly is more faulty then these examples doe imply for the fourth part of the ground is a permanent thing and the fourth part of the estate may be put into a sure hand and so be better imployed by others then by the owner it would be but he that hath wilfully and wickedly wasted three fingers of his hand-breadth of time as we have noted the measure of it out of the Psalmist cannot be sure that either himselfe or any one for him shall be trusted with the fourth for better use Of such foolish men as these there are so many that if the outside on their backs were suted to the lyning of their heads they would make as great a shew in publike Assemblies as yellow weeds doe in Corne-fields but they goe in habits like other men and some of them so farre beguile the world and themselves both as to be thought much wiser then they that bestow the most of their waking houres to better purpose Thus I have bestowed the Rod according to the sentence of the Wise-man upon the backe of fooles Prov. 26.3 and Chap. 19.29 3. The third Use of this short uncertainty of our State of mortality is to give a checke to the vaine confidence of many men who as if they were sure of time enough to pursue their pleasures and purposes with as full scope and compasse as they desire project many things which they mind to doe and promise and sometimes threaten what they will do when they know not whether their measure of time will reach home to such resolutions It is too great boldnesse to presume upon one day for as Salomon saith A man knowes not what a day may bring forth Prov. 27.1 The drunkard takes upon him when he invites his vicious associats to excesse to promise at their next meeting their cheere will mend upon them and they shall have more store of that they most desire Come saith he I will fetch wine and we will fill our selves with strong drinke and to morrow shall be as to day and much more abundant Esa 56. ult What er'e be to morrow it may be to morrow thou shalt not be or not as to day not powring in superfluous draughts but vainely begging perhaps for necessory dropps with the rich-man in flames Luk. 16.24 for of all lives none more uncertaine then a drunkards since he stores up a stocke of corrupt humours which are matter and mother and nurse to many deadly diseases within and from without he meets many times with an untimely death either by his own or anothers wrath for strong drink is raging as wee observed before out of the Proverbs of Salomon and that rage may be bloody to him haply from that hand which led him to excesse as many examples shew or by the unsteadinesse of head on horse-backe or staggering of his feet on ground he may be dashed upon some deadly danger and who hath not heard of many who have some of these wayes unexpectly perished and come to a fearefull end before they thought they had proceeded to the mid-way of their walke But there is a confidence so much more vaine then this though this I confesse be more vile then it as it reacheth further in extent as of those whom S. Iames noteth in the next words before my Text reproving them saying To day and to morrow we will goe to such a City and will tarry there a yeare and buy and sell and get gaine whereas you know not saith he what shall be to morrow Jam. 4.13 14. To day or to morrow say they we will goe if God say no neither to day nor to morrow shall they be able to make good their word for so short a time a darke night of death may if God will put an end to their dayes before Noone or the next night their soules may be taken from them as was said to the foole in the Gospell who flattered himselfe with the hope of enjoyment of much goods laid up for many yeares Luk. 12.19 And when they project a journey if they dye not so soone they may be disabled for travaile and either by sicknesse or lamenesse be under so imperious and peremptory arrest that they may not be able to move either a foote or finger towards it they say they will continue there a yeare But The farther they reach out their resolution of themselves without reckoning with God the worse and it may be in a moment they may be removed they know not yet whether to Heaven or Hell they will buy and sell the while say they but say God give them leave to live it may be he will not enable them to traffique they may be cast into such condition as they may have either no minde or no meanes to exercise commerce but they promise that and more too they will not only buy and sell but they will get gaine how know they that they may buy and sell and as the Proverbe hath it may live by the losse finding nothing but damage where they looked for advantage and it may be a damage unvaluable unrecoverable the losse of their soules and of Heaven which the gaine of a million of such worlds as this cannot countervaile nor once lost can ever recover Beyond both these vaine and vile boastings for the time to come was that bold and bloody speech of Esau wherein threatning his brother Jacob he promised himselfe a pleasing revenge The dayes of mourning for my Father are at hand then I will slay my brother Jacob Gen. 27.41 an insolent as well as a violent resolution for Isaacks and Iacobs life and his owne likewise were all at Gods disposall as a vapour to vanish or hold out as long as he pleased and it was at his choice which should dye first and though he were so hard-hearted as to purpose his brother should waite upon his Fathers funerall in blood which he would not follow with a teare it was in Gods power to keepe his hands from being as blood-guilty as his heart and to cut him short of his hand-breadth and to lengthen their measure as long as he listed There is a Proverbe which oftentimes proves a truth That threatned men live long for even Isaack who dyed soonest lived about 50. yeares beyond this and it is as true without a Proverbe that threatning men may dye soone that others may live not onely the more safely without hurt but the more securely without feare of such the Prophet David hath fore-faid that they shall not live out halfe their dayes Psalm