Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	doctrine_n	scripture_n	word_n	3,808	5	4.2807	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31401	Christian tranquility, or, The government of the passions of joy and grief in a sermon preached at Shenton in Leicestershire, upon the occasion of the much lamented death of that hopeful young gentleman, Mr. Francis Wollatson ... / by John Cave ...	Cave, John, d. 1690.	1685 (1685)	Wing C1580; ESTC R36287	20,948	37

of the 29th Verse This I say brethren the time is short it remaineth that both they that have wives be as if they had none and they that weep as tho they wept not c. I shall consider my Text in its dependance and speak first of the Proposition from which it is inferred This I say brethren the time is short And in it I shall observe 1. The Preface This I say brethren 2. The Matter or Doctrine The time is short This I say brethren It is such an Introduction as frequently occurs in Scripture And here in our Text it seems to carry in it a Threefold Emphasis 1. It is a word of Authority This I say i. e. I require you to mark well and observe what I say for I say it in Gods Name not by permission only but by Warrant and Command from him And when we deliver our Messages as the Embassadors of Heaven we may do it with confidence and assurance because we do it with Commission and Authority Philem. 8. We may be bold in Christ as our Apostle speaks in another place 2. This I say brethren It is an expression of kindness and Pastoral Affection I say it out of my true love tenderness and bowels towards you I say it with an unfeigned desire that you may edifie and receive good direction and comfort by it That you may number your days and moderate your affections in all temporal concernments That your desires may not be long when your time is short That all your delights and sorrows may bear an equal proportion to their respective Objects And because as the Wiseman saith there is a time to mourn and a time to laugh you may do neither out of time and measure It was a tender affectionate Address as the Compellation implies This I say brethren 3. It is a word of comprehension or recapitulation wherein the Apostle sums up all in effect which he had said before Having treated of Virginity of Marriage of Callings and directed how we should stand affected to them and behave our selves in them as becomes our Relation and Circumstances In the Text he gives them the sum of all by perswading to moderation in all estates and conditions of life with respect to the mutability and short continuance of them This I say as the Upshot and Epitomy of my whole discourse as the Royal Preacher Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter Eccles 12.13 c. So here in the Text. It stands indeed in the middle and so may more properly be said to be the Substance or if you will the Centre of the whole matter This I say and this I would have you take notice of as the sum of all my other sayings and advices both before and after Thus much for the Preface or Form of Address and the importance thereof The Saying it self the Matter or Doctrine follows The time is short it remaineth that they that weep be as though they wept not and they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not The words together contain a Doctrine and Two proper Vses we are to make of it The Doctrine is The time is short The Vses are therefore not to enlarge our affections either 1. By over-grieving at our sufferings Or 2. By over joying at our prosperity The time is short 1. The time of Life 2. The time of the coming of the Lord. 3. The time of Joy and Prosperity 4. The time of Persecution and Trouble is short 1. The time of this present Life is very short Man that is born of a woman is but of a few days If he lives to the utmost extent of Nature and becomes wondrous old What is Fourscore years to Eternity It is but a minute in comparison rather a Cypher than a Figure in David's account Mine age is as nothing before thee Seneca Punctum est quod vivimus adhuc puncto minus It is but a point that we live yea less if it may be It is the Language not only of Philosophers but of the Holy Ghost concerning all the Nations of men that they are as nothing less than nothing Isa 40. De die tecum loquitur atque hoc ipso fugiente Sen. de brevitate vitae Job 4.20 and vanity Our Life in Scripture is termed but a day for the most part And in this day saith Eliphaz in Job We are destroyed from morning until evening from the morning of our birth or coming into the world till the evening of our death or going out of the world we are declining and wasting and shall be so till we come to the dust of death Childhood and Youth are vanity and many a man dies when he seems to be in his full strength when his breasts are full of milk Job 21.23 and his bones moistened with marrow A thousand Accidents lie in ambush to surprize us in our most sound and secure state And I might present you with many famous instances of great persons falling by little and unlikely instruments but shall only in compliance with my Text observe That some have died with excess of grief as Homer Rutilius and Pomperanus And others have been carried off with sudden joy Plutarch Val. Max. A. Gellius as Polycritta Philippida and Diagoras Alas what a vain and defenceless creature is man Even in the pride of his strength the most contemptible accident can destroy him the smallest chance affright him every possibility of evil can loosen and dissinew the courage of his mind and his own imagination without any real stroke frequently proves his Executioner Therefore as the time of every mans Life is short so the time of many mens is contracted or made short and that sometimes by the justice and sometimes by the mercy of the Divine Providence 1. The days of the wicked are often shortned for the glorifying of Gods Justice in their exemplary punishment God shall shoot at them with an arrow suddainly shall they be wounded And this Job calls a putting out of their candle Psal 64.7 before it burns out of it self Ungodly men are thrust out of the World many times that they may do no more mischief in it But 2. The righteous are mercifully taken out of it that they may suffer no more They are taken away from the evil to come not only from the evil of Sin which is a blessed Deliverance indeed but from the evil of Sorrow from the Diseases of Nature and all the extrinsecal misfortunes of Life Upon which consideration that saying of Pliny the elder one of the wisest Naturalists seems to be grounded Brevitate vitae natura nihil praestitit melius It is one of the greatest blessings God bestows to take us betimes out of this miserable World They that think otherwise and imagine there is no happiness beyond or besides this Life cannot by taking thought protract their stay here as they cannot add a Cubit to their Stature so neither can they add a