Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	eternal_a	life_n	work_n	4,896	5	5.7141	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66556	The Scriptures genuine interpreter asserted, or, A discourse concerning the right interpretation of Scripture wherein a late exercitation, intituled, Philosophia S. scripturæ interpres, is examin'd, and the Protestant doctrine in that point vindicated : with some reflections on another discourse of L.W. written in answer to the said exercitation : to which is added, An appendix concerning internal illumination, and other operations of the Holy Spirit upon the soul of man, justifying the doctrine of Protestants, and the practice of serious Christians, against the charge of ethusiasm, and other unjust criminations / by John Wilson ...	Wilson, John, 17th cent.	1678 (1678)	Wing W2903; ESTC R6465	125,777	376

in earnest and pathetical Expressions whether in bewailing of Sin o● petitioning for Mercy or Thanksgiving for Blessings received or dispensing the Word of Reconciliation to the People This is sharply censured by the aforesaid Author Lud. Wolzogen as savouring of Enthusiasm or bordering upon Frenzy and cunningly designed for the driving on of some ambitious ends To this I Reply We are commanded to be fervent in spirit serving the Lord and that whatsoever our hand findeth to do we should do it with our might The Psalmist says I cried with my whole heart And even that Heathen Prince to whose Royal City the Prophet Jonah was sent with a threatning message requires his Subjects to cry mightily unto God The Apostle says It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing And is there any thing so good as that it can better challenge the heighth and heat of our affections and endeavours than Religion in the services whereof we have so immediately to do with God who calls for the heart and hath declared his abhorring of a dull luke-warm temper I grant that it is too possible for Zeal to have its excesses and irregularities And among the rest there is an indiscreet Zeal sometimes appearing in some well-meaning Persons that wants the conduct of a well-order'd Judgment which as I take to be much more pardonable than a careless or prophane indifferency so I conceive it may have ministred some occasion to those vile reproaches that are cast upon all that are seriously and heartily Religious But that fervor of spirit that I undertake for and assert to be not only justifiable but commendable in the Duties of Religion is that which is raised by a right apprehension of the Object about which it is conversant guided by a composed understanding and attended with an humble awful Reverence becoming sinful dust in its appearance before the Great and Holy God Should not Sinners in their addresses to the Most High have their hearts deeply touch'd with sorrow for the sins that they apprehend themselves or others for whom they are concern'd to be guilty of or liable to Doth it become an Offender that is to beg his Pardon to do it in a stupid manner as if he had no more sense of his fault than a Stone or a Brute And what incongruity is it for us in our Petitions for Mercy to have our desires raised to the highest pitch that we can reach Is the pardoning and purifying Grace of Christ of so little worth or use to us as they need be but coldly or carelesly askt as if our words freezed between our lips or as if we did not greatly pass whether we were heard or no Or can we expect that God should hear those Petitions which we our selves scarce feel when they go from us Did ever any Malefactor plead at the Bar for his Life or an hunger-starv'd Begger crave an Alms at the door after this dull and sleepy rate And when we are blessing God for his Benefits should we not with the Psalmist call upon all our powers to praise him And should not those whose work it is to dispense the Word of Life deliver their Message in such a manner as that their Hearers may discern they are in good earnest and that the Word spoken to them is that whereon their Eternal Life or Death depends Is it not requisite that the Servants of Christ should in this work be as is recorded for the honour of Apollos fervent in spirit especially considering the quality of most Hearers who are so hardly raised to a due point of zeal and fervency that as Mr. George Herbert speaks they need a Mountain of Fire to kindle them The said worthy Author adviseth Preachers to make choice of moving and ravishing Texts and to dip and season all their Words and Sentences in their Hearts before they come into their Mouths truly affecting and cordially expressing all that they say so that the Auditors may plainly perceive that every word is heart-deep with other passages of like import In short what cause of blame is it for any in the exercises of Devotion whether publick or private to endeavour what they can to have their own and others hearts affected in some measure suitable to the work in hand and to have their expressions in some due proportion answerable to the affections of their hearts This is all I plead for and the utmost as far as I know that can be charged upon the Generality of the Persons accus'd What some particular here and there may be guilty of I am not concern'd to vindicate That there are many follies and extravagancies in some of all Perswasions he must be a great Stranger in the World that knows not and miserably enslaved to the Interest of a Party that confesseth not But the Lord knows we have all more cause to blame our selves for our coldness and remissness than others can have to blame us for too much fervor I heartily wish that both they and we were all more thorowly Baptized with this Fire But let us a little examine the pretensions of our Accusers As for the charge of Enthusiasm which some make use of to asperse what they dislike in Religion The Word saith a late Learned Author is of it self good but fallen into discredit by the vice of Men for there is an holy Enthusiasm when the Soul is wholly irradiated or enlightened of God But taking it in the worst sense as it is by these Objectors I may say of it as Mr. ●iales of Eaton once said of the words Schism and Heresie that it is made a Theological Scare-Crow For it being inconsistent with some Mens Principles to acknowledge any efficacious supernatural Operations of the Spirit of Grace upon the heart of Man and as contrary to their disposition and practice to be seriously fervent in Religion it becomes their Interest to brand whatsoever lies out of their road with the opprobrious name of Enthusiasm that is as they sometimes explain it a pretence of being acted by the Holy Spirit or a false conceit of Inspiration What the Sect of Enthusiasts was appears sufficiently by the testimony of those Learned Men who have written against them both in former and later times From whom we have this account That those who were censured and condemned by the Church of Christ under that Notion were such as slighted if not rejected the Scriptures as a dead Letter a lame and imperfect Guide insufficient to be the Rule of Faith or Practice in room whereof they profess'd to be acted by Immediate Revelations which they call'd the Internal and Spiritual Word teaching them higher Wisdom than any contain'd in the Scriptures And whatsoever was strongly suggested to them or made any vehement impression upon their minds as that which they thought they should believe or do they embraced it as a Divine Inspiration and Magisterially imposed it upon others were it