Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	death_n	life_n	see_v	3,263	5	3.5236	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43127	A sermon preached in the parish church of St. Giles in the Fields at the funeral of Bernard Connor, M.D., who departed this life, Oct. 30, 1698 : with a short account of his life and death / by William Hayley ...	Hayley, William, 1657-1715.	1699 (1699)	Wing H1214; ESTC R412	16,421	37

for the things that belong to our peace before they are hid from our eyes And if those only are addmitted into the company of the lamb who are sanctified by his blood and cloathed with innocence will not common sense tell us that we ought to lay hold on the merits of his blood and passion by a zealous performance of the duties of that covenant which was sealed by it and by a careful preservation of our integrity and an affectionate doing of his Will while we are in the flesh make our selves meet to be received into his glory cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of flesh and Spirit and perfect holiness in the fear of God that when we come to die we may do it with joy and embrace our dissolution as that which will crown the pious life on earth with an immortal one in Heaven These are the genuine applications of some of the most considerable reflections that arise from the numbring our days whereby it appears that this lesson furnishes us with excellent motives to a holy life I come now to shew II. That the applying of them to this end is the highest piece of wisdom And that whether wisdom be taken for judging aright or for the doing what is most for our interest and advantage 1. If wisdom be taken for judging aright or deducing just consequences from evident truths what can be more evident than the wisdom of these conclusions if we must quit this world and then enter upon an eternity of joy or misery is it not rational to take care how we steer our present course that we do not make a fatal mistake at last if the time we have to stay be but short is it not just and fit that we be cautious of loosing and misapplying it if its duration be uncertain and futurity be out of our knowledge does it not highly become an understanding creature to be prepared for what may happen and if this opportunity being once lost there be no other to retrieve our hopes does not common reason urge us immediately to embrace and employ it and do we not all act thus in those affairs that relate to our temporal concerns and how then should it not be prudence to judge alike with reference to our eternal ones the contrary judgments which Libertinism raises how unconclusive and absurd are they life must end therefore 't is no matter how we spend it 't is short therefore 't is not worth our improving 't is uncertain and therefore 't is in vain to design any thing in it and 't is our only opportunity and therefore what that we must neglect pervert and abuse it O senseless folly and unmanly stupidity we pretend in vain to reason if we can judge no better we have no pretence to understanding no not so much as to that of the beasts that perish 2. But then if we take wisdom for the doing of that which is most for our interest and advantage one should think there were no need of proof to evince that to spend our life in goodness and piety is the most useful deduction we can make from the vanity and brevity of it for what do we loose by it or what do we gain by the contrary if there be certainly a future judgment an eternity of bliss and a lake of everlasting fire we are then sure nothing but piety can bear the one can be admitted into the other or delivered from the last And I would ask a prophane and impenitent person how he thinks he can bear the pomp of the last tribunal what thoughts would be raised in him from the sight of a distant Heaven and what sense he would have of the torments of a present Hell if these things must be sure reason as well as religion must make the Apostles reflection what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness But what if these things were only probabilities and conjectures what if we were not fully assured that there were to be a future state but only apprehended and dreaded it a pious life would still be the most advantageous conclusion we could deduce from this for what do we loose by it nothing but some of the deceitful pleasures of sense which alwasy fall short of our hopes end in dissatisfaction and never fully gratify and yet we gain in exchange the delights of vertue which are deep real and lasting And what great pleasure is it that we have from vice is it enough to make amends for the fears and dread we have least the checks of our conscience and the voice of reason and religion should prove true at last does it ballance the dismal apprehensions we have upon a sickbed or upon approaching death No I am fully perswaded that as there is no one so wicked but he would die the death of the righteous and wishes it whilst he lives so there is not any so profligate but when he sees his last hour is coming he would most willingly choose to have had all his years confin'd to a bed of weakness and debar'd all the sensual delights of the world so that he might die like the good man and have that peace of conscience and comfortable assurance of happiness which the pious Christian has when he departs this life I shall therefore make no question but that every one that hears me is fully convinced of the wisdom of applying the thoughts of death to the reformation of life and so may be all mankind are when they do but reflect and yet we see these reflections are like man himself short-lived uncertain and too often fruitless and therefore that they may not be so with us let us if we can find out the causes of this unhappiness in order to avoid them and this I am to endeavour in my third General III. Where I am to enquire how it comes to pass that these things have generally so little influence on the minds of men as not to engage them seriously to constant and habitual piety Now to omit others I conceive it generally owing to one of these two reasons 1. Men do not generally consider seriously or reflect on these truths with that attention and meditation as is proper for a matter of so great importance the world is most commonly taken up with interest and pleasure and mens thoughts are habitually possest with contrivances of another nature and when a person is so overbusy in raising his fortune gratifying his appetite or combating with necessity matters of religion and particularly preparation for death may wait long before they are admitted and when they are they have but a short hearing and are presently dismist with a be gone for this time and when I have a convenient opportunity I will resume ye Now inconsideration is a certain obstruction to the most excellent rules or motives that can be given a man the Doctrine I now press is a soveraign medicine indeed but it must be applied and