Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A93736
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A discourse on the extensiveness and comprehensiveness of future judgment of God In another method than what hath been hitherto extant in any other books or sermons upon this subject. By Richard Stafford.
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Stafford, Richard, 1663-1703.
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1697
(1697)
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Wing S5115A; ESTC R230355
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16,898
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16
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my self withal Yet for all that I have not stood but faln in the Time of Trial and Temptation for after all those Thoughts and Purposes aforementioned when I have come into Company and amongst a mixt People I have put on again the same vain and worldly Conversation I have talked and had that which savours of Men and the Grace and Spirit of the Lord hath sensibly departed from me for a time and I have been weak and all one as another Man I wish I could here tell it weeping but it is a real grief of Soul when I throughly consider of it I my self have a great deal to answer and account for before God in that I have not at all times and in all places and in all Companies lived according to that Grace and Knowledge which God hath given me that at the very same time when I did know and approve of the things more excellent yet I did not follow them but rather I did the worse How many precious and seasonable Truths have I concealed and kept within when in Duty I ought to have spoken them out I speak all this to my shame and to my fault which should be amended But as I am declaring this unto ye remember that your Hearts be also upon the search and examination whether it hath not been so with ye likewise And I do therefore bring forth these Things unto ye because that it is good to know our Faults in order to amend them As also to put you in mind stir up and exhort ye And let us consider one another to provoke unto Love and good works Heb. 10.24 As it is commonly advised Be sure to keep be best Company which in the meaning of the World is the Richest But this is a false way of speaking for they are not the best as may be understood from the word of Truth and will be seen at the Judgment of the Great Day so I would recommend to ye to set before ye the very best Examples of all the very best Saints and Servants of God that are in the Town or Neighbourhood wherein ye inhabit and there try your best skill and use your utmost endeavour that as the other Disciple did out-run Peter So do thou use diligence and put forth all thy strength if thou canst out-run such an one in the Christian-race for if thou wouldst not upon a false Imagination or vain Hopes which are like the Dream of one that eateth and he awaketh and his Soul is empty but upon rational and assured grounds have God do more for thee in this World and in the World to come as to have a Benjamin's Mess or a double Portion of his Spirit or to be brought out of Trouble for so is the Promise to the Righteous when the Wicked are left therein then thou must exceed them also in Godliness which hath the promise of this Life and of that which is to come and in righteousness and holiness It is very well worth our while to strive to be utmost herein because that the future recompence of God will be proportioned out and it will be infinitely so much beyond all the Pain Uncouthness Labour Backwardness which was ever in any Act or Instance of well-doing Obey them that have the Rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your Souls as they that must give account Heb. 13.17 These last words As they that must give account do not belong only to Magistrates Ministers and Preachers for it extends to all the People also for it should be a constant Rule which they should always bear in mind and have recourse unto in whatever they take in hand or in whatever their hands finds them to do To do it as ye that must give account And because this Judgment of God will reach to Thoughts and Words also therefore the same Rule should be exprest yet a little more comprehensively on this wise So think speak and do as ye that must give accovnt according to what is written and commanded by the Spirit So speak ye and so do as they that must be judged by the Law of Liebrty Jam. 2.12 As one saith Remember the End that is the last end of Things and thou shalt never do amiss So in thy Walking keep the Judgment of God always in thine eye and thou shalt never go much astray We know and are assured of it beforehand That when the Great Day of his Judgment is come we may have no Excuse or Plea that of this and of every day of our Life after we are come to the years of Discretion and to the Knowledge of Good and Evil we are not only in danger but we shall certainly be called to an account There is hardly any thing which is a greater Awe and Check to sin than a lively Faith of this future Judgment to have it continually before our eyes and to have our Thoughts and Apprehensions always upon it Jerom an antient Servant of the Lord did say of himself Whither I sleep or wake or whatever I do Methinks I hear that voice always sounding in my Ears Arise ye dead and come forth to judgment And truly if we did with the eye of Faith and with the eyes of our understanding being enlighmed Behold till the Thrones were cast down and the antient of days did sit whose Garment was white as Snow and the Hair of his Head like the pure Wooll his Throne was like the fiery stream and his wheels as burning fire A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him Thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him The judgment was set and the Books were opened Dan. 7.9 10. Such a vision the Prophet then had and also John when he saw the Dead small and great stand before God and the Books were opened and another Book was opened which is the Book of Life and the Dead were judged out of those things which are written in the Books according to their works And the Sea gave up the Dead which were in it and Death and Hell delivered up the Dead which were in them and they were judged every Man according to their works Rev. 20.12 13. Did we in the midst of Life see those things which we shall see when we are let forth into the Chambers of Death but yet more especially as we shall see when the Great day of his Judgment is come this would influence our whole Life and Conversation into the greatest Awe and Seriousness fear and trembling and watchfulness that can be If even a Sinner and an ungodly Man were to rise from the Dead and live over his past Life again he would be another kind of Man and even he would be perswaded unto God and good Things Nothing can be a more forcible consideration to make us to please God this little mean while and to endeavour to the utmost to be reconciled unto him then the knowledge how that we must
A DISCOURSE ON THE Extensiveness and Comprehensiveness OF THE Future Judgment of God In another Method than what hath been hitherto Extant in any other BOOKS or SERMONS upon this Subject By RICHARD STAFFORD AS to the extensiveness of the future Judgment of God That is How far it will reach back even to all the days of this Life after we are come unto the knowledge of Good and Evil unto the day of ones Death and as to the comprehensiveness thereof How much it will take in even all the Deeds here done in the Body I ground all this on the following Scriptures And here the first sort of Scriptures which I shall make use of are but conjectural to illustrate this Truth and the others shall be so plain and express even to confirm and demonstrate it An instance of the first sort of Scriptures may be like that Vision which Paul had seen of one saying Come over into Macedonia and help us And immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the Gospel unto them Acts 16.10 and so that place in Acts 13.34 As concerning that he raised him from the dead now no more to turn into corruption He said on this wise I will give you the sure Mercies of David And so our Saviour Jesus Christ proves the Resurrection of the Dead from that saying I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the Dead but of the Living Mat. 22.32 For there is a way by assuredly gathering and reasoning out of the Scriptures to bring out such and such Truths altho' they seem to speak nothing thereof in plain and express Words as it was here in the matter of the Resurrection And so it may seem odd and unusual at first until the Reader comes to know the Reason thereof if I should ground the extensiveness of the future Judgment from Deut. 1.39 Moreover your little ones which you said should be a Prey and your Children which in that day had no knowledg between good and evil they shall go in thither and unto them will I give it and they shall possess it Hereby intimating That those Little ones and Children because they had not the knowledge of Good and Evil therefore they should be freed and exempted from that Punishment which was to befall their Fathers of their Carcasses falling in the Wilderness But the Little ones and Children for the aforesaid Reason Because in that day they had no knowledge between good and evil Therefore they should go in and possess that good Land So that if they were to avoid a punishment and inherit a Blessing because by their not having the knowledge of Good and Evil they had done nothing worthy of a forfeiture and loss of that Blessing It may be again reasoned on the other hand That Children indeed have not the knowledge of Good and Evil. And it is elsewhere written And the Times of this Ignorance God winked at Acts 17.29 so it may be supposed for the same Reason That God winks at the Sins and Follies of that tender Age. But as for Boys and Girls when they come to have the knowledge of Good and Evil then they are accountable before God and so likewise are those of Youth and riper Years But much more are they accountable that are of full knowledge even those who by Reason of use have their Senses exercised to discern both Good and Evil. As people come to know good and evil and to discern between good and evil so they are accountable and must be judged and receive accordingly To the Good is annexed Reward and to the Evil Punishment so is the very order and establishment of the things of God And so indeed it is from the Reason of Things As indeed all the things of the All-wise God who is wonderful in Counsel and excellent in Working are ordained and established with very Great reason as it will appear yet more evidently to us than any knowledge of Man can now bring forth when He himself will speak and testifie Psal 50.7 And He will gather all Nations under which is comprehended of all Generations into the Valley of Jehosaphat and will plead with them there Joel 3.2 for what they have done on this Earth It is certain that God doth more regard the Iniquities of Youth than of Childhood upon this very same Reason For Children have no knowledge between Good and Evil but Youth hath or may have which is the same thing which by the way doth answer that common Deceit of People as if Ignorance would excuse their Sin and Ungodliness which it will in no wise but rather increase and aggravate their Sin for their Ignorance was willing 2 Pet. 3.5 and wilful God expects that when we know his Will we should do it otherwise we sin and are liable to his Indignation And also the same God doth expect that Boys and Girls Young men and Maidens should learn and receive the Knowledge of his Will before or however as soon as they come to know any other thing and as soon as ever the Faculties of Reason are widened or employed about other things they should be used towards God and for the apprehending the things of his Kingdom In the same Scriptures whereby we must be judged and according to which we must receive according to our works we do not find any of the Saints and Servants of the Lord complaining of the sins and vanities of Childhood nor yet praying for Pardon and Forgiveness of the same But by that Expression of Paul When I was a Child I spake as a Child I understood as a child I thought as a child It is imported as if God would pass all that over and not enter into judgment for the same But it is not so as to Youth for we read otherwise concerning that Remember not the sins of my Youth nor my Transgressions Psal 25.7 The Psalmist here knew by the Spirit that without his deprecating and praying against them God would remember them and call him to an account for the same For so his servant Job saith expresly Thou writest bitter things against me and makest me to possess the Iniquities of my Youth Job 13.26 And so his own Spirit saith by the mouth of Jeremiah Surely after that I was turned I repented and after I was instructed I smote upon my thigh I was aâ—â—â—â—â—d yea even confounded because I did bear the reproach of my Youth Jer. 31.19 The just Judge of all the Earth calls to account for those Transgressions committed in Youth all one as of succeâ—ding years As indeed in some time about Youth is that exâ—ct Day God only knows it from which Day forward to the Day of each person's Death God doth commence and begin the time from which he will call to account for all the following days of Life Like as whether it be in Manhood declining years or old