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death_n conscience_n good_a life_n 4,272 5 4.6749 4 false
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A67572 A sermon preached before the peers, in the abby-church at Westminster October 10, MDCLXVI / by Seth Lord Bishop of Exon. Ward, Seth, 1617-1689. 1666 (1666) Wing W828; ESTC R10647 21,004 34

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should I endeavour that which I could not have performed Why should I trouble my self with vain attempts and spend my strength about that which I never could accomplish neither if I be righteous is he the better nor if I be wicked is he the worse our goodness extends not to him if thou sinnest what dost thou against him if thou be righteous what receiveth he at thine hand Is this then the evasion I need not stand to unfold the disingenuity the stupor and madness of this evasion However though these things shall be urged upon us they are not all these offer themselves in the consideration of the person of the Judge but are not all the matter of thy Judgment For Thou shall be brought to Judgment for these things there is the matter ofthy Judgment For all these things there is the extent Because this latter adds only a Modallity to the former and I desire not to be over tedious we will put these two together And now we are descended from those lesse familiar Considerations to which we were forced to strein our understandings in the contemplation of our Judge into the compass of our own sphere to the survey of our own operations we are come from the incomprehensible ways of God to the ways of our own hearts Walk in the ways of thy heart c. and but know c. In the judgment of this life men are tryed by the works of their hands or the words of their mouths for theft or murder for slander or Treason men may be brought to Judgment but thought is free he has lived well that has carried his crimes close the crafty Polititian and the concealed Hipocrite escape There the case is quite contrary the Judgment takes in primarily the waies of the heart and the words and actions as they proceed from them Wherefore let us withdraw a space into our selves and endeavour to mete out the extent of that Proposition For all the wayes of the hearts of men God will bring them to Judgment How would it trouble us to recount and bring to memory every thought but of one only day and how many disorders and irregularities should we find in such a reflection How do our thoughts flote upon our brains and we know neither whence they come nor what becomes of them when they are broken in upon our minds we cannot hold them and when they are gone from us as it was with Nebuchadnezzar's dream it is not in our power to recover them How many roving fancies present themselves unto us in a moment and how many sudden and imperfect Complacencies and distasts are raised by them Leave but thy self unbound unfixed by hearing or reading or business c. for an hour and then tell me what suppositions and consequences and resolutions thou hast made And how thou hast felt thy self to strein upon the borders of Lust or Envy of Pride or Anger of Discontent or Melancholy O that you would but reflect a little upon your souls and consider how many wandering thoughts have broken in upon your minds since I began to speak of this important Subject You might save me the labour of further speaking and raise your selves to that which I endeavour I fear you might find among your sacred thoughts a mixture of others very unsuitable your envious your amibitious your covetous your idle thoughts All these are the matter of our future Judgment and however they slightly pass us here they are noted in the Book of God and when that Book shall be opened they will be charged on our account Thou tellest my wanderings saith the Psalmist Are not these things noted in thy Book I have already said enough to take up the consideration of the remainer of our time But our hearts being too heavy and our ears too dull of hearing to be moved with generals I must crave leave that I may be permitted to run over the heads of some particulars Thou must give an account of all things committed to thee Inward or Outward Natural or Spiritual thy senses and thy understanding thine Outward and thine Inward faculties If thou hast been at a constant covenant with thine eyes and hast never suffered them to rove in loose disorders If thou hast bowed thine ears to discipline and never let them open to vain entertainments If thy tast hath been moderated by the necessities of nature and the lawes of temperance and never let loose according to the lust of Riot If thy hands have been wholly imployed in the works of God and never been instruments to the machinations of the Devil If thy speech have never uttered any idle words but ever administred grace to the hearers If thy feet have only traced the wayes of God and never stood in the way of sinners What hath been the exercise of thine inward faculties thine Apprehensions and thine Appetite If thy fancy hath ever been imployed in administring help to thine understanding and never afforded incentives to thy vile affections If thy memory have been taken up with the things which God hath done and Christ hath suffered for thee and hath afforded no place to Ribaldry and vanity How thou hast ordered thine Anger and Concupiscence What have been the object measure and end and circumstances love hatred desire aversion delight sadness hope despair fear boldness anger envie jealousie and compassion How thou hast managed thine understanding and improved thy contemplative and active principles If thou hast advanced in the discovery of eternal verities or herded with the beasts that perish If thou hast cherish'd the principles of thy Synteresis and the dictates and reflections of thy conscience and never rebelled against them How thou hast determined the freedom of thy Will in thy volition and intention thine election and consent fruition and use when Good and Evill Life and Death have been set before thee How thou hast behaved thy self in Spirituals in gifts and graces If thou hast accepted that which hath been offered and improved what thou hast accepted or hid it in a Napkin In outward things how thou hast acquired and how thou hast managed thine Estate How thou hast behaved thy self in thy Relations publick and private in thy charge and in thy duty But the time would fail me to reckon up a considerable part of the exercises and objects of the wayes of the hearts of Men And now all these and many more are but the simple elements and common heads of our account Consider then O Negligent and incogitant soul if thou couldst reckon up the wayes of thy heart in any one of these kinds if thou couldst call to mind but every idle word whereof thou must give an account or thy motions upon every thing that thou hast heard and remember in any one of these elements what thou hast done or else omitted Then tell me how wouldst thou find thy self possessed and how wouldst thou be disposed to Judgment Wouldst thou deem it needless or idle to