Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	conscience_n	law_n	sin_n	4,881	5	5.2089	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23681	The desire of all men a sermon preach'd at Daventry in Northamptonshire, March 5, 1694/5, (being the day of the interment of our late Most Gracious Queen), before the bayliff and burgesses of the said corporation of Daventry and other gentlemen of the country, and published at their request / by Charles Allestree ...	Allestree, Charles, 1653 or 4-1707.	1665 (1665)	Wing A1080; ESTC R8239	11,013	30

Subject of our Contemplation at that time that there is not the least room left for a Cursory Reflexion upon them And the reason why the Mind of Man in all the Operations it can exert is solely limited and apply'd to this Object is because it is wholly employ'd with recollecting and preparing things for the Trial of the Great Day for the coming of the LORD And these indifferent Actions of Life neither serving one way nor the other neither to justifie nor condemn us in the other World it is unconceivable and almost impossible that any thing which does not tend to one of these Ends either to acquit or condemn us at God's Tribunal should find any entertainment in our Thoughts I know sometimes the necessary management of our Domestick Affairs does interpose and hinder this intention of Mind and a Man's Thoughts are frequently call'd back from their application to the things of another World to a due regard to the settlement of the Affairs of this But it ought to be remember'd that Matters of this nature God commanded Hezekiah to do 2 Kings 20.1 To set his House in order And it is a Duty which he requires of all Mankind so that if this care is any interruption to us and hinders us from calling our Moral and Virtuous Actions to remembrance it is only a little exchange of our Office for the better it only diverts us from meditating upon that which was Good to fasten and engage us to that Work which we actually know to be our Duty and commanded to be done Now though it is a great Comfort even in the midst of Health before there are any Disturbances in Nature to feed upon the Repast of a Good Conscience and to enjoy that serenity of Mind which naturally flows from the Remembrance of a well-spent Life yet it is a more unspeakable pleasure to enjoy this Conscience and Reflexion of things at the last Hour and Article of Death because that time being the Conclusion of our Lives the Horizon betwixt Us and Eternity we are remov'd from the danger of relapsing and from the Fears of forfeiting the Reward of our Innocence by any actual Sin or open Transgression of the Laws of God Whereas he that in the midst of his Days looks back and is able to comfort himself with the Virtuousness of his Former Life has it is true the satisfaction of a Good Reflexion but not so lasting an impression of Joy upon his Spirits because ‖ 1 C●p. 〈…〉 him then stand having he fall ● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phal Epist 〈◊〉 he may justly be afraid lest through the deceitfulness of his Heart and the insinuation of Sin he should hereafter upon surprise give way to Temptations and by one gross Sin cancel the memory of all his former Virtue But this is the security of a Dying Man that has spent his Life in a constant course of Piety before that his Reflection shall be as lasting as Eternity and himself out of danger of committing any thing that may embitter his Remembrance It was Tully's Observation that amongst other things which recommended the practise of Virtue to us this was none of the least That it was acconstant Comforter to us in all the Distresses and Ex●gencies of Humane Life that nothing could solace a Man's Mind or buoy it up in Affliction but the Reflexion of a Virtuous Life and the good Actions we have done here All other things may give some diversion or pleasure in the time of doing them but when they are past they cannot be remember'd with any Complacency but what is worse they commonly leave a sting behind them Nay he carries the supposition higher and though says he we are long in the contrivance of a Delight have the pleasure of seeing it at a distance and anticipating it before-hand in our Imagination nay when the Delight is at hand and we are long in the enjoyment of it yet since there must be an end this one Consideration is enough to embitter it to us Quid enim est illud ipsum Diu quod cum venerit omnis voluptas praeterita pro nihilo est And surely if Cicero from the Light of Nature and mere natural Reason was able to decide the Case and determine so Divine a Truth we may give our Assent to it whom the Light of the Gospel and the Day-spring from on High hath visited All the little insignificant Pleasures with which we busie and entertain our senses here will be forgotten upon the Death-Bed and nothing but the Remembrance of our Charity and Well-doing will be able to comfort or support us in that Condition and Extremity Our Historians relate this sad and disconsolate saying of Cardinal Woolsey when he was fallen in Disgrace with his Prince whom he had sincerely serv'd in most of the Great Offices of State Had I serv'd my God with half that Zeal and Affection as I have paid my King He would not have left me in such Distress And we may observe that in pursuance of taking of our reliance upon Earthly Creatures the Scripture puts the Case and supposes the utmost that Men's Pride or Ambition can possibly arrive at and declares that the whole World is not a valuable Consideration nor a full Compensation for the loss of a Soul And yet Men frequently hazard this immortal Part for the gain of a small parcel of it to extend their Lands or their Estates a little further Now let us compare this passage of Holy Writ and this Instance together This Great States-Man whom I mention'd was griev'd in Mind for paying more Observance and truer Service to his Temporal Prince than to God for robbing God of his Honour and transplanting it but a degree lower even to his Vicegerent here Though he enjoy'd all that the World calls Great and was advanc'd as high almost as a Subject could be promoted yet his Favour with his Earthly King could not recompence the dread of his Heavenly Monarch nor his Temporal Felicities make amends for his Fears of being depriv'd of Eternal Happiness And yet there is a vast disproportion and difference betwixt his Case and Ours for so egregious is our Folly that it is not for the highest Preferments and Dignities of State that we sacrifice our Eternal Concerns to but for small broken and interrupted Pleasures And we may justly be afraid lest it should be the Complaint of many of us in the last Hour that had we pursued the Works of Righteousness with half that eagerness and intention of Mind that we follow'd after Vanity they would not have been so unkind as to have fled the Memory but would have staid to comfort us at the last Gasp and Article of Death They would have made us bore our Sickness with Pleasure and Resignation have given us patience under our Afflictions and even sanctified the Disease it self which is the second Consideration that makes the Death of the Righteous desirable II. Namely His peaceable Carriage

and Deportment in his Sickness or upon his Death-Bed As the Temperament of the Body has a great influence upon the Operations of the Soul so it happens that there is a kind of Sympathetick Motion betwixt them and when the Soul is in disorder the Body suffers too All the Passions have had their Martyrs and without any Affection or Pain to the Body there have been frequent Instances of Men that have been sacrific'd to the sudden Transports and Eruptions of Joy as well as overwhelm'd with the oppression of Sorrow For the Spirits being not able to contain that excess of Joy or Grief which sometimes arises from the Contingencies of this World are suffocated and depress'd by the Weight and the Soul seems rather to be extinct than the Body Now if the Operations of the Mind when they are only fix'd upon an Earthly Object and excited from a disappointment here are so intense and violent as to change the Constitution and alter the whole Mass of Blood if they do not only help forward a Disease but are sufficient to begin and complete it with success surely when our Grief is rais'd from the Fear of being disappointed of Heaven the Operations of the Mind will be more precipitate and swift the Agonies of the Soul will be more acute Despair will then prey upon the Vitals and encrease the Malady When we have the Scene of all that is dear to us render'd for ever miserable in the most exquisite Torments when we contemplate the Resurrection of the Dead where the Graves are open and return their Trust where all the Particles of Man are reunited and the scatter'd Limbs knit together into Shape and Form and all this to make the Soul and Body that have been Companions in Sin to be so in Woe and Affliction and to roul upon Flames to all Eternity when I say we have all these things in our apprehensions we cannot think that the Soul being entertain'd with such dismal Objects will be at leisure to perform the common Functions or Offices of Life So that this being the Case of all wicked Men upon the prospect of their leaving the World it must be agreed that there is generally such a horrour of Mind upon them at the fearful expectation of these things as will aggravate their Distemper and defeat all the methods and application of Physick for their Remedy or Recovery For the Sins which they have all their Life-time been Slaves to will then turn Vassals and be Obsequious in their Attendance they will then croud the memory but it will be to no other purpose but only to distract it Now though at all times and more especially at the Hour of Death a just survey of the Actions of a Man's Life and a particular Reflexion upon all the Sins we have been guilty of here is very necessary as it tends to Abhorrence to beget Repentance and procure atonement for them yet so it happens that where there is no Provision made against them before-hand and they are not satisfied for by piece-meal they come in a full Body like Flocks of Creditors upon the miscarriage of a Debtor without any appearance of receiving satisfaction there but only to set the Sinner's shame and inability of discharging all their claims before him But the righteous Man who brings all the Actions of the Day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Hierocles expresses it who brings all the Actions of the Day to the Tribunal of Conscience and makes things even betwixt his God and Him as he cannot have such a multitude of Sins to account for when he comes on his Death-Bed so when he falls into any Sickness he has no distracting Thoughts to afflict him neither is his Distemper aggravated by Impatience nor increased by Choler He submits to Death as it is the condition he accepted Life with as he is the Son of Adam he knows he must die but as he is the Son of the Second Adam he knows he must be made alive again And this consideration is the greatest inducement for us to wish to die the Death of the Righteous III. Namely The Certainty he has of a joyful Resurrection and the full assurance of enjoying Heaven and securing himself of Happiness to all Eternity This is the Joy and Hope the Crown and Ornament of a Christian and the Righteous Man that has this Hope is prepared and fortified against all Events He is inwardly assured that Heaven is his Portion and his Lot and design'd for his Inheritance from the Foundation of the World For as it is said that seldom any Man dies but he has some intimations of his approaching End within some secret Presages and Bodings of his final Dissolution in his Mind so certainly there is no Person upon the Confines of Death but either from his own management of himself in this World he can make a Judgment of his Future State or else from some Inspiration and Revelation within he can take a certain measure of it The Holy Ghost will not be wanting in gentle Breathings and Whispers to the Conscience to support the Just Man under all the pressures of Sickness as he did our Glorious QUEEN and to fortifie his well-grounded Expectation of Heaven That Spirit will diligently wait and attend to strengthen the Righteous Man's Hopes of a Resurrection to Glory there will in him be a Calm and certainly and an assurance of Heaven a Glory will incircle his Temples here and the Rays of Divinity will be shining round his Head But the Righteous Man's Death though every one covets it is not attainable barely by a lazie wish or an empty Desire there must be something of action on our parts to go along with it and our vigorous endeavours must be used as a necessary ingredient to attain it This the Saint of this Day knew and practis'd whose constant care it was to work out Her Salvation with Fear and Trembling who past through all the Mortification and Discipline and severity of Religion and by those Austerities which She inflicted upon her Body made her Soul more susceptible of good Impressions and sensible of the Charms of Goodness and by these Holy Exercises at last She arriv'd to the highest Perfection of Virtue that her Nature was capable of for the Eminency of her Piety was such as was sufficient to entail a Happiness to a Nation and leave a Blessing behind her and not all the Libellous Tongues united in one common Mass of Poyson ever had the Impudence to attack her Virtue or blemish her Innocence They had no Fault to object against her Conduct but only this that She durst be so generous with her Royal Partner to undertake the Protection of a Sinking Nation and to vindicate our common Rights Religion and Liberties which were all Invaded and just ready to be swallow'd up in Tyranny for which Act her Name will be for ever blessed amongst all Generations of Men and After-Ages will celebrate her Praises to the

them In a word so much of a Piece was she to her self in the Practice of all Christian Virtue and in all the great Lines of her Duty that she gave a Grace and Luster to every Relation wherein she stood A Friend she was to the excess of Bounty and Liberality and her Retributions bore proportion to the Dignity of her Station rather than to the Exigencies of the Persons upon whom they were conferr'd like Alexander she consider'd what was fit for a Princess to give in kindness more than what was decent for a Subject to expect and receive And what may seem a Paradox to some Peoples Ears She was a most Dutiful Daughter to the highest Degree and Example of Obedience and never gave a just cause of Offence to her Father For if People will be descanting upon the exploded Topick of filling the Vacant Throne and make this an exception let them consider in answer to their Objections the necessity of the thing and the call of God for it and withal the Obligations She had of paying Obedience to her Husband in the first place sooner than to her Father But to go on and consider her in the Relation She stood to her Royal Consort a Wife She was precisely observant to oblige and hit the humour of her Royal Husband from the smallest to the greatest things and never was a pair more sutably matcht that more carefully sought their mutual satisfaction or made more equal Returns of Love and Affection Provident and Careful She was in the management of all his Great Concernments and this appear'd in her Wise Administration of the Government when the necessity of our Affairs and the Peace of Europe requir'd the Annual Absence of the King to Head the Confederacy and to put Life and Soul and Vigour into the Hearts of our Allies In short She was such a Wife in whom the Heart of her Husband did safely trust But Death has now dissolv'd the Union of this Royal Pair for so it pleas'd God to order it that whilst this Excellent Lady was preparing her self for the Holy Communion upon Christmas-Day She was seiz'd with that Disease which She was sensible would prove Mortal to her She then dismist all worldly Laws and Thoughts and every thing that might be the least hindrance to her in her Preparation for another World She then arraign'd and judg'd all the Actions of her Life with the strictest Scrutiny and could find nothing to affect her Mind with Grief but only this that She was fearful She had set her Heart too much upon the King So scrupulous was She lest a just natural Affection should become immoderate and prove criminal and her Love to God suffer any diminution by her Fondness to the King Happy Saint that upon her Death-Bed had no other matter to condemn her self for who would not purchase such a Peace at the highest Price whatever Her Hopes of Heaven were so ravishing and delightful that the Temptations of the World could not allure nor Death frighten her For being Righteous She had Hope in Death Prov. 14.32 Thus Liv'd and thus Dy'd this Incomparable Princess as ever Adorn'd the Throne of England in a Calm of Conscience in stedfast Faith in Peace with God in Communion with his Church and in perfect Charity with all the World And though we justly mourn and lament a National Loss in her Death yet let it not be without this Consolation that She certainly died the Death of the Righteous and her last End was like His. FINIS