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	life_n	sin_n	4,202	5	4.3704	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45802	A sermon preached at the funeral of the Reverend John Scott, D.D., late rector of S. Giles in the Fields, March 15, 1694/5 by Z. Isham ...	Isham, Z. (Zacheus), 1651-1705.	1695 (1695)	Wing I1068; ESTC R15920	13,714	32

what we know of it we are not to diminish our concern for it because it flatters not our Sensuality is a pure and invisible Possession and we are to follow our Saviour's Judgment comparing it to treasure hid in a field for which a wise Purchaser will sell all that he hath and to a Pearl of great price Mat. 13.44 45. and 16.26 which a Merchant finding expos'd to Sale he went and sold all that he had and bought it and assuring us that if a man could gain the whole world by losing his own soul he would make a very foolish Bargain 'T is possible I confess for Men that are wholly taken up with the Distractions and Enjoyments of this present World to have a speculative Regard for those Felicities which are promis'd to us hereafter and in their lucid Intervals to think them more valuable than those weak and empty satisfactions which they are so eager in pursuing But still whatever the Judgment may be of cool Reason the Opinions of Men are to be weigh'd by their Actions and if sensual objects carry the Soul after them and are labour'd after with the warmest prosecutions 't is plain enough they are nearest to the heart and preferr'd before the spiritual Joys of the life to come IV. Secondly the having our Conversation in Heaven implies the seeking for it earnestly and the inflaming of our desires and affections towards it for what we love and set a value upon we are naturally willing to enjoy and 't is impossible that any man should have a true Notion of Heaven and not wish to be possess'd of it hereafter Only here lies the misery of deluded Sinners that they would have it consistent with their Lusts and Pleasures and attainable upon such terms as God cannot allow But when Christ hath commanded us to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness Mat. 6.33.20.21 with preference to all other things and to lay up our treasure in Heaven that our heart may likewise be there We are not to think of Heaven as we would of a beautiful and magnificent City where we have no business and to which we never intend to go but we are to look upon it as the place to which we are Travelling and where God hath provided for us the best Patrimony and hereupon to anticipate the possession of it by our fervent wishes and to be affected as the Psalmist was My soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God Psal 42.2 He that hath a rich Vessel coming home from the Indies will be frequently grasping it in his mind and hearkning continually after the tidings of it and full of solicitude till it safely arrives in the Harbour and so the devout Soul that hath a lively Sense of the Glories of another Life is ever looking towards them and longing for an admission to them and lifting up her Head with joyful expectation because her Redemption draweth nigh Supposing we sincerely believe the Resurrection of the Body and the Life Everlasting it follows in a natural Course that we should be very desirous of attaining to this Immortality and have strong Inclinations to dwell in the Habitations of Eternity or else the Will doth not go after the Judgment with such ardency and sedulity as it doth in secular pursuits and 't is a vain Profession that we make I look for the Resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come V. Thirdly The having our Conversation in Heaven imports the living answerably to our hopes of Futurity for otherwise they will be miserably disappointed and without holyness no man shall see the Lord. Heb. 12.14 And this is not only the condition immutably fix'd but is also necessary to dispose us for the relish of those pure and spiritual Pleasures which can be no Paradise to an unclean Soul and if we could imagine the rich Glutton with all his vicious Appetites translated into the Portion of Lazarus even the bosom of the Patriarch would have been to him a place of Torment God hath been unspeakably Merciful in preparing an eternal Reward for us upon such easie and just Conditions as he hath enabled us to perform and in sending his Son to be our Guide and our Sacrifice but 't is absurd to presume that we are bound to do nothing for this mighty recompence that we shall be wafted to bliss while we lie sleeping in the Bark that we may goe with unclean hands and polluted hearts into the dwellings of purity and that the blood of the everlasting Mediatour was shed for lazy and impenitent sinners that trample upon his Cross There is no Man so very brutal but that he wisheth with himself he might be happy after death and if he hath not quite extinguish'd the Sparks of Natural Religion and hath any glimpse of the immortality to come he desires to be made partaker of it but how many are in Hell that during their abode here were hoping foolishly they might get to Heaven at last And what can it avail to wish faintly and slothfully for blessedness without striving to obtain it in the way which God hath appointed It was the good and faithful servant that improv'd the Talents committed to him and not the unprofitable Loiterer who enter'd into the joy of his Lord. Matth. xxv 21 There is no mocking of God and without serving him sincerely there can neither be any comfort after death nor dying with peace and satisfaction Who can express the darkness and horrors of a death-bed when men have liv'd dissolutely and profanely and their Old Vices are got together to haunt them like Spectres and Conscience is awakened to Accuse and Condemn them and the world deserting them nothing remains but the guilt of their sins to pursue them immediately to the Bar of Justice But no Consolations are equal to those resulting from a life religiously spent and the true Christian under the bitterest agonies of death hath a God to Converse with and a Saviour before his Eyes and an Eternity of Joy ready to receive him and he can say with assurance Psal lxxiii 25 26. Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee my flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever VI. I come now in the second place to evince the reasonableness of having our Conversation in Heaven and that I may not trespass in staying upon such an undeniable Truth I shall only mention these three Considerations First That our Christian Profession engageth us to this Holy temper and by our Baptism we are born as it were into another World and made the Citizens of Heaven and consequently are oblig'd to the behaviour of such and he that honestly follows a Crucify'd Master and renounceth the allurements of this World must be suppos'd to have a prospect of the other Co● 〈…〉 where