Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	day_n	good_a	life_n	10,536	5	4.7272	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62606	A sermon preached before the Queen, at White-Hall, February the 27th, 1690/1 by John Tillotson ...	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.	1691 (1691)	Wing T1243; ESTC R16849	14,709	37

before God as to the perfect innocency of his life in which sense St. Paul says 1 Cor. 4.4 that though he knew nothing by himself yet was he not thereby justified I say though no man can plead perfect innocency yet as to the general course and tenour of an unblameable life a good man may appeal to God and even when he afflicts him may look upon Him as a tender and compassionate Father and not as an angry and revengeful Judge With this holy and patient Job under all those terrible disasters and calamities which befell him was able in some measure to comfort himself After he had lost all and he had a great deal to lose when he was forsaken of all other comfort even the charitable opinion of his best Friends concerning his sincerity In these sad and disconsolate circumstances what was it that bore up his spirit nothing but the conscience of his own integrity See with what resolution and constancy of mind he asserts and maintains it Job 25.5 6. I will not sayes he remove mine integrity from me my righteousness will I hold fast and will not let it go mine heart shall not reproach me so long 〈◊〉 as I live You see that when every thing else mas gone his integrity stuck by him and supported him to the last And as to persecutions and sufferings from men our own innocency and the goodness of our Cause will be our best comfort under them When we are not guilty to our selves that we have deserv'd them from men and are inwardly assur'd that whatever we patiently suffer for God and a good conscience will all turn to our account another Day and work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory This was that which supported the first Christians that noble Army of Martyrs under all those bitter and cruel persecutions which had otherwise been beyond all human patience to have endur'd This comforted them in all their tribulations Our rejoycing says St. Paul is this the testimony of our consciences that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world So likewise under that inferiour but equally malicious sort of persecution of which this Age is so very profuse and prodigal I mean the causeless calumnies and reproaches of men If under these we can but approve our Consciences to God the uncharitable Censures of men are not so much to be regarded by us some impression they will make upon a tender mind but we must not if we can help it let them sink too deep into our spirits 1 Joh. 3.21 If our hearts condemn us not we may have confidence towards God and then surely much more towards men If God and our own Consciences do but acquit us methinks it should be no such difficult matter to bear the slanders and hard censures of men But above all other times the comfort of a good Conscience is most sensible and most considerable at the hour of Death For as nothing dejects a mans spirit more and sends him down with so much sorrow to the grave as the guilt of an evil Conscience what terrour and anguish what rage and despair do seize upon a Sinner at that time when he reflects upon what he hath done and considers what he is like to suffer So on the other hand there is nothing that revives and raises the fainting spirits of a dying man like the Conscience of a holy and useful life which hath brought glory to God Prov. 14.32 and good to men The wicked says Solomon is driven away in his wickedness that is he is carried out of the World as it were in a storm and tempest But the righteous hath hope in his death he usually dies calmly and comfortably Mark the perfect man Psal 37.37 says David and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace If a man be conscious to himself that he hath sincerely endeavour'd to keep the commandments of God and to do the things which please Him if he hath lived inoffensively and as St. Paul Acts 23.1 says of himself in all good conscience before God and men what an unspeakable consolation must it be to him in that dark and gloomy time and when he is walking through the valley of the shadow of death then to fear no evil and to be able with our Blessed Saviour to say though in a much inferiour measure and degree John 17.4 Father I have glorified thee on the earth I have finished the work which thou hast given me to do And to be able to look Death in the face with the like courage and constancy of mind as St. Paul did when he saw it approaching towards wards him I am now says he 2 Tim. 4.6 7 8 ready to be of fer'd and the time of my departure is at hand I have fought a good fight I have finish'd my race I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day A comfortable Death that is free from the stings and upbraidings the terrors and tortures the confusion and amazement of a guilty Conscience is a happiness so desireable as to be well worth the best care and endeavour of a mans whole life Let us then have a conscientious regard to the whole compass of our Duty and with St. Paul Let us exercise to have alwayes a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards men And let us never do any thing whereby we shall offer violence to the light of our minds God hath given us this Principle to be our constant guide and companion and whoever after due care to informe himself aright does sincerely follow the dictate and direction of this Guide shall never fatally miscarry But whoever goes against the clear dictate and conviction of his Conscience in so doing he undermines the foundation of his own comfort and peace and sins against God and his own Soul And to the end we may keep our Consciences clear of guilt we should frequently examine our selves and look back upon the actions of our lives and call our selves to a strict account for them that wherein-soever we have fail'd of innocency we may make it up by repentance and may get our Consciences clear'd of guilt by pardon and forgiveness And if we do not do this we cannot with confidence rely upon the testimony of our Consciences because many great Sins may slip out of our memories without a particular repentance for them which yet do require and stand in need of a particular repentance Especially we should search our Consciences more narrowly at these more solemn Times of repentance and when we are preparing our selves to receive the Holy Sacrament And if at these Times our hearts do accuse and condemn us for any thing we should not only heartily lament and bewail it before God but sincerely resolve by Gods grace to reform

and hinder our main duty But let it be our great care not to fail in those greater things which are comprehended under the two great Commandments of the Law the Love of God and of our Neighbour Let us be strict and constant in our piety and devotion towards God chast and temperate in reference to our selves just and honest kind and charitable humble and meek patient and peaceable towards all men submissive and obedient to our Superiours Natural Civil and Spiritual A due regard to these great Vertues of the Christian life is the way to keep a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards men And surely the best means to have our doubts cleared about matters of lesser moment in Religion is heartily to set about the practice of the great and unquestionable Duties of it So our B. Saviour hath assur'd us Job 7.17 that if any man will do the will of God he shall know of his Doctrine whether it be of God I come now in the VIth and Last place to consider the great Motive and encouragement to this conscientious care of our Lives and actions which St. Paul here tells us was his belief of a Resurrection and of the Rewards and Punishments consequent upon it I have hope says he towards God that there shall be a Resurrection both of the just and unjust For this cause therefore I exercise my self to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men If we believe the Resurrection of the dead and a future Judgment we ought to be very carefull to discharge a good Conscience now in order to the rendring of a good Account hereafter that we may be sincere and without offence with respect to the day of Christ as the Apostle expresseth it For when that great Day of Recompences shall come we shall most assuredly find that nothing will then raise our hearts and make us to lift up our heads with joy like the witness of a good conscience And therefore we should make that our constant care and companion now which will then be our great comfort and rejoycing a good Conscience and the testimony of it that in all simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world And on the contrary when we come to appear before the Great Judge of the World nothing will fill our minds with so much terrour and our faces with so much confusion as the clamorous accusations of a guilty Conscience which will be more than a thousand witnesses against us and will anticipate our condemnation and pass almost as severe a Sentence upon us as the Judge himself can This is that which will make the sinner to droop and to hang down his head for ever And one of the principal ingredients of his misery and torment will be the perpetual regret and remorse of his own mind for his wilfull wickedness and folly which will kindle a fire within him as hot as that without him and as hard to be quench'd This consideration ought to have a mighty operation upon us to make us very carefull to have Consciences void of offence now that they may be free from torment and anguish hereafter That when we shall come into the other World we may not be eternally displeas'd with our selves and enrag'd at our own doings but may carry with us thither Consciences clear of all guilt either by Innocency or by Repentance The firm belief of a future state of eternal Happiness or Misery in another World is the great weight or spring that sets a going those two powerfull Principles of human activity the Hopes and the Fears of men and is in its nature so fitted to raise these Passions to that degree that did not experience shew us the contrary one would think it morally impossible for human Nature to resist the mighty force of it All men are sensible more or less at one time or other of the true force of these Arguments but the mischief is that in some persons they work quite the wrong way and instead of leading men to Repentance they drive them to Infidelity They cannot deny the force of these Arguments if they were true but that they may avoid the force of them they will not believe them to be true And so far they are in the right that granting these things to be true they cannot but acknowledge that they ought to live otherwise than they do But here is their fatal miscarriage that being resolv'd upon an evil course since they cannot reconcile their practice with such Principles as these they will fit their Principles to their practice and so they will believe nothing at all of the Rewards and Punishments of another World lest this should disturb them in their course Vain men as if Heaven and Hell must needs vanish and disappear because some witty but wicked men have no mind to believe them These men are Infidels in their own defence and merely for the quiet of their own minds that their Consciences may not perpetually rate them and fly in their faces For a right belief and an evil Conscience are but unsuitable companions they are quarrelsome neighbours and must needs live very uneasily by one another He that believes the Principles of Religion and yet is conscious to himself that he hath liv'd contrary to them and still continues to do so how can he possibly have any peace and quiet-in his mind unless like Jonah he can sleep in a storm and his conscience be as it were seared with a hot iron For if his Conscience be awake and in any degree sensible the evident danger of eternal ruine continually hanging over him must in reason either drive him to repentance or to despair If so forcible and violent an Argument can make no impression upon us we are stupid and bewitch'd we are lost and undone we are wretched and miserable for ever But besides the future Reward of a holy and conscientious course which is unspeakable and full of glory it hath also this present fruit this earnest as I may say and ready money in hand the peace and satisfaction of our own minds which is much more valuable than thousands of gold and silver the unspeakable comfort whereof every man will then find when he hath most need of it For it will be matter of great joy to him not only under the sorest afflictions and calamities of Life but even at the hour of Death when the miseries of life oppress him and the sorrows of death compass him about and the pangs of it are ready to take hold of him There is certainly no such comfort under the evils and afflictions of this life as a faithful witness in our own breasts of our own innocency and integrity When we are afflicted by God or persecuted and revil'd by men it cannot but be a mighty consolation to us to be conscious to our selves of our own sincerity For though no man can acquit and justifie himself