Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	eternal_a	life_n	soul_n	14,602	5	5.1897	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26064	A discourse concerning a death-bed repentance by William Assheton ...	Assheton, William, 1641-1711.	1696 (1696)	Wing A4032; ESTC R4704	23,063	76

A DISCOURSE Concerning a Death-bed Repentance By WILLIAM ASSHETON D.D. Rector of Beckenham in Kent and Chaplain to his Grace the Duke of ORMOND LONDON Printed for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill MDCXCVI TO THE KING's MOST Excellent MAJESTY May it please Your Majesty TO accept of this Treatise part of which was preached in Your Royal Chappel before the late Queen Your Majesty's Dearest Consort of blessed Memory That I did not then Present it to the Hands of that Excellent Princess was the Imperfection of the Work I having designed some further enlargement upon that Subject otherwise I should most chearfully have complied with some approving Intimation then given in order to a Command for the Publishing of it The whole being now finished is most humbly submitted to Your Majesty's Censure by Your MAJESTY's Most humble and Obedient Subject and Servant William Assheton THE PREFACE HAVING made my self a Debtor to the Publick for A Plain Method of Devotion for Sick and Dying Persons And one chief part of that Devotion being the Exercise of a true Repentance for the Minister who visits the Sick Person is directed by the Church of England to examine Whether he repent him truly of his Sins lest Men should from hence be encouraged to defer their Repentance to a Sick and Dying Bed as if they might safely enjoy their Sins in their Health because they are admonished to Repent when they come to Dye I have therefore very faithfully examined that matter And have endeavoured in the following Treatise to convince them That though Repentance as all other Graces must be exercised and improved upon the approach of Death for our Lamps must be trimmed when the Bridegroom comes yet A Death-bed Repentance is neither comfortable nor safe THE CONTENTS THE Soul is Immortal and shall be Eternally either Happy or Miserable Page 1. This Life the only time to fit and prepare us for our Future Eternal State Page 2. The Vicious Sensual and Impenitent shall be miserable Ibid. But such as are Obedient to the Laws of the Gospel shall be happy Page 3. Hence it is both our Interest and Duty to take care of our Souls and provide for Eternity Ibid. But this generally neglected and why Ibid. The Case of a Death-bed Repentance strictly examined and in what method Page 5. What is meant by a Death-bed Repentance Page 6. What by true Repentance Page 7. The Vulgar Notion of Repentance Ibid. Which yet as is shewed is no Gospel Repentance Ibid. What Repentance is saving Page 11. How far and in what manner a Sick and Dying Sinner can be able to Repent Page 13. Wicked Men when they come to Dye may remember their Sins Page 16. They may also be very sorry for their Sins Ibid. They may earnestly beg Pardon for their Sins Page 18. They may make very serious Resolutions of Amendment Page 19. They may make Restitution Page 20. Whether all this will amount to true Repentance Page 21. Of the Labourers in the Vineyard Page 43. The Case of the Thief upon the Cross Page 49. The Close Page 61. A DISCOURSE Concerning a Death-bed Repentance 'T IS the faint Dictate even of Natural Reason but the more clear and full Discovery of Revelation That when we dye when our Souls shall be separated from our Bodies when we leave this World we shall not then perish like the Brutes and cease to be but shall subsist and continue in another State and Capacity either of Happiness or Misery to all Eternity And we are further instructed from Divine Revelation in the Holy Scriptures That this present Life this short and uncertain time of continuance in this World is the only space of Probation and Trial to fit and prepare us for our future Eternal State As the Tree falls so it lies There is no Work nor Repentance in the Grave But as Death shall seize us in the same Capacity we shall appear before the Throne of God and shall then be disposed of in an irreversible unalterable State either of Happiness or Misery Those who make their own Will their Law and who are guided and acted by their own vicious sensual Inclinations they shall be eternally miserable Or according to our blunt way of expressing it in our English Language They shall be Damned that is they shall be condemned to that state of Misery which the Justice of God hath prepared to be the sad Lot and Portion of all impenitent Sinners But on the other hand Those who follow the Divine Conduct and are obedient to the Laws of the Gospel such Persons through the Mercy of God and the Merits of Jesus Christ shall be saved and preserved from the Wrath to come And shall be placed in that happy State and Capacity where they shall not only be freed from Misery but shall further be secured in the unalterable enjoyment of an unexpressible Happiness and Satisfaction From these Considerations you are fully convinced that it is both your Interest and Duty to take care of your Souls and provide for Eternity But the sad mistake is this and it is the ruin of thousands you fancy it is time enough hereafter to entertain such Thoughts You have so much Diversion and Employment in the World that you have little or no time for the Duties of Religion But when you have settled your Affairs and dispatched this or that When you have improved or cleared your Estates When you have taken in this Mortgage finished that Purchase c. When the hurry of these things is over and that you can call your Thoughts your own then you promise your selves to be very Religious that is when you have done with this World you will provide for the next When your Bodies begin to be crazy and your strength to decay When you are laid upon a Sick-bed and have lost the relish of sensual Pleasures then you fancy you shall have both leisure and inclination to repent of your Sins and to beg Pardon for them And whenever you do Repent tho' it be but upon your Death-bed God who is very merciful hath promised to accept you I appeal now to your own Consciences if this is not the very Language of your hearts But know that your hearts are deceitful and take heed lest they be further hardned through the deceitfulness of Sin That I may therefore awaken your Consideration and convince you of your danger in trusting to a broken Reed That I may make you sensible how unsafe it is to depend upon a Death-bed Repentance I shall very distinctly examine that matter By shewing 1. What is meant by true Repentance 2. I shall enquire How far and in what manner a Sick and Dying Sinner can be able to Repent 3. I shall desire such Persons sadly to consider What small hope there is that such kind of Repentance should find acceptance with God 4. I shall examine those Two noted Scripture-instances commonly mentioned in favour of a Death

bed Repentance viz. The Labourers in the Vineyard who came in at the eleventh hour And The Thief upon the Cross But as Preparatory to my enlargement on these Particulars whereby it will be more distinct and instructive I must first premise what is meant by a Death-bed Repentance Now a Death-bed Repentance denotes Two things 1. A finishing that great Work of Repentance which we begun in our Healths and took some care to carry on amidst the Business and Diversions of this World But do now more solemnly compleat at our Deaths by reviewing the State of our Souls and perfecting our Accounts with God This kind of Death-bed Repentance is so far from being a mistake that it is a necessary Duty and is the commendable practice of good and pious Men. But 2. There is a Vulgar Notion of a Death-bed Repentance viz. When a Man then begins to Repent when he comes to dye When a Man hath spent all his Life in the gratifying of his Lusts and hath followed his own vicious Inclinations When he hath denied himself no carnal Satisfactions but hath taken his fill of sensual Pleasures And yet such a Man when his Body is disabled and Death approacheth so that he hath neither time nor inclination to Sin any longer will pretend to be sorry for his Sin and Repent This we call a Death-bed Repentance Now how unsafe and uncomfortable such a Death-bed Repentance is I shall endeavour to convince you by examining the formentioned Particulars I. What is meant by true Repentance The vulgar and common Notion of Repentance is evidently this When a Man hath committed a fault and hath done something amiss and is then sorry for it is grieved and troubled that he hath done it and doth heartily wish it had not been done Such a Man we usually say doth Repent of such an Action But this is not the full adequate Notion of a Gospel-Repentance of such a Repentance as shall find acceptance with God This is but the Repentance of Malefactors at the Gallows nay it is no other than the Repentance of Cain and Judas It is observed That the most profligate condemned Wretch when he comes to dye will be very sorry for what he hath done He will be much ashamed and will have great Indignation against himself to think he should be such a fool to part with his precious Life and all the Comforts and Satisfactions of this World in such a vile ignominious manner to be tied up like a Dog perhaps for the taking of a few Sheep How will such a Fellow fawn upon and flatter the Judge That if he will but spare him O what an honest Man he will then be And yet do but procure his Pardon and let him loose and he is quickly at the old Trade Nay 't is great odds but you have him again by the next Assizes Now will any one pretend that in such a Case as this there is true Repentance Which yet is more evident from those Scripture-Instances of Cain and Judas It seems very probable from the circumstances of his Story that Cain did repent of the Murther of his Brother My punishment saith he is greater than I can bear Gen. 4.13 But because in the Judgment of some Learned Men this is rather an instance of Despair than Repenting-Sorrow I shall not much insist upon this of Cain But as to the other instance of Judas 't is express and undeniable You read his Story Matth. 27.3 4 5. Then Judas which had betrayed him when he saw that he was comdemned repented himself and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief Priests and Elders saying I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent Blood And they said What is that to us see thou to that And he cast down the pieces of silver in the Temple and departed and went and hanged himself Here are as signal Instances that Judas did sincerely repent of what he had done as can possibly be given For besides the express Testimony of the Holy Ghost which in plain terms tells us he did Repent and that he himself declared He had sinned in betraying the innocent Blood He further gives this evidence that he was in earnest he not only restores the thirty pieces but in horror and consternation of Mind he went and hanged himself Here is I say in this instance as much Grief and Trouble and Vexation for the Commission of a Sin and as noted evidence that he was heartily sorry for it as can possibly be supposed And yet 't is as plain that this Repentance of Judas was not an Evangelical Repentance such a Repentance as was accepted by Almighty God Our Blessed Saviour who is Truth it self having passed this Decree upon him Wo unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed it had been good for that man if he had not been born Matth. 26.24 It appears from these premises that there is more required to a saving Gospel-Repentance than trouble of Mind When a Man hath committed a sault he may be sorry for it he may grieve and mourn that he hath done it he may heartily wish it had not been done he may make Restitution of his ill-gotten Goods All this may be done thus far he may proceed and yet his Repentance is but imperfect and shall never find acceptance with a pure and holy God But here you will say If Men may proceed thus far and yet their Repentance is not true and saving How shall we know that we have true Repentance and wherein doth the nature of it consist To this I answer God only can instruct us what is true Repentance That is it is very agreeble to the Majesty and Sovereignty of God to prescribe the Terms and Conditions of Salvation and to appoint his Creatures what they must do how they must behave themselves to be accepted by him Now there is no other way to be informed in this matter but to consult the Holy Scriptures In those Sacred Writings the Divine Wisdom hath sufficiently revealed his Will and hath plainly told us What it is that he required of us and what we are to do that we may inherit Eternal Life We are expresly admonished That without holiness no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12.14 That the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God Be not deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6.9 10. If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the Body ye shall live Rom. 8.13 Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting Gal. 6.7 8. For the Son of