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	temporal_a	7,350	5	8.5475	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62603	A sermon preach'd before the Queen at White-Hall, March the 7th, 1689/90 by John Tillotson ...	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.	1690 (1690)	Wing T1240; ESTC R9502	13,884	38

forbearance what in reason remains for us but a fearful looking for of Judgment and fiery Indignation to consume us And what almost can Justice or even Goodness it self do less than to inflict that punishment upon us which with eyes open we would wilfully run upon and which no warning no persuasion no importunity could prevail with us to avoid And when as the Apostle says knowing the Judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death yet for all that we would venture to commit them And therefore whatever we suffer we do but inherit our own choice and have no reason to complain of God who hath set before us Life and Death eternal Happiness and Misery and hath left us to be the Carvers of our own Fortune And if after all this we will obstinately refuse this happiness and wilfully run upon this Misery Wo unto us for we have rewarded evil to our selves You see then by all that hath been said upon this Argment what we have all reason to expect if we will still go on in our Sins and will not be brought to Repentance You have heard what a terrible Punishment the just God hath threaten'd to the Workers of Iniquity and that in as plain words as can be used to express any thing These that is the wicked shall go away into everlasting Punishment but the righteous into Life eternal Here are Life and Death Happiness and Misery set before us Not this frail and mortal Life which is hardly worth the having were it not in order to a better and happier Life nor a temporal Death to get above the dread whereof should not me thinks be difficult to us were it not for the bitter and terrible consequences of it But an eternal Life and an eternal enjoyment of all things which can render Life pleasant and happy and a perpetual Death which will for ever torment us but never make an end of us These God propounds to our choice And if the consideration of them will not prevail with us to leave our sins and to reform our lives what will Weightier Motives cannot be propos'd to the understanding of Man than everlasting Punishment and Life eternal than the greatest and most durable happiness and the most intolerable and lasting misery that human Nature is capable of Now considering in what terms the Threatnings of the Gospel are express'd we have all the reason in the world to believe that the Punishment of Sinners in another world will be everlasting However we cannot be certain of the contrary time enough to prevent it not till we come there and find by experience how it is And if it prove so it will then be too late either to prevent that terrible Doom or to get it revers'd Some comfort themselves with the uncomfortable and uncertain hope of being discharg'd out of Being and reduc'd to their first Nothing at least after the tedious and terrible suffering of the most grievous and exquisite Torments for innumerable Ages And if this should happen to be true good God! how feeble how cold a comfort is this Where is the Reason and Understanding of Men to make this their last Refuge and Hope and to lean upon it as a matter of mighty consolation that they shall be miserable beyond all imagination and beyond all patience for God knows how many Ages Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge No right sense and judgment of things No consideration and care of themselves no concernment for their own lasting Interest and Happiness Origen I know not for what good reason is said to have been of opinion That the punishment of Devils and wicked men after the Day of Judgment will continue but for a thousand years and that after that time they shall all be finally saved I can very hardly persuade my self that so wise and learned a man as Origen was should be positive in an Opinion for which there can be no certain ground in Reason especially for the punctual and precise term of a thousand years and for which there is no ground at all that I know of from Divine Revelation But upon the whole matter however it be be it for a thousand years or be it for a longer and unknown term or be it for ever which seems to be plainly threaten'd in the Gospel I say however it be this is certain that it is infinitely wiser to take care to avoid it than to dispute it and to run the final hazard of it Put it which way we will especially if we put it at the worst as in all prudence we ought to do it is by all possible means to be provided against So terrible so intolerable is the thought yea the very least suspicion of being miserable for ever And now give me leave to ask You as St. Paul did King Agrippa Do you believe the Scriptures And I hope I may answer my self as he did I know you do believe them And in them these things are clearly revealed and are part of that Creed of which we make a solemn profession every day And yet when we consider how most men live is it credible that they do firmly believe this plain Declaration of our Saviour and our Judge That the wicked shall go away into everlasting Punishment but the righteous into Life eternal Or if they do in some sort believe it is it credible that they do at all consider it seriously and lay it to heart So that if we have a mind to reconcile our belief with our Actions we must either alter our Bible and our Creed or we must change our Lives Let us then consider and shew our selves men And if we do so can any man to please himself for a little while be contented to be punish'd for ever and for the shadow of a short and imperfect happiness in this life be willing to run the hazard of being really and eternally miserable in the next World Surely this consideration alone of the extreme and endless misery of impenitent Sinners in another World if it were but well wrought into our minds would be sufficient to kill all the temptations of this World and to lay them dead at our feet and to make us deaf to all the Enchantments of Sin and Vice Because they bid us so infinitely to our loss when they offer us the enjoyment of a short Pleasure upon so very hard and unequal a condition as that of being miserable for ever The eternal Rewards and Punishments of another Life which are the great Sanction and Security of God's Laws one would think should be a sufficient weight to cast the Scales against any Pleasure or any Pain that this World can tempt or can threaten us withal And yet after all this will we still go on to do wickedly when we know the terrours of the Lord and that we must one day answer all our bold violations of his Law and contempts of his Authority with the loss of our

extinction of their Being and if this be all the effect of that dreadful Sentence which shall be pass'd upon them at the Day of Judgment than the Fire of Hell is quench'd all at once and is only a frightful Metaphor without any meaning But this is directly contrary to the tenour of Scripture which doth so often describe the punishment of wicked men in Hell by positive torments And particularly our Blessed Saviour describing the lamentable state of the damned in Hell expressely says that there shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth which cannot be if Annihilation be all the meaning and effect of the Sentence of the Great Day Secondly another inconvenience of this Opinion is that if Annihilation be all the punishment of Sinners in the other World then the punishment of all Sinners must of necessity be equal because there are no degrees of Annihilation or not-being But this also is most directly contrary to Scripture as I have already shewn I know very well that some who are of this Opinion do allow a very long and tedious time of the most terrible and intolerable torment of Sinners and after that they believe that there shall be an utter end of their Being But then they must not argue this from the force of the Words before mentioned because the plain inference from thence is that Annihilation is all the punishment that wicked men shall undergo in the next Life And if that be not true as I have plainly shewn that it is not I do not see from what other words or expressions in Scripture they can find the lest ground for this Opinion that the torment of wicked men shall at last end in their Annihilation And yet admitting all this for which I think there is no ground at all in Scripture I cannot see what great comfort Sinners can take in the thought of a tedious time of terrible torment ending at last in Annihilation and the utter extinction of their Beings Thirdly we may consider further that the primary end of all Threatnings is not punishment but the prevention of it For God does not threaten that men may sin and be punish'd but that they may not sin and so may escape the punishment threatn'd And therefore the higher the threatning runs so much the more mercy and goodness there is in it because it is so much the more likely to hinder men from incurring the penalty that is threatn'd Fourthly Let it be consider'd likewise that when it is so very plain that God hath threatn'd eternal misery to impenitent Sinners all the prudence in the World obliges men to believe that he is in good earnest and will execute these threatnings upon them if they will obstinately stand it out with him and will not be brought to Repentance And therefore in all reason we ought so to demean our selves and so to perswade others as knowing the terrour of the Lord and that they who wilfully break his Laws are in danger of eternal Death To which I will add in the Fifth and lást place That if we suppose that God did intend that his threatnings should have their effect to deter men from the breach of his Laws it cannot be imagin'd that in the same Revelation which declares these threatnings any intimation should be given of the abatement or non-execution of them For by this God would have weaken'd his own Laws and have taken off the edge and terrour of his threatnings Because a threatning hath quite lost its force if we once come to beleive that it will not be executed And consequently it would be a very impious design to go about to teach or perswade any thing to the contrary and a betraying men into that misery which had it been firmly believ'd might have been avoided We are all bound to preach and You and I are all bound to believe the terrours of the Lord. Not so as sawcily to determine and pronounce what God must do in this case for after all He may do what he will as I have clearly shewn But what is fit for us to do and what we have reason to expect if notwithstanding a plain and express threatning of the vengeance of eternal fire we still go on to treasure up to our selves wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous Judgment of God and will desperately put it to the hazard whether and how far God will execute his threatnings upon Sinners in another World And therefore there is no need why we should be very sollicitously concern'd for the honour of God's Justice or Goodness in this matter Let us but take care to believe and avoid the Threatnings of God and then how terrible soever they are no harm can come to us And as for God let us not doubt but that he will take care of his own Honour and that He who is holy in all his ways and righteous in all his works will do nothing that is repugnant to his eternal Goodness and Righteousness and that He will certainly so manage things at the Judgment of the Great Day as to be justified in his sayings and to be righteous when we are judged For notwithstanding his Threatnings he hath reserved Power enough in his own hands to do right to all his Perfections And therefore we may rest assur'd that he will judge the world in righteousness and if it be any wise inconsistent either with Righteousness or Goodness which He knows much better than we do to make Sinners miserable for ever that He will not do it But let Sinners always be afraid of it and reckon upon it And always remember that there is great Goodness and Mercy in the severity of God's Threatnings and that nothing will more justifie the infliction of eternal Torments than the foolish presumption of Sinners in venturing upon them notwithstanding such plain and terrible Threatnings This I am sure is a good Argument to all of us to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling and with all possible care to endeavour the prevention of that misery which is so terribly severe that at present we can hardly tell how to reconcile it with the Justice and Goodness of God This God heartily desires we would do and hath solemnly sworn that he hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live So that here is all imaginable care taken to prevent our miscarriage and all the assurance that the God of Truth can give us of his unwillingness to bring this misery upon us And both these I am sure are arguments of great Goodness For what can Goodness do more than to warn us of this misery and earnestly to persuade us to prevent it and to threaten us so very terribly on purpose to deter us from so great a danger And if this will not prevail with us but we will still go on to despise the riches of God's goodness and long-suffering and