Selected quad for the lemma: end_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
end_n	east_n	south_n	west_n	5,537	5	9.2667	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43855	A sermon preach'd in the cathedral of Lincoln, August 1, 1680 (being the assize Sunday) by Tho. Hindmarsh ...	Hindmarsh, Thomas.	1680 (1680)	Wing H2063A; ESTC R40988	17,132	40

excellency of these two Virtues Righteousness and Temperance and might withall shew them the great shame that even in this life would follow such practices as they took so we are sure he pressed them home with the reflections of a future state and called to their remembrance that there was a Judgment to come Which is the. Third and last thing in the Subject of S. Pauls Discourse For he reasoned to them of righteousness temperance and judgment to come And here also I shall briefly consider two things the Certainty and Terribleness of that future Judgment the Certainty of the thing it self and the Terribleness of its circumstances First for its certainty And this may be cleared either from the consideration of our own or the divine nature from the contemplation of our selves who are to be subjected to it or of that God who is to execute it First If we contemplate our selves the very frame and constitution of our natures have the Idaea's of Immortality and a future existency stamped upon them You have the general consent and approbation of mankind in all ages and places of the World to countenance and confirm this truth It is not a new invention nor an upstart notion of yesterday but claims an acquaintance with Mankind even from his first Original and hath through all vicissitudes stuck so close to him that we may safely conclude it will never leave him to the end of the World Let our Navigators sail either to the East or West Indies let them make their Voyages either towards the North or South Poles yet amongst all that variety of Faces Customs Religions and Tempers every one kept the notion of a future Being and that their actions were to be rewarded or punished when they went from hence The cold Russian keeps this truth wrapt up in his warm Furs and the scorched Moor sees it almost as plain and naked as his own body Yea it is the observation of Plmy that those barbarous people that have neither Cloths to cover their nakedness nor Laws for a common security that live by the rules of ferity and lust and differ from the Beasts seemingly in little else but external shape that have neither Towns nor Houses and but just reason enough to provide for the necessities of Nature yet these live in expectation and belief of a life after this Now if this was not a most certain truth grounded upon principles obvious to all what reason could we give of so universal a consent How can it be imagined that all men should conspire to deceive themselves and their innocent posterity Certainly it may well be thought to be the first-born of absurdities to think that those who are at so vast a distance in place and nature and all other circumstances should agree in a common deceit and jump in the same imposture For how should all the World conspire in a Lie How come the best of men to have earnest desires and longings after a future state and how come the worst of men to be horribly afraid of it What is the meaning of that strong aversion which all considerate men have against a dark state of annihilation What is the matter that Reason cannot think of it without great regret of mind How comes it to pass that there is a natural desire in all men after a state of happiness and perfection It is generally agreed that no natural desire is in vain all other things have somewhat to satisfie their natural appetites * Princip of Nat. Relig. by the L. B. of Chester And if we consider the utter impossibility of attaining to any such condition in this life this will render it highly credible that there must be another state wherein this happiness is attainable otherwise mankind must fail of his chief end being by a natural principle most strongly inclined to such a state of happiness as he can never attain to As if he were purposely framed to be tormented between these two Passions Desire and Despair an earnest propension after happiness and an utter incapacity of ever enjoying it As if Nature it self whereby all other things are disposed to their perfection did serve only in mankind to make them miserable And which is yet more considerable the better and the wiser any man is the more earnest desires and hopes hath he after such a state of happiness So that if there be no such thing as a future existence not onely Nature but Vertue likewise must contribute to make men miserable which is a consequence so grosly unreasonable as not to be swallowed And how comes it to pass that wicked men also cannot throw away those notions which they would so gladly be shut of What is the meaning that among the jollities of this life they are irresistibly put in mind of being called to a reckoning in another When their actions are so secret that they cannot be discerned and their persons so powerful that they cannot be punished by an earthly tribunal How come they then to be seized with the horrours of an all-discerning and all-controlling Judicature What shall we think of it when those-who have made it their business to root out of the minds of men all such troublesom notions about a future state should yet be the persons who are most assaulted with them Hi sunt qui trepidant ad omnia fulgura pallent These are they that shake and tremble at their own thoughts and if they do but hear a clap of Thunder they imagine that voice is calling them to a Judgment to come But to proceed Secondly The consideration of Gods Nature as well as our own will abundantly prove a future Judgment For when we think upon the Divine Nature we must look upon him as clothed with an attribute of inflexible and unalterable Justice His Justice is so essential to his Godhead that we may as well deny him to be God as to be Just We may therefore infallibly conclude that God is a most just Judge and if he be so we may as safely conclude that after this life he will judge the World in righteousness For as the affairs of this present World are ordered though they lie under the disposition of Providence yet they shew no sign of an universal Justice The divine dispensations in this life are many times promiscuous and uncertain so that a man cannot judge of love or hatred Eccles 9.1 by all that is before him The worst of men are sometimes in the best condition and the best men may generally take up those words of S. Paul If in this life onley we had hope 1 Cor. 15.19 we should be of all men most miserable The proud Tyrant doth lift up his head against Heaven and yet prospers when the devout soul may lift up his hands thither and yet be undone So that nothing is more certain than that in this life Rewards are not correspondent to the Vertues nor Punishments proportionable to the sins of