Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A60609
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The great salvation in another world, ascertain'd as to faith, and consider'd as to practice by William Smith, D.D.
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Smith, William, D.D.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing S4279; ESTC R13254
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14,500
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31
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and inconsiderate Minds say to all this Can they dare they Controul the Validity of such a Divine Attestation as the Gospel Exhibits for another World Either they must plainly and positively prove that the whole Gospel is False and the Religion of it a Cheat and our Saviour an Impostor or they are utterly lost and undone by their Atheistical Pretensions upon which they licence themselves to live in their Vitious and Leud Practices or at best to act only for their Worldly Ease and present Pleafures I say again are they sure Infallibly sure that they have Arguments sufficient enough to over-rule the Truth of Christiantty so as to adventure the Eternal Loss of their Souls upon it A Truth which even to this day hath so controul'd all publish'd Contests by fair Trials of Learning that the Vast Nations which do now Embrace a Religion in opposition to it are necessitated to let their People creep in the dark shades of Ignorance to preserve their fond Persuasions from any Learned Discourses or Rational Inquisitions And now who would Venture the Loss of an Eternal Safety upon the hazard if it were no more that Christianity should not prove to be true at last The very Doubt of it upon such likelihoods of Truth do not so much commend the Discretion of such as take a liberty from thence to act only for the Concerns of the Vain and Transient World and then lose their Souls at last This is the last Part of my Arguing Application to ascertain the Existence of the Great Salvation And now having dispatch'd my First Subject of Discourse upon that future Salvation which the Jaylor Enquired after and made the best Use and Application I could think proper as to the Ages Irreligious Humour I am fairly prepared to undertake the next Discourse I promised you And that is To demonstrate by an uncontroulable Argument that there is an Obligation upon every Man whomsoever in the very instant in which they now exist without any pretensions to make any delay of following the Jaylor's Example in seeking after and then acting what they should do to be Saved And to make this Argument plainly Convincing I shall move to the Conclusion of it from these three Approveable Premises apartly to be Considered I. First I hope I need not Question your Belief but that the only Season in which it is possible for any Man to persue and finish the Work of his Salvation must be acted in the compass of his Mortal Life For when that short Scene is over there will be no after Attempts to be made no Rafts to save Life after that Natural Shipwrack The foolish Virgins knock'd too late for Admission The undressed Guest had no Apology for himself when the time was elaps'd in which he might have put on his Wedding Garment This the First II. Secondly as my next Promise let me persuade you to consider what the Worth is which must be done in that short Season before you can secure your Salvation at last And that I may assist your Thoughts and Memories therein give me Leave to offer a summary Account in few Words of that Work which is to be done to attain your Salvaion First I desire you to consider what Work your Intellectual Faculties have to perform that is fully to understand what that whole Will of God is which must be done if you expect ever to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven saith our Saviour Mat. 7. 21. And are you sure that you have done all that is morally possible in that Point to avoid the Danger of perishing for the willful Ignorance of your Duty in any Part of it And then have you inform'd your selves how many unruly Passions you are to subdue how many impetuous Appetites to be restrain'd how many Temptations to contest and overcome sometimes in Cases which may perhaps make a Self-denial as severe as if you were obliged to pluck out your righ Eye or cut off your right Hand as our Saviour advertiseth Mat. 5. 29 30. in a particular Case Then consider how nice and numerous the Cases of Justice and a peaceable Life are and then to understand how necessary it is that Satisfactions are to be undertaken when Breaches are made as to either Duty After that I may put you in mind how many Possibilities of doing good God hath allowed you and for the Omission of which you will be accountable at the last Day Mat. 25. Then advertise your selves how many Prayers and Acts of Devotion will be sufficient to answer St. Paul's Injunction of performing them without ceasing 1 Thes 5. 17. And are you sure you have discharged your Duty of receiving the holy Sacrament with that Frequency which St. Paul intimates 1 Cor. 11. 25. and which holy Men in holy times carefully practised But to shorten this my Undertaking take all the Commandments into a general View of your Consciences and examin your selves whether you live knowingly deliberately and habitually in the Transgression of any one of them And if so then consider what must follow that is either your inevitable eternal Ruin or a timely Repentance And when it is come to the Case of repenting are you sure you have found out the true Notion of that necessary Duty and the various Acts and Circumstances of performing it It may cost you some Labour to be delivered from the mistaken Senses of them both And then when you come to lead a new Life the chief End and Design of repenting and that you can't but observe the many Failings and Imperfections which the greatest Care can't always avoid And that then nothing else but an intire Sincerity of Endeavour will avail Your next Work then must be how to acquit your Consciences as to the Reality of that Sincerity A Case that hath perplexed some very good Mens Minds unto their Lives End Now take all this whole work into one View and seriously think with your selves whether every Man is not necessarily oblig'd on that account instantly to enter upon the Jaylor's Design in Enquiring what he should do to be Saved But if it be Objected in confront to my Representation of this Work that the Apostles did only advertise the Jaylor to Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and he should be saved Ver. 31. In Answer to this it 's to be presumed that the Apostles intended that he should afterward take upon him and proceed in the whole Discipleship of Christ of which Faith was to be but an entring and an initiating Grace and Duty Had the Jaylor gone no further than Believing he had stumbled at the Threshold of all his Hopes as too many amongst us I fear have done when they pretended to make Faith as it were an abridged Sum of the Gospel-Condition not considering that if they would enter into Life besides their Faith they must keep All the Commandments Mat. 19. 17. to which Faith was only designed to be a Beginning and afterward to be a constant and necessary Attendant
heightning degrees of Wealth or Honour shall be offended and think themselves too wise to be so reproached by these my severe Representations and shall scornfully Deride us as the greatest Fools for doing so let them tell themselves that for certain at one time or other especially when they are in a near prospect of their Dying Periods they will justifie us to their Cost that all that I have said is true And then may wish that I had exposed their Follies with greater degrees of Severity that they might caution their Friends and Relatives no longer to play the Fools in such comparatively ridiculous ways of Living as must necessarily hazard the loss of God's Love and Favour the sweet Peace of their own Minds and their being Eternally at last Undone in a future World And then let them consider whether their Unbelieving Principles or their hopes of any worldly Advantages can shelter them from those dreadful Events But now on the other hand let them be assured that whensoever any of those sinful and foolish Delayers shall begin to enter upon thoughts and sincere purposes to act for their Eternal Salvation they shall certainly then make the first Step and begin to be themselves come into their Wits come out out of Bedlam and act their own Rational Natures so as to deserve the honourable Title of being Men. Of this the wise Ecclesiastes gives us a clear assurance Fear God saith he and keep his Commandments Eccl. 12. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is Man Not as some mistakingly would have it the Duty or the whole Duty of Man but positively this is Man which he was not justly to be so accounted till a Religious Mind and Life had made him one And then further when he goes about to turn himself to be a Man St. Paul calls it the new Man he will every day be more and more improving himself for a Happy Life even in this VVorld so far as a mortal State will admit of it with the common allays of the Worlds unavoidable Inconveniencies His Pious Mind will never let him want a directive Guide how to manage his best Prosperity discreetly and satisfactorily to himself and create a Love and a Respect from all that depend upon him and most probably a Friendship from all those with whom he converseth and holds Neighbourly communions And if it happens that any adverse Fortune or cross Accidents sometimes occur his wise and religious Mind will be ready to suggest Reasons enough why he should bear them patiently sometimes even Eligibly and always Thankfully And if he hears the noise of VVars and National Commotions when VVorldly Men are harrassing their Minds with Fears and passionate Concerns for Parties and Interests he bears the Character of the Psalmist's Blessed Man that fears the Lord Psal 112 that is Verse the seventh He will not be afraid of any Evil Tidings for his Heart standeth fast and believeth in the Lord. He quietly awaits God's Pleasure in the Issue and Event of things and is content that he should be Glorified either in his Mercy or Justice as he pleases And if our Pious regarder of his Salvation shall perceive that the days are coming on in which he is like to have no pleasure in them he will be so far from troubling himself with murmuring complaints that God gave him a Mortal Life on those as Worldlings imagine hard terms that he shall intellectually rejoyce that God and Nature allows him such a respit in which he may have time perfectly to Extirpate the very relicts of every evil Habit contracted perhaps in the inadvertent part of his Life And then that all the beguiling temptations of the vain VVorld are now growing every day more and more pleasantly insipid to him And then it being presum'd that in his declining Age he may have less to do with the Affairs of the VVorld and but little attendance to be given to the Satisfactions of Sense he finds that he hath a happy leisure to be endeavouring to dress up his Soul with such Divine Qualifications as may make himself as like as possible to the Nature of that Good God especially in his impartially Universal Love and Goodness unto whose Beatifical Presence he hopes ere long to have a merciful admission And when he is endeavouring to finish that principal design he finds that he hath time also to form his Mind with those obliging Qualities and Graces which may adapt him to be a fit Companion in that Blessed Society where the Holy Angels and the Spirits of Just Men made Perfect being all of a Piece in their Tempers do keep up a sweet and happy Communion of Joy and Love without any such interruptions as they met withall in the former froward VVorld FINIS Books Printed for and Sold by R. Clavel at the Peacock in S. Paul's Church-Yard THE Church History cleared from the Roman Forgeries and Corruptions found in the Councils and Baronius In Four Parts From the Beginning of Christianity to the End of the fifth General Council 553. By Thomas Comber D. D. Dean of Durham The Reasons of Praying for the Peace of Jerusalem In a Sermon Preached before the Queen at White-Hall on the Fast-Day being Wednesday August 29. 1694. By Thomas Comber D. D. Dean of Durham and Chaplain in Ordinary to their Majesties Printed by their Majesties special Command A Daily Office for the Sick Compil'd out of the Holy Scriptures and the Liturgy of our Church with occasional Prayers Meditations and Directions The Catechism of the Church with Proofs from the New-Testament and some additional Questions and Answers divided into twelve Sections by Z. I. D. D. Author of the Book lately published Entituled a Daily Office for the Sick with Directions c. A Church Catechism with a brief and easie Explanation thereof for the Help of the meanest Capacities and weakest Memories in order to the establishing them in the Religion of the Church of England By T. C. Dean of Durham The Pantheon representing the Fabulous Histories of the Heathen Gods and most Illustrious Heroes in a short plain and familiar Method by the way of Dialogue for the Use of Schools Written by Fra. Pomey of the Society of Jesus Author of the French and Latin Dictionary for the Use of the Dauphin A Second Admonition to the Dissenting Inhabitants of the Diocess of Londonderry concerning Mr. Boyse's Vindication of his Remarks on a Discourse concerning the Inventions of Men in the VVorship of God with an Appendix containing an Answer to Mr. Boyse's Objections against the Sign of the Cross By William Lord Bishop of Derry