Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	acknowledge_v	faith_n	rule_n	2,324	5	7.1280	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67184	A sermon at the funeral of the right honourable Henry, Earl of Warrington, Baron Delamer of Dunham-Massy, Lord Lieutenant of the County-Palatine of Chester, and one of the Lords of their Majesties most honourable Privy Council preached at Bowden in Cheshire / by Richard Wroe ...	Wroe, Richard, 1641-1717.	1694 (1694)	Wing W3728; ESTC R12138	16,713	33

on new and contrary tempers and dispositions Death I know makes a great change but it is more in respect of the outward than the inner man and is a change of condition rather than of complexion And tho the putting off these mortal bodies will leave the Soul and its faculties much more free and exalt its powers and better its operations and thereby heighten and improve those minds which were before disposed to Virtue and Goodness yet I cannot conceive how it should possibly effect so great an alteration as in one moment to change the whole temper of the Soul and superinduce new habits of Virtue and strong dispositions to Goodness where there were none before Now if men carry their good or bad dispositions with them into the other world suitable to these must their portion there be since there must be likeness and correspondence between the Object and the Faculty before Happiness can result from them Happiness consisting in the agreeableness of the one to the other which unites the Soul to the Object of Bliss and endears the Enjoyment of it So that we may presume to say That a wicked man cannot be happy even in Heaven it self and were such an one caught up with St. Paul into the Third Heavens he would find himself uneasy amidst all the satisfaction of those blissful Regions as being wholly a Stranger to such pure and spiritual Joys and should God forbear to punish wicked men in the other World yet they cannot be happy there with the Joys of good men because their minds are altogether indisposed for them and even the delights of Paradise would afford no relish to their vitiated and depraved Appetites As all true happiness and satisfaction of mind springs more from an inward than an outward cause so is the happiness of Heaven to be estimated not so much from the place as the temper and disposition of its blessed Inhabitants and their fitness to be received into and made partakers of its ravishing Glories but they that have never accustomed themselves to the divine relish of true Goodness cannot taste the delights of the heavenly Manna they only that have been nourished with the true Bread of Life here are fit Guests to sit down with Christ and eat and drink with him in his Kingdom St. Paul says of the vital energy and life of Christianity Our Conversation Phil. 3. 20. is in Heaven And so must ours be before we can be in a capacity to be received into those glorious Mansions and welcomed into the blessed Society of Angels and Saints Let not any then that retain their Sins talk of going to Heaven No 't is too heavy a Clog for any to ascend with thither or suppose they could alas poor Souls how would they stay what would they do there there 's nothing to gratify their sensual Appetites nothing agreeable to their carnal Desires all the Enjoyments there are chaste and pure all the Delights spiritual and cannot be relished by unhallowed minds And if ever we hope to enter there we must predispose our Souls for it by an holy that is an heavenly Conversation and then we have trimm'd our Lamps and are ready to enter in with the Bridegroom and are cloathed in the Wedding Garment and shall be made acceptable Guests at the Table of the Lord and taste the Dainties that are there prepared Now if these things be so as the Wise-man says Righteousness tendeth to life but he that pursueth evil Prov. 11. 19. pursueth it to his own death If the paths of Piety certainly lead men to Bliss but Sin by its own fatal tendency plunges men into Misery then we see how reasonable it is to conclude That there are two opposite states of Rewards and Punishments hereafter wherein mens condition shall be correspondent to their Conversation here besides the express Revelations of God's Word that so it shall be And there is nothing can shake this Belief or make men doubt the certainty of it unless they can imagine what some have fancied that there is a third state after Death wherein men may repair and better themselves and so after some time recover their lost estate To remove this Scruple I add That there is no middle state after Death no change of Condition or altering it for the better the Tree must fall South or North and where it falls it must lie there it shall be Perhaps it may be thought that this Consequence is not necessarily enforced from the words and it may be said that possibly the Tree may fall some other way for though only South and North are mentioned yet there are more Points in the Compass And I know the Romish Commentators are very jealous of interpreting this place of a future state lest it should seem to thwart their darling Doctrine of Purgatory and Lorinus craftily endeavours thus to shuffle it off That if it should be understood in that sense it would not consist with the Notion of Limbus Patrum the place wherein they suppose the Souls of the Patriarchs to be detained till Christ by his Sufferings had overcome Death and first opened the gate of Heaven to all Believers And we cannot help it if the place be as repugnant to the Notion of the one as it is to the other and since both of them are uncertain and want proof themselves neither of them can be evidence for the other nor evade the force of the Argument drawn from these words against the being of any such middle state or place as these men fondly imagine For the force of the proof lies not in the former part its falling South or North but in the relation that its lying has to its fall which way so e're that be directed there it remains fixed and unmoveable And though I will not insist on that as a sufficient Argument that there being only two opposite extremes named therefore there cannot be a third a negative Argument from Scripture being not always conclusive yet in matters of Doctrine and Objects of Faith where the Scriptures are silent there they are not to be urged as necessary Points since Scripture is the Rule of Faith and contains every thing necessary to be believed Suffice it then to say That since Scripture mentions but two states the one of the faithful in Heaven the other of the unrighteous and impenitent in Hell we acknowledge no other we believe no more I have already accounted to you how emphatically the Scripture represents how particularly it describes the nature of both I shall here only add to it that had we no other evidence than what this Book of Ecclesiastes affords we may safely infer that all Notion of a third or middle state is utterly excluded We are told that at our dissolution The dust shall return to the Chap. 12. 7. earth as it was and the Spirit to God that gave it there 's a different place assigned for each part of our Compositum And of the

the Law was much concern'd though he had much more reason to have consulted his own safety by a seasonable absence than to have added to his Indisposition by bringing it with him to the House and there wrestling with it tho fasting and empty and would not leave it when afresh seiz'd with it till his Strength though not his Spirit and Courage fail'd And when he could no longer resist the Attacks of his Disease which proved a Fever of the Spirits which is dangerous to most and was to him fatal he then but not before left off what he had all along pursued the Honour of Justice the Vindication of the Laws and the Good of his Countrey and whoever does so is a Patriot while he lives and will survive in the memory of good men when he dies His behaviour in his last Sickness I wish I were so happy as to be able to account to you from the knowledge and observation of those that were Witnesses of it especially from that Reverend Person the Pious and Learned Dr. Horneck who was called to administer the last Office of Ghostly Counsel and Comfort to him but doubt not but it was suitable to the Religion he profest becoming his Profession and worthy of his Character For he had a true Value for Religion and such Notions of it as became a Great Mind informed by God's Word and assisted by his Spirit His Zeal against Popery was far from being without Knowledge and his Love and Charity for all Protestants with his warm Endeavours for their common good and safety were conspicuous to the World Yet this I cannot but say for the Honour of our Church as well as in his Praise that notwithstanding the Liberty for Protestants of different Persuasions given by an Act of Parliament in the making and advising of which he had no inconsiderable share yet he kept constant to our Communion frequenting the Publick Ordinances and Administrations and using in his Family the Publick Offices and Service appointed by the Church And his Example was not only an Argument to prevail with others but a Credit to the way he profest manifesting on all occasions a real esteem for true Goodness and the influence that his Religion had on his Actions and Conversation Of which I shall mention two or three Instances which never fail to accompany the true spirit and vital energy of sincere Religion 1. His forwardness to discourage Vice and Immorality And that not only among his Servants and Domesticks but elsewhere in the Neighbourhood where his Frowns might check or his Authority command The Disorders too frequently allowed in Houses of publick resort no sooner reach'd his ears than they received a sharp rebuke from him with a severe caution for the future to restrain their entertainment of lewd Company or of any at unseasonable hours the common and too fashionable Vices of Drink●ng and Swearing were as much discountenanced by him in others as they were far from his own practice Now a Magistrate both rebukes and commands with Authority that makes his own Patern the Copy for others to write by 2. His desires of reconciliation and a b●tt●r correspondence where differences and animosities had been too much fomented too long retained Perhaps a proneness to passion may not altogether be excused yet is less blameable where it 's the effect of temper and constitution nor is of so malevolent an Influence where accompanied with a readiness to forgive and be reconciled to which he was so far from nanifesting an averseness that there are some that hear me that can name the Instances of his great Condescention and Benignity in pardoning and passing by Injuries and being reconciled upon easy terms when it was in his power to have ruined those who professed Enmity against or mis-understood him and greatly to have profited himself by taking those advantages which the Law would have given him Nor was this true Greatness of Mind expressed only in Relation to matters of Scandal and Calumny but even to the most visible Attempts against his Life That which most sensibly affected him was the Grudges and Animosities which had so unhappily divided the Interest of this County in which he made so great a Figure I say affected I will add afflicted him too having heard him passionately bewail the ill effects of them and heartily wish that he were able to redress them and I think there is not any that will witness against him that ever he made use of the Authority that this Government entrusted him with to widen the Breach or heighten the Discontents but rather endeavoured to apply Lenitives than Causticks and carried his Power and Interest with so even a Balance that none could justly take offence unless such as were less disposed to Unity and Agreement than he was 'T is too common in the world to see Power and Authority exercised meerly for the advantage of a Party or to carry on the projects of Ambition and Self-design or perhaps the worse attempts of Revenge and Malice whereas it is designed more for the good of others than the advantage of those that are intrusted with it and they only act like God the Fountain of Power who dispence the influence of their Authority in acts of Bounty and Kindness and to serve the ends of Peace and publick Good Would those that survive this Great Man pursue the same methods and heartily join in the Endeavours of Unity and Accomodation they might hope to see what I dare say he would have rejoiced to behold the Union of different Parties and Interests happily cemented in a kind Correspondence and friendly Agreement 3. His regard to the Sacred Oracles of God the Holy Scriptures the Rule of our Duty and Guide of our Actions and his care in reading and consulting them to cull out such Directions as might be useful upon all occasions and applicable to the several emergencies of his Actions To which end he had drawn up several Heads above an Hundred in number in a large Book for that purpose and under them had noted with his own Hand such places of Scripture as were properly reducible to them whence he might furnish himself with Rules and Instructions that he might still act agreeable to the directions of God's Holy Word An example so much the more Commendable and Remarkable as possibly more rare in persons of his Station and variety of Avocations and would to God it were not too epidimical a mistake not only in Men of Honour but of Parts and Wit yea and Learning too to lay aside the Bible as a dull insipid Book fit only for the Clergy to consult or melan●holly folks to pore on Alas they little know the worth of it that slight or disesteem it but they that diligently consult it as the Rule of life and manners the more they read it the more they admire it and as David and all Good men have experienced it find it a Lanthorn to their feet and a Light to their