Selected quad for the lemma: sense_n
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A66978
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A funeral sermon, occasioned by the death of Mrs. Jane Papillon late wife of the very worthy Thomas Papillon, Esq; first preached July 24. 1698. and now published at his request. By John Woodhouse.
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Woodhouse, John, d. 1700.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing W3462; ESTC R220039
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22,486
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67
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avoid being so called Thirdly See hence How little Reason Souls in Christ have to be fond of Life or afraid of Death What fond of Labour and Sorrow What afraid of Rest and Blessedness your Case Christians is not like that of other Men whilst you live and are present in the Body you are absent from the Lord from the Joys of your Lord when you dye in the Lord you enter upon this Blessedness Tho' this Portal be dark and uncomfortable it is an Inlet to this Transcendent Glory to us and to our Dear Friends that dye in Jesus Fourthly See hence What little reason we have to lament immoderately for our Deceased Godly Friends that dye before us What because they are blessed before us Fifthly Learn hence How Holiness becomes so absolutely necessary to this Blessedness It 's that without which it cannot be enjoyed You have heard wherein this Blessedness lyes what Ingredients it hath in it that it includes the Perfection of our Natures and Satisfaction thereof Blessedness is but perfected Holiness Now how impossible is it that Holiness should be perfected in Heaven that was never begun on Earth when this is the State we are to be made meet for So that a Heart conformed to God is in the Nature of the Thing as well as by the Pleasure of God absolutely necessary to a Felicitating Enjoyment of God Wicked Men hope God will save them in their Sins take them to Heaven in their unsanctified State and Temper of Soul which is not only repugnant to the Nature and Word of God as it were easie to evidence but to the Nature of that Happy because Holy State for what Philosophy can shew you true Pleasure and Blessedness can be obtained without a proper suitableness of the Faculty to the Object and Exercise of the Heavenly State A Holy Nature is necessary to the Enjoyment of a Holy God How often have you heard that if it could be supposed that a Carnal Animal Unsanctify'd Wretch void of a Divine Nature and God-like Temper could enter into Heaven where we are as sure as God can make us no such Wretch can come he would find nothing there that would make him Happy no Objects would be found there suitable to his Fleshly Appetites to feed upon and no Holy Appetites in him to relish the pure Pleasures of that Happy because Holy State Oh! if Sinners could but sense this that is so true in it self so evident in Scripture and to Reason it self as depraved as it is surely they would bethink themselves pray for and endeavour in the use of all God's appointed Means to be partakers of a Divine Nature qualifying for Glory Sinner let me tell thee 'till thy Nature and Temper the Disposition and Constitution of thy Soul be turned towards God and Holiness to love and hate as God doth thou mayest dream of Heaven as thine but it will prove but a Dream If thou live and dye short of real Holiness in thy Heart and Life thou must lye down in Everlasting Sorrow short of true Happiness Well then Sinner go home and take this with thee to thy retiring Place and seriously consider how frivolous all thy Pretensions are for Blessedness whilst thou art short of this real Holiness without which thou art absolutely uncapable of it Secondly For Exhortation Is it so that they who dye in the Lord are Blessed Oh! secure to your selves a Share in this Blessedness In Order to which ask your own Hearts whether this be like to be your Case Let me Begg of you to deal Faithfully with your own Souls in a Matter of this Importance There is a Blessedness which Eye has not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it entred into the Heart of Man to conceive adequately of Have I an Interest have I a Share in it Will it be mine at last The Time will come will shortly come it may suddenly come that I must Dye Am I in Jesus Shall I Dye in Jesus Have I that Holiness that is Necessary to render me Meet for this Blessedness Oh! Christians would you put these Question in good Earnest to your own Consciences and take a Deliberate Answer some of you might go home with other Thoughts than you brought hither Do we see the Seats of our deceased Friends emptyed from day to day Will our Places shortly be Vacant as theirs are Must I Dye also and if I Dye in the Case I am in shall I Dye in the Lord Shall I be Blessed And give thy Soul no Rest 'till Conscience well informed and well awakened can furnish thee with a Satisfying Answer that when thou dyest tho' in the State thou art in thou dyest in the Lord and shalt be Blessed in the Eternal Enjoyment of him Secondly As ever thou wouldest be Blessed by Dying in the Lord Get into him United to him Interested in him as thy Lord and Saviour This I told you was supposed There is a Blessedness belongs to them that Dye in the Lord but none can share in it but such as are in him United to him Sinner art thou willing to be in the Lord in order to a Safe and Comfortable Dying in him and sharing in in this Blessedness with him Oh that it were so Oh that thou wert willing heartily willing for then the Hardest of the Work were over Our Dearest Lord hath done his part he hath satisfied Justice and Merited Mercy stands willing to Entertain thee Nay Courts and Solicits thy Compliance with him I know but three things and all highly reasonable in themselves that are absolutely Necessary to thy being in the Lord without which thou canst not Dye in him and be Blessed with him Let these be done and this Affair is well Secured First Give Credit and Assent to all that the Scriptures say of Christ Believing Acts 24. 14. all things that are said in the Law and the Prophets For these are they that Testifie of him And as Faith Unites the Soul to Christ so this is the first Work of Faith the Foundation of all the Rest But this must be an Energetical Operative and Influential Assent to all the Discoveries made of Christ Here is a Gospel that brings good Tydings of him and thou sayest thou believest it but I am notwithstanding all my Charity verily afraid with very many that say so it is not so for they do not carry it as if they did believe it Did they believe it they would not dare to live so opposite to it to the holy Ends of it therefore rest not in a naked Assent hereto but bring thy Heart thereby Secondly To give a Cordial Consent to the Terms proposed by him Thy Assent which is an Act of the Intellect or rather of the Soul as knowing the Truth and Goodness of Gospel Proposals must be accompanied or followed with an unseigned Consent to the Terms on which he is offered to be thine this Act of Faith is called Receiving of Christ As many Joh. 1.
must render it I must do it as I can because I can do it no better Viz. Oh the Blessednesses of that Man not Blessed Adjectively and in the Concrete but Blessednesses Substantively and in the Abstract not Blessedness in the Singular Number but Blessednesses in the Plural and O the Blessednesses A compleat Complication of them in that Soul that lives in Christ walks in him and dyes in him and though Philologers are not certainly agreed Whether it be a Noun Substantive or Adjective Plural containing all kind of Felicity or an Adverb or Interjection Well is it for that Man Happily is he Provided for Yet they seem agreed that which soever it be and one they generally think it must be it hath the force Habet affluentiam omnium bonorum vel omnium bonorum aggregatione perfectus Modis omnibus accumulate beatus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multum gaudens Others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à vehementiore gaudio of a Pathetick Joyful Acclamation and then they come much to one as the Learned Drusius hath it He is abundantly and every way blessed beyond Expression I have the rather Noted this because the Seventy Translate the Hebrew Word which we render Blessed by the very Original Word in my Text which Philologers derive from Words importing Great Joy Joy unspeakable and as I may say full of Glory It does denote that a Soul in Christ when he dyes shall have such a Blessedness and Joy such a fulness of Joy and Pleasure that he shall neither want nor wish for more But not to stay upon the Name which was to lead us into the Thing Let us see what we can say of it And O! how gladly would I commend the Blessedness of this State to you that I might commend this Dear and Blessed Jesus to you Verily Sirs you could never set so light by this Jesus as you do if you did but know the Worth of him if you knew your Need of him and what you should have by him If I fail in this I shall avail you little The dead that dye in the Lord are blessed Which does denote First A Separation a Removal of all that is Evil and Distressing There shall when thou dyest in the Lord be a Separation from all Evils Natural and Moral that are so great a part of thy Distress here Every one feels the Evil of Afflictions every one can complain of this Plague of the Heart every one hath his own Body of Sin and his own Burthen I do not know any is without one you do not feel mine nor I yours but I feel one and you another Oh! what a Complaining World is this Sickness Pain Calamity Losses of Relations Crosses on the one Hand and Moral Evil which is the greater Evil on the other Hand the Evil of Sin Dwelling and Working in us The Tender-hearted Soul that hath a new Nature in it that is set against Sin hath a very tender Sense of the Evil of that Sin that dwells in it and is an implacable Enemy to it I am sure it made Paul pour out more Complaints than all his Stripes and Stoning Irons and Imprisonment did Where do you hear him complain how adverse how miserable soever his Case was as he does on this Occasion O wretched man that I Rom. 7. 24. am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death Sin fate uneasie upon his Spirit tho' it was not Reigning and Allowed but Unallowed and Hated Well Soul bear up if thou be but heartily come to Jesus if thou art but one of those that are willing to follow this Lamb whithersoever he goes I can tell thee Good Tydings of Great Joy it cannot be long e're thy Blessed Jesus will deliver thee from all this thy Anguish Vexation and Miseries shall all be done away All thy Sweat thy Labours shall cease all Tears be wiped from thine Eyes and all Sorrows done away with the Causes of them and though thou art now conversant with a Sluggish and Sleepy and Hypocritical Heart thou knowest not what to do with it thou bringest it to Ordinances and God in them to better it and this without any great and good Effect hitherto Bear up Soul this Holy Jesus hath undertaken for thee thou art in him and thou shalt dye in him from henceforth thou shalt not feel the Temptations the sinful Workings of a Naughty Heart Oh! that will be a Joyful Change to a Holy Soul that is under the Tender Sence of these things here This is one part of the Blessedness as it denotes an Abolition of and Separation from the Evils of this Life both Natural and Moral from that of Affliction and that of Sin which tho' it be rather Negative than Positive yet it is that without which positive Blessedness cann't be enjoyed None can be fully happy with so much Misery hanging about him and pressing upon him Methinks therefore it should be Joy to Holy Souls to wait for and expect such a day when Sin and Sorrow shall be fully done away and shall be known no more for ever Secondly I must tell you it does denote A fruition of the most felicitating Good the best Good that the Soul is capable of the Blessed God that Summum Bonum that the blind Heathens fought after so long to so little purpose Eustachius in his Excellent Ethicks and our other Masters in Ethicks when they write of this tell us that Felicity or Blessedness is either Objective or Formal Objective Felicity denotes no more but God the Object but Formal Felicity denotes more Some kind of Union to Communion with and Injoyment of this Felicitating Object and this is as it were to be made one with it They commonly place it in two things give me leave to put it in three or four 1. It lyes in the Contemplation of this delightful Object 2. In a Delightful Love of it 3. In a Participation or Enjoyment of it 4. In a Contentation in it When the Soul shall be let into this State it will be a State of Possession and Fruition which as far as I can understand is imported in these four Words First Knowledge or Contemplation The People of God shall know him in another manner than now they do It is called Seeing of God and the Beatifick Vision What sensible Views God will give them to gratifie their Bodily Eyes when they are re-united to their Souls we cannot tell tho' it seems rational to think all our Powers even the lowest of them shall be suitably employed but it will be an intelligible or an intellectual Vision a rational Discovery of the Excellency of this God and his Christ which gives Rise to this Happiness which the Spirits made perfect shall be everlastingly employ'd to view and contemplate with intense and pleasurable Applications of Mind I dare not herd with those bold Presumers that dare to determine whether it be the Divine Essence that is thus view'd immediately or some Created Glory flowing