Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A92746
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A sermon preached at the funeral of the Lady Newland. At Alhallows Barkin, London By John Scott, D.D.
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Scott, John, 1639-1695.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing S2075; ESTC R229814
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11,228
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21
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think our selves concerned to seek any other Country or Habitation But Faith saith the Apostle is the substance of things hop'd for and the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11. 1. i. e. 'T is that which realizes Heaven to us and possesses our Minds with its Being and Existence and when this is once done one would think it should be impossible to withold us from the quest and pursuit of it especially if to our Faith we add the next thing which this seeking implies and that is 2. A lively hope and expectation of enjoying it For no Man will seek after that which he never hopes to find or enjoy A Man may possibly be so extravagant as to desire to fly up to the Stars that so he may the better survey their refulgent Bodies and search into their Form and Substance but no Man was ever so mad to attempt it because he knows it is impossible And so if a Man did only believe there were a Heaven of joys above but had no hope of coming thither he might possibly desire against hope and wish that he could fly up thither but he could never be so vain as to indeavour his despair would cramp the sinews of his action and freeze up all the motions of his Soul and all the Joys of Eternity would no more be able to affect or move him than the promise of a mighty Empire in the World in the Moon Wherefore to put us upon seeking after Heaven it is necessary that our Minds should be animated and enlivened with a vigorous hope and expectation of it That our Hearts should be inspired with a strong perswasion not only that there is a Heaven of Endless Joys on t'other side the Grave but that it is possible for us to arrive to it and that if by a patient continuance in well-doing we faithfully contend and aspire after it we shall be sure not to fall short of it which perswasion is sufficient to animate the most dull and restful Soul and make it all Life and Spirit and Wing in the pursuit of Heaven and Immortality 3. Our seeking this abiding City doth also imply our proposing it to our selves as the great end and aim of all our actions For that which a Man seeks after he makes the great end of his search and prosecution and no Man can be said to seek in earnest after Heaven who doth not set it up as the great mark of his Actions and the ultimate point and centre of all his motions For thus in Rom. 6. 22. Everlasting Life is expresly said to be the end of having our Fruit unto Holiness and as such we are bid to direct our Actions to it to believe in Christ unto Everlasting Life 1 Tim. 1. 16. and to do good that we may lay hold on Eternal Life 1 Tim. 6. 18 19. and consequently Heaven is described to be the Christian 's Canaan to which we are to direct all our steps while we are travelling through this World Heb. 11. 14 15. and the whole Life of a Christian is exprest by seeking it Mat. 6. 33. So that our seeking this abiding City that is to come implies our walking on through the whole course of this Life with Heaven in our Eyes and constantly directing all our steps and actions thither not that it is necessary we should actually aim at Heaven in every action we perform for that is impossible our thoughts being very often otherwise imployed by the necessary occasions of this Life and always unable to attend many things at once It is sufficient therefore that we habitually intend and aim at Heaven and propose it as the ordinary and fixed end of our Actions that we make it the standing Goal of our Race and in our ordinary course level our thoughts and words and actions thither But I see I must hasten Again 4. And lastly Our seeking this abiding City doth also imply our diligent pursuit of it by such a course of actions as are most suitable to it and do tend most directly towards it For seeking is a regular action and implies the prosecuting an end by due and proper means so that our seeking Heaven denotes our vigorous prosecution of it by a course of Heavenly actions Wherefore since Heaven as I have often shew'd you is nothing else but the Perfection of all Vertue and Piety seeking Heaven must necessarily imply our pursuing and endeavouring after it in a constant series of Pious and Vertuous Courses in which Courses we are gradually growing up to Heaven and rising to that Blessed State in which Piety and Vertue will be our Everlasting Pleasure and Entertainment And hence we are said by patient Continuance in well-doing to seek for Honour and Glory Immortality and Eternal Life Every degree of Vertue and Piety we arrive to being a step to Glory and a Stair to the Chambers of Blessedness Wherefore our quest of Heaven is very truly described by the Apostle to consist in all diligence to add to our faith vertue and to our vertue knowledge and to our knowledge temperance and to our temperance patience and to our patience godliness and to our godliness brotherly kindness and to our brotherly-kindness charity for so saith he an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 1. 5 6 7 11. And now give me leave to conclude this Argument with three or four Inferences 1. From hence I infer how much we are obliged to be contented and satisfied under all the present Afflictions of this Life For since our abiding City is to come it can be but a little while ere all these storms will be blown over and conclude in an Everlasting Calm and when that Blessed time comes Lord How trifling and inconsiderable will all our present griefs appear And with what Contempt shall we reflect upon our present meanness of Spirit that could not bear with a few inconveniencies on the Road to the Blessed City of our abode Wherefore if our Voyage be not so pleasant as we would have it let us remember 't is not long we have but a short days Sail to Eternity and when once we are landed on that Blessed Shore with what ravishing Content and Satisfaction shall we look back on the rough and boisterous Seas we have past and for ever bless the Storms and Winds that drove us to that happy Port. Let us therefore comfort our selves with these things and when at any time our Spirits are sinking under any Worldly trouble conclude with our selves that while we have a Heaven to hope for we can never be miserable When therefore we are bemoaning our selves under present griefs and afflictions let us lift up our dejected Eyes to yonder blessed Regions of Reward and think of those Joys and Pleasures those Crowns and Everlasting Triumphs which do there await us and consider how necessary these bitter trials are to prepare us for and waft us to them And