Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	death_n	life_n	sin_n	6,908	5	4.5162	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60406	A Christian's work and time of working In a sermon preached on the death of Mr. John Sorrel the younger, of Hyde-Hall in Great Waltham in the county of Essex. By Benjamin Smith, vicar there.	Smith, Benjamin, 1642 or 3-1714.	1675 (1675)	Wing S4021A; ESTC R220555	39,208	48

since they cannot there put us upon work their effects can be nothing but Eternal desperation Let us then be wise in time let us remember that there is no work in death and withall remember that the night cometh and let this excite us to diligence in our duty and hasten us to work the works of him that sent us while it is day 2. VVork may be emplyed in mending what is done ill or amiss And in this sense too there is no man can work when the night comes It will be too late then to review our works with hopes to repair their defects Alas the time for these things is at an end and 't is now too late as well to mend as to make Repentance and Amendment are the works of this life single repentance is part of the misery of the next Hell is full of Penitents for there is none that comes into that place but does soon repent him of his former negligence and that he improved his time no better that he minded no more the grand Concern and made no better provision for his eternal state but this sorrow cannot end in joy nor this repentance be to salvation for 't is a repentance without a reformation and a sorrow for sin when 't is too late to forsake it As Death is inexorable and will not be deferred by entreaties so is the judgment too and will not be altered by fruitless tears and vain promises of amendment Let St. Augustin read us our doom in this case Venturum est judicium crit tunc poenitentia sed infructuosa The judgment is coming and then men will repent but it will be fruitless It will be so in respect of the product of fruits meet for repentance the forsaking of sin and leading a new life and therefore it will be fruitless too as to the ends of repentance or as to the promises that attend upon our repentance here the blotting out of our sins and a remembring our transgressions no more VVhat we do must be done here there is no returning from the dead to reform nor is there room for repentance and reformation in the grave Let the Papist talk of their Purgatory as a middle state after death where souls make satisfaction for their neglects in this life and being purified by fire pass from thence to heaven The Scripture tells us of no middle state after death between heaven and hell and of no satisfaction but what Christ made by his obedience and sufferings When we die we are determined to one of the two and all souls pass either to eternal bliss from whence is no fear of falling or to everlasting wo from whence is no hopes of returning And what satisfaction soever can be made to divine justice for sin it must either be obtained by saith in Christ and that 's onely attainable here or else 't is made by our sufferings after death and there no sufferings of ours can suffice that are not eternal So that what-ever can conduce to our eternal welfare is onely to be done and obtained here while we live there is hope if death once seize us our state is determined our work is at an end it's necessary then that we work the works of him that sent us while it is day and that because the night cometh when no man can work Let the use of all then be to perswade us to remember and practice our duty now in time to improve the present season and to use the day while it lasts and since we have heard that there is in death no doing the work that we left undone nor any mending that which was done ill let all serve to stir us up to diligence both at and in our work 1. To diligence at our work That is Constantly to employ our selves in the works of him that sent us to let pass no opportunity of serving God either in the duties of his worship or in doing good in our generations Our work is great our time is short we had need make haste and ply it hard Death is coming and the period of our dayes is at hand where it will be too late to set about our business let us then now work the works of him that sent us and happy is he whom when his Lord comes he shall find so doing 2. Let it stir us up to diligence in our work To do well what we do for there is no amendment in the grave Let us not think that any thing will serve the turn or that God will be put off with our work slightly done As we must do the works that God hath appointed so must they be done as he requires or else we may perish for failing in the manner of our duties as well as for neglecting them as to their matter Death will be sad to the unbeliever and the lewd and prosane may well dread that day but it will be as sad with the hypocrite as with them for the hypocrite and unbeliever shall have their portion together For he that has done his work onely to be seen of men or barely to stop the mouth of conscience he that works onely for by ends and employs himself though in the works that are required yet for other ends than God appointed serves himself and not God and becomes a slave to himself and his own interest and has not done the works of him that sent him because he did his works for other ends than God allows The judgment is at hand and as we shall be judged according to our works so shall our works be call'd into judgment too and be severely scann'd what they are and happy is he and onely he whose work will abide the trial And now to shut up all in the words of the Preacher Eccles 12. 13 14. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole duty of man For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil And thus I have done with my Text but the occasion upon which it was chosen administers farther matter of discourse still As I have spoken thus much to you from these words so I suppose 't is expected I should speak something more concerning the person whose Decease gave occasion to this Sermon You are not ignorant that my usuall Custom heretofore in this Case has been either to be silent altogether or to say but little For I confess my self too little a friend to that common usage to give a fair Encomium of a person whom I knew not very well meerly because it has been a custom to praise Folks when they are dead and to conclude a Funeral Sermon with a Commendation But I know you expect that I should break both my Custom and my Silence here and this I am the rather inclin'd to do because my acquaintance with him while he liv'd makes me able to speak truth

day by our practice more and more the children of Wrath and liable to the just Vengeance of God our Creator This state and consideration super-induces a new Work that we have to do which though it was none of those which man was sent to do as he was made at first for the Wise man bears witness Eccles 7. 29. that God made man pure yet man having sinn'd this is a work that God in mercy calls him to and is as necessary in order to his Eternal welfare as any he can be employed in And so the works that we have to do upon this consideration are to make our peace with God and to reform and amend our lives and wayes our work is now to believe in Jesus Christ and truly and seriously to repent us of our sins By the Law of Creation God calls us to universal Obedience and the first Covenant was Do this and live but by the Covenant of Grace we are called to believe and repent and this is the only remedy against the rigor and severities of that Law This is a Work that is necessary to be done and necessary to be done while it is day for if our peace be not made with God we are irrecoverably lost and must needs be miserable for ever Who shall secure us from the wrath of an incensed God or where or with what hopes can we appear or stand in the judgment if we have no advocate to plead our cause with the Father and have no interest in that satisfaction which Christ made to Divine Justice No Unclean thing can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven for an impure Soul is a contradiction to the enjoyments or society or works of that state and place If our hearts are not purified by the blood of Christ and a sound and sincere Repentance if our Lusts be not mortified and our evil wayes first reformed as it is impossible that so unclean a thing as such a man can be admitted into a state of the greatest p●rity and bliss so would it be impossible could he be admitted there that such a one could take any delight in it For since the pleasure of every enjoyment consi●●s in the suitablness that it hath to the mind and nature of him that enjoyes it how can Spiritual things be Joyes to a Carnal mind or Heaven be a place of delight to an Earthly minded man Wrap the Swine in fine linnen and perfume him with sweet Odours and you do him no kindness in all this he had rather be wallowing in the mire and so would the joyes of Heaven be to a sensual carnal impure minded man there being no suitableness between his Affections and those Joyes Sin must then first become a Burden to us and be matter of sorrow and real grief our Affections must first be refin'd from sensuality and impure delights before they can be made capable of relishing such sublime Joyes and tasting the sweetness of a Society and employment so all pure as that is In short we must be born again and that of the Spirit before we can either enter into or delight in the glories and happiness of that place And as Repentance and Reformation are works thus necessary to be done so to be done while it is day it being the necessary work of every day 't is necessary that we repent of every disobedience for every sin unrepented of is damning and therefore since we daily sin a daily Repentance and Amendment is needful And surely he may well be said to be more then mad that defers these Works to another time and will dare to delay his Repenting till too morrow for if we dye before our peace with God is made and are snatcht away before we Repent we are lost we perish for ever and yet to him that defers to do these Works while he may and will needs be putting them off till another time 't is no impossible thing but that he may die before these Works be done 'T is absolutely necessary that the work be done 't is absolutely as uncertain whether he that neglects to day shall have to morrow to do it in common prudence then should teach us in a matter of so great concern to close with the surer side and lay hold upon the time that we are sure of not venturing our Souls upon what may fail nor deferring the means of happiness till too morrow which whether it will ever come or no we know not That Repentance is a means of blotting out sins through Faith in Christ is a great Encouragement to our speedy setting about it but they that think it so easie to Repent that they put it off to many years hence or to Old Age or a Sick-bed may perchance be found to have been mistaken both in the nature of the thing and the time of it for surely 't is not so short a work to Repent as some would make it nor is the time that is future so certain to us as that we should venture so weighty a Concern upon it 'T is not every crying God mercy or saying that we are sorry 't is not a sigh and a dejected look that God will accept for a true repentance it requires a more inward work upon the heart and more severe mortifications than these are and whether this be a work so fit for a Sick-bed they would do well first to consider that think of turning this work over to such a time The sum of all is this Repentance is a work incumbent on us as sinners which if it be not done before we die we are miserable for ever and therefore we ought to do this work while it is day 't is dangerous ●o put it off till another time lest that time should never come for if we refuse the time that is present we have no assurance of what is future To which I shall add no more but that excellent Saying of St. Austin Deus qui poenitenti tibi promisit veniam poenitentia tua non promisit crastinum That is to say God indeed hath promised pardon to him that repents but never promised us too morrow to repent in And thus much may suffice to have spoken concerning those works that arise from that relation which we stand in towards God whether as his creatures or as sinners against him 2. There is another relation we stand in as men and that as we stand related one towards another From the former relation arose those duties which were due from man towards God from this arise those duties which are between man and man and due from one man to another And here though the Subject be changed yet the duties as to the Author of them remain the same and those works that we have to do upon this account are also the works of him that sent us For whatsoever the duties are that are to be performed from man to man they are therefore to be performed because appointed by God and enjoyn'd us as ur