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cause_n body_n life_n soul_n 5,160 5 5.5664 4 true
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A53333 The blessedness of good men after death a sermon preach'd at the funeral of the Revd. Mr. Henry Cornish, B.D., who died on Sunday, Decemb. 18th, in the eighty ninth year of his age and was interred on Thursday, Decemb. 22d, 1698, in the Church of Bisiter, in the County of Oxford : with a preface to rectifie some misrepresentations &c. in a late pamphlet, entitled Some remarks on the life, death, and burial of the said Mr. Cornish / by John Ollyffe ... Ollyffe, John, 1647-1717. 1699 (1699) Wing O286; ESTC R7832 31,135 36

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not he had learned from his Great Lord and Master who was kind unto all and who by his Pattern and Precepts had made Universal Love the great Character of his Religion And by this means one would think He could not have many Enemies For who could find in their Hearts to be Enemies to one in whom there was resplendent so much Goodness And this Goodness was set off by a profound Humility and low Condescension and Respect to the Meanest the Lowest the Least By this He was apt to prefer others before himself and to set a Value upon the Parts and Performances of some Young Persons above his own Gray headed Knowledge and Experience By this Kindness and Humility his Self-distrust and Self-abasement He was preserved from the Fiery and Furious Zeal which is the Blemish of some of all Parties that differ in some Circumstantials of Religion and Worship He could not imagine why a Difference in some Circumstantials should make Men Hate and Curse one another among whom there was a good Accord in the Main and Substantial Points of Christian Doctrine Therefore He could bear a Kind and Friendly Respect to other Good Men of other Perswasions besides his own as He would hope for the like from them He had a great Calmness in his own Temper but He was Forward and Fervent in Spirit in the Service of his God as appeared in his Devotions in a Private but much Honoured Family where I have heard him And his long and continu'd Labour in the Service of God in that Way wherein He thought He might Glorifie God even to extreme Old Age is a great Instance of his Delight therein of his Pious Zeal for the promoting of Religion and of his Earnest Desire of the Eternal Welfare of Men. He always appeared to me to be one of Eminent Piety of Exact Walking of an Healing Spirit and to be full of Love to God and Good Men of different Denominations He was not for a Wrangling or Disputative Divinity which tends to Gender Strife but for Plain Practical Godliness in its Life and Power which hath always indeed most Sweetness in it and so will especially appear to have at the last His Afflictions I hear in many Respects have been many but that his Faith and Patience also have been as Eminent Wherein He deserves as in many other Things your Pious Imitation In a Word He Lived long in the Exercise of Piety towards God and of Good Will to Men and how He Died you know I could gladly have enlarged much more upon his Character but these few Things I could not but mention being always bound to have his Memory in Honour For I must ever acknowledge I have had him of Old in many Respects my Friend in some Respects as my Father and Patron and in some others a Guide and Director when I first entred my self upon this Sacred Function This Acknowledgment I cannot but take this Opportunity to express nor do I know any just Reflections that any can make upon it I shall now only make an Inference or two from what I have said on the foregoing Subject and then Conclude First To Comfort and Prepare Good Men for the Expectation of their Death that they may not be Frighted at the Approach of it as such a Dreadful Thing it being most certain that when they remove out of this Tabernacle they enter into an Estate of present Bliss in the presence of their Lord. If the Soul indeed were to lye in a stupid Lethargy in the Grave and have no more Sense or Reflection or Enjoyment after the time of Dissolution they should desire to continue here as long as they can that they may bring more Honour to God in the World and so might further their Reward hereafter thereby And they might have just Cause to take Death for their Enemy whensoever it comes that should deprive them of so great Advantages here and bring them none in the room But there is no fear of all this The Soul is an Active Spark the Breath of the Almighty which whilst it is in the Body by the Laws of Union that were fix'd in the Original Creation by the great Creator must sympathize with it But when the Body is no longer a tolerable Habitation for it it will then Dislodge and take its Flight and the Holy Angels wait to carry it aloft through all the Airy Armies of invisible Fiends to place it above out of the reach of all their Malice For the Soul is a Thinking Substance which hath no Relation to Matter but is of another Nature from it and hath quite other Properties in its Idea And being Immaterial it is not subject to Putrifaction or Dissolution of Parts because it hath no Parts and therefore none to be dissolved but must in its own Nature Subsist and Live still But whatever the Philosophy of the Soul may be we have full assurance from Divine Revelation of its continued Life and greater Perfection and Enjoyment after Death than before Mat. 10.28 Our Saviour told his Disciples That Men tho' they might kill the Body yet were not able to kill the Soul and therefore bid them not be affraid of them Rom. 8. The Body indeed must Die because of Sin but the Spirit the better part is Life because of Righteousness So that Good Men have no Cause to be mightily Affrighted at the Approach of Death For tho' it be the King of Terrors to outward appearance yet they may look upon it as a Routed or Conquered Enemy as a Serpent that hath lost its Sting and Strength which howsoever it may Hiss and show its Rage and Fury yet cannot hurt So that Good Men may Triumph over it and over all Things else besides because neither Death Rom. 8.38 nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor Things present nor Things to come nor Height nor Depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate them from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. But in and over all these Things they are more than Conquerors through him that Loved them Death is now rather a Friend to them the Messenger of the great King to invite them to his Supper which he hath prepared for them The same Comfort there is at the Departure of Others Friends and Relations that Die in the Lord. For now they are past from all their Labours and Troubles from all their Fears and Dangers their Pains and Sufferings whatsoever and are gone but to take Possession of the Promised Crown It is a Loss to us indeed that they are gone and Self-Love makes us to Mourn and Complain at it But what do They lose in leaving us or the World and the little Accommodations of this Life that are now entered upon the Possession of the Inheritance Tho' we lose by them because they are gone yet we ought not sure to Grudge at their Happiness Secondly To Exhort all to the Faith and