Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	part_n	place_n	1,723	5	4.4749	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75710	Living loves betwixt Christ and dying Christians A sermon preached at M. Magdalene Bermondsey in Southwark, near London, June 6. 1654. At the funeral of that faithful servant of Christ Mr. Jeremiah Whitaker, Minister of the Gospel, and pastor of the church there. With a narative of his exemplarily holy life and death. By Simeon Ashe, his much endeared friend and brother. Together with poems and elegies on his death, by divers ministers in the city of London.	Ashe, Simeon, d. 1662.	1654 (1654)	Wing A3961A; ESTC R223578	67,742	92

that if Jesus Christ was here in his bodily presence among us he would not be unwilling to speak these words Our friend Whitaker sleepeth Before I begin my Narrative I crave leave to premise this viz. that though in some respects I know a more meet man might have been chosen for this work who could have done it more exactly and gracefully yet I acknowledge that my selfe am not the unmeetest considering my long and familiar acquaintance with him especially if this be added viz. that in Summer was twelve-moneth I riding with him unto Tunbridge Wells he was pleased to give me the History of his life from his youth till that time and since that time it is well known to many that no one hath had more frequent and familiar converse with him then my selfe Oh how often and with what meltings hath he poured forth his heart into my bosome in reference to all concernments personal relative private publick comfortable and uncomfortable which have deeply affected him My forgetfulnesse will necessitate the omission of many things and my faithfulnesse with prudence command me to conceal much of that which to my heart spake aloud his great goodnesse and high commendations I will suggest the sum of what I judge most convenient to discover in the report whereof my soul desireth I hope to honour God and to profit his people He was borne at Wakefield in Yorkshire in the yeare 1599. When he was sixteen years old he was sent to Cambridge and placed a Sizar in Sydney Colledge where he was much valued for his pregnant parts and Scholarship At twenty yeares of age having commenced Batchelor of Arts he was sent unto Okeham the chief Town in Rutlandshire to teach the free-School there About foure yeares after he married Chephtzibah the daughter of Master William Peachy Minister of Okeham an eminent linguist a godly man and as I am informed a painful Preacher of the Gospel who dearly loved and highly valued Master Whitaker from his first acquaintance to his end whose affections to him wrought on the marriage betwixt him and his daughter By whom God gave him foure sonnes and three daughters one sonne died at Cambridge two are ordained Ministers and the other is to be educated for the Ministery Having stayed about seven years at Okeham he was removed unto a Pastoral charge at Stretton in the same County where he continued thirteen yeares from whence he was called to Mary Magdalen Bermondsey with the approbation of many godly Ministers whom he consulted in the case where he after twelve yeares spent in his Ministerial charge finished his course upon the first day of June 1654. and fell asleep in Jesus He was betwixt fifty five and fifty six yeares old when the Lord was pleased to take him unto himself He was buried in Bermondsey Church June the sixth with expressions of much love from a very great multitude of godly persons both Ministers and others of several ranks and conditions who attended his corps to the grave By reason of much study and manifold imployments in his calling he was filled with various bodily distempers from his youth In the latter part of his time he was for sundry yeares exercised frequently with the painful diseases of the gowt and of the stone Notwithstanding the reiteration of these tormenting paines he attended upon his Ministery both at home and abroad while he was able to creep into the Pulpit or to crawle unto the Congregation But about the beginning of November last past the violent paine of the stone did in such measure and manner arrest him that from that time he continued Gods prisoner in his bed or chamber till he was set free by a long expected death Most Physicians in the City were consulted and were from time to time very ready to serve him with their advice who did unanimously conclude his sharp paines to proceed originally from an ulcer in the kidneys but immediately from an ulcer in the neck of the bladder caused by a continual flux of ulcerous matter dropping down upon that part And by reason of the acutenesse and quickness of the sense there his paines were almost altogether in that place though the fountaine of them was from the kidneys Towards his end about two moneths the paine grew more extreame yet divine indulgence vouchsafed some abatements and intermissions both in the night day As his death drew nigh his fits of pain were more frequent either every half hour or many times every quarter yea two or three times in a quarter of an hour wherby nature being quite spent he died in the Lord. After his death Master Holiard opend his body in the presence of Dr. Cox Dr. Micklethwaite and Dr. Bevoyr some other more ancient Doctors would have been there if either their being out of Town or present urgent occasions had not hindred who found both his kidneys full of ulcers and one was swelled to an extreame bignesse by the abundance of purulent matter in it Upon the neck of his bladder they found a stone which was about an inch and an half long and one inch broad weighing above two ownces when first taken out and withal an ulcer which was gangrened and this was judged the cause of his death All other parts of his body were found firme and sound Now that which I shall relate concerning him in all those places and changes of life wherein God disposed of him I will cast under the several heads upon which I did discourse in my Sermon And this method I do the rather resolve upon both because it best suits with mine own thoughts and may prove the most profitable unto them who shall be pleased to read the Sermon when they perceive the maine parts thereof applied and verefied in this providential Text Our friend Whitaker sleepeth The first Head He loved Christ. He loved Christ 1. Quickly 2. Strongly 3. Constantly The Lord did win his heart unto himselfe while he was a Scholar at Wakerfield where he had his education For then and there his affections did flow out towards those who were most religiously disposed with whom he went frequently eight or ten Miles to heare a wakening-soul-warming Sermon and he was wont to joyne with them in prayers and other holy exercises And being able to take Sermon-notes both understandingly and largely he was very helpful to Christians in the repeating of what they had publickly heard being from his childhood ful of affections in whatsoever businesse he undertook Thus this plant did both blossome and put forth fruit quickly which providence did afterwards make a very fruitful tree For the more cleare discovery of his abundant love to Jesus Christ I will give these demonstrations First from his early and constant vigorous workings of heart towards the calling and work of the Ministery because he alwayes conceived that therein a Christian might enjoy most fellowship with Christ and do him the best Joh. 21. 15 17. service And he considered Christs

Text Then said his Disciples If he sleep he shall do well And by the argument the Apostle seeks to prevaile with the Thessalonians that they might not mourne excessively upon such occasion For those who sleep in Jesus will God bring with him Then he addeth 1 Thes 4. 13 14 17 18. We shall be ever with the Lord wherefore comfort one another with these words Love moveth joy when our weak weary pained diseased friends are fallen into a sound sweet sleep This consideration therefore should cheere our drooping spirits in reference unto godly friends who died in the Lord. Let us minde this the rather because God who propoundeth this ground of comfort observeth both when we have need of this cordial and also what improvement we make thereof as it followeth in the next and last Doctrine which remaines to be handled Doct. 3. The Lord knoweth when his own and his Churches friends do fall asleep by death As Christ though now at a bodily distance from Bethany the place of Lazarus his abode yet told his Disciples of his death Our friend Lazarus sleepeth As God spake this to Joshuah My Josh 1. 2. servant Moses is dead This truth may be concluded strongly by these arguments Reas 1. Because Christ hath the keys of death Rev. 1. 18. in keeping the soule cannot be let out of the body without his leave And he knoweth all his own grants Reas 2. Because he also hath power in heaven keeping as it were the gate hereof into which none can enter without his allowance This is manifest by his promise to the penitent thief This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise Therefore he exactly observeth when any persons or person Luke 23. 43. hath admission thither Vse 1. Hence the deity of Christ may be proved undeniably for though there be thousands dying hourely in the several places of the world yet Christ knows particularly 1. Both their qualification whether his friends and his Churches friends or no. 2. And the time when every one of them giveth up the ghost As the instance under discourse doth evince 1. He understood infallibly that Lazarus was a faithful friend both unto himselfe and his servants Our friend Lazarus 2. And though he was not corporeally present with Lazarus in the place where he died yet he knew without any creature-intelligence that now he was fallen asleep by death Vse 2. This truth speaketh manifold comforts unto Gods children For 1. This hints his respect to them Precious in Psal 116. 15. ● the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints He will not suffer any of them to lose life without his special observation thereof together with causes and concomitants therein considerable 2. It suggests his care of every soule when it removeth out of the body the place of its habitation it shall not miscary or be lost through Christs regardlessenesse Though thousands of devils may watch to intercept the soule yet Christ who observeth when it leaveth the body will undoubtedly according to his charge and promise secure its Passages to glory This is a Cordial to the poorest Christian for there is no respect of persons with the Lord. It came to passe that the beggar died and was carried by the Angels into Luk. 16. 22. Abrahams bosome And 3. It may relieve the sad hearts of godly ones mourning for their losse in the death of their dear Christian friends for their God and Saviour is quickly and fully acquainted with this their affliction he saw when our beloved relations breathed out their last gasp Questionlesse it cheered Hagar when she understood that God took notice when the bottle was empty and heard the cry of Ishmael because he wanted water And you may be Gen. 21. 16 17. confident that Christ who understands when your Parents your Pastors your yoakfellows your friends die he doth also consider what counsel what comfort what supports what supplies what encouragements you be deprived of by meanes of their death Is not this a choice Cordial to Gods children that their heavenly Father knoweth they need such things Mat. 6. 32. Vse 3. Lastly this Doctrine yields matter of seasonable and needful admonition Therefore upon the death of Gods servants we should seek after such dispositions as may be pleasing unto his Majesty who observeth together with such providences how we are affected therewith Here then I would advise two particulars wherein I intreat the Lord to make us serious 1. To be rightly affected with such like dispensations laying to heart the publick losse sustained when the friends of Christ and his servants are taken away by death The Lord observeth and complaineth when people do not herein answer his expectation The righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart And our love unto Esay 57. 1. the publick together with the consideration of the great use of such persons would help forward our humiliation in such cases You heard before that they are friends to Christ and much befriended by Christ yea that they are lovers of the cause and people of God Now is not the death of such to be bewailed When Elijah went up by a whirlewinde to heaven Elisha 2 King 1. 11 12 saw it and he cryed My father my father the Charet of Israel and the horsemen thereof And when Elisha was 2 Kin. 13. 11 14 sick Joash though not a good man wept over him and said Oh my father my father the Charet of Israel and the horsemen thereof Because they beleeved that the publick safety depended much upon the interest of godly men in God therefore their death was thus lamented And truly such friends of God are the chief stakes in the hedge and maine pillars in the building both of Church and Common-wealth Therefore in such cases it may well become us to imitate the devout men who Acts 8. 2. carryed Stephen to his grave and made great lamentation for him 2. To imitate the deceased Saints in their graces and holy conversation we should lay their lives as so many faire copies before our eyes and labour to write after them by consciencious imitation The Apostle having given in a catalogue of Old-Testament-beleevers who in their several places and ages did worthily he earnestly perswadeth Christians to be followers of them And Heb. 11. compared with Heb. 12. 1. seeing God hath given us to behold the beauty of holinesse and the power of godlinesse in their courses it will much aggravate our sinne if we labour not to be like them This leadeth me to that which you all look for viz to spread before you the exemplary life of Master Jeremiah Whitaker the late Pastor of this place whose Funeral hath occasioned this great Assembly and my Sermon in reference unto whom that I may speak unto your edification I will with the change of one word only undertake my Text again Our friend Whitaker sleepeth And truly I am very confident