Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A20734
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A funerall sermon preached at Watton in Hertfordshire, at the buriall of the ancient and worthy knight, Sir Philip Boteler, Decemb. 9. 1606
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Downame, George, d. 1634.
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1607
(1607)
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STC 7116; ESTC S110134
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29,412
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80
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is withered away in time of heate yet that which falleth into an vpright heart as it were good ground is neither choked nor withered but bringeth foorth fruite with patience The way then to die in Christ is to liue in him by a true and vnfained faith which purifieth the heart and worketh by loue walking vprightly as it becommeth the members of Christ in the sincere profession of his faith so shall we in the end of our life attaine to the end of our faith which is the saluation of our soules Many there are which could be content to die in Christ who care not to liue in him Many with Balaam desire to die the death of the righteous but leade the life of the wicked But be not deceiued it is an old saying ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of an euill life coÌmonly there is an euill end Presume not that thou shalt die in Christ vnlesse first thou liue in him In all the Scripture there is but one example of a man who after a wicked life was conuerted at the houre of his death One there is that men should not then despaire and but one that they should not before hand presume And forasmuch as nothing is either more certaine than death or more vncertaine than the time thereof it behoueth vs carefully to prouide whiles wee haue time to be in Christ that death whensoeuer it commeth may finde vs in him Let our life be a preparation for death and let this be the chiefest care of our life that wee may be found in Christ at the time of our death This life as our Sauiour saith is the day wherein we are to worke afterward is the night when no man can worke or turne vnto God but as the tree falleth so it lieth and as the day of death doth leaue vs the day of iudgement shall finde vs. This therefore must teach vs not to deferre from day to day our repentance towards God and faith in Iesus Christ but presently whiles it is called to day to turne vnto the Lord that wee may bee in Christ to day before to morow because wee haue none assurance that wee shall liue vntill the morow And so much may suffice to haue spoken of the first and chiefe point namely who they are which heere bee pronounced blessed to wit they which die in the Lord. Now are we in the second place briefely to consider what this blessednes is and wherein it doth consist This is shewed in the words following that they rest from their labours and their workes follow with them So that their happines is two-fold first priuatiue in that they rest from their labors and molestations for there is a sabbaâsme or rest reserued to the people of God Hebr. 4. 9. whereof the Sabbath was a type For then the Lord shall wipe away all teares from their eyes and they shall be no more subiect to sinne or the punishment therof as sicknes weaknes mortalitie labour wearines troubles wrongs death Death is the hauen and the end of al misery vnto them But their happines is not meerely priuatiue like that of beasts which after death haue no more sense of paine where by the way we are to note that the state of the beast when it dieth is better then of the wickâd who die in their sinnes but it is also positiue For their workes that is the reward of their faith and obedience ãâã God shall croâne with euerlasting happines shall ãâã âth âhem This doth teach vs that ãâã ãâã good ãâã cannot merit âny thing ãâã tâe ãâã ãâã God as Christ himselfe hath tâld ãâã Luke 17. and âch ãâã eternall ãâã and therefore ãâã are not said to go before our acceptation to eternall ãâã as ãâã cause but follow as fruits yet the Loâ of his free grace according to his promise doth plentifully reward them The consideration wherof as it must encourage vs all to be fruitfull in good works knowing that our labour shall not been vaine in the Lord so especially those whoÌ the Lord hath enriched with his blessings whether temporall or spirituall that they be rich in good workes laying vp for themselues a good foundation against the time to come that they may obtaine eternall life Againe whereas it is said that the workes of the faithfull do accompanie them after death this sheweth that although death strippe vs of all temporall things yet it doth not bereaue vs of our workes but bringeth vs the reward of them And that when all our friends and followers and all other worldly either delights or commodities doe faâe and forsake vs yâ our workes doe follow with vs to our âall comfort Which should make vs to esteeme the keeping of faith and a good conscience aboue all the things of this world Now what this reward is which God hath prepared for these that die in Christ though neither the eye hath seene nor the eare heard nor the heart of man conceiued yet thus much we may gather out of the Scriptures that it shall consist in eternall and most perfect glory and gladnes The glory standing partly in the excellency of those heauenly gifts wherewith they shall be adorned being in respect thereof like vnto the Angels and renewed perfectly according to the glorious image of God yea made conformable to Christ our head in such a proportion of glory as his seueral members bee capable of and partly in the fruition of heauenly blessings as the possession of heauen and all heauenly good things the fellowship of the blessed Saints and Angels and that which is all in all the enioying of God himselfe who is the chiefest good In whose presence there is fulnesse of ioy and at whose right hand there be pleasures for euermore And that is the second thing their eternall ioy and gladnes arising from that glory For as they shall be most happie so shall they reioyce in it with vn speakable and endlesse comfort and in the sense thereof shall euermore bee stirred vp with wonderfull alacrity to glorifie God In expectation of this happie hope we are to liue soberly iustly and holily in this present world For if wee set this ioy before as the marke towards which we contend we will not suffer our selues to be withdrawne from our obedience to God neither by any worldly desires which in comparison hereof are to bee esteemed as meere vanities nor by any terrors of the world which in respect of the ioy that is set before vs wee are to contemne The third thing remaineth that is the time when this blessednes doth belong to them ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã saith he thenceforth that is from the time of their death and so forward for presently they rest from their labours and their workes follow he doth not say ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã after them but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã with them This therefore is a