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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	according_a	scripture_n	time_n	2,768	5	3.3859	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62598	A sermon preached at the funeral of the Reverend Benjamin Whichcot, D.D. and minister of S. Lawrence Jewry, London, May 24th, 1683 by John Tillotson ...	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.; Whichcote, Benjamin, 1609-1683.	1683 (1683)	Wing T1235; ESTC R985	14,500	40

the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may better be rendred whilst we converse or sojourn in the body than whilst we are at home Because the design of the Apostle is to shew that the body is not our house but our tabernacle and that whilst we are in the body we are not at home but pilgrims and strangers And this notion the Heathens had of our present life and condition in this world Ex vita discedo saith Tully tanquam ex hospitio non tanquam ex domo commorandi enim natura diversorium nobis non habitandi locum dedit We go out of this life as it were from an Inn and not from our home nature having designed it to us as a place to sojourn but not to dwell in We are absent from the Lord that is we are detained from the blessed sight and enjoyment of God and kept out of the possession of that happiness which makes Heaven So that the Apostle makes an immediate opposition between our continuance in the body and our blissfull enjoyment of God and lays it down for a certain truth that whilst we remain in the body we are detained from our happiness and that so soon as ever we leave the body we shall be admitted into it knowing that whilst we converse in the body we are absent from the Lord. And ver 8. we are willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord intimating that so soon as we quit these bodies we shall be admitted to the blessed sight and enjoyment of God My design from this Text is to draw some usefull Corollaries or Conclusions from this Assertion of the Apostle That whilst we are in these bodies we are detained from our happiness and that so soon as ever we depart out of them we shall be admitted to the possession and enjoyment of it And they are these 1. This Assertion shews us the vanity and falshood of that opinion or rather dream concerning the sleep of the soul from the time of death till the general Resurrection This is chiefly grounded upon that frequent Metaphor in Scripture by which death is resembled to sleep and those that are dead are said to be fallen asleep But this Metaphor is no where in Scripture that I know of applied to the soul but to the body resting in the grave in order to its being awakened and raised up at the Resurrection And thus it is frequently used with express reference to the body Dan. 12.2 Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake Matth. 27.52 And the graves were opened and many bodies of saints which slept arose Acts 13.36 David after he had served his own generation by the will of God fell on sleep and was laid to his fathers and saw corruption which surely can no otherwise be understood than of his body 1 Cor. 15.21 Now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first-fruits of them that slept that is the resurrection of his body is the earnest and assurance that ours also shall be raised And ver 51. We shall not all sleep but shall all be changed where the Apostle certainly speaks both of the death and change of these corruptible bodies 1 Thessal 4.14 If we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so them also that sleep in Jesus shall God bring with him That is the bodies of those that died in the Lord shall be raised and accompany him at his coming So that it is the body which is said in Scripture to sleep and not the soul. For that is utterly inconsistent with the Apostle's Assertion here in the Text that while we are in the body we are absent from the Lord and that so soon as we depart out of the body we shall be present with the Lord. For surely to be with the Lord must signifie a state of happiness which sleep is not but onely of inactivity Besides that the Apostle's Argument would be very flat and it would be but a cold encouragement against the fear of death that so soon as we are dead we shall fall asleep and become insensible But the Apostle useth it as an Argument why we should be willing to dye as soon as God pleaseth and the sooner the better because so soon as we quit these bodies we shall be present with the Lord that is admitted to the blissfull sight and enjoyment of him and while we abide in the body we are detained from our happiness But if our souls shall sleep as well as our bodies till the general Resurrection it is all one whether we continue in the body or not as to any happiness we shall enjoy in the mean time which is directly contrary to the main scope of the Apostle's Argument 2. This Assertion of the Apostle's doth perfectly conclude against the feigned Purgatory of the Church of Rome which supposeth the far greater number of true and faithfull Christians of those who dye in the Lord and have obtained eternal redemption by him from hell not to pass immediately into a state of happiness but to be detained in the suburbs of Hell in extremity of torment equal to that of hell for degree though not for duration till their souls be purged and the guilt of temporal punishments which they are liable to be some way or other paid off and discharged They suppose indeed some very few holy persons especially those who suffer Martyrdom to be so perfect at their departure out of the body as to pass immediately into Heaven because they need no purgation But most Christians they suppose to dye so imperfect that they stand in need of being purged and according to the degree of their imperfection are to be detain'd a shorter or a longer time in Purgatory But now besides that there is no Text in Scripture from whence any such state can probably be concluded as is acknowledged by many learned men of the Church of Rome and even that Text which they have most insisted upon they shall be saved yet so as by fire is given up by them as insufficient to conclude the thing Estius is very glad to get off it by saying there is nothing in it against Purgatory Why no body pretends that but we might reasonably expect that there should be something for it in a Text which hath been so often produced and urged by them for the proof of it I say besides that there is nothing in Scripture for Purgatory there are a great many things against it and utterly inconsistent with it In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus which was designed to represent to us the different states of good and bad men in another world there is not the least intimation of Purgatory but that good men pass immediately into a state of happiness and bad men into a place of torment And Saint John Rev. 14.13 pronounceth all that dye in the Lord happy because they rest from their labours which they cannot be

old age and the taper of life burns clear in them to the last Their understandings are good their memories and senses tolerable their humour pleasant and their conversation acceptable and their Relations kind and respectfull to them But this is a rare felicity and which seldom happens but to those who have lived wisely and vertuously and by a religious and regular course of life have preserved some of their best spirits to the last and have not by vice and extravagance drawn off life to the dregs and left nothing to be enjoyed but infirmities and ill humours guilt and repentance But on the contrary have prudently laid up some considerable comforts and supports for themselves against this gloomy day having stored their minds with wisedom and knowledge and taken care to secure to themselves the comfortable reflexions of an usefull and well-spent life and the favour and loving-kindness of God which is better than life it self But generally the extremities of old age are very peevish and querulous and a declining and falling back to the weak and helpless condition of Infancy and childhood And yet less care is commonly taken of aged persons and less kindness shewed to them than to children because these are cherished in hopes the others in despair of their growing better So that if God see it good it is not desirable to live to try nature and the kindness and good will of our Relations to the utmost Nay there is reason enough why we should be well contented to dye in any Age of our life If we are young we have tasted the best of it If in our middle age we have not onely enjoyed all that is desirable of life but almost all that is tolerable If we are old we are come to the dregs of it and do but see the same things over and over again and continually with less pleasure Especially if we consider the happiness from which we are all this while detained This life is but our Infancy and childhood in comparison of the manly pleasures and employments of the other state And why should we desire to be always children and to linger here below to play the fools yet a little longer In this sense that high expression of the Poet is true Dii celant homines ut vivere durent Quàm sit dulce mori The Gods conceal from men the sweetness of dying to make them patient and contented to live This life is wholly in order to the other Do but make sure to live well and there is no need of living long To the purpose of preparation for another world the best life is the longest Some live a great pace and by continual diligence and industry in serving God and doing good do really dispatch more of the business of life in a few years than others do in a whole Age who go such a santring pace towards heaven as if they were in no haste to get thither But if we were always prepared we should rejoyce at the prospect of our end as those who have been long tost at sea are overjoyed at the sight of land I have now done with my Text but have another Subject to speak of that excellent Man in whose Place I now stand whom we all knew and whom all that knew him well did highly esteem and reverence He was born in Shropshire of a worthy and ancient Family the 11 th of March 1609. was the sixth Son of his Father and being bred up to learning and very capable of it was sent to the University of Cambridge and planted there in Emanuel College where he was chosen Fellow and was an excellent Tutour and Instructour of Youth and bred up many persons of great Quality and others who afterwards proved usefull and eminent as many perhaps as any Tutour of that Time About the age of four or five and thirty he was made Prevost of King's College where he was a most vigilant and prudent Governour a great encourager of Learning and good Order and by his carefull and wise management of the Estate of the College brought it into a very flourishing condition and left it so It cannot be denied nor am I much concerned to dissemble it that here he possess'd another Man's place who by the iniquity of the Times was wrongfully ejected I mean Dr. Collins the famous and learned Divinity-Professour of that University During whose life and he lived many years after by the free consent of the College there were two shares out of the common Dividend allotted to the Prevost one whereof was constantly paid to Dr. Collins as if he had been still Prevost To this Dr. Whichcot did not onely give his consent without which the thing could not have been done but was very forward for the doing of it though hereby he did not onely considerably lessen his own profit but likewise incurr no small censure and hazard as the Times then were And left this had not been kindness enough to that worthy Person whose Place he possessed in his last Will he left to his Son Sir John Collins a Legacy of one hundred pounds And as he was not wanting either in respect or real kindness to the rightfull Owner so neither did he stoop to doe any thing unworthy to obtain that Place for he never took the Covenant And not onely so but by the particular friendship and interest which he had in some of the chief of the Visitours he prevailed to have the greatest part of the Fellows of that College exempted from that Imposition and preserved them in their places by that means And to the Fellows that were ejected by the Visitours he likewise freely consented that their full Dividend for that year should be paid them even after they were ejected Among these was the Reverend and ingenious Dr. Charles Mason upon whom after he was ejected the College did confer a good Living which then fell in their gift with the consent of the Prevost who knowing him to be a worthy man was contented to run the hazard of the displeasure of those Times So that I hope none will be hard upon him that he was contented upon such terms to be in a capacity to doe good in bad Times For besides his care of the College he had a very great and good influence upon the University in general Every Lord's day in the Afternoon for almost twenty years together he preached in Trinity Church where he had a great number not onely of the young Scholars but of those of greater standing and best repute for Learning in the University his constant and attentive Auditours And in those wild and unsettled Times contributed more to the forming of the Students of that University to a sober sense of Religion than any man in that Age. After he left Cambridge he came to London and was chosen Minister of Black-Friars where he continued till the dreadfull Fire And then retired himself to a Donative he had at Milton near Cambridge where