Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	adam_n	grace_n	sin_n	4,888	5	5.2180	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31451	The certainty of salvation to them who dye in the Lord a sermon preached at the funeral of the Right Honourable, George Lord Delamer, at Boden, in the county-palatine of Chester, September the 9th, 1684 / by Zachary Cawdrey ...	Cawdrey, Zachary, 1616-1684.	1684 (1684)	Wing C1645; ESTC R36290	20,346	38

from that very instant wherein God condescended to make a new Covenant with fallen Man in the promised Seed the Seed of the Woman Gen. 3.15 For that phrase From the beginning of the World points directly to the time of making that new Covenant in Paradise and on that account Christ is called A Lamb slain from the foundation of the World Rev. 13.8 That new Covenant is in that Verse called The book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the World it containing the conditions of life and Happiness setled in the Mediation of the Lamb the Lord Jesus and confirmed in his Blood from the beginning of the World So then when God made that new Covenant promising in Christ Acceptance of Men's sincere though imperfect Obedience then I say he appointed and prepared for them not a Return into an earthly Paradise but an entrance into an everlasting Kingdom into an Eternal Life even for all those who by patient continuance in well doing seek for honour and glory and Immortality Rom. 2.7 We may observe further that the New Covenant was ratified and established by God's Mercy in the promised Seed Gen. 3.15 in his sentencing the Serpent and before he passed Sentence on Adam and Eve And therefore in the sentencing of them we hear of nothing of either spiritual or eternal Punishments pronounced against them but there is denounced only such temporal miseries and a temporal death as do indeed declare God's Anger against Sin but withall may by the Grace of God in the New Covenant redound to our spiritual and eternal Good On which account St. Paul 1 Tim. 2.15 saith that The child-bearing woman notwithstanding her pains in child-bearing shall be saved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through that promised birth of the Saviour of the world if she continue in faith For the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 relates not to every Woman 's Child-bearing but to the famous Birth of the promised Seed as I with submission to the Godly Learned do judge So then when Christians through Grace perform the Obedience of the new Covenant in Repentance Faith Self-denial Heavenly-mindedness Charity and the rest of Christian Duties God accepts of them in Christ Jesus and will reward them therefore their Works following departed Saints to be rewarded they who die in the Lord are blessed And yet the Argument concluded not strongly unless that Reward be and make up compleat Blessedness But that it doth so is evident from Rom. 2.7 God will give to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for honour and glory and immortality eternal life And Gal. 6.8 it is affirmed that They who sow to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting Now this Life everlasting which is the portion of the Saints that it may be a compleat and perfect Happiness must be at least thus qualified In it the Saints must not want any thing that they stand in need of or desire any thing but what they have nor ever come to distaste or loath any thing they do enjoy nor fear the loss of what they are possest of nor envy the portion of any other who partake that state with them nor yet despise any that are their Associates in that blessed Inheritance I say the meanest Saint cannot envy the highest Angel nor can the highest Angel despise the meanest Saint For Reason it self will evince that it cannot be a perfect Life and Happiness where there is want of something we do need or longing for something we have not or a loathing of what we once savoured or a fear of losing of what we enjoy or a scorning or an envying of those who are our Companions in the same state But those Evils of Want Longing Loathing Fear Envy and Scorn being removed it cannot be but the Reward of the Saints must amount to Fulness of Joy and Pleasures for evermore Oh the infinite Mercies of God in Christ Jesus who accepts of the sincere though imperfect Services of holy and humble persons and thus highly rewards them But if we yet further enquire what Object it is that being thus enjoyed sets us above Want Longing Loathing Fear Scorn and Envy I answer It is God himself communicating his own glorious Perfections to the Knowledge and Contemplation of the Saints and Angels in that excellent Light of Glory wherein they see him face to face 1 Cor. 13.12 and see him as he is 1 Joh. 3.3 By which Knowledge so clear and so glorious the Saints and Angels are wrapt up into the most intense and fervent love of him and delight in him that it is possible for Creatures of their degrees to receive And seeing the Essential Happiness of God himself appears to be his Comprehensive Knowledge of his own Glorious Essence and Perfection and the Essential Love of and Eternal Complacency in himself for there is not a more excellent Being than himself for him to contemplate nor a more lovely Being than himself for him to delight himself in Hence I say our coming to that blessed Enjoyment of him is called Matth. 25.21 the Entring into the Joy of our Lord we coming to enjoy God whom himself enjoys and to enjoy him by Contemplation and Love which is the way of God's own Essential Enjoyment of himself as far as we can apprehend Thus God is the Portion of his People and the Inheritance of his Saints The Works therefore of those who dye in the Lord following them to receive so high a Reward through God's Mercy in the New Covenant confirmed in the Blood of his blessed Son it must needs be that they are eternally blessed And that this honourable and pious Person whose Funeral Rites have called this great Assembly together is now arrived at that Reward and Crown of Evangelical Righteousness is I suppose the persuasion of all persons present who knew him and who believe that there is a Reward for the Righteous But considering that when a great and good Man dyes something of the Panegyrick is required to make up the Justa and compleat his Funeral-Rites David himself made a Funeral-Oration at the Interment of Abner 2 Sam. 3.33 I shall say something of that kind as well as I am able but still being careful of this that I may not by Commendation of the Dead give any just Offence to the Living nor by false Praises of the Deceased lay a Snare for the Feet of Survivors as is too oft done I will therefore say nothing but what I knew or have unquestionable Testimony for it Concerning the Family of which this Noble Lord was lately the Head you all know it hath sent forth its Boughs unto the Seas and its Branches to the Rivers Psal 80.11 most Families of Quality in this County and many also in other Shires having mingled their Blood by Marriage with that of Dunham Himself joyned in Affinity with two great and ancient Families of the Nobility first that of Lincoln then that of Stamford who justly esteemed a

with true Faith in both the Litigants were highly angry with one another upon Earth they will each rejoyce in the Salvation of the other and each love other as himself and will bless God that he was to each of them a more just and merciful Judge than they were to one another upon Earth Next No fear can enter there where God's Truth Power Wisdom and Goodness are all engaged for the Security of our being eternally blessed It is no less impossible that Envy should follow a Saint to Heaven to torture him there who was in a great measure a stranger to it here seeing even here God is the Portion of Believers and they who have God for their Inheritance find no reason to envy the Lot of others being assured their own is the best Portion But besides consider that every one of the Saints in Heaven hath the full Inheritance the Church there is a Church of the First-born of God Every one is an Heir to the whole Kingdom and filled with all the Fulness of God Ephes 3.19 according to the Capacity of every one For such is the nature of the Enjoyments of spiritual Objects that every Man may have all So that one Saint's knowing and loving God perfectly hinders not but that another yea ten thousand times ten thousand may know and love him perfectly without any Defalcation from the Portion of one another And further consider that all the Saints having entirely resigned their Wills to the Will of God and being perfectly well pleased with all his Appointments and Assignments and withal loving other Saints even as themselves it is impossible that Envy should enter amongst them for the only Roots on which Envy can grow are a quarrelling with the Will of God and not loving our Neighbour Lastly No sorrow either for themselves or others can disturb the Inhabitants of the Jerusalem which is above For How can they sorrow who have all they can desire and delight eternally in the state they do enjoy Nor can the Saints grieve on the account of others seeing all pleaseth them which it pleaseth God to order for his own Glory So that for what the state of their Friends on Earth is they are not sollicitous knowing that that infinite Wisdom and Goodness which it is their delight to contemplate above ruleth all things both in Heaven and Earth Nay the very Reprobation of wicked Friends and Relations will not affect the Saints who do delight that God's Justice and Holiness are glorified as well as his Mercy And withall the Love of God so entirely possesses the Saints that it extinguisheth the Love of wicked Friends as the powerful shining of the Sun puts out a Lamp or Candle Hence then it appears they must needs be blessed who dye in the Lord seeing they rest from all their Labours both from outward Sufferings and inward Temptations and from all tormenting Passions and Compassions There remaineth therefore a Rest for the People of God But there is another Argument also in the Text to prove the blessed state of departed Saints Their works do follow them But that the Argument may shew its force we must enquire what sort of Works do follow them I answer First Their sinful Works do not follow them who dye in the Lord they being absolved from the Guilt of them by the Propitiation of the death of our Saviour Christ So that there is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 How far the remembrance of our own sins and sinfulness may abide with us in Heaven I cannot say only I do confidently believe that no more of that Remembrance shall remain with us there than shall cause us to admire and adore the infinite Patience and Long-suffering of God to us on Earth and to delight our selves in that sweet reflection upon the Divine Goodness The Works therefore of the Saints that follow them are their good Deeds done according to God's Law as the Rule and by his Grace as the Power and in Obedience and Love to him as the Motive and for his Glory as the End And of this sort are all Acts of Piety Faith Repentance Mortification Loyalty Charity Justice Temperance and other Christian Graces These follow the Christians to be judged and rewarded But by what Law are they to be judged Not by the Law of Works given at our Creation not according to the Estimate which God's Rectoral Justice passeth of the Actions of Men and Angels as he is the Maker and Ruler of them for the best Works of the best Men being thus judged would be reprobated and condemned The Works therefore of the Saints follow them to be judged by the Law of Faith by the New Covenant by the Book of Life mentioned Rev. 20.12 Out of which together with the Books of their Consciences the Dead are judged according to their Works that is according as their Consciences do bear Testimony of their Evangelical Obedience or of their Neglect of it they stand or fall at the Bar of Divine Justice The Law of which Book of Life is this That if the heart be sincere as to the aim and end with a single eye designing God's Service and Glory in our Undertaking and if the matter of the Act be according to God's Command then though there be a failure in that full intenseness of the Affections that should have accompanied the work or in the exactness and regularity of some circumstances of it which failure is caused through an unaffected or unallowed inconsiderateness or through some other weakness yet being done I say with a sincere heart it is being weighed in the Ballance of the Gospel a good work it is accepted by God in Christ Jesus and accounted to the Saints for Righteousness and shall be rewarded This is plainly proved from that Promise Mat. 10.42 He that gives a cup of cold water to a disciple in the name of a disciple shall not lose his reward shall have a disciple's reward And so Matth. 25.21 The Servant that was faithful in the use of his Talents was called to enter into the Joy of his Lord. And so again Mat. 25.41 Those who cloathed fed and visited Christ in his poor Members are by Christ invited as the Blessed of his Father as those approved by his Father to inherit the Kingdom prepared for them from the beginning of the World We may observe the different manner of dating the setting out the Reward of the Righteous and the Reward of of the Wicked The Wicked those on the left hand are bid Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels into the Hell which was appointed by God immediately upon the sin of the Angels which was committed before the sin of Man probably before Man's Creation or the Creation of any part of the visible World But the Saints those on the right hand are called to enter into the Kingdom prepared for them from the beginning of the World that is