Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	angel_n	company_n	zion_n	25	3	8.4329	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A32778	Words in season useful for those whose hearts are engaged to serve the will of God in this generation / from Abraham Cheare.	Cheare, Abraham, d. 1668.	1668 (1668)	Wing C3763; ESTC R24264	172,885	317

bring us together again and make amends for all the loss herein sustained Then we shall be ever with the Lord in that triumph of which the stranger cannot intermeddle with the Joy Comfort one another with these words and the God of all Consolation be with you Amen FINIS THE EMBALMING OF A Dead Cause OR Christ's kind acceptance of sincere though weak attempts to preserve a sweet savour upon his Concerns in the World under those many deaths he is pleased to draw on them until their promised Resurrection Heb. 12.22 But ye are come to Mount Sion and unto the City of the Living God the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels Gen. 50.26 So Joseph died being an hundred and ten years old and they embalmed him and he was put in a Coffin in Egypt Isa 26.19 Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise Awake and sing ye that dwell in dust for thy dew is as the dew of herbs and the Earth shall cast out the dead Job 14.14 If a man die shall he live again All the dayes of my appointed time will I wait till my change come Printed in the Year 1668. THE EMBALMING OF A DEAD CAUSE Mark 14.8 She hath done what she could she is come aforehand to anoint my Body to the burying THese words are part of Christs own Vindication of and Apology for a very acceptable work of an Holy Woman which nevertheless through their great mistake came under a very severe censure at the hands of the very Disciples of Christ themselves Mat. 26.6 who taking knowledge only of so much therein as occured to their sense and carnal reason admitted thereby not a little disquiet on their own spirits they had indignation vers 4. they murmured vers 5. and reflected much trouble upon hers vers 6. Even such high-raised and Heavenly actions of Saints as have the most choicest esteem and acceptance with the Lord may yet meet with very undue representations and procure very strange reflections from the hands of others truly dear to Christ It should therefore be no greater strange thing to us to be judged by mans judgement it s well we stand or fall to another Master But so well was the integrity of her spirit and the noble principles and springs of this action known to Christ and approved by him that himself undertakes her defence when perhaps her trouble at their hard measure might stop her own mouth and appears to plead her cause not only so far as to give a present check to their rash conclusion and a testimony to the goodness and acceptableness of her work but withal takes order by an unalterable appointment for perpetuating the praise thereof vers 9. That where ever the Gospel of Grace should be Preached throughout the world this that she had done should be declared for a Memorial of her Christians under cloudy censures lose nothing at last by leaving their censured selves and actings to be vindicated by the Lord to whom their integrity is known and their cause committed Micah 7.9 10. Where ever the Doctrine of the Grace of Christ should be proclaimed this should be produced as a lively instance pattern and example to illustrate and confirm the power and prevalency thereof in that it is of power to beget on so contemptible a weak vessel as this poor Woman was such exceeding largeness nobility and ingenuity of spirit as was beyond what the gallantest principles or endeavours of meer Man could arrive unto and yet when the memorial hereof was to be mentioned when the Gospel should be Preached either to Nations abroad or Generations to come the principal intendment was not meerly to affix a mark of honour upon this individual person or this single act for her very name is hid both here vers 3 and in Mat. 26.6 7. but to commend and advance the value of the principles and motives she went upon to the encouragement and admonition of us and others upon whom the ends of the World are come 1 Cor. 10.11 Rom. 15.4 I purpose not to mention or stay upon the profitable deductions and inferences that would commend themselves from the coherence of the words or matter round about them intending but a present brief Comment on them In the words first read we have a double Character of her noble spirit set forth First In the extent of her act She hath done what she could Secondly In the intent of it She is come aforehand to anoint my body c. She hath done what sh● could The word doth not meerly signifie that she had stretched her self to the utmost bounds of her estate and ability that way to purchase so costly a confection as this was for the greatness of the cost manifested it self to their offence and it could no way mitigate their disquiet to tell them how much she had expended in that respect but hereby I understand Christ would have them know that a certain raisedness and greatness of spirit had acted her to the utmost beyond the ordinary sphere of Beleevers to devise and practise liberal notable things so that she was not capable of being restrained and circumscribed within a narrow compass she did what she could for she could not but do what she did She is come afore-hand to anoint By what impulse or instinct of spirit or with what distinct and evidence her understanding was assisted to receive the Doctrine of and to make provision for the Funeral of her Lord is not expresly mentioned This is evident that the Disciples generally were very dark nay averse to notions of this kind their expectations being very earthly carnal of being advanced with him to some external Pomp and Glory which his Death and Burial so suddenly was inconsistent with by reason of their weakness and readiness to be offended wherein the Lord was very tender of propounding the Doctrine and distilling the Notions of his Death among them whilst he was with them John 16.4 And what he delivered of this kind was hardly regarded or remembred till afterward John 2.22 12.16 Luke 24.8 But this good Woman had early impressions made upon her heart of this blessed Truth Sh●●as afore-hand not only with the dispensation it self but also with the most forward of the Disciples themselves expecting it and preparing for it To anoint my Body to the burying This was the manner of the Jewes to bury John 19.40 especially where a reverend and honourable estimation or singular affection were to be expressed What might be extraordinary in her eye will hereafter be spoken to only towards the drawing this act of hers into a way of improvement for common use it may not be amiss to consider the body of Christ not only litterally as was immediately intended in her act but in a figurative acceptation as other Scriptures may help and warrant to consider it and our concerns about it Thus sometimes by the Body of Christ is intended his Church

to keep you in perfect peace Now to him that after you have suffered a while is of all power to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his Glory with exceeding joy to the only wise God our Saviour be Glory and Majesty Dominion and Power now and ever Amen 7th 3d month 60. Upon the death of some whom he honoured to two of his Acquaintance then fellow-Prisoners The Lord send you help from his Sanctuary and strengthen you out of Sion Greatly Beloved I Salute you both as is meet in the Lord. These two last Posts I have not written any Letter to you partly for that I have been out of Town some little journies but principally having been much under the surprize that those were Job 2. ult The voice indeed is loud and as if seven Thunders had at once uttered their voices the terribleness of it makes many shrink as Eliah into his den When Oh when shall we hear the still soft Voice and as men of understanding see his Name We may well cry out he hath shewn us hard things and given us to drink the Wine of astonishment which falls the heavier in that such who have obtained favour to lay nearest to heart the concernments of Sion and to be therein aided with greatest boldness and sweetest intimacy near to the heart of Christ and have had their Affections enflamed most with what they have sought and seemed to themselves and others to have been of those bosom intimates that know all that their Friend doth and have hereupon spoken openly and without clouds or reservations their confidence of things that have appeared in the issue to be mistakes how some of them bear it I do not well know but sure I am the hand is very sorely turned upon the little ones that believe in Christ great is their astonishment like that Isa 51.17 to the end I have often thought of them Acts 21.4 Who said to Paul by the Spirit that he should not go up to Jerusalem How like the language of our spirits heightned by fervent affection and attended with providential bringing to remembrance of sutable Scriptures and all this on a soul enjoying clear access to the Lord is to the voice of the spirit in truth as he fulfils that Promise He shall take of mine and shew it unto you and shall shew you things to come And if it may please the Father after he hath graciously allayed the storminess of these perplexing waves that at present doubtless discompose for any thing to lead his holy ones into a more perfect discerning of things which in this kind do differ and in mean time instruct to think more soberly of themselves and judge more tenderly of others I shall yet hope this sharp dispensation may bring out meat and sweetness that we thought not of As for the poor Martyrs themselves when I review what was of late said of their particular perswasions and how when their departure was hid from them they enjoyed such un-interrupted joyful communion with the Lord I cannot but admire the wisdom and goodness of the Father that took that course with them to anoint them for their burial but alas they had no burial But much more grace to admiration appears to me in it that when their perswasions and expectations from the Lord in that point gave way to his determinations yet that at that very time the Tempter should be bound up who doubtless desired to have them that he might have winnowed them as Wheat and would have made a great market of the least discouragement upon them over the whole Antichristian World Oh! how unsearchable are his wayes and his works past finding out The deadly Treacle that you speak of will doubtless swiftly become a Cup of trembling to this wretched generation and entayl the guilt of all down along from Abel c. A very strange efficacy that it hath to cry and to prevail at length though it tarry long first That Abels was not answered and expiated in the Flood that destroyed the World of the ungodly nor that of Zacharias if it was his who said The Lord look upon it and require it 2 Chron. 24.22 But they both must cry against that generation that put to death the Lord of Life and neither of these cryes expire at the ruines of them and their devastation to this day but shall be found as fresh in out-cry against that great City where also our Lord is crucified Rev. 18.24 And though it 's hard to discern yet great is the pravalency of those cryes of Saints that night and day follow the Lord herein though he not only tarry long but even seem to be angry with the Prayers of his People that word hath sweetly stayed me in this hour of temptation Thou tellest my wandrings put my tears in thy bottle are they not written in a Book by thee If their wanderings staggerings be tenderly numbered and their tears bottled and their grouns booked and all this by thee a Book of remembrance before the Lord We need not be so sollicitous what becomes of them though they are above out of our sight doubtless when it comes to much Incense in the Angels hand the Censor will be cast into the Earth Rev. 8.3 4 5. Rests Yours in tears 24. 8. month 60. Unto one who had acquainted him with the departing of some from their holy Professions The early visits of the bright and morning Star be a light in your dark place till the day dawn and the shadows flee away Beloved in and of the Lord SInce my last I have received yours wherein you were pleased to remember and send such a rich Token to your poor Friend whom you are pleased to describe by that merry title of your Father who blesseth God for grace and support ministred by tracking the footsteps of the Father of Spirits in those paths of peace and pleasantness wherein he pleaseth to lead you and others of his suffering ones so contrary to the methods and expectation of men whose breath are in their nostrils Job 22.29 Psal 41.8 12 13. unto which I account it no diversion that he is pleased as your last intimates to keep you in an humble sense of the shortness of self-sufficiency for bearing you up against the hour of temptation the very fear whereof hath already cast down so many stars from their excellency on whom this inscription is manifestly engraven as a caution to us though a by-word to scorners Lo this is the man that made not God his confidence Over whom as I have little ground to glory 1 Cor. 10.12 Rom. 11.18 20. so neither is there just occasion to be greatly offended Isa 2.22 2 Tim. 4.16 17 18. Joh. 6.66 67. chap. 16.13 32. Although I find it somewhat difficult to draw the memorial of their slips into a gracious perpetual remembrance without some mixtures either of wrath or doubting I confess it makes me many times tremble to think