Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A58780
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The saints privilege, or, Gain by dying
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Scott, Chr. (Christopher), fl. 1655.
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1673
(1673)
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Wing S2034; ESTC R39520
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34,854
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40
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health wants honours good name children hath he all these and thinks he wants nothing ah poor heart he don't know his wants he wants God without whom all his enjoyments nothing worth quid prodest diviti quod habet si Deum qui omnia dedit non habet what will a wicked mans All do him good whiles without God the giver of all good he wants grace more precious than Gold he wants pardon of sin peace of conscience set him by set him by he is a poor wanting creature but give me the Saint of God 't is he we would speak to come friend thou hast other manner of riches than the other but dost thou want nothing oh God help me Sir want yes I have an hard heart and would have it softned I have strong corruptions and would have them subdued I have weak graces at best and would have them strengthned I beleive and scarce beleive hope and scarce hope sometimes have comforts sometimes none my wants are great lo here a wanting world nothing but wants while in this world but now comes death and he goes where he shall want nothing for temporals no need of them nothing for spirituals all perfect t is the saying of one (a) Eacilius exponi potest quid non sit in caelo quam quid sit in caelo t is easier to tell what is not in heaven than what is in heaven I cannot tell you what the riches of it are but to be sure there be no wants there Rev. 7.16 17. they shall hunger no more thirst no more and chap. 21.23 That City hath no need of the Sun or Moon the glory of God lightens it and the Lamb is the light thereof No no the Saints needy dayes are gone now their wanting time is over here 's nothing but what is desirable and here 's every thing that is desirable yea fulness of all desirableness and eternity to compleat all when once death hath wasted them over upon that shore they shall find nothing wanting to compleat their everlasting blisfulness as I remember one speaking of hell sayes n = * Non mihi si centum linguae sint oraque centum Ferrea vox omnes scelerum comprendere formas Omnia paenarum percurrere nomina possem Non mihi si centum c. which is Englished briefly thus No heart of man can think no tongue can tell The direful pains ordain'd and felt in Hell So may I say of Heaven Had I a thousand tongues I might not express its full happiness will glorious Robes please will princely Attendance please will delicious Feasting please I could fetch Scriptures to attest all these 〈…〉 dark resemblances of that glory but what spend I words when the Apostle who was a little eye witness and ear witness when he was caught up into Paradise 2 Cor. 12.4 yet concludes its fulness of happiness thus 1 Cor. 2.9 Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things that God hath prepared for them that love him Now whether to change a barren countrey which is alwaies in want for such fulness of estate and unutterable plenty be not a gainful change judge you but this change do Christs Saints make by dying And thus I have shew'd you in these five particulars that Saints gain by dying in part of estate and condition one step farther and we shall come to the use As they make a gain of death in the change of their place as they make a gain by death in respect of their estate and condition so they gain in the change of their company in this respect also death makes them gainers and this I shall hold out unto you in these three particulars First they change unholy company for company that is holy and pure unholy company why the Saints associate not themselves with such here Ps 6.8 Psal 119.115 Ps 120.5 Psal 16.3 doth not the Psalmist banish such his society away from me ye wicked doth not he complain Wo is me that I dwell in Mesech does he not profess all my delight is in the Saints that dwell on earth I answer t is true he does so and the like do all Saints desire as man is a sociable creature so by his society you may judge of the man wicked men are for company like themselves and Saints for Saints society the righteous are abomination to the wicked and the wicked are abomination to the righteous Canaanites are thorns in the Israelites sides and pricks in their eyes I would as soon guess at a man bound for heaven or hell by his companions as by most marks I know it was the speech of a good woman lying upon her bed of sickness and under some trouble of spirit her comforts eclipsed Lord sayes she I hope thou wilt not send me to hell for there be the wicked and thou knowest I never loved their company upon earth Gods Saints had rather be in a desart then with debauched companions Psal 55.6 O that I had wings like a dove then would I flee away yea wander far off and remain in the wilderness but though these be not the Saints companions by way of choice or option yet so long as their converse and walk lyes here in the world they must have to to do with ungodly ones t is true their fellow Saints are their dear associates the company they delight in but they cannot sometime avoid sinners company too for then as St. Paul sayes 1 Cor. 5.10 they must go out of the world yea but now comes death and that sets them among company pure and perfect now they are for Mount Sion the city of the living God the heavenly Hierusalem the innumerable company of Angels the general assembly the Church of the first born and with God the judge of all with the spirits of just men made perfect with Jesus the mediator c. Heb. 12.22.23 Now they are in the kingdome which no unclean thing enters where are shut out all dogs and sorceres and whoremongers murderers Idolaters lyars with the rest of that cursed rabble this is Gods holy place where must come none but holy persons called the Inheritance of the Saints in light Coll. 1.12 the inheritance undefiled 1 Pet. 1.4 where they shall have no wicked Belialite to vex persecute trouble mock reproach or bark against holiness and holy persons no they are gone by themselves to a place of their own and shall never more disquiet thee in thy eternal and uninterrupted enjoyment of thy long wished for rest and peace Oh what a gainful change is this to hearts truly gracious company well amended that 's the first thing Then secondly they change company of an inferiour and lower rank for Princes and Kings society nay indeed none come there but Kings all crowned persons Rev. 1.6 He hath made us Kings and Priests to God such they were here though their glory was obscured but now they go to have their
Crowns put on shall be cloathed with their Robes have their palms in their hands and be set upon their Thrones and seats Royal Matth. 19.28 Christ told them before Ye that have walked with me in regeneration shall sit upon Thrones and now will make good his word to them therefore there inheritance is called a Kingdome Luk. 12.32 Yea a glorious kingdome a kingdome incorruptible that fadeth not away now 't is come it was long since prepared for them and now they being prepared for it shall have it Matth. 25.34 Come ye blessed of my father receive the Kingdome prepared for you from the beginning of the world oh little thought the world when time was what honour awaited this poor despised handful yea but now to the grief of their hearts and gnashing their teeth they shall see to what honour God designed them their life was hid before though Kings children yet they were in their nonage oh with what a scornful eye did the worldly gallant look upon a poor Saint too low companions for his worship yea but now death comes and the Saint hath the better of him he is for higher company than ever he was the King of Kings admits him to himself and to a participation of that glory in comparison of which the highest earthly honour was but a Glow-worms shine where Angels and crowned persons are his everlasting associates himself crowned with the same glory and that 's a second peice of their gain by death in respect of their company but then And Lastly in the loss of friends themselves yea their dearest and best beloved they gain yet dearer and more desirable 't is true they are dear friends and dear relations that death deprives them of rending the wife from the tender embraces of her beloved husband in comparison of whose society all other worldly friends are not esteemed rending the husband from the bosome of the wife the flower and crown of all her earthly delights and sublunary contentments rending the children from the parents bosomes who would if God had so pleased redeemed their lives though with the loss of their own 2 Sam. 18.33 O Absalom Absalom would God I had dyed for thee my son my son Absalom and how much more piercing the loss of children gracious were it not for the hopes of the one above the other these are huge and sore losses Iob stood under the reports of a lost estate pretty couragiously but when this messenger of death came Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking in their elder brothers house and the house is fallen upon them and the young men are dead them Iob arose and rent his mantle cap. 1.10 Yea but yet even here the Saint by death becomes a gainer for it carryes them to friends far better and dearer to God their best friend and father to Jesus Christ like whom is no beloved 1 Thess 4.17 We shall be ever with the Lord comfort one another with these words it was the saying of one Carpenter a Martyr My wife and children are so dear to me that all the riches of the greatest Duke could not buy them from me but for the love of my Lord I willingly forsake them all and holy Bernard was wont to say Lord Jesus I love thee plus quam mea plus quam meos plusquam me more than all my goods and possessions more than all my friends and relations more than my self to this love loving and beloved friend death carryes them I hope you will not think they leave any so desirable behind them It was a most brave speech of Socrates when his friend Crito perswaded him Vt si vitam suam c. (a) Ut si vitam suam ipso negligeret liberis tamen parvulis amicis ab ipso pendentibus servaret incolumem Liberi illi qui mihi eos dedit curae sunt amicos hic discedens inveniam aut vobis similes aut meliores nec vestra societate diu cariturus that if he did not regard his life for his own sake yet for his childrens sake and the sake of his friends that depended on him he should do what he could to preserve it to whom he made this worthy answer As for my children he takes care of them who gave them me and as for my friends when I am gone hence I shall find friends either such as you are or better and however I do look not to be long without your company too you will shortly follow me he was an Heathen but I am sure his speech sounds most Christian does the dying Saint lose dear friends it is their loss but not his he is going to dearer and that 's the third thing wherein in point of the company he is a gainer by dying And thus I hope I have cleared my Doctrine and made it good that Gods people gain by dying They gain by the change of their place They gain by the change of their estate and condition They gain by the change of their company We come now to see what improvement we can make of this comfortable truth to our own benefit and advantage and the uses shall be these Vse 1 First learn hence the great difference between the death of Gods people and the deaths of wicked and prophane wretches there is not the thousandth part so much difference in point of desirableness between the seeming excellencies and flourishing pompe of the worlds greatest darlings and the low sad afflicted weather-beaten estate of Gods poor Saints in reference to their lives as there is reall difference in their deaths and latter ends we say death is a gain to the Saints yea but non sic impiis not so to the wicked to them no let them try if death will advantage them you make a gain by dying yes dye and try death to the Saints t is a rest and refreshing but to these as one sayes well 't is like the distracted slumber of a condemned person who anticipates his next mornings execution in a frightful dream The Saints may say to death as David to Ahimaaz come in thou bringest good tidings but the wicked may say to him as Ahab to Elijah Hast thou found me O mine enemy beloved by the rule of contraryes if there be gain in the death of the righteous then there is loss in the death of the wicked and poor hearts there is indeed Shall I shew you in a few particulars what loss there is in the death of the wicked man why thus then First he loseth all the hopes that ever he had and in the room of them succeeds black despair we cannot deny but there is a vain hope in wicked men of happiness a foolish hope that it shall go well with them hereafter how ever they live here we would fain beat them from it but we cannot we tell them 't is a good believing hope t is a holiness reproaching hope 't is an Heaven debasing hope t is a Devil pleasing