Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A66978
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A funeral sermon, occasioned by the death of Mrs. Jane Papillon late wife of the very worthy Thomas Papillon, Esq; first preached July 24. 1698. and now published at his request. By John Woodhouse.
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Woodhouse, John, d. 1700.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing W3462; ESTC R220039
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22,486
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67
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use them This was not the way of this Holy Woman our Deceased Friend She has I know during my Acquaintance with her exercised her self in finding out and laying up Marks and Evidences of her Holy and Happy State I have heard her mention with a peculiar Thankfulness the Labours of those Ministers that have been helpful to her in it and let me tell you that you and I have to speak modestly as much need to do it as she had If thou think'st so it were easie to put thee in a way to do it whilst thou hast Health and Strength of Body and Composure of Mind to attend to it with Application of Soul for now is the Time if indeed thou wouldest have it done effectually done and because the Time will not give me leave to set down such Marks as as thou mayest depend upon in particular Let me pray thee to reflect back upon what I have said by way of Exhortation and ask thy Conscience if thou have thus received Christ Jesus the Lord art thou united to him art thou thus in him dost thou thus walk in him and live to him And hear what a wakeful and well enlightned Conscience will give thee in Answer and judge of thy Case accordingly Or because it is so much better done by better Hands read over the Marks of Grace and Sincerity as thou findest them set down to thy Hand in Practical Books for the Examination of the Truth of Grace and mark what falls from the Pulpit on that Design put them in Writing under Two Heads 1. Put down such as Conscience is clearest in and look oft upon them that thou mayest keep them clear and avoid all that clouds them 2. In another Place Put down such Marks as are plain Scripture-Marks but not so legible to thee by reason of some prevailing Disease of Soul that gets Entertainment there and so renders thy sincerity in Grace suspected by thee now and will do it more in a sick and dying Hour for Conscience will then speak out and will be heard at another rate than now thou hearest it View these frequently lay them on thy Table for that purpose or carry them about thee that at leisure times thou may'st be working thy Heart up to them and plying the Throne of Grace for ability to do it and for the Witness of the Spirit that thou hast done it Find out what Sin it is thou art most indulgent to that gives cause of Fear it is in Dominion and what Duty and Service thou stickest most at and daily urge thy Heart to keep the greatest distance from the one and to set presently about the other But I may not enlarge on Particulars I must leave that to you Well Friend go Home then and say to thine own Soul this is a Matter of great Concernment of Self-concernment I have bestowed many an Hour on that which is of lesser Moment of more remote Concernment I have left this at great Uncertainties a great while but I will now bring it to Issue that I may know where Death will land me in this Happiness or that Misery And do not satisfie your selves with any Evidence of your Grace or Title to Glory but what will abide the Test at Death and Judgment go by true Measures rightly applyed that thou deceive not thy self in this important Affair Thirdly Lastly This Doctrine would afford abundant Matter of Support and Consolation to such as are United to and Interested in Jesus Is it so That they are Blessed that dye in the Lord do they rest from their Labours and do their Works follow them First Had I time to Open this Fountain of Consolation I might easily make it appear that this might support and comfort all those Souls that are in Jesus under all the Miseries and Calamities of this Life Secondly Against the Hurt and Horrour of Death First As to First The Calamities of Life it may be they are many and great too Sickness Pain Sorrow Disgrace Poverty Loss of Dear Râ—lations and what not Well were they worse than they are they shall all be fully and finally done away at Death these are not entailed on the Children of God for ever God loves them better than to permit them to abide in such a boysterous state of things for ever I must not Enlarge Briefly Secondly As to the Second The Hurt and Fear of Death which is so terrible to innocent much more so to sinful Nature you had need be well secured against them Sin hath put such a Venemous Sting into Death as fills it with just Horror But to a Soul in Christ this hurtful 1 Cor. 15. 55 56 Sting is taken out Death is become a Sleeping in Jesus the Evil of it which is destructive is done away it is now become the Passage into the Joy of your Lord as I have largely opened to you upon a late Occasion and may not add more now This well thought of may support and comfort thy Dejected Soul under the Nearest Views of thy Approaching Change Well Sirs tho' I must have done what once more say you There is a Blessedness is it like to be yours Will you take Care it may be yours Will you get Evidence it is yours in Title now and shall be yours in Possession when you dye that you may have Peace whilst you live and Comfort when you dye and this Blessedness after Death which all shall have that dye in the Lord For it came by a Voice from Heaven to John he had it in Command to write for our Support it is an Indubitable Truth Blessed are the Dead that dye in the Lord c. FINIS ERRATA PAge 3. Line 20. between and and to add should be pag. 11. lin 1. read Secondly It doth suppose their Abiding and Walking in him from c. pag. 47. lin 22. put one in the place of such and such in the place of one pag. 51. l. 26. dele not
must render it I must do it as I can because I can do it no better Viz. Oh the Blessednesses of that Man not Blessed Adjectively and in the Concrete but Blessednesses Substantively and in the Abstract not Blessedness in the Singular Number but Blessednesses in the Plural and O the Blessednesses A compleat Complication of them in that Soul that lives in Christ walks in him and dyes in him and though Philologers are not certainly agreed Whether it be a Noun Substantive or Adjective Plural containing all kind of Felicity or an Adverb or Interjection Well is it for that Man Happily is he Provided for Yet they seem agreed that which soever it be and one they generally think it must be it hath the force Habet affluentiam omnium bonorum vel omnium bonorum aggregatione perfectus Modis omnibus accumulate beatus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multum gaudens Others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à vehementiore gaudio of a Pathetick Joyful Acclamation and then they come much to one as the Learned Drusius hath it He is abundantly and every way blessed beyond Expression I have the rather Noted this because the Seventy Translate the Hebrew Word which we render Blessed by the very Original Word in my Text which Philologers derive from Words importing Great Joy Joy unspeakable and as I may say full of Glory It does denote that a Soul in Christ when he dyes shall have such a Blessedness and Joy such a fulness of Joy and Pleasure that he shall neither want nor wish for more But not to stay upon the Name which was to lead us into the Thing Let us see what we can say of it And O! how gladly would I commend the Blessedness of this State to you that I might commend this Dear and Blessed Jesus to you Verily Sirs you could never set so light by this Jesus as you do if you did but know the Worth of him if you knew your Need of him and what you should have by him If I fail in this I shall avail you little The dead that dye in the Lord are blessed Which does denote First A Separation a Removal of all that is Evil and Distressing There shall when thou dyest in the Lord be a Separation from all Evils Natural and Moral that are so great a part of thy Distress here Every one feels the Evil of Afflictions every one can complain of this Plague of the Heart every one hath his own Body of Sin and his own Burthen I do not know any is without one you do not feel mine nor I yours but I feel one and you another Oh! what a Complaining World is this Sickness Pain Calamity Losses of Relations Crosses on the one Hand and Moral Evil which is the greater Evil on the other Hand the Evil of Sin Dwelling and Working in us The Tender-hearted Soul that hath a new Nature in it that is set against Sin hath a very tender Sense of the Evil of that Sin that dwells in it and is an implacable Enemy to it I am sure it made Paul pour out more Complaints than all his Stripes and Stoning Irons and Imprisonment did Where do you hear him complain how adverse how miserable soever his Case was as he does on this Occasion O wretched man that I Rom. 7. 24. am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death Sin fate uneasie upon his Spirit tho' it was not Reigning and Allowed but Unallowed and Hated Well Soul bear up if thou be but heartily come to Jesus if thou art but one of those that are willing to follow this Lamb whithersoever he goes I can tell thee Good Tydings of Great Joy it cannot be long e're thy Blessed Jesus will deliver thee from all this thy Anguish Vexation and Miseries shall all be done away All thy Sweat thy Labours shall cease all Tears be wiped from thine Eyes and all Sorrows done away with the Causes of them and though thou art now conversant with a Sluggish and Sleepy and Hypocritical Heart thou knowest not what to do with it thou bringest it to Ordinances and God in them to better it and this without any great and good Effect hitherto Bear up Soul this Holy Jesus hath undertaken for thee thou art in him and thou shalt dye in him from henceforth thou shalt not feel the Temptations the sinful Workings of a Naughty Heart Oh! that will be a Joyful Change to a Holy Soul that is under the Tender Sence of these things here This is one part of the Blessedness as it denotes an Abolition of and Separation from the Evils of this Life both Natural and Moral from that of Affliction and that of Sin which tho' it be rather Negative than Positive yet it is that without which positive Blessedness cann't be enjoyed None can be fully happy with so much Misery hanging about him and pressing upon him Methinks therefore it should be Joy to Holy Souls to wait for and expect such a day when Sin and Sorrow shall be fully done away and shall be known no more for ever Secondly I must tell you it does denote A fruition of the most felicitating Good the best Good that the Soul is capable of the Blessed God that Summum Bonum that the blind Heathens fought after so long to so little purpose Eustachius in his Excellent Ethicks and our other Masters in Ethicks when they write of this tell us that Felicity or Blessedness is either Objective or Formal Objective Felicity denotes no more but God the Object but Formal Felicity denotes more Some kind of Union to Communion with and Injoyment of this Felicitating Object and this is as it were to be made one with it They commonly place it in two things give me leave to put it in three or four 1. It lyes in the Contemplation of this delightful Object 2. In a Delightful Love of it 3. In a Participation or Enjoyment of it 4. In a Contentation in it When the Soul shall be let into this State it will be a State of Possession and Fruition which as far as I can understand is imported in these four Words First Knowledge or Contemplation The People of God shall know him in another manner than now they do It is called Seeing of God and the Beatifick Vision What sensible Views God will give them to gratifie their Bodily Eyes when they are re-united to their Souls we cannot tell tho' it seems rational to think all our Powers even the lowest of them shall be suitably employed but it will be an intelligible or an intellectual Vision a rational Discovery of the Excellency of this God and his Christ which gives Rise to this Happiness which the Spirits made perfect shall be everlastingly employ'd to view and contemplate with intense and pleasurable Applications of Mind I dare not herd with those bold Presumers that dare to determine whether it be the Divine Essence that is thus view'd immediately or some Created Glory flowing