Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A48444
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A funeral sernom [sic] delivered upon the sad occasion of the much lamented death of John Gould, late of Clapham, Esq; who put on immortality, Aug. 22, 1679 / by P. Lamb ...
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Lamb, Philip, d. 1689.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing L207; ESTC R41395
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22,449
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89
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comfortably say Surely the bitterness of death is past while others say of Death and the Grave as Jacob said of Luz at first How terrible is this place He may say of them This is none other than the House of God Thirdly 3. Cons Consider the wicked ungodly and unprepared Sinner can have no hopes in his death Isa 57.2 There is no peace saith my God to the Wicked every pain and sickness that befals him is like the ratling of the wheels of the fiery Chariots and the prancing of the horses of the terrible ones that come to fetch away his soul and now he hath no hope nor life left in him Job 8.13 The Hypocrites hope shall perish he can expect no other but that his soul and body must shortly be pluck'd asunder never to meet together but in Hell That we be habitually prepar'd 2. Direct First Let us get an interest in Christ without him there is no peace with God and without peace with God there can be no peace in the latter end Job 22.21 Acquaint now thy self with God and be at peace Whence once we have got an interest in Christ we may die in peace As Simeon when he had got Christ in his arms could say Now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace O be perswaded to receive and embrace Christ to believe in him and resign up your selves to him as you desire to die in peace and to be happy for ever If you were now upon your Death-beds and your Physician should turn Preacher and your Doctor become a Divine and tell you your Sickness is incurable there is no more hopes of your life you are not like to be men of this world you must prepare for another world you had best make your peace with God and get an interest in Christ I can do no more for you and so the Lord have mercy upon your souls Oh! what would the Blood of Christ be worth in such a day how welcome would he be in such an hour Secondly Be sure that ye be in a Regenerate and Converted state Except a man be born again he shall never see the Kingdom of Heaven And lastly Repent of all your sins Sin like Jonahs Gourd will eat up the comforts of life and devour your peace in death therefore said the Heathen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A good and holy life prepares for an happy death Deal with sin as the Lords of the Philistines advis'd concerning David 1 Sam. 29.4 Who though he had liv'd peaceably amongst them yet when they went down to fight against Israel would not suffer him to go down to the battel along with them lest he should turn his hand against them So though sin hath been a pleasant Companion with us all our life yet when we go down to encounter death we must take heed that sin don't go along with us for it will certainly turn its hand against us and put a sting into Death and deadly teeth into that Lion Secondly That you may be actually prepar'd First 1 Direct Let every day be well fill'd Days well fill'd with the works of Righteousness will make souls well fill'd with the fruits of Righteousness which are Peace and Joy Let every days work be well done examine your selves every night whether your work be done and what is done amiss and ask your souls every night upon doing this whether it can willingly pass from this day into Eternity Job 5.26 it is said concerning that upright man Thou shalt come to thy Grave in thy full Age Diu vixit qui bene vixit like as a Shock of Corn cometh in his season which implies two things First That he shall come willingly to his grave as a man that hath done his work goes willingly to his rest so is he a Volunteer to Death that his soul need not be forc'd out of his body as Lot was out of Sodom nor need he be drag'd out of the World as the rich Fool in the Gospel Secondly That when the Upright man dies he goes as one ready and prepar'd as a Shock of Wheat in its season this Saint goes like the Ox in the Emblem that that stands betwixt the Altar and the Plough with this Motto Ad utrumque paratus as ready for the Sacrifice as for the Yoke and thus Paul saith of himself Phil. 1.23 I am in a strait betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better betwixt two i. e. betwixt Life and Death In a Strait that is as a City that is Besieged and straiten'd or as Iron between two Loadstones loth to leave the Philippians and loth to stay any longer from Christ and therefore after he had stood a while in Aequilibrio at last he inclines rather to be with Christ who is altogether desirable 1. His Common Presence is the preservation of the World 2. His Spiritual Presence is the very joy and life of Saints 3. His Glorious Presence the Eternal happiness of Believers and Oh! how did the heart of our deceased Friend breath after this highest of enjoyments Secondly 2 Direct Let your accounts be always ready The careless Steward can't bear the news of his Lords coming before his Accounts be ready and adjusted There is a secret fearfulness in all persons negligent of their Accounts to hear of Christs coming Every one of us must give account of himself to God and the sleepy soul fears to hear this Voice Give an account of thy Stewardship for thou maist be no longer Steward and having so many Debts and Talents to account for he knows not how to set upon that work yet he that will be always ready must keep his accounts even and must often ask how the case stands between God and his soul and he need not be afraid though he hath never so many Talents Debts and Arrears to account for beyond his ability having the Blood and Righteousness of Jesus Christ to ballance the account Thirdly 3 Direct take your solemn leave every day of all the World that if God should call you the World may not be found hanging on your hearts to make you unwilling to go at his call Every night say to your Friends and to your Estates farewell as being willing to leave them This is to die daily and by this means you will die comfortably and willingly Fourthly Let your Graces be all in a readiness active vigorous and abounding that when Christ comes these Graces being in you 2 Pet. 1.11 An entrance may be abundantly ministred unto you into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Faith Hope and Love must stand always expecting the Lords coming and be renewing Acquaintance with God and making a fresh application of the Blood of Christ that the soul may have a clear sight of his interest in the Righteousness of Christ and his right to Divine favour Lastly 5 Direct Familiarize Death to your souls we are afraid of Death and remain unprepar'd for Death because we and Death are strangers When you lie down let Death lie down with you when you awake let Death talk with you when you walk let Death be your Companion Make a more serious improvement of your spectacles of Mortality Funeral occasions than you are wont to do that if God bid you die as Num. 27.12 He bad Moses go up to Mount Abarim and die there You may be as ready to go and die as to go to your Beds Only let Faith give you always the fair Prospect of Christ of Heaven and Glory that your hearts may be possest with this assurance 2 Cor. 5.1 We know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle be dissolved we have a building of God not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens FINIS
the taking away of so many Worthies of the Lord eminent Lights in the Church and excellent Instruments both here and elsewhere may portend I cannot tell Secondly Consider their usefulness in being examples of Holiness in the places where God hath set them the examples of Saints are of great use in their generation Justin Martyr was Converted by reading the Lives of dead Saints The examples of Men whether good or bad have a mighty influence upon the minds and manners of others Theodosius owning Religion made all his Courtiers to become Religious Thirdly The Lives of Perfect and Upright men are greatly useful and desirable for their Counsels and Instructions to propagate and promote Religion Prov. 10.21 The Lips of the Righteous feed many A few words the Woman of Samaria spake to the people brought many to seek after Christ John 4.29 How useful this our Deceased worthy Friend in all these respects was you all know as a Prop and Pillar to the Family to the place where he lived and by his Example and Counsels that scarce any that conversed with him but was the better for him let us then lament and cry out with David Help Lord for the Godly man ceaseth for the Faithful fail from among the Children of men Psal 12.1 I need not tell you of his eminency in Religion his Love to Christ his Zeal for the Gospel and for the House of God his free and generous mind to the faithful Ministers and Members of Jesus Christ which you know better than I I shall say only this of him He liv'd a pious life he died full of gracious breathings after God and is entered into his glorious never-ending enjoyments only my heart moves me to send up this affectionate expression after him which was Davids for his Beloved Jonathan 2 Sam. 1.26 I am distressed for thee my Brother Jonathan very pleasant hast thou been unto me There be two Uses of Exhortation First To live the life of the Perfect and Upright man Secondly So to prepare for the Perfect and Upright mans end that we may have peace First 1. Vse of Exhort Imitate the Perfect and Upright man or rather take your measure from Heaven let this be your Ambition to strive who may write most exactly after this Copy or the Original Matth. 5.48 Be you perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect sincere and upright compleat in all parts of piety Be you like him though you cannot be equal to him 1 Cons The Wisdom of man is to approve himself to God who judges of men according to the integrity of the heart Though David had great failings and foul miscarryings yet he hath this remark put on him that he was a man after Gods own heart and he is a man after the heart of God whose heart comports with the heart of God and in whose heart God is who dwells with the Upright in their hearts as on his little Throne or lower Heaven He that is every where per modum vestigii is with the Upright per modum imaginis they bear his Image it is no matter if men commend us who are very free and prodigal of their praises or what we think of our selves but as the Apostle says in 2 Cor. 10.18 Not he that commendeth himself is approved but whom the Lord commendeth 2. Cons It 's our work to keep our hearts upright and it is Gods promise to give us peace He that will have the Beatifical Vision must be pure in heart Matth. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God and he that will ascend to the spirits of just men made perfect in Heaven must be perfect and upright and of a refined spirit on Earth Heb. 12.23 There is no comfort like this in a dying hour to be able to say as Hezekiah Isa 38.3 Remember O Lord how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight which made Paul make it the business of his life Act. 24.16 Herein do I exercise my self to have always a Conscience void of offence toward God and toward men having a true and firm hope of the Resurrection as in v. 15. and that he might have peace at the last It is a remarkable story I have sometimes read of an ancient Servant when Age and Infirmity had thrown him upon his Death-bed in a kind of soliloquy thus he discourseth I am now a dying man and am going to the Judge of all the World What Friend have I to stand by me in this day His Riches Gold and Silver Houses Lands tell him they will bear the expence of his Sickness buy his Coffin and Winding-sheet c. His Acquaintants and Relations tell him they could Weep and Pray for him and attend him to the Grave But his good Conscience says He would go through Death and to the Judg with him O says he This is a Friend indeed farewell Estate farewell Relations I and my good Conscience will go together 3. Cons Without a perfect and upright heart all your Profession is but one continued act of provocation your duties like the Beauty-spots as they call them upon their painted faces they account them their Beauty but they are their Deformity and such are all Religious duties without a perfect heart This Integrity and Uprightness is the Golden thread that must run through all the actions of our life An Hypocrit may do as much or more than others but a perfect man though he may not do so much yet he does better than others The Devil may put on Samuels Mantle but that cannot change his nature he is the Devil still The Apostle tells us That out of the dregs of time both the Gloworm-Formalist and such like Vermin should arise 2 Tim. 3.1 to the 10. v. 4. Cons Mark and consider the end of the Partial Formal and Hypocritical Professors like Comets that blaze for a time yet go off with an ill savour so the hope of the Hypocrit fails or as the New Moon that shines briskly and clearly at first until it come to the Wane and then leaves the World under an universal darkness They are hated of God and Man of God because they be not as they seem to be of Men because they seem to be what they are not and at last Isa 33.14 The Sinners in Zion are afraid fearfulness hath suprized the Hypocrite who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings Direct 1. If you would be Perfect and Upright in your lives First Look to your heart at all times which is the seat of affections the fountain of actions 1. And especially In your Spiritual duties observe how the Upright man carries it with God let your heart and God be together in all your duties If your heart be perfect in duty there will be peace in the duty but the prayers of the Wicked are abomination and