Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A65312
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A sermon preached July 2, at the funeral of Mr. John Wells late pastor of Olave-Jury, London by Thomas Watson ...
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Watson, Thomas, d. 1686.
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1676
(1676)
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Wing W1143; ESTC R9175
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13,834
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40
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shortly lye in the ashes Shall not he which is cloathed with Mortality be cloathed with Humility The thoughts of the Grave would bury our pride When the Lord had said to the Judges Psal. 82. 6 I said ye are gods lest they should grow proud he adds a corrective but ye shall die like men Ye are dying-gods 3. The meditation of the shortness of time would hasten our Repentance Repentance is as necessary as Heaven as radical moisture and natural heat preserve the life so repenting-tears and an heart burning with love preserve the soul. It is natural to delay Repentance We say as Hag. 1. 2 The time is not yet come But the Text saith the time is short our life is a taper soon blown out The thoughts of Times volubility and swiftness would keep us from proroguing our repentance 'T is no time for us to make a long work when God is making a short work It is observed of the Birds of Norway that they fly faster than the birds of other Countrys By the instinct of nature knowing the days in that Climate to be very short they therefore make the more hast to their nests The consideration of our short abode here will make us avoid delays and fly faster to Heaven upon the wing of repentance 4. The meditation of the shortness of time would antidote us against the temptations of Satan Temptation is Satans eldest daughter that woes for him Satan doth more mischief by his wiles than his darts He knows how to suit his temptations as the Husbandman knows what seed is proper for such a soil Satan tempted Achan with a wedg of Gold David with Beauty It is hard to keep up the banks of Grace against the sea of Temptation I know no better remedy against Satans immodest solicitations than this Text The time is short What Satan dost thou tempt me to vanity when I am going to give up my accounts shall I now be sinning when to morrow I may be dying How shall I look my Judg in the face Christian when Satan sets sinful pleasure before thee shew him a deaths-head this will make temptations vanish 5. The consideration of the shortness of our stay in the world would be an help to Temperance it would make us sober and moderate in the use of worldly comforts By excess we turn things lawful into sin the Bee may suck a little honey from the leaf but put it into a barrel of honey and it is drowned We may with Jonathan dip the end of the rod in honey but not thrust it in too far Noah took too much of the Grape Gen. 9. 21. The flesh when pampered rebels The best preservative against intemperance is this Tempus est contractum The time is short When we are feasting death may quickly take away the Cloth Plutarch reports that the Egyptians used at their great Banquets to bring in the Image of a dead man and say to their Guests Look upon this and proceed in your Banket An excellent Antidote against a Surfeit Joseph of Arimathea erected a Sepulchre in his Garden to spice his flowry delights with the thoughts of death 6. The meditation of the shortness of time would much mitigate our grief for the loss of dear Relations It is observable when the Apostle had said The time is short he presently adds Let them that weep be as if they wept not No doubt the loss of Relations is grievous to the fleshy part It is like pulling a limb from the body When God strikes us in our right eye we weep 'T is lawful to give vent to our grief Joseph wept over his dead Father But though Religion doth not banish grief it bounds it We must weep quasi non as if we wept not Rachels sin was that she refused to be comforted Mat. 2. 18. Origen it is thought died of grief and if any thing can stop the issue of sorrow at least asswage it it is this The time is short We shall shortly have our losses made up and enjoy our godly Relations again in Heaven 7. The Meditation of the shortness of time would make us highly value Grace Time is short but Grace is for ever 1 Joh. 2. 27 The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you Grace is a blossome of Eternity it is semen manens an immortal seed 1 Joh. 3. 9. Grace is Embryo Gloriae Grace is not blasted by death but transplanted into a better soil Grace is not a lease which soon expires but an inheritance intailed for ever He who hath true Grace can no more lose it than the Angels can who are fixed in their Heavenly Orb. Rev. 10. 6 The Angel sware by him that liveth for ever that there should be time no longer But Grace shall survive time and run parallel with Eternity 2. Branch If Time be so short and winged take heed of mispending this short time to mispend time is the worst prodigality 1. Take heed of spending time unprofitably Domitian wasted much of his time in catching Flies Many live to cumber the ground Telluris inutile pondus Judg. 10. 4 â— Jair had thirty Sons that rode on thirty ass-colts and they had thirty cities and they died So it may be said such an one was born in the reign of such a King and he possessed such an Estate and he died his life was scarce worth a prayer or his death worth a tear An idle person stands in the world but for a cypher and God writes down no cyphers in the book of life many are like the wood of the Vine useless Ezek. 15. 3 Will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon Too many resemble the Lillies which toil not neither do they spin They spend their time as the Emperour Caligula he was at a great expence to provide a Navy and when it was provided he sent his Mariners to Sea to gather cockle-shells and so they sailed home again God hath furnish'd men with precious time wherein they may work out Salvation and they imploy it vainly aut aliud agendo aut nihil they ravel it out in impertinencies What reward can be expected when there is no work done who is crowned that never fights Mat. 25. 30 Cast ye the unprofitable servant into utter darkness 2. Take heed of spending time viciously Divers spend their short time in drinking gaming whoring Esau while he was hunting lost the blessing many while they hunt after sinful pleasures lose Heaven Sin is boiled to a great heigth in this Age men study new Oaths and count it a shame not to be impudent they are steep'd and parboil'd in wickedness they live in the world to infect others as the Basilisk with its breath poisons the herbs What a dreadful account will they have to give who have nothing to shew God but their Treasons Branch 3. If the time of life be so short let us improve it Ephes. 5. 16
But the time is shortly coming when all his mirth shall cease Rev. 18 22 The voice of the Harpers and Musicians and Trumpeters shall be heard no more at all in thee The Grave buries all a sinners joy When a wicked man dies the Devil gets a windfal Satan in Samuel's shape said to Saul 2 Sam. 28. 19 Thou shalt be with meto morrow The Sinner is to day with his Lusts and may be tomorrow with the Devil Who would envy the wicked their honour or pleasure they must pay dear for it They have a short Feast but a long Reckoning for a drop of mirth they must drink a Sea of wrath and Who knows the power of that wrath It was a saying of Cardinal Bellarmine If a man had but a sight of Hell it were enough to make an intemperate person sober Hell is the emphasis of Torment The Sacrifice of Jealousy was to have no Oyl nor Frankincense put to it Numb 5. 15. In Hell is no Oyl of Mercy put to the Torments of the wicked to lenify them nor is there any Incense of Prayer to appease Gods wrath Oh that sinners would in time break off their iniquities What is become of their Intellectuals have they sinned away Reason as well as Conscience The time of life is short but the torments of Hell are lengthened out Rev. 14. 11 The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever 4. Vse Here is a light side of the Text to the Godly they may be glad that their time here is short they cannot live but by dying Behold honey at the end of the rod. 1. The time being short their sinning-time cannot be long Sin is a troublesome inmate Rom. 7. 24 Paul that Bird of Paradise sighed and groan'd under corruption a child of God mingles sin with his duties he cannot write a copy of holiness without blotting there 's a party in a regenerate heart sides with Satan but be of good comfort the time is short it is but a while Christians that the dead man shall be tyed to the living that you shall be combating with a proud unbelieving heart The year of release is coming Death doth to the Godly as the Angel did to Peter it smites them and makes their chains of sin fall off quite 2. The time being short their working-time cannot be long in this life much work is cut out There is 1. The work of the hand as the Artificer works in his Trade Prove 10. 4. 2. The work of the head notions are the children of the brain and there is labour in bringing them forth 3. The work of the heart which is the hardest work to search cleanse watch the heart as a clock sometimes goes faster sometimes flower so the heart sometimes goes faster in sin sometimes flower in duty But here is the Saints comfort their working-time is but short Rev. 19. 13 They rest from their labours When their bodies return to dust their souls return to rest 3. Time being short their suffering-time cannot be long Life is inter-larded with trouble Job 14. 1. You may as well separate weight from lead as trouble from mans life We come into the world with a Cry and go out with a Groan Every one hath his yoke and 't is well if there be not a nail in it but Time is short Though the Cross be heavy we have but a little way to carry it death will give the godly a writ of ease Job 3. 17 There i.e. in the Grave the wicked cease from troubling 4. The Time being short their waiting-time cannot be long the Godly shall not be long out of Heaven While the blessed Angels see the orient beauties that shine in Gods face Believers live far from Court being imprisoned in the body Here they do rather desire God than enjoy him But the Time is short it is but a few days perhaps hours and the Saints shall be ever solacing themselves in the light of Gods Countenance They shall leave their pillow of thorns and lay their head on Christs bosom Faith gives a propriety in God death gives a possession The Wagons and Chariots came ratling to old Jacob but they were to carry him to his Son Joseph Deaths Chariot-wheels may come ratling to a Believer but it is to carry him home to his Fathers house In that Paradise of God a Christian shall have more than he can think Eph. 3. 20. He can think What if every mountain were a Pearl every flower a Ruby every sand in the Sea a Diamond the whole Globe a shining Chrysolite but all his thoughts are too low and dwarfish to reach the glory of the Coelestial Pyramides The reward Heavenly as St. Austin saith exceeds Faith and the Time being short a Christian shall be in Heaven before he is aware then shall he bathe his Soul in those perfum'd pleasures of Paradise which run at Gods right hand for evermore I have done with the Text let me speak next to the Occasion We are met to commemorate the Death of an Eminent Minister in this City Mr. JOHN WELLS Sorry I am to be an Actor in this Mournful Scene But being requested by Him in his life in case I survived I was willing to do this last Office of love There hath been of late a great mortality of Ministers The men of the World need not be so fierce against Gods Ministers they will not trouble them long Gods taking away his Ministers so fast two in a day boads much evil It presageth the fall of an House when the Pillars are removed Concerning this Reverend Brother deceased it is not my purpose to use any hyperbolical Encomiums or Panegyricks only give me leave to strow a few Flowers upon his Hearse This our worthy Friend was endued with Learning and volubleness of speech He could 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divide the word rightly as a workman that need not be ashamed Seals he had to his Ministry Some of his hearers might call him as Cyprian did Caecilius novae vitae parentem their Spiritual Father For his Piety he was not only a Follower of that which was good but a leader he said not long before his death That he had brought this to an issue That he loved God He was fixed to his Principles Though he be now by Death a Fallen-Star yet he was not a Wandring-Star His disposition was not Morose but Affable a man of that Candor and Curtesy as did oblige and win the affections of many to him When Grace and sweetness of Nature meet it is like a Pearl in a Gold-Ring For his Preaching 1. He did frame himself ad captum populi he Preached intelligibly to the capacity of his Auditory Sure that Minister will never hit the hearts of his hearers who shoots over their heads Ministers should be Stars to give light not Clouds to darken the Truth Clearness is the grace of Speech Gregory Nazianzen Preached plain to the ignorant yet was admired by the learned 2. He was elaborate and painful in his work Sloath in a Minister is as bad as Sleep in a Sentinel He would not offer that to God which cost him nothing Christ bled for Souls well may we sweat This good man like a Taper wasted himself while he gave light to others He was a man of a forgiving-Spirit he was not troubled with the overflowing of the Gall Kindnesses he wrote in Marble Injuries he forgot He was very Charitable The Backs and Bellies of the Poor were the furrows where he sowed the Seeds of his liberality But though his Charity did shine he did not care it should blaze He is now taken from the evil to come For you that did sit under his Ministry let me tell You you have lost a Friend and a Guide you have cause to be Close-mourners Let me request only this of you That you would remember the many good Instructions given you though he is dead let not his Sermons dye too but labour to Copy them out fair in your Lives FINIS * August * 1 Pet. 3. 8. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Quantillum sit tempus meum Gejer. * Punctum est quod vivimus puncto minus Sen. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Vita adeò parum a morte distat ut ipsa mors sit Musc. * Horat * Diu suit in mundo non vixit Sen. * Una dies continua occajum non habens Gerh. * Cogita centum millia annorum cogita decies Centena millia annorum Cogita mille milliones annorum immò saeculorum nondum in choasti aeternum Corn. à Lap. * Animantis cujusque vita in fuga est * ut Vir Crescit Vita decrescit Senec. * Bern. Use 2. Exhort Br. 1. * Vive memor Lethi Pers. * Nemo putat se citò moriturum Aug. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys. * Theodoret. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Parùm viae quid multum viatiâ—i * Agnoscat homo se esse mortalem franget elationem Aug. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys. Hom. 22. de Simult * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * In licitis perimus omnes * 1 Sam. 14. 27. * Plut. * Joh. 4. 19. * Turpe est difficiles habere nugas Mart. * Sen. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Claud. * Prov. 9. 12. * Isa. 26. 9. * Animula vagula blandula quae nunc abibis in loca Hadr. * Gen. 6. 8. * Nil in hac vita dulcius sentitur nil ita mortem ab amore mundi sâ—parat nil sic animam contra tentationes roborat nil hominem ita ad omne bonum opus excitat quam gratia contemplationis Bern. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. * Dio servire est regnare * Incipe erogaere si non vis errare Aug. de Verb. Dom. * Act. 12. 7. Quid est diù vivere nisi diu Torqutri Aug. Praemium quod side non attingetur