Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A68607
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A sermon preached at the funeral of Mr. Arthur Vpton Esquire in Deuon. By Iohn Preston, minister of Gods word
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Preston, John, minister of East Ogwell.
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1619
(1619)
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STC 20282.7; ESTC S115170
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22,369
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38
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vncertaine fraile and brittle condition censuring them all with one iudgement vanitie of vanities all is vanitie Eccles. 1. 2. Came not Craesus the rich Prince to misery for all his wealth Xerxes the King of Persia for all his pompe and glory discomfited Did not Dionisius the King of Siracuse fall from a King to be a schoolemaister Did not Bellisarius fall from a giuer to bee a receiuer from a rich man to be a begger Came not Iob from great riches to miserable pouertie for a time Doe not many florish to day in wealth and to morrow come to extreame pouertie Are we all as grasse and wormes meate why then doe wee make so much of the flesh which shall perish and doe not adorne and decke the soule with vertues which shall be presented to God in the day of iudgement We doe not regard our soules but prefer our bodies before them It is a great abuse when the mistresse shall become an handmaide and the handmaide mistresse so it is a great abuse when the soule is not regarded and the body preferred before the soule Seeing our bodies shall perish as grasse let vs say Christ is to mee in life and death aduantage Phil. 1. 21. When we die we shall be deliuered out of two prisons at once the one so much worse then the other as it is worse to be with-held from perfect blisse then from the libertie of a most painfull and tedious pilgrimage We now liue to die but then wee shall die to liue for euer now liuing we are continually dying but then once dying neuer to die more Wee shall leaue a ruinous and base cottage passe to a most glorious and blessed pallace whose pauement is pure gold and whose gates are pearles Reuel 21. 21. By this wee may ghesse what roomes wee are like to finde where our Sauiour prepareth the place Ioh. 14. 2. Had the Prodigall sonne cause to sorrow when he was to depart from this dirtie village and the company of swine to his fathers house Who would not bee able to cast off a sacke of dunge to receiue long white robes Reuel 7. 14. I hope we shall haue neither oxen to try nor farme to see nor wiues to with-hold vs from going Luk. 14. 18. 19. 20. Wee haue had toile enough in the seruitude of Egypt we haue wandred long enough in the desert in continuall battaile with Gods our enemies and in death the time is come to take our repose and inioy the felicitie of the land of promise Wee haue beene in the mount Sinai with Moses when thundrings began to be heard lightnings to flash and a thicke darke cloude to couer the mount but wee shall come to enioy his glory whose terror we haue already sustained This may reproue such as feare death The sting of death is taken away O death where is thy sting 1. Corint 15. 55. Some would die but they would not die a violent death What cause haue we to feare death wee haue but one life and but one can we loose Goliah was as much hurt by Dauids litle stone 1. Sam. 17. 50. as Sampson by the waight of a whole house Iudg. 16. 30. Ely had as much harme by falling backward in his chaire 1. Sam. 4. 18. as Iezabel by being thrown downe from a high window 2. King 9. 33. All they that stoned Stephan to death tooke no more from him Act. 7. 59. then an ordinary sicknesse did from Lazarus Luk. 16. 19. One death is no more death then another and as well the easiest as the hardest taketh our life from vs. Let vs bee willing to leaue this sinfull world desiring to bee dissolued and to bee with Christ Philip. 1. 23. Why should wee feare that which cannot be auoided The very necessitie of death should make vs not vnwilling to die and the remembrance of our mortalitie should make vs litle feare when experience sheweth vs that we are mortall Liue well and die well we may if please God but liue long not die we cannot We should not thinke our life shortened when it is well ended He dieth olde enough that dieth good and life is better well lost then euill kept Wee goe but that way the which all the world before vs hath gone and all that come after vs shal follow beare vs company 4 If we bee not warned neither will take it for a warning that we are as grasse death may come before we are aware and surprise vs when wee shall not haue time to learne to die Wee must be prepared Luk. 12. 40. We must watch Mark 13. 37. How soone is the grasse cut downe and so how soone doth man die The day of death will come suddenly as thiefe in the night 2. Pet. 3. 10. A thiefe giueth no vvarning vvhen he vvill come but commeth vvhen men are asleepe so the day of the Lord commeth suddenly vvhen men are altogether vnprouided Before a ruinous house fall the rafters cracke and giue warning At a strangers comming the dogge barkes and giues warning before a storme the cloudes giue vvarning and the trumpet biddeth men prepare to battell but the day of death commeth suddenly all the time from the birth to death is a time of preparation When the bird thinketh her selfe safe then is she nearest to death when the ship-master is in sight of land hee may be in greatest danger for commonly in the range or harbour is the Shippe lost the want of care drowneth the Shippe the want of skill is the ruine of the souldiers the want of foode starueth the sheepe and the want of preparation to die casteth thousands into perdition As a flower of the field so florisheth hee Mans life is compared in the Scripture to a span for the shortnesse thereof Psal. 39. 5. To a shadow Psal. 102. 11. First for the cause for as the shadow is formed oflight and a body so is man of an intellectuall soule and a humaine body Secondly for the figure and likenesse as the shadow is sometimes long and sometimes short so some men liue long some but a short time Thirdly for the flight the shadow is changed with the moouing of the body so is the life The shadow in the morning is not as it was at night and the health of the body in the morning is not as it was at night The shadow flieth from a man following it and it followeth a man flying from it hee that looseth his life shall saue it he that will saue his life shall loose it Fourthly for the measure the longer the day the shorter the shadow and the shorter the day the longer the shadow so the higher the day of prosperitie the shorter the life and the shorter prosperitie is the longer mans life seemeth to be Iobs prosperitie was short therefore his life seemed long I will saith hee speake in the bitternesse of my
man being dead can returne to his naturall life no more My dayes are swifter then a vveauers shittle and they are spent vvithout hope Iob 7. 6. A weauers shittle is soone from one ende to another so wee are soone from the day of birth to the day of death and our dayes are spent without hope euer to liue a naturall life If a man die shall he liue againe Iob 14. 14. When the soule is separated from the body the body lieth as a stocke or blocke terrible to behold if it lie a while vnburied it wil putrifie and stincke Wee loue no man so much in his life as wee loath him after death for then wee cannot see him dead whom wee were neuer weary beholding when he was aliue To desire or wish him liuing that is dead is in vaine The liuing shall goe to the dead but the dead not come to the liuing First it may warne and admonish men to doe good whiles they liue and to set all things in order before they die If thou hast wronged make restitution in thy life time for thou shalt not come againe to restore If thou wilt giue doe it in thy life time for thou shalt not come againe No doubt the rich man would haue beene more pittifull and mercifull if hee had liued againe on earth Mercifull giuers shall be the children of the highest Luk. 6. 35. And bee like God their father who is the father of mercies 2. Cor. 1. 3. They shall bee his Stewards to dispose his goods Luk. 16. 2. And his hands to distribute his almes All that thy hand shall finde to doe doe it vvith all thy power for there is neither worke nor inuention nor knowledge nor vvisedome in the graue vvhither thou goest Eccles. 9. 10. Here wee must repent here we must giue for after death these actions shall haue no place In this life doe good after this life receiue good here labour hereafter rest In earth action in heauen contemplation The dead are saide to rest from their labours Reuel 14. 13. And although the soule thorough death doeth not loose his faculties notwithstanding she doth not exercise her operations The action of the godly after this life is a perpetuall fruition of eternall happinesse put in the contemplation of diuine glory Our Sauiour saith I must doe the vvorkes of him that sent me vvhile it is day the night commeth vvhen no man can vvorke Ioh. 9. 4. Worke vvhile yee haue haue light Ioh. 12. 35. While we haue time let vs doe good to all men Gal 6. 10. As all time is not fit to sow and plant so all time is not to doe good for after death there is no place of repentance nor no effect of satisfaction Hard dealing men giue gifts to the poore after death but too late Funerall beneficences is not free but formal not chearfull but extorted Because the time of repentance satisfaction restitution and such like will not long last and continue let vs now repent and turne to the Lord to day if yee will heare his voice harden not your hearts Hebr. 3. 7. 8. Exhort one another daily while it is called to day Hebr. 3. 13. Make satisfaction to those men whom thou hast wronged and restore such goods lands and possessions as thou doest detaine from any man there can be no true repentance while the treasures of wickednesse are in the houses of the wicked Mica 6. 10. Secondly it may reproue many who affirme that they haue seene and heard dead men to walke and talke to frequent their promises and to say I am the soule of this man or of that woman I am tormented grieuously in Purgatory for this or that which I haue done I might be deliuered if so many Masses were said for mee If they be not popish which make such false apparitions for gaines sake they are certaine euill spirits Satan can transforme himselfe into an Angell of light 2. Cor. 11. 14. Why not into a soule He entred into Iudas Ioh. 13. 27. He filled Ananias heart Act. 5. 3. He worketh mightily in the sonnes of disobedience Eph. 2. 2. Hence it is that they are called the children of the diuell as Paul said to Elimas and full of all subtiltie and all mischiefe the child of the diuell and enemy of all righteousnesse wilt thou not cease to peruert the straight wayes of the Lord Act. 13. 10. Such were the Iewes to whom Christ spake Yee are of your father the diuell and the lustes of your father yee will doe Ioh. 8. 44. Hence is that the holy Ghost saith Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea for the diuell is come downe vnto you which hath grtat wrath knowing that hee hath but a short time Reuel 12. 12. He is a deceiuer of the people Reuel 20. 3. 8. And his sleights and deceits are called the deepenesse of Satan Reuel 2. 24. The diuels perloaps cannot assume dead mens bodies for they are more vnfit for motion then dead instruments that neuer had life It is a peculiar worke of Gods power to raise the bodies of men out of the graue The Scripture doth not mention that euer euill spirits did appeare with true bodies Seeing mans dayes are few fraile and fickle few for fourescore yeares is a long time now though foure hundred were not much in time past fraile for the strongest man is but weake and fickle for we are speedily from the wombe our liuing mothers to the wombe of our dead mother earth Mans dayes are not onely few fraile and fickle but short and so his liuing death is changed to an euerlasting life and the end of a temporall is the beginning of an eternall life Mans dayes are not onely short but also full of trouble notwithstanding the sorrowes of a bitter life shall bee recompenced with a blessed death and the going out of a bad is the beginning of a better world Mans dayes pompe glory birth blood are but as vanishing flowers this world is transitorie and when man dieth he shall leaue all behind him hee shall carry no more with him going then he brought comming no more out of the world then hee brought into the world whereof he shall haue any vse and when a man is dead he shall returne no more If a man wrong or deceiue oppresse and goe beyond the seas at his returne hee may right those he hath wronged and relieue those he hath oppressed but man that wrongeth oppresseth and iniureth in this life and dieth in the sinne shall not returne to liue on earth to repent for it neither to satisfie for it therefore while we liue let vs so liue that we may liue in death I haue hitherto spoken of life and death now I must speake something of the life and death of this Worshipfull Gentleman whose body standeth before vs ready to be interred To liue well is