Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	believe_v	faith_n	life_n	6,784	5	4.8212	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48839	A sermon preached at the funeral of the Right Reverend Father in God John late Lord Bishop of Chester, at the Guildhal Chappel London, on Thursday the 12 of December, 1672 by William Lloyd ...	Lloyd, William, 1627-1717.	1672 (1672)	Wing L2703; ESTC R20363	15,451	37

Adversaries and as vehemently denied by the Christians of those times By those of Smyrna in the undoubted acts of Polycarpus We cannot say they worship any other than Christ We love the Martyrs as being followers of Christ We celebrate the days of their passions with Ioy We do it both in remembrance of those Champions of God and to train up and prepare others for the like conflicts Besides this which was peculiar to the Martyrs they had a lower degree of remembrance for Bishops and Confessors and all other eminent persons departed this life whom they not only praised in Orations at their Funerals but writ their names in their Diptychs or two-leaved Records which contained in one page all the names of the Living in the other the Dead that were of note in the Church All these were recited in the Communion Service Where as the Living for themselves so far the Dead came their Friends and gave Oblations and Alms Which before they were distributed among the poor were first offered up to God in a prayer like that which we use for the Church Militant here on Earth These Doles were their only Sacrifices for the dead Only Alms to the poor with which sacrifices God is well pleased And their prayers were not for any deliverance from pains unless the Patriarchs and Prophets and the Apostles and Virgin Mother of Christ were in the same pains too and needed the same Deliverance For they were all mentioned alike and together as it is to be seen in the ancientest Liturgies Among all these Innocent Offices and Rites of the Primitive Christians was there any thing of prayer for souls in Purgatory Was there any thing of prayer to Saints departed this life Was there any foundation for those superstitious Observances Of adoring their Relics of Prostration to their Images of Pilgrimage to their Shrines of making Vows of saying Masses of offering to them and the like The Papists say there was they plead the practice of the Church for it they wrest places of Scripture to their Purpose Nay the Rhemists and others alledge this very Text without which I should not have mention'd them at this time But as the Learnedst men among themselves have been so just not to charge this upon my Text and some of them confess they have no ground for these things in any one Text of Canonical Scripture So they would do us but right to acknowledge that none of these things was practis'd for some hundreds of years after Christianity came into the world In those Primitive times all their Offices for the Dead were either to give Testimony of that Faith in which they died and that death had not dissolv'd their Communion with the Living or they were to bless God for their holy Life and happy Death or to Pray to him not for their deliverance from Purgatory of which there was no Faith in those times but for the Increase of that Good which they believ'd them to be possest of already or for the Atteinment of that farther good which they thought they were sure of namely for their speedy and happy Resurrection for their perfect discharge at the day of Judgement for the Consummation of their bliss with their own in the Kingdom of Glory Not to say how the Fathers differ among themselves in these particulars or how many of these particulars are omitted in the Roman Church as well as ours it is enough that here is nothing makes for them but much against those their Errors and Corruptions All that is agreed on all hands or that we find in the Practise of the first Ages being sufficiently contein'd in those Offices of our Church in the prayer for the Church Militant in the Collect on All-Saints day and in the Office for the burial of the Dead where we pray That it would please God of his gracious goodness shortly to accomplish the number of his Elect and to hasten his Kingdom that we with all those that are departed in the true faith of his holy Name may have our perfect consummation and bliss both in body and soul in his everlasting glory Lastly Remembrance in Action is the other duty enjoyn'd in my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Imitate their Faith that is their Christian profession and practise their whole Life and Conversation according to their own belief of that word which they have spoken The Reason of this duty is plain for it is our business in this world to recover the image of God in which he created us to be like him here in Righteousness and Holiness that we may be like him hereafter in Glory and Happiness To this End God has given us those Lineaments of himself which are written sufficiently in our Nature but more fully and distinctly in Scripture In which Scripture he so oft and so vehemently requires us Be ye Holy as I am Holy be ye Iust as I am Iust be ye Merciful as I am Merciful be ye Pure as I am Pure be ye Perfect as your heavenly Father is Perfect This good word of God which was given by the Prophets and Apostles is still inculcated on us by them that speak to us the word of God Which Office being primarily of Bishops as appears in my Text They are first and above all others to conform themselves to it to shew others how possible and how practicable it is Our Apostle suppos'd this in those Primitive Bishops in my Text. God requires it of all that succeed them in the Church So of Timothy though he were young in Age yet being in that Place Be thou an Example to believers in word in Conversation in Spirit in faith in truth 1 Tim. 4 12. and in the last Verse Take heed to thy Self and to thy Doctrine Do this constantly and Continually and so thou shalt save both thy self and them that hear thee Whether they do this or no they are our Teachers and Rulers therefore in the 17 Verse of this Chapter while they live we must obey their word and submit to their Government When they are dead both for what they are and were we may do well to say no ill of them and since we can say no good e'en Forget them and leave them to God But if they are such as they ought which the Apostle supposes in my Text if they live as men that believe themselves what they say 'T is our duty not only to submit and obey them while they live but also to Remember them when they are dead Remember them in our thoughts with that honour they deserve In our Affections with a due sense of our loss and their gain Remember them in words with the just praise of their actions and lives In our prayers to God with due thankfulness for their graces and gifts in this life and for the glory they receive after death Lastly remember to follow them in that holy way which leads to so happy an end In our Apostles words follow their Faith considering

shall remember them and he commands that we should do it especially for good Bishops departed this life Our remembrance of them doth not differ in kind but in degree from what we ow to the memory of others 'T is a duty we are to pay them above others In our Thoughts In our Affections In our Words and In our Actions and Lives First in our Thoughts 't is not a simple Remembrance that God requires for that being an act of the sensitive soul as I conceive doth not directly fall under precept For it is not in our power to remember or forget either what or when we please But it is in our power to do those acts which conduce to the exciting or to the helping of our memory This is that which God requires at our hands that we should endeavour to turn our minds towards such objects and contemplate in them the gifts and graces of God that as oft as we think of them we should acknowledge that good which was in them and which we have received by their means That we should pay them that honorable esteem which we ow to our spiritual Parents and Benefactors If we think of them heartily in this manner it will work something upon our Affections We cannot but be sensible of the want of such men and therefore grieved for our loss when they are taken from us as the Asian Bishops were at those words of S. Paul when he said they should see his face no more Though God intend it for their gain whom he takes to himself and he takes them in that time which suits best with their Circumstances Yet even then we have cause to grieve for our selves and for the Church who are deprived of the presence and use of such men How much more when for ought we know they are taken away for our sins When for ought we know it was because the age was not worthy of them For ought we know 't is in order to some judgement of God which will come the sooner when they are gone when we have filled up the measure of our Iniquities When Elijah was taken away in a very evil age Elisha cryed out O my Father my Father the Chariots and horse-men of Israel What will become of Israel now thou art gone We dare not think so highly of any one man We have no such cause to despond of our Nation When it is bad we are to do our parts to make it better to pray that God would send more Labourers into his Harvest that he would double his gifts and blessings on those that are Left And for those we have Lost we must Resign them to God both acknowledging his bounty in giving them to us and submitting to his will in taking them to himself So S. Bernard on the death of his Brother Gerard Lord says he thou hast given and thou hast taken away though we grieve that thou hast taken away yet we cannot forget that thou didst give him Yea we ow not only submission to God but Thankfulness too for their sakes who are delivered by this means from so great and such manifold evils as continually hover about us in this life From sickness and pain from labour and danger from sorrow and fear and care and what not being delivered from Sin which is the Cause and from that Flesh which is the Center of all this They are past all evils else that have overcome Death They leave sorrow to us who call our selves the living their life the only true life is Immutable Joy eternal Rest Peace and Felicity Which if we seriously believe if we desire to be with them we cannot Sorrow for our loss without Joy for their gain and thanksgiving on their behalf to that good God who hath given them the Victory through our Lord Iesus Christ. But thus much we ow upon the death of every true Christian though of never so mean a rank and condition We are to be Thankful to God for his mercies and to profess it as we are taught in the Offices of our Church which have the same words of burial for the meanest of our communion as for those that are highest in their Graces and Gifts But there is a Remembrance in Words that is due to these and not to the other namely the due praise of those their excellent Graces and Gifts which though they have not of themselves but through the bounty and liberality of God who is therefore to be chiefly respected and glorified in all the praise that we give to his creatures Yet since he is pleased to do them this honour above others and to make choice of them whom he so dignifies We are bound to allow it them we are to follow Gods choice to give them praise whom he hath so qualified for it Only with this care that we do it truly not to flatter the dead and profitably for the example and imitation of the living We have so much reason to do this that they who had only reason to guide them the Gentiles upon the death of any eminent persons had Orations made publickly in their praise The Jews without any particular Law for it had honour done to the Memory of Worthy persons at their Funerals 2 Chron. 32. ult The Rites of it are partly described 2 Chron. 16. 14. They laid their dead in a bed full of the richest perfumes which also were publickly burnt at the Interment To which I conceive the Preacher alludes Eccles. 7. 1. where he says A good name is better than precious oyntment and the day of ones death than the day of ones birth When one cometh into the World none knows how he may prove if he do well in it he goes out with this Publick testimony After which the Jews never mentioned such persons without a blessing on their memory But above all others the Primitive Christians were very observant this way They saw it was the will of their Lord and Master that the good work which was done upon him by Mary should be kept in perpetual memory and is therefore recorded in the Gospel They saw how the works of Dorcas were shewn at her death the Coats and Garments which she made for the poor They saw what need there was of great Incentives in those days when Christianity was a most dangerous Profession It is of no small force to make men love a Religion when they see it infuses excellent Principles that it excites so suitable practises that it is proof against suffering and death And the experience of that power it hath in some provokes and animates others to the same Upon these and the like considerations and perhaps with allusion to that Text where S. John is said to have seen the souls of the Martyrs under the Altar They had their Memorias Martyrum their places of Worship where they placed the Altars over the bodies of their Martyrs What with any intention to worship the Martyrs It was so suggested by the