Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	benefit_n	dust_n	zion_n	20	3	12.1226	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A32022	The happinesse of those who sleep in Jesus, or, The benefit that comes to the dead bodies of the saints even while they are in the grave, sleeping in Jesus delivered in a sermon preached at the funeral of ... Lady Anne Waller, at the new church in Westminst[er], Oct. 31, 1661 : together with the testimony then given unto her / by Edm. Calamy ...	Calamy, Edmund, 1600-1666.	1662 (1662)	Wing C255; ESTC R1658	30,610	40

are perished The Apostle speaks of such who had been long in their graves and yet all that while were asleep in Christ. The bodies of the Saints in the grave though turned to dust are yet notwithstanding united to Christ and Members of his Body and though separated from their Souls yet are not separated from Christ Even as the Body of Christ while in the grave was even then united to his Divine Person Though soul and body were separated one from the other yet neither of them were separated from the Divine Person So the Body of a man in Christ though separated by death from his Soul yet it is not separated from Christ. Though it say to Corruption Thou art my Father and to the VVorms Thou art my Mother and my Sister yet it may say also to Christ Thou art my Brother and to God Thou art my Father And therefore the Saints even while they are in their graves are said to be Christs 1 Cor. 15.23 Afterwards they that are Christs at his coming And are said to be dead in Christ 1 Thes. 4.16 Not only to die in Christ but to be dead in Christ that is to continue in Christ even while dead And that they do so appears further by these two Reasons Reas. 1. Because the Union between Christ and a true Christian is spiritual and everlasting 1. It is spiritual and therefore needs no vicinity of place to preserve it A Husband and Wife a Father and his Child are really united together though a thousand miles distant 2. It is everlasting Hos. 2.19 I will besroath thee unto me for ever c. Herein it exceeds the Union between a Man and his Wife which is only till death them do part But the Union between Christ and a true Christian is not separated by death Once in Christ ever in Christ Joh. 8.35 Reas. 2. Because Death is Christs purchase and part of the Saints Ioynture The Apostle tells the Corinthians All things are yours whether Paul or Apollo c. or life or death c. and ye are Christs c. These words teach us these two lessons 1. That Death is part of the Saints Magna Charta as well as Life Death is the Believers rich Portion and peculiar priviledge 2. That Christ hath purchased death for his children as properly as life He hath made over death for their joynture and rich portion as much as Paul Apollo or Cephas nay as much as heaven it self Christ hath altered the nature of death insomuch as that now it is become our best friend next to Iesus Christ For we shall never be rid of sin nor perfected in grace nor see God face to face till we dye It is become a gate to heaven an outlet to all misery and an inlet to everlasting happiness Now then if Death be Christs purchase and a part of the Saints Ioynture without doubt it doth not separate us from Christ for then it would be but an ill purchase and joynture obtained not for our good but our great hurt contrary to the express words of the Apostle and also contrary to Rom. 8.28 All things work together for the good of those that love God Et mors praecipue and especially Death as St. Austin saith The second thing propounded is To shew what those glorious benefits and advantages are which the bodies of the Saints enjoy while they are in their graves asleep in Jesus For answer to this you must know That as soon as ever the soul departs out of the body the body presently loseth all its beauty and comliness and becomes a rotten and stinking carkass It goeth down to the house of rottenness to the dungeon of darkness and is layed in the cold earth dust to dust ashes to ashes And yet even then it hath a six-fold benefit by being asleep in Jesus 1. Though the body be turned to dust yet that very dust is pretious in Gods sight As the death of the Saints so also their dust is precious to God There is a twofold dust that God loves 1. The dust of Sion 2. The dust of his Saints First The dust of Sion Psal. 102.13 14. Secondly The dust of the Saints The golden Ore in the Mine is not so pretious to us as this golden dust is to God Iob tells us That out of the earth comes the dust of gold but I may truly say That in the earth there is golden dust even the dust of Gods Saints As Balaam saith concerning the people of Israel Who can count the dust of Iacob and the number of the fourth part of Israel So may I say Who can sufficiently express the love that God bears to the dust of Iacob and to the bodies of his people while in their graves The Apostle tells us That neither life nor death is able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. God loves the bodies of his Saints as well as their souls and their bodies when turned to dust That very dust is part of Gods election for God hath elected the bodies of his Saints unto eternal life as well as their souls and it is part of Christs Redemption and the Spirits Sanctification O what a comfort is this to a dying Child of God! Though all his friends will forsake him when brought to the grave the Husband will leave his dear Wife and the Children their dear Father yet God will not forsake him but go down to the grave with him and the watchful eye of his providence will be over his dust and ashes And as Rispah kept the dead bodies of Sauls seven Sons and spread a Tent over them so as the birds of the air could not hurt them by day nor the beasts of the field by night So will God keep the dead bodies of his Saints and spread the Curtain of his protection over them and as he took care of them while they were in the sepulchre of their Mothers wombe so he will also take care of them while they are in the sepulchre of their Mother earth He that loved them in Sepulchro uteri will love them in utero Sepulchri 2. They that sleep in Iesus have this benefit by it That Christ by his burial hath sanctified the grave and sweetned it and perfumed it insomuch that though in its own nature it be as loathsome prison a house of rottenness and a place of terrour yet to a man dead in Christ the nature of it is altered and to him it is as a soft bed wherein he is laid down quietly to take his rest and there to remain asleep free from all cares fears and troubles till the Resurrection of the dead Though the grave in its own nature be a dreadful place a stinking charnel-house and a rotten prison to the wicked and ungodly where they lye waiting for the Great Assizes yet to the Children of God Christ hath made it a Magazin and Store-house to keep their

THE HAPPINESSE Of those who Sleep in Jesus OR The Benefit that comes to the dead bodies of the Saints even while they are in the Grave Sleeping in Jesus Delivered in a SERMON Preached at the Funeral of that Pious and Religious Lady the Lady Anne Waller At the New Church in Westminst Oct. 31 1661. Together with the Testimony then given unto her By Edm. Calamy B. D. and Pastor of Aldermanbury Rev. 14.11 And I heard a Voyce from heaven saying unto me Write blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them John 11 11. Our Friend Lazarus sleepeth but I go that I may awake him out of Sleep Upon which words St. Austin saith Domino dormiebat qui eum tantá facilitate excitavit de Sepulchro quanta tu cx citas dormientem de Le●to hominibus autem mo●taus erat qui eum suscitare non poterant 1 Thes. 4.16 The Dead in Christ shall rise first London Printed by I. H. for Nathanael Webb at the Royal Oak in St. Pauls Church-Yard near the little North-Door 1662. Royall Oake To the RIGHT WORSHIPFUL S r WILLIAM WALLER Sir IT hath pleased the wise God your heavenly Father to exercise you with variety of sad Providences to train you up for himself and his Kingdom by many Troubles and Afflictions It hath alwaies been his Method to prepare his Children by light and moment any crosses for a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory and by imbittering the pleasures of this world to sweeten the delights of a better This Sir hath been your Portion And I doubt not but you have learned and are instructed by God in whatsoever state you are therewith to be contented and are made able to say with David It is good for you that you have been afflicted This last Trial was one of the sorest that ever yet betided you being the loss of so Precious a Lady so sutable a Wife full of so much Goodness and Prudence But when you consider that your Losse is her Gain that she is taken away from the evil to come that she is not lost but gone before to her Father and your Father to her God and your God that her Soul is at rest in Abrahams bosom and her body even while in the grave asleep in Iesus and who it is that hath taken her from you this doth much allay the immoderateness of your sorrow enables you to say with holy Iob The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh blessed be the Name of the Lord and with holy David I was dumb I opened not my mouth because thou didst it There are three great Truthes which if well digested will prove heart-quieting and compose the Spirits of Gods people and make them calm and satisfied in the worst of daies and dangers 1. That all the Providences of God though never so dark and m●sterious and seemingly contrary to his Promises shall all of them at last concur to the fulfilling of his Promises For we know that all things shall work together for good to those who love God 2. That sanctified Afflictions are great blessings and that Correction when joyned with Instruction is a certain Character of Election That God had one Son without sin but no Son without Sorrow That Afflictions are Divine Touchstones to try the truth and strength of our Graces Divine Furnaces to purge out the Drosse of our sins Divine Files to pare off our spiritual Rust and Divine framing Houses to dress us and make us fit for Heaven 3. That Iesus Christ hath altered the Nature of Death and made it a Gate to everlasting Life That Christ hath sanctified sweetned purchased conquered and disarmed Death so as it is now become the best Friend we have next to Iesus Christ. For we shall never be free from sin nor perfected in Grace nor see God Face to Face till we die This last grand Truth is made out fully in the ensuing Sermon wherein also is shewed the Benefit that the Bodies of the Saints obtain while in the Grave by sleeping in Iesus Many Sermons tell us the Advantage that the Soul reaps by death but this will discover what our vile Bodies gain even while they are rotting in the Grave Sir It was your desire it should be made publick and out of pure obedience so it now is For there is nothing in it that is elaborate and more then ordinary or that renders it worthy the perusal of a judicious Eye But the Testimony given of your Noble Lady as it is true so I conceive it is worth reading and imitating and may well be called a Looking-Glasse for Ladies to dress themselves by every Morning It will teach them to make Religion their Business and to spend more time in decking their Souls with Grace then their Bodies with vain Attire that a Neck-lace of Graces is more worth then a Neck-lace of Pearles St. Hierom writes much in commendation of many Holy and Religious Ladies living dying in his dayes and proposeth them as Patterns to others for their Imitation In like manner I thought meet to propound the example of your most Excellent Lady which if well followed in those things wherein she was praise-worthy will without doubt bring us to everlasting Happiness The Lord give a Blessing to what is said in the following Discourse and make up to you in himself what you have lost in the want of your Dear Consort and be your Comforter and Counsellour in all Conditions So Prayeth Your Servant in the Work of the Lord Edm. Calamy THE HAPPINESSE of those who Sleep in Jesus OR The Benefit that comes to the dead Bodies of the Saints even while they lie in the Grave Sleeping in JESUS 1 THESS 4.14 Even so them also which sleep in Iesus will God bring with him _●N the former Verse the Apostle perswades the Thessalonians not to mourn immoderately for the Saints Departed He doth not forbid them to mourn but not to mourn without measure Religion doth not abolish natural Affections but only mode 〈…〉 hem Grace doth not destroy but rectifie Nature it dep 〈…〉 ot of sense but teacheth the right use of Senses And he b 〈…〉 divers Arguments to diswade us from immoderate M 〈…〉 ning Because this would bewray our Ignorance of the blessed estate of Gods Children after this Life This is set down v. 13. But I would not have you to be ignorant Brethren concerning them which are asleep 2. This is to act as hopeless Heathens not as Christians This is put down in the same Verse That ye sorrow not even as others that have no hope Though Heathens who have no hope of a better Life after this do mourn immeasurably yet this doth not become Christians who have hope in death and who believe the Life Everlasting 3. Because the death of a Saint is not an utter Extinction and abolition of

bodies safe till the great Resurrection And he hath also made it a beaten and plain way to heaven Christ Jesus himself went to heaven thorough the grave and so must we and all the Godly We must first put off the rags of Mortality before we can put on the robes of Immortality To a wicked man the grave is a thorough-fare to hell but to a man asleep in Jesus it is a passage to heaven where Christ is And if St. Austin was willing to go even thorough hell to Christ in heaven much more may we be willing to go thorough the grave to him 3. They that sleep in Iesus have this benefit also That by their Union with Christ and by the watchful Providence of God there is a substance preserved so as they are not utterly extinct and annihilated by death but something of their bodies remain undestroyed There is nothing utterly totally and finally destroyed in a Child of God by death but sin and misery The rotting of the body in the grave is but as the rotting of the Corn in the earth as the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 15.36 The Seed is cast into the earth and there it dieth and rotteth but is not utterly extinct but rotteth in the ground that it may be quickned again So the bodies of the Saints rot in their graves that they may be raised again and made like unto the glorious body of Iesus Christ. And this is another reason why the death of a Child of God is called a sleep because as a man asleep is not extinct no more is he in the grave There is a substance preserved and as David saith of an afflicted righteous man that God keepeth all his bones not one of them is broken So God keepeth the dust and ashes of his Children so as they shall not be utterly and totally consumed Object But is there not a substance preserved also in the bodies of the wicked Answ. It is true Their bodies are not utterly destroyed but remain not by vertue of their Union with Christ but preserved by the Almighty power of God as a terrible Lord and severe Iudge and remain as in a prison till the great day of Judgment in which they shall appear before Christ and then be condemned to hell Happy were it for a wicked man if his body were annihilated by death as it were happy for a Traytor if he died in Prison and escaped hanging But herein consisteth the difference between him and a man asleep in Jesus A man out of Christ is not properly preserved in the grave but rather reserved by the power of Christ to be afterwards tormented in hell But a man in Christ is not only reserved but by vertue of his Union with Christ and preserved to enjoy Eternal glory with their souls at the Great Day of Judgment 4. He that sleepeth in Jesus hath this benefit also That though his body lieth rotting in the grave yet his soul is all the while in heaven where it enjoyeth the glorious presence of God and of his Saints and Angels I say his soul which is his best half which is the Man of man is in heaven Indeed his body which is but as the Box and Carkass is in the grave but the substance and Iewel is in heaven Object What benefit doth the body in the grave gain by his souls being in heaven Answ. I gains this double benefit 1. If his Soul be in heaven it is certain the Body will come thither at last For it is but as the shadow to the substance and if the substance be in heaven the shadow will undoubtedly follow 2. Though the Soul be in heaven yet it can never be perfectly and compleatly happy till it be reunited to the Body For God made the soul to be the form of the body and to dwell for ever in it And if it had not been for Adams transgression the body and soul should never have been separated This separation is the fruit of sin and therefore the soul in heaven hath appetitum unionis a desire to have this breach made up and to be united again to his body because he shall have a more perfect and compleat being with it than without it The Scripture tells us That it waits for the redemption of his body and that it prayeth that God would accomplish the number of his Elect that so they may again be joyned to their bodies and have Coronam perfectam publicam a publick and perfect Crown of glory The souls in heaven saith Bernard pray for their bodies in the grave They are not like the chief Butler who forgat Ioseph when he was restored to his former dignity They remember they have bodies still in the grave which were companions with them in the service of God in Prayer and Fasting and suffering afflictions for Christ. And they know that by reunion with them their happiness will be much increased and therefore they cannot cease pra●ing for them and Christ will in due time come in glory to raise them up unto everlasting life A fifth benefit that accrueth to the body that is asleep in Jesus is That Christ himself cannot be perfect till it be raised from the dead As a natural body cannot be perfect without all its members no more can Christ mystical as head of his Church be perfect till every member of his body be glorified Therefore it is said Eph. 1.23 That the Church is the fulness of him who filleth all in all which is to be understood of that voluntary condition whereunto Christ hath subjected himself in being the Head of the Body that is his Church So that as a natural body is maimed and imperfect if the least member be wanting So is Christ as Head of his Church maimed and imperfect till all the bodies that are asleep in Iesus be reunited to their souls and received into glory for ever with Christ. Lastly The body by being asleep in Iesus hath this great benefit That though it lieth rotting in the grave yet it resteth in hope This was Davids comfort Psalm 16.9 Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth my flesh also shall rest in hope There is not a member of Christ but when he is breathing out his last breath may use Davids words with Davids comfort My heart is glad my glory rejoyceth and my flesh also which is shortly to be put into the grave shall rest in hope in a forefold hope 1. That it shall rise again 2. That the same body shall rise 3. That it shall rise by vertue of its Union with Christ. 4. That it shall rise to glory everlasting And this leads me to to the third and last Doctrine Doctrine 3. That Iesus Christ will raise the dead bodies of those that sleep in him and raise them as their Head and Saviour and bring them with him to Iudgment and then carry them into Heaven where they shall be ever with the Lord. All these particulars are comprehended