Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A53500
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The living, dead pastor yet speaking in two sermons, preached on Bartholomews Day, Aug. 24, 1662, in Bewdly Chappel / by Henry Osland then minister there, and now published by some friends of truth.
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Osland, Henry.
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1663
(1663)
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Wing O531; ESTC R17697
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23,412
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72
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the pure Gospel of Christ yet he will keep them alive in famine and save their souls from dearth It is all one with this great Shepheard to feed with means or without means with or without Gods people shall be fed and nourished 3. In giving life to the sheep John 10. 28. 10. I am come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly Inferiour Shepherds can give you but meat and food but the great Shepherd gives life also Use LEt then the first Use be of Comfort to the Lords people I know it is matter of trouble to many Congregations of faithful believing Christians that their Guides are gone and that they shall hear the voice of their profitable and beloved Pastors no more Well these are driven from you and a wofull breach is gone through the land yet the great Shepherd abides with you Precious believers be not cast down at your losses Are you scattered in the gloomy day as the sheep upon the mountains this Shepherd will gather you again Are you pursued with Dogs and Wolves do they bite you and devour you this Shepherd will defend and save you Do not you know where to go to find pasture this Shepherd will find a pasture for you Do at not any time say that you are as sheep without a Shepherd when you put forth the first act of saving faith you were assuredly put into Christs fold and you shall be kept there by his wisdom and care and no one shall ever pull you out of his pasture again 2. Here is matter of Exhortation If Christ be the great Shepherd then follow Christ hear his voice obey and follow him Beloved brethren you are like to hear my voice but in few words more All you that have given your names to me and have ever followed me I command you to follow the great Shepherd and follow none any further then they follow him his voice is the Gospel that he inspired that his Disciples penn'd and that he himself sealed with his own blood all are strangers that speak not according to this DOCTRINE 2. That the great Shepherd was dead for a time This is the second Doctrine To prove the death of Christ by many Scriptures and Arguments is needless it being an Article of our faith yet consult with these few texts Zac 13. 7. Awake my sword against my Shepherd Matth. 26. 31. Rev. 1. 18. I am he that liveth and was dead That Christ was dead but for a time is an Article of our faith also The third day he rose again from the dead it was no long time that the grave did hold him You may ask me What became of the sheep when the Shepherd was dead You may see in John 17. 11. I am no more in the world but these are in the world holy Father keep them through thy own name those whom thou hast given me He delivers them up to his Father and God undertakes the keeping of them and the sheep were safe continually till the Lord brought back from the dead the great Shepherd Christ left them in safe hands he had more regard to his sheep then to himself he suffered himself to fall into the hands of bloody and malitious men but he preserved his sheep he promised them that he would not leave them comfortless but he would come to them Use BE informed hence that if the great Shepherd were dead for a time then it is no Marvail my Brethren if the lesser Shepherds are dead for a time time also For as Christ was so must we be in this present world 1 John 3. This is one part of our conformity to Christ to be conformable to him in his death Phil. 3. 10. The Prophets saith Zechary do they live alwayes or for ever Zech. 1. 5. As for your Fathers where are they and for the Prophets do they live for ever They must dye as the great Shepherd did Now Ministers dye either a Natural or a Civil death A Natural death which is the separation of their souls from their bodies their Civil death is when they are dead in Law when the Law of the Land where they live silenceth them and makes them as if they were naturally dead And on this account there are many dead Shepherds this day in England this day of the moneth this day of the year this twenty fourth of August is the Shepherds killing-day and whilest England stood there was never so many faithfull Ministers dead whilest they lived There are many thousand Sheep bewailing their dead Shepherds and Pastors this day and many a child bewailing his dead Father Such Fathers which have begotten them to God as Elisha did Elijah My Father my Father the Chariots of England and the â—orsmen thereof This is the killing dâ—y O think it not strange though it be so It is said in the eleventh of the Revelations that the Witnesses must be slain and their dead bodies must lye in the streets so many dayes The Witnesses some take for the two Testaments but they have no bodies it is most probable that these are men and such as shall not be naturally slain but Civilly slain and it is very probable that they set out the faithfull Ministers and Magistrates that have been Christs Witnesses and born a testimony to his truth and wayes and such as stand to their testimony and will not deny his name these must be slain yet not naturally dead they must lye in the streets as dead men unserviceable disabled to do their own or the usual work of Christ that they have done they cannot act as Magistrates and Ministers These things are now doing The witnesses are at this time slain how long they shall lye we know not Whether three dayes and an half or longer but as Christ was dead so must they And beloved hearers this is the day that I shall be in this sense a dead man a dead Shepherd a dead Witness after twelve years labours and witnessing to the truth of Christ in this place It is your duty to remember the great Shepherd who is alive again who will seek you and provide for you and let you want no good thing but lead you forth in the green pastures two supporting things I would have you to observe 1. That the death of the great Shepherd was no loss but a gain both for himself and you First It did procure him a name above all names that is a power above all powers Every knee shall bow to him and to him every tongue shall confess so that he shall be admired in all that believe 2 Thes 1. All the earth shall admire him he is by his death become the Author of Eternal salvation he is an Advocate King Priest Prophet and shall be Judge at the last All power is committed to him in heaven and in earth Matth. 28. And Secondly His death was gain to us we had like sheep gone astray and had never returned had he
not been Shepherd and Bishop of our souls But now his humiliation was our exaltation his Cross our Crown his death our life In him we have peace and pardon mercy here and glory hereafter Oh fear not the death of your Ministers may be best for you yea no loss but gain 2. The death of the great Shepherd was but short the Lord brought him back again which is the next Doctrine DOCTRINE 3. That the God of peace by his mighty power did bring back from the dead the Lord Jesus the great Shepherd of the sheep The Scripture is full of Testimonies of Christs Resurrection the women that wailed at the grave early to see what became of him had this Answer from the Angel He is not here for he is risen Come see the place where the Lord lay Matth. 28. 6. Peter assures us of it with the rest of the Apostles Acts 5 29 30. Acts 2. 23 24. It was not possible that he should be held of the grave And also the Scripture is full of Testimonies that Christ was raised up by the mighty power of God Acts 3. 15. Acts 4. 10. Rev. 11. Gal. 1. 1. 1 Pet. 1. 21. These texts hold forth that Christ was raised up by the mighty power of God 2. Why did God raise again from the dead the Lord Jesus 1. To make way for his further usefulness for his people As he by his death had purchased so by his Resurrection he was made capable of interceding for his flock and of sending the Holy Ghost and comforting them with his presence in heaven for Christs glorious presence is not the least of the glory of heaven The Lamb is said to be the light thereof 2. To fulfill all the Types and Prophecies that went before of him David prophecied of him that God would not leave his soul in hell nor suffer his holy one to corrupt in the grave Jonah lay three dayes and three nights in the Whales belly to Typifie the death and resurrection of Christ 3. To make way for Christs further Glorification Had he lain under the power of death he could not have possessed the fulness of his deserved glory the soul might have been perfectly happy but whole Christ could not be happy had he lain in the grave And it was meet that as the body was in hunger thirst cold and did suffer much disgrace in the work of mans redemption so it should be glorified with a most transcendent glory We shall not meddle with that question now whether God intended more the glory of the person of the Mediatour or the salvation of the elect in his raising him up We are sure that Christs person shall excell in glory and be as the brightest starr in the firmament of heaven John 17. and John 12. 4. To confirm and strengthen our saith For if Christ had not risen our faith had been vain 1 Cor. 15. The Heathens were wont to reproach the Christians for believing in a dead Christ but they have a living Christ to trust in for he that was dead is alive again and lives for evermore yea lives to make intercession for them Heb. 7. 25. 5. That he might be the first fruits of them that sleep 1 Cor. 15. whose resurrection is an evidence unto his people that they that now sleep or shall fall asleep in him shall one day be brought back again from death to life and feel the power of his Resurrection raising them above death and the grave to rest with him in life and glory 1 Thes 4. 14 15. Let us inferr That if it please God and it be agreeable to his will he that brought back the great Shepherd of sheep can bring back the dead Shepherds of England from their Civil death You know beloved the Spiritual Fathers of many Congregations are dead this day and the houses are full of mourning Some weeping in one corner some in another one child in one chamber another in another and I see your eyes are full also Oh let this dry up the tears that fall God can if he will bring back from death your Shepherds again When Martha and Mary were weeping over their dead brother Lazarus the Lord raised him up again He hath the same hands power and skill He kills and he makes alive again Object You may say it is unlikely that ever they should live again Answ So thought Martha and Mary when Lazarus had been dead four dayes and laid in his grave John 11. It was unlikely also that ever Jesus Christ should rise again the Soldiers seal his sepulchre roul upon him a mighty stone watch him make him as sure as they could Mattth 27. 66. read the place yet notwithstanding all he rose again The two Witnesses were barbarously used read Revelations ch 11. yet when the spirit of life from God entered into them they stood upon their feet ver 11. These things God hath done and this thing he can do but what God will do I am not certain Yet I conjecture that the Shepherds of England shall be dead but for a time God will bring them back again from death for Christ hath told us That no man lighteth a Candle to set it under a bushel but to give light to the whole house And do you think that God who hath lighted so many Candles that have and may be usefull to enlighten his house will he set them under bushels Shall so much pretious light be lost for ever so many pretious gifts bestowed in vain such gold rust and so many fruitfull trees lye under that curse Never more fruit grow on these trees it cannot be Shall God bring to the birth and not bring forth It is true indeed God did punish an Aegypt that would not let his people go with some dayes of darkness and so he may and doth punish his people with the loss of light that will not let their iniquities go he sends a famine not of bread but of the word of God and makes his people travel from sea to sea but these judgements are not ordinary nor long lasting but revocable upon humiliation and repentance unless God intends to remove his Gospel utterly from them shall he that hath commanded to send Labourers in his vineyard take so many out at once and suffer them to be kept out especially when they have a desire to work and hate to be idle and the vineyard desires them so much and needs them much more But Christ is the great Shepherd of the sheep he putteth down one and setteth up another whom he will and when he will However it please the Lord to deal with us for the future it hath pleased the Rulers of this Land by an Act of Parliament to disable all Ministers of the Gospel that after this day shall not conform to certain things most of which we have had time sufficient to consider of And I for my own part have not been wanting in prayer to my God for his direction in reading