Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	body_n	dust_n	soul_n	5,391	5	5.7737	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41725	A discourse deliver'd in two sermons preached in the cathedral at Ely, in September 1684, not long after the death of the Right Reverend Father in God Peter Gunning, late Lord Bishop of Ely / by Humfrey Govver ...	Gower, Humphrey, 1638-1711.	1685 (1685)	Wing G1458; ESTC R18728	39,015	72

as being such as may very easily be accommodated to our present business and may help us to meditations proper for this occasion For what is the death of Saints but their entrance into glory Every good man at his death ascends as really tho' not as visibly as Elijah and is made as certainly happy as he Their bodies indeed go down to the Grave and mingle again with the dust from whence they were taken so to remain till the happy hour of an indissoluble reunion to their souls shall consummate the bliss of which that better part had taken possession immediately after it was dislodged from the body the spirit springs upwards as soon as ever it feels it self free from the clog and weight that press'd it down the soul of every Saint mounts as swiftly towards Heaven as Elijah himself tho' carried up in a flaming Chariot with Horses of fire Therefore well and wisely has the Church chosen to celebrate the day of their death as the happiest and most memorable of their lives and such as better deserv'd to be accounted as it was stil'd their birth-day then that on which they were born into the world For then they truly begin to live when to us they die Whenas that which we commonly call our Birth is indeed but the first step we take in our advance to death There is a short passage between the womb and immortality call'd life but indeed it lies all along in the region of Death to which we are inrol'd subjects as soon as we enter on that path of mortality and are not a moment free from the malignant influences of his dominion till we are got to the end of it and have shelter'd our bodies in the Grave and our souls in the hands of him that gave them Then and not before are we freed from the imperfections and incumbrances of flesh and blood from all the hidden snares the silent and secret incroachments of Death who begins its approaches as soon as we begin to live for then he first finds us on his own ground and within his reach and instantly quarries upon his prey As soon as we were born we began to draw to our end And there is no standing still in this walk of Death for man that is born of a woman never continueth in one stay He that lives most healthfully dies daily In the midst of life we are in death and every moment ripens us for the Grave to which we are still posting as fast as the wings of time can carry us Our very health is a kind of sickness and whilst we seem to gather strength and lay up plenty of provision to prevent the ruine or decay of our frail nature we are really all that while but making further advances towards our latter end Death is at work as well as we In vain do we endeavour to intrench and fortifie against the assaults of that obstinate and unrelenting enemy An enemy it is that cannot fail of victory either by undermining or by storm by lingring consumptions or more acute and violent distempers Death will certainly demolish our strongest hold and easily reduce the tottering tabernacle which we possess and would still gladly defend to ruine and rubbish dust and ashes out of which it was first rear'd and to which according to its Makers doom it must return by an unavoidable dissolution But when we are once arriv'd at that period and have received the last blow of Death and happily pass'd the common Gate of Mortality we are no longer in its power For what is said of the Head is true of the members That being once dead they die no more Rom. 6. 9. death hath no more dominion over them That then is the blessed hour that compleatly delivers the sons of men who through fear of death were all their life time subject unto bondage It is at that fatal moment as it is call'd which seems to reduce us to the lowest most lamentable and helpless condition that the Righteous man first feels his shackles fall off and himself set free far out of the reach of the malice of Men or Devils For by dying he has overcome his last enemy which is death Strange victory But yet certain such almighty efficacy in it self and such a quickning influence on his members has the Death of our Head the Lord Christ who having first himself overcome it teaches and enables us to triumph in Death over Death it self 'T is true the victory is not in all respects compleat till we have destroy'd and spoil'd as well as vanquish'd this King of Terrors But that last Enemy cannot be so absolutely subdued till the last day when Death shall be swallowed up in victory that is finally and for ever so slain as never to revive for after that it shall be no more Then likewise shall the little victory of the grave be blasted and the poor remains we left behind us wrested out of the jaws of Death and restored to us But how Not worsted and worn as they were by course lodging in the dust and long captivity in the dark dungeons of the Earth but all fresh and new and wonderfully changed for the better That which was swon in corruption will be rais'd in incorruption It s dishonour will be turn'd into glory and its weakness into power of a natural body as we left it it will be rais'd and presented to us all over spiritual and heavenly The same indeed we had before For tho' it be most true 1 Cor. 15. 50. that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God that is as the Apostle immediately explains himself Corruption cannot inherit incorruption yet we know that this mortal must be quickned and have learn'd to believe the resurrection of the flesh Job 19. 26 27. and are assur'd that we our selves and not another for us in our flesh shall see God Even after worms have destroy'd our bodies It will therefore be the same I say and yet not that vile thing which once it was but chang'd and fashioned like unto his glorious body who was the first fruits of them that slept and who is the resurrection and the life Prudent therefore and pious is the Churches choice in celebrating the death under the notion of the nativity of such to whom the day of their death must needs be better then the day of their birth according to the observation of the Royal Preacher Eccles 7. 1. For then it is that they are born members of the Church Triumphant not only heirs but possessours of Eternal life For they shall not come into condemnation but are actually and properly pass'd from death unto life Their Saviour hath wip'd away all tears from their eyes Revel 21. 4. and to them there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain This alone is life properly so called in comparison of which that of this world which hath usurp'd the

Name is a very Death only that it continues longer is more vexatious and tormenting then Death it self Born indeed we are but unto trouble Job 5. 7. as the sparks fly upward Cares and fears tears and temptations doubts and disappointments distract the mind whilst the body which partakes in those agonies of the soul is also miserably subjected to racks and tortures of its own to pains and diseases that would be desperate and insupportable were they not as it were the earnest and Harbingers of Death which puts an end to all those tragical miseries of life And is not this a goodly thing for men to be so fond of as generally they are that is it self so great a disease that nothing but death can cure That therefore is often call'd for even by those who yet are much unprepar'd for such a remedy But how welcome then are or ought to be the approaches of Death stingless Such it is to those that die the death of the righteous as they all do to be sure that have liv'd their life which was well known and consider'd by the Holy Prelate whom I now commemorate Conscious to himself of a race happily run of talents well improv'd and a fight well fought with a clear conscience and an undisturb'd mind in a well grounded reliance on the Mercies and Merits of his Redeemer the Holy Man like just and devout Simeon or this very Elias in the Text humbly pray'd for his departure in my hearing as I kneeled by him tho' as I have reason to believe against his will as well as without his knowledge For He seem'd to mind nothing but his God his eyes then shut and his words whisper'd tho' both before and after he spoke strongly and aloud It was the only Prayer I ever heard him make to which I could not heartily say Amen I could have wished that He should still have walked before the Lord in the Land of the Living and therefore must confess was afraid He would be heard and that God would not deny him the request of his lips but would bestow Death upon him so pressing and importunate was his Prayer for He seemed to groan earnestly like St Paul 2 Cor. 5. 2. to have that his earthly Tabernacle dissolv'd and to be cloth'd upon with his house from heaven And yet were those breathings of his soul sent up to Heaven with that same Christian resignation and submission to the Divine will which so qualifies and recommends a Good mans Prayers that they cannot fail of a favourable audience and success Thus He whose Conversation had been so much in Heaven even whilst Himself was on Earth did in heart and mind thither ascend even before his soul could get loose from the troublesome embraces of the body And thus like Elijah He was not only carried but went up to Heaven That Holy Prophet gladly mounted up into his Heavenly Chariot leaving most willingly Elisha and the world below The whirlwind it self was not in more haste then He the Chariot and Horses and Fire could not move quicker and fly swifter then did his own ardent desires toward his everlasting bliss So did our dying Bishop joyfully part with all that He valued here on Earth and in a chariot of fire mounted unto the Heavens if I may be allowed so to stile the Feavour that snatch'd him from us But if that may seem too remote a Metaphor I know I can truly say that his soul still soared higher and higher in raptures of fervent and devout desires of being dissolv'd and being with God his exceeding great Reward This indeed was most like the fire in which Elijah ascended unto Heaven A fire that needed no fewel but the devout mind that kindled it A fire that burn't but consumed not Such a fire as warms and heats the Holy Angels themselves and kindles those Divine Ministers into a flaming fire And perhaps They were the Chariot and the Horses in the Text. Prompt and ready they are to execute all the commands of their great Maker and most cheerfully do those Triumphant spirits of Heaven fly down to succour and assist Holy men on Earth and promote the happiness of Militant Saints But Angels or clouds or whatever it was fiery it did appear a fit embleme of that Heroick Zeal that did so illustriously discover it self and shine forth in the life of that great Prophet A zeal for the honour of him that sent him like that which afterwards in a more Divine manner appear'd in our blessed Saviour of whom Elias himself was a type and in some sence a forerunner as well as the Baptist who came in his Spirit and Power A zeal it was that even consum'd him stuck nearer and closer to him then any earthly concern of his own A zeal that He durst own and stand to before the Searcher and Judge of hearts 1 Kings 19. 10 14. I have been very jealous saith He more then once for the Lord God of Hosts It vex'd his righteous soul to see the Apostacy of a whole nation as He reckon'd from God and all goodness The children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant thrown down thine Altars and slain thy Prophets with the sword the desolation of the Church lay heavy on the Good man's heart For Ahab walked in the sins of Jeroboam 1 Kings 12. 28 c. who for fear the heart of the people should turn again to their Lord the king of Judah that he might secure his usurpation and establish himself thought it necessary to invade the Religion as well as the Government of the Nation And so he sets up Gods of his own and made Priests of the lowest of the people such as were not of the sons of Levi and therefore having no lawfull Ordination uncapable to succeed in the holy Function Verse 33. and he ordained Feasts and made Sacrifices according to his own fancy even as he had devised in his own heart Ecclus 48. 1. Then stood up Elias the prophet as fire and his word burnt like a lamp as it is express'd by the son of Sirach Even then when there was not a man on Earth to second him did he couragiously keep his ground assert the Church and its cause and made stout and vehement protestations against the Schism and all their unreasonable and irreligious Innovations Full of God and the Commission that He had from Him He put himself in the gap withstood the torrent of Apostacy that had overrun the land boldly rebuk'd vice and called often and aloud both to Prince and People to return to God and his Holy Church The haughty and bloody Jezebel with all her cruel instruments and the many hundred Prophets of Baal and of the groves that did eat at her table could not persuade or fright him from his integrity still the holy fire was kept alive in his religious breast and flam'd brightly out on all occasions into acts of devotion and zealous undertakings for the