Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A45223
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The faithful and diligent servant of the Lord, blessed at the coming of his Lord as it was lately unfolded in a funeral discourse on the death of Mr. Thomas Cawton : and now on the earnest desire of the hearers published by H. Hurst.
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Hurst, Henry, 1629-1690.
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1677
(1677)
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Wing H3793; ESTC R7692
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21,514
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36
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counter-balance the grieviousness of his troubles Psal 69. ver 7 8 with ver 13. He could bear the reproach of enemies when he knew his prayer should be acceptable unto his God No Courtier despis'd by Rebels is so happy in his Prince's Favour and free access to his Prince's Person as such diligent and faithful Servants are in their access to and acceptance with their God You may guess at what I say by the resentment Cain of men one of the worst had of Gods refusing to accept him Gen. 4. ver 5. It cast him down and fill'd him with trouble No condition is uneasy to a soul that enjoys Gods Favour for it is better than life Psal 63. ver 3. and every condition is dark and doleful without his favour What is Hell but a place where hopeless Souls are under the inconceivable Tortures of an eternal rejection and separation from God What is Heaven but a glorious free full and eternal state of nearness to God and of favour with him This acceptance is the great blessing God hath promised to such as serve and love him Isa 56.7 It is the sum of all we obtain through Christ in whom we are accepted with God Eph. 1. ver 6. Matt. 25. ver 21 Well done good and faithful Servant is enough to make us blessed now enter thou into the joy of thy Master is fulness of the future blessedness In every state and at the coming of the Lord thus blessed is the good Servant 3. This Blessedness of the faithful and good Servant doth lie partly in the peace and tranquility of his mind perswaded that now sin is pardoned and his duties are accepted every condition shall at last give place to what is best and all shall work together for good to him though various troubles do tols him yet they like rowling waves carry the Ship toward the Harbour It is well with him because he knoweth the knife which lanceth him doth not make him a Sacrifice under avenging Justice And though he is corrected yet it is under the hand of a Father he is not destroyed by the hand of an Executioner He is satisfied that it is good for him that he hath been afflicted Psal 119. ver 67 71 75. When he suffers with others he seeth he needed it so all appears seasonable necessary and profitable to him 1 Pet. 1.6 We are in heaviness for a season if need be and for our profit Heb. 12. ver 10. It is blessed to be refined and God doth by his coming intend this Isa 48. ver 10 That he may chuse them before others Now this considered the faithful Servants of God do account their condition good for that it is always tending to and shall at last end in what is best for them It is on the increase towards full happiness 4. The faithful and good Servants happiness doth partly consist in that support which his Lord giveth to him under his burthens while he submits to the will of his Lord waits for him and doth his Duty he is supported by the presence of his Lord He sinketh not because the Lord upholdeth him Psal 94. ver 17 18. When Davids feet did well nigh slip the Lords mercy held him up It is an unutterable variety of helps that God affordeth to his faithful ones they are very secret unexpected strong and satisfactory many times beyond the belief of strangers and the hope of those who receive them Isa 43.2 In midst of Rivers and waters in midst of fire and flames if God promise to be with us we may account our condition good and safe for his presence shall save us from Rivers that they do not overflow us and from Fire that it kindle not on us Now thus safe and good is the condition of every faithful Servant of God he is pardoned accepted bettered and supported still The Angel of Gods presence is with him and saveth him Isa 63. ver 9. He is blessed whom God will save whom God will support It is sad to be left sinking under our burthens but to be supported under them is next to a blessed freedom from them or next to a life above them 5. However it may be death shall be the sad consequence of a faithful and diligent Servants sufferings with others yet he is in this case blessed too For he might die in peace and joy he doth at least die in safety and free from danger of suture evils It is possible a good Servant may die under fears but he doth not die under danger of condemnation Who walk in their integrity enter into their Rest Isa 57. ver 2. Though Death be an enemy it is last to a child of God Stewards and Servants though faithful and diligent yet they must die but after death there is no other enemy all is then safe to them they pass by Death to the enjoyment of the love of their Lord to be filled with that love which is inconceivable and possess that love which is eternal from which Nothing can ever separate them Rom. 8. ver 37 38. thus death is theirs 1 Cor. 3. ver 22. Now that is a blessed state indeed which is so full of safety How do dying men acknowledg this when Death brings no danger with it we are happy indeed This Balaam wish'd for though he never attained it The untrusty and slothful Servant is unhappy in his death because he dyeth under greatest danger he dyeth an evil and wicked Servant the good Servant dyeth as safe as he can wish and as happy as he can be made Which will appear in the Sixth thing wherein the blessed state of such doth consist They pass after death immediately into an inconceivable glory where their souls purifi'd from all sin and made perfectly holy enjoy a blessed though not a full consummated glory they are in the joys of their master they live in the sight of their glorifi'd redeemer triumph over sin and temptation assured of the future resurrection of their bodies without tediousness of a delay wait for it they possess their building of God their house not made with hands which is eternal in the heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 They are before the throne c. Rev. 7.14 Thus blessed in life in death after death are the faithful Servants of the Lord. And yet this is not all there is A seventh thing part of their blessedness which when their Lord cometh they shall enjoy that is the resurrection of their bodies in a glorious conformity to the glorifi'd body of their redeemer When the Lord of these Servants and Stewards we speak of shall come and awaken all out of their beds of dust His good Servants whose bodies were sown in dishonour shall receive their bodies raised in honour those bodies which were sown mortal and weak shall be raised immortal and in strength fit to be the eternal habitation of immortal souls and both soul and body united shall ever live in a most delightful regular and sinless harmony
When God doth thus visit persons or families he is properly enough said to come against them and in such cases still it holdeth true Those servants of God who are faithful in their service to God are blessed or in a good condition So Eli was though he smarted under the Rod and David comforted himself in the prospect hereof 2 Sam. 23.5 though his house should not grow though severe corrections and rebukes should cause the Beauty of his house to wither yet God would give him the Covenant-salvation it should be well with him in case of such coming though the Text less intend it the Doctrine is both true and useful 3. Sometime the Lord cometh to search and try mens state and conscience is awakened to make enquiry and to discover them to themselves While God stands as at a distance men are secure but when he cometh by his Word and Spirit and commands an admission he sets up that light within the mans soul that discovers what he hath done what he may expect and what he farther must do The word is sharp as a two-edged sword and searcheth the reins Heb. 4.12 And thus the secrets of mens hearts are discovered when God cometh with his word 1 Cor. 14.25 among men When God heweth men by his prophets and maketh his judgments as the light Hos 6.5 then he cometh into the heart and conscience Now certainly the Faithful and Diligent are in a good condition when their hearts do not condemn them when they know God will not condemn them But oh the sad condition of those that dare not look themselves in themselves that are self-condemned and afraid to know what God discovereth at such coming The Kings of Judah who did not obey the Command of the Lord could not endure the Prophets or their word But Josiah who was faithful to God can bear such a searching word 2 Chron. 34.19 27. ver Who desire to be faithful to God they dare abide this coming it doth discover their sincerity and declare them happy In this case though not directly intended by the Text it holdeth true All Gods faithful Servants and Stewards are found in a good and happy state But next which is that coming intended chiefly in the words and Doctrine 4. When Death is the Messenger God sendeth to let us know he is coming to us when he fetcheth us from amidst men and cometh to take account of each of us each man by man thus visited is either more or less happy as he is found more or less faithful and diligent at this coming of the Lord this is that coming of which by concurrent vote of our Interpreters the Text doth speak as also doth its Parallels Matt. 24. ver 42 43. and Mark 13. ver 34 35 36. of which I say the less because it passing with so general consent needs not much proof But Fifthly and lastly The Lord cometh in his Glory and Majesty to raise the dead and to Judg all men They who now do shall not eternally sleep in the dust God will come and call them out of their beds The Lord Jesus will descend with the voice of the Trump and the dead shall hear and rise to the great general and last judgment Thus he cometh to judg the world Psal 96.13 and 98.9 with righteousness and the people with equity Places that speaking of the Kingdom of the Messiah do include this Royal procedure which shall consummate his ministerial Government When he cometh as Rev. 1.7 in view of every eye for every eye shall see him when he thus cometh or as 't is described 1 Cor. 15.23 24 25 At this coming the Faithful diligent Servant is in good state Briefly then Whether our Lord come sooner or later to try the heart by his word or families by his Rod or Nations as he did try the Jews by more publick calamities In these cases the most faithful of his Servants and Stewards are in the most safe and blessed state but when he cometh as the judg of all men to particular judgment calling each man by death and to the general judgment calling all men before him He and he only is in a good and blessed state who is found to have been faithful and diligent in his Stewardship and Service within the House and Family of God giving to each what portion of meat is due to them Which is In the third place now to be proved by the more general Testimony of the Scriptures 3. Gen. Proofs of the Doctrine Where we find all faithful and diligent Servants and Stewards especially pronounced blessed and happy in their attendance to the work of doing good to all as they are able and therein serving their Lord and waiting for his coming So Rev. 14 1â— Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord Death is the greatest as well as last Enemy to our life yet if that natural life be spent for the Lord and we dye in him we are blessed for such mens Works do follow them and they rest from their Labours Now certainly lesser troubles and lighter afflictions cannot render him or her unhappy whom Death found and left in a blessed state so that to work those works which we would have to follow us and to dye in the Lord as they prove our Fidelity so they do prove our Felicity and at once prove us good Christians and in good state Again Matth. 25.34 35 Come ye blessed of my father c. These are such who fed cloathed harboured visited and refreshed those in the Lords Family though the least of his Family vers 40 which was as much a Duty to them who could do it as it was useful to others for whom it was done Now they are declared happy ones who had thus according to their opportunity Ministred unto others And much more will they appear blessed who have faithfully directed thirsty Souls to the Fountain of living Waters hungry Souls to the Bread of Life naked Souls to the white Robes wandring Souls to the rest of Souls Again Matth. 7.21 Not he that saith Lord Lord but he that doth the Will of my heavenly Father c. not a fruitless profession but a faithful obedience not an unactive complement but a diligent fulfilling the Will of our Lord is at last a blessing to us he is in a good state indeed whose Lord doth reward his Service with an entrance into and enjoyment of eternal life in Heaven And nothing can alter it to him who altereth not his course of Faithfulness and Diligence Such an one is Jam. 1.22 Blessed in his deed now who is blessed in doing his work can never be in ill-state whilst he is doing it and he is in better state when the work done is rewarded whose work is his happiness cannot but be happy whilst he attends his work and this is the case of all diligent and sincere observers of Gods Commandments Psal 19.11 The keeping them is a great reward Christians consider