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	flesh_n	sin_n	8,004	5	4.9322	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87802	Abraham's image in one of his sonnes: or, The picture of a good old man, represented in a sermon upon the third of November, anno Dom. 1657. in West-Newton, at the funeral of John Dethick Esquire, father to the late lord mayor that was of London in the year 1655. By William Knapp Master of Arts, of Katherine-Hall in Cambridge, now rector of VVest-Newton in Norfolk.	Knapp, William, d. 1688.	1658 (1658)	Wing K667; Thomason E937_2; ESTC R207740	24,523	44

strive with flesh Gen. 6.3 Have therefore my Brethren a care I say again that you approve your selves faithfull as in the sight of God in all your severall places and stations that your latter dayes may be your best dayes and when you come to dye you may dye if the good hand of providence shall lengthen out your lives so long in a good old age especially too considering that when you dye you must give up that same depositum which the Lord hath put into your hand to use for his glory even your immortal souls and this all men must doe whether good or bad but with this difference some do it actively others passively these do it as being made to do it but the Saints of God sweetly resign up their souls as here faithful Abraham and this brings me to the second general observable in the words Secondly something at his death he gave up the Ghost He did freely expire his soul was not taken from him as the rich fooles in the Gospel Luke 12. to whom God said thou fool this night thy soul shall be required of thee Indeed the death of all flesh in the old world as Gen. 7.21 and the death of Ishmael Verse 17. of this Chapter is express'd by the same word all gave up the Ghost yet because all give not up the Ghost in the same manner we may therefore interpret the word seeing it will clearly admit of such an interpretation to such a sense as may befit the quality of such a person and say that Abraham gave up the Ghost by the way of freedom and willingness so from hence observe that good men when they dye they dye willingly Observ and this interpretation we may justifie upon a fourfold account 1. Good men freely resign their souls inregard of that gratious temper frame of their spirits whereby they do cheerfully submit to all the determinations of God dispensations of his providence God does whatsoever he pleases both in heaven earth whatsoever pleases him pleases them I remember once what a good man said that he could have what weather pleas'd him either wet or dry whilest I was museing at the presumption of his words he told me he meant that certainly we should have what weather pleas'd God and what pleas'd God pleased him and so 't is the best way to yeild to the government of Divine will which is the creatures chiefest rule according to * Voluntas Divina summa regula Dav. against Hoard Aquinas 'T is B. Davenants Opinion and it savors of grace that as t is a certain appointment of God for all men once to dye as Heb. 9.27 so if any man were as sure to dye eternally or could see his name blotted out of the book of life 't would be an act of an irrational and irregular wit to be discontented for t is the perfection of the creature to lye patiently under the infinite absolute soveraigntie of God but all men are not of such a temper 't is some mens work to call his glorious attributes of wisdom and mercy and justice into question and they are alwayes charging him foolishly Chap. 51.20 if God lay any cross upon them they are like wild bulls in a net as the Prophet Esay found some furious and full of wrath against God so that as all sicknesses and diseases and other previous dispositious to death so especialy death it self they undergo with a great deal of discontent against God but the Saints of God and all the true sonnes of Abraham do captivate all their fleshly reasonings in the unsearchable wisdom of the most high and undergo all events not with a Stoicall apathy in regard of an inevitable fate in them but with a passion of love in the heart to God whose blessed hand they know deals out nothing to them unadvisedly or without mercy nay even when he comes unto them with his black rod of death And therefore hereupon they have that Lesson alwayes ready to say with the Prophet David in 2 Sam. 15.26 behold here we are let him do unto us what seemeth him good Secondly They give up their souls freely in regard of that rest which they shall assuredly find from all their labours as Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the spirit that they may rest from their labours the wafaring man having numbred many wearisome steps in the heat of the day comes with haste in his mind in expectation of a quiet repose at night so the Saints of God being scorched with the heat of adversities desire to hasten into the shadow of death as Iob speaks Chapter 7.2 and upon this same account Iob himself wished for the grave for there the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary be at rest there the prisoners rest together they hear not the voice of the oppressor Chapter 3.17.18 Obj. But may good men desire to dye How then comes life to be a blessng a blessing to be desir'd Answer I answer VVhen once we have obtained of God a sight of the salvation of Jesus Christ we may say with old Simeon Now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace for our eyes have seen thy salvation yet alwayes with a holy subjection to the blessed will of God for we may not be our own carvers in any thing neither may we wish for death but conditionally and with respect to the Lords good pleasure and thus we may both wish and long for a repose in the grave 't was the earnest prayer of the holy Prophet that God would grant him space to recover his strength in before he went away from hence and should be no more Psalmes 39.13 and when he had recoverd that strength of divine grace which fortified his soul against all the dark and uncomfortable suggestions of Satan and had been refreshed with the clearer irradiations of Gods countenance then even then did he wish with a holy resignation of his will to Gods that he had wings like a dove that he might flee away from hence and be at rest Psalm 55.6 his soul then was in a condition apt enough to have taken her fligh to heaven and would fain have been delivered from the burden of the flesh David was too sensible of the vanity and vexation of all things here below to desire any long stay our souls whilst they are in the flesh are in a condition not unlike to the dove before she had set footing in the arke never at rest for whilest we are in the flesh we are under a body of sin and how wretched we are then heare how the Apostle sighs it forth Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Rom. 7.24 Whilst we are in the flesh we are under the miserable fruits of sin even those numerous outward troubles and inward tears which keep our poor souls in bondage Heb. 2.15 but he that is dead is

in the downie bosom of Abraham as heaven is expressed to be Luk 16.23 When children in their parents absence and at distance from their own dear home are evilly intreated at the cruel and merciless hands of strangers how do they double their haste in their retreat homeward in expectation of ease and quiet in their tender Parents bosom where they heare nothing but comfort and remember nothing less then former miseries even so do the Saints of God they know that whilest they are at home in the flesh they are absent from the Lord 2 Cor. 5.6 and in that interim do sit in Captivity as sometimes the Israelites by the waters of Babylon Psal 137.1 and are scornfully made to sing the song of the Lord in a strange land Vers 4. but when they come to dye they know they shall be gathered to the glorious society of Angels holy spirits in heaven where they shall sing uninterrupted Haleluiahs to God and the Lamb for ever and this brings me to the Third and last general observable in the words Thirdly something after Abrahams death He was gahered to his people St. Augustin understands by people the blessed quire of Angels Quaest 226. in Gen. who together with the Saints make up one body reconciled by the blood of Christ Col. 1.20 others understand by the phrase the state of the dead as being aequivalent to sleeping with his fathers being buryed in the dust where all they were and this opinion is not much amiss yet if we would more gently draw milk from the brests of the Scripture we may understand by the words the state of Abrahams soul after death for 't is not said his body was gathered to his people but he was bearing denomination from the better part He that is according to his soul he was gathered to such spirits of just men as were gone before him to heaven from whence we may observe that The souls of men dye not Obs. but after dissolution go to their severall proper places There are certain proper receptacles for the souls of men after death the souls of good men go to their people in heaven the souls of wicked men go to their like accursed crue in hell the souls of good men go to the glorious Pallace of the Son of righteousness as was Christs prayer to his father Iohn 17.24 but the souls of wicked men go into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels and heaven is proper for those and hell for these as Judas is said to have fallen from his Apostleship * Act. 1.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to go to his proper place so that the case is very plain that the souls of men dye not with their bodyes and so much is demonstrable not only by that marvelous light which shines from the Sun of righteousness in the meridian of the Scriptures but by that light in the Lamp of the soul which remains unextinguished by the fall of Adam take notice of in the first place the 12. of Ecel 7. then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return to God who gave it note also the 12. of St. Mark 26. where our Saviour told the Sadduces who denyed the resurrection that God was the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob who certainly were alive as to their souls because our Saviour told them that God was the God of the living and not of the dead Vers 27. Note also 2 Cor. 12.2 where we read that St. Paul was caught up to the third heaven but whether in the body or out of the body he could not tell It seems St. Paul thought his soul might have a being either in or out of the body note yet a clearer place than all in 2. Cor. 5.8 where we find that the Apostle desir'd to be absent from the body that he might be present with the Lord. And now if there be any so far drowned in their naturall corruption as to deny the scriptures then let them heare those of their own Tribe averring this truth Pythagoras thought when the soul had left one body it did presently inform another and so ad infinitum most of the Poets beleived an Elysian Field where the souls of good men had a pleasurable repast after death and * in Lact. ● Cicero affirm'd castos animos puros levi quodam facili lapsu ad Deos id est ad naturam sui similem pervolare that chast and pure souls did make their flight to the Gods of whose Divine nature they did participate and thus the very heathen thought nay the immortality of the souls of men is so cleare a truth that the very Devil himself cannot deny it as appears by one of his Prophetesses Sibylla Erythraea in Lactare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They which fear the true God inherit everlasting life and eternally inhabit the most and fruitful garden of Paradise And now my brethren since this is a truth so manifest out of the blessed word of God and by confession of all sides it may be matter of First comfort to some Secondly reprehension to others Thirdly instruction to all First this may be comfort First to such whose dearest friends relations are dead in the Lord as this our friend doubtless is such as they are not amissi onely praemissi not lost or utterly perish'd but sent before us thither whether the Lord grant we may follow for they have exchanged a Hadadrimmon or valley of tears for a glorious seat of pleasures at the right hand of God for evermore Psal 16. they have only left of serving the Lord at a distance and are gone to waite on him at his own court Secondly comfort to such who for conscience sake are under the hands of implacable persecutors who can but kill the * Mat. 10.28 body and are not able to kill the soul and if their bodies only suffer which suffer for an advantage they may be killed but not hurt as a Philosopher once said of a Tyrant occidere potest laedere vero non Seneca he may kill me but he cannot hurt me Julian that bloody Apostate in slaughtering the Christians pretended that if they looked upon their condition as so good after death he did them no wrong to send them the sooner away and truly no more hedid not for he did but send them away from such incarnate Devills as he was unto a glorious company in heaven they were but ground with the teeth of such furious beasts the better to make bread for Angels as saint Jgnatius Thirdly comfort to such who with the holy Prophet in Psal 31.10 have spent their life with grief and their years with sighing for their sins and who have walked soberly righteously and godly in this present world and have been painfull and faithful labourers in the Lords Vineyard having born the heat of many laborious

dayes in the service of God let them know that when they dye their hope is not at an end for if it should be the most precious Saints of God of all men would be the most miserable 1. Cor. 15. No certainly they have not their pains only for their labour as we use to say but if they sowe in tears they shall reap in joy if they go forth weeping and bear in their hearts the precious seed of Gods holy word they shall doubtless return with rejoyceing they shall return with the sheaves of their souls so laden with much grain of grace as shall render them only fit to be layd up in the Barne of heaven and there they shall be and possess themselves for ever with the joy of their Master Math. 25.21 Secondly this may be matter of reprehension to others and to those First who are Atheists in Judgement and Epicures in practice who say in their hearts like fooles there is no God and live as if there were neither heaven nor hell there are some who think if they be but half good in this life they shall be made up perfect in purgatory there are others who care not to be good at all presuming that as they live like beasts so they shall totally perish like beasts t●lium stultorum plena sunt omnia all places now a dayes are full of such fooles and some having wickedly armed their fancies with a few ends of Poetry and a little of the out side of Philosophy go go too and fro like the Devil himself seeking whom they may devour into such blind and pernicious perswasions but if such men would but look into the Parable of the rich man and Lazarus they might soon spie out the immortality of the soul nay if such men would but con over their own Bible for so I call their bookes of Poetry a little more ingenuously they would find that Noctes atque dies patet atri janua Ditis when ever such as they are dye the Devil is ready to receive their souls This may be matter of reprehension to all earthly muck-wormes who by endeavouring with such an over-anxious care to feather their own nests acknowledge nothing more than that felicity confines it self within the limits of this transitory world otherwise why should old men oftentimes who have one foot already in the grave lay out the choyce of their thoughts and affections that way 't is indeed a wonder and that to the more ingenuous sort of heathen as Tully Potest enim quicquam esse absurdius Desenct quam quo mi●us vitae restat eo plus viatici quaereres can there be any thing more absurd than when a man hath traveled out the journey of his life almost to an end that then he should lay in greatest provision for the way certainly such men in all their gatherings remember not that their souls shall be gathered unto another life after this either unto a life in hell or a life in heaven which life onely deserves the name of life for in that of hell the soul is in perpetuall dying Oh therefore how does it concern men rather to lay up in store such a foundation of faith as that when they come through death to let go their hold of this vain and empty world they may lay hold on eternall life 1. Tim. 6.19 hence then this may be in the next place matter of instruction to all Thirdly then since there is a certain day of death for all men as well for the friends of God as Abraham was Esay 41.8 as for his greatest enemies since no man can redeem his life from the hand of the grave and that after this life is ended another wil certainly follow as we fall in death so we shall lye to all eternity let us gird up the loines of our minds and fit our selves for our Christian race and in it be alwayes looking at the Lord Jesus Christ the Author and finisher of our faith le ts have a care of making all the * Prov. 18 10. haste we can into the strong tower of his great name le ts be careful that we desire him here as a Christ for grace Government in his service that at the great and terrible day of the Lord we may have him to be a Jesus to shelter us from the fire of Gods anger 'T is certain the Lord hatl * Act. 17 31 appointed a day to judge the world in and therefore le ts remember that of St. Cyprian Qualem te invenit Deus cum de hoc mundo evocat In Ser. de Mer. talem pariter Judicat as death leaves thee so judgement will find thee and if thou beest an aged man and dyest in thy sins what account wilt thou be able to make to God for so many dayes mispent what wilt thou think when thou shalt peep out of thy grave and see all the world in a flame about thy eares Will not the noise of the last Trump strike thee into horror and amazement to think that then thou must be hailed before the Tribunal of Christ to give an account of that talent of thy soul which he hath put into thy hands to use to his glory and shalt have nothing to say why the terrible curse should not be executed upon thee Wilt thou not then rather wish that with Michaiah thou had'st alwayes eaten the bread of affliction or with Esay had'st continually gone barefoot so that thereby thou had'st gotten interest in the Lord Jesus Then think upon these things in time you my deare brethren that are young remember your Creator in the dayes of your youth you that are old despaire not you are yet alive and under the call of God to faith and if you have but faith as a grain of mustard-seed you may say to the mountaines of your manifold sins be ye removed into the midst of the Sea and they shall be removed so far out of the sight of God Micha 7.19 this the Lord hath graciously promised in that immaculate Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world Iohn 1.29 and therefore 't will be but just for God to forgive such sins Iohn 1.9 nay he doth not onely allure us to himself with the promise of remission of sins but of eternall life in the fruition of his face for ever Oh blessed God! Me thinks then if there doth remain such a blessed rest for all the people of God how should we strive to enter in since when the bodies of Gods Saints shall drop to the earth their souls shall be carried by the Angels into Abrahams bosom be gathered to the innumerable company of Angels Heb. 12.22.23 to the generall assembly and Church of the first born which are written in heaven to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect how should we endeavour to be one of that number With what violence of devotion should we