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	holy_a	life_n	5,129	5	4.3998	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60957	A sermon preached at the funeral of the Reverend Mr. John Culem, vicar of Knowstone and Molland, in Devon December 2. 1691 / by Lewis Southcomb.	Southcomb, Lewis.	1692 (1692)	Wing S4752; ESTC R33847	20,626	36

Paludibus Lacunis that is The holy Spirit dwells in dry and clean Souls not in Boggs and Fenns and Ditches and Plashes that are over-charged with Gluttony and Intemperance we may then justly suppose the holy Dove that sacred Spirit dwelt much in such a Temple I might instance in more particulars and consider him as a Friend Firm Faithful and Affectionate As a Master Just and Equal As a Husband Faithful Tender and Affectionate But this I will decline lest I draw more Tears from those eyes that have paid over and above the full Debt already Such as this was the discharge of his Duties to himself and Neighbour And now we may be sure 't is not likely that he should come short in those to his God whom he loved infinitely beyond both To whom he is now gone to exchange his Faith for Vision his Hope for Fruition his Devotions to be turn'd into Hallelujahs where he will alway love him without Abatement Cessation Diminution and Interruption and never more fear to offend him His immediate Duties I say to his God I have reasons to believe took up a considerable part of each day of his Life Thirdly I might consider him next as a Priest of the Holy Catholick Church as a Dispenser of all the Parts and Instances of Ministration to the Divine Glory Love and Obedience How Faithful how Constant how Able how Assiduous in his Preaching the Gospel in his Administration of the Sacraments and the other parts of his holy Function these lately of his Charge are his best Witnesses And his Master when he call'd for his Accounts and bid him lay aside his business here and come up to him Carne and found him so doing And blessed is That Servant says our Great Master St. Matth. 24.46 And thus much though too briefly as to his Life 2. As to his Death If the separation of the Soul and Body shall be call'd so For not Christians only but what 's much more remarkable and strange even the Heathens and particularly the Greek Tragedian would not allow the unfettering and unchaining of the Soul to be call'd a death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is who knows who can tell but that that Life which we live here is but a death and that to dye only is truly to live And 't is as strange what is said by another Hi vivunt qui ex corporum vinculis tanquam e carcere evolaverunt vestra vero quae dicitur vita mors est i. e. They truly live who have made their escape out of this prison of the Body but that which men commonly call Life that 's Death And a third speaks higher yet The Gods as they speak conceal from Men and will not let them know the sweetness of dying to make them patient and content to live But we need not the Testimony or Opinion of the Wisest Heathens who have the Revelation of the Son of God That Death only lets us in to that State which alone deserves the name of Life And how holy how Christian how truly devout his Passage was might be too long to mention at large For certainly all that stood near him have reason to wish in the words of Balaam Let my last end be like his Numb 23.10 Having given him several Visits in his Sickness which were voluntary and uncall'd for I found at last by his continual Languishments reason to believe the time of his Removal could be at no great distance With which Thoughts I faithfully acquainted him in a Letter As knowing 't was best to take all the Securities which our Lord has given us to make our Passage safe and holy And it being infinite Pity that a Regular a Holy and Exemplary Life should want any of the Advantages of a happy Death Accordingly the day before his Death he was pleased to send for me and call upon me to assist him in his Trimming of his Lamp for the coming of his Bridegroom whom he now apprehended to be near at hand and to help him to Dress and Adorn himself for his Funeral 'T will be a great Mistake for any Man or all Men living to expect a minute and particular Account of every word that might pass between us But when I came to him he told me he was going hence that he was very apprehensive that in a little time he should be call'd to change Worlds and desired I would assist him in his last Agonies How willing I was to undertake so welcome a Duty in which I could at once serve my Master and my Friend a Master above and a Friend below in the same Instance and in an Instance too in which I was never like to do it more is no part of my present Business to say At first he desired the Prayers of the Church in which he joyned with all possible Demonstrations of a lively Faith an unfeign'd Repentance a Seraphic Fervency and Zeal a holy Hope and religious Affections Which being ended he told me he designed the next day which proved to be that in which he Dyed for the receiving his Viaticum for his approaching Journy I mean the Blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper I told him I thought it might be very convenient and most safe to do it to day To which He after some Thoughts and Considerations most readily and willingly consented He complained I remember of his Unwillingness to receive his Saviour as he lay and could have wish'd if his Weakness would have permitted it might have been upon his Knees and in a more humble Posture of External Devotion But his great Weakness of Body considered this could be no Dispute and 't is pity that ever it should have been one in the Christian Church Which having devoutly Received he then seem'd more full of a Holy Joy and Pious Satisfaction and a Religious Peace And he express'd his Rejoycings in some chearful Ejaculations Thus in the mid'st of Blessing and Prayers and Eucharist he stands about a day longer upon the Threshold of the new World And then he is called to come in and he bows the Head and enters And Willingly and Chearfully Yields and Resigns up his Soul you may be sure not without the Peace of the Church into the Hands of the Great Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls the Holy Jesus And now I 'le stay to ask one Question once more in the words before mentioned who of us here is there but must be inclin'd to say Let my last end be like his Thus he has left Mortality And tho he has left his Partner Disconsolate his Relatives Mourning his Friends Sighing yet above all he has left his People without a Pastor an Assistant and a Guide And tho all that knew him may possibly Lament his Removal yet certainly none have more cause than you that were the People of his Charge to whom I now speak And if the taking away so faithful a Conductor of you

not be safe without them In a late Sickness which you thought would have been unto Death Nothing was so welcome to you then as a Prayer-Book no Company like that of a Guide of Souls no Imployment like Devotion Tho it may be all these Thoughts vanished and disbanded again upon thy return to Health and Vigour But however if this have been thy Case or like it methinks you should now in Health be easily persuaded to argue thus Come my Soul we can easily remember that such religious Thoughts and Actions and Wishes and Intentions pleased us above all things in a late Sickness And I am very confident they will please us again above all things when we come to dye And why they should not please us now when we can best perform them is strange and unaccountable which brings me to the Third and last Use or Instance of Application If these things must be granted to be Wisdom then let us be prevailed upon to apply our selves to all these Instances of Divine Love and Obedience in a vigorous and a flourishing Age which we constantly find the Learnedst the Wisest and the Best of dying Men are infinitely in Love with But before I come to this last Use I shall remember that I have another subject of Discourse yet to be spoke to The Person I mean whose Vacancy I at present fill our Friend and our Brother here before us who after a long Conflict with Mortality has now paid his last Debt to Nature and to whom we are paying our last Offices of Friendship and Charity and Kindness The Truth is if Custom had not warranted and called for a short Discourse of this sort yet 't were infinite Pity so good an Example of Piety and Charity Sobriety and Purity of Life should have nothing said of it The Person whom scarce any ever knew and knew well but paid him and that justly too an equal portion of Love and Estimation It would take up too much time for the present Season to give a full Account of all the Accomplishments whether Natural or Acquired of this our Brother I shall therefore be sure to speak but to two briefly 1. As to his Life 2. As to his Death 'T is true indeed his Life may be as well known to most here present as to my self but I am sure his Death is not However First As to his Life And here I shall consider him and reflect on him in a threefold Capacity 1. As a Man 2. As a Christian 3. As a Priest That is I shall a little remark his Excellencies and Abilities Natural and Acquir'd Moral and Divine and in all of them shall find him well qualified for the Station which he held and perhaps for a higher than That from which he left Mortality 1. As a Man And here I need not stay to mention that for a considerable number of years he enjoyed the advantage of raising and improving his Natural Parts by a happy and successful Abode at one of the Fountains of Learning there to fit himself for his greater Usefulness in the Church And to how good Purposes is well known to those who were competent Judges of his Abilities and Learning And 't was his Lot to be removed hence before any Decays of Age had obliterated or ruffled any part of his Excellencies and Accomplishments Happy in this that he liv'd not to out-live himself as is often the Case of very great and excellent Persons This being the Infelicity of Human Nature that if either our Natural or Acquir'd Abilities are not sullied by the Vanities and Follies of Youth or the Iniquities of our growing years and a maturer Age yet they are sure to be clouded or razed out again and made searce legible by the decays of Old Age and the Weakness of our Intellectuals at the Evening of our Life Thus a little before we leave Mortality Age begins to make us useless here A little before our Sun sets Nature begins to draw the Curtain and to cast a Veil over us and to unfit us for this World for some time before we are removed to the other But this was not the Case of our Brother here before us who tho he lived to be long serviceable and useful in his Masters Vineyard yet as I said out-lived not himself and his Abilities And here indeed whether we reflect on the sufficiency of his Learning the goodness of his Judgment the readiness of his Invention the clearness of his Apprehension and his Notions the obliging Sweetness and Candour and Endearingness of his Deportment in all his Addresses and his Conversation If we consider all these in Conjunction we shall find he exceeded very many and equalled most of his Age. Upon each of which his Natural and Acquired Accomplishments I might stay to make larger Reflections but I hasten Secondly To consider him as a Christian Christianity being design'd by the great Authour of it to raise us above the pitch of Nature to defaecate and refine and spiritualize Mortality and to fit us for beatified Spirits and separate Intelligences and the bright and lovely Regions of a new World I begin first with his Hospitality and Charity His Hospitality was alway equal to his Estate but his Charity I suppose even beyond it The former of them had this Apostolical Qualification too 't was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Reter says it ought 1 Pet. 4.9 without Grudging without Murmuring without Repining Free and Generous Dis-interested and Undesigning 2. His Charity By this he made his poor Neighbourhood become his Bills of Exchange by whom he has return'd a great part of his Income into the other World before he himself was translated thither and before he was called to enter upon some enjoyment of the Treasure which he laid up like a good Husband for himself there where neither moth nor rust do corrupt or Thieves break through and steal Certainly if we consider the naked that he clothed and the Hungry that he frequently fed we may say to the poor Neighbourhood as our Saviour did St. Luke 23.28 when he was going to Mount Calvary to his Crucifixion Weep not for me but weep for your selves and for your Children And not inseriour to his Charity was his strictest Justice and Integrity by which he might I doubt not with his expiring Breath have askt the same question the Prophet Samuel did of old 1 Sam. 12.3 Whom have I defrauded whom have I oppressed Thus did he by the constant discharge of this Vertue train up and trim the Soul for an admission to just Zacheus to the Spirits of Just men made perfect and above all to that righteous Lord that loveth Righteousness Psal 11.7 I might consider next his Temperance and Abstemiousness his Purity and Sobriety of Life Insomuch that if what Lessius in his Hygiasticon says I think from the Rabbins be true That Spiritus sanctus amat sicca corda and that Sapientia in sicco residet non in