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	life_n	soul_n	52,626	5	5.6856	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A46315	Abraham's death, the manner, time, and consequent of it opened and applied in a funeral sermon preached upon the death of the Reverend Mr. Thomas Case ... June 14th, 1682 : with a narrative of his life and death / by Thomas Jacomb ...	Jacombe, Thomas, 1622-1687.	1682 (1682)	Wing J111; ESTC R11297	37,227	59

it in Scripture-Record All the Exemption from Death that the Best can claim or hope for is to be exempted from Eternal but not from Natural Death Grace does free Believers from the former Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die Joh. 11.26 Verily verily I say unto you If a Man keep my Sayings he shall never see Death Joh. 8.51 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the Second Death hath no Power Rev. 20.6 but it does not free from the latter It may indeed and does as to this Death exempt from the Curse and Sting of it O Death 1 Cor. 15.55 where is thy Sting but not from the Stroke of it not from the thing it self Naturally considered as it consists in the dissolving of the Vnion 'twixt Soul and Body Christ has unstung Death for every Believer the Serpent now may hisse but it cannot hurt yet it may sting so far as to put a Period to the present Life Doe Abrahams die must they die Oh happy Necessity blessed be God for it This is grounded not only upon their Natural Frame and Constitution as they are Flesh and Blood as well as others and made of the same brittle Materials Nor only upon their having Sin as well as others and where that is Death must follow upon it Nor only upon that Vniversal Statute It is appointed unto Men once to die Heb. 9.27 But also upon the special Love and Grace of God to his People He has prepared an Heaven for them they are designed to a future State of Blessedness shall be rewarded above for their Service below Now that they may be put into the actual Possession of all this they must die Death to the Saints is but their Transition into their everlasting Blessedness and so 't is not their Misery but their Felicity that they die This to the Wicked is in Judgment but to the Godly in Mercy The former die because God will glorify his Punitive Justice upon them in another World but the Other die because God will glorify his free Grace and Mercy upon them in another World Death shall come to an Abraham but it comes to him as a Friend not as an Enemy Whilst he is paying the indispensible Tribute due to Nature God is carrying on the glorious Designs of his Grace towards him But this I pass over I proceed to the threefold Amplification or to the three Specialties observable in the Death of Abraham The first of which points to the Order and to the Manner of his Death in this Branch Then Abraham gave up the Ghost and died In the Syriac Version 't is infirmatus est he was debilitated and weakened so he died In the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he fainted and so he died thus also the Chaldee Paraphrast the Vulgar Oleaster and divers others * Malè in 70 Interpretibus additum est deficiens Abraham mortuus est quia non convenit Abrahae deficere imminui Q●ast Heb. in Gen. Hierome objects against this Rendring the Words as if it did reflect upon such a Person as Abraham to faint But what Disparagement could it be to him at such an Age to lie under bodily Fainting so long as he was not weak in Faith but strong in Faith giving Glory to God Rom. 4.19 20. meer Natural Weakness could not at all reflect upon him or be unbecoming to him The Samaritan Version renders it by Expiravit he expired breathed out his last Breath or his Soul and Spirit his Breath and Soul went out of him so he died This Reddition is most generally followed by Expositors The giving up of the Ghost is the usual Expression to set forth Death by so it s used as to Isaac Gen. 35.29 as to Jacob Gen. 49.33 as to our Saviour Joh. 19.30 passim We 'll consider it as 't is expressive not only of Abraham's simple Dying but also of some Adjuncts and Circumstances about his dying It notes 1. The Order of his Dying and what was the Antecedent to it Abraham first gave up the Ghost then he died First the Soul departs and then we die and when that is once gone out of the Body Death immediately follows That being the living vital quickning Principle in Man when that is once separated from the Body this must necessarily be turned into a dead Carcase a dead lump of Clay So long as that stays with us we live but when it takes its Flight from us into its higher Mansion forthwith we die The dissolving of the Union 'twixt Soul and Body as it necessarily antecedes Death so Death necessarily succeeds upon it This is the Order of Nature as to what goes before and what follows after in that which I am speaking of By the way let such who believe and who thereupon are united unto Christ rejoyce in this spiritual and mystical Vnion inasmuch as it does secure to them the Perpetuity of their Spiritual Life The Natural Vnion of the two Constitutive Parts of Man is dissoluble and so the Natural Life that results from it may cease But the Spiritual Vnion between Christ and the Believer being indissoluble consequently the Spiritual Life resulting from it is and shall be Abiding and Everlasting The Soul may leave the Body therefore that may die but Christ and the Animating Spirit will never leave the Soul therefore that shall never die How may Believers comfort themselves from this 2. It holds forth the Manner of Abraham's Death 1. As to the Speediness and Easiness of it 2. As to his ready and willing Submission to it 1. His Death was quick and easy He was not long in Dying did not stand out any long Siege Death did but summon him and he presently surrendred up himself he breathed out his last Breath and the Work was done Neither did he grapple with those sharp Pains those grievous Agonies and Conflicts which many feel in a dying-hour no he just expired just gave up the Ghost and that was all The Hebrew Word used in the Text is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the * Dictio expiravit egressionem Spiritus è Corpote significat quae sit subitò sine Dolore Morâ Aben-Ezra Putant Rabbini 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 esse mortem quae Homini accidit absque ullo praevio morbo dolote Munster Expirando mortuus est mortis quadam facilitate usus quam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vatab. Verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Hebiaeos dicitur de Morte sine Dolore Grot. so Oleaster quamplurimi alii Calvine rejects this Exposition Rabbinical Doctors and many Interpreters after them make to import a quick speedy and easy Death But others observe Vid Fagium in Loc. that we can lay no great Stress upon the Word as importing and easy Death to belong to good Men at least not so as to be appropriated and limited to them because else-where we find it applied to wicked

cannot assent to this Assertion without some stating and qualifying of it 'T is true when God is bringing great Evils upon a Family or a Kingdom then to be taken away young in order to being preserved from such Evils does carry the Love and Mercy of God in it as we see in the Instance of Jeroboam's Son 1 Kings 14.12 13. and of good Josiah 2 Kings 22.20 But to make this Proposition general and universal that we have no ground for He that promises long Life as a Mercy must be look'd upon as loving the Persons to whom he vouchsafes it That which makes old Age to be so generally burdensome and which causes Inquietude of Mind in Persons under it is the muny Afflictive Evils that accompany it Within there 's a sad Decay in the several Faculties of the Soul the Vnderstanding darkened the Reason clouded the Memory blunted the Affections dead and flat Without there are various Infirmities in the Body the Eyes dim the Ears deaf the Feet lame the Joynts benum'd the Hands tremble the Bones full of Aches the whole Body a Mass of Diseases what an Accumulation of Evils is here Hence old Age is commonly called Aetas mala the evil Age And Solomon speaks of it as such Eccles 12.1 Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy Youth while the evil days come not nor the Years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them He first in general calls it the evil Days and then particularly in the following Verses he most elegantly sets it forth in the Decay of the several Parts of the Body O quam continuis quantis plena Senectus Longa malis Juv. Multa senem circumveniunt incommoda Hor. Now can any be patient under the Conflux of such Evils much more can any be thankful to God for extending their Lives to an Age which exposes them to such Discomforts Answ They may and they ought to be so You that feel all these reflect upon what is past How many Years did you live in Health and Strength how long was it before it was thus bad with you And should not the weighing of past Mercy quiet you under present Afflictions When all the Day has been fair can you not bear a showre at the Evening When your Way has been good in your whole Journy can you not submit to a little spot of bad Way when you are just at the end of your Journey This calls for Patience and Thankfulness from you And besides you are to consider the present Good as well as the present Evils that attend your old Age. Ye are not yet wholly unserviceable something yet you can do for the Good of others and for the saving of your own Souls All these Calamities do but set you nearer to Heaven every Wave drives your nearer to the Shore every Wind is but for the throwing down of the Earthly Tabernacle 2 Cor. 5.1 that you may ascend to that House that Building of God which is eternal in the Heavens So that upon a spiritual account you have no reason to be impatient or to find fault with your old Age but to carry it like that * Georgias Leontinus in Val. Max. l. 8. c. 13. Aged Person that we read of who being an 107 Years old and being asked Why he would be willing to live so long answered Quia nihil habeo propter quod Senectutem meam accusem I undergo nothing for which I have cause to blame my old Age. Do but you consider the whole matter and you 'll have more reason to say the same Tull. de Sen. The Orator objects Four Evils in old Age 1. It disables for Business and Work 2. It renders the Body infirm and sickly 3. It deprives of all Pleasures 4. It brings near to Death The Vanity and Weakness of all these Imputations upon old Age he particularly makes out with great clearness and strength of Reason When Heathens have such sound Notions of this shall we Christians entertain false Notions of it Oh where God has blessed any of you with it do not murmur at it and give way to Discontent but heartily bless him for it 2. Is it a good old Age not only for the length of it but also for the Strength and Healthfulness of it where 't is so surely there must be great Thankfulness To live so long and yet to be strong and vigorous free from those Infirmities of Age that have been instanced in Nature yet keeps up its youthful Vigor there 's nothing in the Senses Organs Limbs Faculties of the Mind to shew that old Age is upon Persons nothing but only the hoary Head Oh what Mercy is this Whether we consider the Paucity of them that have it or the Advantage resulting from it for Service This is very good not only because it 's delightful and comfortable to him who has it but because it renders him serviceable to God and Man Alas the old decrepit decay'd Man here lives and that 's all his time of Service is over in a great measure he 's laid by like the Ship that 's worn out unfit to go to Sea any more Ah! but he that is old and yet hail and lusty that retains his former Vivacity of Body and Soul he 's as fit for Service as ever as useful in his Station as ever a wonderful Mercy What would some zealous Christians give for it If you have it I beseech you prize it improve it and be very thankful for it 3. But thirdly Is it a good old Age in the moral Notion of it Here is the highest Obligation to Praise and Thankfulness Can you take a view of your selves in the former Stages of your Lives that in all of them you have feared God and walk'd with him that all along you have been good and done Good that Holiness and Obedience have run through your whole Conversation And that now in the last Period of your Days yet you hold on in the good ways of God yet you are acting Grace yet bringing forth Fruit unto Holiness Rom. 6 2● Rev. 3.2 yet your Works are good nay your last Works are your best better filled up than formerly Oh where 't is thus with any of you rejoyce rejoyce call upon your Souls and all within you to bless God for his rich Grace displaid towards you Here 's good old Age indeed Oh that thee was more of it in the World Well here 's living to and in a good old Age 't will not be long before it will be dying in this good old Age And how safe how sweet will that Dying be unto you whenever it shall come so much to the Aged 2. Something I would say to the Young Psal 39.5 Job 21.24 To you who are in your best State in the prime of your Days whose Bones are full of Marrow and whose Candle burns very bright Old Age has not as yet seiz'd upon you but you are hastening to it

an hour a moment longer Not because its bitter to us to live but because 't is unnecessary for us to live 'T would be an Act of * Singularis est Dei Gratia vitae saturi●as ut ex eâ migrare parati sumus cum Animi Tranquilitate c. Rivet in loc singular Grace from God if by his Spirit he would bring us to this blessed Temper I have dispatch'd the two first Amplifications about Abraham's Death from the Manner and the Time of it let me add a little upon the Third viz. the Issue and Consequent of it He died what became of him after that why He was gathered to his People This like the preceding Expressions of giving up of the Ghost dying in a good old Age being full of Years does often occur in Scripture 'T is used of Isaac Gen. 35.29 of Jacob Gen. 49.33 of Aaron Numb 20.24 of many otheres Sometimes 't is expressed by being Gathered to their Fathers I will gather thee to thy Fathers says God to Josiah 2 Kings 22.20 And also all that Generation were gathered unto their Fathers Judg. 2.10 David was laid unto his Fathers Acts 13.26 The Promise to Abraham was Thou shalt go to thy Fathers Gen. 15.15 We read again and again of sleeping with their Fathers 1 Kings 11.43 1 Kings 2.10 passim It 's an usual Hebraism to set forth entring into the State of the Dead There 's a kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in it it being a more soft and pleasing Description of that State instead of that which is more rough and harsh The Grave being the common Receptacle of all that die All go unto one place Eccles 3.20 I know that thou wilt bring me unto Death and to the House appointed for all living Job 30.23 therefore though Abraham died and was buried in Canaan where * Gen. 25.10 Sarah only was buried and none of his Progenitors yet upon his Death and Burial he 's said to be gathered to his People or Fathers The Papists Gloss upon it is he went to the Limbus Patrum Their Doctrine is that the Fathers and all the Old-Testament-Saints who lived and died before the Incarnation Passion and Resurrection of Christ were not immediately taken up into Heaven but shut up together in some secret Recesses or Cavernes of the Earth till Christ should come and suffer and rise again and then they were to be admitted into the Heavenly Glory And they tell us that these Fathers and others in this State did not feel any Paena Sensus as they in Purgatory do but only Paena Damni in their not having the immediate Presence of God and the Beatifick Vision And amongst other Proofs that they give of this my * Apponi ad Populum suum est consociari Non in majorum Sepulturâ juxta corpus sed perduci juxta Animam ad consortium Animarum Patrum illius quae erant in poenis tenebrarum usque ad discensum Filii Dei ad Inferos c. post Salvatoris Domini Resurrectionem transferendus ad Paradisum faelicitatis aeternae Lipem in loc So Lyranus P. Burgensis in Gen. 49.33 Bellarmin de Animâ Christi Cap. 11. Pet. Galat. Arcan lib. 6. c. 7. Text with other parallel Texts is insisted upon for one Abraham was gathered to his People i. e. he was not presently translated into Heaven but for a time shut up in a common Cell with the rest who died before him as only an Expectant of Heaven And hence they observe a Variation of Words in the setting forth of the Death of those who died since Christ came and of those who died before Christ came The former are said to die in the Lord to sleep in Jesus and the like but the latter are said to be gathered to their People to sleep with their Fathers and so on This Opinion we reject as having no solid Foundation in the Word of Truth And hold that as all Believers who now die do immediately enter into Glory for the Spirit returns to God who gave it Eccles 12.7 To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luke 23.43 We know that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a Building of God an House not made with Hands eternal in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 So that all who lived before Christ and believed in him did also upon their Dying immediately enter into Glory See this Limbus Patrum refuted and the Protestant Doctrine defended in River in Gen. E●ercit 151. Idem summa controv Qu. 42. Rainold Censura libr. Apochryph Prael 79 c. Chamier Panstrat 〈◊〉 3. l. 25. c. 5 c. Christ being the same to Them that he is to Vs Heb. 13.8 his Merit extending to Them as well as to Us he being the Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World Rev. 13.8 and They believing in the Messiah to come as well as we believe in him as come what reason can be assigned why they should not partake of the same Blessings the same Happiness that we now partake of and consequently upon Death be put into the immediate Possession of the Glory of Heaven even aswe are But blessed Abraham was it thus with thee was this thy gathering to thy People to be shut up in some dark Caverns of the Earth God knows where and to be kept out of Heaven God knows how long In thy Life at God's Command thou wentest thou knewest not whither and at thy Death too didst thou go thou knewest not whither Wast thou the great Instance of Faith Rom. 4.3 the Father of the Faithful and yet does it fare better with the meanest of thy Seed now than it did with thy Self Was Heaven so much in thy Eye didst thou look for a City which had Foundations Heb 11. ●0 whose Builder and Maker is God and yet so long kept out of it and thrust into some Recluse whöse Builder and Maker is Man Is thy * So Austin expounds it Q●e● Evang. l. 2. c. 28. in Ep. ad Evodium So Muldonate in loc who yet to save himself is fain to say Non quod Abraham in Coelo esset sed quòd ita loqui singarur quasi esset in Coelo Bosome made use of to represent Heaven and that before Christ died and yet wast thou not as yet in Heaven Blessed Saint these things we poor dim-sighted Protestants know not how to understand The Adversay has led me out of my way I return to the words which I shall consider not only as a Periphrasis of Death or of the dead State that follows upon it but as holding forth something of a far higher nature As namely that Abraham's Soul as soon as Death had seized upon his Body was forthwith translated into the Fellowship and Society of the glorified Saints who lived and died before him Two things Expositors infer from them 1. The Existence of the Soul in its separated State from the Body They apply