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	pain_n	soul_n	8,495	5	5.3269	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53330	A sermon preach'd at the funeral of George Payne, jun Son of George Payne, an apothecary. March 6. 1699/700. At Midhurst in Sussex. And publish'd at the request of his friends. By Richard Oliver, curate of Midhurst.	Oliver, Richard, b. 1651.	1700 (1700)	Wing O280; ESTC R219355	10,021	24

Folly of Pride upon the account of Worldly Prosperity and a Christian will have more Reason to Condemn it who knows that all the Advantages Riches Greatness and Power afford end with this Life but the Disadvantages the Abuses of them will bear a Man Company into another World and both the Use and Abuses of them before the Impartial Judgment Seat of Christ must be brought to a strict account 3. If the Time of Worldly Prosperity be short we must not confide rely upon or place our Happiness in it The same Apostle who teaches us not to be High-minded teaches also not to Trust in Vncertain Riches 1 Tim. 6.17 God can blast and take them away in a Moment and destroy both our Substance and Confidence together At longest they will last but the short Term of our Lives at the end of which if we have took up our Rest fixt our Hopes and bottomed our Happiness upon them we have miserably deceived our selves and are undone for ever For Death does not put an end to our Beings though our Bodies fall into the Grave and are not capable of Delight or Pain during the time of Separation yet the Soul subsists for ever and if it has not made Provision for another State if its Happiness was centered only in Wealth or Honours in Worldly and Bodily Delights and Pleasures it is lost and undone to all Eternity This was the unhappy Condition of the Rich Glutton in the Gospel who having placed his Happiness in this World in costly Apparel Purple and fine Linnen and in faring sumptuously every day as soon as the Scene changed by Death was wrapped in Flames and wanted a drop of Water to cool his Tongue Luke 16.19 24. 4. This Consideration leads to another viz. The things of this Life being short and uncertain we ought chiefly to value regard and make Provision of those things which will endure and abide with us for ever If we have here no abiding City this should teach us with the good Patriarchs to seek for a better Country to look for a City which hath Foundations whose builder and maker is God Heb. 11.10 16. to lay up treasure in Heaven and to get a Title to those Spiritual Joys which are at Gods right-hand for evermore The World passeth away saith St. John and the Lust thereof but he that doth the will of God abideth for ever 1 John 2.17 The World and all that is desirable therein is Transient but Obedience to God's Commandments is of everlasting Consequence and will intitle us to a Happy Eternity and Eternal Delights in it To this purpose is the Exhortation of St. Paul Charge them that are Rich in this World that they be not high-minded nor trust in uncertain Riches but in the living God that they do good that they be rich in good works ready to distribute willing to communicate Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life 1 Tim. 6.17 18 19. And that of our Saviour Mat. 6.19 20. Lay not up for your selves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal but lay up for your selves treasures in Heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal 2. The time of Adversity and Trouble is short As we all partake of Adams Fall so we must all more or less share with him in his Punishment and Misery The Holy Patriarchs and Prophets had their evil as well as good Days and our blessed Saviour himself the most Innocent and Perfect of our kind the beloved Son of God the peculiar Darling and Favourite of Heaven was a Man of Sorrow and acquainted with Grief Is 53.3 He left his Cross as a Legacy and Badge to his Disciples and some part of his Bitter Cup who told those who were to come after them that they must also through much Tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God Acts 14.22 Yea and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution 2 Tim. 3.12 But though Sorrow and Affliction may be the universal Portion of Mankind though the Afflictions of the Best Men be many and sharp yet they are short too The Hand of God which is afflicting is also healing and he who forgets not to chastise remembers to deliver Sorrow may endure for a Night but that we may not faint or despend Joy cometh in the Morning Ps 30.5 Our Saviour who tells his Disciples that they should be sorrowful assures them in the next Words that their Sorrow should be turned into Joy John 16.20 The Storm by which the Apostles were indangered as a Type of their future Troubles was soon converted into a Calm Mat. 8.26 And though Clouds eclipse the Sun for a time they blow over and make its return more welcome and refreshing Was ever any Man plunged into more or greater Afflictions all at once than Job And yet we sooner see an end of his Troubles than of his Patience and his latter end was happier than his beginning Job 42.12 The Afflictions of Joseph were surprising and his Deliverance as remarkable he was delivered from a Dungeon almost to a Throne and from a Bond-Slave to be the Second Person in a great and flourishing Kingdom Daniel of a Captive became President of a mighty Empire and David whose Troubles and Adversities were sometimes great was refreshed and comforted and brought from the deep of the Earth again Ps 71.18 The Captivity of the Jews ended in a happy return and the Christain Churches Persecutions under Dioclesian terminated in a Constantine Our Saviour tells us Those who mourn now shall be comforted Mat. 5.4 and St. Paul reckons the heaviest afflictions light because they are but for a moment 2 Cor. 4.17 The longest Troubles of a Good Man must end in Death if not sooner they can continue only the short space of this Life and what is that to a Happy Eternity To conclude this Head We may say of our Afflictions as Athanasius did of his Nubecula est cito pertransibit It is but a little Cloud and will soon blow over Mourning has its Change into Joy as well as Joy into Mourning and it may be some satisfaction for the uncertainty of Temporal Goods Prosperity and Felicity that our Griefs and Afflictions are as short and changeable as they However we may well account all those Sufferings short which end happily which humble us for our Sins amend us in our Lives and sit us for a blessed Immortality The Use of this is that those who weep be as those that wept not That our Grief under Afflictions or Losses be moderated as well as our Joy in Prosperity and that because the Time is short Whatever of Afflictions befall us they are but for a short time they may also promote our Spiritual Welfare if rightly improved And these two Considerations whatever our Grief be will

afford some Ingredients of Joy and Comfort in it My Brethren count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience James 1.2 3. And why should we be concerned for Light Afflictions for a moment which will work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory 2 Cor. 4.17 3. The time of our Life and Continuance in this World is short Man that is born of a woman is but of few days Job 14.1 If he lives to the utmost extent of Nature his Time is but short in respect to the first Ages of the World much more in respect of God Mine age is nothing before thee says David Ps 39.5 What is Sixty or Eighty Years to Eternity And of this short time how much is consumed and spent in Childhood in Vanity in Sleep Sickness and Bodily Decays We are destroyed from morning until evening Job 4.20 From the Morning of our of Birth or coming into the World till the Evening of our Death and going out of it We are declining and wasting soon after we arrive at our full Strength and shall be so till we come to the Dust of Death And how often is this short Life still made shorter by Accidents Some stumble at the Threshold dropping from the Womb into the Grave Some continue a little longer but go out of the World before they knew why they come into it And how many are taken off in the Prime the Bloom and Height of their Strength The Consideration of which will afford us these Practical Uses 1. The shortness of Life considered with the Evils Afflictions Miseries Snares and Temptations of it should teach us to be contented and thankful that it is no longer When Xerxes wept that the vast Army which he was carrying against Greece should all be dead in the space of an Hundred Years Artabanus told him That they would meet with so many and great Evils that every one of them would wish himself dead long before If the shortness of our Lives afflicts us in that it puts a speedy Period to our Joys and Possessions it makes us amends for this by putting an end to our Miseries and Troubles too If our Days be evil it is no small Comfort to think that they are also few The World is a Store-house of Evils the Regions of Storms and Tumult a Vail of Tears a large Hospital in which we may see the melancholy Effects of Sin and Mortality Man a Map and Complication of Miseries the Road he is to take lies through heavy and miry Ways variety of Snares many Tribulations his Life is Labour and Sorrow and for this Reason we have no great Cause to complain that it so soon passeth away and we are gone Psal 90.10 It is the Complaint of many That the Life of Man is the Entrance and End of a Tragedy a Web of unhappy Adventures a Chain of Miseries that Man's Life and Troubles are Twin-Sisters and almost individual Companions that Life and Misery are two different Names for the same thing that no Man would accept of Life if he knew what it is that it is well he knows not whether he is coming lest he should draw back and start at the entrance that to live here is to be harrass'd with variety of Evils under different Names to meet with hard Usage distemper'd Humours bodily Sickness shameful Reproaches vexatious Disappointments besides Dangers Temptations Disquietude and Anguish of Mind This is the common Cry from weeping Infancy to querulous Old Age to this doleful Ditty most Tongues and Voices are tuned of Poets Philosophers Historians Laity Divines Prophets Kings and who not What is it then we complain of in short Life That we have not had time to go through and experience the several sorts of Evils that are in the World Or that we have not the Opportunity to repeat and go over them again That we are but a short time upon the Rack That our Day-labour is soon done That Death delivers us from our Miseries and sends us to a happy Eternity too soon If our Life and Condition in this Word be so full of Misery we have reason to bless God that our time in it is so short and to look upon Death if it succeeded a Vertuous Life as our Friend and Deliverer the end of our Miseries the Haven of Rest a Sanctuary and Refuge from Danger and Temptation a safe Port after a Tempestuous Voyage the welcome Deliverer that inlarges us from Prison ends our Labours discharges our Debts wipes all Tears from our Eyes dispels all Anxiety from our Hearts and is our Passage to endless Felicity and everlasting Rest 2. The Shortness of Life considered with the Frailty and Uncertainty of it should teach us to be always prepared for our Departure out of it The Emperor Maximilian was so sensible of the Shortness and Uncertainty of Life that it is said he always carried with him among his Robes whatsoever was necessary for his Funeral that he might never be unfurnished of that which he might every Day be in want of O that Men would be thus mindful of their Mortality and always carry about them those good Dispositions and Qualities which are not only necessary for a peaceable Departure out of this Life but also for a happy Entrance into the next That they would always have their Souls provided with those Vertues and good Habits which will make Death welcome as it ends a mortal troublesom Life and much more so as it is the Door and Passport to a more happy and glorious one Our Life in this World is only in order to another it is the time of Trial and Probation in which we stand Candidates for a happy or miserable Eternity it is the time allowed to make our Peace and to work out our Salvation and for this it is long enough though in other respects it may be short and yet how deligently do Men usually employ their time or rather how prodigally do they squander it away in any thing but this great and important Work Till they receive a hasty and speedy Summons from Death a sad and unexpected Surprize O how do they then lament their Folly that they had spent this short time of their Lives upon their Sins and Vanities and have now scarce the shortest Point of it left for the saving their Souls which should have been the chief Employment of the whole of it Archimedes a famous Mathematician of Sicily when the Romans took Syracuse was killed by a private Soldier as he was poring on his Mathematicks and drawing Schemes in the Dust How often do we see this verified and acted over again in our own Times While Men are busie and bustling about some mighty Affair of this World as they fancy it the Rich Man in the Gospel in pulling down and building his Barns bigger the Merchant in compassing Sea and Land the Ambitious Courtier in projecting for Places of