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	part_n	sin_n	5,392	5	4.9129	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56407	The redeemer's friend, or, A sermon on John II, part of the 11th verse ... preached at the funeral of ... Mr. Samuel Fairclough, who departed this life, December 31, 1691 by Nath. Parkhurst ...	Parkhurst, Nathaniel, 1643-1707.	1692 (1692)	Wing P490; ESTC R479	10,970	32

under the expectation of it Let us raise our Faith and dismiss our Fears believing there is no harm to us in Death It is but the Sleep of a long Night and then comes a Morning the Day breaks and the Shadows flee away and our Beloved leads us to the Mountains of Spices Cant. 8.14 Let us consider Death cannot prejudice us being blest with Christ's Friendship for hereupon Death is ours The Spirit of God by the Apostle's Hand hath put Death it self into the Inventory of our Goods and Blessings 1 Cor. 3.21 22. All things are yours whether Paul or Apollo 1 Cor. 3.21 22. or Cephas or the World or Life or Death And whereas Death parts us from our Friends here that Wound is presently healed by its bringing us to Christ our high and everlasting Friend according to these Scriptures 2 Cor. 5.8 Absent from the Body 2 Cor. 5.8 and present with the Lord. Phil. 1.23 Having a desire to depart Phil. 1.23 and to be with Christ Luk. 23.43 Luke 23.43 To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Death is indeed a Violence upon Nature and at first sight we cannot but decline it as unnatural to our primitive Constitution a Fruit of Sin and a mighty Humiliation and Abasement of one part of us for it carries our Bodies under the Earth and makes them a Prey to the vile Worms and renders them noisom to the Living who convey them thither in their own defence But our Relation to Christ qualifies all this turning the Grave into a Bed and Death into a sweet Repose Thirdly Since Death is thus qualified to the Friends of Christ let us examine whether we are the Friends of our Lord and Saviour Many presume it and are Strangers and Enemies to him in effect and by just Interpretation instead of being in a League of Friendship with him And some fear they are not his Friends who are surely in his Favour And this makes it necessary that we pass an Inquest upon our selves and I shall assist it by answering two Questions Who are not and who are the Friends of Christ Quest 1. Who are not the Friends of Christ And to this I reply in the following Particulars 1. Scorners of Piety and Holiness are none of his Friends They that walk in the Counsel of the Ungodly and sit in the Seat of the Scornful having a rank Enmity against Religion and the Power of Godliness are no Friends of the Redeemer who gave himself for us Titus 2.14 to redeem us from all Iniquity and to purify to himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works Titus 2.14 Scoffers at Holiness holy Persons and holy Things cannot find Favour with him that is holy harmless undefiled and separate from Sinners It is marvellous and astonishing that any Men especially making any Profession of the Christian Faith should sink so deep into Profaneness as to put a Scorn upon religious holy Practises and pious Exercises But Hell and Earth together do breed such Monsters Original Sin blown up by Satan's Arts the Venom of the old Serpent put to the native Depravation of humane Nature produces this prodigious Birth viz. a Scorner of holy Things But such have certainly no Alliance or Friendship with him that taught Holiness and lived it to Perfection Such may be secure through a mighty hardness of Heart and God's giving them up to a blindness of Mind but their Destruction was foretold very early Enoch the seventh from Adam Jude ver 14,15 pophesied of these saying Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints to execute Judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly Deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard Speeches which ungodly Sinners have spoken against him Jude ver 14 15. 2. Such as have only an Out-side of Religion and not that of the hidden Man of the Heart are none of Christ's Friends For all the Churches shall know he searches the Heart and tries the Reins His piercing Eye seeth the Rottenness within the painted Sepulchres and he will unmask all Hypocrites and favours only Israelites indeed and without Guile If Men content themselves only with repeating the Creed and a bare attendance upon Divine Ordinances with the Shadow of Religion instead of inward Mortification and real Godliness they are not accepted with him that knows what is in Man To them that have only shining Lamps of Profession he will say Depart from me ye Workers of Iniquity tho they could prophesy in his Name and in it do wonderful i. e. miraculous Works There is nothing more apparently caution'd against in the Scriptures than this depending upon the external part of Religion with a neglect of the inward substantial things of it Rom. 2.28 Rom. 2.28 He is not a Jew that is one outwardly neither is that Circumcision that is outward in the Flesh And it is equally true he is not a Christian that is one outwardly only nor is that Baptism sufficient that is only upon the Flesh Be not deceived God is not mocked God will render to Men according to their Works 3. They who take any part of Religion for the whole are none of Christ's Friends Some are sober and sober only and some are sober and morally righteous and make a great Figure in a debauch'd Generation but they are not sober and righteous and godly Such partial Christians will not be favoured by the impartial Judg he respects none but them that have a sincere Respect to all his Commands Almost Christians can be but almost happy And they that are not far from the Kingdom of God if they advance no farther in Religion will have their Portion with Hypocrites Secondly The other Question is Who are the Friends of Christ And the Answer is They that sincerely keep his Commands He that hath my Commands John 14.21 and keeps them he it is that loves me and I will love him John 14.21 They also that delight in the Ordinances of his Worship and love his People and Interest and his Appearing saying Come Lord Jesus come quickly who live by the Faith of the Son of God and desire to know nothing comparatively but Christ and him crucified counting all things Loss for the Excellency of the knowledg of Christ And they that imitate him in living a holy Life these and these only are the Redeemer's Friends The rest are as yet his Enemies and will not that he should reign over them And now let us inquire diligently of which Number we are whether Friends or Enemies to Christ It is time to make this Scrutiny Death is coming the pale Messenger is on his way and drawing near The Funerals which we frequently attend are a loud Warning of our approaching Change And if a little Time will launch us into an Eternity 't is Wisdom to obtain the Resolution of this Question speedily whether we are the Friends of Christ or

be that find it If we substract the Numbers of the Ignorant Prophane Worldly-minded and Formal the Remainder is comparatively small And thus it hath been in all former Ages Evermore the Number of the Faithful hath been little compared with the Ungodly In the Days of Noah all Flesh had corrupted their Way Very few in the World had then any serious regard to God He only and his Family escaped the Deluge In David's time Psal 13.3 all i. e. the most were gone aside Psal 13.3 In the times of Elias seven thousand only in Israel kept themselves from the Pollution of Idolatry Rom. 11.4 In the times of Jeremiah the common People were generally poor and foolish and knew not the Way of the Lord and the Great Men had broken the Yoak and burst the Bonds in sunder In our blessed Saviour's time upon Earth the Magistrates and Ministers of the Jewish Church and the People were generally corrupt and wicked In the Apostles time notwithstanding the great Success of the Gospel yet the Faithful remain'd in comparison few so that there were not Friends enough to preserve the Apostles from violent Death And this Age surely is not much better than the former Ages of Christianity or those under the Mosaical Dispensation The Number of good Men is still small I should be glad to find an Error in the Computation but am much afraid it is too true that neither in our own or any other Reformed Church can be shewed a Community of the quantity of a Village wherein the Majority are sincere in the Profession of Christianity Wherefore to use the solemn Words of the great Apostle Eph. 4.17 I say and testify in the Lord Ephes 4.17 that they are in a perishing Condition in Paths leading to the Chambers of everlasting Death who follow the Generality of this present Generation 2. Sincere Christians are in the Family of the World generally of the younger House inferiour in worldly Respects Not many wise Men after the Flesh not many mighty 1 Cor. 1.26 not many noble are called 1 Cor. 1.26 Some Princes some Nobles some Persons of Quality some Men of Parts and Learning are among the effectually called But the Instances are rave And this was mystically represented in the Advancement of Judah Ephraim David and Solomon who were all younger Brothers in their several Families Commonly Men great in Place and Power in Wealth and Honour in Wit and Parts take the wrong Way despise Religion and neglect Godliness Thus it was in our Saviour's time the Jewish Sanhedrim and almost all Persons of Name and Authority in that Church opposed the believing Jesus was the Christ And accordingly it was laid as an Objection against receiving him and his Doctrine that the Men of Reputation did not acknowledg him John 7.48 Have any of the Rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him John 7.48 3. Sincere Christians as they are few and commonly inferiour in the World so likewise they are a scattered and dispersed Generation not in a Body together but as it were one of a City and two of a Tribe mix'd with others till Death makes the Separation As our Lord in respect of the kind of his Death was numbred with Transgressors so in all Civil Respects these are mix'd with the Wicked as Subjects of the same Prince Natives of the same Country Dwellers in the same City Members of the same Family and it may be sitting at the same Table The Divine Wisdom permits them not to be separated in this Life The Tares must grow with the Wheat till the consummation of all Things 4. Sincere Christians tho thus mixed with the Ungodly are yet very differing from them They have another Father another Birth another Country another Spirit another Practice and live another Life They are born of God Citizens of Heaven refined in their Spirits holy in Practice and live a Life of Faith They are in the World but are not of it having their Conversation in Heaven They have differing Employments Affairs that other Men neglect other Joys and Sorrows Complaints and Fears and Hopes than the Men of the World have and Meat to eat the World knows not of They are new Creatures very differing from the Men of this World and from what themselves once were 5. To proceed to their distinctive Character Sincere Christians are Persons of some considerable knowledg of God Christ and the Holy Spirit of the Fall of Man and the depravation of Humane Nature of the Covenant of Grace of God in Christ as a Sacrifice and Mediator reconciling Sinners to himself of the Doctrines Precepts Promises and Threatnings in the Scriptures They are also Penitents weary and heavy-laden under the Burden of their Sins sick of their Offences and Transgressions of the Divine Laws poor and contrite in Spirit And they live by Faith in Christ with entire dependance upon him as a Prophet Priest and King as a Propitiation for Sin and as an Advocate with the Father And they give themselves to Prayer pouring out not only Words but their Hearts to God And in the assistance of the Spirit of God they live soberly righteously and godly crucifying the Flesh striving against Sin resisting Temptations delighting in the Law of God after the inner Man opposing the Law in their Members that rebels against the Law of their Mind endeavouring to have respect to all God's Commands and that none of them may be grievous studying to walk worthy of God unto all pleasing and to adorn the Doctrine of God their Saviour in all things and humbling themselves for their Infirmities and coming short of any Duty Secondly I shall shew what are the Tokens and Instances of the Redeemer's Friendship toward sincere Christians And 1. He converses with them meets them in sacred Ordinances and where-ever two or three are gathered together in his Name he is in the midst of them and in secret Places in Prayer and Meditation manifests himself to them encouraging strengthening them and sometimes assuring them of his Love And hereby he accomplishes that Promise in Revel 3.20 If any Man hear my Voice Revel 3.20 and open the Door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me 2. Christ doth great things for them He washes them from their Sins in his own Blood clothes them with the Robes of his unspotted Righteousness appears in the Presence of God for them carries their Names upon his Breast in the true Holy of Holies justifies their Persons presents their Prayers to his and their Father perfumes all their weak Services and imperfect Offerings by his prevailing perpetual Intercession and so makes them grateful to God and a sweet-smelling Savour 3. Christ invests them with glorious Priviledges John 1.12 he gives them Power to become the Children of God Revel 1.6 makes them Kings and Priests to God and his Father renders all things subservient to them even the holy Angels who are