Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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B21649
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Two sermons preached before Her Majesty the Queen-Dowager in Her Majesty's chapel at Somerset-House / by Phil. Ellis.
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Ellis, Philip, 1652-1726.
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1686
(1686)
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Wing E604
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22,596
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44
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upon the Principal Mysteries of our Redemption and shews how they are apply'd to us and express'd in us as a spiritual Circumcision Col. 2.10.11.12 by putting off the Body of Sin signified by the Circumcision of Christ a dying and being buried with him in the Waters of Baptism imported by the shedding his precious Blood and laying his dead Body in the Monument that we are quickned and revived together with him and continues Let no man judge you in part of the Holy Day In parte diei festi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so the vulgar Latin and the Greek have it where the common Translation reads in respect of the Holy Day I know the sense of the Letter according to the general Interpretation is Let no one condemn you for neglecting to observe the Jewish Festivals or Ceremonies But some Expositors understand it to be spoken in a larger and more spiritual sense and by way of Caveat that we should not flatter our selves as if we had perform'd the Obligations of this Day for the purpose by devoutly meditating upon the Resurrection of Christ which is only one Part of the present Solemnity without proceeding to the other to solemnize our own Rising again from the Death of Sin which is the Second Part the Fruit and End of the other But whether you allow of this Interpretation or no at least this is fidelis sermo a faithful Saying an unquestionable Truth If we be dead with him 2 Tim. 2.11 we shall also live with him Die therefore we must not only a natural Death which is the Punishment of Sin but also a spiritual one which is the Death of Sin We incurr'd the fatal Sentence of returning into Earth by seeking those things which are upon Earth we revive into a Spiritual Life by seeking those things which are in Heaven The one consists in the Separation of the Soul from the Body the other in the Union of the Soul with Christ 2 Cor. 4.11 that the Life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal Flesh as the Apostle speaks that our Conversation even in this World may be so pure our Actions so spiritual and our Affections so fix'd upon things above as to express a lively Similitude of our Lord's Resurrection Wherefore the Holy Fathers observe a threefold Analogy or Resemblance between the Resurrection of Châ—â—st and that of a Christian The first arises from the Cause of his Resurrection which the Apostle tells us was the Operation of God or the Omnipotent Hand of the Divinity reuniting the Blessed Soul of Jesus to his dead Body and not permitting his Holy One to see Corruption Thus a Soul once dead to God can never by its own Strength for it has none by its own Endeavors or Performances which are inanimate or by the practice of Moral Vertues which are dead in themselves re-enter into the Life of Grace without the merciful Assistance miraculous Operation and the Change of the Hand of the most High whose sole Prerogative it is to command Light to shine out of Darkness 2 Cor. 4.6 as well to repair what has once ceas'd to be as to make what never was before This is a Fundamental Truth and as it were a First Principle of Christian Religion deliver'd by Jesus Christ declar'd and frequently urg'd by the Doctor of the Gentiles and repeated by the Holy Ghost in many Councils and at last in that of Trent where it is decreed Conc. Trid. Sess 6. Can. 1. de Justificat to the condemnation of Modern Pelagianism and to vindicate the Churches Doctrin from the Calumnies or Mistakes of those who still misrepresent it That whosoever asserts Man by his own Works perpetrated either by the Strength of Nature or by the Assistance of the Law may be justified without the Grace of God thro' Jesus Christ Anathema Let him be accursed By declaring the Insufficiency of Nature to a Good and Justifying Life she condemns those Men who think they may be sav'd by leading only a Moral Life according to the Dictamen of Reason without the Practice of Religion By excluding the Old Law she censures the Judaizing Christian wâ—â— places it in equal Ballance with the New or at least thinks this not sufficient without the Observance of the other And lastly By establishing the Necessity of Grace to perform every Good and Vertuous Action she warns us not to presume or relie upon our own Merits she directs us whither we are to lift up our Eyes whence we are to expect our Salvation and points him out who gives Birth to our good Desires Warmth to our Affections and Life to our Actions both the Velle Perficere Philip. 2.13 the Will to rise again and the Execution of it by seeking those things which are above This is the Second Analogy of our Resurrection with that of Christ the Proof and Experiment that we are risen from Death to Life For as we cannot distinguish an Animate from an Inanimate Body but by the Palpitation of the Heart Pulse of the Artery Heaving of the Lungs or the Exercise of some sensible Faculty so cannot we discern a Soul inform'd with the Life of Grace from another which is depriv'd of it but by such Operations as are proper to that Life as the Restraint of our Appetites a Command of our Passions a Modesty in our Behavior a Veracity in our Words a Sincerity in our Dealings a Relieving the Poor assisting the Distressed embracing and doing good to our Enemies These are the Authentick Proofs of a Real Resurrection and a lively Resemblance of Jesus Christ's Surrexit Dominus vere Our Lord is truly risen And how did he make it out he was truly risen Multis Argumentis says St. Luke By many Arguments many infallible Proofs And wherein did these consist but in appearing often to his Disciples shewing the Marks of his Death eating and drinking in their Presence Acts 1.3 and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God In like manner Matth. 5.16 if our light so shine before men that they see our good works we express the Resemblance of a Glorified Body Donum Claritatis 2 Cor. 4.10 If we carry about the Mortification of Jesus in our Bodies we copy out the Marks and Stigmata of his Passion If we stand firm and unshaken in the midst of Persecution we become a lively Representation of his Impassibility Donum Impassibilitatis Psal 118.32 If we run with delight the way of his Commandments when Charity has enlarged our Hearts and even the Lets and Impediments we meet with in the Service of God are so far from retarding the Course of our Vertue that on the contrary they inflame our Zeal and furnish new Matter to provoke and heighten our Courage we imitate the Third Quality of his Glorified Body Donum Agilitatis In fine If whether we eat or drink 1 Cor. 10.31 or whatsoever we do we do all to
only to plunge you deeper into Death by adding to the weight of your former Commissions a heavy Ingratitude a sacrilegious Abuse of Divine Grace a Contempt of Mercy a Rebellion against the Light an evacuating the Death of Christ and frustrating his Resurrection of its chiefest End that rising from Death with him you should die no more And herein consists the difference between the Resurrection of the Body and that of the Soul Both the one and the other are the Effects of a Supernatural and Divine Power But the one always supposes a Perpetuity and Settled state the other is subject to Decay and of its own nature do's not exclude Corruption and Mortality Thus the Sunamite's Child at the Prayer of Elizaeus the Dead Man at the touch of his Bones Lazarus and others at the Voice of Christ and they who at his Death came forth of their open'd Sepulchers were restor'd to Life but to a dying Life they liv'd to die again But the Spiritual Life communicated to a Soul by the Grace of Jesus Christ is invested as far as concerns the Operation of the Agent with Immortality and has impress'd upon it a Resemblance of his Resurrection a Jam non moritur She is commanded to cherish and perpetuate that Life which nothing can corrupt unless she lay murthering Hands upon her self and by consenting to Sin fall a Victim to it But can any one who believes in earnest the Advantage and Excellence of this Supernatural Life who has ever tasted the ineffable Comforts of a Spiritual Resurrection with and in Christ be so careless of the Advantage so insensible of the Excellence so forgetful of the Comforts as to lavish them away upon every slight occasion as to exchange them for every gaudy Trifle as to wound and destroy this Life at the persuasion of a Passion or for the gratifying a Concupiscence or for the indulging an Appetite If one did not find this practically true in speculation one would pronounce it impossible Impossible that the Reasonable Creature should persecute its own Happiness run counter to its own Desires and contrive its own Destruction contrary to the Dictamen of Reason to the Impressions of Faith and even to the Inclinations of Nature And whosoever considers with how many Tears Alms-deeds and Mortifications with what Assiduity in Prayer Modesty of Behaviour and Earnestness to hear the Word of God we have spent this Holy and Penitential Season in order to prepare our selves to rise again with Jesus Christ in this Day of his Triumph over Death will certainly conclude that we are truly dead Rom. 6.2 and our Life hidden with Christ in God that being thus dead to Sin quomodo adhuc vivemus in illo how is it possible we should harbor a Thought of living any longer in that wretched Condition Yet this time of Penance is no sooner elaps'd than we begin to provide Matter for a new Repentance We take the Reins off our Senses and Passions and turn them loose to rove and wanton as before as if Sensuality were the Object of the Churches Indulgence as if Luxury Excess mis-spending our Time superfluous Entertainments and other Practices which are at all times unlawful were not at the most Holy of Times more Criminal It seems the Tide of our Vices was only stemm'd for Forty days and now the Sluces are pull'd up to let them roll in their old Channels with more impetuosity than before We hear the Churches Invitations to rejoyce and to be merry her Exultemus's and Alleluia's we presently catch the Sound and like the Carnal Jew think it relates to Flesh and Blood we presently unbend the Mind and impart the happy News to every Passion and Concupiscence But who would have imagin'd that Relaxations of our Manners could be thought by Mankind the fittest Expressions and most unfeigned Testimonies of their Rejoycing at the Resurrection of Christ But since the World will have it so I am contented provided it be made appear that these are Arguments and Signs of our Rising again with Christ For our Lord reassum'd his Sacred Body that we might rise in Spirit with him and in Flesh after him Our Resurrection then is the principal End of His and by consequence those Actions which demonstrate us to be truly risen again with him are the only proper Means to express our Joy to celebrate his Triumph And I hope we are now agreed that these consist in seeking those things which are above in setting our affections on heavenly things in transcending all Human Considerations in leaving the World far below us and contemning its Vanities Honors and Riches as much as we abhor its Vices and Corruptions 1 Cor. 15.50 As for Flesh and Blood their Inclinations and Concupiscences which can never possess the Kingdom of God they become more than ever our mortal Enemies we have a new Obligation to persecute and detest them a fresh Provocation to distress and mortifie them because they hinder us from enjoying the Liberty of the Children of God they are a Clog upon the Heart a Damp upon the Spirits they check the Flight of the Soul and lure her down when she is upon the Wing to have her Conversation in Heaven Philip. 3.2 And since this is your Belief but your Practice so contrary has not the Apostle as much reason to expostulate with you as he had with the Galatians Sic stulti estis ut cum spiritu caeperitis Gal. 3.3 carne consummemini Are you become so foolish as to end in the Flesh after you have begun in the Spirit Tanta passi estis sine causa v. 4. Have you so long bridl'd your Appetites and deny'd your Senses even their lawful Satisfactions to let them break out at Easter like a Vapor from some Hollow of the Earth more unruly furious and destructive than they could have been had you not penn'd them in and confin'd them Have you suffer'd so many things in vain shed so many Tears without Fruit given so many Alms to no End In vain without Fruit and to no end indeed unless these happy Beginnings are crown'd with an answerable Perseverance unless you dy'd to Sin to rise again with Jesus Christ and are risen again to die no more Which God of his Infinite Mercy c. The End of the First Sermon A SERMON Preach'd before Her Majesty THE QUEEN-DOWAGER On Whitsunday 1686. Nolite contristare Spiritum Sanctum Ephes 4.30 Grieve not the Holy Ghost AS the Children of Israel Most Sacred Majesty receiv'd the Law Fifty days after the Paschal Lamb was Sacrific'd in Memory and Thanksgiving for their Miraculous Deliverance from the Egyptian Slavery so the Church of Christ in the fulness of time and after that mysterious number of Days elaps'd from the Sacrifice of the Immaculate Lamb who takes away the Sins of the World is establish'd by the solemn publication of a New Covenant a Covenant of Grace But to express the Analogy and Relation between the one