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	soul_n	union_n	6,110	5	9.7698	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50162	Small offers towards the service of the tabernacle in the wilderness four discourses accommodated unto the designs of practical godliness : preached partly at Boston, partly at Charleston / by Cotton Mather ; published by a gentleman lately restored from threatening sickness as a humble essay to serve the interest of religion, in gratitude unto God for his recovery.	Mather, Cotton, 1663-1728.	1689 (1689)	Wing M1153; ESTC W479520	65,669	139

a Child of God. Such were the Desires of Paul in Phil. 1. 22. I desire to be d●ssolved and be with Christ. When we think of the day in which we shall go to the the Spirits of just men made perfect and to Iesus the Mediator of the New-Covenant When we think of the day in which the Lord will deliver us from the hand of all our enemies and from the hand of SIN O the thoughts of it should fill our Souls with Raptures of Joy they should cause our hearts to leap and spring within us In is an allowable thing to be almost angry with Time to call upon slow Time and say Fly apaces Fly away O Time Come O Eternity come and fetch me into the presence of the Lord. The Visions of the Lord Jesus may cause us to say humbly with aged faithful Simeon Lord let thy servant depart in peace The Chariots of Death sent by the Lord Jesus to fetch us unto Himself should be as welcom to us as the Waggons of Ioseph were to Iacob of old It should cause us to Rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory when we think of the unspeakable joy and the full glory which we are going unto There are holy longings and lookings of Soul with which we may cry out Why why are His Churiots so long i'coming Why tarry the Wheels thereof But yet Secondly By way of Correction If these Desires are with Impatience much more if they are thro' Impatience they become sinful before the Lord. The embittered spirits of Christians have been sometimes too prone unto such Desires It was an inordinate passion in Moses when a froward people under his charge provoked him to say in Numb 17. 14. Kill me I pray thee out of hand Had God granted his Desire he had lost Thirty years of eminent Service in the World. It was an irregular passion in Elias when the persecutions of wicked men so tired him as to make him say in 1. King. 19. 4. O Lord take away my life It hath been an Observation that Many good and great men sit under Elias's Iuniper tree As culpable was the Passion of Ionah when the Withering of a Guord had that Effect upon him in Cap. 4. 8. He wished to dy The like pang of Impatience did that Pattern of Patience Iob fall into be spake as if he could hardly for bear laying violent hands upon himself Even so far do the distempered unbridled Wishes of many run Their Desire of Death is a sort of Revenge on God they would as it were deprive God of the glory which He might have of them Compose these desires O ye raging Souls compose these Desires Allay this Fever this phrensy It s not only an irreligious but an unnatural passion which you are carried away withal You desire to dye Well are you sure that the Death which you desire now will not prove a Death which you shall Deplore throughout eternal Ages It is said of the Believer in Psal. 91. 19. With long life will I satisfie him and shew him my Salvation It is a very disordered heart that will be dissatisfied with so great a mercy Secondly Vnsanctified Desires of Life are to be Reproved also Of these Desires there are Three Sorts to be Reprehended There are first Carnal Desires of Life to be blamed Some desire to live and wherefore is it It is because they desire to eat and drink and be merry They cann't part with such Relations and Possessions as are here to be enjoyed The Comforts of Life are the things that cause their Desires of Life One once beholding his fine Accommodations made this Reflection thereupon Haec faciunt invitos mori these are the things that make us unwilling to dy Unmortified Corruptions are the causes of these desires Remember what the Lord hath said in Matth. 10. 37. He that loveth Father or Mother or Son or DAUGHTER more than me is not worthy of me Thus may the Lord well say to the Subject of these Desires If you had rather be with your friends on earth than with your Father in Heaven you are not worthy to be with me at all And this by the way is to be said of them that desire the life of their Friends as well as of them selves It is for the Interest of the Lord Jesus Christ that the dead Children which you lament are dead or else they had not dyed at all Now sais the Lord Jesus If thou lovest those CHILDREN those Relations more than me and hadst rather have them with thy self to my Prejudice than to have them with me to thy own Bereavement thou art not worthy to have them with me at all Secondly There are Careful Desires of Life to be likewise blamed Many desire to live only upon this account Some Child or some Charge they are concerned for They have this or that Child which they cannot believe will be well provided for when they are dead or they suspect what will become of such or such a Charge There is indeed a Desire of Life on such a Score which is not alwaies very severely to be found fault withal But oftentimes there is too much Distrust in such a desire Why cannot we venture our Families and the Concernments thereof in the Hands of the faithful God The Lord has said in Jer. 49. 11. Leave thy fatherless Children I will preserve them alive And he still saies I will be a better Father and a better Friend unto them than thou thy self canst be Thirdly There are Fearful Desires of Life which are blame-worthy too When Death comes with that message Set thy Soul in order for thou shalt dy and not live many persons are so terrified as to be even at their wits ends O how they groan I cannot dy Indeed Sinners that have not been born twice may well tremble to dy once no body can blame them there is a Second Death ready to sieze upon the forlorn souls that are not Regenerate But such as have been truly turn'd to God in Christ should not entertain Death with such Reluctancies Can you not uprightly say That if you were sure to be freed from Sin you could be content to be struck by Death O then be cheerfully willing to Dy. Thy soul will no sooner pass into Eternity but it shall experience that thing in Rom. 6. 7. He that is dead is freed from Sin. It is often pretended by men I would live because I would be more holy before I dy T is well but there is not seldom a Deceit in the Pretence often something else is in the Bottom A Rebellion against the Will of God. Wouldst thou really and earnestly be holy Be willing then to dy as well as to live Death is the way to Holiness in the Perfection of it In short Good was the Temper of that sick person who being asked Which do you desire to live or to dy answered I refer it to God and when it was again said But suppose

and give your Hoary Head to be found in the way of Righteousness May You have before you the Exemple of that Nehemiah who was A man come to seek the welfare of the Children of Israel of that Cornelius who was A Devout man that jeared God with all his House and pray'd to God alwayes of that Treasurer who made the Bible his perpetual Companion and Beleeved with all his Heart and as You have Opportunity Do Good unto all men May the Death I dare not say the Loss of your Ten Children the last of which going from you made a Tenth Wave in your Tryals only promote your Vnion Communion with Him who is Better than Ten sons and may you enjoy in the House of God a Place and a Name better than that of sons daughters May all the Storms besides those which the Adventures of your younger years upon the Atlantic Ocean made you betimes acquainte withal in an unstable a tempestuous World prove so many fresh fair Gales to be friend your late but sure Arrival unto the Rest which remains for the people of God Wherein the Anchor of your Hope is already Cast and where to You are with the more-than-half Furled Sails of Time hastening apace after him that said I desire to loose Anchor and be with Christ which is by far the best of all T is by these Prayers that I would approve my self Sir Your Dutiful Son and very humble Servant COTTON MATHER THE GOOD MANS RESOLUTION Josh. 24. 15. But as for MEE and MY HOVSE we will serve the Lord. SECT I. NEVER was there in this world a People more obliged or encouraged unto the Service of the Great God than we the New-English Israel are The God of Heaven is Our God and it becomes us to Fear Him our Fathers God and how much ought we to worship Him To serve God was the very Errand which we were brought into this Wilderness upon and has hitherto been both our Glo-Glory our Defence That we now grow so dull and cold in this we may write an Ichabod upon all our enjoyments and therein see our Chariots and our Horse-men gone To Revive the Decay'd Service of God among us would be to reduce us into that Favour and Friendship of him who was The Hope of our Fathers which would make us happy enough to refute all the Lies of our Enemies Thus would God the Lord speak peace unto us Thus would Salvation be nigh to us and Glory dwell in our Land. SECT II. TO do some and gain more Service for our God the Text now before us is to be Discoursed on These words are among the last words of Ioshuah the servant of the Lord they are a Dev●ut and a Divine sentence uttered by the renouned Ioshua in a Speech to The Parliament of Israel The Dying Words of all Great and Good men have usually been esteemed Remarkable by the Survivers and those books which contain Apo●●thegmata morientium have been reckoned perhaps among the most useful in the world Tho the Dying Songs of Swans have not been such things as the Vulgar Error has reputed them yet the Dying Words of Saints have afforded a fit Moral for the Fable The speech of a Dying Saint has as deep a favour of Heaven as the Breath of a dying man has of Earth But m●thinks the Dying Words of a Ioshua should be peculiar Oracles peruse them and you will find them so He had been first the Lord-General of Israels Army and was now the Lord Protector of Israels Common-Wealth In this Capacity a few months before he dy'd he issued our orders for a Convention of States to meet at Sh●chem a place about forty miles from his own Abode The Senate the Iudges the Officers and all the Representa●tives of the people being assembled before the Tabernacle which on this extraordinary occasion was removed hither this famous Prince endeavours to settle confirm them in the Service of the living God. It is likely he seared a secret Retaining of Idolatry among many while he was yet alive but it is certain he fore-saw an open Defection to Id●●atry hastening upon them when he should be dead and gone Wherefore he laies in against it by a most powerful and pathetic Speech which has in it First An History of Memorable Providences wherein they had experienced the matchless kindness of God unto them Secondly An Inference from this History which is expressed in two things First A Counsil He concludes Now therefore fear the Lord and serve Him. Therefore Wherefore Why inasmuch as you find the Lord so bountif●l that you cannot possibly A●mend your selves if you leave Him or excuse your selves if you grieve Him. Therefore are you to fear Him serve Him. Every Mercy of God hath a Therefore in it it calls for Gratitude and Obedience When God has been merciful to us even common Ingenuity end much more holy Ingenuity will put us upon that Enquiry What shall I render to the Lord Behold an Answer in this Therefore We are Therefore to fear the Lord and serve him we are Therefore to put away all our Idols all our Follies for ever more Secondly A Copy He gives them a Precedent an Exemple to induce them hereunto The Pattern of a considerable person has no inconsiderable Influence upon the Observers of it Such an one does good or ill even like a Briareus with an Hundred Hands An Hundred an Hundred more will do like Him. If he be wickked he does according to the Language of Solomon Speak with his Feet If he be Godly he is according to the Character of Iohn a Voice Such an One most effectually bespeaks all about him as Gideon did once Do what you see me to do Thus Ioshua enforces his farewel Exhortation here saith he Be it known to you that I and my house will serve the Lord I was once your Leader pray let me be so still As I leadd you into the Canaan of the Lord let me have so much credit with you as also to lead you unto the Service of the Lord. Be assured I shall be a Witness against you another day if you do not now receive me as a Copy for you You have here Ioshua's Resolution and it was founded upon such moral Reasons that we may take it as Written for the Admonition of us all Wherefore this is the Doctrine which I would demand your Attention to DOCT. Every man should engage both HIMSELF and HIS HOUSE in the Service of the Almighty GOD. SECT III. VVE have diverse Propositions now before us to discourse upon The First of them is this PROP. I. The whole Duty of man is contained in the true Service of God. Both in the First Covenant and in the New Covenant which God has made with man there is a Duty which man must pay to God. In the First Covenant this Duty was to be paid in a way of meritorious Obedience in the New Covenant this Duty is