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
A61204	Death and the grave no bar to believers happiness, or, A sermon preached at the funerall of the Lady Honor Vyner, in the Parish Church of Mary Wolnoth in Lombardstreet, July 10, 1656 by William Spurstow ...	Spurstowe, William, 1605?-1666.	1656 (1656)	Wing S5092; ESTC R13492	19,798	58

evigilavero when I awake Some Interpreters conceive that by this waking the Prophet intends no more then to expresse the lively sence and confidence that he hath of the return of Gods favour unto him under this dark night of trouble and sorrow which is now upon him and though he now be like those that are asleep who for that time want those pleasures and delights which others enjoy yet he shall awake again to behold the light of Gods face shining upon him like a bright Sunne with manifold emanations of love and bounty But others both of the Ancient and Modern carry the Metaphor far higher applying it to the resurrection and the state of blessedness after death which to me seems to be both a full and genuine interpretation in regard that David comforteth himselfe in his present wants with the hopes of an after happiness totally differenced from that which those whom he stiles the men of the World and such as have their portion in this life are made partakers of The second is the measure and redundancy of his happiness I shall be satisfied The Sun is not so full of light nor the Sea of water as he shall be at his awaking of endless bliss and perfection Our desires in this life are as the Lawyers say of ones will while he lives wholy ambulatory and admit of as many alterations as such testaments doe of additions and expunctions being neither filled nor fixed with the fruition of any satisfactory good But in the the other life our desires are terminated in the fulness of our enjoyments and as faith is swallowed up in vision so are our desires in complacency we affect nothing that we have not and we have nothing that we do not affect The third is the object of his happiness together with the manner of his enjoying it I shall be satisfied with thy likenesse The object is the likenesse of God that is his glory and perfection with which he sits clothed on his Throne of Majesty The manner of enjoying it is by beholding of it not by way of resultancy and mediante speculo by the conveyance and help of a glass but by an immediate clear and permanent vision in which he shall be filled with the knowledge and sight of God so farre as the capacity of a creature can reach unto but as it is impossible to bring the vast body of the Sunne into the narrow compasse of the eye that beholds it so is it much more impossible to comprehend the being of an infinite God within the limits of a finite understanding when elevated and widened to its highest pitch Having opened the words in the severall branches which naturally they shoot forth into I shall begin with the first particular the time of Davids and every believers compleat happinesse When I awake And from it gather two Observations The first which I shall but briefly touch is That death to the godly is no more then a sleep The grave in which they rest is as their bed the darkness of it as the night and their resurrection from it as the joyfull morning The Heathens have called death by the name of sleep as well as the Scripture Homer saith that sleep and death have one mother and are begotten of the night And the Cynick falling into a sleep a little before his death pleasantly said Frater me mox traditurus est fratri suo one brother is now delivering me into the hands of another but yet they never stiled it so upon the same ground which the Scripture doth neither ever could being wholy ignorant of Christ by whom death is wonderfully changed from an enemy to a friend from a curse to a blessing and is put into the Inventory of the Saints priviledges which accrew unto them by Christ 1 Cor. 3. 22. It comes now to them rather by sin then for sin because it is not in ordine a peccato ad supplicium sed ad salutem it comes not as a middle thing between sin and damnation but between sin and salvation And therefore may now fitly be resembled to a sleep in these respects First sleep is a ligation not an ablation of the externall senses it obstructs their function and exercise but it doth not destroy the faculty So death interrupts and suspends the action of life but it doth not extinguish the root and principle of a believers life so as to make it to admit of no return The Philosopher thought indeed the dissolution of the body to be argument full enough to evince the impossibility of its resurrection and therefore derided the doctrine of it when Paul preached it Act. 17. 18. But Job tells us that though his reines be consumed within him that yet with his eyes he should behold God Job 19. 27. and the Prophet saith that Christs dead shall arise and sing Jsay 26. 19. The silence of the grave is but a kind of Pythagorian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or restraint onely for a time sight hearing speech shall all return again For though death hath made a separation between soul and body yet neither soul nor body are by it separated from Christ but as in Christ the Union Hypostatical so in his members the Union mystical is inviolable and therfore they are said to sleep in Jesus 1 Thes 4. 14. to die not out of the Lord but in the Lord Rev. 14. 13. yea into the Lord Rom. 14. 8. so as by death to be more closely joyned to him being then united to him that lives for evermore their very dust must needs be a living part of him Secondly in regard both of the time and manner of sleep and death Some as children are put sooner to bed others again sit up longer before they go to sleep some have their life like a Winter day short and cloudy and with them it is quickly night some have it lengthned out like to a Summer day and with them it is late before the evening of their life shuts in Some as children when undressed by their Parents begin to struggle and express a backwardness others again as throughly wearied with their stirring call to be had to bed And so some Christians shrink at the approaches of death and are loth to be unclothed others again as burthened with their earthly tabernacle groan to have mortality to be swallowed up of life Hezekiah when the Prophet bids him set his house in order for he must die and not live turned his face to the wall and wept sore 2 King 20. 3. But Paul he desires to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all Philip. 1. 21. Thirdly death is a sleep in regard of the likeness of our being awakened both from the one and from the other It is observed by the Naturalists that no noise more suddenly awaketh a man from his sleep then an Humane voice yea though it be that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that heavie and deep slumber which precedeth death it self as

the Aphorisme noteth it in Hippocrates The way by which our Saviour raised Lazarus John 11. 45. and Peter raised Tabitha was by a voice Acts 9. 40. And the way by which all the congregation of the dead shall be awakened from the grave shall be not by the immediate voice of God but by the voice of the Son of man The hour commeth saith our Saviour in which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice and come forth John 5. 28. It is his voice that shall cause the Sea to give up its dead and shall make the bones of his Saints that are scattered over the face of the whole earth to come together But it is not my purpose to weary the Metaphor in a full and close pursuit of it or to draw an exact parallel between sleep and death It being a point that I least aimed at in this present exercise The application that I shall make is briefly double First if death be but a sleep to believers then it should cause us to moderate our sorrow on the behalf of our dearest friends and relations that are fallen asleep in the Lord as also to correct that excesse of fear in regard of our selves who are apt to be dismayed at the harbingers of the King of terrors age pain and sicknesse and to sink under the sad thoughts of an imminent dissolution Who is troubled when he understands his sick friend is laid down to rest and who is afraid to put off his clothes at night when he goes to bed Sleep is not an hurtfull but a necessary kind of privation and intermission It is the sick mans Physitian the travellers and labouring mans restorative the only Parenthesis of the afflicted mans sorrows and from hence it is that Aristotle in his Ethicks saith that for well nigh half their time the miserable and the happy do little differ And are not all these together with far more high advantages found to meet in the believers sleep of death is there not then a perfect release from all the miseries of this life is there not by it a cure wrought of all the maladies both of the soule and of the body so that the one shall no more relapse into its former sins nor the other into its old diseases cares the eye shal not weep for sorrow nor the brow sweat with labor the head shall not ake with the multitude of anxious thoughts nor the phancy be molested with the dreams visions of the night when we awake from it we shall say it was the best and quietest sleep that ever we slept and the best physick that ever we took for the putting of a final period to all our distempers Let not therefore believers dread the thoughts of death as others doe nor shreek out when they espie this snake creeping into their bosoms for hurt them it cannot having lost its sting but benefit them it shall being made by Christ an egress from all misery and an ingress into all happiness The second application is to acquaint us how necessary it is to exercise faith and holiness while we live that death may be a comfortable sleep to us when we die No man can die in the Lord that lives not to the Lord nor shall awake from death to happinesse that doth not first awake from sin to holiness It is a vain presumption to conceive that a man that lives and dies in his sins can ever have the same joyful resurrection with them that have made it their constant work to die to their sin Northern and Southern rivers though they run from contrary points meet in the same Sea but they whose waies and Principles are contrary unto theirs that profess holiness shall never be found with them in the same Heaven If we look for according to Gods promise new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness 2 Pet. 3. 13. we must have righteousness dwelling in us here or else we shall never dwell in them hereafter O then that they would lay this to heart who dread the separation of the soul from the body but yet are not at all afraid of the separation and disunion both of the body and soul from God that so they may timely busie themselves in those waies and duties which may make the first death that cannot possibly be avoided by them to be comfortable to them and may also wholy prevent their dying of the second death which leaves all those that fall under the stroke of it eternally hopeless And thus I have done with the first Observation touching it well nigh with as light an hand as Jonathan did the honey-comb into which he onely dipt the end of his rod but by that small tast his eyes were enlightned and so I hope may ours also by that little which hath been spoken of it There remains yet a second observation which growes as ripe fruit upon the same branch and is next to be gathered and that is this Doct. 2 That the happiness of believers is not absolute and entire untill their resurrection from the grave nor are they filled with bliss and glory to satisfaction till they be awaked In nature the tree puts forth first buds then blossoms and afterwards by a further digestion of the sap there is a production of the fruit and so it is with believers in their supernatural and eternal blessedness in which they are not at once estated but have it first in the buddings of it by faith and hope in the blooming of it by the joyes and comforts of the Spirit with which they are often lifted up towards Heaven but the ultimate fulness of it they enjoy not until the whole man come to be possessed of Heaven We are now the sons of God but it doth not yet app●ar what we shall be 1 John 2. 2. Our present condition at best falls as far short of our future as a faint ray doth of the Sun when it shines in its full strength The learned Verulams observation of Prophecies falls in much with the manner of our celestial happiness who saith that they have gradus scalas complementi certain gradual fulfillings in each of which they grow more clear and distinct And so hath it sundrie progressive steps and ascentions in each of which we are truly partakers of it after a growing and encreasing way as I shall show in five steps First believers have life and eternal blessedness in pretio in the price that is laid down for it Ephes 1. 14. It is called a purchased possession an inheritance that doth not descend to us by birth but is given to us by grace He who hath a natural right unto it as being the heir of all things Heb. 1. 2. hath given unto us a right of purchase Our title is founded in Christs bloud which makes it truly ours he having by it obtained a power to give eternal life to whomsoever he pleaseth Secondly believers have it in promisso in the promise

which is a declaration and conveyance of what Christ hath purchased to be to their behoof and the oath of God which is added to it is as the seal upon the label of the deed that gives a further ratification unto it that so by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie they might have strong consolation Heb. 6. 18. And who is it that by the eye of faith views and reads those evidences in which a crown of life Revel 2. 10. a Kingdome that cannot be moved Heb. 12. 28. an inheritance that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 1. 4. are all ascertained to him doth not rejoyce more under the hopes of glory then the greatest of Princes ever can in the fruition of all their worldly greatnesse Thirdly they are partakers of Heaven it selfe in prodromo in their fore-runner the Lord Christ He at his ascension took seisin and livery of it in their name John 14. 2. I goe to prepare a place for you An expression as some conceive borrowed from travellers amongst whom some one is by agreement sent before to take up lodgings for the rest of his company And as he takes so also doth he keepe possession in their names preserving still their right unto it untill they come to be possessed of it themselves And hence it is that the Apostle saith of believers that they are raised up together and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Ephes 2. 6. Fourthly they have the happinesse of Heaven in primitiis in the first-fruits and pledges of it every grace of the Spirit is scintilla futurae lucis a sparke of their future glory every comfort of it is gutta font is vitae a drop of the well of life and are as certain evidences of an ensuing fulness as the day-star is of an approaching morning The tasts and prelibations of happinesse which believers have in this life by the mouth of faith the sight of Heven which they have by the eye of faith that sometimes stands on tiptoe and peeps into the things that are within the vaile doe differ onely in degree and not in kind from the full sruition and vision of God which they have in the other life when their souls and bodie are reunited to each other and both con●oyned unto Christ their everliving head and Lord. Fifthly and laftly believers have life and eternall blessednesse in messe in the rich and full harvest of it when all the promises both of grace and glory are wholy accomplished when all the expectations of faith and hope are swallowed up in endlesse admiration when all the desires of the soule which are more restlesse then the Sunne in their motions are eternally fixed upon one simple and infinite good which contains in it the perfection of all delectible objects Quid ●o avarius cui Deus non sufficit in quo sunt omnia What can be more insatiable then that man whom God doth not suffice in whom all things are can any thirst after a larger possession then immensity a surer state then immortality a longer term of yeers then perpetuity But if you ask me why God defers the consummation of his childrens happinesse unto the resurrection and makes it to be like a Jacobs ladder that hath sundry steps and ascensions amongst many grounds that may be assigned be pleased to take these First God doth it that he may hide his counsels and purposes concerning his children from the eyes and knowledg of carnal proud men to whom the external meanness of Christ and his followers becomes a stumbling-block and a just occasion to make them perish in their sins And he doth it also that he may hide his people from their rage and fury who are as impatient at the least appearances of their welfare as Bulls are at the fight of Scarlet They envy them their morsels of bread much more their Manna their rags much more their robes The evil husbandmen in the Gospel as soon as they beheld the heir deale worse with him then with their Lords servants Luke 20. 14. And did but the wicked of the world but fully know whose the inheritance of Heaven were they would fall upon them as the Jewes upon Steven and stone them to death Secondly God doth it that he may shew forth the greatness of his power Alchymists boast much of their skill that they can turn baser mettalls into more noble Lead into Silver Copper into gold but the ground upon which they build their presumption is that these baser mettals are in their nature in the way to be better and so they doe but perfect that which is imperfect and would by course of nature have become perfect though they had never laboured it But they never assayed to turn dross into Silver or dirt into Gold And yet the power which God putteth forth is far greater when he raiseth his children from the grave to Heaven and makes them that were Netherlanders dwelling in the dust to be citizens of the new Jerusalem which is above the companions of Angels and coheirs with Christ Who but an infinite power can make a vile corruptible body to put on incorruption or can change a naturall body into a spirituall body so as that it shall not need the assistance of meats and drinks but live as the Angels doe or can make a body sowne in dishonour to rise in honour being beautified with the glorious endowments of clarity agility and impassibility Thirdly God defers the full happiness of believers till their resurrection that they may have occasion to shew forth and exercise all kind of graces that bring glory and honour to himselfe If the crown were set upon their heads while they were as infants in the cradle where would their patience in enduring trials and in waiting on the pleasure of God be made visible to the world If they were all forthwith taken up from earth to heaven where would be the exercise of their hope and earnest longing after the appearing of Christ in glory If there were no such changes as death and dissolution intervening where would be the glory of the Christians faith who now believe that which the line of reason cannot fathome Is there any desart so hopelesse as death and the grave desertion of life and being when milke forsakes the brests marrow the bones bloud the veines spirit the arteries and the soule the body And yet after such desolations faith expects a restauration I know saith Job that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand upon the Earth at the latter day and though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God Job 19. 25 26. Believers know the power of God can easily break asunder the bands of death and therefore yield to it as prisoners of hope Fourthly God doth it that there may be a conformity between Christs and the believers entrance into glory He was first abased and then exalted He suffered and then