Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A64229
|
A funeral sermon on the decease of the Reverend Mr. Richard Mayo late minister of the gospel in London, who died the 8th of September, 1695 / by Nathanael Taylor.
|
Taylor, Nathanael, d. 1702.
|
1695
(1695)
|
Wing T543; ESTC R5634
|
22,460
|
40
|
that they are absent from such a Body as this is which yet they know shall be restored to them with so great advantage at the last day 2. Consider the happiness of their Souls They shall be perfectly conform'd to God's Image and satisfied with his Likeness They shall never any more groan as now they do Wretched Creature that I am who have so much of Corruption and so little of Christ in me In this World sometimes they are sick of love to him Cant. 2.5 but have oftner reason to be so for want of it There they shall love him as they would which they never could do before They shall have no chilness on their Spirits no coldness on their Hearts Never more shall that doleful cry be heard Cant. 3.1 We sought him whom our souls loved but we found him not Now they have a small glimpse of him in an Ordinance as a Man of a Star through a glass held in a shaking and trembling hand which he just sees and loses Now a Cloud is often drawn between him and them but then they shall with a steady Eye always behold his pleased and glorious Face They sup with him now and how sweet but oh how short is the Banquet But then they shall always eat and drink with him at his Table sit with him on his Throne as he sat down on his Father's Throne shall be Heirs together with him and have a Kingdom appointed to each of them as his Father hath appointed one for him By such earthly Expressions because we are not capable of understanding heavenly Language doth the Scripture shadow forth to us their most intimate and delightful Converse and Communion with him and how in their respective Measures and Degrees they shall be partakers together with him of such Bliss and Glory as eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor can it enter into our hearts to conceive Now all these things being laid together no wonder that holy Souls are willing to be present with the Lord. One would think that all the true Lovers of Christ should say not as his Disciples Let us go away and die with him John 11.16 but let us go away and live and be for ever with him And so they would but that there 's a Lion in the way Death is the passage to him They must be absent from the Body before they can get to him a thing that few have a heart to desire tho our Apostle and his Brethren did so Which brings me to the II Point 'T is possible for a holy Person to be willing to dye rather than live any longer that he may be with Christ in Heaven I shall endeavour to open this in these following Propositions 1. All sincere Christians are willing to be with Christ above For they profess themselves to be Pilgrims and Strangers on the Earth and declare plainly by the Tenor of their Lives that they seek another Country Their Conversations and their Hearts are in Heaven they have set their Affections upon and seek after the things that are above Colos 3.1 2. where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God They love him more than life it self and can't bear the thoughts of being eternally at so great a distance from him They have been drawn to him by that promise among others John 12.26 Where I am my servant also shall be the fulfilling of it therefore cannot but be grateful to them 'T is the main business of their Lives to prepare for an eternal Abode with him and Ministration before him in the holiest of all This is what they have in their eye as the great end of their attendance on him in his Ordinances And is it possible for them to be unwilling to enjoy what they are continually providing for They hope for Heaven and that cannot be without desiring to be there that they may have the nearest Conjunction with him and the fullest Enjoyment of him 2. All holy Souls are willing in the general to dye some time or other that they may be with him This follows from the foregoing particular They know there is no other way but being absent from the Body to get to him This therefore doth so far reconcile them to Death that they had rather on the whole submit to its stroke than to an eternal distance from him whom their Soul loveth They fear the King of Terrors indeed but they fear and abhor an everlasting Separation from Christ a great deal more Tho when it comes to the Point many of them are afraid to dye and ready to contradict all again yet they would not for all this World and the Glory of it live always if they might in their present State And this doth not flow from a sullen and impatient humour For 3. A holy Soul's willingness to dye proceeds from noble Principles He is not like the men of this World who when crossed in discontent passion and despair madly wish for Death and sometimes sinfully hasten it which is not a desiring to be with Christ but only to be out of their present Misery Not but that a sincere Christian may have those short-liv'd fits and pangs that are very unbecoming but these are the sinful Infirmities of the man not the holy Groanings of the Saint within which we are now speaking of The accidental fretting of a rich and generous Wine must be distinguisht from its natural Ferment 'T is true indeed a sense of those Miseries that press so hard upon them is a help to these desires Being burden'd we groan after the heavenly House 2 Cor. 5.4 But the true Springs of their willingness to depart are such as these A certain Knowledge and serious Consideration of the Happiness of being with Christ and how much better that is than to continue here A new Nature that tends to the place whence it came A Divine Faith Love to Christ some degree of a weanedness from and deadness to this World and a serious preparation for the next some good hopes through Grace of Eternal Life some taste of the sweetness of an imperfect fellowship with Christ here below and desires of drinking more of this Water of Life at the Fountain-head These are the things that make these Doves be upon the wing ready to fly away towards Heaven But yet they are not too forward to be gone For 4. This willingness is duly regulated with an entire submission to the Divine Will Tho they are in a close and painful Confinement yet they are not for breaking Prison but resolve to wait till they are released by Authority They are not like an hasty Clock that out-runs time and strikes before the hour is come Tho they are willing rather to depart yet they are contented to stay as long as God hath any Work and Service for them to do in this World considering that the Presence of Christ when they are introduced into it will make abundant amends for the delays and
God and contending with Flesh and Blood that strongly oppose and speak contrary things But yet to prevent Sloth and rouze up our dull and sluggish Hearts I add 8. That more of this Spirit ought diligently to be laboured after I shall have occasion briefly to urge this in the Application Which I now hasten to Vse 1. Is Heaven desirable to you under this notion whereby our Apostle sets it forth It is amiable in your Eyes as a place where you hope to be eased of all those Afflictions that sit so very uneasy upon your Spirits You like it as a Refuge from Hell But can you savour it and take any delight in it under this consideration as a place where you shall be for ever with Christ You may know this by the standing frame and workings of your Hearts towards him If your Eyes have not been opened to see his Beauty if your Hearts have not been drawn to him if your Souls do not pant and thirst after him and rejoyce in him if he be as a wither'd Flower to you the Heaven which the Gospel hath propounded to us cannot be grateful to you How can such a Man tune his Voice to sing the Song of the Lamb or take any pleasure in that place if it were possible for him to crowd into it 2. See to it that you be persons so qualified that when you die you may be present with the Lord. Suppose God should say to you This night shall thy Soul be required of thee Whither do you think it would go Don't many of your Hearts misgive you and your guilty Consciences tell you not to be with Christ but with Devils and damned Spirits beneath Die ere long you must and the youngest and strongest among you know not how soon There 's a common Executioner that stands invisibly by us all and hath not promised the Civility to wait till we give the Sign he may suddenly and without any warning give us the fatal Blow It may be in a little while you may be filled with such intolerable Pains that you may long to be absent from the Body that you may be out of your Misery But yet how will you be able to wish for that if you are tortured with Fears of hearing those dreadful words Depart from me ye cursed Will you then believe on the Lord Jesus Christ with all your hearts For the unbelievers will be shut out Will you seek after Regeneration For verily verily John 3.3 I say unto you Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God Give God no rest till he put this good Principle into you that you may cease from evil and do good Without this the most glittering Profession will not avail and multitudes will find it so when 't is too late You have the Superscription of God upon you see that his Image also be stamped on your Souls otherwise you will be rejected Our Saviour in propounding the Parable of the Virgins Matth. 25. speaks of them as though there was an equal number of wise and foolish ones five of one sort and five of the other But in our days we have reason to apprehend the latter do vastly exceed the former and then they will look like foolish ones indeed when that Scripture shall be fulfilled wherein it is written Luke 13.26 27. that the Judge shall say to many that have eat and drunk in his presence and heard him in their streets I know not whence you are Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity The Sentence is Severe but Righteous and Univerfal too All that fall under that Character shall fall under that Condemnation and 't is worth our while to observe the disdainful manner wherein their Plea is over-ruled and Execution awarded against them Then shall ye begin to say q. d. this is so idle and frivolous an Allegation in the behalf of the workers of Iniquity that they have eat and drunk in my presence and I have taught in their streets that I can have no patience to hear it I will cut off such foolish Babblings and idle Arguments immediately for they do not deserve any regard And I tell you I know not whence you are I scorn to be thought to have any Acquaintance with or Respect for so vile a Generation of Men. I often warned them that I would disown them and I now judicially declare I am unalterably fixed and will never change my mind Will you serve and imitate the Example of Christ For if any man John 12.26 saith he will serve me let him follow me and where I am there shall my servant also be Oh that Men were wise for themselves that they would consider and prepare for their latter End that then an entrance may be administred to them into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour 3. Let holy Souls labour after this divine and raised frame of Spirit to be willing rather to be absent from the body that they may be present with the Lord. How willing was Christ to come from Heaven a far better Place than this where we are to undergo a sharper Death for you than you can suffer to be with him And should you be unwilling to depart hence and go to him How unkindly may he take such a temper when he is gone to prepare so glorious a Place for you that you should be so backward to enter into it He desires that you may be where he is to behold his glory And should not the same mind be in you that is in him What though Death lie in the way Is it not an Enemy that he hath Conquer'd and pluck'd out its Sting What have you in this World the Element of Sin and Sorrow whose Pleasures are so thin whose Miseries are so weighty that you should hang about it and cleave so fast to it Methinks you should groan earnestly within your selves to be gone to that better Place and Company That you may be willing draw off your Affections from every thing here below take heed of over-indulging the Body and the Pleasures of it familiarize Death to your selves by serious Meditations encrease in the Knowledge of the Mystery of the Father and of Christ Faith in him and love to him beware of wilful Sins get and keep your Evidences for Heaven clear and let the Glory of God and Christ be the end of your lives 4. Let not surviving Friends too much regret and bewail the Death of their Holy Relatives They are gone from us but they are with Christ where they were and are willing to be And this I doubt not is the Case of your late Reverend deceased Pastor Mr. Richard Mayo He was a Man of sincere Godliness A worthy Person Mr. Singleton sufficiently known in this City for his great Skill and Pains in training up of Youth was the happy Instrument which Providence made use of for the first awakening and enclining him to look out after God