Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A45686
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A funeral sermon preached upon the death of Mrs. Rebecka Goddard, November the 13th. 1692 At Joyners-Hall. By Tho. Harrison.
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Harrison, Thomas, fl. 1700.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing H910A; ESTC R213017
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15,833
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28
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World let us as much as in us lies endeavour the Salvation of their Souls and let us strive to receive what good we can from them for we know not how speedily Death may make a separation between us and them Thirdly Hence I Inferr That when we enjoy any Outward Comforts we ought to be continually expecting and preparing for the loss of them Let us not think that we shall always enjoy them but look upon them as fading and uncertain let us endeavour to wean our selves from them to use them as if we used them not In this respect let those who have Wives and Children be as if they had none That Affliction which comes unlookt for usually comes unprepar'd for The more loose we sit from our outward Comforts when we have them the more easily shall we part with them Jacob could better part with his ten other Sons into the Land of Egypt than with his Benjamin that almost brought his grey Hairs with Sorrow to the Grave No wonder if we immoderately grieve for those things when absent which we immoderately Love when present By dying daily to them let us prepare to follow them to their Graves Fourthly I Inferr How unreasonable it is for us to be surprized when any of our outward Comforts are removed from us These fiery Tryals should not be thought strange of by us for no strange thing hath happened to us If we thought them durable we were mistaken about them and if we thought them uncertain and vanishing why should we be surprized when they disappear It was an excellent saying of a Heathen when one told him of his Son's Death Sciebam me genuisse mortales I knew that I begat Mortals O Parents did not ye know that your Daughter O Husband did not you know that your Wife was a Mortal be not then surprized at her Dissolution Fifthly and Lastly Hence I Inferr That we ought all of us to prepare for our own removal from our Relations As our Relations who are Comforts to us so we who are Comforts to them are fading Dying Creatures How soon our living Relations may walk the Streets in Mourning for us as we have done for those who are already gone to their long Home we know not The daily Instances of Humane Frailty which are given us should put us upon Considering and Preparing for our latter End that we may not be hurried from our Relations Embraces into everlasting Flames but may enter into Abraham's Bosom Let none of us deferr the great Work of Preparation for Death for we know not how soon we may enter into its gloomy shades Job's Children were snatcht away suddenly and so are many others Death is not always usher'd in with the formality of a long and lingring Sickness Our deceased Friend did not lye long upon her Bed of languishing but was quickly carried off the Stage by that Distemper which seized upon her It is not long since she was Worshipping God with us in this Assembly and now she is gone into the Congregation of the Dead Therefore be ye also ready for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh Matth. 24.44 Let not those who are Young put off this Business of highest Concernment to Old Age for young ones are often taken away by the stroke of Death Our Deceased Friend was like a pleasant Flower in her blooming Age blasted by the Wind of Death the Days of her appointed time were but few before her Change came Remember therefore your Creator Oh young Ones in the dayes of your Youth for it may be ye may not live 'till Old Age comes Your Maker may soon take you away Get an Interest in Christ who hath abolished Death and brought Life and Immortality to light by the Gospel So when you come to dye may ye chearfully resign your Souls to him and he will receive them into his Divine Embraces Whatever your Judgments are now when you come to lye upon a Death bed you will think an Interest in Christ more valuable than the whole World if you are not extreamly stupified The Hopes which our Deceased Friend had of this carried her comfortably through the Valley of the shadow of Death Thus much for the first Proposition Second Prop. That when we are deprived of any of our Outward Comforts we must acknowledge the Efficiency of God therein The Lord hath taken away Whoever is the Instrumental God is the Efficient Cause of all our Afflictions The Manichees of old tell us of two Beginnings or two Gods the one a good God and the other an evil God the former they asserted to be the Author of all Good and the latter to be the Author of all Evil the former they called A giving God and the latter A taking God But my Text will sufficiently confute that horrid Notion for Job ascribes the Donation and the Removal of his Outward Comforts to the same Divine Being as the first Cause of both and indeed it was necessary that he should do so because there is but one God Yea many Heathens taught better Doctrine than these Hereticks for they feigned that their great Jupiter had two great Vessels placed at the Entrance of his Palace whereof the one was filled with Good and the other with Evil and these he dispensed according to the Dictates of his own Will among the Children of Men. But not to trouble you with Poetical Fictions the Scriptures frequently assert this Truth says God Isa 45.9 I form the light and create darkness I make peace and create evil I the Lord do all these things Says the Church Lam. 3.38 Out of the mouth of the most high proceedeth not evil and good When any of our dear Relations are taken away by Death they fall by the stroke of God's Hand says God to the Prophet Ezekiel Son of Man behold I take away from thee the Desire of thine Eyes with a stroke Ch. 24. v. 16. The Diseases of which our Relations dye are only the means w hereby God brings about his designed End even their Dissolution These Winds God holds in the Hollow of his Hand and lets them loose at his pleasure to blow poor Mortals from the River of Time into the Ocean of Eternity and this is no Impeachment at all to Divine Goodness Punishments themselves are not Moral Evils in the Person that inflicts though they are Natural Evils in the Person that suffers them I need not insist farther upon the Proof of this Point but shall present you with some Inferences from it First Hence I Inferr That when we are Threatned with the Privation of any of our Outward Comforts it is our wisest and safest way to apply our selves to God for the Continuance of them We may allowably pray for and deprecate the removal of our Temporal Enjoyments provided we do it with Modesty and Humility with these necessary Limitations If it be agreeable to his Will If it may be for his Glory and our good to
Funeral Sermon Preached upon the DEATH of M rs Rebecka Goddard November the 13th 1692. At JOYNERS-HALL By THO. HARRISON James 5. ch 9 10. v. Take my Brethren the Prophets who have spoken in the Name of the Lord for an Example of suffering affliction and of patience Behold we count them happy which endure Ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy LONDON Printed for J. Harris at the Harrow in the Poultrey THE Epistle Dedicatory TO The Husband and Parents of the Deceased Mrs. Rebecka Goddard WORTHY FRIENDS THe doleful Separation which that God in whose Hands all our Times are hath lately made between you and your near and dear Relation having occasioned my Preaching the following Sermon the Dedication is justly yours Though at your desire I did compose it for a Publick Auditory I never designed to expose it to publick View Many worthy Men having written largely and excellently upon Subjects of a like Nature I was unwilling to cast in my Mite among their larger Summs and feared it would look like a piece of Conceited Folly to thrust my slender unpolish'd Discourse into the vast croud of substantial and elegant Treatises which have already appear'd upon the Publick Stage But seeing you desire that what God hath Bless'd to your selves may be Publish'd to others I thought I might look upon your Request as a Call from God to that which was always contrary to my own Inclination therefore I hope none will Censure me for Complying with it God works sometimes by small means for he is not tyed to any he hath sometimes rendered mean Discourses preach'd or penn'd more successful than those of a more excellent Composure That the ensuing Discourse may be farther useful to you and may be bless'd to the Instruction and Consolation of others into whose Hands it shall come that God would make up your Loss by clearer Manifestations of his Love and more plentiful Communications of his Grace to your Souls that this Rod may like that of Aaron blossom and bring forth the peaceable fruit of Righteousness that you may be made yet more to bless that God who hath snatch'd your dear Relative from your Embraces is the unfeigned Desire of Your Affectionate Friend and Servant T. H. A Funeral SERMON c. JOB 1. ch 21 v. latter part The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the Name of the Lord. THese are the Words of Holy Job who was an eminent Example both of suffering Affliction and of Patience under it If we look into the beginning of this Chapter we shall find that he was in a very prosperous and flourishing State and Condition and yet a very upright Holy Man Greatness and Goodness are very rare Conjunctions but they met together in him When he was full he did not forget God neither when he waxed fat did he Jeshurun like kick against him His temporal Riches did not impoverish his Soul the World did not alienate his Affections from God which greatly evidenc'd the Strength and Vigour of his Grace but if we fix our Eyes upon the latter part of the Chapter we shall see a great and sudden alteration made in his outward State he soon rolled down the Mount of Prosperity into the lowest Vale of Adversity one Messenger treads upon the heels of another bringing doleful Tidings concerning the flight of his outward Comforts from him and the last Messenger was laden with the heaviest Tidings who brought the News of his Childrens death by a terrible stroke of God's hand A Man's Children are more valuable than all his worldly Substance they are a part of himsellf Flesh of his Flesh and Bone of his Bone The loss of an Estate is like the plucking off a Garment the loss of a Child is like the tearing off a Limb from the Body God seemed to empty this good Man from Vessel to Vessel to lay Stripe upon Stripe Deep called unto Deep at the Noise of Jehovah's Water spouts and if not all yet a great many of his Waves and Billows passed over him It was certainly very terrible unto him and must needs be so to us for God to repeat his strokes and multiply our Afflictions before we have ended our Lamentations for the loss of one outward Comfort to behold and attend the Funeral of another Before I pass this give me leave to Observe That sharp and sore Afflictions are often times the Lot of God's dearest Children in this Life They who have a large room in God's Heart are often very severely Disciplin'd by his Rod They who do most carefully eschew the evil of sin are frequently exercis'd with the evil of Suffering Let us make this profitable Use of this Note viz. Not to conclude our selves to be the Objects either of Divine Love or Hatred from any of the external Dispensations of Divine Providence towards us We cannot Warrantably draw any such Conclusions from such Premises God may load thee with Common Benefits and yet not remember thee with the Favour which he bears to his own People He may Visit thee with great Afflictions and yet thou may'st be Visited with his spiritual Salvation here and his Eternal Salvation hereafter Thy Wife may be as a Fruitful Vine thy Sons like Plants grown up in their Youth and thy Daughters as Corner stones polished after the similitude of a Palace and yet thou may'st not be broken off from the wild Olive-tree of Corrupt Nature nor engrafted into Christ the Noble Vine and the good Olive-tree Thy Root may be dry and thy Branches wither and be lopt off the Desire of thine Eyes and the Fruit of thy Body may be taken away by terrible strokes and yet God may be the strength of thy Heart and thy Portion for ever Now let us Observe Job's Carriage and Deportment under this dark and gloomy Providence and this may be gathered both from his Gestures and Expressions First From his Gestures Ver. 20. Then Job arose and rent his Mantle and shaved his Head and fell down upon the ground and worshipped His renting his Garment and shaving his Head were signs of his great Sorrow When Jacob supposed Joseph to be dead he immediately rent his Garment Gen. 37. ch 34. v. And after Abner's Death David to express his Sorrow rent his Cloaths and commanded all the People that were with him to do the like 2 Sam. 3. ch 31. v. And we find that Baldness is often joined with Mourning and Weeping in the Scriptures Cut off thine Hair O Jerusalem cast it away and take up a Lamentation c. Jer. 7.29 so Amos 8.10 Mich. 1.16 and several other places His falling down upon the ground and Worshipping were signs of that Honour and Homage which he tender'd unto God in and under the Affliction It is very Observable how Job divides himself between his outward Comforts and his God the former have his Sorrow to the