Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	bring_v	see_v	sin_n	6,315	5	4.8674	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42023	Two sermons the first preacht at Steeple-Aston in Oxfordshire at the funerall of Mr. Francis Croke of that place Aug. 2, 1672, the other at the funerall of Alexander Croke of Studley, Esq., buryed at Chilton in Buckinghamshire Octob. 24, 1672 / by Daniel Greenwood ...	Greenwood, Daniel, 1627 or 8-1679.	1680 (1680)	Wing G1865; ESTC R7515	25,935	40

away from me v. 12. I am a stranger as all my fathers were Oh spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence c. Go we and pray like wise 3. The Death of the Righteous is the beginning and inlet of their happiness from henceforth they cease to be miserable and enter into bliss This is assured us by a double expression in the Text. 1. He shall enter into peace that is the Righteous Man departs here with inward peace in his Soul and Conscience Lu. 2. 29. Now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace this peace begins here being supported by that hope which at length will not make ashamed Rom. 5. 1. Being justified by faith we have peace with God and rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God Or he departs hence into Rest and Peace Glory Honour and Peace on every Soul that doth well Rom 2. 10. This is that peace which the world neither gives nor takes away A Peace whi●h the world is not acquainted with and therefore considers not that when the Righteous is taken away he enters into peace For a Christians spirituall Life is a riddle and mystery to a worldly man much more is eternal Life Our life is hid with Christ in God Col 3. 3. but shall be reveal'd seen and confest by all at the generall resurrection v. 4. When Christ who is our life shall appear we shall appear with him in glory This is a peace that passeth our present understanding For Eye hath not seen nor Eare heard nor hath it enterd into the Heart of Man to conceive what God hath layd up for those that Love him We are now saith the Apostle 1 Iohn 3 2. the Sons of God but it doth not appeare what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is 2. They shall rest in their Beds As their soules pass to a place of rest and blessedness so their Bodyes are layd down at rest in the Grave as in a Bed or Bed-Chamber there to sleep quietly till the generall Resurrection Hence it is familiar with the Scripture to express Death by sleep the Grave by an House a Chamber a Bed and the Resurrection by waking and rising as Men do in the Morning out of their Beds after the sleep and repose of the Night Both phrases put together import the felicity both of Soul and Body perfect peace and satisfaction of mind with an undisturb'd rest and ease of Body whereby the whole man being freed from Sin and all the evill effects of it Ghostly and Bodily is admitted to see God and enjoy him in a fuller measure then ever he was seen or enjoy'd in this Life or it can enter into the Heart of Man at present to conceive Rev. 14 13. I heard a voyce from Heaven saying Write Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth Yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works follow them 1. This should Stanch our sorrow and stop all immoderate griefe for good and Holy Men departed this life For besides the unprofitableness of this griefe neither benefiting nor recalling those that are deceased which consideration put a stop to Davids mourning for his Child 2 Sam 12. 22. for he sayd while the Child was yet alive I fasted and Wept for I sayd who can tell whether God will be gracious unto mee that the chid may live But now he is Dead wherefore should I fast can I bring him back againe I shall go to him but he shall not returne to me Besides the unpleasingness of it to God who as he hath taught us to Pray that his will may be done so he requires us to be contented and satisfyed when we see it done so is it unreasonable in it selfe the day of a good Mans Death being better then the day of his Birth Eccl 4. 2. He is borne to toyle and labour to misery trouble But at Death he enters into peace he rests in his Bed Who ever grieved to see his friend take his natural rest quietly Who was ever discontented with an happy peace after a troublesome a tedious War or a safe harbour after a dangerous and a Stormy passage or an easy Bed after an hard Dayes labour Nay it savours of some unkindnes to our deceased friends to be immoderately sorrowful for their departure as if we more valued the comfort and benefit we receive by thir bodily presence then their seeing the face of god and enjoying the pleasures that run at his right hand for ever more Do but recollect concerning our friends departed how many cares and troubles they were encumbred with in this World what fears within what terrors without what anxious sollicitous cares for Soules for Bodyes for themselves their familyes their friends and relations and for ihe Church of God how deep their sighes how many their teares how fervent their prayers and wrestlings with God both alone and with others in private and in publick and then consider againe can we be sorry that these troubles are at an end that these cares are off that these tears are wiped from their eyes that their prayers are heard and their petitions longings and hopes are swallowed up in fruition and Enjoyment that their fight is fought their warfare accomplisht and that they have receiv'd at the Hands of the Lord not double but a thousand fold reparation and recompense for all their service of Faith and labour of Love and patience of hope which they have exprest in this day of their pilgrimage To me saith the Apostle Phil. 1. 21. To Dye is gaine Oppose we not our loss to their gaine our temporal to their Eternal Non moeremus c. saith Hierome We grieve not that we have lost such an one but we give God thankes that we had him nay we have him for to God all are alive and who ever is returned to the Lord is yet accompted of the Family that is still a member of the Body of Christ and therefore not lost but shall come againe when he shall be revealed from Heaven with all his Saints 1. Thes 4. 13. I would not have you ignorant Brethren concerning them which are asleep that yee sorrow not as others which have no hope for if you believe that Jesus Dyed and Rose againe even so them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him 2. This should reach us to give all diligence to be of the number of these Blessed ones that when we Dye we may enter into peace we may rest in our Beds that our Soules may be admitted to the beatifical vision of God and Christ and our Bodies may rest in hope even such hope as Job professeth Job 19. 25. I know that my redeemer Liveth and shall stand at the latter day on the Earth and though after my skin wormes destroy this Body yet in my flesh I shall see God

this is the portion of the heirs of salvation and of them only Nor do I meane that good Men so soone as they Dye are possest of all the Happiness that ever they shall be no the utmost consummation of their Bliss both in Body and Soul is reserved to the generall Resurrection But I meane that the Soules of good Men are no sooner separated from the Body by naturall Death but they are presented before Christ and admitted to the beginnings of glory and happiness The Apostle makes nothing to intervene between these two being absent from the Body and present with the Lord. No third region wherein to lodge and purge departed Soules before they come to the presence of their Redeemer No middle State betwixt the Death of the Godly and their Reception into the Armes of Christ and the mansions that he hath prepared for them This grounded the Prayer of Stephen when he was about to Dye Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Act 7. 59. and the promise of our Saviour to the penitent Thiefe Lu 23. 43. This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise In the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus Lu 16. the poor Man is immediately carryed into Abrahams Bosome where he enjoys his good things as the other is Tormented and saith St. John Revel 14. 13. I heard a voyce from Heaven saying Write Blessed are the Dead that dye in the Lord from henceforth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the moment of their Death and dissolution they rest from their labours c. The sense and substance of all which places I can not give you better then in the very words of our Church in her office for the Burial of the Dead viz. The soules of the faithful being delivered from the Burden of the flesh are with Christ in joy and felicity 4. Proposition Holy Men have attaind may attaine to this high and excellent pitch to be willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. The Apostle speakes here of more then his single selfe We in the plural Number and he sayes it not once and in a passion but deliberately once and againe Phil 1. 23 Having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is farre better Observe here 1. The desireable estate of a Christian namely to be with Christ together with the Apostles willingnesse to it I desire it I long for it And the sooner the better 2. The way to come to this happy State that 's by departing hence by putting off this Earthly Tabernacle by being absent from the Body 3. The judgment he passeth upon a comparison of the two estates of Life and Death this later is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much very much farre and exceeding better and more desirable So that he is not onely willing to submit to the common necessity of dying but is desirous to Dye Not willing only to depart hereafter but to weigh anchor and away presently He stood indifferent to any kind of Death Violent or natural so he might Dye he had his wish Nor was he of this mind onely upon some sudden pang or some extaticall passion or upon a sullen and discontented fi● being rather weary of life then desirous of Death or by reason of the hard pressure of some present affliction as Jonah Job and Elias wisht for Death but out of a more deliberate choyce a sincere affection to Christ and a pious and earnest desire of a fuller enjoyment of him and out of strong and invincible apprehensions of the blessednes of a Future state after Death And if you ask by what meanes and degrees he attained and consequently we may attaine to this willingnes the context will give you the grounds of his choyce and will teach us how we may arrive at the same pitch 1. He had a strong apprehension and perswasion of the great Happines of the life to come compared with the condition of this Mortal Life The vast difference of which two states he setts forth by sundry metaphors v. 1. the Body is called an Earthly House a Mud-wall easily crusht by a sudden casualty or battered with the shock of a more lingring disease and though it be let alone from external Violence yet stoopes to Time and Age moulders downe of its owne accord Againe the body is call'd a tent or Tabernacle suddenly clapt up and as easily took downe againe a moveable habitation fit for a sojourners and pilgrims state But our estate hereafter is a building of God an house not made with hands Say then that we are not weary of our Bodies yet we may be weary of the present state and condition of them which is a state of corruption and infirmity not comparable to that of glory and immortality that lyes before us Here we are in continual peril to have our Earthly house dissolved our fraile temporal lives swallowed up of Death But here after this mortal shall have put on immortality and Death shall be swallowed up in victory 2. He had a sure and certaine hope of enjoying a share in that happinesse which by faith he foresaw 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We know it we are confident of it we are satisfyed and cheareful under the forethoughts and expectation of it Without this hope how shall any be ever brought to a willingnes to depart when he knows not whither I wonder not to see the Atheist and prophane person shrink and tremble at the approach of Death to leave a certaine and present enjoyment of this Worlds good things upon the proposal of a future blisse which the one believes not that there is any such thing the other cannot upon any comfortable grounds conclude that he shall have any part in it Who can be willing to lanch into an Eternity which he knows not whether it will be of bliss or misery This made the Emperour Adrians Heart ake and his Soul loath to leave its former habitation Animul● nudula blandula c. quae nunc descendis in loca ah sweet naked Soule into what dark uncouth and dismal places art thou now a going But on the contrary a Christians desire of dissolution proceeds from an evidence of his interest in Christ assurance of the remission of Sins and an undoubted title to those exceeding great and pretious promises made to godliness of the good things of this Life and the better which is to come 3. Ground in his being in some measure fitted and prepared for the presence of the Lord. He that hath wrought us to this selfe-same thing is God v. 5. which some understand thus It 's God that hath brought us to this purpose resolution and choyce that we had rather be absent from the Body c. the frame of Spirit is beyond the attainment of nature and proceeds from higher then humane principles Others understand it thus He that hath wrought us fitted and framed us for this State of happiness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Metaphor

from Carpenters squaring and plaining their Timber or Masons hewing and polishing their Stones or Goldsmiths scouring and burnishing their Metall for look as in the building in the Temple at Hierusalem the Wood and Stones were framed and fitted in the Mountaines that no Axe or Hammer might be heard in the Temple so Christians are fitted in this Life for glory no scouring purging or polishing hereafter the title to inheritance is sett forth here the possession is delivered hereafter Exercis'd Educated and train'd up we are in these inferiour Schooles of grace the degrees and dignities are confer'd in the generall Convocation and Consistory of glory Now as no piece of Timber can promise it self an honourable place in the building save that which is fitted and carved before it be layd nor any hope for a Crowne that hath neither breeding nor title to it So nor can any promise to themselves glory whom God hath not polished and fitted by sanctification and Grace The Apostle Col 1. 12. thankes the Father that hath made us fitt or meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light not that hath put us into a condition to merit Heaven but hath adopted us undeserving and fitted us that were unfit This God doth by making us partakers of the Divine nature turning our hearts from Sin to Holiness so making us new Creatures Which happy thing and alteration who so ever finds truly though but weakly wrought in him he longs to be in possession of that which God of his mercy in Christ hath in some degree fitted and prepared him for 4. The last ground is Gods having given to them the earnest of the spirit v. 5. By which we may understand the fruits of the Spirit namely joy and peace in believing which are the fruits of the Spirit and the gifts of God not in a way of duty only as to believe repent Love the Father and the Brethren and the like are fruits of the Spirit but in a way of reward or recompense of Grace These prediscoveries of Gods good will and manifestation of his Love to Men are the hansells and fore-tasts of Glory This the Apostle calls Joy unspeakable full of Glory obtain'd here in a way of believing the sure earnests of better enjoyments in the time to come 1 Pet 1. 8. Now as the sight of the glory of Christ in his transfiguration made the Disciples loath to foregoe that pleasant rapture Master 't is good for us to be here Matt 17. 4. so such fore-tasts of the Divine Love and praesentiments of the happiness of a future state as no doubt the Apostles and holy Men sometimes had makes them long for the full enjoyment and desire to be with Christ which is best of all But least while I speak of the high attainements of strong Christians I should discourage the Hearts of Babes in Christ who are as dear to him and he as tender of them as they that are of greater strongth and fuller growth though from these he expects more service and greater obedience take these Cautions 1. What hath been said is not to be taken as if none were to be accounted or might account themselves good Christians who find not in themselves such a perfect and a constant willingness to Dye This character is for strong grown and experienc'● Christians and that not alwaies but at some seasons such as have strong apprehensions of the glory of the other World and the happiness of that eternall rest which remaines for the People of God that have good assurance through grace of their interest therein and can rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God others may be weaker and yet true Christians too they are pronounced blessed that hunger after Righteousness as well as they that long and thirst for glory 2. Nor must it be so taken as if even strong Christians were without a naturall abhorrence of Death and a declining from it the Disciples in a Tempest and Peter when he began to sink city out upon the apprehension of approaching Death and yet were Christs Disciples for all that The Apostle intimates that he and other Christians could have been glad to have escaped Death if Gods will were so and if they could have arrived at what they aimed at and looked for without passing through the jawes thereof v. 4. not that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon c. Our blessed Saviour did by this Testifie the truth of his humane nature in that he was affraid of Death Father if it be possible let this Cuppe pass from me yet withall sets a Copy and leaves us a patterne of most free resignation and patient submission to the Fathers will yet not my will but thy will be done 3. As a Child of God is not without a natural abhornence of Death so nor without a due Care to preserve his Life so long as God sees it fitt and a willingness to beare those troubles and inconvenienoies of life which God sees good to exercise him under God hath sett his Children in this World as souldiers on their guard not to runne away at their pleasure but to wait till they are releast and called off We may go out of Life when God opens a doore but we may not break prison We may depart asking Gods leave Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart Lu 2. 29. but must be willing to stay his leizure and expect his dismission Thus notwithstanding the Apostle Paul was desirous to depart yet he sits down contented when he saw God would have him worke and suffer longer Phil. 1. 24. Neverthelesse to abide in the flesh is more needfull for you and having this confidence I know I shall abide c. However Christ shall be magnified in my Body whether it be by Life or by Death for to me to Live is Christ to Dye is gaine v. 20 21. From what hath been said gather we courage to encounter Death and to look the King of terrour in the face which is so farre from being now a terrour to the Children of God that it 's become the object of their desires and wishes The frightfull Serpent before which all Mankind fled is in the Hand of Moses become a Rod and a Staffe of support and comfort I meane Death which is an enemy to nature and the wages of Sin is by the power of Christ turn'd to a friend and a Servant of all the heires of salvation an end of a Sinful troublesome and uncertaine Life and a passage to a Blessed and Glorious immortality Make then a vertue of necessity and being its appointed for us all to Dye Heb 9. 27. learne we to dye daylie 1 Cor 15. 31. so setting our hearts and Houses in order that we may rather meet Death then flye from it rather wish and welcome it then be affraid of it And seeing all these things shall be dissolved what manner of Persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and