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

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91801	A sermon preached at Walden in Essex, May 29th. At the interring of the corps of the right Honorable Susanna, Countesse of Suffolke. Being a modest and short narration of some remarable passages in the holy life and death of that memorable lady. Who dyed May 19th. 1649. / By Edw: Rainbowe. D.D.	Rainbowe, Edward, 1608-1684.	1649 (1649)	Wing R141; Thomason E532_40	25,929	38

Pleasure will soon pass but the ill will stick as an indelible character the guilt and the stain will never off in this life no nor in the other bad deeds will haunt our Ghosts We are thy works and will follow thee But I will not spend time in comparing these together there is so visible a disparity and distance we need not weigh them every one who hath any Christian discretion can judge by the eye or the hand which is most weighty Bodily Outward Temporall Delights or a Good Name gained from Vertue Faith Godliness for so I take it for the Christians Good Name fundamentally grounded on true Desert not for the vain Applause of Men who as often call Evill Good as Goodness it self That shall suffice in brief to have touched upon the first comparison A Good Name namely the true and sound name of Faith and Holiness Now I come to the second betwixt being born or betwixt the state of this life and that which we are put into by Death The Day of Death is better than the Day of ones Birth And these words I take as depending upon and connected to the former that the sence may be this A good Name is better than Precious Oyntment and to him that hath obtained this Good Name deservedly for so we suppose it else it is not Radically Good the Day of his Death is better than the Day of his Birth The truth of the comparison appears therfore first in this relative sense although secondly it be absolutely true also That the Day of Death is better than the Day of Birth But first in relation to a Good Name and that first in regard of the time and season for the production of it Death is the proper season for a Good Name after life enters in nature after Birth the first thing we commonly think of is a Name to give a Name to him that is born so after Death the first thing men say or do is to give a Name to the Party deceased but that after birth was a Name of civill Distinction this a Name of Morall or Religious difference that was a Name and no more this a Name with an adjunct Good or Bad At Circumcision the Jewes at Baptisme the Christians give proper Names so after Death men obtain proper Names according to their deserts we call that their Christian Name but this indeed ought most properly so to be called if so deserved at Death we may know on whom most properly to fasten the Christian Name the Name of true Christian Israelite indeed Circumcision in the flesh followed Nativity and Christian Name as we call it by receiving into the outward bosome of the Church but after Death you many times discover there was Circumcision in the heart that he was a Christian by the inward Baptisme of the Spirit and not in the Letter whose praise is not of Men but of God Secondly as Death is the proper season for the essence of a Good Name so for the certainty of it Men may make a fair shew all their life and may deserve well but all is well that ends well Who can tell whether a bright day may not set in a Cloudy or Rainy Evening Mors sola fatetur Death only can tell the measure of a Good Name reach to the End of it all other things Opinions hopes Confidences may go a great way but they may come short nothing but Death puts out of doubt when that hath set the seal to a Good Name all is finished So that now you see the dependence of these two comparisons why King Solomon joyns these two together a Good Name Death Oyntment and Birth A Good Name is better than all outward Delights if Death gives the casting voyce set the seal to it and the Day of Death better than the Day of Birth because it gives the being and certainty to a Good Name a Name with an adjunct an Epithet or Title of Honour Life gives a bare name only and no more I could now by plentifull proofs shew you that the Day of Death in an absolute sence is better than the Day of ones Birth or the time of Life If I would set before you the infirmities which we bring into this world the frailties and dangers the diseases the miseries the sins that pursue us overtake us go along with us dwell with us in us whilst we have our dwelling in these houses of flesh these habitations of Clay Beloved though I be silent the tragicall times the fears even of worse the calamities of the Church of God in all places your own eyes and senses what you see at home what you hear abroad what this Coffin tels you what you feel within you what worse you may justly fear are sufficient witnesses that this life hath little of true worth and happiness to support it others may weep when we go out of the world ourselves have more reason and so they say Nature hath taught us to weep when we come in That then which relieves us that resques us from those enimies that surround us that takes away want finishes misery and ceases the raign of sin if we did not arrive at a positive happiness but if all were terminated in deliverance from these and then we had no more being at all but were to be wrapt up in our first nothing yet certainly this very deliverance from misery and torment might be a happiness and that accounted happy that brings it This at least the Day of Death brings forth it changeth us from a state of sin and wretohedness and in this very regard it 's to be preferr'd to a life which chains us up in both But that is not all it s not only privative but positive where it sees the seal of a Good Name set upon any it opens the Door it sets open the everlasting Gate of Happiness whosoever hath that Name engraven on his forehead that Good Name that New Name from his being a New Creature for being in Christ that hath such a Name as God vouchsafes to write in his Book the Book of Life the Day of Death to such an one is the morning of blessedness which never shall have an evening it is not possible to compare it it 's not proportionable to enter comparison here betwixt the Day of Naturall Birth and Death which is their Birth Day to Eternity Thus you have briefly seen what a Good Name is and whereon grounded and the weight of it Precious Oyntments also Pleasures and Delights the lightness of them in comparison You have seen that the Day of Death is a proper season when a Good Name buds forth flourishes and is ascertain'd and that therefore it is better for those who have that Name than the Day of their Naturall Birth likewise that the Day of Death is to be preferred to the Day of Birth because it puts an end to sin and misery which that begins and is the way to Happiness What now remains

what shall I say for application should I reprove those who erre in opinion and build their Good Name upon Greatness Glory Fame Naturall indowments Morall accomplishments Beauty Wit Mirth Friendship and the like or any thing not Christian Or should I stir you up to lay a sure foundation for a Good Name in Faith Holiness and Virtue Should I lessen the terrors of Death and hasten any of you in the desires of it which gives so fair a season to this Glorious Flower a Good Name which shuts the door on sin and misery and opens to eternall joyes in all these the text might be a copious theme and I can hardly refrain from inlarging But because Examples have a more lively force on the souls of men than simple Precepts and Practice is the only warrant that rules are Good and that it hath seemed Good to him who hath the issues of Life and Death in his hand to lay such a Pregnant Spectacle before our eyes as may give an exemplary testimony to the truth of this text I shall now take leave to set before your Christian attention some few such observations from and upon the Life and Death of this Eminent Personage whom the uncontrolable Will of the Almighty hath made the sad occasion of our present meeting as may in hance the price of a Good Name and make Death have its true comfort when we see it happen after a well-spent and well-ended life And now well remembring where I am and in whose dreadfull presence before that God of truth who can measure the Deeds and words of men and see what conformity they hold in a Congregation also amongst many of whom the light of her conversation did shine and could not be hid I shall in all sincerity indeavour to speak nothing for Favour Relation Flattery or to gain a Vain-glorious Name to her that is gon or him that speaks but to set forth such reall Virtues as shined in her life that we may all have occasion to glorifie God who was graciously pleased to instamp such lively Characters of his Image upon a poor corruptible Creature and to aspire after all that is praiseworthy in so precious an example that at our Death we all may have lively hopes to be also numbred amongst the living and to leave a Good Name fragrant and refreshing to all those who live after us And now where shall I begin and how shall I find an end both did seem alike difficult to my preparations whereon shall I lay the foundation to build a Precious Name and Memoriall for her who her self had purchased it so many wayes Shall I tell you of her naturall parts and indowments Shall I tell you how her Parents and her self had perfected those by carefull education art and industry Shall I let you know how those were made Gracefull by a meek pleasant and affable Deportment How they were adorned with the choysest Jewels which every Virtue could afford her or which is rarest that all these were consecrated by a Religious even frame and temper and lastly which is the highest Perfection attainable on Earth that she and they were sanctified by the visible operations of the Spirit of God whose Image sat bright and Glorious on her Soul and did shine through all her Conversation These are the solid sure foundations of a Good Name and all these crouded so into my thoughts at once that they were easily lost in the many fair paths and turnings through which look which way soever you would her Excellencies Parts Virtues Graces were ready to invite and draw my meditations But that this universality may not disorder your thoughts as they have done mine I must not seek such arguments for her Praise being dead as have no fast bottom for an Inward Good Name and for which she would not only dispraise but sharply censure me if she were living Namely for any thing she had by nature although from that too in this regard seeing whatsoever Nature had given her she made a Vessell to lay up some Grace or other in If I should tell you of the Sharpness of her Wit I could not better instance to prove it than that in Questions of Religion chiefly Cases of Conscience and difficult places of Scriptures she was most sudden at making Nice Doubts and extraordinary happy in resolving them at least to the satisfying of others although such was her Humility and low esteem of her own Gifts that she would earnestly labour for the resolution of others rather than trust to her own Her Judgment was most sound which might appear as by concurrence with the Wise and Learned in opinions about secular affairs private or publique so chiefly in the Controversies in Religion that amids all those differences and varieties of opinions to the Knowledge of which she was drawn by her carious Soul which had a mighty thirst after all kind of knowledge especially in matters which concerned God Religion and Eternity I say though she knew all Good and Evill yet she had a Discerning Judgment and Exercised Senses to chuse the Good and refuse the Evill not only in points simply necessary to Salvation in which we may believe the Spirit of God would not let her fall but in Speculative truths her opinions were not tainted nor her mind shaken with any of those plausible Errors wherewith the Times havenow so miserably infested and distracted the Church of God and ted Captive many well-meaning Souls but her knowing and well-grounded assent went along first with the Sure Rule the Written Word of God then with those who for sticking to that have been held the Soundest and most Classicall Wheresoever in cases she differd from the most-received opinions it was commonly in Practicall points and seldom but she inclined to the more strict her very Error if it were one deserving its own pardon Her Phancy was most Divine and although she fed it very much with Humane Authors delighting in Wit that was Pure and filled with ingenious and artificiall conceit Poetry especially in the apprehension of which she was very Dexterous and would ever set a Mark upon such expressions as were most emphaticall and quaint many times adding a Grace by her particular interpretation even beyond the intention of the Author but with exceeding fitness and significancy yet she most confined her Phancy to Gather Flowers in Paradise in Gods Garden in his Book and in such as exercised their wits in that Field especially in Divine Poetry in which kind she took an excessive delight to be conversant in Mr. Herberts Temple in which she found out such fit and significant elegancies that when she read or repeated them it was hard to determine whether the Author or she made the sence such innumerable descants would she make upon every single expression there And to shew what delight she took in that heavenly Wit I have heard her more than once seriously aver that if there were no more extent but her copy some

evening it was discovered that it was no living Child of which she labour'd but of that which in the Judgement of all about her must within a few hours or days at most make her a dead woman She soon apprehended their fears and earnestly beg'd now as she did at all times that she might be plainly dealt with concerning her condition for Life or Death which she would in no Case indure to be dissembled to her or concealed from her her friends did observe her desire and confessed their hopes of Life to be small or not any but desired her to submit to Gods will in her dissolution How would you now imagine she received the Sentence of Death with Frights or Fears or Sorrow and Grief to part with the world and her dear Relations in it Truly with a very contrary guise She sent for those who nearliest related to her and her Kindred and Friends and composing her coutenance and gesture to the most Majestick and undejected Gravity that I ever beheld She fell to taking leave bequeathing not her worldly affairs but spirituall Comforts her fervent Prayers Divine Blessings her Weighty Counsells and Admonitions fitted particularly and made proper to every one to whom she gave her heavenly Legacies especially to her Lord her Children her Allies and Servants and all were such as might tend to direct them in wayes of well-doing by which they might through Christs merits meet again in Glory But all this with such Affection such Zeal such Courage such Demonstration of Faith and Assurance of her going now from Pain and Misery to Joyes unspeakable that the image of that day and her aspect shall never depart out of the memory of some who beheld it If you had seen her on her then supposed death-bed you would have thought of Moses on Pisgah or Jacob on his death-bed dividing his blessings of dying Joshua or of David or the best composed Saints To see her dearest Pledges and Relations Friends and Servants standing by flowing with Tears and Lamentations and her self stedfast and unconcern'd Counselling Comforting Blessing them with her last breath as she and they believed it made an appearance as if all they had been the Parties which must dy and she only to give them Christian advice to susser death with Patience as if she had been in perfect health they in present danger of Death such was her Assurance and Joy from the Holy Ghost as if she had begun to tast Eternity and the happiness of that life in the very tidings of Death Her Legacy left to her two dear Children was her desire to her Lord that whatsoever provision he should make for their outward condition of which she was neither distrustfull nor yet solicitous but fervently she besought him that they might be brought up in the strictest way of Religion and Life even in that strictness of life which the world might count Puritanisme The strictest wayes were alwayes accounted best for her own self in her life and now at her Death she bore witness to them and commended them to the Dearest Pledges of her Love After she spent her time in declaring the Assiance she had on the Merits and the Assurance she had on the Love of Christ She did not conceal also how she had wrestled with Doubtings and did propound the greatest Scruple which lay upon her Conscience for the sincerity of her Repentance She spake of the Comfort she had at her last receiving the Sacrament she confest indeed that she might have soyld herself after but yet the last night she had also beg'd pardon and I was told by those that knew it that she had then been a whole houre in private upon her knees although at that time no danger of Death was feared and further professed that now nothing was a greater burthen than this that although she was Willing to Dye yet she found also a willingness in her heart to Live which she much blamed in her self Although that might proceed from the consideration of the good of those she was to Leave rather than that it was better for her to stay the same dispute which the Apostle had with himself Phil. 2. 23. To be with Christ was far better for her nevertheless to abide in the flesh was more needfull for us And so it seemed good to our heavenly Father She was born by accident six Weeks as they counted it before her time and had lived so many Moneths after her time might seem to have been expired Nature seem'd importunate to gain her into the world and as unwilling to let her depart out of it to lose one of her choycest Children It seemed good to Almighty God even to let the Sun of her Life go back some few Degrees after it seem'd to be in the very lowest point of Setting his marvellous providence pointing out such wayes and making all circumstances so concur even beyond hope whereof if any one had failed there could have been no possibility of recovery that she seem'd rather by a Divine Miracle raised from the Dead than by any humane help or hand restored from danger And indeed as the Apostle speaks Heb. 11. 35. Women received their dead raised to life again so did they then look upon this not as a Recovery but as a Resurrection And if you please reckon her Death from that very hour that she resign'd up her self to it so freely and if we look upon her walking since we may believe she was as one Dead to the world as one that was Risen with Christ and had her Conversation in Heaven intentionally her affection I am sure on things above not on things on Earth Account her now as Dead as one whose life was hid with Christ in God For shall I speak plainly she walked on Earth but she lived not after this as to her self to others indeed she did and to their especiall Comfort I have observed two or three things for which God in his providence might bestow this little time and lend her to her friends on Earth he might seem to spare her a little and give her space for these reasons The one was in mercy to her Father The other to her Dear Relations at home The third was to finish some work upon her own Soul for the good example of others her own work was done however in all these I may say she lived not to her self as in the world To her * The E. of Holland Father in his extreme affliction God made her an unexpressible Comfort I speak not in regard of any temporall things which God had determined as we now see to cut away wholy from him as to this life and all the Comforts of it which notwithstanding to procure What Pains Travail Watchings Fastings in that extreme cold season did she undergo even beyond what might be expected from her Sex but especially one of the tenderest breeding in it was very observable by all and satisfactory to him abundantly But to