Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	call_v	dead_a	life_n	4,436	5	4.6305	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28180	A funeral sermon preach'd on the decease of Grace Lady Gethin, wife of Sir Richard Gethin, Baronet, on the 28 day of March, 1700 at Westminster-Abby and for perpetuating her memory a sermon is to be preach'd in Westminster-Abby, yearly, on Ash-Wednesday for ever / by Dr. Birch ...	Birch, Peter, 1652?-1710.	1700 (1700)	Wing B2937; ESTC R23089	10,751	34

Religion agrees in flattering themselves they Magnifie their Priviledges to the prejudice of their Duty and generally are much fonder of being thought in the right way than of walking in it hence we find so severe Guards planted against Heresie by those who never regard the worst of all for doubtless no Heresie is so dangerous as to hate to be reformed and hence so many are fond of all Remedies but that alone which can do them good Give me leave then to bring to your remembrance what the nature of every Promise from God is It is properly a Covenant and supposes something due on the part of Man to Entitle us to it it is ever made by way of Restipulation to quicken and not to abate our Industry and consequently there is no inconsistence between the Promise and the Condition Of this there can be no possible doubt where the Condition is express'd and to shew it must constantly be understood where it is not we have the Authority of all the Wise and Good who have gone before us for they always understood them conditionally tho' never so absolutely spoken Jacob for example was promised directly Gen. 32. enough to be made a great Nation of and bid to return into his Country for that End but this hindred not his appeasing the wrath of Esau with a chargeable Present Joshua had his Enemies put into his hands therefore says his Story he came upon them alone suddenly and went up from Gilgal all Night or marched to surprize them David was Anointed King by Samuel and was acknowledged Successor by Saul himself and yet he made him Friends of the Elders of Israel and raised an Army to defend his Person And to heap up no more Instances it was revealed to Act. 27. St. Paul that God had given him the Lives of all those that sailed in the Ship with him but he yet took care to keep the Mariners Aboard and truly affirms except these abide in the Ship he cannot be saved None of all these distrusted the Promise but they rightly understood it and he who does not understand it as they did his Faith is Rashness and his Trust is Folly for he depends upon what was never promis'd him The Case is too plain for any to doubt but the willfully blind and such as have a mind to deceive themselves all others may see if they please that there must ever be a reason for our hope and that the Conditions must be first honestly performed before our claim to the Promise commences But if this great Circumstance be once provided for then our Faith soon overcomes the World and all its difficvlties What if no operation in Nature be known to us able to produce such an effect as is a resurrection of dissipated parts It is not therefore impossible as Pliny for that reason concludes it l. 2. for we are to esteem things possible or impossible by the Power of God What if a thoughtless unprincipled Pretender to Philosophy says he cannot see the consequence in St. Paul's Argument that as in Adam all die so in Christ shall be made alive Yet I hope wiser Men may for all Men are virtually in their Representatives and it is altogether as much an Equity to absolve when the price of our Redemption is paid as to hold us in Bondage for want of it The very discharge of our Surety demonstrates a full satisfaction to be made for the Sins of the World for had he been holden of Death like the rest of Men we could never have been certain that the Sins for which he suffered were not his own If then we are numbred with his Saints we need not suspect our reward For 2. A Voice from Heaven records the Sentence and the Spirit immediately confirms it Blessed are the Dead And happy is it for us that this is the Voice of Heaven and not the vain boast of one of the Sons of Earth For us weak Men to call any Blessed is but to declare our opinion that they are so but with the Word of God is Power with him it is the same thing to speak and to create He that holds the Keys of Hell and of Death can with the very same ease say to the Dead be Blessed and it shall be so as he did in the Beginning Let there be Light and it was so And therefore this alone is the true Foundation of a Christian's Faith Till Life and Immortality were brought to light through the Gospel Mankind saw nothing in the Grave but Corruption Tertullian affirms of the Heathen World that they denied the Restitution of the Flesh with a general Consent and when St. Paul Preached Jesus and the Resurrection Act. 17. at Athens it self some mocked and others took them for a couple of new Gods And as for those well-meaning triflers in Divinity among our selves who have the Will and determination of God to support their Faith and yet will be foolishly hewing out to themselves Cisterns that will hold no Water let us but consider to what all their other Arguments for a Resurrection do amount The World say they subsists by a constant succession of Resurrections day dies into night and rises again into morning winter is a general Sepulcher and the Spring opens the Grave to every Plant the corruption of one Animal is the generation of another and many ignobler Creatures many of the Beasts of the Field some of the Fowls of the Air and divers plants of the Earth outlive the Sons of Men. It is not therefore probable that this present life is proportionable to our Composition for the Souls of Men are immortal and being once Created receive a subsistence for Eternity and consequently since the Soul of Man is so soon forced from the Body and cannot continue with it half the years that other Creatures live the reason of it must be because this is not the only Life belonging to us But yet all this is no more than probable and what is probable may still admit a doubt it may perhaps entertain but except we could bring more into the conclusion than was in the premises it can never force Assent It is also certain that in this Life there is no just retribution either to the vertues or the vices of Men the most Righteous are often full of troubles and one Man sometimes commits such Sins as all the Punishments of this Life cannot equalize Witness the Authors of Assassinations and Tyrants that have destroyed whole Nations and extirpated the Servants of God If then they are not here recompensed as they deserve it is probable they will be hereafter and if these things were done in the Body it is fit that be joined also in the Punishment But all this ascends no higher than to a probability that a full Amends shall be made in another State for it gives us no infallible assurance that it shall be so Nay the very Power of God to raise the Dead only

the same Case Flete alios c. Go Weep for others My Daughter doth need no Tears So Prays at the Throne of Grace for Your Ladyships Health and Happiness both in this World and the next Honoured Madam Your Ladyships most Humble Servant F. G. INSCRIPTION on the Lady Gethins Monument On the South-Side of Westminster-Abby TO the Pious Memory of Dame Grace Gethin Wife of Sir Richard Gethin of Gethin-Grott in Ireland Bar nt Daughter of Sir George Norton Knight and Bar nt and Grand-Daughter of Sir George Norton Knight and Great Grand-Daughter of Sir William Owen of Salop Sir Thomas Freak of Dorset and Sir Thomas Culpeper of Kent Knights Who being Adorned with all Graces and Perfections of Mind and Body Crown'd them all with Exemplary Patience and Humility and having the day before her Death most devoutly receiv'd the Holy Communion which she said she would not have omitted for ten thousand Worlds she plainly evidenced Her sure and certain hope of future Bliss And thus continuing sensible to the last She resign'd her Pious Soul to God in fervent Transports of Spiritual Joy and Comfort for her near Approach to the Heavenly Glory Obiit October the 11th in the Year of her Age 21 of our Lord 1697. Her Disconsolate and Afflicted Parents for a lasting Memorial of this Her Godly and Blessed End Erected this Monument She being the last of their Issue REV. 14. 13. And I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth Yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them THIS is a Triumphant Hymn over Death the King of Terrors and the last Enemy of our Nature and so have all regular Churches understood it for they have long used it in their publick Offices as an expression of the firmness of their Faith and the Alacrity of their Hope that this Mortal should put on Immortality and that which is now sown in Corruption shall be raised up in Glory And of this we are assured by St. John beyond the possibility of mistake I says he heard a Voice from Heaven saying unto me Blessed are the dead And this wonderful Sentences which only Heaven could Reveal was immediately ratified yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours A Consolation so strong amongst those who first receiv'd it that of old they seemed Ambitious of a preference in Death and so to rejoyce in the Tribulation as to tempt their Fate and run too fast to the Crown They knew not the modern Arts to cover Infidelity or thought it became them to dissemble in the presence of their greatest Foes but gave up their lives unto Death and rejoyced they were counted worthy to lose them Hence came those Holy Customs of attending the Dead with Thanksgiveings of yearly Celebrating the remembrance of Martyrs Agonies of burying the remains of their Bodies under their Altars of making the days of their Death Festivals and the places of their Burial Churches This was the Practice of an undefiled Christianity and it often awakened the observation of unbelievers to enquire into the reasons why the faithful esteem'd them Blessed whose end seem'd to be without Honour nay we often read that this lead them on to Conviction and so the Blood of Martyrs became the Seed of the Church As for those who wish these Honours had not been paid to the Saints departed and who refuse to continue them they do alone by consequence as wish their Religion had not prevail'd and as for those dumb Funerals they would introduce in their stead these express neither Faith nor Hope nor is it imaginable what such a stupid Custom can express but only the Pleasure of Contradiction at parting As to the Sense and Connexion of the Words they are part of a Prophecy so hard to be understood that it may well excuse all pretence to a strict Interpretation But in general they seem intended for a present Comfort to the Christians of that early Age who were appointed to bear the weight of the succeeding Persecutions and had need of all the Faith and Patience of Saints to support them The Title at least c. 1. only speaks of things that must shortly come to pass and so the most antient Writers that best knew the Language of the times Interpret it In their Sense the fall of Babylon was that of Heathen Rome with the Idolatry it supported and the Planting of the Faith of Christ in its place was making all things New and this is a Sense which it is possible to understand still but to kill the Witnesses of the Church Universal in the corner of an Island or to make Scotland or Genva sit Scenes for all the mighty and surprising Events that are here recorded this is a Modern and still undigested thought one that seems intended to make Court to Friends but hath certainly made sport for Enemies Whatever is the Design we are sure of the Event Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord and not in their Sins and in that Latitude it is a noble Testimony to the certainty of our future Reward For 1. The distinction is here made that will divide all Mankind for Ever none are pronounced Blessed except those who die in the Lord and are Members of his Body which is exclusive of all others whatsoever It is not a promiscuous blessing that shall fall indifferently upon the Good and the Bad like that of the Sun or the Rain but the Foundation of God standeth sure he knoweth who are his and 't is happy for us he does so because by this the Righteous are assured that they shall not always be vexed with the filthy Conversation of the Wicked 2. The Sentence is again ratified by the same Divine Authority and that solemn Repetition is not in vain for it is the true and proper Foundation of Faith The Voice commands St. John to Write tha strange Proposition Blessed are the dead for a lasting Memorial and the Answer of the Spirit confirms it as a Matter so important that it could not be too often inculcated And 3. The substance of this Answer namely our resting from Labour and having our Works to follow us suggests the best Method of conceiving what the happiness of another World is for so far as our short Conception reaches a Man can Enjoy no more even in desire than to rest from the Evil that attends our imperfect State and to have all his Good to follow him And 1. We are never to forget unto whom alone the Blessing is confined for it is at the Peril of our Souls and of all the dreadful Consequences which attend the loss of them that we remember the distinction The Caution perhaps may not seem pertinent to him that considers only how plain it is in Speculation but there is a continual use of it when reduc'd unto Practice or the uses of Life There every Profession of