Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	child_n	die_v	sin_n	5,554	5	5.1473	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66118	A sermon preach'd at the funeral of ... Lady Mary, daughter to Ferdinando, late Earl of Huntingdon, and wife to William Jolife of Caverswell-castle in the county of Stafford, Esq. ... Decemb. xii, 1678 by Samuel Willes ...	Willes, Samuel, 1611-1684.	1679 (1679)	Wing W2305; ESTC R20634	16,458	38

A SERMON PREACH'D At the Funeral of the Right honble The Lady MARY Daughter to Ferdinando late Earl of Huntingdon AND Wife to WILLIAM JOLIFE of Caverswell-Castle in the County of Stafford Esq At Ashby-De-la-Zouch Decemb. xii 1678. By SAMUEL WILLES M. A. and Preacher at All-hallows in Derby IMPRIMATUR Guil. Sill. April 12. 1679. LONDON Printed by J. D. for John Baker at the three Pigeons in St. Paul's Church-yard 1679. To the Right honble THEOPHILUS Earl of Huntingdon MY LORD HAD Your Lordship commanded to this performance a Person of Sufficiencies in any tolerable measure suitable to the occasion of it You had found your self better served And more right had been done to the Memory of your Noble Sister than the following poor Accounts of her can amount unto which have nothing to commend them but that as far as they reach they are true Nor can I suffer imputation from any that knew this Excellent Lady in any degree of intimacy but only in having spoken so extreme defectively and in so mean terms concerning her And yet perhaps I have said enough to provoke the Envy of some others who love not to hear of any Commendations but what are ascribed to themselves To whom I shall only suggest a return of Dr. Donne's upon a not much different occasion Let any Lady make Donnes Epist p. 253. her self fit for those Praises and they shall be hers And I heartily wish I had been able so to have represented this Illustrious Example for it needed no Ornament but bare Narration as to excite in others a vertuous Emulation But I am sensible how short I have fallen of the Dignity of my Subject And had not your Lordship 's very great and very just Affection to this Incomparable Lady somewhat imposed upon your Accurate Judgment your Lordship would never have sent this Sermon to the Press But though it must abide as far better things daily do all license of censure yet if any thing therein shall in the least assist any good Soul in true Devotion I shall esteem the Publication abundantly recompensed to My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble and most obedient Servant Samuel Willes DERBY Apr 6. 1679. S. LUKE XX. 36. Neither can they die any more for they are equal unto the Angles and are the Children of God being the Children of the Resurrection THESE are our Saviour's words in answer to the Jewish Atheists the Sadducees who among their other Errors deni'd there was any Resurrection of the Dead These Men put a Case to our Saviour with a captious and malicious purpose to ensnare him in such Absurdities as they vainly conceiv'd his Answer would betray him to The Case was this A Woman in the course of her life had seven Husbands successively and survived them all Now supposing a Resurrection of the Dead to which of the seven shall this Woman appertain when she and they rise again For she was not more one Man's Wife than she was another's all must have her then or none This was their Question to which our Lord makes this return That the Woman at the Resurrection could be claim'd by none of all her Husbands For though the Children of this World marry and are given in Marriage Luke 20. 34 35. they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that World and the Resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in Marriage None of the ends for which that state was ordained having any place there There being no need of Procreation and multiplying and continuing Mankind nor of any remedy against Sin nor of any such help and comfort which that relation affords here There is no need of Procreation For the Children of the Resurrection cannot die any more And where there is no Death there is no want of such means to repair the ruines of Mortality Those that are to live for ever cannot need a succession to fill their room after them and to continue their kind Neither is there any need of a remedy against Sin For they are equal unto the Angles perfectly free from all fleshly inclinations having glorified Bodies utterly uncapable of those low desires They become pure and spiritual by the Resurrection as the Angles are by Nature Nor is there in the World to come the least need of that society help and comfort which the relation of Marriage affords here For they are the Children of God like unto him in a nearer and more exact resemblance than the greatest Grace can make us here The Children of the Resurrection shall be instated in so full and perfect Happiness and Glory as shall render all Assistances of the dearest and most helpful Relation perfectly needless What use can there be of such help and succour in that state where nothing can be wanting In this manner does our blessed Lord refute this idle Cavil of the Sadducees But this is not all For he was pleased here as elsewhere in the holy Gospel to take occasion from a spiteful and captious Question to declare and assert a great and necessary Truth making such a Reply as might at once silence their Malice and inform their Understanding And what was deliver'd for the conviction of those Gainsayers is equally useful for the comfort of all Believers And accordingly the Text instructs us in some considerable instances what shall be the state of Holy Men at the Resurrection Such Men being the Children of the Resurrection that is to say partakers of it for so the phrase imports such as are accounted worthy to obtain the World to come and the Resurrection from the Dead Of these happy Persons our Lord affirms three things as eminent parts of their Felicity and Glory I. Their perfect Immortality They can die no more II. Their similitude to the Angles They are equal to them III. Their resemblance even to God himself They are the Children of God I. Their perfect Immortality They cannot die any more The perfection of heavenly Glory is the perpetuity of it and the impossibility of ever losing it Otherwise fear of deprivation would imbitter even that ineffable state And the fulness of Joy which is in God's Presence would be defective were not those Pleasures for evermore But they are such as admit no Interruption and fear no Conclusion Alas we finde here that Life though in the best and most desired enjoyments and satisfactions of it has a bitter allay from the thoughts of Death Unprepared Men tremble at it and even the Best and most Holy are upon remembrance of Death stricken into Fear and Apprehension Nor do we dread Death only in contemplation of the Victory it must have over our Selves but over our Friends too the dear Companions and Pledges of our Love the Objects of our tenderest Affection the most kind and indulgent Husband the most obliging and agreeable Wife the most hopeful and promising Child the most provident and wise Father the most useful and faithful Friend who is as our own Soul

Immortality And this may suffice to shew though in a very imperfect manner the Similitude which the Children of the Resurrection have unto the Angles III. There remains another instance of their Glory in that happy Condition namely their resemblance even to God himself which is delivered in these terms They are the Children of God There is no remainder of those frail and perishing Principles in them which they derived from their Earthly Parents It is usual in the Scriptures of the New Testament to style them who by Faith and Repentance are born again the Children of God Thus Saint Paul Gal. 3. 26. Ye are all the Children of God by Faith in Christ Jesus And this Relation creates in us a likeness to our Heavenly Father Our Souls carry resembling 1 Pet. 1. 15. Lineaments It makes us holy as He is holy But certainly our Saviour in the Text intended more when he makes it a principal part of Heavenly Bliss that we are then the Children of God We shall then be more eminently more resemblingly so If Grace render us like him here Glory shall much more there His Image in us shall be infinitely more express our likeness to him more exact For every thing which in this Life gives us a resemblance to God shall then be raised to Perfection we shall then attain unto fulness of Stature And these imperfect Lines and first Draughts upon the Soul shall be fill'd up and finish't in that blessed state of Immortality But in what instances and in what manner this shall be is not for me to describe For S. John himself leaves it to future Manifestation 1 Joh. 3. 2. Beloved now we are the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear 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 For the present most sure it is that we are the Sons of God But how much more perfectly we shall be so at the Resurrection is not revealed as yet Only in general we shall be like unto God otherwise it would be impossible for us to sustain the beatific Vision to see him as he is or to enjoy that Blessedness which he will then impart to us But no words are significant enough to give any tollerable account of this happy Future State which is as unknown to us as the offices and entertainments of Life are to the Child in the Womb till our Powers and Capacities are come to their perfection And thus I have endeavoured to explain the Instances which the Text gives of the Glory we shall obtain in the Resurrection Neither can they die any more for they are equal unto the Angles and are the Children of God The Consideration whereof does certainly afford us the most powerful and effectual Consolation amidst all the Miseries of Humane Life For we can suffer nothing here that can bear the lowest proportion to the Retributions of another World when we shall become Immortal Angelical and even the Children of God in Glory This was St. Paul's Collection Rom. 8. 16 17 18. The Spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the Children of God And if Children then Heirs Heirs of God and Joynt-heirs with Chirst If so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together For I reckon that the Sufferings of this present Time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory which shall be revealed in us This Apostle's determination though exprest in general terms holds true in all particulars For example We want Health it may be our Bodies are full of Pains and Languishment our Days are uneasie and our Nights restless the most orderly Regiment of our selves and all the aids of the Physician can scarce preserve us in that sickly life we enjoy But here is our Comfort that in the Resurrection we shall be freed from these tormenting Sorrows This Mortal shall put on Immortality And though in this Tabernacle of the Body we do groan being burden'd with various and disquieting Maladies yet the time is coming when Mortality shall be swallowed up of Life 2 Cor. 5. 4. Perhaps we are reduced to Poverty and put to suffer the difficult Incumbrances of a needy condition In which as is usual many of our Friends forsake us and we have the additional sorrow of finding our selves Despised and become Ridiculous But still let us support our selves with the meditation of Heavenly Treasures laid up for us So did those Ancient Christians Heb. 10. 34. They took joyfully the spoiling of their Goods knowing in themselves that they had in Heaven a better and an enduring Substance exempted from Moth and Rust and from Thieves from Decay and from Violence Our lot perchance is to undergo the outrages of Persecution branded with Characters of Infamy Made as the Filth of the World and the Off-scouring 1 Cor. 4. 13. of all things and used accordingly But all this is abundantly recompensed in this Consideration that in the Resurrection we shall be owned and avouched as the Children of God Whereupon our Lord himself exhorts us thus Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven Mat. 5. 12. Death it may be makes breaches upon us in our Families or Friends First one falls and then another and scarce have we gotten over the Grief of one Funeral but a second calls us to the same sad Offices And these alarms of Mortality put us into expectations of our own Dissolution These are black and melancholic Contemplations till we bethink our selves that in the other World they and we cannot die any more and though we undergo a short separation we shall meet again at the Resurrection and enjoy a Heavenly Reunion which shall never be interrupted or embitter'd much less dissolved It is no doubt an unreasonable Imposition upon the gentleness of Humane Nature to forbid those tender expressions of Sorrow which are common over the Hearses of our Relations and Friends But 't is withal a mighty alleviation of our Grief when we have good reason to believe they died in the Favour and Love of God That the Angels attended and conducted their departed Souls to their heavenly Rest that they are now out of the danger of Temptation and having finisht their Course are gone to receive the Crown Methinks in the midst of our Lamentations we should not forbear even to rejoyce and gratulate the happiness of those dear Souls who are possest of that which above all other things we most passionately desired they might attain In a word When we have survey'd all the Afflictions and Troubles which in this frail and mortal Life we are subject to though 't is impossible to hinder their having some troublesome impressions upon our Spirits yet there are such infinite Comforts to be derived from the consideration of the future state of the Blessed as are sufficient to enable us not only to endure but to glory in Tribulations

These Deut. 13. 6 are snatcht from us by Death and these dear enjoyments render us the wider marks for misery and for sorrow And it cannot but shake us in our highest satisfactions to consider how near we stand for ought we know to the extremest loss and disappointment But O how happy will that state be wherein our Joys shall be compleat and perfect having in them not any the least mixture of sorrow or misery In all worldly delights either Defect or Satiety or Deprivation or all of them are great and perpetual diminishings of our content But none of them have any place in Heaven There our desires shall be more fully satisfied than 't is possible for us now to comprehend Our capacities of pleasure shall be sutable to those eternal joys and no possibility of ever being disturbed in those unspeakable enjoyments or deprived of them There we shall live in the Extasies and Raptures of glorified Communion with the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles and Martyrs and all the vertuous and pious Souls in the Church Triumphant And this without the abatements of Ignorance Envy or any of those passions which molest our correspondencies here There the Spirits of all just men shall be made perfect The glorious Society shall be for ever united in dearest Love swallowed up in the contemplation of God and of all his wondrous benefits to the sons of men and in returning those praises and services which our exalted souls shall then be able to perform And this blessed concourse shall be eternal Every Member in that glorified Assembly being out of all possibility of defection or end They cannot die any more Death can never find entrance The security of that Happiness shall be the Crown of it That Life must be eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is not possible they should die any more And is it not most just and reasonable that our Solicitude and Labour to attain this eternal Life should be proportionate to the dignity and excellencies of it Who would not part with all the Honours and Advancements with all the Riches and Possessions with the gilded follies and vanities of this World rather than fall short of a part in this Heavenly Kingdom We labour and toil endure and comply and do any thing and suffer every thing for the preservation and continuance of a mortal and perishing Life howsoever embitter'd to us but Good God! how little and how coldly are our Thoughts employ'd to make sure of everlasting Life We direct it may be some faint wishes that way now and then The fragments of our time perhaps may be employ'd a little that way too And 't is possible that some publick Consternation or some personal Fear may constrain and force in us some extraordinary applications towards Heaven for a time But the motion is artificial only and ceases when the weights are taken off Then we return to our former indifferency and all the negligences of delay We conclude it time enough to think of another World when we have served our turns in this Religion is a fit employment for melancholy Old-age when the Blood grows chill and languid the Face wrinkled when the Appetites to Pleasure and Folly forsake us when we come to the Staff and to the Couch and grow burdensome to our selves and to others when these evil Days are come Devotion may be a proper entertainment Till then 't is but a tormenting us before our time an imposing upon the pleasure and gaity of Life But certainly a Man must have very mean and vile thoughts of Eternal Life that does not esteem it worthy of more early and vigorous endeavours to gain it but would embrace it only when he sees he must depart from hence as an expedient to save him from Eternal Miseries That Man alone is likely to attain the Joys above who seeks first the Kingdom of God who makes it the great design and pursuit of his whole Life and who contains all inferiour things in their due distance and subordination Let us therefore be persuaded to call in all our stragling Affections and fix and employ all the powers of our Souls to the gaining this happy state of Immortality where we shall find all our labours and pains our self-denials and sufferings abundantly recompenced For there we shall have Knowledg without Mistake Possessions without fading Riches without care or loss Honour without Envy There shall be no Sufferings nor no Sins No more striving between the Flesh and Spirit Our Souls shall never desire to have more nor fear to have less There we shall enjoy all that our Hearts can wish and never grow weary of our wishes There we shall possess all that we desire and still desire the very things we possess In a word we shall be ravish'd in the beholding God satisfy'd in the enjoying him and all this without fear of losing him We shall dwell with the Eternal God in Life Eternal II. The Children of the Resurrection have a similitude to the blessed Angels They are equal unto the Angels Not in all points Different Natures must have different Proprieties Put if the Angels have advantage in some Instances we shall have it in others And particularly in the endearment of Redemption They reverence Jesus Christ as God we as a Saviour also They adore we love him His Glory affects them his Mercy us They desire to look into that Mystery which we enjoy Our fruition is their great Contemplation Their employment Heb. 1. last here in part is to minister for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation and in Heaven our Salvation fills them with wonder and extasy Lord what is Man that thou art so mindful of him A poor miserable sinful Wretch that thou shouldst so regard him But so shall it be with the Man whom the King of Heaven delighteth to Honour Oh the wonders of Divine Love The miracles of Redemption Dust and Ashes like unto the Angels Like unto them in Glory In fitness to serve God and in capacity of enjoying him 1. Like unto the Angels in Glory And what their Glory is and what ours shall be when we are made like unto them is impossible to be described any further than the holy Scriptures do afford us some intimations of it The Gospel Mat. 28. 3. represents the Angels appearance at the Sepulchre in terms more suited to our comprehensions than to his Glory Yet 't is said His Countenance was like Lightning and his Rayment white as Snow A glorious and amazing Lustre did encompass him which made Ver. 4. the Guards shake and become as dead Men. But as great as it was this was still a Glory restrain'd such as the Eyes of Men might endure to look upon For this Angel spake to the holy Women who thereupon Ver. 8. departed with fear and with great joy Their fear was not so great at his Presence as to extinguish their joy at his Message But when the Angels Glory is without check