Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	christian_a	lord_n	zion_n	18	3	8.8533	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89411	Several works of Mr. Iohn Murcot, that eminent and godly preacher of the Word, lately of a Church of Christ at Dublin in Ireland. Containing, I. Circumspect walking, on Eph. 5.15,16. II. The parable of the ten virgins, on Mat. 25. from ver. 1. to ver. 14. III. The sun of righteousness hath healing in his wings for sinners, on Mal. 4.2. IV. Christs willingness to receive humble sinners, on John 6.37. Together with his life and death. Published by Mr. Winter, Mr. Chambers, Mr. Eaton, Mr. Carryl, and Mr. Manton. With alphabetical tables, and a table of the Scriptures explained throughout the whole.	Murcot, John, 1625-1654.; Winter, Samuel, 1596?-1665.; Chambers, Robert, minister in Dublin.; Eaton, Samuel, 1506?-1665.; Manton, Thomas, 1620-1677.; Caryl, Joseph, 1602-1673.; J. G.	1657 (1657)	Wing M3083; Thomason E911_1; ESTC R202939	754,107	852

view beseeching the Father of Lights to bless and own it with like success and entertainment in the hearts of those that shall read it as he did when it was at first preached Remaining Christian Reader Thy friends in and for the Truths sake Samuel Winter Robert Chambers Christian Reader MY Design in these few lines to thee is not to commend the work that is here presented to thy view I suppose it will sufficiently commend it self And if it should be otherwise it is not I nor any other who by a bare testimony can add to the Merit of it For though I must ingenuously confess that since it was left with me I have not had time to read it exactly nor could I keep it longer in my hands to satisfie my self that way without some injury having been confined in my retaining of it with me to a certain time Yet so far as I read I have observed that with much satisfaction to my self which I judge may be acceptable to others both to instruct them as also to awaken quicken refresh comfort them so that those who are wise and will diligently observe what they read may be greatly edified thereby My intent is rather to speak of the man that precious servant of Jesus Christ Mr. Murcot who now is taken to his rest in that near Communion which he enjoyes with and in his blessed Head then of any particular work of his I first knew him when he lived in Wirral near Chester and there was reason that I should be familiarly acquainted with him at that time both because he was Preacher at a place and also to a people there to many of whom my self in former times stood related till the violence of the then prevailing Prelates expulsed me thence and also because he took to wife from among us Mrs. Hester Marsden well reputed of by us and who now survives him a serious Mourner under the heavy loss of him He was while he lived there the glory of that Countrey A very quick and lively and powerful Preacher he was and mighty in prayer Eminent for piety gravity and holy innocency warming and heating the hearts of the Saints by his doctrine and life a considerable part whereof he spent in holy Communion with them And over-awing and silencing the rest of men where he lived by his wise grave and harmless conversation Dearly loved he was by some and greatly reverenced by others But in Ireland especially in the chief City thereof Dublin to which place he went when he left Wirrall and where he ended his daies he became like Jonah his Gourd he sprung up as it were in a night his growth was wonderful in that place he filled that City I may say in some sense that Land with his shadow his fame went abroad through the whole Countrey and reached to many parts of this Nation also And when the Providence of the Lord carried me over thither which was about twelve moneths since and about six moneths after he had finished his course though my stay there was but for a little moment yet I met with the sweet savour of his precious name which was like an oyntment poured forth in all places where I travelled God was doubtless very remarkably with him for a great work was done by him in a short time as it is clearly witnessed by all good people that live there He spake the Word of God as one who was much with God and indeed he had alwaies much inward close Communion with God in secret before he revealed any thing of him or from him openly He studied the peoples distempers and found out that formality was the great epidemical disease among professors as indeed so it is every where in this declining age And he was wisely guided in the choice of such soul-searching Scriptures by which he might then separate the Sheep from the Goats the wise Virgins from the foolish which will be Christs work hereafter In a word for prolixity is not so suitable for one who now presents all upon report there being all the while he lived there a Sea betwixt him and me he was a most industrious vigilant Pastor and a most austere and self-observing Christian And this Crown of glory the Lord put upon him which few others have had the honour to wear he was like a rising Star ever to his death in a rising State increasing in spiritual height and stature every day and grew more eminent and excellent in his gifts graces labours usefulness and profitableness continually and he lived not to be at a stay much less to decline but when he was nearest heaven the Lord carried him thither He may be reckoned among the Lords Worthies of whom the world was not worthy The Lord hath taken him but his remembrance will not be so soon gone He will live while any that knew him shall live and afterwards also if the Lords blessing shall accompany the rehearsal of his life and death and his Sermons Printed in such sort as his blessing hath attended the passing and spending of his life and his dying and in the preaching of such Sermons All which were greatly sanctified to the people that beheld and heard them Now that it may be so shall be the earnest prayer of Thy real friend to serve thee in the Lord Sam. Eaton Christian READER I Never knew the Author of this Work in Person while he lived but being dead I know him by his Picture and that the Picture of his better and more noble part The first Part of this Book is formally so being a very exact draft of his whole Life and the image of his inner Man in all the Divine Colours Lights Lineaments and beauties of it Few men have found such a Pen●il to draw them and few Pencils have found such a man to draw He was but a little while in the world but he lived long else he had never yielded true Materials for so long a History of his Life The following Parts of the Book are vertually so I mean the Picture of his better Part or the image of his mind in which though dead he yet speaketh and breatheth through every Page and Line Truth and Holiness Zeal for God and Compassion to the Souls of men his own Tasts that the Lord is Gracious and ●is longing Desires to make others partake of the same Grace which himself had tasted Read the Book and therein you have the Soul of a faithful Minister of the Gospel copied out It is an amazing Providence to see many unprofitable Drones Idol Shepherds blind Guides Men whose Graces are not at all discernable in their lives and whose gifts are sapless Spiritless and upon the matter useless in their Ministery live to old age and wither upon the Stalk while others of shining Graces of lively Gifts and of unwearied Industry in the Lords Vineyard are cropt off in the very blooming and as soon as shewed to the world called out of it

transmit unto Posterity the Names Memories Gracious Conversations of eminenter Saints especially Ministers who in their several Sphears and Generations have shined like stars of the first magnitude streaming and issuing forth a more then ordinary and illustrious Light 2. The lives of morally honest Heathens are both recorded and read with profit not only by fellow pagans but by us Christians Who knows not that Plutarch● lives have in them many things serving for Caution and Imitation More advantage doubtless will redound by reading the lives of the Evangelically spiritually and really religious 3 We have the warrant of sacred Writ which being not only Doctrinal but in a great part Historical doth much incourage to a Practise of this Nature The 11. Chap. of the Epistle to the Hebrews you will find to be an Epitome of the lives of the Fathers Now where we have the Spirit of God going before we may well follow after 4. The extraordinary strictness exemplary severity unwearied industry and activity of this man of God in the waies and work of the Lord do exceedingly excite and strongly provoke to make him thus publike and to propose the holiness of his life and comforts in death for the direction and consolation of those whose faces are set towards Sion and to whom this account of him shall come 5. That God may have the glory of what he had done in him in a way of gracious discoveries and manifestations of what he had done for him in a way of clear providences and encouraging dispensations of what he had done by him in giving success unto his labours and letting him see the travel of his soul to his no small solace and satisfaction 6. That the Name of such a Pleasant Plant and fruitful Bough might be preserved fresh green and verdant in the memories of Gods people e●ough himself be withe●ed lopt off by the hand of death and fo● a while laid in the dust As Abel so other Saints though dead may yet speak and be made known And O what a glorious thing is it when departed souls are lodged in Abrahams blissful bosom and dead bodies intombed in living Sepulchres sending forth a sweet and refreshing savour into the nostrils of surviving friends A flower may smell sweet after it is cropt and a way made for the Sun to shine after it is set Mr. John Murcot the History of whose life is now to be related was born in the antient Town of Warwick of Parents considerable for their Extraction more for their shining and pious conversation His Fathers name Job Murcot who applyed himself to the study of the Law which brought him in a competent and comfortable subsistence though since humbled by the calamitous inconveniences of these distracted times whose various revolutions have occasioned a wasting and undoing unto many His mothers name before her marriage with his Father was Joan Townsend of raised parts and eminent piety the happy mother of an hopeful son the renowned Root from whence apppeared and sprouted up this fair and flourishing Branch planted by the Rivers of water who brought forth his fruit in his ●eason his leaves did not wither and whatsoever he did the Lord made it to prosper His Parents were conscientiously careful of his education made it their business to season him with sound and solid Principles in his young and tender years which he greedily suckt in as having an early thirst after God and he who erst while hung on his Mothers breast for milk now hangs on her lips for instruction His Parents perceiving in this their young Timothy an ardent desire to be intimately acquainted with the Scriptures and in order thereunto with Academical learning were very prone to contribute their endeavours towards the ripening of these hopeful Buddings and promising Beginnings and therefore in the first place committed him to the care and tuition of an able and godly School-master Mr. Dugard who instilled instruction both with his lips and life desirous to make him not only a Scholar but a Christian It s hard to say 〈◊〉 which was more diligent and industrious the Master in teaching or the Scholar in learning Time was not mispent and prodigally expended in the eager pursuite of childish vanities he ran at his first seting out and did not lazily loiter when he should be minding his work yea when other boyes would be sporting and playing he would be studiously retired solitariness and meditation being unto him instead of recreation Being competently furnished for the University his Father sent him to Oxford where he continued his former diligence in his studies under the conduct and oversight of Mr. Button his faithful and religious Tutor in Merton Colledge About two years after his thriving abode there the Kings Forces possessed themselves of Oxford put all things into an hurry and ingaged the students in such perplexing snares that Mr. Murcot to disintangle himself out of these uncouth inconveniences fled from Oxford disguised and repaired to the House of Mr. Leigh of Budworth an antient grave able and learned man and Minister of that place and there studied hard both day and night allowing himself but four hours for sleep so intent was he upon his Book and so wholly taken up with religious Exercises The cloud being blown over he repaired the second time to the University and his former diligence which caused the eyes of many to fix and fasten on him as perceiving something more then ordinary in him and expecting more than ordinary from him Though means and maintenance were now very short yet it did not discourage and cause him to de●ist he did not unbend the Bow and slacken the string he still stood an end to his Oar and with wonted diligence prosecuted his studies it being his meat and his drink to do his Fathers will Having taken his degree he returned to his old friend Mr. Leigh and was several waies useful to him who now called upon him to appear in publike which he did not without much fear and trembling as being conscious to himself of his own inabilities for so ponderous an employment and loth to put to his shoulders lest he should sink under the burden But being pressed and egged on by his friends and a Call from the Inhabitants of Ashbury he entred into the Lords Vineyard put his hand unto the Plough and was ordained a Minister at Manchest●● He professed to use his own words that he was drawn as a Bear to the stake complaining and often bewailing his want of a sufficient stock of University learning The Lord was pleased to own him in his first attempts and endeavours giving him a seal unto his Ministry by the conversion of two especially who being awakened by his sound Doctrine smart expression and powerful delivery sadly bemoaned themselves and mourned over their lost condition even in publike From Ashbury a call being cleared up he removed to Eastham in Woral and gained mightily upon the affections of many especially the godly

be stirred because that maketh him sensible of his condition O! such a mans condition is very dangerous and is not this the case of our souls Brethren O! what malignity is in sin the poyson and filthyness and hurt of all diseases and wounds are little enough to set it forth by and how sensible are we of a wound of a disease of the body how insensible of the diseases of the soul Well in order to a healing the Lord give us a feeling But this is but the first But a little further to open the nature of sin on this occasion which our Doctrine administers to us that which is to be healed you have heard is sin and that which needeth healing is either a disease or wound they are correlatives that you have heard already it is therefore compared to many sorts of diseases wounds and putrifying sores and bruises But now I will speak a little Brethren to the ill qualities and consequences of sin considered as such which may tend to turn our hearts against it for the time to come First then there is pain and anguish in most diseases and in every wound and bruise and especially in cankerings festered sores this is a proper passion of a disease to have pain and truly Brethren so hath every sin a pain with it first or last it is true the cup of pleasures goeth down merily with Sinners but when it s down it is a cup of trembling to them do but look on Gain when he had sinned in pouring out his Brothers blood he quenched his bloody thirst but kindled a fire in his bowels which did consume him Oh every one that meeteth me will kill me fear hath torment as John saith and see how full of fears a poor sinner is The wicked flee when none pursueth the very stones and beasts being at enmity with them they fear they shall be murthered by each of them And how did Foelix tremble when Paul disputed of righteousness temperance and judgement to come as long as they can keep out the sight of God as they think they are well But bring a Sinner and set him as it were in the face of God let him but look on him as a righteous Judge of all the world and most mighty to execute his pleasure on Sinners and then tell me whether the stoutest hearted-sinner do not quail as usually at the hour of death for truly for the most part men seldom seriously eye their condition before then How did the Jaylour spring in trembling in the Acts Ah the Sinners in Sion are afraid Fearfulness hath surprized the Hypocrites who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire who shall dwell with everlasting burnings Alas the stubble will not endure before the fire no more can sinners endure to look on God as a consuming fire it maketh the very heart ach except altogether hardened from his fear to behold him because they know themselves guilty and lyable to those burnings There is saith the Apostle a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries Can a poor condemned Prisoner look on the Iudge think on the Tree on which he must be hanged on the fire but with fear and trembling Can Belshazzar read his sentence on the wall the hand-writing but with terrour his knees knocking one against another Ah Brethren methinks Sinners that are yet in their sins should not read a leaf in the Bible each leaf concerneth him is 〈◊〉 doom but he should even smite his thighs together there is so much terrour and fear accompanying sin Memoria testis ratio index timor carnifex saith Bern. As the Saints have some antipasts of Heaven a bunch of Grapes before they come to Cannan an earnest of that joy unspeakable and full of Glory so doubtless Sinners they have some hours of darkness coming on them some wrings and gripes of a guilty conscience that sometimes made some of them run to an halter to a sword for ease none knoweth the hell of a guilty conscience but such as have felt it Oh the wrackings the distortions of the Soul The pulling of the very heart in pieces and the rending of the very Bowels in pieces with these imprisoned passions in the Soul But secondly Even in sinners that repent Brethren though the wound be then healing there is pain also you know Now the Lord Jesus cometh in mercy to rouze the soul to shame it out of its evil courses and is shame nothing a man cannot hold up his head he is confounded ye are now ashamed saith the Apostle of the things which ye have done before can you look back on your former vain and filthy conversation and your hearts not be ashamed your consciences not be ashamed there is inward shame and confusion though it appear not outwardly So in that place of Ezekiel Thou shalt remember thy ways and be ashamed that thou mayst remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame when I am pacified toward thee There will be a godly sorrow which works repentance and never was there any repentance without sorrow there 's a pricking of the heart and pricking in the reins Acts 2. 37. There is no rest in the flesh by reason of the sin and broken bones That the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce Is it not sin that turns away the face of God and what then can arise to the soul but trouble Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled This is the first thing there is pain in sin and trouble it troubles our hearts and troubles our houses as it did Cains troubles the City and Country troubleth Israel Secondly In sin Brethren or accompanying it there is weakness and indisposedness when it s but growing on us it seizeth on the spirits the vigour first So how lazie and listless are we for divers days bef●●e it do appear and much more afterward Morbus is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How wonderfully doth sin unbefit us for duty we even move to it as an arm or foot out of joynt when a man endeavours to bow it one way it falls quite another way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lust where they are in prevalency they are like to wens in a mans body which suck up the strength nourishment that which should supply the rest of the members it turns to its own swelling So doth pride turn that which should humble us that which would inflame our hearts and melt us to it self and so weakens us keepeth our love at an under that we cannot so livelily vigorously serve the Lord. We complain of our weak hands and feeble knees our indisposedness to the service of God believe it this is the reason of it sin unmortified this makes men reprobate to every good work men of no judgement no dexterity at all to