Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	darkness_n	life_n	light_n	10,138	5	6.6375	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64132	A sermon preached in Christs-Church, Dublin, July 16, 1663, at the funeral of the most Reverend Father in God John, late Lord Archbishop of Armagh and primate of all Ireland with a succint narrative of his whole life / by the Right Reverend Father in God Jeremy, Lord Bishop of Down and Connor.	Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.	1663 (1663)	Wing T396; ESTC R11878	29,244	70

or we shall never partake of this blessed Resurrection He was made the Son of God in a most glorious manner and we by him by his merit and by his grace and by his example but other then this there is no way of Salvation for us That 's the first and great effect of this glorious order 4. But there is one thing more in it yet Every Man in his own order First Christ and then Christ's But what shall become of them that are not Christ's why there is an order for them too First they that are Christ's and then they that are not his Blessed and holy is he that hath his part in the first resurrection There is a first and a second Resurrection even after this life The dead in Christ shall rise first Now blessed are they that have their portion here for upon these the second death shall have no power As for the recalling the wicked from their graves it is no otherwise in the sense of the Spirit to be called a Resurrection then taking a Criminal from the Prison to the Bar is a giving of liberty When poor Attilius Aviola had been seized on by an Apoplexy his friends supposing him dead carried him to his Funeral pile but when the fire began to approch and the heat to warm the body he reviv'd and seeing himself incircled with Funeral flames call'd out aloud to his friends to rescue not the dead but the living Aviola from that horrid burning But it could not be He onely was restor'd from his sickness to fall into death and from his dull disease to a sharp and intolerable torment Just so shall the wicked live again they shall receive their souls that they may be a portion for Devils they shall receive their bodies that they may feel the everlasting burning they shall see Christ that they may look on him whom they have pierced and they shall hear the voice of God passing upon them the intolerable sentence they shall come from their graves that they may go into hell and live again that they may die for ever So have we seen a poor condemned Criminal the weight of whose sorrows sitting heavily upon his soul hath benummed him into a deep sleep till he hath forgotten his grones and laid aside his deep sighings but on a sudden comes the messenger of death and unbinds the Poppy garland scatters the heavy cloud that incircled his miserable head and makes him return to acts of life that he may quickly descend into death and be no more So is every sinner that lies down in shame and makes his grave with the wicked he shall indeed rise again and be called upon by the voice of the Archangel but then he shall descend into sorrows greater then the reason and the patience of a man weeping and shrieking louder then the grones of the miserable children in the Valley of Hinnon These indeed are sad stories but true as the voice of God and the Sermons of the holy Jesus They are Gods words and Gods decrees and I wish that all who profess the belief of these would consider sadly what they mean If ye believe the Article of the Resurrection then you know that in your body you shall receive what you did in the body whether it be good or bad It matters not now very much whether our bodies be beauteous or deformed for if we glorifie God in our bodies God shall make our bodies glorious It matters not much whether we live in ease and pleasure or eat nothing but bitter herbs the body that lies in dust and ashes that goes stooping and feeble that lodges at the foot of the Cross and dwells in discipline shall be feasted at the eternal supper of the Lamb. And ever remember this that beastly pleasures and lying lips and a deceitful tongue and a heart that sendeth forth proud things are no good dispositions to a blessed Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not good that in the body we live a life of Dissolution for that 's no good harmony with that purpose of glory which God designs the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Phocyllides for we hope that from our beds of darkness we shall rise into Regions of light and shall become like unto God They shall partake of a Resurrection to life and what this can infer is very obvious For i● it be so hard to believe a Resurrection from one death let us not be dead in trespasses and sins for a Resurrection from two deaths will be harder to be believ'd and harder to be effected But if any of you have lost the life of Grace and so forfeited all your title to a life of Glory betake your selves to an early and an entire piety that when by this first Resurrection you have made this way plain before your face you may with confidence expect a happy Resurrection from your graves For if it be possible that the spirit when it is dead in sin can arise to a life of righteousness much more it is easie to suppose that the body after death is capable of being restor'd again And this is a consequent of S. Pauls argument If when ye were enemies ye were reconciled by his death much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life plainly declaring that it is a harder and more wonderful thing for a wicked man to become the friend of God then for one that is so to be carried up to heaven and partake of his glory The first Resurrection is certainly the greater miracle But he that hath risen once may rise again and this is as sure as that he that dies once may die again and die for ever But he who partakes of the death of Christ by Mortification and of his Resurrection by holiness of life and a holy Faith shall according to the expression of the Prophet Isaiah Enter into his chamber of death when Nature and Gods decree shall shut the doors upon him and there he shall be hidden for a little moment But then shall they that dwell in dust awake and sing with Christs dead body shall they arise all shall rise but every man in his own order Christ the first fruits then they that are Christs at his coming Amen I have now done with my Meditation of the Resurrection but we have a new and a sadder subject to consider It is glorious and brave when a Christian contemplates those glories which stand at the foot of the Account of all God's Servants but when we consider that before all or any thing of this happens every Christian must ●wice exuere hominem put off the Old man and then lie down in dust and the dishonours of the Grave it is Vinum Myrrhatum there is Myrrhe put into our Wine it is wholsom but it will allay all our pleasures of that glorious expectation But no man can escape it After that the Great Cyrus had rul'd long in a

Imprimatur Sept. 21.1663 M. FRANCK S.T.D. R sso in X te P. ac D no. D. GILB Archiep. Cant. à Sacris Dom. A SERMON Preached in Christs-Church Dublin Iuly 16. 1663. AT THE FUNERAL Of the most Reverend Father in God IOHN Late Lord Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland WITH A succinct Narrative of his whole Life The third Edition enlarged By the Right Reverend Father in God JEREMY Lord Bishop of Down and Connor LONDON Printed by I. G. for Richard Royston Bookseller to the Kings most Excellent Majesty 1663. 1 Cor. 15. 23. But every Man in his own order Christ the first fruits afterward they that are Christ's at his coming THe Condition of Man in this world is so limited and depressed so relative and imperfect that the best things he does he does weakly and the best things he hath are imperfections in their very constitution I need not tell how little it is that we know the greatest indication of this is That we can never tell how many things we know not and we may soon span our own Knowledge but our Ignorance we can never fathom Our very Will in which Mankind pretends to be most noble and imperial is a direct state of imperfection and our very liberty of Chusing good and evil is permitted to us not to make us proud but to make us humble for it supposes weakness of Reason and weakness of Love For if we understood all the degrees of Amability in the Service of God or if we had such love to God as he deserves and so perfect a conviction as were fit for his Services we could no more Deliberate For Liberty of Will is like the motion of a Magnetick Needle toward the North full of trembling and uncertainty till it were fixed in the beloved Point it wavers as long as it is free and is at rest when it can chuse no more And truly what is the hope of Man It is indeed the resurrection of the Soul in this world from sorrow and her saddest pressures and like the Twilight to the Day and the Harbinger of joy but still it is but a conjugation of Infirmities and proclaims our present calamity onely because it is uneasie here it thrusts us forwards toward the light and glories of the Resurrection For as a Worm creeping with her belly on the ground with her portion and share of Adam's curse lifts up its head to partake a little of the blessings of the air and opens the junctures of her imperfect body and curles her little rings into knots and combinations drawing up her tail to a neighbourhood of the heads pleasure and motion but still it must return to abide the fate of its own nature and dwell and sleep upon the dust So are the hopes of a mortal Man he opens his eyes and looks upon fine things at distance and shuts them again with weakness because they are too glorious to behold and the Man rejoyces because he hopes fine things are staying for him but his heart akes because he knows there are a thousand wayes to fail and miss of those glories though he hopes yet he enjoys not he longs but he possesses not and must be content with his portion of dust and being a worm and no Man must lie down in this portion before he can receive the end of his hopes the Salvation of his Soul in the resurrection of the dead For as Death is the end of our lives so is the Resurrection the end of our hopes and as we die daily so we daily hope but Death which is the end of our life is the enlargement of our Spirits from hope to certainty from uncertain fears to certain expectations from the death of the body to the life of the soul that is to partake of the light and life of Christ to rise to life as he did for his Resurrection is the beginning of ours He died for us alone not for himself but he rose again for himself and us too So that if he did rise so shall we the Resurrection shall be universal good and bad all shall rise but not altogether First Christ then we that are Christs and yet there is a third Resurrection though not spoken of here but thus it shall be The dead in Christ shall rise first that is next to Christ and after them the wicked shall rise to condemnation So that you see here is the summe of affairs treated of in my Text Not whether it be lawful to eat a Tortoise or a Mushrome or to tread with the foot bare upon the ground within the Octaves of Easter It is not here inquired whether Angels be material or immaterial or whether the dwellings of dead Infants be within the Air or in the regions of the Earth the inquiry here is whether we are to be Christians or no whether we are to live good lives or no or whether it be permitted to us to live with Lust or Covetousness acted with all the daughters of rapine and ambition whether there be any such thing as sin any judicatory for Consciences any rewards of Piety any difference of Good and Bad any rewards after this life This is the design of these words by proper interpretation for if Men shall die like Dogs and sheep they will certainly live like Wolves and Foxes but he that believes the Article of the Resurrection hath entertained the greatest Demonstration in the world That nothing can make us happy but the Knowledge of God and Conformity to the life and death of the holy Jesus Here therefore are the great Hinges of all Religion 1. Christ is already risen from the dead 2. We also shall rise in Gods time and our order Christ is the first fruits But there shall be a full harvest of the Resurrection and all shall rise My Text speaks onely of the Resurrection of the just of them that belong to Christ explicitely I say of these and therefore directly of Resurrection to life eternal But because he also sayes there shall be an order for every man and yet every man does not belong to Christ therefore indirectly also he implies the more universal Resurrection unto judgment But this shall be the last thing that shall be done for according to the Proverb of the Jews Michael flies but with one wing and Gabriel with two God is quick in sending Angels of peace and they flye apace but the messengers of wrath come slowly God is more hasty to glorifie his servants then to condemn the wicked And therefore in the story of Dives and Lazarus we find that the beggar died first the good man Lazarus was first taken away from his misery to his comfort and afterwards the rich man died and as the good many times die first so all of them rise first as if it were a matter of haste And as the mothers breasts swell and shoot and long to give food to her babe so Gods bowels did yearn over his banish'd

the Resurrection was pleased not onely to make it credible but easie and familiar to us and we so converse every night with the Image of death that every morning we find an argument of the Resurrection Sleep and Death have but one mother and they have one name in common Soles occidere redire possunt Nobis cum semel occidit lux brevis Nox est perpetua una dormienda Catul. Charnel-houses are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cemeteries or sleeping-places and they that die are fallen asleep and the Resurrection is but an awakening and standing up from sleep but in sleep our Senses are as fast bound by Nature as our Joynts are by the grave-clothes and unless an Angel of God awaken us every morning we must confess our selves as unable to converse with Men as we now are afraid to die and to converse with Spirits But however Death it self is no more it is but darkness and a shadow a rest and a forgetfulness What is there more in death what is there less in sleep For do we not see by experience that nothing of equal loudness does awaken us sooner then a Mans voice especially if he be call'd by name and thus also it shall be in the Resurrection We shall be awakened by the voice of a Man and he that call'd Lazarus by name from his grave shall also call us for although S. Paul affirms that the trumpet shall sound and there shall be the voice of an Archangel yet this is not a word of Nature but of Office and Ministry Christ himself is that Archangel and he shall descend with a mighty shout saith the Apostle and all that are in the grave shall hear his voice saith S. John So that we shall be awakened by the voice of a Man because we are onely fallen asleep by the decree of God and when the Cock and the Lark call us up to prayer and labour the first thing we see is an argument of our Resurrection from the dead And when we consider what the Greek Church reports That amongst them the bodies of those that die Excommunicate will not return to dust till the Censure be taken off we may with a little faith and reason believe that the same power that keeps them from their natural Dissolution can recall them to life and union I will not now insist upon the story of the Rising Bones seen every year in Egypt nor the pretences of the Chymists that they from the ashes of Flowers can re-produce from the same materials the same beauties in colour and figure for he that proves a certain Truth from an uncertain Argument is like him that wears a Wooden leg when he hath two sound legs already it hinders his going but helps him not The Truth of God stands not in need of such supporters Nature alone is a sufficient preacher Quae nunc herba fuit lignum jacet herba futura Aeriae nudantur aves cum penna vetusta Et nova subvestit reparatas pluma volucres Night and Day the Sun returning to the same point of East every change of Species in the same matter Generation and Corruption the Eagle renewing her youth and the Snake her skin the Silk-worm and the Swallows the care of posterity and the care of an immortal name Winter and Summer the Fall and Spring the Old Testament and the New the words of Job and the Visions of the Prophets the prayer of Ezekiel for the resurrection of the men of Ephraim and the return of Jonas from the Whales belly the histories of the Jews and the Narratives of Christians the Faith of Believers and the Philosophy of the reasonable all joyn in the verification of this Mystery And amongst these heaps it is not of the least consideration that there was never any good man who having been taught this Article but if he serv'd God he also relied upon this If he believ'd God he believ'd this and therefore S. Paul sayes that they who were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they who had no hope meaning of the Resurrection were also Atheists and without God in the world And it is remarkable what S. Augustine observes That when the World saw the righteous Abel destroyed and that the murderer out-liv'd his crime and built up a numerous family and grew mighty upon Earth they neglected the Service of God upon that account till God in pity of their prejudice and foolish arguings took Enoch up to heaven to recover them from their impieties by shewing them that their bodies and souls should be rewarded for ever in an eternal union But Christ the first fruits is gone before and himself did promise that when himself was lifted up he would draw all men after him Every man in his own order first Christ then they that are Christ's at his coming And so I have done with the second Particular not Christ onely but we also shall rise in Gods time and our order But concerning this order I must speak a word or two not only for the fuller handling the Text but because it will be matter of application of what hath been already spoken of the Article of the Resurrection 3. First Christ and then we And we therefore because Christ is already risen But you must remember that the Resurrection and Exaltation of Christ was the reward of his perfect obedience and purest holiness and he calling us to an imitation of the same obedience and the same perfect holiness prepares a way for us to the same Resurrection If we by holiness become the Sons of God as Christ was we shall also as he was become the Sons of God in the Resurrection But upon no other terms So said our blessed Lord himself Ye which have followed me in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory ye also shall sit upon thrones judging the tribes of Israel For as it was with Christ the first fruits so it shall be with all Christians in their own order as with the Head so it shall be with the Members He was the Son of God by love and obedience and then became the Son of God by Resurrection from the dead to life Eternal and so shall we but we cannot be so in any other way To them that are Christ's and to none else shall this be given For we must know that God hath sent Christ into the World to be a great example and demonstration of the Oeconomy and Dispensation of Eternal life As God brought Christ to glory so he will bring us but by no other method He first obeyed the will of God and patiently suffered the will of God he died and rose again and entered into glory and so must we Thus Christ is made Via Veritas Vita the Way the Truth and the Life that is the true way to Eternal life He first trode this Wine-press and we must insist in the same steps