Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	day_n	die_v	judgement_n	4,265	5	6.1046	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31344	A sermon preach'd at the funeral of the Right Honourable the Lady Viscountess Dowager Cholmondeley at Malpas in Cheshire on the last day of February, 1691/2 / by Samuel Catherall ...	Catherall, Samuel, 1661?-1723.	1692 (1692)	Wing C1491; ESTC R35477	14,855	31

of Charity we are apt to pass the most favourable Interpretation upon the Deaths of such poor ignorant Persons and to hope that they dye in the Lord Yet this is indeed is far from the true Notion of living and of dying well For indeed the effectual Knowledge that is able to save a Man in the hour of Death and in the day of Judgment is that only true and saving Knowledge applyed to the departing Soul viz. The Knowledge of Christ and him Crucified For this as the Scripture speaks is the one thing necessary This is Life Eternal not to be ignorant of but to * Joh. 17 3. Know the onely True God and his Son Christ Jesus And the Truth is upon the whole Matter it 's a most horrid thing to be consider'd that Men and Women both should make it their chiefest study in this World to live fashionably and to dye genteelly And yet in the mean time that so few should make it their business to learn the Holy Art of Living and Dying like true Christians And this leads us to the Discussion of the third and last particular propos'd Wherein we are to shew what it is truly to live well and what it is to dye well Now for a Man truly to live and truly to dye well is for him to live up to the Profession of his Religion and to dye in the sincere Practice of that Religion which he professes For this as the Scripture speaks is the Summ and All of the Christian Calling namely that we should continue ●ev 2.10 Faithful unto Death and then we may expect to receive the Crown of Life It was a most unhappy Cheat that the Devil put upon our first Parents in Paradice in perswading 'em that Man's happiness consisted not in the doing but barely in the knowing of good But Christ himself tells us that whatever good things we know we are not likely to be * ●oh 13.17 happy unless we do them And the Truth is the Christian Religion is the most active as well as the most nice sort of War and Business whereby Men are engaged not to act and fight against one another as they do but to fight against themselves For the Christian Life is indeed an holy Warfare and a Man by the Grace of God and the help of Religion must live down his own wicked self and the Christian Souldier can never expect to be at peace with God till he has warr'd down and destroy'd the whole body of Sin Indeed the good Christian may then be said to live when he lives unto the Lord But then no man can be said to live unto the Lord but he that dyes to Sin And in this Sence it might be that good King David said He was kill'd all the day long that is as St. Paul says He acted a constant Death upon himself in dying daily unto Sin So that then it is that a man begins to live himself up into a good Christian when he has happily out-liv'd his natural Corruptions that made him a bad man And thus the Life of the Christian and the New Creature as the Scripture speaks is form'd out of the Death of the Old Man with his Deeds And thus the good Christians Life and Conversation may be said to be in Heaven when himself and his * Ga● 2● Affections are thus intirely Crucified to the World I say wholly and intirely Crucified For the good Christian does not at that time only begin to live soberly godly and righteously in this World just then when he is a dying and departing into the next Neither does the good Christian then only begin to think of sending for the Physitian of the Soul when there is no longer any hopes in the Doctor of the Body But the good Christian to make the Evening Sacrifice of his Death acceptable to God he takes care all his Life long to offer up himself and his whole Body and Soul a living Sacrifice unto the Lord Nor will this hearty and this holy Liver ever cease mortifying and subduing both his Body and Soul till he has reduc't brought down every proud and passionate every rebellious Thought to the * 2 Co● 10.5 Obedience and to the Will of God so that the good and thorow-pac't Christian that is every way thus Religiously mortified may without the strain of a Paradox be said to out-live his Death For this holy Liver and Dyer as the Scripture speaks is already * 1 Joh● 14. pass'd from Death to Life since having dy'd once unto sin Death has no more Dominion over him And so such a Christian as this cannot be so properly said to dye as to lay down his Life onely that he may take it up again To put off what was mortal that he may be cloath'd with Immortality In a Word the good Christian's Death is yet more than Life to him for thereby he exchanges Earth for Heaven and lays down the Life of a Man that he may take up that of an Angel But whilst I am thus endeavouring to set before your eyes a Scheme of Holy Living and Dying a more advantageous and inviting Prospect of both must I am sensible entertain and present it self to the thoughts of all those that are come hither to Celebrate the Memory and Merits of this Great and Honourable Persons Life as well as attend the Melancholy Solemnities of her Funeral For this indeed is what at once justifies and recommends the use of Preaching upon these Occasions when the shining Vertues of the Deceas'd are sufficient to make the clearest Comment upon the Text and when the Exemplary Life of the Dead survives and yet speaks as the best proof of the Preachers Doctrin Otherwise indeed a Funeral Solemnity would in a Literal sense be no more than the Dead burying their Dead And a Funeral Sermon instead of speaking well of the Dead might pass for little better than a Satyr both upon the Dead and Living But whatever as a motive to our Living well has been here said of the Death of the Righteous makes but a faint Description of this no less good than great Person who most certainly liv'd so as to dye one of that blessed Number And by so living and dying has indeed left behind her to Posterity such a Legacy and stock of vertues as few have equall'd but All I am sure are concern'd to imitate and commend That this is not the Language of Designing flattery or a servile Dependance All Persons who had the Honour of knowing Her Ladyship will need no other Conviction And then I am sure that they who knew any thing of Her Ladyship's Temper and Qualifications could not but observe those degrees of meekness and humility in her Life that could never design a Panegyrick at her Death And indeed that this meek and good Person intended nothing of Harangue in her Funeral Sermon is yet more evident from the humble Choice she was pleased to make of

A Sermon Preach'd at the FUNERAL OF THE Right Honourable The LADY Viscountess Dowager Cholmondeley At MALPAS in Cheshire on the Last Day of February 1691 2. By Samuel Catherall M. A. and Chaplain to the Right Honourable Hugh Lord Viscount Cholmondeley LONDON Printed for Robert Clavell at the Peacock in St. Pauls-Church-yard 1692. To the Honourable MADAM EGERTON Only Daughter of the Right Honourable The Lady Viscountess Cholmondeley c. MADAM THere need no other Considerations to recommend and perpetuate the Memory of my Lady Cholmondeley than the Merits of her Life it being hardly possible to think the World should forget so Great a Good as long as any sense of Piety or Gratitude continues in it But since your Ladyship and your Honourable Relations are pleas'd to command my poor Mite should be cast in towards that pious End I am neither to dispute the Doing nor Event of it but to shew my Obedience in both And as for the Disproportion the Funeral Discourse upon the Perusal must be found to carry to the dignity of the Subject it would be Vanity in me to attempt any thing of Apology for this being it may be well suppos'd nothing more could be expected from me than to draw below the Value of so high a Character However as far short as the Representation falls of being perfect I doubt there are few Persons who survive so good but if they would endeavour to come as near the Life of the Honourable Original as that does they might be better And indeed when all is done the most effectual Method to transmit the Vertues of so rare an Example to her Posterity is not so much to write as to live 'em down thither In which respect your Ladyship is likely to afford the most natural and lively Transcript who have been always known to live so as well to imitate as to honour so truly Great and Honourable a Parent And it must be confess'd in so happy an Imitation your Ladyship will make the greatest Recompence that can be for the Loss of so Excellent a Person by making your self as Great and Good as She was Your Ladyship will please to take this as it is intended not to direct but to wish you constant success in that Vertuous and Religious Course your own judicious Choice as well as so Dear an Example has all along induc'd you to pursue And as the perfect Accomplishments in that way I mean in the way of Vertue and Religion are indeed the highest Felicity your Ladyship will meet with on this side Heaven So next to that if your Ladyship vouchsafes your Acceptance of this and the Continuance of your Favour to him that humbly offers it This will be the greatest Happiness and Honour to MADAM Your Ladyships most Obedient And most Obliged Humble Servant Samuel Catherall A Funeral Sermon On the DEATH of the Right Honourable The Lady Viscountess Dowager Cholmondeley Numb xxiii Ver. 10. Let me Dye the Death of the Righteous and let my Last End be like his THE Reasoning of Righteousness and of Judgment to come put wavering Faelix * Acts. 2● 25. into a Fit of Trembling But the Death here of the Righteous consider'd puts a bad Man into good Wishes that his Latter End might be like theirs So true it is that though Religion and Religious People are sometimes the most persecuted and ridicul'd Things in the World amongst bad Men yet when once the worst of Men come to consider seriously and reason the Matter throughly true Wisdom in the end is always found to be justified by her Enemies as well as by her Children And all good Men and Women will at last be admir'd if not imitated that are so wise as to be wise indeed unto Salvation And that Religion and all good Christians do not always meet with this deserv'd Honour and Esteem is for no other Reason but because wicked and ungodly Men whilst they continue so have indeed neither the Sense nor Civility to give either God or good men their due For indeed a godly Life * ●1 Cor. ●1 18 as well as the Preachers of it appear equally Foolishness and a Jest to the Natural and to the sinful Man because the Truth is as the Scripture speaks Men whilst they walk in a vain shaddow in pursuit of their Vices and in the course of their Wickedness * Psal ●9 20 have no Understanding but must be compar'd to the Beasts that perish And that wicked Men do put off their Understanding and Reason before they can shake off the respect due to Vertue and Religion is very plain and evident in the Instances of the wicked Prophet Balaam in the Text Who for the Wages of Unrighteousness being tempted to curse the righteous and innocent People of God ran greedily as St. Jude says and spurr'd it on in that curss'd way till the Bruit Beast was forc'd to admonish the blind Rider and * ● Pet. 16. the dumb Ass as the Text has it to rebuke the Madness of the Prophet But then indeed as soon as the dreaming Offender open'd his eyes to see at once his Error and the Glory of the Lord he presently saw with fear and trembling that nothing but * Isa 59.7.8 Unhappiness and Destruction was in the way of the wicked And he perceiv'd too at the same time that the end of the upright Man only that is * Psal 37.37 Peace And seeing all this this true scene of happiness on the one hand and the as terrible scene of misery on the other it is no wonder that the declining Old Sinner desir'd at last to be happy that is that he might Dye the Death of the Righteous and that his Latter End might be like theirs From the Words thus consider'd in their proper relations I shall at present endeavour to make good these Three Particulars First I shall shew How natural it is for all Men to desire to dye well though they live never so wickedly Secondly I shall shew How improbable if not impossible it is for Men to dye well unless they live well Then Thirdly I shall shew What it is truly to live well and what it is to dye well And last of all will follow the Application suitable to the present Mournful Occasion And First I 'me to shew How natural it is for all Men to desire to dye well though they live never so wickedly Now for a Man to desire to dye well is to desire an happy and easie passage from Life to Death and to be happy after Death And the desire of both these is so agreeable and interwoven in the Nature and Temper of every Man that the very worst of Men cannot be suppos'd so unnatural or so unkind to themselves as to desire otherwise but that all Men do as necessarily desire thus to dye well and to be happy after Death as they desire their well-being in this Life For though there is and has been always