Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A77556
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Gods statute for generall iudgement by the man Christ Iesus. Opened in a sermon at the funerall of the most religious lady, the Lady Lucie Iervoice, sometime wife to the right worshipfull Sir Thomas Iervoice at Herriot. Aug. 26. 1641. By John Brokett Minister of Elsfeild.
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Brokett, John.
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1642
(1642)
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Wing B4845; Thomason E116_1; ESTC R5889
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21,463
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41
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glorious Coronation when Palms of victory shall be put into their hands and upon their heads shall be set a Crowne of incorruptible glory Oh what a joy and comfort will it be to see the holy Patriarchs Priests Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessours and all the rest of the crowned and triumphant Saints gathered into one companie and standing at the right hand of Christ How will the faithfull be ravished to see Christ their Brother their Advocate their Head their Husband their Redeemer to sit in the Seat of Judgement But especially to heare him from thence to pronounce to them this blissefull sentence Come ye blessed of my Father inherit a kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the world Matth. 25.43 thus joyfull comfortable and glorious will the day of Judgement be to all such as live in the feare of God and the faith of Jesus Christ Which considered I cannot but think it a strange infirmitie of the Church in the dayes of Tertullian when they usually prayed pro mora finis For the protraction and delay of the last end Rather let all the godly pray with the Spouse in the end of the Canticles Make hast my beloved and as Saint Iohn did in the close of his Revelation Come Lord Iesus For when Christ comes he comes to free us from all infirmities to redeeme us from all miseries to deliver us from all sins and in full and perfect manner to endow us with Heaven and with all Happinesse 3. This Doctrine of the last Judgement serves for the Admonition of us all To warn us while God doth afford us time means to take such a course that we may gain the favor of the Judge escape the severity of the last judgment And to this end with diligence and good conscience put in practice these six duties 1. Be thine own accuser in the free confession of thy sins to God Considering what St. Iohn saith If we confesse our sins God is just and faithfull to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse 1 Ioh. 1.9 2. Be thine own Judge and that in the strictest censure and severest condemnation of thy self Considering what Saint Paul saith If we would judge our selves we should not be judged 1 Cor. 11.31 3. Pray earnestly unto God for pardon Considering that so long as the day of Grace lasteth mercy may be found if we will but seeke it 4. Beware of Judging the Persons and Actions of thy brethren When a man doth well do not judge ill when he doth ill do not make it worse when his speeches or actions are doubtfull take nothing in the worst sense considering what our Saviour saith Iudge not and ye shall not be judged Matth. 7.1 5. Labour to get a lively faith in Christ Jesus relye wholly upon his merits for salvation Considering what Christ saith He that beleeveth hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation Iohn 5.24 6. Endeavour to keepe a good conscience in all things voyd of offence before God and all men considering what the Prophet David saith Marke the upright man and behold the just for the last end of that man is peace Psal 37.37 And now to wind up all in a word If we be mindfull of these important directions If we confesse our sins freely condemne our selves severely pray for pardon earnestly judge our brethren charitably beleeve in Jesus Christ stedfastly and sincerely desire and endeavour to lead a godly righteous and sober life then we shall finde Christ not a severe Judge to condemne us but a mercifull Redeemer to absolve and save us in that day on which God hath ordained him to Judge the world in righteousnesse And now that our hearts may be so full of graces and our lives so full of good works that we may have in the end of our life a comfortable death and in the end of the World a glorious resurrection to a blessed immortalitie let us all joyne together in faithfull and servent Prayer O Most glorious and most gracious Lord God who hast taught us to know and beleeve that there shall be a day of judgement on which we and all the world shall stand before the Tribunall Seat of Christ to render an account of all things done in the flesh whether good or evill and to receive a just reward according to our works We most humbly beseech thee to teach us to make a right and religious use of this faith and knowledge Oh let these last things be ever in our Meditation and so sanctifie to us the remembrance thereof that it may be a Bridle to restraine us from all sin and wickednesse and a Spur to provoke us powerfully and effectually to unreined repentance for all our sins to constant patience in all our sufferings to a stedfast faith in Iesus Christ and to a true feare of thee in all our thoughts words and actions throughout the whole course of our conversation That so at whatsoever watch of the night or houre of the day Christ shall come to Iudgement he may finde us watching for him walking with him worthy to stand before him and to enter with him into that kingdome wherein thou dwellest and the righteous onely shall dwell with thee in unutterable joy and glory for evermore This Grace here this Glory hereafter Lord grant unto us all for his sake who is the Son of thy Love the Mediatour of thy chosen Iesus Christ To whom with thee O Father and the Spirit of Comfort be ascribed by us and all the world Kingdome Power and Glory now and for evermore Amen FINIS
these the Prophesie of Enoch the seventh from Adam recorded Iudges 14.15 Behold the Lord commeth with ten thousands of his Saints to execute judgement upon all And in this the last Apostle agrees with the first Prophet Behold saith Saint Iohn he commeth with clouds and every eye shall see him Revel 1.7 Many more texts might be alleadged consonant to these but your knowledge and beliefe of this matter assures me that this labour would be superfluous 2. Conscience testifies it Yea also the conscience of the the vilest Atheist it will be as a thousand witnesses to confirme it How often are they filled with unspeakable horrour especially in death and wherefore it is thus with them because conscience tels that die they must and after death must come to judgement 3. Humane Reason enlightened by holy Scripture conceives and concludes that there shall be a day of Judgement Looke abroad into the world and you shall see a wonderfull confusion of things a strange inequalitie of Divine dispensations The wicked many times flourish and enjoy great prosperitie when the righteous are afflicted and endure great adversitie Now though some doe from hence conclude that there is no present providence and shall be no future judgement yet this confusion of things and inequalitie of Divine dispensations is an argument sufficient in Saint Pauls Divinitie to prove a judgement to come Heare what Saint Paul writes from Athens to his persecuted Thessalonians Your persecutions and tribulations which you endure is a manifest token or an evident demonstration of the righteous Iudgement of God 2 Thess 1.4 5. And Salomon before him in his survey of vanities saith I saw under the Sun the place of judgement that wickednesse was there and the place of righteousnesse that iniquitie was there And what doth Salomon inferre from hence therefore no providence therefore no judgement to come No but the plaine contrary I said in my heart God shall judge the righteous and the wicked for a time there is for every purpose and for every worke Eccles. 3.16 17. 4. Particular judgements which God inflicteth upon men in this life doe prove the universall The drowning of the old world the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah the plaguing of Egypt the desolation of Jerusalem and more particular judgements upon particular persons all these are praeludia judicii universalis forerunners and foretellers of a generall judgement Some sinnes are punished here that we might know that there is a Providence and a Judge that takes notice of every sin and some sins passe here unpunished that we might expect a greater and stricter judgement to come hereafter Thus Scripture teacheth Conscience testifyeth Reason concludeth and present Judgements doe demonstrate the truth of my propounded Doctrine that there shall be a day of judgement So I dismisse the first Point and come to the second 2. Who shall Iudge He shall Iudge saith the Text where the word He hath relation to God mentioned in the foregoing verse where the Apostle saith God commandeth all men every where to repent Because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge So then you see God shall Iudge God essentially meant concluding all the sacred Persons of the Deitie Father Son and holy Ghost The whole Trinitie shall concurre in this work being as the Schooles say Opus ad extra an Externall work of the Godhead And it is an Axiome in Divinitie Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa The externall works of the Godhead admit not of any division in the persons of the Deitie It is true there be certaine Internall works which are incommunicably proper to every Person It is incommunicably proper to the person of the Father to have his being of himself It is incommunicably proper to the Person of the Son to be begotten of the Father And it is incommunicably proper to the Person of the Holy Ghost to proceed from the Father and the Son But those works by which the invisible things of the Godhead are made manifest to the Creature as Creation Preservation Redemption and this of Iudgement are equally and indifferently to be ascribed to the sacred three in one and to God in all Object But it may be objected That albeit in this place judgement be attributed essentially to God yet in other places it is attributed personally and respectively to Christ The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgement to the Son Joh. 5.22 Again sometimes this worke of judging is appropriated to the Saints Know ye not that the Saints shall judge the world 1 Cor. 6.2 How shall these places be reconciled which affirme that God and Christ and the Saints shall Judge Answ This threefold doubt is easily dissolved by a threefold distinction 1. God is said to Judge because the Power and Right of judging belongeth to God onely 2. Christ is said to Judge because God hath committed to him the Administration of Judgement 3. Saints are said to Judge because they shall approve and give attestation to the sentence which Christ shall pronounce of salvation to the godly of damnation to the wicked The Authoritie is Gods The Execution is Christs The Approbation is the Saints This distinction is sufficient to free the Scripture from the least contradiction and the point from this objection And now having cleared the point that Almightie God onely shall judge the world I will confirme it by two reasons drawne from two Attributes in God proving him onely fit to be the Judge of all the world The first reason is drawne from Gods Omniscience the knowledge of the Lord like himselfe is Infinite nothing can be hid from his sight Heaven is not so high but he can reach it Hell is not so deep but he can search it The Earth is not so wide but he can span it the Night is not so darke but he can see it the Chamber the Bed the Closet is not so close but he whose eyes are as flames of fire can pierce it Psal 94.9 God planted the eare needs therefore must he heare all our words He formed the eye needs therefore must he see all our works He made the Heart Heb. 4.12 needs therefore must he know the thoughts Psal 94.11 and discerne the intents of the Hearts of the sonnes of men The Scripture is plaine and plentifull in the proofe of this Lord thou knowest all things saith Saint Peter Ioh. 21.17 Againe Heb. 4.13 There is no creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and open Open as an Anatomized body for thence the Metaphor is drawn where the bowels are laid open and every nerve and Muscle and ligament every Atome discovered so as we may take a full view of it Thus the most secret whispers the most retired actions the deepest and darkest thoughts and intentions of all men are open and naked unto the eyes of him with whom we have to doe Rightly therefore is the Lord conceived under the name