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	king_n	son_n	5,432	5	5.0214	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57353	A sermon prech'd in the cathedral church of Norwich, at the funeral of the Right Reverend Father in God, Edward, Lord Bishop of Norwich, who departed this life, July 28, 1676 by B. Riveley ...	Riveley, Benedict, 1627 or 8-1695.	1677 (1677)	Wing R1548; ESTC R14652	19,829	38

A SERMON Preach'd in the Cathedral Church of NORWICH AT THE FUNERAL OF THE Right Reverend Father in GOD EDWARD LORD BISHOP of NORWICH Who Departed this Life July 28. 1676. By B. Riveley one of his Lordships Chaplains and Preacher in the said City Of whom the World was not worthy Hebr. 11. 38. LONDON Printed for Sam. Lowndes near the Savoy in the Strand and William Oliver Bookseller in the Market-place in Norwich 1677. A Sermon Preach'd in the Cathedral Church of Norwich at the Funeral of the Right Reverend Father in God Edward Lord Bishop of Norwich c. JOB XXX 23. For I know thou wilt bring me to death and to the house appointed for all the living NO Book of Scripture better furnish'd with Funeral Texts than this of Job and no Funeral could better deserve a Text out of Job than this being the Funeral of a Man fearing God and eschewing Evil a Man perfect and upright in his Generation a Man patient and holding fast his Integrity to the last But intending his just Encomium at the end of my Sermon I shall say no more of Him now The words are doubly considerable to us in their dependent and in their abstracted sence That they have a Coherence easily appears by the Illative Particle For by which they are tack'd to somewhat said afore But to spend any of my time in giving you the various Conjectures of Expositors about their Connexion would be hugely unjustifiable knowing my own mind of not handling them at all under this Consideration only this may be obiter observable to us That Job was at present in sad case The dayes of Affliction had taken Ver. 16 17 18. hold upon him he was diseased in body and restless through pain and sickness as out of the foregoing Verses may be learn'd and he thought this a fit season wherein to contemplate humane frailty and to consider his own dying He knew no Man at best was far distant from a Crave or could entertain hopes of living alwayes much less could he do so that was at the brink of that place already 't was an easie and short remove he knew for God to send him from his weary Pallet and sick Bed to his long and last Home And possibly this was the Argument of his patience that in all likelihood he had but a little while longer to endure He was sure if nothing else could his own Mortality at last would give him a Quietus est The Grave is a period as to all earthly Comforts so to all worldly Crosses and Perturbations and to this period Job Knew all must come and himself among the rest For I know thou wilt bring c. But it is the entire and abstract sense of the words that I would come to and I take them to contain in them a right comfortable profitable and practical Nation of Mans Mortality in general and of thine and mine in particular I know thou wilt bring me 〈◊〉 death and to the house appointed c. 'T is the speech of a Job that was not only a good Man himself but an Exemplar of such and so refer'd to in the * Jam. 5. 11. New Testament and therefore when he saith I know 't is as much as if he had said I would have others to know it too That God will bring them every Mothers child of them to death and to the house c. Let us then carefully observe what the holy Man professes to know here and how and thence draw Rules and Documents for our own present instruction and regulation of future practice As I. He knows the Grave under the Metaphor of a House that is he hath a comfortable Notion of that sad solitary dark silent place for doubtless that is it he means by the House of all Living The Allegory is the very same Chap. 17. 13. If I wait the Job 17 13. grave is mine house From whence we may know thus much too That Doct. 't is in the power of Religion and the grace of God to frame in a Mans mi●● most comfortable and amiable Idea's even of dying and being laid in the Grave things otherwise most formidable and terrifying He that sayes here I know that I shall dye had said before I know that my Redeemer liveth Job was a Job 19. 2● Christian by Anticipation and embraced the promises afar off as the holy Men of the Old Testament are said to do Hebr. 11. 13. His fearlesness and hope in his own death sprung from his faith in Christs Resurrection and whoever they be that can plead a title to that victory of Jesus as well à posteriori as à priori Hebr. 13. 8. for he is the same to day that he was yesterday have a sufficient foundation for the like courage and comfort in and about dying that he had Without a Christ I can't excuse any one from looking upon Death as a Ghastly thing the King of Terrors the greatest of Temporal Evils the dissolution of Nature the revenge of the Law for sin but there is a reverse of this prospect in the Gospel and by the virtue of Christs Religion Here you may behold the Son of God as the great Lover of Souls and Captain of their salvation marching out of his glorious Tent into the Enemies Country on purpose to deliver them Hebr. 2. 15. that through fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage Yea here you may behold him setting his foot upon the neck of this Goliah and disarming 1 Cor. 15. 55 56. him of all his weapons as St Paul represents him Yea here you may see him an actual Triumpher and weighty Conqueror girt with a golden Girdle and the Keyes of Death and Hell hanging at Rev. 1. 13 18. it as in St Johns Vision Now Death is abolished so the Apostle speaks that is as to its deadliness 2 Tim. 1. 10. poyson ugliness enmity Now the Serpents sting is pulled out it can but lick and glide it can't pierce and wound like a Worm it can only feed on the dusty part the baser mold but the precious Soul is out of its reach Now Hell is dismounted from behind him that sate on the pale Horse and though he Rev. 6. 8. may chance to look big and threaten still yet he cannot kill and damn at the old rate Yea Death is now not only disabled but reconciled Treacle is extracted out of this Viper Honey is found in this Lyons Carkass the Devils Cudgel is beaten to his own head what he design'd for mischief is over-ruled into an instrumentality for the greatest good and whom he had set on work to be the worlds Butcher proves the Christians Priest to send up his Soul a Sacrifice to God and to preserve his Body awhile in the Ashes below By the admirable grace of the Redeemer of the most shun'd Foe is made a kind Friend of a grisly Worm a familiar Confident an amiable

put him upon such enquiries and upon endeavours consequent upon such enquiries is a great degree of Spiritual Wisdom and Religion As may appear by the natural effects of it which are two great ones viz. 1. To make a man live more Holily 2. To make a man dye more hopefully than otherwise he would 1. 'T will make him live better in several particulars as 1. It will not let him sin in quiet A Christian considerate of his latter end can't commit sin at the rate of other men no temptations can be offer'd him but it will beget such questions as these Is it fit for a dying man to enterprize Can I appear before God with such a thing laid to my charge Am I going I know not how soon to give up my Accounts and shall I run upon a new score perhaps this may be the last Act of my Life and shall I conclude so ill Shall I let my Sun set in a cloud Shall I kill my self with death Shall I arm my Enemy with a fresh sting Shall I commit those things which if they hasten not my end will certainly make it more uneasie by reflection upon them 2. It will repress in a Man the rankness and wildness of sinful Lusts and Affections such as Ambition Covetousness and all Licentious practice 'T will watch him tame and sober and make Religious precepts and counsels dwell deep in the Soul and take impression Thus the Cynick taught the Macedonian Prince how to get greater Victories over himself than over others by carrying him to his Fathers Tomb. And I have heard of a great Deboichee that was mightily chang'd by this holy Artisice of a dying Friend who to the bequest of a Ring with a Deaths head annex'd this condition That he should constantly wear it and one hour in a day for seven dayes together look and think upon it This is St Paul's Argument The time is 1 Cor. 7. 29 30 31. short let them that have Wives be as if they had none And they that rejoyce as if they rejoyced not And they that use this World as not abusing it For the fashion of this World passeth away And it is St Peter's too 1 Pet. 2. 11. I beseech you as Pilgrims and Strangers abstain from fleshly Lusts That must needs be a lewd ungovernable intemperance that will be drunk out of a Scull and Revel it in a Charnel-house 3. It will quicken a Man to the Duties of Religion make him more frugal of his time hold him closer to his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great errand of his life and keep him watchful against Neglects and Errors What St Peter writes to the scatter'd Christains I will put you in remembrance knowing that shortly I must put off 2 Pet. 1. 13. this Tabernacle is the constant language of a Man knowing after this example of Job in my Text. I will do all the good and receive all the good I can knowing that I ha'nt long to live I 'll make as sure and as quick work as I can for my Soul since I have so little security in the earthly House of this Tabernacle Scripture measures our Life-time by a Day and Death is call'd a Night Now we all know Day-time is Working-time in Allusion to which our Saviour sayes of himself I must work the works of him that sent me while John 9. 4. 't is day the night cometh when no man can work And just thus the wise Christian takes his measures too His knowledge of his much work to do and his little time to do it in wo'nt suffer him to lose any opportunity lest he should be benighted in his work but whatsoever his hand finds to do he does it with all his might knowing there is no work nor device nor Ecc ' es 9. 10. knowledge nor wisdom in the Grave whither he is a going No better way to keep Fire alive than in its own Ashes and if there be any sparks of Reason or Religion in our Souls any sense of God and our Duty nothing will * 2 Tim. 1. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stir and blow them up and kindle from them religious affections and pious performances better than this knowledge and consideration of our own mortality Lastly This will make a Man dye more comfortably as well as live better This is a way to make Death no Bugbear by being acquainted with it in our life-time To prevent the killing eye of this Basilisk by seeing it before it sees us To make the ending of a natural animal Life to be the beginning of a divine eternal Life by dying before we dye that is in a believing prospect of it and provision for it This I take to be the great governing Virtue and Mistress of Morals call'd Prudence which is nothing else but Providence under a contracted name and all other wisdom and knowledge must vail unto it I find two of the best and greatest men in the Bible aspiring and suspiring after this knowledge bending all their endeavors and prayers for the attainment of it David prayes thus Lord make me to know my end Psal 39. 4. and the measure of my dayes what it is that I may know how srail I am 'T is not to be understood as if he desired to know in a literal sence what year or day his Life should end but in a spiritual sence how he should end it well any day of the year or any hour of the day Doubtless he was a Man given to pious meditation and his thoughts had been in the dust before now but he could not bring his heart and will to that practical knowledge of his own frailty which he desir'd and therefore he turns to God Lord make me c. Moses another great Man and skill'd in all the wisdom of the Egyptians prayes thus Lord teach me to Psal 90. 12. number my days that I may apply my heart unto wisdom He had been numbring his own and all other Mens Yer 10. dayes a little before and he could tell no further than three or fourscore years but what was this towards the application of his heart to wisdom We need but little Arithmetick to number our dayes but we need a great deal of Grace to number them so as to be the wiser and the better for it Even a Moses prays for this Pray we therefore for the wisdom of these holy Use Men and for the knowledge of a Job That we may know as he did God will bring us to death and to the House appointed for all Living All this while I have discours'd you as at common Funeral now let me offer somewhat more properly Calculated for this Meridian and Occasion viz. The Funeral of Dr. Edward Reynolds late Lord Bishop of this Diocess What I have hitherto said concern'd you in your general capacity as mortal Men and Citizens of the World but now I have a few words to you as Citizens

of Norwich as Members of this Diocess and as surviving Pupils of this Holy and Reverend Father whose Soul is with God but his Body still with us Once hugely useful yet by and by to be laid up in the common Repository of the Grave as an useless piece of Clay 'T is a great though no sudden change you have liv'd to see The Mitre and the Crosire both laid in the dust Your Master Elijah taken from your head to day A great Man fallen in Israel Death has play'd a mighty Prize and triumph'd over Learning and Authority and sweet Nature and Goodness and great Experience and Wisdom and an honourable Age at one blow God has smote our Shepherd and we are left for present as a scatter'd Flock What shall we do now Why you have done well already in your sad and solemn Procession to this place to condole your Loss to bring this your true Friend part of his journey towards his long home Once Angels disdain'd not to carry a poor Lazarus towards his eternal rest and therefore the best of you being but Lazars of sin and misery have done nothing beyond your Duty in paying those your last Respects to your departing Angel He had your Prayers while he liv'd and he deserves as well your Tears now he 's dead And herein most of all you have reason to sorrow as the Ephesian Elders did for St Paul that you shall see his Face no more you shall feel his Hand no more you shall hear his Voice no more But is this all you can afford to hear a Sermon at the Funeral or sprinkle a Tear upon the Herse of so eminent a Servant of Christ and of your Souls Have you nothing but a little Rosemary and Bayes wherewith to perfume nothing but a few bring drops wherein to preserve so excellent a Memory Shall this great Light go out as a Gloworm at the Hedge bottom with no greater noise than you can make with your eyes I hope not so but rather that you will remember him that had once the Rule over you and has often spoken to you the Word of God that you will follow his Faith acknowledge the Gifts and Graces of God that were in him and the good that has been done to you by him That you will transcribe his excellent pattern into your Lives dress by his Glass and walk in the light of his Fires In a word I hope that you will hear him and love him and reverence him and obey him as long as he Preaches to you and then I am sure you can't cease to do so now for Dead as well as Living he is still a Preaching Bishop His Coffin is his Pulpit his Grave is his Temple and he still teaches you though he sayes never a word viz. by his pious and mostinstructive example left unto the world by his fair character and good report easily and deservedly obtainable from others concerning him Now he is in Heaven he lives in his good Name upon Earth as when he was upon Earth he liv'd by his good heart in Heaven Death has but done us a courtesie by breaking the Box to make the precious oyntment of his Fame to have a more fragrant and diffusive savor What St Paul in his famous Funeral Oration for departed Saints Hebr. 11. sayes of Abel perfectly agrees to him he has obtained witness that he was righteous and being dead yet speaketh that is not with his own lips too cold and stiff God knows though Priests yea Bishops lips either to preserve or to derive knowledge but by the lips of others that knew him and can bear faithful Testimony to his Virtues and Memory Among whom I have the happiness to be able to profess my self one though of all others most unfit most unworthy to be the Encomiast of so great a Person Vir nec taoendus nec dicendus A Man of whom I can't be silent without detriment to the Church and dishonour to God and yet a Man of whom I can't speak without loss to his merit and diminution to his worth O then for another Elisha to follow this our going Elijah with his due Acclamation and Eulogy My Father My Father the Chariots of Israel and the Horsemen thereof O now for one of his own Order and Spirit and measures of Learning and Grace to write and tell his Story But since this is rather our wish than our attainment I see no remedy but you must be content with an Eccho for a Voice with a rude Draught for a fair Effigies only with this additional promise from your deficient Orator That what he wants in skill he will make up in faithfulness neither flattering him he speaks of nor fearing them he speaks to though there should chance to be among them some of that peevish and ill humor as to make a scruple to commend the Dead though never so deserving but none at all to calumniate the Living Concerning this our Deceased and justly to be Commemorated Lord and Father I shall dare to recommend thus much as true to succeeding Generations viz. That he was a Person in whom all was generally good allowing for humane srailties and many things were excellent and exceeding remarkable Of which only Materials I shall compose his following Character As for other Ornamentals and Additionals Et Genus Proavos Et quae non fecimus ipsi I shall lightly pass them by To tell you of his Birth Place of his Gentile Extraction of his Liberal Education of his Advantageous Institution of his Gradual Promotions and Employments in the University in the Countrey in the City in the Church To tell you of the several great Ranks wherein this great Light did both shine and burn To tell you how he pass'd the state of his Childhood the course of his Studies in his Youth and how he arrived at the Episcopal Chair and Dignity in his old Age. These being things wherein I am not so fully informed as 't is fit I should be ere I relate them to others and whereof he himself being of a singular Modesty and Humility was not wont to speak and whence we can receive but little benefit though exprest I say being such things I shall choose not to be more particular in them The Pearl needs no Art 't is beautiful enough in its own Lustre 'T is not painting the Prophets Sepulchre that I intend but describing the Prophet himself that you may know in him you had a Prophet of the Lord amongst you and neither the dust of his Feet while alive nor the dust of his Grave while dead may be us'd as a Testimony against you unawares First then He was universally good That is proportionably fitted and qualified to all his capacities both as a Man as a Christian as a Minister and as a Bishop I. He was a good Man Nature had before indu'd him much in his constitution he was of a most sweet and obliging temper of great candor meekness and ingenuity