Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	dead_a	die_v	lord_n	6,321	5	4.0478	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29182	A cry for labourers in Gods harvest being a sermon preached upon the sad occasion of the late funeral of that eminent servant of Christ, Mr. Ralph Venning, who departed this life, March 10, 1673/4 / by Robert Bragge ...	Bragge, Robert, 1627-1704.	1674 (1674)	Wing B4202; ESTC R20229	19,240	42

fruit of the Prayers and Blood of Christ therefore if Christ hath disposed of us in such a place where we have a faithful Ministry we should exceedingly bless God for it as David Psal 147.20 He sheweth his Word unto Jacob his Statutes and his Judgements unto Israel He hath not dealt so by any Nation Other Nations had as much wealth plenty of Gold and Silver and more than they but this is more than all outward blessings So how great a blessing this is too you may see in that Prophet Jeremy 30.20 God promises his People there Though he should feed them with Bread of Adversity and Water of Affliction yet they should have this Mercy that their teachers c. A promise to a carnal heart is of no worth or esteem but of great worth to a gracious heart Though you should see sad times here shall be your mercy and blessing 3. If it be such a desirable blessing for God to send forth Labourers into his Harvest then sure it is a matter greatly to be lamented when God is calling his faithful Labourers apace out of his Harvest instead of increasing them he is diminishing of them he is removing the Teachers not only into corners but into Graves Here is just matter of lamentation and sorrow to us when we consider how many faithful Labourers and eminent Preachers of the Word God hath of late removed out of his Harvest You know when Samuel died 1 Sam. 28.3 it is said They that buried him made a great lamentation for him And in Acts 8.2 you read of devout men that carried Stephen to his Burial and made great lamentation over him And in Acts 20. when Paul tells them they were like to see his face no more that it was the last time he should ever Pray or Preach with them it sets them all a weeping and a mourning I have read of one that when he heard of the death of any godly man he would fall a weeping to think of the great loss there was to the Church and People of God in the death of every good Christian and gracious person Brethren if you look on the loss of a godly Parent or Husband a godly Friend or Neighbour if you look upon such a loss as a great loss as David mourned for his friend Jonathan and Christ himself weeps over the Grave of Lazarus What is then the death and loss of a godly Minister yea of so many godly Ministers when you have loss upon loss death upon death one week carrying one godly Minister to his Grave and the next week carrying another I am afraid we do not lay these sad rebukes of God to heart as we ought to do It is not enough when you hear of such a Minister dead to be asking how long was he sick or what disease he died of to say he was a good man a good Preacher and alas it was a great loss but we should seriously consider such strokes and lay it to heart for the Living will lay it to heart If we are living indeed we should and shall lay them to heart Why so Because the loss of so many faithful Labourers as you have of late lost in these few years in this City it looks like a heavy Judgement of God against you I do not say a Judgement to them it may be a mercy to them Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord Death is their gain and advantage but the great loss is ours 1. Are you not thereby deprived of any further fruit or benefit of their holy Labours When the Vessel is broken the Treasure that is removed to Heaven and you can be no more enriched by it When the Tree is cut down it yields no more fruit How many faithful Preachers are gone under whose shaddow you did use to sit and feed with great delight How many whose Preaching used to be to you as a lovely sound and pleasant voice whose Mouths are now stopped with Dust so that you shall hear them Preach and Pray no more your hearts shall be no more warmed by their Prayers and Sermons 2. It is a Judgement for sometimes yea many times when a faithful Labourer is taken away there is it may be some loyterer comes in his room Acts 20.17 Paul tells them after his departure Wolves would come instead of the Myrtle Tree cometh up a Bryar or Thorn as it is with many people and Congregations who formerly had a godly painful Minister among them and it may be were a weary of him and this godly Minister is taken away and there is a pricking Nettle cometh in his room instead of faithful Seers they are blind Guides and where the blind leads the blind Christ tells you the issue The Scripture speaks much of these idle Shepherds as a Judgement instead of faithful Teachers they shall have those to give them a Stone instead of Bread 3. It 's a Judgement to be greatly lamented when faithful Ministers are taken away because it is commonly the sins of the People that do procure and have a hand in the death of their Minister Here we might be enquiring What are those sins by which God is so often provoked to take away his Ministers from a People There are two extreams people are apt to run into either to over-value or under-value their Ministers The Scripture doth take notice of such an evil as that of having the persons of men in admiration when we receive and love the Truth for the persons sake and not the person for the Truths sake when one is for Paul another for Apollos We may lose our enjoyments by our too high as well as too low prizing of them Indeed the fault commonly lies on the other hand that is their undervaluing the Ministry of the Word their unprofitableness unthankfulness barrenness under the droppings of the Word this provokes God to make the Heavens as Brass to them when they play with the B●ead and Light then God comes and removes the Light and takes away the Bread 4. It 's a Judgement to be greatly lamented when faithful Ministers are taken away out of the Harvest because it is a sad prognostick of some greater Judgements and some heavier evils that are coming upon a people You know what the Prophet saith Isa 57.1 The righteous perish and no man layeth it to heart and merciful men are taken away none considering that the nighteous is taken away from the evil to come Oh those Words of Christ my Brethren come into my thoughts when he was a dying and some were weeping for him Weep not for me saith he but for your selves and children because of those miseries and calamities that are drawing nigh to you Methinks it is the language of our dying Ministers Weep not for us c. When the Labourers are called home from the Harvest it is a sign the night is a coming When chirping Birds are removed into their nest it is a sign the shadows of the evening are

coming When Lights are put out what can we expect but that darkness will follow When God calls off his Shepherds we have just cause to fear he will loose Wolves upon the Flocks to devour and make a prey of them My Brethren if God should send such weather that men could not sow or if when the Harvest should be grown up there should be a mortality that there were no men to reap it you would think a Famine were coming and lament over it as a sad and grievous thing Oh there is a Famine the Scripture speaks of not of Bread but of the Word and when God takes away his Ministers so fast have we not cause to fear this Famine is coming on upon us Oh this my Brethren should melt your hearts into Prayers and Tears and if you have any Groans or Tears to pour them out before the Lord if you have any interest in the Throne of Grace to improve it that God would send forth faithful Labourers into his Harvest Here my Brethren I might bespeak you of this Congregation more particularly to lay to heart the sad breach God hath made among you in his late providence in his removing him who was wont to labour in the midst of you Methinks there are some circumstances in that stroke that particularly do require our serious consideration First of all The suddenness and unexpectedness of that stroke Not sudden to him for not many days before he was taken sick he set his house in order acquainting his Wife where his Will was so that it seems he had some kind of presage of his approaching death but sudden to us the stroke was How many of you that were surprised and startled to hear of Mr. Venning's death how many that scarce heard of his sickness until you heard he was dead Who of you thought the last day you saw and heard him in this place that it must be the last day you should hear and see him Who of you when you heard him beginning to direct you how you must put on the first Piece of the spiritual Armour did imagine that he was so near of being uncloathed himself and to lay down his Earthly Tabernacle God snatched him away he had a mind to take him from us and would not be hindred by the Prayers of his People Secondly This circumstance doth agravate the loss namely that he was taken away though I cannot say in the Prime or flower of his strength for he had Laboured many years yet in middle Age. For according to the course of nature we might have injoyed more of his Labours he was not withered by old Age. When a drie stake is removed out of the hedge it is not so great a loss as when a fruit-bearing tree is cut down Thirdly Is there not this Aggravation attends it namely that he is taken away in such a time of scarcity and dearth of faithful Labourers Consider my Brethren the great Mortality of faithful Ministers that hath been of late years in this Nation doth speak aloud to us to warn us of great evils hastening upon us Lastly There is this circumstance above all the rest namely the Eminency of the Ministerial gifts and priviledges God had qualified him withall In this respect he was like Saul taller by the head than many of his Brethren like Benjamin he had a double yea treble portion of spiritual gifts He was such a workman as the Apostle speaks that needed not to be ashamed able rightly to divide the word of truth I do not intend to enter into any commendation of him though I might speak much of him and yet speak below not above his true worth He needs not any such Spices to embalm his name which hath left so sweet a savour behind him It was not praise or Commendation of the dead but instructions to the Living that I intended in this discourse Only the more Eminent a person is for serviceableness and usefulness in the Church of God when there are many can stand forth and say It pleased God by such a mans Ministry to open my blind eyes and others that can bear witness too how God hath spoken to their hearts for quickning comfort and counsel I say the greater is the loss of such an Instrument and the more to be bewailed by us I would wind up all by one word of Counsel that is to teach you how you may improve these sad losses You know Sampson found honey in the Carcass of the dead Lion There are many sweet and wholesome instructions to be gathered from the dead Ministers Abel though dead yet speaketh I may say of the dead Ministers though dead and laid in their graves They speak to you they speak with a louder voice out of their Graves and Coffins than ever they did out of their Pulpit Here I might show you those several lessons you may learn from your dead Ministers but time is gone This one thing to be sure they call upon you for that you would labour to remember and put in Practice those Godly Sermons they Preached to you in their life-time The death of Ministers should revive those Counsels and Comserts that you received in their life-time from them and enliven the remembrance of them upon their hearts 2 Kings 2.14 when Elijah was dead Elisha takes up his mantle I would have you be gathering up those instructions that the Ministers did let fall to you whilest they were ●●●ve to remember how he spake on such a subject at such a time and spoke such a word to my soul at another time Here I might desire you to call to remembrance the late Sermons of this Eminent Servant of God to remember his discourse of the grace of God which hath appeared in the Gospel to teach us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly and righteously and Godly even in this Present world And his Sermons concerning the Love of the Son of God And of the saving Operations of the Spirit of God and to labour to shew forth the Works of the Spirit in your holy walking according to those Sermons you heard from him so lately To put on the Armour of God and to prepare for the evil day that you may be able to stand in that day All those heavenly spiritual Gospel Sermons he Preached to you call for holy Heavenly and Gospel conversations from you In a word let it be your care to bring forth fruit Answerable to all the labour and cost God hath bestowed upon you God will certainly call you to an account for the health strength and sweat and labour and lives of his Servants he hath bestowed upon you Therefore people had need to look to it for God highly values his dear Servants lives and labours and will have a valuable consideration from you or upon you Therefore my Brethren to conclude what you would that your Garden and field should be unto you when you have digged them planted them