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	sin_n	16,958	5	5.5972	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80841	The good man's epitaph briefly explained & applyed in a sermon at the funeral of Mr. John Drury. By Thomas Cartwright, M. of A. of Queens College Oxon, and now vicar of Waltham-stow in Essex.	Cartwright, Thomas, 1634-1689.	1659 (1659)	Wing C699; Thomason E1001_16; ESTC R207856	12,722	24

any meanes of escaping having so highly provok'd that Great Judge before whom he is then to appear Whereas on the other hand he who has made it the business of his life to make the Judg his friend triumphs at the news of his appearance before him and looking merrily towards heaven the Reward of his Innocence his soul is ravisht with an earnest desire of being dissolved that he may be with God The Glory of the End makes him contemn the Hardness of the Way He knowes that as he lives in Gods Fear so he shall dye in his Favour and therefore he smiles upon the Messenger of his Departure and embraces it as his entrance into Happiness Is it any wonder that the wicked should fear death when their Conscience which is their faithful Informer tells them that it is a Trap-door which will let them down into the Dungeon of eternal misery Is it any wonder that he is dismayed when these Spiritual Philistines the terrors of death make War upon him when his own heart informs him that the Lord is departed from him No wonder if he who lived without Grace expects to dye without Comfort Needs must it be a ghastly sight to him to see death like a Pursevant sent from hell waiting to guard him into endless miseries But now they who dye in the Lord have another-guess Cordial to keep up their spirits so that in what habit soever death comes attired they can make him welcome because they perceive him to be a Messenger come from their Heavenly Father to call them to take possession of a Kingdom They may pass with comfort and courage through this dark entry which leads to the Palace of their eternal Glory They may play upon the hole of this Asp without danger for it cannot sting them Christ has subdued the Second and reconciled the First Death to them so that the one they never taste of and the other is so sweetned that they cannot justly complain of its relish When these Jacobs have got the blessing of their heavenly Father they can meet this ruffe Esau with a kiss and not with a frown and if they do receive a blow from his ruffe hand yet that very stroke is healing When our Saviour has made the bed of the grave soft and sweet by his own lying in it a Christian can with much chearfulness and quietness repose himself in it When an Angel comes to him as it did to S. Peter knocks off his chains and profers him a Gaol-delivery he is no longer in love with the Prison of his flesh but lets his Soul follow him freely into the best of Liberties When his Redeemer sends for him he has no reason to shew any unwillingness to go to him And what do you think it was but a sight of this future blessedness which made the Martyrs so in love with their stakes and so strangely amorous of their torment What was it but this that made them chalenge death and court their persecutors as their best friends giving them thanks for their service in letting them loose from the slavery of this world Was it not the earnest desire of their future glory which so passionately inflamed them with a love of their present misery Needs must they be blessed who dye in the Lord who then reap the great and plentiful gain of their Godliness here they have Beatitudinem viae but then and there do they enter upon Beatitudinem Patriae they have a blessing accompanying them in their wayes but it is not to be compared with that which meets them at their journies end He who is the Lord of life and has tryed what it is to dye has pronounc'd a peculiar blessing upon them that dye in the Lord they are both Beati qui moriuntur quia moriuntur in Domino who do and because they do dye in the Lord the interest which they have in God whilst they live is that which gives them assurance of their happiness with him when they dye They who do not live in London cannot expect to dye there nor can they who do not live in Gods Grace expect by death to have admission into his Glory They who would be happy in the end must first be holy in the beginning they who would obtain the price of eternal happiness which is to be distributed at the Goal must first run the race which is set before them and observe the rules likewise that are given out by the eternal God who is to dispose of it and in so doing they shall have priviledges of a double nature conveyed over to them some in possession others in reversion some in spe others in re they shall have some blessing in hold whilst they live in hope of others Here they shall have desiderium Beatitudinis there Beatitudinem desiderii here the desire of happiness and persuit after it there shall they be swallowed up in the happiness which they desire Those are blessed who live in the Lord but they rest not from their labours toil and sorrow intrudes between them and a perfect enjoyment of that blessedness which they now possess only in hope and inchoation when Death adds rest to it then and not before is their happiness compleated whilst they are in the body their souls lye manacled in their jayl of flesh but then they receive a release and are joyned with their Saviour in eternal liberty where they possess joyes for matter spiritual for substance real for use universal and for continuance eternal And therefore Foelices nimium quibus est fortuna peracta Jam sua They are happy beyond comparison or expression whose Glass is so well run as that we may say of them they are dead in the Lord. Blessed are the dead who dye in the Lord so some translations by which it seems that good men are dead before the stroke of death reaches them death is no stranger to them they are grown familiar with it being dead to Sin dead to the Law and dead to the World The wicked go down quick to Hell but the Godly are dead before hand and therefore 't is no trouble or difficulty for them to dye especially considering that they dye in the Lord. They live in the Lord in one sense but they dye in him in another for being engrafted into Christ that precious Vine by Faith and Love they live and flourish for ever and continue to be the Mystical Members of his body the living Branches of that Vine even when they have naturally breath'd out their Souls and are fallen asleep in his bosome But Beza's Latine Translation reads it Beati qui Domini causâ moriuntur Blessed are they who dye for the Lord's sake who are persecuted for righteousness sake unto death because through a red Sea of blood they pass into a Canaan of eternal happiness Though Christ have finished his own sufferings for the expiation of the World yet there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 portions which are

them it makes both for the glory of God and the benefit of the living The happiness of the godly is a Truth of more unquestionable Authority than those which are conveyed to us by Tradition for it hath a Scriptum est to confirm it 'T is written So that these are no transient Commendations which are given them from Heaven such as spend their life in a breath but they are determined to be lasting and permament ones they must be written in an indelible Character as it were with a Graver upon the Tomb of them who dye in the Lord. God has a Book of Remembrance in which those who are his Servants are registred that they may be had in everlasting remembrance that they may appear to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a people of extraordinary note even Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Jewels of Heaven those upon whom he puts an higher value then ordinary and indeed it his esteem of them which doth both make and manifest their happiness Those therefore whom by the declaration of Gods will as it were by a voice from heaven he causes to be written amongst his Favourites must needs have such a share in his love and such a title to his affection as will make them happy to all eternity God threatned the wicked that he will scatter them Deut. 32. 26 into corners and that he will make the remembrance of them to cease from amongst men And when Bildad was reckoning up the calamities of the wicked he thought this was not to be forgotten That the light of Job 17. 6. tbe wicked shall be put out and his candle put out with him his remembrance shall perish from the earth and he Ver. 17. shall have no name in the street The face of the Lord Psal 34. 16. is against them that do evil sayes David to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth It seems they are so bad that God would have us hear no more of them when they are gone because their memory stinks and is offensive therefore does he take care that it may be buried with them All their actions abhor a register nor shall they be ever named unlesse like that obscure Herostrotus to their perpetual infamy But the righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance Psal 112. 2. He took care to do well and God takes care that he may hear well causing his best actions to be written in a fair hand that he may transmit his memory to after ages He enrolls them in an everlasting Register and that his name may ride in Triumph to all eternity he allots his glorious Angels for his Supporters That the priviledges of the righteous may be sure to be heard of far and near God causes them to be pronounc'd by a voice from heaven a miraculous one indeed a voice without a Speaker an audible testimony of an invisible witnesse and yet not outwardly sounding that we read of to S. John but inwardly conveyed to him by that Angel who reveal'd the whole Apocalypse to him The Memorial of the Just shall be blessed A Good Prov. 10. 7. Name shall be his heir which that it may be made manifest to Succeeding as well as Present Generations God orders it to be written that so his respect and love to him may never be forgotten but remain upon Record to all eternity Now because this affection of the Holy Spirit of God to the Servants of God when deceased runs through the other two parts of their Epitaph and is to be seen as well in the Character which is given them as likewise in the Comfort which is administred to their surviving friends I cannot properly be said to passe it over though I come along with your patience to the Second Observable in my Text viz. II. The Signal Character which by order from Heaven is given to these servants of God whereby they are to be distinguisht from all others and by which their Memory is perfum'd to all eternity viz. in the Blessing which is pronounc'd on them and of them Blessed are they who dye in the Lord a Phrase suitable to that Of Sleeping in the 1 Cor. 15. 18 Lord. The Verdict of the Holy Spirit is much different from the Worlds opinion for whereas they judg none more Miserable the Comforter declares none more Blessed then they who dye in the Lord that is either for his Cause or in faith and obedience to him nay none besides them The Spirit sayes it though the flesh and the world deny it It was but one mans opinion and he a Heathen too That Death was Natures best invention and therefore that Blessedness should be entailed upon the dead will amongst sober men easily pass for a Paradox which that it may appear to be true beyond all exceptions and mistakes thre is a clause of Inhibition by the Holy Spirit here inserted which limits the Proposition and shews what sorts of Dead he means when he stiles them Blessed not all for then Scipio's Question to his Father were material Why should we live many in pain more in misery all in sin but they only who dy in the Lord that is they who lead their lives in an impartial obedience to his Commands and continues faithful to the end and then departs in Peace with God their own Consciences and all the World Though every Subject do desire to have this Predicate of Blessedness coupled to it yet to none is it really agreeable but to those who dye in the Lord which as I now tell you in the beginning of my Discourse you will certainly find most true in the end of your lives Not every one who ferries over the Dead sea is happy only they are truly stiled Blessed who arrive safely at the Haven of eternal Happiness and such are those and those only who dye in the Lord. It cannot be expected but as men differ in their lives so they should in their deaths They who go two several wayes and those opposite one to the other can never hope to meet at one end of their journey The same Prison may for a while containe both the Innocent and Malefactor but when a Commission is issued forth to call them out and a Warrant to bring them to the Bar this Summons finds a different entertainment between them For the wicked mans Guilt does then flye in his face and take down his courage nor can all his vain and frolick methods of confidence shift off the violent horror which he conceives at this news upon a conscience of his own misdemeanors The fear of death like one of the stained colours does then abate his pleasant and chearful countenance and the melancholy remembrance of what he has done together with the horrid expectation and foresight of his future sufferings terrifies him to the purpose He now sees the gates of death wide open expecting him and through them his passage to those of hell which he cannot possibly conceive