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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	deliver_v	good_a	lord_n	8,077	5	5.2704	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61273	The happiness of good men after death a sermon at the funeral of Mr. Robert Castell, late of Deptford in Kent, preached in the parish church of Deptford, August the 19th, 1698 : published at the request of the relations and executors of the deceased / by George Stanhope ...	Stanhope, George, 1660-1728.	1699 (1699)	Wing S5223; ESTC R15062	13,720	32

The Happiness of Good Men after Death A SERMON AT THE FUNERAL OF Mr. Robert Castell Late of Deptford in Kent Preached in the Parish Church of Deptford August the 19th 1698. Published at the Request of the Relations and Executors of the Deceased By GEORGE STANHOPE D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty LONDON Printed for R. Sare at Grays-Inn-gate in Holborn 1699. Rev. xiv V. 13. I heard a Voice from Heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the Dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth Yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them THat the Importance of these words is very great we need no other Argument to convince us than the solemn manner in which they are delivered to the Apostle Such is the express Command that they should be carefully preserved by writing I heard a Voice from He●ven saying unto me Write Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth To which is added yet farther the Testimony of the Holy Ghost confirming the Truth of what that Voice had dictated and declaring particularly wherein the Blessedness of such persons consists Yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them These forms are such Preparations as always speak the matter ushered in by them to be of mighty Consequence And are intended to awaken our Minds more powerfully and to recommend it to our best and most attentive Consideration The immediate Occasion and Design of the Passage now before us was plainly to fortify the Christians against some very violent Persecutions which St. John had a certain foresight given him of and describes accordingly by very terrible Circumstances Infomuch that he pronounces it here a very great Happiness to be taken out of the World before those Calamitous and Trying times should come which might endanger the shaking the most resolute Faith and Patience even of the best Men. Or as some other Interpreters think he describes the Blessedness of those faithful Professors of Christianity whom the Grace of God should enable to persevere unto the end and to suffer Martyrdom for the Doctrines of his Gospel Those persons being sometimes said with a peculiar Emphasis to dye in the Lord who suffer in his Cause and lay down their Lives for his sake But there is no necessity nor indeed any sufficient Reason for confining this Expression to those times of Primitive Perfecution only or to the Martyrs who suffered in them For as every sincere good Man who heartily embraces the Faith of Christ and whose Conversation is such as becomes that Faith is said in Scripture to * 2 Cor. v. 15. live unto the Lord so every one who continues in that Belief and Obedience to the End of his Days is very truly and properly said when God takes him out of the World to † 1 Thes iv 14. sleep in Jesus and to dye in the Lord. And thus it is manifest not our Own only but the Christian Church in general hath constantly understood the Text by making it in many antient Liturgies a part of the Burial Service And so declaring the Blessedness here to belong to every deceased Person who lives and dyes a worthy Member of her Communion Having therefore so good Authority to bear me out I shall make no difficulty to treat of my Text in this larger and more popular Sense and so to apply it to the occasion of our present meeting that we may gather from hence those useful and comfortable Reflections which may minister to us a Reasonable Hope of our Departed Brother's Happiness and a joyful Expectation of our Own In order hereunto I shall so far as the time will give me leave do these three things I. First I shall endeavour to represent to you the Happy State of Good Men after Death as the Words have here described it to us II. Secondly I shall from this Doctrine so established draw some few Inferences which may be of use to us both for the Conduct of our Lives in general and more particularly seasonable upon these Melancholy Occasions III. And then in the Third and last Place I shall apply the Substance of my two former heads yet more closely to the Circumstances of the Person whose mortal part now lyes before us 1. First I shall endeavour to represent to you the happy State of Good Men after Death as the Words have here described it to us And I may well say I shall endeavour only that which it is not possible for me worthily to effect For Who indeed can represent it justly What Tongue of Men or Angels can find expressions strong and significant enough What Images are so bright so glorious What finite Understandings of a Capacity so large that they should contain adequate Ideas of that Bliss to which nothing we are acquainted with in this Life is equal nothing like nothing in any degree comparable That Bliss which would lose a great part of its Perfection if Sense and feeble Reason could fully comprehend it and whose peculiar Excellence we are told it is that * 1 Cor. ii 9. Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it entred into the Heart of Man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love him The utmost therefore which you must expect in this case is only to have it drawn in little In such proportions as frail Men are capable of by Resemblances taken from things familiar to us by setting it in opposition to the Miseries we are at present exposed to and by such Other Considerations as are of Value and Weight with us in the Affairs and Transactions of humane Life This is the Method which the Holy Spirit hath made use of here And the Arguments by which he raises our esteem of that Blessedness pronounced from Heaven upon the Dead which dye in the Lord seem to be these Three 1. First The Troubles such Men are delivered from They rest from their Labours 2. Secondly The good Acceptance and great Reward which they shall after Death receive for what they have done well during the present Life Their Works do follow them 3. Thirdly The Time when they enter upon this Happiness intimated in that Term fixed here Blessed are the Dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth 1. First They who dye in the Lord are Blessed in regard of the Troubles they are delivered from They rest from their Labours I will not I need not upon this occasion undertake to shew how sore and manifold these Labours are For This is an Argument that comes home to the Sense and Experience of every one of us All that hear me are able to go before me in the Reflection how thick we are beset with Troubles and Afflictions on every Side in our Bodies and our Souls in our publick and our private Capacities The Vanities of Youth and the Infirmities of Age The Difficulties of Supporting these

Bodies and the perpetual Wants and Weaknesses to which they are Subject The lingring and the acute Distempers the sensible decays and the more sensible Pains that waste and tear and torment them The Miseries of an unhappy Temper and Overflowings of a black heavy blood which intercept all light and comfort and condemn the Soul to the dark dismal prison of a melancholy Constitution The Violence of Passions from within and the vast Variety of Accidents from without which are continually provoking us to Grief or Anger or some other disorderly excesses These are personal and of a piece with us The Losses in our Estates the surprising Disappointments in our Expectations and Designs The hurry of Business the Strife and Contention our Affairs engage us in The Travel of the Poor and the Cares of the Rich The Anguish of our Afflicted and the Uncertainty of our most Prosperous Condition The Treachery of pretending Friends and the Spight of profess'd Enemies The Snares of Conversation the Vanity and extreme danger even of those Diversions and Pleasures by which we labour to lighten this load of Life and gain some Intervals of Ease at least by forgetting for a little while our Cares and Calamities These and a thousand Difficulties more are inseparable incumbrances of Mortality to every one considered Singly and apart from his Relations and Engagements in Society But as those Capacities increase our Sorrows and Labours increase with them The Care of Families and kind Concern for those whom Nature hath made a Part of our selves The Fears and anxious Thoughts for their Safety the Fellow-feeling of their Sufferings The restless Endeavours to help them in their Distresses and the cutting regret we endure when we would assist them but cannot or when they will not suffer us to do them the Good we could And to name no more that Calamity which all of you at this time are very deeply affected with the having those Friends taken from us whom Nature or Kindness or their own Worth have rendred very dear and necessary The tearing as it were our very hearts asunder by cutting off that tenderest part of them whom God and Affection had incorporated and made one with us These are Tryals which we have so quick and piercing a Sense of that it is much less difficult to lament and complain as they deserve than to temper our Resentments and keep them within the Bounds of Duty and Decency and Christian Moderation It were easy to give you a yet more moving Spectacle by opening the Prospect a little wider and urging the Uneasiness we feel from the Distresses of the Needy the Injuries of the Oppressed the Cryes of Helpless Widows and Orphans the Corruptions or the Calamitous Circumstances of the State or the Church whereof we are Members All which affect us more sensibly in proportion as we are better-natured Men that is better Christians But That which is to such the most afflicting Consideration of all is that these things do not only create a present Uneasiness but may likewise if not very carefully managed lay the foundation of Eternal Misery That they are the Temptations and Instruments of Sin such as the Frailty of humane Nature is but too apt alas to be overborn by Such as are often successful even against the most Watchful and Resolute And therefore of all other Labours in this fight of Afflictions the Wise and Good Man esteems those the heaviest which hazard the Salvation of his Soul And no Consideration renders a Deliverance from the Sufferings of Life half so desirable as that mentioned by St. * Rom. vi 7. Paul that He that is dead is freed from Sin These are all of them such Labours as the Condition we now live in naturally exposes every Man to And the very Severest of them such as the Providence of God hath not thought fit to exempt the holiest and best beloved of his Servants from They like their Captain are made perfect through Hardships and Sufferings These are their Spiritual Warfare the Exercises of their Virtue the Proofs of their Patience and Fidelity and constant Love to Him And God is not much concerned to be very exact in the measures of Good and Evil in this Life because this Life is not the Season of final Retribution But he hath appointed another wherein he knows how to make Good Men ample amends for all they do and suffer for him here The Benefits we are to expect at present are the Wisdom and Kindness of his Providence to turn every Affliction to our good the powerful Assistances of his Grace to support us under our Conflicts and the merciful Execution of that Decree which after we have toiled and suffered a while may translate us to a State of Rest and Peace may render that Death which to mere Nature is so gastly and formidable a Blessing and Privilege for such in truth it is in the Eye of Faith and to those who dye in the Lord. For ought not this to be a very Supporting Consideration in the midst of difficulties and troubles that though these hemm us round and thrust sore at us now yet there is a day coming in which we shall make our escape from them all That God will hide us in the Grave and set us on that Shore where we shall full of Security look back upon this tempestuous World and have no part of the Storms that tost us here but only the Remembrance of them left A Remembrance so much more joyful as the Miseries we call to mind were formerly more grievous But especially Is it not a mighty Comfort to think we shall shortly put off this load of Infirmities that we shall be perfectly at quiet from all the disturbance which the lustings of the Flesh against the Spirit and the irreconcilable War in our Members create us every day and hour that God will not only cover our Head in the Battel but take us out of the Field into a sure retreat where the Enemy of Souls cannot hurt us nor Temptation assault us nor corrupt Nature betray us nor pain or affliction or danger overtake us Surely * Job v. 7. Man that is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards hath reason to be pleased with such a Refuge as This Surely That ought to be no small Recommendation of the future State of Good Christians which the Voice from Heaven gives in the xxith of this Book at the 4th verse that God shall wipe away all tears from their Eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away So valuable a Blessing it is merely to rest from their Labours so proper this Argument to reconcile us to Death that it removes us into a place of Ease and Safety But if this make Death tolerable there is something behind which makes it even desirable The prospect of a Deliverance may sustain us under our troubles but

in using them at the Burial of every Christian do warrant us to conclude that this Rest from Labour and the Reward of Good Works begin at the instant of Men's dying in the Lord. And if the passage before us do not sufficiently prove this yet there are Others which may even oblige us to understand it so The Labourers in the Vineyard assoon as ever the Even was come * Matth. xx 8. and the Duty of the Day over are called to receive their Wages Lazarus immediately upon his Death is said † Luke xvi 22 25. to be carried by Angels into Abraham's bosom and comforted for the Evil things he received in his Life-time St. * 2 Tim. iv 6 7 8. Paul upon mentioning his departure at hand and reflecting upon the good fight he had fought declares that from thenceforth there was laid up for him a Crown of Righteousness Perhaps indeed this Crown is not yet so bright nor Lazarus his happiness so exquisite as it will be at the last great day of account But still that Crown was determined and fixed from the day of this Apostle's departure though he is to be more solemnly invested with it at the day when the Righteous Judge shall appear And Lazarus was at least in a Condition of Comfort Such as made him good amends for the Poverty and Diseases he had undergone in his Body So that these Passages as well as that of the Labourers in the Vineyard sufficiently confute that fond imagination which some have entertained of the Soul sleeping in a State of Insensibility till the general Resurrection They also overthrow that profitable Delusion of the Romish Purgatory and render Prayers for the Dead superfluous and useless For how can they be comforted who have no Sense What occasion have they for our Prayers who are already blessed or how can they be said to rest from their Labours who pass from hence into a Condition of Torments more exquisite by far than this Life can possibly endure and yet such the Popish Purgatory is represented So just ground have we to conclude that there is no Interval between the End of Good Men's Labour and the Beginning of their Rest So substantial a Reason is it of their Happiness that their Works do not only follow them at a distance but keep them company go with them hand in hand and render the Dead blessed from the very moment of their Dying in the Lord. II. I have now done with my first general Head and after so largely insisting upon it shall think it necessary to say less upon my Second which consists of such Inferences as are proper to be drawn from the foregoing Particulars And they among many Others may be These that follow 1. As First We shall do well seriously to consider what vast encouragement these words contain to a Godly Life For it must always be remembred that the Glorious Privileges we have hitherto been treating of do not belong to all indifferently but only to such as Dye in the Lord. That is as was declared in the beginning of this Discourse To Them that embrace the Faith of Jesus that live up to the Principles of the Gospel and persevere in doing so to the End of their Days As for Those who either refuse and oppose this Belief or who hold it in unrighteousness their Case is the very Reverse of what we have been describing They are so far from finding Rest after their Labours that all the Evils they sustain in this world are light and gentle and less than nothing in comparison of the intolerable the unconceivable the infinitely heavier Miseries reserved for them in another Their Works follow them too but it is to upbraid them with their Guilt and Impenitence to wound them with sad and fruitless Remorse to testify against them in the Great Day of Account and to condemn them to everlasting Flames Let me then most earnestly conjure let me prevail with All that hear me to Secure a Title to this Blessedness by breaking off their Iniquities from this very moment And this will best be done by possessing their minds with just and worthy Notions of these Comforts in my Text by considering what vast amends will be made them for all the hardships of Virtue here and how wretched an Exchange those Men will make at last who indulge the pleasures of Sin for a season at the prodigious Expence the certain and irrecoverable Loss of their Souls and Eternal Happiness hereafter The Severest Doctrines of the Gospel have more than enough to enforce their practice upon us if we would but consider them impartially and proceed upon the same Measures which humane Prudence puts us upon in the Affairs of this World And What are the Affairs of this world when put into the ballance against our Spiritual Concerns What are the troubled and imperfect Joys of Sense which a thousand cares and fears pains and disasters innumerable disturb in comparison of that sweet and sure Repose above which nothing can annoy What are the Honours the Wealth the Pomp we so eagerly pursue here if set against the Glories of Saints and the inestimable Treasures of our heavenly Father's Kingdom Trust me Such gains are no where to be had so cheaply to be bought so certain to be obtained so durable in the Enjoyment No gains indeed are durable but these Nothing turns to True account but Piety and Virtue And This is profitable for all things so exceeding profitable that we could not have hoped we could not have imagined it and if any other than God the Giver had told us of this we could not have ben so easy as to believe so presumptuous as to expect it 2. Secondly The Considerations which went before are very proper to arm our minds against the Fear of Death A passion where it prevails to any great degree of all Others the most Tyrannical and tormenting It must be so Because Scaring us perpetually with hideous Apprehensions of a Danger which we are fully satisfied beforehand it is not possible with all our Industry to shun And this domineering Evil is what nothing but Christianity ever was or could be a match for But when we consider how many things there are which may justly abate our fondness for This Life and that they who dye in the Lord are effectually delivered from all these When we look upon Death as a necessary Passage to Happiness and reflect that the instant we cease to be miserable here we take possession of a never failing Bliss in another State This puts quite another face upon the matter from what it carries to the Wicked or to the Natural Man * 1 Cor. xv 56. The Sting of Death is Sin says the Apostle that is the Only thing which can in reason render Dying terrible is the being called to an account for our evil deeds But the Gospel frees us from the Bondage of this Fear too It shews us a Victorious Redeemer One who hath