Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	die_v	good_a	life_n	16,696	5	4.8534	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81899	The life and death of that judicious divine, and accomplish'd preacher, Robert Harris, D.D. late president of Trinity Colledge in Oxon. Collected by a joynt-concurrence of some, who knew him well in his strength, visited him often in his sickness, attended him at his death, and still honour his memory. Published at the earnest request of many, for the satisfaction of some, for the silencing of others, and for the imitation of all. / By W.D. his dear friend and kinsman.	Durham, William, 1611-1684.	1660 (1660)	Wing D2831; Thomason E1794_1; ESTC R209698	30,977	127

any thing for God as I ought Loss of time sits heavy upon my spirit Work work apace assure your selves nothing will more trouble you when you come to dye than that you have done no more for God who hath done so much for you Sometimes he would breathe out himself thus I never in all my life saw the worth of a Christ ner tasted the sweetness of Gods love in that measure as now I do Therefore being asked what should bee done for him hee answered Do not onely pray for mee but praise God for his unspeakable mercy to mee and in particular that hee hath kept Satan from mee in this my weakness Oh saith hee how good is God! entertain good thoughts of him However it bee with us wee cannot think too well of him or too bad of our selves The sense of Gods goodness was deeply imprinted on his heart to his very last and therefore in all his Wills this legacy was alwaies renewed Item I bequeath to all my children and their childrens children to each of them a Bible with this Inscription None but Christ At what time hee was visited by two Reverend Doctors Dr. S. Dr. C. which were his choice friends who before they prayed with him desired him to tell them what hee chiefly requested hee answered I praise God hee supports mee and keeps off Satan Beg that I may hold out I am now in a good way home even quite spent I am now at the shore I leave you tossing on the Sea Oh it is a good time to dye in Yet nearer his end being often asked How hee did hee answered In no great pain I praise God onely weary of my unuseful life If God have no more service for mee to do here I could bee gladly in Heaven where I shall serve him better freed from sin and distractions I pass from one death to another yet I fear none I praise God I can live I dare dye If God have more work for mee to do here as that Antient said Domine si tibi sim necessarius non recuso c. Pomer to which hee seemed to allude I am willing to do it although my infirm body bee very weary Desiring one to pray That God would hasten the work It was asked Whether pain c. put him upon that desire Hee replied No But I do now no good I hinder others which might bee better imployed if I were not Why should any desire to live but to do God service Now I cease from that I do not live By this time the violence of his distempers and advice of his Physicians forbad speech yet did hee call upon his attendants to read the Scriptures to him constantly especially upon a Son of his with him to pray with him frequently and whilst life and language lasted hee concluded all prayers with a loud Amen Hee slumbered much the nearer hee came to his last sleep Once upon his awake hee found himself exceeding ill called for his Son and taking him by the hand said Pray with mee it is the last time in likelihood that ever I shall joyn with you and complaining to him of his wearisomeness his Son answered There remains a rest To whom hee replied My Sabbath is not far off and yours is at hand Ere that I shall bee rid of all my trouble and you will bee eased of some At length this ruinous Fort which onely in obedience to his great Commander had held out beyond his own desire and all mens expectations from the height of Summer to the depth of Winter comes to bee yeelded up About Saturday even hee began to set himself to dye forbids all cordials to bee administred upon whatsoever extremity gives his dying blessing to his Son who onely of all his children was with him and upon his request enjoyns him to signifie upon occasion in that Country where hee was longest known That hee lived and died in the Faith which he had preached and printed and now hee found the comfort of it Something else hee began to speak but his distempers interrupted his desires and from that time never entertained any discourse with the sons of men onely commanded the 8th of the Romans to bee read to him And herein God was exceedingly good to him in the return of those petitions put up for him that afternoon by those two eminent Divines and his dearest Brethren above mentioned for whereas his distempers gave occasion to fear that his death would bee exceeding painful yet was it so easie that his son and other attendants could but guess at the particular time of his departure his breathings were easie and even his eyes open and full of water till at the last having lifted them up towards Heaven they closed of themselves and his soul without the least motion or resistance of body entred into rest whilst wee below were entring into the day of rest For then began hee a perpetual Sabbath in Heaven when wee began ours on Earth twixt twelve and one on Saturday Decemb. 11. 1658. Hee died in a good old age and full of daies having out-lived fourscore years much bewailed by the Colledge by the City and whole University Thus have wee for the satisfaction of some and the silencing of others given you a plain and impartial narrative of the life and death of this eminent Divine collected partly out of his own letters and partly from their mouths who best understood him Let us now look upon himself within himself and there see what was in him for the imitation of all Dr. Harris was confessedly a man of admirable prudence profound judgement eminent gifts and graces and furnished with all qualifications which might render him a compleat man a wise governour a profitable Preacher and a good Christian Here is a large field but I shall contract and speak in few First Look upon him as a Christian because that was his and our greatest ornament Hee was a man that had much acquaintance with God much communion with him in private meditation and devotion accounting those his best daies wherein hee had most converse with him One in his sickness asking him how hee did Oh saith hee this hath been a sweet day I have had sweet communion with God in Jesus Christ Hee was none of them that were all for promises and priviledges mean while neglect duties Hee made them his exercise but not his Christ Hee was much in the work of those severer points of Religion as private humiliation mortification and self-denial whereby hee gained the conquest of himself In truth hee was as far as is consistent with humane frailty Master of his corruptions whatsoever passions reason appetite language all The Lord wrought upon him betimes Though hee knew not the Preacher or Sermon that converted him yet his course was in the daies of his strictest examination to set down his evidences for salvation in writing now in Propositions from Scripture now in Syllogisms These hee often subscribed to

THE LIFE and DEATH OF That Judicious Divine and Accomplish'd PREACHER ROBERT HARRIS D.D. Late President of Trinity Colledge in Oxon. COLLECTED By a joynt-concurrence of some who knew him well in his strength visited him often in his sickness attended him at his death and still honour his Memory PUBLISHED At the earnest request of many for the satisfaction of some for the silencing of others and for the Imitation of all By W.D. his dear Friend and Kinsman ISAI 57.1 2. The Righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart c. Hee shall enter into peace c. LONDON Printed for S.B. and are to be sold by J. Bartlet at the gilt Cup on the South side of S. Pauls Church over against the Drapers and at the gilt Cup in Westminster Hall 1660. M. S. Robertus Harris S.T.D. Pastor olim Hanwellensis Inde per Decennium hujus Collegii Praeses Aeternùm Celebrandus Perspicacissimus Indolum Scrutator Potestatis Arbiter mitissimus Merentium fautor integerrimus Quem Prudentia rerum usus Saeculo instruxerat Coelo fides Pietas Felix praepotens animorum regulator Aliorum affectibus in concione Imperitans nusquam non suis Post Evangelii labores Annis LIV strenue desudatos Post Societatem hanc optimis disciplinis Invidendâ concordiâ stabilitam Vivido etiamnum vigente Ingenio Cum desertor animi corpus ineluctabili morbo succumberet fessae mortalitatis exuvias hic deposuit Prid. Id. Xbris A. Dom. MDCLIIX Aetatis LXXX Posuit R.B. Coll. Trin. Soc. ERRATA P. 10. l. 13. blot out And. p. 14. l. 14. blot out And. p. 17. l. 4. for is r. Hee p. 21. l. 9. for the most r. most of the. p. 26. l. 8. for and r. of p. 27. l. 9. for the r. that p. 62. l. 10. for into r. upon p. 64. l. 11. for were r. are p. 100. l. 17. blot out often ON THE Memory of that Famous and Godly Minister Dr. ROBERT HARRIS my late Worthy Friend AS once Elias in John Baptist came Back to the Jews in that Triumphant flame Of light and zeal wherein hee did before Without deaths help up into Glory soar And by this Transmigration of his Grace Prepared paths before his Masters face Even so in thee bless'd soul did breath anew Great Chrysostome yea Great Apollos too To thee those mighty Orators did give Their tongue to speak to thee their life to live Nay thou thy self didst in thy self renew Thy Forty 's Vigour in Fourscore wee knew When all thy strength decayed thy gifts did thrive The man is dead the Preacher still alive Alive in his own Sermons in our love His name alive below his soul above And may the younger Prophets still inherit A double portion of their Fathers Spirit That by a sacred Metempsychosis The gifts may now be theirs which once were his That every Sermon which we hear may be Rare Preacher a true Portraiture of thee Yea may it of each following age be true The former are exceeded by the new Visions of young surpass old Prophets dreams The Father's light 's outshin'd by Childrens beams That in their measures wee may more and more The unmeasur'd fulness of our Lord adore Dr E. Reyn. old THE LIFE and DEATH OF Robert Harris D. D. late President OF Trinity-Colledge OXON RObert Harris was born in a dark time and place at Broad-Campden in Glocester-shire his Father was looked upon by the chiefest in that Country as a very wise and understanding man his Mother was confessedly a very devout and charitable woman under these prudent and pious Parents hee spent his childe-hood But it did not a little afflict this their Son to his dying day that even then hee was more willing of play than of reading the Scriptures to his Parents at their call So soon as hee was capable his Parents having designed him for the Law or the Ministry according as his parts should prove set him to the Free-School of Chipping-Campden where hee soon found a double inconvenience First The School-masters were often changed by the defalcation of their salary through some default Secondly Some of them proved very fierce and cruel which hee would often say was the bane of many school-boies and though for his own part hee never felt to his remembrance the smart of any Rod in any School yet the daily executions done upon others brought such a trembling and sadness of spirit upon him that hee could not bee quite rid of so long as hee lived From that School hee was removed to Worcester where all the week hee was under the tuition of Mr. Bright and on the Sabbath under the Reverend Pastor the learned Dr. Robert Abbots From thence hee was removed to Magdalen Hall in Oxon being allied to the Principal Mr. Lyster There hee shewed an excessive desire of knowledge and studied the more because hee had little help either from the Principal or his Tutor But all this while hee was too too ignorant of the waies and truths of God At length his Tutor leaving the Hall hee became Suter to the Principal that one Mr. Goffe of Magdalen-Colledge might bee the man This Mr. Goffe was voiced to be a very good Logician and Disputant but withall a Puritane which occasioned the Principal being Popish to disswade the choice but his kinsman persisted in his sute and would have no denial not out of love to Religion but to Learning onely Mr. Goffe having received him calls him to a concurrence with other Pupils in reading the Bible Prayer and Repetition of Sermons This course did somewhat perplex the new Pupil First hee knew few if any of the Seniors who ran that way and on the other side hee was not able to confute the practice In this case hee would as himself reported in his study fall down and intreat the Lord either to discover the falsehood if his Tutor had any design upon him to seduce him or if this way were pleasing to God that then the Lord would confirm him in it Not long after hee came to a resolution bought a Bible took excessive pains in reading that and other Authors in Divinity In the mean while his Tutor puts off his Pupil because hee did not earn his mony for his Tutorage Only thus it should bee said his Tutor Wee will continue our studies together I le read Philosophy with you and you Greek with mee From Greek they passed to Hebrew wherein they had also the concurrence of some other of the Fellows whereof one was afterward President And however Mr. Harris was not then compleat Batchelor in the Hall yet the company accepted of him finding him studious and as ready in his Grammar as themselves Besides this his Tutor and himself agreed to read Calvins Institutions by turns the one reading a chapter this day and giving an account thereof to the other and the other to do the like the next day and this they did so long continue as their other occasions and exercises

hellish temptations as smote a grief and terrour into all spectators Then as hee would often say God made it appear to all Beholders that the best man is no more than God makes him hourly the receiving of grace the keeping of it the use of it the comfort the enjoyment of it is all from him Nor is this true onely in supernatural graces but in the gifts of nature too our wits senses phantasies are all in his hand nor are the wisest men any thing any longer than hee continues them so This good woman was a sad instance of all this whose temptations were so fierce so horrid and withall so subtle that they put the ablest men to their wits to answer and her poor self beyond her self sundry experienced Preachers and Professors visited her and her Husband who had satisfied many others could give her no peace One day when shee was complaining that shee wanted comfort O saith hee what an Idol do some make of comfort as if their comfort were their Christ Amidst all these trials these comforts hee took notice of 1 That shee was kept from blaspheming the Highest as she still stiled God and from hurting her self or others 2 That this affliction awakened him and his children for they all accounted her the most consciencious and innocent among them 3 It put him upon more work than his age would bear that so hee might call out his thoughts upon business and not eat up his own heart And Lastly It wrought in him an holy despair of all creature-comforts for now hee enjoyed neither childe nor friend nor meat nor sleep having her continually in his eye ear and heart and all friends fearing to come in sight lest they should wound themselves or trouble her Onely instant prayers were continued for her upon all occasions and I doubt not still are in that City and Country which gives hope that the Lord may yet please to make the end comfortable and the conquest glorious However as her Husband would say The difference is not great whether comfort come in death or an hour after since comfort assuredly would come And thus for the present wee leave her tossing upon the waves and billows of Temptation yet under a general expectation of a blessed Issue in the best time and return once and but once more to her Husband now entring into the Haven of rest After a long and laborious life tedious perhaps to him who reads it but more grievous to him who underwent it wee come at length to his long and painful sickness sickness I say That usual Harbinger of death In the Summer hee began to droop Dr. Bathurst Dr. Willis and finding a decay sent for two Physicians well known to him and his by former experiences and eminently known in the University to whom hee would profess That hee used means meerly in obedience but for his own part hee could live and durst dye His Physicians as himself professed had proceeded so far as Art and Learning could carry them but herein they would lose of their worth that they had to deal with complicated diseases which were seldome removed but most of all with old age a disease which was never cured His first encounter was with a vehement Pleuritical pain in his left side to which was adjoyned a Feaver as also a great defluxion of Rheume and oppression of his lungs with flegm and now when after divers weeks all these Assaylants seemed well nigh-vanquished through the tender care of his skilful Physicians yet still haeret lateri That enemy which had so long lodged in his bosome brake forth into an Empyema which hee expectorated daily in so great a measure for the space of two months or more that hereby together with some fits of his old disease the stone and strangury hee was not able to speak much to those that visited him And herein hee made good what hee had often said in his best strength viz. that little must bee expected from him on his death-bed which prophetically occasioned his pen to report fearing his tongue might not then utter his advice and counsel to his family many years before his death Indeed hee rather forbore to speak because hee perceived a design to make his words publick which hee was utterly unwilling to neither would hee consent that any thing of his life or death should bee penned nay hee could never bee perswaded at any time to sit that his shadow might remain so desirous was hee that all of him might be buried with him And albeit hee spit up those lungs which hee had wasted in the Pulpit yet could not that light of grace bee so smothered under his bushel but oftentimes the beams thereof would shine forth and himself would breathe out himself in pithy speeches and savoury discourses At his first sickness being desired to admit of company hee answered I am alone in company it is all one to mee to bee left alone or to have friends with mee my work is now to arm my self for death which assaults mee and I apply my self as I am able for that great encounter Accordingly hee spent his whole time in meditation prayer and in reading Gods book especially the Book of the Psalms the Prophecie of Isaiah and St. Johns Gospel where hee took exceeding delight in the 10th 14th 15th 16th 17th Chapters of that Evangelist After when his long nights and short sleep were tedious when hee could not now rise or sit upright to read hee would command others to read unto him and then would collect the chief useful things contained in the Chapter expounding any thing hard in it and sweetly feeding on the rest Still would hee exhort hi● visitants and attendants to get Faith above all It is your victory your life would hee say your peace your crown and your chief peece of spiritual armour howbeit get on all go forth in the Lords might and stand to the fight and then the issue shall bee glorious onely forget not to call in the help of your General do all from him and under him On the Lords day hee would not hinder any from the publick for any thing to bee done for him till Sermons were ended then would hee say Come what have you for mee meaning something of repetition to which hee would attend so diligently as that hee would summe up the heads of every Sermon and say O what excellent truths are these Lay them up charily you will have need of them When friends came to visit him hee would say I cannot speak but I can hear yet being asked where his comfort lay hee answered In Christ and in the free Grace of God To one that told him Sir you may take much comfort in your labours you have done much good c. Hee answered All was nothing without a Saviour My best works said hee would condemn mee Oh I am ashamed of them being mixed with so much sin Oh I am an unprofitable servant I have not done