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	hand_n	life_n	6,519	5	4.2931	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67031	Chous epitreohomenos, or, The dust returning to the earth being a sermon preached at the interrment of that excellently accomplisht gentleman Tho. Lloyd Esq. late of Wheaten-Hurst in the county of Gloucester upon Tuesday the 22nd of December, 1668 / by Tho. Woolnough.	Woolnough, Thomas, ca. 1630-1675.	1669 (1669)	Wing W3530; ESTC R27625	15,883	23

I know whom I have trusted and that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day 2 Tim. 1. 12. We shall all be desirous when we come to die to commit our Souls to God saying Lord into thy hands we commit our Spirits Why let us cheerfully bequeath our Souls to God now by the resignation of a holy Life that he may willingly receive them then at the resignation of a happy Death Let us devote our Souls to the service of that God from whom we had them Let us give them back to him that gave them us what more equal His giving of them was grace free mercy our returning of them to the Giver is Duty God calls for them My Son give me thy heart Prov. 23. 26. He requires to be lov'd with all the heart with all the soul and with all the strength Luke 10. 27. How c●n we in reason or conscience deny it God gave us these Souls not to use as we list he made all things for his own glory Our Souls are his let us therefore according to the Apostles counsel glorifie him in our Souls which are his They are not at our own dispose we are not Masters of them Have we promised them to Sin and Satan We may retract our promise A promise unlawfully made may lawfully be broken yea cannot lawfully be kept We gave what is none of our own such a gift is therefore void in Law Our Souls are Gods Do they think of this who are so free of their Damme●s Poor wretches How madly do they give away their Souls Should God say Amen to such Imprecations what would become of them Are Souls so cheap Did they cost so small and contemptible a price when Christ shed his Blood to redeem them that we should make so little accompt of them Let us remember whence we had our Souls and let that make us mind their welfare and take care what becomes of them Did they come from God from Heaven It were sad they should go to Satan to Hell This is not for them to return but to wander to be lost And what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole World and lose his Soul Matth. 16. 26. 4. Are our Souls from God Let us then mind more their Divine Original think of our Countrey our Home Heaven Our Father God The Father of Spirits Heb. 12. 9. Children from home are often thinking of it and wishing to be there Home is we say home though never so homely no place like that to them Why Heaven is our Home Let us have our Conversation there while our abode is on Earth What do we sojourning in Mesheck and dwelling in the Tents of Kedar How Shall we not desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better as Phil. 1. 23. Doth no place use to seem like home to Strangers though indeed better Much less let Earth be taken by us for our home when it is so much worse than that What comparison between Earth and Heaven Trouble and Rest Sorrow and Joy Misery and Happiness A Crown of Thorns and a Crown of Glory We must indeed stay Gods time for our going home Children at School must expect to be sent for e'r they stir but yet let us in the mean time be much in the thoughts of Heaven and of Glory Let the bent of our desires be and the byas of our Souls draw that way 'T is strange that men should generally have so much forgotten the descent of their Souls that Heaven should have so little place in their thoughts and discourses Do they think they had their Souls from God who have not God in all their thoughts Men brag of their Corporal Descent and yet mind not that which is their greatest Honour They make their Heaven-born Princely Souls embrace Dung-hils 5. And lastly If God gave us our Spirits our Souls then let us be hence inform'd of the absolute and undoubted right God hath to dispose of our lives May not he take away that gave See Job's argument cap. 1. 21. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away What then Why blessed be the Name of the Lord. He breath'd our Souls in and if he will have us breath them out he dothus no wrong All Souls are mine saith God they are indeed for he gave them When God calls us by death let us submit quietly What will we deny God his own our Souls That is Injustice we ought not so to do and 't is folly to boot we cannot with-hold them from him if we would And as in respect of our selves so our friends and relations Doth God take them away Who can say to him What doest thou Where the word of a King is there is power That they were at all was from him that we enjoy'd them long was his mercy let us part therefore cheerfully and contentedly and with holy Job in the fore-named place as well bless God when he takes away as when he gives I am now come to the last Branch of the latter Proposition touching the Souls return to God that gave it As it was from him so it must and shall return to him The Souls of good men are convey'd by the holy Angels as was the Soul of Lazarus Luke 16. 22. and the Souls of bad men by the evil Angels the Devils they shall require or fetch away thy soul from thee Luke 12. 20. This Night saith God to the rich man shall thy soul be required of thee So we read it but in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They do or shall fetch it away viz. the Devils as before The Devils like Catch-poles shall seise upon the Souls of the wicked and carry them before Gods Tribunal before the Seat of Justice thence to be sent to that Prison out of which there is no redemption The improvement which I shall make of this Consideration shall be onely by way of Exhortation Let me stir you all up to an expectation of and preparation for this return So prepare for it as that you may return to God with comfort To that end 1. Beware of those things which may render unfit or make unwilling to come before God Take heed of Sin take heed of Slothfulness in Duty the one will make afraid the other will make asham'd to appear in Gods presence 1. Take heed of Sin guilt begets fear the guilty person doth not love to think of coming near God but rather endeavours to keep at a distance When Cain hath sinn'd he will go out from the presence of the Lord Gen. 4. 16. Here the guilty person is jolly because he thinks he is far enough from God out of his sight so foolish men are apt to perswade themselves procul a Jove procul a fulmine But when they come to return to him when there can be no creeping into Corners to hide themselves but they must appear how will they then tremble How shall a

all this Must not thou shortly to the Land of Darkness Must not this Body of thine resolve into rottenness and putrefaction 2. See we hence how little the Grandeur and Gawdery of this World is worth that the Body must to the Grave when all is done it must to Earth Pallaces and Crowns cannot keep off Death Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede Pauperum tabernas Regumque turres saith Horace aptly Tell not Death when it approacheth of Noble Blood of great Estate of Honours and the like all these signifie nothing Art thou a Son of Adam yea or no Is thy Body from the Earth If that thou canst not deny he values not thy high looks If from Earth thou camest to Earth thou must return Thy Mother Earth saith he desires thy embraces be not too proud to own her yet if thou beest it matters not I bring power enough with me to force a stronger than thy self This same Honour is a taking thing See Men in their Ruffe in all the Pageantry of Fortune and weak eyes will be dazled by their splendor who would not desire to be in their case and say with Saint Peter at the Transfiguration It is good for us to be here I but follow a great Man to the Grave see him but making this return see his Body descend into the Slymy Valley the Dust returning to the Earth as it was and then who can envy him His G●ory and his Pomp shall not descend after him saith the Psalmist Psal 49. 17. Again 3. If the Body must to the Earth let us be advised hence to endeavour whilst we are here to redeem our selves from the power of the Grave by worthy actions Our Bodies must rot let us not so carry our selves as that our Names should do so too that is the Curse of the Wicked Prov. 10. 7. The name of the wicked shall rot but The memory of the just is blessed saith the same verse There are three things belonging to every Man his Soul his Body his Name the one must die the other cannot die the third may be preserv'd The Soul must live for ever in weal or wo the Body will to the Earth none can help it To procure the dissolution of the one or reprieve the other from death is not in our power but the keeping alive our Name is in our own hand This is one of the Stoicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is in our power by deserving well or ill of the World to leave a sweet savour or a stink behind us It is the advice which Pliny the younger a man no less ingenious than learned gives his Friend from the consideration of the shortness of life in the 70th Epist of his Third Book Sed tanto magis hoc quicquid est temporis futilis caduci sed non detur factis certe studiis proferamus quatenus nobis denegatur diu vivere relinquamus aliquid quo nos vixisse testemur This most concerns Persons of rank and quality that have many eyes upon them that are taken notice of in the World by reason of the inequality of their height they being like Saul higher by the head and shoulders than the rest of the people for such Persons to live in a Cloyster like Snails in their Houses to steal away like Plebeians through the Crowd unseen to have their way like the way of a ship in the sea without track to leave no token that they were unless this That they begat Children What a Disgrace What a shame Much more to live onely in the Curses of the People to be remembred for naught but Cruelty and Oppression grinding the faces of the poor and the like The generous spirits among the Heathens were alwayes wont to affect immortality which for that their bodies could not reach and to the Doctrine of the Soul they were in great part strangers they endeavoured by their vertues to supply and make out wh●… was wanting to the frailty of their Bodies 'T is true we are acquainted with the Souls immortality and know that death makes not an end of the whole Man we know that there shall be a resurrection of the Body too but yet next to the care of providing for the Souls happy Eternity should be that of leaving a good Name behind us A good Name which is as pretious Oyntment Eccles 7. 1. This is the way to deliver our selves from Death indeed Never doth he die whose Soul lives in Heaven and whose Name lives in the World the Grave hath onely its Thirds in such Cases which cannot be denied it I have done with the Body to which our first Proposition had respect and I fear I have given it too large a share so great is the advantage of coming first It were pity that the Souls part should be scanted I 'le do it what right I can by the leave of the time and your patience And the Spirit shall return to God that gave it The Spirit is from God That is the first part of the Proposition which we are now to improve And so 1. Learn we hence to think aright of the Dignity of our Souls they are of a heavenly Extraction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We are his Off-spring Acts 17. 28. Is not this Soul too good to debase to the service of sin to the service of Satan What Did the Soul come from God and shall it be given to the Devil God forbid What a Fool was Esau to sell his Birth-right for a Mess of Pottage Worse Fools are all they that sell their Souls for the Pleasures of Sin less substantial than so meer smoak and air We laugh at them who having Estates descending to them from their Ancestors improvidently squander them away No Spend-thrift like the Sinner who trifles away his Soul the Gift of God 2. Learn we the immortality of the Soul if it be from God that is as we have seen immediately created by him then can it never cease to be by the means of any thing besides him He only who gave it a being can take away its being He can annihilate it if he pleaseth otherwise it must needs remain That which is made of matter can be no more durable than that matter of which it is made Hence the Earthen Body must of necessity have its period It is one property of Earth to be friabilis subject to crumble into dust but the Soul having no prae-existent matter but being created of nothing is necessarily evinc'd to be à parte post eternal 3. Did God give us our souls Let us then bequeath them to him to keep He onely can keep them who created and gave them It is St. Peter's counsel to commit our Souls to God in well doing as to a faithful Creator 1 Pet. 4. 19. where he hints at this very thing that we are upon viz. the resigning of our Souls to God upon this consideration That we had them from him To the same purpose speaks St. Paul