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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	die_v	life_n	think_v	9,849	5	4.3485	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59397	A sermon design'd for the funeral of Ed. Wiseman Esq late of East-Lockinge in the county of Berks. Who was buried at Stevinton near Abingdon November the ninth, 1694. By Will. Sevill, Master of Arts, and Fellow of C.C.C. Oxford. Published at the request of many gentlemen of Berks.	Sevill, William, b. 1667 or 8.	1694 (1694)	Wing S2818A; ESTC R221098	13,819	37

A SERMON Design'd for the FUNERAL of Ed. Wiseman Esq Late of East-Lockinge in the County of BERKS Who was Buried at Stevinton near Abingdon November the Ninth 1694. By WILL. SEVILL Master of Arts And Fellow of C. C. C. OXFORD Published at the Request of many Gentlemen of BERKS Printed for John Wilmot and John Howell Booksellers in OXFORD 1694. TO THE DESERVEDLY HONOURED Mrs Mary Wiseman RELICT of Edm. Wiseman Esq DECEASED MADAM THO' I am conscious to my self that this Discourse appears in publick with far greater Disadvantages than many other do a great part of it having been hastily wrote in a tumultuous hurry of Thoughts and some disorder of Passion upon the Death of my much Esteemed FRIEND Yet in honour to His Memory and in complyance with the Requests of many of those worthy Gentlemen who attended His Funeral and more especially for Your Satisfaction I have so far prevail'd upon my self as to dis-regard the Censures that may be pass'd upon it If it should be thought by some not worthy the Reading of many whose hands it may now fall into I shall leave Those whom I much respect to make their Promised Apology That the Will of the Dead could not any way be better fulfill'd than by Publishing that which by Monsieur De l'Angle was deny'd to be preach'd A sort of French Civility which I was till now as little Acquainted with as I desire to be with their Government or Religion So far as I can learn 't was never practis'd amongst Englishmen and I am sure in the mildest Construction that can be made of it it must be term'd a most Unseasonable Ungrateful and Indiscreet piece of Rudeness Most Unseasonable certainly at His Funeral who always Pursued the Things that made for Peace and Love for Meekness and Charity for Hospitality and good Neighbourhood Most Ungrateful to Him who whilst he was living had Obliged the Gentleman by several eminent Acts of special Favours and Kindnesses And most Indiscreet in respect of the poor French-Protestants whose calamitous Condition hath been by the compassionate Care of Their MAJESTIES frequently and lately Recommended to the Charity of the whole Nation So that if Monsieur De l'Angle had no Regard to the Gentlemen of Berks yet Pity to his own Countrymen might have moved him at that time to abate his Resentment of those words that an Honourable Member of Parliament and some Others upon just Provocation had given him when he refused to Comply with their Request under Pretence that he had not been treated as a Gentleman because no particular Messenger had been sent unto him In the Dispute I know he told them That I of All Men should not have his Pulpit but for what Reason he was not bound to satisfy any Man nor would he declare I remember very well when he stood for his Degrees I was very Industrious to Oppose his Letter of Petition because I thought his Request very Unreasonable and Himself Unqualify'd for them If this were the Reason as Some guess'd it to be and he were sordidly inclined to seek Revenge He might have took some other Opportunity for it which would have render'd him less Ridiculous and Odious to Mankind than this his late Behaviour has done If that were not the Reason but as Others rather Conjectur'd he were Biass'd by a Party to espouse a Quarrel They may know that it was One of the worst Hands that was ever employ'd to Defend their Honourable Cause and I believe he Himself will be Convinc'd if he be not already that he ought to be better Rewarded than I have been for more Civil Services However Many besides my self have learnt that there are Some Who notwithstanding all their Boasts of Gentility have little Reputation to Lose and less Modesty to be Tender of I humbly beg Your Pardon GOOD MADAM for making mention of this Matter which I fear doth revive and encrease Your Sorrow But it could not be conceal'd without manifest Injustice to those Many Worthy Gentlemen who were so extreamly affronted whilst they were paying their last Respects to Your Late Most Affectionate HUSBAND as well as to My Self who could not without Great Indecency decline the Publication of this Sermon and the Occasion of its Coming forth Such as it is I most humbly present it to Your Perusal beseeching ALMIGHTY GOD Who comforts those that are cast down to support You under this sad Stroke of His Providence so to Bless You as to make All things work together for Your Good and to fill You with all Joy and Peace in Believing till at last You are received into the number of the Blessed and made Partaker with them of Pleasures for evermore Which is and shall be the constant Prayer of MADAM Your Most Faithful Most Oblig'd and Most Respectful Servant WILL. SEVILL A Sermon c. REV. Chap. XIV Ver. XIII I heard a Voice from Heaven Saying unto Me Write Blessed are the Dead that dye in the Lord from henceforth Yea saith the Spirit that they may Rest from their Labours and their Works follow them WERE we acted by nothing but the meer Impulse of our lapsed Nature Death in its best Representation would be always thought the King of Terrours for tho' the Embraces of our Mother Earth within her will certainly free us from all the Labours of our Life upon her so as to make the weary in her Bosome to lye at Rest yet to Dust thou shalt return in its finest Colours would still be lookt upon as an ill-favour'd and heavy Curse to us whose fleshly Constitutions put us always upon Desires after a longer Continuance here and are therefore still apt to be much affrighted when they think that Corruption is their Father Ch. 17. v. 14. as Job speaks and that the Worm is their Mother and their Sister Nay what is more tho' by the Innocency of our Lives we enjoy the peaceable Fruit of Righteousness at the last so as upon our Death-beds we can say with good Hezekiah Remember Isa 38. ver 3. O Lord how I have walked before thee in Truth and with a perfect Heart and have done that which is Good in thy sight yet when this Summons of Death comes Set thy House in order Ver. 1. for thou shalt Dye and not Live with him we many times turn toward the Wall Ver. 2 3. and weep sore and with good David Water our Couch with our Tears Ps 39. when we imagine we shall go hence and be no more seen and therefore pray to be spared a little that we may recover our Strength And thus the Apprehensions of our Approaching Departure being a Subject always terrible to all Men in their Natural and for the most part a Sorrowful one to many in a Righteous State As a Voice of old bade the Prophet Isaiah to cry All Flesh is Grass and all the Goodliness thereof as the Flower of the Field thereby to denote the Importance of the thing

us therefore Phil. 3.14 press towards the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus and set our affections on things above and not on things on the earth Col. 3.2 always remembring the Wise-man's Words Prov. 11.4 that Riches profit not in the day of wrath but Righteousness delivereth from death And whatever fair Offers or Enticing promises of this World's Treasures be made or given unto us upon our compliance with sinful terms As Moses refus'd to be call'd the son of Pharaoh's Daughter Heb. 11.24 because he had a respect unto the recompence of reward so let us contemn the like Proposals for the same reason choosing rather as he did to suffer affliction with the people of God Ver. 25. than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season And indeed as the pleasures of sin are but for a season or of a short continuance so are they base in themselves and end in bitterness Be they in appearance never so specious yet in the Wise-man's Language they bite like a serpent Prov. 23.32 and sling like an adder they lead down to the Chambers of Death and their way is the way to Hell Ch. 7.27 Wherefore let us consider the dignity of our Nature and the Excellency of our Religion and let not brutish Sence lead Us so basely captive to whom GOD has given Reason to be our Guide and of whom He now requires Faith as our Support against Temptations and our Glory in our Conquest of them And that it may not let us following these Exhortations mortify our members that are upon earth Col. 3.5 and as the Apostle himself infers having these promises 2 Cor. 7.1 let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holiness in the fear of God For as all our future and everlasting Happiness proceedeth from the Vision of Him so are we certain that without Holiness no Man shall ever see Him And as thus we should be upon our guard lest either the Hopes of this World's profits and honours or the enticements of its pleasures should so far prevail as to seduce us out of those paths that lead to Blessedness so should we also lest the fears of affliction should drive us from them Wherefore rather than do any ill Action let us suffer every ill thing The Powers and the Rage of this World can lay upon us reckoning with the Apostle Rom. 8.18 That the sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compar'd with the glory that shall be revealed in us So shall we be prepar'd for all conditions of Life and every thing that can beset us and thereby approve our selves as true Sons of our CHURCH as this our Deceased Brother was Whose Faith in JESUS and Whose stedfastness to our Religion I need not tell many Persons here to have been truly such as the changes of the World could never alter In the close of all Hold fast as He did the profession of your faith without wavering Heb. 10.23 for he is faithful that has promised and be ye stedfast 1 Cor. 15.58 unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as you know that your labour will not be in vain in the Lord. For since He who 't is impossible should act any thing in vain or be disappointed of His Ends did condescend to a most painful and shameful Death that all such as dye in the Lord might be advanc'd to an Everlasting Life of Pleasure and Glory Certainly when he had overcome the sharpness of that Death He opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers And Now To God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost Three Persons and One God be ascribed all Dominion Power and Glory both now and for ever Amen

as long as we enjoy the Powers of Thinking by being Living Men let us not forget this great and weighty Truth that the Voice from Heaven for our Comfort and Salvation declared and confirmed by the Seal of GOD that so we may not faint in our Travels whilst we are labouring to abound in the work of the Lord to obtain that Blessedness that is the sure Reward prepared for those that dye in Him In a brief Application then of all The Persons that dye in the Lord are all those that depart this Life having sincerely endeavoured to the end to keep the Commandments of GOD upon their failure been truly Penitent and by a lively Faith in CHRIST committed themselves to his Mercy And that there are incomprehensible Degrees of Blessedness in the Mansions Above prepared for all such Persons I believe no well-disposed Reason of Man can after this remain unconvinced and if he has any Faith in JESUS must I am sure be fully satisfied since that is the Substance of this Blessedness hoped for in him and the evidence of Joyful things to come hereafter and as yet not seen Wherefore having this satisfaction by this Voice from Heaven as also by many other Declarations of our Saviour and his Apostles who all confirm'd the Truth of what they taught by frequent and unparallel'd Miracles Be the Labours the Cares the Crosses the Persecutions and Afflictions of this Life never so numerous or so grievous to Flesh and Blood let not the sence of such momentary Afflictions ever so far vex or depress our Souls as to make us either murmur at GOD's Providence or despair of his Mercy or be unmindful of the Eternal weight of Glory Act. 14. ver 22. whereinto through much Tribulation we are foretold we must expect to enter and where the Angel proclaim'd is the patience of the Saints Saints who tho' once were sailing in these troubled waters yet because they made not Shipwrack of a good Conscience but by Faith bore themselves up from sinking in the Waves are now arrived at their ever-quiet Haven whose Number my Hope yea Confidence is the Soul of this our Deceased Brother has encreased who in time of his Affliction yea amidst his greatest Pains submitted himself to God's Visitation with a wonderful Calmness and Serenity of Spirit much like unto His who said Not my Will O Father but thine be done Who having purged his Conscience from dead and sinful Works to serve the living God and thereby being filled with the well-grounded hopes of a blessed Immortality thro' Jesus Christ Faced his approaching Hour with that truly Christian Fortitude that he shew'd himself as Unconcern'd at the sence of its usual Terrours as the Apostle did when he sang Triumphantly this Epinichion O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory But Secondly Since Labours and Afflictions by an unavoidable Necessity accompany all living and since inconceivable Pleasures in an infinitely blessed State are the everlasting Portion of those that Dye in the Lord Let us always remember the great Advantage they have by their Change who dye the Death of the Righteous and thence learn not over-much to lament our Loss by their Departure GOD for many wise Reasons more than the Wisest of us can discern takes the Righteous to himself from the Evil that is and is to come and 't is or at least it should be our Prayer that He would be pleas'd shortly to accomplish the Number of his Elect and hasten his Kingdome and therefore as well in submission to the unsearchable Methods of Divine Providence as in compliance with other Christian Duties we should check those Passions that are apt to exceed the Bounds allowable to natural Affection whenever they arise to an high Degree upon the sence of our Loss by the Departure of our Friends By Death they are freed from the Labours and Miseries of this World and if their last End were like his whose Funeral we are now attending they are Rejoycing in the Ease and Pleasures of the Other and therefore tho' Lamentation and Mourning may plead very strongly for themselves upon this Occasion when GOD has Deprived a most tenderly Affectionate Wife of an Husband who never in any thing Contended with her unless it were to exceed her in Kindness When he has been pleased to take from a Family a Father rather than a Brother from the Neighbourhood a Composer of their Differences and a Guardian of their Rights from the Poor a Reliever of their Necessities and from all his Acquaintance from the highest to the lowest an Affable Courteous and True-hearted Friend One who was always an Enemy to PAGEANTRY ☞ HYPOCRISY and PRIDE and tho' abounding with this World 's Good could never by any One be charged as the Prince of Tyre is by the Prophet that his Heart was lifted up because of his Riches Eze. 28. ver 5. Tho' I say the sence of these Losses by so Worthy a Gentleman's Death which I should more largely insist upon were it not my Design to allay your Sorrows may very strongly incline us over-much to Lament and Grieve yet when in one Minute we look upon our selves and his just Character and Sigh upon the sence of our Loss let us in the Next consider his happy State and Comfort our selves upon the Thoughts of his infinite Gain for should his Spirit return to us he Himself would Advise us not to Weep for him but t● Weep for our selves who now are in the midst of our labours whilst he rests from them who now are working whilst he is rewarded Thirdly and lastly Since all those that dye in the Lord are Blest with Eternal Joys that none can comprehend but that GREAT GOD that gives them and those Happy Souls that by His Favour do now possess them notwithstanding the wonderful and unspeakable Greatness of them and their Eternity Shall we ever be so seduc'd as by Apostacy from our Faith in CHRIST and Obedience to His Precepts to forfeit our Title to them either for the hope of Temporal Profits and Honours or the sake of sensual Pleasures or the Fear of worldly Afflictions Alas all Temporal Advantages even the greatest of all earthly Felicities had they a Sufficiency in themselves to satisfy our Desires and could we be secure of their Duration or Continuance with us yet at best can attend us no farther than this present Life which is as a vapour and a Shadow and passeth away like a tale that is told When we please our selves most in the Thoughts of enjoying them GOD many times is pleas'd to interpose Himself and cut us off And to say to our Souls Luke 12.19 take your ease eat drink and be merry because as we think there is much goods laid up for many years is so sandy a foundation to build upon that our Lord hath faid THOU FOOL Ver. 20. to him that doth it For this night our Souls may be required of us Let