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	live_v	year_n	8,514	5	5.2901	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44864	David's labour and rest, or, A discourse on Acts XIII, v. 36 preached at the funeral of Mr. Richard Shute, the late Most Reverend Pastor of the congregation of Stow-Market in Suffolk : together with some memorable remarques upon the deceased, for the benefit and use of that parish / by Samuel Hudson ...	Hudson, Samuel, 17th cent.	1689 (1689)	Wing H3264; ESTC R4246	15,092	32

revealed to us Things revealed belong to us We must not guide our selves by our unruly Fancies or make our own blind turbulent passions our Rule Or that which some call Conscience thô never so misguided or a Light within them for this is to be regulated by the Rule of God's Word and Will else there will be so many Rules as there are misguided Consciences in the World. David did not make God's secret Will the Rule of his Agency For how could that be a rule for him which was kept secret from him nor did he run to any infallible Judge or the determinations of the Church to make that his rule of Faith or Life But what God had clearly manifested to him and to us his Sacred Oracles are our Rule so many as walk according to this Rule Peace be on them Gal. 6.16 If every Market-Town had a divers Standard for weights and measures who could know what were the Standard of the Nation Doubtless the Word of God is a certain infallible and sufficient Rule else Christ was not faithful in his Prophetick Office. May this be our practice in all matters of Faith and Life Take we a right rule and if in matters ritual and circumstantial and what not forbidden we quietly submit to the prudence of our Superiours we shall not easily erre And had this method been observed God knows it had ended many of our unchristian and uncharitable dissentions But when Men make their own will good meaning private opinion good intention or prejudiced education the rule of their Agency and judge that their hands can only stay the tottering Ark no wonder that the Church falls into endless rents and miserable fractions Activity without understanding like mettle in a blind Horse exposes the Rider to greater hazards or like mettle in a restife Jade apt to run away with the Rider Be we careful then not to mistake our rule nor be seduced by those who pretend to be infallible Rule-makers or guided only by a light within Thirdly Which leads me to the last considerable the Issue and Event David c. fell asleep And they who walk by David's Rule may expect the like issue Sad news doubtless to all Israel when holy David who had fought Israels Battels brought back the Ark settled them in peace and guided them by the skilfulness of his hand shall fall asleep which must not be understood of perishing but as elsewhere was gathered to his Fathers or Reversus in paradisum returned home to God. I read not that he staid at Limbo in the way until prayed out by the Charity of surviving Friends But here observe with me First That death to a good Man is but a Sleep and as sleep Rev. 13. 1. Gives rest and a cessation from labours and toils it is requies et medicina laborum So those who sleep in Jesus Eccles 5.12 rest from their labours Again 2. It gives Refreshment especially after hard labours The sleep of the labouring man is sweet The more serviceable in Life the more refreshing the Sleep of Death Not like the affrighting sleep of condemned Malefactors or a Man in a Frenzy who start in their sleep And 3. As they who sleep awake again so those who sleep in Jesus when they hear the sound of the Trumpet and the voice of the Son of Man shall awake and be raised up again as to their bodies 1 Cor. 15. And this corruptible shall put on incorruption God will be no mans Debtor nor unfaithful to forget our work and labour of Love. Those very bodies which have been the Souls Instrument in faithful Services to God shall not be unrewarded in another World. But 2. No serviceableness to God in our Generation here can exempt from Death For David fell asleep This is the common lot of the Faithful as well as slothful Some wear out with Work others moulder in Rust and inactivity Moses who received the Tables from the Mouth of God gave Statutes and Judgments to Israel and brought them to the borders of the Land of Canaan the next news we hear of him is Moses my Servant is dead Joh. 7. Elsewhere saith sacred writ Our Fathers are dead and the Prophets do they live for ever From which Premises let us Inferr Infer How Scripture dresseth up Death to a good Man which thô to Nature it be the King of Terrours yet to a Believer is but an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a pulling down the Cords of our Earthy Tabernacle Repatrizare to return home and in the Text a Sleep And may not this remove all Dread and Consternation from our Spirits who would not be willing to put off his cloaths to go to rest God intends thee no harm when he puts thee to Bed. 2. And may it not stay the impetuous Torrent of immoderate Grief for deceased Friends He is not Dead but sleepeth And have not you known the Husband go to bed a few hours before the Wife The Father before the Child And there is no readier way to provoke God to snatch them from us than by too much doting upon them We should be careful not to turn our golden Ear-rings into a golden Calf or lean too hard upon our Crutches For then God often cuts off the Pipes that we may live more upon the Fountain Advice To conclude by way of Advice that we may sleep in Jesus Be careful 1. That we live in no Sin unrepented of It 's the Childs miscarriage in the day that makes it loth to go to Bed at Night lest it's Father should reckon with it then Live we then that as Job speaks our Hearts may not reproach us whilst we live And 2. In an intire Resignation and surrender to the Will of God. Gen. 38. v. 6. How much did Potiphar provide for his own ease and quiet when he left all in Joseph's hand Could we leave all our Concernments to God let God do what he will How might we possess our Souls in all Times and Conditions of Life and without Consternation and Amazement of Spirit look Death in the Face But when we tenaciously hold all we can from God have our Affections set upon things beneath live unsuitably to the designs of the Holy Gospel and Religion we profess No wonder if the Thoughts of Death prove uneasie With what Confidence can we commit our selves to God when Dying when Enemies to God when Living For a man to live in open defiance to the Laws of God when Living and to Bequeath his Soul to God at Death is an Incongruous thing We do not make our Enemies but our Friends our Executors To conclude 3. Let 's live with our Hearts more inflamed with love to God and in a Sence of our Mortality and the latter will be Influential upon the former Fire is best preserved in its own Ashes In short let us imitate holy David in serviceableness to God in our Generation and this by the Will of God

changing colour according to his Company but justified in private what was his publick Practice against all gain-sayers I might add more relating to his Ecclesiastical capacity but I must hasten to shew how he was serviceable in his Generation Thirdly In his private Relation But I had almost forgot one thing relating to the former which is his readiness upon all occasions and least intimations to visit the sick not over-looking the poorest sort reaching forth not only wholsom advice but superadding a charitable hand where he saw need and occasion A pregnant instance of his large Heart and hand is evident in his Charitable Bequest and Legacy he hath left for the benefit of the poor of this Parish to continue to succeeding Generations So as those who never knew him may bless him I must confess I have heard him lament that in visiting some poor that he hath found some so grosly Ignorant in the Articles of Christian Religion But it 's high time now to mention and I can but mention his domestick Carriage His dear Affection and tender Compassion to his Consort and Relatives whereof the mournful Eyes and sorrowful Hearts of those who are present is a sufficient demonstration In his Family Grave yet Familiar Not Rigid and Austere Affable yet Devout A Priest in his Family as well as in the Temple He loved not long or late absence from the place of his abode He carried a watch in his Bosom to mind him of seasonable retirements accounting there was something to be done at home besides going to Bed. I pass over his secret and Closet retirements And it 's now high time to hasten to the second part of his management of himself as the Text tells us By the Will of God. Secondly In all these Relations his care was to manage himself by the surest safest Rule The Will of God. This both in private Discourse and in his publick Preaching Tho' he did sometimes and could make use of the Judgment of the Ancient Fathers but this not to found his Faith upon but only to strengthen it by their Authority His Method was to back his Discourse with Proofs out of these sacred Oracles in which he was an eloquent Apollos He loved and honoured the gray hairs of Antiquity but with Tertullian revered the Plenitude of the Scriptures It was hence he took the Articles of his Faith and Rules of Life and his Creed was composed before that of Trent I must not omit here to speak of other of his natural and moral Endowments Sweetness of Temper Courtesie of Behaviour A pleasant yet profitable Companion I have known several of his Friends who would say they were as well pleased with his Ordinary and Familiar Discourse as his Preaching which spoke him a great man because in his publick Exercises he studied to condescend to the meanest Capacities but with the more polite and learned evidenced himself a Scholar Yet his publick discourses were always Manly Practicable Profitable In his converse he was neither Morose or Cynical nor Airy and Froathy but such as any man in an hours discourse might return bettered from him His Charity to his Neighbours upon all occasions is well known in this place But as he would not boast of it whilst living I will not blaze it now he is dead He affected Secrecy rather than Popularity therein according to our Saviours Rule Matth. 6. Give not thine Alms before men to be seen of them His love to this people appeared in not leaving them when under the Temptation of other fair offers in his Native Countrey and near his Relations His Faithfulness to his Friend is not to be forgotten Here was a Breast where one might safely lock a secret where he found a David he proved a Jonathan In all things eying the Will of God. Lastly But now as the good man in the Text He is fallen asleep His Distemper approached gradually upon him termed by the skilful in the faculty of Physick a Scorbutick Dropsie which proved unconquerable by all their Art and Skill This attended with a Drowsiness towards his latter end so as altho ' he knew and understood well yet he was apt to fall asleep before he had finished an answer But under went all his afflictions with a calmness and Serenity of Mind with an intire resignation unto the Divine Will. Nor was he under too tedious Pains and articles that some meet with before their departure And next to a safe passage hence an easie transitus is very desireable In a sober sence he truly fell asleep Thus dyed this great and good Man. May we of the Clergy bewail the loss of such a painful steady valiant Work-man and Labourer in Gods Vineyard And Micah 2.2 God knows in a time when we could ill spare him Such was the time when the Prophet complained that the good man was perished from the Earth several great and stout Champions have of late fallen by death into the List of whom we may well put our deceased Brother Who for Prudence Industry Integrity and Ability may be a pattern to many of us surviving Let me also Address my self to you of this Place and Parish who were lately under his prudent Care and Conduct Death hath plaid a mighty prize at once triumphing over Learning sweet Nature Goodness and Experience and at one stroak laid in the dust your faithful Minister at the age of about fifty four Years I hope I need not call for Mourning Men Jer. 9.17 or Mourning Women to take up wailing or make a bitter Lamentation You of this place I hope had generally such a passionate affection for him as the very spectacle of so faithful a watchman will command your Tears and perswade you almost for this your Father to weep with Rachel so as to refuse to be comforted My hearty desire for you is that God would make up your breach and that although the Shepherd be smitten the Sheep may not be scattered Serious resentments of such Providences of God are mightily becoming of us under such heavy stroaks The Heathen resented the loss of one Philosopher more than of many Orators because Orators taught men to speak well but Philosophers to live well You have lost one who knew how both to speak well to you and taught by Doctrine and Example to live well tho' now to be laid in the silent grave as a piece of cold clay may he that 's dead yet speak I mean speak in the Lives and Conversations of his people Repeat his excellent Sermons and Discourses in your Lives and take heed of Sceptical shakings in a day of Trial. Think you hear him now speaking to you Phil. 2. v. 12. as St. Paul to the Philipians Wherefore my beloved Brethren as ye have always obeyed not only in my presence but in my absence work out your Salvation c. Preserve that Unity he left among you when he left you avoiding a needless dividing and separating Spirit And particularly to you of the Youth of this Town and Place Remember ye the wholsom advices ye have received from him the sober demeanour you cannot but have observed back't with the Imprimatur of Gravity and Gray-hairs So that whilst possibly you may hear some of the Clergy aspersed as careless and negligent recall to mind that you have had a President of one before you in this Place Devout in Prayers Diligent in Preaching and of an exemplary Conversation amongst others of the Church of England I shall conclude May this Vacancy be supplied with a Person of Wisdom Ability and Integrity that may carry on the work of God and build upon the Foundations here already laid by him Yea may a double Portion of Elijahs Spirit rest upon Elisha for Gods Glory and the furtherance of your Salvation And may we all study to be serviceable in our Generations and to do all by the Will of God that when we depart hence we may sleep in Jesus and let all this people say Amen Now to God the Father c. FINIS