Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	earth_n	heaven_n	life_n	8,760	5	4.3162	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59269	A sermon preach'd at the chappel royal in the Tower upon the death of Her Sacred Majesty, our Late Gracious Queen Mary / by a true lover of the church, the King, and his country.	True lover of the church, the King, and His country.	1695 (1695)	Wing S2632; ESTC R19634	24,464	39

Conduct to which tho she was in his Absence qualified and entitled by Law yet it was a high Testimony of his Confidence in her Prudence to leave and intrust it to her sole Care Which Trust she discharged with such Dexterity such Exactness and such admirable Wisdom that she never gave or left occasion for any Complaint but rendered all more than silent satisfied and not only satisfied but applauding and admiring her prudent and honourable Conduct And tho she loved and even hugg'd her Retirements as her greatest Satisfaction yet when the Exigences of Affairs required it she would deny her self and her particular Inclination to comply with a Duty of a more publick Concern and chearfully sustained the hurry of Business which was inevitable and always acquitted her self with Honour and Applause of the great Trust imposed in her But never did any Man after a long and uneasy Confinement meet his Liberty with more Joy and Satisfaction than she did solace her self when she had escaped the Noise and Crowd of Affairs which must needs have ruffled and disturb'd her Quiet and so far lessen'd or at least suspended the full enjoiment of her Self And now by such a Regular such a Pious and such a Righteous Life we cannot easily suspect She could be unprepar'd even for the most sudden Death and tho the Warning was indeed but short yet we have no reason to fear it was much surprizing to one that always lived in expectation of it She was always as I was inform'd in the midst of her Health and Strength apprehensive enough of the Disease whereof she died yet being seiz'd with it she seem'd not at all discourag'd and profess'd her self entirely willing to acquiesce in the Will of God and all the while of her Illness continued in the same Frame and notwithstanding a Complication of Distempers notwithstanding the troublesome Prescriptions of Physicians and the no less troublesome Applications of others notwithstanding her own Pain and Disorder of which her Constitution and other Circumstances consider'd She could not but be very sensible yet with an admirable Patience and Resignation to the Will of God with a great Contempt of the Vanities of the World and with a holy Indifference even to Life it self she was ready to answer when it pleased God to call being impatient in nothing nor importunate in any thing save an earnest desire that she might know her Danger and when it was at last declared to Her O God how like an Angel rather than a Soul clogg'd with Flesh did She receive it with such an humble unconcernedness such submission and such evenness of Temper as nothing could have given but an innocent and meek Spirit and a Conscience void of Offence towards God and towards Man And resigned up Her great Soul in Death with the same Courage and the same Quietness that She had possest it in Patience all her Life And thus lived and thus died who can speak it without Tears this Great Queen this Glorious Saint tho not full of Years yet full of mature Fruits and Graces when all Men judged Her worthy of a longer but God the only unerring Judg found her full ripen'd for a better Life And after he had prevented Her with the Blessings of Goodness and set a Crown of pure Gold upon her Head after he had given Her the universal Esteem Love and Admiration of all that knew Her the blessing of a good Name and more than unspotted a bright and resplendent Reputation After he had granted Her the Request of her Lips and shut not out her Prayer After he had made Her glad with the Light of his Countenance and given Her a Heaven upon Earth the Blessing of a calm purified and well-assured Conscience In a word after he had taken out the Sting of Death and made it an easy Passage to Everlasting Life he then took Her from her Corruptible and Earthly to an Incorruptible and Heavenly Crown And She is now safely arriv'd at that happy Place where as the Father sweetly warbles there 's Vita Aeterna Beatitudo Perfecta Summa Voluptas Fulness of Joy Eternity of Life and Perfection of Bliss Where her Faith is turned into Sight her Hope into Fruition and Love everlastingly satisfied with the Presence of God the Face of Jesus Christ the Fulness of the Spirit with the Communion and Society of all Saints and the Spirits of Just Men made Perfect where all the Cares and Troubles annext to an Earthly Crown are now done away and where she is and shall be for ever ravished in joining with Angels and Saints and all the Choir of Heaven to carol forth Praises and sing Hallelujahs to him that sits upon the Throne to the Lamb and to God for ever The most glorious Imployment the most happy State that the greatest Monarch the greatest Angel ever arrived to And tho it be every way her Advantage and her Gain yet it 's still our Loss and Her many Excellencies before-mentioned may satisfy us what great Advantages we might have expected from her Life had it pleased the Almighty to have continued it And now let us suspend our Sorrow a while and consider what may be justly expected from our selves on this sad Occasion And here I could lay before you a Pattern worthy of your Imitation such a Pattern as in all respects this Age perhaps has not produced a Pattern that may for ever silence what either the greatest or the meanest Person can offer against the Reasonableness or the Necessity of a Holy Life and may sufficiently convince us that there are no insuperable Difficulties in Religion for tho She was a Queen yet she was a Woman of the feebler Sex a great and a rich Woman Mat. 19.23 and how hardly can such be saved A Woman of like Passions with your selves inwardly clogged with the same corrupt and sinful Nature outwardly beset with the like or greater Temptations and yet she cast off the Weight that hung upon Her broke through the Difficulties that did incompass Her and ran the Race which was set before Her and thrô Faith and Patience has obtained and now inherits the Promises and that sure Reward that Crown of Glory that endless Kingdom which God hath provided and Christ hath purchased and promised to Her and all them that love and fear him and wait for his appearing I could likewise here shew you how idle and frothy are the Projects and Purposes the Designs and Resolutions which worldly Men are too too apt to promise to themselves on the Hopes and to build upon the Assurances of long Life than which there is nothing more vain nothing more uncertain If ever any meer Mortal could by any Privilege whatsoever pretend or hope for Exemption from the Arrests of an early Death this Good this Great this Young this healthy Queen might and yet all the Advantage She has now over common Dust is that to Her may David's Lamentation over Saul be more fitly

because he honour'd the Word of God and caused it to be taught to his People When Israel and Judah did at any time forget to lean upon God's Word and betook themselves to correspondence with Idolatrous People or other the like Helps they found themselves always bereft of Succour and all their Hopes deceived and blasted Which should teach us not to rest upon our own Wisdom nor lean upon our own Strength nor build our Hopes and Assurances upon Human Foundations but in all conditions lay hold upon God's Word which shall stand for ever and support us in any Extremity Psal 23.4 and carry us through the Valley of the Shadow of Death it self And thus I have done with what I design'd to offer from the Text but to apply it to the Occasion I know neither how to begin nor where to end The Voice cries so loud and the Blow tho for our Sins justly inflicted is every way so amazing that the very Thoughts of it were enough to make a Man lose all Method though he had studied it never so carefully And therefore that I may neither confound you nor lose my self I shall only glance at some few things that may satisfy us what great Advantages we might have reapt from her Life had it pleased the wise Disposer of all things to have continued it And this will naturally tend First To give us a due Sense of our Loss Secondly To quicken us to such Duties whereby since 't is impossible to improve it to our Temporal Advantage we may yet make the best of it that our Misfortune as well as our other Circumstances will admit The Loss of a good tho private Person is at all Times especially in bad Times a just ground of deep Sorrow What then must be the loss of a good Queen who is a common Stock in which Millions have a Share A burning Lamp which shin'd and imparted its Light to three great Kingdoms No wonder if the exhausting of such a Store the quenching of such a Lamp should be Matter of doleful Complaint And here I could willingly indulge both yours and my own Passion that we might sit down a while in Silence and only by the Language of our Tears speak our Sense of this heavy this irreparable Loss But all Passions especially that of Grief need rather a Bridle than a Spur and we have something else to do upon such an extraordinary Occasion than to bewail our Loss after the common rate tho that 's allowed us too A bright Star is removed nay our Sun is set Well may Darkness over-spread our Horizon Zech. 11.2 A Cedar is fallen well may the Fir-trees howl A Cedar which had God so pleased might have stood and flourished much longer But we often see the loftiest Cedar cut down before the useless Shrub And they frequently fall says one who while they stood not only graced the Forest but gave Shade and Shelter to others too And oh that we had not now the Occasion to bewail the Fall of the most flourishing Plant that grac'd our own or any other Soil verifying that of St. Paul 1 Cor. 7.31 The Fashion of this World passeth away and we together with it The Throne leaves some and others leave it Heb. 12.28 and as there is but one Kingdom which cannot be shaken Eternal in the Heavens so there is but one King who is the Immortal King of Ages God over all blessed for ever All the rest are but Flesh and all Flesh is Grass After such a Voice what can warrant any of you that you shall be alive while to Morrow Who can be Security for his own Life one Moment beyond the present You 'll say my Youth my Strength my Temperance and my Vigour these will secure me But was there ever any more healthy more lively more temperate or more vigorous than the Queen How sprightly how fair how hail how charming was she but this Day three Weeks and almost a Week after And yet the King of Terrors stole upon her before her Self or at least her Friends suspected being even after some Days illness look'd upon as Safe and past all Danger on Tuesday and yet beyond all Expectation given over and the Sentence of Death pronounc'd by her Physicians before Noon on Wednesday So vain a Thing is Man But this can be no surprize to those whole usual Exercise it is to die daily and as St. Ambrose conceived of Valentinian the Emperor so may we of her Majesty The Evidences past in her Health are fair Proofs of that Disposition her Soul was in in her Sickness But more of this anon for tho all her earthly Advantages are now become the Spoils of Mortality yet She 's not to be laid in the Dust like common Mold nor deposited in the Shades with silence It 's true in the blessed State to which she is now arriv'd crowned with an incorruptible Diadem in the Company of Angels and Saints and all her Triumphant Ancestors She needs no Praises of ours but yet that which every good Man may claim is much more justly her Due Commendation after Death being a just Tribute to a Religious Life Consult the Scriptures and you shall scarce find one Godly Man laid in his Grave without an Epitaph of Honour view the Fathers and you shall observe it their Practice to honour the Death of the Good especially if Princes and if this had never been done before it might be now allowed to Her who was as well the Best as the greatest among Women As to the latter 't were easy to shew it in the Instances of her Illustrious Birth being descended from a Royal Race of Kings as well the greatest as of the longest and most uninterrupted Succession now in the Christian World in her sutable Education in her natural and acquired Accomplishments which rendred Her the Darling of the Age as well as the Glory of her Sex But we must leave these and many other Advantages with all Her great Actions to fill up Chronicles and they will better become the History and Annals of the Time than the Nook of a Sermon The sweetness of her Temper her Beauty Wit and Charms of Conversation which made Her like Vespasian Deliciae humani generis and rendred her Amiable and Dear to all that had the Honour to know Her tho they were Gifts from Above yet must they now be past over in silence as being Praeda Mortis a Spoil unto Death and the Grave Which Consideration should cure the undue Esteem which too many Christians seem to put upon them being more ambitious to outvy others in every thing rather than real Holiness which after all 's done is the only Ornament that Death cannot spoil us of Nor were the Endowments of her Mind any whit inferiour to those of her great Birth and other Personal Advantages her Apprehension more quick and lively her Judgment more penetrating and solid her Elocution more fluent graceful and every