Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	end_n	good_a	life_n	9,382	5	4.8333	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48854	A sermon preached before the Queen at White-Hall, January the 30th being the day of the martyrdom of King Charles the First by the Bishop of St. Asaph, Lord Almoner to Their Majesties.	Lloyd, William, 1627-1717.	1691 (1691)	Wing L2715; ESTC R20281	14,688	38

restor'd and establish'd the true Religion according to the Scriptures Which Scriptures were lost say the Iews through disuse in the Reign of King Amon his Father and it appears in his Story how he brought them to light and restor'd them unto their Authority and Dignity You read how Zealously and Industriously he provided for the Worship of God for the place of it by repairing and beautifying of the Temple for the Service by furnishing it with Vessels and Utensils for the Solemnity of it appointing Musick according to the Commandment of David for the Festivals of it he made all Israel and Iuda to be present at the Passover he brought all their Religions into one he had that Exercis'd in one manner and in one place he made all that were present in Israel to serve the Lord their God 2 Chron. xxxiv last verse All this the Scripture saith of him and approves in him and therefore we are sure he did well in it And as well one would think he might have expected at Gods hands especially if we consider those Scriptures of the Jewish Dispensation which stirred men up to Obedience with the Promise of Temporal Blessings and deterred them from sin with the threatning of temporal Punishments Among those promised Blessings are Peace and long Life for which who in Iosias's Case would not have thought he might have taken God's word But with this excellent Prince it seem'd to fall out on the contrary For great and just cause as I shall shew you but it may seem very strange the mean while when he had done all that in him lay to advance the Kingdom of God in an hour unlook'd for his Kingdom was at an end and his Life with it Both these were cut off in the 37th year of his Age which is but half the Age of Man the Noon of it as 't is term'd in that Prophesie Amos viii 8 9 10. 'T is a remarkable Prophesie I shall first read you the Words and then I shall shew you the Accomplishment The words are Shall not the Land tremble for this and every one Mourn that dwelleth therein And it shall rise up wholly as a Flood and it shall be cast out and drowned as by the Flood of Egypt And it shall come to pass in that day saith the Lord God that I will cause the Sun to go down at Noon and I will darken the Earth in the clear Day And I will turn your Feasts into Mourning and all your Songs into Lamentations and I will bring up Sackcloth upon all Loyns and baldness upon every head And I will make it as the mourning of an only Son and the end thereof as a bitter day All this Rabbi Salomon Iarchi observes was fulfil'd upon the death of Iosiah The King of Egyt there specified Pharaoh Necho or the Lame Wars with the King of Babylon and Iosiah's Country lying between them he marches through it with an Army without his leave nay against his Prohibition Which injurious attempt against his honour and safety while Iosiah endeavoured to oppose he engag'd himself in a War which soon after cost him his Life One Arrow puts an end to that Holy Life that good Reign that Righteous Government by which he thought he had secured a lasting peace to himself and his Kingdom So good Iosiah is gone and Iudah and Ierusalem with him Gone are all those Blessings they enjoy'd and hoped for by his means There was nothing more to be lookt for but a bitter day a day of Captivity a bitter day according to Amos's Prophecy which they knew and which if you read over again you cannot wonder at that which follows in my Text All Iuda and Ierusalem c. For the method of my Discourse upon this Text First I shall consider what the People of God did in that Age upon the Death of Iosiah Secondly I shall consider the Reasons of their doing it Thirdly I shall consider how it is applicable to our Occasion First What they did it appears in my Text they lamented him at present they laid up their Lamentations for future times They had a set Form drawn up for that purpose and they made a Law that that Form should be observed and so it was unto this day saith the Text that is for above 100 years how much longer we know not but so long we are sure it continued For it continued from Iosiah's Death at least till the writing of this Story and this was written much above a hundred years after Iosiahs's Death Secondly For the Reasons of it which are not in my Text they are easy to be collected out of this Chapter compared with other places of Scripture It appears they had great cause to lament the death of Iosiah and that not for any loss it was to him but for the great loss to Gods Church and People First And principally for the cause of it that was for their Sins And Secondly For the punishment of their Sins they were punish'd at present in the want of his good Example and Government and for the future great cause they had to fear it might portend and bring on the ruine of their Nation For the Third part of my Discourse that is what we are to do in our Circumstances it will be very easy to judge when we have consider'd what they did in theirs First At present they lamented King Iosiah's Death as being no doubt a great Calamity to their Church and to their Nation Saith my Text All Juda and Jerusalem mourned for Josias in the Arab. Translation they were cast down with vehement Grief for Josias in the Syriac Translation they laid up mourning and lamentation for Josiah it was a great a publick a lasting Calamity it deserv'd a great a publick a lasting lamentation Especially my Text saith the Prophet Jeremiah lamented for Josiah the vulgar Translation adds Ieremia's Maxime Ieremiah above all others No question but as he best knew the worth of Iosiah so he most grieved for the irreparable loss in his Death But was that all I suppose not for Ieremiah was a Prophet he foresaw the sad consequence of this loss to his Nation He felt how it Shook the Foundation of their Happiness He was concern'd not only for the present but for after times as a wise and good Man he lamented with them of the present Age as being also a Prophet he lamented for them of future Ages And to engage the whole Church to mourn and lament with him he provided a Form both for the present and for the future Their publick Forms in the time of Solomon's Temple were no other that I know but Hymns suited to their occasions whether ordinary on their Sabbaths and New Moons and other Festivals or extraordinary on their Fasts and Days of Thanksgiving For every Fast-day they had a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Song of Lamentation Iosiah deserv'd a yearly Fast up-upon the day of his Death Ieremiah compos'd the Office for it

which was a Song of Lamentation A Song of Lamentation so it is plainly exprespress'd in the Original and it is sufficiently rendred in the Septuagint but imperfectly in our English Translation He made on him a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Hebrews a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greeks call it he made a mourning Song or Psalm of Lamentation Which Song being as I have said the publick Office of the Church for that day he put it it into their hands by whom that Service was to be perform'd Now that was chiefly by singing Men and singing Women Yet not so but that all the People join'd with them in singing the Publick Office or Psalm in their Lamentations They do it still to this day saith the Writer of this Book who is thought to have been Ezra the Scribe Sure enough it was one that lived after the Babylonian Captivity for the last Chapter and Verse of this Book speak of their return from that Captivity and the same is the first Verse of the first Chapter of Ezra From hence it certainly appears that till after the Captivity that is for 140 years they still continued their Lamentation and still us'd this Form of Lamentation for the Death of Iosiah And they did it not arbitrarily but by a Lavv vvhich oblig'd them to it So my Text saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is they vvhich then governed made it a Lavv upon Israel that every year upon the day on vvhich Iosiah vvas slain these Offices should be used for the lamenting of Iosiah Thus Pagnin and Malvenda interpret my Text. And that which follows behold they are written in the Lamentations they understand not of those Lamentations in the Bible but the whole Body of the Iewish Lamentations that were used upon their solemn Fast-days Those now extant in the Bible were particularly composed for the Babylonian Captivity Which Captivity having occasioned so many Fast-days in the year one for the besieging of Ierusalem another for the taking of it another for the destrustion of the Temple another for the loss of the Remnant with Gedaliah these Lamentations in after-times swallowed up the remembranee of all other Lamentations and of this for Iosiah among the rest They remembred it as I have said until Ezra's time when tho' perhaps they observed not the day yet they continued the Office or Form for it But how They sung not this by it self but saith my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they used this Among their other Lamentations But since his time as it may seem for the shortning of the Office which was long upon those Fast-Days in remembrance of the Captivity they left out this particular Office for the loss of Iosiah and so probably by this means we came to lose the words of this Lamentation But these four things I have sufficiently prov'd from my Text First That there was a general Mourning for Josiah at his death Secondly That the Prophet Ieremy made a particular Office for it Thirdly That this Office was used among others upon the Day of Lamentation Fourthly That this Use was established by a Law upon Israel and that this Law was observed till Ezra's time that is for 140 Years even till the end of the Babylonian Captivity Next I am to proceed to the Reason of this Institution The Reason of it was not for his sake that was taken from them but for their sakes from whom he was taken As for him there was no cause to lament He died in Peace or else how could God's Promise to him be fulfilled 2 Chron. 34. 28. It was said to him from God by Hulda the Prophetess Behold I will gather thee to thy Fathers and thou shalt go to thy Grave in Peace But yet it is plain that he died in War What shall we say to this He that died in War did he go to his Grave in Peace Then surely Peace in Gods Language is something else than in ours It is so it is Peace with God Take it so and there is nothing strange in those Paradoxes of Scripture that there is no peace to the wicked but abundance of peace is to the righteous These and all the like Sayings are plain if you understand them aright of Peace with God It is certainly true that whether Peace or no Peace it must be judg'd by having God to our Friend or to our Enemy This is a sure way of judging as sure as it is that God is true only the truth of it does not appear in this life as it will in the future The Righteous in this life though he is in Friendship with God which nothing can break but wilful or habitual Sin yet his Peace is disturbed often times even with Sins of Infirmity 't is eclipst with troubles in this World it is clouded with melancholy Doubts which even good Men are subject to It is never perfect and clear while we live in Houses of Clay but when these are dissolv'd then the Righteous enters into peace that is into the perfection of it into that cleer Light the calm Sun-shine of Gods presence for ever more Now this blessed estate being that which Iosiah gain'd by his Death according to the promise of God a blessedness which none can obtain but by Death and which he could not have had so soon by dying otherwise What reason had they to lament for Iosiah that was such a Gainer by his Death There was no cause of lamentation for him They only had cause to lament for his Death that lost by it And that did all Iuda and Ierusalem They lost all they had to trust to they lost the Lease of their safety and well-being for they held it only by his Life the holy and good Life of Iosiah It was decreed against them in the Court of Heaven after a long Tryal for their National Sins that they should be carried away into Captivity There was no Remedy for the Lord had sworn it Amos 8. 7. I will remove Juda out of my sight I will cast off Jerusalem which I have chosen and the house of which I said my Name shall be there It was thus decreed but when was it to be executed Not in good Iosiah's days for it is against Gods Rule to punish the good Child for the wicked Father's sake And besides God had promis'd him in the fore-mentioned place that his Eye should not see all the evil that he would bring upon that place What then Should God for Iosiah's sake wholly reverse that Judgment which he had sworn to execute upon Israel He could not reverse it because his Oath was immutable And yet for his promise sake God could not execute it in his days Tho' in his days the People deserv'd it for they were then a wicked People notwithstanding all the good they derived from his Influence they serv'd God because he made them do it 2 Chron. 34. 33. they turn'd to God not with all their heart but feignedly Jer.