Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A42697
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A funeral sermon, preached March 13. 1697/8. For Mr. William Hartley, of Newport-Pagnel, apothecary. By J. Gibbs.
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Gibbs, John, 1627?-1699.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing G663; ESTC R213761
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12,917
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26
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that the Beggar died So did the Rich Man and in one thing the Rich Man had the Advantage of Lazarus for he it is said was buried possibly had a costly Coffin and had great Splendor at his Funeral and the Poor Man hurled obscurely into some Hole for though it is said he died it doth not say he was buried well yet the Poor Man had a far greater Advantage at his Death for when the Devils dragged the Rich Man to Hell a Guard of Angels was sent to convey the departing Soul of the Poor Man into Heaven The strong Man is brought to Death as well as the weak and feeble Job 21.23 24 25. One dieth in his full or in the very perfection of his strength whose breasts were full of Milk and his bones moistned with Marrow Another dieth in the bitterness of his soul that did never eat his meat with pleasure these shall lie down alike in the dust By Strength no Man can prevail the mighty Men of Valour were brought to Death those that in Old Times were called Men of Renown The stout-hearted are spoiled they have slept their sleep and the men of might have lost their hands wherewith they have done great Exploits Psal 76.5 The great Conquerors of the World have by Death been conquered and overcome The Doctor and the Apothecary The one that hath prescribed and the other that hath prepared Medicines whereby the Sick have been recovered and Life hath been preserved cannot devise nor provide a Potion that shall keep themselves from Death The Wise and the Fool. Solomon Eccles 2.16 propounds a Question How dies the Wise Man And answers it As the Fool. None by their Politick shifts can evade or shift it off the great Head-pieces that have been in the World have laid down their Heads in the Dust The Useful and the Useless Some Men are Luggage to the Earth who only live to eat and do no good in their Generation whose Souls serve but for Salt to keep them from putrefying and rotting above Ground But there are and have been others that have been a Blessing in their Places doing much good unto those they have conversed with Such a one was Job Chap. 29.12 13 14 15 16 17. And David Acts 13.36 who served his Generation according to the will of God yet for all that he fell asleep Who more serviceable unto God and Man than the Holy Men of Old Prophets and Apostles yet they did not live for ever Zech. 1.5 Yea the Godly and Wicked have been and shall be brought to Death Wickedness shall not deliver him that is given to it Eccles 8.8 Nor shall the Righteousness of the Righteous for one event happens to them both Eccles 9.2 Object But doth not Solomon contradict this Doctrine who tells us That Righteousness delivereth from Death Prov. 10.2 Resp It is certain that Righteousness delivers from Death But not from Natural Death for that is a Debt owing by all and must be paid by all but Righteousness doth deliver from the Sting or Curse of it So that the Righteous may with holy Boldness and Confidence Challenge Death to shew his Sting 1 Cor. 15.55 And also from Eternal Death which is called the second Death or a Death after Death Rev. 2.11 Chap. 20.6 Will God bring to Death That is to Natural Death which is the dissolving of the Union or loosing or breaking the Knot that did tye Body and Soul together 2 Cor. 5.1 The word dissolved is taken from the overthrowing or demolishing of Buildings whereby the House that was compact and in the several parts joyned together being demolished it is parted asunder These two intimates Body and Soul by Death are separated one from another Third Question How did Job come to this Knowledge Why in the same way as others do or may attain it 1. By the Letter of the Scripture This doth sufficiently bear Witness to this Truth Gen. 3.19 the Lord tells Adam That he is Dust and unto Dust he shall return Job speaks the same Chap. 14.1 Besides the manifold Instances of Persons that died recorded in the Scripture do plainly and convincingly demonstrate it 2. Reason or the Light of Nature will tell us that a House of Clay that is founded on a heap of Dust such as our Bodies are Job 4.19 how strong or beautiful soever it be will fall down The Apostle calls it an Earthly House 2 Cor. 5.1 If it was built of Stones and the Foundation was a Rock or Marble yet by one means or other it will decay and may be overthrown And if this be all the Knowledge Men have it will not much affect the Heart nor produce such Effects as the Matter doth require Men may and many do know both these ways that they must die and yet the Lord may take up the Complaint against them as he did against Israel of Old for not wisely considering their latter End Deut. 32.29 Not duly expecting or preparing for it not taking care to order their Conversations as dying Creatures ought to do but do still carelesly neglect the Concerns of their Precious and Immortal Souls But 3. There is a Spiritual Knowledge of it though the Object be Natural which proceedeth from the Teachings of God which Holy David prayed for Psal 39.4 who had the means both of Scripture and Reason to inform him as other Men have yet this did not satisfie him and therefore applies himself to the Throne of Grace that the Lord would teach him to know his End and the measure of his Days that he might thereby be made to know how frail he was For this also did Moses pray Psal 90.12 that he might be taught so to number his days that this Effect might be wrought to apply his Heart to Wisdom In the foregoing Verse he had cast up the Account of the Years of Man's Life but he looked after and did beg for another kind of Knowledge than what his Reason could Instruct him in You therefore that have only that knowledge of your Mortality that Reason and the Letter of the Scripture teacheth be exhorted to imitate these Holy Men that you may attain that knowledge of it as may encline your Hearts to seek after the things that belong unto your Eternal Welfare Having run through the words by way of Explication I shall lay before you two Observations that arise from them 1. That God will bring us to Death 2. That it is a piece of the greatest Wisdom rightly and Spiritually to know this I shall only handle the first of these How long soever and what Lives soever we live yet we must die Reasons of the Doctrine 1. God will bring us to Death because we bring Sin into the World which opens a Passage for Death Rom. 5.12 As by one Man Sin entred into the World so Death by Sin and Death passed upon all Men for that all have sinned Here we see at what Door Death enters though Man was made of weak and
feeble Matter yet if Sin had not made the way he should not have died but our Father Adam the Representative of Mankind transgressing the Law of Creation presently Death is threatned Gen. 3.19 and that not to himself only but to all that should come out of his Loyns or his whole Posterity and although the Guilt of Sin binding over to Eternal Death be removed from some of his Seed by the Seed of the Woman yet Natural Death must pass upon them all 2. Man having sinned God did not send us into the World with a Design of spending an Eternity to it but gives us a little Time to prepare us for an Eternal Glory which he hath prepared for those that die in the Lord. Most Men live as if they were sent hither only to eat and drink and provide for their Flesh but the All-wise God had higher Ends in making so Noble a Creature as Man putting him into a Natural Capacity by the Soul he hath endued him with which is a Spirit and Immortal of an Immortal Glory And the Lord hath given him time to seek after it and appointed ways and means how he may attain it which time not being duly improved and the means wofully neglected proves the occasion of mens Eternal Destruction Hence it is that the tender Heart of Christ did so condole the case of Jerusalem Luke 19.42 They had the means of attaining the knowledge of the things belonging to their Peace but they let slip the time and made no good use of the means until the things of their Peace were hid from them A fair Warning to us that are partakers of the Gospel and call aloud upon us to seek the Lord while he may be found and to call upon him while he is near Isa 55.6 3. God will bring us to Death because of his Appointment He hath so appointed and ordained and this cannot be frustrated Men may ordain purpose and appoint things that never come to pass but it is otherwise with the Infinitely All-wise and Almighty God there can be no Contingencies happen to make his Purposes and Appointments void 4. Because he will bring us to Judgment which follows Death Heb. 9.28 There is the Judgment of particular Persons at Death for the Spirit returns to God to be disposed of when the dusty Body doth return to the Earth Eccles 12.7 The General Judgment which is commonly called the Day of Judgment is at the Resurrection when the Lord will bring back from Death again 5. God will bring the Wicked to Death to put an end to his Wickedness When he hath filled up his measure Psal 7.9 he shall Damn Curse be Drunk no more he shall no longer mock at Religion nor Persecute God's People with Tongue or Hand He is a Burthen to the Earth whilst he lives and God will ease the Earth of that Burthen by his Death 6. God will bring his People to Death to give them Rest from all their Labours Rev. 14.13 They shall be carryed out of the reach of a vexing tempting Devil and from the malice and enmity of an envious World and from all the Tribulations they meet with whilst they are in it John 16. ult In the World ye shall have Tribulation They shall no longer groan under the Burthen of a Body of Death have no more cause to complain and fetch deep sighs from the oppression of Guilt nor bemoan themselves for the filthiness of their Hearts nor shall they any longer be without the light of the Sun nor walk in Darkness as here often they do from the hidings of God's Face But 7. God will bring them to Death to bring them into Possession of the Eternal Inheritance prepared for them those Mansions of Light that he hath been by his Grace fitting and preparing them for Rom. 9.23 Col. 1.12 Or if you will God will bring them to Death to bring them to the full glorious uninterrupted Enjoyment of his blessed Presence that they may ever be with the Lord for whilst they are at home in the Body they are in the sense forementioned absent from the Lord 2 Cor. 5.6 So that by what hath been said in these three last Particulars and many other that might be mentioned which the Time being past and my Strength much exhausted I must forbear to insist on it will appear though both Godly and Ungodly are brought to Death yet there is a vast difference between the Death of the one and of the other A little time I must take to improve this Doctrine by Application 1. If God will bring us to Death this informs us 1. Of the certainty and necessity of dying unless God will change his Mind repeal his Statute-Law or hath not Power sufficient in his Hand to execute it So that we may say as the Woman of Tekoah did to David 2 Sam. 14.14 We must needs die and be as Water spilt upon the Ground For unless that first Law which was the Result of Infinite Wisdom be rescinded by a Post-Act which cannot be supposed or that there is a Proviso to exempt any from the common Fate of Mankind the first Law doth stand in full force and must certainly be put into execution 2. That seeing the Lord will bring us all to Death this doth inform us of and reproveth the Folly and Madness of those that put this far away upon a presumption of long Life and yet know not what the next day or hour may produce like the rash Fool in the Gospel Luke 12.19 and it may fare with them as it did with him v. 20. What wilt thou presume of length of days and on this Presumption defer thy Repentance Alas how many such are there now that are past Repentance Doth not the Lord denounce a Woe against such Amos 6.1.3 What Bed dost thou lie on what is thy Pillow stuff'd with that canst sleep securely in thine Impenitent Condition Dost thou not fear that when thou sleepest on thy Bed in the Night that in the Morning thou shalt awake with the Everlasting Flames about thine Ears I am sure thou hast cause enough to fear it 3. If God will bring us to Death it doth greatly concern us to bring Death near to our selves before God brings us to it 1. Believing the Truth my Text speaks of I find that though it is generally acknowledged that all must die yet too few there are that do really believe that they are of that number Surely was it believed it would produce better things than do appear in their Lives and Conversations What Peter saith touching the dissolution of all things and what use should be made of it 2 Pet. 3.11 If Men did believe their own Dissolution it would provoke unto a Holy and Godly Conversation What a poor Woman once said lying on a Death-bed may many say in the like Condition I often said she thought of Dying but would I had believed it Believing brings that near that is at a distance Janus-like it looks