Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	eternal_a	life_n	see_v	7,762	5	3.7888	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47297	A funeral sermon for the Right Honourable, the Lady Frances Digby, who deceased at Coles-Hall in Warwickshire, on the 29th of September, 1684 by John Kettlewell ...	Kettlewell, John, 1653-1695.	1684 (1684)	Wing K368; ESTC R657	17,382	39

without this the Hopes in Death which the Text mentions will avail nothing For many men are full of Hope who have no just Cause for it and on the contrary others are afraid to Dye who may justly meet Death with comfort The melancholly of some and the Sanguine Complexion of others fill them with hopes and fears which are not owing to the Reason of things but only to their natural Tempers So that to shew any man a dying Saint that has Cause to rejoice in Death it is not enough that he have Peace of mind but also that he have just ground for it too And thus having shewn who this righteous man is to whom this Priviledge belongs I proceed now 2. To shew what are his Hopes that make Death a desirable thing to him which to others is the King of Terrors Now this Hope is of the favour and friendship of Almighty God and of all those Blessings which may be expected from it What those Blessings are was not so well known in old times when God led men on by more dark and indefinite expectations of the Future Happiness But when Christ came he brought Life and immortality to Light and has told us plainly that at their Deaths all Righteous men shall be translated to the unspeakable and eternal Joys of Heaven And these are so great that no heart can wish for more For the blessings of that Place are so large as to fill all our Capacities so pure as not to have the least mixture of Sorrows so constant as to admit of no abatements or intermissions We shall always desire and always be satisfied and when we have injoy'd the most we shall never be cloy'd nor wearied with it We shall live in Gods Presence and share in his Likeness and shine in his Glory and have Fellowship with the Saviour of the World and all the spotless Angels and all the Glorified Saints and Godlike Persons whose Society alone is enough to turn any Place into a Paradise And all these we shall enjoy without all fear of Misfortune either theirs or our own without all danger of displeasing them or fear of losing them without seeing any thing either to pity or blame in them or any damps of Friendship and intermission of Affection In sum we shall never see any ill nor suffer it nor ever want any good thing or when we have it fear to be deprived of it But we shall be infinitely happy and ever think our selves so and continue in that State for evermore This is that Eternal Life which God promises and whereto Death now conveys all Righteous Persons And since it is the way to our injoyment of all this Bliss it is no longer a Spoyler of our Joys but a Step to them and a thing to be desired by all Godly Souls It is indeed like churlish Physick very ungrateful in it self tho' it may be most desireable in the effect It brings a Dissolution of Nature which strikes Horror and that into the best men who would desire not to Dye if they could come at the happiness of the other Life without dying And this St. Paul testifies of himself confessing that as for the way of receiving the Heavenly house i. e. the glorified Body he had rather be found alive and have it superinduced by a translation than be stripp'd of this Body first by Death and afterwards be cloath'd again My wish says he is not to be uncloath'd i. e. to put off this Body first but to be cloathed upon by having the other superinduced that mortality may not so truly be put off as swallowed up of Life 2 Cor. 5. 1. 4. But it is most incomparably advantageous in the Event Tho' the way be hard and rugged yet 't is short and the Prize at the end is wonderfully Rich and Pleasant So that every considerate man who looks beyond Death hath the greatest Reason to desire it To them as St. Paul says it has quite lost its Sting and is become the truest Gain Phil. 1. 21. All sense of what it takes away is drown'd in the boundless apprehension of what it gives and Death is swallowed up in victory 1 Cor. 15. 54. It confers on them all their hearts can desire and therefore if they rightly consider it ought not to be a matter of their Fear It takes them from a Dunghill to a Throne and invests them in all the Glory and Riches of an everlasting Kingdom I come now 3. To apply this to allay our Grief and Sorrow on the Death of Friends I do not seek to suppress all Grief for a dying Friend for that is an impossible Task Friendship is a close thing and lies near to our Hearts so near indeed that a Friend is said and that very justly to be a Second self And therefore to be insensible when a dear Friend is torn from us is as impossible as to have no sense when a Finger is rent off from our Hand or our Heart is plucked out of our Bodies Some Course Nature will have in spite of all Arguments and no man can restrain it Yea and what is more it is not fit he should do it if he could For some sorrowful concern is necessary to shew we are sensible of our Loss and to evidence our Affection for the Person that is gone As the Jews when Jesus wept for Lazarus cryed out Behold how he loved him Jo. 11. 35. 36. The unconcernedness of the Living seems a reflection upon the Dead and argues they were not beloved while they lived but that the World was weary of their Company and even their pretended Friends very willing if not glad to be quit of them And therefore it is reckon'd as a Part of Gods Judgment upon the Jews that when they died there should be no wailing for them Ezek. 7. 11. But with this Grief for our own Loss in the departure of our Friends we must at the same time shew our selves sensible who it is that has taken them and that too for their own Gain and that he still continues to us a thousand Blessings when he only calls back one And therefore with Sorrow for them we must be sure to joyn Submission to God to resign up our Wills to his and be not only outwardly silent but inwardly renconciled to what he has done and to be heartiful thankful both for all the Kindnessess he shew'd our departed Friends and for that vast Number of others he still continues to our selves These things will not be perform'd as they ought when Grief grows strong Whilst it keeps within due bounds such as suit with the Apprehensions and Hope of Christians it is what Natural Affection will force from us and what Religion allows But when it becomes ungovernable and boisterous in Degrees or obstinate in Continuance it is in it self an ill thing an irresistible Temptation So that when we do grieve we must be careful to keep back from all excess and to do it with

yet sometimes it is not true that good men have Hope in their Death and ill men want it But tho' it be not always true in Point of Fact yet it always is in the Ground and Reason of it A wicked Liver has always Cause to be dismay'd tho' he will not believe it till he feels it And a Righteous man has always Cause of hope in Death if he has but the understanding to discern it And whether he see it or no he shall be sure to find the Benefit and be a Gainer by it And in this Sense the Words admit of no exception that when the Wicked wants the Righteous has hope in his Death i. e. he has most just Reason so to do In discoursing upon these Words I shall shew 1. Who the Righteous man is to whom this Priviledge belongs 2. What are his hopes that make Death a desirable thing to him which to others is the King of Terrors 3. Apply this to allay our Grief and Sorrow on the Death of Friends 1. I shall shew who the Righteous man is to whom this Priviledge belongs And that is every man who has lead a good Life and has not allow'd himself in any known Sins but had a regard to all Gods Commandments He is one that has led a Godly Life This is the true Test to descry who are Righteous which we are to judge of not from some Religious heats or transient Convictions or good wishes but from the Tenor of a Pious Practice He that doth good saith St. John is of God 3 Joh. 11. and again let no man deceive you in this Point for he that doth Righteousness is Righteous even as he is Righteous 1 Jo. 3. 7. And it is the only sure Ground of Hope for dying Persons He must have lived Holily who would dye happily for it is nothing else but an holy Life that can make happy That is the only sure Preparation for Death since it is the main thing to be inquired of after Death for then men shall all be judged according to their Works Rev. 20. 13. In one Case 't is true good Purposes will make happy tho' a man has never practised them And that is in the Case of such dying Penitents as God sees have both Sincerity and Strength enough of Godly purpopose and by means thereof would certainly Practise well if they had but Time But as for these they are so very few that they seem not to be of any great account in the Description of the Righteous Conversion in the ordinary course goes on by steps Gods Grace is infused and our wicked Lusts are mortified by degrees and without an unwonted and extraordinary Grace which no man must expect and least of all they who have slighted all Gods Gracious offers to the very last it is not to be begun and finished in the last Moments The Righteous ordinarily are only such as have done Righteousness in their Lives and among all the numerous Attempters 't is hard to find those who can succeed and become Righteous by forming good Resolutions upon their Death-beds And as for those who do then become such it is more than they can know themselves For no man that is only beginning to resolve well can know the strength and efficacy of his own Resolutions till he comes to try and Practise them And till he knows that tho' he may have the Safety yet he can not have the Comfort and the hopes of a Righteous man Bare purposes rarely give Safety but never Comfort to a dying Person so that the Hopes of the Righteous must not rest on them alone but have something else viz. a well led Life to bottom on And this Life must have been uniform in all Duties when a man has not allow'd himself in any known Sins but has had a Regard to all Gods Commandments Some parcel out the Law of God and think to be Righteous for performing some particular things This some of the Jewish Doctors made very easie declaring that a man might be Righteous by observing any one Commandment which he pleased For these are some of their Rules Qui dat operam Praecepto liber est a Praecepto He that exercises himself in any one Precept for that time is freed from minding any other And again whosoever shall perform any one of the 613. Precepts of the Law for so many they are according to their reckoning without any worldly respect for Love of the Precept shall inherit thereby Everlasting Life But when they would be more secure and act more commendably they would not content themselves with any of the Precepts indifferently but make a choice according to the estimation which they thought God himself had of them For they fancied that he did not rate all his Laws equally but esteem'd some more than others As the Lawyer plainly shew'd when he desired to be satisfied which was the great Commandment of the Law Mat. 22. 36. and the young man when he ask'd what good thing he should do to have Eternal Life i. e. of all the good things whereto Life is promised whether was the Sabbath or Sacrifices or which other Precept best what was that good thing which would most secure it Mat. 19. 16. And fancying there were some such darling Precepts they thought he was most sure to be acceptably Righteous who had the good luck to hit upon that Command which God most accounted of And the like Opinions tho' God be thanked not authorized by the common sayings of our Doctors are most unhappily got into the Hopes and Practice of too many among our selves nay alas of the generality of Christians For they too often think to pass for Righteous men only on the score of some particular Observances as being constant in Prayers or Liberal in Alms or zealous in Gods Cause especially if that be in some notable instance and perform'd with great hazards without having an Eye all this while to their whole Duty and whilst at the same time they allow themselves in some known Sins But whilst after this rate they mangle the Law of God and parcel out their Duty their thoughts of Righteousness are but a Dream and all their hopes a vain Presumption No Duties will save us when they are singled out from the rest and stand alone but only when they are all in Conjunction St. Paul instances in two viz. Giving all he has to feed the Poor and giving his Body to be burnt in Martyrdom which will easily be allow'd to have preference before all others But yet says he if these go by themselves and have not Charity which as he describes it v. 4. 5. c. besides Alms contains in it many other instances it profits me nothing 1 Cor. 13. 3. The Righteous man then is one who has an eye to all Gods Laws and whensoever he transgresses any doth not allow himself in that breach but rises again by Repentance This is Righteousness in any Person And