Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A65767
|
The reward of Christian patience as it was discover'd in a sermon preached at the funeral of Mr. Tho. Badland, a nonconforming minister at Kedderminster / by R. White ...
|
White, Richard, b. 1636.
|
1693
(1693)
|
Wing W1803; ESTC R38599
|
12,178
|
32
|
more than 't is possible for Death to become Life Hence 't is suitably called an Inheritance Incorruptible Vndefiled that Fadeth not away 1. Pet. 1.4 Those that shall possess this Crown are Immortal in their Souls and shall be made Immortal in their Bodies that God whose enjoyment makes Heaven is the God who is yesterday and to day and the same for ever who only hath Immortality and there shall be an everlasting Union between God who is to be enjoyed and the Souls that are once admitted to the enjoyment of him in Heaven from whence it must needs follow that the Happiness to be enjoyed by the Saints in Heaven is indeed a Crown of Life an Everlasting Crown an Inheritance that never fadeth away But 2. We have in these Words further the reason the Apostle gives why so it is That they that endure Temptation shall enjoy the Crown of Life and that consists in the last words 't is no other then what God hath promised to them that Love Him If they that Love God above all and take him for their Portion and Everlasting Resting Place shall enjoy this Crown of Life if God who is true to his Word and faithful to his Promise hath promised this Crown to all such then certainly it will follow that they who endure Temptation shall enjoy this Crown for they that endure Temptation that is that choose Suffering and Persecution yea Death it self rather then wilful Sin and that do eye God by Faith and Patience and quietly submit to the Divine Will in all their Sufferings these must needs be Persons who do truly Love God above all and have chosen him for their everlasting Portion and Blessedness and therefore they must needs be the Persons that shall enjoy the Crown of Life But 3. And lastly We have further in these Words the limitation of Time when such Persons shall come to the enjoyment of this Crown of Life after they are tried for when he is tried he shall receive the Crown of Life After that his Faithfulness hath been tried and approved by Afflictions and Persecutions and Temptations after it hath been made appear that his Trials and Temptations could not prevail with him to forsake God and Apostatize from him then he shall receive the Crown of Life This is the usual way and method of God even that way which he appointed for his own Son to make the Cross to be the way to the Crown to try his Servants first by Afflictions and Sufferings and then to receive them to Glory and give them the Crown of Life but when this is done when he hath sufficiently tried and exercised his Servants and he alone knows when this is sufficiently done then they shall receive the Crown of Life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him which is the last Consideration whence it doth appear that such Persons as do thus endure Afflictions and Temptations are happy and blessed Persons Now lastly For the Use and Improvement of what hath been spoken 1. It teacheth us how to behave our selves with relation to Afflictions and Persecutions which we may meet with in the course of our Lives on the one hand we should not court them or run our selves wilfully into them that 's unwarrantable because at best they are Trials and Temptations apt to shake our Constancy and to hurry us into some measure of Sin against God On the other hand we should not be over much prejudic'd against them but rather choose Afflictions and Persecutions then a course of known and wilful Sin and when we are under Afflictions behave ourselves with that Patience and quiet Submission to the Will of God which becomes Persons that live by Faith and not by Sense meerly the reason of all this is plain because that Afflictions when thus chosen and endured do but prepare and fit the Soul for eternal Happiness and Blessedness he is the blessed Man that thus endureth Temptation for when he hath been tried he shall receive the Crown of Life We may hence comfort our selves with relation to the death and departure of such Friends who having it may be been exercised with great Afflictions and Temptations yet have endured them have submitted with any good measure of Patience to the Will of God in them and this from a Principle of Repentance and Faith in the Mercy of God thro' Christ concerning such we have much reason to comfort our selves with hopes that by their death they are entred into a State of Blessedness that God having sufficiently tried them and purified them in the Furnace of Affliction hath suitably by Death received them to that Place and State wherein they enjoy the Crown of Life which the Lord hath promised to them that Love Him More particularly there seems to be in the Words a clear representation of the Case of our deceased Friend as will appear more fully in these following particulars 1. He was one that hath for many Years been Tutored by God in the School of Affliction it hath been his Portion to be exercised with many Trials and Temptations besides several Afflictions that are more ordinary he hath for several Years been exercised and of late more frequently than in former times by those two severe Diseases the Stone and the Gout of which we may say that whereas Diseases are wont to be distinguisht ordinarily into such as are Acute such as are Sharp in the pains that attend them but not of any long continuance and such as are Cronical of long continuance but not attended with such Sharp pains yet these Diseases may be esteemed to be both Acute and Cronical too Sharp in their pains and long in their duration and continuance His last Fit of the Stone that which brought on that weakness which ended in Death was such as had both the forementioned Circumstances in it being long even extended to the length of about Eleven days together and very Acute too being full of Sharp Pains and Dolours and at least as some have thought his other Disease the Gout did at last take its turn as it was usual formerly and as 't is supposed by peircing into his Bowels put an end to all his Pains and Dolours by putting an end to his Life But 2. Let us consider for our own Edification as well as for his Honour his Behaviour under all those Afflictions which he laboured under 1. As for his Behaviour under those great pains which he was frequently visited with besides the known and exemplary Holiness and regularity of his Life for many Years in this place of which all of you are sufficient Witnesses and his constant attendance upon his Ministry when at any time free from those forementioned Distempers yea and sometimes even when under the sense and feeling of those pains in some lesser degree That which I would especially recommend to your consideration and imitation is his signal Patience under all his great dolours and his biting them in as it were
a State of Suffering is careful to exercise Patience and quiet Submission to the hand of God as being by Faith perswaded that God hath an Hand in all these matters and that whom God loveth he chastens and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth as the Apostle saith Heb. 12.6 And thus you have had the Subject of this doctrinal Assertion that is contained in my Text sufficiently explained unto you Now 2. Of this Person that is thus qualified 't is asserted that he is a blessed man Blessed is the Man that endureth Temptation I need not stand long to explain the nature of true Blessedness let it suffice for the present that true blessedness so far as attainable here in this World consists in the Love and Favour of God through Christ and in a Right and Title to the Happiness of Heaven and to the enjoyment of God in that other World this is the utmost of that Blessedness which a Man on this side Heaven is capable of and which every one partakes of here below that is a true Penitent and and a sound Believer That which I shall further descend unto shall be to shew and prove in some Particulars that the Man that endureth Temptation is indeed an Happy and a Blessed Man And this will be evident if we consider 1. That this is plainly asserted concerning a patient enduring of some kind of Afflictions and Temptations I mean Persecution for Righteousness sake that they being patiently submitted to to the end do certainly give a Right and Title to true blessedness thus saith our Saviour who is Truth it self Matth. 5.10 c. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil of you falsely for my sake rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you Now though Persecutions for Righteousness sake are that sort of Afflictions which being chosen and submitted to rather then Men will run into known and wilful Sin for the avoiding of them do give a Man eminently a Title to Happiness and Blessedness and are likewise those Temptations that are here especially to be understood in this Text yet any other Affliction which being also a Temptation to sin yet is so endured with Patience and Constancy out of a Principle of Faith in God through Christ as that the Temptation doth not finally prevail upon the Soul must suitably be concluded in a parity of Reason to give a Right and Title to true Blessedness 2. Let us further consider that this enduring Temptation as it hath been before explained doth carry in it necessarily the exercise of Grace of Faith and Patience and quiet Submission to the Divine Will and a Resolution to embrace a Suffering State and Condition rather then to Sin against God all this hath been already proved Now it must needs follow that he that doth in this right manner endure Temptations is an Happy and Blessed Person he must needs be interessed in the special Love and Favour of God he must needs have a right to pardon of Sin and everlasting Life for this is the certain condition of every truely gracious Person of every one who hath the Image of God reimplanted upon his Soul which consists in righteousness and true holiness and sheweth forth the power of it in his Life and Conversation When 't is here said that blessed is the man that endureth Temptation 't is not hereby to be understood that every one who suffers Affliction here in this World hath forthwith hereupon a Right and Title to Blessedness in that other World for this is certainly false Men may be Afflicted with deep and sore Poverty and many are through the whole course of their lives and yet such is their sinfulness their sottish Ignorance and carelesness of the Welfare of their Souls that we have no reason to think or believe that they are likely to be happy and blessed in that other World But when Men do endure Afflictions and Temptations so as to exercise the Grace of God under them by chosing Affliction rather then Sin by the exercise of Faith and Patience and quiet Submission to the Will of God this doth indeed clearly evidence that they have a Right and Title to true Blessedness because it doth plainly discover that they are endowed with the saving Grace of God in their Souls 3. And lastly The last evidence that I shall give of the Truth of this that the Man is blessed that endureth Temptation shall be taken from the Reason and Evidence which the Apostle gives of this matter here in my Text for when he 's tried he shall receive the Crown of Life which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him in which words we have a plain demonstration of the truth of what is said before that the Man is blessed that endureth Temptation and I shall consider the words briefly in these following Particulars 1. We have here the evidence which the Apostle gives whereby it may appear that such a Person is blessed it consists in these words he shall receive the Crown of Life that is he shall be made partaker of the Happiness of Heaven which consists in a perfection of Holiness and a full and uninterrupted enjoyment of God in Glory and Bliss together with a Separation for ever of every thing that may any way prove a disturbance to the Soul In that State all Tears shall be wiped away from the Eyes of Believers and all the remainders of Sin shall be purged away from their Souls yea and all Temptations to Sin shall for ever cease for the Tempter is for ever cast out thence he shall never shoot one of his Fiery Darts in thither tho' he slily crept into the Earthly Paradice yet he shall never have any admission into the Heavenly To conclude the business of Holy Souls will be to be for ever enjoying and blessing and praising God and to be for ever Happy in the Enjoyment of him Now this blessed State which such shall partake of is here called the Crown of Life Crowns we know are Splendid attractive things such as for the attaining of which Men will too often venture their Lives yea their very Souls and therefore because they are an expression of the chiefest of Enjoyments which this World doth afford they are made use of to express that Superlative happiness which is to be enjoyed in Heaven And this is yet further hinted and set forth from hence that 't is called a Crown of Life The Crowns which this lower World doth afford are but corruptible Crowns Kingdoms as well as Kings are here below liable to Ruine and Mortality but the Crown which is here spoken of is an Incorruptible Crown 't is all made of Amarants 't is Everlasting 't is a Crown of Life Death can not touch it any