Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	faith_n	life_n	live_v	9,283	5	6.0114	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59876	A sermon preached at the funeral of the Reverend Benj. Calamy, D.D. and late minister of St. Lawrence Jewry, London, Jan. 7th, 1686 by William Sherlock ...	Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.	1686 (1686)	Wing S3347; ESTC R21708	14,846	42

it It gives us a more clear distinct comprehensive knowledge of God and divine things which is an Angelical perfection of the Mind and Understanding and he must be a strange man who can be so constantly employed in the Contemplation of God and the things which relate to another and a better life and not find his Soul ravisht with those unseen and unspeakable Glories who is so constantly employed in taking care of other mens Souls and takes no care of his own who is so frequent in his Devotions as the very nature of our Work exacts from us and not live a most divine and heavenly life There are indeed some who in the most Divine Employment are no great Examples of such a Divine Conversation but I fear they will not be found in the number of these faithful and wise Servants Whoever heartily applies himself to the care of Souls will in the first place take care of his own and the faithful discharge of this Duty will raise us so much above the ordinary Level and Attainments of Christians as will prepare us for a greater Reward and advance us to a more perfect state of Glory Nay that immediate Relation we stand in to Christ who is the Soveraign Lord and Judge of the World if we approve our selves faithful and wise Servants will secure us of a more excellent Reward The Church on Earth and the Church in Heaven is but one Church one Houshold and Family and those whom he has made Rulers of his Houshold here to whom he has committed the greatest places of Trust and Dignity need not fear being degraded in the other World if they adorn their Office and faithfully discharge their Trust here And therefore our Saviour tells his Apostles Verily I say unto you that ye which have followed me in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the Throne of his glory ye also shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel that is that their Reward and Glory in the other World should answer to that place of Trust and Power and Dignity which they had in the Church on Earth and this Promise is no more peculiar to the Apostles than their Office was In a word if we consider what the state of the other World is and who is King there that it is the blessed Jesus our Great High Priest King of Salem or the new Jerusalem and Priest of the most High God how mean and contemptible soever our Office is thought here we need not doubt but the Scene will be mightily chang'd when we come into that Kingdom where the King is a High Priest Let this then beloved Brethren of the Clergy be a mighty Encouragement to us to be very diligent and faithful in the discharge of this great Trust whatever Difficulties we meet with whatever Scorns Reproaches or Sufferings it is but expecting a while and our Lord will come and his Reward is with him and blessed for ever blessed is that Servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing Yea blessed for ever blessed as my Text gives us reason to hope is this our dear Brother whose Remains lie here before us who when his Lord came was found thus doing We may lament the loss of so kind a Relation so true a Friend so faithful a Pastor and Fellow-labourer according to the several interests we had in him but he blessed Soul has fought a good Fight and finished his Course and kept the Faith and is now gone to receive a Crown of Righteousness a Crown of Immortality and Glory He is now gone to that great Bishop and Shepherd of Souls whose Flock he has so carefully and diligently fed and whose wandring and stragling Sheep he has reduced into the Fold To that kind Shepherd who laid down his life for his Sheep and therefore will not fail to reward those who have spent their lives and were ready to have sacrificed them too for the service of Souls When we speak of so great a man it is below his Character to mention such things as would be thought considerable Attainments in meaner persons though indeed a truly great man does nothing meanly A great Mind gives a peculiar grace and decency to common Actions as it was easie to observe in his very Mirth and freest Humours that he never gave the Reins out of his hands but governed himself by the strictest Rules of Prudence and Religion But I shall confine my self to the subject of my Text and consider him onely as a faithful and wise Steward and therefore have very little to adde for I doubt not but you who knew him especially you who have enjoyed the benefit of his Ministry and have lived under his Care and Conduct have already applied what I have discoursed on this Argument to your deceased Pastor and would I have chosen any particular man to have drawn the Character by of a wise and faithful Steward there are not many men I should sooner have thought on than Dr. Calamy to have been the Pattern That he did take care to give you Meat in due season I need not tell you because you all know it If Preaching in season and out of season if publick Instructions and private Applications where they were needful or desired be to feed the Flock of Christ to give Meat to his Houshold and Family this he did and that very faithfully and wisely too In the first place he took care to inform himself and to furnish his own Mind with all useful knowledge and his constant Preaching though without any vain affectation of Learning which serves onely to amuse not to instruct did sufficiently discover both his natural and acquired Abilities He had a clear and distinct apprehension of things an easie and manly Rhetorick strong Sense conveyed to the mind in familiar words good Reasons inspired with a decent Passion which did not onely teach but move and transport the Hearers and at the same time gave both light and heat for indeed he was a good man which is necessary to make a good Preacher he had an inward vital sense of Religion and that animated his discourses with the same Divine Passions which he felt in himself He did not entertain his Hearers with School-Subtilties or a coniectural Divinity with such thin and airy Speculations as can neither be seen nor felt nor understood but his chief care was to explain the great Articles of Faith and Rules of Life what we must believe and how we must live that we may be eternally happy And he did as a faithful Servant ought to do as he declared a little before his death that he never preached any thing but what he himself firmly believed to be true I need not tell you what a troublesome World we have lived in for some years past such Critical times as would try the Principles Spirits of men when a prevailing Faction threatned both Church and State and the fears

of Popery were thought a sufficient Justification of the most illegal irreligious methods to keep it out when it was scandalous to speak a word either for the King or the Church when cunning men were silent and those who affected Popularity swam with the Stream then this great good man durst reprove Schism and Faction durst teach men to conform to the Church and to obey honor the King durst vindicate the despised Church of England and the hated Doctrine of Passive Obedience though the one was thought to favour Popery and the other to introduce Slavery but he was above the powerful Charms of Names and liked Truth never the worse because it was miscalled His publick Sermons preached in those days and printed by publick Authority are lasting Proofs of this and yet he was no Papist neither but durst reprove the errours of Popery when some others who made the greatest noise and out-cry about it grew wise and cautious This was like a truly honest and faithful Servant to oppose the growing Distempers of the Age without any regard either to unjust Censures or apparent Danger And yet he did not needlesly provoke any man he gave no hard words but thought it severe enough to confute mens errors without upbraiding or reproaching their persons His Conversation was courteous and affable to all men soft and easie as his Principles were stubborn he could yield any thing but the Truth and bear with any thing but the Vices of men He would indeed have been the Wonder of his Age had he not lived in such an Age as thanks be to God can shew many such Wonders and yet in such an Age as this he made an Illustrious Figure though he had his Equals he had not many Superiours Thus he lived and thus this good man died for thus he was found doing when his Lord came The first symptoms of his Distemper seized him just before his last Sermon at White-hall but gave him so much respite as to take his leave of the World in an excellent Discourse of Immortality which he speaks of with such a sensible gust and relish as if his Soul had been then upon the wing and had some fore-tast of those joys it was just a going to possess And indeed he encountered the apprehensions of Death like one who believed and hoped for Immortality he was neither over-fond of living nor afraid to die He received the Supper of our Lord professed his Communion with the Church of England in which he had lived and in which he now died and having recommended his Soul to God he quietly expected how he would dispose of him But I must not forget to tell you that he died like a true and faithful Pastor with a tender care and affection for his Flock When he imposed this unwelcome Office upon me he told me he did not desire any Praises of himself but that I would give some good advice to his People who said he are indeed a very kind and loving People And this was not the first nor the onely time I have heard him own not onely your kind reception of him at first but the repeated and renewed expressions of your affection which did signally manifest it self in his late Sickness and now accompanies him to the Grave A Character which to your honour I speak it you have now made good for several successions and which I hope you will never forfeit But what that good counsel is he would have me give you he told me not and therefore I can onely guess at his intentions in this Were he now present to speak to you I believe he could not give you better counsel than he has already done and therefore my advice to you is 1. To remember those Counsels and Exhortations which you have heard from your deceased Pastor Though the Sower be removed yet let that immortal Seed that Word of Life which he has sown live and fructifie in your hearts and bring forth the blessed Fruits of Righteousness He has shewed you the plain way to Heaven have a care you do not forget it have a care you do not wander out of it He has recommended the Communion of the Church of England to you He has taught you to be Loyal to your Prince and to be true to your Religion take care then that neither your Religion destroy your Loyalty nor your Loyalty corrupt your Religion remember that beloved person whose memory is dear and sacred to you was neither a Rebel a Papist nor a Fanatick 2. Since you have lost your Guide a faithful and a prudent Guide and the choice of a Successour is in your selves be very careful as the concernment of your Souls requires you should be of your Choice Consider what an Age we live in which requires an experienced and skilful Pilot to steer a secure and steady course Have a care of dividing into Factions and Parties let not meer private Interests or Friendships govern you if it be possible admit of no Competitions much less of Pulpit-Combats which do oftner occasion lasting and fatal Divisions than end in a wise Choice Remember what a succession you have had of Great and Good Men in this Place and let it be your ambition still to equal and out-do it if you can And now I shall conclude with one word to you my Brethren of the Clergy We have lost a faithful and diligent Labourer in Gods Vineyard in a time when we could ill have spared him let us then who still survive double our diligence and express a greater Zeal and Concernment in the defence of Religion and in the care of Souls Let us remember that we are all mortal and how little time we have to work in we know not but let us so improve the remainder of our days that when our Lord comes he may own us for faithful and wise Servants and bestow on us a Crown of Righteousness and Immortality Which God of his infinite mercy grant through our Lord Jesus Christ To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be Honour and Glory and Power now and for ever Amen FINIS ADVERTISEMENTS ☞ A Sermon Preached before the Honourable House of Commons by W. Sherlock D. D. Price 6 d. A Vindication of that Sermon from a Popish Remonstrance 4 o. Price 6 d. Both sold by John Amery at the Peacock in Fleetstreet A Discourse against Transubstantiation Price 6 d. Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome truly Represented in Answer to a Papist Mis-represented and Represented Both printed for W. Rogers 1 Cor. 3. 16. 2 Cor. 6. 16. 6 Gal. 10. 3 Heb. 5 6. 20 Acts 28. 1 Cor. 4. 1. 1 Cor. 3. 2. 5. Heb. 12 1 Pet. 2. 2. 2 Tim. 4. 2. 20. Acts 28. 21. John 15 16 17. 1 Pet. 2. 2. 17. John 3. 5 Eph. 23. 10 John 14. 4 Eph. 8 11 12 13. 28 Mat. 18 19 20. 20 Joh. 21 22 23. 1 Act. 4. 8 9. 2 Cor. 10. 3 4 5. 2 Cor. 13. 10. 2 Cor. 1. 24. 10 Luk. 16. 13. Mat. 52. 2 Sam. 18. 22. 1 Cor. 4 1 2 3. 20. Acts 26 27. 16 Rom. 18. 2 Cor. 4. 2. 10. Mat. 41. 2 Cor. 6. 1. 2 Cor. 2. 16. 1 Cor. 4. 12 13. 19 Mat. 28.