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	soul_n	6,759	5	4.9416	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95722	The saints expectation and reward a sermon at the funerall of that learned and faithfull minister of Christ Mr. Tho: Wiborow June 10th 1652. / Preached at Enfeild in Staffordshire, by Michael Thomas minister of Gods word at Stockden in Shropshire.	Thomas, Michael, rector of Stockton.	1655 (1655)	Wing T969; Thomason E835_11; ESTC R207408	15,800	16

any time look a danger or death in the face No doubt the contemplation of his Celestiall inheritance those new heavens and new earth whereof he is now possessed did ravish his soul with an holy thirst and longing after them for the joy that was set before him he could endure the crosse and despise the shame and suffer the contradiction of sinners in high charitie commending them to the mercy of God in that prayer Father forgive them for they know not what they doe And lastly as if he had been of Beza's judgment in the reading of this Text that none but new creatures should be admited into these new heavens his heart was set upon righteousnesse endeavouring alwaies to keep a conscience void of offence towards God and also towards man Pietie and learning and modestie to meet in one man was hard and rare and these met in him his piety appeared in his care for Gods true worship and in a discreet zeal for his house he had a desire to bring all men into that way which in his conscience he thought would lead to heaven Nazianzen complained of some that did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fit their faith to the times and so make it as Saint Hilary censures it Fides temporum non Evangeliorum a Faith moulded to the humor of the times not according to the Doctrine of the Gospell He was none of those his care was to please Christ and to preach him so that to the last gasp ' he was constant to the worship of God and faithfull in it For his learning I must professe my selfe an incompetent censor of it so farre as I was able to judge he deserved the name of Tri-●or aswell as Quintus Ennius he understood those three languages Greek and Latin and Hebrew in a good measure In answer to Aarons Urim and Thummim there were written and combined in his breast Sci●ntia and Conscientia Learning and integritie he was able both by his learning and his life to confound the adversaries of the truth of Christ These were the evidences of his righteousnesse towards God and for his righteousnesse towards man I am confident he might have gasp'd out the Prophet Samuel's challenge Whose Ox or whose Asse have I taken Yea and added that of Saiu Paul I have wronged no man I have corrupted no man I have defrauded no man I have coveted no mans silver nor gold nor apparell he was contented with such things as he had remembring that promise of the Lord Let your conversation be without covetousnesse for I will never leave you nor for sake you It pleased the Lord to raise him friends and supplies even in his lowest state whose charitie and compassion no doubt the Lord will both remember and reward when they shall have most need of it And in great testimony of his love and care over him the Lord was his shield and buckler when both the Sword and the Sicknesse raged round about him and hath brought him to his grave in peace in a good old age where we are now to disposse the remains of him till the consummation of all things when it shall please God to say Come again ye children of men and collect the bones and dust of deer and divided friends and unite them together in a blessed and glorious resurrection The speech at the grave WElbeloved friends we are met here to pay those Christian respects which we owe to the corps of our deceased Friend the bodies of Christians are the members of Christ yea they are the temples of the holy Ghost and are therefore in a decent manner to be interred and laid up in their long home the grave This reverend brother of ours was a Preacher while he was living and now though dead is preaching to us his farewell sermon and his Text is Hodie mihi cras tibi this is my day of buriall to morrow may be yours The Lord in the death of every man performs the desire of Dives in the parable He sends one from the dead to admonish us that all flesh is grasse and the glory of man but as the flower of the grasse to remember us of that irreversable statute and the penalty of it that it is appointed for all men once to die and after death to come to judgment 'T is not the least of the Lords mercies when he will convey the consideration of serious matters to us in such obvious and familiar notions to remember us of our frailty and mortality and make the grasse of the field a looking-glasse wherein we may see our selves and learn that as every g●●sse of the field proves there is a God that made it So every grasse shewes what man is and that there is a God that will turn him to destruction Some Authors have told us that a swarm of bees fighting are no way sooner appeased then by throwing dust amongst them Mankind is a swarm of Bees that busie themselves and buzze about the World and are too often fighting and quarrelling and an handfull of dust taken into serious consideration would quiet them all dust is the embleme of mans originall and his end from whence he came and to what he must return Dust hath a medicinall quality to cure all the diseases of the soul especially the tympany of pride When hair is sweet through pride or lust the powder doth forget the dust we should not so far disparage the workmanship of God as to mend our faces by art if we did consider that ere long the dust of the Grave would spoil our complexion when Saint Augustine stood by the Temple of ●ulius Caesar He cries out Ubi nunc pulchritudo Caesaris what is become of Caesars goodly person he spake it not by way of triumph as insulting over the ashes of that mighty conqueror but to convey an instruction to all mankind that were every Son of man as comely in person and as great as he as high in armes and as glorious in honour yet his foundation is in the dust saies holy Job and must say to corruption thou art my Father and to the worm thou art my Mother and my ●ister Though our bodies are as I said the temples of the Holy Ghost yet they will come to delapidation and moulder into rubbidge and dust our bones will be scattered about the graves mouth like so many chiphs of a man that heweth wood and our dust may perchance be mingled with the dust of the high wa● the materialls of our bodies which we so love and pamper now will be troden down like the mire in the stre●t if we would every one say and say often to our selves in those words of Job The grave is ready for me I am now in the beauty and flower of my youth but know not how soon I may be cropt and wither certainly such meditations would make much for the advancement of piety in all our waies to remember our end and so to live every day as if it we●e our last day There passes a story of Ben Syra a Iew that when he was about twelve years old he requested his Tutor to teach him the law of Moses He answers Child you are to young to learn or understand that Law but the child replies Sir I have 〈◊〉 in down in the Church-yard among the graves and I find that many are dead who were not so tall nor old as I and I would be loath to die before I had learnt the law this Iewes child may teach us Christians a good lesson to take heed we do not die before we have learn'd the Law of God and that danger we can no other way avoid but by meditating in the law day and night and by making the statutes of the Lord our guide and counsellours I am so charitable as to think that the confluence of friende and neighbours to this funerall hath no other design but to honour the memory of our reverend friend and let me remember you of one point of honour ye may do him which perchance you think not of that is to become his converts that at the last day when he shall arise he may present himself and you before the Lord and say these are the children which I have begotten in my ministry these are those souls whom I have instructed and confirmed in the faith these are they that in life and death have held forth the testimony of Jesus Christ this were truly to honour him to make him shine like a star of the first magnitude in the firmament of glory And let this funerall solemnity give you occasion when you depart hence to say Mr. Wiborough did me much good while he lived but more when he was dead the sermons that I heard from his mouth wrought much upon me but his funerall sermon more when his breathlesse corps preached to me and bid me prepare for my dissolution when his dust spake to me and bid me bury all those sinnes whereof he reproved me in the grave with him so great are the respects and affection which this Gentleman did deserve of us all that I think you could be as well content to hear more of him as I to speak but I must conclude with that of Nazianzen the Sea saith he doth not need the rivers that yet run into it so neither doth he need mine or any others praise he hath fought the good fight of Faith and finished his course and is now gone to receive his Crown of righteousnesse as for his body we commend it to the grave beseeching the Lord to sanctifie this and all other spectacles of our mortality to us and by them to teach us so to number our daies that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom FINIS

one as 〈◊〉 not fade away Pareus gives us a criticisme upon the place that terme in the originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we read incorruptible he conceives should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indiminishable which tearme would much advance our heavenly inheritance we observe of earthly inheritances how great soever they be they do not wholly descend upon the heir the more children their are in a familie into the more portions must the inheritance be divided and every division is a diminution But this inheritance which Christ hath purchased for us is given whole and entire to every son of God Tanta est singulis quanta est omnibus saies Saint Augustine every blessed soul enjoyes the whole heaven and all the comforts of it which are the rather enlarged by the multitude of those that partake of them And again it is such an inheritance wherein dwelleth righteousnesse 'T is a nice but a profitable note that both Beza and S●rrarius make conceiving the originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to referre rather to the persons then the place they render it thus We in whom dwelleth the righteousnesse of faith look for new heavens and a new earth And admitting of this translation it may rouse our souls and consciences to consider whether true and saving righteousnesse dwell in us or no for 't is that only that must give us title to that inheritance Saint John in the Revelation tells us that there shall in no wise enter into the new Jerusalem anything that defileth or worketh abhomination or marketh alie Holy persons we must be as we hope to ascend into the holy hill of the Lord. Or consider the words as we read them that righteousnesse referres to the place and even that will exast the excellencie of it Here in this world righteousnesse doth but sojurne there it dwells here it hath but a Tabernacle there a Mansion here it is mixed with manifold infirmities there it is perfect and in the greatest eminency here but in some there in all here but for a time but there for ever The unrighteonsnesse of this present evill world makes all those that belong to heaven to desire to be dissolved These are those daies in which we may take up that crie of David H●lp Lord for the godly man ceaseth and the faithfull fail from among the Children of men they speak with vain tongues and slattering lipps and double hearts and are full of all unrighteousnesse So that we may say Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord they do not only rest from their labours but are secured from all violence and unrighteousnesse they neither know nor feel the evills that are done upon earth Into which blessed state our confidence is the soul of our Brother here disceased is translated in the honour of whose memory I must yet begg a few minutes to shew you in how many respects he was an example of the Text and both in life and death a very eminent practiser of it I remember what Plinie said of Antoninus Pictores pulchram absolitamg faciem raro nisi 〈◊〉 pe●us effingunt An exact and comely face is seld●me drawn but with some dissadvantage Persons of great parts and gifts cannot with sufficient right and justice be represented by one of meaner abilities I may say of him what Nacianzen said of Saint Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here wants his own tongue to speak his own stor● that elegant and pious tongne which you have so often heard resounding the praises of God in this place Yet since David tells us that there is an honour due to all the Saints of God to such as live and die in his holy faith and since Providence put me upon the work for I sought it not as I loved and honoured him living it is some addition to my sorrow for his death that I cannot discharge this funerall rite in a measure answerable to his just desert In that great varietie of graces which shined eminently in him I cannot tell which to select and present first It was the Fate of this reverend person to live in such times wherein this Prophecie of Saint Peter in this Chapter was over-abundantly fulfilled He foretold that there should be scoffers and jesters in divine things in matters appertaining to God and religion For now in these daies excellency of wit lies in prophannesse and he is reputed a good spirit that dares abuse God and holy things that person is esteemed good company who by his scurrile wit makes his company the worse or keeps them from goodnesse This being the air and complexion of the wit of these times I have been both an eye and ear witnesse that prophane wit hath oftentimes been a matter of vexation to him but never of mirth that I could perceive It pleased God to carry him through various fortunes and yet to support him with cheerfulnesse and a true Christian constancie in all It was an inverterate disease no calamitie of these times that occasion'd his death He hath given many testimonies of his firm faith in the Doctrine of our Text that a righteous man hath both helps hopes to depend upon when the world failes him He saw and had experience of many failings in the world and worldly things His estate failed him which in the beginning of these troubles was full and plentifull His friends failed him and proved unfaithfull His health and strength failed him and let his bodie fall into his grave like ripe fruit from a tree and in all these deficiencies and faultrings of the world he bore up a true Christian head glorifying God in great patienee and integritie submitting to his holy will aswell in his losses as in his gaines blessing God both when he gave and when he took away He made the only right use of all his afflictions by considering that they were sent to teach him holy obedience to fear God and to eschew evill in which important lessons he was so good a proficient that like a dutifull servant he had learnt to carry the Crosse of his Master Christ Jesus after him Those staunch and reserved affections which he had to earthly things did abundantly testifie that he placed his wealth and treasure in his reversions in heaven not in any thing that he did or could possesse here on earth he accounted himselfe but a stranger and a pilgrim in this world and therefore was content though his Tabernacle were pitched and removed in divers places He was assured that God in his good time would provide an hiding place for him either on the earth or in the grave supporting himselfe with Luthers holy resolution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Calo aut sub Calo that he should either be under the protection of heaven or in the possession of heaven His hope and beliefe in the watchfull providence of God was alwaies strong being rooted on that immovable foundation the promises of God of which he treasured up such store in his memorie that he could at