Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	good_a	life_n	time_n	10,018	5	3.6095	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85403	Mercy in her exaltation. Or, A soveraigne antidote against fear of the second death. In a sermon preached at the funeral of Daniel Taylor Esq; in Stephens Colemanstreet London, on the twentieth day of April, an. 1655.	Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665.	1655 (1655)	Wing G1181; Thomason E848_24; ESTC R202308	41,452	68

and fashion you into the same image of Christian worth and desireableness with him The best way to make your selves as little losers as may be by his death is to live by the pattern of his life and to preserve the memory of all that was exemplary in him not so much for story or discourse as for a spur to a conscientious imitation Your day is coming as his is lately past yet a little while and you will all overtake him in the dust If in the mean time your hearts through the Grace of God will serve you so to live as that you may be counted worthy to stand at the same hand of Jesus Christ with him in the great day you and he shall never part company more The God of all Grace shall mightily incline your hearts to desire part and fellowship with him in this blessedness or else deny which I confidently hope he will not the fervent Prayer of From my Study in Swan Alley Colemanstreet May 15. 1655. Your Friend in Christ cordial and faithful to serve you JOHN GOODVVIN To the Reader GOod Reader I was bound with a threefold cord of ingagement to publish the Sermon in thy hand First the memory of my dear friend deceased at whose Funerals it was preached pleaded the law of friendship and by the Award hereof demanded either this or somewhat more monumentous if any such thing had been within my reach at my hand Secondly the solicitations of some of his relations and friends in the name of many more for the publication of it were too considerable to be neglected especially by me yea or by a person of greater breadth in the world then I. Lastly the misunderstanding as I hear of some things by some persons present at the delivery requires a more steady representation of what was spoken to make their crooked things streight The vulgar vote and report of the outward estate of my worthy friend now in an incapacity himself to rectifie mens apprehensions in any thing relating to him hath been somewhat injurious unto the preciousnesse of his memory and this even amongst those who know ground enough wherefore to honour him and onely suppose a ground wherefore they should honour him lesse The common estimate and discourse of his estate surmounting a third part and not a little more the reality and truth of it can seth the proportion of his bequests to appear lesse and so lesse honourable and lovely in the eyes of some the the truth of all things known and considered reason representeth them A twelfth or there abouts sequestred by will out of an estate where there is a wife and several children to be considered is no proportion of disparagement either to the wisdom or piety or bounty of any man especially where a life full of works of mercy hath gone before When those that are rich in this world are charged by God to be rich in good works a the charge questionlesse respecteth rather the time of the lives then of the deaths of such men And when as God himself hath contented himself with prescriptions in general as that rich men do good be ready to distribute willing to communicate be rich in good works c. b for men to undertake to prescribe particulars is a kind of pretending to be wise above that which is written However I wish rather then expect that they who complain that Grantham steeple stands awry would set up a streighter by it and fear that when themselves shall come to the triall they will justifie the truth of the Greek Proverb {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} i. e. that it is easier to carp then to copy or imitate But whilest others censure certain I am the poor lament and mourn over the loss of their good Benefactor and are like to have cause of greater lamentation for the future unlesse God shall vouch safe to stir up unto them some other one or more like unto him anointed with the like spirit of mercy in his stead Concerning the Sermon-mistakes of some for I do not hear of more then a very few that found what or how to mistake it seems they were jealous that some things delivered trench'd very neare if not too neare upon the Popish Doctrine of justification by works But certain I am that I speak nothing from first to last of works in reference to justification nor did either the subject I had in hand nor the method of my discourse lead me to treat little or much of justification especially not of that justification which consists in remission of sins I am not more clear nor better resolved in my judgement touching the truth of any one Article o● Doctrine of Christian Religion then that all the good works in the world were they or could they be perform'd by any one man that hath sinned in the least would not be able to procure the pardon or forgiveness of his sins Pardon of sin cannot be obtained by doing of good but by suffering evil and this by a person who is sinlesse according to the typical representation under the Law of which the Apostle speaks Heb. 9. 22. And almost all things are by the Law purged with blood {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and without shedding of blood there is no remission That justification which consists in the divine approbation of men as well done good and faithful Servant Mat. 25. 21. 23. and so Then shall every man have praise of God 1 Cor. 4 5. of which kind of justification that is to be understood not the hearers of the Law are just before God but the doers of the Law shall be JUSTIFIED Rom. 2. 13. So again Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand come ye blessed of my Father inherit c. Mat. 25. 34. c. this kind of justification I say without which no man shall be saved more then without the other is to bee obtained by good works yet not properly nor so much by the merit of these works as by vertue of the Law of God's most gracious and bountifull acceptation And yet to say or think on the other hand that there is nothing at all in these works or nothing more then in others which are contrary to them to commend any man unto God for his approbation or acceptance is to reflect disparagement upon his wisdom and right●●●●●● esse in the establishment of that Law by which they come to be approved and accepted upon such terms Some words possibly might fall from me in my Sermon relating to this justification I mean to the notion matter or substance of it for as for the term or word it self I purposely declined it to prevent mistakes in those that might be weak not having then either time or occasion to open or handle the difference between the two justifications But I have had experience before now of that strein of weaknesse in many professors which makes them unable to

distinguish between things necessary to justification and to salvation and again between the two kinds of justification now specified By reason of this weakness some have taken deep impressions of discontent and offence at those Ministers of the Gospel who were men of the greatest faithfulnesse to their souls onely because they were zealous and importunale in exhorting perswading provoking pressing urging them to good works in order to the saving of their souls which notwithstanding is the Apostles expresse Doctrine 1 Tim. 6. 17 18 19. and the Holy Ghosts in I know not how many places more I have added altered or inserted very little in so much of the Sermon insuing as I had time to deliver when it was preached Onely I give a brief touch of one thing forgotten about the explication of the Doctrine and increase the number of the reasons by one or two Otherwise that which is here added is little but some inlargements of my self in the application which being imprisoned in an hour glasse I had no liberty then to deliver God who sometimes hangeth great weights upon small wiers give thee much out of this little and cause the Treasury of thy Grace and knowledge to rejoice by the casting in of this mite in to it In the prayer there is the heart of From my Study in Swan-Alley Coleman-street London May 18. 1655. Thy Friend and Brother zealous to serve thee in Christ JOHN GOODWIN ERRATA PAge 4. line 20. read {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} p. 13 l. 9. r. occasions l. 27. dele arc p. 17. l. 18. 19. r. grounds reasons p. 21. l. 15. d. the l. 20. r. whit as p. 22. l. 2. r. children p. 26. l. 14. r. sympathy p 32. l. 27. r. their l. 29. seeth his should be transferred hither from the line following p. 41. l. 22. r. heaps p. 42. l. 30. r. her p. 45. l. 5. r. irresistible p. 48. l. 7. r. men JAMES 2. 13. And Mercy rejoyceth against Judgement THe Dead as David's meditation long since awarded the case praise not the Lord meaning by any thing they now do in the state and condition of death only by those things which they did whilest they were yet living if they were proper for such a service they may though now dead be said to praise him as the holy Ghost said concerning Abel some thousands of yeers after his death that by the Sacrifice which he offered by Faith unto God whilest he was living being dead he yet speaketha And if the dead praise not God neither shall I praise them but leave this to their works by which they praise him if they praise him at all If what they did whilst they were living was judged by them sufficient to praise God we cannot well but judge the same sufficient to praise them also whether it was much they did upon that account or whether little For if they did much for the praise of God whilest they lived such a proportion of goodness will lift up their praises also on high being dead If they did little great praises would be uncomly for them and could not be answered for before God by those that shall adorn their Names with them It is well known to a great part of you who now hear me that for several years past I have put from me the custome of Funeral Elogies and Commendations bequeathing this service unto the works of the deceased which have a Commission from God to perform it b if there be cause whereas I have none that I know of especially not to do it in consort with the work now in hand But I have declined the practise partly because of the offensiveness of it unto many who are weak partly because of the offensive practise and mis-use of it by some who seem otherwise strong I confess that as it was the saying of one long since If a dishonest practise be in any case tolerable it is for the purchase and procurement of a Kingdom in all other cases justice and right must take place c so if a Minister or Messenger of God could be venially tempted to dispense with so good a resolution as that which he hath taken up against blowing a Trumpet in the Pulpit before the dead my standing at present is upon the ground of such an opportunity being called to preach at the interment of a man of a most exemplary and signal worth in every kind and whose life can hardly be remembred by those who have any steady knowledge of it without falling into an agony of sorrow and heaviness for his death And as it was the saying of the Poet in respect of the enormous vices of the times and place wherein he lived that it was an hard matter Satyram non scribere not to write Satyrically so may I well say on the other hand in respect of many things so highly commendable and Christian in him upon the occasion of whose death I am now speaking unto you Difficile est laudes non dicere a man must resist a temptation to refrain from praising him However partly for my resolutions sake which is not far from a vow but more especially for your sakes whom it much more concerns to be made praise-worthy your selves then to hear another praised before you I shall leave the Deceased to the good report of all men which he purchased at an high rate of well-doing when time was and of the Truth it self the Word of God which giveth large testimony unto him and unto all like to him and shall in the Name of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Opening and Applying of the words read unto you make an attempt upon you to make you if it may be like unto him in that which was his glory whilest he lived and his rejoycing at his death I mean his Goodness and Mercy Mercy enlarged his heart to rejoyce against judgement and oh How happy shall you be if you will be perswaded to cast in your lot with him and suffer God to put into your heart by his Word and Spirit which are now about to put you upon the Trial to take part and fellowship with him in that his rejoycing Let us then with as much brevity as your interest in the opportunity before you will to the best of my understanding permit endeavour 1. to open the mind of God unto you in the words read and then 2. to shew you how this treasure of the mind of God may and ought to be improved by you to your spiritual yea and temporal advantage also so leaving your consciences and the good Word of God together to agree upon the things both of your present and eternal comfort and peace And Mercy saith the Apostle if rightly englished rejoyceth against Judgement In the former part of the verse he had said For he shall have Judgement without Mercy i. shall be very severely handled by God in the Great day the sentence that