Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A65767
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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 ...
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White, Richard, b. 1636.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing W1803; ESTC R38599
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12,178
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32
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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
and keeping them in a great measure to himself and when he had any lucid Intervals and Intermissions from Pain he was apt presently to shew a readiness for profitable Discourse and Conversation as if what was past had been quite forgotten and he had not been under any expectations of more to ensue and this not out of a Principle of Stocal Apathy or unsensibleness for he fet his pains and sometimes groaned under them as others do but out of a Principle of Faith and Heavenly mindedness he endured as seeing him by an Eye of Faith who is Invisible to an Eye of Sense he had cast Anchor within the Vail and hereby came to enjoy that great measure of fixedness of Spirit which was not easily overcome even by his greatest pains and dolours this eminency of Patience and Submission to the Divine Will as it appeared in other former Instances so especially in his last dolours and sickness particularly two days before his Death how did he before several Witnesses lay out that little strength that remained in speaking of God and Christ and Heaven and Heavenly things and this with a kind of Transport and more than ordinary Earnestness and Vigour of Spirit and when he was put in mind to favour himself because of the great weakness of his Body his Answer hereunto was quick and smart Can I saith he speak too much for God And even the Night before his Death when his Speech had before failed him for some Hours and when by some signs he declared his sence and feeling of great pains that he laboured under yet even then when he could utter nothing else he was perceiv'd twice to repeat the word Heaven 2. As for his Behaviour for that long time wherein he was withheld from the publick exercise of his Ministry because he could not with clearness of Judgment comply in every thing which the demands of the Government which was no doubt a great Affliction to him it was for the good temper and moderation of it every whit as exemplary as the former instances of his Patience under his pains and dolours were He was no Friend to that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that running into extreams which is so common amongst us But though he had as good Ministerial Abilities as most others yet he contented himself with that narrow scene of Action wherein he was placed and therein endeavoured rather to be an healer of breaches then to cause them to grow wider by exasperation that this was really true I shall make out unto you by some few Instances 1. From that temper and moderation of Judgment which he exprest in matters that are under Controversy one instance of which was that in the matter of Reordination which I apprehend did prove as much a Remora and hindrance to his own Conformity as any one thing did yet he did in my hearing urge something that was very considerable by way of Apology for those that did submit unto it 2. Another instance was his constant owning and savouring of the publick Ministry and that not only by his own constant presence at it when in a capacity by means of health but especially by incouraging and ingaging others to a constant attendance upon it by his frequent words to that purpose in private and by recommending what had been spoken in publick to the Consideration of his hearers as many of you that are here present are able to testify which I the rather mention that it may serve as a standing and grateful acknowledgment of that incouragement which he gave from time to time to my Ministry 3. and lastly Another instance was a passage which he uttered to some that watched with him not many days before his Death That in the choice of a Successor to him in his Ministry they should labour to fix upon one of a quiet temper and moderate Principles upon one that would rather be an healer than an enlarger of our breaches Which Advice suitably it will become you to take care to observe as you value that easiness of Conversation which hath been hitherto preserved amongst us here in this place And for the further enforcing of this Advice of his give me leave to add a passage that he imparted to me concerning the sense of that Reverend Person under whose conduct he was when he came first to be an Inhabitant of this Town to wit That that Reverend Person judged that those who were serious and sober amongst the Conformists were much wiser and more to be valued than those forward Professors that were so ready upon account of little matters to break the Vnion and to Separate from the Communion of the Church established by Law And let me add this farther that tho' that Reverend Person were himself a Nonconformist yet he did help to make men Conformists by his Writings some of which to my Knowledge are now fixt in eminent Stations in the Church And indeed he hath said so much by way of Apology for the Conformists in the compass of one Page which you will find in the 46 Chap. of his Houshold Catechism in the beginning of the Answer to the 11 Question as gave occasion to a Person of Eminency to say in my hearing that he wondred how that reverend Person mist being a Conformist These particulars I mention the rather in order to the confirming you against the thoughts of any such Person in your choice whose Principles may lead him to go up into the breach to no other purpose but to keep it open and to make it wider to be sure this will not be suitable to the temper of our Reverend Friend now deceased nay which is more will not be suitable to the design of Christ in his last Prayer Jo. 17.21 when he prayed for his Disciples that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the World may believe that thou hast sent me where 't is plain that our Saviour placeth much of the Evidence and Demonstration of the Truth of the Gospel upon the Unity of Believers And this may serve to evidence the Second Particular to be very applicable to our deceased Friend that he was one that endured and acquitted himself well under the Temptations with which he was tried and exercised and therefore what follows in the 3d. Place But that we should conclude that he in particulars is interessed in that Blessedness which in my Text by the Spirit of God is intailed upon such Persons when 't is said Blessed is the man that endureth Temptations for when he is tried he shall receive the Crown of Life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him Comfort your selves therefore and one another with these words FINIS