Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	heaven_n	life_n	lord_n	6,482	5	3.5158	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61273	The happiness of good men after death a sermon at the funeral of Mr. Robert Castell, late of Deptford in Kent, preached in the parish church of Deptford, August the 19th, 1698 : published at the request of the relations and executors of the deceased / by George Stanhope ...	Stanhope, George, 1660-1728.	1699 (1699)	Wing S5223; ESTC R15062	13,720	32

The Happiness of Good Men after Death A SERMON AT THE FUNERAL OF Mr. Robert Castell Late of Deptford in Kent Preached in the Parish Church of Deptford August the 19th 1698. Published at the Request of the Relations and Executors of the Deceased By GEORGE STANHOPE D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty LONDON Printed for R. Sare at Grays-Inn-gate in Holborn 1699. Rev. xiv V. 13. I heard a Voice from Heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the Dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth Yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them THat the Importance of these words is very great we need no other Argument to convince us than the solemn manner in which they are delivered to the Apostle Such is the express Command that they should be carefully preserved by writing I heard a Voice from He●ven saying unto me Write Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth To which is added yet farther the Testimony of the Holy Ghost confirming the Truth of what that Voice had dictated and declaring particularly wherein the Blessedness of such persons consists Yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them These forms are such Preparations as always speak the matter ushered in by them to be of mighty Consequence And are intended to awaken our Minds more powerfully and to recommend it to our best and most attentive Consideration The immediate Occasion and Design of the Passage now before us was plainly to fortify the Christians against some very violent Persecutions which St. John had a certain foresight given him of and describes accordingly by very terrible Circumstances Infomuch that he pronounces it here a very great Happiness to be taken out of the World before those Calamitous and Trying times should come which might endanger the shaking the most resolute Faith and Patience even of the best Men. Or as some other Interpreters think he describes the Blessedness of those faithful Professors of Christianity whom the Grace of God should enable to persevere unto the end and to suffer Martyrdom for the Doctrines of his Gospel Those persons being sometimes said with a peculiar Emphasis to dye in the Lord who suffer in his Cause and lay down their Lives for his sake But there is no necessity nor indeed any sufficient Reason for confining this Expression to those times of Primitive Perfecution only or to the Martyrs who suffered in them For as every sincere good Man who heartily embraces the Faith of Christ and whose Conversation is such as becomes that Faith is said in Scripture to * 2 Cor. v. 15. live unto the Lord so every one who continues in that Belief and Obedience to the End of his Days is very truly and properly said when God takes him out of the World to † 1 Thes iv 14. sleep in Jesus and to dye in the Lord. And thus it is manifest not our Own only but the Christian Church in general hath constantly understood the Text by making it in many antient Liturgies a part of the Burial Service And so declaring the Blessedness here to belong to every deceased Person who lives and dyes a worthy Member of her Communion Having therefore so good Authority to bear me out I shall make no difficulty to treat of my Text in this larger and more popular Sense and so to apply it to the occasion of our present meeting that we may gather from hence those useful and comfortable Reflections which may minister to us a Reasonable Hope of our Departed Brother's Happiness and a joyful Expectation of our Own In order hereunto I shall so far as the time will give me leave do these three things I. First I shall endeavour to represent to you the Happy State of Good Men after Death as the Words have here described it to us II. Secondly I shall from this Doctrine so established draw some few Inferences which may be of use to us both for the Conduct of our Lives in general and more particularly seasonable upon these Melancholy Occasions III. And then in the Third and last Place I shall apply the Substance of my two former heads yet more closely to the Circumstances of the Person whose mortal part now lyes before us 1. First I shall endeavour to represent to you the happy State of Good Men after Death as the Words have here described it to us And I may well say I shall endeavour only that which it is not possible for me worthily to effect For Who indeed can represent it justly What Tongue of Men or Angels can find expressions strong and significant enough What Images are so bright so glorious What finite Understandings of a Capacity so large that they should contain adequate Ideas of that Bliss to which nothing we are acquainted with in this Life is equal nothing like nothing in any degree comparable That Bliss which would lose a great part of its Perfection if Sense and feeble Reason could fully comprehend it and whose peculiar Excellence we are told it is that * 1 Cor. ii 9. Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it entred into the Heart of Man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love him The utmost therefore which you must expect in this case is only to have it drawn in little In such proportions as frail Men are capable of by Resemblances taken from things familiar to us by setting it in opposition to the Miseries we are at present exposed to and by such Other Considerations as are of Value and Weight with us in the Affairs and Transactions of humane Life This is the Method which the Holy Spirit hath made use of here And the Arguments by which he raises our esteem of that Blessedness pronounced from Heaven upon the Dead which dye in the Lord seem to be these Three 1. First The Troubles such Men are delivered from They rest from their Labours 2. Secondly The good Acceptance and great Reward which they shall after Death receive for what they have done well during the present Life Their Works do follow them 3. Thirdly The Time when they enter upon this Happiness intimated in that Term fixed here Blessed are the Dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth 1. First They who dye in the Lord are Blessed in regard of the Troubles they are delivered from They rest from their Labours I will not I need not upon this occasion undertake to shew how sore and manifold these Labours are For This is an Argument that comes home to the Sense and Experience of every one of us All that hear me are able to go before me in the Reflection how thick we are beset with Troubles and Afflictions on every Side in our Bodies and our Souls in our publick and our private Capacities The Vanities of Youth and the Infirmities of Age The Difficulties of Supporting these

Bodies and the perpetual Wants and Weaknesses to which they are Subject The lingring and the acute Distempers the sensible decays and the more sensible Pains that waste and tear and torment them The Miseries of an unhappy Temper and Overflowings of a black heavy blood which intercept all light and comfort and condemn the Soul to the dark dismal prison of a melancholy Constitution The Violence of Passions from within and the vast Variety of Accidents from without which are continually provoking us to Grief or Anger or some other disorderly excesses These are personal and of a piece with us The Losses in our Estates the surprising Disappointments in our Expectations and Designs The hurry of Business the Strife and Contention our Affairs engage us in The Travel of the Poor and the Cares of the Rich The Anguish of our Afflicted and the Uncertainty of our most Prosperous Condition The Treachery of pretending Friends and the Spight of profess'd Enemies The Snares of Conversation the Vanity and extreme danger even of those Diversions and Pleasures by which we labour to lighten this load of Life and gain some Intervals of Ease at least by forgetting for a little while our Cares and Calamities These and a thousand Difficulties more are inseparable incumbrances of Mortality to every one considered Singly and apart from his Relations and Engagements in Society But as those Capacities increase our Sorrows and Labours increase with them The Care of Families and kind Concern for those whom Nature hath made a Part of our selves The Fears and anxious Thoughts for their Safety the Fellow-feeling of their Sufferings The restless Endeavours to help them in their Distresses and the cutting regret we endure when we would assist them but cannot or when they will not suffer us to do them the Good we could And to name no more that Calamity which all of you at this time are very deeply affected with the having those Friends taken from us whom Nature or Kindness or their own Worth have rendred very dear and necessary The tearing as it were our very hearts asunder by cutting off that tenderest part of them whom God and Affection had incorporated and made one with us These are Tryals which we have so quick and piercing a Sense of that it is much less difficult to lament and complain as they deserve than to temper our Resentments and keep them within the Bounds of Duty and Decency and Christian Moderation It were easy to give you a yet more moving Spectacle by opening the Prospect a little wider and urging the Uneasiness we feel from the Distresses of the Needy the Injuries of the Oppressed the Cryes of Helpless Widows and Orphans the Corruptions or the Calamitous Circumstances of the State or the Church whereof we are Members All which affect us more sensibly in proportion as we are better-natured Men that is better Christians But That which is to such the most afflicting Consideration of all is that these things do not only create a present Uneasiness but may likewise if not very carefully managed lay the foundation of Eternal Misery That they are the Temptations and Instruments of Sin such as the Frailty of humane Nature is but too apt alas to be overborn by Such as are often successful even against the most Watchful and Resolute And therefore of all other Labours in this fight of Afflictions the Wise and Good Man esteems those the heaviest which hazard the Salvation of his Soul And no Consideration renders a Deliverance from the Sufferings of Life half so desirable as that mentioned by St. * Rom. vi 7. Paul that He that is dead is freed from Sin These are all of them such Labours as the Condition we now live in naturally exposes every Man to And the very Severest of them such as the Providence of God hath not thought fit to exempt the holiest and best beloved of his Servants from They like their Captain are made perfect through Hardships and Sufferings These are their Spiritual Warfare the Exercises of their Virtue the Proofs of their Patience and Fidelity and constant Love to Him And God is not much concerned to be very exact in the measures of Good and Evil in this Life because this Life is not the Season of final Retribution But he hath appointed another wherein he knows how to make Good Men ample amends for all they do and suffer for him here The Benefits we are to expect at present are the Wisdom and Kindness of his Providence to turn every Affliction to our good the powerful Assistances of his Grace to support us under our Conflicts and the merciful Execution of that Decree which after we have toiled and suffered a while may translate us to a State of Rest and Peace may render that Death which to mere Nature is so gastly and formidable a Blessing and Privilege for such in truth it is in the Eye of Faith and to those who dye in the Lord. For ought not this to be a very Supporting Consideration in the midst of difficulties and troubles that though these hemm us round and thrust sore at us now yet there is a day coming in which we shall make our escape from them all That God will hide us in the Grave and set us on that Shore where we shall full of Security look back upon this tempestuous World and have no part of the Storms that tost us here but only the Remembrance of them left A Remembrance so much more joyful as the Miseries we call to mind were formerly more grievous But especially Is it not a mighty Comfort to think we shall shortly put off this load of Infirmities that we shall be perfectly at quiet from all the disturbance which the lustings of the Flesh against the Spirit and the irreconcilable War in our Members create us every day and hour that God will not only cover our Head in the Battel but take us out of the Field into a sure retreat where the Enemy of Souls cannot hurt us nor Temptation assault us nor corrupt Nature betray us nor pain or affliction or danger overtake us Surely * Job v. 7. Man that is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards hath reason to be pleased with such a Refuge as This Surely That ought to be no small Recommendation of the future State of Good Christians which the Voice from Heaven gives in the xxith of this Book at the 4th verse that God shall wipe away all tears from their Eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away So valuable a Blessing it is merely to rest from their Labours so proper this Argument to reconcile us to Death that it removes us into a place of Ease and Safety But if this make Death tolerable there is something behind which makes it even desirable The prospect of a Deliverance may sustain us under our troubles but