Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A44681
|
A funeral sermon on the decease of that worthy gentlewoman Mrs. Margaret Baxter, who died the 28th of June, 1681 by John Howe.
|
Howe, John, 1630-1705.
|
1681
(1681)
|
Wing H3030; ESTC R26809
|
27,363
|
48
|
own Creature and it hath its end and rest in him 5 thly We see the admirable power of Divine Grace that it prevails against even the nature love of this bodily Life Not where discontent and weariness of Life contribute but even where there is a willingness to live too upon a valuable consideration as this Apostle doth elsewhere express himself viz. in the place before noted and how easily the Divine Pleasure could reconcile him to Life notwithstanding what is said in the Text is sufficiently signified in the words immediately following it And the Effect is permanent not a sudden transport wherein many are induced to throw away their Lives upon much lower Motives This appears to be an habitual Inclination At distant times we find the Apostle in the same temper That is not surely from the power of Nature that is so much against it as the stream of Nature now runs i. e. that a Man should be willing to be plucked in pieces and severed from himself And we see Vers. 5. whereto it is expresly ascribed He that hath wrought us to the self-same thing is God 6 thly How black is their Character and how sad their State that are more addicted to the Body and this bodily life than to the Lord and that holy blessed Life we are to partake in with him Their Character is black and horrid as it is divers from that which truly belongs to all the People of God that ever liv'd on Earth and so doth distinguish them from such and place them among another sort of Men that belong not to him such as have their portion in this Life their good things here and who are to expect nothing hereafter but woe and wailing And who would not be affrighted that finds a Mark upon him that severs him from the whole Assembly of the Just and the Blessed Their state is also therefore sad and dismal And in as much as what they place their highest felicity in their abode in the Body they know will continue but a little while Who could ever by their love of this bodily Life procure it to be perpetuated or by their dread of Mortality make themselves Immortal Have not others in all former Ages lov'd the Body and this World as much and what is become of them Hath not Death still swept the Stage from Generation to Generation and taken all away willingly or unwillingly To have all my good bound up in what I cannot keep and to be in a continual dread of what I cannot avoid What can be more disconsolate How grievous will it be to be torn out of the Body not to resign the Soul but have it drawn forth as a rusty Sword out of the Sheath A thing which our utmost willingness will make the more painful but cannot defer No Man hath power over the Spirit to retain the Spirit nor hath he power in death Eccles. 8.8 How uncomfortable when the Lord's Presence the common joy of all good Souls is to me a dread By the same degrees by which an abode in the Body is over-desired is that presence dreaded and disaffected And how deplorate is the case when this Body is the best shelter I have from that Presence Would I lurk in the Body and lie hid from the presence of the Lord How easily and how soon will my Fortress be beaten down and laid in the Dust and I be left naked and exposed and then how fearful things do ensue But what now doth this fearful Case admit of no remedy It can admit but of this only one which therefore I would now recommend and press The serious effectual endeavour of being to a just degree alienated from the Body and of having the undue Love represt and wrought down of this bodily Life Mistake not I go not about to perswade all promiscuously out of hand and without more ado to desire Death or absence from the Body The desires of reasonable Creatures should be reasonable the product of valuable Considerations and rational Inducements The present case of too many the Lord knows admits not they should be willing to die Who are they that they should desire the Day of the Lord a Day of such gloominess and darkness as it is likely should it now dawn to prove to them No but let all endeavour to get into that State and have their Affairs in such a posture that they may be upon good terms reconciled to the Grave and that separation from the Body may be the matter with them of a rational and truly Christian Choice And since as hath been said there are two terms between which the inclination and motion of our Souls in this case must lie from the one to the other viz. the Body and the Lord life in the Body and with the Lord. Let such things be considered on both hands as may justly tend to diminish and lessen our inclination and love to the one and increase it towards the other So as that all things being considered and upon the whole this may be the reasonable and self-justifying result to be well pleased rather to be absent from the Body and to be present with the Lord. And 1. On the part of the Body and this bodily Life consider 1. How costly it is to you you lay out upon it the most do most of your Time Thoughts Cares The greater part most or even all of their Estates All the Callings you can think of in the World and which all help to maintain at no little expence are wholly for the Body What costly Attendants must it have of Cooks Bakers Brewers Mercers Physicians Lawyers and what not One only excepted that refers to the Soul And again when all is done how little serviceable is it when you would employ it sometimes it is sick sometimes lame sometimes lames the mind and intellect too that it cannot do its Office meerly thorough the distemper of bodily Organs is at all times dull sluggish indisposed The Spirit is willing but the Flesh weak Yea moreover how disserviceable hinders your doing good prompts to the doing much evil What a world of mischief is done among Men meerly by bodily Lusts and to serve fleshly Appetite These fill the World with confusion and miseries of all sorts All catch from others what they can for the Service of the Body Hence is competition of Interests and Designs No Man's Portion is enough for him to serve the Body or the mind as it is depraved by bodily Inclinations And so the World is torn by its Inhabitants Countries wasted and laid desolate Religion it self made subservient to fleshly Interest and thence is the occasion of many a bloody Contest of Oppressions Persecutions and Violences whereby many times it so falls out that such as are most vigorously engaged in a design of serving the Body destroy it their own as well as other Mens And which is most dreadful Souls are numerously lost and perish in the Scuffle Yea and very oft
the first Fruits of the Spirit that blessed Spirit of Adoption and groan for the Adoption the season of your being more solemnly own'd for Sons viz. the redemption of the Body Rom. 8.23 Which though it ultimately refer to the Resurrection may be allowed to have an incompleat meaning in reference to Death too For I see not but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may admit such a construction as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 9.15 i. e. that redemption of the Body may mean redemption from it wherein it is burthensome a grievance and penalty here as well as there The redemption of Transgressions doth truly mean liberation from the penalty of them From which penal Evil of and by the Body so materially at least it is we are not perfectly freed as our blessedness is not perfect till Mortality be swallowed up of Life and all the adopted the many Sons be all brought to glory together How happy in the mean time is your case when Death becomes the matter of your rational well-grounded hope You have many Hopes wherein you are liable to disappointment You will then have one sure Hope and that will be worth them all none can prevent you of this Hope Many other things you justly hope for are hindred by ill minded Men of their accomplishment But all the wit and power of your most spiteful Enemies can never hinder you from dying And how are you fenc'd against all the intervening Troubles of Life Nihil metuit qui optat mori You have nothing to fear if you desire to die nothing but what at least Death will shortly put an end to Make this your aim To have Life for the matter of your Patience and Death of your Desire 2 ly On the other part also labour to be upon good terms with the Lord secure it that he be yours Your way to that is short and expedite The same by which we become his Ezek. 16.8 I entred into Covenant with thee and thou becamest mine Solemnly and unfeignedly accept him and surrender your selves Without this who can expect but to hear from him at last Depart from me I know you not Know of your selves demand an account Are you sincerely willing to be his and to take him for yours without limitation or reserves Matters are then agreed between him and you And who can break or disanul the Agreement Who can come between him and you I often think of the high transport wherewith those words are uttered The excellent knowledg of Christ Jesus my Lord Phil. 3.8 This is Christian Religion not in a System but as it is a vital principle and habit in the Soul inclining us making us propense towards our blessed Lord addicting and subduing us to him uniting us with him Whereby we come to know by inward sensations to feel the transfusions of his spiritful Light and Influence and our Souls thereby caught and bound up in the bundle of Life So we have Christ form'd within His Holy Truths Doctrines Precepts Promises inwrought into the temper of our Spirits And as it follows in that Context Phil. 3. to have him according to the States wherein he successively was by correspondent impressions represented in us So as that we come to bear the Image of him crucified and dying first then reviving and rising and afterwards ascending and glorifi'd To know him and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his Death If by any means we might attain unto the Resurrection of the Dead Vers. 10 11. Let us not be at rest till we find it thus in some measure with us If we feel our selves after this manner internally and initially conform'd to him this will be both a Preparative and a Pledg of our future perfect conformity both internal and external It will fit us to be ever with the Lord and assure us we shall and can be no where else That he and we shall not to eternity dwell asunder We shall neither fear to be externally conform'd to him in his Death to quit and lay down the Body as he did nor despair of attaining with him the Resurrection from the Dead and of being present with him in Glory Or that he shall recover for us out of the Dust our vile abject Bodies the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Body of our Humiliation wherein we were humbled as he was in his as it follows in that Phil. 3. vers 21. and make it like his own glorious Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conform and agreeable by that power by which he is able even to subdue all things to himself In the mean time as this present state admits converse much with him every day Be not strangers to him often recognize and renew your Engagements to him Revolve in your Thoughts his Interest in you and yours in him And the nearer relation which there is between him and you than that between you and this Body Recount with your selves the permanency and lastingness of that Relation That whereas this Body as now it is a terrestrial Body will not be yours long He is to be your God for ever and ever That though Death must shortly separate you from this Body Neither Life nor Death Principalities nor Powers things present nor things to come shall ever separate you from the Love of God which is in Christ our Jesus our Lord. While this Body is a Body of Death to you he is your Life your Hope and your exceeding Joy your better more laudable and more excellent Self more intimate to you than you can be to your self as hath been anciently and often said And for the obtaining whose presence absence from the Body is a very small matter A great Prince in an Epistle to that Philosopher tells him I seem to my self not to be a Man as the saying is while I am absent from Iamblichus or while I am not conversant with him That we can better endure our Lord's absence is surely a thing it self not to be endured We should labour our acquaintance with him such as is fit to be between so great a Majesty and such mean Creatures as we should grow daily Yea and endeavour to make the Thoughts more familiar to our selves of spiritual Beings in the general For we are to serve and converse with him in a glorious community of such Creatures An innumerable company of Angels The General Assembly and the Church of the First Born and the Spirits of just Men made perfect Heb. 12.23 In a Region where an earthly Body remaining such can have no place Why do we make the Thoughts of a Spirit out of a Body so strange to our selves We meet with hundreds of Spirits in Bodies and moving Bodies to and fro in the Streets every day and are not startled at it Is a Body so much nearer a-kin to us than a Spirit that we must have so mean a thing to come between to mediate and reconcile us to it