Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	law_n	sin_n	transgression_n	7,400	5	10.9794	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54873	A funeral sermon upon the sad occasion of the death of Mordecai Abbott, Esq. preach'd the 17th of March 1699-1700 by John Piggott.	Piggott, John, d. 1713.; Abbott, Mordecai, d. 1700?	1700 (1700)	Wing P2220A; ESTC R28440	25,005	96

7. of our Bodies return to God that gave 'em and are fix'd in a state of Happiness or Misery Had not the Apostle believ'd this we cannot imagine that he would have esteem'd Death to be gain to him or that he would have been in any strait to determine and fix his choice for present Death or longer Life for the latter would have been much more eligible if he had believ'd that his Soul at death would have been as insensible and unactive as his Body and no doubt but he would rather have desir'd to continue in this World where he had enjoy'd Communion with Christ and often seen him by a steddy eye of Faith than to be hurried out of it by Death and render'd utterly incapable of any enjoyment of his Redeemer till the Resurrection But 't is yet more evident from another Expression of our Apostle that he was very far from the Opinion or rather Dream of the Soul 's sleeping with the Body till the Resurrection His words are these We 2 Cor. 5. 8. are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the Body and to be present with the Lord. q. d. We have good courage and are well arm'd against the fears of Death being well assur'd that we shall have upon our Dissolution an immediate admittance into the Presence of our glorified Lord for the Apostle supposes not only that the Soul is capable of existing while separated from the Body and of exercising her Faculties and Powers in such a state but that so soon as she leaves the Body she shall enter into the presence of Christ and behold his Glory But I pass on and shall briefly represent the force of the Apostle's Arguments against immoderate Sorrow for the dead The first of which is taken from the nature of their Death who die in the Lord 't is describ'd by the soft Character of a Sleep which as you have heard refers only to the Body Now the death of the Righteous may be thus set forth on the following accounts 1. Because the Body is then eased of all its Pains and freed from all Fatigue and Toil to which it was expos'd while animated with the Soul And therefore as Death is compar'd to Sleep so the Grave is compar'd Isa 57. 2. to a Bed where the righteous are said to rest In this Life the best of Men are frequently made uneasy by acute Distempers and corroding Pains and Death is frequently sought for because Life is a burden You that have frequently visited the Chambers of the sick cannot surely have forgotten the sighs of those Prisoners who have groan'd upon Beds of Down as if every part of their Bodies had been violently extended on a Rack It would be endless to reckon up the vast number of Diseases that affect the Children of God in this World for being tainted with original Sin as well as the vilest of the People they may expect the same Distempers and tho they tarry here but a few days they are ordinarily full of trouble and if their Bodies are not often indispos'd yet thro the Malice of Enemies and the Miseries and Unkindnesses of their Friends they are frequently made to bow towards the Grave before they drop into it For indeed the best of our earthly Comforts have their hidden stings but they shall give us no more pain and uneasiness after we are fallen asleep in Job 3. 17 18. Jesus For in the Grave the wicked cease from troubling there the weary be at rest there the Prisoners rest together they hear not the voice of the Oppressor 2. In Sleep no labour is expected from the Body so when Believers are overtaken with a mortal slumber Christ expects no Service from their Bodies While the Soul continues united to the Body we are oblig'd to yield the Members of the one as well as the Faculties of the other Rom. 6. 13. as Instruments of Righteousness unto God but in a state of separation there is expected neither Service nor Suffering from the Body So that while we continue on the Stage of this World the Advice of the wise Man is very proper Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do do Eccles 9. 10. it with thy might for there is no Work nor Device nor Knowledg nor Wisdom in the Grave whither thou goest All our vital and animal Operations shall cease when our Spirits return to God and our Bodies are reduc'd to Dust The one is fix'd in an unalterable state of Happiness or Misery and the other put into an incapacity for Action A middle place betwixt Heaven and Hell for departed Spirits is a groundless Imagination for it could not be said with truth that such as die in the Lord rest from Rev. 14. 13. their Labours if they were to pass into a refining Fire equally tormenting in degree but not in duration with that of Hell as those of the Roman Faction assert Therefore let us rather attend to the words of our Lord and follow Joh. 9. 4. his Example I must work the Works of him that sent me while it is day the night cometh when no Man can work 3. Death to the Righteous is disarm'd of its sting and being alter'd in its nature it may sutably be set forth by the notion of Sleep St. Paul tells us that 1 Cor. 15. 56. the sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law Death receives its destroying Power from Sin and Sin from the Law Sin being a Transgression of the Law which discovers its odious nature and denounces Damnation for it But Death approaches Believers without its sting Christ having yielded an indefective Obedience to the Law and suffer'd the penalty of it in the room and stead of Believers Hence says the Apostle There is therefore now no condemnation Rom. 8. 1. to them which are in Christ Jesus Christ hath redeem'd 'em from the Curse Gal. 3. 13. of the Law being made a Curse for ' em And the Apostle represents Believers as triumphing over Death in such terms as these O Death where is thy Sting O Grave 1 Cor. 15. 55 57. where is thy Victory Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Christ has remov'd the scandal of Death by dying and perfum'd the Grave by lying in it and passing through it 4. The Death of the Righteous is compar'd to a Sleep on the account of what shall follow thereupon for as men do awake after Sleep so they shall revive after Death as we are assur'd by a very remarkable Prophecy Hos 13. 14. and Promise I will ransom them from the Power of the Grave I will redeem them from Death O Death I will be thy Plagues O Grave I will be thy Destruction repentance shall be hid from mine eyes In which words we must consider the Prophet as personating of Christ and uttering the Triumphs of a mighty Conqueror which contain a glorious Promise

speak of the Resurrection of the Body I assert that there shall not only be rais'd the same specifical but the same numerical Body not only the same Body for kind but for substance not that I affirm that every individual Particle that compos'd the Body when it died shall be rais'd up again but so much of the Matter that made up the necessary constituent parts of it Now of what is necessary I think an ingenious Modern gives a very probable account his words are these By necessary Dr. Hody Parts says he I mean those which remain after the utmost degree of Maceration without which the Body would not be integral but imperfect And these are chiefly the Bones the Skin the Nerves the Tendons the Ligaments and the substance of the several Vessels As long as these and all that are necessary to Life remain the Body is truly whole tho never so much macerated But before I go off from this Head I would make a remark upon one Phrase which is within the compass of my Text and I think proves the Identity of the dying and rising Body and that is Death's being set forth by Sleep which would be very improper if the very Bodies that sleep in Jesus and are dead should not be awaken'd and reviv'd in the morning of the Resurrection There is but one thing more I shall stay to mention farther to support this important Article and 't is the instance given by the Apostle of those that shall be alive at Christ's second coming 1 Cor. 15. 51. he tells us they shall not all sleep but they shall all be chang'd Now this Change must refer to the qualities of their Bodies not to the substance of 'em we cannot imagine that by being chang'd he means that the whole substance of their Bodies should be annihilated and that they shall have quite new Bodies form'd out of other matter Moreover let me observe that should those very Bodies be destroy'd and new ones united to those Souls the destruction of the Body and the breach of the union would be Death whereas the Apostle asserts all shall not die So that upon the whole I argue thus That if those Persons that are found alive at Christ's second coming shall retain their old Bodies only with new Qualities then those that are rais'd from the Dead shall have the same Bodies which were formerly join'd to their Souls only with the addition of new Qualities For what reason can any man assign that the Saints that shall be alive when Christ shall come to judg the World should be caught up into the Air with their old Bodies only ennobled and refin'd and those that died should have Bodies intirely new and such as were never united to their Souls before such as never were the Instruments either of sinning or serving of God Now the Apostle do's not barely tell us of the Saints being brought with God our Saviour at his appearing and Kingdom which implys their Resurrection but he shews that their Resurrection depends upon the Death and Resurrection of our Blessed Saviour for says he If we believe that Jesus dy'd and rose again even so them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him Heb. 2. 14. First Upon his death for thrô death Christ hath destroy'd him that had the power of Death that is the Devil When men were doom'd to death for the breach of the Law Christ changed conditions with 'em and offer'd up his precious 1 Pet. 1. 19. Blood as a Ransom to God for 'em so that our Saviour was victorious in dying and conquer'd as he expir'd on the infamous Tree He bruis'd the head of the old Serpent and silenc'd the Anathema's of a broken Law when in the sharpest Agony and amidst a thousand torments he bowed his head and gave up the Ghost I confess that his own Exaltation and Triumphs began with his Resurrection but if there had not been an infinite satisfying Merit in his Death he had been so fast fetter'd with the bonds of Death that he could never have burst 'em but having offer'd a Sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour to God which was of infinite worth and consideration the pains of death Acts 2. 24. were loos'd for 't was impossible he should be held by 'em naturally impossible because of his irresistible Power as God legally impossible because he had paid the full Demands of the Law and Justice Secondly Our Resurrection from the Grave depends on the Resurrection of Christ Christ's Resurrection from the dead proves that ours is not only possible but infallibly certain And this St. Paul reasons upon in a very convincing manner Now if 1 Cor. 15. 12. Christ be preach'd that he rose from the dead how say some among you that there is no Resurrection of the dead q. d. How can any deny either the possibility or certainty of the Resurrection of the Body since Christ has evidenced both by his own Resurrection from the Dead Christ has remov'd both the moral and natural impossibility of our revival after death the one by his abundant Merit and the other by his own triumphant Resurrection for having taken away the guilt of our Sins which is the cause of Death Death which is the consequent of Sin shall be destroy'd and swallow'd up in victory And our Lord declares That he is the Resurrection and the Joh. 11. 25. Life he that believeth in me says he tho he were dead yet shall he live q. d. I am and shall be the principal cause of the Resurrection my voice shall break the silence of the Grave and cause those that sleep in the dust to awake and live again He is also said to be the first fruits of them that sleep 1 Cor 15 20 ●● 22. And says the same Apostle For since by man came death by man came also the Resurrection of the dead For as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive From all which we may collect that our Saviour's Resurrection is the Pledg and Assurance of ours Rom. 8. 11. For if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that rais'd up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you In a word Christ rose from the dead as a publick Person as the Surety and Head of his Church and because he lives we shall live also And being called the first-born among the dead he owns all that have dy'd in the Faith as his Brethren who shall be restor'd to Life according to his excellent Pattern for his Resurrection is not only the Pledg but the Model of ours Therefore we are expresly told That he shall change Phil. 3. 21. our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious Body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself How glorious our Lord is in his