Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	life_n	live_v	way_n	7,847	5	4.9946	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56407	The redeemer's friend, or, A sermon on John II, part of the 11th verse ... preached at the funeral of ... Mr. Samuel Fairclough, who departed this life, December 31, 1691 by Nath. Parkhurst ...	Parkhurst, Nathaniel, 1643-1707.	1692 (1692)	Wing P490; ESTC R479	10,970	32

under the expectation of it Let us raise our Faith and dismiss our Fears believing there is no harm to us in Death It is but the Sleep of a long Night and then comes a Morning the Day breaks and the Shadows flee away and our Beloved leads us to the Mountains of Spices Cant. 8.14 Let us consider Death cannot prejudice us being blest with Christ's Friendship for hereupon Death is ours The Spirit of God by the Apostle's Hand hath put Death it self into the Inventory of our Goods and Blessings 1 Cor. 3.21 22. All things are yours whether Paul or Apollo 1 Cor. 3.21 22. or Cephas or the World or Life or Death And whereas Death parts us from our Friends here that Wound is presently healed by its bringing us to Christ our high and everlasting Friend according to these Scriptures 2 Cor. 5.8 Absent from the Body 2 Cor. 5.8 and present with the Lord. Phil. 1.23 Having a desire to depart Phil. 1.23 and to be with Christ Luk. 23.43 Luke 23.43 To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Death is indeed a Violence upon Nature and at first sight we cannot but decline it as unnatural to our primitive Constitution a Fruit of Sin and a mighty Humiliation and Abasement of one part of us for it carries our Bodies under the Earth and makes them a Prey to the vile Worms and renders them noisom to the Living who convey them thither in their own defence But our Relation to Christ qualifies all this turning the Grave into a Bed and Death into a sweet Repose Thirdly Since Death is thus qualified to the Friends of Christ let us examine whether we are the Friends of our Lord and Saviour Many presume it and are Strangers and Enemies to him in effect and by just Interpretation instead of being in a League of Friendship with him And some fear they are not his Friends who are surely in his Favour And this makes it necessary that we pass an Inquest upon our selves and I shall assist it by answering two Questions Who are not and who are the Friends of Christ Quest 1. Who are not the Friends of Christ And to this I reply in the following Particulars 1. Scorners of Piety and Holiness are none of his Friends They that walk in the Counsel of the Ungodly and sit in the Seat of the Scornful having a rank Enmity against Religion and the Power of Godliness are no Friends of the Redeemer who gave himself for us Titus 2.14 to redeem us from all Iniquity and to purify to himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works Titus 2.14 Scoffers at Holiness holy Persons and holy Things cannot find Favour with him that is holy harmless undefiled and separate from Sinners It is marvellous and astonishing that any Men especially making any Profession of the Christian Faith should sink so deep into Profaneness as to put a Scorn upon religious holy Practises and pious Exercises But Hell and Earth together do breed such Monsters Original Sin blown up by Satan's Arts the Venom of the old Serpent put to the native Depravation of humane Nature produces this prodigious Birth viz. a Scorner of holy Things But such have certainly no Alliance or Friendship with him that taught Holiness and lived it to Perfection Such may be secure through a mighty hardness of Heart and God's giving them up to a blindness of Mind but their Destruction was foretold very early Enoch the seventh from Adam Jude ver 14,15 pophesied of these saying Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints to execute Judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly Deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard Speeches which ungodly Sinners have spoken against him Jude ver 14 15. 2. Such as have only an Out-side of Religion and not that of the hidden Man of the Heart are none of Christ's Friends For all the Churches shall know he searches the Heart and tries the Reins His piercing Eye seeth the Rottenness within the painted Sepulchres and he will unmask all Hypocrites and favours only Israelites indeed and without Guile If Men content themselves only with repeating the Creed and a bare attendance upon Divine Ordinances with the Shadow of Religion instead of inward Mortification and real Godliness they are not accepted with him that knows what is in Man To them that have only shining Lamps of Profession he will say Depart from me ye Workers of Iniquity tho they could prophesy in his Name and in it do wonderful i. e. miraculous Works There is nothing more apparently caution'd against in the Scriptures than this depending upon the external part of Religion with a neglect of the inward substantial things of it Rom. 2.28 Rom. 2.28 He is not a Jew that is one outwardly neither is that Circumcision that is outward in the Flesh And it is equally true he is not a Christian that is one outwardly only nor is that Baptism sufficient that is only upon the Flesh Be not deceived God is not mocked God will render to Men according to their Works 3. They who take any part of Religion for the whole are none of Christ's Friends Some are sober and sober only and some are sober and morally righteous and make a great Figure in a debauch'd Generation but they are not sober and righteous and godly Such partial Christians will not be favoured by the impartial Judg he respects none but them that have a sincere Respect to all his Commands Almost Christians can be but almost happy And they that are not far from the Kingdom of God if they advance no farther in Religion will have their Portion with Hypocrites Secondly The other Question is Who are the Friends of Christ And the Answer is They that sincerely keep his Commands He that hath my Commands John 14.21 and keeps them he it is that loves me and I will love him John 14.21 They also that delight in the Ordinances of his Worship and love his People and Interest and his Appearing saying Come Lord Jesus come quickly who live by the Faith of the Son of God and desire to know nothing comparatively but Christ and him crucified counting all things Loss for the Excellency of the knowledg of Christ And they that imitate him in living a holy Life these and these only are the Redeemer's Friends The rest are as yet his Enemies and will not that he should reign over them And now let us inquire diligently of which Number we are whether Friends or Enemies to Christ It is time to make this Scrutiny Death is coming the pale Messenger is on his way and drawing near The Funerals which we frequently attend are a loud Warning of our approaching Change And if a little Time will launch us into an Eternity 't is Wisdom to obtain the Resolution of this Question speedily whether we are the Friends of Christ or

not And now having discoursed the Observations from the Text and directed the Improvement of them that which remains is to accommodate the Words of the Text more particularly to our solemn Occasion and to our deceased Brother and Friend And 1. Our Friend and our Lord's Friend sleeps or plainly speaking is dead but it is qualified and softned to him and his Friends his Death is but as a Sleep he sleeps in Jesus and will awake again and put on Immortality 2. Our Friend sleeps he was not priviledg'd from dying Neither his Parts nor Graces nor his Knowledg and Learning nor his Usefulness and Endearedness to his Relations and Acquaintance nor yet the Love and Prayers of his Friends could exempt him from the Stroke of Death God had set him his Bounds of being active and patient He hath served his Generation by the Will of God and is fallen asleep 3. Our Friend and a Friend of no ordinary Character sleeps in the Arms of Death and better in the Bosom of Christ A Citizen of no mean City the Heavenly Jerusalem a Man of no common Qualifications eminent in Parts in Learning and in Piety not of the Laodicean Temper nor of the Sardian Complexion but strictly holy and having a Zeal for God and Religion the despighted thing in this crooked Generation great in Wisdom Prudential of much Moderation abounding in Charity a Lover of God and Men full of Faith and of the Holy Ghost full of Alms-deeds filled with great Measures of Grace from the Fulness of Christ one that had a clear Head and a warm Heart who understood and lived the Gospel a Pattern of Goodness a Blessing to his Acquaintance and an Ornament to his Family All this he was in his Life and Health and in his Sickness these things were very considerable in him God made him exemplary in Patience filled him with Peace and rendred him a mighty Pattern of the most eminent and most desirable things under Heaven i. e. a longing for Death not merely to be delivered from an Unease but upon the hope of passing into everlasting Rest and Joy He waited for Death as Sisera's Mother for him Judg. 5.28 saying Why is his Chariot so long incoming Judg. 5.28 Why tarry the Wheels of his Chariots 4. Our Friend sleeps a Friend in no ordinary Station a Minister of the Everlasting Gospel of the Blessed God a Steward of the sacred Mysteries one of Heaven's Heraulds an Ambassador for Christ a careful Shepherd a faithful Watchman a Preacher of Righteousness and in preaching clear judicious fervent driving the blessed Design of promoting both Faith and Godliness and able Minister of the New Testament And in this Province he shined very openly while Laws permitted him and when that Protection failed this Light was unhappily obscured from publick View I say unhappily for it had been alone worth an Act of Comprehension to have included this one so valuable a Man What shall I more say He was worthy God made him so of his Name and Family a Family that hath had an eminent Share of Piety Learning and Ingenuity worthy of the Friendship of all that knew him and knew the Value of Goodness mixed with Parts and Erudition And may there be now an Elisha for the Spirit of this Prophet to rest upon among the Sons of the Prophets Such was our Friend that sleeps whose Faith Holiness and Patience Love and Zeal let us follow that as he did we may live and die in the Lord and may with him living and dying be found among the Friends of Christ our blessed glorious and merciful Redeemer FINIS