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	sin_n	true_a	9,048	5	4.9749	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45802	A sermon preached at the funeral of the Reverend John Scott, D.D., late rector of S. Giles in the Fields, March 15, 1694/5 by Z. Isham ...	Isham, Z. (Zacheus), 1651-1705.	1695 (1695)	Wing I1068; ESTC R15920	13,714	32

what we know of it we are not to diminish our concern for it because it flatters not our Sensuality is a pure and invisible Possession and we are to follow our Saviour's Judgment comparing it to treasure hid in a field for which a wise Purchaser will sell all that he hath and to a Pearl of great price Mat. 13.44 45. and 16.26 which a Merchant finding expos'd to Sale he went and sold all that he had and bought it and assuring us that if a man could gain the whole world by losing his own soul he would make a very foolish Bargain 'T is possible I confess for Men that are wholly taken up with the Distractions and Enjoyments of this present World to have a speculative Regard for those Felicities which are promis'd to us hereafter and in their lucid Intervals to think them more valuable than those weak and empty satisfactions which they are so eager in pursuing But still whatever the Judgment may be of cool Reason the Opinions of Men are to be weigh'd by their Actions and if sensual objects carry the Soul after them and are labour'd after with the warmest prosecutions 't is plain enough they are nearest to the heart and preferr'd before the spiritual Joys of the life to come IV. Secondly the having our Conversation in Heaven implies the seeking for it earnestly and the inflaming of our desires and affections towards it for what we love and set a value upon we are naturally willing to enjoy and 't is impossible that any man should have a true Notion of Heaven and not wish to be possess'd of it hereafter Only here lies the misery of deluded Sinners that they would have it consistent with their Lusts and Pleasures and attainable upon such terms as God cannot allow But when Christ hath commanded us to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness Mat. 6.33.20.21 with preference to all other things and to lay up our treasure in Heaven that our heart may likewise be there We are not to think of Heaven as we would of a beautiful and magnificent City where we have no business and to which we never intend to go but we are to look upon it as the place to which we are Travelling and where God hath provided for us the best Patrimony and hereupon to anticipate the possession of it by our fervent wishes and to be affected as the Psalmist was My soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God Psal 42.2 He that hath a rich Vessel coming home from the Indies will be frequently grasping it in his mind and hearkning continually after the tidings of it and full of solicitude till it safely arrives in the Harbour and so the devout Soul that hath a lively Sense of the Glories of another Life is ever looking towards them and longing for an admission to them and lifting up her Head with joyful expectation because her Redemption draweth nigh Supposing we sincerely believe the Resurrection of the Body and the Life Everlasting it follows in a natural Course that we should be very desirous of attaining to this Immortality and have strong Inclinations to dwell in the Habitations of Eternity or else the Will doth not go after the Judgment with such ardency and sedulity as it doth in secular pursuits and 't is a vain Profession that we make I look for the Resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come V. Thirdly The having our Conversation in Heaven imports the living answerably to our hopes of Futurity for otherwise they will be miserably disappointed and without holyness no man shall see the Lord. Heb. 12.14 And this is not only the condition immutably fix'd but is also necessary to dispose us for the relish of those pure and spiritual Pleasures which can be no Paradise to an unclean Soul and if we could imagine the rich Glutton with all his vicious Appetites translated into the Portion of Lazarus even the bosom of the Patriarch would have been to him a place of Torment God hath been unspeakably Merciful in preparing an eternal Reward for us upon such easie and just Conditions as he hath enabled us to perform and in sending his Son to be our Guide and our Sacrifice but 't is absurd to presume that we are bound to do nothing for this mighty recompence that we shall be wafted to bliss while we lie sleeping in the Bark that we may goe with unclean hands and polluted hearts into the dwellings of purity and that the blood of the everlasting Mediatour was shed for lazy and impenitent sinners that trample upon his Cross There is no Man so very brutal but that he wisheth with himself he might be happy after death and if he hath not quite extinguish'd the Sparks of Natural Religion and hath any glimpse of the immortality to come he desires to be made partaker of it but how many are in Hell that during their abode here were hoping foolishly they might get to Heaven at last And what can it avail to wish faintly and slothfully for blessedness without striving to obtain it in the way which God hath appointed It was the good and faithful servant that improv'd the Talents committed to him and not the unprofitable Loiterer who enter'd into the joy of his Lord. Matth. xxv 21 There is no mocking of God and without serving him sincerely there can neither be any comfort after death nor dying with peace and satisfaction Who can express the darkness and horrors of a death-bed when men have liv'd dissolutely and profanely and their Old Vices are got together to haunt them like Spectres and Conscience is awakened to Accuse and Condemn them and the world deserting them nothing remains but the guilt of their sins to pursue them immediately to the Bar of Justice But no Consolations are equal to those resulting from a life religiously spent and the true Christian under the bitterest agonies of death hath a God to Converse with and a Saviour before his Eyes and an Eternity of Joy ready to receive him and he can say with assurance Psal lxxiii 25 26. Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee my flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever VI. I come now in the second place to evince the reasonableness of having our Conversation in Heaven and that I may not trespass in staying upon such an undeniable Truth I shall only mention these three Considerations First That our Christian Profession engageth us to this Holy temper and by our Baptism we are born as it were into another World and made the Citizens of Heaven and consequently are oblig'd to the behaviour of such and he that honestly follows a Crucify'd Master and renounceth the allurements of this World must be suppos'd to have a prospect of the other Co● 〈…〉 where

and diseases nor troubled with daily repairs and with providing against the ruins of Mortality Luk xx 35 36 for they that shall be counted worthy to obtain the Resurrection of the dead cannot die any more as being equal to the Angels and the Children of God Again The body is sown in dishonour and raised in glory that is a brightness and lustre and Majesty will over spread those Bodies which are here of a despicable and mean aspect especially when they are committed to the ground with the pale and frightful Visage of Death which turns the fairest Countenance into a spectacle of blackness and horrour but in the Resurrection a fresh and unperishing Beauty shall dwell upon the exalted Body Mat. xiii 43. and then shall the righteous shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father they shall be surrounded with beams of perpetual Light resting upon them and such a Resulgency there was in the face of Moses when he came down from conversing with God in the Mount and in the Transfiguration of Christ when his face did shine as the Sun and his raiment was white as the light Matt. xvii 2. Again The body is sown in weakness and raised in power that is those Indispositions and Infirmities which beset the Flesh in our present Estate and make it a dull and sluggish and cumbersom lump shall then be removed and there shall be no clogs and fetters of the Soul to obstruct her operations Here we are too sensible how backward the Flesh is to obey the Spirit and even in our approaches to God we find a heaviness and deadness upon us from the reluctancy of it and we are soon tir'd even by the best performances but the glorify'd Body will be an equal Companion to the Soul and nimbly execute whatever is fitting for it and fly with the wings of an Angel upon any superiour call and joyn with unwearied delight in the never ceasing work of the Saints and in the adorations of God Lastly the body which is sown is natural that is invested with such Faculties and Appetites and Inclinations as are peculiarly fitted to this lower World but it is raised a spiritual body that is adorn'd with celestial Qualities and accommodated to that Divine Employment which is to entertain us everlastingly in the next Life Here the unruly headstrong Body is very difficult to be manag'd but when it shall be Spiritualiz'd and purified and adapted to the Joys of Heaven it will be at perfect amity with the Soul and tun'd for ever to the Hallelujahs of the Spirits above IX This is that blessedness which is to inspire us with vigour in all the exercises of a Christian Life and to prepare us with alacrity for a Christian Death but lest it should be objected that this is not an adequate encouragement in our fears and losses and calamities for if we must wait for happiness till the second coming of our Lord and the reassumption of our Bodies what is there to rebate the apprehensions of death why should we not be unwilling to quit our present satisfactions for those which are not to come till after a long and uncertain period and what ground is there of thanks to God for the departure of our friends for the preventing of such objections I shall subjoin this Consideration to what hath been said That Righteous Souls depart from hence into a State of Felicity We cannot trace the motions of the naked Soul nor see the Angels that conduct it but an intelligent and immortal Substance wherever it is must undoubtedly have a suitable Habitation and live and think and contemplate and probably with more freedom and vivacity than in these Cottages of Clay But to suppose it in a slumbering and unactive Estate and much more to suspect the vanishing of it is to degrade our selves below the conceptions of the Heathen World and to resist the natural Impressions of Conscience Natura ipsa de immortalitate animorum tacita judicat Cicero saith the Roman Orator Wherefore we justly believe that the Spirits of Righteous Men are in some active and joyful Repose sensible of their present bliss and expecting fuller degrees of it they know themselves to be deliver'd from the troubles and sorrows of mortality from the tossings of the World and the entanglements of Sin they enjoy God with more familiarity than they could here in the most exalted raptures of Devotion and looking beyond the circle of time they behold a brighter Eternity moving towards them and a triumph of Glory preparing for them and then how can we doubt of their having a present Reward how can we attend upon them and not congratulate their Joy What Communication they have with us God hath been pleased to hide from us and probably to prevent our Addresses to them but we may presume their Love towards us is equally enlarg'd with the rest of their Graces and possibly they * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orig. de Orat. §. 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. Ex. ad Mart. p. 192. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil Hom. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Nyss Orat. in XL Mart. Speramus quòd liberis suis apud Christum praeful a●●stat Ambros de obit Theodos Pro te Dominum rogat mihique veniam impetrat peccatorum Hieron Ep. 25. intercede for us though not in a sacerdotal way as Christ alone can doe yet in the way of Charity as Members of the same Body with us We acknowledge to God in our Publick Prayers that the spirits of just men made perfect do live with him after they are deliver'd from their earthly prisons and the souls of them that sleep in the Lord Jesus are receiv'd into the heavenly habitations and enjoy perpetual felicity and if Lazarus was carried to Abraham 's bosom Luk. xvi 22. if the penitent Thief went from the Cross with our Saviour into Paradise Luk. xxiii 43. Act. vii 59. if S. Stephen had reason to pray Phil. i. 23. Lord Jesus receive my spirit if the Apostle was willing to depart that he might immediately be with Christ and if the souls of the Martyrs are under the heavenly Altar Rev. vi 9 10 11. clothed in white robes and Communicating with God then we may be confident of the delightful rest of * Confecto itinere virtutis ac fidei ad complexum osculum Domini venerunt Cyprian Ep. 37. edit Oxon. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. 1. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil Ep. 188. Fruitur nunc Theodosius luce perpetuâ tranquillitate diuturnâ munerationis divinae fructibus gratulatur Ambros de obit Theod. Testor Jesum quem Blaesilla nunc sequitur testor sanctos angelos quorum consortio fruitur Hieron Ep. 25. Saints departed and follow them with acclamations to the seat of blessedness X. This is the proper Consolation for us upon parting with that excellent Man in whose place I now stand who