Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A28314
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A sermon preach'd before the Queen at White-hall, August 23, 1691 by Jonathan Blagrave ...
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Blagrave, Jonathan, 1652-1698.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing B3111; ESTC R6778
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10,432
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34
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from them For to such many times may be apply'd the Words we read in the Third of Job Wherefore is Light given to him that is in Misery and Life to the bitter in Soul which long for Death but it comes not and dig for it more than for hid Treasures To such Persons then Death is rather a Relief than a Prejudice And is it not so indeed to all Men For there is no Man living but has more pain and Travel than he has Pleasure in this World For all Mankind fell under that Curse That in the Sweat of their Brows they should eat their Bread And that this Earth should bring forth Briers and Thorns to them instead of pleasant Fruit. No Man is exempt from this Not the Rich and Noble any more than the Poor and despised Nay Great Men have more Solicitude and must take more Care and Pains to Maintain themselves with Honour and Safety in the Station wherein God hath plac'd them and to answer those Ends which both God and Man expect from them than the Labouring Man doth to get his Bread In a word No Man whatsoever can do what is necessary for him and what is his Duty to do and without the doing of which he can have neither Credit or Comfort in his Life but it will cost him the Sweat of his Brows much Care and Pains and every Man's Business will yield him the Thorns and Briers of Perplexity So that nothing can be truer than the words we read in the Fifth of Job That Man is born to Labour and Trouble as naturally as the Sparks fly upward Considering therefore the true State and Condition of Man in this World Death in it self is so far from being an Evil that it is an Ease a Relief a Refreshment It is like a Soft Bed after a Hard Day 's Labour like a safe and quiet Harbour after a Stormy and turbulent Voyage It lays us gently down in our Mother's Soft Lap to Peace and Rest out of the Reach of all the Malice of our Enemies who have no more that they can do to us out of the Power of any more Misfortunes O Happy Death How desirable wert thou How far from being Terrible if there were nothing to be fear'd afterwards But after Death there is an account to be given of our Lives God will have an account from his Creatures of the keeping or the breaking of his Laws And it is most fit he should His Wisdom Justice and Goodness might all be call'd in question if he did not reward every Man according to his Works in another Life Since this cannot be conveniently done here without destroying the present Frame of things where the Goats cannot be separated from the Sheep nor the Tares from the Wheat This day of Reckoning every Man's Conscience bids him expect And this I am perswaded tho' it be not sometimes perceiv'd is Death's most bitter Sting the true Cause of its being so very Terrible to Men. If we go out of this World without repenting of our Sins the Wrath of God remains to be our Portion and the Effects of that are truly Fearful which is the Second Point Therefore saith our Saviour But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into Hell Yea I say unto you Fear him He that was infinitely Wise that knew all things and knew what would come to pass he forewarns us and he that was mightily concern'd for our Salvation he beseecheth us as his Friends and likewise enjoyns us with all his Authority as our Master to fear God There must then be some high Reason for this Fear and so there is For the Danger is great and unexpressible that he would have us be afraid of and by our Fear fly from and escape If you fear a Temporal Death God's Wrath can and will kill and take away the Natural Life but this is little as I have shewn you it is nothing in comparison of the other Effect of God's Wrath After he hath killed he will cast into Hell This is that which should fill us with Terror as Job says Job 31.23 Destruction from God that is this Mighty Destruction was a Terror to me And that kept him from Sin A Temporal Death cuts us off from the few empty uncertain and at the best but short Enjoyments of this World but Eternal Death that is Damnation cuts us off from those unexpressible Joys which would fill our Souls and would last to all Eternity and more than that condemns us to Regions of Darkness and Torments for ever This is a most Dreadful Condition The Scripture sets it forth by things that are most Terrible to us such as are Raging Fire Extream Darkness Perpetual Gnawing and the like But what words can express Nay what Heart can conceive what Dreadful Misery an Infinite God is able to bring upon his Enemies such as have contemn'd both his Justice and his Mercy that have frustrated scorn'd and derided all that he could do for their Salvation Hear how the Wise Man sets this forth in the first of the Proverbs beginning at the 24. Verse where he brings in the Wisdom of God thus speaking Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no Man regarded But ye have set at naught all my Counsel and would none of my Reproof I also will laugh at your Calamity I will mock when your fear cometh When your fear cometh as Desolation and your Destruction cometh as a Whirlwind when Distress and Anguish cometh upon you Here is a Danger worthy our Thoughts our highest Concern our greatest Fear for this is the last Degree of Misery into which Man can fall and hath not that Relief which all Temporal Miseries have when they come to Extremity that then they are soon over No this will last and increase to all Eternity The sad Remembrance of what we have endur'd and the Dreadful Prospect of what we are still to endure and that without Remedy shall unspeakably increase the Torment What wou'd not a Man do to escape this What can tempt us to run the Dreadful Hazard of it What is there in Sin thus to prevail with us Alas We are presently weary of sinful Enjoyments our selves Why should we provoke the fearful Wrath of God for them Why should we sell our Souls part with all the Joys of Heaven endure an Eternity of such Dreadful Torments as are in Hell for such empty vain momentary Pleasures such meer Dreams and Shadows of Delight such mixture of Pain with Pleasure Do not they deserve Hell whom Hell it self cannot wean from such Folly and Madness Let us be asham'd that we are so Stupid so insensible both of our Interest and Danger Would you not think him Mad that should follow a Butter-fly upon the Brink of a Precipice Let us open our Eyes and see our Danger Let the Terrors of God be upon us Let them make us quick
his Mind or in his Opinion Happy What hurt then I pray does Death do us in taking us out of a Condition in which no Man was ever satisfied or thought himself Happy But if by chance such a Man should be found that affects to be Singular to maintain Paradoxes and will say That his past Life has been altogether to his Mind That he should be very glad to live the same over again and that therefore Death must needs be very Evil because it cuts him off from so desirable a Good We must refute such a Man by shewing the Nature of these Enjoyments and what kind of Possession a Man can have of them And the Enjoyments that are peculiar to this Life for as for Intellectual Pleasures which arise either from the Contemplation of God's Works or the Study of the Arts and Sciences or the constant Practice of Vertue which is the greatest Pleasure a Rational Creature can have these Pleasures will be had in much greater Perfection in another Life I say the Enjoyments that are peculiar to this Life and from which we are cut off by Death are either of Worldly Honours Riches or Sensual Pleasures for so St. John reduces them to these Heads All that is in the Worlds saith he is the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye and the Pride of Life These things indeed are peculiar to this Life and Death will for ever take them from us after we have taken the greatest pains to compass them Now a Man must have a very mean and narrow Mind that can think That the Happiness of a Rational Creature can consist in the Enjoyment of any of these things The vilest Beast or most inconsiderable Infect were then capable of almost as much Happiness as the best or wisest Man But supposing a Man by long accustoming himself to Sensuality hath brought himself to such low and Brutish Thoughts by drinking deep of such entoxicating Cups of sensual Pleasure is become with Vlysses's Companions little other than a Swine yet if he hath the least Spark of Reasoning left in him if he can see but the length of one Consequence he cannot but see that these Pleasures how Satisfactory soever they are to him are not durable that they must be short at the best and that a thousand Accidents may snatch them from him every Moment Now the more a Man values and is in love with these Enjoyments the more this Thought must vex and torment him That he must part with them and he knows not how soon To a Man that is indifferent this is nothing But to him that has set his Affections on these things this is Gall and Wormwood it embitters and spoils all his Enjoyment For whatever the Epicureans may pretend A Death's Head is but ill Company at an Intemperate Feast And the great pains they take the unnatural force they put upon things to reconcile the thoughts of Death with their sensual Pleasures plainly shews that this does still trouble them it lyes at the bottom like a bitter dreg and spoils all their sweet Morsels and pleasant Draughts For when the witty Atheist says Let us eat drink and be Merry for to morrow we shall dye This is but a Copy of his Countenance this thought Galls him at the Heart at the same time that he pretends therewith to encourage his Mirth and he would say with much more Alacrity Let us fill our selves for to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant This comes heartily from him The other is but a cold Pretence The great Uncertainty then of holding these things and the certain Knowledge that they must in a little while for ever part with them cannot but lessen if not utterly Marr the Enjoyment even with those that are most fond of them So that Death takes little even from the sensual Man but what the Fear of Death had almost depriv'd him of before For even in the midst of Laughter this Thought always made his Heart Sad That he must dye and leave all But now to a Man of a large and wise Mind these low Pleasures are of little or no value He looks far beyond them and is even quite weary with being so long clogg'd and darken'd in this Case of Flesh with being confin'd to this Earth to creep like a Worm upon it and to be kept continually to the same dull Round of things which he goes through almost in the same manner every day of his Life This is so Tiresome to the active searching Nature of our Spirit that it cannot endure it and therefore the Ancients had a Fable of a Man that might have been Immortal if he would but he was so sated with the same thing over and over again in Life that he chose rather to die that he might have the Satisfaction of seeing another Scene of things And the Noble Heaven-born Mind of him that hath not debas'd and plung'd it in the Mire of Sensuality must needs be desirous of making greater Discoveries than are to be had here below He must long to see and know those Glorious Orbs of which he now knows nothing or what is next to nothing and yet mightily admires at a distance to range through the mighty Space of the Universe and to have his Mind continually entertain'd and feasted with clear and certain Knowledge of the wonderful Operations of his Maker to have his Mind always more and more inform'd and enlighten'd with the most pleasing and satisfactory Knowledge of God his Glorious Attributes and wonderful Works and yet never to want new Matter of Information To a Man whose Mind is rais'd to these Noble Desires Death is so far from being an Evil that it is the most desirable Good It is like the opening of the Eyes to a Man that was Born Blind like the Unpinioning or Unshackling of a Prisoner and letting him out of a strait dark and foul Dungeon into the free and unrestrain'd Enjoyment of all that he can wish or desire So that neither to the Fool who dotes on these things nor yet to the wise Man who knows how to put a right Value upon every thing are the Enjoyments of this World any great Matter tho' they have them in their Possession or within their Power so that Death doth not much hurt them in taking them away But what then are these Enjoyments to those we term Unhappy in the World who certainly make no small Part of it such as are the Blind the Lame the Maimed the Diseased the Poor and Needy or those that meet with great Crosses or Disappointments and are not able to bear them or such as have always their Desires running far before their Fortunes such as are ever displeas'd and dissatisfied and out of Humour with their Condition whatever it be These Men taste but little of the Enjoyment of the World or at least have but little Relish of them and Death can do such Men little Hurt by taking them away