Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	sin_n	soul_n	world_n	9,573	5	4.8199	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39658	The balm of the covenant applied to the bleeding wounds of afflicted saints First composed for the relief of a pious and worthy family, mourning over the deaths of their hopeful children; and now made publick for the support of all Christians, sorrowing on the same or any other account. To which is added, A sermon preached for the funeral of that excellent and religious gentleman John Upton of Lupton esq; by John Flavell, preacher of the gospel at Dartmouth in Devon.	Flavel, John, 1630?-1691.	1688 (1688)	Wing F1157; ESTC R222662	58,144	192

they were deprived of those comforts other men have in their Posterity yet he would not have them look upon themselves as dry Trees a Covenant-interest would answer all and recompence abundantly the want of Children or any other earthly comfort Certainly therefore David was at the right door of relief and comfort when he repairs to the Covenant as here in the Text Yet hath he made with me an everlasting Covenant There or nowhere the Relief of Gods Afflicted is to be found Now to make any thing become a compleat any perfect relief to an afflicted Spirit these three Properties must concur and meet in it else it can never effectually relieve any man. I. It must be able to remove all the causes and grounds of troubles II. It must be able to do so at all times III. It must be capable of a good personal security to us For if it only divert our troubles as Creature-comforts use to do and do not remove the ground and cause of our trouble 't is but an Anodine not a Cure or Remedy And if it can remove the very ground and cause of our trouble for a time but not for ever then 't is but a temporary relief our troubles may return again and we left in as bad case as we were before And if it be in it self able to remove all the causes and grounds of our trouble and that at all times but not capable of a personal security to us or our well-established interest in it all signifies nothing to our relief But open your eyes and behold O ye afflicted Saints all these Properties of a compleat relief meeting together in the Covenant as it is display'd in the Text. Here is a Covenant able to remove all the grounds and causes of your trouble for it is ORDER'D i● all things or aptly disposed by the wisdom and contrivance of God to answer every cause and ground of trouble and sorrow in our hearts It is able to do this at all times as well in our day as in David's or Abraham's day for it is an Everlasting Covenant its vertue and efficacy is not decay'd by time And lastly it is capable of a good personal security or assurance to all Gods afflicted people for it is a Sure Covenant The concurrence of these three Properties in the Covenant makes it a complea● Relief a perfect Remedy to which nothing is wanting in the kind and nature of a Remedy These three glorious Properties of the Covenant are my proper Province to open and confirm for your support and comfort in this Day of Trouble I. That the Covenant of Grace is able to remove all the causes and grounds of a Believers trouble be they never so great or many This I doubt not will be convinceingly evidenced and demonstrated by the following Arguments or undeniable Reasons Argument I. Whatsoever disarms Afflictions of the only sting whereby they wound us must needs be a compleat Relief and Remedy to the afflicted Soul. But so doth the Covenant of Grace it disarms Afflictions of the only sting by which they wound us Therefore the Covenant of Grace must needs be a compleat Relief and Remedy to the afflicted Soul. The sting of all Afflictions is the guilt of sin when God smites Conscience usually smites too and this is it that causes all that pain and anguish in the afflicted 'T is plainly so in the Example of the Widow of Zarephath when her son her only son and probably her only child died how did that stroke of God revive guilt in her Conscience and made the affliction piercing and intolerable as appears by her passionate Expostulation with Elijah who then sojourned in her house What have I to do with thee O thou man of God art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance and to slay my son Q. d. What injury have I done thee Didst thou come hither to observe my sins and pray down this Judgment upon my Child for them The death of her son revived her guilt and so it generally doth even in the most holy men When Iob looked upon his wasted body under Afflictions every wrinkle he saw upon it seemed to him like a witness rising up to testifie against him Thou hast filled me with wrinkles which is a witness against me and my leaness rising up in me beareth witness to my face Affliction is like a Hue and Cry after sin in the ears of Conscience and this is the envenom'd poysonous sting and Affliction pluck out this and the afflicted man is presently eased though the matter of the affliction still abide with him and lie upon him He is afflicted still but not cast down by affliction the anguish and burden is gone though the matter of trouble remain This is plain both in Scripture and in Experience Suitable hereunto is that strange but sweet Expression The inhabitant shall not say I am sick the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquities It 's not to be imagined these people had found such a fortunate Island o● happy Climate where no Disease could touch or invade their Bodies no sickness will find o● the Bodies of the best men where ever they live wherever sin ha●● been sickness and death will fo●●low it Heaven is the only pr●●viledg'd place from these miseries but the meaning is though the● be sick they shall not feel th● pains and burdens of sickness they shall not say they are sick An● why so because their iniquitie● are forgiven Plainly confirmin● what was before asserted that the anguish of an Affliction is gone as soon as ever the sting of guil● is plucked out And hence par●doning of the Soul and healing o● the Body are put together as co●●jugate mercies Bless the Lord O my soul who forgiveth all thine iniquities and healeth all thy diseases When the soul is at ease the pains of the body are next to nothing sick●ness can cloud all natural joys but not the joy of a Pardon Nay which is yet more pluck out but the sting of sin and there is no horrour in Death the King of Terrours and worst of all outward Evils See how the pardoned Believer triumphs over it O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory the sting of death is sin They are words of defiance as men use to deride and scorn a boasting insulting Enemy when they see him cast upon his back and his sword broken over his head Heus uhi nunc fastus altaque verba jacent Where are your boasts and menaces now O Death thou hast lost thy sting and terrour together Thus the pardoned Believer with an holy gallantry of spirit derides and contemns his disarmed Enemy Death so then 't is manifest that whatever plucks out the poysonous sting of Affliction must needs be an effectual Remedy and Cure to the afflicted person But this the Covenant of Grace doth it reveals and applies Gospel-remission to them that are

speak of outward Afflictions certainly others would be glad to exchange conditions with us and account themselves happy in our circumstances Consider the description given of those persons Iob 30.3 4 5. and how little they differ in the manner of life from bruit Beasts and if we speak of inward troubles compare your own with those of Heman and Asaph in Psal. 77. and Psal. 88. and if of both together and that in an intense degree consider Iob 6.4 and you will soon find your condition full of sparing Mercy these excellent persons that were so much above you in Grace were yet plunged so much deeper than you into Affliction And is it not then vile ingratitude in you thus to mutiny and charge your God foolishly 3 But especially here lies our ingratitude in quarrelling and censuring those Providences whose very end and errand is our eternal good Heb. 12.10 But be for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness 7. 'T is a sin that deprives us of the fruits and benefits of our Afflictions a tumultuous raging Spirit reaps no good by the Rod. The fruits of Affliction are called the peaceable fruits Heb. 12.11 because they are always gathered and reaped down by the afflicted soul in a quiet and peaceful temper Anima sedendo quiescendo fit sapiens Blossoms and Flowers open not in the boysterous storms of Winter but in the mild and gentle Spring Well then be convinced of the sin and danger of a discontented Spirit under the hand of God and instead of mourning over lost Relations now mourn for the loss of Patience the want of Submission and for the pride and arrogancy of your own Reason that presumes to correct the works of the Almighty and say to God as Ioseph did to his Father when he wittingly crossed his hands in blessing Ephraim and Manassah Not so my Father This is not fit Query 3. But how may these Evils be prevented or cured and the tempestuous soul calmed under the the Rod How shall all strifes betwixt God and his People be ended and the soul made quiet at his feet Reply This blessed frame of Spirit may in a great degree and measure be attained in the use of the following Directions I say ●n their use and application not by the prescription or simple knowledge of them And Rule 1. The first Rule or Direction is this Study well the glorious soveraignty of God over you and aw your hearts with the consideration of it From his meer pleasure you and all that is yours proceeded on his pleasure you depend and into that good pleasure of his will your wills therefore ought to be resolved Whatever the Lord pleased that he did in heaven and in earth in the sea and in all deep places Psal. 135.6 Man and man stand on equal ground and if our Reason be not satisfied about the equity of mens dealings with us we may ask who did it and demand the reasons why he did it but when we have to do with God we mus● not dispute his pleasure Let the Potsherd strive with the Potsherd of the Earth but let not the Clay dispute with the Potter Now the Soveraignty of God is gloriously display'd in his Decrees Laws and Providences 1. In his Decrees appointing the Creatures to their ends whether to be Vessels of Mercy or of Wrath Rom. 9.18 19 20. In this case there must be no disputing with God. 2. In his Laws appointing the work and duty of the Creature as also the Rewards and Punishments Jam. 4.12 There is one Law-giver that is able to save and to destroy In this case his Soveraignty immediately and indispensably binds the Conscience of man and no humane Authority can dissolve that Obligation Nor must we snuff at the severest command 3. The glorious Soveraignty of God is display'd in his providential administrations appointing every man to that station and condition he is in in this world whether it be high or low prosperous or afflicted Psal. 75.6 I said to the fools Deal not foolishly c. for promotion cometh not from the east or the west but God is Iudge he putteth down one and setteth up another Let not them that are at the top of the world be lifted up nor those that are at the bottom be dejected for God cast every mans lot and changeth their condition at his pleasure a word of his mouth plucks down the lofty and exalts the lowly he woundeth and his hands make whole Hence it becomes the afflicted to be still and know that he is God Psal. 46.10 to put his mouth in the dust and quietly to wait for his salvation All our fretting and struggling cannot shake off the Yoak which he hath put upon us but a weak and quiet submission to his will and compliance with his designs is the best expedient to procure our freedom There is not one circumstance of trouble befals you without his order nor can you expect deliverance but by order from him Rule 2. Study the transcendant evil of sin and what the demerit of the least sin that ever you committed is This will becalm your tempestuous Spirits and at once work them into Contentation with your present state and Admiration that it is no worse Lam. 3.22.39 40. Consider thou querulous and discontented Soul that the wages of sin is death Rom. 6. ult that tribulation anguish and wrath are due by Law to every soul of man that doth evil that so often as we have sinned so often have we deserved Hell and shall we then charge God with severity for scourging us with the Rods of gentle fatherly chastizements Is this Hell Dare you say the severest affliction that ever was upon you is above the demerit of your sin 'T is true indeed the Lord tells Ierusalem that she had received of his hands double for all her sins Isai. 40.2 But that is not the language of strict Justice but of Compassions rolled together There is not a gracious soul in all the world but will readily subscribe Ezra's Confession that God hath afflicted it less than its iniquities deserve Ezra 9.13 Oh if once we measure our afflictions by our sins we shall admire they are so few so mild and gentle as they are Rule 3. Consider what a difference there is betwixt the Saints meeting with afflictions and their parting with them You meet them with trembling and astonishment but you shall part with them with praise and thanksgiving blessing God for the manifold blessings they have instrumentally conveyed to your souls It is good for me saith David that I have been afflicted By these things sin is prevented discovered and mortified the ensnaring World imbittered and the Rest to come sweetned Many other excellent Rules may be added try these and the blessing of the Spirit accompany them To conclude be not swallowed up of sorrows for what you have lost but balance all the troubles of this life with the hopes of the next Your dear Children are gone your sweet Husband is gone but consider who took them and whither It is said of Enoch Gen. 5.24 He walked with God and was not for God took him Mr. Upton is not and yet he is He is not with men he is with God He ceases not to be though he cease to breathe He is taken away but God took him He is better where he is than where he was Though he be not in your Bosom he is in Christ's Imitate his Zeal Plain-heartedness diligence in Duties and you shall shortly meet him again and never part any more For this we say by the word of the Lord that we which are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout and with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words Did you but know the deep Emphasis of these words ever with the Lord I doubt not but you would find Comfort enough in them for your self and a great overplus for the comforting of others FINIS w. 2. v. 3. Psal. 30. Psal. 101.2 3 4 5 6 7. Plus est quam haec domus mea ante deum Jon. 2 Sam. 7.12 13 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ordinavit disposuit aptavit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 custodivit ser●avit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eccl. 9.2 Virgil. Zech. 12.10 Psal. 119.92 Job 6.2 3. Psal. 60.3 Psal. 94.19 Jer. 2.13 Isai. 57.12 Joh. 14.18 Heb. 6.17 18. Isai. 56.4 1 King. 17.18 Job 16.8 Isai. 33.24 Psal. 103.1.3 1 Cor. 15.55 Ovid. Jer. 31.33 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It respects the propitiatory expiation of sin by Christ who is therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Joh. 2.2 Rom. 3.25 Psal. 89.30 31. Ezek. 1.18 Isai. 40.13 14. Jer. 32.40 Psal. 119.71 Psal. 94.19 Isai. 27.9 Isai. 27.8 Eph. 4 6. Exod. 33.15 Psal. 89.33 Jer. 31.34 Joh. 10.28 2 Cor. 6.10 2 Cor. 6.9 Psal. 6.1 1 Thess. 4.13 14 15 16 17 18. Isai. 26.19 Rom. 4.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro mittere qua si 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in manibus Psal. 102.26 27. Psal. 116.7 Gal. 2.21 2 Cor. 4.16 17 18. Psal. 119.50 Rom. 15.4 Job 33 23. Jam. 5.11 Filius mihi erat Adolescens solus vitae successor solatium senectae gloria generis flos aequalium sulcrum domus aetatem gratiosissiman agebat c. III. IV. Ierom à lapide Iustin Martyr Doctr. 1 Reason 2 Reason 3 Reason 4 Reason 5 Reason 6 Reason 1 Use. 2 Use. 3 Use. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 temerè ambulabo 1 Thess. 4.15 16 17 18.

Christ is far better Death to them is gain and infinite advantage Phil. 1.21.23 This World is the worst place that ever God designed his People to live in for if a state of perfect Holiness and Purity be better than a state of Temptation and Corruption if a state of Rest and Peace be better than a state of Labour and Sorrow if it be better to be triumphing above than sighing and groaning beneath then it 's better for departed Christians to be where they are than where they were And could they now communicate their minds to us by words as they lately did they would say to us as Christ said Luke 23.28 Daughter of Ierusalem weep not for us but weep for 〈◊〉 selves and for your children Or as he spake to his Disciples under their sad resentments of his departure Ioh. 14.28 If ye loved me ye would rejoyce because I go to the Father So then no tears or sorrows are due to them or becoming us upon the account of any real loss or detriment they receive by death 2. Positively But the true grounds and causes of our Lamentations are upon divers other weighty accounts as First Because so much of the Spirit of God as dwelt in them when amongst us is now recall'd and gather'd up from this lower World. Those precious Graces which they exercised among us in Prayer Conference and other beneficial Duties are now gone with them to Heaven The Church had the benefit of them during their abode with men but now no more except only what the remembrance of their holy Words and instructive Examples whereby they still speak to us though dead may afford unto us There are choice effusions of the Spirit at the time of our Sanctification of which the Church reapeth the benefit whilst we live but all these are recall'd at our dissolution and thenceforth we can be no farther useful in this lower World for as the Soul is the subject in which these precious Graces inhere so they accompany and go along with the Soul into glory Now as it is a real loss to a Company when any Merchant withdraws a great Stock he had running in Trade out of the Bank so certainly it is a great loss to the Church of God when the precious gifts and graces of the Spirit dwelling in the Saints are drawn out by Death so as the Church can have no farther benefit by them their Prayers for us and with us are now ended Abraham knoweth us not and Israel is ignorant of us Secondly The death of the Saints deserves a bitter lamentation because thereby a breach is made a gap opened to let in the Judgments of God upon the Remnant that is left It is said of Moses Psal. 106.23 Therefore he said that he would destroy them had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach lest he should destroy them A Metaphor from a besieged City when a breach is made in the Walls and an Enemy ready to enter but some Champion stands in the breach to defend the City Such a Champion was Moses who by his constant and fervent Prayers put a stop to the inundation of God's Judgments against Israel And such another was Lot Gen. 19.22 whose Prayers for that wicked place he lived in bound up the hand of Judgment insomuch as the Lord told him I can do nothing till thou art gone But when the Lord by death removes such men he thereby makes a way to his anger as the expression is Psal. 78.50 Hence the death of eminent Saints especially when many are taken away at or near the same time hath been ever look'd upon as a direful Omen and dreadful Presage of ensuing Judgments and that not without good Scripture-authority Isai. 57.1 The righteous perish and no man layeth it to heart and merciful men are taken away none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come Thus Methusalah whose very Name signified a Flood cometh died the year before the Flood Augustin a little before the sacking of Hyppo Pareus a little before the taking of Hydelberg And Luther before the Wars brake out in Germany Death as a Pioneer clears the way to a Troop of Miseries following after This therefore is a just and weighty ground of our lamentations for the death of useful and goodly men Thirdly The beauty and ornaments of the places they lived in is defaced and removed by their death they look not like themselves when the godly are removed out of them for as wicked men are the spots and blemishes so good men are the beauty and ornaments of their Country A good man was wont to say of Mr. Barrington of Barrington-Hall in Essex Methinks the Town is not at home when Mr. Barrington is out of Town How desolate and dismal doth a Family look whatever other Ornaments be about it when the Religious Governour of it is gone Take away good men from their Families and Country and what are they but like a Vineyard when the Vintage is past as the Prophet speaks Micha 7.1 Fourthly The death of good men deserves a bitter Lamentation because thereby the passage of the Gospel and propagation of Religion is obstructed in the places from whence they are removed Of how great use in a Country may one zealous publick-spirited man be Hundreds may have cause to bless God for such a man. It was the Apostles desire to the Thessalonians To pray that the word of the Lord may have its free course that it might run and be glorified 2 Thess. 3.1 The removal of such a person as naturally took care for the souls of those that were about him to provide food for them is no small loss nor lightly to be passed over Fifthly The consideration of the time in which good men die aggravates the loss and justly incenses the sorrow of them that remain and that upon a threefold account 1. That it falls out in the declining state of Religion when the Spirit and power of Godliness is so much weakned and impoverished This is like the loss of good Bloud in a consumptive Body which must bring it very low 2. That it falls out also in a time when the numbers of the Godly are so much thinn'd and lessen'd not when the Churches Children say in her Ears The place is too straight give place that we may dwell but when they are every-where lamenting the paucity and scarcity of good men as the Psalmist did Psal. 12.1 Help Lord for the godly man ceaseth for the righteous fail from among the children of men At a time when they are bewailing themselves in the language of the Prophet Micah 7.1 Wo is me for I am as when they have gathered the summer-fruits as the grape-gleanings of the vintage there is no cluster to eat my soul desired the first ripe fruit Alluding to a hungry man that goes into a Vineyard to refresh his spirits with the fruit thereof but alas there is