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
A60457	Two funeral sermons preached in St. Saviour's Church in Dartmouth Together with a preface, giving some account of the reasons, why they are now made publick. By Humfry Smith, M.A. and vicar there. Licens'd, Feb. 23. 1689/90. Z. Isham.	Smith, Humphry, b. 1654 or 5.	1690 (1690)	Wing S4087A; ESTC R220069	33,836	78

for such to enter through the greatest Adversity here into future Joy Our Saviour seems indeed once to have given his Disciples Mark 10. 30. a Promise of Temporal Felicity that those Houses and Lands which were lost for the sake of him and the Gospel should be made up again by an extraordinary Providence But if the things mention'd have not as it is thought by some a Spiritual meaning the Promise however was attended with a bitter exception it should be fulfilled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a reserve of Trouble with a certain mixture or alloy of Persecutions As for this present Life if Happiness is to be measur'd by the outward appearance the followers of Jesus are ordinarily the greatest Wretches in the World for so the Apostle in effect tells us If says he in this life only we have hope in 1 Cor. 15. 19. Christ we are of all men most miserable Besides those troubles which as we have seen are natural to Mankind there are other labours and sorrows belonging to them that follow a Leader who conquer'd through Sufferings Even the gracious expressions of his peculiar Love to them do as it were mark them out for a large portion of trouble and he so engageth his Servants to difficulties as if he this way design'd to approve Invenitur cui corona debetur non invenitur qui idoneus certamini non probatur S. Ambros Expos in Ps 118 Serm. 18. their fitness for the Crown he promiseth This will sufficiently appear from the view of some few of those particular evils which are the Portion of Christians and from the Bondage of which Death is the only rescue 1. Death is the thing which delivers the Christian from the burthen of his natural Corruption utterly puts an end to that which keeps him now almost perpetually restless and uneasie The sense of much pollution of a constant deficiency which hath frequently too betray'd him into grosser sins perplexeth the penitent and humble Soul and fills him often with terrors and remorse till at length Death brings him an happy quiet dissolves his substance and throughly purgeth out the inherent dross gives his Soul the purity of an Angelical Nature and prepares a corruptible Body to be rais'd hereafter in incorruption Indeed pollution belongs to wicked Men in a degree vastly higher However they have commonly little sense of this misery A kind of Lethargy renders them stupid under a weight which is sinking them down into destruction whilst the Servant of God perceives the pressure of much less guilt and bitterly complains of it His impurity and transgressions are the things which cost him so many Sighs and Tears these employ him in much Grief and Lamentation There is no rest in my bones because of my sin Mine Psal 38. 3 4. iniquities are gone over my head as a heavy burthen they are too heavy for me says the Psalmist in his Repentance And as the Prophet represents the condition of an humbled People he cries out saying Wo● unto us that we have sinned for Lam. 5. 16 17. this our heart is faint for these things our eyes are dim 2. Death is that which rescues the Christian from the constant importunity of temptations 'T is as St. Cyprian calls it his Peace his only De Mortalit p. 157. Peace and Tranquillity his sure and firm and perpetual Security Here we are as a City continually besieged expos'd every Minute to the Battery and Assaults of Enemies yea there is treachery also within the Walls we are liable still to the suddain Violences of untractable Passions and Lusts and the wickedness of a deceitful Heart No wonder therefore that so many of the Gospel-Precepts are deliver'd to us as to Soldiers and Combatants by which we are commanded to all the difficulties of a Militant state to stand fast to watch to strive to fight to put on the whole Armour of God and use it with all the Skill and Courage we are able O the sweetness of Peace after the hurry and uncertainties and fatigue of War after the hunger and thirst and cold the hazards and sometimes wounds of such a state for many Years O wretched man that I am Who shall deliver me said St. Paul under the sense as some think of such difficulties as these The question imply'd the greatness of the Bondage and the proper answer to it seems to be this one word Death 3. Death is what delivers from the spitefulness of this present World from the opposition it maintains to Innocence and Holiness The Apostle recommending to the converted Jews the Example of our Lord presents him under the following Character A sufferer of the contradiction Heb. 12. 3. of sinners a Person set out as the common mark of Contempt and Obloquy And the Lot of the master belongs to the Disciples for so h● himself expresly told them If ye were of th● world the world would love his own but because John 15. 19. ye are not of the world therefore the world hateth you Most of the ancient Apologists for Christianity observe that tho' the Religion they defended was of the meekest most friendly and obedient Temper fitted beyond all things that ever were for the Peace and Advantage of Mankind ye● it was the thing which the World was most enrag'd against and pursued with the greatest Cruelty All other People said one of them to the Athenagor Legat. pro Christianis p. 2. Emperours Antoninus and Commodus enjoy and admire your Clemency and Lenity but we Christians are those alone whom you are pleas'd to cast out of Protection and expose to Sufferings And tho' a miraculous Providence over the Church put an end at length to the Heathen Persecutions of it yet all its sufferings of this kind will not be concluded whilst any of the Members of it are on this side the Grave the World still declares its malice against the followers of the Lamb true Religion being often treated with scorn and gain-saying and sometimes worse usage by the Heretical and Hypocritical by the Atheists and Profane And then 4. Death is that which delivers from the malice of the Devil secures for ever from that envious Spirit which if he despairs of the final overthrow of the Righteous yet will not fail at least to be active in contriving their present misery Nothing is so grievous to him as the Ease and Tranquillity of Mankind and therefore when he is held from making a prey he will yet run to the very end of the Chain to Plague and Torment If thou come to serve the Lord said the Son of Sirach prepare thy soul for temptation temptation Eccl. 2. 1. seems to signifie there as it does sometimes in Scripture a trial by Afflictions and such a one as this he that comes unto God must expect from the Enemy of Mankind so far forth as the execution of his Malice is not restrain'd by the Hand of Omnipotence The most High for

Two Funeral SERMONS PREACHED IN St. SAVIOUR'S CHURCH IN DARTMOUTH Together With a PREFACE giving some account of the reasons why they are now made publick By HUMFRY SMITH M. A. and VICAR there LICENS'D Feb. 23. 1689 90. Z. ISHAM LONDON Printed for Charles Yeo Bookseller in Exon. 1690. THE PREFACE TO THE Inhabitants of Dartmouth in Devon Grace Truth and Peace be multiplied My Friends and Brethren YOU that know me and the occasions of the two following Sermons will I doubt not easily believe that I was far at first from designing they should ever become more publick than the Preaching of them made them As the space allow●d for either can hardly be called Days so I am very sensible that performances of this kind on which I have bestow'd more time and labour have little in them to recommend them in an Age which God be praised abounds with Practical Discourses of the greatest Excellency They do not therefore come abroad on a conceit of any thing extraordinary in the Contrivance but only to stand the Charges which have been drawn up against them That some who could not and others who would not hear them may perceive at length as I hope they will that amongst the real imperfections to be found in them there is however nothing at all of a spiteful humour I am sure I can truly say that in those few Years I have liv'd amongst you I have labour'd as to give no just offence to the Church establish'd of the Lawfulness of whose Constitutions I am heartily perswaded so neither to any of those who have been drawn to dislike her Communion and separate from her I do not remember that the Regard I have and the particular Obligations I am under to the former have made me forgetful of a befitting Candour towards the latter especially in the publick discharge of that Holy Off●ce I am regularly call'd to But alas you very well know the cry hath been frequently otherwise such representations having been made of me as if I were guilty of malicious Reflections and did not only with those the Apostle speaks of preach Christ Phil. 1. 15. of envy and strife but preach even Strife and Envy themselves The discourses which have been singled out as the chief Foundation of such Reports are these two now printed which I put into your Hands without any material alteration from what they were in the Pulpit Indeed some things which were then omitted I have here added but whatever was spoken you have as near as may be as it was spoken and in those passages which I am told have given occasion of offence I am secure I think of exactness even to the least word And now let me beseech those who have been pleas'd to censure me to consider whether the things are so faulty as they have represented them Or rather whether they did not seek for cause of displeasure where none was given whether some have not thought fit to make reports not so much of what they heard as of what they expected and others supplied the defect of Intelligence by a fruitful imagination The first of these Sermons was preach'd Octob. 24. 1687. at the Funeral of an aged Gentleman to whom I was obliged for much civility and whom by reason of his coming sometimes to the Publick Worship his absence at other times being easily accounted for from much sickness and infirmity I thought no ●onconformist to the Orders of the Church of England Indeed a little after his Death I was inform'd that the Preacher in a separate Congregation had put in a claim to him and withal that at the same time he was pleas'd at least plainly to insi●●●te that this discourse of mine preach'd but two or three days before was envious and reflecting The Crimes which soon after I was commonly ●ensur'd for not only in this but several other places you may remember were principally these two Reflection on the Person interr'd in what I said about Riches in the middle of my Sermon and a spi●eful Character of him at the latter end of it From both these faults I hope the discourse it self will now sufficiently purge me For as to the first can it be with the least shew of reason concluded that what was said of the Worldling in compliance with a subject which the Church her self hath recommended on such occasions should be meane by me as a description of the deceased I sp●ke likewise of the Voluptuous the Ambitious the Learned c. And why should it be thought I aim'd at him in one more than in any of the other Yea is it possible for any reasonable Person to think that when I consider'd the va●ity of Riches and an immoderate love of them I design'd to brand him for a M●s●r whom in the very same Discourse I expresly commended for a Just an Upright and a very Charitable Conversation This account of him was a part you will find of that other thing I am censured for The Character at the latter end which being too sensible of the inconvenience and sometimes mischief of Rhetorical Harangues in such cases according to my custom I did not intend should be long or contain any thing in it which had not the support of manifest truth But as it is I dare de●ie my veriest Enemies to shew any thing in it in the least measure reflecting For my part I think it might have been appli'd without offence to any Man that ever was at least beneath the Eminence of a Martyr or an Apostle I declar'd that on his death bed he was frequent in the acts of a Duty which as it is extremely unsafe to begin on it it is neither safe to give over on it Repentance at which passage some I know have been displeas'd As if a penitent frame were not proper at such a time as that is or it were a reproach to the memory of a Christian to say he waited for the coming of his Lord with an humble sense of his own unworthiness I know not what Rules may be given by some for conducting the Devotions of a death-bed but sure I am that very excellent directors advise Repentance at that season even to Persons of the highest attainments as a Duty still agreeable Repentance for sins which have been committed through error and inadvertency for sins which are the constant attendants of Mortality as also for those which were long before consider'd and lamented St. Augustine was a Person who for above Twenty years before his death shone as one of the brightest Stars in the Christian Church and his Scholar and dear Friend that wrote his Life did not surely design to lessen his Praise in the place where he tell us That Possidius de vitâ August c. 31. the Good man more than a week before his departure would not have his Eyes or Thoughts diverted from David's Penitential Psalms but only now and then when his Physicians came to visit him or his Friends to

Soul is pierced by the Arrows of the Almighty What comfort has he then in thinking he is the Master of so many Acres or so many Bags that his Table is loaden with Delicacies and his House bedeck't with no common Art that he is a Person of Name and hath been the talk of the World 2. Consider this Life as it appears on the Day of Death Imagine that a Summons being sent you for a speedy Removal an Hour or two were all the time you could further expect in this World and then consider what thoughts you must needs have of this present Life as you thus lookt back upon it from the brink of Eternity Certainly Brethren tho' we are now apt to put so great a value upon it it will then appear a wretched impertinence when all the Treasures of the East and West will not bribe us to a Smile When Ceremony and Attendance become nauseous When there shall be no Taste in Meat o● Drink neither will the Ear hear the Voice of Singing Men or Singing Women When the Soul is preparing for its everlasting Flight and the Body to go down to that Earth out of which it was taken But that you may know how the World looks to a Person on the Day of his Death I will give you the Thoughts of two dying Men D●ing and Dead Mens Words by Dr. Lloyd ●ond 1673. both of our own Nation as we have them amongst other very good things in a late Collection One as great a States Man almost as ever was Sir John Mason Privy Councellor to four Princes whose Declaration on his Death bed was this I have seen the most Remarkable things in Foreign Parts been present for thirty Years together at most Transactions of State and have learnt this after so many Years Experience That Seriousness is the greatest Wisdom Temperance the best Physick and a good Conscience the best Estate And were I to live again I would change the Court for a Cloyster the bustles of State for an obscure Retirement and the whole Life I liv'd in the Palace for one Hours enjoyment of God in the Chappel All things else forsake me besides my God my Duty and my Prayer The other a Man of as much Reading as Mr. Selden any our latter Ages have afforded who when he came to die amongst all the Learning of the Sons of Men which he had survey'd amongst all the numerous Books and Manuscripts he had perus'd and was Master of could not meet with any thing that gave the satisfaction to his Soul which he found in these words of St. Paul The Tit. 2. 11 12. grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared ●o all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and ●odly in this present world 3. Consider too what this Life will appear ●t the Day of Judgment That is the time when ●ll Disguises shall utterly vanish and every thing ●e seen in its proper Colours Think therefore ●hat you now stood before the Tribunal of the ●ord Christ and there it were required of you to judge of that for your esteem and use and abuse of which you your selves shall then be judged In such Circumstances as these doubtless your Opinions of things would be very different from what they too commonly have been What will Greatness and Honour and Fame signifie when there shall be no respect of Persons when the obscure Slave will be upon the same Level with the Crowned Head when there shall be no distinction known but that of the sheep on the right hand and the goats on the left Mat. 25. 33. What will the having been the Possessor of a great deal of Gold and Silver many Houses and much Land be then accounted of when the whole Frame of the World is cracking and dissolving the earth burning up and the elements melting 2 Pet. 3. 10. with fervent heat Finally What will the Memory of past Pleasures amount to the Deliciousness of this Fare o● the Sumptuousness of that Cloathing or the Sweetness of the other Enjoyment Yea how glad would many be if no such things had eve● been then when a strict account is to be given of every thing that hath been done in the flesh But 2 Cor. 5. 10. 2. If our Condition is so vain a thing then hence also let us be stir'd up to vigorous and hearty endeavours after a better Tho' our present Habitation or rather Place of our Pilgrimage be nothing else but Vanity yet there is a Country which we have heard of abounding with substantial things Those that have seen it and known it and came from it have made relations of what it is They have spoken much of the Joys and the Glories of it have told us that nothing there is Dark or Frail or Transitory but all things Pure Clear and Admirable of a Goodness more extensive than our very Desires Brighter than ten thousand Suns and as Lasting as Eternity yea they have assur'd us that the things of it are unspeakable beyond the power of Words or Description We have too sufficient ground to believe that this blessed Condition is not such as cannot belong to us but that we are capable of it and were even Originally design'd for it that as the Author of the Book of Wisdom speaks God created man to be immortal Wisd 2. 23. and made him to be an Image of his own eternity Yea more than all this Solemn Overtures have been made Messages have been sent to us We have been directed enabled invited perswaded with the greatest earnestness to come and to secure to our selves this blessed Habitation And Oh my Brethren shall we not now think it worthy of our thoughts and our care Shall we any of us neglect any longer to comply with those methods which Heaven hath found out for transplanting of us from Vanity and Trouble into Bliss and Immortality It is not indeed any light performance which will fit us for that better state not a little Outside Service or a little Lip-devotion no nor now and then a pious Warmth or a melting Temper not a listing our selves in this or that Party or being reckoned under such a Denomination The passage through the strait Gate is not so easie as these things But it is a faith that worketh by love a due conformity to all the Evangelical Proposals a working continually with fear and trembling a having our Minds above the World using it so as if we us'd it not In short a being Religious Sober Just and Charitable in our Conversation These are the Terms which the Angel of the Covenant requires and shall we stand at the difficulty of them since they lead to real and lasting Good Shall we be discourag'd in an undertaking that will advance us above the Vanity of this present Life add some solidity even to these fleeting things converting our perishing Riches into an Heavenly Treasure and at