Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	word_n	world_n	worth_n	44	3	8.1130	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59893	Sermons preach'd upon several occasions some of which were never before printed / by W. Sherlock.	Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.	1700 (1700)	Wing S3364; ESTC R29357	211,709	562

and what an advantageous exchange then is it for a faithful Minister of Jesus to be removed from Earth to Heaven For let us consider what the State of Christ's Ministers is in this World what it was in St. Paul's days he tells us 2 Cor. 6. 4 10. In all things approving our selves as the Ministers of God in much patience in afflictions in necessities in distresses in stripes in imprisonments in tumults in labours in watchings in fasting by pureness by knowledge by long-suffering by kindnesses by the Holy Ghost by love unfeigned by the word of truth by the power of God by the Armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left by honour and dishonour by evil report and good report as deceivers and yet true as unknown and yet well known as dying and behold we live as chastened and not killed as sorrowful yet always rejoycing as poor yet making many rich as having nothing and yet possessing all things Which describes a most laborious Life a Scene of Wants of Difficulties of Sufferings a perpetual exercise of passive Virtues to reconcile the most appearing Contradictions to live and struggle and contend in this World and to fetch their Comforts and Supports from Heaven This indeed is not always the State of the Christian Church nor of the Ministers of it but yet in the greatest external Prosperity of the Church the Ministers of Religion who discharged their Trust with Diligence and Faithfulness find many difficulties to encounter The care of Mens Souls is it self a mighty Trust and Who is sufficient for these things consider but the Charge St. Paul gives to Timothy 1 Epistle 4. 11 c. Let no man despise thy youth but be thou an example of the believers in word in conversation in charity in spirit in faith in purity give attendance to reading to exhortation to doctrine neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by Prophesy by laying on of the hands of the Presbytery Meditate upon these things give thy self wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all take heed to thy self and to thy doctrine continue in them for in doing this thou shalt both save thy self and them that hear thee Here is work enough to employ the whole Man and our utmost care and diligence and prudence work for the Study for the Closet for the Pulpit as the same Apostle exhorts and charges Timothy to preach the word to be instant in season out of season to reprove rebuke exhort with all long-suffering and Doctrine 2 Tim. 4. 2. But yet though there be Labour and Diligence in this it would be a delightful work were our Labours always blessed with success could we rescue the Souls of Men from the Dominion of their Lusts and from the power of the Devil could we turn them from Darkness to Light and from the power of Satan unto God but we must often expect to labour all night and catch nothing we must contend with the Lusts and Vices of Men must bear their Folly their Frowardness their Reproaches and Censures and Injuries be thought Troublesome Pragmatical and Busy-bodies for our charitable Exhortations and Reproofs and watchfulness over their Souls And when the Church is at ease and rest from without how often is it rent and torn in Pieces with Schisms and Heresies as St. Paul forewarned Timothy The time will come when they will not endure sound Doctrine but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves Teachers having itching ears and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and be turned unto fables 3 4. ver and what infinite Labours and Difficulties does this create to the Ministers of the Gospel to heal the Breaches of the Church to confute Heresies Atheism Infidelity and to be scorned and persecuted for it with a bitter Rage and Zeal That St. Paul might well add But watch thou in all things endure afflictions do the work of an Evangelist make full proof of thy ministry 5 verse We ought not indeed to be discouraged by such difficulties as these because our Reward will be great in Heaven but it will be a happy Day when Our warfare shall be accomplished when we shall cease from our labours and our works shall follow us when we can say with St. Paul I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness 2. Thus to die is their gain Nevertheless it is more needful for the Church that they should abide in the flesh And a great loss it is to the Church when they die I need not use many words about this for the case is plain The Death of every good Man who is very useful to the World in what way soever he be useful is a very great loss for Death puts an end to his doing any more good in this World but as to take care of the Souls of Men is to do the greatest good to Mankind because the Happiness of our Souls is of the greatest concernment to us so to lose a faithful and a prudent Guide must be the greatest loss We indeed of this Church have great reason to bless God that he has sent forth so many able and painful Labourers into his Harvest that it is not the loss of every good Man that can much affect us at ordinary times for there are great numbers of wise and good Men to perpetuate a Succession of able and faithful Guides but a St. Paul is at any time and in any Age of the Church a great loss Nay Men who are much Inferiour to St. Paul but yet fitted with peculiar Abilities to serve the Church at some certain Seasons and in some difficult Circumstances are a very sensible loss at such a time when their service is most needful A Man of Counsel and Conduct who is fit to sit at the Helm and knows how to steer in a Storm is a great loss in times of Difficulty and Trouble when the Church is assaulted on all hands and it is hard to avoid one Mischief or Inconvenience without runinto another A Man of Goodness and Temper who knows how to govern his own Passions and how to soften and manage the Passions of other Men is a very sensible loss when the Passions of Men are broke loose and disturb the Peace of the Church and even threaten the ruine of it A Man of Learning and sound Judgment who can distinguish betwen Truth and Error in all its most artificial and flattering Disguises is a great loss when old Errors are revived and new ones broached when we must dispute over again the very Being of a God the truth of the Scriptures and Articles of the Christian Faith A Man of great Diligence and Industry Courage and Resolution to defend the Truth to oppose Heresies and Schisms to preserve the Unity of the Church and the Integrity of the Christian Faith is a very

lash●… of spiteful and envenomed Tongue●… But what a Loss has Religion and the Church of England in such a critical Time in the Death of such a Queen and such a Prelate I pray God make up this Loss In a word That great Passion which afflicts and oppresses our good King gives an unexceptionable Testimony to the incomparable Worth of our deceased Queen The too severe and visible Effects of it shew that it is not an ordinary nor a dissembled Passion Nor is it an ordinary thing for a Prince of so great a Mind who can look the most formidable Dangers and Death it self in the face without fear whom all the Powers of France cannot make look pale or tremble to sink and faint and to feel all the Agonies of Death in the dying Looks of a Beloved Consort All Story cannot furnish us with many Examples of such soft and tender Passions in such a warlike and fearless Mind and what but a mighty Vertue could so charm a Prince as to forget his natural Constancy and Resolution I 'm sure though we ●…y very dear for the Experiment 〈◊〉 the loss of an excellent Queen ●…e have so much the more reason 〈◊〉 think our selves happy in a ●…ng for a due mixture and tempe●…ment of such fearless Courage and ●…avery and such tender Passions is ●…e most perfect Composition of an ex●…ellent Prince And now it may be you will tell ●…e that I have taken great pains 〈◊〉 confute my Text and that I ●…ave done it effectually for we ●…ght not to be dumb but may ●…ery justly complain of such a loss ●…s this This I readily grant That we ●…ay complain of such a loss but ●…his is no confutation of my Text. ●…e may complain and give Ease ●…nd Vent to our Sorrows by such Complaints while we do not complain against God and accuse him foolishly To submit to the Will of God which is here exprest by being Dumb and not opening our Mouths does not signify not to feel our Losses and Sufferings or not to complain of them but not to reproach the Divine Providence no●… to cast off our Hope and Trust in God Iob felt his Sufferings and complained of them in as moving and tragical Expressions as any other Man could and yet is proposed to us as an Example of admirable Patience because he did not charge God foolishly nor cast off his hope in him This we never can have any reason for for whatever we suffer it is a wise and merciful Providence which inflicts it But yet Mankind are very apt when they suffer hard things either to deny a Providence or which is more absurd and unreasonable to reproach it for if there be a God he is Wise and Good and Merciful and Just which is the Notion all Mankind have of God and if this God governs the World all Events are ordered with Wisdom Justice and Goodness and all thinking Men in cool and sober Thoughts will be ashamed to quarrel with such a Providence But yet we are very apt to ask Questions which we cannot easily answer and then to make our own ig●…rance an Objection against the Di●…ne Providence As in the Case before us the ●…dden and untimely Death of an ●…cellent Princess who had Strength ●…d Vigor of Age which promised 〈◊〉 much longer Life and who ●…ould certainly have done great ●…ood to the World as long as she ●…ad lived but is cut off in the ●…igor and Strength of Age and all ●…er Thoughts even all her great ●…d excellent Designs of doing Good 〈◊〉 the World perish with her ●…hile Tyrants and Oppressors live ●…o be the Plagues and Scourges of Mankind Now though we do not know ●…he particular Reasons of such Pro●…idences yet it is easy to frame some general Answers which may ●…atisfy all the Friends of Providence If the Objection relates to our selves who suffer by this Loss there is a very plain Answer to it but a very terrible one That God is Angry with us and by the untimely Death of an excellent Princess who made it her whole Study and Design to do us Good threatens his Judgments against us if we do not take Care to prevent them by a timely Repentance If the Objection relates only to the untimely Death of an excellent Princess that she should so suddenly be snatched away from the Joys and Pleasures of a Throne this is no Objection at all at least not a●… Objection fit for Christians to make For can we think that the greatest and most happy Monarch loses any thing by the Exchange if he be translated from Earth to Heaven That the Joys of Paradise are not greater than a Crown Our good Queen did not think so who knew what an Earthly Crown meant but was willing to part with it for Heaven who saw Death approaching without fear and prepared to receive its Stroke with that calmness and sedateness of Mind as nothing could give but an innocent Conscience and much greater Hopes But as for our selves though we must acknowledge that we have re●…eived a very great Loss in the ●…eath of an excellent Queen yet we ●…ave no reason to quarrel at Pro●…idence while God preserves our ●…ing to go in and out before us ●…e had indeed perpetual Day and ●…o sooner was one Sun withdrawn ●…ut another ascended our Horizon ●…ith equal Lustre and Brightness ●…his was a peculiar Happiness ●…hich we never had before and ●…hich the Necessities of our Affairs ●…equired now but though God has ●…ut us short in this we have a King still the Terror of France ●…nd the Protector of Europe a King whom Affection as well as Blood has Naturalized to us who loves our Nation and our Church which he has once delivered and God grant ●…e may live long to settle and pro●…ect both We have no reason to fear our Enemies either at home or abroad while a Prince is at the Helm who wants neither Counsel nor Courage especially if we follow that noble Example which the Two Houses of Parliament have set us to give him such fresh Assurances of our Fidelity as may strengthen his Hands against his and our Enemies Abroad and make him easy and safe at Home To conclude This is God's doing and it becomes us to be dumb and not to open our Mouths because he has done it He is the Sovereign and Unaccountable Lord of the World who shall say unto him What dos●… thou Life and Death are in his hands the Fates of Princes and Kingdoms That he has done it should be a sufficient Reason to us to submit because though he does things great and wonderful and beyond our Understanding yet he never does any thing but what is wise and good This I 'm sure is the most effectual way to turn even the severest Judgments into Blessings to reverence God and to humble our selves under his mighty hand and implore his Mercy to repair those Breaches he has made upon us We must not complain of