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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
hand_n	body_n	death_n	soul_n	5,812	5	5.2725	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57739	The blessedness of departed saints in their immediate enjoyment of God in glorie Propounded and improved in a funeral-sermon, upon Revel. 14.13. March 3. 1651. By Joseph Rowe, minister of the Gospel, and pastor of Buckland-monachorum in Devon.	Rowe, Joseph, b. 1617 or 18.	1654 (1654)	Wing R2067A; ESTC R218416	20,652	33

Revel 2.7 Scripture to signifie The place of eternal happiness So that in this scripture there is as a promise of heaven made to the penitent thief so also a present enjoyment of it upon that very day of his death And this promise as * Origen hom 15. in Gen. Origen notes concerns not him onely but all the Saints of God The shift of Smalcius and other Hereticks to evade the force of this Scripture is weak and absurde They say that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to day hath dependance upon the former words and relates to the instant in which the promise was made and not to the future in which it was to be performed And they thus read and paraphrase the verse And Jesus said unto him verily I say unto thee to day that is I now tell thee thou shalt be with me in Paradise to wit after the time of the last judgement But this gloss of theirs renders Christs answer sapless and unsavoury fathers battology upon him * John 7.46 the infinite wise Saviour of the world who spake as never man spake and is a gross corruption of the sacred Text. The Greek and Syriack copies read and render it otherwise referring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to day to the latter words as representing the time in which the promise of being with Christ in Paradise was to be made good to this penitent Thief The to day of the Lord Jesus in this verse answers to the when of the thief in the former verse and sheweth that the time when Christ would remember him should be that very day Thus notwithstanding the exceptions of adversaries this promise of Christ to the repenting thief is a full and convincing proof for the passage of gracious souls unto glorie and that immediately upon their separation from the bodie Finally upon this account is it that dying Saints have by prayer commended their fleeting souls to the mercie of God Thus did the blessed Martyr Stephen Lord Jesus said he receive my spirit Act. 7.59 So did our Saviour Father into thy hands I commend my spirit Luke 23.46 These petitions shew plainly that God doth take care of the souls of his Saints in death forthwith upon death receives them unto himself in glorie This Truth is also The uses of the Doctrine very profitable in application and may serve 1. For Refutation 2. For Exhortation The present Truth speaks to the refutation Vse 1. and overthrow of two soul-sadning opinions The one an opinion of the Papists The other of Mortalists and Soul-fleepers a loose sect among our selves The first opinion resuted by this Truth is of the Papists who dream of a Purgatorie or place in which they say some of those that die in the Lord are for a time to be purged and punished before they arrive to the blessedness of glorie This opinion is a meer fancie and device of giddie brains having not the least countenance from the Word of God but directly opposing it terrisying the Saints with anguish and pains even horrible and hellish when the spirit promiseth nothing but blessedness and rest in the kingdom of heaven and that as it is in the text from henceforth after death that is instantly upon their departure Purgatorie as one well is a fiction invented purposely to make the Popes Kitchin smoke And is an invention not known to the Greek Church for the space of 1500 years after Christ and but of late known to the Latine Church We read in Scripture as of two sorts of persons good and bad so of two places onely for the receiving of these after death Wicked men die and immediately go down to hell the righteous die and straightway ascend heaven For a third place God made none the Scriptures mention none the Fathers believed none acknowledging onely two places heaven and hell for the receiving of souls after death The second opinion resuted by the present Doctrine is of some amongst our selves who say the souls of Saints do not upon death partake of glorie in heaven but either die or sleep untill the time of the resurrection Augustine in his book of heresies calleth the authors of this wicked and drowsie opinion Arabici from the place of their first original and abode The confirmation of the former Truth is a sufficient confutation of this monstrous error The souls of the Saints immediately upon their separation are called to the enjoyment of blessedness in heaven therefore they neither die nor sleep If separatesouls were either dead or asleep they could not be happie and blessed Sith according to the maxim in the Schools all blessedness consists in action Death may kill the bodie but it cannot kill the soul The soul is by the immortal God honoured with lastingness and immortalitie Though the soul had a time in which it began to live yet there is no time in which it shall die Yea let me say that the judgement of eternal death upon unbelieving souls doth not consist in a privation of life but of happiness and glorie Eternal death is not an annihilation of being to wicked souls or a privation of life in them but an infliction of everlasting torments upon them Everlasting death is inflicted upon the souls of sinners not by killing or annihilating their souls but by tormenting them with infernal punishments The unbelieving soul to use an expression of Augustines is immortal unto death Ever dying and yet never dead under the deadly stroaks of the second death As for the believing soul she is immortal unto life and lives in and after death Hence is it that God who is not the God of the dead but of the living is said to be the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob Matth. 22.32 Abraham then is alive Isaac is alive and Jacob is alive but how Not in their bodies but in their souls Their bodies were long since dead and perished but their souls live in glorie Hence again is it that all dead Saints are said to live to God Luke 20.38 Even because they live with God in their spirits although they are dead in respect of their bodies or in the account of the world Furthermore the appellations by which the death of the Saints is described are plain discoveries of the life and immortalitie of the soul Holy Job calls his death a change chap. 14.14 Death is not to the Saints an absolute privation of life but onely a change or mutation of place and condition The bodie goeth to rest in the grave the soul leaves the earth and goes to heaven Aged Simeon speaking of his death calls it a departure or a setting at liberty as the Greek signifies The soul is not destroyed by death but onely set at libertie from the prison of the bodie and obtains a let-pass to depart from the miseries of the earth to the joys above The Apostle Peter calleth death a laying down of his tabernacle 2 Pet. 2.14 The Metaphor is taken from Shepherds and the Apostle by

it signifieth that as shepherds when they leave their tents do go home to their houses so we that are the Lords people when by death the tabernacles of our bodys are taken down do in our souls depart hence to dwel in houses not made with hands but eternal in the heavens The soul then doth not die ● Cor. 5.1 but live in and after death Touching the sleeping of the soul which some affirm and hold forth to the world chiefly upon this pretext because death is in Scripture resembled to sleep and vnder that notion commended to publick view give me leave to drop a word or two Death indeed is a kind of sleep and is often in Scripture expressed by that sweet and lovely name But we are to know that death is so called not in reference to the soul as if it slept in the bodie as some dream or were cast into a dead sleep being separated from the bodie as others imagine but wholy in regard of the bodie which by death is eased of all its pain and travail under the sun In Rev. 6.9 10 11. The life actions and glorie of sanctified souls in the state of separation are visionally represented to S. John The words are these I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God for the testimonie which they held And they cried with a loud voice saying How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not avenge our bloud on them that dwell on the earth And white robes were given unto every one of them This Scripture holds forth to our purpose 1. That the souls of Saints in the state of separation are not dead but alive not asleep but waking and watchfull They crie unto God against the wicked not for any particular vengeance but of zeal to Gods justice and of desire of the full coming of his kingdome in the total ruin of the wicked and in the last and finaljudgement 2. This Scripture imports that the separate souls of Saints are not in Purgatorie but in heaven They are under the altar that is they are in the presence and under the protection of Christ who is our altar Lastly it sheweth that these souls partave of Christs glorie They have white robes given to themt and this is an emblem of that glorie wherewith they are dignified Thus of the first use In the next place this truth is profitable for exhortation Use 2. and that to several Gospel-duties I can through the want of time onely touch upon them 1. The first duty is A willingness to die when God calls to it Death makes way for life and glory To die once well is to live eternally Immediately after our dissolutions we go to Christ which is best of all This me thinks should sweeten the bitterness of death and make the thoughts of it pleasing and delightfull The gain of death hath made many of Gods people not onely willing to die but also earnestly desirous of its instant approach The Apostle Paul had an earnest desire to be dissolved He did not onely desire to die but desired it with A vehement affection as Some give out the sence of the Greek tearms Phil. 1.23 And that which heightned and imflamed his desire was the glory he knew would attend him immediately upon his dissolution He desired to be dissolved that so he might be with Christ which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much mmch better or farr much better Meditate I beseech you upon the gain of death and by this work up your spirits to a willingness for death when God summons to it 'T is one part of dying well to die willingly Secondly learn hence So to dispose of your selves in life as that ye may die in the faith and fear of the Lord. This is the way to be happy after death A sun-shine day may be closed up with a stormy evening but a gracious life shall never end in an evil and unhappy death Such as the premises in life are such will the conclusion in death alway be * Psal 37.37 Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace On the contrary although death be gain to the Saints yet it is a plague of plagues to the wicked They that die in sin shall die eternally The wicked that is such as live and die thus shall be turned into hell Psal 9.17 You must make it your business to live and die to the Lord if you desire to be blessed after death Bldssed are they all they and onely they that die in the Lord. 3. For a conclusion of all Do believers enter into glory immediately upon death Let us not mourn immoderately for our departed Friends who are deadin the Lord. They are now with the Lord they now rest from their labours and have received in part the reward of their works Oh farr be it from us to mourn excessively sith these friends of ours whom we bemone have gained so exceedingly by their departure from us We should not so much mourn over the bodies of the Saints because their souls have left them as over the souls of sinners because God hath forsaken them Excessive mourning for the dead is a practise most unbeseeming those that profess the name of Christ It may be tolerable in Heathens that have no hope but 't is damnable in believing Christians I would not have you ignorant brethren concerning them that are asleep that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope 1 Thess 4.13 It is a very great sin in those that believe the rest and resurrection of departed Saints immoderately to lament for those that are gone to their rest It is A heathenish practise and calls for detestatien not imitetion Abraham Gen. 23.4 Treates with the sens of Heth for a burying place that so he might bury his wife Sarith out of his sight He chose rather to forget her then forget himself by a lavish and over-abounding sorrow And it is observeable that our Saviour Christ when he came to the Rulers house Matth. 9.23 Reprehends smartly the musitians because according to the * 2 ●●rm 33 25. 〈◊〉 ● 17 custom of these times they played their sad tunes to increase sorrow whereas they should rather have mitigated and allayed it Nature is of it self too prone to exceed the bounds of sobriety I beseech you all that hear me now but all you more especially that sympathize in the sorrow of this day through the death of our departed Sister that ye mitigate and moderate your sorrow and grief Do you bound and limit it least it hurt your selves dishonour God bring the profession of the gospel into contempt You have all lost I know by this deat-stroke Oh know know 1 That God is able to repay your losses and will do so if you wait upon him None of them that trust in him shall be desolate Psal 34.22 Secondly It was the will of the Lord to have it thus and you should willingly submit to it It is the Lord said old Eli let him do what seemeth him good 1 Sam. 3.18 1 Thes 4.18 Thirdly comfort your selves with this her gain is infinitely beyond your loss She we hope is gone from earth to heaven from a vale of misery to a hill of joy from the company of us weak and sinfull men to an innumerable company of Angels to the general assembly and Church of the first born which are written in heaven and to God the jugde of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediatour of the new covenant Heb. 12.22 In a word she is gone from the Church militant to the Church triumphant from sojourning here in Gods tabernacle To dwel upon his holy hill from labouring here in the kingdom of grace to rest and blessedness in the Kingdom of glory For this rest and blessedness O blessed Father fit and prepare us To this rest and blessedness O blessed Jesu lead and direct us Of this rest and blessedness O blessed Spirit certifie and assure us and with this rest and blessedness O most blessed God who art three in person and but one in essence in thy due time crown and comfort us even for thy mercy sake Amen Amen FINIS

heaven Although the body of this Saint had not a pompous funeral as the rich mans had yet his soul was attended by the glorious Angels and by them instantly conveyed to the glory of heaven represented under these tropical expressions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Rom 4.11 Abrahams bosom This happiness is represented by the bosom of Abraham rather than of any other Saint because he is the * Peter Matt. in 2. reg 2. Father of all those that believe and the head as it were of all those men whom God takes into covenant with himself The phrase is borrowed either from * Cameron Mytoth in locum Marriners who carry their ships out of the tempestuous Waves into the good harbour or quiet bosom of the sea or from the * Capel Spicil in ocum custom of the Eastern Nations who at their banquets use to lean on lie in each others bosom or rather From the practise of tender parents hugging and imbracing their little ones into their bosoms Even so the souls of the Saints immediately upon death are carried by the Angels who are Gods Pilots from the troublesom sea of this world to rest and safety in the harbour of heaven and to sit down as at a banquet with Abraham and other believers in that glorious place where they shall be honoured not onely with the fellowship and imbraces of the Saints but of God himself their tender Father in whose * Psal 16.11 presence there is fulness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for ever more Thus was it with Lazarus and thus shall it be with all the Saints the ending of this life will be to them the beginning of happiness in the next When their faith ends as it doth when this life ends then shall they receive the salvation of their souls 1 Pet. 1.9 There is a passage in the 12 of Eccles 7. fully declaring the condition of souls in and after death and I hope I may without A rigid censure place it under this Topick place The words are these Then meaning the time of death shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return to God who gave it As certainly as the dust that is the body goeth down to the dust so certainly the spirit that is the soul goeth up unto God to be judged and to receive Either of his justice in a sentence of immediate condemnation or of his mercy in an instantly beginning and everlasting salvation The soul without delay upon its separation from the body repairs to God to receive according to her demerits either chains and torments in hell the prison of disobedient spirits or frcedom and blessedness in heaven the mansion of glory And this is the first Scripture Argument Secondly the truth of the former Doctrine may be demonstrated The second Argument of Scripture to prove the former Doctrine from such Text of holy Writ as hold forth the knowledge and faith of Gods people in and about their immediate happiness after death and their desires to depart hence that so they may be with Christ in happiness and glory We may read the knowledge and faith of the Saints about this truth in that excellent portion of Scripture 2 Cor. 5.1 We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands evenal in the heavens In this verse our * Calvinus in locum body is compared to a tent or tabernacle the glory of heaven to an eternal house When the soul is called away from sojourning in the tabernacle of the body she instanly goeth to dwel in that eternal house of glory above This the Apostle and other of the Lords people knew and believingly received as an undoubted truth And upon this account is it that death hath been so earnestly desired by them I have a desire said S. Paul to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is farr better Phil. 1.23 Yea this is the defire of all the Saints 2 Cor. 5.8 We are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. The souls of the Saints straightway upon death enter into the society and fellowship of Christ in glory Assoon as they depart hence they go to Christ and are present with him instantly upon their absence from the body Now the knowledge and faith of the Lords people concerning this was it that made them so desirous of death Did their souls die or sleep or pass through the penances of Purgatory before they went up to heaven death were not so desirable as the Saints guided by the unerring spirit know it to be neither yet should they be with Christ upon death which they fully know and firmly believed but in an estate of further distance from Christ then whilst they were here upon earth which is expresly contradictory to the word of Truth The last Scripture-Argument The third Scripture-Argument for probation of the Ductrine I shall urge for confirmation of the former Truth is deduced from Scriptures representing promises from God to the Saints of immediate entrance into glory upon their respective dissolutions and the prayers of dying Saints that God would according To his promise receive up their souls to himself in glory We may see these promises in the following quotations The first is Esay 57.2 He shall enter into peace they shall rest in their beds each one walking in his uprightness In these words we have a gracious promise made out to all those that walk uprightly before God that upon their deaths they shall enter into peace and rest in their beds These expressions He shall enter into peace import and hold forth that happiness which upon death shall be bestowed upon the souls of the upright in their immediare enjoyment of God in glory the last clause they shall rest in their beds sheweth that as the * Synod Annot. in locum souls of the Saints go unto a place of rest bliss so their bodies are laid to rest in the grave as in a bed or bed-chamber until the generall resurection The other quotation is Luke 23.43 To day said Christ to the penitent thief thou shalt be with me in paradise That is this very day in thy soul thou shalt be with me in Paradise Christ means not the earthly Paradise for that is supposed destroyed by the flood neither can the soul which is spiritual be affected with earthly delights but the caelestial Paradise which is no other than heaven as is plain by 2 Cor. 12.2 4. verses The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Paser lex Graecolat signifieth a most pleasant garden set forth with fruitfull trees of all sorts And by a * Diodati in 23 Luke 43. figure taken from the garden where Adam was put when he was in the state of innocency is here used as elsewhere in *