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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
head_n	body_n	member_n	mystical_a	10,421	5	11.0632	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42023	Two sermons the first preacht at Steeple-Aston in Oxfordshire at the funerall of Mr. Francis Croke of that place Aug. 2, 1672, the other at the funerall of Alexander Croke of Studley, Esq., buryed at Chilton in Buckinghamshire Octob. 24, 1672 / by Daniel Greenwood ...	Greenwood, Daniel, 1627 or 8-1679.	1680 (1680)	Wing G1865; ESTC R7515	25,935	40

Widdow in their affliction c. Ja. 1. 27. This righteous this mercifull Man is said to perish to be taken away which must not be understood of the perishing of his Soul or his being finally lost for God gave his Son to the end that who so ever believes should not perish Jo. 3. 16. and the Son hath layd downe his life to seek and save that which was lost and hath past his word that his sheep who heare his voyce and follow him shall not perish Jo. 10. 28. But the meaning is they are took away by a temporal Death and the Prophet finds fault with the carelesse and obstinate Jews for taking no notice of it The Death of all Men in generall although it be a common thing and meets us every day yet o●ght not to be past over with a transient and regardlesse eye Eccl. 7. 2. It is better to go to the house of Mourning then to the House of Rejoycing for that is the end of all Men and the Living will lay it to heart As if he should say in the House of mourning so the places are called where funeralls are celebrated or friends are departed a Man is minded of the common lot and end of all men Man sees his own end in the end of others and is thereby admonished of his own frailty and Mortality which it highly concerns him to remember and to be throughly affected with Here we see the greatness and power of God who takes away Mans Breath He dyes and returns to his dust Psa 104 29. We see our own vileness and vanity that dust we are and to dust we returne and at our best estate altogether vanity Ps 9. 5 But it much more concerns us to be deeply affected with the Death of good men Ps 116. 15. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the Death of all his Saints And surely what 's pretious in Gods eyes ought not to be common and contemptible in ours The reasons why the death of good Men ought more especially to be laid to heart are 1. Because of the paucity and scantness of such The Souldiers would not permit David to hazzard himselfe because hee was worth ten thousand of them 2 Sam. 18. 3. There were multitudes of common persons few Kings especially such as David was Wicked Men are as the common stones of the brooke and of the high-way but Righteous men are jewells Ma● 3. 17. The losse of Jewels is the more lamented because they are pretious and rare This made Ezekiel take on so much for the Death of Pelatiah because there were but few such as he and a few out of a remnant would be quickly mist Ezek 11. 13. It came to passe that when I prophecyed Pelatiah the Son of Benaiah dyed and I cryed with a lowde voyce and said O Lord God wilt thou make a full end of the Remnant of Israel The latter times are foretold to be perilous because the generality of men shall be lovers of their owne selves c. Christs flock a little flock and his people a remnant but then more especially too when iniquity abounds and love and piety grow cold When therefore God shall gleane out of this remnant and take away at the head of this flock it 's time to bethink our selves what God is doing and say with the Psalmist Ps 12. 1. Help Lord for the godly Man ceaseth c. 2. Because of that Heavenly relation that is between all Christians and that Spiritual sympathy and fellow-feeling that ought to be between them Such as is between the Members of the natural Body that when one Member suffers all suffer and if one be cut of the rest not that which is cut off retaine the sense and smart of the losse It is true death doth not cut of a Christian either from Christ the Head or from his mystical Body these relations hold when all natural and civil ones cease Death which untwists all others tyes this the faster Yet it cutts off from the society of the Militant Church the ranke is broken his place is void his presence missing and his service wanting till God fill it up by a new supply The visible Communion which we had with such an one in joint prayers both publick and private in mutual exhortations incouragements instructions and consolations is interrupted and they to whom such Communion of Saints such intercourse of Christian and brotherly love was pleasant and desierable cannot but lay to heart the want of it The cracking or failing of one string in an instrument disturbs the harmony so do's the losse of one member abate the wonted pleasure and solemnity of our Christian society and Communion 3. When we lay to heart the Death of good Men we testify to the world what love we bare to their Persons and what value and esteem we have of their Vertue and goodness When Jesus wept at the grave of Lezarus then said the Jewes behold how he Loved him Jo. 11. 36. This made the Saints and Widdowes to weep so vehemently at the Death of Tabitha hereby testifing to Peter the Church and all the world how high an esteeme they had of her goodness For shee was full of good workes and almes-deed which shee did Acts. 9. 36. These and the like reasons do especially perswade good Men to lay to heart the Death of good Men. But the following ones will shew cause to all Men good and bad to regard and lament over the fall of a Righteous Person 4. Because of the usefulnesse of such and the losse that all sustaine by the removal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Good Men are a generall a common good They are the props and supports of a place The Earth and the inhabitants thereof are dissolv'd I beare up the pillars of it Psa 75. 3. A Building stands by the strength of the pillars so the World stands by the support of the godly which else would fall downe upon the heads of wicked Men as the just punishment of their iniquity The frame of the world is kept up for the sake of the Church It had long ere this been Buryed in ' its owne Sins and ruines were it not that God waited for the conversion and coming in of some and the perfection and consummation of the rest that belong to the election of his grace Particular places had sunk under their owne guilt and their confusion cover'd them if good Men did not support them If the Lord had not left us a very small remnant we had been as Sodome and made like unto Gomorrah Is 1. 9. and CH. 6. 13. As Oakes whose substance is in them when they cast their leaves so the Holy seed shall be the substance thereof As if he should say look as in the winter the sap and vertue that is in the roote keeps the tree alive so is the Holy seed the substance of the remnant that preserves them from being wasted with a total and utter destruction Wicked and ungodly

infinite excluded out of no place included in none This is called Gods immensity ubiquity and omni presence which the scripture often asserts Jer 22 23 24. Am I a God at hand saith the Lord and not a God afarre off Can any hide himselfe in secret places that I cannot see him saith the Lord. Do not I fill Heaven and Earth so Ps 139. 6. c. Whether shall I flye from thy presence If I ascend into Heaven thou art there If I make my Bed in Hell be hold thou art there c. Act. 17. 27. He is not far from any of us c. 2 His providential presence whereby he is in every busines and nothing comes to passe without him This followes from the former For the essence of God being every where and that essence being a pure Act is no where idle but alwayes operative in all Creatures and in all their actions Now thus nothing no person is ever absent from the Lord. All are subject to his eye and government He sees all his Creatures he manageth and over-rules all their wayes and actions 3. There is a Spiritual or gracious presence of God Whereby he is said to be in and with his Church and every faithful Member thereof Hee s sayd to be the God of his People and to dwel in the midst of them Psa 46. 7. The Lord of Hoasts is with us c. So every Child of God hath God graciously present with him in this life and every one of them have him so much the nearer to them as they have more special need of his assisting helping and encouraging presence Job 5. 29. He is with you in six troubles and in seven Matth 28. last I am with you to the end of the World Of all these several sorts of divine presence the Apostle speaks Eph 4. 6. There is one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all Above all by his power and Soveraignty through all by his common providence and in all his Children by the presence of his grace and Spirit The life of faith then excludes none of these Divine presences but supposeth them all and every Christian even in this life is in all these respects present with the Lord. But 4ly there is a Celestial or a glorious presence which the Scripture calls a beholding God face to face and seeing him as he is God vouchsafeth to Moses to see his back parts but saith he Exod. 33. 20. no Man can see my face and Live as if be should say this sinfull and fraile State of Mortality is not capable of nor can be admitted to the full and ●mmediate vision of the Divine glory and Excellency While we are in the Body we are absent from the beatificall vision and fruition of him That State of compleat blisse and happiness is reserved for hereafter Toward this the Apostle having not yet attain'd did breath and strive Phil. 3. 12. I follow after if I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended of Christ. I reach forward to the things that are before I presse toward the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus Now as to these Glorious attainments of perfect blessedness which the Apostle elsewhere calls seeing God as we are seen and seeing him clearly as he is the best of Men in this State of Mortality are absent from the Lord nay we are not only as yet unpossest of but in a great measure strangers to and unacquainted with that fulness of joy that is in this Glorious presence of God Eye hath not seen nor Eare heard neither have entred into the Heart of Man the things which God hath prepared for them that Love him 1 Cor 2. 9. Now are we the Sons of God and it doth not appear what we shall be but we know that when be shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is 1 Joh 3. 2. 1. Then if this be the state of the Godly in this Life to be absent from the Lord what 's the condition of wick●d Men and where shall the ungodly and Sinners appear they are at a much greater distance from God said to be without God in the World Strangers and Enemies to him by evill workes of whom the Scripture hath pronounc't Ps 73. 27. Lo all they that are far from thee shall perish thou wilt destroy all those that go a Whoring from thee They say to the Almighty Depart from us Job 21. 14. and he to them depart from me Out of the presence of his grace here and hereafter shall be punisht with everlasting perdition from his presence and glory of his power 2 Thes 1. 9. 2. See what little reason good Men have to be fond of this State of mortality wherein they are absent from the Lord. It 's true Life and Death are in the power of the Lord and both of them are to be thankfully accepted at his Hands and meekly submitted to his pleasure Man may not quitt his centinell till he be orderly discharged he may not break out of Life though he account it a prison but must expect a legall delivery Yet hath no reason to be fond of his imprisonment or be unwilling to be delivered While hee 's in this Life hee 's present with the Body hee 's absent from the Lord utraque justa mora est neither consideration gives ground of 100 passionate a Love of this Life or an immoderate desire of a long abode therein Hee 's at home in the Body and what is the Body but a lump of refined Clay a case not valuable were it not for the jewell that is therein It is of the Earth Earthly a Body of the same Mold and Metall with those of the Beasts that perish a fraile and weak carcase subject to a thousand casualties and infirmities and which is worst of all inseperably link't to a Body of Sin and Death which made the Apostle cry our wretched man that I am who shall deliver me c. Rom 7. 24. Againe as hee 's present with the Body so hee 's absent from the Lord. He sees not the face of his Redeemer he see 's not God save as in a Glass darkly In the state of Mortality we are absent from our Head from our Husband from our Masters nay from our Fathers House from our Life our Happiness and that fulness of joy that remains for us in his Celestial presence This makes holy and Heavenly Soules cry with David Ps 42. 1 2. As the Hart panteth c. my Soul thirsteth for God for the Living God when shall I come and appear before God and conclude with St. Paul I desire to depart and to be with Christ which is farre better Phil. 1. 23. 3. Proposition To be absent from the Body is to be present with the Lord. I do not meane that all men so soone as they are Dead are in a State of Happiness and Bliss no