Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n
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A66978
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A funeral sermon, occasioned by the death of Mrs. Jane Papillon late wife of the very worthy Thomas Papillon, Esq; first preached July 24. 1698. and now published at his request. By John Woodhouse.
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Woodhouse, John, d. 1700.
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1698
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Wing W3462; ESTC R220039
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22,486
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67
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in this Text of great Importance to your Souls and mine O that I knew how to â—ffect your Hearts and mine with it â—hat we might know how to give it â—ts Influence upon your Hearts and Lives I say so because of the Great Solemnity with which these Words are introduced here is such an Apparatus as is verily very awful I do not know three Passages in all Scripture so Solemnly introduced I heard a Voice from Heaven whether the Voice of the Angel of God the Angel of the Covenant Or whether a Voice from God more immediately the Text hath not told us And we may safely be ignorant about it But it is A Voice from Heaven a Voice than cannot lye a Voice that cannot deceive us a Voice that should be heard and received with all suitble Reverence and Acceptation and who could have believed it unless well attested and this Voice bids him Write Write why is it worthy to be Written if it is a Voice from Heaven on such an Important Occasion as appears in the Context John might well write it down fro the Comfort of the Followers of Jesus that poor despised reproached persecuted Generation whom the World reckons not worthy to live And their God that knows them better than the World knows them and is not ashamed to be called their God he knows that the World is not worthy of them q. d. Souls bear up under all Discouragements tho' yours is a Distressed Heart-stooping Day here is a Word from Heaven a Cordial for Fainting Seasons and I 'll write it down for you that you may have it ready and may have Recourse to it in your needful Hours and that is Blessed are the Dead that dye in the Lord from henceforth c. The Words Logically considered contain First A Proposition Blessed are the Dead which dye in the Lord. Secondly A Limitation or Determination of the Time and Season of verifying it From henceforth Thirdly A Twofold Reason of the Truth of the Proposition First That they may rest from their Labours Secondly And their Works do follow them Which will be the Reasons of the ctrine and waving to speak to them now I may hope for room for some Application which is the thing I would aim at The Proposition in the Text then that I may for Brevity sake make it serve for the Doctrine is this Doct. Blessed are the Dead which dye in the Lord. I call it a Proposition and yet the accurate Logicians may quarrel at it because the Predicate is in the Place of the Subject But it is a Logical Proposition at least with very little Variation They that are dead and dye in the Lord are Blessed And so I must endeavor to explain the Subject and then the Predicate and though the Subject be last in the Text it is to be reckoned first in the Proposition and must therefore fall first under our Consideration First What are we to understand by The Dead that dye in the Lord There are two Senses that put in very fairly and both of them agreeable enough to the Original Some and Men of Value by Dying in the Lord do understand as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much as Dying For the Cause and Sake of the Lord as Martyrs do that seal their Testimony with their Blood The Preposition which we render In after the manner of the Hebrews signifying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as much as For and I must not deny but this Preposition in other Places of Scripture is so render'd as in the Margin and elsewhere and the Proposition Mat. 6. 7. Eph. 3. 13. is true take it in this Sense That those that Dye For the Lord are Blessed and it may be in a Degree above other Men that Dye only in the Lord. But I may not exclude the other Sense of it by this tho' there are great Authorities to countenance me in it because I think it is beyond Dispute that when the Apostle uses an Equivalent Phrase Them that sleep in 1 Thes 4. 14. Jesus Sleeping is allow'd to be dying in Jesus For after this he assures us The dead in Christ shall rise first Verse 16. There is nothing in the Context that I can discover should limit us to this Sense therefore it must not I think be understood only of those that Dye for him that suffered a Violent Death for him as many of our Brethren have done and now do in the Christian World The Translation hath a plain and sound Sense different from that for though it may be admitted to signifie Dying for him yet it doth not exclude but take in their Dying in him that dyed not thus for him 1 John 4. 13. Eph. 3. 17. Dying interested in him United to him by the Spirit on his part and by Faith on ours And the Proposition is true of these and all these so that in the same Rom. 8. 1. Rom. 16. 7. Joh. 15. 4. Sense they are said to be in Christ to abide in him and walk in him they may be said to dye in him Let me add that Dying in the Lord thus explain'd doth suppose Two Things First Their Being in him by their Coming to him and Receiving of him which are but two different Scripture Joh. 1. 12. Mat. 11. 28. Expressions for their Believing in him Secondly It is Supposed to Dying in him they did Abide and Walk in him from the time of their Coming to him and Receiving of him be it a longer or shorter time And pray Sinners you that make light of Christ that prefer your other things before him or turn your Backs upon him to serve divers Lusts and Pleasures instead of him that abandon your selves to a Carnal Interest Know that you cannot in this Case dye in him or be blessed in so doing and therefore bethink your selves how it will be with you if Death lay its cold Hands upon you O Get into Christ Get a saving Interest in him give up your selves to him that Death may not find you out of him for Woe to you if you dye and not in Jesus Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord. Let us now briefly see what we are to understand by the Predicate Blessed And of this give me leave to speak something First of the Name and then of the Thing for Names are to lead us to Things and I would I could tell you more of it I am ashamed to think how little I can tell you of the Blessedness of those Souls that Live and Dye in Jesus That I may borrow some Light from the Old Testament let me tell you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Hebrews have a Word Expressive of this beyond what our Language can fully reach it 's often Translated Blessed and this Word seems to be in that form which the Masters in Sacred Language call Forma Regiminis and may be turned from its concrete to an abstract Signification and therefore if I
A Funeral Sermon Occasioned by the DEATH OF M rs Jane Papillon Late WIFE of The Very Worthy Thomas Papillon Esq First Preached July 24. 1698. and now Published at his Request By JOHN WOODHOVSE LONDON Printed by J. Astwood for John Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultrey 1698. TO THE Worthy and Ever Honoured Thomas Papillon Esq One of the Representatives of the Honourable City of LONDON in the present Parliament AND The Deservedly Respected Philip Papillon His Only SON WHEN I had performed the Service which you were pleased to Call me to in the Preaching of this Sermon I had no Grounds of Fear you would Importune me to make it more Publick THERE are few can be desired to send their Pulpit Discourses to the Press upon greater Disadvantage than my self who have no written Hints to recollect what I deliver and must therefore be forced when urg'd to it to Desire Help from some of my Hearers and refresh my Memory with their Notes which alwayes labour under considerable Imperfections To this I was particularly forced in the present Case which I thought a sufficient Reason for my desiring as I did it might when committed to Paper be kept for your own Private Perusal THEY that know us will not expect I should say much of you when I write to you However I am bold to be your Remembrancer of what was your Deceased Consort ' s Satisfaction in her Languishing Hours because it may on equal Grounds be both yours To have about Thirty descending from you or nearly United to them that do and no One but what gives just Cause to all of us to believe the Root of the Matter is found and Christ formed in them is a Comfort many want after all their Pious Counsels Holy Examples and Care of their Disposal And tho' this be but one of the many Distinguishing Marks God hath Honoured you both with yet this alone should raise our Thanks and Hopes about them AND that God will continue them and especially You Sir his Worthy Son in the Steps of such a Father to fill up many of his Useful and Exemplary Posts both Religious and Civil is the Desire and shall be the Prayer of Your Affectionate Honourer and Faithful Servant in Our Dear Lord John Woodhouse Upper Moorfields Octob. 27. 1698. REV. XIV 13. And I heard a Voice from Heaven saying unto me Write blessed are the Dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth Yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them I Need not tell you Beloved the sad Occasion of this Mournful Assembly The Design I shall mainly drive at is not the Celebration of the Deserved Praises of the Dead or the Revival of the Grief and Tender Sence the Living have of so great a Loss But if it were possible I would Endeavour to bring this Afflictive Providence so near our Hearts that we might not lose all that we might get some good by so great a loss the loss of so Excellent a Person I would render it as Instructive as I can to this great Assembly And that I may the more successfully do it will you lend me your Attentive Thoughts to that Passage of Sacred Writ that you have upon Record but now named to you Blessed are the Dead c. Scripture and Experience tell us that the Inhabitants of this lower World are Divided under two great Lords that have the Rule over them Christ and Satan the Flesh and Spirit and it is true it lyes at every Man's Choice whose he will be and whom he will serve the Devil cannot force Subjects and Christ will not he will Deal with us according to the Free and Noble Natures that he hath given us but hath from the Divine Pleasure and according to the Nature of the thing Purposed that what Sinners Choose that they shall have such as hath been their first such shall be their Final State the Way and End are inseparably Connected together The far greater part of Mankind Devote themselves to the Service of the World and the Flesh abandon themselves to a fleshly animal Life these they Choose and Follow And Verse 9. the Context tells you what will be the Dreadful Issue of this their Course They shall be filled with their own Verse 10. Wayes for they shall be Tormented with Fire and Brimstone A Dreadful Entertainment shall Sinners find when they come to Receive the Recompence of the Pleasures of Sin that they had for a short Season For they shall find the most Tormenting Element of Fire with Brimstone to give Heat and Horrour to it the Smoke of their Torment that 's an Verse 11. Awakening Word to them that feel and to them that do not yet feel it shall ascend for ever and ever and they shall have no Rest Day nor Night Sinners let me tell you from the Lord that there is not one of you that is yet a Slave to his Lust that chooseth and pursueth a Carnal Worldly Interest before all that God and Christ have offered to you but he is in a Case that doth certainly entitle him to this Torment tho' yet he is not in it I know Sinner thou fondly hopest it will be better but where is the Ground for it Either set thy self to Fear the Lord and Follow the Lamb or thou canst never escape and therefore whoever thou art that hast never been awakened to a Sense of thy Sin and Danger art thou yet in an Impenitent Christless State think what will the way I have taken bring me to this End God hath told me so and at my Peril I must believe it that I may prevent it Oh that God would give thee a Heart to it But as dark as that side of the Cloud is the Context hath a light side also and my Text leads me to a Better Sort of Souls And O that God would lead it to the Souls of all of you that are in such a State as will intitle you to this Torment that you may make your Escape and never know by feeling what it means There is a Generation that under the sweet Influences of Free and Powerful Grace follow the Lamb whithersoever Verse 4. he goes They had taken Christ and become Imitators of him and they would follow him through Tribulation and Persecution to Glory let it be how it would with them here they would follow Christ they had embark'd with him and they would adventure their all with him These are they that are devoted to God set apart for God and Holiness in their Hearts and Lives They keep the Commandments of God and the Verse 12. Faith of Jesus they follow Christ in a Life of Obedience and maintain the Faith of Jesus cleaving to abiding in and walking with him and these shall have the Recompence of Reward In the next Verse I heard 〈◊〉 Voice from Heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the Dead Surely Sirs here is somewhat