Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	dissolve_v	house_n	tabernacle_n	2,383	5	9.9994	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A46315	Abraham's death, the manner, time, and consequent of it opened and applied in a funeral sermon preached upon the death of the Reverend Mr. Thomas Case ... June 14th, 1682 : with a narrative of his life and death / by Thomas Jacomb ...	Jacombe, Thomas, 1622-1687.	1682 (1682)	Wing J111; ESTC R11297	37,227	59

an hour a moment longer Not because its bitter to us to live but because 't is unnecessary for us to live 'T would be an Act of * Singularis est Dei Gratia vitae saturi●as ut ex eâ migrare parati sumus cum Animi Tranquilitate c. Rivet in loc singular Grace from God if by his Spirit he would bring us to this blessed Temper I have dispatch'd the two first Amplifications about Abraham's Death from the Manner and the Time of it let me add a little upon the Third viz. the Issue and Consequent of it He died what became of him after that why He was gathered to his People This like the preceding Expressions of giving up of the Ghost dying in a good old Age being full of Years does often occur in Scripture 'T is used of Isaac Gen. 35.29 of Jacob Gen. 49.33 of Aaron Numb 20.24 of many otheres Sometimes 't is expressed by being Gathered to their Fathers I will gather thee to thy Fathers says God to Josiah 2 Kings 22.20 And also all that Generation were gathered unto their Fathers Judg. 2.10 David was laid unto his Fathers Acts 13.26 The Promise to Abraham was Thou shalt go to thy Fathers Gen. 15.15 We read again and again of sleeping with their Fathers 1 Kings 11.43 1 Kings 2.10 passim It 's an usual Hebraism to set forth entring into the State of the Dead There 's a kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in it it being a more soft and pleasing Description of that State instead of that which is more rough and harsh The Grave being the common Receptacle of all that die All go unto one place Eccles 3.20 I know that thou wilt bring me unto Death and to the House appointed for all living Job 30.23 therefore though Abraham died and was buried in Canaan where * Gen. 25.10 Sarah only was buried and none of his Progenitors yet upon his Death and Burial he 's said to be gathered to his People or Fathers The Papists Gloss upon it is he went to the Limbus Patrum Their Doctrine is that the Fathers and all the Old-Testament-Saints who lived and died before the Incarnation Passion and Resurrection of Christ were not immediately taken up into Heaven but shut up together in some secret Recesses or Cavernes of the Earth till Christ should come and suffer and rise again and then they were to be admitted into the Heavenly Glory And they tell us that these Fathers and others in this State did not feel any Paena Sensus as they in Purgatory do but only Paena Damni in their not having the immediate Presence of God and the Beatifick Vision And amongst other Proofs that they give of this my * Apponi ad Populum suum est consociari Non in majorum Sepulturâ juxta corpus sed perduci juxta Animam ad consortium Animarum Patrum illius quae erant in poenis tenebrarum usque ad discensum Filii Dei ad Inferos c. post Salvatoris Domini Resurrectionem transferendus ad Paradisum faelicitatis aeternae Lipem in loc So Lyranus P. Burgensis in Gen. 49.33 Bellarmin de Animâ Christi Cap. 11. Pet. Galat. Arcan lib. 6. c. 7. Text with other parallel Texts is insisted upon for one Abraham was gathered to his People i. e. he was not presently translated into Heaven but for a time shut up in a common Cell with the rest who died before him as only an Expectant of Heaven And hence they observe a Variation of Words in the setting forth of the Death of those who died since Christ came and of those who died before Christ came The former are said to die in the Lord to sleep in Jesus and the like but the latter are said to be gathered to their People to sleep with their Fathers and so on This Opinion we reject as having no solid Foundation in the Word of Truth And hold that as all Believers who now die do immediately enter into Glory for the Spirit returns to God who gave it Eccles 12.7 To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luke 23.43 We know that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a Building of God an House not made with Hands eternal in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 So that all who lived before Christ and believed in him did also upon their Dying immediately enter into Glory See this Limbus Patrum refuted and the Protestant Doctrine defended in River in Gen. E●ercit 151. Idem summa controv Qu. 42. Rainold Censura libr. Apochryph Prael 79 c. Chamier Panstrat 〈◊〉 3. l. 25. c. 5 c. Christ being the same to Them that he is to Vs Heb. 13.8 his Merit extending to Them as well as to Us he being the Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World Rev. 13.8 and They believing in the Messiah to come as well as we believe in him as come what reason can be assigned why they should not partake of the same Blessings the same Happiness that we now partake of and consequently upon Death be put into the immediate Possession of the Glory of Heaven even aswe are But blessed Abraham was it thus with thee was this thy gathering to thy People to be shut up in some dark Caverns of the Earth God knows where and to be kept out of Heaven God knows how long In thy Life at God's Command thou wentest thou knewest not whither and at thy Death too didst thou go thou knewest not whither Wast thou the great Instance of Faith Rom. 4.3 the Father of the Faithful and yet does it fare better with the meanest of thy Seed now than it did with thy Self Was Heaven so much in thy Eye didst thou look for a City which had Foundations Heb 11. ●0 whose Builder and Maker is God and yet so long kept out of it and thrust into some Recluse whöse Builder and Maker is Man Is thy * So Austin expounds it Q●e● Evang. l. 2. c. 28. in Ep. ad Evodium So Muldonate in loc who yet to save himself is fain to say Non quod Abraham in Coelo esset sed quòd ita loqui singarur quasi esset in Coelo Bosome made use of to represent Heaven and that before Christ died and yet wast thou not as yet in Heaven Blessed Saint these things we poor dim-sighted Protestants know not how to understand The Adversay has led me out of my way I return to the words which I shall consider not only as a Periphrasis of Death or of the dead State that follows upon it but as holding forth something of a far higher nature As namely that Abraham's Soul as soon as Death had seized upon his Body was forthwith translated into the Fellowship and Society of the glorified Saints who lived and died before him Two things Expositors infer from them 1. The Existence of the Soul in its separated State from the Body They apply

cannot assent to this Assertion without some stating and qualifying of it 'T is true when God is bringing great Evils upon a Family or a Kingdom then to be taken away young in order to being preserved from such Evils does carry the Love and Mercy of God in it as we see in the Instance of Jeroboam's Son 1 Kings 14.12 13. and of good Josiah 2 Kings 22.20 But to make this Proposition general and universal that we have no ground for He that promises long Life as a Mercy must be look'd upon as loving the Persons to whom he vouchsafes it That which makes old Age to be so generally burdensome and which causes Inquietude of Mind in Persons under it is the muny Afflictive Evils that accompany it Within there 's a sad Decay in the several Faculties of the Soul the Vnderstanding darkened the Reason clouded the Memory blunted the Affections dead and flat Without there are various Infirmities in the Body the Eyes dim the Ears deaf the Feet lame the Joynts benum'd the Hands tremble the Bones full of Aches the whole Body a Mass of Diseases what an Accumulation of Evils is here Hence old Age is commonly called Aetas mala the evil Age And Solomon speaks of it as such Eccles 12.1 Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy Youth while the evil days come not nor the Years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them He first in general calls it the evil Days and then particularly in the following Verses he most elegantly sets it forth in the Decay of the several Parts of the Body O quam continuis quantis plena Senectus Longa malis Juv. Multa senem circumveniunt incommoda Hor. Now can any be patient under the Conflux of such Evils much more can any be thankful to God for extending their Lives to an Age which exposes them to such Discomforts Answ They may and they ought to be so You that feel all these reflect upon what is past How many Years did you live in Health and Strength how long was it before it was thus bad with you And should not the weighing of past Mercy quiet you under present Afflictions When all the Day has been fair can you not bear a showre at the Evening When your Way has been good in your whole Journy can you not submit to a little spot of bad Way when you are just at the end of your Journey This calls for Patience and Thankfulness from you And besides you are to consider the present Good as well as the present Evils that attend your old Age. Ye are not yet wholly unserviceable something yet you can do for the Good of others and for the saving of your own Souls All these Calamities do but set you nearer to Heaven every Wave drives your nearer to the Shore every Wind is but for the throwing down of the Earthly Tabernacle 2 Cor. 5.1 that you may ascend to that House that Building of God which is eternal in the Heavens So that upon a spiritual account you have no reason to be impatient or to find fault with your old Age but to carry it like that * Georgias Leontinus in Val. Max. l. 8. c. 13. Aged Person that we read of who being an 107 Years old and being asked Why he would be willing to live so long answered Quia nihil habeo propter quod Senectutem meam accusem I undergo nothing for which I have cause to blame my old Age. Do but you consider the whole matter and you 'll have more reason to say the same Tull. de Sen. The Orator objects Four Evils in old Age 1. It disables for Business and Work 2. It renders the Body infirm and sickly 3. It deprives of all Pleasures 4. It brings near to Death The Vanity and Weakness of all these Imputations upon old Age he particularly makes out with great clearness and strength of Reason When Heathens have such sound Notions of this shall we Christians entertain false Notions of it Oh where God has blessed any of you with it do not murmur at it and give way to Discontent but heartily bless him for it 2. Is it a good old Age not only for the length of it but also for the Strength and Healthfulness of it where 't is so surely there must be great Thankfulness To live so long and yet to be strong and vigorous free from those Infirmities of Age that have been instanced in Nature yet keeps up its youthful Vigor there 's nothing in the Senses Organs Limbs Faculties of the Mind to shew that old Age is upon Persons nothing but only the hoary Head Oh what Mercy is this Whether we consider the Paucity of them that have it or the Advantage resulting from it for Service This is very good not only because it 's delightful and comfortable to him who has it but because it renders him serviceable to God and Man Alas the old decrepit decay'd Man here lives and that 's all his time of Service is over in a great measure he 's laid by like the Ship that 's worn out unfit to go to Sea any more Ah! but he that is old and yet hail and lusty that retains his former Vivacity of Body and Soul he 's as fit for Service as ever as useful in his Station as ever a wonderful Mercy What would some zealous Christians give for it If you have it I beseech you prize it improve it and be very thankful for it 3. But thirdly Is it a good old Age in the moral Notion of it Here is the highest Obligation to Praise and Thankfulness Can you take a view of your selves in the former Stages of your Lives that in all of them you have feared God and walk'd with him that all along you have been good and done Good that Holiness and Obedience have run through your whole Conversation And that now in the last Period of your Days yet you hold on in the good ways of God yet you are acting Grace yet bringing forth Fruit unto Holiness Rom. 6 2● Rev. 3.2 yet your Works are good nay your last Works are your best better filled up than formerly Oh where 't is thus with any of you rejoyce rejoyce call upon your Souls and all within you to bless God for his rich Grace displaid towards you Here 's good old Age indeed Oh that thee was more of it in the World Well here 's living to and in a good old Age 't will not be long before it will be dying in this good old Age And how safe how sweet will that Dying be unto you whenever it shall come so much to the Aged 2. Something I would say to the Young Psal 39.5 Job 21.24 To you who are in your best State in the prime of your Days whose Bones are full of Marrow and whose Candle burns very bright Old Age has not as yet seiz'd upon you but you are hastening to it

Men in their Dying As it is to those that perished in the General Deluge Gen. 7.21 to Ishmael himself in this Gen. 25.17 And for the Thing it self Abraham might have this easy Death but we cannot from him conclude that all Saints and they only shall have it This is wholly at God's dispose who orders every Man's Death to be easy or painful as he pleases Even the Godly sometimes have a rough Passage to Heaven while the wicked have a calm Passage to Hell Do we not see this verified in daily Experience the Good dying with sad Groans sharp Conflicts acute Pains and the Bad dying like Lambs having a very serene and placid Death As to this all things fall alike to all and there 's no Knowledg of the Love or Hatred of God by it All that I can say upon it is this An easy Death is a great Mercy Observ There can hardly be a parting of the two old Companions such a Violence offered to Nature but there will be some Pains and Difficulties attending this but the less there is of These the more there is of Mercy This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suiton in V. ●ng was passionately desired by the Emperor Augustus for Himself and all his Friends And indeed it is a Blessing much to be desired provided that this be done with due Submission to the Will of God We must not be our own Chusers as to the Circumstances either of Life or Death but in both entirely refer our selves to the Sovereign Pleasure of God And Christian comfort thy self in this whatever thy Pains may be in Dying thou art secured from those worser After-Pains that will succeed these to the ungodly and unbelieving That Death which is so painful to thee for a few Minutes Hours or Days when it has done its Work will put an end to all thy Pains and to whatever here is afflictive to thee 2. It imports Abraham's readiness and willingness to die He gave up the Ghost when God called for his Soul he freely gave it up there was in him no striving strugling or reluctancy nothing but a quiet and willing Resignation of himself to die 'T would have been strange had it been otherwise He that was willing at God's Command * Gen. 12.1 To go out of his own Country from his Kindred and Father's House to a Land that God would shew him † Heb. 11.8 though he knew not whither he went ‖ Acts 7.5 had no Inheritance in the Place no not so much as to set his Foot upon I say it would have been strange that he who so readily complied with this Command of God when as to his Earthly Interest things were no better Circumstantiated should have been backward to have complied with God's Will as to his removal from Earth when he knew upon this he should be taken up into Heaven This was in his Eye in his removal from his Country here for he looked for a City which hath Foundations whose Builder and Maker is God Heb. 11.10 But surely he might have and had a more immediate and proximate view of the Heavenly Inheritance in his Departure by Death which would put him into the present Possession of it No wonder therefore he should be thus willing to die A good Pattern for our Imitation Saints should be willing to die Observ Thus it was with Abraham himself and thus it should be with his Seed also We must with the greatest Readiness give up the Ghost whenever God demands it Not die out of Force or Necessity because we cannot help it but out of Choice and ready Resignation of Life to God's Will Sapientis est exire non ejici Sen. Ep. 30. a wise Man is not forced out of the World but he spontaneously goes out of it The wicked Oh how averse are they from Dying and can we blame them for it Their Souls are pull'd out of their Bodies whether they will or no they do not give them up but they are taken from them Thou Fool this night c. Prov. 14.32 The wicked in driven away in his Wickedness it 's an Allusion to things that are hurried away by some tempestuous Winds quite contrary to their own Natural Inclinations but the Righteous has hope in his Death and upon this Hope he dies willingly Certainly they who duely consider the Miseries of the present Life the true Nature of Death the Gain and Advantages of it to the Upright the * Quam praeposterum est quamque perversum ut cum Dei Volun atem fieri postulemus quando evocat nos accersit de hoc Mundo Deus non statim Voluntaris ejus imperio pareamus Cyprian de Mortal Serm. 6. Soveraignty of God over Men as to Life and Death cannot but be ready and willing to die Ripe Fruit how easily does it fall into the hands of him that gathers it Oh such who are fit to die ripe for Heaven how readly should they fall into God's Hands when by Death he comes to gather them The Truth is 't is not enough for such barely to be willing to die but this they should passionately yet not impatiently desire and pant after Having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 1.23 In this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our House which is from Heaven 2 Cor. 5.2 4. For we that are in this Tabernacle do groan being burdened So much for the First Amplification in the words about Abraham's Death The Second is taken from the Time of it Then Abraham gave up the Ghost and died in a good old Age an old Man and full of Years In a good old Age 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sym. in an hoary Age like that of Samuel I am old and gray-headed 1 Sam. 12.2 This God had promised before to Abraham Thou shalt go to thy Fathers in Peace thou shalt be buried in a good old Age Gen. 15.25 and here it was made good to him The same is said of David 1 Chron. 29.28 of Gideon Judg. 8.32 It may here be queried Object How is Abraham said to die in a good old Age when if we compare his Age with those who lived before him it comes much short of theirs What 's an 175 Years to those several hundreds of Years that the Fathers before the Flood arrived at according to what is recorded of them Gen. 5. And in the Computation of the Lives of the Fathers after the Flood Gen. 11. we find all of them one excepted viz. Nachor who lived but 148 Years to be older than Abraham was Some answer He is said to die in a good old Age Answ an old Man Senex dicitur non spatio dierum Temporum cùm junior obierit omnibus Avis suis sed quia sensu Fide Sanctimoniâ Vitae profecerat in immensum not as to the measure of his Life by Days or