Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	hand_n	house_n	tabernacle_n	2,823	5	9.9204	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55553	A sermon at the funeral of the reverend Mr. Thomas Grey, late Vicar of Dedham in Essex preach'd in the parish-church of Dedham, Febr. the 2d. 1691/2, with a short account of his life / by Joseph Powell ...	Powell, Joseph, d. 1698.	1692 (1692)	Wing P3064; ESTC R3154	24,894	36

A SERMON AT THE FUNERAL Of the Reverend Mr. THOMAS GREY Late Vicar of Dedham in Essex PREACH'D In the Parish-Church of Dedham Febr. the 2d 1691 2. With a short Account of his LIFE By JOSEPH POWELL A. M. Rector of St. Mary on the Wall in Colchester LONDON Printed for Thomas Speed at the Three Crowns near the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1692. St. LUKE CHAP. ii VER 29. Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace IT is related in the Sacred History 1 King 19.4 of the great Prophet Elijah that he was perfectly cloy'd with Life and pray'd for a dismission he went a days Journey into the Wilderness and came and sat down under a Juniper Tree and he requested for himself that he might die and said It is enough now O Lord take away my Life for I am not better than my Fathers This looks like a Fit of Melancholy occasion'd by a Reflection on the unsuccessfulness of his Ministry and the rage of Jezabel against him and seems rather to be mention'd as an Instance of the Imperfections that stick to the best of Men in this Life than to be propos'd for our Imitation or to be drawn into Example by us Job 7.16 The like Account the Holy Books give us of another Man very Eminent for his Piety in the Age he liv'd in that he loath'd Life and was very desirous an end might be put to it The Objection against this Example also is that Holy Job breaks forth into this Expression in the anguish and vexation of his Spirit and that it was the mere effect of the pressure of that load of Troubles and Evils under which he labour'd Neither can this be deny'd for the Holy Man seems hereupon both to ground and to excuse his desire of Death as will be easily discern'd by any who will be at the pains to consult that Chapter of which give me leave to give you a short Paraphrase so far as concerns this his Complaint of Life and earnest desire of Death Let me ask you says he to his Friends these Questions Is not Death appointed by the Soveraign Lord of the World to every Man And does not Man spin out his short Life on Earth in trouble and toyl like an Hireling his Day And doth not such an one wearied out with the Work and Labour of the day naturally desire the approach of the Night to give him ease and refreshment And is not this my Case or rather is not my Case much worse For both day and night are alike uneasie to me you cannot but be sensible into how miserable a State I am fallen you who have seen my former Prosperity unless you have quite put off Humanity it self must pity my present Condition and which is to me a very sad Consideration you are never like to see it better for I shall enjoy no more good in this Life my Body is already over-run with Worms and I am become loathsom while I live and you cannot but be sensible how very difficult I find it to maintain my Temper of Mind in this Condition Since therefore God has assign'd Death as the End of all these Miseries can you blame me that I pray God to hasten it I know that 't is my Duty to refer my self wholly to God's wise disposal of me but assure your selves if God would give me leave to make my own choice I would much rather desire to die than to live And I cannot but look upon this desire as proceeding from Wisdom and a right Judgment of things But notwithstanding the special Circumstances attending both these Cases there seems to be something in the Requests of those great Men very agreeable to the desires of the best Men whilst under these wisest and most compos'd Thoughts and the happiest and most promising Advantages of Life A due Reflection upon the Vanity of Humane Life in its best State with a stedfast Faith of a future happy State to succeed the determination of the short Period of our days here on Earth are enough to dispose us not to be over fond of living any very long time here and with submission to the Will and Providence of God very chearfully to receive our Dismission when ever it shall be sent us We so sensibly find that there is no perfect Happiness to be met with on Earth that nothing needs to be said to confirm our Experience nor are we ignorant of the result of dying and the Rewards that befal the Righteous when once this Difficulty is overcome Happiness is the thing that all humane Nature is reaching at and who would die struglingly and with reluctancy whilst under the vigorous expectation of that great Declaration and Assurance given by our Religion Rev. 14.13 And I heard a Voice from Heaven saying unto me Write from henceforth i. e. from the very time of their Deaths blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord yea saith the Spirit which denotes the undoubted certainty of the thing that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them The Scriptures therefore have given us other Instances less liable to these Exceptions and which represent the desire of Death not as a rash unadvised impatient or melancholy Request but as the effect of great Piety high Attainments in Vertue and Goodness and a very lively sense of a future World disposing those who have thus rais'd themselves above this World and enlarg'd their Minds by the Principles of Religion easily to part with all things here below and to be under Wise and Pious and Devout Desires of Death and Dissolution Such is the Instance of the great Apostle who expresses his longing to be gone Phil. 1.21 and concludes peremptorily that it was much for his Advantage to die and though he was content to live this was upon no other score but his being useful and serviceable to others And he Pronounces this as the common Desire of all the Apostles and very proper to be embrac'd by all Wise and Pious Christians 2 Cor. 5.1 We know that if the earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolv'd we have a building of God an house not made with Hands eternal in the Heavens For in this q. d. for this Reason we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven And to mention no more this was the Case of good old Simeon a Just and Devout Man as the Evangelist gives his Character who had liv'd in the Faith and Hope of Israel the expectation of the Messias to come and by the Account given of him seems for some time to have been waiting both for the fulfilling of this Hope and for his own Dissolution For he had receiv'd a Revelation that he should not die till the Messias should come and he see him In submission therefore to the Will of God and in expectation of this Promise he still liv'd not fond of Life but chearfully waiting for Death