Selected quad for the lemma: honour_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
honour_n	eternal_a	glory_n	immortality_n	1,513	5	10.0609	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31451	The certainty of salvation to them who dye in the Lord a sermon preached at the funeral of the Right Honourable, George Lord Delamer, at Boden, in the county-palatine of Chester, September the 9th, 1684 / by Zachary Cawdrey ...	Cawdrey, Zachary, 1616-1684.	1684 (1684)	Wing C1645; ESTC R36290	20,346	38

in well doing seek for honour and glory and immortality eternal life So again in that remarkable place Gal. 6. v. 7 8. Be not deceived God is not mocked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the middle Voice God doth not mock or delude the Expectancies of his Servants whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap For he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting And our Saviour told the Saint-Thief he should that day be with him in Paradise Luk. 23.43 But the Spirit not only witnesses this in the Records of Scripture but in the hearts and by the mouths of his dying Servants Attend at the Stakes of the Martyrs ready to ascend in their fiery Chariots and crying out Come Lord Jesus come quickly I desire to be dissolved and be with the Lord. Or hearken at the Death-beds of other Saints who with old Simeon cry with their last breath Luk. 2.29 Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart according to thy word in peace Or as it is 2 Tim. 4.7 8. I have fought the fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day the day of his departure which Ver. 6. he saith was at hand All these give abundant testimony to this truth In short All the triumphal expressions of dying Saints whether Martyrs or others declaring their assured hope of Bliss amongst the Spirits of other just Men made perfect upon their Dissolution are but the Ecchoes of the Testimony of the Spirit in them sealing to them the Assurance of their immediate Entrance into Life everlasting But this Truth is yet further evidenced from the Arguments of the Text They rest from their labours and their works follow them The first Argument runs thus They that rest from their Labours are blessed but those who dye in the Lord rest from their Labours therefore they are blessed That resting from Labours and things burthensome to Body and Soul but especially those burthensome to the Soul makes Blessedness is the Sense of all wise Heathens as well as Christians Seneca writ a Book about Tranquillity of Mind Seneca de Tranquillitate Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Plutarch another of the same Subject to shew that Happiness consisted in undisturbedness of the Soul or Spirit and they both give directions how a wise Man might attain that state of a quiet Spirit in the midst of the confusions of his outward condition Their directions are some of them very good and rational but not of virtue enough to work the Cure they pretend to There is one Christian Direction surmounts them all namely this Trust God's Goodness in all things and submit to God's Wisdom and Faithfulness in all things to cause all to work together for good according to his Promise in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.28 But however hence it is evident these Heathen judged that a resting from Labours at least those of the Soul would make a blessed state And Epicurus thought that much of the Happiness of the Gods consisted in their Rest and quiet Recess from the bussles and confusions of the World below And indeed it must needs be the common sense of all Mankind that rest from labours makes a blessed state For who can think but that it is a blessed condition to be free from Pain Sickness Tortures Reproaches tormenting Passions and Compassions and the rest of those Labours which I shewed that even good Men are subject to in this Life And now then that the departed Saints do rest from these Labours is sufficiently proved in that the All-knowing Spirit of Truth here affirms it For the Spirit not only saith They are blessed but says also They are therefore blessed because they rest from their Labours But that they do rest from their Labours may also be made out by Discourse and Reasoning For first They that are departed in the Lord having laid by their Bodies are secured from all impressions that were made upon their Souls by the means of their Senses and Members of their Body they cannot be sick or pained or weary or hungry or feel Cold or Heat or be wrought upon by any Engine of Torture From all these sorts of Labours therefore the separate Souls of the Saints must needs rest Next as to Reproaches and Slanders they affect us not in the Body further than we hear and know them and if we do hear them yet the testimony of our Consciences disarms false Reproaches and Slanders of their Stings Nay even just Reproaches falling upon a good Man through some scandalous act of Sin doth not sharply afflict him when he doth repent for the shame for his sin will sit light where the sorrow for his sin sits heavy And further where a Sinner's Repentance is evident none will reproach him for his sin but Fools and Villains And if a good Man even in this Life is thus secure in a great measure against Reproach much more safe is he in the other World in his separated state for as all the flatteries of surviving Friends and Admirers arrive not at the knowledge of the Damned nor abate or alter their misery no more do all the Libels and Satyrs or other lying Invectives thrown after good Men departed ever reach to their knowledge much less can they impair their joys or disturb their blessed tranquillity Nay the very memory of good Men's sins of David's Adultery and Murder of St. Peter's Denial of his Master and the like which were repented of upon Earth are not recorded in Heaven God removes their transgressions from before his own face and other Saints if they knew them upon Earth cannot possibly upbraid them they all being possessed with the Contemplation of God's infinite Mercies in Christ Jesus who had pardoned and saved themselves and other penitent Sinners The next sort of a good Man's Labours are those which arise from Temptations to sin or to doubting of God's Mercy But first the Saints cannot possibly sin in Heaven not only because there will be nothing to tempt them to it but also because knowing God perfectly according to their capacity they must needs love him perfectly and consequently they cannot sin against him And they loving God perfectly cannot possibly doubt of his love to them seeing the highest effect of the Divine Love to us is this to give us to love him and delight in him Now then there remains nothing but tormenting Passions and Compassions which we before put into the Inventary of good Men upon Earth but none of these can follow them to Heaven For first Anger cannot enter into that Kingdom of Love because they who love him that begets must needs love them that are begotten of him 1 Joh. 5.1 When therefore two Saints meet in Heaven who on account of different Opinions or Practices consistent

from that very instant wherein God condescended to make a new Covenant with fallen Man in the promised Seed the Seed of the Woman Gen. 3.15 For that phrase From the beginning of the World points directly to the time of making that new Covenant in Paradise and on that account Christ is called A Lamb slain from the foundation of the World Rev. 13.8 That new Covenant is in that Verse called The book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the World it containing the conditions of life and Happiness setled in the Mediation of the Lamb the Lord Jesus and confirmed in his Blood from the beginning of the World So then when God made that new Covenant promising in Christ Acceptance of Men's sincere though imperfect Obedience then I say he appointed and prepared for them not a Return into an earthly Paradise but an entrance into an everlasting Kingdom into an Eternal Life even for all those who by patient continuance in well doing seek for honour and glory and Immortality Rom. 2.7 We may observe further that the New Covenant was ratified and established by God's Mercy in the promised Seed Gen. 3.15 in his sentencing the Serpent and before he passed Sentence on Adam and Eve And therefore in the sentencing of them we hear of nothing of either spiritual or eternal Punishments pronounced against them but there is denounced only such temporal miseries and a temporal death as do indeed declare God's Anger against Sin but withall may by the Grace of God in the New Covenant redound to our spiritual and eternal Good On which account St. Paul 1 Tim. 2.15 saith that The child-bearing woman notwithstanding her pains in child-bearing shall be saved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through that promised birth of the Saviour of the world if she continue in faith For the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 relates not to every Woman 's Child-bearing but to the famous Birth of the promised Seed as I with submission to the Godly Learned do judge So then when Christians through Grace perform the Obedience of the new Covenant in Repentance Faith Self-denial Heavenly-mindedness Charity and the rest of Christian Duties God accepts of them in Christ Jesus and will reward them therefore their Works following departed Saints to be rewarded they who die in the Lord are blessed And yet the Argument concluded not strongly unless that Reward be and make up compleat Blessedness But that it doth so is evident from Rom. 2.7 God will give to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for honour and glory and immortality eternal life And Gal. 6.8 it is affirmed that They who sow to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting Now this Life everlasting which is the portion of the Saints that it may be a compleat and perfect Happiness must be at least thus qualified In it the Saints must not want any thing that they stand in need of or desire any thing but what they have nor ever come to distaste or loath any thing they do enjoy nor fear the loss of what they are possest of nor envy the portion of any other who partake that state with them nor yet despise any that are their Associates in that blessed Inheritance I say the meanest Saint cannot envy the highest Angel nor can the highest Angel despise the meanest Saint For Reason it self will evince that it cannot be a perfect Life and Happiness where there is want of something we do need or longing for something we have not or a loathing of what we once savoured or a fear of losing of what we enjoy or a scorning or an envying of those who are our Companions in the same state But those Evils of Want Longing Loathing Fear Envy and Scorn being removed it cannot be but the Reward of the Saints must amount to Fulness of Joy and Pleasures for evermore Oh the infinite Mercies of God in Christ Jesus who accepts of the sincere though imperfect Services of holy and humble persons and thus highly rewards them But if we yet further enquire what Object it is that being thus enjoyed sets us above Want Longing Loathing Fear Scorn and Envy I answer It is God himself communicating his own glorious Perfections to the Knowledge and Contemplation of the Saints and Angels in that excellent Light of Glory wherein they see him face to face 1 Cor. 13.12 and see him as he is 1 Joh. 3.3 By which Knowledge so clear and so glorious the Saints and Angels are wrapt up into the most intense and fervent love of him and delight in him that it is possible for Creatures of their degrees to receive And seeing the Essential Happiness of God himself appears to be his Comprehensive Knowledge of his own Glorious Essence and Perfection and the Essential Love of and Eternal Complacency in himself for there is not a more excellent Being than himself for him to contemplate nor a more lovely Being than himself for him to delight himself in Hence I say our coming to that blessed Enjoyment of him is called Matth. 25.21 the Entring into the Joy of our Lord we coming to enjoy God whom himself enjoys and to enjoy him by Contemplation and Love which is the way of God's own Essential Enjoyment of himself as far as we can apprehend Thus God is the Portion of his People and the Inheritance of his Saints The Works therefore of those who dye in the Lord following them to receive so high a Reward through God's Mercy in the New Covenant confirmed in the Blood of his blessed Son it must needs be that they are eternally blessed And that this honourable and pious Person whose Funeral Rites have called this great Assembly together is now arrived at that Reward and Crown of Evangelical Righteousness is I suppose the persuasion of all persons present who knew him and who believe that there is a Reward for the Righteous But considering that when a great and good Man dyes something of the Panegyrick is required to make up the Justa and compleat his Funeral-Rites David himself made a Funeral-Oration at the Interment of Abner 2 Sam. 3.33 I shall say something of that kind as well as I am able but still being careful of this that I may not by Commendation of the Dead give any just Offence to the Living nor by false Praises of the Deceased lay a Snare for the Feet of Survivors as is too oft done I will therefore say nothing but what I knew or have unquestionable Testimony for it Concerning the Family of which this Noble Lord was lately the Head you all know it hath sent forth its Boughs unto the Seas and its Branches to the Rivers Psal 80.11 most Families of Quality in this County and many also in other Shires having mingled their Blood by Marriage with that of Dunham Himself joyned in Affinity with two great and ancient Families of the Nobility first that of Lincoln then that of Stamford who justly esteemed a

establish that New Covenant and the gracious Promises of it in and through his Blood Which Covenant was indeed as to the Acceptance of God's infinite Mercy established from the first moment that the Promise was made to Adam And so Christ was a Lamb slain from the beginning of the World not only in the Type of Sacrifices but in Divine Acceptance and in the acting of Faith by the Saints of all Ages But this primary intention of Sacrifices as representing the Atonement to be made by the promised Seed and the Acceptance of our Services through his Intercession was soon lost and the Tradition about their Significancy was soon corrupted and they became universally abused to Superstitious and Idolatrous Services Yet still God in his infinite Mercy to Men and for their encouragement in Vertue and Piety secured that part of the Tradition uncorrupt That to them who by patient continuance in well doing sought for Glory and Honour and Immortality God would give Eternal Life Rom. 2.7 But because Vertue was always envied and many times persecuted and especially it was so after that Religion came again to be exercised upon the Genuine Patriarchal Principles revived in the Evangelical Doctrine God for our encouragement was pleased to confirm that Article of our Faith about the happiness of holy Men after death by several Revelations from Heaven which were after recorded in the Writings of the holy Prophets and Apostles And of that sort is the Theme assigned me for my present Discourse I heard a Voice c. For this Text was therefore commended to my Meditation because it was the last Scripture which this Noble Berean this learned and pious Lord had set down under that Head The Certainty of Salvation It being his pious custom not only daily to search the Scriptures and meditate on them but also to refer the Scriptures to their proper Subjects that they might be of ready use to him on all Occurrences The Position or Doctrine of this Text is the more to be observed I have seen three Books in Quarto writ by his Lordships own hand wherein the Scriptures are thus disposed methodically under their proper Heads very judiciously being especially Collections of such as tended to the confirming of his Judgment in the Doctrine of the Gospel or encouragement of his heart in the practice of Repentance Faith Charity Heavenly-mindedness c. And some also as they did occur for to justifie the Vsages of the Church of England against both Popish and Phanatical Criminations First because it is the foundation of all Religious Actings and Sufferings for every one that cometh to God or is a Proselyte to his holy Fear and Love must believe that he is and is a Rewarder of those that diligently seek him Heb. 11.6 And Secondly Because it is not only the Dictate of the Holy Ghost to the inspired Pen-man but commanded by a Voice from Heaven to be recorded An Angel speaking articulately in and with a Clap of Thunder to St. John to write it Instances of the like Voice we have in several places of Scripture particularly Mat. 3. at our Saviour's Baptism and Act. 9. at St. Paul's miraculous Conversion The Doctrine it self to be recorded is not barely propounded but confirmed by all the Methods that Reason or Discourse doth admit namely by Testimony Thus saith the Spirit and by Arguments artificial drawn from the most clear to pick that of the Causes They may or do rest from their Labours and their Works follow them to be rewarded a tranquillity or undisturbedness of state and an enioyment both of reflex and direct pleasure being necessary to make up compleat Blessedness Position So now then our Theme or Position to be discoursed on is this That it is evident both from the Testimony of the Spirit and the most cogent Reasons that they who dye in the Lord are from thenceforth blessed But before I pursue the Proof of it from the Arguments in the Text I must explain the meaning of the Terms denominating the Subject of all the three Propositions in the Text namely They that dye in the Lord for in every one of the Propositions that is the Subject They who dye in the Lord are blessed They who dye in the Lord rest from their Labours and They who dye in the Lord have their Works to follow them Qu. What is it therefore to dye in the Lord Answ He dyes in the Lord who at the time of his death is found under that temper of Spirit and the exercise of those Graces which do evidence his Implanting into Christ by Grace and his Acceptance with God in Christ through his Mercy in the New Covenant But to make this more clear we must explain who it is that lives in the Lord and that I may do so I must set down what Respects and Relations Christ stands in towards us according to God's Appointment in the New Covenant 1. Christ therefore is appointed by God in the New Covenant to be a Propitiation and Atonement for Sin through his Blood and Meritorious Sufferings that on the account of them God might pardon the returning Penitent without any dishonour to his Soveraign Government of Men and Angels 2. He was appointed also to be the Mediator of a New Covenant in whose hand all the Promises thereof are established All the Promises of Pardon Peace Grace and Glory are Yea and Amen in him or through his Blood or Death confirming that New Testament or Covenant 3. Christ is also appointed by God to be the Head and Fountain of new spiritual Life and Power to Mankind who by the Fall of Adam had lost all power to do good and promote their own Happiness as well as the Devils and damned Spirits had lost the same but It pleased the Father that in Christ should all fulness of spiritual power dwell Col. 1.19 And He is that true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the World Joh. 1.9 And Of his Fulness we are to receive Grace and Grace for Grace Joh. 1.16 4. Christ is appointed also to be the High Priest in and through whose Intercession our sincere though imperfect Services are accepted 5. And he is appointed also to be the First born among many Brethren in and through whose Purchase and Title we are to be adopted to the Inheritance of Eternal Glory 6. Christ is also appointed to be the First Fruits of them that sleep to consecrate our Bodies to a Resurrection by his rising again Thus is Christ to us a Propitiation a Mediator an Intercessor an Head and Root both of Grace and Adoption of Bodies and Souls to Glory But to whom is he effectually all this The Gospel tells us he is so to them who exercise Repentance towards God and Faith towards him our Lord Jesus Christ Act. 20.21 Who are constant in mortifying of their Lusts Rom. 8.13 Who have devoted themselves sincerely to God's Glory 2 Cor. 5.15 that is who have resolved to do or