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
A41017	Thrēnoikos the house of mourning furnished with directions for the hour of death ... delivered in LIII sermons preached at the funerals of divers faithfull servants of Christ / by Daniel Featly, Martin Day, John Preston, Ri. Houldsworth, Richard Sibbs, Thomas Taylor, doctors in divinity, Thomas Fuller and other reverend divines.	Featley, Daniel, 1582-1645.	1660 (1660)	Wing F595; ESTC R30449	896,768	624

Lo this is the man that took not God for his strength but trusted in the multitude of his riches and strengthened himself c. Secondly having lost his supposed good he loseth the fruition of God the chief good the countenance of the beatifical presence the fellowship and melodious harmony of the glorious Angels his place and portion with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the kingdome of heaven And all proportionable to his own deservings In his life-time he refused God being dead God refuseth him he turned his face from the poor and needy God in his affliction eternally turns his face from him A loss so exceeding great that whosoever descends deepest in the meditation of it yet he shall be at a loss and to seek for a full definition of it For as Chrysostome truly affirms though a man tell thee of ten thousand hells all is one in comparison of this misery to be discarded of blessedness and glory and to be hated of Christ But if this be so what shall we say to further misery having lost the chief good he receives his punishment with hypocrites and unbeleevers in the dungeon of extream ill A place where there is nothing but horrour of conscience and desperation a company of affrighting divels and with all this weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth Instead of merriment and jovial laughter and scurrulous lascivious songs and wasting and abusing the creatures of God nothing but weeping and gnashing of teeth So that having come into the chambers of death and closed in the straits of the grave the man like the hedg-hogg leaves the apples behind him and only reserves the prickles of a wounded spirit in that sentence of Babilon As much as she bath gloryed her self and lived delitiously so much terment give her Lastly that that is the hell of hells that nothing may be wanting to his diserved wo he is out of hope of all gracious means of deliverance he must never look for the revokation of Gods sentence though with Esau he seek it with tears he must never look for mittigation of his horrour though he heg with the unmerciful glutton for one drop of water The date of repentance is out the day of grace will never dawn again the justice is implacable the fire unquenchable the worm unsatiable and all continual without intermission for ever-more O! bottomless depth of horrour oh unexpressible torment of a forsaken soul what greater misery saith devout St. Bernard then alway to be wishing for that which shall never be and for the removing of that that shall never cease to be Therefore the sum is this Hath the covetous exchanged his soul for riches the ambitious for honours hath he lost it for the riches of Cressus the power of Alexander the Empireof Augustus the glory of the whole world yet in consideration of The end of his life The loss of his God The extremity of his pain The eternity of all What is a man profited Now then for some application and to draw toward a conclusion suffer the word of exhortation brethren and captivate your thoughts to the obedience of Jesus Christ You especially whom God hath blessed above others concerning the enjoyment of outward temporal things If ever you be desirous to escape the direful slaughter-house of Hell to escape those burnings and those everlasting yellings while you have time bethink your selves of some saving course to flie from the wrath to come And now in time cast up your accounts take heed lest for the love of this present world you lose your God the life of your souls There is a way that seems right to a man saith Solomon but the end of it is the manifold wayes of death Some Babilonish garment some Naboths Vineyard some sweet preferment but if the means be unlawful if it disturb conscience and prejudice the glory of God and occasion the destruction of thy soul then say What shall I doe when God shall rise up and when he shall visit what shall I answer This will be the reckoning of fools at the last What hath pride profited us and what hath riches brought us Surely the gain will be no other then what Promethius is fabled to have had by Pandora's box a place to be tormented Or what Hercules got by Dianira's garment Such will be the final issue of all Mammonists that live amongst Christians and under means of better reformation and more sanctification in their wayes I say this will be the final issue The worm of despair alway gnawing and never dying and the flames of eternal Tophet never to be extinguished Therefore in such a case if thou tell me thou knowest what thou dost and what thou gainest Let me tell thee thou little knowest thy dammage and what thou hast lost Alas what are the goods of this life when they are compared with eternal damnation and the sweetness of imaginary gain what proportion hath it with the bitterness of so great a loss Riches have wings they take their leave honour is transitory pleasures flie away whereas the soul of man is the subject of immortality And thy poor neglected soul must bide by it for an everlasting pledge and pay the debt O! then contemn this glory that is nothing First seek Gods kingdom and the glory of it suffer not heaven to stand at so great a distance to thy soul taste and see how gracious the Lord is by one drop of water from that celestial fountain by one crum from that heavenly table and then as concerning the things below thou wilt account them as dross and dung in comparison of that joy and peace of conscience Resolve as Themistocles when he saw a goodly booty he would not stoup to take it up leave these things for the Children of this world But let your care be to please the Lord and to gain the peace of a good conscience First seek the kingdom of God which consists not in meat and drink but in righteousness and peace and joy in the holy Ghost Remember the vanity of the things of the world remember how unable the soul is to enjoy hell and to lose heaven without eternal horrour and in consideration hereof Use the World as though you used is not and use this as a proof hide it in a sanctified memory and write it in the table of a sanctified conscience if it were possible with a pen of Iron and the point of a Diamond What is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul CHRIST HIS SECOND ADVENT OR THE APPROACH OF The God of Recompences SERMON XXIII REVEL 22.12 Behold I come shortly and my reward is with me to give every man according to his works THe Angel having described to Saint John in the Chapter immediately before and in the former part of this Chapter the exceeding great joy and glory and felicity that all the godly shall have in the kingdome of heaven by

any great advantage out of pardons to ransome souls out of Purgatory And as this answer standeth not with their profit so neither agreeth it well with their own tenents for they teach that Purgatory fire is as hot as Hell for the time surpassing the smartest torment that can be devised or ever was endured on earth and call they those happy who lie soultring in this fire yea but when they are there they receive singular comfort in this that they are sure they shal never go to hell Surely small comfort to one who is in hellish torments and shall continue there he knows not how long to tell him that he is sure he shall go to no other Hell and how prove they that Purgatory is a supersedeas to Hell What security have they for it Gods Word but in all Gods Word there is no syllable of purgatory neither let they the people to know Gods Word for in Spain and generally where the inquisition is in force the proverb is that he smels of a Faggot who is found with a Bible about him in the mother tongue These things being so I wonder that any ordinary Papist be willing to die seeing the best he can hope for is to be cast presently into the flames of Purgatory and there to fry he knows not how long perhaps a hundred perhaps a thousand years But God be blessed for it we have otherwise learned of Christ and his blessed Apostles We know that if our earthly tabernacle be dissolved we shall presently have not a temporary habitation in Purgatory but an eternal in Heaven we know that those who beleeve in Christ come into no condemnation but pass from death to life Wherefore let us not take on too much for those whom God hath taken away from us let us not trouble our selves for them that are at rest let us not shed over-many tears for them who can now shed no more tears let us not too much grieve for them who are free from all pain and grief And for our selves let us not be as some are strucken dead with the very name of death let us not draw back when God calleth for us when we draw on and our Sun is setting when the pangs of death give us warning again and again to go out from hence out of our houses of clay let us embrace the day which bringeth us to our everlasting home which having taken us away from hence and losed us from the snares of this world returneth us to Paradise and the Kingdome of Heaven It followeth And their Works follow them In the handling of this branch before we taste of the sweet juyce we must pill the root wherein we shall find a four-fold difficulty 1. How works are here distinguished from labours 2. How works may be said to follow them 3. Whither they follow them 4. When they overtake them The first difficulty is thus expedited the works of the dead are here distinguished from their labours as the fruit from the branches that bear them the hire from the day labour the prize from the race As those who taste the fruit of a tree are said by an Hebraisme to eat of the tree to him that overcometh saith the Spirit I will give to eat of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God So here in this Text works are taken for the fruit of works or their recompence of reward But how are works in this sence said to follow the dead For all the works of the dead are either transient as meditations prayers pious ejaculations present relieving the poor and the like or they are permanent as their writings their building Colledges Hospitals Churches and other Monuments of Piety the former cannot follow the dead because they remain not now nor the latter because they stay behind them here on earth I answer the speech is figurative and signifieth no motion of the deads works but rather promotion of their persons and plentiful remuneration for their works the phrase imports no more then that all their works whether they be actions of Saints or passions of Martyrs shall not come short of their guerdon but shall be most certainly and undoubtedly rewarded If we follow this interpretation of the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may some say will not Popish merit follow thereupon is not Heaven compared to servants wages to the souldiers crown to the racers garland and here to the labourers pay and doth not a true labourer merit his pay a faithful servant his wages a valiant souldier his crown a speedy racer his prize this doubt may be cleared and the question resolved by these Assertions following 1 That our good works shall undoubledly be rewarded for it is the very dictate of nature that he that soweth should reap and it is one of the first principles of Divinity that there is a God and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him yea so exact a rewarder is he that not a widdows Mite not a cup of could water but shall have an allowance for it Did Abraham did Isaac did Jacob did Joseph did Job did Solomon did Constantine did Theodosius and other prime servants of God serve him for nought did he not open the treasure of his bounty in such sort to them all that they could not but in thankfulness subscribe to that protestation of the Prophetical King verily there is a reward for the righteous even in this life and much more in the life to come for Ecce venio behold I come quickly and my reward is with me to give to every man according as his works shall be to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life whence Saint Bernard draweth this corollary though charity is not mercenary yet she never goes from God emptyhanded 2 That this reward is some way due unto our works for the labourer saith Christ is worthy his hire and the Apostle is bold to say it is just with God to recompence them that trouble you tribulation but to your rest and he seemeth to claim a crown to himself as his due I have fought a good fight henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give unto me it is said to be given indeed but given by a righteous judge and as a crown of righteousness and therefore some way due 3 Our good works concur actively to the attainment of this reward the words of our Saviour seek ye first the kingdome of God and the righteousness thereof labour for the meate that perisheth not and strive to enter in at the narrow gate and of the Apostle work out your salvation with fear and trembling and this momentry affliction worketh unto us a superexcellent weight of glory import no desire 4 Notwithstanding all this our good works no way merit at Gods hand their reward

the sum agreed upon for his ransome and the person in whose power the captive is and who accepteth of the ransome Which of these is the Redeemer you will all say he that is at the cost of all so it is in our redemption from spiritual thraldome the holy Spirit draweth the condition sealeth the Bonds the Father receiveth the ransome the Son both mediateth for the ransoming and layeth down the sum For we were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold but the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb withou● blemish he took part of our nature that through death he might destroy him that had tthe power of death that is the devil and deliver them who through the fear of death were all there life-time subject to bondage Hence we gather that he that destroyed death must die but to affirm that the immortal and eternal Spirit of God expired is blasphemy and to say that the Father suffered is heresie long ago condemned in the Patro-passions we conclude therefore with the Apostle that the second person Christ Jesus hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel And so I fall upon my last Observation the judgment here mentioned Davorica 3. Thy plagues there is no tittle or iota in holy Scripture superfluous some mystery therefore lyeth in the number plagues in the plural not plague in the singular which I conceive to be this that Christ put Death to many deaths and foyled and conquered it many wayes first in himself secondly in his members First in himself by destroying sin the sting of Death Secondly by breaking the bonds thereof in his powerful Resurrection wherewith it was impossible that he should be held Secondly in his members by changing the nature of it to them and making it of a curse a blessing of a loss a gain of a punishment either a great honour or a special favour or a singular advantage a great honour as to the Martyrs who thereby acquired so many Rubies to their crown of glory as they shed drops of blood for their Saviour A special favour as to Abraham Josiah and Saint Austin who were taken away that they might not see and feel the misery that after their death fell on the posterity of the one the subjects of the other and the diocess of the third A singular advantage to all the faithful who thereby are discharged from all cares fears sorrows and temptations and presently enter into their Masters joy For blessed are the dead that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their works follow them Now the means whereby Christ conquered death utterly destroyed it are diversly set down by the learned some argue a contrariis contraries say they are to be destroyed by their contraries as heat by cold moysture by drought sickness by health Death therefore must needs be destroyed by life as the contrary but Christ is the resurrection and the life in him was life and life was the light of men Saint Austin declareth it after this manner Life dying contended with Death living and got a glorious and signal victory Nysscen thus the Devil catching at the flesh of Christs humane nature as a bate was cought by the hook of his divine Saint Leo and Chrysologus thus if a Bayliff or Sergeant arrest the Kings son or a priviledged person and lay him up in a close prison without commission he deserveth to be turned out of his place for it So Death Gods Serjeant seizing upon his Son in whom there was no fault without warrant or commission was justly discharged of his office Is Death thus discharged hath Christ changed the nature of Death and freed all his Members from the sting of the temporal and fear of eternal death hath he of a postern made it a street-door of an out-let of mortal life an in-let of immortality why then are we so much afraid of death which can no more hurt us then a hornet or wasp after her sting is plucked out Christ fought with a living death we with a dead death which doth not so much sever our souls from our bodies as joyn them to Christ not so much end our life as our mortality not so much exclude us out of the Militant as render us to the Triumphant Church Nothing is more dreadful I confess to the natural man then Death which dissolveth the soul and body and the Grave which resolveth the body into dust and ashes To cure this malady of the mind there is no vertue in any Drug of nature the Philosophers in this case are Physitians of no value they tell us that sickness and death are tributa vivendi and the Grave the common house of the dead But what of this what comfort is here doth this speculation discharge us from the tribute or make the payment thereof the easier doth it inlighten the darkness of these prisons of nature or take away the stench from these under-ground houses no whit Yet God be thanked there is a magazine in Scripture to pay these tributes there is light in Goshen to enlighten these houses there is Specknard to perfume these dankish rooms there are Cordials in holy Scripture to strengthen the heart not only against deadly maladies but also against death it self for there we hear of a voyce from heaven not only affirming the happiness of the dead but confirming it with a strong reason for they rest from their labours and their works follow them we hear of Tabernacles not made with hands but eternal in the Heavens we hear that when we are absent from the body we are present with the Lord we hear the Lord of life opening the ears and chearing the heart of the dead and saying I am the resurrection and the life whosoevor believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live There we hear death not only disarmed of his sting but also slain down right O death I will be thy death O grave I will be thy destruction Secondly hath Christ destroyed Death and hath he both the keyes of Death and of Hell then beloved when we lie on our death-bed let us not have recourse after the Popish manner to any Saint or Angel no not to the blessed Virgin her self but to her Son who is the Lord of life who satisfying for our sins at his death thereby plucked out the sting of death and after his resurrection quite destroyed this serpent In which regard he is stiled stella matutina the Morning star because he ushereth in the day of eternity and primitiae dormientum the first fruis of them that slept because in him the whole lump is sanctifyed When therefore the fiery Serpent hovereth over us to sting us to eternal death let us look upon the Brazen Serpent and the other shall not hurt us Lastly hath Christ conquered Death and Hell and that for us let us then

give him the honour of the greatest Worthy and noblest Conquerour that ever the World saw Cyrus and Alexander and Caesar were no way to be compared to him for they subdued but mortal enemies he immortal they bodily he ghostly they with great Armies and power of men but he alone they when they were alive and in their full strength and vigour but he at the hour of his death and afterwards I conclude therfore with Saint Jerome his insultation over Death and thanksgiving to the Lord of life O death thou didst bite and wert bitten thou didst devour and art now devoured by him whom for a time thou didst devour by his death thou art ssain by his death we live everlastingly thanks be rendred unto thee O Saviour who hast subdued so powerful an adversary and put him to death by thy death and passion The Ethiopians as Herodotus relateth made Sepulchres of glass for after they have dryed the corps they artificially paint it set it in a glazed Coffin that all that pass by may see the lineaments of the dead body but surely they deserve better of the dead and more benefit the living who draw the lineaments of their mind and represent their vertues and graces in a Mirrour of Art for I am not of their judgment among us who properly and deservedly are called Precisians because out of the purity of their precise zeal it a praecidunt they so neer pair the nails of Romish superstition that they make the fingers bleed who out of fear of praying forsooth for the dead or invocating them are shie of speaking any word of them or sending after them their deserved commendations for it is piety to honour God in his Saints it is justice suum cuique tribure to give every one his due it is charity to propose eminent examples of heavenly graces and vertues shining in the dead for the imitation of the living Such jewels ought not to be locked up in a Coffin as in a Casket but to be set out to the view of all and surely they deserve better of the dead who set a garland of deserved praises on their life then they who stick their Hearse full with flowers Tapers made of pure wax burn clearly and after they are blown out leave a sweet savour behind them so the servants of Christ who have caused their light so to shine before men that they may see their works and glorisie their Father which is in Heaven leave a good name like a sweet smell behind them and why may we not blow it abroad by our breath Deo Patri c. The rest concerning the life and death of the party is lost Vox Coeli OR THE DEADS HERAULD SERMON XLV APOC. 14.13 And I heard a voyce from Heaven saying unto me write blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth c. VBi Vulnus ibi manus From whence we took our Wound from thence we receive the Cure a voice from Heaven struck all the living dead saying All flesh is grass and the glory or goodliness of it is as the flower of the field The grass withereth c. But here a voice from Heaven maketh all whole again and representeth all the dead in the Lord living yea and flourishing too saying Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord. To give a touch at the Wound that the smart thereof may make the sense of the cure more delightful Omnis caro foenum omnis homo flos All flesh is grass and every man is a flower There is difference in grass some is longer and some is shorter so some men are longer lived some shorter some grass shooteth up with one leaf some with three some with five or more so some men have more in their Retinue some fewer some none at all Some grass withereth before it is cut as the grass on the house-top some is cut before it withereth as the grass of the field so some men decay before the Sythe of Death cuts them all other after Likewise there is a great difference among flowers 1. Some are for sight only not for the smell or any vertue in medicines as Tulips Emims and Crown Emperials 2. Some for sight and smell but of no use in Medicines as Sweet-williams the painted Lady and July-flowers generally 3. Some are both for sight and smell and of singular use in Medicines as Roses and Violets So some men are of better parts and greater use in the Church and Common-wealth others of less Some flowers grow in the field some in the garden so some mens lives and imployments are publike others private Some flowers are put in Posies some in Garlands some are cast into the Still so some men are better preferred them others and some live and die in obscurity Lastly some flowers presently lose their colour and scent as the Narcissus some keep them both long as the red Rose So some men continue longer in their bloom grace and favour others for a short time but all-fade and within a while are either gathered cut down or withered of themselves and die And for this reason it is as I conceived that we stick hearbs and flowers on the Hearse of the dead to signifie that as we commit earth to earth and ashes to ashes so we put grass to grass and flowers to flowers For omnis caro foenum All flesh is grass and all the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field the grass withereth and the flower fadeth away But the comfort is in that which followeth But the word of the Lord endureth for ever and this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you Whereof this verse which I have read unto you for my Text is part Which Saint John inferreth as a conclusion or corrolary upon the conclusion of the Saints and Martyrs lives this conclusion is inferred upon two premises 1 The end of their labours 2 The reward of their work The Syllogisme may be thus formed All they who are come to an end of their labour and have received liberally for their work or are paid well for their pains are happy But all the dead that die in the Lord are come to an end of their labour for they rests rom their labours and receive liberally for their works follow them Ergo all the dead that die in the Lord are happy As in other Texts so in this we may borrow much light from the occasion of the speech which here was this Saint John having related in a vision a fearful persecution to falt in the latter times whereby the earth should be reaped and the Saints mowen like grass and true beleevers like grapes pressed in such sort that their blood should come out of the wine-press even to the horse bellies breaketh into an Epiphonema verse 12. here is the patience of the Saints that is here is matter for their patience and faith to work upon Here is