Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	everlasting_a	reap_v	sow_v	4,291	5	10.3472	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87093	The epitaph of a godly man, especially a man of God or, The happines by death of holines in life. Delineated in a sermon preached at the funerall of Mr Adam Pemberton late minister of the parish of St Fosters Foster-lane : who ended this mortall, April the 8th, 1655. and was buried in hope of an immortal life the 11th of the same moneth. / By Nath: Hardy M.A. and preacher to the parish of St Dionis Back Church.	Hardy, Nathaniel, 1618-1670.	1655 (1655)	Wing H720; Thomason E844_15	25,148	39

quia sciebat non peccasse non flevit David justly bewailed dead Absalom because he died in his rebellion and therefore despaired of his blisse but when the other childe dieth he drieth his eyes as not doubting its happinesse They indeed cannot sufficiently be lamented at their death who dying in their sins drop into hell not they who are carried into those heavenly mansions saith Isidore excellently 2. Let the gain of death mitigate the fear which is apt to arise in us from the apprehension of our own When Abigail told Nabal the threatning words of David the Text saith His heart died within him and became as a stone Thus is it with the most of us when any summons of death is given nay not onely with the most but even sometimes with the best Christ cometh to the Disciples on the Sea to preserve them from the storme and they are troubled death cometh to deliver us from all evill and we exceedingly tremble Indeed the reason is because we consider not that death is a deliverance and so gaine to us What Chrysologus saith of Martyrs is true of all good men Morte nascuntur fine inchoant occisione vivunt in coelis lucent qui in terris putabantur extincti their death is a birth and end a beginning they live by being killed and whilst they are thought to be extinguished on Earth they shine in Heaven and surely were this well pondered by them they would not seek consolation against death but death it selfe would be their consolation Those words of Job I have said to Corruption Thou art my Father to the Worme Thou art my Mother are not unfitly allegorized by Origen to this purpose Ut pueri consolatores habent parentes sic ego mortem putredinem as if he therefore called Corruption and Wormes his Father and Mother because as Parents are comforters to the Children so were they to him It is true the Separation of Soule and Body is terrible and a naturall feare of it may be cannot but be in all I but it is as true in respect of the godly that when this separation is made anima absolvitur corpus resolvitur quae absolvitur gaudet quae resolvitur nihil sentit as St. Ambrose elegantly the Soule is set at liberty and rejoyceth yea the body is at rest and knoweth no trouble and is such a separation to be feared This life what is it but a going to death and death what is it but a going to life little cause then sure why we should either too much love the one or feare the other Non est timendum saith Tertullian quod nos liberat ab omni timendo shall that be the object of our feare which freeth us from what ever is to be feared by death we gain glory and shall we not glory over death non repuerascam said a Roman si Deus mihi largiretur I would not be young againe though God would grant it me and he giveth this reason quia ab hospitio ad domum discedam because when I dye I shall goe from my Inne to my home Did ever childe cry when his Fathers man came to fetch him home Alas beloved as St. Ambrose rightly non mors ipsa terribilis sed opinio de morte not death it self but our misapprehension of death is terrible to us did we look through beyond death at the gaine which followeth it would not be dreadfull but amiable in our eyes and with this holy Apostle we would not feare but desire to depart That of the wise man the righteous hath hope in his death the Caldee reads The righteous hopeth he shall dye so farre is a good man upon serious meditation of deaths gaine from fearing of that he hopeth for his dissolution and though he dare not rashly hasten yet he willingly entertaineth it whensoever sent by God to him To draw to an end Be pleased to put both clauses together since indeed they cannot be asunder If to us to live be Christ to dye must needs be gaine to dye cannot be gaine but onely to them to whom to live is Christ If a good life precede an happy death cannot but follow Nor is it probable a gainfull death should be the consequent if a religious life have not been the antecedent Indeed if we observe the temper of many in the world we shall finde them either inverting or separating these clauses 1. Some there are who would invert these words make gain the predicate of the former and Christ of the latter thus doth every covetous man say To me to live is gain and to dye is Christ vaine men who will have Gold to be their God and yet Christ to be their Redeemer they will serve Mammon whilst they live and yet be saved by Christ when they dye but it will be just with Christ to say at death to all such Mammonists in these words of God to the Israelites in the day of their distresse Goe to the Gods which you have served the gaine which you have lived to and let that deliver in this houre of your death 2. More there are who would sever these Clauses whilst they would gladly say to dye is gaine but not to live is Christ One was asked whether he had rather be Craessus or Socrates his answer was in vitâ Craesus in morte Socrates he would be rich Craesus in his life and good Socrates at his death you know whose prayer it was Let me dye the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his and it is that no doubt which many wish and desire nay hope who yet regard not to live the life of the righteous and that their course to that end may be like his But what a folly nay madnesse is it for men to expect to reap what they doe not sow to sow to the flesh and to the world and yet reap by Christ the gaine of everlasting life after death as therefore we expect that one let us endeavour the other and if gaine by death be our hope let living to Christ be our practice So that this Scripture thus considered doth plainly put a difference between the pretious and the vile the godly and the wicked whilest to these who live to themselves death is a losse to those who live to Christ it is a gaine Adrian was wont to say that death is pavor divitum pauperis desiderium the rich mans feare and the poor mans desire I may well apply it here death either is or may be the bad mans feare but the good mans wish or to use St. Ambrose his expression justis mors quietis est portus nocentibus naufragium it is an Haven to the Just but a Shipwrack to the Guilty to those a bed of repose to these a rack of torture The man who liveth to the world saith to death as Ahab to Eliah Hast thou found me oh

if you will know where Christ is you shall finde it by other Scriptures to be farre above all heavens at the right hand of God Indeed the contract between Christ and the soule is made on earth but the marriage is consummated in heaven here Christ is with us by his Spirit there we shall be with him first in our souls and at last in our persons It is much for a Prince to visit a poor man in his cottage but it is farre more for him to take the poor man home with him to his palace Esse Christum cum paulo magna securitas Esse paulum cum Christo summa foelicitas It is our great security while we live that Christ is with us but it shall be our felicity when we die that we shall be with Christ 3. Finally when we die our souls are endowed with perfect purity and spotlesse holinesse and grace receiveth its consummation by glory the Apostle maketh mention of the spirits of just men made perfect that is perfectly just and holy in their spirits Indeed the perfection of glory is not till the resurrection when soule and body shall be united but in the mean time the souls of them that die in Christ are adorned with a perfection of grace and if the beginnings of grace be pretious what is the completion of it if the first fruits be desirable what is the full crop if the soule which hath but one dram of grace be more truly noble than if it had all other naturall or morall endowments how glorious shall our souls be when they shall be as vessels filled to the brim with fulnesse of grace By all this which hath been said the truth of this Apostolical Assertion sufficiently appeareth but that all Objestions may be removed be pleased to consider it comparatively and to weigh a while in the scales of reason both the losse and the gain of death that we may see how much the gain preponderateth the loss and so this Doctrine will remaine undoubtedly true notwithstanding whatever may be pretended to the contrary It is true death bereaveth us of a mortall and transitory but it is an inlet to an immortall and everlasting life it despoileth us of our worldly possessions I but it putteth us into possession of our heavenly inheritance it taketh us from the society of our neighbours bosome of our friends I but it sends us to Abrahams bosome makes way for our society with Christ Finally it severs the soul from the body I but it unites the soul to God what is it for the candle to be put out whilst we enjoy the light of the Sun for the standing-pools to be dry so long as we may drink at the fountain for our earthly comforts to be taken from us when heavenly joyes are conferred on us The truth is death is not a privation but a permutation So holy Iob calleth it a change and that a blessed exchange of a cottage for a palace a wilderness for a paradise a house of bondage for a place of liberty of brass for gold pebles for pearls earth for heaven And now tell me if upon all these considerations S. Paul had not just cause to say To me to die is gain The meditation whereof may serve as a check to those passions of grief and fear which are apt in this matter to be exorbitant the one in respect of our friends and the other of our own death It is the use which Cyprian teacheth us to make of this very doctrine Ut neque charorum lugeamus excessum cum accessionis propriae dies venerit incunctanter libenter ad Deum ipso vocante veniamus That we should not too much bewail the departure of our dearest relations and when the day of our dissolution doth approach that we readily and chearfully obey Gods call 1. Let the gain of death moderate our sorrow for our friends who sleep in Iesus Why should we be troubled for them who are at rest sit down in sorrow for them who are entred into joy Why are we clad in black for them who walk in white and so many tears flow from our eyes for them who have all tears wiped from theirs It is storyed of the Thracians that they mourn at the birth and rejoice at the death of their friends Nec imprudenter saith S. Ambrose nor was it without reason that they should account those fit to be bewail'd who are launching forth into the tempestuous sea of this world and attend them with joy who are got into the harbour of rest We read concerning Lazarus that Christ rejoiced when he was dead but wept being to raise him to life And Chrysologus his note is very apt to our present purpose Christ us recipiens Lazarum flevit non amittens Christ bewaileth not the losing but restoring of his life according to which the Greek Fathers make the reason of our Saviours tears to be that he should now call him back to a miserable life Indeed as S. Hierome saith concerning Nepotian we may say of every one who departeth in Christ Non tam plangendus est qui hac luce caruerit quam gratulandum ei qui de tantis malis evaserit We are not so much to condole his losse of this life as to congratulate his deliverance from the miseries of this life Thou wilt say perhaps It is my friend my dearly beloved friend who is dead and can I choose but mourn But is he thy friend and dost thou envy him his happiness dost thou dearly love him and yet grieve at his welfare He is thy friend and death is his benefit and shall the benefit of another especially of thy friend be thy sorrow I but he is snatched from my arms I have a great losse in his departure and that is my trouble True this nature promteth to that we should be sensible of our own losse yea grace requireth that we should be sensible of such a losse as it is a crosse inflicted upon us by Divine Providence Thus patient Job when the news came to him of his childrens death shaved his head and rent his mantle signes of that sorrow which naturall affection put him upon yea he fell down upon the ground and worshipped signes that in his sorrow he looked higher at the hand of God which had done it But as with one eye we look on our losse and weep so with another eye we must look on their gain and rejoice as it is a chastisement to us we must be affected with sorrow as a mercy to them with joy and thus whilest we mingle these affections together our sorrow will not be exorbitant Indeed when any die to whom we have reason to fear death is the beginning of sorrrow there is sad cause of bitter mourning but not for them who die in the Lord Scribitur David justè flevisse filium parricidam qui alium parvulum