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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	work_n	world_n	zeal_n	140	3	7.4528	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44678	A funeral sermon for Mrs. Esther Sampson the late wife of Henry Sampson, Dr. of Physick, who died Nov. 24. 1689 / by John Howe ...	Howe, John, 1630-1705.	1690 (1690)	Wing H3026; ESTC R19694	24,476	33

A Funeral Sermon FOR M rs ESTHER SAMPSON The Late Wife of Henry Sampson D r. of Physick who Died Nov. 24. M.DCLxxxix By John Howe Minister of the Gospel Published principally for the use of such as languish under painful and Chronical Diseases LONDON Printed for Thomas Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the lower end of Cheap-side near Mercers Chapel 1690. TO My Worthy Friend Dr. Henry Sampson SIR I Have perused the Papers which you sent me and find as far as I can recollect they contain in them the Substance of what was delivered With no more mistakes than is usual in writing from the mouth of one who is not of the slowest speakers Some things besides which the limits of the time allow'd not to be spoken having some short memorials of them by me I have added conceiving they might also contribute towards the good end you proposed to your self in so earnestly desiring this publication the assisting of their patience and their good and placid thoughts of God who are exercis'd under Long and Languishing Distempers The observations which your Profession hath occasion'd you to make in the cases of many others hath I doubt not let you see the need of somewhat to this purpose otherwise the example you have had so long before your eyes of so calm and compos'd a temper in this excellent relative of yours might have made you less apprehensive how great an addition a fretful unquiet spirit is both to the Sin and the Affliction of a Sickly State I am sensible your own affliction is great in the loss you now sustain The relief will be great and suitable which the forethoughts of that State will afford where they neither Marry nor are given in Marriage but are as the Angels of God in Heaven I am SIR In much sincerity and affection yours to serve you in the work and labour of the Gospel John Howe LUKE 13. 16. And ought not this woman being a daughter of Abraham whom Satan hath bound lo these eighteen years be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day YOU will soon see the occasion and connexion of these words by viewing over the whole Paragraph to which they belong verse 10. And he was teaching in one of the Synagogues on the Sabbath 11. And behold there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years and was bowed together and could in no wise lift up her self 12. When Jesus saw her he said to her Woman thou art loosed from thine infirmity 13. And he laid his hands on her and immediately she was made straight and glorified God 14. And the Ruler of the Synagogue answered with indignation because that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day and said unto the people There are six days in which men ought to work in them therefore come and be healed and not on the Sabbath day 15. The Lord then answered him and said Thou hypocrite doth not each of you on the Sabbath loose his Ox and his Ass from the stall and lead him away to watering 16. And ought not this woman being a daughter of Abraham whom Satan hath bound lo these eighteen years be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day 17. And when he had said these things all his adversaries were ashamed and all the people rejoyced for all the glorious things that were done by him Inasmuch as our blessed Lord spake these words and did the thing which occasion'd them upon that which was with the Jews their Sabbath day it cannot be unfit for us to consider them upon ours they so fitly leading us to consider also another release wrought for a daughter of Abraham too on our Sabbath day It was formerly told you upon what occasion and I doubt not but you generally know upon whose account we were to divert from our usual course and Subject at this time Nor could any thing have been more suitable to the present occasion for not only was this Daughter of Abraham releas'd from her Infirmity upon the Sabbath day but the time wherein it remain'd upon Her in a great and manifold complication was as her surviving Consort hath acquainted me and who therefore recommended this Subject precisely about eighteen Years There are 't is true disagreements between our case and that case in the Text which do not therefore render both together less instructive to us but the more And to make way to what may be so you must here take notice that these Words are part of our Lords Defence of what he had done in performing this work of Mercy wherein what he says is justly severe and very clearly convictive It is very deserved and just severity that he call'd him who cavil'd in the case by his own true name thou hypocrite He under pretence of great sanctity discovers the highest enmity even against our blessed Lord himself who came being sent upon the holiest and kindest design into this World The zeal which he pretends for the observation of the Sabbath could not be the thing that he did really mean or that acted him in this case For it was not likely he could be ignorant of what was a known adjudg'd Case among the Jews as some of their own Rabbies inform us that all needful endeavours ought to be used for the cure of the sick upon the Sabbath day So as that he very well knew no rule could be broken in this case But this he reckons was somewhat plausible and he pleases himself in it that he could tell how to vent his spite against Christ and Christianity under a mock-shew of great Sanctimony And our Lord justly calls him what indeed he was when he would thus seem what he was not It was not that he cared for Religion or for any thing of real Sanctity of which a due and just observation of the Sabbath was a real part but that he had a mind as far as conveniently he could to express his displeasure at that evidence and lustre wherewith the glorious works our Lord wrought evinc'd him to be the Messiah while yet he was struck with that awe of him that he adventures not to direct his reproof to him but the people It is here by the way to be noted that they were not thus disaffected to our Lord and the Religion he was about to introduce No but this Ceremonious Bigot a Ruler of the Synagogue was the ill-pleased disaffected Person I shall not trouble you with the discussion what sort of power it was that belonged to that Office Some well acquainted with the Jewish writings say that the Ruler of the Synagogue was not wont himself to officiate as Minister in Sacris but his business was circa Sacra to regulate the Administration We consider not his Power but his ill-will and enmity against Christ and true Religion The people in the mean time throng'd after him in Multitudes and beheld the great works he wrought with joy and glorified God Only where was more

power and probably more knowledge there was more too of a peevish spite and envy that the interest of our Lord was by so proper means growing in the World A sad and not a new thing that Religion should have most opposition whence it should have most of countenance and advantage to dilate and spread it self Do any of the Rulers believe on him But the people whom they despised and pronounc'd accursed for that reason were more apt and forward to receive the Gospel Joh. 7. 48 49. The more there is of light unaccompany'd with a pious Inclination the higher the more intense and fervent the finer and more subtle is the venome and malice against Christ and real Christianity But our Lord was not diverted from his kind and compassionate design by any such obstructions as these His love triumphs over them and he makes that discovery of this compassion which could not but carry the clearest conviction with it as his reproof carry'd the brightest justice Why what saith he Do not any of you loose an Ox or an Ass from the Stall on the Sabbath day and shall not I loose a daughter of Abraham 'T is like she was a Daughter of Abraham not only as being a Jewess but as being a believer as being according to Scripture language of Abrahams Seed in the Spiritual sense as well as the natural and he was the more peculiarly compassionate upon that account and yet more because her ail proceeded from the malignant influence of the Devil Shall not I loose such a one whom Satan hath bound that great enemy of mankind Why should not I shew my self so much the more a Friend by how much the more he appears an Enemy and give the earliest relief the matter can admit 'T is very true indeed his compassion was never to incline him to do unfit and unseasonable things or things that were no way subservient to his principal end But such a subserviency being supposed his relief must be with the earliest to day before morrow though it were the Sabbath day And so now you have the ground of discourse plainly in view before you That the Devil cannot be more maliciously intent to afflict those that relate to God even when it is in his power with bodily distempers than our Lord Jesus is compassionately willing to relieve them without distinction of time when it shall be consistent with and subservient to his higher and greater purposes In speaking to this I shall 1. Touch briefly upon what is here exprest in the Text the hand that Satan may have in the Afflictions yea and in the bodily distempers of men and even of them that belong to God among them 2. What hand our Lord Jesus has in their relief or releasement 3. How far we may understand or may reasonably expect his compassion to influence him in such cases 4. I shall shew that however the release be wrought it is done very mercifully towards them that belong peculiarly to God And so make use of all 1. Somewhat briefly as to that first query What hand it is supposable the Devil may have in the afflictions of men and more particularly of them that belong to God as this woman being a Daughter of Abraham was to be considered as one within the compass of Gods Covenant and not improbably as one that in the strictest sense was in Covenant with God 1. It is plain in the Text the Devil had a direct hand in her distemper called a Spirit of infirmity There were more evident and more frequent instances of this kind in that time the Devil then setting himself more openly to contend against the incarnate Son of God upon his more open appearance to rescue and recover an Apostate World from under his Dominion and Tyranny But as to more ordinary cases we may further consider 2. That the Devil is a constant enemy to mankind apt and inclin'd as far as God permits him to do men all the mischief he can 3. That as he first introduc't sin into the World so he hath by consequence all the calamities that afflict it There had been no Death Sickness or Distemper upon the bodies of men but from hence Consider the Devil therefore as the Prince and Leader of the Apostasie who first drew man into transgression and thereby render'd him liable to the Justice of his Maker turn'd his Paradise into a desart and a region of immortal undecaying life into a Valley of sickly Languishings and death it self So may he said to have had a remoter hand in binding not only this Daughter of Abraham but every child of Adam in all the Afflictions Maladies and Distempers which befall them here and finally in the bonds of Death too whereof he is said to have had the power Tho the Children of the second Adam with whom for this purpose he was partaker of Flesh and Blood and became with them a Son of Abraham and of his Seed are by being so bound releas'd and made free both from Death and the bondage of fearing it to which they were otherwise Subject all their days as we shall further see anon 4. Tho God do not ordinarily allow him more power yet we may well suppose him to have more malice against these Children of Abraham who thereby pass into the account of his own Children also being more intent upon vexing and afflicting whom he apprehends or suspects he shall never be able finally to destroy and always apt to use all the power shall be allowed him to this mischievous purpose We find that the afflictions of the people of God in other kinds and even in this kind are expresly often attributed to the Devil In other kinds Satan shall cast some of you into prison Revel 2. 10. And divers think that thorn in the flesh which the Apostle suffered 2 Cor. 12. was some acute bodily pain and he says expresly it was a messenger of Satan sent to buffet him He 't is said smote Job with the tormenting boils that afflicted him so grievously and so long and brought the other calamities upon him that you read of in his Story 5. And again it is further to be considered that whereas in all Diseases the Morbisick Matter whether immediate in Mens Bodies or remoter in the incompassing Air differs not from other matter otherwise than only in the various disposition figuration and motion of parts and particles whereof it is made up inasmuch as the Devil is called the Prince of the power of the Air we know nothing to the contrary but that he may frequently so modifie that as that it shall have most pernicious influences upon the Bodies of Men and upon those especially so far as God permits that he has any greater malice against 6. And again supposing this it is not a stranger thing that God should permit him to afflict the Bodies of them that belong to him than to disturb their minds Sure their Bodies are not more Sacred If