Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
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A26823
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A funeral sermon on the death of Mrs. Mary Paice, late wife of Mr. Joseph Paice, merchant of Clapham, who died April 8th, 1700 by Edmund Batson.
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Batson, Edmund.
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1700
(1700)
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Wing B1141; ESTC R4308
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20,450
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70
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continued Dependance and Subjection In a Word Is our closure with him sincere and truly Unitive and do we accordingly live to him and with him and carefully abide in him while we are in this Earthly Tabernacle If so we may commend our departing Spirits into his Hands and our Flesh may rest in Hope and we shall have Confidence and not be ashamed at his Coming The infallible Word hath given us this as the only Ground of our Hope 1 John 5.12 He that hath the Son hath Life And He that hath not the Son hath not Life John 11.25 26. I am the Resurrection and the Life He that believeth in me though he were Dead yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never Die. Every true Believer hath a Life in him by Vertue of his Union with Christ which is Immortal and not liable to the touch of Death a Life that shall not End in the rottenness and darkness of the Grave or in a Horrid Hell but run on through the Territories of Death and the Grave into Everlasting Life And besides this His bodily Life in the Reunion of Soul and Body shall be revived the Pains or as some rather read it the Bands of Death shall be loosed and it shall be impossible for him any more then the Prince of Life himself to whom he is United to be holden by it Acts 2.24 Now having made this Vse of the Doctrine in General I shall make some further Improvement of it as it refers Particularly to the Case at Present before our View That which is spoken of Believers indefinitely that they shall not be left under the Power of Death and the Grave but be raised and glorified may I doubt not without one disagreeing Judgment or Voice be truly spoken of the Person whose Decease hath given this special occasion and additional to the usual Business of this Day Therefore Let this Point assisted by this unquestionable Instance work some correspondent Effects and leave some suitable Impressions upon us And what can those be but of Imitation and Peaceful Submission or Satisfaction of Mind 1. Let this Doctrine assisted by this known Instance impress us to Endeavours of Imitation When a Man Prospers in the World and increases in the Favour of his Fellow-Creatures we presently enquire into the Methods and Rules of such a ones Conduct and are ready to govern our Selves as near as our Circumstances will admit by the same How much more studiously should we imitate one that in the the truest Sense is Prosperous and Happy and being entituled to the Divine Favour both in Life and Death is therefore Interested in his full and final Redemption Tho such an one is now gone from our lower World and hath left us yet Her Example remains We have known what manner of entring in She had among us 1 Thess 1.9 2 Tim. 3.10 and Her manner of Life Purpose Faith Long-Suffering Charity and Patience Her Temper was Rare and Excellent and truly deserving of Emulation Her natural Patience and Fortitude of Mind Great and Uncommon Her Prudence and Discretion obvious as well as useful in the Sphere wherein She acted Her Contempt of the Vanity and deluding Greatness of the World Her Holy Indifference of Life and Resignation to the Will of God are more especially to be imitated because they depend more upon our own Endeavours than the former The natural chearfulness and pleasantness of Her Spirit was Great and Delightful yet Grave and Solid But considering She was not only under but had received the Sentence of Death in Her Self it must be ascribed in great Part to Supernatural Reasons and a Pre-assurance of Future Blessedness This is evident by the Fears She often expressed least others knowing Her outward and bodily better than Her inward State might make censorious and prejudicial Constructions and believe Her rather insensible of than Resigned to the Divine Will Her Death was no less Serene and Calm than Her Life With Her wonted Composure of Mind She bore Her last bodily Disorder and without Sigh or Motion expired in a Moment as if it had been designed She should Experience a Victory over Death almost without conflicting with it or tasting its bitterness With that tenderness did Her Gracious Redeemer Govern and Over-rule the Stroak of Death having before disarmed it of its Sting So gently were the Bands of Life untwisted The sighing Part She hath left to us who are yet in the Vale of Tears and have the Valley of the Shadow of Death yet before us to pass through And how can a Communion of Saints do less than Sigh when there is one Hand and Heart the less to be lifted up in its Prayers and one Instrument or well tuned String the less in its Consort of Praises How can a Family do less than Sigh when deprived of so amiable and useful a Relative Such Stroaks cannot but be lamented But let our principal Care be that the Person hereby removed be Imitated in Her Humble and Truly Charitable Temper and in Her Holy Inoffensive Life and Deportment whereby She adorned the Doctrine of Christ and recommended Religion as an amiable and acceptable Institution to all that Conversed with Her Let us be followers of Her in all Things wherein She was a Follower of Christ 1 Cor. 11.1 And shew the same Diligence to the full Assurance of Hope to the End and be Followers of Her who through Faith and Patience do now inherit the Promises Heb. 6.11 12. And it is reasonable that all Relatives according to the Degree of their Relation should account themselves more obliged to this Use May Her Example therefore with Her Name live in their Remembrance Particularly may Children remember and not forsake the Law of their Mother Prov. 1.8 Prov. 20.3 but so attend to it as that they may be blessed after Her May Servants also Remember Her that had the Rule over them and spoke to them by an Exemplary Conversatition the Word of God whose Faith follow considering the End of Her Conversation Heb. 13.7 The concluding Part of a Christians Life does not only bear a Testimony to His or Her preceding Course but demonstrate the singular Advantage of Faith and Holiness and therefore being observed is mightily Assistant to our Imitation 2. Let this Doctrine attended with this Instance impress us to a Peaceful Submission of Mind and Satisfaction in the Divine Pleasure It becomes Christians to attain a submissive and satisfied Temper through the Power of their Faith and Hope How absur'd is it for such to expect and find more Cure of their Grief and Sorrow from Time than from Reason and Grace Though there be a smartness in the Dispensation yet receive it with submissive Silence considering it is God who hath done it Psalm 39.9 This sad Event is not the Fruit of Blind Chance but both as to Time and Manner the Act of Infinite Wisdom that cannot err and of Infinite Power that cannot be resisted and which is more Consolatory of Infinite Goodness and Kindness to his Departed Servant Can we imagine that a glorified Soul does wish to be again embodied for a Residence in this our lower World Or prefer a painful afflicted and tempted Life before the Blessedness of Her Coelestial State and the hopeful Rest of Her Dear Associate Can we imagine that a Glorified Soul is in the least dissatisfied with Her Translation or leaving the Body when the Body as She knows is not left in Hell nor suffer'd to see Corruption Was not this Her Habitual Sense while remaining among us that to Depart and be with Christ was best And was not this the Ultimate and Highest End of our Solemn and Renewed Addresses to God in Days of Prayer on Her Behalf while we professed to ask Her Continuance in the Flesh with a sincere and most absolute Resignation to the Divine Will If then not only the Will of God be done but Her Will accomplished and also our Prayers answered it is reasonable that Our Wills should be abundantly satisfied And it cannot be otherwise than unreasonable that Our Wills should be repugnant either to God's or Her 's which with a most joyful Concurrence have taken Place and are now to remain the same for ever To be thus Self-willed in such a Case as it carries much of Unreasonableness and Irreligion in it so likewise an Inconsistency with a pure Rational and Christian Love towards our departed Relatives Our Saviour tells his Disciples whose loss of him and of his Bodily Presence was much greater than any of ours If ye loved me ye would rejoice because I said I go to my Father John 14.28 A true and pure Affection does directly and chiefly Terminate in the Happiness and Exaltation of the Person loved Now Death is a sure Advantage to Believers and their Descent into the Grave is an infallible step to their Glorious Preferment To look upon the Case before us with an Eye of Sense it is all over black and sad Death hath killed and taken Possession of one of us it hath turned a living Creature into a dead Clod it is laid among such and Buried in the Grave and our Eye of Sense carries us no further But when by an infallible Word we are assured that the Power of Death shall be abolished and this Mortality put on Immortality and this Corruption put on Incorruption we must no more Mourn as those that are without Hope To Consider and Believe that God will redeem his own from the Power of the Grave and receive them takes away all Causes of an unremitting and reliefless Sorrow at his taking away any of ours of whom we are perswaded that they belonged to him FINIS
That the one should be glorified in Heaven and the other remain in the Dust Besides this we may justly conceive of a fixed innocent Inclination in the glorified Soul to her former Dear Associate and therefore the satisfying such an Inclination by their Re-union must contribute to the Felicity of the Person Their Relative of Mutual Happiness would be likewise impaired if any that truly belonged to their Number were wanting and still kept under the Power of Death For they are all inviolably United in Love which as it were transforms one into another and causes the Glory of every Saint to redound to the Joy of all And every one both adds to and shares in the Felicity of the whole Here there are many Vitious Allays of Love among true Christians and they do not duely sympathize with one another in their Conditions of Life But in Heaven they are of one Heart and one Soul there is an exact Agreement of Tempers and Inclinations so that could we suppose the Body of one detained as an Eternal Prisoner of the Grave and such a ones Happiness thereby impaired the whole would suffer therein But I come now to the Use Now as this Doctrine of the blessed Resurrection of Believers being fix'd on the fore-mentioned Grounds and Reasons must needs be acknowledged a great Truth and one of the true and faithful Sayings of God So upon strict Enquiry it will appear a very comfortable Truth And that 1. With respect to the present Afflictions and Sufferings of this Life and particularly the Frailties and Diseases and Weakness and Vileness of these Bodies The Dictates of Reason and the Prescriptions of Moralists are ineffectual to form the Soul to true Patience and Contentment under bodily Sufferings But Faith and Hope in a blessed Resurrection administers powerful Support And as this excels all natural Topicks so all the consolatory Points in Revealed Religion do ultimately center and terminate in this For if our Hope was only in this Life whatever may be propounded to us we were of all Creatures most miserable 1 Cor. 15.19 To know that our Bodies shall be raised to an immortal incorruptible Glory and changed into the likeness of Christ's Body makes us more unconcerned about their Condition and more contented that God should have the entire Disposal of them here This sweetens the most bitter Cups alleviates the most heavy Burdens and renders all bodily Distempers and Pains supportable and easie And furthermore it directs us so to behold so to account of so to improve these present momentary Afflictions as that they might Work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory 2 Cor. 4.17 2. With respect to our own Personal Dissolution This is the thing which Nature so much abhors to come under the Power of Death to be divulsed from all the Enjoyments of Life to be confined to the dark solitude of the Grave to see Man no more in the Land of the Living this is a frightful and disquieting Thought And inasmuch as this is a thing universally known it is also universally feared There is a lawful fear of Death when this Passion is regular both as to its Object and Degree it is excellently Useful As a wise Counsellour or faithful Guardian it keeps Reason awake and active so as that it might sustain the Evil in the best manner which it could not prevent And there is an inordinate fear of Death which as a Tyrannous Master doth continually disquiet and torment the Soul and keep a Man all his Life time under Bondage The Philosophers attempted to moderate and govern these anxious Fears but in vain * Bates Har. of Attr. cap. 17.355 p. Octa. All that they could oppose against this cruel Enemy while they were without the Knowledge and Belief of a glorious Resurrection was ineffectual But the Gospel furnishes us with real Remedies Christians cannot be afraid to Die when they know they Die in the Lord and belong to one who will redeem them from the Power of the Grave and swallow up Death in Victory Were we to be Eternal Captives to Death and Prisoners of the Grave for ever there were some Reason to dread it But when God speaks to us as to Jacob descending into Egypt Fear not to go down into the Grave I will go down with thee and I will surely bring thee up again So that hereby we are as sure of overcoming Death as suffering it as sure of being Conquerors as of being Combatants how are all excruciating fears hereby expelled In our own Strength indeed and acting separately from God we cannot overcome No one can save himself from going down to the Grave or by Price or by Force procure his Releasement and Discharge from its Captivity any more than from its War But in Relation to God we are more than Conquerors To be more than Conquerors is to be Triumphants Christians may thus Triumph in this Perswasion that tho' they tast Death the common Lot of every Man yet they shall be redeemed from it so as not to be hurt by the second Death and neither Death nor Life c. shall be able to separate them from the Love of God in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.37 38 39. Neither is this Doctrine of a blessed Resurrection only an Argument of Support and Comfort under the Apprehensions of Death but also a Just and Rational Incentive to Desire our Dissolution How willingly did Elias let fall his Mantle that he might ascend to Heaven How willing was Paul to be dissolved that he might be with Christ How desirously and boldly did the valiant Martyrs encounter with Death that interposed between them and their glorified State This upbraids our backwardness who profess to be enlightened and perswaded of that blessed and perfect World A loathness to Die in Christians is directly repugnant to their Hopes and a reproach to their Christianity it self We are not to obtain Heaven by an immediate Translation to it Death is a necessary intermediate way and there is a natural bitterness in it which makes it unpleasant 'T is a dark Passage from this to the other World though under the Custody and Dominion of our gracious Redeemer * How 's Domin Redeem over the Invis World p. 49. Yet notwithstanding this Believers are still to reckon their Mortality their Advantage and to bless God that they are not to spend their Immortality in the present State But you will say We should not fear Dying if we did know our Interest in Christ if we were assured that we were of that number whom he will redeem from the Power of the Grave and receive to himself It must be confessed there are but some whom God will thus Redeem others are to be left under the conquest of Death and of him that hath the Power of Death for ever And these have reason to fear and Tremble at the thoughts of Death and much more at its approach but then consider none are among that