Selected quad for the lemma: power_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A56119
|
A sermon on the occasion of the death of the Right Honourable Elizabeth Lady Cutts containing an account of her most pious life and lamented death.
|
Provoste, John.
|
1698
(1698)
|
Wing P3878; ESTC R2910
|
29,829
|
45
|
he has been the same from many Ages and will be so to many more and there shall be no other Change upon him than such as follows that of the Moon in the Full Moon they say he appears an Old Man in the New again a Young one in the Publick Temple and in the view of all his People As there was little Time allowed to her Life so you may think there was too little to her Death But then her Death which may seem surprizing was no more an Evil than that Change shall be the sudden Change of those who shall be living upon Earth when Christ comes to Judgment and who shall be changed in a moment in thâ— twinklâ—ng of an â—ye 1 Cor. 15.51 52. at the last Trumpâ—t And as in that very Chapter which was the last read by her who had read so many They who are alive and remain shall be caught up in the Clouds to meâ—t the Lord in the air 1 Thess 4 17. and so shall they ever be with tin Lord. Nor is there any Evil supposed in being caught up thus and snatched away for St. Paul presently says v. 18. Wherefore comfort one another with these words and he is willing himself to be of the same number and in the same condition he speaks twice as of himself Then we as if he were to be included We who are alive c. There is not Anger or Punishment v. 15 17. but Favour and Blessing in the Death of the Righteous which has not long Solemnity and so much Ceremony as Princes often come to tire Houses of Favourites in a private manner without Pomp and Train So Wisdom 4.14 Enoch's Soul pleased the Lord therefore hasted he to take him away from among the wicked Love is eager as well as Wrath and there is a Kindness as well as a Fury which hastens and which does the thing without Delays and Forms The Righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart the merciful men are taken away Isa 57. â— none considering that the Righteous is taken away from the evil to come From the snares of Life from the calamities and from the sins of the World He shall enter into peace they shall rest in their beds And can we enter into peace too soon Does any one think it a misfortune that when he is weary he should hasten to his Bed The Prophet calls our Graves by a Name so very soft as that of Beds And yet our Notion of them is to out-do that Name they are yet more soft than these for a Bed may have Feaverish Nights and raging Pains broken Sleeps and unpleasant Dreams but there will be case in the Grave there will be nothing to disturb it Indeed I never read the Funeral Service with more passionate resentments than over the Tomb and the Remains of this wonderful Lady with what Regret did we all leave them behind us seeing every thing besides had left us and there was nothing of her upon Earth but these as the Mantle fell from Elijah when he went up to Heaven by the hasty conveyance of a whirlwind and in the glaring pomp of a flaming Chariot And yet in the same Service and at the same time we gave God hearty Thanks because it had pleased Him to deliver this our Sister out of the miseries of this sinful World the sinfulness of it was to her the greatest of its miseries that seemed to her a Disease but it was not a contagious one she was not infected with the Evil though she was discomposed upon the view Our complaining is to be less that she who was always Honoured and is now desired by all should dye so very soon then our Rejoycing that once she lived as when a new Star is seen and then seen no more the Philosopher does not repine that it is no longer visible but with all the nicest pleasure he enquires into the Light and Influence and Motion and all the Properries of it which could be observed while it it did appear I want no Warrant from any one for the giving all this Praise I should have wanted Pardon from my self if I had not given it and the only evil I know is this that there should be now occasion as there was always reason Prov. 31.30 for it Could I have need of a Warrant Solomon himself has one ready for me The woman that feareth the Lord shall he praised And the wise Son of Syrach has another when he seems to summon all those who have any worth of their own or who love it and have had any advantage by it in others to a Consort of Praise Let us now praise Famous Men Ecclus 44 12. 34.7 8.15 The Lord hath wrought great glory by them through his great power from the beginning Such as gave counsel by their understanding Were leaders of the people by their Counsels wise and eloquent in their instructions All these were honoured in their Genâ—rations and were the Glory of their Times They have left a Name behind them that their praises might be reported The people will tell of their wisdom and the Congregation will shew forth their praisâ— Indeed we are safe in the praises we give and others in those they hear without danger of imposing on them in the believing and on our selves in the Action when we do not as the antient Panegyrists teach the Persons praised what they should be but others what they are and what they themselves ought to be The defects of him who performs forms the Office and in his manner of performing it suppose not any defect in nor bring any disadvantage upon the Person for whom it is performed because we are to imagine a greater and more commanding Worth where the Dignity of the Matter does raise the lowest Genius to the unequal attempt and where to give just Praise to another a Man will generously forfeit his own as to pay a great Debt to another we sometimes leave nothing to our selves Thus died as you have heard the Devout and the Good the Worthy and the Honourable after a Life full of Merit though not of Years a Life which deserves far greater things then you yet have heard And how could we so much as say she is Dead much less bear the painful Reflection upon her being so if there were not an allay to the thought of the Evil from this manner of it Did I call it an Evil If Death be any may we suppose it to be that so much less since she pass'd through the Iron Gates and all the gloomy Solemnities of it as where-ever she came she used to leave something of advantage to those who should come after her and every thing was always the better for her To die standing was the great Roman's desire It Would have been hers to have died rather Kneeling not only in her preferring the last of her many Prayers on Earth to her God Acts 7.59 60. as St. Stephen