Selected quad for the lemma: saint_n
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A44126
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Two sermons preach'd at the funerals of the Right Honourable Robert Lord Lexington and the Lady Mary his wife by Samuel Holden.
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Holden, Samuel, fl. 1662-1676.
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1676
(1676)
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Wing H2382; ESTC R28098
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32,373
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60
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shall be no more When once our drowsie temples are bound up with Deaths swarthy Night-cloaths Farewell to Spring which is our growth in grace Farewell to Summer and fruits meet for repentance Farewell to Sunshine being the light of grace And Farewell showres the droppings of the Sanctuary For man lieth down and riseth not till the Heavens be no more c. II. 'T is then a long Sleep Till the Heavens be no more A time of tedious distance for ought we know But yet how near soever if we reflect on those who went before us how much soever Death resembled Sleep in quality 't is much beyond it in the quantity The grand distinction of these sleeps consists in their duration A Sand participates the essential properties of Earth But ah when their dimensions come in competition that nature of the Earth which the Sand possesses is but enough to priviledge it from being nothing So Sleep though constituted of the calm and gentle qualities of Death when we peruse them in their just extent appears in the comparison to have but so much ease as does but just exempt it from being labour Here we soon sleep and strait as quickly wake Our lives are but successive and short fits of darkness and of light And if the night protract itself beyond our slumbers how restless grow we tortur'd with repose and making our ease our anguish But Bodies once asleep beneath the Coverlets of Turfs find not themselves so hasty to be stirring We shall remove no Curtains with our hands nor with our eyes seek day-light in a Window nor with our vain enquiries look for glimmerings in the East No no we shall not hunt for day till we shall miss the Heavens from which it us'd to start We now lay not our selves to sleep until our selves or servants those Deputy selves have put out the Candle but being laid down in Death we shall not wake till he that never sleeps puts out the Sun For the Sun shall be turn'd into darkness (n) Joel 2.31 and be no more our light (o) Isa 60.19 The Sun and Darkness shall at once forsake us nor shall the one I mean Death withdraw its drowsie shades till the other wraps his Sun-beams up in Sables and instead of bidding Good-Morrow like a Bridegroom * Psal 19.5 shall bid Good-Night like a Mourner But as soundly as we shall sleep in Body so surely was Lactantius in a Dream who with the other Chiliasts would humble Christs celestial Sovereignty into an earthly Throne to be erected at Jerusalem and be establish'd for 1000 years for which space also he presum'd the Martyrs should be empowred with sublunary dominion and enjoy pleasures equally terrestrial with their jurisdiction Now the foundation of this phantastick building they lay upon a ground which will not bear it they instance in Rev. 20. and from these expressions The Devil is bound for a thousand years ver 2. And the Souls of the Witnesses or Martyrs liv'd and reign'd with Christ for a thousand years ver 4. They conclude That Satan shall literally and temporally be bound and the Martyrs temporally rule And lest we should conceive they understood this their Supremacy to be only in Spirit they not only insist upon ver 4. where 't is said The Souls of the Witnesses liv'd and reign'd But introduce the fifth verse where 't is said The rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were finish'd †i. e. Those that are dead in Body and in Graâ—e shall have no Resurrection at all till all things are accomplished and then they shall arise to a second Death But these that had part in the first Resurrection i. e. from Sin the second Death which is of Soul and Body shall have nâ— power â—…n From hence concluding That the Martyrs Souls should all this while be reunited to their Bodies which only can be suppos'd to live again * For the Soul lives not again but continues to live And lest Error should be too narrow to expatiate in their Fancies rove yet further and recur to 2 Pet. 3.8 where one day is said to be with God as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day Inferring hence That the Worlds Glass shall be 7000 years in running out in proportion to the seven dayes which make up every Week and since the seventh day had a Prescription of Repose and Piety the six preceding being lights to guide men into toyle and sweat they fancy the last thousand years must supply the room of a continued Sabbath to the Saints after the first 6000 years being spent in industry and expectation But this opinion does directly thwart that Text (p) Matth. 24.36 But of that day and hour knoweth no man no not the Angels c. And the other opinion contradicts that other Text (q) John 18.36 My Kingdom is not of this world But both oppose our present Text which sayes Man i. e. all Mankind except those which rose with Christ to attend him their first-fruits and to whom they limit not their fancy'd Empire awakes not till the Heavens be no more Yet even St Austin (r) Nam etiam nos haec epinati fuimus aliquando Aug. de Civ Dei lib. 20. ch 7. once indulg'd this misconception although with an opinion more refin'd and which alotted not such carnal pleasures to this dominion of the Saints as other Patrons of this Error did But on review and better thoughts he tells us That by a thousand years being a perfect number is meant the latter Age begun by the Messias in the fulness of time in which the Devil is bound i. e. he does not with his old more boundless power detain the world in Error and enjoy his former usurpation of Souls (s) Aut certe mille annos pro omnibus anâ—…s hujus seculi posuit ut perfâ—cto numero notaretur ipsa temporis plenitudo Aug. ibid. But for the Saints although their Bodies should remain the slaves of Sepulchres those only excepted which arose with Christ yet should their spirits reign with Christ in Heaven * Quamvis ergo cum suâ—… dum jam tamen corum animae regnant cum illo Idem ibidem And this exactly squares with that My Kingdom is not of this world not but that Bodies too shall partake his triumphs but that will be not till the Heavens be no more III. Why then the Heavens shall be no more For should they still continue as they are and should man ne're revive whil'st they continue so how could his Death be term'd a Sleep to which no waking ever should succeed The Heavens now are like an open Book full of strange Characters which men consult how wisely let their effects determine to be inform'd when great mens Lives shall be no more when Kingdoms and when States shall be no more when publick Blessings and when publick Curses shall be no more But there will be a
mundâ—…â Elementorum corruptibilium qualitates quae corporibus nostris corruptibiâ—ibus congruchant ardendâ— penitus interibunt Atque ipsâ— substantia eas qualitates habebit quae corporibus immortalibus mirabili mutatione conventant Ut scilicent mundus in melius inrouaâ—us aptâ— accommodetur hominibus etiam in carne meliùs innovatis Aug. de Civ Dei lib. 20. cap. 16. From these things then we may raise these Conclusions 1. That the Heavens shall no more measure time For 2. Time shall be no more Rev. 10.6 And hence indeed in proper speech the Heavens shall be no more Shall is the Future Tense but in Eternity there 's no Futurity Now when there is no time but all Eternity who can without great impropriety say the Heavens shall be when Shall imports a time to come 3. If no time then no motion for time is the measure of motion (f) Tempus est mensura motus omnis motus est in tempore and therefore 4. No more action for without motion there is no action in Naturals 5. Therefore no more influence on Sublunaries for without action no influence therefore 6. No more generation nor corruption for these are not without influence Thus then the Heavens shall be no more And now IV. Man shall awake and be raised out of his sleep Methinks I see his Body now begin to be again Methinks I see the Sea like Jonah's Whale surrendring what it had long time conceal'd Methinks I see Men bolting from the Earth like Rabbets from their Warrens Some from the Waves some from the Graves I see just waken'd by the Trump and shaking off many their dew and many more their dust For they must awake they must be raised out of their sleep But it may be of use to mind the expression 't is they shall be rais'd not by their vertue but some others power But what is his Name if thou canst tell 'T is my Redeemer I know that my Redeemer lives and he shall raise me up at the last day (g) Job 19.25 My Redeemer There 's God's power Shall raise me up There 's Job's assurance At the last day There 's the time prescrib'd My Redeemer lives 1. To confute the Jews who disown his Resurrection 2. To prove that he also shall raise us up Christ the first-fruits afterwards they that are Christs 1 Cor. 15. For He shall raise me up To refute those who repute our expectation of reduction from the Grave as a Dream At the last day To confute Hymeneus Philetus and Hermogenes who concluded the Resurrection already accomplish'd because 't is recorded that the Bodies of the Saints arose Matth. 27. So holy Job even in the Text supposes and implies what there he expresses viz. That when the Heavens shall be no more Man shall be raised 1. Then he shall awake arise 2. How shall he be raised But 1. Mans Body shall arise These very Numerical Bodies these that we sin'd in or repented in Methinks I hear the Trumpet sound a Call wherefore Awake Awake Whoe're Where're Howe're you are Whoe're have been devour'd by Wolves those Wolves being strait devoured by Lyons those Lyons dying and strait devour'd by Kites Whoe're to Fishes have been made a Prey which even themselves have soon become a Prey to other Fishes Whoe're you are that in your Bodies have perform'd the Stages which fond Pythagoras prescrib'd to Souls in journeys through each various kind of Beasts Whoe're you are have been reduc'd to dust and dissipated through the spacious world till every dust has been remov'd a Mile from dust of kin to it Awake Awake indeed you must awake 'T is a resistless power that raises you 'T is God shall raise the dead Acts 26.8 But some may ask Query What if a Man devour those of his own species What if Claudius devour Sempronius and after time for due digesting him Claudius himself become anothers Meal How shall Sempronius and others in the like capacity be raised up in his own Numerical Body unless whatsoever was eaten by Claudius and may be conceiv'd to have become a part of his Body be restored Which if it be How then shall Claudius rise with his Numerical Body This is the Query which Objectors think Solut. is of itself enough to make a Sadduce But 't is indeed a trivial doubt and of no force to any but the willing For 't is not he shall arise as I observ'd before but he shall be raised which includes an unrestrained power to be the Agent and 't is the same Almighty Power which does support the living That God shall raise Man who now seeds Man He needs no aid of meat to keep a Creature living How obvious may we then conceive it though Claudius do devour Sempronius for God to strengthen Claudius and support him without permitting any of Sempronius to be concocted into his constitution especially since he compos'd not Man to be Mans food But now what think you if even to Reason for at that Weapon they must be encounter'd who contradict this Doctrine I say what if to Reason 't is a thing impossible but of the self-same Body there must be infallibly a Resurrection Not to trace all the Causes back up to the first to prove a God accomplish'd in whate're good reason ere thought good I shall suppose the Existence of a Deity already granted I know none deny it There being then a God he must be just but just he cannot be without a Resurrection For to mans eye the worst oft live and dye with least misfortune Now if no vengeance seize them after death where 's then the Justice and where 's then the God Will any say that after dissolution the Soul may suffer and still God be just although the Body sleeps But if the Body shar'd in sinning and be exempted from the suffering a Malefactor escapes then where 's the Justice and next where 's the God Or will you say as some are very forward that Death it self is the Bodies punishment But I say 1. the Soul and Body sin'd together for each others greater satisfaction in justice therefore we may think that they should suffer together for each others greater affliction But they by death so far does it resist their suffering together are far remov'd asunder if death then be the Bodies sole infliction still where 's the Justice 2. Can the Body be punish'd with what it never feels But oft great Sinners sink into the Grave under a stupefaction of the senses and dye extempore And if the flesh do only suffer death which brings no corporal pain for mighty corporal transgressions still where 's the Justice 3. The Body sinning against an infinite Person committed infinite sin for as we see in Treason the Object gives proportion to the Crime Infinite sin must have no finite suffering But Death is a finite suffering for that 's accomplish'd when the Soul is gone If therefore Death be all the vengeance to the Body where