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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	father_n	jesus_n	lord_n	17,123	5	3.7490	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50876	A sermon at the funeral of Mrs. Elizabeth Fisher, sister to the Honourable Sir William Dawes, Bar. D.D. and wife to the Reverend Dr. Peter Fisher preach'd at Bennington in Hertfordshire, June the 2d, 1698 / by William Milner ...	Milner, William, Vicar of Shephall in Hertfordshire.	1698 (1698)	Wing M2084; ESTC R15588	15,425	28

in them so as to fix a Temptation upon them For being delivered from the burden of the Flesh from the Body of this Death as the Apostle calls it all those sparks of a corrupt Nature which so easily took fire here are for ever extinguish'd that Root of Bitterness is pluck'd up and can never spring again into any rebellious Inclinations or Actions Now how great a Happiness this is can be throughly understood by none but such as have duly considered the Malignity and Demerit of Sin or felt the Sad and Dismal Effects of it in a Wounded Conscience The Saints doubtless will look upon this as the most Inestimable Priviledge as that without which 't is impossible to be Easie or Happy How will they Rejoyce and Triumph when they shall find in themselves no Disposition at all to the least Evil no possibility of ever incurring the Guilt of it 2. As the Blessed Spirits will find in themselves a total freedom from all Sin so they will be absolutely and perfectly determin'd to every thing that is best always choosing approving and delighting in that which is Good They will find themselves entr'd upon a State of Divine Contemplation Love and Imitation being wholly taken up in Adoring the Infinite Perfections of the Divine Nature and will be surpriz'd at those Great and Marvellous Things which God has done for them They will Obey with Vigor and Praise with Chearfulness and Love without Measure and Trust without Dispondency and Fear without Torment and all this without any Reluctance Weariness or Intermission In a word they will perceive a Divine Nature wrought in themselves that they are like God in point of Purity as well as Immortality And how Blessed how Infinitely Blessed are they who are in such a State 3. Another great and Essential Ingredient of the Happiness of the Saints departed is this That they are enter'd into a State of perfect Peace and Friendship They are admitted into the Society of Saints and Angels where there is no fear or possibility of any future Discord and Contention Where there is no Selfishness or Envy no contrary Humours or divided Interests but all of them Love God above all and every one loves each other as himself 'T is the sence of mutual Friendship which makes this World a tolerable Habitation and 't is the sence of universal immutable Friendship which will render that other World a State of Incomparable Pleasure and Blessedness But 4. Another Fruit or Effect of good Works in respect of Holy Souls in their state of separation from their Bodies may reasonably be supposed to be HOPE Which I the rather mention because it was the Opinion of many Ancient Fathers of the Church and is since receiv'd by Protestants of Eminence and Worth † V. Lud. Capel de Stat. Anim. post mortem By which they did not understand such a Hope as Men have here upon Earth a Hope which ebbs and flows a fluctuating wavering inconstant Hope founded upon uncertain Opinion and probable Conjectures mixt with fear and diffidence attended with impatience discontent and weariness No The Hope of the Saints departed this Life is a firm secure unshaken immutable certain Hope without any mixture of suspicion murmuring or fear of Disappointment founded in much clearer Apprehensions and larger Communications of God's Love and Favour to them and assurance of their love to Him than are either vouchsaf'd or are attainable in this frail Mortal State The Principal Object of which Hope or the thing hop'd for They supposed to be the Resurrection of the Body at the Last Day when they should be admitted to the Beatifick Vision in the Highest Heaven the place of the more immediate Residence of the Divine Majesty and Glory where they should behold God and Christ not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some of them speak as in a Vision or through a Cloud at a distance but face to face as he is receiving the fullest Communications of his Love and Glory And this they collected from all those passages of Holy Scripture which speak of the Great and Final Day of Judgment as the Greatest and Joyful Day the Day of Mercy and Forgiveness Rest and Refreshing Joy and Gladness Redemption and Salvation Rewards and Crowns And indeed tho' there be no doubt that the Saints rest in Hope of a Glorious Resurrection and an Immortal Crown and though from such Texts it may with great probability be inferr'd That the Happiness of departed Souls is but initial and partial and less perfect than it will be at the Resurrection and after the Final Judgment when they shall be Cloathed upon with their Heavenly House Bodies fashioned like to Christ's most Glorious Body Yet with submission I conceive such passages do not necessarily prove that the Spirits of Just Men are not immediately admitted into Heaven as it imports not only a State but a place of Magnificence and Transcendent Glory But suppose this alone should be the principal part of their Blessedness yet even this in the account of every good Man will appear very great such as exacts our best Care and Endeavours to attain to it To rest in Hope a Hope which cannot be disappointed of a Glorious Resurrection to an Immortal Crown To have as it were the Glistering Morning Rays of that Blessed Day breaking in upon them and to have the prospect of that Bright Eternal Crown which at that Day shall be set upon their Heads represented to them will fill the Blessed Spirits with present Exultancie and Incessant Triumph causing them to break out into Halelujahs and Songs of Praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.3 4. who according to his abundant mercy hath begotten them again to a lively Hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptable and undefiled that fadeth not away reserv'd in Heaven for them 5. Lastly The Works of good Men do so follow or accompany them into their Future State as through the Mercy of God in Christ to procure them an immediate Admittance into Heaven the Palace of the Great King of the World a Place of Unspeakable Majesty and Glory Solace and Delight where they are made to Drink of those Rivers of Pleasure which are at God's Right Hand for evermore And in this I think I speak agreeably to the tenor of Holy Scripture the more general belief of the Antient and the sense of the best Reform'd Protestant Churches our own Church in particular which has expresly taught us That † V. Hom. against the fear of Death Death delivering us from our Bodies sends us straight home into our Country and makes us to dwell presently with God for ever in Everlasting Rest and Quietness And again * V. Hom. of Prayer As the Scripture teaches let us think that the Soul of Man passing out of the Body goeth straitway either to Heaven or else to Hell Which Doctrin is grounded upon

A SERMON AT THE FUNERAL OF Mrs. ELIZABETH FISHER Sister to the Honourable Sir WILLIAM DAWES Bar. D. D. And Wife to the Reverend Dr. PETER FISHER Preach'd at Bennington in Hertfordshire June the 2d 1698. By WILLIAM MILNER Vicar of Shephall in Hertfordshire LONDON Printed for Thomas Speed at the Three Crowns near the Royal-Exchange in Corn-hill MDCLXXXXVIII To the Honourable the Lady ELIZABETH BENET WIFE OF Sir Richard Benet Bar. Of Babram in Cambridgshire Madam THE honest Plainness and Truth of the following Discourse found such acceptance with the Relations and Friends of that Excellent Person whose immature and much lamented Death was the sad Occasion of it That They have prevail'd with me to make it more publick than I at first intended Believing it would be as acceptable to your Ladyship in the Reading as it was to them when they heard it I was the more willing to comply with their Desire not only that it might be a publick acknowledment of my g●eat Obligation to Your Family and to Your Ladyship in particular for Your many great and lasting Favours towards me but because I am sensible the Subject is such as will recommend it to Your Favour Your Ladyship was a Witness and a Lover of the many great Vertues of Your Dear and Excellent Friend Her affectionate care and concern for Your Good the Sincerity of her Friendship the Piety and Prudence of her Counsels the great Vsefulness and Advantage of her Example at such a time when you stood most in need of it by the otherwise irreparable loss of Your truly Pious and most tenderly Affectionate Mother had deservedly endear'd her to You and I perswade my self just Allowances being made for the difference of Your respective Condition and Circumstances You will always imitate whatsoever was Excellent Amiable and Praise-worthy in Her This will recommend You to the esteem of such as are Wise and Good Hereby You will be an Ornament to Your Own Family and add a Lustre to That into which by the successful Care and Endeavours of Your Dear deceased Friend You are so happily transplanted If what I now offer may contribute any thing towards so great and good an End it will be the greatest accession to all the other Favours You have shewn to Madam Your Ladyships Most Obliged and Obedient Servant W. MILNER A SERMON AT THE FUNERAL OF Mrs. ELIZABETH FISHER Rev. 14.13 I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are Dead which die in the Lord from henceforth Yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them VVHosoever shall consider these words in their more immediate Connexion with the foregoing parts of the Chapter will see great reason to conclude that in their Original and Primary intention they were deliver'd by the Blessed Spirit and by him commanded to be written for the support and comfort of the Church under that severe Persecution which should befall it But since the Wisdom and Piety of our own Church has thought fit ●o insert the Words into her Office for the Burial of the Dead I shall at this time consider them in a greater Lati●ude as of general use to the Church of God in all Ages ●nd under all circumstances holding forth this great and comfortable Truth Viz. That all Good Christians immediately upon their dissolution or departure out of this Life are in a blessed or happy condition A Truth which deserves our more serious and attentive ●egard and meditation because deliver'd by an audible Voice from Heaven expressly commanded to be written and confirm'd by the solemn asseveration of the Spirit And therefore for the more distinct and proffitable handling of the Words give me leave to exercise your Meditation and Patience upon these following things 1. Let me inquire what it is to die in the Lord 2. In what respect or upon what accounts such as die in the Lord are pronounc'd Blessed 3. Let me touch at the time from whence their Blessedness commences And then I shall apply the whole for the directing our Practice and in particular to temper and alleviate our grief upon the Mournful occasion of our present meeting together And 1. Let me inquire what it is to die in the Lord And this will be dispatch'd in a few words Now tho' this Phrase to die in the Lord if consider'd with respect to the particular occasion of the Words may signifie only to die for the Lord i. e. for his sake and in his cause and so may relate to the case of such who suffer Martyrdom for the sake of Christ Yet I doubt not but in the more general and ultimate sense of the Words to die in the Lord is the same as to die in the Faith and Fear and Favour of God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent To die Christians Christians both in Faith and Practice adhering to God through Jesus Christ by an Uniform and Constant Obedience to his Will and a stedfast Faith and Hope of Redemption and Salvation by him For i● to be in Christ and to be alive to God through Jesus Christ and to live to him who died for us and rose again are forms of Speech denoting the sincere Belief and Practice of Christianity and the Participation of the Grace and Priviledges of the Gospel in consequence of such Faith and Practice I think their can be no reason to doubt but that these Phrases of Sleeping in Christ and Dying in the Lord must likewise be understood in the same sense so as to imply our Perseverance in such Belief and Practice to our lives end And Blessed are they who thus die in the Lord continuing stedfast without wavering even to the end in all holy Faith and Obedience Which leads me to the Second thing I am to account for Viz. 2. To inquire in what respect and upon what accounts they who die in the Lord are pronounc'd Blessed Or in other words to point at the Nature of that Blessedness which Holy Souls enjoy in their state of Separation from their Bodies But before I enter upon this permit me to premise a few things 1. That as yet we are very much in the dark as to our future State I do not mean as to the certainty of such a State for Life and Immortality is brought to light thro' the Gospel But we are left to uncertainties as to the distinct nature and compleat degrees and measures of its Happiness And 2. We have just reason to believe that the Blessedness of departed Holy Spirits in their State of Separation is less perfect in Quality and Degree than it will be at the Resurrection when their Souls and Bodies shall be reunited by the most intimate Vital Union But nevertheless there is enough reveal'd concerning their present Happiness to convince us that 't is very great far beyond any of the transitory mixt perishing Pleasures of this Life enough to engage good Men to aspire and pant after it at

several passages of the Apostle St. Paul the Parable of Lazarus and the example of the Penitent Theif upon the Cross But this leads me to the last thing I propos'd viz. 3. To touch at the time from whence the Blessedness of good Men commences and in this I have already in great measure prevented my self and therefore shall be very short upon it I doubt not therefore in a word to affirm that it begins immediately after the dissolution of Soul and Body Which whether it may be justly infer'd from the particular force of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate henceforth I shall not now dispute For however that be the thing it self is sufficiently clear from many other places of Scripture The whole Scope of the Parable of Dives and Lazarus is a convincing and undeniable Testimony Luke 16.19 c. 1 Phil. 2.23 2 Cor. 5.6 8. The Apostle St. Paul has assur'd us that to depart out of this Life is to be with Christ and that to be at home in the Body is to be absent from the Lord and to be absent from the Body is to be present with the Lord. Which Places are so clear and full to the purpose that more need not be added And therefore I shall now proceed to the Application of what I have said so as to influence our general Belief and Practice and in particular to temper and allay our Grief which this Melancholy Solemnity is so apt to excite in us And 1. From what has been said I might take occasion to shew the gross absurdity and falshood of that conceit which some have entertain'd concerning the Sleep of the Soul as they call it supposing it in its separate State intirely bereft and strip'd of all Vital Energy or Operation Which how it can be reconcil'd with those Scriptures which assert the immediate Blessedness of the Saints departed I cannot see unless a state of perfect inactivity and stupid senslessness either is or may be accounted a Blessed State 2. I might likewise represent what a direct contradiction the Doctrin of Purgatory as it is taught in the Church of Rome is to the words of the Text. Says the Text Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord No says the Church of Rome they are consign'd for many Years no body knows how many to Purgatory i. e. as they explain themselves to a place whose Torments are very exquisite little less than the pains of Hell to suffer as they speak the Temporal Punishment of those Sins for which they have not compleatly satisfi'd in this Life Can an immediate rest from their Labors and suffering very exquisite Pains and Torments consist together And then 3. From hence also I might shew how vain and useless it is to pray for the Saints who are departed this Life Their Sins and Sorrows are at an end They rest from their Labours They are Blessed and wherein can our Prayers Profit them Is it not absurd to pray for what they already enjoy Tho' the Words give just occasion to discourse upon all these things yet I shall choose rather to insist upon what is plainer and more practical And therefore 1. Are they who die in the Lord Blessed from hence you see the great Necessity the Reasonableness and Advantages of Christian Faith and Practice What greater Motive and Incouragement to live well than to be assur'd that if we do so we shall be happy by an abundant entrance into the joy of our Lord. Blessed are the Dead says the Text but then it is with this Restriction who die in the Lord. Which plainly shews that Blessedness appertains to them to them alone exclusively of all others Unless we live the Life of the Righteous it will be impossible for us to die the Death of the Righteous Unless we live to the Lord resigning our Selves Soul Body and Spirit intirely to his Will and Pleasure we can never die in the Lord never die in his Favour nor partake with him in his Glory The constant exercise of Faith and good Works will give us courage and confidence at the time of our dissolution and after death also If these go before or accompany us they will assure our Hearts and plead our Cause and through the Merits of Christ procure a full approbation and an ample reward But without Holiness no man shall see the Lord. Tribulation Anguish and Horror and black invincible Despair will be the portion of the Ungodly after their Dissolution The end of this life will be to them the beginning of a life of eternal Misery and Torment Impure wicked Souls will be so far from the end of their Labours that they will just then enter upon Labours infinitely more vexatious and insupportable than any they groan'd under in this Life Their Works as well as the Works of the Righteous will follow them into their future State But for this reason to enhance and aggravate their Shame and Misery For then the unreasonableness the folly and turpitude and horrid baseness of their behaviour will be represented to their guilty Minds with such Force and Efficacy and the impossibility of undoing their Evil Deeds or making any Satisfaction for them be so clearly imprest upon them that they will lie down in everlasting Confusion Astonishment and Despair expecting the Resurrection of Damnation Joh. 5.29 and cursing their own obstinate Folly as the only cause of their ruine And since it is thus we plainly see how much it is our Duty and our Interest to live in the sincere Belief and Practice of our Holy Religion that so at the time of our Dissolution we may receive the exceeding great and glorious rewards of it 2. From hence we may draw a very powerful Argument to lessen our Opinion of this World and to animate and fortifie us against the fear of Death What is there in this World that we should be over fond of it What is there in Death that should make us either afraid or unwilling to die Is not this World a place of Injustice and Violence of Subtiltiy and Deceit full of noise and brawling of Strife and Contention Are we not daily expos'd to Detraction and Reproach The Peevishness of some the Stubbornness of others the Treachery and Ingratitude of Friends the Hatred and Injuries of Enemies the contempt of Superiors the jealousie of Equals the envy of the Meaner sort the different Humours the divided and contrary Interests of those we converse with do perplex and almost distract and confound us Are not our best Counsels too often rejected our faithfulest Reproof scorn'd our well-lay'd Designs defeated Is not every thing subject to mutability and a ground of Care and Vexation And since it is thus since this is the State the Guise and manner of this World Why do we admire and dote upon it Why so unwilling to leave it Especially since Death will put an everlasting end to all this Labour and Sorrow and vexation of Spirit