Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	ghost_n	holy_a	lord_n	23,094	5	4.0162	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61273	The happiness of good men after death a sermon at the funeral of Mr. Robert Castell, late of Deptford in Kent, preached in the parish church of Deptford, August the 19th, 1698 : published at the request of the relations and executors of the deceased / by George Stanhope ...	Stanhope, George, 1660-1728.	1699 (1699)	Wing S5223; ESTC R15062	13,720	32

The Happiness of Good Men after Death A SERMON AT THE FUNERAL OF Mr. Robert Castell Late of Deptford in Kent Preached in the Parish Church of Deptford August the 19th 1698. Published at the Request of the Relations and Executors of the Deceased By GEORGE STANHOPE D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty LONDON Printed for R. Sare at Grays-Inn-gate in Holborn 1699. Rev. xiv V. 13. I heard a Voice from Heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the Dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth Yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them THat the Importance of these words is very great we need no other Argument to convince us than the solemn manner in which they are delivered to the Apostle Such is the express Command that they should be carefully preserved by writing I heard a Voice from He●ven saying unto me Write Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth To which is added yet farther the Testimony of the Holy Ghost confirming the Truth of what that Voice had dictated and declaring particularly wherein the Blessedness of such persons consists Yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them These forms are such Preparations as always speak the matter ushered in by them to be of mighty Consequence And are intended to awaken our Minds more powerfully and to recommend it to our best and most attentive Consideration The immediate Occasion and Design of the Passage now before us was plainly to fortify the Christians against some very violent Persecutions which St. John had a certain foresight given him of and describes accordingly by very terrible Circumstances Infomuch that he pronounces it here a very great Happiness to be taken out of the World before those Calamitous and Trying times should come which might endanger the shaking the most resolute Faith and Patience even of the best Men. Or as some other Interpreters think he describes the Blessedness of those faithful Professors of Christianity whom the Grace of God should enable to persevere unto the end and to suffer Martyrdom for the Doctrines of his Gospel Those persons being sometimes said with a peculiar Emphasis to dye in the Lord who suffer in his Cause and lay down their Lives for his sake But there is no necessity nor indeed any sufficient Reason for confining this Expression to those times of Primitive Perfecution only or to the Martyrs who suffered in them For as every sincere good Man who heartily embraces the Faith of Christ and whose Conversation is such as becomes that Faith is said in Scripture to * 2 Cor. v. 15. live unto the Lord so every one who continues in that Belief and Obedience to the End of his Days is very truly and properly said when God takes him out of the World to † 1 Thes iv 14. sleep in Jesus and to dye in the Lord. And thus it is manifest not our Own only but the Christian Church in general hath constantly understood the Text by making it in many antient Liturgies a part of the Burial Service And so declaring the Blessedness here to belong to every deceased Person who lives and dyes a worthy Member of her Communion Having therefore so good Authority to bear me out I shall make no difficulty to treat of my Text in this larger and more popular Sense and so to apply it to the occasion of our present meeting that we may gather from hence those useful and comfortable Reflections which may minister to us a Reasonable Hope of our Departed Brother's Happiness and a joyful Expectation of our Own In order hereunto I shall so far as the time will give me leave do these three things I. First I shall endeavour to represent to you the Happy State of Good Men after Death as the Words have here described it to us II. Secondly I shall from this Doctrine so established draw some few Inferences which may be of use to us both for the Conduct of our Lives in general and more particularly seasonable upon these Melancholy Occasions III. And then in the Third and last Place I shall apply the Substance of my two former heads yet more closely to the Circumstances of the Person whose mortal part now lyes before us 1. First I shall endeavour to represent to you the happy State of Good Men after Death as the Words have here described it to us And I may well say I shall endeavour only that which it is not possible for me worthily to effect For Who indeed can represent it justly What Tongue of Men or Angels can find expressions strong and significant enough What Images are so bright so glorious What finite Understandings of a Capacity so large that they should contain adequate Ideas of that Bliss to which nothing we are acquainted with in this Life is equal nothing like nothing in any degree comparable That Bliss which would lose a great part of its Perfection if Sense and feeble Reason could fully comprehend it and whose peculiar Excellence we are told it is that * 1 Cor. ii 9. Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it entred into the Heart of Man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love him The utmost therefore which you must expect in this case is only to have it drawn in little In such proportions as frail Men are capable of by Resemblances taken from things familiar to us by setting it in opposition to the Miseries we are at present exposed to and by such Other Considerations as are of Value and Weight with us in the Affairs and Transactions of humane Life This is the Method which the Holy Spirit hath made use of here And the Arguments by which he raises our esteem of that Blessedness pronounced from Heaven upon the Dead which dye in the Lord seem to be these Three 1. First The Troubles such Men are delivered from They rest from their Labours 2. Secondly The good Acceptance and great Reward which they shall after Death receive for what they have done well during the present Life Their Works do follow them 3. Thirdly The Time when they enter upon this Happiness intimated in that Term fixed here Blessed are the Dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth 1. First They who dye in the Lord are Blessed in regard of the Troubles they are delivered from They rest from their Labours I will not I need not upon this occasion undertake to shew how sore and manifold these Labours are For This is an Argument that comes home to the Sense and Experience of every one of us All that hear me are able to go before me in the Reflection how thick we are beset with Troubles and Afflictions on every Side in our Bodies and our Souls in our publick and our private Capacities The Vanities of Youth and the Infirmities of Age The Difficulties of Supporting these

it is enough to prevail with us not only to bear but even to bless our Troubles when we reflect that though our Sufferings are left behind yet the Virtue and Effect of them are not For that is the Second Reason II. Wherefore the Dead are blessed who dye in the Lord that they do not only rest from their Labours but their Works follow them The Toil and Drudgery is at an End and all that could be grievous to them is put off with that Body which exposed them to Corruption and Suffering But those Labours are not forgotten Their Diligence and Consciencious Care The Meekness and Resignation wherewith they were endured sticks by the Labourer still And as to all the desirable and advantagious purposes will be sure to keep him company for ever in the other World For by this Expression of their Works following them is meant that Good Acceptance and great Reward which the Saints shall be sure to find after Death for what they have done well during this present Life We must not from This or from any Other Expressions like it in Scripture infer such Merit and Sufficiency in the best works of the best Men as can convey to them a Right to demand this happiness as in Rigour and Equity their due For All have come short of the Glory of God * Rom. iii. 23. Psal cxliii 2. and no Flesh can be justified in his Sight should Judgment and not Mercy be the Standard of his Proceedings But hereby is meant that according to the Terms of the Gospel-Covenant which for the Sake and Sufferings of Christ promiseth Pardon for Sins rerepented of Compassion for Infirmities not indulged and a Recompence for those Good Actions which the Grace of God hath wrought in and by and with us Every sincere Christian shall not fail to be abundantly considered for and in proportion to what he hath performed and endured as became him in the days of his Flesh I say abundantly considered More or less as the Tryals and Instances of each Man's Virtue have been more or less but yet in such manner and measure as far exceeds the Value of his best Works and the Degree of his sharpest Afflictions For St. Paul hath assured us * Rom. viii 18. That the Sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory that shall be revealed in us and that † 2 Cor. iv 16. these light Afflictions which are but for a moment work out for us a more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory In short God will deal with such Men according to the Riches of his own infinite Mercy and make them actually happy then far above what they now are able so much as to conceive For how indeed can it be supposed that We in this imperfect State of things should have any distinct Notions of that future and vastly different State when this dross of Earth and sensual Appetites shall be purified when the Faculties of our Mind shall be enlarged freed from Prejudice and Errour * 1 Cor. xiii 12. and not see as now darkly and through a Glass but know even as also we are known When we raise our Souls as high as possibly we can yet even then our thoughts are cloudy and confused We speak as Children we think as Children we understand as Children but when we come to the fullness of the Stature of perfect Men in Christ Jesus these childish things shall be put away and we shall have quite other apprehensions of the matter Then shall we see and know and feel that all those lofty descriptions of Heavenly Joys in Scripture which now so hardly gain our belief are much beneath the Dignity of that Happiness they would represent and recommend to us And that those Images were made use of not because they were worthy and proportionable but because they were the fittest and best resemblances of that Bliss which We were capable of And therefore even in these noblest flights there is all along a condescension to our weaknesses A veil of Figures and sensible Similitudes drawn before that Glory which is too strong and bright for our naked Eye too big for even Thoughts and Wishes much more for Words to reach and come up to O! the incomprehensible Excellence of that knowledge which shall see God as he is and liken the Soul to the Excellence it sees O the Delights of that Wonder and Praise and perpetual Thanksgiving with which glorified Saints extol the amazing Wisdom and Justice and Goodness of God! The mighty Satisfaction of being let in to the hidden Treasures of his Mercy the exact harmony of his Providence the Mysteries of his Nature and his Dealings with Mankind which now pretending Mortals wrangle and raise such a Dust about O the perfect purity and tranquility of a Life free from Lust and Passion from doubtful and painful Struggles and ever choosing ever delighting in that which is good O the Charms of that entire Love and Peace and joynt Consent in honouring and serving God and rejoycing in each other's Happiness void of that Envy and Grudging that Jealousy and Discord that Ill-nature or Selfishness those Personal Injuries or differences in Interests and Opinions which will not suffer us to enjoy a perfect Unity in this World O Gracious God how plentiful is thy Goodness which thou hast laid up for Them that fear thee They pay thee a short imperfect Obedience and what is this that the King of Heaven should recompence it with so great a Reward They are unprofitable Servants and yet thou makest them Sit down at thy Table in thy Kingdom Their Sins and Frailties are Many and Those are remembred no more their Good Deeds in comparison but very few and yet not one of These is forgotten Their present Labours and Sufferings have their Intervals and Comforts and are but light and short at worst light in consideration of that future weight of Glory short and even as nothing to that Eternity of Bliss that pure uninterrupted Bliss which they work out for them Nor dost thou Blessed Jesus put off these Labourers with distant Prospects and uneasy Expectations For no sooner does that Night come on in which they can work no longer but they are called to present payment The Combat once ended and the Race run the Conquerour is crown'd without delay Which brings me to the third Circumstance whereby this Spirit here represents to us the Blessedness of Good Men departed and that is III. The Time when they enter upon their Happiness intimated in that Term fixed in those words Blessed are the Dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth I am not ignorant what differing Interpretations are put upon this word in the Original but neither the Time nor the present Temper of your Minds will bear so cold a thing as Criticising now And therefore it shall suffice to say that both the Sense in which I have all along taken the words and the Church