Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	holy_a	lord_n	speak_v	10,182	5	4.8194	4	false

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

that he discharged himself so well his Virtue was Active too Many of his good Works there are which should not and Some which scarcely can be forgotten Such were his Honesty and Strict Justice in his Dealings His Moderation and Prudence The Peaceableness of his Temper and Readiness to compose Differences His Integrity and Candour his Modesty and Humility which recommended him to the Conversation and the good Opinion of all that had opportunities of knowing him He was remarkably careful to discharge the duty of those several Capacities God placed him in An Affectionate Husband a kind Relation a faithful and generous Friend And though he left no Issue of his own yet did not that destroy but diffuse rather the Relation of a Father for he was such in some sort to several whom Nature had setat a greater distance from him His Piety and great Regard to Religion was testified by attending diligently upon the publick Worship of God as oft as his Indispositions would permit And his Love of the Beauty and Decency of the House and Service of his Great Master cannot dye so long as the * Deptford Church rebuilt 1697 Place where we are now assembled Stands For This is a lasting Monument of that Generosity and Godly Zeal which moved in the foremost rank of those many noble Contributors to so necessary so becoming so pious a Work And his Charity to the Living Temples of the Holy Ghost as it was freely extended upon fit occasions in his Life-time so is it continued in a very large and useful Provision for the Benefit of the Poor after his Death I forbear several of the Works of this kind which together with these now mentioned no doubt do follow him and are already we trust begun to be repaid in the Comforts and Joys of a Blessed Immortality The only thing left for us to do is carefully to copy after such good Examples that when we shall be called upon as shortly we shall we may with holy Trust and steady Submission to God's Will commit our selves into the hands of our most merciful Creator and Redeemer And such a Trust and chearful Resignation I who by the particular Approbation of his Reverend and very worthy Pastor attended him in his last hours did with great Satisfaction observe in Him in the very Agonies of Death For even then his Mind was much composed and except the tender Impressions which the Tears of his dearest Relations made upon his Spirits all seem'd easy and full of Content to him So much power had the Hopes of a better World to Sustain him in his last conflicts But now those conflicts are happily over and the truest Honour and Affection we can pay to his Memory is to bless God for that perfect Peace and sweet Tranquility which we believe he hath exchanged this dangerous and troublesome life for and so to imitate his commendable Actions and resemble his meek Christian temper and good dispositions that We may in God's due time meet again at our Joyful and blessed Resurrection Even then when all Those who have dyed in the Lord shall shine as the Brightness of the Firmament when these vile Bodies of ours shall be fashioned after Christ's glorious Body to live and reign with Him for ever and ever So amply shall even these Bodies be recompenced for their present Sufferings and Decay So sweet shall be their Rest To so excellent purposes shall every good Man's works follow him Which that Ours may do let us pray and endeavour with all our might that we may live and dye in Him who lived and dyed and rose again for us the Blessed Jesus the Son of God To whom with the Father and Holy Spirit Three Persons and One God be all Honour and Glory now and for evermore Amen FINIS Books Written by George Stanhope D.D. EPictetus's Morals with Simplicius's Comment in English A Sermon of Death and Judgment Preached at Whitehall on the Death of the Queen A Sermon at the Commencement at Cambridge July 6. 1697. A Sermon at the Funeral of Dr. Towerson A Sermon at the Feast of the Sons of the Clergy Dec. 7. 1697. Thomas a Kempis's Christian Patern With Meditations and Prayers for Sick Persons 8o.