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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	eternal_a	good_a	reward_n	7,006	5	8.9757	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20734	A funerall sermon preached at Watton in Hertfordshire, at the buriall of the ancient and worthy knight, Sir Philip Boteler, Decemb. 9. 1606	Downame, George, d. 1634.	1607 (1607)	STC 7116; ESTC S110134	29,412	80

is withered away in time of heate yet that which falleth into an vpright heart as it were good ground is neither choked nor withered but bringeth foorth fruite with patience The way then to die in Christ is to liue in him by a true and vnfained faith which purifieth the heart and worketh by loue walking vprightly as it becommeth the members of Christ in the sincere profession of his faith so shall we in the end of our life attaine to the end of our faith which is the saluation of our soules Many there are which could be content to die in Christ who care not to liue in him Many with Balaam desire to die the death of the righteous but leade the life of the wicked But be not deceiued it is an old saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of an euill life cōmonly there is an euill end Presume not that thou shalt die in Christ vnlesse first thou liue in him In all the Scripture there is but one example of a man who after a wicked life was conuerted at the houre of his death One there is that men should not then despaire and but one that they should not before hand presume And forasmuch as nothing is either more certaine than death or more vncertaine than the time thereof it behoueth vs carefully to prouide whiles wee haue time to be in Christ that death whensoeuer it commeth may finde vs in him Let our life be a preparation for death and let this be the chiefest care of our life that wee may be found in Christ at the time of our death This life as our Sauiour saith is the day wherein we are to worke afterward is the night when no man can worke or turne vnto God but as the tree falleth so it lieth and as the day of death doth leaue vs the day of iudgement shall finde vs. This therefore must teach vs not to deferre from day to day our repentance towards God and faith in Iesus Christ but presently whiles it is called to day to turne vnto the Lord that wee may bee in Christ to day before to morow because wee haue none assurance that wee shall liue vntill the morow And so much may suffice to haue spoken of the first and chiefe point namely who they are which heere bee pronounced blessed to wit they which die in the Lord. Now are we in the second place briefely to consider what this blessednes is and wherein it doth consist This is shewed in the words following that they rest from their labours and their workes follow with them So that their happines is two-fold first priuatiue in that they rest from their labors and molestations for there is a sabba●sme or rest reserued to the people of God Hebr. 4. 9. whereof the Sabbath was a type For then the Lord shall wipe away all teares from their eyes and they shall be no more subiect to sinne or the punishment therof as sicknes weaknes mortalitie labour wearines troubles wrongs death Death is the hauen and the end of al misery vnto them But their happines is not meerely priuatiue like that of beasts which after death haue no more sense of paine where by the way we are to note that the state of the beast when it dieth is better then of the wick●d who die in their sinnes but it is also positiue For their workes that is the reward of their faith and obedience 〈◊〉 God shall cro●ne with euerlasting happines shall 〈◊〉 ●th ●hem This doth teach vs that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good 〈◊〉 cannot merit ●ny thing 〈◊〉 t●e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God as Christ himselfe hath t●ld 〈◊〉 Luke 17. and ●ch 〈◊〉 eternall 〈◊〉 and therefore 〈◊〉 are not said to go before our acceptation to eternall 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 cause but follow as fruits yet the Lo● of his free grace according to his promise doth plentifully reward them The consideration wherof as it must encourage vs all to be fruitfull in good works knowing that our labour shall not been vaine in the Lord so especially those whō the Lord hath enriched with his blessings whether temporall or spirituall that they be rich in good workes laying vp for themselues a good foundation against the time to come that they may obtaine eternall life Againe whereas it is said that the workes of the faithfull do accompanie them after death this sheweth that although death strippe vs of all temporall things yet it doth not bereaue vs of our workes but bringeth vs the reward of them And that when all our friends and followers and all other worldly either delights or commodities doe fa●e and forsake vs y● our workes doe follow with vs to our ●all comfort Which should make vs to esteeme the keeping of faith and a good conscience aboue all the things of this world Now what this reward is which God hath prepared for these that die in Christ though neither the eye hath seene nor the eare heard nor the heart of man conceiued yet thus much we may gather out of the Scriptures that it shall consist in eternall and most perfect glory and gladnes The glory standing partly in the excellency of those heauenly gifts wherewith they shall be adorned being in respect thereof like vnto the Angels and renewed perfectly according to the glorious image of God yea made conformable to Christ our head in such a proportion of glory as his seueral members bee capable of and partly in the fruition of heauenly blessings as the possession of heauen and all heauenly good things the fellowship of the blessed Saints and Angels and that which is all in all the enioying of God himselfe who is the chiefest good In whose presence there is fulnesse of ioy and at whose right hand there be pleasures for euermore And that is the second thing their eternall ioy and gladnes arising from that glory For as they shall be most happie so shall they reioyce in it with vn speakable and endlesse comfort and in the sense thereof shall euermore bee stirred vp with wonderfull alacrity to glorifie God In expectation of this happie hope we are to liue soberly iustly and holily in this present world For if wee set this ioy before as the marke towards which we contend we will not suffer our selues to be withdrawne from our obedience to God neither by any worldly desires which in comparison hereof are to bee esteemed as meere vanities nor by any terrors of the world which in respect of the ioy that is set before vs wee are to contemne The third thing remaineth that is the time when this blessednes doth belong to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he thenceforth that is from the time of their death and so forward for presently they rest from their labours and their workes follow he doth not say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after them but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with them This therefore is a

A FVNERALL SERMON PREACHED AT WATTON IN Hertfordshire at the buriall of the ancient and worthy Knight Sir PHILIP BOTELER Decemb. 9. 1606. By G. Downame Doctor in Diuinitie AT LONDON Printed by FILIX KYNGSTON and Martin Clarke 1607. A FVNERALL SERMON PREACHED at Walton in Hertfordshire at the buriall of the ancient and worthy Knight Sir Philip Boteler Decemb. 9. 1606. REVEL 14. 13. And I heard a voice from heauen saying vnto me write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from thenceforth ●ea saith he spirit that they may rest from their labours and their workes doe follow with then THE holie Ghost hauing in the former chapter from the II. verse to the end described Antichrist as all doe agree and hauing in the 8. verse of this chapter foretold the ●uine of the Antichristian seare signified ●y the fall of Babylon which was to follow vpon the preaching of the eternall Gospell foreshewed vers 7 he endeuoureth in the verses following euen vnto the end of this text by two most forcible arguments to draw men out of Babylon and to withdraw them from Antichrist the one importing those fearefull punishments which shall befall them who after the reuelation of Antichrist by the preaching of the Gospell shall ioyne themselues vnto him the other expressing the happie estate of those who not suffering themselues to bee seduced by Antichrist doe die in the true faith of Christ. The former argument is propounded vers 9. 10. 11. If any ●an saith he worship the beast and his image and receiue his marke on his forehead 〈◊〉 vpon his hand that is as I haue euidenty proued in my treatise of Antichrist vhereunto for breuitie sake I doe now referre you whosoeuer liueth and dieth a re●lute and absolute Papist acknowledging the Popes supremacie professing the Antichristian faith and practising the Idol●tries and superstitions of the apostatic● Church of Rome He shall drinke of t● wine of Gods wrath yea of the pure wine powred that is prepared to be drunke in the cup of his wrath whereby is meant euerlasting damnation prepared for the wicked wherein iudgement not to bee allaied with mercie shall bee executed vpon them Which iudgement for the greatnes is most horrible for they shall be tormented in fire and brimstone for continuance is not only without end for the smoke of their torment shall ascend euermore but also without intermission for they shall haue no rest day nor night And lest any man should think it hard that men being either terrified by the crueltie of Antichrist or seduced by his craft to ioyne with him shal euerlastingly bee tormented in fire and brimstone the holy Ghost preuenteth this obiection vers 12. Hereby saith he the patience of the Saints is tried and here are they that keepe the commaundements of God and the faith of Iesus discerned For howsoeuer the vnsound Christian may be peruerted by Antichrist yet it is impossible saith our Sauiour that the elect should finally be seduced by him Matth. 24. 24. By this argument therefore men are to be perswaded as they tender the saluation of their soules so to beware that they doe not encline to Poperie or if they be Papists alreadie to come out of Babylon as they are exhorted Reue. 18 4. For as Chrysostome rightly obserueth on 2. Thess. 2. 10. Antichrist preuaileth in them that perish or as Ierome speaketh in them who are prepared vnto destruction Vpon whom saith the Apostle because they haue not receiued the loue of the truth that they might be saued the Lord sendeth the efficacie of error that they may beleeue lies that all they might be damned which beleeue not the truth but haue pleasure in vnrighteousnes whereby hee meaneth the mysterie of iniquitie which is Antichristianisme that is to say Poperie The other argument expressing the blessed estate of those that die not in the religion of Antichrist which the Papists doe but in the true saith of Christ opposed to the religion of Antichrist and professed in the Churches which are reformed by the preaching of the eternall Gospell is contained in these word● which I haue read vnto you And therefore as the former reason must if wee would not be damned disswade vs from Poperie so this argument must perswade vs if wee would be saued to bee sincere and constant professors of the true faith of Christ which by the vnspeakable mercie of God towards vs is professed among vs. For if we shall liue and die in this faith as true and sound professors thereof as our hope is this worthie Knight did then shal our estate so soone as this life is ended bee most happie and blessed as the holy Ghost doth assure vs in this text Wherein that I may now come to the words themselues the present felicitie of all those that die in the Lord is not onely affirmed viz. in these words Bles● are the dead which die in the Lord from thenceforth but also confirmed and prooued both by authoritie and reason The authoritie is first a voice from heauen not only auouching this truth but also commanding Iohn to write it Secondly the testimonie of the spirit Euen so saith the spirit The reason why those which die in the Lord are presently happie is because they rest from their labours and molestations and their works meaning the blessed reward of their workes follow with or accompanie them As if hee should haue said They which die in the Lord are foorthwith happie because death to them is the end of all miserie trouble and the beginning of euerlasting happinesse Now whereas the holy Ghost doth not onely deliuer this assertion that the dead which die in the Lord are blessed but is so carefull to countenance and prooue the same vnto vs and well are wee to be assured that his care is not superfluous this is therefore an euident token that men commonly in the world be of another opinion which is the cause why the holy Ghost saw it needfull not onely to deliuer this truth but also to ratifie and confirme it For first men commonly account it a miserable thing to die and naturally are so affraide of death as to saue their liues they will not sticke to commit any sinne almost as to denie Christ and his religion and to ioyne with Antichrist and by their sinne to cast away their precious soules which they would not doe if they could be perswaded that death brings happinesse with it Againe to die in the Lord as it is here vnderstood with opposition and not in the subiection and faith of Antichrist not in the communion of the now apostaticall Church of Rome of the Papists who falsely tearme themselues Catholikes is counted a damnable thing of the carnall and backsliding Gospellers a more miserable thing than to liue in the saith and subiection of Antichrist That therefore wee may die willingly when God shall call vs and may be readie to lay downe our liues for the