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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	john_n	light_n	shine_v	3,435	5	9.5724	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57739	The blessedness of departed saints in their immediate enjoyment of God in glorie Propounded and improved in a funeral-sermon, upon Revel. 14.13. March 3. 1651. By Joseph Rowe, minister of the Gospel, and pastor of Buckland-monachorum in Devon.	Rowe, Joseph, b. 1617 or 18.	1654 (1654)	Wing R2067A; ESTC R218416	20,652	33

directed by her train and as the course of a ship is steered by the belm so to use a common and familiar comparison is the life of Christians rightly ordered by a dayly consideration of their latter end It is reported in Histories of Philostates that he lived seven years in his Tomb that so he might be throughly acquainted with it The all-wise God Deut. 32.29 commends the serious contemplation of our latter end as an act of spiritual wisdom Oh that they were wise that they understood this That they would consider their latter end Thus of the first dutie I can but hint at the following duties The next of which is Dutie 2. A carefull using of religious kindred and acquaintance to the best advantage They shall not alway remain with you in this earth while you enjoy their company improve it to the utmost Religious and godly persons are as lights in the world Phil. 2.15 While we enjoy this light it is our dutie to work by it The light of their company and counsel will shine upon us but a while Therefore as our Saviour adviseth in reference to himself and Gospel John 12.35 While we have the light we should walk in it Godly persons are but lent us for a time Oh let us receive what good we may from them before the Lord call them hence to himself by death It will be the condemnation of many wicked ones that they have godly friends and make no good use of them The last dutie commended to the Saints from the former Doctrine is Cheerfulness and resolution under the assaults of death the King of fears Dwy 3. When we are to encounter with death let us consider we are to do no other than what the Saints have undergone before us Abraham Isaac and Jacob yea all the holy men and women that trusted in God our Saviour himself not excepted have encountered with this enemie We should methinks boldly look death in the face sith so many of Gods Worthies have skirmished with it and so made way to themselves for an immediate passage unto glory And this bring me to the last and principal Point of the Text. True believers Doctr. 2. immediately upon death are called unto and crowned with blessedness in the kingdom of glorie The Saints instantly upon their leaving of the earth go to live with God in heaven Though they are not fully glorious or so gloriously happy as they shall be when both bodie soul shall shine with glorie yet immediatly upon their respective deaths they enter into glory and have such a measure of it given forth to their souls as they in that condition are capable to receive There is much in Scripture for the confirmation of this truth I shall refer the quotations to and draw them from several Topick places And so The Doctrine may be confirmed First from Scriptures declaring the immediate reception of departed Saints into the kingdome of glorie 1. Argument of Scripture to prove the Doctrine It is said of faithfull Abraham Gen. 25.8 That he gave up the ghost and died and was gathered to his people As soon as he was dead he was gathered to his people This is spoken not in regard of his bodie he being buried where few or none of his Countrevmen and kindred lay interred but in regard of his soul and the phrase intimates that his soul straightway upon its coming forth of the bodie was carried to that place of happiness where his pious countrey-men and predecessors were before him And this place is no other than heaven which is the congregation-house for the receiving of the spirits of just men made perfect We find this also affirmed of Isaac that he died and was gathered to his people Gen. 35.29 The same is said of Jacob. Gen. 49.33 He gathered up his feet into the bed and yielded up the ghost and was gathered to his people The meaning of these expressions is that as soon as these holy men died their souls went to the mansions of eternal felicitie and to the companie of glorified Saints in heaven So much may evidently be concluded from the now recited texts compared with Matth. 8.11 where our Saviour saith that many shall come from the East and West and shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven Taking it for granted that these Patriarchs were alreadie in heaven And to remove all scruples this Christ spake long before his death and ascension into heaven by which as Popish sophisters imagin he opened these everlasting doors and made enterance for his Saints who were before shut out The Scriptures upon which they build thi●● idle fancie are wrested and misapplied These words of Heb. 9.8 The way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was standing are grosely mistaken For 't is not said as one well observes that the way to the holiest was closed D. in Heb. 9.8 or shut up but that which is affirmed is that the way to the holiest which is heaven was not yet manifest while the first tabernacle was standing that is was not so clearly revealed as it was afterward by the light of the Gospel That of S. John 3.13 makes nothing for it The place cannot be interpreted so as if no man ascended heaven before Christs ascension the foregoing allegation from S. Matthews Gospel and many other Scriptures plainly contradict it We are therefore to unsterstand that verse not in a literal but in a spiritual and figurative sence Calvin in locum By ascending up to heaven is meant a pure knowledge and a spiritual light of understanding in and about the mysteries of God To ascend heaven here is with an understanding eye Piscator ad locum to prie into the mysteries of heaven and to be admitted as privie to the counsels of God Another wrested Scripture Heb. 11.39 These All having received a good report through faith received not the promise From hence it is by some inferred that these worthies went not to heave when they died To this we say that the present place speaks not of the * Cameron in locum condition of these Saints after death but of somewhat concerning them before and at the time of their death They died and received not the promise that is the great promise Christ incarnate and the happy and gloriousestate of the Church under him They had Christ onely in promise dying ere they received a real exhibition of this promise They died in expectancy of Christ to come whom we now enjoy in life and death as come Thus you see notwithstanding these cavils the Patriarchs upon their deaths forthwith entered into glory So did the poor Lazar also He died and forthwith upon his death the Angels carried him into Abrahams bosom Luke 16.22 That is to the happy society and fellowship of Abraham and other * Pescator Diod ati in Lib. 16.22 believers in the Kingdom of

Revel 2.7 Scripture to signifie The place of eternal happiness So that in this scripture there is as a promise of heaven made to the penitent thief so also a present enjoyment of it upon that very day of his death And this promise as * Origen hom 15. in Gen. Origen notes concerns not him onely but all the Saints of God The shift of Smalcius and other Hereticks to evade the force of this Scripture is weak and absurde They say that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to day hath dependance upon the former words and relates to the instant in which the promise was made and not to the future in which it was to be performed And they thus read and paraphrase the verse And Jesus said unto him verily I say unto thee to day that is I now tell thee thou shalt be with me in Paradise to wit after the time of the last judgement But this gloss of theirs renders Christs answer sapless and unsavoury fathers battology upon him * John 7.46 the infinite wise Saviour of the world who spake as never man spake and is a gross corruption of the sacred Text. The Greek and Syriack copies read and render it otherwise referring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to day to the latter words as representing the time in which the promise of being with Christ in Paradise was to be made good to this penitent Thief The to day of the Lord Jesus in this verse answers to the when of the thief in the former verse and sheweth that the time when Christ would remember him should be that very day Thus notwithstanding the exceptions of adversaries this promise of Christ to the repenting thief is a full and convincing proof for the passage of gracious souls unto glorie and that immediately upon their separation from the bodie Finally upon this account is it that dying Saints have by prayer commended their fleeting souls to the mercie of God Thus did the blessed Martyr Stephen Lord Jesus said he receive my spirit Act. 7.59 So did our Saviour Father into thy hands I commend my spirit Luke 23.46 These petitions shew plainly that God doth take care of the souls of his Saints in death forthwith upon death receives them unto himself in glorie This Truth is also The uses of the Doctrine very profitable in application and may serve 1. For Refutation 2. For Exhortation The present Truth speaks to the refutation Vse 1. and overthrow of two soul-sadning opinions The one an opinion of the Papists The other of Mortalists and Soul-fleepers a loose sect among our selves The first opinion resuted by this Truth is of the Papists who dream of a Purgatorie or place in which they say some of those that die in the Lord are for a time to be purged and punished before they arrive to the blessedness of glorie This opinion is a meer fancie and device of giddie brains having not the least countenance from the Word of God but directly opposing it terrisying the Saints with anguish and pains even horrible and hellish when the spirit promiseth nothing but blessedness and rest in the kingdom of heaven and that as it is in the text from henceforth after death that is instantly upon their departure Purgatorie as one well is a fiction invented purposely to make the Popes Kitchin smoke And is an invention not known to the Greek Church for the space of 1500 years after Christ and but of late known to the Latine Church We read in Scripture as of two sorts of persons good and bad so of two places onely for the receiving of these after death Wicked men die and immediately go down to hell the righteous die and straightway ascend heaven For a third place God made none the Scriptures mention none the Fathers believed none acknowledging onely two places heaven and hell for the receiving of souls after death The second opinion resuted by the present Doctrine is of some amongst our selves who say the souls of Saints do not upon death partake of glorie in heaven but either die or sleep untill the time of the resurrection Augustine in his book of heresies calleth the authors of this wicked and drowsie opinion Arabici from the place of their first original and abode The confirmation of the former Truth is a sufficient confutation of this monstrous error The souls of the Saints immediately upon their separation are called to the enjoyment of blessedness in heaven therefore they neither die nor sleep If separatesouls were either dead or asleep they could not be happie and blessed Sith according to the maxim in the Schools all blessedness consists in action Death may kill the bodie but it cannot kill the soul The soul is by the immortal God honoured with lastingness and immortalitie Though the soul had a time in which it began to live yet there is no time in which it shall die Yea let me say that the judgement of eternal death upon unbelieving souls doth not consist in a privation of life but of happiness and glorie Eternal death is not an annihilation of being to wicked souls or a privation of life in them but an infliction of everlasting torments upon them Everlasting death is inflicted upon the souls of sinners not by killing or annihilating their souls but by tormenting them with infernal punishments The unbelieving soul to use an expression of Augustines is immortal unto death Ever dying and yet never dead under the deadly stroaks of the second death As for the believing soul she is immortal unto life and lives in and after death Hence is it that God who is not the God of the dead but of the living is said to be the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob Matth. 22.32 Abraham then is alive Isaac is alive and Jacob is alive but how Not in their bodies but in their souls Their bodies were long since dead and perished but their souls live in glorie Hence again is it that all dead Saints are said to live to God Luke 20.38 Even because they live with God in their spirits although they are dead in respect of their bodies or in the account of the world Furthermore the appellations by which the death of the Saints is described are plain discoveries of the life and immortalitie of the soul Holy Job calls his death a change chap. 14.14 Death is not to the Saints an absolute privation of life but onely a change or mutation of place and condition The bodie goeth to rest in the grave the soul leaves the earth and goes to heaven Aged Simeon speaking of his death calls it a departure or a setting at liberty as the Greek signifies The soul is not destroyed by death but onely set at libertie from the prison of the bodie and obtains a let-pass to depart from the miseries of the earth to the joys above The Apostle Peter calleth death a laying down of his tabernacle 2 Pet. 2.14 The Metaphor is taken from Shepherds and the Apostle by