Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	eternal_a	life_n	work_n	4,896	5	5.7141	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A79887	An antidote against immoderate mourning for the dead. Being a funeral sermon preached at the burial of Mr. Thomas Bewley junior, December 17th. 1658. By Sa. Clarke, pastor in Bennet Fink, London.	Clarke, Samuel, 1599-1682.	1660 (1660)	Wing C4501; Thomason E1015_5; ESTC R208174	34,512	62

worldly sorrow causeth sicknesse and death 2 Cor. 7. 10. and to the opening of the mouths of the wicked who scorn them and Religion for it saying These are your Professours that make Idols of their children and friends and mourn for the losse of them as if they had lost their God They are like Rachel that wept and lamented for her children and would not be comforted because they were not Such forget the exhortation which speaks to them as unto children My son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when then art rebuked of him Heb. 12. 5. Prov. 3. 11. Indeed we are sometimes in danger of setting light by Gods corrections saying with those sturdy persons It is my burthen and I must bear it Jerem. 10. 19. But more frequently we are impatient either outwardly fretting at the rod like those plunging horses which will not indure their Rider or inwardly repining like those horses which digest their choler by biting their bridles And if we neither despise nor impatiently murmur against the dispensation of God yet our weaknesse is such that we are ready to take the affliction too much to heart so that our spirits droop and faint and this is so much the worse because it 's commonly accompanied with a wilful indisposition which will not suffer us to entertain such things whereby we might be truly comforted and the hearts of such many times like Nabals die within them that they are not capable of counsel so that all consolatory exhortations are to them like water spilt upon the ground whereas we should take our correction and humble our selves under the smart of it but withall we should look to Christ and beg of him that he would not suffer our Faith Hope and Meeknesse of mind to be overturned Again consider that it 's not love to them when we are perswaded that they are with the Lord which makes us excessively grieve when they are taken from us It is indeed self-love and carnal affection Our Lord Christ told his Disciples If ye loved me you would be glad because I go to the Father And what measure then do we offer to God herein We can many times send our children far from us where it may be we shall never see them again if we are but well perswaded that it will be for their good and preferment and yet we cannot indure to have them taken out of our sight by the Lord though we are perswaded that their souls are with him in the highest glory We ought to labour for such tractable and obedient hearts as may not be content perforce to let him take them but may willingly resign even our children if it were by sacrificing them with our own hands as Abraham to him who hath not thought his onely begotten Son too dear for us but hath delivered Him to death for our sakes Once more remember that it 's a sign that we felt not Gods love in them nor received them at his hand as we ought to have done if we do not thankfully give them back to him when he calls for them Hannah having received Samuel as a gift gotten by prayer from God did readily part with him to God again and she lost nothing by that loan which she so cheerfully lent to the Lord as you may see 1 Sam. 2. 20 21. and so dealt Abraham with his onely Sonne Isaac whom by faith in the promise he had obtained of the Lord Hebr. 11. 17. This is true indeed but yet Parent-like affections cannot easily part with and yield up children so dearly beloved But take heed lest whilst you plead love to your children or friends you do not bewray and discover unkindnesse unto God Dare any of you say Lord if I did not so love them I could be content to give them to thee Surely if with a calm spirit you think of this you would blush for shame that your heart should be so cold towards God as not to be willing to part with any thing you love when he calls for it To part with that which you much care not for is not at all thanks-worthy It 's said of Abraham that when God commanded him to sacrifice his own and only son that he arose early in the morning Gen. 22. 3. to do it he consulted not with flesh and blood nor with carnal reason nor with fond affections but as David said He made hast and delayed not to keep Gods commandments How should this shame our backwardnesse and our many reluctancies against the will of God when he hath declared it in taking away a dear child or relation from us How much better were it for us to do as David did that man after Gods own heart who when he heard that his child was dead arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his apparel and went into the house of the Lord and worshipped and then came into his own house and called for bread and did eat 2 Sam. 12. 20. Again the consideration hereof may minister singular consolation First To every godly person when he lies upon his sick bed and sees death approaching and his friends standing about his bed weeping and wringing their hands and that upon a twofold ground First Because himself hath hope in his death Prov. 14. 32. Death is to him as the valley of Achor It 's a door of hope to give entrance into Paradise and to translate him into a state of blessednesse whereas to the wicked it 's a trap-door through which they fall into hell It 's an excellent saying Improbi dum spirant sperant Justus etiam cum expirat sperat wicked men hope whilst they live but a godly man when he breaths forth his last hath hope He is like unto that dying Swan of which Aelian tells us that sang most sweetly and melodiously at her death though in her life-time she had no such pleasant note There is some truth in that saying of the Heathen Optimum est non nasci proximum quam celerrime mori For wicked men it had been best for them never to have been born or being born to die quickly seeing that by living long they heap up sin and thereby treasure up wrath against the day of wrath but as for good men the day of death is best to them because here to live is but to lie a dying and eternal life which they are now taking possession of is the onely true life as saith Saint Austine Secondly because as they have hope themselves in their death so they leave a good hope to their friends to quiet their hearts in their losse Oh what a cutting grief is it to a godly heart to see a child or kinsman or other dear relation taken away and cut off in the midst of his sins so that he can have no hope of his blessed estate in another life But on the contrary if self-love be not too prevalent with us we cannot

gold and an ornament of fine gold so is a wise reprover to an obedient ear And this is one good sign of a godly wise man Prov. 15. 5. He that regards reproof is prudent and vers. 31. the ear that heareth the reproof of life abides amongst the wise Hesiod tells us of three sorts of men First such as live so well that they need no reproof these are best of all Secondly such as do not so well but can be content to hear of it and these saith he are not bad Thirdly such as will neither do as they ought nor be advised to do better these are in a very dangerous condition such may read their doom and see their destiny Psal. 50. 21 22. Truth saith one is sharp but bitter though it be yet it is better and more savoury to sound sences then the hony-drops of a flattering tongue Seventhly He by Gods grace resisted tentations frome some of his familiars who would have drawn him to Taverns and mildly reproved them for it Concerning all these I shall present you with the attestation of his Tutor given me in writing and that in his own words He was saith he when I came to him which was about four years ago a Christian youth well principled in the grounds of Religion and I left him a little before he died which was about the eighteenth year of his age knowing what was in the Assemblies Confession of faith in Wollebius and what Altingius in his Didactica hath written Of late also he delighted much to read Calvins Institutions and B. Halls Meditations and of his knowledge of the things of God yea of the hardest of them I have found satisfaction after trial He not onely knew God but loved him and in his last sicknesse wept to think that he had and did love God no more He was a lover of the children and Ministers of God and amongst his acquaintance he valued them most in whom he saw most of vertue He heard the Word and could retain and judg of what he heard and did not so much affect flaunting and quaint preaching as that which spake most home to his heart In his Closet before he came out of his chamber he read a portion of Scripture from which he hath raised pertinent observations when put to the trial and what he knew not that he asked He read with judgment and hath said that all other books but the Bible did bring weariness to his reading he joyned prayer I have seen him displeased when disturbed and what at one time he omitted at another time he would repair and this he carried on with so little noise that I only was privy to it Thus you have heard of his piety manifested in his life vita qualis finis talis as was his life such was his death For In his last sicknesse which was the small Pox accompanied with a Feaver he bore it with great patience He inquired of his Tutor how he might know that he loved God and being answered he brake forth into tears and when his Tutor asked him why he wept he answered Because he had loved God no more nor made a better improvement of his former deliverances Yet he said that the word of God was his meditation the promises whereof did now comfort him He was sensible of his approaching Death and the night before told some about him that he should not live another night One of his last words was I must be gone The next thing that I propounded to speak of was his dutifulnesse to his parents which can be testified by many Indeed they were very tender of him and indulgent towards him yet did not he abuse their love to liberty nor through familiarity contemn their authority but was many times content to refrain from things lawfull and suitable to his desires to give them satisfaction Neirher was his charity to the poor lesse remarkable then the two former For from his childhood he would often go to the servants to fetch relief fot such poor as came to his Fathers door And being grown up to more maturity he frequently distributed money amongst them would many times say that if God ever brought him to the enjoyment of his estate he would as constantly make provision for such as were in want as for himself and Family He knew that Temporalia Dei servis impensa non pereunt sed parturiunt Almes given to the poor perish not but multiply that bounty is the most compendious way to plenty and that hereby he might lay up a good foundation for himself against the time to come 1 Tim. 6. 18. He knew that rich mens houses should be Gods Store-houses and that sowing oft of this fruitful seed we shall be sure to reap in our greatest need and God is not unrighteous to forget our labour of love in this kind Heb. 6. 10. Oh! how may this shame many rich men that keep no proportion between their increases for God and increases from God that though they are rich in this world yet they are poor in good works they lay not by for pious and charitable uses as God hath blessed them 1 Cor. 16. 2. But indeed are the richer the harder as children that have their mouths full and both hands full and yet will part with none but spill it rather Men when they grow fat have so much the lesse blood So the fatter men are in their estates the lesse blood life and spirits they have for God Or if they do give something yet they do not love mercy Micha 6. 8. they are not ready to distribute willing to communicate 1 Tim. 6. 18. their mercy doth not flow from them like water from the Fountain or light from the Sun naturally and freely but it must be wrung from them like verjuice from the crab or as distilled water that is forced out by the heat of the fire It s no marvel therefore that this charitable frame of heart contributed so much towards the comfortable end of this our deceased brother I remember what Hierom saith Non memini me legisse malâ morte mortuum qui libenter opera charitatis exercuit habet enim multos intercessores I do not remember saith he that I ever read of any one that died an ill death that was frequent in works of charity and no marvel for he hath many intercessors for him which agrees with that of David Psal. 112. 9. He hath dispersed he hath given to the poor his rightcousnesse indures for ever his horn shall be exalted with honour and Psal. 41. 3. the Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing Thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness Having thus dispatched those three things that I proposed to speak to I might adde much more by telling you of his humility in concealing himself and his own parts as the sweet violet that grows low neer unto the ground and withall hides it self under it's own leaves Of his sweet