Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n
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A60137
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The mourners companion, or, Funeral discourses on several texts by John Shower.
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Shower, John, 1657-1715.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing S3673; ESTC R25149
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101,466
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242
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Followers shall one day be with him to behold his Glory Let this then be remembred as the matter of our Christian Hope that we may not mourn * See Cyprian de Mortalitate ad sinem Greg. Narianz Orat. deca in laudem Caesarii Fratris Fun. as strangers to the Gospel for such as dye in the Lord. We sind the Egyptians mourned longer for Jacob than Joseph did even threescore and ten days They that have little Knowledge and Expectation concerning another Life and the Resurrection of the Dead may more excusably extend their Funeral Sorrows and grieve for the loss of this and equal the Days of their Mourning to the number of the years of the Life of Man but so tedious a Funeral Solemnity would have been unsuitable to Josephs Faith Had he shown himself more a Son by such a Testimony of his Natural Affection in Mourning longer he had shown himself less a Patriarch When God restored to Job after his long Tryals double for all his Cattel and Goods which he had lost as Fourteen thousand Sheep for Seven thousand c. he gave him but the same number of Children again for they were not really lost though Death remov'd 'em they were Alive in another State And if they were Holy Persons he had the like number in Heaven as God gave him on Earth It 's a great Relief to a Christian Mourner to consider that his Deceased Friends are not Lost but Live I know very well that the Holy Will of God must take place of mine I know that I ought to love God and Christ above all and absolutely resign my self and All that 's mine or cannot hope to see his Face I know that I shall shortly follow the Desire of mine Eyes I hope I shall be silent and adore and not charge God foolishly But methinks I know with sensible supporting Insluence from such a Thought that She is not Dead but Sleepeth She is not Lost but Lives And if I get to Heaven shall meet her there in the presence of the Lord our Redeemer And then the Company of our Holy Relatives will be more Sweet than ever it was on Earth For though the Blessed Vision of God be our Chiefest Hope and Joy yet the Presence of all the Blessed Spirits will make a Real though Subordinate part of our Happiness and Delight I am so far from doubting whether we shall Know and Love one another in the Heavenly State that the Belief and Expectation of it is or should be one great Motive why we love 'em so well now If we thought we should not Know and Love them after Death we ought to Love 'em but as Earthly Transitory things and not as Heirs of Heaven with such a Love as shall be perfected and last for ever Neither can it well be imagin'd how the Process and Proceedings of the Judgment-Day according to the Scripture Account of it can be manag'd by the Man Christ Jesus or the Lord Redeemer cloath'd with Humane Nature without our Knowledge of One Another in the other World who were acquainted and convers'd together in this 'T is true the present Relations by Marriages and Blood will then cease but there is no reason to think that the Remembrance of those Relations must also cease Yea their Knowledge and Remembrance of us and their Affection to us whom we knew and lov'd in the Lord is not like to be abolish'd but perfected by Dying Doubtless the Angels who rejoyce at the Conversion of a Particular Sinner and the Departed Saints too do know more even of the State of this World than we do who are * Mr. Baxter Of the Knowledge of God part 3. p. 331. acquainted with so very little a part and spot of it Which by the way should check anâ— inordinate fond Desire of living to see Glorious Times on Earth For if we get to Heaven we are like to know much more of those Happy Times than if we remain'd alive in a Corner of the Isles of the Gentiles But as to our Mutual Knowledge in the Heavenly state Shall those whom we Reliev'd on Earth Welcome us to Heaven And are therefore said to receive us into Everlasting Habitations Luk. 16. And shall not the departed Saints know one another in Glory Shall we then know as we are known And shall the Thessalontans be the Joy and Crown and Glory and Rejoycing of the Apostle Paul in the Day of Christ And shall he not know them or they him who prosited by his Ministry Did the Rich Man in Hell know Abraham afar off in Heaven and can we think a blessed Lazarus shall not For though that be a Parable there is some Truth as the Foundation of it Shall it aggravate the Misery of lost Souls to meet their wicked Companions in the place of Torment as few deny or doubt And shall it not Rejoyce the Blessed to meet their Holy Friends whom they knew in this World Did Peter James and John know Moses and Elias in the Transsignration whom they never saw before and we read not that Christ told em ' who they were And shall those who were acquainted upon Earth and helpt one another to Heaven utterly forget and lose the remembrance of any such thing It is a pleasant Thought and proper to support under the Death of those we have honoured and loved and profited by on Earth to think that hereafter we shall meet and know several Ministers of Christ whose Preaching and Converse and Writings have been useful to us That we shall then meet and know several of our Holy Relations and Acquaintance with whom we were wont to walk together to the House of God and meet often at the Table of the Lord with whom we conferr'd about the Misteries and and Promises of the Gospel and many a time discours'd together of the Heavenly Inheritance believingly to foresee and consider that though they are gone before we shall meet 'em again at the last great Supper of the Lamb in the Celestial Kingdom And why may not I suppose such a distinct and personal Knowledge and Remembrance of one another as to be able to say This was the Person whom God employed to bring me into the World and educate me in his Fear who instructed my tender Years and taught me early to Know the Lord. Or This was the Person who was at so much pains to convince me of my Sin and reclaim me from the Errour of my Ways This was He or She who tendred my Salvation as their own who watch'd over me and pray'd for me and with me and often told me of the Evil of Sin of the Excellency and Pleasantness of Wisdom's Ways of the Freeness of the Love and Grace of Christ and his Willingness to receive Returning Penitents at first and even Backsliders afterwards This was the Person who was assisted by God to encourage strengthen revive and comfort my desponding my doubting my unbelieving Heart and establish me in the way of
much otherwise it was with them not long ago And can we wish them back again while we sigh and weep and mourn we know all Tears are wiped away from their Eyes and they are singing the Song of the Lamb. They are now seeding on the pleasant Fruits of Paradise and would we have them back again to eat the Bread of Affliction and drink the Waters of Affliction Would we they should return from the state of Triumph after Victory to engage again in new Combats From the Port and Haven of Eternal Rest to be tost again upon a Tempeltuous Sea And this because they were 〈◊〉 Kindred and our Relations for you do not mourn that the Prophets and Apostles 〈◊〉 all the Faithful mentioned in Holy Scripture or since in former Ages that they are gone to Heâ—â—â—n The ancient Christians kept Days of Thanksgiving for the safe Departure of such But how dear soever they were to us we shall go to them they shall not come to us We are very unkind if we desire they should have Tarryed longer when God hath made them ready they are gone to better Friends than those they have lest behind And if you Loved me said Christ you would rejoyce that It said I go to my Father and your Father to my God and your God The Friends they have left are imperfect Sinning Sorrowing troublesome and unsuitable compared with those they meet above And there only our Friendship and Affections to one another will be without any mixture of Grief or Sin without any Infirmity Suspicion Discontent or other allay by their Weaknesses Sins or Sufferings There shall we have all our Wishes and Desires for our Friends as well as for our Selves and converse continually together without being weary of one anothers Company they had once such a vile Body as we have and such disorderly Passions such Errors and Mistakes and Actual Sins as we are guilty of they were troubled with such Temptations Doubts and Descrtions as we complain of but their probationarry State is now over their Warfare is accomplish'd their Work done their Race ended their Course finish'd and they are enter'd into the Joy of the Lord Oh let us remember that they are so while we Weep and Mourn partly for their Departure and more it should be for our unfitness as yet to be with them But we have the same God and Saviour the same Way and Rule the same blessed Recompence of Reward propos'd and promis'd and prepar'd the same Grace and Assistance offered to enable us to Persevere and Overcome It is but a little while since they had as malicious Enemies to oppose and conquer and as difficult a work to mind as we and were as unlikely to hold out as some of us their inward and outward Troubles were like to ours their bodily Weaknesses and Spiritual Distresses like to ours but they have overcome them yet a little while and we hope we may do so too And it is but a little while let us not then grieve immoderately being our selves to follow so soon after to partake we hope in that Blessedness with them for ever which we have often joyned together in Prayer to ask of God for them and for our selves And this we need not question if we choose the same Felicity * Mr. Baxters Life of Faith ch 26. as our End and Christ as the Captain of our Salvation to direct and lead us in the way thither if we build on the same Word of Promise and follow the Conduct of the same Spirit of Holiness if we live in the exercise of the like Grace and are conform'd to Christ our Head in Spirit Purpose and Behaviour and hold on in doing and suffering his Will with constancy to the Death If we do thus we shall shortly be with them and because we were wont to mourn with them when they mourned and to take part in their Afflictions let us do so in their Joys also Thanking God for their Deliverance and Rejoycing in their Felicity Fourthly The last Argument for our Support is the Belief and Hope of the Resurrection of the Dead when we shall meet them and all the Children of the Kingdom in the presence of the Lord. We know that those who sleep in Jesus he will bring with him and openly absolve and own them before all the World and give them the full possession of the promised Inheritance We are bid to Comfort our selves and one another with such joyful words 'T is Comfort that there is a Redeemer and that he is their Redeemer as well as ours that he Lives and will come again and that we know this on certain and infallible grounds and that when he shall appear we shall be like him by seeing him as he is It is Comfort that even these Bodies that must be buried out of sight and putrifie in a silent Grave shall be raised and enlivened and made like the glorious Body of our Redeemer Thô Death devour their Beauty and the Grave hold them Prisoners for some thousands of years tho they should be burnt to Ashes or devour'd by Worms Beasts or Fishes however crumbled and divided into little parts and these scatter'd and dispers'd into a thousand distant places yet he will raise and re-unite and restore them fresh and spritely beautiful and glorious That Power which at first did form and fashion them in the Womb hath engaged to do it This Corruptible shall put on Incorruption and this Mortal put on Immortality and Death be swallowed up in Victory What was sown in Weakness shall then be raised in Power our Bodies shall then be Active and Nimble quick and free easily passing in a little space to a great distance and readily obeying the Motions of our Glorified Spirits What was sown a Natural Earthly Body shall be raised Spiritual suited to the spiritual State and Life and work of Heaven not needing the supplies of Food or Physick or any of those things which now employ so much of our Time and Care in reference to the Body In a word they shall be raised in Glory however vile they now are as the Bodies of our Humiliation And shall shine brighter than the Sun in it's Meridian Splendor with a Glory suitable to the Excellency of that Power exerted in their Resurrection suitable to the Dignity of our Glorified Souls suitable to the Glory of that Place where they are to inhabit and of the Noble Services wherein they are to be employed and especially suitable to their Excellent Exemplar the Glorious Body of Christ whose Resurrection and Exaltation is the Cause Pattern and Pledge of ours And this we may depend upon for our Lord hath not only left us the Earnest of his Spirit to assure us of the Resurrection that our Mortal Bodies shall be quicken'd by the same Spirit that raised him from the Dead but he hath carried the Earnest of our Flesh into Heaven with him to assure us that all his Friends Favourites and