Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	glory_n	state_n	thorough_a	70	3	15.9068	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44681	A funeral sermon on the decease of that worthy gentlewoman Mrs. Margaret Baxter, who died the 28th of June, 1681 by John Howe.	Howe, John, 1630-1705.	1681 (1681)	Wing H3030; ESTC R26809	27,363	48

thus with-held any longer from the Presence of our blessed Lord A thing whereof nothing but duty to him could make us patient We are not destitute of the fortitude to enable us even to rush upon Death without more ado if he did say the word But as yet he bids us stay and his supream and holy Will must in all things determine ours Therefore 't is immediately subjoin'd in the midst of this high transport vers 9. Wherefore we labour that whether present or absent we might be accepted of him or well-pleasing to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We less mind the pleasing our selves than him We are indifferent to Life or Death being in the Body or out of it in comparison of that His pleasure is more to us than either Here the highest Fortitude yields and submits it self Otherwise and for his own part and as to what concern'd his own inclination singly and in the divided sense the Apostle to his confidence doth 2 ly add complacency We are better pleased 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is a distinct thing a valiant Man will venture upon wounds and death but is not pleased with them but in reference to so excellent an Object and Occasion they must mingle and the latter runs into the former We are willing rather as we read it to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord. The word which we read willing signifies to approve or like well not a meerly judicious but complacential approbation The word whence comes the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 often ascrib'd to God in Scripture which signifies the high satisfaction he takes in all his Purposes and Determinations The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes. 1.5 is certainly no tautology but speaks how perfectly and pleasingly he agrees and as it were consents with himself in all that ever he had resolv'd on This rather says the Apostle is our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the thing that would please us best and wherein we should most highly satisfy our selves It would not be the matter of our submission only or whereto we could yield when we cannot help it but of our highest joy and pleasure According as we find it was with the Psalmist in the same case which though it had a further meaning in reference to Christ had a true meaning as to himself also Therefore my Heart is glad my Glory rejoyces my Flesh also shall rest in hope For thou wilt not leave my Soul in Sheol the state of the Dead nor suffer thy Holy One to see Corruption but wilt shew me the Path of Life and no matter though it lie through the dark shady Vale It leads however into that blessed presence of thine the same with that in the Text where is fulness of joy and unto that right hand that high and honourable station where are pleasures for ever-more Both these the Apostle's courage and fortitude and his complacency or well-pleasedness have express reference to the state of Death or of being absent from the Body The one respects it as a formidable but superable Evil The other as a desirable and most delectable Good But both have reference to it in its concomitancy or tendency viz. as absence from the Body should be accompanied or be immediately followed with being present with the Lord. The sence therefore of the whole Verse may be fitly exprest thus That it is the genuine temper of Holy Souls not only to venture with confidence upon the state of absence or separation from the Body but to chuse it with great complacency and gladness that they may be present with the Lord. Body we are not here to understand so generally as if he affected or counted upon a perpetual final state of separation from any Body at all No the temper of his Spirit had nothing in it so undutiful or unnatural no such reluctation or disposition to contend against the common Lot of Man the Law of humane Nature and the comely Order which the Author of our Beings and of all Nature hath setled in the Universe That whereas one sort of Creatures that have life should be wholly confin'd to terrestrial Bodies Another quite exempt from them Ours should be a middle Nature between the Angelical and the Brutal So as we should with the former partake of intellectual immortal Spirit and a mortal Body made up and organiz'd of earthly Materials with the latter Which yet we might also depose and reassume changed and refined from terrene dross The Apostle's temper hath in it nothing of Rebellion or Regret against this most apt and congruous Order and Constitution He had no impatient proud resentment of that gradual debasement and inferiority that in this respect we are made a little lower than the Angels When Porphyry tells us in the Life of Plotinus that he blush'd as often as he thought of his being a Body It was agreeable enough to his Notion of the pre-existence of the Soul i. e. If it were true that the original state of humane Spirits was the same with that of Angels which this is no fit season to dispute against and that by their own fault some way or other they lapsed and slid down into grosser matter and were caught into vital union with it there was just cause of shame indeed Apuleius's transformation which many of you know what it means if it had been real was not more ignominious But it appears the Apostle affected not a state wherein he should be simply naked or unclothed of any Body at all for he longs to be clothed upon with his heavenly House Vers. 2. And whereas he tells us Vers. 4. That which he groaned for was not to be unclothed but clothed upon That being unclothed doth not mean the act but the state i. e. that he did not covet or aspire to a perpetual final state of being naked or without any Body at all For so he speaks Vers. 3. If so be as we read that being clothed we shall not be found naked The Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 admits to be read since that in as much as or for truly and so the 2 d and 3 d Verses will be connected thus In this i. e. For this viz. for this cause as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 often signifies causality not in this House for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will not agree we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our House which is from Heaven i. e. of Heaven or sutable to Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denotes here as often the Matter whereof a thing is formed and made a Body made up of an heavenly material Or which is all one an earthly Body refined and transformed into such a One. And then he subjoins the reason why his desire is so condition'd and limited or runs only in this particular current to have not no Body at all but only not such a Body He wishes to have a Body made more habile and

one by sense and experience We so know what it is to live in the Body and in a sensible World and among a corporeal People Of the other by Faith by believing as we are told by one that we are sure can have no design or inclination to deceive us There are many Mansions saith he in my Father's House as good Accommodations as suitable Society and sufficiently numerous which the many Mansions implies to be sure as any you have met with here Faith is in this case to serve us instead of Eyes It is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of the things not seen As we have the Notion of a Country where we have not been by the description of a Person whom we can trust and that we think intends not to abuse us by Forgeries and false Representations In reference to this Country we walk and guide our selves by sight in our Converses and Affairs wherein we have to do with it As to that other by Faith as vers 7. 't is implied 5 thly Yet further it is to be considered that this Body and this present bodily People and World have the present possession of us And though the spiritualiz'd Mind do as it were step forth and place it self betvveen both when it is to make its choice yet the Objects of the one sort are much nearer the other are far distant and much more remote 6 thly That it cannot but be apprehended that tho the one sort of things hath the faster hold the other sort are things of greater value The one hath the more entire present possession of us the other the better right Thus we see the Case stated II. We are next to shew What the temper is of an holy Soul i. e. it s proper and most genuine temper in reference to this supposed state of the case We are willing rather or have a more complacential inclination to be unpeopled from the Body and this bodily sort of People and to be peopled with the Lord and that sort of incorporeal People over which he more immediately presides in the upper World He speaks comparatively as the case requires And because all comparison is founded in somewhat absolute Therefore a simple disposition both ways is supposed Whence then 1 st This Temper is not to despise and hate the Body It imports no disdainful aversion to it or to this present State 2 ly Nor is it an impetuous precipitant tendency towards the Lord impatient of delay mutinous against the divine disposal or that declines present duty and catches at the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Crown and Prize before the prescribed race be run out An holy Man is at once dutiful and wise As a Servant he refuses not the Obedience of Life and as a wise Man embraces the Gain of Death 3 ly But it is considerate the effect of much foregoing deliberation and of a thorough perspection of the case 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vers. 6. knowing or considering that while we are at home in the Body we are absent from the Lord. This choice is not made blindly and in the dark 4 thly It is very determinate and full being made up of the mixture of Fortutide and Complacency as was said The one whereof copes with the evil of being severed from the Body The other entertains the good of being present with the Lord. Therefore this is the sense of a pious Soul in the present case q. d. I do indeed love this Body well and reckon it a grievous thing to be severed from it if that part of the Case be singly considered and alone by it self but considering it in comparison with the other part and what is this Body to me What is it as an Object of Love in comparison of being with the Lord What is Death to me as an Object of Fear in comparison of being absent from the Lord Which is a Death many thousand times more deadly than the other III. The agreeableness of this temper to the general frame and complexion of an holy Soul as such Which will appear if we consider 1. What sort of frame or impression in the general that is that doth distinguish a sincerely pious Person from another Man 2 ly The more eminent Principles in particular that are constituent of it and do as it were compose and make it up 1. The general frame of an Holy Soul as such is natural to it 'T is not an artificial thing a piece of Mechanism a lifeless Engine nor a superficial an external Form an evanid Impression It is the effect of a Creation as Scripture often speaks by which the Man becomes a new Creature and hath a Nature peculiar to him as other Creatures have Or of Regeneration by which he is said to be born anew Which forms of Speech whatever they have of different signification do agree in this that they signify a certain Nature to be the thing produc'd This Nature is said to be Divine 2 Pet. 1.4 somewhat born of God as it is exprest 1 John 5.4 and in many places more And it is an intellectual Nature or the restored Rectitude of such a Being Now who can think but what is so peculiarly from God a touch and impress from him upon an intelligent Subject should with design choice and complacency tend to him and make the Soul do so Especially when it is so purposely design'd for Remedy of the Apostacy wherein Men are revolted and gone off from him Will he suffer himself to be defeated in a Design upon which he is so industriously intent Or is it supposable the All-wise God should so mistake himself as to do such a Work upon the Spirit of Man on set purpose for an End which it is no way apt to serve Yea and when he now takes him in hand a second time Nor can it be but this Impression of God upon the Soul must have principal reference to our final State It is a kind of Nature and must therefore tend to what is most perfect in its own kind But we need not reason in a Matter wherein the Word of God so plainly unfolds the scope and the success of this his own Work By it we are said to be alive to God through Jesus Christ Rom. 6.11 To turn and move and act towards him as many Scriptures speak And towards him as he is most perfectly to be served and enjoyed in the most perfect state of Life We are said to be begotten again to a lively hope 1 Pet. 1.3 Where Hope is taken objectively as the following words shew to an Inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us And when elsewhere it had been said Every one that doth Righteousness is born of him 1 John 2. ult There is immediately subjoined Chap. 3.1 2. a description of the future Blessedness whereto 't is presently added Vers. 3. And every Man that hath this Hope in him purifyeth himself even as