Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
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A26823
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A funeral sermon on the death of Mrs. Mary Paice, late wife of Mr. Joseph Paice, merchant of Clapham, who died April 8th, 1700 by Edmund Batson.
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Batson, Edmund.
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1700
(1700)
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Wing B1141; ESTC R4308
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20,450
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70
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That the one should be glorified in Heaven and the other remain in the Dust Besides this we may justly conceive of a fixed innocent Inclination in the glorified Soul to her former Dear Associate and therefore the satisfying such an Inclination by their Re-union must contribute to the Felicity of the Person Their Relative of Mutual Happiness would be likewise impaired if any that truly belonged to their Number were wanting and still kept under the Power of Death For they are all inviolably United in Love which as it were transforms one into another and causes the Glory of every Saint to redound to the Joy of all And every one both adds to and shares in the Felicity of the whole Here there are many Vitious Allays of Love among true Christians and they do not duely sympathize with one another in their Conditions of Life But in Heaven they are of one Heart and one Soul there is an exact Agreement of Tempers and Inclinations so that could we suppose the Body of one detained as an Eternal Prisoner of the Grave and such a ones Happiness thereby impaired the whole would suffer therein But I come now to the Use Now as this Doctrine of the blessed Resurrection of Believers being fix'd on the fore-mentioned Grounds and Reasons must needs be acknowledged a great Truth and one of the true and faithful Sayings of God So upon strict Enquiry it will appear a very comfortable Truth And that 1. With respect to the present Afflictions and Sufferings of this Life and particularly the Frailties and Diseases and Weakness and Vileness of these Bodies The Dictates of Reason and the Prescriptions of Moralists are ineffectual to form the Soul to true Patience and Contentment under bodily Sufferings But Faith and Hope in a blessed Resurrection administers powerful Support And as this excels all natural Topicks so all the consolatory Points in Revealed Religion do ultimately center and terminate in this For if our Hope was only in this Life whatever may be propounded to us we were of all Creatures most miserable 1 Cor. 15.19 To know that our Bodies shall be raised to an immortal incorruptible Glory and changed into the likeness of Christ's Body makes us more unconcerned about their Condition and more contented that God should have the entire Disposal of them here This sweetens the most bitter Cups alleviates the most heavy Burdens and renders all bodily Distempers and Pains supportable and easie And furthermore it directs us so to behold so to account of so to improve these present momentary Afflictions as that they might Work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory 2 Cor. 4.17 2. With respect to our own Personal Dissolution This is the thing which Nature so much abhors to come under the Power of Death to be divulsed from all the Enjoyments of Life to be confined to the dark solitude of the Grave to see Man no more in the Land of the Living this is a frightful and disquieting Thought And inasmuch as this is a thing universally known it is also universally feared There is a lawful fear of Death when this Passion is regular both as to its Object and Degree it is excellently Useful As a wise Counsellour or faithful Guardian it keeps Reason awake and active so as that it might sustain the Evil in the best manner which it could not prevent And there is an inordinate fear of Death which as a Tyrannous Master doth continually disquiet and torment the Soul and keep a Man all his Life time under Bondage The Philosophers attempted to moderate and govern these anxious Fears but in vain * Bates Har. of Attr. cap. 17.355 p. Octa. All that they could oppose against this cruel Enemy while they were without the Knowledge and Belief of a glorious Resurrection was ineffectual But the Gospel furnishes us with real Remedies Christians cannot be afraid to Die when they know they Die in the Lord and belong to one who will redeem them from the Power of the Grave and swallow up Death in Victory Were we to be Eternal Captives to Death and Prisoners of the Grave for ever there were some Reason to dread it But when God speaks to us as to Jacob descending into Egypt Fear not to go down into the Grave I will go down with thee and I will surely bring thee up again So that hereby we are as sure of overcoming Death as suffering it as sure of being Conquerors as of being Combatants how are all excruciating fears hereby expelled In our own Strength indeed and acting separately from God we cannot overcome No one can save himself from going down to the Grave or by Price or by Force procure his Releasement and Discharge from its Captivity any more than from its War But in Relation to God we are more than Conquerors To be more than Conquerors is to be Triumphants Christians may thus Triumph in this Perswasion that tho' they tast Death the common Lot of every Man yet they shall be redeemed from it so as not to be hurt by the second Death and neither Death nor Life c. shall be able to separate them from the Love of God in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.37 38 39. Neither is this Doctrine of a blessed Resurrection only an Argument of Support and Comfort under the Apprehensions of Death but also a Just and Rational Incentive to Desire our Dissolution How willingly did Elias let fall his Mantle that he might ascend to Heaven How willing was Paul to be dissolved that he might be with Christ How desirously and boldly did the valiant Martyrs encounter with Death that interposed between them and their glorified State This upbraids our backwardness who profess to be enlightened and perswaded of that blessed and perfect World A loathness to Die in Christians is directly repugnant to their Hopes and a reproach to their Christianity it self We are not to obtain Heaven by an immediate Translation to it Death is a necessary intermediate way and there is a natural bitterness in it which makes it unpleasant 'T is a dark Passage from this to the other World though under the Custody and Dominion of our gracious Redeemer * How 's Domin Redeem over the Invis World p. 49. Yet notwithstanding this Believers are still to reckon their Mortality their Advantage and to bless God that they are not to spend their Immortality in the present State But you will say We should not fear Dying if we did know our Interest in Christ if we were assured that we were of that number whom he will redeem from the Power of the Grave and receive to himself It must be confessed there are but some whom God will thus Redeem others are to be left under the conquest of Death and of him that hath the Power of Death for ever And these have reason to fear and Tremble at the thoughts of Death and much more at its approach but then consider none are among that
number but such as Voluntarily put themselves into it and wilfully continue notwithstanding the means which the great Redeemer uses to educe and recover them Death is no where perpetual but where it is self-procured None lie under it and abide under it but they that loved it and refused to to take hold of the Paths of Life None die unintrested in the Redeemer and his Power but such as rejected him while they lived Therefore 2. Vse Let this admonish us to take care and provide that we be of that number to whom this blessed priviledge belongs Since it is not common to all but proper only to some with what solicitude should we concern our selves and follow on the Enquiry till we arrive at a certainty in this matter Since the enquiry is of highest importance and admits of a plain and true solution it can never be justified as rational to continue in a dubious uncertainty Who would not covet to be in a special Relation to the Almighty and Gracions Redeemer and to be one of those whom he will Redeem from the Power of the Grave The knowledge of this alone can preserve the true comfort of our lives and fill us in Death with Joy Vnspeakable and full of Glory Let us therefore with assiduous diligence endeavour to make our Calling and Election and therewith our Glorious Resurrection sure This matter will quickly be brought to an Issue with every one of us either Death will Triumph over us and prey upon us as Eternal Trophies of its Conquest or through Divine Grace and Love we shall be delivered and Triumph over it There are Two or Three Things will ascertain our State and let us into the Knowledge of what our final Issue will be 1. Are we Regenerate Creatures We are naturally Apostates from God and in open defiance against his Soveraignty and Laws and there can be nothing but a fearful Expectation or looking for of Death and Vengeance which shall devour and consume such Adversaries until we cease to be Adversaries until the contrariety of our Natures against him be subdued and we become new Creatures Our Expectations cannot rationally be altered but upon a precedent Change of State The Resurrection of Christ is the Ground of this blessed Hope in Believers as hath been shewn but their Regeneration is the Evidence of it A Soul that passes out of this World unrenewed must never expect a Reunion with a raised Glorified Body The Body indeed shall be raised and reunited to the Soul but it will be in order to compleat the Misery of the Sinner Redemption from the Power of Sin and Redemption from the Power of Death are Coextensive and have both the same Subjects Rev. 20.6 Blessed and Holy is he who hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second Death hath no Power There is the Priviledge and there is the Character of the Person to whom it belongs It is in vain to think of dissolving the Divine Order or separating what God hath joined together None ever was or shall be so blessed as to be exempt from the Power of the second Death but such as are Holy and have Part in the first Resurrection Though the Soul be the immediate Subject of Regeneration yet it respects the whole Person The Understanding and Conscience and Will and Affections are all changed in this Work And the bodily Members and Senses are destinated by the renewed Soul and employed in new Services and are no more the Members of Unrighteousness but Instruments of Service to Jesus Christ Rom. 6.19 The Laws of the great Redeemer are the Rule of Duty to the entire Man and are obeyed or violated by the Soul and Body in Conjunction Now where there hath been this entire Obedience yielded by a Man renewed in his whole Constitution it shall receive a just recompence of Reward and those that have followed Christ in the Regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit on the Throne of his Glory they shall sit with him judging the Twelve Tribes of Israel Mat. 19.28 2. Are we Dead with Christ If we be Dead with Christ we believe that we shall also live with him If we be planted together with him in the likeness of his Death we shall be also in the likeness of his Resurrection If we suffer with him we shall reign with him Rom. 6.5 8. Our likeness to Christ must be begun in our present embodied State This is the fixed Order of Heaven The other World is the World of Perfection where the Image of Christ or of the Devil is compleated according to which of them was begun here upon Earth None can have Communion with the Redeemer in his glorious Resurrection but such as have Fellowship with him in his Sufferings and are conformable to his Death Phil. 3.10 A Man that continues to Live cannot while such be the subject of Resurrection He must first Die So our Self-denial and Mortification and Dying with Christ as necessarily precedes our Communion with him in his glorious Resurrection 3. Are our Hearts and Affections now with God and Christ in Heaven Nothing less than an Heavenly Conversation can justifie our looking for a Saviour who shall change our vile Bodies into the Image of his most glorious Body Phil. 3.20 21. A Terrene Temper of Mind and an Heart unlimitedly engaged in the World doth absolutely contradict the Hopes of a blessed Resurrection and Reception into Heaven It is the Nature of Hope as it is a Christian Grace to engage the Soul in a serious Pursuit of that which is hoped for And also to give it a deep Tincture of its Object before it is actually enjoyed Therefore if we don't savour heavenly Things above all carnal and worldly Delights and seek them with the greatest Diligence our Hopes are Fallacious The Wise and Holy God cannot act so Inconsistently with Himself How Inconsistent soever Mens Actions and Hopes may be as to bestow Heaven and Glory upon one that never desired or esteemed or sought it that would always prefer the Honours and Emoluments of the World before it This would be to violate the Rules of Discrimination which he himself hath fixed and such an Inglorious Amplification of that blessed Kingdom as would leave it almost undesirable and the Priviledges of Christians would cease to be Priviledges when others may have an equal share in them These Enquiries do in short recur to this Have we a sure Interest in Christ who is the Prince and Lord of Life Have we received him in all these Respects wherein he is to be received and absolutely resigned our selves to him as our Lord and Saviour Hath there passed such mutual Acts between us and him of giving and receiving as that thereupon He may be truly called ours and we as truly said to be his He will finally redeem none but his own Have we remaining Indications of this in our Hearts and Lives Have our Course in this World been ordered agreeably thereto in