Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	great_a	life_n	live_v	12,000	5	5.3253	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67047	A word in season. Or Three great duties of Christians in the worst of times viz. abiding in Christ, thirsting after his institutions, and submission to his providences. The first opened, from 1 John 2.28. The second from Psal. 42.1,2. The third from Jer. 14.19. By a servant of Christs in the work of his Gospel. To which is added, by way of appendix, the advice of some ministers to their people for the reviving the power and practice of godliness in their families.	Servant of Christ in the work of his Gospel.	1668 (1668)	Wing W3548A; ESTC R204145	100,163	272

engaged themselves to Christ and as it were taken an Oath of Allegiance to him and after this are found so far from serving Christ that they are in the thickest of his enemies Is there such a thing as treason and rebellion against earthly Powers and Princes and is there none against the God of heaven Shall an earthly Prince be judged just in tormenting to death a traitor to his Crown and Dignity and shall not the Lord of Lords and the Ruler of Princes be judged just in taking exemplary vengeance upon those that are traitors to his Majesty Is it an odious thing to be a traitor to a man and is there no odiousness in being traitors to the glorious God Every person that hath been baptized into Christ and after this lives in drunkenness uncleanness profane and open sinning defying God and his Word is such a traitor Do these men abide in Christ these that do not abide so much as in moral vertue these that have not yet attained to the perfections of a good Heathen Oh remember your vows Christians remember your baptismal vows to the great God remember his Name into which you were baptized Were you baptized into the name of the devil or into the name of the world or were you baptized into Christ You that abhor the names of traitors and rebels to your Prince abhor also the name and thing of treason and re●lion to the glorious Son of God Secondly So many as have made a more explicit profession of Religion not only entring their names into Christs Muster-roll as every baptized person doth but who have shewed themselves in his Artillery-ground worn his colours actually put themselves under ●he conduct of his Officers in his Church and walked with the Church of God and after this have gone out from them not to another company whose profession was more strict and exact but to associate themselves with ●he children of the world for whose ●ecks the yoke of Christ is too strait ●hese are some of those who do not abide in him And is there any time that doth not afford either a Demas that forsakes the ways of God to embrace the present world or some Di●trephes that loves the preheminence Some or other who either from impatience of dishonour and reproach or a desire of honour places of trust repute c. or fear of a prison and danger or out of a principle of covetonsness for a piece of bread or for the gaining of a great estate will not the sert the holy and right ways o● God Thirdly Such as have indeed tasted 〈◊〉 the distinguishing goodness of God having not yet perfectly put off the old man 〈◊〉 labouring under a body of death may 〈◊〉 the law of their members be brought in some captivity to the law of sin for a tim● 'T is true their union with Chri●● abideth indissoluble but in an hour o● temptation they may possibly fa● away not totally not finally but foully abating of their commumon with God waxing cold in their love and zeal for the glory of God Now to all these 〈◊〉 would direct the close of my discour● speaking to them in the language of the Prophet Jer. 3.13 Turn unt● me you back-sliding children saith the Lord. Turn turn why will you die O you sons of men I shall mostly for arguments to enforce this Exhortation confine my self to that excellent Prophet in the second and third chapters of his Prophesie to which I shall desire you to turn your eyes 1. Consider in the first place What God hath done for you Thus the Lord impleaded the Israelites Jer. 2.31 give me leave to alter the words a little Was the Lord ever unto you a wilderness or a land of darkness Is it not he that hath made you that hath preserved you ever since you hung upon your mothers breasts Hath he not sent his Son to die the accursed death of the cross for you Is it nothing to you that he hath admitted you to be baptized into his Name to live within the pale of his Church under the constant droppings of the fountain of life Hath not he for some of your souls done greater things in plucking you as brands out of hell fire in making a particular application of the blood o● Christ to your souls And can you forsake such a God as this Hath not ●e who died upon the Cross for you deserved so much at your hands as to watch with him in one hour of temptation Have you thus requited the Rock of your salvation O you unthankful souls Are you afraid of a nick name or a prison for him who was not afraid of a Cross for you Hath the Lord brought you under the light of his Gospel shewing you the right way of the Lord when the● Pagan world where are ten thousand● under more valuable circumstances 〈◊〉 to humane estimation than you lie in darkness worshipping devils and stocks instead of God Nay hath he brought you into the purest light to live in the Reformed Church when a great part of the Christian world lies in the darkness of Popish idolatry and superstition Yet further Hath the Lord illuminated any of you with the common light at least of his Spirit so as you have tasted of the heavenly gift Heb. 6.5 6. and been made partakers of the holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come And after this are you gone away What will you answer the God of your mercies another day But yet further If any have tasted the distinguishing grace of God and been made partakers of his saving grace which is communicated but to one of a City or two of a Tribe to a few a very few if you should abate in your strictness if you should not abide in the closest communion with the Lord Christ How will you ever behold the face of Christ with confidence O let the reflection upon the former kindness of ●od to you prevail with you to repent and do your first works Secondly What iniquity have you ●ound in God that you could not abide 〈◊〉 him This argument the Prophet useth to back-sliding Israel in Jer. 2.5 I here make an appeal to the consciences of those who have formerly walked with the Saints of God in visible communion and themselves made a profession of those ways from which they have turned aside and which it may be they now persecute What in●● quity did ever you find in the ways of Go●● I know what the world saith of th● courses of pure Religion and of th● professors of it Acts 24.5 Tertullus the Rom● Lawyer charged Paul with being 〈◊〉 mover of sedition a pestilent fellow 〈◊〉 that profaned the Temple The me●● the world speak the same langua●● still But I appeal to you did you e● find any such thing in the principle● practice of severer piety and p●● communion with God This th● thing makes my heart to tremble 〈◊〉 many

suffer him the far to prosper Hath God since that ti●● blest you in your estate in your children in your trade c Or hath he blas●● you If the latter Have you not 〈◊〉 cured this unto your selves in that ye 〈◊〉 forsaken the Lord your God when he led you by the way But it may be you cannot yet see divine vengeance thus pursuing you there is a time when poenalis nutritur impunitas God fatteth up some with the Maist of the world to the great day of slaughter though ordinarily these be such as never made any profession Judas that had been a Disciple quickly disgorged his thirty pleces you know That which I would have you principally enquire is how it hath been with your inward man as to your spiritual concerns St. John in his Epistle to his Host Gaius wisheth above all things that he might prosper and be in health even as his soul prospereth If there should be a Doeg that hath got anything by his treachery to Christ and the interest of his Gospel I would ●eg of him to consider whether his ●oul also prospereth and be in health as his outward man is You have pretended formerly to know what belongs to an inward serenity of mind to peace of conscience c. Have you at any time since your change found leisure to speak ●o your own souls and say Is it peace If you have not you have been very careless of Eternity If you have what hath it answered Have you gone to bed with as much satisfaction in your spirit after a day spent at a play or aprofane meeting as you did heretofore after a day spent in a religious meeting or at a fast Have you had no more melancholick thoughts no more sad reflections no more terrours than before Hath not the evil spirit sometimes so troubled you that you have been forced to send for a Minstrel to play it off Have not the images of those righteous servants of God whom you have been reviling whom you have been accusers of and instruments to hale into prisons ruine and as much as in you lay to make an end of sometimes appeared to you in your dreams and disquieted you in your sleep Have you not heard though not a voice from heaven God will not so much honour you who have so much spit in his face yet a voice from your own conscience Soul soul why persecutest thou Christ What evil hast thou formerly seen in that way wherein thy self did walk worthy of this death or these barbarous bonds Do you see what servants what home-born slaves you have made your selves How the children of Noph and Tahapanes have broken your head O return into the right wayes of the Lord return to your first Husband speak sincerely Was it not then every way better with you than now 6. Consider seriously with yourselves if a day of trouble should come as certainly thou art not the only person exempted from the incurnt ances and accidents to which mortality is exposed and subjected would any of those things or persons help you to which you are turned and whom you have gratified in your departing from the right ways of God The Professor not abiding in Christ usually makes choice 1. Of New Principles 2. New Practices in his conversation 3. New Friends and a New Society 1. New Principles he must have a seared conscience that upon strict Principles can build a loose practice and retain the truths of God in unrighteousness Therefore the Backslider hath ordinarily an Almanack faith calculated for the Meridian of his present practice For example it was the old faith of Professors that all men and Women are by nature children of wrath Ephes 2.3 That they remain in this state of wrath till by the hearing of the word the holy Spirit working with it faith be wrought in them and they be brought to Receive the Lord Jesus Christ and to believe in him John 3.18.36 Till they be regenerated and born again by the Spirit of God John 3.3 5. that is till old things be passed away and all things become n●w with them for he that is in Christ is a new creature That true faith where ever it is purifieth the heart worketh by love to God to his people in a strict universal obedience to all the commandments of God As to which they must have a presence to will though they may in many things want stength to perform That who so thus believeth and is thus regenerated is justified by the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ alone and being justified sinneth not wilfully and presumptuously or doth not lye and abide in sin but though he sometimes falleth by sin yet he by and by purifieth himself and riseth again by repentance And it is the business of his life in all things to make the word of God a light to his feet and a lanthorn to his paths Thou hast possibly collected another system of practical principles That every one who is baptized is justified and regenerated That to believe is nothing else but to be perswaded of the truth of the Scriptures That indeed a man may fall away from his justified estate in Baptism by actual sins but a slighty acknowledgement of his sins in a formal confession or when he comes to dye will make up all again And if a man lives in Obedience to what he calls the Church making the dictates of men the rule of his practice without any particular enquiry whether they be according to the Scriptures or no he shall not need fear salvation I confess this sheweth an easie way to Heaven if it were as sure But suppose a day of trouble now to thy soul suppose now thy conscience awakened either whiles thou art in thy full career in thy prosperity or when thou comest to dye and some such Texts as these fall into thy thoughts at that day John 3.18 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and be that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed on the Name of the only begotten Son of God Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ wh● walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit v. 5. They that are after the flesh 〈◊〉 mind the things of the flesh they that 〈◊〉 after the Spirit do mind the things of the Spirit ver 6. To be carnally minded i● death ver 8. They that are in the flesh cannot please God ver 13. If you live after the flesh you shall dye Neither ●●cumcision availeth any thing ●●uncircumcision but a new creature Suppose these or other such like Scriptures should stick fast to thy thoughts in an evil day what should relieve thee Will it relieve thee when tho● comest to dye to remember tho● wer 't baptized in thy infancy Will no● thy thoughts reflect There are thousands that were baptized will be damoned Simon Magus was baptized ye●● the gall of bitterness and in the bands of

iniquity Judas in all probability was baptized yet a Son of perdition Will it relieve thee to think thou hast believed the Scriptures to be the Word of God and Christ to be the Son of God so do the Devils believe and tremble Will it relieve thee to think that thou hast been obedient to the orders of the Church Dost thou not see that those are most universal in that Obedience which is so called whose lives proclaim the greatest opposition to the plain letter of Scripture in almost all the moral precepts of it Shall they also have peace 2. For thy new Practices Heretofore thou wer 't wont to pray in thy family and to instruct them in the things of God to spend thy time in reading the holy Scripture to spend dayes in fasting prayer communion with the Saints of God Believing thy obligation from a moral Precept to keep the Lords Day holy thou wer't wont in it to exercise thy self in reading the word hearing of it in prayer instructing thy children Now thou hast forgotten thy family duties thy chamber practice in Religion thy religious care of thy children and servants and all thy Devotion is turned into a little Formality of which thou makest no great conscience neither Thy Sabbaths are spent in vain and idle discourses and in a vain conversation and if any acts of devotion still continue possibly they are such as to which God will say to thee Who hath required these things at your hands Where did I ever speak a word to you or your Fathers of such homage to be performed to me nor did it ever come into my heart The time on other dayes which thou wer't wont to spend in fasting is now spent in feasting what was wont to be spared for hearing Sermons is now spent in hearing Playes Hark my friend shalt thou not one day thinkest thou be sick unto death as Hezekiah was Isa 38.1 will the Providence of God thinkest thou never speak to thee saying Set thy house in order for thou shalt dye and not live Wilt thou upon these practices be able to say as Hezekiah ver 3. Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how l●● have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which was good in thy sight Doth thy conscience tell thee these things are good in the sight of the Lord. Such an absurd verdict may possibly be given in by the conscience of one muffled up in ignorance but thou hast known thou hast proved better things thy conscience must tell thee the courses which I formerly took were better than these Thou after thou hast escaped the pollution of the world 2 Pet. 2.20 through the ●nowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ art again entangled therein and overcome Thy latter end is worse than thy beginning It had been better for you never to have known the way of righteousness then having known it to turn from ●he holy commandment delivered unto you 3. For thy new Company Thou heretofore wer 't a companion to those that ●eared the Lord. The Excellent on the Earth were those in whom thou didst delight or at least pretend to do so Ministers of the Gospel who had beside their habit something else to approve them such powerful constant Preachers of the word that knew h●● to speak a word in season to the weary how to satisfie a doubt resolve case of conscience give to every o● their portion c. People who math a conscience of their wayes a● though they had possibly their error and failings yet they were not such 〈◊〉 the very light of nature and reason shewed abominable such as cursing a● swearing blaspheming the God who● they served reviling persons an things that had ought of his Im●● and Superscription upon them Th● art now become a companion of soe● such I mean as the Scripture calls 〈◊〉 leud profane persons Sons of B●● that live without any yoke either Scripture or Moral Principles th● catest with the Glutton and sittest with the Drunkard and thy Chair is set 〈◊〉 them who sit in the seat of the scorns● and whiles they are smiting thy on● fellow servants if thy hand be not w● them yet thy heart is if thy ● throwest no stones at the Lord 's S●phen's yet thou holdest the cloaths them that do it Will thy day of v●tation thinkest thou never come Send in that day for those that have sat at the Tavern with thee and see ●f they be able to speak a word to thy ●oul weary of life Remember Saul who had rejected Samuel enough when he was in distress he goes to a Witch and who must she raise up but Samuel What satisfaction wilt thou have ●n an evil day in a dying day from ●hose whom living thou hast preferred to be thy companions before such as have feared the Lord. I shall shut up this Head with minding you that by this Argument God by his Prophet Jeremiah endeavoured to reduce backsliding Israel Jeremiah 2.28 Jer. 2.28 But where are thy gods that thou hast made thee Let them arise if they can save thee in the day of trouble I will only add one thing for thy termor It is like enough that in the day of trouble God may leave thee to fetch thy relief from these empty cisterns When Judas's conscience smote him God left him to his Masters the Scribes and Pharisees alone to comfort him how cold a cup of consolation they afforded him the Gospel tells you When the Jewes had apostatized and the Philistins and Ammonites oppose● them and they cryed unto the Lord they met with a rough answer ver 13. Jude 10.11 12 13 14. I will deliver you no m●● Go and cry unt● the Gods whom you ha● chosen and let them deliver you in the day of your tribulation Take heed th● the Providence of God speaks not that language to your souls in the day o● their tribulation Go and fetch their comfort from the principles practice and company which you have chosen 7. I will add but one Argument more That shall be from the mercy 〈◊〉 God which he hath for backsliding children making timely returns unto him This is an Argument which the Prophet Jeremy largely insisted upon Chap. 3. v. 1 2 3 4 5 12 13 14 22. First He sheweth them that this is above the mercy of men If a m● putteth away his Wife shall he take b● again c. It is very observable that the Jews defection chiefly insisted upon by the Prophet was in matters of Divine Worship where the sin charged upon them was the highest in genere suo ido●try which is a failer in the object of Worship either more immediate or me●iate and therefore exprest in Scripture by the sin of whoredom which is the highest error in conjugal relations There 's no sin so separates a people or person from God as this sin Superstition which is failer in the more external manner and rites of