Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	bless_a	jesus_n	lord_n	4,865	5	3.3913	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70260	Several tracts, by the ever memorable Mr. John Hales of Eaton Coll. &c. Viz. I. Of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. II. Paraphrase on St. Matthew's Gospel. III. Of the power of the keys. IV. Of schism and schismaticks, (never before printed by the original copy.) V. Miscellanies	Hales, John, 1584-1656.; Hales, John, 1584-1656. Tract concerning sin against the Holy Ghost.; Hales, John, 1584-1656. Tract concerning schisme.	1677 (1677)	Wing H276A; Wing H280; ESTC R14263	61,040	260

upon that Amendment were brought back again But then after their Return in the times not long before our Saviours coming they fell into such Vices as were abominable even in the Heathens themselves as is manifest in Story and to shut up all added thereunto the Contempt of their own Messiah sent amongst them with so much power and yet with so much meekness as man never came Whereupon being justly forsaken of God whom they had thus forsook they became the most wretched and vicious people in the World as Josephus doth describe them to be about their latter times And this Contemplation of their miserable Condition our Saviour seems to insinuate even unto themselves in this kind of Parable of the unclean Spirit going out of a man and returning back again Of which If that which I have said be not the Occasion as I do not avow but only offer it unto you yet certainly this is the sence That those men who have once left and forsaken the vicious courses of their carnal life if they ever relapse and fall back again into them all their latter sins are far more sinful than their former Almighty God justly revenging the Contempt of that Grace which he hath offered to them by giving them up to all manner of wickedness and uncleanness Sch. I think you have guessed right and to the purpose But there are some terms and phrases in this Parable or Story or whatsoever you will call it which I do not understand as First I pray what do you think Christ means by walking through dry places and seeking rest and finding none Mast Dry and sandy Grounds are no fit places of Habitation and such kind of places are all those places where the Devil doth abide when he is out of man who is only capable of Vice and Sin wherein the Devil taketh pleasure And the meaning of Christ is this That as a man that travels is wearied with heavy sandy and dry way more than with green soft and pleasant Fields so the Devil is not half so well satisfied when he enters into any other Creature as when he enters into Man Schol. It may be so indeed but then why taketh he seven Spirits more wicked than himself why is the number of Seven here pitched on more than any other Mast The Number of Seven is the Number of Perfection or the signification of that which in its own kind is grown to full maturity whether it be good or evil So St. John calleth the Holy Spirit of God the Seven Spirits Rev. 1. 4. So the Barren is said to have born Seven 1 Sam. 2. 5. that is to have been as fruitful as any other Woman is or can be And therefore when the unclean Spirit is said to take Seven other Spirits with him the meaning only is that that man becomes perfectly wicked when that Spirit once returns again whom before he had cast out Sch. I approve your Exposition of the Word and think it likely But I pray can you guess what business the Virgin and the Brethren of Christ might have with him because the Scripture saith They staied without to speak with him in the 47 Verse of this Chapter peradventure you may think me curious and therefore if Expositors have made no Conjecture thereupon I will not urge you Mast Truly they have and I shall not conceal it from you They do imagine that his Mother and his Kindred having had some Inckling of the Pharisees conspiring against him to do him mischief desired to speak with him in private and to contrive some way to withdraw him out of danger This will seem the more probable if we consider that which St. Mark saith Chap. 3. 21. That his Friends would fain have laid hold on him saying that he was beside himself which in all likelihood they said to make the Pharisees the less active in contriving any mischief to him as conceiving him a fitter Subject for their pity than their hate But it seems Christ would not hearken unto them nay would not know them as appears by the three last Verses of this Chapter which are so plain and easy that I dare not suspect your sense and apprehension of them FINIS A TRACT Concerning the Power of the KEYS AND Auricular Confession By the ever Memorable Mr. JOHN HALES of Eaton-Colledge c. Printed 1677. A Tract concerning the Power of the KEYS and AURICULAR CONFESSION IN opening the Point concerning the Doctrine of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven I will follow those Lines that Tract which your self hath been pleased to set me Yet first ere I com● to your particulars I will discover as far as generality will give me leave what it is which we intend when we use this phrase of Speech At the first appearance it is plain the form of words is not Proper but Metaphorical Now some Truth there is in that which you learnt in the Books of your Minority from your Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and indeed could we but once agree what it is which that Metaphor doth intimate the greatest part of the Dispute were at an end The natural way to discover this is to see what the Use of Keys properly taken is and after that what means they are which in our endeavours to attain to the Kingdom of Heaven have something proportionable to the Use of Keys and thi● being once discovered there can remain no Question What are the Keys Now nothing is more known than that the only Use of Keys is to Open and Shut to admit us Unto or exclude us from the possession of what we seek Now since the Kingdom of Heaven is compared to a House from which all the Sons of Adam by Nature are excluded whatsoever then it is that gives us way that removes all Obstacle● which hinder us from entrance of that House that certainly must be understood by the Name of Keys Now all these means or whatsoever else it is which doth further us towards the possessing our selves of Eternal Life they were all laid down in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ committed by him fully and first of all to the dispensation of the blessed Apostles to be reported by them or their means all the World over So that I think I may safely lay thus much for the first Ground of the Question betwixt your self and me Claves Regni Coelorum sunt Doctrina Evangelii Now since Keyes are nothing without some hand to manage them we must in the second place discover into whose hands they are committed And for this purpose first of all It must not be denyed that principally and properly I might well enough add only if I listed but that I spare you the Hand of God it is that manages and applies these Keys For of God and Christ it is written He hath the Keys he opens and no man shuts he shuts and no man opens Yet since it hath pleased God to use the Ministry of Men to the saving