Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	blood_n	drink_v	eat_v	34,694	5	8.1582	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52415	Christian blessedness, or, Discourses upon the beatitudes of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ written by John Norris ... ; to which is added, reflections upon a late essay concerning human understanding, by the same author.	Norris, John, 1657-1711.	1690 (1690)	Wing N1246; ESTC R16064	112,867	310

and effectual that which passes into act and ends in a thorough Determination of the Will Since nothing less can either be signify'd by such strong Metaphors as these of Hungring and Thirsting or consist with the sincerity of a Christian Spirit 'T is not enough therefore to have oues face set towards Jerusalem and to cast some amorous Glances upon the Beauty of Holiness 'T is not enough to have some faint ineffective Wishes some kind resentments towards Righteousness there being but few so wretchedly wicked and unmoraliz'd as not to have some such little Velleities of being Good and no question Balam that desired the Death did also at this rate desire the Life of the Righteous But the Desire must be strong and active vehement and importunate absolute and peremptory without any Reserves or Conditions It must bear the same proportion to the Soul that the Keenest Hunger and Thirst does to the Body that is it must be a great deal sharper as much as the Appetites of the Spirit are more quick and exquisite than those of the Body It must be such a desire as our Saviour had to celebrate the Passover and institute his last Supper when he says With desire have I desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer Briefly it must be such a Desire as carries in it the full bent and stress of the Soul such as is accompanied with the most earnest and hearty endeavours and with the most passionate and Devout Prayers and Aspirations to God Such as that of the Psalmist O that my ways were made so direct that I might keep thy statutes With many more such throughout the whole 119 Psalm which I commend to the Meditation of the Pious This is that Hungring and Thirsting after Righteousness intended in this Beatitude And accordingly 't is observable what Solomon in a place almost parallel to this of our Lord says concerning the Love of Wisdom which generally in Scripture especially in Solomon's Writings signifies the same with Righteousness My Son if thou wilt receive my words and hide my commandments with thee so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom and apply thine heart to understanding yea if thou criest after knowledge and liftest up thy voice for understanding if thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of thy God Here the Wise Man makes the most searching Diligence and the most vigorous exertion of Soul necessary to the finding of Wisdom And he that so seeks her shall find her Which brings me in the last place to make good the Proposition it self That those who do thus hunger and thirst after Righteousness shall be fill'd But before I proceed to this I beg leave by way of Digression to speak something of another sort of Hunger and Thirst which all Christians are concerned to have Our Saviour tells us that Except a man eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood he has no life in him Now if the Flesh and Blood of our Lord be necessary to the Life then certainly the Hungring and Thirsting after it is necessary to the Health and good Habit of a Christian. There is not a more open Sign of a distemper'd Constitution either in the Natural or in the Spiritual Man than either to long for what is not his proper Food or not to have an Appetite for that which is And therefore since the Body and Blood of Christ is the proper Food and Aliment of a Christian it concerns him as he values the Health and prosperous State of the Divine Life not only to feed upon it but to keep up in himself a due Hunger and Thirst after it More especially this he ought to do when-ever he approaches the Holy Altar to partake of this Divine and Heavenly Feast He ought then by all the Arts of the Spirit and by all the Methods of Grace to quicken and raise this Hunger and set an edge upon this Thirst. St. Austin discoursing of the Disposions of a Worthy Communicant reckons this Hunger and Thirst among them and makes them as Necessary Qualifications as any And there is a great deal of reason for it This Holy Sacrament is generally set out in Scripture by meat and Drink 'T is call'd expresly by the name of the Lords Supper And says our Saviour to the Jews My flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed And as 't is expressed so also was it prefigur'd by Types of the like nature such as the Tree of Life in the midst of Paradise the Bread and Wine of Melchisedeck the Manna the Paschal Lamb the Shew-bread the Bread wherewith the Angel fed the Prophet and particularly by the Waters springing out of the Rock whereof the Fathers drank in the Wilderness Now I consider that as these Figures represent the Nature and Efficacy of the Holy Sacrament that 't is the Food of the Soul and the Life and Strength of the Spiritual Man so they do also represent to us our Duty and the proper Measure and Argument of Preparation For if Meat and Drink be the Entertainment what more convenient Preparation than Hunger and Thirst We ought indeed to come to these Springs of Salvation as the Hart is represented to do by the Psalmist to the Water-brooks panting and thirsty longing and impatient Or rather to use a nearer Emblem as those thirsty Israelites did to the Waters that issued out of that Mystic Rock in the Wilderness 'T is impossible to give a just Description of this Sacramental Thirst but if we could but so far advance our Fancy as to represent to our selves with what eagerness and greediness those thirsty and scorch'd Travellers in the Wilderness did apply their Mouths to the springing Stone that was now more indear'd to them by the Benefit than by the Miracle then and then only may we have some Notion of that Hunger and Thirst wherewith we are to approach and receive these Divine Mysteries For if that Rock and miraculous Water was a Type of our Sacrament as the Apostle assures us it was telling us expresly that that Rock was Christ then by the like proportion that Thirst was also a Symbol of our Duty a signification of our Sacramental Thirst. And as he that will come to this Divine Feast must come Hungry and Thirsty so he that is truly Hungry and Thirsty as he ought will be sure to come and not as too many do study to find out Pretences to excuse his Absense But why do I say Study to find Excuses There are some Men that will be hinder'd by any thing nay by every thing There is nothing there can be nothing so little and inconsiderable but what will hinder some Men from the Holy Sacrament That which would not hinder them from any thing else things of much lighter Weight than what were pretended by those in the Parable

where attributed to Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles c. when their Glorification is expressed by their Sitting down in the Kingdom of God and that of other Saints by their sitting down with them in allusion to the Eastern manner of Feasting This Priviledge of a more eminent Seat is particularly assigned to Abraham Isaac and Jacob by our Saviour when he tells us that Many shall come from the East and the West and shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven And so again to the Apostles Verily I say unto you that ye which have followed me in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit in the Throne of his Glory ye also shall sit upon twelve Thrones It cannot be denied but that this is meant of the Apostles only and not of his Disciples at large because of the Twelve Thrones And why should Twelve of them only be specified if they were not to be Thrones of an higher Order Or what Extraordinary would our Saviour have promised to his Disciples And this is further confirmed by St. John who in the Description of the Heavenly Jerusalem makes the twelve Apostles the Foundations of the City And the Wall of the City says he had twelve Foundations and in them the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb. A place exactly parallel to that of the Twelve Thrones To dispatch all in a word the Condition of Saints in Glory is expressed in Scripture by their being made like like unto the Angels and 't is of it self reasonable to think that the same General Order and Proportion shall be observ'd in both these Sons of God Angels and Men. But now 't is most certain that the Angels have their different Orders and Hierarchies being distinguish'd into Thrones and Dominions Principalities and Powers and into Angels and Arch-Angels and that some of them sit nearer to the Throne of God than others Whereupon the Talmudists call Michael the Arch-Angel The Prince of Faces or the Prince of the Presence being as they say so near to the King of Heaven as to be admitted to sit down by him and register the good Actions of the Israelites And says the Angel Gabriel of himself I am Gabriel that stand in the presence of God He distinguishes himself as much by his Station as by his Name And the Vision of Isaia represents one of the Angelic Orders covering their Faces with their Wings which supposes them to be nearer than Ordinary to the Presence of God so as not to be able to abide the Glory of it without the help of a Veil Since therefore there is such a Variety in the Angelical Stations and our future Condition is generally represented by theirs this alone were enough to put us upon thinking that our Glorification must admit of the like gradual Diversity And 't is no more than what natural Order and Decency seems to require that the Members of Christ's Mystical Body should retain the same Diversity in the other World that St. Paul ascribes to them in this that there should still be an Eye and an Hand an Head and a Foot more Honourable and less Honourable Parts Whereof the Natural Heaven exhibits a very convenient Emblem in which one Star differs from another Star in Glory And after all tho there were no plain Proof to be had for this yet there is such an obvious Congruity in the thing as would convince where it could not silence And I believe there is no Man tho never so forward to raise Objections against what has been contended for and to equalize the Glories of Heaven for the other World has its Levellers as well as this that could yet obtain Leave of his own Modesty to expect as bright a Crown as the Virgin Mary or St. Paul Having thus far asserted the different Degrees of Glory which I have the longer insisted upon because 't is a very practical as well as notional Theory being of great consequence to the encouragement of Heroic Goodness I come now to consider the second thing proposed that one of the Highest Degrees of Glory shall be the Reward of those who suffer Persecution for the sake of Righteousness that is of Martyrs And here for the Eviction of this having already shewn that there are Degrees of Glory in proportion to the degrees of Vertue I think 't will suffice to shew that Martyrdom is one of the highest Degrees of Vertue For the Argument reduced to Form will stand thus An higher Degree of Vertue shall have an higher Degree of Glory But Martyrdom is an higher Degree of Vertue Therefore Martyrdom shall have an higher Degree of Glory The first Proposition is what we have been proving hitherto To infer the Conclusion therefore there needs only a Proof of the second Here therefore my business shall be to give a short representation of the Excellency of Martyrdom The Honour of Martyrdom was so great in the Primitive Church that even the Commonness of it which depretiates every thing else could not diminish from its Veneration It was then thought of so great Excellence as to supply the room of Baptism and the new Convert whose early and sudden execution prevented his solemn Admission into the Christian Church was yet esteemed a very good Member of Christ's Mystical Body and number'd with his best Saints in Glory everlasting The same Honour to Martyrs made them chuse their Tombs for the places of their Devotion and God himself was pleased to signalize his special regard to these his Saints and to shew how precious their Death was in his sight by making the places of their Rest the Stage of his Miracles Nor is there any thing in all this more strange and extraordinary than the Excellency of the Vertue it self which was thus honoured A general representation of which is thus given by the Pen of a Celebrated Writer of the Roman Church A Church which by the way has made more Martyrs and has fewer than any in the World But she has dealt long enough in Blood to be able to form an Idea of Martyrdom from the Martyrs which she has made We see says one of her Sons nothing in the Church more noble than Martyrdom 'T is the highest jorm of Vertue the last Expression of Charity and when a Man has shed his Blood and parted with his Life for Jesus Christ there is not any instance that can further be expected from his Love Justly therefore may we acknowledge nothing more August in Religion than Martyrs They are the Heroes of Christianity the gallant Men of this State the Noblest Parts of this mystical Body There is no greatness that gives not way to their Dignity whatever we admire is below their worth and according to the Opinion of one of the wisest Fathers of the Church he means St. Cyprian 't is more to be a Martyr than to be an Apostle Neither hath any thing been ever more Honour'd in