Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	plague_n	sin_n	strait_a	24	3	16.0166	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61847	A discourse of the two covenants wherein the nature, differences, and effects of the covenant of works and of grace are distinctly, rationally, spiritually and practically discussed : together with a considerable quantity of practical cases dependent thereon / by William Strong.	Strong, William, d. 1654.; Gale, Theophilus, 1628-1678.	1678 (1678)	Wing S6002; ESTC R10428	996,223	490

in the God of their salvation Hab. 3.7 and yet at the last day to depart from God and to lose your God to all eternity shall be much more for the greatest judgment that doth befal men is the loss of God and it 's very just with God to take men in their own sin as they in the Gospel being invited to the marriage made excuses and would not come therefore that which was their sin was their judgment and plague they shall not come those that were bidden shall not taste of my supper you will not come you shall not come and so they will have none of God Israel will have none of me that 's your sin and shall be your plague you shall have none of me I will not be your God for ever for he that has not the Lord for his God in this life shall have no interest in him in the life to come It 's the misery of all unregenerate men that they speak of God as another mans God and not as their own as Laban said to Jacob Gen. 31.29 the God of your fathers and Pharaoh I have sinned against the Lord your God But this is the happiness of the Saints that they can say The Lord is our own God as Tertullian said to Marcion Christus in Evangelio tuo meus est Christ in thy Gospel is mine c. 4. He that has not the Lord for his God shall surely have him for his enemy and as he doth rejoyce over his own Covenant people for good so he will rejoyce over you for evil Deut. 28.63 Jer. 44.27 he will watch over you for evil you shall have all evil to befal you here as pledges of eternal wrath Heb. 10.27 As a people in Covenant with God do receive all mercies as pledges of glory in Heaven so do they there is an expectation of wrath c. Heb. 10. All acts of common goodness are in wrath to them if the Lord do suffer them to prosper and they be fed as a lamb in a large place it 's in wrath that their table ●ay become their snare and to fat them against the day of slaughter Nihil est infoeliciùs foelicitate peccantium quâ poenalis nutritur impuritas voluntas mala roboratur c. There is nothing more unhappy than the happiness of sinners whereby their penal impurity is nourished and their evil will fortified August And if the Lord forbear to punish them it 's in wrath why should they be smitten any more And if the Lord do hear their prayers and grant their desires it 's in wrath he may grant their request but send leanness into their souls Q●osdam ad utilitatem exaudit quosdam ad damnationem Some he hears for their profit some for their damnation Aug. And if he bestow mercies Iratus dat amanti quod malè amat The whole design that the Lord hath in all his dealings is against such a one for evil Lord who knows the power of thy wrath Psal 90.11 Vse 2 2. We may hence learn what the happiness is of a people in Covenant with God they have the Lord for their God 1. Consider every man has a treasure which in this life he doth lay up one man hath treasure in Earth and another hath treasure in Heaven as that wherein he does place his happiness which is the chief good upon which he sets his heart which if he may attain he says it is enough and by this he values himself and all things else in which he glories the rich man glories in his riches and the wise man in his wisdom and the strong man in his strength c. Now in this a godly man doth glory that he is the Lords treasure For Saints are his Jewels Exod. 19.5 and as a godly man is Gods Jewel so God is his and in him he has full satisfaction and without this chief good they contemn all things else Omnis copia quae non est Deùs meus egestas est All abundance that is not my God is want The Scripture pronounceth a blessedness upon such Psal 144. ult Blessed are such who have Jehovah for their God Now unto happiness as the Philosophers say there are three things required it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perfect proper and eternal good which properties are to be found no where but in God in Covenant 1 It must be bonum perfectum a perfect good a general and universal good extending unto all things and all times and all conditions for the Lord is a God all-sufficient Gen. 17.2 he can make a man happy according to the whole life as Moses said to Israel The Lord alone led thee and there was no strange God with him And the people of God shall need blessings from none but their own God God even our God shall bless us 2 It must be proprium proper good there is nothing can be said to be a mans own that can be taken away from him all a mans estate and riches and honour here are but this worlds goods and they shall cease and fail him and not follow him into another world naked he came in and naked must he go out nay his gifts and tongues will fail I but God is a mans own that he can never lose It was the folly of the Heathens which Austin derided that they tyed their Gods that they might not be stoln such are the dunghil-gods of the world qui non possunt custodire custodes who cannot keep those that keep them But this is our God we have waited for him and he will save us it is our own God 3 It must be perpetuum eternal Esa 25. the eternal God is thy refuge and underneath is the everlasting arms they tempted Basil with money but he replied Da pecuniam quae permaneat ac gloriam quae semper floreat Give me money that will abide c. Therefore you see how the people of God may satiate their souls with fatness and how God has promised they shall be satisfied with goodness Jer. 31.14 for with him is the fountain of life and it will run for evermore there are pleasures at his right hand for evermore 2. This is the ground of all the great things that the Lord hath done and will do for his people as David says The Lord has done great things for us whereof we rejoyce Psal 126. This lets us see 1 the fountain of all the great things that have been done for his people and truly you have lived in the times when the towers fall and the mountains skip and the Sea goes back c. Some trust in chariots and some in horses Psal 107.8 but we will remember the name of the Lord our God they are brought down and fallen but we are risen and stand upright for their rock is not as our rock nor their God as our God our enemies themselves being Judges Therefore say Had not the

pleasure riches honours whom you have chosen and let them deliver you and then also the Devil will deride your folly as what is sweeter than revenge to evil Spirits and what will insult more over a person in misery a great part of revenge lies in this to laugh at our destruction for when revenge is once entred and has taken possession of a breast pity never returns there the Devil mocked the King of Babylon Esay 14.9 10. How art thou fallen from heaven O great Lucifer son of the morning he that gloried in the greatness of his power c. And the same God who doth beseech you here Psal 2. as if he had need of you he will deride and scorn you hereafter that God that doth laugh here at wicked men though Princes when they are engaged against his people and cause in the world the same God will also laugh at their misery and confusion in the life to come Therefore as it is a folly here to despise or deny Christ because you shall meet him one day For there is a day appointed when he shall judge quick and dead and we must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ and then they that have despised him here shall be despised by him in that day for Christ says He that is ashamed of me before men of him will I be ashamed before my Father and before the holy Angels The same thing I say concerning God do not place your happiness and portion in another for the time will come that you must return unto God and if he be now rejected by you he will surely then reject you and say Depart from me I know you not And this doth absolutely set forth the folly of those that live without God and who have their portion in this world because God doth fill their bellies with his hid treasures Psal 17.14 by hid treasures he means exquisitas non vulgares delicias exquisite and not vulgar delices Mol. not only the common contentments and comforts of this life that other men have but the richest and choicest comforts that the world can afford God bestows upon them but it is only to fat them up unto the day of slaughter to fill their bellies that the fatting may go before the killing-time therefore he doth feed them as a Lamb in a large pasture § 2. Their misery also is very great who place their happiness in any thing else but in the Essence of God for they that do so live without God in this world 1. Their portion of creatures that they have chosen will fail them and I tell thee O man or woman that hast so done thou art but a steward and it 's but for a time that these things are put into thy hands thou must lay them down the Princes Robes must be laid down as well as the beggars rags the candle of the wicked shall be put out and you shall lye down in sorrow you have something now to supply you and bear up your spirits which are the creatures whom you have chosen for your gods your portion they are but that candle that you make so much of though it may burn long yet it will be put out at the last but the happiness that the godly man has chosen is the Sun it will not be put out 2. If thou be without God and placest thy happiness in any thing else all things that thou dost enjoy and place thy happiness in are given thee for a curse and for a plague as Saul gave his daughter Michol to David to be a snare to him and that which is thy sin shall be thy punishment you will have your portion in this life so you shall you have lost God in his image in his favour in his fellowship and in his fruition as Christ made that their punishment they will not come they shall not taste of my supper Sin cannot have a worse punishment than it self nor a worse name than it self so if you will not have your portion in God you shall not for ever but shall be without God here and without him hereafter when God shall be all in all 3. Your misery will be the greater that it was your own mercy that was offered to you you might have had I am for your portion now to see Abraham and Isaac sit down in the Kingdom of God and your selves shut out Oh what a misery will it be to reflect then upon those creatures that stole away your hearts from your Creator and one that offered to be a Redeemer This is the worm that will gnaw thee for ever to think I might have been as happy as any of the Saints in glory but I withstood my own happiness and am undone for ever and thus the miserableness of thy condition will be unutterable that the tongues of men and Angels are not able to express it And as men can never know what it is to have their portion in the Essence of God till they come to Heaven for hac in re cognitio nostra penè tantùm Grammatica est so a man can never tell what it is to lose a mans portion in God till he come to Hell And if a man could before-hand lay an ear unto that bottomless pit and but hear how the misery of this loss is set out there with weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth it would cause a mans heart to fail and fall asunder within him as drops of water But because the way of the working of the Spirit in this life is by the Word and if men hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they believe if one should come from the dead again therefore this is the way that we must attend upon But more particularly his misery that loseth the chief good is unspeakable in these particulars 1. From the capacity of the soul of man The Lord did make himself to be the portion of his people and he created all souls capable of so high a happiness and glory as himself and his own Essence for they are all created for the enjoyment of God himself other creatures were created to enjoy a good within the compass of their own nature and therein did their perfection consist but man was created to enjoy a good above his own nature and in his enjoyment of it he was to be perfected and so long as he falls short of this he falls short of his perfection therefore when souls come to Heaven and enjoy God in his Essence they are called Souls made perfect Heb. 12.23 and all other perfections that men have are grounded upon this and do flow from it namely the perfection of their faculties graces and comforts Now of this capacity all the souls of men were created there is not the wickedest man in the world even such as perish for ever but they have souls created capable of God and of a happiness in his Essence and they can be happy no other way Now

priviledge and therefore 't is said Gen. 48. of Jacob that he blessed Joseph and wherein did the blessing consist not so much upon Josephs person as upon his posterity and that was that the name of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob should be called upon his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh this is spoken only in reference to the Covenant and the benefits thereof which was to descend upon them from their Parents and it became their right because it was their Parents priviledge and therefore though they had other personal names Ephraim and Manasseh yet this was a name given them from their federal right and is called the blessing of Joseph in his childrens covenant-blessing for it is a conveying of the benefit of the covenant from Gods abundant grace not only to himself but to his posterity and so David looks upon it and admires the mercy 2 Sam. 7.18 19. Lord who am I and what is my house that thou hast brought me hitherto And yet as if this were a small thing in thy sight O Lord thou hast spoke of thy servants house for a great while to come and is this the manner of men O Lord for thy Word sake and according to thy own heart hast thou done all these great things to make thy servant to know them It is therefore to manifest the extent of the grace of the second Covenant that God takes in their seed and gracious Parents do exceedingly rejoyce therein in behalf of their Posterity and look upon it as a special priviledge and their childrens peculiar right 2. God has so ordered the eternal decree of Election that the great number of the Elect of God do proceed out of the loyns of his own people and therefore the Promises being but the indefinite expressions of his D●crees they run to parents called and unto their children because the great number of them that shall be called are their children It 's true that God hath a seed of Grace that runs through the loyns of the wicked and the Lord will take Proselytes from amongst the Heathen and they shall be added to the Church but this is not the ordinary way but a more extraordinary way of salvation and very many of the children of believing parents within the covenant are wicked which we see in Cain Cham and Ishmael yet in their Posterity hath the Church of God been continued there is yet a Seth and a Sem and an Isaac in which their seed should be called and answerable to the Election of grace continued and this doth appear undeniably by this argument the visible Church of God is made up of Parents in covenant and of their seed and therefore while the Church of God was oeconomical and in families onely they were the families of those that were in covenant in which the Church was continued and after it did spread into a Nation they and their seed make up a Church unto God Now though there be many in the visible Church that are not ordained unto life for many are called but few are chosen and many shall seek to enter in at the strait gate and shall not be able c. yet the Church invisible is gathered out of the visible Church they are hid there amongst the Hypocrites and false-hearted men as wheat is hid amongst the chaffe now the Promises of God are suitable to his Decrees and the events answer unto both wherefore if the greatest part of the Elect proceed out of the loyns of a people in covenant as they do then the promises of the second covenant being but indefinite it was necessary that they should run unto them and to their seed upon whom if you look distributively there are many that shall perish yet if you look upon them collectively you can and may see the seed of the Lord is there and there are many amongst them that are ordained unto life and the persons upon whom God has set his everlasting love are amongst that number though we know not particularly who they are that 's a secret that the Lord has hid in himself 3. To shew his peculiar love to their seed Deut. 7.6 7 8. 10.15 therefore he will gather out of their seed a visible Church and if so he must make with their seed a marriage-covenant And therefore if any say Why doth not the Lord leave their children till they enter into covenant themselves and give testimony of their faith and conversion The reason is because God will make them a Church to himself and therefore will make a Church-covenant with them Now the children of believing parents are taken into a visible Church Deut. 4.37 Because the Lord loved your parents therefore he chose their seed after them There 's a two-fold election as there is a two-fold adoption an election to life and unto Church-priviledges it 's not an election to life that is there spoken of but as Zac. 2.7 the Lord shall yet chuse Jerusalem as he had rejected them and cast them off from a Church-state and called them Loammi so now he will chuse them again in reference to a Church-state And thus he is to chuse their children after them not unto life for that is grounded only upon his own love unto the persons of men but it 's spoken in reference to a Church-state which was grounded upon his love unto their parents therefore when parents were converted there was a Church in their house and the posterity and family was looked upon as a Church unto God and theirs was the Adoption the priviledges of sons externally belonged to them and God owned them for his above all other families in the whole earth now those that were taken into a Church-state unto them and their posterity there did belong a Church-covenant and that 's the meaning of Ezech. 16.8 I entred into covenant with thee and thou becamest mine 4. This is the surest ground of a mans judgment in reference to persons whether it be a private Christian or a chosen Officer There are some persons to be admitted into the visible Church and there are some priviledges of the visible Church that are to be dispensed by judgment in the person that doth dispense or administer them for we are not sent to baptize all mankind nor to administer Sacraments and censures unto all mankind as we are sent to preach the Gospel neither are we to expect a satisfactory convincing ground that this person is inwardly and spiritually holy and savingly interessed in the covenant of grace for that we cannot infallibly judge of but though it cannot come under our judgment yet our judgment must not be blind charity we must take the rule of the word and keep close to it And what is the surest rule There are two that are known either the mans profession or else the promise of God in respect of the childs Church-state by the Fathers priviledge Now as to the first of these my judgment may be deceived and I may