Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	heaven_n	life_n	name_n	2,965	5	5.6454	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96627	The vvay to life and death. Laid down in a sermon, 1629. before the Lord Major of London then being. / By N. Waker M.A. late minister of Jesus Christ at Lawndon in Buckinghamshire. Now published for the reasonableness of the advice therein given, touching the five controverted points, viz. predestination, general redemption, freewill, conversion, and perseverance of the siants. Directing a safe way for the practice of private Christians, as confessed by the disputants on both sides.	Waker, Nathaniel.; Waker, John.	1655 (1655)	Wing W281; Thomason E1639_1; ESTC R209056	41,542	102

some say that either know not what they speak or will not know But howsoever it is in the Theory unlesse I much mistake both sides meet in the Practice If any man should aske me concerning the decree of election and reprobation Predestination here is a counterpane of it in my text I will not say this is Gods whole decree I dare say no secret decree contradicts it We need not climbe up into heaven then to see whether God smile or frowne nor wrest open his Cabinet to see what secrets are there Things revealed belong to us if our names be written here then infallibly are they there If we finde them not here certainely they are not there I say then leave disputing about election and labour to make your calling and election sure Begin at the bottome of the ladder and adde to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance c. Thus our Saviour stifles such a controversie Master shall many be saved Strive to enter in at the strait gate But what shall this man do Follow thou me Let no man comfort himselfe with any illusion or affright himselfe with any fatall destiny If ye live after c. This is Gods Word and by this we must be judged at the last day For the second Controversie Whether Redemption be universal I say to that man Though Christ died for all men as one side affirm yet if thou live after the flesh thou shalt dye notwithstanding the purchase of so precious a redemption sufficient in it self though not effectual unto thee through thine own perversenesse or if but for some few as the other side affirm if thou mortify the deeds of the body thou art one that shall surely live For the third and fourth The manner of receiving grace the manner of receiving grace One side say it doth infallibly and necessarily work at such a time and not before the other that through our perversenesse we may turn the grace of God into wantonnesse Both agree in this that a man may be saved grace must be received and improved The Spirit is the principal cause but we must co-operate We are not able of our selves to think a good thought our sufficiency is from him Hence St. Paul I live yet that he might not seem to usurp any of the honour checks himself yet not I. So we say We must mortify yet not we but the Spirit not we as the principal cause but the Spirit not the Spirit as the solitary cause but we by the Spirit let us look to it that the work be done and then we shall not miscarry For the last which is perseverance one side saith we shall infalliblly stand Perseverance and as possible for Christ to fall out of heaven as a Saint from Christ the other side that God will not forsake us unlesse we forsake him and gives us grace sufficient that we may not fall but doth not so infallibly hold us up but we may fall Both sides affirm perseverance to be necessary unto life and the conscionable use of means to perseverance Take heed then that there be not in any of you at any time an evil heart of unbelief to depart from the living God and that this may never befal thee put on the whole armour of God that thou mayest stand in the evil day Thus the Prophet Ezek. 18. justifies God in his proceedings and makes the people wary So the Apostle writing here to Saints and if any of you whom in charity I judge to be converted would hear any thing from me concerning perseverance I will answer you in the words of my text If ye live after c. Thus if a man in a modest humility receive the known truth in the love of it and so love it as to practise it his end shall certainly be blessed And now behold Deut. 30.15 The Conclusion this day I have set before you life and death good and evil blessing and cursing There are but two estates in this life and two after proportionably Some here walk after the flesh but they shall dye the delight is present but momentany the pain is future but eternal some here by the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body and they shall live hereaftes The task here is sharp and present but momentany the reward future but glorious and eternal Were it not for that which followes Ye shall dye it were a brave thing to live after the flesh were it not for that which followes Ye shall live nothing more tedious then to mortify the deeds of the body Wisdome now will soon deride the controversie and pitch upon her choice and inheritance so glorious so durable though it be future and the entrance so difficult is to be preferred to a life of sinne though it had in it never so much pleasure or profit being momentany and seconded with eternal wo. It 's the fools voice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Give me to day take to morrow to thy self But if notwithstanding what hath been said he shall still walk in the waies of his own heart all the curses in Gods book shall fall on him God will blot out his name from under heaven and in heaven out of the book of life so that in no place he shall be found but in hell But every man here seems to choose life in that he comes to hear that Gospel which is the Word of life Oh they make it not the savor of death to death Labour then by the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the body so shall you live many Halcion daies here upon earth and when you dye the Angels shall carry your soules into Paradise while your bodies repose themselves in their graves as a bed of down till the Lord of Glory shall return to judg both quick and dead where the body being raised and reunited to the soul both soul and body shall live in the perpetual vision and fruition of God To which glory he for his mercy bring us who hath so dearly bought us even Jesus Christ the Author and finisher of our faith To whom with the Father and the blessed Spirit be ascribed all honour glory praise thanksgiving and obedience from this time forth and for evermore FINIS

for denying thy Lord. Make a bath of tears with Mary for entertaining so many Devils in thine heart for get a while to eate thy bread by fasting and abstinence be revenged on thy selfe for sin past and keep under thy body for time to come It 's one of the nailes that crucifies the flesh and a meanes to take down the ranknesse of this fertile field singulare putatis aratrum But if thou canst not weep and command tears at least get that dolorem appretiativum Value your sins at such a rate that they deserve tears of blood Wish that thy head were a fountaine and thine eyes as Conduit-pipes Intreat God to accept the desire for the deed and the blood and tears of Christ for all But men now adayes can mortifie without renting the heart fasting a day shedding a tear But withall remember to mortifie too else thy tears will be no better then Esaus thy fasting like Ahabs Purge not that thou mayest surfeit repent not that thou mayest sin returne not like the dog to the vomit if thou do thy latter end will be worse then thy beginning But blessed is the man that sorrows after a godly manner for this works repentance never to be repented of Blessed are they that mourne now that sowe in teares for they shall reape in joy they shall finde triumph in torment joy in tribulation refreshing in fasting life in death Bern. Filii hujus seculi vident cruces nostras non consolationes The sons of this world see our crosses but not our comforts If any thing were better then life God would not deny it you he accounts you Martyrs in manner Mortificare opera carnis genus Martyrii est horrore quidem mitius sed diuturnitate molestius To mortifie the deeds of the body is a kinde of martyrdome milder indeed in its horrour but more troublesome in its long continuance Certainly they that keep such a Lent shall have a glorious Easter at the day of their resurrection when all teares shall be wiped from their eyes and they shall remaine and raigne with God in blisse for ever And thus I have travelled through these Propositions in their absolute consideration We considered these words in their opposition Here are two contrary wayes that tend to two contrary ends They cousin themselves that think to fare as well as the best The word considered in their opposition and yet sin as bad as the worst and they fill themselves with unnecessary fears that live strictly and carefully and yet comfort not themselves in Gods promises 1. It doth no whit prejudice the godly in their comfort that God is so severe against the wicked Cains profanenesse doth not hurt Abel he is accepted Though Judas be a devil the rest fare not the worse So at the last day while the wicked wish the hils and mountains to cover them the godly lift up their heads Abraham and Moses make use of their interest with God even when he is provoked against Sodom and Jasrel 2. The wicked are not priviledged by Gods mercies on the godly as we see in the Wise and Foolish Virgins Gods mercies Christs merits the precious promises and priviledges of the Gospel availe them nothing Gods mercies are limited to certaine conditions therefore let not wicked men boulster up themselves in these heed not lying vanities We consider them in their coherence Therefore we should mortifie sin 3 And in their coherence because if we live after the flesh we shall die It 's not absurd to propound life and death as Motives to obedience God did so to Adam in Paradise Yea to men already converted our Saviour doth so Feare not him that can kill the body c. So the Father at banquets would talke of hell to keep men from security So the Apostle here to men already converted If ye live c. The meditation of death is not unprofitable for them They are not out of danger of Gun-shot though they are in a Cittadel or strong Tower yet they have some flesh and are subject to spiritual security presumption or prophanenesse The Tower cannot be demolished but they may looke out at the windowes and battlements and be wounded Hence we may conclude that a Christian may take comfort in an holy life Here is an Antidote against Presumption and Despaire None can presume but they that mortifie and that is not presumption but hope none can despaire but such as live after the flesh and that is a feare upon good grounds And now to draw to a conclusion The agreement 'twixt Armin. and their adversaries in the rules of practise How happily might these two Propositions put an end to our unhappy controversies were men of peaceable spirits The Areopagites in Athens in a doubtful case wherein they were loath to passe sentence differred it in diem longissimum it may be for an hundred years I would to God we could do so in these that I am sure are doubtful but this is to suspend men in a Neutrality to beleeve nothing S. Augustine answers some well that would not beleeve unlesse all objections were cleared Sunt innumerabiles objectiones quae non sunt finiendae ante fidem ne finiatur vita sine fide There are innumerable objections which must not be dispatched and answered before faith c. Moderation in these mysteries is to be shewen if any where Neutram partem affirmantes sive destrueren tes sed tantummodo ab audaci affirmandi praesumptione revocantes Affirming or denying neither of the two but onely restraining us from bold presumption in taking either part But now every novice can determine in these things when the wisest men demurre and can as exactly chalke out Gods secret wayes as if with S. Paul they had been rapt up into the third heaven and taken a transcript of the book of life Either side is confident and it may be in conclusion it will prove neither so nor so and so it comes to passe that religion is turned into nicities and disputation bearing things certaine and fastening upon uncertaine like Zeuxes that pictured an old woman so to the life that he laughed to death at the veiw of her So I thinke our gracious Soveraigne hath taken a Religious and Wise course to silence these controversies more fit for Schooles then Pulpits or rather fitter for heavens perfection then for earthly frailty to determine Et Elias quum venerit solvet haec dubia If I should enter upon the controversies I should contradict authority or if I might I would not so far presume upon mine own weaknesse or if I had ability and liberty I durst not so far abuse your patience Onely let me advise all especially the unlearned which with much study cannot so much as attaine the stating of the questions to turne their cavilling about the Theory into Practice Surely there is no such vast difference in the points as they are handled by moderate men on both sides whatsoever