Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	apostle_n	sin_n	sting_n	5,518	5	11.9612	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49466	Remedy against trouble in a discourse on John XIV, 1 : wherein something is also briefly attempted for clearing the nature of faith, of justification, of the covenant of grace, assurance, the witness, seal and earnest of the spirit, and preparation for conversion, or the necessity of holiness / by H. Lukin.	Lukin, H. (Henry), 1628-1719.	1694 (1694)	Wing L3481; ESTC R13639	76,819	257

pleasure of but there is further a sweet smell or fragrancy in them which the sight intermeddles not with and there must be another sense of Smelling to enjoy the pleasure thereof So neither can we enjoy the pleasure of Wine without the sense of Tasting or of Musick without the sense of Hearing So likewise if a man do not understand any thing of Learning or have no Genius thereto he cannot take any pleasure in reading Books or in Academical Exercises which are better than Wine and Musick to others So if a man be not sanctified or renewed after the Image of God tho he would dispense with his Sin and admit him to Heaven he would say of it as of the Service of God what a weariness is it Mal. 1.13 he might be content to be there to be kept out of Hell as here he might be content to be in a place where there is a Sermon to be sheltred from a storm It was to no purpose for Barzilla● to go to David's Court when nature was so decayed in him that he could not enjoy any of the pleasures of it 2 Sam. 19.35 If it be said this doth not infer any necessity of Holiness here in this life for God can in a moment at death fit us for Heaven which is easily done when we lay down this body which is both a clog and a temptation to the Soul not only as it influences the Soul but as most of our sins are in order to provide for the body or to fulfil the lusts of the flesh I answer There is a necessity of Holiness here partly as there is such an inseparable connexion betwixt that and Faith which works by love and is dead without works this purifies the heart overcomes the world Gal. 5.6 Jam. 2.24 Acts 15.9 1 John 5.4 Heb. 11. Isa 43.21 Titus 2.14 Luk. 1.74 75. and the Apostle spends an whole chapter in setting forth the virtue of it Besides it is the pleasure of God to form a people for himself that they may in this world shew forth his praise and hath redeemed us to be a peculiar people to himself that we may serve him in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life He would have our light shine so before men that they seeing our good works may glorify our father which is in Heaven so that we do hereby keep up his Honour and a Remembrance of him in the world We have hereby likewise some prelibations or foretastes of future Glory which as I have already said we are not capable of without Holiness Numb 13.23 God would have some of the fruits of the Land of Canaan brought to the people in the Wilderness that seeing what goodly fruit it was they might be the more encouraged to go to possess it notwithstanding the difficulties and dangers that they were to encounter with and there is nothing that doth more raise our thoughts of future Glory than the earnest that we have of it here which we can no more understand without Holiness than we can the sweetness and virtue of Wine by hearsay without tasting We have hereby likewise a more lively sense of the Goodness of God to us in delivering us from the sinful state wherein we are by nature than we could have if we were perfected at once at death If a man be suddenly surpriz'd with an Apoplexy and immediately at once recovered from it he hath not such a sense of the Mercy that he hath received therein as one that is recovered by degrees from a Fever or some other Disease wherein he hath felt much of pain sickness weakness and hath not only known what it was to be revived by Cordials to be helped by Friends to to be eased by rest in his bed but after his recovery he can reflect with pleasure upon his former condition when it is past and more prize his present Ease and Health So those who have with the Apostle groaned under a body of sin and death will not only reflect with pleasure upon the supplies of God's Grace which they have had to strengthen them in their Spiritual conflict and to fortify them against temptations but will afterwards with more thankfulness acknowledge the goodness of God in giving them the victory through our Lord Jesus and bringing them into a state of perfection where they shall be freed from all annoyance of sin and temptations which they could never have so well understood had it not been for the experience which they had in that middle state wherein they found such a conflict while they were under cure and recovering by degrees So that it is a great mistake in any to think that holiness is not necessary if we may be justified without it or that justification is our great priviledge and holiness a burden imposed upon us which we must be content to submit to in consideration of so great a favour as the pardon of our sins Holiness is rather our honor and happiness Rom. 6.22 1 Thes 1.10 Acts 3.26 the prest of fruit of our being the servants of God here and Christ doth not only save us from our sins in delivering us from the wrath to come but by blessing us in turning us from our iniquities Thus have I briefly touched several things which more Learned men have treated of with more clearness and acurateness but I have not written to supply the defects of others or to add to what they have done but considering that this small Treatise might fall into the hands of some to whom it may not happen to read larger and more learned Books I have adventured to write something which I hope may be of some use to them for the right understanding of the important truths therein handled desiring my Readers candidly to interpret what hath been well intended and to bear with that weakness which I am as ready to own as any can be to charge upon me FINIS

themselves part of the curse as death it self is but a death having lost its sting is now ours for our advantage or gain so are all afflictions 1 Cor. 3.22 Phil 1.21 Gen 49 7. Deut. 33.8 Rom 8.28 2 Cor 4.17 and as Levi's curse was turn'd into a blessing so are our afflictions working together for our good working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory I know some suppose that the merit of Christ being not absolute as I said before the Law was relaxed only so far as was agreed on by God and our Mediator and so we were delivered only from everlasting punishment and not from temporal but afflictions still remain properly punishments But I think the ordinary notion of Protestants about afflictions agrees better with the Scriptures and so proceeding from love they are as the wounds of a friend Rev. 3.19 Prov. 27.6 Psal 141.5 or rather as the smiting of the righteous which is not for wounding but for healing 2. We have all our outward comforts hereby sweetned to us we may eat our bread with joy and drink our wine with a merry heart Eccles 9.7 when God accepts our work There are two things wherein worldly men think they have the advantage of good men that is wisdom and joy But sure those that are wise to salvation 2 Tim. 3.15 have the advantage of the wise men of the world 1 Cor. 2 6. Eccles 2.26 who with all their wisdom come to nought God gives to those that are good in his fight wisdom and knowledge and joy for getting and using riches and comfort in the enjoyment of them God doth not only fill every man's Cup or assign him his measure of the things of this life but he mingles their Cup as he pleases mixing it with Sugar or with Gaul and Wormwood so that every condition and every outward blessing is as God is pleased to make it And there is nothing doth more sweeten these things to us than the sense of God's favour in the pardon of our sins not only as we value gifts according to the mind or good will of the giver but when our sins are pardoned all the blessings of this life are but as the provision which Joseph had sent to his Father for the way till he should come to Aegypt where he should have all the good things of the Land Gen. 45.18 c. whereas the greatest abundance that wicked men have is but as the handful of Meal and Oyl in the Cruse which the Widow and her Son were to eat and die 1 King 14.12 Or like the Tyrant's Feast to which he set the man that envied his greatness and plenty with a great Sword hanging over his head in an horses hair with the point downward which took away all the comfort of his Banquet Israel was not to rejoyce for joy as other People when they had gone a whoring from their God Hos 9.1 So it is not for those to rejoyce that have not their sins pardon'd but are subject to bondage continually through the fear of death Heb. 2.15 3. We have freedom of access to God Rom. 5.2 may come with a filial boldness to him as a Child to a Father to find mercy Heb. 4.16 and obtain grace to help in time of need or for seasonable help when ever we put up our prayers to God the answer comes in when it may be most seasonable as God heard not that is answered not Abraham when he prayed but when Lot was in the greatest danger whom Abraham seemed to have chief respect to in his Prayers Gen. 19.29 When our sins are pardoned God may notwithstanding the strictness of his Justice and the severity of his Law please himself in shewing mercy Mich. 7.18 which he takes so much delight in 4. We have the continual Feast of a good Conscience which will be a rejoycing to us not only in the time of affliction 2 Cor. 1.12 Job 18.14 but in Death it self which is so terrible to others As Christ bids his Disciples lift up their heads because their redemption drew nigh when the hearts of others failed them for looking for the things that were coming upon them Luc. 21.23 28. It is true a good man's Conscience may accuse him as to some particular acts though his sins be pardoned 2 Sam. 24.10 as David's did for numbering the people but there is provision made in such cases that every particular sin shall not break the peace betwixt God and us 1 Joh. 2.1 2. but it is not our Conscience accusing us in reference to some particular acts but in reference to our spiritual state that is so terrible and affrighting Heb. 10.30 when we are kept continually in a fearful expectation of judgement and fiery indignation CHAP. IV. NOW tho this be so great a privilege and happiness to have our sins pardoned if we know it not we cannot take the comfort of it Therefore I will further enquire what assurance we have thereof by Faith There is a great complaint that many if not most of our later Writers and Preachers have deserted the first Reformers in the Doctrine of Faith who commonly taught that it was a persuasion or confidence of our own Salvation in particular by Christ and that every believer in his first believing was to apply the promise to himself But now it is commonly taught that assurance is not essential to Faith and that Christians may live long in the want of it And this they say doth very much weaken the hands of Christians there being so many graces to be acted so many duties to be performed so many afflictions to be endured which do require Assurance to encourage and enable us thereto And if those that suffered so much in the beginning of the Reformation for the profession of the Truth should have had such a Faith as is now ordinarily taught and not that Assurance and confidence wherein they then pleaded the Essence of Faith they could not have gone so well through their sufferings Again they say by this Doctrine that men may have Faith without Assurance we teach men to rest in such a Faith and to content themselves without Assurance and then to plead their own experience to confirm their Doctrine that Christians may believe sincerely tho they have not Assurance tho against the experience of the People of God both in the Old and New Testament who did ordinarily profess their own Assurance of Salvation Now I will not go about to justify what every particular person may say in heat of Disputation or when they speak of things which they have only dry notions but no experimental knowledge of But for our encouraging persons to allow or indulge themselves in the want of Assurance by saying that there may be true Faith without it we think they have less reason for their complalnt than those have that say we weaken the