Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	ask_v	lord_n	zion_n	30	3	9.5069	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75725	The heavenly trade, or the best merchandizing the only way to live well in impoverishing times. A discourse occasioned from the decay of earthly trades, and visible wastes of practical piety in the day we live in, offering arguments and counsels to all, towards a speedy revival of dying godliness and timely prevention of the dangerous issues thereof impending on us. By Bartholomew Ashwood Minister of the Gospel.	Ashwood, Bartholomew, 1622-1680.	1678 (1678)	Wing A3999A; ESTC R204336	280,447	512

and prepared b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fashioned as a Vessel the meaning is saith Dr. Preston that then a man is good when his heart is fitted to good works to every good work 2 Tim. 2. 21. Labour to get your natures changed and hearts quickened you must be born again or cannot see the Kingdom of God Be looking to Jesus to create in you a new heart a renewed mind will and affections to have a saving principle put into your hearts and a disposition of Soul towards the whole will of God Cry mightily for the Spirit and wait for his movings upon the face of Sanctuary-waters and for a mighty power of God in the Gospel upon your Souls Get under the healing-wings of Christ and rest not looking unto Jesus till virtue go out from him to heal your Souls If this be thy restless desire thou can'st not let Christ alone running after him crying Jesu thou Son of David have mercy upon me he will turn again and have compassion and give the holy Spirit to them that unfeignedly and incessantly ask him Mark 10. 47 48 49. Luke 11. 13. Direct 2. Secondly cease from your own works Isa 55. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy The first step in returning to God is departing from sin and self c Nihil nobis cum Deo esse potest nisi a nobis discedamus Calv. Neither can we saith Calvin hold converse with a holy God till we be estranged from our unholy self When the Apostle advises the Ephesians to put on the new man Eph. 4. 24. He first exhorts them to put off the old with his whole conversation vers 22. That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt Grace builds not on an old foundation neither does it adorn but reform the former conversation of called Saints there is no cloathing upon in regeneration-work the old garments must off before the new will come on Religion is not a covering for but a stripping off a sinful life neither can you be free to set on God's work till you leave your old works Rom. 6. 20. For when you were the servants of sin ye were free from righteousness You had nothing to do with holiness you had no freedom to do God's work while you were Sins servants He speaks of their actual liberty from grace not their legal freedom d Libertas hic de facto non de jure intelligatur saith Paraeus you are not at liberty to do the work of holiness while under the command of sin No man can serve two Masters Mat. 6. 24. that is two contrary Lords How can the same man e Quomodo poterit unus idemque homo pietati se quantum opus est impendere simul circa divitias quaerendas servandasque perpetua solicitudine distrahi Grot. saith Grotius follow godliness as his work and at the same time be distracted with cares about getting and keeping earthly things 'T is a vanity for persons to dream of a compliance between sin and holiness whose work is too inconsistent for one Soul at one time ruling iniquity and grace are two contrary states which cannot meet in one person and time Never think of setting up on the Heavenly Trade till you are freed from hellish servitude and invested with the liberty of the Sons of God a freedom from the love and service of every sin Godliness calls for the whole of a man's heart strength and time and requires a person void of any inconsistent obligations resolve to break from every way of death if ever you think to enter into the way of life Direct 3. Thirdly Make over your selves to the Lord in an Everlasting Covenant they that will be Masters of a Trade must first be bound to the service of it and resign up their persons wills capacities and time to the instruction and government of another in order to their fitness for such a calling And so must souls that will learn Wisdom's Merchandise they must bind themselves to the Trade and make over themselves and their all to God in Christ to be taught and enabled to set up this excellent work Jer. 50. 5. They shall ask the way to Sion with their faces thitherward saying Come and let us joyn our selves to the Lord in a perpetual Covenant that cannot be forgotten Sin had made a separation between their God and them and brought a death upon their mercies and Templeenjoyments but now the Spirit of Prophecy breathing on these dry bones moves them to a vital union with the fountain of life the onely regular way to their new work and mercies they must first be joyned to the Lord before they can be rejoyned to one another and re-enjoy their lost priviledges and this union lies in a hearty acceptance of offered grace a taking hold of God in Christ and a Covenant-surrender of the whole soul and its All to him again O for arms to embrace him saith Mr. Rutherford This is called a giving up of ones self to the Lord 2 Corinth 8. 5. But this they did not as we hoped but first gave themselves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God They exceeded our hope We onely expected some part of what was theirs but they gave themselves first to God and to us to be directed and governed by the will of God to be placed in the fellowship of his Gospel as well as their interests to the service of his people 'T is also a giving away of ones self to the Lord wholly unreservedly and perpetually to be no more his own 1 Cor. 6. 19. And ye are not your own This surrender of your selves to God souls must be in judgment understandingly and ariseth freely on choice universally without the least reservation absolutely without any limitation or conditions of our own eternally without any expiration and term of this grant and to be attested by all overt acts within your power Isa 44. 5. One shall say I am the Lord's another shall call himself by the name of Jacob another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord and surname himself by the name of Jacob. Whatever may most fully ensure and express an absolute devotedness unto God must be done by those that ever expect to thrive in grace and godliness Verse 3 4. I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thy off-spring and they shall spring up as among the grass as willows by the water-courses When once this implantation into Christ is dispatched then will the Lord give prosperity to that soul then are you in a sure way to success in all your holy undertakings and like to speed well in this Heavenly Trade when you become entirely the Lord 's in order to it O be not

shall see clearly things it never knew As 't is said of the Mole that it is blind all its time till it comes to die and then it sees So they that would not see shall then see and be ashamed then shall souls see things as they are and find that to be evil which they thought good and that to be good which they thought to be evil Death is the greatest informer and makes the largest discovery of things that ever was it brings to light the hidden things of darkness sins the world never knew and sins it may be the soul it self never saw or thought it self guilty of then will the least flaw error unsoundness neglect failing be fully seen then the things that now seem to be small will then appear to be great and those things that were taken for mountains will be less than one single grain of dust Death is a time also when conscience hath its quickest senses and liveliest acts when it sees hears feels fears all things as they are and without any other witness becomes both Accuser and Judge then Judas needed no Accuser to charge him or Judge to condemn him but his own conscience nor Executioner to dispatch him but his own hand What 's the matter man said Mr. Perkins to a Malefactor going up the ladder and his countenance shewing the inward terrors of his soul art thou afraid to die O no Sir said he but of a worse matter So another upon her death-bed and under a terrible sight of her wicked life when one that was by offered something to comfort her against the fear of death replied Were it but to die it were nothing A world said another upon the border of eternity and under conscienceaffrightings for one inch of time O give me one inch of time Luther speaks of an Eremite who a little before his death stood very sad never stirring out of his place for three days having his eyes fixt towards Heaven and being ask'd the reason of this posture answered he was afraid to die His Scholars began to comfort him telling him he need not to fear death who had been so holy in his life but he replies 't is true I have lived well and been obedient but God's judgments are otherwise than Man's judgment Tom. 4. fol. 50. The time of death is a time of great temptation also then Satan usually brings forth his chiefest strength to weaken the soul's faith 't is his last onset and that is the hottest as men that storm a Garrison in their last assault they usually put forth their utmost strength Then he opposeth us with most armed force In this last assault Å¿ Instructissimis copiis nos impugnat ipsam resistentiam aggreditur de certamine certamen est bellum alio bello defendendum hic pugnandum ut pugnare liceat resistendum ei qui resistere dissuadet Luth. saith Luther 't is not as in other temptations where faith and hope doth fight for here he sets upon the very resistance and the strife is about striving and the war is maintain'd by another war Here the fight is that it may be lawful to fight and to resist him whose greatest policy is then to disswade from resisting laughing at our hope as if it were already vanquished and it were to no purpose to resist This is a critical time and hard to stand the last enemy is death when the soul must have the whole armour of God and be found not in his own righteousness but take sanctuary in the grace of God the righteousness and faithfulness of Christ Death is somewhat driery saith Mr. Cooper and the streams of that Jordan between us and our Canaan run furiously but they stand still when the Ark comes let your anchor be cast within the veil and fastned on the rock Jesus let the end of the threefold cord be buckled to the heart so shall ye go through t Claude oculos nihil responde commenda causam Deo Idem When thou art tempted saith Luther and seest no way to escape shut thine eye answer nothing and commit the cause to God This saith he is the chiefest wisdom we should attend to in the hour of death This was Bernard's course and comfort when on the point of death I have lived wickedly saith he but thou Lord Jesus Christ enjoyest Heaven by a double right first because thou art the Son of God then because by thy death and passion thou hast obtained it u Hoc servas pro te jure nativitatis illud largiris mihi non jure operum sed gratiae thou keepest the first thy self by thy birth-right the last thou bestowest on me not for my works but of thy grace Christians you had need be well furnish'd for the hour of death your greatest and most difficult hour laying in all the provisions you can for a sure and comfortable passage to glory Thus you see Wisdom's Merchants have more to do than keep up present life and comfort they must lay in for times to come for times of temptation desertion affliction and the hour of death Advice 4. Fourthly If you have good trading with God then lay out for God This is reasonable work pleasing work honourable work profitable work First 'T is reasonable work to lay out for God he deserves it 't is his due all your mercies are his interest I will return and take away my corn in the time thereof and my wine in the season thereof I will recover my wooll and my flax given to cover her nakedness Hos 2. 9. Though God gives his people the use of mercy yet he keeps the propriety in his own hand God is the Alpha and should be the Omega the Authour and 't is reasonable he should be the end of all our mercies James 1. 17. Every good and perfect gift cometh down from the Father of lights And as beams from the Sun is derived from his bounty as his peculiar off-spring w Bona mea dona tua Omne bonum nostrum vel ipse vel ab ipso Aug. My goods are thy gifts saith Augustine All our good is either himself or what comes from him Both trading and thriving are from him and should also be for him both principle and interest are God's own Mat. 25. 27. If you lay not out your mercies for God you rob him of his due Your mercies are the Lords not onely by that interest he reserves in them but by your resignation of them unto him Christians when you gave up your selves to the Lord you gave up all your interests and capacities also 2 Cor. 5. 8. To keep back any part of your All from God is to lye to the Holy Ghost Acts 5. 3. Why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price of the Land No lower terms will pass in reconcillation with God than what Ahab yielded to Benhadad 1 Kings 20. 4. My Lord