Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	bear_v	life_n	sin_n	5,504	5	4.4990	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66683	The breaking of the day of God wherein, four things are manifested : I. That the two witnesses are not in ki[ll]ing, but in rising from death, II. The three dayes and half, or 42. months of the saints captivity under the beast, very near expired, III. Christ hath begun to reign in his saints, and to tread their corrupt flesh under his feet, IIII. Christs dominion over the nations of the world, near the approach / by Gerrard VVinstanley.	Winstanley, Gerrard, b. 1609.	1649 (1649)	Wing W3042; ESTC R40126	79,141	154

Christ is an active and loving witness bearing record of the Father wish courage and he did not receive his testimony from any creature but from the Father For the Son can do nothing of himself but what he seeth the Father do and whatsoever he doth the Son doth likewise Jesus Christ was not compelled to bear witness to the Father as a malefactor is compelled to bear the sentence of justice but he undertook to bruise the Serpents head voluntarily he suffered freely and dyed freely seeing it was the will of his Father he took up death which was the desert of our sins willingly and voluntarily as soone as the Father had declared his councel concerning him Behold saith Christ I come to do thy will O God And no man takes away my life for I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up again New if the blood of Buls and Goats and the ashes of an Heifer sprinckling the unclean sanctifyeth to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the bloud of Christ who through his eternall spirit offered himse f without spot to God purge our Consciences from dead works of humane formes and fleshly actings to serve the living God in spirit and truth The Scriptures are plentifull to prove this In the Evangelist we see Christ beares witnes of himself That he is the Son of God and told the Jewes that unlesse they believed that he was He they should die in their sins The Pharisees told him his record Was not true because he bare record of himself but saith he My record is true and I am one that bear record of my self and my Father that sent me beareth witness of me I have many things to say and judge of you but he that sent me is true and I speak unto the world those things which I have heard of him And when ye have lifted up the Son of man then ye shall know that I am he and that I do nothing of my self but as my Father hath taught me so I speak And St. John Writes Grace and Peace to the seven Churches that is to the complaeat number and body of Saints from jesus Christ who is the faithfull and true witnesse And again unto the Angel of the Church of Laodicea Write thest things saith the Amen the faithfull and true witnese the beginning of the creation of God And by this we see that jesus Christ he was Gods first witness Then secondly The Saints or City Zion or the mystical body of Christ This is Gods other Witness And these doe not receive their testimony from men but from Jesus Christ And their testimony is still the same that Christ bare witness to and therefore they are said to suffer for the Testimony of jesus Now this second witness is not to be restrained to Magistrates Ministers particular men or women but to all the body consisting of learned unlearned poor and rich men and women in whom the spirit of the Son dwells and from whom they receive their testimony neither are they compelled to bear witness but through the same anointing they professe God willingly and they finde it is pleasing to them to acknowledg the Father as to take their meat and drink therefore certainly those that have neither will nor skill to bear witness to the Father unlesse they have a directory from men and those that never worship God without a humane power to encourage them Yea ☜ rather they that would fain have a humane power establisht to suppresse Gods Witnesses it is a manifest sign that they themselves are none of his Witnesses Now I conceive that water bloud and spirit as I mentioned before points out the Saints which are the feed of the woman likewise and as our Lord Jesus our head gave testimony in his appointed time prophesying in sackcloth so the Saints his body in whom the spirit rules giving testimony in their appointed time And the understanding people in all Nations Kinreds Tongues and People do see their testimony and how they have bin slain in the streets of the great City Babylon three dayes and an half as I shall declare how I conceive it if God please Now these Saints are not only learned Schollers in humane wisdome but such as the world counts fools neither are they Gods witnesses that are compelled by humane Lawes to worship God For these witnesses declare their testimony willingly against the wisdome of the flesh neither is there here and there one Saint that are called Gods witnesses but all the Saints in one body three in one water bloud and spirit make up one witness Now this spirit or this anointing that is in Saints which indeed is Christ the Lord their righteousness is a faithfull witness likewise This is he that came by water and bloud and not by water only but by water and bloud and this Christ came not only in himself but in his Saints whom he sanctifies and washeth in his bloud and it is the spirit that beares witness because though the bodies be weak yet the spirit in them is truth it being the anointing which they have received from the holy one And when Christ had not only freely shed the water about his heart but the bloud in his heart also as a price laid down for sinners he that saw it saith the text meaning God and the spirit of God that was in Christ a●● those few Saints then present bore record 〈◊〉 his record is true and he knoweth that he 〈◊〉 truth that ye might believe All the whole body of Saints both 〈◊〉 and Gentiles are Gods Witnesses for one ●●●●rit unites them into one body But I be●●●● that those that live in the time of the new Testament while the little horn-beast and whorish spirit had a ruling power allowed him of God though I mention three names yet they are all one enemy to Christ I conceive I say that these are they to whom God hath given power to prophesie in sack-cloth one thousand two hundred and sixty dayes And these are they that are slain in the streets of the great City Babylon that is by the power of the Beast Yet the Saints of old are to take part of this honour stand in this lot because they these have all one spirit and if God had appointed them this sackcloth honor they would have been faithfull witnesses of God as well as these Nay in their time they bore witness to God against the same spirit of the beast though he had not the same power as he hath now Mordecai Hester the Jews gave a faithfull testimony to God against proud hypocritical and bloudy Hamon And likewise Daniel the three Children did bear witnese to God Faithfully against the hypocriticall and bloudy practices of Darius councellers which sufferings of them then did but type out the

would cast God out not under the name of God but under the name of an Error● For truly our flesh will envy Truth it will not envy Error the flesh will kill its enemy not its friend Barabbas must live and Christ must die and so Christ who is God blessed for ever is put to death under the name of a Deceiver and a man full of errors And thus the Flesh in every man labours to kill Gods witnesses even the Declarations of truth within it selfe by grudging because he cannot beare it Secondly this spirit of envie which ariseth in the flesh against Gods witnesses whose testimony honours God doth not onely appeare inwardly in the sensible feeling of a mans owne corruptions when God begins to teach him but it appeares outwardly likewise in other mens actings to the view one of another As the envy of Darius his counsellors against Daniel the envy of Herod against the Child Jesus and the envy of the Scribes and Pharisees against Christ his Apostles who threw down the letter of the Law which the Jewes doted upon and set up the spirituall practice of the Gospel which they could not endure This envie in the Flesh is the first on-set of the Beast to kill Gods witnesses A second disposition of the Beas is the spirit of subtill policy and hypocriticall craft that laies wait to ensnare Gods witnesses and makes his mountain strong against God And this crafty hypocrisie appears in every man likewise for when God hath found out a mans iniquity and begins to shame the Flesh that he may save the Soul the heart wil not with humility acknowledge it self sinfull but will have many turnings shifts and policies to justifie himself though his conscience tell him he is guilty So while the Witnesses of God prove the man a sinner his flesh still would fain be esteemed righteous and labours to kill the Witnesses If the heart be found guilty of pride coveteousnesse envie unfaithfulnesse or any uncleannesse it hath many winding pretences to cleare himself and so prove God the liar But well though the fleshly conscience smother and kill Gods Witnesses within it selfe and by his shifts avoids shame and so rejoyceth in his innocency got by lying craft yea and rejoyces over that testimony from God that bore witnesse against his conscience As when the witnesses were slain in in that 11. Revel. all that dwelt upon the earth that were tormented by them rejoyced at their death Even so all the wisdom love joy and peace in sin that were tormented in a man by the testimony of truth against them now they all rejoyce by the loud out-cries of the flesh God suffering it the truth is slighted and the conscience quieted upon carnall grounds through carnall policy But when the determined time is accomplished that God will raise up the spirit of his Son in thee who is killed by and lies buried under thy corruptions then God will destroy thy flesh all thy carnall joy peace and all thy own self-works shall be burned and he will make thee confesse thy selfe a sinner and a wicked man When God hath given thee experience that he hath broke the Serpents head in thee and so hath revealed his Son in thee and filled thee with joy and peace of himself taking thee into his rest into his kingdome and glory by the rising of the bright morning Star and the resurrection of Gods truth the Anointing within thee then the envy policy and all the wickednesse of the flesh acting against God shall be destroyed And the Anointing which is the Lord our Righteousnesse shall dwel and rule in thee for thee for ever which is thy redemption And secondly this spirit of hypocriticall craft against truth appeares in others likewise to the view one of another by slighting the testimony of God by a two-fold policy first by devising carnall customes and false formes of worship which are pleasing to the flesh not according to the command and example of Scriptures which the flesh pretends to follow and yet doth not Here is truth killed by the subtill inventions of the flesh which are cried up for sound learning Secondly the Flesh kils Truth by working subtilly with the higher powers of the earth the Magistracy which God hath set in the world by which he preserves peace and outwardly punishes them that doe evil I say the flesh works subtilly to deceive this and gets an Authority here-from to make Lawes Canons Directories Ecelesiastical or Classical Constitutions to compel all men to an uniforme conformity to all her inventions customs and formes of worship agreed upon And this is the subtilty of the little Horn or the King of a ●erce countenance which Daniels vision speaks of whose power shall be mighty but not by his own power For truly this Ecclesiasticall power is no power which God did ordai● or make but is a power which the crafty Flesh hath got from the Kings of the earth whereby the Flesh doth destroy wonderfully the mighty and the holy people And likewise through his policy God still suffering it and having appointed a time for the Flesh to act its part in against God mind that He causes craft to prosper in his hand and he shall magnifie himselfe in his heart and by peace or by pretending of peace shall destroy many he shall also stand up against the Prince of Princes here is the up-shot of the Fleshes malice and policy But he shall be broken without hand Now mark All this crafty hypocriticall policy of the Beast is not to move Gods witnesses to be faithfull to give God all the glory but to intangle them in and by the usurped power and unjust Lawes and Constitutions of the Flesh because the Witnesses beare testimony that the Flesh wo●ld reigne as God and would sit in the Temple of God that is in created man but their testimony is that God will destroy this Serpent and will reigne himselfe in his own House even Man And this we have experience of that the Canons and Lawes that have been made and confirmed by humane Authority to maintain Directories and Ecclesiasticall forms of worship did not suppresse wickednesse for ungodly men that wondred after the Beast and honored the Flesh still have their liberty in sinfull practices But they have insnared and suppressed the Saints that worship the Lamb that is God in Man or the holy breathing in mans flesh And this is the second on-set the Beast makes to kill Gods witnesse As Darius his crafty counsellors got the King to signe a Decree which they pretended would be for his honour and welfare but the subtill intent was to entrap and kill Daniel who was Gods friend A third disposition in the Beast is the spirit of cruelty which puts all those Lawes and Canons in execution to kill Gods Witnesses And the flesh in every man is very