Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	birth_n	life_n	zion_n	17	3	8.5662	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53678	A continuation of the exposition of the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews viz, on the sixth, seventh, eight, ninth, and tenth chapters : wherein together with the explication of the text and context, the priesthood of Christ ... are declared, explained and confirmed : as also, the pleas of the Jews for the continuance and perpetuity of their legal worship, with the doctrine of the principal writers of the Socinians about these things, are examined and disproved / by J. Owen ...	Owen, John, 1616-1683.	1680 (1680)	Wing O729; ESTC R21737	1,235,588	797

Sin from occasional Resolutions Upon some smart of Conviction from Danger Sickness Trouble Fear Affliction there blooms in the minds of many a suddain Resolution to forsake Sin and as suddainly for the most part it fades again True Repentance firms a steady and unshaken resolution in the Heart which respects the forsaking of all Sin and at all Times or Occasions 2 Constant Endeavours to actuate and fulfill this purpose And these Endeavours respect all the Means Causes Occasions Temptations leading unto Sin that they may be avoided opposed and Deliverance obtained from them as also all means advantages and furtherance of those Graces and Duties which are opposed to these Dead works that they may be improved An Heartless unactive Purpose is that which many take up withall and ruine their Souls by Where therefore there is not a sedulous Endeavour by Watchfulness and Diligence in the constant use of all means to avoid all dead works in all their concerns from their first Rise and Principle to their finishing or Consummation there is no True Repentance from them 3 An actual Relinquishment of all sins in the course of our walking before God And hereunto is required 1 not an absolute freedom from all Sin for there is no man living who doth good and sinneth not 2 No absolute and precise deliverance even from great Sins whereinto the Soul may be surprized by the Power of Temptations Examples to the contrary abound in the Scripture But yet such Sins when any is overtaken with them ought 1 to put the Sinner upon a severe enquiry whether his Repentance were sincere and saving For where it is usually the Soul is preserved from such Falls 2 Pet. 1. 10. And 2 put him upon the renewing his Repentance with the same Care Diligence Sorrow and Humiliation as at the first But 1 it is required that this property of Repentance be prevalent against the common sins of the world mens old Sins which they lived in before their Conversion Those Sins which are expresly declared in the Gospel to be inconsistent with the Profession Ends and Glory of it it wholly excludes 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. 2 Cor. 6. 16. 1 Joh. 3. 14 15. And 2 against a course in any Sin or Sins either spiritual or fleshly internal or external 1 Joh. 3. 9. Rom. 6. 2. 3 For the most part against all outward Sins in the course of our Conversation in the world in which things our Sincerity or Perfection is exercised And these things were necessary to be touched on to manifest the Nature of this first Principle wherein men are to be instructed There is no Interest in Christ or Christian Religion to be obtained without Repentance from Dead works nor any orderly entrance into a Gospel Church State without a credible Profession thereof This was one of the first things that was preached unto Sinners as was before declared and without a compliance herewith they were not further to be treated with For 1 The Lord Christ came not only to save men from their Sins but to turn them from their Sins to turn them from their Sins that they may be saved from them when he comes out of Sion as a Redeemer a Deliverer a Saviour he turns away ungodliness from Jacob that is he turns Jacob from ungodliness Rom. 11. 26. namely by Repentance This was one principal End of the Birth Life Death and Exaltation of Christ. His work in all these was to make Peace and Reconciliation between God and Man Hereunto belongeth the Slaying Destruction or removal of the Enmity that was between them This with respect unto God was done by the Attonement he made the Sacrifice he offered and the Price of Redemption that he paid 2 Cor. 5. 21. But the whole work is not hereby compleated The Enmity on our part also must be taken away or Reconciliation will not be finished Now we were Enemies in our minds by wicked works Col. 1. 21. and thereby alienated from the Life of God Ephes. 4. 18. The removal hereof consists in this Repentance For that is our turning unto God upon the Terms of Peace tendred unto us They therefore do but deceive their own Souls who trust unto Peace with God on the Mediation of Christ who are not at Peace with God in their own Souls by Repentance For the one is not without the other As he who is at Peace with God on his own part by Repentance shall never fail of Peace from God by the Attonement for he that so lays hold on his Arm and Strength that he may have Peace shall be sure to obtain it Isa. 27. 3. So without this whatever Notions men may have of Reconciliation with God they will find him in the issue as devouring Fire or Everlasting Burnings All Doctrines Notions or Perswasions that tend to alleviate the necessity of that personal Repentance which was before described or would substitute any outward Pennance or Corporeal pecuniary poenal Satisfaction in the room thereof are pernicious to the Souls of men And there is nothing so much to be dreaded or abhorred as a pretence taken unto Sin unto any Sin without Repentance from the Grace or Doctrine of the Gospel Shall we continue in Sin saith our Apostle that Grace may abound God forbid Those who do so and thereby turn the Grace of God into Lasciviousness are among the number of them whose Damnation sleepeth not 2 That any person living in Sin without Repentance should have an Interest in Christ or Christian Religion is inconsistent with the Glory of God the Honour of Jesus Christ and would render the Gospel if taught therein a Doctrine fit to be rejected by all men For where is the Glory of the Righteousness or Holiness of God if impenitent Sinners may be accepted with him Besides that it is contrary unto the whole Declaration of himself that he will not acquit the Guilty that he will not justifie the wicked nor accept the ungodly it hath an absolute inconsistency with the especial Righteousness of his Nature and which he exerciseth as the supream Rector and Judge of all that any such persons should approach before him or stand in his sight Psal. 5. 4 5 6. Rom. 1. 32. And for the Lord Jesus Christ it would plainly make him the Minister of Sin the thought whereof our Apostle so detests Gal. 2. 17. Nay a supposition hereof would make the coming of Christ to be the greatest means of letting in and increasing Sin on the world that ever was since the fall of Adam And the Gospel must then be looked on as a Doctrine meet to be abandoned by all wise and sober persons as that which would tend unavoidably to the debauching of mankind and the ruine of humane Society For whereas it doth openly and avowedly propose and declare the Pardon and remission of Sin of all sorts of Sin to all sorts of persons that shall believe and obey it if it did this without annexing unto its Promise the

of Righteousness is he who is the Author Cause and Dispenser of Righteousness unto others As God is said to be the Lord our Righteousness And so is the King of Peace also in which sence God is called the God of Peace Thus was it with Melchisedec as he was the Representative of Jesus Christ. 4. The last thing that the Apostle Observes from these Names and Titles in their Order wherein it is Natural that the Name of a Man should precede the Title of his Rule First King of Righteousness and afterwards King of Peace Righteousness must go first and then Peace will follow after So it is Promised of Christ and his Kingdom that in his days the Righteous shall flourish and abundance of Peace so long as the Moon endureth Psal. 72. 7. First they are made Righteous and then they have Peace And Isa. 32. 17. The work of Righteousness shall be Peace and the effect of Righteousness Quietness and Peace for ever This is the Order of these things There is no Peace but what proceedeth from and is the Effect of Righteousness So these things with respect unto Christ are declared by the Psalmist Psal. 85. 9 10 11 12 13. What we are taught hence is 1. That the Lord Jesus Christ is the only King of Righteousness and Peace unto the Church See Isa. 32. 1 21. Chap. 9. 6. He is not only a Righteous and Peaceable King as were his Types Melchisedec and Solomon but he is the Author Cause Procurer and Dispenser of Righteousness and Peace to the Church So is it declared Jer. 23. 5 6. Behold the Days come saith the Lord that I will raise unto David a Righteous Branch and a King shall Reign and Prosper and shall Execute Judgment and Justice in the Earth In his Days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely and this is his Name whereby he shall be called The Lord our Righteousness He is Righteous and Reigneth Righteously but this is not all he is the Lord our Righteousness VII The Apostle proceeds yet unto other Instances in the Description of Melchisedec wherein he was made like unto the Son of God ver 3. Without Father without Mother without Descent having neither beginning of Days nor end of Life The things here asserted being at the first view strange and uncouth would administer occasion unto large Discourses and accordingly have been the Subject of many Enquiries and Conjectures But it is no way unto the Edification of those who are Sober and Godly to engage into any long Disputes about those things wherein all Learned sober Expositors are come to an Issue and Agreement as they are in general in this matter For it is granted that Melchisedec was a Man really and truly so and therefore of Necessity must have all these things for the Nature of Man after him who was first Created who yet also had beginning of Life and end of Days doth not exist without them Wherefore these things are not denied of him absolutely but in some sence and with respect unto some especial end Now this is with respect unto his Office therein or as he bare that Office he was without Father without Mother c. And how doth this appear that so it was with him It doth so because none of them is Recorded or mentioned in the Scripture which yet diligently Recordeth them concerning other Persons and in particular those who could not find and prove their Genealogies were by no means to be admitted unto the Priesthood Ezra 2. 61 62 63. And we may therefore by this Rule enquire into the particulars 1. It is said of him in the first place that he was without Father without Mother whereon part of the latter clause namely without beginning of Days doth depend But how could a Mortal Man come into the World without Father or Mother Man that is Born of a Woman is the Description of every Man what therefore can be intended The next word declares he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without Descent say we But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a Generation a Descent a Pedigree not absolutely but Rehearsed Described Recorded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is he whose Stock and Descent is entered upon Record And so on the contrary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not he who hath no Descent no Genealogy but he whose Descent and Pedigree is no where Entered Recorded Reckoned up Thus the Apostle himself plainly expresseth this word ver 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose Descent is not counted that is reckoned up in Record Thus was Melchisedec without Father and Mother in that the Spirit of God who so strictly and exactly Recorded the Genealogies of other Patriarchs and Types of Christ and that for no less an end than to manifest the Truth and Faithfulness of God in his Promises speaks nothing unto this purpose concerning him He is introduced as it were one falling from Heaven appearing on a sudden Reigning in Salem and Officiating the Office of the Priesthood unto the High God 2. On the same Account is he said to be without beginning of Days or end of Life For as he was a Mortal Man he had both He was assuredly Born and did no less certainly dye than other Men. But neither of these are Recorded concerning him We have no more to do with him to learn from him nor are concerned in him but only as he is Described in the Scripture and there is no mention therein of the Beginning of his Days or the end of his Life Whatever therefore he might have in himself he had none to us Consider all the other Patriarchs mentioned in the Writings of Moses and you shall find their Descent Recorded who was their Father and so upwards unto the first man and not only so but the time of their Birth and Death the Beginning of their Days and the End of their Lives is exactly Recorded For it is constantly said of them such an one Lived so long and begat such a Son which fixed the time of Birth Then of him so begotten it is said he lived so many Years which determines the end of his Days These things are expressely Recorded But concerning Melchisedec none of these things are spoken No mention is made of Father or Mother no Genealogy is Recorded of what Stock or Progeny he was nor is there any Account of his Birth or Death So that all these things are wanting unto him in this Historical Narration wherein our Faith and Knowledge is alone concerned Some few things may yet farther be enquired into for the clearing of the sence of these words 1. Whereas the Observation of the Apostle is built upon the silence of Moses in the History which was sufficient for him whatever was the Cause and Reason of that silence we may enquire whence it was Whence it was I say that Moses should introduce so great and excellent a Person as Melchisedec without any mention of his Race or Stock of his

Parents or Progenitors of his Rise or Fall contrary unto his own Custom in other cases and contrary unto all Rules of Useful History For to introduce so great a Person in any Story and on so great an Occasion without giving any Account of him or of any of his Circumstances whereby his concernment in the Matter related might be known is utterly contrary unto all Rules of Serious History Answ. 1. Some of the Jews absurdly imagine that it was because his Parents were not only Obscure but that he was Born of Fornication and so he had no Right of Genealogy But this is both a foolish and wicked Imagination For it is not to be supposed God would have Advanced a Person known to be of such an Extract and Original into the Honour of the Priesthood and that of the most Excellent kind that ever was under the Old Testament For being low and mean in the World it is neither Disadvantage nor Disparagement The best of Men were so and all the chief Patriarchs were but Shepherds But Bastardy is a Mark of Infamy in the World and God would not raise such an one to Administer peculiarly unto him and that as a Type of his own Son who was to be Incarnate 2. Some say that there is no singular thing herein but that it is done according to the Custom of Scripture which relates only the Genealogies of the Patriarchs who were of that Linage from whence Christ did come But when it makes mention of any others though they be never so eminent it reckoneth not up their Genealogy Thus it dealeth with Jethro the Father-in-law of Moses and with Job so great and Holy a Person concerning whom it says no more but that there was a Man in the Land of Uz Named Job And some things may be allowed herein But the Instances are no way parallel For Jethro he was a stranger unto the Church and there is a full Account concerning him so far as it is either Necessary or Useful that we should in point of story know any thing of him And the story of Job is a separate story wherein himself only and Family was concerned and we have therein his Countrey the Number and Names of his Children with the Years of his Life and time of his Death But as we have none of these things in the Account of Melchisedec so he is introduced as one in whom the Church of God was Publickly concerned Wherefore 3. The true Cause of the Omission of all these things was the same with that of the Institution of his Priesthood and the Introduction of his Person in the Story And this was that he might be the more express and signal Representative of the Lord Christ in his Priesthood For to this End it was not only needful that he should be declared to be a Priest as the Messiah was to be but also in that Declaration all those Circumstances were to be observed wherein the Nature of the Priesthood of Christ might be any way praefigured After this the Church being reduced into a standing Order for Succession it was obliged necessarily for many Generations unto a Priesthood which depended solely on their Genealogy and Pedigree both by Father and Mother Ezra 10. 18 19. Nehem. 7. 63 64 65. Wherefore whereas the Priesthood of our Lord Christ was to depend on no such Descent for it is evident that our Lord sprang of Judah whereof Moses spake nothing of the Priesthood it was necessary that it should be Originally represented by one who had no Genealogy seeing that as unto his Office he himself was to have none And therefore when the Church of Israel was in the highest enjoyment of the Levitical Priesthood whose Office depended wholly on their Genealogy yea so far as on a supposition of a defect or Change thereof not only the Priesthood it self but all the Sacred Worship also which it was designed to officiate must utterly cease yet the Holy Ghost then thought meet to mind them that a Priest was to come without respect unto any such Descent or Genealogy in that he was to be after the Order of Melchisedec who had none Psal. 110. 4. This is the true and only Reason why in the story of Melchisedec as the Priest of the High God there is no mention made of Father Mother Genealogy Beginning of Life or end of Days And we may herein consider the Sovereign wisdom of the Holy Ghost in bringing forth Truth unto Light according as the state and condition of the Church doth require And first he proposeth only a naked Story of a Person that was a Type of Christ and that obscurely and sparingly Something the Men of the Age wherein he lived might learn by his Ministrations but not much For that which was principally Instructive in him for the Use of the Church was not of Force until all his Circumstances were forgotten and the Church was now to be Instructed not so much by what he was as what was Recorded of him wherein the Scripture superseded all Tradition that might be of him in the World Yea the contrivance of any Tradition concerning his Parents Birth and Death had been contrary to the mind of God and what Instruction he intended the Church by him Afterwards when it may be all thoughts of any Use or Design of this Story in Moses was lost and the Church was fully satisfied in a Priesthood quite of another Nature the Holy Ghost in one word of Prophecy Instructs the Church not only that the thing spoken concerning Melchisedec were not so Recorded for his sake or on his own account but with respect unto another Priest which was afterwards to arise by him Represented which gave a new Consideration Sence and Design to the whole Story but moreover gives it to know that the Priesthood which it then enjoyed was not alwas to continue but that another of another Nature was to be introduced as was signified long before the Institution of that Priesthood which they enjoyed Psal. 110. 4. And as this was sufficient for the Use and Edification of the Church in those days yet it was left greatly in the dark as to the full Design and meaning of these things And therefore it is evident that at the Coming of our Saviour and the accomplishment of this Type the Church of the Jews had utterly lost all knowledge and Understanding of the Mystery of it and the Promise renewed in the Psalm For they thought it strange that there should be a Priest that had no Genealogy no Solemn Consecration nor Investiture with his Office VVherefore our Apostle entring upon the unfolding of this Mystery doth not only Preface it with an Assertion of its Difficulty or how hard it was to be understood aright but also by a long previous Discourse variously prepareth their minds unto a most diligent attention And the Reason of it was not only because they had utterly lost the Understanding that was given in these things formerly but