Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	brethren_n	life_n	love_v	5,972	5	7.1555	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31660	The country's concurrence with the London united ministers in their late heads of agreement shewing the nature and advantages of a general union among Protestants : in two discourses ... / by Samuel Chandler ...	Chandler, Samuel.	1691 (1691)	Wing C1930; ESTC R11704	28,705	109

slanders of the Witnesses yet he manifests his concern for Peter by his compassionate looks testify'd his sorrow for his Sin and drew not his Eyes away till he had look'd him into Repentance Nay tho' our Head be now in Heaven yet he hath a compassionate sense of the Extremities of his Members and accounts all the Affronts Persecutions and Reproaches offer'd to them as done to himself Thus when Saul then a Persecutor breath'd out nothing but Blood and Slaughter against the Churches He cries from Heaven Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Acts 9. 4. He is a merciful faithful High-Priest that is touch'd with a feeling of our Infirmities and bears a compassionate Love to all his Members in Misery And the same mind ought to be in us that was in him we ought to sympathize with our Fellow Members in distress and remember the afflicted as being our selves in the Body Heb. 13. 2. liable to the same Tryals and Parts of the same Mystical Body of Christ. If any Member be in pain all the rest are discompos'd and when some of the Members of Christ are discompos'd 't is natural for the rest to sympathize with them and be compassionately sensible of their trouble Thus we are commanded to weep with them that weep Rom. 12. 15. To bear one anothers Burdens and so fulfil the Law of Christ Gal. 6. 2. 7. Our Love must be constant and abiding as Christ's love was Christ's love to us was not for a small space of time but lasting and uninterrupted He loved his own and he loved them to the end John 13. 1. And the nearer his end appeared the higher marks of his Love did he give them the failings and miscarriages of his Disciples did not remove his Love or cause him to withdraw his affection their ignorance and unbelief after all his Teachings and Instructions their fiery unseasonable Rage against the Samaritans their Pride and Ambition Rashness and Cowardise and the base Perfidiousness of Peter did not incline him to lay aside his Thoughts of Love or leave the work of our Redemption unfinished but he still loved them to the Death Thus must we love our Brethren overlook their Failings pass by their Infirmities admire what is lovely and neglect what may cool our Affections This new Commandment must be every day renewed by us this is a Lesson we must be always Learning and a Duty we must be always imploying our selves about We must still be abiding in our Love till we enter among that happy Society where all Sins and unlovely Imperfections shall be done away and we shall always solace our selves with pleasing views of the Divine Purity and Holiness and the numerous Pictures and Representations of it among Angels and Glorified Saints 2. Our Love to one another must resemble Christ's Love to us in the outward Expressions of it 1. In the intimacies of our Friendship and Familiarity one with another Christ so loves all true Christians as to enter into the strictest bands of amity with them he is nearly united to them as their Head and Husband and calls them his Friends and his Spouse he is the Head and they are the Members the Vine and they are the Branches the Foundation and they are the Building the Root and they are the Fruit. The Communications of his Grace the quickening assistances and influences of his Spirit are imparted to them he writes his Law in their Hearts and causeth them to run in the way of his Commandments sanctifies their Natures pardons their Sins prevailingly intercedes for them and prepares them by Grace for Glory He hath communion with them in his Ordinances familiarly converseth with them in his Sacraments and is continually sitting them for that happy Fellowship with Father Son and Holy Spirit which glorified Saints injoy While he was on Earth he selected some few Persons prepared them by Grace for his Society and then made them his familiar Friends To them he clearly revealed the Mind and Will of God to them he unfolded the Mysteries of his Love and Commands of his Father to them he explained what was spoken to others in Parables these he blessed with his Heavenly Discourses and Pious Instructions with the special tokens of his Love and familiar Expressions of his Friendship Indeed he did entertertain a Iudas in his Family but he made a strict Profession as well as the other Disciples and was not known to be Hypocritical by any but Christ himself and had not the wisdom of God designed by his means to bring about the great work of our Redemption no doubt but this Son of Perdition would have been discarded and disown'd He did indeed eat with Publicans and Sinners but though for this he was falsly accused as their Friend and Companion yet he was not so he eat with them as their Physician and not as their Companion did not own them for his Friends but sought by his holy Discourse and obliging Carriage to make them so And the same Mind ought to be in us that was also in him Though Christianity allows not moroseness and incivility towards others yet all needless familiarity with Wicked Men is forbidden Our Eyes with Davids ought to be upon the Faithful in the Land Psal. 101. 6. To delight in wicked Company may justly fill us with doubts of our own sincerity we may know we are passed from Death to Life if we love the Brethren 1 John 3. 14. And we have just reason to fear we are yet in a state of Death if we delight in the Ungodly Common civilities may be paid to Wicked Men but special friendship is to be reserved only for those who we hope are the Friends of God If we love God above all surely we shall associate most with them that may warm our Hearts and raise our Affections and provoke us by their Example to an holy imitation We ought to imitate the Royal Psalmist who was a Companion of all them that feared God Psal. 119. 63. The Poverty and Meanness of such did not lessen his delight he priz'd a Saint in Rags beyond a Wicked Man though cloathed in Princely Robes or Imperial Purple We ought to have a friendly regard to all true Christians and though some because of their eminency in Grace suitableness to our Temper Neighbourhood and the like reasons may be our more intimate Friends Yet must not we despise any because of their meanness but as we have opportunity give them the special tokens of our Friendship too Vile Persons must be contemned and Scandalous Professors must especially be avoided but our intimate Acquaintance ought to be the Servants of God and the more Holy any are the more ambitious should we be of their Friendship and Converse 2. In our hearty Prayers one for another Christ was very earnest in his Prayers for true Believers they were the peculiar objects of his Love and purchase of his Death and therefore he prays for them in a peculiar

to his Disciples more plainly than to others Mat. 13 11. This evidence of Brotherly Love we ought to give also 'T is not only the duty of Ministers but of every private Christian in his Station to counsel and instruct his Brethren to inform the Ignorant and seek their Conversion tell them their duty and danger and shew them how they may flee from the wrath to come And it will be their wisdom and interest thus to win Souls to Christ and save Sinners from Death and Hell This must we do to the most vicious as we have opportunity But as we owe a special degree of Love to Fellow Christians so we are especially to counsel and admonish them To advise them in difficulties explain what they do not understand endeavour to impart our Light to them to increase their knowledge make additions to their Grace and further their Happiness He that loves his Brother will seek to help his Ignorance rectifie his Mistakes free him from Error and communicate his own Experiences to preserve him from Sin encourage him in Duty and make his passage to Heaven more pleasant and delighful 6. In kind and friendly Reproofs Christ frequently gave this Testimony of his Love to his Disciples reproved the smallness of their Faith Pride and Ambition and unbecoming Passions and the like Sins Thus must we also act Smooth Flattery is an Argument of Hatred and neglecting Reproofs when necessary is a piece of negative Flattery but a smart rebuke is oftentimes a great Argument of Love Le●it 19. 17. When therefore we see our Brother erring from his way we must seek by moderate Reproofs to stir up his dying Graces and bring him back to his Duty Here indeed much Christian Prudence and Discretion is necessary We are too apt to aggravate the failings of others and extenuate our own far greater offences Therefore let us be more ready to behold our own stains than the lesser spots of others and first cover our own nakedness before we cast the Stones of Reproof at our Brother Neither must we reprove upon bare Rumors and Suspicions without certain knowledge of our Brothers offence This is to shoot the Arrow before we see the mark If we are not certainly assur'd either from our own personal Knowledge or the undoubted Testimony of credible Witnesses that our Brother is guilty our reproofs will be but Slanders and our Charity in offering the Cure will not be half so great as our uncharitableness in believing the Disease Neither must we reprove sharply for small offences for every unvoluntary slip and failing To dip our Reproofs in Gall and Satyr upon every little miscarriage is a piece of impertinent officiousness and shews we are very much in Love with the Office Further our Reproofs must be seasonable Prov. 15. 23. When our Brother is most calm and sedate his Passions hush'd and still and his reason Reseated on the Throne as Water falling on a Red hot Iron only causes a great deal of noise and disturbance so Reproofs just upon the very act of Sin when our Brothers Passions are in disorder will only cause him to fume and fret the more Moreover our reproofs must be given in gentle Language Gal. 6. 1. Rebukes in reviling words look like the upbraidings of an Enemy and not like the kindness of a displeased Friend Nay let not your Reproofs be before others lest it alienate thy Brothers Heart and make him suspect 't is hatred and not love that puts thee upon this ungrateful Imployment but let them be between him and thee alone with all the secresie and privacy possible That he may see 't is thy love that urgeth thee to this Office of Kindness and good Men will hearken and endeavour to amend whatever is amiss Psal. 141. 5. Rebuke a Wise Man and he will love thee Prov. 9. 8. 8. In dying for one another The greatest Testimony of Christs Love was his dying for us Iohn 15. 13. Rom. 5. 8. Hereby perceive we the Love of God in that he laid down his Life for us and we ought to lay down our Lives for the Brethren 1 Iohn 3. 16. If Christ who was so much exalted above us in Glory and Majesty did lay down his Life for us much more ought we to dye for our Brethren who are of the same mould by Nature partakers of the same precious Faith by Grace and heirs of the same Inheritance in Glory If Christ dyed for Enemies and Strangers Slaves to Satan and Rebels against Heaven surely we ought not to account it hard to dye for Friends link'd to us by the nearest Bonds of Union Members of the same Body and belonging to the same Glorious Head seeing Christ did not account his Life too dear for us we ought not to account this command an hard saying or burden too difficult to be born But this Duty is only to be perform'd when we are specially call'd to it and the publick good of Christianity requires it to lay down our Lives without such a Call is to become Murderers of our selves and may be to the wrong and not the benefit of our Brethren For thereby we are incapacitated from doing them any further service in this World The great instance wherein we are to lay down our Lives for our Brethren is when we are call'd to seal the Truth with our Blood The Glory of God and Spiritual Good of our Brethren ought to be so dear to us that we ought willingly to Sacrifice our Lives rather than by any base and sinful compliances harden Unbelievers unsettle weak and wavering Christians or grieve the Hearts of confirm'd Saints 3. Some Practical Improvement I shall conclude all with a word of Exhortation 1. To my Brethren in the Ministry I have taken upon me the Office of putting you in remembrance of your Duty We all call our selves the Messengers of Peace and Ambassadors of the God of Love and are now come together to testifie our Love to one another Let us now therefore take up an unanimous Resolution that we will live together as united Brethren and imitate the great Example of our Lord Redeemer who hath given us our Commission Let us not be strange or shy or suspicious one of another harbour any envy ill-will or hard thoughts Take up any evil reports or hearken to the Tales of Whisperers and Backbiters who make it their Business to sow Seeds of Discord among Brethren While we all profess the same Holy Religion worship God after the same manner and pursue the same design of winning Souls to Christ why should we be angry or displeas'd if perhaps we have not the same Sentiments in some lesser Matters of difficulty any more than because we are not of the same Age Stature or Complexion Why should we envy one anothers Parts or Gifts or Success Or be offended because perhaps the Assemblies of others may be larger than our own It ought to be our Joy if our Lord