Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	cause_n	good_a	life_n	4,640	5	4.5822	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67695	The last discourse of the Right Honble the Lord Warestoune, as he delivered it upon the scafford at the Mercat-Cross of Edinburgh, July 22. 1663. being immediately before his death Whereunto is added a short narration of his carriage during the time of his imprisonment, but more especially at his death: all which is very comfortable and refreshing to all those that take pleasure in the dust of Zion, and favour the stones of our Lord's broken-down building amongst us. By a Favourer of the Covenant and work of reformation.	Warriston, Archibald Johnston, Lord, 1611-1663.	1664 (1664)	Wing W984; ESTC R222558	17,646	20

of his slain Witnesses together with what our Lords slain Witnesses have asserted for the time to come concerning his reviving of his now languishing dying Work is very encouraging to exercise patience and not to faint while meeting with dark and tempestuous dispensations and first consider what our Lords first honourable slain Witness spake at his death viz. These times will be either times of great suffering or great sinning and they that will be free of sinning shall not escape suffering and they that will shun suffering shall not escape sinning there is a Dilemma in the matter sin or suffer And truly for my own part I may think it a mercy that I have been so hardly dealt with for if I had met with more favour as others have I might have sinned as others have done and as more will yet do if the Lord do not prevent And is not this sadly evidenced O what dreadful defection and apostatizing from the Truth since that day Have not many confirmed that Prophecy against themselves Psal. 2. 2 3. breaking the Lord's bonds and casting away his cords Have not many since that day notwithstanding the sealing of these Truths by the blood of his Witnesses declared that God's blessed Work was but a Rebellious Combination and this they have subscribed with their hands howbeit it was a precious mean of prospering the Father's pleasure in the hand of our Lord Jesus Christ and of his seeing the fruit of the sore travel of his soul to his great comfort Isa. 53. 10 11. If it had been but a combination of men could so many souls have been converted while it was on foot Nay blessed be our God he hath put it out of doubt among us by making his Son's Kingdom flourish more in its time than ever since the Apostles dayes Our Lord hath said Ioh. 5. The works that I do bear witness of me It 's dangerous calling the work of the holy Ghost a Combination of men and his operation upon souls the fruit of Rebellion it is the sin against the holy Ghost to say he casteth out Devils through Beelzebub Mat. 12.24 31. and calling the effects and fruits of Reformation the effects of an unlawful Combination comes near to this sin Now this work this blessed work is condemned and the Covenant that opened the door thereunto is abjured by many whereby they have renounced their share and interest in the Covenant and Work of Reformation and of what too-look they seemed to have unto the comforts attending or following upon the same which is a dreadful business for our Covenant is nothing else but a solemn express declaration of our being satisfied with the Covenant of Grace and that upon the conditions whereupon the Lord offers it unto us 2. our formal express national acceptation thereof upon these terms and 3. our promising and engaging by his grace to fulfill these conditions under the hazard of forfeiting and losing our interest in that Covenant and all its blessings priviledges and advantages And howbeit a chief and main Article in the Covenant of Grace by the Lord 's engaging to make us fulfill our part of that Covenant yet he never tenders mercy to us but upon condition of our taking and owning him for our God Head and Lord in Jesus Christ and that we will worship him according to his own appointment in his Word and if you compare our Covenant with the Duties God requires of his New-Testament Church ye shall find nothing whereunto we are obliged in it but that which God requires of us as the conditions upon which he is content to agree with us in the Covenant of Grace and therfore quaeritor which to me is no question whether to abjure the Covenant that binds us to fulfill the conditions of the Covenant of Grace be not indeed to abjure upon the matter the Covenant of Grace it self seing they say they will not fulfil the conditions thereof O horrid desperate work they have quitted their share of all the comforts attending this Covenant for time and eternity for this is no such breach as is committed through weakness ignorance c. this is a clear deliberate formal express up-giving with him and to make all sure they have given under their hands that they judge themselves obliged not to keep the same and have given him assurance that he needs expect no better at their hands hereafter for they declare they judge all such Promises and Engagements to serve him utterly unlawful and this is their last answer to him as the desperate result of all the pains he hath taken on them Now as this part of this honourable Witnesse's discourse is accomplished so I hope shall the rest in due time as to what he said for encouragement to the Lords People 2. Faithful Mr. Guthrie who had much of the Lord's mind in his lifetime gave very great ground of comfort to them that lament after the Lord he will yet again revive his Work in Britain and Ireland by the power of His Spirit for he hath not cast away his People c. and the Lord seemed to confirm this from Heaven 3. This blessed Witness gave also much ground of encouragement and it will be the more comfortable if we consider that he did it as a duty whereunto he was pressed in soul viz. to comfort the Lord's People in the assurance of his appearing for his Word his work his C●use his Covenant and that in such a way by such means and instruments with such antecedents concurrences and effects as shall wonderfully comfort his People c. see pag. 7. Now may not this threefold Witness together with the consideration of the Lord 's guiding the last ●ealing and Scaffold-discourses of his Witnesses encourage the Lord's People to exercise patience in waiting for him who will fulfill his Word for in Mount-Zion and in Ierusalem shall be deliverance as the Lord hath said Ioel 2. 32. And here I cannot pass by an expression of this Witness in a Letter formerly mentioned pag. 12. viz. Shall we not account the taking and renewing of the Covenant in the years 1580 81 90 and again 1638 and then again 1643 and 48 as good as a threefold Proclamation of the Lords even so I take her even so I take her into an indissolvable Match and this threefold Proclamation is sealed by a threefold witness who confirmed and subscrived the same with their blood venturing upon death and eternity with all chearfulness and tranquility of soul owning and avowing the same and truly they were known to have more of God's mind and had nearer access unto him than all their opposers Certainly this must be a very good Cause that giveth so much quiet peace and joy to the owners thereof at death for they are ravished and transported with inexpressible joy that ever they were made instrumental for God in carrying on that Work and helped of him to suffer for the same And upon the other hand the work that 's now carried on in the Church must be very bad for the owners of it dare not own it at death but are discouraged when they cannot mend their folly some of them have cryed out on death-bed O do you think there may be mercy for abjuring the Covenant for ten thousand worlds I would not endure that one hour which I endure night and day if I could shun it c. they would gladly die in Covenant with God though they will not live so Good Lord keep all his People and me also from owning that cause in our life which we dare not own at death yea and which the very owners thereof would disown at death and no wonder for they dare not look God in the face The good Lord give repentance speedily to any of them he minds to save that they may come out of that dangerous desperate and soul-destroying condition wherein they cannot expect to be saved FINIS Let the Reader take notice that these faithful Witnesses very heartily prayed for the Kings Maiesty his succession pressing also Loyalty upon us who still have held that to be our duty according to the Covenant our Confession of Faith is a sufficient proof of the Covenant parties esteem of Monarchical Government Yea that in the person of our dread Sovereign as Gods Ordinance and may sufficiently clear them of all false Calumnies cast on them by the Prelates who have still laboured to make themselves great by begetting a misunderstanding betwixt his Majesty and his best subjects ERRATA Page 8. line 24 read unfriends P. 16. l. 7. r. Mr. George c. P. 15. l. 21 r. but what

by the Ministry of the Prophets and so could not but come to pass Answ● It is true Instances cannot prove such Assertions neither is it our intent to seem to make it infallibly out neither to bid the People of God lay such weight upon these sayings as they must lay upon the Prophecies which are written in the Scriptures being the ground of our Faith for though such sayings may be true Prophecies whereof we may in moderation look for the accomplishment as that of Mr. Iohn Wishart concerning Cardinal Beaton was a true Prophecy Yet we are not infallibly assured that these are Prophecies till they be accomplished all we attempt here is to give the People of God ground of expectation of good in the latter end whereunto the knowledge and consideration of his ordering his Servants discourse at their death very much conduceth and to give the Lord his own free latitude to do or forbear in these things as he in the depth of his Holy Wisdom sees expedient But 2. howbeit these were Prophecies directed from God and so could not fail yet we find also that the Assertions of slain dying Witnesses were frequently more speedily accomplished than most of other Prophecies as is clear in the forementioned Scripture 2 Chron. 24. 20,24 Howbeit I say this which ye will find clear yet I am not meaning that we should still look for a speedy accomplishment of Scaffold-discourses all I plead for from this is that the Lord hereby seemeth to give us ground to think that such discourses will be fulfilled in due time for other Prophecies were as true as that of Zachariah but his soonest fulfilled And if it be not lawful for us to conclude speedy outgates because of such discourses yet that he will fulfill these words we may in sobriety expect It is true also some other Prophecies were as soon fulfilled as Zachariahs as Isa. 37. 33,34 was fulfilled ver 36. But this and the like were Prophecies of Mercie and Deliverance to a humbled broken People and for the speedy fulfillment whereof these Reasons may be given 1. God delights much in Mercy and makes haste in fulfilling gracious Promises 2. There was a present necessity of the fulfilment thereof both in respect of the Lord's People who were humbled before God and immediatly to be ruined if he had not fulfilled his Word 3. The Promise or Prophecy was made as to that instant of time for if it had not been fulfilled at the instant whereunto it did relate it could have been no Prophecy for when a Prophecy comes of something to be done at such a time where no condition is expressed nor understood it must be fulfilled at that time else it could not be said to be a Prophecy such was Isaiah's Isa. 37. 33,34 c. But that which we speak of is as relating to the threatnings uttered by dying Witnesses and such as could have been suspended as well as others without any apparent hurt to the truth of Prophecy yet is quickly fulfilled yea sooner than other Prophecies of the same nature yea and possibly for this very end to put a tincture of respect beyond ordinary upon the words of dying Witnesses for as we have said consider the prophetical denunciations of wrath by Znchariah a dying slain Witness and the prophetical denunciations of wrath by Ieremiah Ezekiel c. and why comes Zachariah's Prophecy sooner to pass than Ieremiah's this not being limited to a certain time and therefore might have been suspended as well as Ieremiahs without prejudice to the Prophecy I know none but this 1. It was the Lord's pleasure and 2. to shew his respect to dying Witnesses that he would have what they say taken especial notice of 2. Likewise this Consideration may be confirmed by the Lord 's accomplishing the last words of his Servants both in the primitive and latter times we shall only mention one instance more and that is the prophetical discourse of godly famous Mr. Geo. Wishart who as he had much of God's mind in his lifetime as is clear in the history of his life in Mr. Clarks Martyrology so was his last words well ordered by the Lord for when he was burning in the fire at St. Andrews in Scotland and seeing the Cardinal looking out at a window feeding upon the sight of this sad tragedy prophesied that he should be thrown out at the same window ere long and as he said so the Lord brought it quickly to pass to the great joy and comfort of his People 3. This may help to confirm what we say in this Consideration anent his ordering and directing the last discourses of his suffering Servants viz. It very much tendeth to the clearing of their Cause as being his when he fulfilleth their Scaffold Discourses and as they are tender of his Glory laying down their lives for his sake so is he tender both of his own and their credit that they may not bring the imputation of deceived witnesses upon themselves at death and as it was formerly asserted if ever the accomplishment of that promise can be expected or is fulfilled at any time in this world Mat. 10. 19. It shall be given you at that same hour what ye ought to speak it may be expected by and is fulfilled unto his dying Witnesses on the Scaffold For when I pray you is it to be expected if not then and how often hath he made the truth of that appear which he addeth for it is not ye but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you and who can say that ever the Lord suffered his suffering testifying sealing confirming and dying Witnesses to be mistaken in their last discourse yea which may confirm it yet more let me see the man in all the world friend or foe that can bring an instance of one dying witnessing Martyr who spake that at his death which the Lord did not in due time some way or other accomplish yea I defy to bring me one faithful slain Witness that was suffered to be in a mistake at his death and in his last testimony even from Abels dayes to our own time and let them that judge this a rash impertinent expression see how they will clear themselves of denying that promise of our Lord it shall be given you in that same hour what ye ought to speak and so I leave it to the Lord to defend Now by all this it may appear that he reveals secrets to dying Witnesses which he keeps up from many others who are also dear unto him so that howbeit their words be not to be esteemed of equal weight with the written and infallible Scriptures a surer Word than if a voice were speaking from Heaven 2 Pet. 1. 9. yet their sayings while dying for and in the Lord do give good encouragement unto them that remain alive and so to be much esteemed by them And truly the consideration hereof together with his fulfilling or at least having ever hitherto fulfilled the words