Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	child_n	soul_n	zion_n	17	3	8.6774	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77498	The drinking of the bitter cup: or, The hardest lesson in Christ's school, learned and taught by himself, passive obedience. Wherein, besides divers doctrinall truths of great importance, many practicall directions are held forth, for the teaching of Christians how to submit to their heavenly father in suffering his will, both in life and death, patiently, obediently, willingly. / As it was lately presented to the church of God at Great Yarmouth, by John Brinsley, minister of the Gospel there.	Brinsley, John, 1600-1665.	1660 (1660)	Wing B4713; Thomason E1838_1; ESTC R210133	201,893	311

see all in him see all things after another manner then here it doth When that which is perfect is come then that which is imperfect shall be done away 1 Cor. 13.10 And as perfect knowledge so perfect Love Love Seeing God as he is it cannot be but the soul must be inflamed with Love to him And so perfect Holinesse This Christians are here called upon to endeavour after Holinesse Having therefore these promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit perfecting holynesse in the fear of God so the Apostle exhorts 2 Cor. 7.1 But this while we are here we shall never attain unto But comming to see God now shall we be like him holy as he is holy being perfectly restored to that Image of God wherein man at the first was created consisting in Knowledge Holinesse and Righteousnesse Such is the perfection of Grace which the soul attaines by this beatificall vision 2. And as Grace so of Glory Like as silver or gold being set against the Sun Of glory by the beames thereof cast upon it it becommeth radiant and shining So shall it be with the soul by beholding the glory of God it shall it self be made glorious Such a glory had Moses put upon his face when he beheld the glory of the Lord having so near a communion with him upon Mount Sina the skin of his face did shine saith the story so as Aaron and the rest of the Children of Israel were not able to behold him Exod. 34.29.30 Such shall be the glory of the glorified soul having communion with God in Heaven and there beholding his glory it shall be made glorious This office doth death perform unto the believer it letteth in his soul into the presence of God whereby it becommeth perfect with perfection of Grace and Glory 2. The believer by death brought into the presence of Jesus Christ to have a full communion with him To this add It brings him also into the presence of Jesus Christ from whom while he is here he is absent While we are at home in the Body we are absent from the Lord. 2 Cor. 5.6 But now death brings the soul into his presence to have a sweet communion with him A consideration which made the Apostle not only averse to death but desirous of it I desire to depart and to be with Christ Phil. 1.23 This it was that made him so confident and resolute as he was not to regard life or fear death as he there telleth his Corinthians 2 Cor. 5 6.8 Therefore we are alwaies confident knowing that whilest we are at home in the Body we are absent from the Lord. We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the Body and to be present with the Lord Which elswhere he concludes to be far better for him then to live here Phil 1.23 To see Christ to be with him to injoy him to have a full communion with him what happinesse shall this be to the soul And this doth death bring the believer to 3. As also to Communion and Fellowship with blessed Saints and Angels Also to Communion with Saints and Angels With them the believer hath Vnion whilest here upon earth Ye are come unto mount Sion saith the Apostle to his believing Heb●ews and unto the City of the living God the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels to the generall Assembly and Church of the first born which are written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect Heb. 12.22 23. Being true believers they were now made members of the Mystical body the Church whereof the one part is upon earth the other in heaven they had union with Saints and Angels being united to them by faith and Love which all Believers are But now by death they come to have a full Communion with them to see them to injoy them to have converse and society with them joyning with that heavenly Quire in singing Halelujahs to him that sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb for Ever and Ever Here is now the good which death bringeth the believer to and putteth him in possession of The thought whereof being seriously set on upon the soul it cannot but work it to a willing receiving and imbracing of such a messenger as bringeth tidings of so great good unto it Anticonsiderations or Objections answered I but it may be said though it be thus with the Soul yet in the mean time what becomes of the poor Body Obj. 1 Though the soul gain by death yet the body looseth Though the soul he a gainer by death yet the Body is a looser by it Though that return to God that gave it yet this goeth to the grave where it is subject to Corruption Which maketh our Saviours case and ours far different As for him he knew that though his Body being severed from his Soul for a time should lye under the power of death yet it should not see corruption So David had foretold it Psal 16.10 Where personating of Christ as Peter expounds it Act. 2.31 He foretelleth what manner of death his should be Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell nor suffer thine Holy one to see corruption And this our Saviour himself well knew who foretold his Disciples how though he were killed yet he should rise again the third day Mat. 16.21 And upon this account he might be more willing to dye But it is otherwise with other of the sons of men That which Paul saith of David that he saw Corruption Act. 13.36 is noe less true of others Be their Bodies never so richly embalmed yet will not that preserve them from putrefaction So much the Psalmist willeth the great men of the world to take notice of Psal 49.6 7. They that trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches None of them saith he can by any meanes redeeme his brother and so not themselves that he should still live for ever and not see corruption Such is the common fate None but must expect to have their bodies lye rotting in the grave in that land of forgetfulnesse as the Psalmist calleth it Psal 88.12 Where as they forget all that was done upon earth so they are forgotten by those they leave behind them Being laid up in the earth there the worm feedeth sweetly on them and they shall be no more remembred as Job faith of the cruell Oppressours Job 24.20 Now this is a thing which flesh and bloud cannot but look upon with great reluctancy the thought whereof may well make it loath to lay down the body upon such tearms To return an answer to this and some other Anticonsiderations or Objections of like nature which men are ready to take up and make use of in this way as discouragements hindring them that they cannot so willingly drink this Cup submit to the stroake of death as

Prophets they foretold what things Jesus was to suffer As St. Peter sets it forth Act. 3.18 These things saith he which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his Prophets that Christ should suffer he hath also fulfilled Thus God reveal●d what before he had decreed Which our Saviour taking notice of he here speaks of his Passion after this manner Non loquitur dubitativè fortasse Pater ●●c vult sed assertativè Calicem quem dedit Ferus Com. in Text. calling it the Cup which his Father had given him Being fully acquainted with his Fathers will he speaks of what he was to suffer non dubitativè sed assertivè as Ferus notes upon it not as a thing doubtfull but certain The Cup which my Father hath given me 5. Yet further God having thus decreed and made known his purpose concerning his Son He delivereth him up he also delivereth him into the hands of those who were to execute that his decree Who was delivered for our offences saith the Apostle speaking of Christ Rom. 4. vers last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 delivered unto death by God his Father as that other forecited Text explains it Rom. 8.32 He spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all This he did when by his all-disposing providence he brought him into the Garden where the Officers should come to apprehend him and so delivered him into their hands and into the hands of other his enemies 6. And lastly having delivered him into their hands he also impowred them for the doing of what they did to him So our Saviour upon his Arraignment tells Pilate Joh. 19.11 Thou couldest have no power against me at all except it were given thee from above That Authority which Pilate had to sit in Judgement and passe sentence upon him and so that power which others had to execute that sentence they had it from above from God In all these they were but Instruments made use of by him in the mean time it was he that had the main stroke in the work he being the chief and principal agent Thus you see how God did concur in the death and Passion of this his Son He not only was privy to it and permitted it but he decreed and determined it and every circumstance in it making known his will concerning it delivering him into the hands of his enemies and giving them power to execute what he had decreed So as putting all these together well may we conclude what our Saviour there asserts concerning this Cup that it was given him by his Father But was it so Quest From hence now arise two Queries two scruples Two questions of great importance calling for satisfaction before we proceed any further If God the Father did thus give this Cup to his Son Christ why then 1. How did the Jewes sin in putting him to death And secondly if they did sin How then is Ged free from being the Author of that sin or from partaking in it Two Questions of great importance I shall endeavour to give a full solution to both To begin with the first Q. 1 If God thus gave this Cup to his Son How the Jewes finned in executing of what God had thus decreed so concurred in this his Passion as we have heard how did the Jewes sin in putting him to death Quaeritur si Pater dedit Christo hunc calicem quid pe●caverunt Judaei qui cum Christo dederunt intulerunt propinaverunt Carthus Enar. in Text. When as they were but Instruments onely reaching this Cup to him God himself being the principal Agent how were they culpable To this let me return a threefold Answer Answ 1 They were voluntary Instruments 1. Distinguishing of Instruments which are of two sorts Meerly Instrumentall or Ministerial Meer Instruments are such as have no activity nor efficacy in themselves for the doing of any thing further than as they are acted by another Such is the Axe in the hand of the Carpenter and the Sword in the hand of the Souldier But such were not the Jewes they were not meer but Ministerial Instruments voluntary Agents doing what herein they did not by any coaction or constraint but freely willingly Impii dum peccant non sunt propr●è Instrumenta Dei mota sc● sine interno principio motus sed metaphoricè ita sc mota ut liberè moveant semetipsa D. Ames Bellarm. Enerv. t. 4. c. 2. Hominis voluntas est quodammodo Dei Instrumentum non purum merum sed liberum Alvartz Disput 68.5 Such an Instrument is man in the hands of God Being a reasonable creature indued with understanding and will what he doth he doth it freely there being no violence in any thing offered to his will True it is the will of man also is Gods Instrument but such an Instrument not a meer but a Ministerial a free and voluntary Instrument Being moved it moveth of it self not being subject to coaction or compulsion Voluntas si cogeretur desinit esse voluntas If the will could be compelled it should cease to be a will it ever acteth freely And so did the Jewes in putting the Lord of life to death they were not meer Instruments but voluntary Agents and so cannot be excusable in what they did 2. The Jewes were culpable in acting of that which God had decreed and determined Answ 2 inafmuch as they had no warrant They had no warrant for what they did no rule for what they did Nay they went against the rule What is the Rule by which all the actions of men ought to be squared Why Gods secret will no warrant for man it is the Revealed will of God As for his secret will that is his own rule not Mans. Secret things belong unto the Lord but revealed things to us and to our children Deut. 29.29 Obj. Why Obj. but was not this will of God revealed to them Whether this will of God was revealed to the Jewes that Christ should die Caiaphas the High-priest by a Prophetical Spirit tells it them that it was expedient for them that one man should die for the people Joh. 11.50 so prophesying that Jesus should die for that Nation and not for that Nation only but that he might gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad as it there followeth vers 51 52. A. Yet had they no word of command to put him to death But suppose they had understood this which yet Caiaphas himself did not This spake he not of himself saith that 51. vers God only made use of his Tongue to utter an Oracle which he knew not the true sense and mystery of yet could not this have been an excuse for them inasmuch as they had no direction no word of command from God to put their hands to this work This it is which is mans warrant for all his actions without which actions which in themselves seem to

Apostle himself who tells his Corinthians 2 Cor. 1.8 that by the trouble which hapned to him in Asia he was pressed out of measure beyond strength 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And so falleth it out sometimes with other of the Saints There is a great disproportion betwixt their burden and their strength the one great the other small Now how shall a Christian be able to bear up in such a case so to fortifie and strengthen his spirit as that he may not faint in the day of Adversity A. A great and difficult work I confesse A. Some soveraign Cordials prescribed yet through the help of Grace attainable To help you therein let me prescribe unto you some Soveraign Cordials some spiritual Consolations which may be and being taken into the soul will be very usefull for this purpose for the supporting and bearing up the spirit under whatever affliction this poor life of ours upon earth is subject to These Consolations are many as also our Afflictions are I shall single out some of the choisest Which I shall desire you carefully to lay up Happily at the present you may have no great need of them but how soon you may you know not And therefore lay them up in the Closet of your hearts They are not like the Apothecaries Drugs some of which being long kept lose their vertue The day may come when some one of them may requite all your care and pains In the First place then look at Afflictions themselves Direct 1 Lo●k at Afflictions themselves wherein consider The Israelites in the Wildernesse were cured of the stinging of the Serpents by looking upon the Serpent And so may a Christian by looking upon Afflictions strengthen his heart against them The Hony of the Bee is a medicine for the Sting Afflictions though never so bitter yet will afford somewhat that may serve to allay that bitternesse In them cast we an eye upon 4 or 5 particulars which may be usefull this way The Quality Quantity Continuance Commonnesse Issue of them 1. Consid 1 The Quality of them Here we shall finde that in themselves they are a Curse The Quality of them as qualified by Christ Such are all Afflictions all fruits and consequents of sin and punishments of it every one being an Appendix to that first Curse The day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death surely die Gen. 2.17 that is be subject to manifold evils as in soul so in body tending to death to the destruction of both But by through Christ their nature is now altered the Curse is taken away That was one and the chief of those Ingredients which was put into this Cup which was given to Christ to drink and which he did drink upon the Crosse He being there made subject to that accursed death that he might free us from the Curse of death and of all its retinue Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a curse for us Gal. 3.13 So that what the Apostle saith of Death it self 1 Cor. 15.55 O Death where is thy sting We may say the same of whatever afflictions and crosses can befall the children of God upon earth their Sting is gone Surely the bitternesse of death is past saith Agag having as he thought armed himself against the fear of it which is the greatest part of Deaths bitternesse 1 Sam. 15.32 And the like may all true Believers say concerning all their Afflictions and sufferings The bitternesse of them is past as to them the Curse being taken away from them by Christ which is indeed the chief part of their bitternesse Even as Moses altered the quality of those waters of Marah took away the bitternesse of them by casting into them that Tree which the Lord had shewed him so hath Christ taken away the bitternesse of all the waters of Affliction by the Tree of his Crosse to which he was designed by his Father The bitternesse of Afflictions as I said was the Curse going along with them they being in themselves all tokens of wrath But now that bitternesse that Curse is taken away So as to true Believers they are no longer tokens of wrath but rather Love-tokens Whom the Lord loveth he correcteth Prov. 3.12 chasteneth Heb. 12.6 Yea Pledges of Adoption So it there followeth Heb. 12.6 7. He scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth If ye endure chastenings God dealeth with you as with Sons Not to know what Chastisements mean it is no good sign If ye be without Chastisement whereof all all Gods children are partakers then are ye bastards and not sons so it there followeth v. 8. For God to exercise his Children with afflictions it is a sign that he owns them for his Children and a demonstration of his fatherly love to them and care of them Thus do these Cups which Gods people drink of they come from the hand of a Father not of a Judge being to them not satisfactory but castigatory punishments Not properly punishments but Chastisements Not tokens of wrath but Love-tokens A usefull and comfortable meditation for the soul of a Believer to feed upon in the midst of whatever distresse What is it that maketh these Cups so bitter unto the soul Why when it looketh upon them as they are in themselves as Cups of divine wrath and fury Now no wonder if it shake and tremble at the drinking of them So long as a man apprehends these Arrowes which he feeleth to stick fast in him to be poysoned Arrowes shot at him by the hand of a revenging God now no wonder if the soul have no peace no quiet But look upon them as they are changed and altered by Christ having the Curse taken away and as they are tokens and pledges of Adoption which being sanctified they certainly are the soul being perswaded of this this will be as a soveraign Cordial to it to keep it from fainting Q. Q. Yea but you will say how shall a man know this How Chastisements may be known from Punishments that they are so to him that they are only Chastisements and not Punishments and that they are tokens of love and pledges of Adoption When as they are tokens of wrath to some how shall I know that they are not so to me A. A. To this I have in part hinted an Answere already Take it a little more fully yet briefly 1. How do you drink this Cup how doe ye suffer these afflictions Doe you quietly patiently By the manner of suffering them contentedly submit to the hand of God in them If so now hear what the Apostle saith to you in that Text even now cited Heb. 12.7 If ye indure chastning God dealeth with you as with Sons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not if you suffer afflictions for so do the worst of men But if ye endure chastening receive Afflictions from the hands of God as Chastisements kissing the Rod humbling your selves under the hand of God as dutifull Children under

is free from his Master so Job describes the state of the dead Job 3.17 18 19. Thus doth God our heavenly Father make use of this as his Handkerchief to wipe away all tears from the eyes of his Children as we have it Rev. 7. last After death there shall be to them no more death nor crying neither shall there be any more pain as that other Text hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ae chylus Rev. 21.4 Death lets out the Christian as it doth all men from the sense and fear of all temporall Evils 2. Yea it freeth him from what is far worse from Spiritual Evils Spirituall giving a Quietus est as to the Body so to the Soul Freeing him 1. From Sin He that is dead is freed from sin Rom. From sin 6.7 So it is indeed with a mortified soul a regenerate person that is spiritually dead dead to sin which the Apostle there chiefly aymeth at he is freed from it viz. from the guilt and power of it But this is but a partiall freedome which is compleated and perfected in and by naturall death by which the Believer obtaineth a perfect freedome Being hereby so freed from sin as in this life he cannot be Freed from the committing of it From the inbeing of it From the beholding of it From the committing of it 1. From the committing of it which while he is here he is not cannot be However as the Apostle hath it in the verse there foregoing Rom. 6.6 the old man being crucified with Christ the Body of sin is so far destroyed that henceforth the regenerate person doth not serve sin he having thus suffered in the flesh ceaseth from sin as St. Peter hath it 1 Pet. 4.1 Corruption being in measure mortified he doth not now sin as before he did so as to make a custome and practise of it yet through weaknesse he doth commit some acts of sin and that daily There is not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not Eccl. 7.20 But Death giveth the Believer a perfect discharge so as thenceforth he sinneth no more He that hath entred into his rest saith the Apostle he also hath ceased from his own works as God did from his Heb. 4.10 God upon the seventh day kept a Sabbath resting from his works of Creation such as he had wrought upon the six dayes before So doth the Believer in death he entereth into his rest that Eternall Sabbatisme where he ceaseth from his own works such works as he here wrought in the flesh specially from the works of the flesh sinfull works Opera nostra vocantur labores curas vocationis nostrae tùm opera carnis noturae vitiosae peccatae quae vere sunt nestra quia â nobis fiunt nec probantur Dec c. Pareus Com. ad loc which as Pareus there noteth upon it may most properly be called a mans own works inasmuch as he doth them of himself without any approbation or allowance from God From these works the Godly man after death wholly ceaseth Which the wicked man doth not who being in Hell ceaseth not to blaspheme God Like as the followers of the Beast are said to doe upon the powring out of the Vials They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains c. Rev. 16.9 11 21. so doe the damned in hell because of their torments they blaspheme God and commit other sins such as that their state is capable of Which whether they be formally and properly sins in them not lying under a Law as here they did I shall not dispute but Materially I am sure they are being the same sinfull acts which here they committed But from such acts shall the believer now cease so as never more to commit any sin Noe nor yet to be in any possibility of committing it Such a state doth death bring Gods Children to a state in this respect far more happy then that wherein our first Parents were in Paradise There they were free from sin but not from a possibility of sinning which the event shewed But Gods Saints by death are freed from this being hereby put into an impeccable state and so confirmed as that they shall never more have any will or inclination to that which is evill Thus are they freed from the acting the Committing of sin 2. From the inbeing of it And so Secondly from the Inbeing the Indwelling of it So it is that the best of Saints while they are here they have sin dwelling in them It is no more I that do it saith Paul but sin that dwelleth in me Rom. 7.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thereby meaning Innolita illa pridem peccandi consuetndo Grot. Annot. ad loc not that Habit and Custome of sin which is in an unregenerate person as Grotius expounds it but that Naturall Corruption which still cleaveth to the Regenerate This he found still dwelling in him And so it will in the most sanctyfied soul upon earth And there dwelling it will also be warring seeming sometimes to Conquer So also that Apostle there out of his own experience complaines v. 23. I find another Law in my members warring against the Law of my mind and bringing me into Captivity to the Law of sin which is in my members Such a conflict there is and will be in the best of Saints Corruption striving against Grace Yea and sometimes prevailing against it Even as a strong tide carrieth the ship against the stroke of the Rowers Which cannot but create a great deal of trouble to the Soul So it did to that blessed Apostle who upon this account looked upon himself as a miserable man crying out in the next verse verse 24. O wretched man that I am who shal deliver me from the Body of this death That Body of sin as he elswere calleth it Rom. 6.6 which he found living in him was to him a Body of death making his life miserable to him So would it be to a Child-bearing woman to have the Child lye dead within her rotting and putrifying in her womb whereof notwithstanding all indeavours used she cannot be delivered Or to a living man to be tyed to a dead karkesse Even so is it with a regenerate person whilest he is here the living and the dead are tyed together Grace and Gorruption And so tyed together as nothing can part them but death Like as it was with that fretting leprosie of which we read Lev. 14.45 which having eaten into the Wals there was no cure for it but by pulling down the house Even so is it with this Leprosie of sin having seized upon the soul and eaten into all the powers and faculties of Soul and Body there is no way to be freed from it but by death And this will do it The house being pulled down the Leprosie ceased And so doth sin in death The dissolution of the Body is the Absolution of the Soul freeing it from this

the promises and assurances which we meet with in Scripture to this purpose The Lord preserveth the strangers he relieveth the fatherless and Widows Psal 146.9 A father of the Fatherless and a Judg of the Widow is God in his holy habitation Psal 68.5 Leave thy Fatherless children I will preserve them alive and let thy Widows trust in me Jer. 49.11 In thee the fatherless findeth Mercy Hos 14.3 Thus when Father and Mother forsake their Children as in death they do now as David speaketh it of himself Psal 27.10 The Lord taketh them up exercising a speciall providence over such This will he doe being left a God in Covenant with them And therefore no just ground why this consideration should so far prevaile with any that are in Covenant with God as to make them unwilling to dye upon this account which too often they are In this obey God and then trust in him As for that other part of this Allegation p●rting with friends and the loss of their society Friends upon earth not to be compared with those in heaven it cannot sway much Alas what are thy friends upon earth which thou art to leave in comparison of thy friends in heaven whom thou art to go to viz God and Jesus Christ his blessed Saints and Angels with whom thou shalt now have an everlasting Communion Besides thy friends and thou are not by this means for ever parted It is but for a time a little time Though thou shalt not return to them as David said of his Childe 2 Sam. 12.23 yet they shall come to thee meeting where you shall never part But saith another I am not unwilling to dye upon any such account Obj. 3 Dying without issue to continue the name but rather the contrary I have no issue to leave behind me which might succeed in my place inherit my estate or continue my name This was the thing which was conceived to have wrought so upon that good King Hezekiah that made the message which the Prophet brought him concerning his death so unwelcome unto him so as he wept when he heard it of which we heard before this he did as having yet no issue to succeede him to bear his name and sit upon his throne after him And the like consideration oft times after the like manner worketh upon others But was not this also the case of our blessed Saviour here A. The case of our blessed Saviour When as he was now to leave the world being a single person he had no issue of his Body none to succeed him to bear his name his naturall name after him True indeed as for his spiritual name he left enough to bear that viz. his Apostles and Ministers whose office it is to bear the name of Christ as he tels Ananias that Paul should doe Act. 9.15 By preaching and publishing of his Gospell But as for his natu●al name that dyed with him he leaving neither Child nor yet Brother to succeed him Yet was this consideration of no avail with him Notwithstanding this he knew that his name should be continued upon earth and withall that he should have a better name in heaven even that name above every name as it is called The good name of Gods Saints living when they are dead Phil. 2.9 And the like may all Gods Saints assure themselves of Having by their Godly and examplary life and conversation got them a good name whilest they were alive that shall be to them a precious ointment as the Preacher makes the comparison Eccl. 7.1 preserving and perfuming their memories when they are dead Such is the name of Jesus Christ Thy name is as ointment poured forth saith the Spouse of her well-beloved Cant. 1.3 And such shall the names of his Saints be When the name of the wicked shall rot rot above ground as their bodies do under it they having left nothing but a stinking savour behind them the memory of the just shal be blessed Prov. 10.7 But however They have in heaven a name better then of Sons and Daughters though they be forgotten upon earth yet they shall have a name in Heaven Yea and that a name above every name above whatever name upon earth A name better then of Sons and Daughters an everlasting name that shall not be cut off as the Lord promiseth his people Isai 56.5 As for the name of Sons and Daughters a name by issue continued it often faileth seldome lasteth to many generations But the name of Gods people is an everlasting name being a name written in heaven As for those names which are written in the earth which the names of worldlings are they are written in the dust and so shall perish But so shall not the names of Gods Saints which are written in heaven written in the book of life Having then assurance of such a name let not them be over ambitious of any other I but saith another Obj. I am not unwilling to dye but I would not dye yet And why not yet Why Being in the flower of age as yet I am in the flower of my age having lived but a little while upon earth so as to me death seemeth untimely A. A. T●e case of our Saviour And was it not thus also with thy blessed Saviour was not he cut off in the flower of his age about the thirty third or thirty fourth year of his life And yet doth not he look upon his death as untimely now that the hour appointed by his Father was come Though thy time be not come yet if Gods be do not think it untimely I Obj. 5 But I might live to do God a great deal of service upon earth Desire of doing more service to God and upon that account I desire a longer date of daies And might not thy Saviour have done so too A. Yet when his Father calleth him from his work So might Christ have done he is not unwilling to leave off Repl Repl. I but he knew that his work was done I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do He knew that his work was finished saith he Joh. 17.4 And upon that account was he so willing to be gone But so cannot I say A. A. But this thou maiest say If God calleth thee hence So is ours when God calleth us from it the work which he hath given thee to do is finished though not the work which thou wouldest do to him And therefore be not averse to his call He who setteth thee to do his work knoweth how long it is fit for thee to be at it And if he cal thee off by that time thou hast wrought a few houres in his vineyard and giveth thee thy peny thou hast no cause to repine at it or be unwilling with it I Obj. 6 but saith another I know not how bitter how painfull The bitterness of Death my death may be As for death it self considering the miseries