Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	conscience_n	life_n	sin_n	4,202	5	4.3704	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26896	The Christians converse with God, or, The insufficiency and uncertainty of human friendship and the improvement of solitude in converse with God with some of the author's breathings after him / by Richard Baxter ...	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Divine life.	1693 (1693)	Wing B1222; ESTC R14884	71,442	184

Friends on Earth is nothing to his Love O how plainly hath he declared that he loveth me in the strange condescention the Sufferings Death and Intercession of his Son What Love hath he declared in the communications of his Spirit and the operations of his Grace and the near Relations into which he brought me What Love hath he declared in the course of his Providences In many and wonderful preservations and deliverances In the conduct of his Wisdom and in a Life of Mercies What Love appeareth in his precious Promises and the glorious Provisions he hath made for me with himself to all eternity O my Lord I am ashamed that thy Love is so much lost that it hath no better return from an unkind unthankful heart that I am not more delighted in thee and swallowed up in the contemplation of thy Love I can contentedly let go the Society and converse of all others for the converse of some one bosom Friend that is dearer to me than they all as Ionathan to David And can I not much more be sati●fied in thee alone and let go all if I m●y continue with thee My very Dog will gladly forsake all the Town and all Persons in the world to follow me alone And have I not yet found so much Love and Goo● ness in thee my dear and blessed God as to be willing to converse alone with thee All men delight most in the company of those that love them best They choose not to converse with the Multitude when they look for solace and content but with their dearest Friends And should any be so dear to me as God O were not thy Love unworthily neglecte● by an unthankful heart I should never ●e so unsatisfied in thee but should take up or seek my comforts in thee I should then say Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none on Earth that I desire besides thee Though not only my Friends but my Flesh and Heart themselves should fail me it is thou that will still be the strength of my heart and my portion forever it is good therefore for me to draw near to thee how far soever I am from Man O let me there dwell where thou wilt not be strange for thy loving kindness is better than life Instead of the multitude of my ●u●moiling thoughts let me be taken up in the believing views of thy reconciled Face and in the glad Attendance upon thy Grace or at least in the multitude of my thoughts within me let thy celestial comforts delight my soul. Let me dwell as in thy Family and when I awake let me be still with thee Let me go no whither but where I am still following thee Let me ●o nothing but thy work nor serve any other but when I may truly call it a serving thee Let me hear nothing ●ut thy voice and let me know thy voice by whatever instrument thou shalt speak Let me never see a●y thing but thy self and the glass that representeth thee and the Books in in which I may read thy Name And let me never play with the out-side and gaze on Words and Letters as insignificant and not observe ●hy Name which is the sense Whether it be in company or in solitude let me be continually with thee and do thou vouchs●fe to hold me by my right hand And guide me with thy counsel and afterwards receive me unto thy Glory Psal. 73.23 24 25 26 28. Psal. 63.3 4. If God be with me I am not alone for I shall be with him whose Love is of greater use and benefit to me than the love of all my Friends in the world Their Love may perhaps be some little comfort as it floweth from His But it is His Love by which and upon which I Live It is His Love that gives me Life and Time and Health and Food and Preservation that gives me Books gives me books and giveth me understanding that giveth me provision and saveth me from turning it to pernicious fleshliness and excess that giveth me even my friends themselves and saveth me from that abuse which might make them to me worse than enemies The Sun the Earth the Air is not so useful or needful to me as his Love The Love of all my friends cannot make me well when I am sick It cannot forgive the smallest of my sins nor yet assure me of Gods forgiveness It cannot heal the maladies of my soul nor give a solid lasting peace to the conscience which is troubled If all my friends stand about me when I am dying they cannot take away the fears of death nor secure my passage to everlasting life Death will be Death still and danger will be danger when all my friends have done their best But my Almighty friend is All sufficient He can prevent my sickness or rebuke and cure it or make it so good to me that I shall thank him for it He can blot out my transgressions and forgive all my sin and justifie me when the world and my conscience do condemn me He can teach me to believe to repent to pray to hope to suffer and to overcome He can quiet my soul in the midst of trouble and give me a well grounded everlasting peace and a joy which no man can take from me He can deliver me from all the corruptions and distempers of my froward heart and ease me and secure me in the troublesom war which is daily managed in my breast He can make it as easie a thing to dye as to lye down and take my rest when I am weary or to undress me at night and go to bed He can teach Death to lay by its terrible aspect and to speak with a mild and comfortable voice to bring me the joyfullest tydings that ever came unto my ears and to preach to me the last and sweetest Sermon even the same that our ●aviour preached on the Cross Luke 23.43 Verily I say unto thee To day shalt thou be with Christ in Paradise And is this the difference between the Love of man and of God And yet do I lament the loss of man And yet am I so backward to converse with God and to be satisfied in his Love alone Ah my God how justly mayest thou withhold that Love which I thus undervalue and refuse that converse which I have first refused and turn me over to man to silly man to sinful man whose converse I so much desire till I have learnt by dear experience the difference between man and God and between an Earthly and an Heavenly friend Alas have I not tryed it oft enough to have known it better before this day Have ● not 〈◊〉 enough sound what man is in a time of tryal Have I not been tol● it over and over and told it to the quick by deceitful friends by self-seeking friends by mutable erroneous deceived scandalous backslding friends by proud and selfconceited friends by passionate quarrelsom vexatious friends by self-grieved troubled

yet much short of what I expect he should advance me to as long as my Friends no more forsake me It is not long since I found my self in a low if not a doubting case because I had so few Enemies and so little Sufferings for the Cause of Christ though I had much of other sorts And now that doubt is removed by the multitude of Furies which God hath let loose against me But yet methinks while my Friends themselves are so friendly to me I am much short of what I think I must at last attain to BUT let us look further in the Text and see what is the Cause of the failing and forsaking Christ in the Disciples and what it is that they betake themselves to when they leave him Ye shall be scattered every Man to his Own Self-Denyal was not perfect in them selfishness therefore in this hour of temptation did prevail They had before forsaken all to follow Christ they had left their Parents their Families their Estates their Trades to be his Disciples But though they believed him to be the Christ yet they dreamt of a visible Kingdom and did all this with too carnal Expectations of being great men on Earth when Christ should begin his Reign And therefore when they saw his apprehension and ignominious suffering and thought now they were frustrate of their hopes they seem to repent that they had followed him though not by Apostacy and an habitual or plenary change of mind● yet by a sudden passionate frightful apprehension which vanished when grace performed its part They now began to think that they had lives of their Own to save and families of their Own to mind and business of their Own to do They had before forsaken their private Interests and Affairs and gathered themselves to Jesus Christ and lived in Communion with him and one another But now they return to their Trades and Callings and are scattered every Man to his own Selfishness is the great Enemy of all Societies of all Fidelity and Friendship There is no trusting that person in whom it is predominant And the Remnants of it where it doth not Reign do make men walk unevenly and unstedfastly towards God and men They will certainly deny both God and their Friends in a time of tryal who are not able to deny themselves Or rather he never was a real Friend to any that is predominantly selfish They have alway some interest of their Own which their Friend must needs contradict or is insufficient to satisfie Their Houses their Lands their Moneys their Children their Honour or something which they call their Own will be frequently the matter of contention and are so near them that they can for the sake of these cast off the nearest Friend Contract no special friendship with a selfish man Nor put no confidence in him whatever Friendship he may profess He is so confined to himself that he hath no true love to spare for others If he seem to love a Friend it is not as a Friend but as a Servant or at best as a Benefactor He loveth you for himself as he loveth his Mony or Horse or House because you may be serviceable to him Or as a Horse or Dog doth love his Keeper for feeding him And therefore when your Provender is gone his Love is gone when you have done feeding him he hath done loving you When you have no more for him he hath no more for you Object But some will say it is not the falseness of my Friend that I lament but the separation or the loss of one that was most faithful I have found the deceitfulness of ordinary Friends and therefore the more highly pri●e those few that are sincere I had but one true friend among abundance of self-seekers and that one is dead or taken from me and I am l●ft as in a Wilderness having no mortal man that I can trust or take much comfort in Answ. Is this your case I pray you answer these few Questions and suffer the truth to have its proper work upon your mind Quest. 1. Who was it that deprived you of your Friend Was it not God Did not he that gave him you take him from you Was it not his Lord and Owner that call'd him home And can God do any thing injuriously or amiss will you not give him leave to do as he list with his own Dare you think that there was wanting either Wisdom or Goodness Iustice or Mercy in God's disposal of your Friend Or will you ever have Rest if you cannot have Rest in the Will of God 2. How know you what sin your Friend might have fallen into if he had lived as long as you would have him You 'll say that God could have preserved him from sin It 's true But God preserveth sapientially by means as well as omnipotentially And sometime he seeth that the temptations to that person are like to be so strong and his Corruption like to get such advantage and that no means is so fit as Death it self for his preservation And if God had permitted your Friend by temptation to have fallen into some scandalous sin or course of evil or into errors or false ways would it not have been much worse than Death to him and you God might have suffered your Friend that was so faithful to have been sifted and shaken as Peter was and to have denied his Lord and to have seemed in your own Eyes as odious as he before seemed amiable 3. How know you what unkindness to your self your dearest friend might have been guilty of Alas there is greater frailty and inconstancy in man than you are aware of And there are sadder roots of Corruption unmortified that may spring up into bitter Fruits than most of us ever discover in our selves Many a Mother hath her heart broken by the unnaturalness of such a Child or the unkindness of such a Husband as if they had died before would have been lamented by her with great impatience and excess How confident soever you may be of the future Fidelity of your Friend you little know what tryal might have discovered Many a one hath failed God and Man that once were as confident of themselves as ever you were of your Friend And which of us see not reason to be distrustful of our selves And can we know another better than our selves or promise more concerning him 4. How know you what great calamity might have befallen your Friend if he had lived as long as you desired When the Righteous seem to men to perish and merciful Men are taken away it is from the evil to come that they are taken Isa. 57.1 How many of my Friends have I lamented as if they had dyed unseasonably concerning whom some following Providence quickly shewed me that it would have been a grievous misery to them to have lived longer Little know you what Calamities were imminent on his Person his Family Kindred Neighbours Country that

to draw the most guilty miserable sinner to seek to God and sue for mercy But yet the sweetest converse is for children for those that have some assurance that they are children But perhaps you will say that this is not easily attained How shall we know that he is our friend In brief I answer If you are unfeignedly friends to God it is because he first loved you Prefer him before all other friends and all the wealth and vanity of the world Provoke him not by wilfulness or neglect use him as your best friend and abuse him not by disobedience or ingratitude own him before all at the dearest rates whenever you are called to it Desire his presence Lament his absence Love him from the bottom of your hearts Think not hardly of him Suspect him not Misunderstand him not Hearken not to his enemies Receive not any false reports against him Take him to be really better for you than all the world Do these and doubt not but you are friends with God God with you In a word Be but heartily willing to be friends to God and that God should be your cheifest friend and you may be sure that it is so indeed and that you are and have what you desire And then how delightfully may you converse with God! Direct 2. Wholly depend on the Mediation of Christ the great Reconciler Without him there is no coming near to God But in his Beloved you shall be accepted Whatever fear of his displeasure shall surprize you fly presently for safety unto Christ whatever guilt shall look you in the face commit your self and cause to Christ and desire him to answer for you When the doors of mercy seem to be shut up against you fly to him that bears the keyes and can at any time open to you and let you in Desire him to answer for you to God to your consciences and against all accusers By him alone you may boldly and comfortably converse with God But God will not know you out of him Direct 3. Take heed of bringing particular Guilt into the presence of God if you would have sweet communion with him Christ himself never reconciled God to sin And the sinner and sin are so nearly related that for all the death of Christ you shall feel that iniquity dwelleth not with God but he hateth the works of it and the foolish shall not stand in his sight and that if you will presume to sin because you are his Children be sure your sin will find you out O what fears what shame what self-abhorrence and self-revenge will guilt raise in a penitent soul when it comes into the light of the presence of the Lord it will unavoidable abate your boldness and your comforts When you should be sweetly delighting in his pleased face and promised Glory you will be be fooling your selves for your former sin and ready even to tear your flesh to think that ever you should do as you have done and use him as you would not have used a common friend and cast your selves upon his wrath But an innocent soul or pacified conscience doth walk with God in quietness and delight without those frowns and fears which are a taste of Hell to others Direct 4. If you would comfortably converse with God be sure that you bring not Idols in your hearts Take heed of inordinate affection to any Creature Let all things else be nothing to you that you may have none to take up your thoughts but God Let your Minds be further seperate from them than your Bodies Bring not into solitude or to contemplation a proud or lustful or covetous mind It much more concerneth thee what Heart thou bringest that what Place thou art in or what work thou art upon A mind that is drowned in ambition sensuality or passion will scarce find God any sooner in any wilderness than in a croud unless he be there returning from those sins to God where-ever he seeth him God will not own and be familiar with so foul a soul. Seneca could say Quid prodest totious regionis silentium si affectus fremunt What good doth the silence of all the Country do thee if thou have the noise of raging affections within And Gregory saith Qui corpore remotus vivit c. He that in body is far enough from the tumult of human conversation is not in solitude if he busie himself with earthly cogitations and desires and he is not in the City that is not troubled with the tumult of worldly cares or fears though he be pressed with the popular crouds Bring not thy house or land or credit or carnal friend along with thee in thy heart if thou desire and expect to walk in Heaven and to converse with God Direct 5. Live still by Faith Let Faith lay Heaven and Earth as it were together Look not at God as if he were far off set him aways as before you even as at your right hand Psal. 16.8 Be still with him when you awake Psal. 139.18 In the morning thank him for your rest and deliver up your self to his conduct and service for that day Go forth as with him and to do his work Do every action with the Command of God and the promise of Heaven before your eyes and upon your hearts Live as those that have incomparably more to do with God and Heaven than all this world That you may say with David Psal. 37.25 26. as aforecited Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none on Earth that I desire besides thee And with Paul Phil. 1.21 To me to Live is Christ and to Dye is gain You must shut up the eye of sense save as subordinate to Faith and live by Faith upon a God a Christ and a World that is unseen if you would know by experience what it is to be above the brutish life of sensualists and to Converse with God O Christian if thou hadst rightly learned this blessed life what a high and noble soul-conversation wouldst thou have How easily wouldst thou spare and how little wouldst thou miss the favour of the greatest the presence of any worldly comfort City or Solitude would be much alike to thee saving that the place and state would be best to thee where thou hast the greatest help and freedom to converse with God Thou wouldst say of human society as Seneca Vnus pro populo mihi est populus pro uno Mihi satis est unus satis est nullus One is instead of all the people to me and the people as one One is enough for me and none is enough Thus being taken up with God thou mightest live in prison as at liberty and in a wilderness as in a City and in a place of banishment as in thy native Land For the Earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof and everywhere thou mayest find him and converse with him and lift up pure hands unto him In every place thou