Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	covenant_n	law_n	sin_n	4,869	5	5.4906	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66686	The mysterie of God, concerning the whole creation, mankinde To be made known to every man and vvoman, after seaven dispensations and seasons of time are passed over. According to the councell of God, revealed to his servants. By Gerrard Winstanley.	Winstanley, Gerrard, b. 1609.	1649 (1649)	Wing W3048; ESTC R218568	33,974	70

Master it wil be bitternesse in the belly as it was to him for the jealousie of the Lord shall burn hot against thee so that thou shalt cal upon the mountains to cover thee from his presence and wish that thou hadst never been born and all the sorrowes spoke of in Scripture shall overtake thee and such presumptuous sinners as thou art and thy joy shall be turned into mourning and thou shalt be cast into the everlasting fire which God hath prepared and appointed for the Serpent and his seed or for the Devil and his Angels and while thou art in it the worm of thy gnawing conscience shall never die nor the fire of Gods wrath or the sense of his anger upon thee shall never goe out and shall be a pain more intollerable then the plucking out of the right eye or the cutting off the right hand But now lest scruples should arise in others as though I writ contradictions or as though I made God changeable First to bid a sinner depart into everlasting fire and yet afterwards take him out again Now to give answer hereunto First know that this was and is the great mystery worke and counsell of God after he had made a visible creature in a pure Being distinct from himselfe his purpose being to destroy all the inventions and actings of this creature that did spring up and arise from the creatures Being as a creature and not from Gods acting in the creature and God foresaw that the first buddings of this creature would be a desire to maintain it Selfe or Creature-Being and so cast God off therefore God made him under a Law that if his creature did consent to that selfish desire he should die if not he should have lived a pure Being still though distinct from God yet under his protection as a Creator Now every thing that is in or about the Creature that is of God shall stand but every thing that is in or from the creature that is not of God shall fall and perish Therefore to proceed a little further that this truth may shine in its own beauty God does teach me to see that every action or dispensation of God is called a Spirit or an Angel and every action or aspiring principle that rise up in Adam which led him to disobedience it pleased God that it should have a Being and likewise be called a Spirit but it is a dead Being and a Spirit of darknesse quite opposite to the God of Light and Life and God gives it the name of Serpent Dragon Murtherer wicked one and unclean Spirit because it twisted it selfe into the middle of the Creation and was an aspiring to be like God but God did not make the nature of it for it was the first fruits of a created Being without God Now God is pleased to make known himself in divers dispensations in the carrying on of this great work of his As first he declares himselfe by way of a Law In the day thou eatest thou shalt die now this Law though it was holy just and good yet it was a killing word or the killing Letter for it took hold of Adams disobedience and flew him so that word Thou shalt dye because flesh for all flesh broke the Covenant in Adam and all flesh died and all humane flesh was cast under that dispensation of death and the more we stirre to climb up to God by the workes of the Law the more we intangle our selves in death for by the workes of the law no flesh shall be saved And here is two murtherers which mankind is to be delivered from before it can live again First this word of the Law which is holy just and good which ties the creature onely to acknowledge the Being of God and no other when the creature began to minde another Being this righteous Law killed him for it is not the King but the Kings Law that hangs an offender and if the rigorous Law stands still in force no flesh can be saved because every man and woman are selfish and minds a sinfull Being opposite to God therefore the condemning power of the Law is to be taken away The second murtherer is the Creatures own invention or aspiring spirit to be as God knowing good and evill or to maintain Selfe and this killed the creature and threw him under the curse of the righteous Law because this would be a Being equall with God and acknowledge another being besides God whereas there is no other righteous Being to be acknowledged but onely God or what is in God or God in it Now in the first discovery of Gods counsell and purpose to the Creature if he be redeemed this compound murtherer must be cast out of heaven by a strong hand and out-stretched arm of God so that the Being of God might be preserved the Law of God kept pure and yet fallen man redeemed As first this dispensation of death Do this and live Do not this and die must be cast out of Heaven that is out of Gods hand and God must not in the redeeming of him appeare to the creature under that dispensation for if he doe it will still hold the lost creature under death and bondage and if the creature were made pure again and left still to deale with the Law by his created strength onely as Adam was truly he would fall again for a meere created strength being distinct from God the Creator would fall again for no Being can stand pure but such a created Being as God is pleased to dwell bodily in for every opposite Being will seek to advance it selfe Therefore if God redeem his creature from death he must appeare absolutely a God of love under no other dispensation but the law of love doing all in and for the creature and thus in the Gospel he does for this is the Spirit that quickens and saves the creature and when this Word of Love was made Flesh it was the first discovery from God to assure the creature of his redemption from death and this was when Jesus Christ or God was manifested in flesh working doing suffering all things for the creature pardoning accepting and taking the creature freely into communion with God by Gods own power and for his own name sake promising never to remember disobediences any more but would blot out that hand-writing the Law of Doe and live not doe and die And now the killing letter or murderer is cast out of heaven out of Gods hand God will never have that to stand between him and his creature any more but hee himselfe who is the Law of Love even Love it selfe will dwell and rule a King of Righteousnesse in the Creature and be the Creatures wisdome strength life joy and comfort and his All in All But secondly the other murderer which is worse then this must be cast out of heaven too or else the creature cannot live and that is the Serpent or this

altar and cryed in the same manner to him that had the sickle as you may read By a white cloud I conceive is meant the City Sion or spouse of Christ that is arayed in pure and white in whom there is no spot for she is perfectly redeemed by him that sate upō this white cloud is ment the whole anointing or the great manifestation of God in one person Jesus Christ And the severall Angels that cryed one after another are severall dispensations or discoveries of God that proceed from Christ at several times and seasons Therefore the City being made white now the manifestations of Gods love begin to appeare towards the earth or nations which entred not into the City now the time and season requires that the sickle of Christ should be thrust into the earth that is that the brightness of Jesus Christ the Lamb might appear and shine forth upon the Nations also as it did shine upon the City And we see the conclusion in the 20. verse And the wine-presse was troden without the City mind that and blood came out of the wine-presse even unto the horse bridles c. This phrase I conceive points out the utter ruine and destruction of the Serpent that held the earth or Nations which were without the City in bondage But now the anointing or the great dispensation of the love of God hath reaped the earth as well as the City and destroyed the Serpent there as well as in the City the wine-presse or the bruising of the Serpents head and shedding his blood was without the City and so both City and Country City and whole earth of mankind is made a pure River of the water of life which proceeds from the throne of God and the Lamb But here arise 3. scruples First is not God changeable saith one In saying go ye cursed into everlasting fire and yet afterwards takes them out againe I answer this fire is the dispensation of Gods wrath and it is everlasting without end to the Serpent it was prepared for him and his Angels and though God bid the unbeleevers depart into it yet he did not say you shall lie there and never be redeemed But the scruple lies in the word everlasting which I as well as you have taken it to be a misery without end to the creature But I answer that in scripture phrase every dispensation of God was called an everlasting time as in the day of Moses every service in the Temple that Aaron was to perform God said it should be a Statute and a Law for ever which notwithstanding ended to be a Law in the beginning of the next dispensation or the appearance of Christ in the flesh and so though God send unbelievers to lie under the dispensation of his wrath and call it everlasting fire it is but for the time of his dispensation while he is finishing City work and judging and rewarding every man that is the Serpent and the anointing according to their works and after this comes in their healing time and season and these times and seasons the Father hath reserved to himself the Son knowes them not A second scruple is this Shall a man be ever delivered out of hell out of hell saith some there is no redemption I answer first that there is no Scripture as saith out of hell there is no redemption therefore the scruple is raised upon it without ground indeed the Prophet speaking how that the living praise God and the dead cannot hath these words in preferring life before death The grave cannot praise thee death cannot celebrate thee they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth But secondly to answer more directly let us consider what hell is and then whether any shall be delivered out that is there Hell is called death or a condition below life and this is twofold either a death of purity far below the nature of God or a death of sorrows which is a condition far below the comfort and joyes of God Now every man and woman as they are branches of Adam have no purity in them and therefore are in a hell far below the life and nature of God and likewise they are unavoidably subject to the sorrowes of that death as an effect following the cause therefore unavoidably subject to a condition far below the comfort and joyes of God This is the condition of every man and woman and they have no power for to deliver themselves for God only is our Redeemer And then it followes that a man may be in hell and yet may be delivered out for as in all this discourse past it appeares that as we spring from Adam we do all lie under the bondage and death and power of the Serpent which is one part of hell and yet God delivers his elect from out of it and therefore it followes cleare that if men are capable of so much mercy being Gods creatures as to be delivered from sin and death which is one part of hell or of a condition below God they are capable to be delivered through the mercy of the same God from the sorrowes and paines that follow sin both which are but the bondage of the Serpent which God will deliver his creature from this twofold death is the Serpents head which God will bruise A third scruple is concerning the day of Judgement Some think it is but one single day of twenty foure houres long nay some make it lesse but the length of the twinkling of an eye because the interpretation of Scripture runs thus That in the twinkling of an eye at the sound of the last Trumpet the Dead shall be raised up to judgement But to answer this phrase Twinkling of an eye it onely shewes that the day of judgement is very short in comparison of the dayes by-past like that in Rev. 8. 1. And there was silence in Heaven for the space of half an houre which is not a direct halfe houre according as men account but it declares a very short time Therefore I conceive this is not a single day of 24. houres but a longer time while the Judge sits upon the judgement seat judgeing the Serpent so long time it is called a day of judgement because that is the work of this day or tearm of time or the full length of that dispensation as formerly it was called the Day of Moses which was the time while that dispensation of the Law continued in force whereof Moses was the Mediator and so Abraham desired to see my Day saith Christ and saw it that is the day and time that Christ reignes as King in the power and law of Love in and over the Saints and this Paul calls the Day of Christs rest And this in the truth of it is that which we call the Sabbath Day or Day of a Christians rest and it is not one day in seaven still typicall as the Jewish Sabbath was but it is the

constant reign of Christ in and over the Saints which is their rest and which indeed is the substance of the Jewish typicall Sabbath as David saith Let the earth rejoyce the LORD reignes And a King shall reigne in the earth saith Jeremy and his name shall bee called The LORD our Righteousnesse Now Christ or the Anointing doth not reigne one single day in the seaven in his Saints but every day constantly which is the substance of the Jewish single Sabbath therefore I wish that the Gentile-Christians could understand that what the Jewes did in the type these are to perform in the substance and it is not for the Gentiles to worship in Types as did the Jewes Again the time of the indignation or while God suffers the Beast to reigne is called The Day of the Beast and God hath given her three Dayes and a halfe to tread the holy Citie under foot or the space of 42 moneths which is three shapes three discoveries of the reigne of the Beast or three degrees and half of the Serpents reformation from bad to worse from open prophanenesse to close hypocrisie and not the single dayes of a week And so here it is called the Day of Judgement from the work and businesse of the day or full length of that Dispensation so that the great and generall day of judgment from the time that the bodies of beleevers and unbelievers are raised out of the grave till the Son deliver up the Kingdome to the Father I beleeve is a long time of divers yeares the full length or shortnesse of it God onely knowes and reserves the time and season of that secret to himselfe but it is called the day of judgement while the worke of judgement lasts as in our language it is called the Day of Assizes though the Sessions or businesse continue divers dayes Now all this day the condemned creatures lie under the dispensation of wrath under the curse and under weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth for anguish and this Hell Sorrow or Punishment or Death is everlasting because it continues the full time of the dispensation the worm never dies all the time the fire and sense of wrath shall never goe out all the time the fire of lust shall still be burning and the smoak of blasphemy shall ascend upward and they shal have no rest day nor night and the fire of Gods wrath shal still be scorching and consuming which shall be an intollerable pain to the creature Therefore if any man or woman take liberty to sin let them know this is a truth they shall be condemned and die and depart into everlasting fire and punished in that Hell lie under the dispensation of wrath and lie at Gods mercy for delivery so that those that will not now wait upon God in his time of long-suffering or in the dispensation of his patience they shal wait upon God whether they will or no in the dispensation of wrath in sorrow which is intollerable which is the second death The first death I conceive and I clearly see a truth in it is Adams death or Adams bondage to the Serpent the second death is the Serpents death after God hath judged him which is to lie under the wrath of God without end Now he that hath part in the first resurrection that is to be delivered from the bondage of the Serpent and raised up from the death of sin and so made alive to God through the Anointing over such a man the second Death or the endlesse dispensation of wrath which is prepared for the Serpent shall have no power But if a man have not part in the first resurrection and so enter not into the City new Jerusalem he shall then tast of the second Death which is the everlasting fire prepared for the Serpent his seed and it shal have power over him and he shall lie under it for ever that is till the dispensation change or till the mystery of God be finished that the Serpent Death and Hell is subdued and cast into the Lake and the whole Creation be set free and the Son deliuer up the Kingdome to the Father and God become all in all as at the beginning he was before any opposite power appeared against him But doth not God sit upon the Throne of judgement before this great day of Judgement appear Yes God the Lamb have sate upon the judgement seat or Throne ever since Adam delighted in his own fruit or consented to the Serpent and God hath been judging the Serpent and bruising his head in every dispensation of his ever since that time and casting the Serpent that strong Man out of his Elect. And by the powring out of the seven Vials and the sounding of the seven Trumpets declares how God hath been subduing the Beast the Whore and the false Prophet which hath been the severall appearances of the Serpent under those names by which he hath made warre with Christ and his Saints so that God hath been about this work of judging the Serpent long before this day of judgment came Then it seemes God hath two judgement dayes No it is all one for from Adams time till the Son deliver up the Kingdome to the Father God hath sate upon the Throne judging the serpent but it pleased God so to establish his counsell that he would not finish this mystery in a short time but in severall degrees of times and seasons which he hath reserued in his own power And this great and last day is the conclusion of this work that the serpent shall be subdued under the feet of the whole Creation and be destroyed everlastingly as it is written Judgement begins at the House of God and if it begin at us saith Peter who are his Temple his little Flock his Royall Nation his peculiar people what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel Why truly they must come to judgement too but in the last day or in the end of time so that it is not two judgement dayes but all one day And so to wind up all I shall desire men to mind one thing That though God hath in Scripture declared seven great dispensations or discoveries of his Counsel and each one clearer then the other yet in every one of these God sends forth severall other dispensations or Angels for the carrying on of the work of that time or season which are discoveries of his glory for whatsoever comes from God is a Spirituall power not a dead work but a living As whatsoever came first from Adam it was a spiritual power as pride discontent envie and the whole body of unbeliefe which slighted the being of God and seekes to preferre a Creature-being before him This discovery of Adam was a spiritual power which is the very bondage which all creatures lie under and it is an unclean and dead power but not a living power But whatsoever comes from God