Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A55615
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A practical consideration of the saints sonship In a discourse upon the fourth chapter of the Galatians, vers. 6.
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1656
(1656)
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Wing P3149; ESTC R221794
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9,366
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his right hand with the son our head Let this consideration that the great God is our Father make us willing to shut our eyes to the world and bee no more seen here that wee may bee with him le ts say with Paul to bee dissolved and to bee with Christ and with him is best of all Let not the fear of death keep us as it did them of old all our life time in bondage but le ts now rejoycingly wait all the days of our appointed time till our change shall come And thus having had some glimmerings of this glorious state of the Saints and of the obligations or rather great priviledges that do attend it let us try and prove our selves whether wee bee in this state or not whether wee are Bastards only in profession and appearance sons or whether wee be sons indeed and have that true spirit of the son dwelling in us and that wee may do it I shall lay down some concomitants amongst many of that true state of Sonship wherein as in a glass wee may see out faces and judge of our selves as to this matter 1 If wee are sons wee have a spirit of prayer to go to God in all extremities t is not so with an hypocrite hee cannot pray always God sends the spirit of his son into our hearts and hee sends it crying Abba father t is a spirit of prayer while wee are in this world t is but crying and groaning in us A son hath not only the form of comming unto God and the gift of praying but the Grace of praying for him the spirit it self makes intercession with sighs and groans which cannot bee expressed if this spirit be hid t is hid to them that are lost 2 A son doth all out of love hee loves God as his father all his service t is out of love t is not forced and wrung from him hee doth not as Saul did force himself to sacrifice but he offers up himself freely He fears he repents hee mourns he mortifyes himself and all out of love he rejoyceth to dye daily he hath love that is strong as death many waters can not quench it hee loves God and therfore thinks nothing too much to do is not measuring the minutes of that time hee spends in his service but is through love all his dayes and in every thing giving himself up wholly to the Lord. 3 A son can bear affliction takes not things unkindly from God submits to the father of spirits A sonne trusts God though hee kill him hee knows though hee do sorely afflict him yet hee will at last return as hee did to Ephraim in Jer. 31. saith God is Ephraim my dear Sonne is hee a pleasant child since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still A son will hang upon God though hee seem never so angry with him Let mee go saith God to Jacob I will not let thee go saith hee till thou blesse mee This seems strange but t is the son like spirit A worldly man and an hypocrite grows presently out of love with God a little thing will make him fly in Gods face and cry out what profit is it that I have fasted A man without the spirit of a son when hee is under an afflicting hand hee tumbles like a wild bull in a net hee is presently with Jobs wife cursing of God a carnal professor grows worse and worse by the rod A Son learns obedience as Christ did by the thing that he suffers he is more meek more broken hearted lies lower at Gods feet and hee saies not a word more but with old Eli t is the Lord let him do what seems him good T is my fathers hand is upon mee though it seem heavy hee corrects me for my profit that I might partake of his holiness and hee so corrects every son that hee receives and I shall reap the quiet and peaceable fruit of righteousnesse by all in the end 4 Hee that hath the spirit of a son useth all enjoyments both natural and spiritual in freedome is sensible of his propriety in his Fathers right t is not so with another A Son is never hide-bound nor in bondage with what he possesseth he lives in the spirit of the son and that is a free spirit A Spirit of Adoption makes a man extream strickt and true to God as a Father and so extream free in whatsoever hee does He hath a large spirit and is not at touch not taste not handle not t is much otherways with a man that hath a legal conscience as Solomon says in another case so t is with him hee never eates his bread with comfort Every thing proves a snare and a burden to him If therefore any bee awakened to look heaven ward and desires to live the life of a Christian let him wait for the spirit of a son and so hee shall come to know that Kingdome of God that is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost FINIS