Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A93389
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A rout, a rout: or some part of the Armies quarters beaten up, by the day of the Lord stealing upon them. Wherein is briefly discovered the present cloudy and dark appearance of God amongst them. / By Joseph Salmon, a present member of the Army.
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Salmon, Joseph.
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1649
(1649)
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Wing S416; Thomason E542_5; ESTC R203442
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10,871
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20
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cannot be imbittered or disengaged from them you hugg them you prize them they are an object of you embraces But I tell you Sirs God is going about to unbody himself in you whiles you are embracing This body of self-safety and outward Liberty he is dying and departing from it though you see it not And This know That God will ere long leave you exceeding dark and dead in your enterprises I was alive once as well as you and in my life I laboured amongst you in my sphere as much as another but I am now dead with the Lord I am at rest from my Labour Ah happy death ô blessed loss how farr better is it ô Lord to be dissolved and gathered up into thy rest then to live the life of a worldly and carnall labour and I know also that the hour of Gods judgment is come upon many of you some of you have received your mortall wound already I see you gasp and struggle in your confused and dark enterprises Let this silver Probe but sink to the bottom of your wounded hearts and something without question will speedily be discovered Ah Friends If you saw your Interests in the Lord your Lives and Liberties in the Lord if you saw all yours in the Lord you would think it a beggarly thing to contend for any thing or to plead Gods quarrell with any that shall demand them of you Doubtlesse it is a poor low base earthly spirit that raises contests and seeks after the ruine and blood of creatures for the enjoyment of that which at best is but a bitter sweet a well being subject to all manner of casualties Lo This is the principle that God at present acts you by It is the Lord in you inhabiting his secret place and because I see it is the Lord I can embrace it I can tender you in my bosome-affections while you are carried forth in this carnall dispensation Nevertheless I will in part discover to you how far some are dead to their own Interest and whither shortly you must be brought Those that live in the more pure knowledge and life of God see themselves their Lives Liberties and all outward enjoyments not their own but the Lords and theirs in the Lord not a jot below him or at the least distance from him If we have the Lord we have enough because he is all to us and we the same fulnesse in him Lo this is life liberty and satisfaction Now no outward loss or misery can make us unhappy we may be persecuted yet not forsaken cast down yet not destroyed dying and behold we live in bondage yet free because the Lord is all this and more to us To live to us is Christ and to die is gain If we have a portion of outward safety amongst others we see it is the Lord if not it is the Lord and where the Lord is there 's Libertie God is to us light in darkness glory in shame beauty in deformity liberty in bondage we possesse nothing yet enjoy all things suffering is our crown death our life yea we live upon death daily we cannot live without it Again We are also contented with the dispose of providence in any thing that may be called ours If any party or power command us our lives liberties or interests it is the pleasure of the Father in us to give up all to them we see a divine call in it and can with alacrity yeeld obedience Oh it is a sweet smelling sacrifice acceptable with the Father when we the son are thus drawn forth to offer up our dearest Interests for the world It may be you cannot in this apprehend me it is no matter the Father willeth it should be a mystery Yet farther Our Interest of Life and Libertie is at your service If you call for it take it we are contented to be prodigall of it to satisfie the blood-thirstie spirit of any man in the Kingdom While we are in the enjoyment of these outward things we use them as if we used them not being free to throw them off at the first demand we are as free to suffer to be trampled upon to hang and burn as to enjoy that outward libertie which you so seriously and resolutely press after I tell you Sirs Suffering is our Conquest While we are ground to pieces under any power whatsoever all this while we trample upon them debasing is our exalting in that which you call miserie and calamitie we are more then conquerors We dare meet you even you whose courage hath excelled whose fierce countenance makes the earth to tremble you who are the present terrour of the Nation and appear in a naked posture before you yea throw our selves lives liberties and all upon the edge of your cruelty and we are sure if you dare encounter with us here we shal overcome you Ah Sirs When you see this way of conquest you will throw your swords behind you in an holy despite and scorn you shall lay all your honour in the dust and by that sweet spirit of meekness shall destroy and subdue your Enemies But secondly I wish you might be carried forth into a serious view of the Manner of your present Actings As your Principles are poor and beggarly so also the manner of your Engagements is dark and fleshly This cloudy and vailed appearance of God amongst you puts you upon preposterous designes upon low and carnall Enterprizes You have taken away Charles his life because otherwise he would its likely have taken yours True it is the good will of the Lord it should be so I have nothing to say against it the Lord in this cloud leads you forth to it and in this you have playd the parts of men acting under a fleshly discovery of things You are led forth in a way of vengeance upon your adversaries you sentence and shoot to death at your pleasure it little moves you to trample upon the blood of your enemies this is your Victory Glory and Triumph All this is well you must tarry here till God moves higher amongst you I have onely this to say to you Is it not a poor carnall thing for Saints so high in profession as you have been to stand brangling with the World for a few carnall enjoyments What the sons of everlasting peace and ingaged in a carnal combat Well it is the Lord I am satisfied But oh that sweet and meek spirit of Christ who when he was reviled reviled not again was persecuted but with patience under-went it and committed himself to him that judged righteously You cannot you dare not commit your selves your cause your lives and liberties to the Lord and nakedly without any carnall opposition surrender your Interest to a divine dispose Nay rather Shall not your swords soon be sheathed in the bowels of those who obstruct or impede your furious march in the road of self-preservation Poor dear Hearts It is the lowness weakness and darknese of God by which you