Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A64995
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The true Christians love of the unseen Christ, or, A discourse chiefly tending to excite and promote the decaying love of Christ in the hearts of Christians with an appendix concerning Christs manifestation of himself to them that love him / by Thomas Vincent.
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Vincent, Thomas, 1634-1678.
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1677
(1677)
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Wing V447; ESTC R235433
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94,936
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230
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put life into your love will he send his Angels to convey your souls into his presence when separated from our Bodies and shall not your Hearts get to him and lodge with him before will he raise up your Bodies at the last day and will not the hopes of this raise up your Affections shall you be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the Air will Christ there own and crown you and will not the believing fore-thoughts of this ravish your Hearts with love to Christ and transport you with unspeakable joy the strength of Christ's love to you methinks should engage your love for him not only in the the Truth of it but also in the strength of it 4. Consider that Christ loveth you with the surest love Some Friends may love you a while with some kind of strength and ardency but such differences may arise between you as shall soon weaken and cool their love and of Friends they shall prove strangers yea become Enemies unto you or if their love doth abide it is not sure because they may not abide if their Love dye not whilst they live They may soon dye and then their love is at an end but the love of the Lord Jesus Christ unto you is the most Sure love if he begin to love you he will continue to love you if he love you once he will love you to the end or rather without end the love of Christ is not subject to mutations and changes like unto ours if you 〈◊〉 in your love he will not fail in his love and though you offend him he is not irreconcileable he may indeed upon unkindness on your side withdraw the manifestations of his love for a while but he will never wholly remove his love from you the love of Christ admits of no changing knows no ending Christians what motives can you find in any person or any thing in the world which you have seen comparable to those which you have in this Lord Jesus Christ though you have never seen him He is a Person most amiable in himself his Greatness his Holiness his Wisdome his Faithfulness his Fulness his Kindness do make him shine with an admirable lustre his Relation to the Father and the love which the Father doth bear to him his Relation unto you being your Shepherd your Captain your Teacher your Advocate your Soveraign your Benefactor your Brother your Husband your Redeemer all these do commend him to your love but when matchlesse beauty and lovliness do meet in a person that doth bear matchless love to you when this most amiable Lord Jesus doth love you with such a free love such a cordial love such a strong and active love such a sure and constant love when his love is incomparable surpassing all other love and incomprehensible surpassing all knowledge O with what activity ardour and constancy should you love so suitable an object SECT XIII THe third sort of motives to excite your love unto Christ may be drawn from the consideration of Christs Benefits If you are true Christians you have 1. Spiritual Light from Christ. 2. Spiritual Life from him 3. The Pardon of sin from him 4. The Robes of Righteousness from him 5. The Peace of Conscience from him 6. The Joyes of the Holy Ghost from him 7. The Riches of Grace from him 8. The Dignity of Children from him 9. The Spirit of Prayer from him 10. Title to the Kingdom of Heaven with the first Fruits and fore-tastes of it from him here and shall be put into the possession of it by him hereafter 1. You have Spiritual light from Christ Christ is the Sun from whom all the beams of this light do come time was when you were not only in the dark but darkness but Jesus Christ did enlighten you Eph. 5. 8. For ye were sometimes darkness but now are yee light in the Lord walk as Children of the light it is Christ that hath turned you from darkness to light that hath translated you out of darkness into his marvellous light he hath caused a marvellous light to shine into your minds whereby he hath discovered to you the wonderful things of the Law that thereby you might discern the odious nature of Sin and whereby he hath discovered to you the wonderful mysteries of the Gospel that thereby you might discern the excellency of Gospel-priviledges and the exceeding Riches of Gods Grace and Kindness through Jesus Christ. Christ hath opened your Eyes to see the chiefest evil that you might be delivered from it and the chiefest good and happiness that you might attain unto it And doth not this light which you have from Christ call for your love If the man that was born blind and was cured of his natural darkness by Christ did love Christ for this favour so as boldly to plead for him before the Pharisees though he were for it cast out of the Synagogues as you may read in Iohn 9. How much more reason have you to love Christ who hath cured you of your Spiritual darkness which had it continued you would have gone blindfold to Hell where there it blackness of darkness for ever 2. You have Spiritual life from Christ you were Spiritually dead and Christ hath quickned you Eph. 2. 1. You hath he quickned who were dead in sins and trespasses We read that Christ raised Lazarus from the dead after he had been buried four dayes Iohn 11. Lazarus did love Christ before but no doubt this Resurrection of him so wonderfully did endear his love to Christ exceedingly and shall not Christs raising you up from your Spiritual death raise your Hearts unto a great height of love to Christ you will greatly love one that is instrumental to save your natural life when in great hazard and danger especially if he should do it by venturing his own and will you not greatly love Christ who hath given you Spiritual life which is far more excellent than the life of Nature and when he dyed that you might live and when if you had not received this Spiritual life from him you could not have escaped eternal Death 3. You have the pardon of sin from Christ this Christ hath purchased for you and the purchase hath cost him dear even his blood which was of more worth than the treasures were there so many of ten thousand worlds this Christ hath sued out for you by his intercession at the right hand of God Whilst you were under the guilt of sin you were bound over by the Justice of God to suffer the vengeance of Eternal Fire but being pardoned your obligation to future punishment is taken off and you are no more lyable to wrath to come and the vengeance of Hell than if you had never siâ—n'd And will you not love the Lord Jesus Christ who hath procured for you so great a priviledge we read of one that had much forgiven her and she loved much Luk. 7. 47. and have not you had
for such as you although now his friends yet whilst in a state of Nature strangers and enemies here was Love stronger than death Oh the height Oh the depth of this Love There are such dimensions in this love of Christ as the longest line of your most extended thoughts and imaginations can never be able to reach and measure 6. It was the Love of Christ which raised him again from the dead for you Rom. 4. 25. Who was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification 7. It was the Love of Christ which carryed him up from earth to heaven where he was before for you Ioh. 16. 7. Nevertheless I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you 2. The strength and activity of Christs Love to you doth shew it self in what he is Doing for you 1. He is interceding for you at the right hand of God Rom. 8. 34. Who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us It is through Love that Christ doth plead for you in Heaven that your persons may be accepted your sins pardoned your prayers answered and that the Holy Ghost may be sent down to you to teach sanctifie and comfort you 2. He is preparing a place for you Ioh. 14. 2. In my fathers house there are many Mansions if it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you It is through love that Christ as your forerunner is for you entred into the glorious Palace that is above to take possession of it for you and to prepare places there for your reception 3. The strength and activity of Christ's love to you doth shew it self in what he will do for you 1. He will keep you in his hand that none shall pluck you thence Ioh. 10. 28. They shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand Because you are received into the arms of his love therefore you shall be kept by the hand of his power and therefore you shall never either finally or totally fall away 2. Christ will make all things work together for your good Rom. 8. 28. And we know that All things work together for good to them that love God Christ hath an endeared love to all you that love God your love being the fruit of his and when Men and Devils conspire together to do you mischief Christs love will turn it unto your spiritual advantage 3. Christ will stand by you in trouble and at death Iohn 14. 18. I will not leave you comfortless I will come unto you When affliction doth arise especially if it be for his sake you are bereaved of all outward Comforts Christ will not leave you comfortless when friends fail and flesh fails and Heart fail yea and life fails Christ will not fail but will stand by and strengthen you and be a light to you in your darkest hours a stay to your Spirits when they are ready to sink within you 4. After death Christ will take care of your Souls he will not sufâ—er them to wander they know not whither he will not suffer the Devil to seize on them as his prey but he will send his Angels to conduct and convey them into the heavenly paradise that where he is there they may be also Luk. 16. 22. And it came to passe that the Beggar died and was carryed by the Angels into Abrahams bosom 2 Cor. 5. 8. We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. 5. Christ will raise up your Bodies at the last day if your Bodies should be consumed by Fire or drowned in the Water or rot in the Earth whatever becometh of them the Lord Jesus at his second glorious appearance will find them and raise them and transform them into the likeness of his most glorious body Iohn 6. 40. And this is the Fathers will which hath sent me that every one which seeth the Son and Believeth on him may have Everlasting Life and I will raise him up at the last day Phillip 3. 20. 21. For our Conversation is in Heaven from whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ who shall change our vile Body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious Body 6. Christ will send forth his Angels to gather you into the society of the Elect that have lived in all Ages and all Parts of the World and to convey you into his presence to meet him in the Air when he cometh to Judge the World Math. 24. 31. And he shall send his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet and they shall gather together his Elect from the four Winds from one end of Heaven unto the other 1 Thess. 4. 16. 17. For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air. 7. Christ will own you and crown you and admit you into the Kingdom of Heaven which he hath prepared for you Math. 25. 34. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand Come ye Blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdome prepared for you from the Foundation of the World Here is strong and active love indeed and shall not the consideration of this love of Christ raise and highten your love unto him shall it not provoke and excite you unto activity of love unto the lively and most vigorous exercise thereof hath Christ united himself to your nature and shall not your Hearts be united to his Person hath he fulfilled all Righteousness for you and will not you fulfill his command of Love hath he endured such temptations contradictions and sufferings upon your account and given himself to dye for you and will not you give your Hearts unto him hath he risen from the dead and Ascended into Heaven for you and will not your Affections arise from the Earth and Ascend into Heaven where Jesus Christ is Doth he plead in Heaven with the Father for you and will not you hearken to his pleadings by his Word and Spirit with you for your love is he preparing a glorious Mansion for you in his Fathers house and will not you prepare a place for him and entertain him in the inner room of your chiefest Affections doth and will he keep you in his hand and will not you embrace him in your bosoms will he make all things work together for your good and will not your Affections work towards him will he stand by you in trouble and at Death and will not this