Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	good_a	life_n	see_v	9,943	5	3.4753	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90268	God's presence with a people, the spring of their prosperity; with their speciall interest in abiding with Him. A sermon, preached to the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, at Westminster, Octob. 30. 1656. A day of solemn humiliation. / By John Owen, D.D. a servant of Jesus Christ, in the work of the Gospel. Printed by Order of Parliament.	Owen, John, 1616-1683.	1656 (1656)	Wing O757; Thomason E891_4; ESTC R206508	24,955	44

a peoples Vniversal owning of Gods concernments in the world His presence with them is his owning their concernments and certainly he expects that they abide with him in the owning of his Gods concernment in the world is his people as invested with the priviledges purchased for them by Christ Deut. 32. 9. The Lords portion is his people This is that which the Lord has perticularly Kept to himself The Vineyard that he has chosen out of all the forests of the world the handful that he hath taken to himself his Sons and Daughters his Family These he expects that you abide by if you would have him abide by you Yea it is most certain as your respect and regard shall be to them and their interest as his people so will his respect and regard be to you and your interest as the people of this Nation But I have formerly spoken hereof unto you and therefore though it be a matter of the greatest importance I shall not further insist upon it And these are some of the Conditions of Gods special presence with you pleasant conditions their performance is your glory your rest your blessedness not your bondage not your burthen Not one duty doth God on this account require of you but it is also your reward O blessed termes of peace and agreement Blessed be the great peace-maker cursed be the breakers of this blessed Agreement Is this all indeed that is required that we may have the special presence of God with us for ever O how inexcusable shall we be if we neglect these termes how just will be our ruine Behold I have set before you life and death this day The life or death of these Nations O choose life seeing it may be had on such easie such blessed termes Termes wherein in doing good to others you will also doe good to your own souls you will give peace to the Nation and have peace and rest in your own souls Look on this presence of God as your main concernment This is that which the Prophet calls for in the words of the Text so the Psalmist there are many that say who will shew us any good Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us Psal. 4. Let other men make what enquiries they please look for good for rest for peace in what they best fancy Acquiesce you in this that the light of Gods countenance a pledge of his presence with you is that alone which you are to enquire after I remember since the beginning of these last wonderful dayes how often we have thought our selves utterly ruin'd if such alterations come we are undone if such men dye fall off oppose there is little hope of the carrying on the work wherein we are ingaged If such shakings such divisions befall us our ruine is at hand If we breake with such and such forraign Nations what hope remaineth But alass we have found by experience that our Affairs have turned on none of these things our prosperity hath been built on none of those principles such desertions as we feared have happened such Alterations such divisions have befallen us we have been sometime almost reduced to Gideons number such breaches with forragin Nations have ensued one party that was with us have gone off and asked what will ye now do And then another party hath gone off and asked us what will ye doe now And no sooner do any fall off but instantly they expect and foretell destruction to them that do abide as though they were God and not man or as though God were bound to follow them with his presence in all their passions in all their wandrings It would I confess be more desirable unto me than life it self to see all those at least who stick to the Cause of God in its greatest difficulties and trialls and then when it Ceased to be carried on in the ordinary paths of Nations Vnited again in the same common interest to see their passions and prejudices cured and their persons returned to their former usefulness but this is that which is the result of all this discourse It is not this or that thing or any thing what ever but the presence of God alone with a people that is their life their preservation their protection and prosperitie If our strength had laine in any thing else in this world our light had gone out long agoe and it had departed from us But hence it is that we are not consumed Now if you are so carefull not to loose these and these friends this and that Partie of the Nation not to provoke this or that people ' causelesly Oh what weight ought it to have upon your hearts and soules that you provoke not the Lord to depart from you that you take care for the continuance of his presence with you This is your life your safety your successe your peace Learn to prize it value it c. Secondly Whilst you have any pledge of the presence of God with you be not greatly moved nor troubled by any difficulties that you may meet withall be not moved with any terrour but sanctifie the Lord of Hosts in your hearts and make him your dread and your feare and he shall be a refuge and a hiding place unto you Some pretend to Visions of God and they prophesie your ruine and destruction yea they have limited times thereof to the shame of their Prognostications some are full of revenge and they threaten your Ruine and talke what a Catholike Interest is complicating and rising up against you some are troubled at your proceedings that they are not in such equall paths as might be desired as though that were a worke and way of yesterday as though we had not been turned and driven out of old tracks and pathes above ten yeare agoe and as though the old pathes were not so worn to the interest of a profane multitude that it is yet impossible to keep the burthen upright in them whose guidance you are intrusted with Some say you will never be able to goe through with the charge of your undertakings as though God had never said the Gold and Silver is mine Should these things busie or distract you doth the Issue of the business in hand depend on the thoughts of these men will the end be according to their contrivances have these things indeed any influence at all into the determination of this Controversie will not this one Consideration guide your hearts and spirits when all these waves roll all together upon you Yea but the whole of this affair must be ordered and will fall out according as the presence of God is with us or otherwise If God be with us who shall be against us How may you on this account triumph against all oppositions whatsoever Thirdly Fix then your thoughts on the things which lye in a tendancy towards the Confirming of Gods special providential presence with you You have heard of the tenure of

them and diverts them with all Earnestness to things quite of another nature and of unspeakably greater importance and concernment to them Here ye me saith he it is not your own Counsel nor your own valour that hath brought about this great work this mighty victory the Lord himself hath done it by his presence with you It is not of any concernment unto you what other Nations do or may do but the presence of God Concerns you alone to look after The great concernment of any People or Nation is to know that all their prosperity is from the presence of God amongst them and to attend to that which will give continuance thereunto You may tire your selves in the imaginations and contrivances of your own hearts and lay out your thoughts and time about things that will not profit nor advantage you this is your interest this is your concernment Hear ye me Asa and all Judah and Benjamin Of this proposition afterwards For the words themselves the first thing proposed to be inquired into for their explanation is this what it is for God to be with a people God may be said to be with men or present with them in sundry respects First he may be said to be with them in respect of the omnipresence of his Essence so he is naturally and necessarily present with all creatures indistant from them present with them The ubiquity and immensity of his Essence will not allow that he should be distant from any thing to which he hath given a beeing The heavens even the heaven of heavens cannot contain him 1 Kings 8. 27. Doth he not fill heaven and earth Is he a God at hand only and not afar off as to the ends of the Earth This presence of God with all things David emphatically declares Psal. 139. 7 8 9 10 11 12. But it is not that that is here intended that is universal to all Creatures natural and necessary this especial to some voluntary and of mercy that of nature and essence this of Will and Operation Secondly God may be said to be with one in respect of personal union so he was with and only with the man Christ Jesus Acts 10. 38. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} God was with him that is in personal union the humane nature being taken into subsistence with the son of God Thirdly God is present or with any in respect of the Covenant of Grace He is with them to be their God in Covenant the Tenor whereof is that he will not leave them nor shall they forsake him he will be for them and they shall be for him and not for another He is with them for all the ends of mercy love kindness pardon salvation that are proposed and exhibited in it But neither is this the presence of God here intended though this be something that flows from it and does attend it for First that presence of God with his people hath not such a conditional establishment as this here mentioned it stands on other terms and better security than that here proposed it hath received an Eternal ratification in the bloud of Christ is founded in the immutable purpose of Grace and is not left to the conditionality here expressed as we shall see afterwards Secondly the presence here mentioned respects the whole body of the people all Judah and Benjamin in their national state and consideration unto whom as such the effectual Covenant of grace was never extended For they were not all Israel who were of Israel Thirdly the presence here promised respects immediately the peculiar end of blessing the whole people with success in their wars and undertakings so the occasion of the words and the Context with regard to the following discourse do undeniably evince It is not then this presence of God only that is intended though as it will afterward appear it is not to be separated from it Fourthly there is a presence of God in respect of providential dispensations and this is twofold First General Ordering disposing guiding ruling all things according to his own wisdome by his own power unto his own glory Thus he is also present with all the world He disposes of all the affairs of all the sons of men as he pleaseth sets up one and pulls down another changes times seasons Kingdoms bounds of Nations as seems good to him The help that is given to any he doth it himself The shields of the Earth belong unto God He works deliverance in the Earth even among them that knows him not And the Evills desolations and destruction that the Earth is full of are but the effects of his wrath and Indignation revealing its self against the ungodliness of men He is thus present with every person in the world holds his breath and all his wayes in his hand disposes of his life death and all his concernments as he pleaseth He is present in all Nations to set them up pluck them down alter turne change weaken establish strengthen enlarge their bounds as he sees good and the day is comming when all his works will praise him Neither is this here intended It is necessary and belongs to God as God and cannot be promised to any It is a branch of Gods naturall dominion that every Creature be ruled and disposed of agreeably to its nature unto the end whereunto it is appointed Secondly speciall attended with peculiar love favour good will speciall care towards them with whom he is so present Soe Abimelech observed that he was with Abraham Gen. 21. 22. God is with thee in all that thou doest with thee to guide thee blesse thee preserve thee as we shall see afterwards So he promised to be with Joshua Chap. 1. 5. and so he was with Gideon Judges 6. 12. to blesse him in his great undertaking and so with Jeremie Chap. 15. 20. This is fully expressed Esa. 43. 1 2 3. I have redeemed thee I have called thee by thy Name thou art mine when thou passest thorow the water I will be with thee and thorow the rivers they shall not overflow thee and this is the presence of God here intimated his presence with the People as to speciall providentiall dispensations as is manifest from the whole discourse of the Prophet and wherein this consists shall be afterwards at large declared Secondly What is a Peoples abiding with God There is a twofold abiding with God First In personall obedience according to the tenor of the Covenant This is not here intended but supposed There is no abiding in any thing with God where there is not an abiding in this thing yet this as I said is not here principally intended but supposed something further is intended for as hath been declared it is National work and Nationall abiding that is intended so that Secondly There is an abiding with God in Nationall Administrations this is a fruit of the other in those who are called