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	sin_n	13,827	5	4.6650	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86422	Practicall divinity: or a helpe through the blessing of God to lead men more to look within themselves, and to unite experienced Christians in the bond and fellowship of the Spirit. / Delivered in sundry exercises lately spoken by Cap. Paul Hobson, upon these texts. Published by an hearty wellwiller to peace and unity among the dissenting godly, and to the promotion of spirituall and experimentall truths, without affectation of opinions, or prejudice against persons. Tending as to the edification of the reader chiefly : so also, somewhat in vindication of the authour.	Hobson, Paul.	1646 (1646)	Wing H2275; Thomason E1167_3; ESTC R208788	40,074	124

Saints that see not their priviledges by Christ they are ready to say how can this be that the Spouse of Christ is so beutifull so fruitfull they see it otherwise they can see no beuty in them they bring forth but little weake and poore fruit here is some of this way and some of that fellowship some of this Judgement and some of that some are in a Church way and some are not some are Congregated and some are uncongregated I but for all that though among themselves they be divers yet in Christ they are but one You 't is true make a difference but that should not be This is but the folly and weaknesse of men but see and looke upon them as they are in Christ and you shall see they are one to him as they are in him and live with him and in him they are fruitfull though not as they are in themselves The points that I apprehend these words hold forth are these 1 Doct. That Christs Church is Christs Dove 2 D. Christs Church is Christs undefiled Dove 3 Doct. That Christs Church or Christs Dove is not divided but is one and united Now for the first of these if you aske why Christs Church is called Christs Dove I conceive for present 't is in two regards first in regard of their Priviledges how much they are tendred by him and secondly in regard they are made glorious and amiable by him 1. Considering how precious they are to him what affections he hath let out to them the dearest loves and the very heart of Christ runnes out to them singly solely nothing that is in the very bowells and heart of Christ is too good too deare for them there 's nothing in Christ but is there laid up kept and preserved for a Saints treasure all the choice loves of God the choicest life of God is treasured up in Christ for his Saints and when once they have forsaken themselves then to be enjoyed by them and delighted in for ever he thinkes nothing too good for his Spouse he hath not only filled himselfe for them but emptyed himselfe for them poured out his own bloud his owne life his owne glory to save them to inrich them Christ shewes how precious they are to him first in regard of the place where he layes a saint that is in his very bosome in his very heart not only in his common providence but in his very heart he never leaves a saint till he bring it from step to step by degrees into himselfe that the soule is so lapt up in him that he hath made it one with himselfe And that soule that is acquainted with this life knowes this and none else others know not what it means I was sayes he a slave under the Law and it tyrannized over me many a hard lesson and many a hard task I had set me and many a bitter stripe and hee in bowells of loves came and freed me he redeemed me from that tyrannie I was under the killing letter which threatned nothing but death and hell and now I have found his loves in setting me at liberty and now I can read his loves in every line in all his proceedings and these are I say such loves that none can prize but those that have them read seene and felt them in them This is a Saints portion peculiarly to live with Christ to live of Christ to live in him 'T is the worlds portion to live under life and not injoy life but a saint lives in life life and he are one they are brought by Christ into the very overflowings of loves they live in the very streams of loves compassed about with loves Christ comes to them continually sups with them wraps them up in admiration of himselfe and fills them with divine loves Secondly Christ declares how precious saints are to him by taking all advantages to do them good by sin by sorrowes by sufferings by afflictions by life by death every way none of all these but Christ makes them advantages and helps to them When they wrastle with sin it would be too hard for a saint if Christ did not help them and sin would get the advantage over them should Christ but leave us in a temptation we were undone but Christ comes with a conquering unresistable power rescues us from sin and brings us over to the loves of himselfe So also in affliction the saints they moyle and toyle and are even worne out in it that they know not what to do that they are ready to give out and lay downe all then Christ he comes in and supports and puts under his hand to stay the soule from sinking when our own strength is done then Christ comes in nay we many times wrastle our selves into great straits Christ comes now and releases us that when we lose our selves he gaines us and wrastles us into his owne loves and glory he ravishes us with his loves and then also is he ravished with our loves as you see in this chapter Secondly they are made glorious by him and with him as David saith Ps 68.13 They are like the wings of a Dove covered with silver and her feathers like yellow gold 't is a metaphor you must conceive taken from very pleasant and glorious coloured Doves to set out how Christ beautifies and makes his saint glorious and amiable The very same glory that is on Christ is on a saint Christ and a saint have not two different lives two different glories but both one and the same sayes the Apostle 1 Ioh 4.17 As he is so are wee in this world Brethren the life of a saint is a misterie Christ and they live in the injoyments each of other the life of a saint is internall Surely friends let me tell you 't is not knowne by partaking of fellowships and ordinances although wee ought to partake of them and hold them forth to the world but the beauty of the life of Christs consists in the injoyment of Christs loves so that the soule is therein centred and satisfied as it is expressed 17. Ioh. 17.23 Ioh. Thou in me and I in them and they in me that they may be made perfect in one All saints they are beloved with the same loves that the Father loves the Sonne the same riches the same life the same love the same glory is bestowed on them Eph. 11.3 We are now in this life set in heavenly places in Christ many thinke they shall have this life hereafter when they shall come to heaven but those that live this life they are in heaven here and sit now in heavenly places and herein is the great mistake among Professours they do not live in and with Christ here they use ordinances and hold forth a profession and here rest but for this heavenly life this intimate uniting life they looke not after it they expect it not they know it not they live it not Oh brethren did you but

saith Peter unto you and to all Israell that by the name of Iesus Christ of Nazareth was this man made whole whom ye crucified but God hath raised him up and this is the stone set at naught by you Builders and is now become the head of the corner neither is there Salvation in any other Now when they saw the boldnesse of the Apostles and saw that they were ignorant men they tooke knowledge that they had beene with Iesus and could say nothing against the Miracle they had wrought in the name of Iesus Then they tooke counsell and streightly charged them they should speak no more in that name and they answered boldly whether is it right in sight of God to hearken unto you more then unto God Iudge yee for we can not but speake the things we have seene and heard and so the whole Chapter and divers other places do declare with what wonderfull boldnesse they declare Christ because Christ lived withthem lived in them they had experience of his strength and love in supporting And their love could not but returne in declaring the things they had seene and heard And the Reasons of this are because the injoyment of these things beget a love to the things declared gives power to declare them with all courage and boldnes the Saints are made one with Christ suckt and drawne up into Christ they live by loving and love by living they declare through loving love through declaring And sutable to their love they cannot choose but declare love in them hath the preheminence it predominates it over-rules all other things in them they must needs they are constrained to declare the life they live in If a Parliament should command that men should not declare what experience they have of Christ as I hope this Parliament never will they could not contayne it would be as fire in their bosomes it would burst out loves would so constraine them could they sit and see and not speake I tell you there is such mighty constraines in the power of love they could not keepe in It bootes not the World to act against the power of love to raise persecution the more they act against it the more it workes the more it constraines Againe another reason is why they are so constrained to declare what they see and know because the matter declared is the very power declaring They are so lapt up in the loves of Christ so made one in him that the things they declare is not another thing from them but they are the very things And therefore if they are so bold in declaring never blame them for they and those things are the same no nor never admire them for there is such a constraining power in them they cannot do otherwise And that he hath he receives not from others as their experiences but they are his owne they are himselfe Paul you see when once Christ had appeared to him there was such a Light such a Glory such a Power such a Demonstration of Truth to his Soule that he immediately went preacht Christ he went not to the Bretheren to be confirmed in what he saw and felt but the power love was such that come life come death he must declare it And a third Reason may be because he enjoyes what he declares what he enjoyes he acts and what he acts he enjoyes while he saies he sees he feeles while he speakes of love he acts in love Here now you see the quality of a Saints spirit And indeed this acting and enjoying he esteemes his protion his everlasting inheritance his Heaven his very worke is his reward esteeming saith the Apostle the reproach with Christ Heb. 11.26 greater riches then the Treasures of Egypt Phil 4.8 this life was the recompence of reward Moses had an eye too and Paul he counted all things losse and dung to gaine enjoy it and David herejoyceth in the word as one that findeth great spoiles Ps 16.5.6 ● for in keeping thereof there is a full reward Beloved freinds this is your Heaven and if you cannot count this a sufficient Heaven and reward you will hardly thinke Heaven hereafter a reward especially in the condition you are in but did you act in love and lived in Christ here you would say were this life but perfected I have enough enough I desire no other Heaven this portion is enough as David saies in 16 Psalme Ps 16.5.6 The Lord is the portion of mine Inheritance the Lines are fallen to me in very pleasant places yea I have a Goodly Heritage Now we come to the Third thing wherein the Saints are bold They are bold in undergoing any thing from God must I be poore must I be sicke must I be in prison must I be in Death he is bold to undergoe it he sees the loves of God in all that comes to him Let all the world conjoyn together against this man and looke never so blacke and terrible upon him he sees his God smileing his God speaking nothing but loves As sinne and the law though they are in conjunction to terrifie him yet he is bold for he sees God reconciled And as they the greater can not daunt his boldnes so neither can men nor can the Word all they can doe cannot make him thinke his Father is angry Though God himselfe try the Saints they liveing in him and enjoying his love Though he seeme in his Providence to be angry yet they find loves in his very bosome in his very heart when men enjoy not this every frowne from men and every frowne from God casts them downe they forsake their boldnes because they have no exprience of the sweet and unchangeable nature of God as Ezek. 22.14 Exek 22.14 Can thine heart endure or can thine hands be strong in the daies that I shall deale with thee They being backsliden and departed from God they were not able to look on God as a father when he aflicted them as the Saints can doe Doth God chide yet they know t is in love Doth God wound all are fruits of his love So now you see how bold a Saint is with God How bold in standing for God How bold in declaring God How bold in undergoing any thing from God and all this by liveing with God by liveing in God and enjoying God This man must needs be a bold man that hath such inflowings of loves from God what shall such a man account deere for such a God How bold was Jer. in the Prison though put in the Dungeon where he sanke in the mire and was ready to starve when he was taken out againe and remained in prison he could not hold his peace the power of loves constrained him to speake what he had seene and felt And so Iob though he was aflicted in his Estate in his children in his owne person Iob. 13.15 what saith he though he kill me he deferves to be trusted in I

not aske you if you have had the knowledge thereof in your understandings but haue you enjoyed them and found the loves of Christ so large so overcomming to your soules doe you see and feele that Christ thinkes nothing in his very heart too good for you The Scripture indeed is very full to prove this I need not cite them but have you made proofe thereof are these things so to you are they proved by your injoyments then I will tell you what it will worke First nothing that you have will be too precious for Christ Christs very heart his life his riches his loves his glory is not too precious for you And your very heart your life you will not think too precious for him much lesse your honour your riches your credit I tell you friends nothing will be too deare to part with so you may be taken up to these injoyments you will tread upon all as dirt as dung so you may gaine the loves and embraces of Christ Will friends will honours will parts will ordinances stand you in such stead as the loves of Christ will they lay you in the very heart and bosome of Christ will they redeeme you from the law and set you free will they take you from under the power of the killing letter which threatned nothing but death and hell will they take all advantages to do you good by sin by afflictions will they come in and helpe you when you are quite worne out will they helpe you out in straits No no they will not they cannot but all they can doe is but to lay you in their owne bosomes they cannot helpe against the terrours of the Law they take all advantages to doe you hurt they cannot helpe you out of straits but rather helpe you into straits c. The saints as saints they looke on all outward comforts thus and how then can they bee in love with them they looke on them as chaffe as stubble as nothing their life their loves their treasure is in the loves of Christ and having Christs heart running out to them and theirs to his Ioh. 17.23 Thou in me and I in them and they in me Thus much you hold forth by your profession of Christ and if it be so then I wonder why something of yours is too good for him if you loose your honour your good name your estates for him you thinke much you thinke Christ deales hardly with you and well you may if he bestow not himselfe upon you but had you as good a thing in the roome of that you lose you would never repine if Christ be such happinesse such riches such ravishings so that he is better then all things else what 's the reason you sticke so much upon the creature what 's the reason you come not off to this life what 's the reason that ye come no sooner make no more hast have no more longings to it But friends were you in the armes in the embraces of Christ you would repent you came no sooner into these joyes and loves that you were no sooner crucified to the flesh and to your selves Oh! beloved I tell you you would sleight all things as they stood in opposition to Christ But as I told you before they doe love wife friends children but 't is in Christ as Christ appears to them in them But friends where is your great boasting of your profession and Christianity and living to Christ if these things be so If Christ take away strawes and give Diamonds and Pearles what cause hast thou to complaine If thou dost complaine for the losing of these strawes it is signe for all thy boasting thou hast no Pearles but these strawes these nothings were thy Pearles and thy Diamonds Againe is a saint made glorious by Christ and is Christ and his glory all one then were you made glorious by Christ you would be swallowed up in the loves of Christ you could not live apart from Christ but you should live in Christ You have heard this is your priviledge as saints you shall not live in one region and Christ in another but you shall injoy the same life the same joyes the same loves with Christ Againe is the presence of Christ in himselfe then 't is not to be enjoyd else-where 't is not in fellowships 't is not in ordinances simply considered yet these ye are to use to hold forth the discipline of Christ to the world yet not to rest in these these distinguish you externally from the men of the world but you will be as of the world still for all them if you enjoy no more but bare ordinances This I speake because many satisfie themselves in this in receiving outwardly the ordinances and that they are accounted Professours and sequestred from the men of the world and because they are found in such and such fellowships being well thought on by others alas these will doe you no good for all these you may have no more life then the men of the world You see no man can live in the bosome of Christ and in the glory of Christ but hee is made one with Christ Saints they are not only made perfect hereafter as most Professours run away with that but they are admitted and have some entrance into heaven here they live as Saints they walke as saints they trade as saints they live with Christ they walke up and downe in loves love compasses them round about they are swallowed up of loves they live in loving and love in living ordinances are but shels but saints while they are cracking the shell to others they are eating the kernell themselves and live thereby Alas friends you may be partakers of all externall ordinances you may submit to Baptisme you may come into a right order of a Church way you may frequently break Bread together but what 's all this friends this is but the shell of the businesse the huske the bone but is Christ glorified in your spirit here is the life and you in his Spirit here is the kernell the marrow doe you live as he lives are you made one in spirit truly friends examine and look wel to your selves for mine owne part often have I spoken to you taught to you that which I found not in experience yet I thought I had but truly I find now I comprehended them yet I was not comprehended of them I knew not what eating the kernell was nor tasting the marrow the sweetnesse till of late Againe are saints well and fitly called Doves in regard of liveing in loves and by being made fruitfull by loving and in regard they cannot live except they love then observe that the people of God are an innocent people they are innocent to the Law Christ hath fulfilled it for them and freed them from the Law and brought them to peace and liberty from under the power of the killing letter Againe are the saints no selfe-seekers but selfe-deniers then I