Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	hell_n	sin_n	sting_n	5,056	5	11.5139	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30364	Spiritual bondage and freedom, or, A treatise containing the substance of several sermons preached on that subject from John VIII, 36 by the late Reverend Mr. Nathanael Ball ...	Ball, Nathanael, 1623-1681.	1683 (1683)	Wing B581; ESTC R20020	203,915	466

be in mercy to them let it come never so soon and they are so fit for Heaven as that to be sure they shall not miss of it Col 1. 12 13 14. And so now you see what excellent Uses may be made of this Freedom and thereupon what an excellent Freedom this must needs be Now you that are in it I beseech you put your Freedom to these good Uses which I have set before you let it teach you to pitty poor sinners to get more understanding in the Gospel let it endear Christ to you let it comfort your hearts let it make the ways of God sweet to you and you useful Prize the Saints let it strengthen your faith be enriched by it in all goodness let it make you very humble and engage you to Christ in the strictest obedience and to be ready against your Lord shall come CHAP. XI Concerning the many wonders that may be observed in this Freedom THE Seventh and Last thing to set out the excellency of this Freedom is to speak something of the many Wonders that may be observed in it Beloved if ever there were any thing to be wondered at since the beginning of the World this Freedom is to be wondered at there 's enough in it to amaze and astonish every beholder You know people are mightily taken with seeing of rare sights and the hearing of strange news but never did any thing present you with such rare sights nor bring such strange news to your ears as this Freedom doth The whole story of it is wonderful from first to last it begins in Wonders and goes on in Wonders and is finished in Wonders The Freedom that God gave his people from other Bondages for their worldly condition were attended and accompanied with great Wonders so 't was when he brought them out of Egypt God was a Wonder-working God at that time I will smite Egypt saith he with all my wonders When he came to deliver Israel every one of the ten Plagues were Wonders the drying up of the Red-Sea the causing of his people to pass through the midst of it the drowning of all their Enemies by the returning of the Waters upon them they were great and marvellous works and so 't was when he brought them out of the captivity in Babylon he did such strange and great things then that his people were like to them that dreamed Psal 126. 1. they were great things in the eyes of their very Enemies as well as in their own eyes vers 2 3. But now this same spiritual Freedom is the Wonder of Wonders I might observe to you how that in many places of the Scripture where this Freedom is spoken of 't is brought in with this word behold that 's put before it as who should say do you mind what a Wonder here is Can you pass it by without admiration see it in Isa 7. 14. chap. 28. 16. chap. 42. 1. Jer. 23. 5 6. Zech. 9. 9. Luk. 2. 10. Joh. 1. 29. 1 Joh. 3. 1. and in Isa 9. 6. When Christ is prophecied of that he should come into the World for the giving of this Freedom amongst all his other names this is one and the first that is mentioned that he should be wonderful But now to come to Particulars If I should insist upon all the Wonders belonging to this Freedom I should be too large and indeed the Subject that I am upon doth not require any more than that I should speak so far of the Wonders in it as may serve to set out the excellency of this Freedom And therfore I do willingly omit the Wonders that may be observed in the Incarnation Conception Birth Life Death Resurection and Assention of Christ and shall only lay before you such Wonders as by which you may see as I said that this is an excellent Freedom I will mention ten of them 1. What a Wonder is this That the greatest loss should be turned into the greatest gain 't is so by this Freedom it brings Saints the best estate that ever they were in out of the worst estate that ever they were in 'T was never so low with them as it 't was by the Fall of man 't was never so high with them as it is by this Freedom by Christ by which they are recovered from that Paul saith Phil. 3. 7. That the things that were gain to him became loss for Christ and they who are the Children of God may also say that the things that were loss to them are become gain by Christ Oh how have they gained by the fall And yet beloved we must not rejoyce in the fall while we look barely upon that No 't is matter of heart-breaking sorrow to think that ever Adam and the World in him sinned away their innocency as they did and 't will be matter of everlasting mourning to many millions in Hell that Adam did not abide in that honour which God gave him at the first but we may and we must rejoyce in Christ who turns even this great evil to the great good of all that believe in him to them it is according to Sampsons riddle Out of the eater came forth meat and out of the strong came forth sweetness If ever there were a blessed loss this was it considering how God took occasion from it to magnifie the riches of his Grace in his Son This Wonder you have set forth in Rom. 5. 17 18 19. where he speaks how we were ruined in the first Adam and raised in the second 2. That every sin that a man hath committed should be damnable and yet that all the sins that he hath committed shall not damn him Certainly there must be some wonderful way found out to bring this to pass why now this Freedom by Christ doth it 'T is the nature of every sin to deserve Hell not only the evils and miseries of this present life but also everlasting wrath in the World to come and who ever is not made free by Christ shall find that every sin is a deadly sin and that 't is not a Purgatory shall serve their turn to cleanse them from the least transgression Oh what a cursed practise is this of the Papists to harden sinners hearts thus as if some sins were of such a small guilt and of such a venial nature as if Hell were a place of too great torment for them but we say as Paul in another case Nay O man who art thou that repliest against God Doth not this word say that death is the wages of sin Rom. 6. ult of sin as 't is sin and by death there is meant that which is in opposition to eternal life But now this Freedom makes innumerable damnable sins not to damn would you not count it a wonderful thing if there should be such a thing as were able to quench unquenchable fire Why this Freedom does it for those that have it it puts cut the Fire of Hell to them Beloved if you would imagine

saies again vers 18. I beheld Satan as lightning fall from Heaven As if he should say I foresaw this when I sent you out that it would be so I knew that he would come down as swift as the lightning Beloved this Freedom makes sinners vomit up Devils where it comes what a wonderful thing is this 7. That the dead should be raised would you not Wonder to see a man raised from the dead If so be that any of you should stand in a Church-yard and while you are looking upon a grave and think of the person that lies dead and buried there and how many years ago it is since he died and that now he were rotten and consumed to see him come forth and stand up and live Why now such a marvellous work is done by this Freedom it hath spiritually opened the graves of many thousand Souls and blessed be God we are not without some such that live and walk amongst us at this day and that are with us in this Congregation Beloved do but turn your eyes now and look upon such a man and such a woman that fears God and you have this wonderful sight before you concerning whom it may be said as in Eph. 2. 1. And you hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins By this Freedom God shews Wonders to the dead the dead arise and praise him Psal 88. 10 11 12. Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead shall the dead arise and praise thee Selah Shall thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave or thy faithfulness in destruction Shall thy wonders be known in the dark and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness Why yes God doth so in this case that I am upon And therefore if you that have any Relations any Children any Friends that are for the condition of their Souls stark dead you cannot perceive the least motion or breathing in them towards God or any thing that is good Why 't is true indeed if you be spiritually alive your selves you can't but do that which persons use to do for their Friends that are dead you cannot but mourn for them and in this sense you may and you must do that which would be a great sin in another sense you may pray for the dead and you may be stirred up to it by the consideration of the wonderful nature of this Freedom that it is a thing that will put life into the dead You may look upon a wicked Child or Relation it may be so far gone in sin that they are even past hope as we use to do upon people when they are dead oh as long as they were alive tho very sick yet while there 's life there is hope as we use to say but when we see they are dead then hope is gone Yea but as to this I am speaking of how know you but Christ may come to the grave of that dead Soul and raise it as he did to Lazarus So beloved we that are Ministers of Christ we preach of this Freedom to you and as to divers of you we are afraid we preach to the dead and one would think Why then what hope is there were it not as good to give over Oh no! Preach we must for all this in hope that you may live we are sure that if God please to give you this Freedom tho you have it not yet when it comes it shall do Wonders in you 't will fetch you out of your graves Our Preaching to sinners 't is like Ezekiels prophecying to the dry bones cap. 37. God brought him and set him down in the midst of a Valley full of them vers 1 2. and when he had been viewing them well and seen what a sad Spectacle there was now Son of man can these bones live saith he dost think 't is possible that ever they should live And he answered O Lord God thou knowest As if he should say O Lord that 's with thee who can resolve that but thy self verse 3. Well in vers 4. Come do thou prophecy upon them saith God and keep on prophecying and see what I will do by it Now vers 7. the Prophet prophesied as he was commanded As if he should say That I did and that was all that I could do but mark what wonderful success here was see vers 7 8 9 10. and you read in vers 10. that they lived c. The Lord bless our preaching as he blessed Ezekiels prophecying here 8. That Death it self should be killed Is not this a strange thing You know what a killing thing Death is you have heard of many and seen many that have been slain by it it is a killing all over the World Whether you consider Death naturally or spiritually what a great destroyer ' t is But now that there should be something that should cause Death it self to dye would not this be a wonder why this Freedom doth it it kills the bodily death by the Resurrection of the body it kills the spiritual Death by their being risen with Christ it kills the eternal Death by giving them eternal Life You have two Verses in Joh. 11. 25 26. that speak to this says our Saviour there I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me tho he were dead yet shall he live And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never dye See also 1 Cor. 15. 54 55 56 57. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written Death is swallowed up in victory O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 9. That a man should be made able to do all things Would you not Wonder to see a man that is so able It may be you will not believe that there is any such man in the World Nay that if he could do all things he would not be a man and 't is true if you take all things in the largest sense he cannot do all things that God can do but he can do all things through God that he hath to do Phil. 4. 11. A true Christian is in some sense weak and yet strong as Paul saith When I am weak then am I strong 2 Cor. 12. 10. And says our Saviour to the man that brought to him his Son possessed with a Devil beseeching him to help him Mark 9. 23 If thou canst believe all things are possible to him that believeth As if he should say Art thou got into Freedom if so there 's nothing that thou hast to do but thou maist go through with it by faith in me A man that hath this Freedom and improves it as he should do he can be poor he can be rich he can do and he can suffer he can live