Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	jesus_n	life_n	sin_n	18,761	5	4.6811	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A09984	Mount Ebal, or A heavenly treatise of divine love Shewing the equity and necessity of his being accursed that loves not the Lord Iesus Christ. Together with the motives meanes markes of our love towards him. By that late faithfull and worthy divine, John Preston, Doctor in Divinitie, chaplaine in ordinary to his Majestie, master of Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge, and sometimes preacher of Lincolnes Inne.	Preston, John, 1587-1628.	1638 (1638)	STC 20238; ESTC S115085	27,130	53

debt for thee when thou wast ready to goe to prison for it so that now the Lord begins to grow angry with thee if thou wilt not yet love him for all this and yet this is not all and therefore Thirdly consider also that he loves thee now as fire begets fire so doth love beget love therefore saith Saint Iohn we love him because he loved us first that is his love to us should make us love him againe but especially we cannot but love him if we consider in the last place Fourthly what his love is for its unspeakeable and passing knowledge we can never conceive the height and length c. All which what should it teach us but these two things First that if we will not love the Lord he will shew his wrath and make his power knowne upon us that we are but vessells of wrath fitted for destruction as it is said Againe Secondly it should exhort us to love the Lord Iesus Christ and therefore to provoke us thereunto we should often consider and thinke in these things what right and title he hath to us how much he hath done for us and how greatly he loves yea and more then all this wee shall thereby also have these and these things wee shall by this meanes reape these and these benefits First we shall have his spirit the spirit of truth the Comforter which shall leade us into all truth and enable us to fullfill his Commandements and with facility and ease whereas else they would be grievous unto us as for example Saint Paul would soone have beene weary of preaching and suffering so much as he did if he had not had this love in him and why doe parents thinke nothing too much for their children but because they love them therefore it is that though they bee froward and untoward yet still they beare with them if then we cannot finde in our hearts to be quiet untill they looke to the Lord like as the needle of a compasse which is toucht with a Loadstone will never stand still till it comes to the North-pole then may this be a testimony unto us that may distinguish us from Hypocrites and witnesse to our soules that we love the Lord Iesus Christ for they keepe the Commandements of God in some sort and abstaine from some one kinde of sinne but not out of love to him nor in any obedience and conscience of his word but in love to themselves Secondly this is a marke of thy Resurrection from the death of sinne to the life of righteousnesse hereby shall yee knew that yee are translated from death to life because yee love the brethren now yee cannot love them but you must love the Father that begot them Thirdly thou shalt get by this thy love to him for when thou givest him thy heart he will give it thee againe he will onely alter the object but let thee keepe the affection still onely it shall be better then it was before he will purifie it from all its corruptions and cleanse it from all its sins Nor shall this be any thing out of thy way it shall be as much for thy profit as ever it was before for when thy heart is set to keepe his Commandements when it inclines to his statutes as so hee will incline it then whatsoever thou dost it shall prosper so that as it s said of the Sabbath that it was made for man that is for mans good so may we say the same of all the rest of the Commandements that it is made for man that is for his good and benefit and therefore the promise of life and happinesse is made to all alike And here by the way take this difference along with thee to distinguish thy love from selfe love for that is all for it selfe but this is all for him whom thou lovest if then thou love the Lord for thine owne good it is selfe love but if thou love him for himselfe simply without any respect to the recompence of reward then is it true love indeede Fourthly wee shall receive much comfort by loving the Lord now what is that keepes us from loving of him but our pleasures we are loath to part with them and yet alas we shall receive much more and they farre more substantiall sollider and sounder comfort by loving of him then ever we should by loving of the world or the things of the world Now doe but thinke how good a thing it is to love one that is but like thee much rather shouldst thou love one that died for thee wherefore if thou wouldst have thy heart filled with joy and comfort love him for so thou shalt have joy unspeakeable and glorious And last of all if thou wouldst indeede unfainedly love the Lord Iesus Christ consider Fiftly that it makes thee a more excellent man then thou wast before for every man is better or worse according to his love as it is set on things better or worse now Christ is the Summum bonum the chiefest good and if thou love him thou art united unto him and to his God-head for love is of a uniting nature Thou wilt say these are indeede good motives to make us to love him but how shall I come by this love or by what meanes shall I get this love into my heart For answer whereunto I tell thee first of all that if thou canst but unfeinedly desire to love him thou hast halfe done this worke already and that thou mayst have such a desire meditate often upon those motives before This is the answer Christ himselfe gave to his Disciples when they asked him how they should get faith why saith he if you have faith but as a graine of mustard feed you should say to this mountaine be thou removed and be thou throwne into the midst of the Sea c. thereby shewing them the excellency of it that so he might the more enamour them with the love of it and make them desire it above all that they could imagine and thinke of besides in comparison thereof but if thou wouldst as thou sayst thou desirest to love the Lord Iesus Christ indeede with all thy heart with all thy soule and with c. I answer and add againe thou canst not use a better meanes to attaine thereunto and get the love of him into thy heart then these First pray unto God for it for all graces are his gifts they are meere Donatives and hee hath promised to heare them that aske in his Sonnes name and to give the spirit to them that aske it that is to give the gifts and graces thereof unto them nor is he any niggard for he giveth liberally and obraideth not But thou wilt say how doth prayer beget love I answer it begets it two wayes First by prevailing with God Secondly by familiarity with him First I say by prevailing with God so did Iaacob and the woman of Canaan for considering that

MOVNT EBAL OR A HEAVENLY TREATISE OF DIVINE LOVE Shewing the Equity and Necessity of his being accursed that loves not the Lord Iesus Christ. Together with the Motives Meanes Markes of our love towards him By that late Faithfull and worthy Divine JOHN PRESTON Doctor in Divinitie Chaplaine in Ordinary to his Majestie Master of Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge and sometimes Preacher of Lincolnes Inne PSAL. 31. 26. Love the Lord O all yee his Saints c. PSAL. 145. 20. The Lord preserveth all them that love him and scattereth abroad all the ungodly LONDON Printed by M. P for Iohn Safford and are to be sold at his house in Black horse Alley in Fleet-street 1638. A HEAVENLY TREATISE OF Divine Love 1 CORINTH 16. 22. If any man love not the Lord Iesus Christ let him be accursed yea let him be had in execration even to the death or let him be Anathema Maranatha THESE words have little or no dependance on the words before going which are these The salutation of me Paul by mine owne hand and the reason why he thus writes is because there were many false Apostles and counterfeit Epistles went abroad in the world if not under his name but hereby saith he you shall know me from them all even by this my salutation and subscription as by mine owne hand for in all my Epistles so I write The grace of our Lord Iesus Christ be with you all Amen Wherefore to consider them in themselves St. Paul hating those as we use to doe who speake evill of them we love doth here pronounce a curse against them that love not the Lord Iesus Christ and the reason why he doth so is because he cannot endure to heare him evill spoken of by any blasphemous tongue So that this then is the scope and drift of the Apostle in this place namely to commend Love unto us and above all other the love of the Lord Iesus Christ and to exhort us by all meanes thereunto in which exhortation let me desire you to observe with me these two reasons why we should thus love him Whereof the first is taken from the Necessity of it he is accursed that loves him not second is taken from the Equity or object of his love the Lord Iesus Christ. If any man love not the Lord Iesus Christ let him be c. There is not much difficulty in the words yet fome there is for clearing whereof I will shew you what is meant by these two termes Anathema Maranatha and so proceede for the first Anathema it is a Greeke word and it is as much as elevari suspendi to be lift up or be hanged and it signifies accursed by way of allusion to that opprobrious and cursed kinde of death which was inflicted upon notorious and hainous Malefactors who for their offence were hanged up upon a tree gibbet or any such engine according as it is said cursed is every one that hangeth c. which place is againe alledged by this our Apostle St. Paul to prove that Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us for it is written cursed is c. Secondly for the word Maranatha it is an Assyrian word taken from an Hebrew root which signifies execration or cursing and therefore I so rendered it in the reading of it unto you now in that the Apostle useth two words of diverse Languages for the fuller expression of this his so fearefull a malediction and curse as if one word were not enough or that out of his zealous affection he could not so content himselfe with it we may note that by how much the more the curse is greater by so much the more grievous is the duty omitted from which premisses we may make this conclusion or draw this point of Doctrine viz. That he is worthy to be curst yea to bee curst ●ith all execration that loves not the Lord Iesus ●●rist For the further unfolding and opening whereof consider with me these three things following to wit First what Love is in generall Secondly what love to the Lord Iesus Christ is Thirdly some reasons why he is worthy to be accursed that loves him not of each of these in their order and first of the first What Love is in generall and for that take this briefe description of it viz. Love is an inclination of the will whereby it inclines to some good thing agreable to it selfe First I say its an inclination of the will where we may take notice of two things both of the subject or seate which is not any inferior part or faculty of the soule but the will one of the most supreme and potentest of all the rest And what is the nature and property the quality and condition of it it is elicita non coacta not forced but free inclined not constrained for voluntas as say the Phylosophers est libera the will is of a most absolute and free power so that though a man may be compelled to doe something against his liking yet he can never be forced to doe any thing against his will at lest his will cannot be forced that like a Queene in her Throwne is alwayes free Secondly I say its an inclination of the will unto good aut verum aut apparens either for that it is so indeede or at least for the present appeare● and seemes so to be unto it according to 〈◊〉 trite and true axiome of the Schooles too bonum est objectum voluntatis the Adequate object of the will is onely good yet not every good neither but bonum sibi conveniens such a good as is agreeable to it selfe that onely is the object of love Now by this you conceive the second thing what love to the Lord Iesus Christ is and it is nothing else but an intensive bending of the mind unto Christ as the most necessary and suitablest thing for it that may be the Summum bonum the chiefest good of all that it can desire so that it desires and loves nothing like him Now the properties whereby we shall know whether our love to the Lord Iesus Christ be such or not are especially these three First it alwayes desires to have the thing it loves cannot be contented with any thing else but him as being the proper Center of the soule which is never at quiet so long as it is out of his place agreeable to that of a Father Fecistinos Domine ad te inquietum est cor nostrum donec requiescit in te Thou hast made us O Lord and our heart is never at rest till it rest in thee it is his fruition that gives it satisfaction againe as it desires the fruition of him so it desires as much Secondly the conjunction and union with him to be one with him and he with us and therefore it hates whatsoever may hinder it and seekes whatsoever may helpe it therein and being thus once conjoyned and enjoying it it

finally Thirdly seekes and endeavours the protection and preservation of the thing it loves as it on the other side shunnes and avoids ought that might endanger the destruction thereof and if notwithstanding it meete with it interposeth it selfe betwixt it and that to defend it as the arme wards the blow from the head albeit it be to the wounding of it selfe And when these three concurre together when our love hath these three concommitants and is attended with these fruits and effects as you heard before that it thus desires the fruition conjunction preservation of Christ. Then may we distinguish it from all sensuall and carnall love for there be many sorts of love in the world but it is all but worldly love not spirituall and Heavenly love First ther 's a love of pitty as when we bewaile a mans case but hate his deeds so are Malefactors beloved Secondly ther 's a love of desire as when the stomacke desires sweete meates the eare delightsome sounds and the eye fine sights c. Thirdly ther 's a love of complusment when one lusts or longs after a thing with the whole heart or soule so as he cannot subsist without it as a woman with child lusteth and longeth after a thing she hath a minde to which she cannot fafely goe without Fourthly ther 's love of friendship when one man loves another for some courtesie or kindenesse he hath received from him Fiftly and lastly ther 's a love of dependance when a man loves God more then himselfe more then his life and depends upon him for all good things belonging to body or soule Or to be more briefe ther 's a naturall sinfull spirituall Love The first is betwixt parents and children and in it selfe is neither good nor evill The second ariseth from evill habits bred in the soule and it is most hatefull to God and makes us worse then the brute beasts The third is that divine gift and grace of God which the Holy Ghost puts into our hearts whereby we are more then men and desire Holy things for themselves and this is that love which the Apostle here calls for in this place Now if our love to the Lord Iesus Christ be such we shall further know it by these two things which alwayes proceede and goe before it as the former followed after it viz. humiliation for sinne past and faith in Christ for the time to come First humiliation for sinne past for till a man come to have a sight and sense of himselfe by reason of his sinnes he will never care for Christ and when he hath beene thus cast downe yet Secondly without faith in Christ whereby he applies him to himselfe and is perswaded that he is reconciled unto him he will not yet love him but rather hate him of the twaine Now the manner or meanes of getting of both these and so consequently of love into our hearts is by the preaching of the word of God by prayer and taking him when he is offered and given unto us in the same for that end But now we must take Christ as an husband takes a wife or a wife an husband out of love to their persons not to their portions and then shall we be the better subject unto him but except we be first humbled as was before said for our sinnes and consider in what neede thou standest of him how that without him thou must perish till then I say thou canst not sufficiently set by him nor love him aright but when thou knowest how necessary he is for thee how alsufficient and affectionate he is towards thee then thou beginnest to looke at Christ as a condemned person doth at him that brings a pardon for him whom he loves and longs after joyes and rejoyceth in And yet all this is but a preparative to our love of him it is faith that is the first fountaine whereby we so love him as that we can cleave unto him with purpose of heart to serve and please him in all things and this love which thus ariseth from faith doth not onely beleeve that Christ is mercifull and will forgive thee thy sinnes upon thy supplication and repentance unto him for the same but also that he is most fit and conformable for thee so that thou couldst finde in thy heart to be anathaematized for his sake and to be divorced from all things in the world for love of him And so much for the second thing also I come now to the last to wit Thirdly to the reasons why he is worthy to be had in execration and to be cursed even to the death that loves not the Lord Iesus Christ and they are chiefly these five First because when Christ shall come and be a Sutor unto us to love him and we refuse to doe it and to be reconciled unto him and receive him then he growes angry to the death you may see this in the Parable of the Marriage of the Kings sonne how wroth he was when he heard they had abused and beaten his servants which he sent to call them to the wedding and therefore the Prophet David bids us kisse the Sonne lest he bee angry and so c. that is as if he should say when he offers himselfe to kisse you with the kisses of his mouth be not too coy and curious but imbrace his offer returne his curtesie with the like kindnesse and kisse him againe lest he take it in great indignation at your hands and be so angry with you that you die for it Indeede when we knew not the Gospell he was content though we were froward and fruitlesse but now that he sends his Desciples to preach unto all Nations then if they bring not forth fruits worthy amendment of life he tells them the axe is laid unto the rootes c. Secondly because he that in old time brake the law was accursed now this was the Lords Commandement that we love him But you will say we are not able to fulfill the law of our selves and how then shall we doe it I answer ther 's a two-fold obedience Legall and Evangelicall that requires exact obedience in our owne persons but this requires no more but onely our endeavour and faith in Christ. Thirdly because he loves something else more then God and so commits Adultery now shee that in the old law did commit Adultery had a drinke of bitter water given her which made her belly swell c. so that shee died how much more worthy of death is he then that thus deales with God and going a whoring after it commits spirituall fornication Fourthly because that commonly belongs to Hypocrites they are a cursed crew to whom Christ shall say at the last day goe ye cursed c. Now all such as love him not are no better nor worse but wretched and damnable Hypocrites Fiftly because love governes the whole man it s as the Rudder of a ship which turnes

he hath condescended to their request that he hath granted their suite and heard their petition and that in such a matter as they are never able to make him any part of amends as the forgivenesse of their sinnes why then they thinke that to love him is one of the least things they can doe for him so Mary Magdalen loved much because much was forgiven her Secondly by familiarity with him we have a saying that nimium familiaritatis contemptum parit that too much familiarity breeds contempt and however amongst some men it may sometimes fall out so yet it s seldome seene amongst those that are intimate friends indeede or say it should yet I say it never so comes to passe betwixt God and the faithfull soule but by how much the more familiar and frequent they are together by so much the more fervent and indissoluble is their love and this is most certaine that a man that is a stranger may with thee well but cannot truely love thee till he be acquainted with thee so neither canst thou love the Lord as thou shouldst so long as you are strangers one to another and what brings us and the Lord better acquainted together then prayer wherein as it were thou talkest familiarly with God even as a man talketh with his friend face to face this is the first meanes Secondly desire the Lord to shew himselfe unto thee as Moses did for this is a strong motive and meanes to make thee love him therefore saith our Saviour to his Disciples that him* which is as if he had said if you would know how you shall come to love me or my father it shall be by this way or meanes I will manifest my selfe unto you I will shew you my glory and then you cannot choose but love mee though you loved me not before Now the ordinary way and meanes whereby he reveales himselfe unto any one is by the preaching of the word which though it be but a dead letter in it selfe yet when hee puts life and spirit into it and opens our hearts as he did open Liddeahs thereby then we see and conceive his mercy and our owne wretched vilenesse whereupon we cannot but love him knowing how hee hath loved us and gave himselfe for us and therefore the Apostle prayeth That the God of our Lord Iesus Christ would give the Ephesians the spirit of knowledge wisdome and revelation that the eyes of their understanding being enlightened they may know what is the hope of his calling and the riches of the glory of his inheritance in his Saints* as if he had said if you know but these things then there is no doubt to be made of it but that you will love him as well as one would desire for this is one sure ground why we love him not or love him no better then we doe because wee know him no better we are ignorant of him and ignoti nulla cupido as it is said there is no love no longing desire after that which we know not or know not the worth and necessity of it as a sicke man hath no thought after the soveraigne druggs in the Apothecaries shop because hee is ignorant of any such matter whereas the skilfull Physitian seekes out and sends for them and as an ordinary rusticke cares not for a precious pearle but casts it away when he findes it which if an expert Lapidary had it hee would set much by it because he knowes the price and worth of it well enough and thence it is that when the Prophet David had professed his love to God saying I will love thee ô Lord my strength hee afterwards addes as it were the reason or ground of that his love towards him because hee bowed the Heavens and came downe What 's that why that he had made himselfe knowne unto him he had declared his power and might in his deliverance and that was it that made him love him if therefore thou wilt but desire I say to love him he will inflame thy heart with the love of him yea he will open the Heavens and thou shalt see him sitting on the right hand of God as Saint Steven did But thou wilt say all these are the workes of God and they extraordinary ones too but what must I doe for my part to have the love of God in my heart to which I answer First no it is no such extraordinary thing for God to reveale himselfe to his Saints it is an usuall manner with him but yet Secondly thou must doe these things thy selfe First thou must looke how he hath revealed himselfe in the Scriptures to be a most glorious and gracious God a mercifull Father in Iesus Christ slow to anger and of much mercy and now when we perceive him to be such a one we cannot but love him and long after him with all our hearts Secondly we must consider our owne misery this made Mary to seeke after him and were it not but that we stand in neede of him but that wee know wee are undone and damned without Christ wee should never care so much for him for the whole have no neede of the Physitian that is they care not for his skill nor his helpe but they that are sicke they that know their owne wants and weakenesses they know how to value and esteeme of him and so we when we see we are wounded by sinne and sicke unto death then will we enquire and seeke out for the spirituall Physitian of our soules Christ Iesus Thirdly we must humble our selves before him confessing our sinnes and that in particular as many as we can by the omission of such and such good duties and the commission of these and these sinnes especially we must confesse our beloved bosome-raigning sinnes so the Prodigall Sonne confessed that he had sinned especially against Heaven and before his father by ryotous living whereby he was unworthy to be called his sonne and did desire onely to be as one of his hired servants and now when he saw his father notwithstanding make him so welcome who had so meane a conceit of himselfe that he put a ring upon his finger and shooes on his feete c. then he loved him much more and so it is with Christ and us when we are once out of love with our selves and yet perceive that he loves us who are not worthy to be beloved then that makes us love him againe and the more lowly we are in our owne eyes the more highly doe we esteeme Christ and Christ us Fourthly and lastly thou must first of all get faith for as thy faith is stronger or weaker so is thy love more or lesse if thou hast but a little faith thou hast but a little love for faith is the ground of love as the promises are the ground of faith Now so long as thou dost not beleeve that he hath satisfied the divine wrath and justice of God for thee