Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	life_n	lord_n	sin_n	21,606	5	4.7055	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54422	Some fruits of a tender branch, sprung from the living vine being a collection of several sound and godly letters, written by that faithful servant of God, Benjamin Padley. With diverse living testimonies to that innocent life, in which he walked, and continued to the end of his day.	Padley, Benjamin, 1658 or 9-1687.	1691 (1691)	Wing P161; ESTC R217466	26,941	57

OH feel the Bowels of Enlarged Love which the Lord God Almighty hath opened in me towards thee and hath laid it weightily upon me to visit thee with a tender visitation of love and also to lay open some of the snares and stratagems of the Enemy whereby he kept me in bondage many Months and some Years But the Lord in his tender mercy and infinite compassion hath redeemed me out of them all and hath set me free to worship him in spirit and in Truth unto whom my soul doth at this time and for ever desire to return everlasting glory and endless praises and thanksgiving who alone over all is worthy for ever and ever For after he was pleased in his endless mercy to bring me into the Wilderness into a place of want into a bewildred state into a wantfull state and into a sense of the Necessity I had of seeking after a Saviour the Enemy through hearkening to his deceitful voice kept me long wandring here before I could get thorow or arrive within the River-banks of Canaan yet can I truly say the Lord brought me not hither to starve me but to try me for he never left me nor forsook me but he dayly pursued me with mercy and followed me with his loving kindness he fed me with the Manna from Heaven and caused me to drink of the Rock that followed me which Rock was a shelter unto me and that Rock was Christ which dayly begot a longing desire in me of being redeemed out of that bewildred state and of coming to the full enjoyment of that living refreshment which my Soul at times and seasons was made partaker of for truly I have many times felt such living refreshments from the hand of the Lord both when I have been amongst the Assemblies of Gods People and also when alone in secret Places when my heart hath been kept low in his fear and when in the sincerity of my Soul I have waited upon him in a true Resignation to his Will that my Soul as it were hath been overjoyed and then whilst I have been thus pleasing my self with those Joys and take a Rejoycing in those Refreshments then hath the Enemy com'd in with those Perswasions and said Thou art now come to the full Enjoyment of thy desire thou art now come to arrive within the Blessed Land for which thou so earnestly travelled for and thou may now take up a rest here for thou need never fear of being deprived of these Enjoyments or of being driven back out of the Land wherein thou art arrived yea these and many more stumbling Blocks hath the Enemy cast before me whilst I was in this Blessed Exercise and through lending an Ear and hearkening to his deceitful Voice in taking up a false Rest which the Lord hath never ordained for me I have been led backward into the Wilderness and the Veil hath again been brought over me and the thick Clouds of Darkness hath covered me and the Mercies of the Lord hath been withdrawn from me and he hath as it were for a Season hid his Face from me so that I have sometimes been ready to say Surely this is Aegypts Darkness and to take up a Lamentation for want of the enjoyment of his presence which I did enjoy whilst I was obedient to him and in the deep sence of these my Wants and of the necessity of the saving Power and Salvation of the Lord God Almighty hath my Soul been bowed down under great Weights and Burthens beseeching him that he would again appear and rend away the Veils and take off all Coverings and let me feel of his wonted Goodness and of the fresh Incomes of his Love and Mercy which formerly I had been partaker of for in the sence of these Wants hath my Soul with David been ready to say Lord hast thou forgotten to be gracious wilt thou be favourable no more O then did he Answer me and say My hand is not shortned at all that I cannot save neither is my ear heavy that it cannot hear bu● thy Sins hath separated betwixt thee and me through hearkening and lending an ear to the Enemy in taking up a polluted Rest therefore turn from the evil of thy ways and I will still have Compassion on thee and appear to save in all Troubles and carry thee thorow all thy Exercises and Tryals which I will suffer to come upon thee and set thee as a Pillar in my House that shall never be removed O then his Words were strength to my soul and more desired by me than my necessary Food and now can I truly say the Lord is become my chiefest delight and the object of mine eye he is the God of my Salvation therefore will I trust in him and not be afraid though he was angry with me his anger is turned away though in a little wrath he did his face from me yet with everlasting loving kindness he will have Mercy on me And now the Lord having brought me out of the Wilderness out of a Place of Want into a Land of Plenty and given me to drink of the River of his pleasure which is set open and freely tendred to all that will come he hath taught me not to sit at ease and take up a Rest as the Enemy would have perswaded me for though the Enemies be subdued that were within the Borders and that hindred me from arriving within the Blessed Land yet GOD hath shewed me there are yet many Enemies within the Land which if there be not a continual Watch kept will come suddenly upon me and drive me out This is the Philistine Nature which will dam up the Wells of Jacob which will stop the Passage of the Fountain of Life from running into my Soul there are the Pleasures of the World and the Cares of this Life and all vain Traditions and Customs of Men which must be forsaken and Sufferings both of Body and spoyling of Goods Scoffings and Scornings Revilings and evil Entreatings which they that will live godly in Christ Jesus must endure And now the Lord having set before me Life and Death I will rather chuse to suffer affliction with the People of God than to enjoy the Pleasures of Sin for a Season for when I lay wallowing in my Blood and nothing but Wounds and putrifying Sores and when the Priest and the Levite passed by and regarded me not nor none could speak a word of Peace to my Soul O he was the good Samaritan Who took me up and had Compassion on me he was the skilful Physitian who knew my Infirmity and poured forth Balm from Gilead upon all my Wounds and healed me of mine Infirmities O therefore hath he engaged me to love him and to give up all for him and to follow him thorow the Loss of all things yea to give up my Life for his sake if he should require it at my hand and it is but all what I owe unto him it is but the sacrifice of

his Testimony with high words and expressions but sound plain and weighty his declaration was in the demonstration of the spirit power of God which reached the seed and when he received the aboundings of the heavenly gift that in the overflowings thereof he could Minister and offer the living Sacrifice on the Spiritual Altar and sind acceptance yet he grew not rich and full nor wise in his own conceit but was kept low and humble in a deep sence of the dayly need still to wait on God for the renewings of his mercys and the fresh openings of the springs of life and love from him to help forward in the Spiritual Travel and to persevere to the end and hereunto he did much exhort and stir up friends where he came and to constancy in meetings and to watchful diligence therein that all might come dayly to receive and truly to enjoy that wherein the True blessedness is He sought not worldly riches tho he was a man not slothful in business but in dustrious yet above all seeking the Kingdom of GOD and the Righteousness thereof and the Lord gave him his hearts desire and withheld not from him what his Soul Travelled for for he helped him on his way to the end and Ministred living Consolation to his Soul when all visible things ceased to be any more to him And now his course is finished and his work is done and his reward is everlasting where none can add thereto nor take therefrom and being sensible of this I can Truely Testify that I do not write these things in any vain Ostentation to set up the N●●●●● of a Creature but for the sakes of those that yet remain That all may be stirred up whom the Lord hath visited with the like mercy in the day of their visitation to give all diligence to make their Calling and Election sure seeing none of us knows at what time our end may be but that which is most weighty upon my Spirit whereby I have been drawn to bring in this Testimony is to provoke and stir up all the Children of the Lords People every where to be True followers of their parents in the Lords way in every thing that is good O the joy and comfort to the Souls of all that Love the Lord to behold the Children of Faithful parents that Truely loved and feared the Lord now walking in the same way and striving for the same immortal Crown and Oh the grief and sorrow of heart to be Children of Good parents loose and prophane Or to turn aside from the way of the Lord wherein they have been instructed Oh great will be the Condemnation of all such if they do not speedily return and therefore my earnest desire and Travel is that my Children and all the Children of the Lords faithful servants and people great and small may be hereby Admonished and put in Remembrance by the good Example of this young Man and his Brethren whose Memorial is blessed who Truely followed their good parents in faithfulness to God in doing and suffering what the Lord required of them and the Eternal God of power who helped their parents through all he call'd them to did not fail these young Men their Children but was their helper to the end and I believe is and ever will be a sure Rock to all that chuse and abide in his way from Generation to Generation And I dearly beseech all young people Children of the Lords servants not to count it enough to get and Comprehend into Notion what ye have heard from your parents or others and so to follow them only in the outward form and profession of Truth Oh but wait in the Light to feel the Spirit and power of God to work in you to judge work out and Crucify the worlds Nature in you and to renew you in your hearts and spirits according to his Holy and Heavenly will that so of him who certainly knows the hearts of all ye may be owned and approved which that all the called of the Lord both Old and Young may truly attain unto is the earnest desire and spiritual travel of your Brother and Companion in that which abides for ever Sebastian Ellythorpe THis Testimony remaineth in my heart and hath been as a Concern upon my Spirit many days concerning the Life and Death of my dear Friend Benjamin Padley for he was one that the Lord did bless and preserve in great weakness when he was in his tenderness and in his young years and seeking after the Knowledge of the blessed Truth as it is in Jesus and when he was weeping on his way and seeking the Lord inquiring the way to Sion having his face thitherward who travelled in pain as a Woman to be delivered and had a longing desire after the Lord God who could not be satisfied until he had met with him whom his soul loved and nothing would comfort him short of the Enjoyment of the presence of the Lord neither did he regard the Reproaches but patiently endured the Cross and despised the Shame And all for that Joy that was set before him which the Lord had given him a sence and a seeling of in his young days and in the Lords due and appointed time he did deliver him from under all that which was as a Burthen unto him as that Philistian Nature that was an Enemy unto Israel that would be casting stones into their Wells and would be damming up the precious springs of divine Life these things he knew and met with in his way but still his dependency was upon Christ the Beloved of his Soul who brought him out of the Wilderness and over the Red Sea and over Jordan and through the Ministration of Death and Condemnation which all must pass through before they come into Life and Peace with God and to be possessed of that Inheritance of Life and Salvation Peace and Rest in Christ that Canaan was a Figure of promised to Abraham and his Seed for ever of whose Off-spring and Race in those days are all the Faithful who is willing to leave their Fathers House and all their Kindred and all that is near and dear unto them among whom was this faithful Man who loved not his Life unto Death that he might save his Life unto Eternity this was before him and this was in Moses's eye above Aegypts Glory this was in Abrahams eye above his Native Country and above his Fathers House because they all had an eye unto the Recompence of Reward among whom was this faithful Man after that he had turned his back upon all the World and Aegypts Glory he grew valiant for the Truth and bore a living Testimony against the Abominations and all the Pride and Superstition and Idolatry thereof the sence whereof still remaineth and doth live with me though he be removed from us still the remembrance of him is Chronocled and Engraven in our hearts that it cannot easily be forgotten nor razed out of our

Remembrance the many sweet and living Testimonies that were given forth and that ran through him in the precious Extendings of Life and sweet Visitations wherewithal the Lord was pleased to visit him and to make him a Partaker of amongst the People of God of which I was an Eye and Ear-Witness and a partaker with him both in the time of the Ministration of Death and in the time of the Ministration of Life and Salvation and in his Exercises both spiritual and temporal but in all he was preserved in the meek and quiet spirit of the Lamb holding fast his Integrity in the ancient power of God and in the word of his patience who never failed him nor none of his faithful Children in the day of Tryal nor hour of Temptation though they be great and the troubles of the Righteous many yet the Lord is able to deliver out of them all as he hath done this my dear Friend where all sighing and sorrow doth fly away and where all tears is wiped away and all sorrows and pains cometh to an end and the troubler ceases troubling and the scorner ceases from scorning and the troubler of Israel doth not appear any more and this is our Joy and our Comfort that which maketh up our Loss in parting with so dear a Friend as he was in his day which was but short yet glorious for he was taken away in the flower of his age and in the strength of his youth I mean every way both bodily and spiritually for he had overcome the wicked one and the Word of God did abide in him and his presence did fill him until his Cup did overflow many times to the watering of the Heritage of God and now this is my desire That all to whom this may come may be Followers of Christ in his footsteps and according to his and many others that was holy Examples in their days of humility and self-denying and patience and long suffering and meekness and Brotherly kindness and charity suffering all things and bearing all things for the Name of Jesus and for the Word of God as he was given up to do and now is entred into Glory where he rests from his Labours and his Works do follow him and his Reward is with him for thus saith the Spirit Blessed is the dead which dye in the Lord for they rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them and the Name of the Righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance and shall be blessed among the Righteous but the Name of the Wicked shall rot These few Lines opened in my heart concerning my dear Friend whose Life was blessed and latter End Peace Now it is time to conclude and recommend this with the rest of Friends Testimonies to the serious Readers to whom this may come to the help and encouragement of them that are in Afflictions that they they may hold out to the end and be saved Iohn Richardson A Copy of a Letter sent to his Wife Dear Love THE Salutation of my endeared Love reacheth unto thee with my Children and I cannot but desire of the Lord That he would preserve you and keep you in his fear from day to day and give thee Wisdom and Understanding to order thy Family in his fear and dread and to be cheerful and trust in the Lord and he will not fail thee I am satisfied for blessed be the Name of the God of Heaven his Presence and Power is still with us and his Arm doth still surround us that we are carryed on with cheerfulness and freely given up to follow the Lord whithersoever he is pleased to lead us So my Dear I dearly desire thee be not troubled nor any way cast down in thy mind because of my Absence though things may go contrary to thy desire and expectation yet my Dear be incouraged and give up to the Lord and fear him and doubt not but all things will work together for thy good So unto the Lord do I commit thee with my Children and Family with my own Soul who I desire to preserve and keep us to his own Praise and Glory who alone is worthy over all for ever So my Dear I desire thee to remember my dear Love to all our Friends in general who is very dear unto me when I remember them especially those that are faithful So my dear Love with my dear Companion John Richardson salutes you all and bid you all farewel We are now at Rousby and doth intend for Whitby and so toward Burlington if the Lord permit So with my dear Love to thee I remain thy dear and faithful affectionate Friend and Husband Benjamin Padley From Rousby 16th of 8th Month 1686. Another Copy of a Letter sent to his Wife My Dear THe Salutation of my endeared Love at this time with many other times doth reach unto thee as also to my Dear Children and you are often in my Remembrance and my Soul is many times bowed down and my Spirit poured forth in Supplication before and in the presence of my God and yours that you may be preserved in holy fear and dread and that he may give thee Wisdom and understanding and strength and ability to order thy Children and to nurture them in the Fear of the Lord and keep them in Subjection as much as in thee Lyes and stand in the Dominion of Truth over them and thy servants and wait for Wisdom and Councel from the Lord to guide and order thee in all things that thee art concerned in And my dear be not too careful in driving on thy business too eagerly and keep thy hands off as much as thou possibly canst thou knowing thy own unfitness and the weakness of thy Constitution and although things may sometimes not go so well on as thou wouldst have them yet I would have thee be careful that thou lettest not thy mind out to fret and grieve at them but stand in the Counsel of God that he may give thee directions to order all things aright and to keep out of extreams on every hand But let thy Moderation appear in all things and let a moderate care be had in all things that nothing be willfully lost or wasted And so unto the Lord who is only able to preserve and prosper thee in all things do I commit thee with the rest of my family and my hope and confidence and whole belief is stedfast in him as ever that as we do keep faithful to the Lord and his Truth and desires to be found in that and to abide in that which will bring Honour to his Name The Lord will multiply his blessings upon us and we shall be as Monuments of his Mercy and his presence will be with us and his provident hand will be seen and felt in the ordering of us in all things to his glory and to our mutual Joy and Comfort And blessed be his great and Mighty NAME that hath not been wanting to me since I was