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	power_n	soul_n	8,115	5	4.8720	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39934	Grace and mercy to a sinner in a time of afflictions, or, The serious meditations of M. Tho. Ford of Rochester during the time of his imprisonment, before his execution, faithfully delivered from his own copie : together with his funeral sermon, preached by Mr. Wil. Sandbrook, P.M. Rochester / set forth for the strengthning of our faith in Jesus Christ ... ; published for the satisfaction of his friends ... by John Plasse.	Ford, Thomas, d. 1656.; Sandbrooke, William.; Plasse, John.	1657 (1657)	Wing F1513; ESTC R40949	26,591	84

hid●en by his holiness and the very being ●hereof daily diminished by the ●trength power and working of his Spi●t If thou wouldst be saved this must be ●●y Plea I Lord have most grieviously ●●ned against thee even in my best per●rmances therefore I beseech thee for Christ his sake to pardon me And not ●us Behold this I have done thus I have deserved therefore I require thee ●f thy Iustice to reward me for in the work of salvation all merrit and desert ●f our own is absolutely excluded How sweetly and contentedly may ●at soul repose it selfe that hath a testi●ony of his salvation by Iesus Christ ●at God is reconciled unto him in Christ notwithstanding his many and ●rievous sins the root of corruption every coruption that lyeth lurking in the heart of man Now for the soul to feele such a change such a regeneration wrought on the heart after a true and serious repentance and the embracements of a Saviour the Lord Jesus in his arms ready to receive thee what a transcendent unspeakable comfort is that soul partaker of But that we may not flatter our selves with the bare flashes and as it were shaddows of comfort taken from a wrong principle let us consider and that seriously from whence our comforts do arise Do they arise from an utter abhorring our selves by reason of our polution by nature For until we be wounded what need can we find of a medicine Until we can find our selves heart-sick of sin what need can we find to our selves of a Physician They that are whole need not a Physician but they that are sick Is Jesus Christ the chief desire of thy soul Art thou willing to part with any thing for him that having found this treasure canst thou presently hide it in thy heart Art thou willing to sell all that thou hast to purchase this Field this Treasure this Wisdom Is thy heart affected with the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ Dost thou eye Jesus Christ by faith Dost thou see fulness of satisfaction in the merits death and passion of Christ Dost thou feel by the power of Christ's spirit an application of all this to thy soul that thou canst out of a setled assurance conclude these benefits and blessings belong to me Then my soul let thy temporal condition be what it will as for this life yet raise up thy affections higher let thy heart be where thy treasure is repose thy self upon Jesus and take care of exempting thy self from those heavenly priviledges which the blood of Jesus Christ is ready to pour down upon thee These things well considered are as so many sinews and joynts to strengthen a weak and drooping faith the Lord give me his spirit of grace that I may not only write these Truths but that by his strength they may be applied unto my soul Thomas Ford He that broke the heart of Manasseh and Paul after their blood and blasphemies when they never desired any such thing he can break thine much more when thou desirest him to do it for thee T. F. To my loving and esteemed Friend Mr Henry Wright one of the Serjeants at Mace within the City of Rochester Loving Friend I Present unto you a small quantity of Winter fruit which hath fell from ●a Dry Branch What my purpose is in presenting them I trust of your self you will conceive it to be no other but this that they may remain with you as a testimony of mysetled purpose never to forget your ancient Love He that hath a friend let him shew himself friendly saith the Scripture Accept therefore this little as from a new Graft upon a corrupt stock and vouchsafe it some low room in your Meditations and as you relish it promote it not for any worth in the Gift but for the integrity of the Donor who while he lives will alwaies pray that after you and yours have served their time here ye may be made Free-men and Free-women of the Kingdom of Heaven Amen Nov. 30. 1656. Your loving and Well-wishing Friend Thomas Ford a Prisoner in the Prison of the City of Rochester called the Dolphine Certain Propositions which in my Meditations I have collected together in this time which is lent me out of the 14 chapter of Hosea and the first verse The words are these Oh Israel Return unto the Lord thy God for thou hast faln by thine Iniquity THe words are an exhortation or a vehement perswasion which the Spirit of God doth use by the Prophet to return to God The whole chapter containing a rousing or stirring up the people of Israel to repent of their iniquiries and to return to God whereunto are annexed gracious promises of Gods mercies unto them in healing their backslidings and returning unto them and you may observe what a mixture of repentance and mercy there is in the chapter From whence in the general we may observe the unseparableness of true repentance and mercy they are linked together as in a chain even as David and Ionathan they will not part one from the other In the words there are five particulars observed 1. The seriousness of the Prophet's call perswading our better attention and as it were a necessity of lending an ear unto this Call in the Vocative O! 2. The persons called Israel By Israel is meant the people of God 3. The Act or Duty called unto Return 4. The object matter of their return or the person to whom they should is the Lord 5. and lastly The grounds and reasons of this their return laid down in cloze of the words For thou hast fallen by thine iniquity From the words you may plainly gather several points or observations to wit 1. That the best and choisest of God's children may decline and grievously fall from God as Israel did 2. That the ways of sin lead us directly from God Or thus That sin is an absolute turning the Back upon God therefore Return 3. That God the Father through his Son the Lord Iesus Christ is the only shelter and tower of refuge for a penitent sinner Thy God 4 And lastly That it is and ought to be the main scope and aim of the Ambassadors and Ministers of Iesus Christ to disswade from sin and perswade to repentance O Israel Return unto the Lord thy God for thou hast fallen by thine iniquities First of the first in order That the best and choisest of God's Saints and people may grievously decline and fall from God For proof whereof I need go no further then the subject we treat of Israel a name whereby God pleased to stile his own people his elect his chosen people of Israel my people as he terms them Nay God is pleased to term himself The King of Israel in Isa. 44. 6. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts the King of Israel and his Redeemer the Lord of Hosts We know the prerogative of Kings is to rule over their Subjects to have the command and government of their subjects

and we know what the duty of Subjects ought to be in yeilding obedience to the commands of a King and not to rule over their King yet this revolting people Israel this rebellious House for so God calls them notwithstanding his owning them for his people and challenging a Soveraignty over them grievously sinned and fell from God For thou hast fallen by thine Iniquity Your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear So to instance in divers other of the saints and people of God David's Adultery and Murder 2 Sam. 11. 4 to 18. Peter's Denial Mark 14. 68. But what are the grounds and reasons that Gods people fall from him by their iniquities First The principal and main ground may arise from Original sin the filthiness and corruption of our own natures for we are in nature as we came out o● the loyns of our Parents no better the● a very lump of rottenness and corruption If thou shouldest see a man from the very crown of the head to the soal of hi● foot had nothing in him but wound and swellings and sores full of corruption he could not but seem a very loth●som creature unto thee Yet know this● whosoever thou art be thou never s● well descended never so rich wise beautiful c. thy soul is through sin ● thousand times more odious and abominable before God Think well on this Comune with thine own heart about it it will make thee abhor thy self in dus● and ashes with Iob and with Paul coun● all things to be dung that thou mightest win Christ Reas. 2. That by this means man●● may see his own frailty and miserable condition by nature and that seeing his wretched and lost estate in himself he might be deeply humbled before God that thereby he might rest in no performances of his own for our best performances are full of sin and corruption 〈◊〉 David was humbled to the purpose ●●er he was truly sensible of his sin when ●athan the prophet reproved him I ●●ve sinned saith he against the Lord ●eter wept bitterly after he denied his ●aster Where the sense of sin and the wrath 〈◊〉 God hath a deep impression upon the ●eart there it will effect deep humiliati●n and hearty sorrow David's sins were alwaies before ●im he could take no rest in Conscience ●ntil he found God reconciled unto ●im now where sin in the true sense of ●t hath this working on the Spirit hap●y is that soul But where on the con●rary there is sin committed in a high na●ure yet notwithstanding the heart is not ●t all moved to compunction and humi●iation but rather hardned woful and 〈◊〉 desperate is the condition of that soul Motives to move us to Humiliation First may be from Gods Command ●O Israel return unto me turn you from from your evil waies For why will ye dy O house of Israel Repent and turn you from all your evil waies so iniquity shall not be your ruine there m●● be an universal turning from all sins a● a turning to God with the whole hea●My son give me thy heart It is Go● complaint against the children of Israe● after he had brought them out of the land of Egypt into a land flowing wit● Milk and Honey the joy of all Land Then God said unto them Obey 〈◊〉 voice turn from the evil of your doing 〈◊〉 for I am the Lord your God but the● rebelled against me and would not hear Shall God call to us to come unto him and shall we reject his call shall ou● Saviour Iesus Christ beg of us to be reconciled unto him to come unto him to take his yoak his yoak is easy to those that will ly under it Hath he promised to satiate the hungry soul salvation to the repentant soul doth he command us to come unto him and drink i● we thirst not to sip but drink and shall we reject this cup of Salvation O let the mercies of God constrain us and let his kindness draw us unto him Another motive to perswade us to come is the mercies patience and long sufferings of God with us for many years it may be our whole life time we ●●ve lived in sin and in grievous sins ●●l God spareth us to see whether we ●ll return unto him and shall we yet 〈◊〉 revolting and drawing back from ●od then considering the infinite mer●● of God in providing the Lord Jesus ●hrist to be our Phisitian to cure our ●eakness and imperfections by his per●●ct righteousness and to accept of us in ●●d through him Let these considera●●ons be as so many cords of love to ●aw us unto God by speedy repen●nce and a present return unto God If we did but consider the blessed e●●te of that soul that is at peace with ●od and truly keep in our thoughts ●●●e uncertainty of this life and certainty eternal life to the Godly and death 〈◊〉 the unregenerate certainly we could ●●t be so lazy in our journy to heaven 〈◊〉 if reconciliation with God and eter●tie were not worth the looking after ●t we should rather with that Disciple ●hom Jesus loved out-run Peter and get ●rst to the ●epulchre Let Jesus Christ ●ve the chief room yea all the room in ●ur hearts A Prince is at peace and cease war against a Rebel a Traitor yet●● will not bring the Rebel before him into his special favour yet the Lord glory doth both towards us as enemie strangers rebels devils in our reconci●●ation with him O the wonderfull me●●cy of God in Jesus Christ that he shou● be pacified wholy and throughly wi● thee Out of Christ he is a consumin● fire in Jesus Christ he is a nothing e● but Love and though there may be f● therly frowns and chasetisements fro● him though he may for a time hide h● face shut out thy Prayers defer to fulf● Promises yet all these if thou art reco●ciled in Christ are out of pure love u● to thee and thou shalt see it and fe● it so in 〈…〉 end Quest 〈◊〉 how must we come Christ that we may be accepted Answ. 1. We must come humbl● stript of all self performances and dutie● resting wholy upon Jesus Christ as the only means of our redemption 2. We must return unto him hearti● with our whole heart not keeping part of our heart for sin and give Chri●●●e other part we must come unto him ●o be our King to rule us as well as to ●ave us In a word we must come unto ●im as the Hart to the rivers of waters ●s a Spouse to her beloved with ferven●y of Love and zealous affections and ●rdency of spirit being sick of love for him so come unto him as esteeming our selves lost without him as our rich●s our only pearl of great price 3. Be earnest in Prayer unto God ●hat he would grant you his good spirit that he would mollifie you