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	sin_n	true_a	9,048	5	4.9749	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25247	Prima the first things, in reference to the middle and last things: or, the doctrine of regeneration, the new birth, the very beginning of a godly life. Delivered by Isaac Ambrose, minister of the Gospel at Preston in Amounderness in Lancashire.; Prima, media, & ultima. Prima.	Ambrose, Isaac, 1604-1664.	1650 (1650)	Wing A2964; ESTC R213988	65,629	80

read in his conscience But above all his darling-delight his beloved sin is writ in greatest characters this he findes to have bewitched him most and to have domineered above all the rest in his wasted conscience this sin in some is worldliness wantonness usury pride revenge or the like in others it is drunkenness gluttony gaming scurril jesting symony or the like whatsoever it is the conscience tells him of it again and again where that he may read it together with his other sins the Spirit of God now opens the eyes of his minde and lets him see the very mud and filth of his soul that lay at the bottom before unseen and undiscerned Thus is the first working of the new life to wit a feeling of the old death of his soul in sins and trespasses and here the axiome is true no generation without corruption a man must first feel this death before he is born again The second step is Sense of divine wrath which begets in him fear Rom. 8.15 so the Apostle The spirit of bondage begets fear Rom. 8.15 and thus it works no sooner hath the man a sight and feeling of his sin but then Gods Spirit now called the spirit of bondage presents to him the armory of Gods flaming wrath and fiery indignation this makes him to feel as if he were pricked with the stroak of an arrow or point of a sword or sting of an Adder that he is a most cursed and damnable creature justly deserving all the miseries of this life and all the fiery torments of hell in that life to come yea this makes him tremble and stand and look as if he were throughly frighted with the angry countenance of God Almighty Would you view him in this case his conscience hath now awaked him out of his dead sensual sleep by the Trumpet of the Law his heart is now scorched with the secret sense of Gods angry face his soul is now full sorely crushed under the most grievous burthen of innumerable sins his thoughts are now full of fear and astonishment as if no less then very hell and horror were ready to seize upon his body and soul I say not what measure of this wrath is poured on all men in their conversion for I suppose some feel more and some have less of it but I verily believe some there are that in these pangs of the new birth have been scorched as it were with the very flames of hell insomuch that they might truly say with David Gods wrath lieth hard upon me Psal 88.7 and he hath afflicted me with all his waves Psal 88.7 And no wonder for this is the time of fear now it is that Satan strives busily to stifle the new man in the womb and therefore he that before diminished his sins and made them appear little or nothing in his eyes when he once sees the man smitten down into the place of dragons and covered with the shadow of death Psal 44.19 then he puts into his minde his innumerable sins and that which immediately follows the curse of the Law and the wrath of God which he yet makes more grisly and fierce with a purpose to plunge him into the bottomless pit of horror and despair By this means he perswaded Cain to cry out when he was in this case My punishment is greater then I can bear or Gen. 4.13 as others translate Mine iniquity is greater then can be forgiven Gen. 4.13 And therefore thus far the unregenerate goes with the man born again both have a sight of sin and sense of wrath but here they part for the man unregenerate either sinks under it or labors to allay it with worldly comforts or some counterfeit calm but the man born again is onely humbled by it and seeks the right way to cure it and at last by the help of Gods Spirit he passeth quite through it I mean through this hell upon earth into the spiritual pleasures of the Kingdom of grace which is to be born again The third step is Sorrow for sin and this is more peculiar to Gods childe there is a sorrow which is a common work of grace which an hypocrite may have and there is a sorrow which is a work of special grace and this likewise precedes the exercise of faith But some object Christ must work this sorrow or it is good for nothing now if Christ be in the soul working sorrow then there is faith therefore faith must go before sorrow I answer although it is true that Christ cannot be in the soul but in the same instant there is the habit of faith yet it follows not that faith is before sorrow for the habits of these graces are both together and at once in the soul or howsoever it follows not that the soul is inabled by an act of faith to apply Christ to it self as soon as Christ is in the soul or as soon as the habit of faith is infused into the soul The question is whether the soul in respect of us who can onely judge of the habit by the act cannot be said to have sorrow or repentance before faith the question is not which the soul hath first in respect of Gods gift but which it acts first for our apprehension Surely to us it first sorrows for sin and then it acts or exerciseth faith by coming to Christ and relying upon Christ for Salvation c. he grieves not onely because he fears he must be damned so Cain and Judas might but because he knows he hath deserved to be damned this is the more especial object of his sorrow in that he is so wicked so sinful so rebellious so contrary to God this sin I say is it wherein he was conceived and born wherein he hath lived and continued that makes him sob and sigh and sorrow and mourn and yet this sorrow is sometimes taken largely for the whole work of conversion sometimes strictly for conviction contrition and humiliation in like maner repentance is taken sometimes largely and sometimes strictly By this distinction it may easily appear how sorrow goes before repentance and how repentance goes before faith Indeed for the latter is the great controversie but some reconcile it thus Repentance hath two parts the aversion of the soul from Sin and the conversion of the soul to God the latter part of it is onely an effect of faith the former part of it viz. the turning of the soul from Sin is also an effect but not onely an effect for it is begun before faith though it be not ended till our life end Some object that God works repentance and faith together But we dispute not how God works them but how the soul acts them not which is in the soul first but which appears out of the soul first neither is it any new thing in Philosophy to say Those causes which produce an effect though they be in time together yet are mutually before one another in order of

God puts into the hearts of those who seek him in sincerity and truth never was Ahab more sick for a vineyard nor Sisera for milk nor Sampson for water when God was fain to open him a fountain in the jaw of an ass Iudg. 15 19. then is a truly humbled soul after Christ ever thirsting and longing that he may hide himself in his righteousness and bathe himself in that blood which his Savior shed for him I have read of a gracious woman who laboring in these pangs and longing after Christ Jesus cryed out I have born nine children with as great pain as other women and yet I would with all my heart bear them all over again yea bear them and bear them all the days of my life to be assured of my part in Christ Jesus One replying Doth not your heart desire and long after him Oh! said she I have an husband and children and many other comforts I would give them all and all the good I shall ever see in this world or in in the world to come to have my poor thirsty soul refresht with that precious blood of my Savior So eager and earnest is the heart of each man parched with the angry countenance of God after this blood of his I thirst I faint I languish I long saith he for one drop of mercy my spirit is melted in me into tears of blood my heart because of sin is so shaken and shivered my soul because of sorrow is so wasted and parched that my thirst is insatiable my bowels are hot within me my desire after Christ is extremely great and greedy Stay all these expressions are far short of those longings Rev. 2 17. no man knoweth them save he that receives them save he that is born again The seventh step is A relying on Christ no sooner he considers and remembers those many melting invitations of our Lord and Savior Iohn 7.31 Isaiah 55.1 Matth. 11.28 If any man thirst let him come unto me Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden with sin but resting himself on the impregnable truth of these blessed promises he throws himself into the merciful and meritorious arms of his crucified Lord. Come life come death come heaven come hell come what come will Rom. 8.35 38 39. here will he stick for ever Who saith Paul shall seperate us from the love of Christ Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword No I am perswaded not these nor more then these neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to seperate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Rom. 8.35 38 39. Thus it is with the man laboring in this birth what saith he doth Christ call the heavy laden why Lord I am heavy laden with a weight a mass of sin and if he may come that is called Lord I come I come and now I am come with thee will I build my tabernacle with thee will I rest for ever Nor is this any wonder experience tells us the hunted beast flyes unto his den the wounded man hyes unto the Surgeon and so the poor man broken and bruised with the weight of sin how should he otherwise but cast himself willingly into the sweet compassionate inviting armes and embracements of Christ whose promises run I will ease him I will refresh him You may see sometimes a little infant Matth. 11.28 upon apprehension and approach of some sudden danger how hastily he runs into his mothers arms even so a truly wounded soul pursued by the terrors of the Law and frighted with the angry countenance of Almighty God it flyes with speed into the bosom of its blessed Redeemer there it clings unto his blessed wounds there it rests upon his meritorious death there it grasps about his crucified body there it hides it self in the clefts of this Rock yea there it sticks with this full resolution that should all terrors all temptations all men all devils combine together to cast him into hell they should tear him rent him pull him hale him from the bleeding wounds and tender bowels of his heavenly Savior This was Jobs case who in the bitterest of his pangs could cry it out saying Though the Lord slay me yet will I trust in him Job 13.15 And I must tell you this * Vrisin parte secunda catech q. 6. Fides justificans non est tantum notitia sed etiam fiducia quatanquam medium applicamus nobis meritum Christi ac in eo acquiescimus Trelcat l. 2. institut Loquens de natura fidei justificantis apprehensio ejus 2 ex una cognitionis in intellectu altera fiduciae in voluntate utramque includit fides At noluit Bellar. fidem esse in voluntate affiance dependance adherence reliance or whatsoever else we call it upon the merits of Christ is the right justifying faith whither if a man once come there is but one degree more and he is then born again The last and highest step is Vniversal obedience to Christ No sooner hath he cast himself upon him but he takes him not onely as a Savior to redeem him from the miseries of sin but as an husband a Lord a King to serve him love him honor him and obey him Now will he take his yoke upon him now will he bear his cross and follow after him now will he enter into the narrow way now will he walk in the holy path now will he associate himself to that sect and brotherhood that is every where spoken against Act. 28.22 now will he oppose himself against all sin whatsoever now will he shake off his old companions brethren in iniquity now will he keep peace and a good conscience towards God and man now will he watch over his secret sins lustful thoughts occasions of evil now will he direct his words to the glorifying of God and to give grace to the hearers now will he conform all his actions to the soveraignty of grace now will he delight in the word the ways the Saints the services of God now will he never more turn again unto folly or to his trade of sin yea though Satan set upon him with baits and allurements to detain him in his bondage but by one darling-delight one minion-sin yet he resolves to answer him as Moses did Pharaoh There shall not so much as an hoof be left behinde for well he knows one breach in the City exposeth it to the enemy one leak in a ship will sink it in the sea one stab in the heart will speed a man to death one knot in a threed will stay the needles passage as well as five hundred and therefore he will sell all all that he hath even all his sins to the last filthy rag

this case Can he enter into heaven that savours all of earth Will those precious gates of gold and pearls open to a sinner No he must first be new moulded and sanctified or he is excepted Except a man be new born Secondly Except This and man is Gods enemy no greater opposition than betwixt God and a sinner Consider we him in his essence or in his attributes in his essence he is called Jehovah both in respect of his being and of his promises in respect of his being and so God is contrary to sin for sin is ataxy disorder confusion a not-being and God is order perfection holiness an absolute and a simple being in respect likewise of his promises wherein there is a main opposition to sin for howsoever he promiseth a reward to the regenerate and so the name Jehovah is a golden pledge unto us Psal 11.6 that if we repent he will forgive us yet withal he promiseth storms and tempest fire and perdition to the unregenerate and thus his name and nature is altogether opposite to sin and sinners But view we those attributes of God I mean his Justice truth patience holiness anger power his Justice in punishing the impenitent according to his deserts his truth effecting those plagues which he hath spoken in his time his patience forbearing sins destruction till they are grown full ripe his holiness abhorring all impurities He cannot behold iniquity his anger stirring up revenge against all offered injuries his power mustring up his forces yea all his creatures against his enemies and what can we say but if all these attributes are at enmity with sinful man woe worth to man because of offences better he had never been born then not to be new born alas what shall become of him Can he that is Gods enemy see God in his glory no there is no way but one Except he repent Except he be born again Thirdly Ephes 2.12 1 Cor. 5.17 Except by a new birth man is without Christ for If any man be in Christ he is a new creature And if he be not in Christ what hopes of that man It is onely Christ that opens Heaven it is onely Christ that is the Way to Heaven besides him there is no Way no Truth no Life and if we be in him as the branch in the vine it is of necessity that we bring forth good fruit Upon these terms his death is effectual if we become new creatures or otherwise all his Merits his blood that was shed his body that was crucified his soul that was agonized they are nothing unto us we nothing bettered by them he dyed for all but his death is not applyed his Kingdom is not opened save onely unto them that have learned and practised this rule of Exception Except a man be born again Fourthly Except before Excepted a man is a very limb of Satan a childe of darkness and one of the Family of Hell Consider this ye that are out of the state of Grace in what miserable thraldom is your souls Should any call you servants or slaves of Satan you would take it highly in disdain but take it as you please if you are not regenerate you are in no better case Paul appeals to your own knowledge Rom. 6.16 23. Know you not that to whomsoever you give your selves as servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey Rom. 6.16 23. If then ye obey the Devils suggestions which you do being unborn what are you but the Devils servants And if he be your Master what is you wages You may see it in the last verse The wages of sin is death death of the body and death of the soul death here and death hereafter in Hell fire Alas that Satan should have this power on man that he who is the enemy and means nothing to a sinner but death and damnation should be his Lord and Tyrannize it over him at his own will and pleasure Would any man be hired to serve Lyons and Tygers 1 Pet. 5.8 And is not the Devil a roaring Lyon walking about and seeking whom he may devour To serve him that would devour his servant is a most miserable bondage and what pay can one expect from Devils but roaring and devouring and tearing souls In this plight are the servants of Corruption slaves of Satan so I rightly call them for Of whomsoever a man is overcome 2 Pet. 2.19 even unto the same is he in bondage 2 Peter 2.19 To winde up this point Lord who shall dwell in thy Tabernacle who shall rest in thy Holy Mountain If we believe David Not he that slandereth with his tongue or doth evil to his Neighbor Psa 15.1 3 5. Or giveth his money upon Vsury or taketh a reward against the innocent No such are servants of Satan and here is matter of Exception against them Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God The sum of all Without Regeneration no Kingdom for whether we consider man in regard of himself or of God or of Christ or of Satan he is Except he be new born unholy Gods enemy out of Christ in Satan And if the New Birth be thus necessary Vse how should we (a) Thus is the language of God I said Behold me to a nation that was not called by my Name Isa 65.1 labor to be born again I mean not as Nicodemus to enter into our mothers womb again and be born It is not the seed of man in the womb of our Mother but the seed of Grace in the womb of the Church that makes us blessed and if we are thus born by Grace then are we sanctified made Sons of God Heirs with Christ over whom Satan can have no power at all Now then as you tender your souls and desire Heaven at your ends (b) Thus whilest the Minister speaks its Christ comes with power in the word Eze. 18.31 endeavor to attain this one thing necessary (c) Pray because God bids you pray it may be he will come in when you pray When Simon Magus was in the gall of bitterness Peter bid him pray Act● 8 22. Lift up your hearts unto God that you may be washed justified sanctified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and that by the Spirit of God you may walk in new ways talk with new tongues as being new creatures created unto good works Thus would you (d) Not that we can wait by a power of our own but he that saith Therefore will the Lord wait that be may be gracious to you Isa 30.18 He draws and gives a power to wait on him and he comes in when he hath waited the fittest time wait on God in his way I trust the Lord in mercy would remember you and his Spirit would blow upon you and then you would finde and feel such a change within you as that you would bless God for ever that you were thus born again Otherwise how

with illusions and vain forms you know a Beggar may dream he is a King so hope abusing the imagination of the unregenerate fills their souls many a time with vain or empty contentments but the hope of the regenerate both enjoys the right object and right means his eye is fixt on future good and he endeavors to pursue it till he get the possession if in the pursuit he meet with crosses losses griefs disgraces sicknesses or any other calamities his hope is able to sweeten the bitterest misery that can possibly befal him the afflictions of this life bid him look for a better a cross here mindes him of the glory above and howsoever this Hope may have many difficulties and wrastlings in him therefore it is compared to an anchor which holds the ship in a storm Heb. 6.19 yet it holds and sticks so firm in God and his promises that he is confident that after this life an heavenly crown shall be set on his head by the hands of God and his Angels The fourth affection is fear which in the unregenerate is either worldly or servile If it fasten on the world then he fears the loss of his credit or of his profit and because he and the world must part at last he fears this separation above all fears O death saith the wiseman how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that liveth at rest in his possessions unto the man that hath nothing to vex him and that hath prosperity in all things Ecclus. Ecclus. 41.1 41.1 O these thoughts of the grisly forms and ugly face of death of the parting from all worldly pleasures for ever of his rotting in the grave dragging to the Tribunal and Terror of the last day they cannot but make his heart to shrug together for horror and many time to quake and tremble like an Aspine-leaf or if his fear reflect on God then is it a servile fear for as the servant or hireling works not for love of his master but onely for fear of punishment or as the adulterous woman is afraid of her husband not out of love or affection but lest he reward her to her foul demerits so he fears God for fear of punishment due unto him from God It is otherwise with the man that is born again his fear is either initial or filial in pangs of the new birth Weems or in the new born babe it is called initial because then he casts away sin both out of Gods love to which he hath partly attained and out of the woful effects of sin which he hath throughly considered with the right eye he beholds God and with the left eye he beholds punishment so that this fear is a middle as it were betwixt servile and filial fear and as the needle draweth in the threed so this fear draweth in charity and makes way for filial fear to which if by growth in grace he be fully ripened then he fears God out of love to God as the Prophet Isaiah proclaimeth Isa 33.6 The fear of the Lord is his treasure Isa 33.6 Never was treasure more dear to the worldings then is Gods fear to him his love of God his desire to please God and his fear of being separated from God keeps him in such awe that though no punishment no death no hell were at all yet he would not sin wickedly wilfully and maliciously for a world of treasures The fifth affection is joy which in the unregenerate is meerly sensual and bruitish it hath no better objects then gold or greatness or offices or honors or the like and what are all these but a shadow a ship a bird an arrow a post that passeth by or rather as crackling of thorns under a pot as flashes of lightning before everlasting fire But the joy of the regenerate is a spirituall joy and the matter of it is the light of Gods countenance or the robe of Christs righteousness or the promises of Gods word or above all God Almighty blessed evermore Thus David Whom have I in heaven but thee Psal 73.25 and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee Psal 73.25 Why this is that joy which no man can concieve but he that enjoyes it this is that white stone Rev. 2.17 Revel 2.17 whose splendor shines onely upon heavenly hearts this is that glimpse of heavens glory which springing up in a sanctified heart out of the wells of salvation and carried along with addition of fresh comforts from the Word and Sacraments through a fruitful current and course of mans life it is at last entertained into the boundless and bottomless Ocean of the joyes of Heaven I will not say but sometimes it may be assaulted and stopped with some doubts or distrusts or weaknesses of degree yet in respect of its creation or essence Boltons walking with God or blissful issue it is saith one a very glimpse of heaven a pure taste of the rivers of life and first fruits as he calls it of everlasting joyes The sixth affection is sorrow which in the unregenerate is a worldly sorrow and the effects of it are death so the Apostle The sorrow of the world worketh death 2 Cor. 7.10 2 Cor. 7.10 In this kinde how endless are the sorrows of men for their losses or crosses that sometimes may befall them And howsoever some may endeavor to comfort them in Christ they are so dead-hearted that nothing can perswade nothing rellish with them that concerns heaven or salvation But in the regenerate sorrow looks up to Godwards not that the beholding of God in himself can bring sorrow to a man for he is a most comfortable object which made David say The light of thy countenance is gladness to my heart Psal 4.6 7. but the beholding of sin which hindreth from the cleer sight of that object this is it which breeds sorrow and this the Apostle calls godly sorrow working repentance to salvation not to be repented of 2 Cor. 7.10 It is not every sorrow but godly sorrow 2 Cor. 7.10 V. 9. I rejoyce saith the Apostle not that ye were made sorry but that ye sorrowed to repentance And would you know who sorrows to repentance it is he and onely he that groans and sighs under the heavy weight and burthen of his sins that is of a broken and contrite heart that trembles at Gods word that is grieved at his enormities that forsakes all sins and that resigns up himself in all holy obedience to Gods blessed will this sorrow is a blessed sorrow that brings forth joy and immortality Therefore comfort ye comfort ye all that mourn in Sion what though for a night in pangs of the new birth you lye sorrowing and weeping for your sins mark a while and the day will dawn ride on because of the word of truth and a day star will arise in your hearts that will never set nay weep weep again till you can say with David Psal