Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	sin_n	soul_n	spiritual_a	8,699	5	7.0020	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54342	Helps to the assurance of God's love whereby a true believer may with the help of Gods good spirit know that he had a being in the love of God before he had a being in the world : to which is added a spiritual touch-stone for the tryal of the sincerity of our love to God / by Samuel Pack.	Pack, Samuel.	1673 (1673)	Wing P150; ESTC R26175	21,542	70

us aside out of the way when we are off from our watch And presently we like David are surprized with sins and devilish lusts which do quickly rob us of our comforts making us to stand in need with David to cry Restore unto us the joy of thy Salvation and God seemes to take but little notice of us but when our spiritual enemies shall go about to take away our spiritual life for it is in the nature of predominating corruption that it would in time eat out the very life and power of Godliness and so to expose us to eternal death Then is the time for our Spiritual husband to shew his love to his poor spouse in destroying those enemies and thou that canst assure thy self of the love of God thou rejoycest more when God doth manifest his love in destroying thy corruptions than in all outward injoyments whatsoever But if on the contrary thy corruptions grow and thrive as much as ever thou hast no ground to assure thy self that God loves thee When Christ manifested his love to his spouse in incourageing of her to duty Cant. 2.14 15. Oh thou that art in the clifts of the rock in the secret places of the staires let me hear thy voice let me see thy countenance for sweet is thy voice and thy countenance is comely Pray mind what follows Take us those foxes those little foxes which corrupt the vines or spoyle the vines for our vines have tender grapes by those foxes we understand as well sin in the heart as heretick in the Church which sins the soul rejoyceth in the destructions of which have got an evidence of Gods Love 11. Another sign of our interest in the love of God is if we have received spiritual life from the God of life and love this we may see in the 16 of Ezekiel comparing the 6. verse with the 8. In the 8. verse we have the impulsive cause of our spiritual life that is the love of God thy time was the time of love In the 6. verse we have the effect of the Love of God towards us and this is spiritual life I say unto thee live So likewise in the 2 Gal. 20. see how the Apostle makes out his interest in the love of God saith he speaking of his spiritual life I live yet not I but Christ that liveth in me and the life that I now live is by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Now my friends I beseech you draw out your hearts before the Lord and deal faithfully with your own souls and see whether you can say with Paul that the life that you now live is by the faith of the Son of God then indeed you may comfortably read on the verse and say who loved me and gave himself for me till we have received spiritual life from Christ we can never assure our selves of the love of Christ nor any benefit by the death of Christ And so in the 2 of the Ephes we may see that our spiritual life is an effect of the great love of God toward us in Jesus Christ Saith the Apostle in the 4. verse According to the great love wherewith he hath loved us In verse the 5. Even when we were dead in sins hath he quickned us together with Christ Now let us see whether the Spirit of life in Christ hath made us free from the law of sin and death Now we know that the difference between a dead man and a living man is this A dead man hath not his use of his senses as hearing seeing feeling tasting smelling but a living man hath the use of all or some of them Now soul wouldst thou read the love of God in thy spiritual life then see whether thou hast thy spiritual eye-sight hath God anointed thy eyes with spiritual eye-salve and made thee see in some measure the beauty of holiness and the excellency of Christ the worth of Gods favour the vanity of the world and the loathsomness of Sin so as to loath thy self for Sin now as dead men haveing no sight can see no more beauty or brightness in the Sun than in a dunghill so a Person dead in trespasses and sins can see nor Brightness or Splendor Beauty or Lustre in the Sun of Righteousness But if thou art one that canst experience the love of God in raising thee from the death of sin to the life of Righteousness thou canst no longer say with the daughters of Jerusalem What is thy beloved more than another beloved Cant. 5. but thou wilt be ready to say with the daughters of Sion my beloved is white and Ruddy the cheifest of ten thousand Cant. 5.10 And as this spiritual life doth convince a man of the Excellency of Christ so likewise of the ugliness of Sin Now soul see if thou hast this spiritual feeling we know that as a dead man cannot see so he cannot feel though you should ●ay a milstone upon him he is sensible of no more weight than if it were feather but a living man is quickly sensible of a little weight so is it with one spiritually dead in trespasses and sins he feels no weight in his Sins though they be heavier than the whole creation though sin be so heavy that it is a burden to God good angels good Men wicked Angels and the whole creation yet a wicked man that is spiritually dead feels no weight therein but if thou hast this spiritual life thou art made sensible of the burden of Sin whether in action in thought or in word and thou hast much trouble upon thy spirit for those sins which a wicked man would make nothing of and if it be so with thee then go home with comfort thou art one that mayst say that God hath loved thee with an everlasting love and that God hath manifested his love to thee in raising thee from the death of sin to the life of righteousness 12. And lastly wouldst thou know whether thou art an object of Gods love then see if God be the highest object of thy love for though Gods love to us do not flow from our love to God for saith John 1 John 1.9 we love him because he first loved us yet our love to God is an infallible symptome and glorious effect of Gods love to us for though God doth not love thee because thou lovest him yet till thou doest love him thou hast no ground to believe that he doth love thee now in regard that Gods beloved ones are so ready to question their love to God as well as Gods love to them I intend to insist upon this Particular by it self and all that I shall say to it at Present is this that if thou art one that lovest God thou doest love the People of God and the ordinances of God and wilt not sit down satisfied in an ordinance without communion with God in the ordinance and thou hast an implacable

cry out as the disciples did it is a Spirit oh saith a Soul I had a little comfort in such an ordinance but I am affraid it is but a Spirit delusion but at length Christ speaks so powerfully to the Soul by the operations of his holy Spirit that the Soul knows it to be the voice of Christ And then with the disciples it gladly receives Christ into its Soul and when Christ doeth thus communicate himself he doeth then manifest his endeared affection to it oh but methinks I hear some poor Soul ready to say truly here is but little comfort for me for if Gods communicating himself to a Soul in the manner you have been speaking be a sign of Gods love then God help me my case is bad enough for I do not find such communications of the graces and comforts of the Spirit to my Soul God knows I come time after time to hear the word and I go to prayer and I receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper but I come with a dead heart and a dull Spirit and so I go away again and have none of those quickning influences of the Spirit reviving and refreshing of my Soul God doth not make me joyful in his house of prayer which makes me fear that I am none of those whom God loves Poor Soul doest thou utter this mournful language in a formal complementing way or is it the language of a Nathaniel doth it proceed really from thy heart then take this for thy comfort and carry it home with thee and let it be as a cordial to revive thy poo● drooping Spirits That God hath already communicated himself to thy Soul or else thou wouldst neve● desire after communion with him in duty As a wicked earthly minded Ahab having never so much of the earth is sick with vexation of Spirit for want of Naboths vineyard so a Godly Heavenly Heaven born Saint though it doth injoy communion with God it is dissatisfied because it thinks it hath not so much as others a stone cast up into the air will never rest till it comes to the earth which is its center so God being the center of a gracious Soul it is restless without communion with him but on the contrary if thou canst go from one duty to another and sit down satisfied with the bare performance of the duty and yet art flattering thy self that thou art an object of Gods ●ove I tell thee thou art but feeding on the east wind and carrying lye in thy right hand for there are one that can assure themselves of he love of God but they have such Revelation of God to their Souls ●s doth fill them with Heavenly ●oys Or make them be dissatisfied without those comfortable discove●…es of God to their Souls 8. Wouldst thou be assured of ●he love of God through a suffering Christ then see if God hath given ●hee an heart to desire to suffer for Christ when Christ hath helped the ●oul by an eye of saith to see what ●reat things he 'l suffer for his sake doth as the Apostle says constrein ●he soul to expose it self to the ●reatest sufferings for the cause of God when he shall be pleased to all him to it When the love of God ●omes to be shed abroad in the ●eart by the holy Ghost it will make a Soul say with Paul that it glorieth in tribulation when the Soul comes to be inflamed with the love of God many waters of affliction from God nor floods of persecutions from men cannot drown it oh saith the soul how can I shew my love enough to God that hath shewed so much love to me But on the contrary if thou art one that will suffer nothing for God thou canst not upon any sure grounds assure thy self that Christ hath suffered any thing for thee to purchase the love of God 9. Wouldst thou know thy interest in the love of God then see if thou doest hate sin For it is inconsistent for the Revelation of Gods love to the soul and the manifestation of the souls love to sin to be in the soul at one and the same time nothing gives such a mortal wound to sin nor makes it bleed to death sooner in the soul than the manifestation of the love of a wounded Saviour that did bleed for the soul My Friends you may take this for a certain truth that proportionably to the love of God that is manifested unto you such will be your hatred of sin that you commit against God as a woman that hath experienced much of her husbands love it makes her violent against her husbands enemies so a believer having experienced much of the love of God sets his soul the more against sin which he knows is Gods greatest enemy oh saith the Soul that hath the love of God shed abroad in it how can I hug this sin in my bosome that did pierce my dear and loving Lord Jesus to the heart how can I hide this sin as sugar under my tongue which did cause the tongue of my Lord Jesus to utter those bitter cryes and heart rending expressions with his eyes full of tears and his heart full of lamentations My God my God why hast thou forsaken me when God hath once discovered the freeness of his Love unto his people they quickly say with Ephraim what have I to do any more with Idols but if on the contrary thou lovest and delightest in sin and art ready to extenuate it it is a sign that the love of God is not shed abroad in thy Soul 10. If thou art one that canst really experience the love of God in and to thy Soul thou art not only brought to hate sin because it is such an enemy to that God who hath manifested so much love to thy Soul but God hath really destroyed Sin in thy Soul it being thine enemy as well as his I shall endeavour to set it forth by a similitude and how God doth manifest his love to his people by destroying their corruption suppose a man were walking on the way with his wife and she straying out of the way should be surprized by a company of bloody cut-throats and having took away or defaced her ornaments they should go about to murther her now though her husband could stand still awhile and see his wife somewhat roughly handled that she might take heed another time how she strayed so far from him yet when he sees them about to murther her then his bowells yern towards her and though she were in a fault yet still she was his wife whereupon he goes to her rescue destroyes those enemies of hers which otherwise would have destroyed her and thus he shews his love to his wife Truly my friends thus it is a true believer hath God for his husband while we are in this world we are walking on the way to heaven injoying the presence of our heavenly busband but the allurements of the flesh and the world are apt to draw