Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	book_n	dead_a	open_v	5,415	5	9.9361	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01210	The forbidden fruit· or A treatise of the tree of knovvledge of good & evill of which Adam at first, & as yet all mankind doe eate death. Moreover, how at this day it is forbidden to every one as well as to Adam; and how this tree, that is the wisedome of the serpent planted in Adam, is that great image, and that many headed beast, mentioned in Daniel and the Apocalyps, whom the whole world doth worship. Lastly, here is shewed what is the tree of life, contrary to the wisdome, righteousnesse, and knowledge of all mankind: with a description of the majestie and nature of Gods Word. By August: Eluthenius [sic]. Translated out of Latine into English.; De arbore scientiae boni et mali. English	Franck, Sebastian, 1499-1542.	1640 (1640)	STC 11324; ESTC S102619	62,776	198

againe nothing so great that can receive or circumscribe God As nothing is so little but God is lesse and nothing so great but God is greater beyond without below above all Creatures So also is his divine word As the free almightie eternall immutable omniscient incomprehensible invisible and unconceivable God is the beeing of all things So as as all things consist rather in him then in and by themselves as Taulerus and the Germain Theologie in a 1000 places doe avouch and is none of these things which can be seene or comprehended by sence or expressed by word So his divine word is free in all and beyond all bound unto nothing neither tyed to the prison or letters or cover of the Letter concluded included and so tyed unto it that otherwise it is no where even as the following Position and Sentence of a Learned man divinely instructed doe show As the word is covered and hidden by the Letter so it is opened and revealed by the spirit Hence it commeth to passe that the Letters be as a closed or sealed Booke so as the dark Letter except it be opened doth slay but the Spirit doth quicken and the Letters are as a certaine Image void of Life and Spirit that is a printed and dead expression of the Spirit therefore they want Life except the soule of the spirit be present and doe erre Therefore the Letters cannot be the word of God Since the word is farre otherwise an other thing then the letters For it is a spirit truth life but the letters are cōtrary flesh the letter death yea the letters if they want the Light of the word are an offence if they want the soule of the spirit are a stumbling block Therfore the Letters are an otherwise thing then the word that is they are not the Sword of the Spirit but a sheath For as the womb of the virgin conceived the word so the Letters For the word is clothed both with flesh with the Letters that Seede of Abrahem layeth hould of the Scriptures or Letters for they are both one and againe is apprehended by them but the spirit is not apprehended in the flesh or Letter of the Scriptures The cause thereof is this the flesh or Letter cannot containe conceive or comprehend the Majestie of the word yet even as it was so in the flesh that the Majestie thereof did not appeare so it is in the Letter that true neither to all or to any one that reads is it obvious and apparent This is witnessed by all Learned men in the meere Letter since the world began who neither could know finde or comprehend Christ in the flesh nor the word in the Letter which they should have done if Christ in the flesh or under the miserie of the flesh had beene known unto all not hidden but manifested and the Letter had beene not the covering mysterie but the true living and enlightning word of God it selfe As therefore the flesh was not the word but the cover thereof and a certaine great mysterie So the Letters are not the word properly but the shell the barke and cover thereof The word was made fleshly assumption not mixture and so the same word is made Letters yet not so as the same can be said of the Letters as of the word but as in a certaine Seale Therfore so farre are the Letters from being the word of God that they onely be the figure and barke thereof For the word is not that which is spoken by the Letter but that which is expounded by the Holy Ghost and understood onely of the Faithfull Therefore the Letters doe paint out shadow out and after a certaine manner set forth unto us the word and expresse something but are not the word although they be spoken and expressed For the word did not assume the flesh that it is not out of the flesh So it did not so fall into the Letter that it is not out of the Letter For there was the word when there was no Letters and the same will remaine after the Letters are perished Therefore as the word was never included and circumscribed in the flesh neither is it in the Letters For so it was in the bodie as it never yet left heaven and in the same manner it is so in the Letter as yet it is every where Therefore the word is in the Letter altogether but not all Hereupon we see that the letters have been exercised with a continuall encrease and addition Therefore the Letters are the Image of the word and not the word it selfe And if they be they are altogether a written and a dead not a living word For there is a twofould word one that quickneth viz. the Spirit another the Letter which is said to kill and slay The living word is that which inwardly teacheth and maketh us to fructifie the dead word is that which in the Flesh and Letter is proposed unto us The living word is a true Light which enlightneth all men and therefore a regenerating spirit because it reneweth all things In a word it is the power and might of God which giveth unto us that knowledge sence soule and Life which is from God A certaine brightnesse of the face of God which enlightneth us from above imprints in us the unction of the Holy Ghost by which it teacheth and instructeth us in all things But the dead word are the Letters that sealed booke and dead Letter sence and will which is the word of the flesh not of the Spirit of God The true and living word is that which God begetteth in us and the spirit of God effecteth in us But the dead and Litterall word is that which the Letters show unto us and men propound Therefore he doth not alwayes want the word who hath not the Letters For he may have the interior who wants the exterior word to witt the Law of God written in our hearts Hence it comes to passe that no man hath absolute neede to be taught of an other or to admonish his brother concerning the knowledge of God For al these shall know from the least to the greatest and are all the Disciples of Christ divinely taught This writing is not printed with inke and paper but written with the finger of God in the tables of our hearts This is the Doctrine of the truth and the inspiration of the Spirit to wit the propheticall breathing the inspiration of the Spirit and the true art of God Moreover hee may have the living word of God who wants the dead of the Letter and the thing it selfe who wants the signe that is the Life of the word though he wants the dead Letter For two things are cheifly to be considered in the word The first is the disposition and nature of the word which is a certaine Light intended for the enlightning of men The other is the action of it that is the spirit which giveth action and operation to

its owne pleasure and opinion of Good which is false To know much to finde out much to learne many sciences and finally to become a God Neither doe any consider that this was Adams estate and morsell that bitter morsel of death How doe we speake and talke of Adams misery and yet not marke that the same is fresh in us We can talke of his eating and wonderfully detest it when notwithstanding we doe the same that he did O man who art thou that thus preparest a staffe for thine owne shoulders and pronouncest a Sentence against thy selfe while thou condemnest thy Father Adam and yet considerest not that thou thy selfe art ensnared in his Nett Here propound and consider what our will is our knowledg is our wisdom is c. in which wee so insolently boast our selves yea and by which we imagine and suppose that we can come unto God when notwithstanding it is nothing nothing else but death it selfe and the bitter Fruit of the forbidden Tree Is there any amongst all men who understand this Who can away with this To deny put off fearefull to rest in their owne will wisdome knowledge c. No doe not most chuse and extoll them as true gold and Eternall Life when notwithstanding they are nothing but Eternall death CHAP. II. Why the Tree of knovvledge of good and Evill is mortall forbidden THIS may be easily answered by that which hath beene before related God as right it is would be in us both Lord and Master and in the same will worke doe love omitt thinke c. therfore should we be free from al these things of this kind so that we should know or doe nothing but what God himselfe would know and doe in us Which reason even against its will doth confesse to be equity to him that concludes and proves it by trueth for what is more equall then that the Potter have so full a Dominion over his pots that none of them challenge any the least authority to themselves since they were not their owne makers the same is our condition God alone is called the God of understanding knowledge wisdome c. wherefore hee alone will know all things in us and by consequence nothing but himselfe if therefore any man will taste of the Forbidden Fruit and so know himselfe be made a God be of himselfe stand upon his owne bottome and so be his owne God it is necessary that together with Lucifer he fall into the hell of death and like the Dragon be cast downe from Heaven because the Fruit of that Forbidden Tree is death Wherefore God would know onely himselfe in us and for that cause would have one to know no other science esteeming this only necessary to life and will teach the same to us it so be we will obediently attend him That is know onely God praise him pray to and heare him which things I say he himselfe would worke in the obedient For this cause the Wise Man saith Wisdom 5. Lord to know thee and understand thee is all righteousnesse In which hee justifies many and by consequence much more his owne Let not the Wise Man boast himself in his wisdom nor the strong Man in his strength but in this let every man boast that he knowes me Isay 53. Ier. 9. Which thing God by the mouth of his owne Christ Ioh. 17. calleth Eternall Life For from this knowledge roote and Tree of Life proceeds all whatsoever can be called good or is truely good This is the onely and true Key of David which so openeth that no man shutteth c. CHAP. III. Of the abuse of all things hovv all things are unclean to the unclean flesh yea those things which in themselves are cleane and wherfore that curious flesh desireth to know much and on the contrary how men ought to know nothing but God and for God and use all things in God THAT lost nature of man who in the Scripture is called the Flesh is an instrument so impotent to al things so vile obscure that it knows neither to have speak or doe any thing but abuseth and defileth it by touching because he converts all things which are from God in whom truely they are to himself as his proper owne although hee ought never to be his owne No not in that which is his owne but therein to bee subiect to God Neither ought he to challenge to himselfe that wisdome and knowledge that is in him but to have all things ●●se in his God as if he himselfe had them ●●●t But this he doth not but arrogates ●●mselfe to himselfe and will needs be ●●ve and know himselfe and this is the fall ●nd degeneration of Adam and his posteri●● in and with all things with them Againe the true and onely use with and ●n all things is thus God would that Adam ●hould know nothing but what hee would ●now in him should be nothing but what ●e would be in him should doe nothing but what he would doe in him should have nothing but what hee would have in him This would not Adam but all those things ●e arrogated to himselfe as his owne or ●ather he himself would be all these things This is the fall of Adam and the abuse of all ●hings in all things by all mankinde to the ●nd of the World The abuse is I say to arrogate any thing to mans selfe as his owne not to possesse the same freely as though he had them not but to steale and use them from God in and ●o himselfe As for Example if having Money Wife Children knowledge life ●t selfe yea my selfe I challenge these to my ●elfe as my owne But since God exacts them if followes the I would therfore detaine them and as mu●● as in me is not yeeld them unto God b● knitt my mind unto them that I may keep defend and never losse or forsake them when notwithstanding they are Gods an● not mine this is the Fall of Adam and b● theift being the abuse of al things inbred i● the flesh untill man be translated into ● new kinde of estate or condition wherefore it is behoovefull that we be borne a new● doe vomitt up the Fruit of the Tree o● Knowledge of Good and Evill And al● these things which wee having stolen from God as theeves doe challenge to our selves and so forgetting them restore them again● to God this truely is the resurrection and conversion of Adam and by this meanes alone shall the Fall of Adam be repaired amended Therefore the true and onely use of all things knowne alone to the regenerate and new man is this That I be altogether free from all things and alone subiect to God and being void of name will and knowledge c remaine nothing in my selfe no● vindicate deliver or claime any thing to my selfe because whatsoever I have am know doe c. all are of God no more then the Cow doth for her milke the Tree for it fruit

day to gett and heape up riches Wherfore are they so forgetfull of the word of God and so little esteeme his precepts and commandements But that they thinke God cares not for them or that he cannot or will not revenge them therefore it is necessary that they helpe and revenge themselves or that they thinke that while to long to wait and expect the helpe of God before that he take vengeance and punishment they themselves shall be overthrowen And because they thinke that nothing but povertie comes upon them if they have any commerce and communion with the truth of God therefore it is necessary that they helpe themselves and labour for their living by lying cogging deceiving and usury and the like this makes a man rich and honourable As for the word of God that is but a late helpe and deficient in adversitie it stands us in hand therefore to adore our selves speake bigge swelling words elevate our selves as much as we can VVho but my selfe is God saith the world in the course of her Life CHAPTER X. An ansvver to certaine obiections that we ought to be wise and not fooles and how we ought to be wise and how foolish But you wil say that the learned shall shine as the Starres or Sunne in Heaven and in a thousand places wee are commanded to apply our hearts unto wisdome as in the Proverbs and Eccles. wise men are commended To which I answer that it is rightly spoken if it be rightly understood to wit of the tree divine heavenly knowledge which God himselfe doth worke teach in those that are poore in spirit I say it is understood of the wisdome of the tree of life and not of the deadly and foolish wisdome of the Flesh which is the knowledge of good and evill and the Scriptures will have us to acknowledge our folly and to be made fooles in our owne judgement and indeed we are so but we would not be accounted so and forget all things wherby we may become truely wise and receive the influence of divine knowledge into our soules For we are all foolish wicked and we will not see and perceive it nor beleeve it and therfore God would have us by confessing our folly in true simplicity to give a farewell unto it by submitting our selves over unto God be made truely wise and learned by him Hereupon it is that Solomon calls them fooles whom Paul calls wise prudent Solomon calls them what they are indeed in the sight of God but Paul calls them what they seeme to be in their own eyes and in the sight of men We must unlearne and therein strive to be fooles in that wherin we learne and strive to be wise in But as it is given us of God so it can be learned from none but God and as the love of God shed abroad in our hearts begets a mutuall love of him againe Even so Gods knowing of us begets in us a knowledge of him as Paul witnesseth to the Gal after that ye knew God or rather are knowne of him As also to the Phill. I desire to know as I am knowne And also 1. Ioh. 3. He first loved us Also in another place if any man love God he is borne of God Out of all these places I gather that God is never knowne loved sought or found of us untill we be knowne loved sought and found of God as Christ saith to the Pharises the Kingdome of God is in you and Paul to the Athenians Hee is not farr off from every one of us for in him we live move have our being But this is most miserable and lamentable that those who professe themselves to know God know him not as they ought as Paul testifies of the world If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him And againe if any man seeme to know any thing he knoweth nothing as he ought VVe should know this that by nature we know nothing but are altogether blind dead and foolish in spirituall things and this knowledge should make us nothing foolish and Children in our owne eyes But wee desire to know and seeme wise whereby it comes to passe that we know not how or for what end we ought to learne knowledge for wisdome is not given unto us for this purpose that thereby being puffed with pride we extoll our selves and become something in the eyes of the world but on the contrary to make us nothing This is the knowledge of God that makes us Fooles and Children to our selves and the world it doth not puffe us up making us seeme wise in our own opinion Noe for that is the knowledge of the Serpent both most devilish and deadly Thus you see that the whole world knowes not what how and for what end they should desire to know but alwayes strives against God in their knowledge and know not of what things they ought to be ignorant off but cheifly are desirous to know those things they ought to be ignorant off and so by their owne art and knowledge make themselves Fooles Breefly that which they doe know and doe desire to know that they should learne to unknow and what they resist to know that they should learn to know otherwise God will never acknowledge them for his owne because God hath determined never to acknowledge crowne or reward any thing in us but his owns guifts and workes that is never to love or accept any thing in us but himselfe For he alone is the Light Life the way and the truth so that whosoever is not in him or he in them they alwayes wander in the pathes of errour and shadow of death Now every man knows what it is to walk in darknes The walls of Ierusalem were not to be opened before the Sunne did rise even so should no man intend to goe forth before the Sonne of righteousnesse arose in his heart since all things depends upon him and bee should be our Teacher and Example by whose instruction we should learne and by whose Example wee should walke as the Scriptures testify It is an easie thing to say that the world is in darknesse and uncapable of the spirit of truth but no man will either acknowledge or beleeve himselfe to be the world or that the whole world to God is all Fleshe as the Sonnes of Adam all were naturall men with the universall righteousnesse reason and wisdome therein but by the world men thinke to be understood the Turkes Gentles Heathens and I know not what people of the farthest parts of the world attributing so much to arts tongues Scriptures which they almost preferre above the spirit and if a man doe reade and have a Bible they thinke it enough and that by which they may easily obtaine the Holy Ghost not considering that either the Holy Ghost must bee their guide and enlighten them in the knowledge of the word or otherwise it is but a dead Letter