Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	dead_a	sin_n	trespass_n	4,880	5	10.3889	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61813	A sermon preached before the King at White-Hall on Christmas-Day, 1682 by N. Stratford ...	Stratford, Nicholas, 1633-1707.	1683 (1683)	Wing S5940; ESTC R33812	12,795	36

of Judgment and fiery Indignation to devour them For if the word spoken by Angels Heb. ii 2 3. was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience receiv'd a just recompence of reward how shall we escape if we despise so great Salvation There is no possibility of their escape from the Damnation of Hell in the other World who refuse to be delivered from their sins in this World And who can dwell with devouring Fire Who can dwell with Everlasting burnings 'T is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a Revenging God whose Power is equal to his Justice and who lives for ever to take Vengeance 'T was ever a fearful thing but 't will be now more especially so to those who cleave to their sins after God hath so fully discovered how intolerably odious they are to him This will be their Condemnation their Condemnation with a Witness that they still persist in their sins notwithstanding God hath so plainly made known how infinitely dear they shall pay for them Nor is the Consideration of Christ's Death as a Sacrifice for sin more powerful to drive and affright us from it as 't is the most evident Demonstration of God's unappeasable Wrath against sin than 't is to attract and allure us to Holiness As 't is 2. An unparallel Expression of his Love and kindness to sinners of his exceeding readiness to pardon them upon their sincere Repentance and to make them everlastingly happy It would have argu'd great Clemency in the Sovereign Lord of Heaven and Earth had he but given us leave to have petition'd him for Mercy But though he resolv'd to prevent us by his Grace and while we were yet sinners and obnoxious to his Vengeance to make offers of Reconciliation to us had it not been enough to have sent them by one of the meanest of those ministring Spirits that continually attend upon him But if he would love us so much who so much deserv'd his Hatred as to send his only Son out of his own bosom to us Who could have imagin'd but he would have sent him aray'd with Light shining with such amazing Glory and Majesty as might have given the World to understand the supereminent Dignity of his Person But to send him in Flesh and which is yet more vile in the likeness of sinful flesh that in that odious disguise he might deliver him up to the most accursed Death to purchase a pardon for us Miscreants with his own most precious Blood What manner of Love was this Well might St. John say Herein is 1 Joh. ix 1 Love You will say perhaps and in what not Since the love of God is plainly legible in all his works True but herein is love so transcendent that all the love shew'd to Mankind in the works of Creation and common Providence deserves not to be named when compared with it Even our Blessed Saviour himself as if unable to express it speaks of it with admiration So John iii. 16. God loved the World So inexpressibly so inconceivably And is it possible after such a stupendous Testimony of God's love to sinners that the greatest sinner in the VVorld should so much as question his readiness to pardon him upon his sincere Repentance Has God given his only Son to die for us to the end that he may be just and yet the justifyer of him that believeth in Jesus And now Rom. iii. 26. that all the demands of his Justice are fully satisfyed shall he not much more give us a Pardon What can hinder When even Justice it self is now become an Advocate for sinners and pleads for Mercy And therefore St. John saith if we confess our sins 1 John i. 9. not that he is merciful but he is just to forgive us our sins Let therefore the Wicked forsake Isa lv 7. his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Tho' his sins be as scarlet they Isa i. 18. shall be as white as snow tho' they be red like crimson they shall be as wool And can there be a more potent Motive to Repentance Unless it be that God will not barely pardon but for the redundant Merit of this all-sufficient Sacrifice will also advance us to a more glorious and happy state than that which by sin we lost What Rebel would not relent and return to Loyalty were he unquestionably assur'd that his Prince would be so far from punishing him that he would on the contrary promote him to the highest Honours Such an assurance has God given to all truly penitent Sinners that he will not only be merciful to their unrighteousness and remember their sins and iniquities no more but will take them into his bosom treat them as his Favourites Yea make them Co-heirs together with his Son of his own everlasting Kingdom and Glory And can the most resolute sinner in the World be so obstinate as not to be overcome and yield himself a Captive to such Love And if we are once brought under the Power of Divine Love this alone will raise and unite all the Forces of our Souls against our sins and make us cry out with as much vehemency against them as the Jews did against our Saviour Crucifie them Crucifie them Let not one of them escape alive and let those above all the rest be put to a reproachful Death that we have formerly been most enchanted and led Captive by If besides these mighty Motives which one would think were sufficient to give strength to the weakest and to raise them to the Life of God who are quite dead in Sins and Trespasses any thing further can be needful to this purpose Consider 3. That God as the Purchase of this meritorious Sacrifice hath also sent his Holy Spirit to assist our Endeavours to raise and renew our Faculties and to strengthen us with that might in the inner man by which we may be enabled to get the Victory over our strongest and most imperious inordinate Lusts For certainly the most domineering and prevailing sin hath not gotten such absolute Dominion over us but by the assistance of this Almighty Spirit we may be set free from the Bondage of it We can scarce imagine any persons more under the Power of vile Affections than those spoken of 1 Corinth vi 9 10. And yet how deeply soever they were sunk into the Mire the Apostle tells us v. 11. that they were washed that they were sanctifyed that they were justifyed in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God In the early ages of the Gospel so common and so apparent were the Effects of the Divine Graces in reforming the most outrageously vicious persons that they were matter of great Boasting and Triumph to the Primitive Christians And God be thanked our own Age is not destitute of some famous Instances of this Nature And that we meet not with many more 't is not to be imputed to Gods backwardness to give but to our unwillingness to receive his Holy Spirit and to that Rude and Churlish entertainment we give him when he makes his visits to us Did we but readily comply with his Motions and yield our selves up to be led by them we should soon find it not only possible but easie Yea the most pleasant and delightful thing in the World to deny all Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World Looking for the blessed Hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works FINIS