Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	fee_n	grant_v	tenant_n	4,882	5	10.3009	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47309	The practical believer, or, The articles of the Apostles Creed drawn out to form a true Christian's heart and practice in two parts.	Kettlewell, John, 1653-1695.	1688 (1688)	Wing K380_VARIANT; ESTC R36226	263,804	566

So that no Man who lives ill must think that God to shew his Sovereignty may save him if he will nor any Man that lives well fear lest God to shew his Sovereignty may damn him if he will nor if any Person seriously sets himself to be good must he harbour any jealousie of Prerogative-Power and Arbitrary decrees against him whereby he should be shut out from that Grace which is necessary to help him to be so Ans. No there were not the least danger of that had we nothing else to trust to but the absolute Holiness Justice and Goodness of the Divine Nature But moreover in these most important disposals God acts not out of Arbitrary unlimited Power but as he has made himself a Legal Covenanting Governour that is graciously pleased to rule the World by Laws and Compacts and will distribute rewards and punishments according to them So that in expecting any of these from him we must not have recourse to any fancied secret Decrees but only to revealed Promises and Covenant-Declarations And these as I have shown pronounce Mercy on the good and Vengeance on the bad and the Spirit and Grace of God to all that sincerely and carefully seek after it In relation to future recompences saith S. John God is just 1 John 1. 9. And in relation to present assistances saith S. Paul God is faithful 1 Cor. 10. 13. And in relation to both saith he again God is not unrighteous Heb. 6. 10. So making not absolute Will and Prerogative-Arbitrariness but Moral Honesty and Covenant-Justice the ground of Mens expectation from him in these matters Quest. You have several times mentioned the rectitude of God's Nature as well as the voluntary addition of his Laws and Compacts for the limitation of his Sovereign Will and Power And the Divine Nature you have particularly explained before but I should be glad to have a brief account of his ways and temper from the Holy Scripture Ans. Thus they represent him That 't is impossible for God to lie Heb. 6. 18. that he is faithful and cannot deny himself 2 Tim. 2. 13. He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity Hab. 1. 13. he hates all workers of it Psalm 5. 5. He cannot be tempted with evil nor tempt any man to it James 1. 13. All his ways are judgment a God of Truth and without iniquity just and right is he Deut. 32. 4. He regardeth not persons nor taketh rewards Deut. 10. 17. He loveth righteousness and beholdeth the upright Psalm 11. 7. He is merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands Exod. 34. 6 7. God is love 1 John 4. 8 16. And as he will by no means clear the guilty Exod. 34. 7. so has he no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked man turn from his way and live Ezek. 33. 11. These are the Almighty Deities fixt and immutable Ways and Principles which he never thwarts or contradicts to shew absoluteness of Power and Wilfulness Quest. If Almighty God is the Proprietor of all things and can do what he pleases he must be All-sufficient in himself and need no accessions from any Body to his Happiness Ans. So he is My goodness saith David extendeth not to thee Psalm 16. 2. He needs nothing that any Creatures can offer to him and if he did he could supply himself with them since all the World can present him with nothing but what they have from him Quest. If we are so poor that we can give and he so full that he can receive nothing 't is plain he is no selfish Being nor seeks any separate Interests of his own by any services we are to pay him Ans. Very true His ends are only to communicate Happiness not to gain it And this may shew Men how unnecessary their scruple is who fear they are not sincere in God's Service if they seek thereby to benefit themselves For in that their end is not different but the same with his They seek his Glory in pursuing their own truest good for in giving not receiving it is that he seeks to be glorified Quest. What must God's Sovereignty and absolute Dominion teach us Ans. First since all we possess is held under him never to compass any worldly thing by fraud or falshood or any deceitful and dishonest dealing For since God never allows of such whosoever come into Possessions that way have no consent or grant from him So that whatever they hold it is not by any Title of Right and Lawful Claim but only by unjust Usurpation Quest. What do we learn from this absolute Dominion besides Ans. Secondly to be content with that state and condition and that portion of Goods and Accommodation which God allots us For be our part what it will and other Mens never so much above it as most are apt to fancy all their own burthens heaviest and their own injoyments least yet God having as absolute Propriety to make one Rich and another Poor as the Potter has out of the same lump to frame one vessel to honour and another to dishonour they must needs be most rightfully disposed Yea moreover whatever little any of us injoy in comparison with others yet is that little wholly undeserved and if from the same bounty which grants us our share any other Men have more our eye must not be evil because God's is good Matth. 20. 15. Quest. Must it teach us any thing else Ans. Yes Thirdly to be content when he resumes his own allotments For when he grants us things he still keeps the Propriety in himself He makes no Tenants in Fee no nor so much as Tenants for Life Whatsoever outward things we hold under him it is all as Tenants at Will to be disseiz'd when he pleases And therefore whensoever God lends us Health or Wealth or Honour or Friends or Children we must injoy them with an apprehension of their being only Loans for a time and with a readiness to resign them up when called for again As good old Eli did who upon an irreparable degradation of his Family from a state of highest Power and dignity to the greatest want and meanness only said it is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good 1 Sam. 3. 18. And as Job who upon his sudden and amazing change of fortune when from the most rich and happy in a few minutes time he was made the most poor and miserable of all the Men in the East said only the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord Job 1. 21. Quest. Must it teach us any thing more Ans. Yes Fourthly to use all his allotments to his Honour whilst he spares them to us He makes no Proprietors but only Stewards 1 Pet. 4. 9 10. And in stewards it is required that they prove faithful 1 Cor. 4. 2. employing what is under their charge to their Masters ends use and interest And