Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	death_n	eternal_a	life_n	10,289	5	4.7511	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96627	The vvay to life and death. Laid down in a sermon, 1629. before the Lord Major of London then being. / By N. Waker M.A. late minister of Jesus Christ at Lawndon in Buckinghamshire. Now published for the reasonableness of the advice therein given, touching the five controverted points, viz. predestination, general redemption, freewill, conversion, and perseverance of the siants. Directing a safe way for the practice of private Christians, as confessed by the disputants on both sides.	Waker, Nathaniel.; Waker, John.	1655 (1655)	Wing W281; Thomason E1639_1; ESTC R209056	41,542	102

him obtained it may be but never to its worth valued and esteemed And elsewhere Facilius possumus dicere quid ibi non sit quam quid sit non est ibi mors non est luctus c. We can more easily say what there is not there then what there is there is no death no mourning c. Let us labour to walke in the way then we shall experimentally feel it and then even laugh at our scanty expressions when the soule being filled with admiration shall cry out How full of glory art thou O Lord and this heavenly Paradise of thine I have heard of thee by thy Prophets and Apostles but the one halfe hath not been resolved Oh blessed is the man that heareth thy wisdome seeth and enjoyeth thy glory But by the way note here that life is referred to mortification not as the proper cause He that lives after the flesh shall dye by his own merit but he that lives after the Spirit shall live by Gods mercy and the merit of Christ for he that lives after the flesh acts by a principle of his own but he that by the Spirit from an hgher principle and that imperfectly So Rom. 6. ult the Apostle sheweth death is an effect of sin life a consequent of righteousnesse in a different manner death followeth sin as a just reward of it as a debt The wages of sin is death but righteousnesse produceth life as a consequent not of debt but of grace The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord that as he attributes nothing to man in the latter so he wholly cleareth God in the former But ever remember what the good Father saith Acquiri potest aestimari non potest It may be gotten but cannot be valued It 's possible for to attaine it but it will cost thee deare thou must enter in through many tribulations Vnicus qui introivit sine peccato non exivit sine flagello thou must deny the world and be crucified to that hate father mother life thine own life but that is not all thou must mortifie the deeds of the body Now if any desire to enter into life I must first aske him whether he can drinke of this cup and be baptized with this Baptisme he must mortifie this body this old man corruption is strong for it 's a man politique for an old man a man that is naturalized in us and pleads prescription The old man with all his members pull out the right eye cut off the right hand teare and re●t the heart asunder crowne the head with thornes pierce the hands feet with nailes and the side with a speare the face must be spit upon buffetted The body and all the deeds of it Put off the old man with his deeds Col. 3. and here mortifie the deeds of the body and the deeds of the body are manifest Never tell me of a good heart if the actions are naught as the understanding blind the will obstinate the affections disordered the life dissolute this man is out of the way to life What! a good Christian and a drunkard a swearer a scoffer at the good wayes of God It 's impossible Is the tree good that is fruitlesse Do you call that a good ground that bears nothing but briars and brambles The body with the deeds all the deeds must be mortified Away then with that sweet morsel under the tongue if thou willingly entertaine but one sin constantly suppose contemplative adultery thou art an unmortified man Againe these must be mortified not trifle or deale more gently with them pull up these weeds by the very roots therefore it must be with paine and shame and constant for it is an act of the whole life prescribed here to the Romans so to the Colossians It may be their acquaintance will reproach thee and thy best friends forsake thee And all this we must do in our persons not buy it out or do it by our deputies we by the Spirit and there is no other way but this to life Nor do I make the way straiter or the gate narrower then Christ and his Apostles have done Nor do I here dishearten any but require them sedulously to set about the worke better know it now then hereafter when it is too late Eternall life is the gift of God that the Scripture shews and reason manifests that it is in the power of the donor to prescribe what conditions he will to the receiver but the wretchednesse of the world is such they desire the blessing without the condition like Ruths kinsman that would have the land without the woman like that man in the Gospel would have eternal life but the condition is too strict therefore go a way sorrowful Thus how contrary are we to our selves how unreasonable to God In the former we would do the work but not have wages live after the flesh but not die and in the latter we will not do the labour yet hope for the reward as Balaam will follow the wages of iniquity yet die the death of the righteous But if we do the one the other will follow And surely had we made our own termes how could we in modesty have made them more easie God could do no lesse then demonstrate his purity love of vertue hatred of sin God delights not to make us sad without cause Certainly he cannot require any thing lesse then mortification without the impeachment of his honour therefore we cannot perform lesse without the endangering of our happinesse So then I must tell our debauched sinners Vse For Repr that suffer all manner of abominations to raign not to be named among Christians and are so far from crucifying them that they harbour and keep them close extenuate defend them are careful to satisfy their lusts and blow them up to a greater flame that will be ready to give the stab to those that crosse and contradict them in their waies there is a thing in Religion called Mortifying the deeds of the body which they were never acquainted withal without which there is no life I must tell our plausible Atheists that are enemies to the power of godlinesse that have no grace and vertue but what was born and bred with them it is not their plausible carriage will do it there is a mortifying crucifying watching fasting striving denying thy self or no entrance into life I must tell our carelesse procrastinators of repentance It 's not enough to dislike sin and so let it alone in time to dye it self and therefore they will not task themselves with such an unpleasing torment but you must mortifie it The filthy adulterer resolves when he hath no more marrow in his bones nor vigour in his body to leave his adultery the drunkard his company when his patrimony is spent the oppressour his extortion when his covetousnesse is satiated Sinne though it be left in regard of the outward act yet in this case it is not mortified

THE WAY To Life and Death LAID Down in a SERMON 1629. before the Lord Major of London then being By N. Waker M. A. late Minister of Jesus Christ at Lawndon in Buckinghamshire Now published for the reasonablenesse of the advice therein given touching the five Controverted points viz. Predestination general Redemption Freewill Conversion and Perseverance of the Saints Directing a safe way for the Practice of private Christians as confessed by the disputants on both sides The text Rom. 8.13 For if ye live after the flesh ye shall dye c. LONDON Printed by J. L. for Phil. Stephens at the gilded Lyon in St. Pauls Church-yard 1655. TO The Reader WHat entertainment this sermon will find in the World I can easily foresee Some I hope it will both profit and delight If it displeaseth some others I have what I looked for To the pious charitable and ingenious it cannot I think be unacceptable sure I am unseasonable 't will never be so long as the world is so full of walkers after the flesh the sharpest reproof comes not amisse Of the Authour my near relation forbids me to expresse what I might justly make known to the world In the eyes of some he will be in dislike as being in their opinion too mild and moderate in the Controversies about Predestination General Redemption Perseverance c. Touching which Points he layeth down the Rules for Christian practice according to Godlinesse which are confessed to be so by the Disputants on both sides Live here we must as if infallibly chosen to life eternall and yet never cease to give all diligence to make our calling and election sure implore the speciall ayd and assistance of his holy Spirit who worketh in us both to will and do even all our works in us and for us not forgetting in the meantime to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling Further we have here a portraiture of LIFE and DEATH the life of the spiritual with the death of the carnal both of them pictured and set forth in most lively colours upon which is grounded a pious and patheticall Exhortation to fasting and mourning a duty as well now as then yea now if ever needful A Plat-form we have drawn to our hands by the Learned and most eminently holy Bishop HALL In a Book entituled The Holy Order and Fraternity of Mourners in Sion Let none be ashamed to follow so worthy a guide and have we not just cause our sins and Gods Judgments the confusion of our Land the ruines of a fair and flourishing Church will not all this open the flood gates of our teares yea let it at last till then there is no hope of mercy wring from us bitter cryes and lamentations Let us all with holy David set our faces unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes nor let us ever cease till our God at length overcome with our importunity shew mercy unto us bind up the wounds of this bleeding Island hear the prayers of those that stand in the Gap and be favourable unto us All which that he would for his Sons sake hear and grant is the uncessant prayer of him who professeth himself one of that Holy Fraternity of Spirituall Mourners Even yours in the Common Saviour John Waker THE Way to Life and Death Rom. 8.13 For if ye live after the flesh ye shall dye but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live THis whole Universe may not unfitly be divided into three principall Kingdomes The Preface or introduction the first in Heaven where God reigneth the second in hell where Beelzebub domineereth and the third on Earth which God hath given to the children of men In the first is nothing but holinesse and happinesse in the second nothing but sin and misery in the third a mixture of all in the first is light without darknesse in the second darknesse without light in the third both light and darknesse In the first are Angels and the spirits of just men made perfect in glory and blisse in the second the Devil and his angels tormented in flames and here are men of a middle condition placed on earth for the tryal of their obedience and accordingly as they shall demean themselves in this world so shall their doom be hereafter either to live with God who is the fountain of life or dye that second death with the damned spirits Here then we are in a center from hence are drawen two long lines the one reaching to heaven the other to hell in this world God hath shewed us the way of both the one that we might avoid it the other that we might walk in it nay he hath given us a taste of both of hell in the miseries of the world of heaven in the comforts of it of this that we might long for the fruition of the harvest of that that so we might ever take heed how we come into that place of torment So then there are but two conditions after this life the one of joy the other of torment the one of life the other of death and there are but two estates of life in this world as meanes tending thereunto one evil another good some live after the flesh and some after the Spirit and they that live after the flesh shall dye but they that by the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body shall live So that here the Apostle describes two contrary waies and two contrary ends unto which they lead the first is the broad way that leadeth to destruction a way of pleasure but it endeth in woe The voluptuous man now fares deliciously anon cannot get a drop of water now cloathed in fcarlet anon tormented in flames now accompanied with Nobles anon haled by devils the other sowes in teares but reaps in joy now full of sores with Lazarus anon with him full of pleasures now among the dogs anon among Angels now on the dung-hill anon in Abrahams bosome verè stupendae vices the former of these wayes is through the fairest street in the City but it leads to the place of execution the other through a narrow dirty Lane but it brings to the Kings Palace where is prepared a costly banquet the first is a way pleasing to flesh and blood strewed with Roses over flowery meadows having all the delights that nature or art can afford but it leads at last to the dead Sea it tends to the chambers of death the other is beset with briars and thornes haunted with wild beasts theeves and robbers over craggy Rocks and steep Mountaines where if a man cannot find a way for few tread that path he must make it as he did over the Alpes but this way leads to the new Jerusalem to the Celestial Paradise Non quà sed quò must be the wise mans quaery not which way we go but whither so that here you have our Saviours

some say that either know not what they speak or will not know But howsoever it is in the Theory unlesse I much mistake both sides meet in the Practice If any man should aske me concerning the decree of election and reprobation Predestination here is a counterpane of it in my text I will not say this is Gods whole decree I dare say no secret decree contradicts it We need not climbe up into heaven then to see whether God smile or frowne nor wrest open his Cabinet to see what secrets are there Things revealed belong to us if our names be written here then infallibly are they there If we finde them not here certainely they are not there I say then leave disputing about election and labour to make your calling and election sure Begin at the bottome of the ladder and adde to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance c. Thus our Saviour stifles such a controversie Master shall many be saved Strive to enter in at the strait gate But what shall this man do Follow thou me Let no man comfort himselfe with any illusion or affright himselfe with any fatall destiny If ye live after c. This is Gods Word and by this we must be judged at the last day For the second Controversie Whether Redemption be universal I say to that man Though Christ died for all men as one side affirm yet if thou live after the flesh thou shalt dye notwithstanding the purchase of so precious a redemption sufficient in it self though not effectual unto thee through thine own perversenesse or if but for some few as the other side affirm if thou mortify the deeds of the body thou art one that shall surely live For the third and fourth The manner of receiving grace the manner of receiving grace One side say it doth infallibly and necessarily work at such a time and not before the other that through our perversenesse we may turn the grace of God into wantonnesse Both agree in this that a man may be saved grace must be received and improved The Spirit is the principal cause but we must co-operate We are not able of our selves to think a good thought our sufficiency is from him Hence St. Paul I live yet that he might not seem to usurp any of the honour checks himself yet not I. So we say We must mortify yet not we but the Spirit not we as the principal cause but the Spirit not the Spirit as the solitary cause but we by the Spirit let us look to it that the work be done and then we shall not miscarry For the last which is perseverance one side saith we shall infalliblly stand Perseverance and as possible for Christ to fall out of heaven as a Saint from Christ the other side that God will not forsake us unlesse we forsake him and gives us grace sufficient that we may not fall but doth not so infallibly hold us up but we may fall Both sides affirm perseverance to be necessary unto life and the conscionable use of means to perseverance Take heed then that there be not in any of you at any time an evil heart of unbelief to depart from the living God and that this may never befal thee put on the whole armour of God that thou mayest stand in the evil day Thus the Prophet Ezek. 18. justifies God in his proceedings and makes the people wary So the Apostle writing here to Saints and if any of you whom in charity I judge to be converted would hear any thing from me concerning perseverance I will answer you in the words of my text If ye live after c. Thus if a man in a modest humility receive the known truth in the love of it and so love it as to practise it his end shall certainly be blessed And now behold Deut. 30.15 The Conclusion this day I have set before you life and death good and evil blessing and cursing There are but two estates in this life and two after proportionably Some here walk after the flesh but they shall dye the delight is present but momentany the pain is future but eternal some here by the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body and they shall live hereaftes The task here is sharp and present but momentany the reward future but glorious and eternal Were it not for that which followes Ye shall dye it were a brave thing to live after the flesh were it not for that which followes Ye shall live nothing more tedious then to mortify the deeds of the body Wisdome now will soon deride the controversie and pitch upon her choice and inheritance so glorious so durable though it be future and the entrance so difficult is to be preferred to a life of sinne though it had in it never so much pleasure or profit being momentany and seconded with eternal wo. It 's the fools voice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Give me to day take to morrow to thy self But if notwithstanding what hath been said he shall still walk in the waies of his own heart all the curses in Gods book shall fall on him God will blot out his name from under heaven and in heaven out of the book of life so that in no place he shall be found but in hell But every man here seems to choose life in that he comes to hear that Gospel which is the Word of life Oh they make it not the savor of death to death Labour then by the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the body so shall you live many Halcion daies here upon earth and when you dye the Angels shall carry your soules into Paradise while your bodies repose themselves in their graves as a bed of down till the Lord of Glory shall return to judg both quick and dead where the body being raised and reunited to the soul both soul and body shall live in the perpetual vision and fruition of God To which glory he for his mercy bring us who hath so dearly bought us even Jesus Christ the Author and finisher of our faith To whom with the Father and the blessed Spirit be ascribed all honour glory praise thanksgiving and obedience from this time forth and for evermore FINIS