Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
cause_n body_n life_n soul_n 5,160 5 5.5664 4 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A09963 An elegant and lively description of spirituall life and death Delivered in divers sermons in Lincolnes-Inne, November the 9.th, M.DCXXIII. vpon Iohn, 5.25. By Iohn Preston then Bachellor of Divinitie, and chaplaine in ordinarie to the Prince his Highnesse. Preston, John, 1587-1628. 1632 (1632) STC 20221.5; ESTC S115172 68,183 135

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

their holinesse is but by flashes and fits it continues not they are like violent motions quicke in the beginning and slower in the end the higher they goe the weaker they are But the motions and actions of the godly are as a stone falling downwards which moves faster and faster till it falles to the Center where it would bee Now we have done all this there is not yet sufficient said to make it sufficiently appeare that there is such a life of grace these and an hundred other Arguments and reasons will not make naturall men beleeve that many men live other lives than they But when they see the life of holinesse blase in their eyes they say it is but guilded over it is but hypocrisy These reasons may prepare and confirme but they cannot perswade we must therefore beleeve that there is such a life Iohn 3. Christ treats of this that there is such a life he tels Nicodemus that he must live it and be borne againe He wonders at it how it can be Christ therefore concludes in the 12. verse If I have told you earthly things and yee beleeve not how shall yee beleeve if I tell you of heavenly things that is it must bee beleeved that there is such a life sense beleeves it not yet it is easier to beleeve it because it is wrought on earth other things are harder than this to beleeve because they are wrought in heaven though this be wrought on earth yet it is hard to beleeve and must bee beleeved And thus much for the first part of the doctrine that there is such a life For the second what this life is yee may know one Contrary by another wee have shewed already what death that is contrary to it is by which yee may partly perceive what this life is yet we will give you some other signes how to know it This life is a reall life as reall as the other though this life doth not consist in eating and drinking as the other doth it is a life of faith it is not seene yet it is as reall as the common life as it appeares by comparing it with the cōmon life First in this common life of nature there must be temper of body disposition of instruments so in this life of grace there is a frame of heart and a composition of soule on which it doth depend there are humors and ingredients of this life and they are the things yee know there is a reality in this life as well as in the naturall life Secondly as the naturall life hath a temper of body hath divers mixtures so it abhorrs things that are hurtfull to it and desires things that cherish it so in this life of grace there is an appetite those that live they are carried to the things that helpe them they doe hunger after the word and that that builds them up they abhorre sinne and lust that would destroy them Thirdly as in the naturall life so in this there is a taste and palate that helps this appetite Rom. 12.2 Bee yee changed by the renewing of your minde that yee may prove what is that good and perfect and acceptable will of God that is that yee may be able to discerne of it as the touchstone discernes of Gold or the taste and palate of meates Fourthly as in the other life there is hunger and thirst so is there in this men are sensible of paines and refreshings they are sensible of sinne judgement and threatnings which others are not being hard and dead Fiftly as the other life is fed with food so is this the food which a man eates is not presently turned into flesh and bloud that nourisheth but there is a nutritive faculty that nourisheth and turnes all wee eate into nourishment So the Saints they turne all the passages of Gods providence into nourishment they assimulate and turne all things to a good use there is a living and vitall faculty in them that sets them forwards Ephe 4.16 They being knit to Christ according to the effectuall power working in every part increase and edifye themselves in love Lastly as this common life hath beside other things that maintaine it some other indowments to helpe it out as company recreation riches and the like so hath this spirituall life it hath riches and friends it hath its heritage company habitation God is our habitation from everlasting with the same reality though not with the same visibility and so exposed to sence as the other The cause of this life is the holy Ghost who is to the soule as the soule is to the body he is the cause of it the end of all of it is the Lord all is done to God No other life is so this life is of God through God and for God when you finde such a reality in your actions tending to God when he is your ayme then yee live this life If this bee the condition of all that are in Christ to live and be quickned see what is expected from you to whom this talent is cōmitted every excellency is a talent it must not lye dead but be improved for our masters use the sinne is great if yee doe it not the neglect being of a greater thing the sinne is greater God sets a proportionable account on his benefits and expects a severe account from us if wee use them not Be exhorted then to live this life some live much in a short time Some never live this life one man may live more in one day than another man in a hundred for to live is nothing but to be stirring and doing 1 Tim. 5.6 those who live in pleasures are dead whilst they live so he that is occupied about riches or honors is dead all that time that men are occupied about riches and their estates about credit honors and the like making them their end that is a time of death yee have lived no longer than yee have acted duties of new obedience If you sommon up your lives according to this computation to how short a reckoning will they come A wise man speakes more in a few words than a foole doth in a multitude one peece of Gold hath more worth than a hundred peeces of Brasse as we say of an empty oration that there is a flood of words but a drop of water so if you consider your lives and see how long yee have lived in death bungling out the time you will see that yee have lived but little in a long time therefore now bee doing something redeeme the time be busy in doing or receiving good be still devising to doe something for God and to put it in execution spend your fat and sweetnesse for God and man weare out not rust out flame out not smother out burne out be not blowne out So did Christ so did Moses so did Paul making the Gospel to abound from Ierusalem to Illyricum so did David the text saith that he served his time he did not