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

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56317	Durus sermo, or Ænigma moriendi the mystery of dying daily: in a sermon preached in Plimouth, at the funeral of Mistress Joan Warren. By William Pyke, M.A. and rector of the parish of Stokeclimsland in the county of Cornwal.	Pike, William, b. 1617 or 18.	1680 (1680)	Wing P4256; ESTC R220558	23,109	40

baptised for the dead This Custom was anciently observed by the Corinthians a sort of Hereticks who notwithstanding their own practise denyed the Resurrection of Bodies and it is likely were Authors of the Error taxed in this Chapter in the Church of the Corinthians wherefore S. Paul's meaning is that this custom which weighed so much in those days were very absurd if there were no Resurrection seeing that the very Ground and Foundation of Baptism not only Sacramental but Ritual is to seal unto us both our spiritual and corporal rising from the dead Rom. 6.3.4 Coloss 2.12 And the end of this particular Ceremony was the profession of the expectance of the blessed Resurrection of Believers a Custom which in following Ages was much abused unto Superstition but without doubt was primitively blameless and piously practicable Then the Apostle comes to a general Instance by way of Quaere why and for what reason and upon what hope do Christians expose themselves voluntarily to death and to so many Dangers Conflicts and Tryals for the Gospel and the Cause of Christianity if it bringeth us to no happiness after this life which happiness according to God's order and our own aims cannot be of the Soul alone without any relation to the body being eternally separate from it vers 19. and 32. compared Lastly he comes to his own personal experience and practise and by a most strong asseveration or assertion equivalent to an Oath which is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A particle never used by the Greeks but in Oath only which is here rendred I protest as if he had said as true as my chief Glory and Joy in this world is in the blessing of God on my Ministry towards you which he seems to speak so earnestly that he might the more oblige his Corinthians not to deprive him of that only comfort amongst so many sufferings as sure as you minister Joy to me or as I in my Ministry rejoyce you or that he might the more forcibly press on them his own Example and the more prevalently win them unto Imitation I die daily The words are but three and promptly furnish me with three part which I intend shall bound my Sermon The Protestant I. The matter protested Die The Diuturnity of its practice Daily The Protestant is presented in the personal Pronoun singular I S. Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles in his Order and Epistolar Writings which are tantamount his Sermons a great Preacher a living President to the Churches in all his holy life and labours His Eminency did not exempt him from strict Religion no more than from Mortality he who when he says I live he corrects himself Yet not I but Christ liveth in me Galat. 2.20 Philip 1.21 To whom to live was Christ When he says I die to be sure it is he the same that protesteth in his mortal but regenerate Estate affirming that the better birth is an entrance and engagement to a dying life and the choicest Saints are both Vessels of Earth and of Election as of Earth so must we return to our Earth and as of Election so must we die unto this world as Heirs of a better New creatures live by a new way of dying we live unto God by dying unto sin The chosen of God have a dying principle from the Prince of Life Rom. 6.3 to 12. who died and rose again S. Paul's Eminency in Grace directed him to the frequent exercise of Mortification Dying was his life whose Dignity was to live to God this is that only life which makes death the Christians Game To the common Herd of Men to live is sin and to die is loss but to S. Paul and such as he to live is Christ and to die is Gain Christ was that great Example of the dying life of a Christian whom this his Apostle followed in the exactness of so choice a Mystery of Dying Daily Who S. Paul the Prisoner Eph. 4.1 no wonder if a Prisoner saith I die for a Prison is but a larger Grave and such a one as is fettered and penned up within Bars and Bolts and Grates and Gyves is but one buryed alive and such a one may justly say I die No the Apostle shews himself a Freeman the Prison Gates are open the Bars are broken and Gyves are knocked off from him that can say I die in the sense of the Text. Time was when Paul himself thought he was a jolly person in a lively posture Rom. 7.9 yet Wh●n the commandment came sin revived and h● di●d Then was Paul a Prisoner indeed even as a G●lly Slave sold under sin then he stood in so great need of a Redeemer to deliver him from that body of death but now being made free from sin and become the servant of God he goes about to kill that which would have sl●in him and to lead his C●ptivity captive to crucifie the old man that the B dy of Sin might be destroyed This is he wh● 〈…〉 Who S. Paul the aged well may such a one say I die for Age is the next stage to death nay Philemon v. 9. the next step to the Grave when one Foot is already in what a fardle of dying Infirmities doth old Age carry on its back yet the oldest living hopes to live a little longer yet there are many that have lived to great age and experience who have not yet learn'd to die 't was never in their study nor practice If men would exercise themselves this way what a Glory would it be to see many years and many-fold Graces to meet in one person the hoary Head is a Crown of Glory if found in the way of righteousness No doubt S. Paul's Age was to be reckoned by holy Endowments as well as hoary Hairs his Communion with the Ancient of days and his relyance on the Rock of Ages his Statu●e in Christ and his Improvements for Eternity his Growth in Grace and saving Wisdom his long serving God in his Generation and the innumerable advantages he had procured to the Churches of Christ and the everlasting good done so many souls which profited by his effectual Ministry were so happy productions of his time and pains as that his Age might be better computed by his good works than by multitude of years this was he who so lived every day that all his days of his Convert Life were his dying days Who S. Paul the Hebrew the Israelite 1 Cor. 1● 22 23. c. of the stock of Abraham the Minister of Christ so abundant in labours so frequent in dangers so patient in sufferings for him to say I die you may believe him without an Oath and wonder rather that he lived when ye read the Catalogue of his Adventures 1 Cor. 11.28 His daily care of the Churches his intimate Sympathies and ardent ●●plyances of Charity for such a one as wasted himself 〈◊〉 a burning Taper to give others light such an one as 〈◊〉

in this sense every living person is daily dying Nor a providential Dying which consists in the daily vicissitudes of Crosses Tryals and Discomforts though this is the portion of every living Saint and is in part the assertion of our Apostle concerning himself but a spiritual and practical Dying consisting in the frequent and renewed exercise of mortifying Duties as Repenting Self-denying Self-judging self-humbling dying unto Sin mortifying our Members crucifying our Flesh subduing our Lusts being crucified to the world beating down our Bodies and bringing them into subjection subjugating our wills captivating our understandings submitting our reason to the righteousness of God governing our passions devoting our lives for the testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ and if need be and God so order to die for our Lord and so to live as to die in our Lord and so to die as to die unto our Lord that whether we live or die we may be the Lords These and many more such like are but the several Rules and methods and quotidian Exercises through which good Christians must pass before they come to the degree of Masters in this Gospel-Art To this S. Paul had eminently attained so as it fell into his daily practice I die daily Which brings me to the third part of my Text. The Diuturnity of the Apostles Practise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 notes the Frequency Assiduity Succession and uncessancy of Action And with reference to what is done supposeth time of life to do it in To day Joh. 9.4 Eccles 9.10 whiles it is called to day for the day of life is the working day 't was so with Christ in our flesh and the Church-man Solomon tells us There is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest If we would then set on this work this rare device of Christian Knowledge and saving wisdom it must be before we go to our Graves And it is not the work of a single day neither but the singular work of every day to be daily doing as if daily dying Nulla dies sine lineâ is the laudable industry of a Christian and without doubt there is no Particle of Life allowed for Idleness even Paradise and Perfection the place and state of Innocence and Bliss allowed not a space wherein to do nothing and Heavens Paradise though it be the Saints everlasting Rest yet hath its business for Eternity But this is to be understood of positive Acts but to be daily dying sounds harshly and uncomfortably to living Ears Death is a privation and to die a privative act and how can an habit grow out of Privatives Nay but this kind of dying is a positive duty in the Cristian Divinity 1. As it is an Act of the new Creature to die to sin and live unto God Christ purchased this Estate to us and preferred us to this capacity Rom. 6.10 In every birth there is something generated and something destroyed says the Philosopher so in our New Birth there is the production of Grace and the destruction of Vice the Life of Righteousness and the death of Sin And by dying daily we set up the Ark and throw down Dagon The Sinfulness of our Souls by our first birth consisted in our aversion from God and Grace and our being perverted to the Devil and his works in the defacing of God's Image and the imprinting of Satan's Now the sanctity of the Soul that is its recovery by the second birth consisteth in its conversion to God and aversion from sin to have the Image of the evil one rased out and the Impress of the Saviour re-ingraven and the Acts that appertain to these Issues must be in our daily Exercise 2. As it is the Answer unto the Divine Ordination Romans 8.29 which is our conformableness unto the dying Saviour our conformity to Christ is here our positive Duty in Grace as it shall be our everlasting Dignity in Bliss and the Elect are sent into the world to be planted into the likeness of Christ in his Death and Resurrection to this end baptised into Christ that we may follow his Steps Phil. 3.10 as well as bear his Name and so be found in the fellowship of his Graces and sufferings and all his life was a continued dying until his hour came that he died once for all There is a pertinent but difficult Text for this in S. Paul's case Coloss 1.24 I fill up that which is behind saith he of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his bodies sake which is the Church The personal Sufferings of Christ which he endured in his own body as the Mediator are once for ever finished but his general Sufferings which he endures in his mystical Body the Church are yet behind and must be filled up by S. Paul and his Fellows and Followers Not in way of Office as meritorious and satisfactory nor in proportion of weight and measure but in respect of their Cause and Managery and Issue Thus in dying by way of Resemblance Rom. 6.10 11. And the likeness is in these Instances voluntarily our daily dying must be spontaneous Though there be a great Reluctancy between Flesh and Spirit Grace and Nature the pure will of God and the perverse will of Man yet the superior powers of the 〈◊〉 carry the Mastery 〈◊〉 ● 2● sanctified reason consents to mortifying Acts. To die daily is as irksome to Self-love as the Cup was to Christ's Flesh in the day of his Agony yet he willingly drank because it was his Fathers will he should Yet Christ's Death was violent he died not of nature but of force So should our self-mortifying be voluntary in respect of us but violent in respect of sin And herein is the life of daily dying that we lay violent hands on our corruptions pluck out the right Eye cut off the right Hand smite the sinful Breast break the perverse Heart and kill and destroy sin in its Flower strength and vigour many leave their sins who never mortified them He that dies daily never stays till his sins die for Lusts like Weeds if let alone will destroy all the good Seeds and then wither of themselves The old Adulterer hath left his Lust because his Body is dead And the griping Mammonist is angry with the world but it is because he can enjoy it no longer Eccles 12.1 O remember thy Creatour in the days of thy youth before the days come when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them is a pertinent Caveat 'T were good to condemn and execute sin without Reprieve let not Lust live till to morrow bring your vicious Habits forth speedily in the sight of God arraign condemn crucifie them now mortifie them whiles they might yet live Yet the Death of Christ was lingring Matth. 27.45 he hung divers hours upon the Cross our Dying is daily sin cannot be destroyed all at once cut a Serpent in pieces yet every part will stir Sin