Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	body_n	know_v	soul_n	8,601	5	5.1942	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63011	The Almighty his gracious token of love to his friend Abraham, or, A sermon preached in the Cathedral Church of Bristol, January 3, 1674 by Rich. Towgood ...	Towgood, Richard, 1595?-1683.	1676 (1676)	Wing T1975; ESTC R10564	17,548	33

by others both by most and all the holy things of God as if they were of no value The things themselves surely are heavenly blessings but it is the wretchedness of thy heart O man and it is thy misery thou dost not know the worth of them What is the reason the sick man doth abhor all manner of meat yea the choicest dainties that can be provided Is it not because his body is possest with dangerous unwholsom malignant humours which if not removed will inevitably bring death So when thou canst not relish the food of thy Soul what is the reason Is it not because thou art desperately Soul-sick The natural man saith the Apostle and certainly the natural man is desperately Soul-sick he receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him Neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2.14 And what will follow hereupon but inevitable destruction The Baptism of John was the Ordinance of God The Pharisees refused to be baptized of him What was the issue They rejected the Councel of God against themselves against themselves that is to their own ruine Luk. 7.30 Shall the Manna be loathed or any of Gods sacred Ordinances sleighted And shall not he be offended Mark how he complains I have written to him the great things of my Law but they were counted as a stringe thing Hos 8.12 Neither will it be sufficient to pretend the meanness either of the things of the Institution or of the Messengers that are imployed about them It is a vain thing to say can a little water on my Body wash away the sin of my Soul Or can a bit of Bread and sip of Wine make me Partaker of Jesus Christ No. It is not these things that do the Work But the Almighty God upon our right use of these things according to his appointment He doth the Work he cleanseth us from our Sins he makes us Partakers of his Son It was not the sounding the of Rams Horns that threw down the Walls of Jericho neither was it the Waters of Jordan that cured Naaman of his Leprosie but the Almighty did both these Works upon the right using and observing what he had appointed The like may be said of the Messengers by whom the Almighty doth send these Gifts Are they mean in your sight Be it so Yet will a man refuse rich precious Treasure because it is brought him in an Earthen Vessel We are Earthen Vessels but Treasure we bring you 2 Cor. 4.7 The Prophet Elijah in the time of Famine Had Bread and Flesh brought to him in the Morning and Bread and Flesh in the Evening the Ravens brought it to him by the Commandement of the Lord 1 King 17.4 6. The Prophet knew very well that the Ravens were unclean Creatures by the Lords own Verdict Levit. 11.15 And yet he had more Wit and Grace then to refuse that which they brought him from the Lord otherwise besides the Lords displeasure he might have perished for want of Food I have but one thing more to add touching this point These Sacred Ordinances which are of such inestimable worth the Lord hath vouchsafed to us in great measure and all the days of our Lives we have injoyed them Let us now bethink our selves of returning somthing unto him The circumstances of New years day are not yet quite over Let us present the Lord with a New years Gift Perhaps you will say and well ye may What shall I return to the Lord for all his benefits Ps 116.12 But is there nothing indeed I remember a saying of Aeschines a poor Disciple of Socrates Many brought to Socrates many rich Gifts poor Aeschines had nothing but he comes to Socrates and saith unto him Nihil dignum te quod dare tibi possim invenio Itaque dono tibi quod unum habeo me ipsum that is I have nothing in the World worthy to be presented to you and therefore I bestow upon you all that I have my very Self In like manner let us give our Selves to God So did they of Macedonia 2 Cor. 8.5 And so doth the Apostle wish us all to do I beseech you brethren saith he by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God Rom. 12.1 and in the next verse he shews how it is to be done Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind So then make you a new heart let us begin to lead new lives and this will be an acceptable Present unto God For that is it that God requires Ezek. 18.31 But the time bids me hasten to the third and fourth things observable in the Text that is by whom and to whom this Gift was given I shall be brief in both He gave Him He that is the God of Glory mentioned in verse 2 He gave and indeed Saint James tells us that Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of Lights Jam. 1.17 There is no mercy no blessing that any man doth injoy but it comes from him What hast thou that thou hast not received 1 Cor. 4.7 Are they natural mercies Why he giveth to all life and breath Act. 17.25 Are they temporal blessings Why Both riches and honour come of thee 1 Chron. 29.12 Are they spiritual blessings If any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally Jam. 1.5 Is it eternal happiness it self Why The gist of God is eternal life Rom. 6.23 Is it not strange then and may we not marvel at it that God hath no more Friends Every man saith Solomon is a friend to him that giveth gifts Pro. 19.6 And yet the Almighty God who giveth us all that we injoy may ask the question that Jehu once did Who is on my side who 2 King 9.32 All seek their own not the things which are Jesus Christs as the Apostle complains Phil. 2.21 Every man is for himself for his own profit for his own pleasure for his own will But you perhaps may say who is not Gods Friend For the answer of this I shall but produce a Scripture or two unto you as that in Ps 139.20 Thine enemies take thy name in vain Why then common Swearers and all others that any way abuse the Name of God are not his Friends Again Luke 19.27 Those mine enemies which would not that I should raign over them bring them hither and slay them before me Why then they that will not suffer the Lord to rule them and raign over them are not his Friends I will add but one more and that in Ps 68.21 God shall wound the head of his enemies and the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his trespasses Why then such as go on still in their trespasses are not his Friends Those and many others may be declared to be such as God doth not take for his Friends And would

28.19 Into the Name or in the Name of the Three Persons of the Trinity that is into the Protection of the Father into the Redemption of the Son and into the Sanctification of the Holy Ghost This is the Covenant on Gods part and these are the Promises that are made of God unto us in that Sacrament whereof our Church-Catechism makes mention And on our part the Covenant is that we will be his Servants and yield all obedience to the Father Son and Holy Ghost And this Covenant we renew when we come to the Lords Supper for the Lord doth offer us his Son to be our Saviour and thither we come to acknowledg that we wholly rely upon him and his Merits and to yield up our selves wholly to him and his service Take we heed therefore all of us that have been baptized and have received the Sacrament of the Lords Supper as for others they are not in Covenant with God nor can expect Protection or Salvation from him take we heed I say that we carefully perform the Covenant Our Covenant is wholly to yield obedience unto God and that we cannot do without renouncing the works of the Devil and the sinful lusts of the flesh And if we fail on our part God is not bound on his part Besides he will not take it well at our hands if we break Covenants with him he will have a quarrel against us for the breach of Covenants nay he tells us plainly he will avenge the quarrel of his Covenant Levit. 26.25 Well ye see Circumcision was called the Covenant ye see that there was a Covenant in the Circumcision as there is also in all Sacraments even in the Sacraments of the New Testament There is one thing more yet to be observed before we proceed to the next Part. In all the Ceremonies of the Law Divines say there are three things to be observed that is 1. That they were Memorials of some Mercy received 2. That they were Types of Christ 3. That they did signifie some Moral Duty Whether all these things are to be sound in the Circumcision and how it was a Memorial of Mercy past or how it was a Type of Christ I will not now inquire but pitch upon that which the Scripture shews to be undeniable and that is this That there was a Moral Duty signified by the Circumcision that there is a Spiritual Circumcision yet remaining still to be observed and practised by all the people of God even now in the time of the Gospel And this is nothing else but the cutting off of carnal affections the making of a new heart and the putting off of the oldman This is that the Apostle calls Circumcision made without hands Col. 2.11 This is that the Apostle means when he tells us He is a Jew which is one inwardly and Circumcision is that of the heart Rom. 2.29 Nay and even in the time of the Law this was the Circumcision that the Lord chiefly required and therefore doth Moses thus call upon the people Circumcise the foreskin of your heart Deut. 10.16 And so doth the Prophet Jeremy in the same words Jer. 4.4 It doth not then a little concern us to consider whether we are thus spiritually circumcised yea or no. It was a fearful threatning that was denounced against all those of Abrahams posterity if they were not carnally circumcised That Soul shall be cut off from his people Gen. 17.14 And if the Spiritual Circumcision as hath been shewed be more regarded by the Lord shall not the neglect thereof be as severely punished as the neglect of the other Surely the Prophet Jeremies words do make it good in that Jer. 4.4 Circumcise your selves to the Lord and take away the foreskin of your hearts ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem lest my fury come forth like fire and burn that none can quench it because of the evil of your doings Consider then with thy self O Christian Hast thou cast off the works of Darkness Dost thou mortifie thy Corruptions Dost thou deny Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts If not surely thou art not spiritually circumcised but to use the Apostles phrase art dead in sin and the uncircumcision of the flesh Col. 2.13 But to descend a little lower the Scripture doth intimate to us That there is a Circumcision of the Ear and a Circumcision of the Lips Acts 7. Jer. 6.10 and Exod. 6.30 Examine thy self then O Christian Doth thine Ear refuse to hear the Voice of the Charmer Or hast thou an Itch in thine Ear to harken after novel Doctrines Doth it delight to hear evil Reports and to receive false Tales And is it not then uncircumcised Doth thy tongue delight in scoffing give it self to swearing whispering or backbiting And is it not then uncircumcised Briefly three things there were observed in the Circumcision of the Flesh all which may serve to give us some further help and direction in this self-examination 1. Circumcision could not be without dolour without grief and pain And certainly forasmuch as there is no man living that sinneth not nay for as much as in many things we offend all he who never felt any remorse of Conscience that was never pricked at the heart whose heart never smote him can never reckon himself spiritually circumcised and if it be but the corruption of our nature and when Infants were circumcised they were guilty of no more yet had we need with sorrow of heart to humble our selves and to cry out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death To borrow the Apostles expressions Rom. 7.24 2. The ancient Circumcision did distinguish the Jews from other people As the Grecians called all others Barbarians so the Jews called all others besides themselves as it were by a reproachful and contumelious word the Uncircumcised 1 Sam. 17.26 Yea and they themselves were by others reproached for their very Circumcision By the name of Judeus Apella the Poet speaks of him So likewise if we would be sure that we are spiritually circumcised we must see there be a difference between us and worldly minded and voluptuous men that are in the world not in opinion as the Pharisees thought well of themselves and despised others but in practice for if there be as much vanity on thy back as much venom in thy tongue as much pride and malice in thy heart as in the worst of men never think thy self to be spiritually circumcised Judah and Israel because in their practise they differed not from Egypt and Edom from Moab and Ammon are therefore ranked with them and threatned with them as being uncircumcised in heart Jer. 9.26 The third thing observable in the Circumcision was this It was a Sacrament of Initiation whereby they were as it were consecrated unto God They did thereby enter into Covenant with God it was a sign whereby they declared themselves to be Gods peculiar people And so surely they that are not dedicated unto God