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	life_n	spirit_n	11,648	5	5.3153	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63895	A discourse on fornication shewing the greatness of that sin, and examining the excuses pleaded for it, from the examples of antient times : to which is added an appendix concerning concubinage : as also a remark on Mr. Butler's explication of Hebr. xiii, 4 in his late book on that subject / by J. Turner ...	Turner, John, b. 1649 or 50.	1698 (1698)	Wing T3297; ESTC R10983	44,117	68

has a Title in and a just Authority over them So that the Foundation of this Pretence is delusive and vain As Creatures of God we must be subject to his Dominion and as the Redeemed of Christ we must receive from him what Laws Injunctions and Commands he pleases 1 Cor. vi 19 20. Ye are not your own for ye are bought with a Price therefore glorifie God both in your Body and in your Spirit which are God's Right and Property And this is the very same thing that he urged v. 13 14. Now the Body is not for Fornication but for the Lord and the Lord for the Body i. e. Christ was raised from the Dead that he might raise us also to Immortality and therefore we are bound not to live unto our selves by giving up our Bodies to Pleasure in the Lusts of the Flesh but to devote our selves to the Service of that Great God who made us and to the Obedience of Christ who died to expiate our Guilt 2. He argues in the next place from the great Uncomeliness and Indecency of this Practice in Consideration of our close and near Relation to Christ v. 15 16. Know you not that your Bodies are Members of Christ shall I then take the Members of Christ and make them the Members of an Harlot God forbid c. In which Words he declares what our Liturgy has truly and properly express'd that we Christians are one with Christ and Christ with us And that Union is not only in the way of Polity Ecclesiastical as we are Members of his Church and intitled to the Spiritual Privileges and Offices thereof but in a much Nobler and Diviner Sense He has taken upon him our Flesh and he has communicated to us his Spirit and this Spirit is the Bond and Medium of that Unity betwixt us For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one Body 1 Cor. xii 13. And as the Soul of Man is the Foundation of Life and of Vital Union in all the Members of the Body so is the Spirit of God the Foundation and common Principle of Spiritual Life and Grace in all true Christians whatsoever And as certainly as Jesus Christ has taken on him our true and real Flesh so certainly has the same Christ communicated to us of that Holy Spirit which abides in him For which reason our Apostle says v. 17. He that is join'd to the Lord is one Spirit with him and Rom. viii 9. If any Man hath not the Spirit of God he is none of his Now having instructed the Corinthians in this Doctrin he recommends it to their own Serious Consideration how Unseemly and Shameful and Unworthy it is for Men in so near a Relation to God and so close an Alliance to the Son of God to have Fellowship and Union with the most Infamously Vile and Detestable of all Human Creatures Shall I take the Members of Christ and make them the Members of an Harlot God forbid This is an Evil that ought not to be done This is scandalous and abominable He appeals to the common Sentiments of Mankind It must be preposterous and absurd to pretend Union with Christ and to profess that Union the Foundation of our Hope of Mercy and Salvation by him and at the same time to consociate with the most hateful of all Creatures by a Vice forbidden under the Penalty of everlasting Condemnation The very Nature of God who is Holiness and Light and in whom there is mo Darkness at all is a sufficient Proof how disagreeable all such sinful Practices are how offensive how hateful and how dangerous 3. He argues from the great Dishonour which a Man does hereby to his own Body He debases and reproaches himself He becomes one Flesh with such a Person as he is ashamed to own his Relation to and for which all Mankind besides will despise him tho' he does not scorn and loath himself He becomes in every sence polluted and defiled Every other Sin that a Man doth is without the Body but he that committeth Fornication sinneth against his own Body The Prophane is injurious to God and the Fraudulent to his Brother and the Mischief of all other Sins falls first at a distance from ones self But the Mischief of Fornication falls more immediately on the Offenders own Head his own Body is debased in the very Trespass he has committed Nay the Apostle has improv'd this Consideration from the former and tells us that by the Residence of that Holy Spirit within us our Bodies are so honour'd by Almighty God as to be esteem'd and valued as his Temples Places of his Residence dedicated to his Use and devoted to his Service v. 19. Know you not that your Bodies are the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you and which you have of God And again 1 Cor. iii. 16. Know you not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you From whence he takes occasion to warn them of the Danger of dishonouring of themselves by Fornication because v. 17. If any Man desile the Temple of God him will God destroy For the Temple of God is holy which Temple are ye These are the Arguments which St. Paul makes Use of to convince and to dissuade all Christians from this Vice These indeed are Christian Arguments founded upon Christian Doctrines and Spiritual Reflections but of very great Force and not at all to be despis'd For this Union with Christ by the means of his Spirit is one of the great Priviledges of a Christian one of the great Benefits of our Redemption and our only Hope of Mercy and Peace and Comfort and Reconciliation thro' his Blood Does then Fornication break off this close Alliance with Christ destroy this Union that is to the Soul in a Spiritual Sense like loping off an Arm or a Leg from the natural Body 'T is alienating the Man from Christ and cutting off all his Hope of Reconciliation in him 'T is in effect rejecting him from the Covenant of Grace and blotting out his Name from the Book of Life Again does St. Paul say that by Fornication a Man dishonoureth his own Body and desileth those Temples which God has consecrated to himself to be the Habitations of his Holy Spirit God who has punish'd the Pollutions of his Temple at Jerusalem with the Death of the profane Offender will certainly punish the defiling these living Temples with Eternal Death and the most dire Effects of his severest Vengeance and Indignation Besides in desiling the Habitation of God's Holy Spirit we must grieve that Spirit and resist and repel it and drive it away from the intended place of its Residence and Abode And how can a Practice be either innocent or safe that so provokes our God that we become abandon'd of the true Principle and Foundation of all Grace Spiritual Life and Sanctification Especially when St. Paul has so solemnly declar'd That if any Man have not the Spirit of

and countenance and embolden Men in Iniquity but they have the first Original and Source from vicious Practices and are commonly first Devis'd and Broach'd by wicked Men of Immoral Lives to defend their Crimes and quell and stifle the sharp Convictions of a guilty Conscience And these are the Men to whom they prove extreamly pernicious and mischievous So that the most effectual Prevention and Suppression of Blasphemy and Profanceness is to strike at the Root of them and prevent and suppress those Vices that have occasion'd them Had it been in the Power of strong Arguments and sound Reasons and the Authority of Divine Revelation well attested to do this Neither the one or the other could ever have come to that scandalous Height in a Church and a Nation where the Gospel has had the best the most sound and judicious Defence of its Principles and Doctrine that the Christian World ever saw since the Primitive Times of immediate Inspiration But how little force has the brightest Object where the Humours of the Eyes are mudded and clouded when the Power of Reflection is lost and the Medium of Perception so obstructed that it cannot at all affect the Sense How little signifie the strongest Arguments in Spirituals when the Heart is sensual and a Vail cast before the Understanding When the Mind is corrupt the Judgment prejudic'd and byass'd and brib'd to reject their Force and oppose the Truth And this is the Influence which Adultery Fornication and all sensual Uncleanness naturally have on the Mind These in a word are usually the Consequences that attend this Unchristian Practice and when both Character and Fortune Reputation and Estate Body and Soul and that both of themselves and their Posterity are at stake is it not high time to complain And may we not be allow'd to expostulate with Men why they will blind their Eyes and stop their Ears and cherish such gross and palpable Delusions A Vice that is a certain Violation of God's Original Institution and Law made at the first Creation of the World directly contrary to the repeated Commands and Precepts of the Gospel and which besides the other Mischiefs corrupts the Soul debauches Men's Spirits destroys their Consciences and creates great Enmity and strong Aversions to God and to Religion What can be sinful what can be offensive or what can be dangerous to Men's Souls if this be not But how wretched a thing it is to be hardned in Iniquity and debauch'd to a deplorable degree of Inconsideration and Insensibility Wou'd Men calmly and cooly reflect The Shame and Infamy the Beggary and Putrefaction that almost universally attend it might prove a sufficient and effectual Restraint But if Temporal Considerations are not enough yet those who have any Esteem for the Christian Faith and the Doctrines of the Gospel are bound in Tenderness and Compassion to their Souls to have a care Man may allege what they please and there was never yet any Vice but the Parties concern'd in it would plead Not guilty and offer something for its Excuse But there is no withstanding these Reproofs but by direct Apostacy from the Faith nor any way to evade the Force of these Convictions but by throwing aside the whole Authority of Christianity at once There is indeed a Christian Church that wou'd extenuate the Guilt of this Sin by the soft Name of Venial and that I think is the only Plea now left to be made in its Defence But alas what Defence is to be made from the Authority of a Church so notoriously Corrupt both in Faith and Manners and so far degenerated from the Primitive Spirit of Christianity Especially what a Plea is this to those who are not of that Communion Their Opinions are as good a Defence for praying to Images and worshipping of Saints And indeed instead of countenancing this Vice should rather convince us that according to the Universal Blindness which by the Judgment of God has happen'd to them Idolatry and Sensuality must needs go Hand in Hand and as inseparable Companions mutually support and assist each other Be not deceiv'd then with vain Words nor imposed on by such Delusions and frivolous Excuses But fear and tremble at the heavy Judgments which God has threatned and denounc'd Abstain from and avoid so great so dangerous a Sin and so pernicious in its Consequences with as earnest Care as you would Death it self or the very Gates of Hell Deliver thy self therefore from the strange Woman even from the Stranger that flattereth with her Words which forsaketh the Guide of her Youth and forgetteth the Covenant of her God For her House inclineth to Death and her Paths unto the Dead None that go unto her return again neither take they hold of the Paths of Life And especially remember that Faith into which you have been baptiz'd know what manner of Spirit you are of and consider the end of your Conversation God has not call'd you to Vncleanness but to Holiness Your Conversation is in Heaven Mortisie therefore your Members that are on the Earth Fornication Vncleaness Inordinate Affection Evil Concupiscence and Covetousness which is Idolatry For which things sake the Wrath of God cometh on the Children of Disobedience Be ye not therefore partakers with them but as he who hath call'd you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of Conversation AN APPENDIX CONCERNING Concubinage THO the foregoing Discourse does I hope in some measure prove that Fornication is both a great and dangerous Sin yet I have taken notice of such a Modern Distinction between Whoredom and Concubinage as if not rightly understood and cleared may be thought to evade the Force of most if not all of my Arguments It may not therefore be improper to add somewhat by way of Appendix upon that Subject As for Concubinage in a Married State i. e. when either the Man who keeps or the Woman who is kept as a Concubine are married this comes so near the Concubinage of Antient Times that what has been said already may be sufficient to the Determination of that Question For if according to Christ's Interpretation of the Original Institution of Marriage Polygamy be Adultery such Concubinage must be Adultery also let the Pretence be what it will Nor can the Examples of Abraham or Isaac or any other justify us in such things For however God was pleased to Connive at them this Original Institution is a new revealed in the Gospel and our strict Observance of it necessary to Salvation But there is one Argument I have lately met with that indeed did at first surprise me because it came as I suppose from a Graduate in Divinity and pretended the Authority of an Apostle no less than St. Paul or St Barnabas to Vindicate the lawfulness of such a Practise But a little Reflection serves to discover that a disorderly Man of any Profession may easily pervert the meaning of Holy Scripture to excuse or