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A85208 The sacrifice of the faithfull. Or, A treatise shevving the nature, property, and efficacy of zealous prayer; together with some motives to prayer, and helps against discouragements in prayer. To which is added seven profitable sermons. 1. The misery of the Creature by the sinne of man, on Rom. 8. 22. 2. The Christians imitation of Christ, on Ioh. 2. 6. 3. The enmity of the wicked to the light of the Gospel, on John 3. 20. 4. Gods impartiality, on Esay 42. 24. 5. The great dignity of the saints, on Heb. 11. 28. 6. The time of Gods grace is limited, on Gen. 6. 3. 7. A sermon for spirituall mortification, on Col. 3. 5. / By William Fenner, minister of the Gospel Fellow of Pembrok Hall in Cambridge, and lecturer of Rochford in Essex. Fenner, William, 1600-1640.; Stafford, John, fl. 1658, engraver. 1649 (1649) Wing F699; Thomason E1241_1; ESTC R210449 136,683 333

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set them on worke so though sinne be in you still yet let it be like a dead corpse wanting life like a dead Tyrant that can no longer rage and hence it is that the Apostle saith Let not sinne reigne in your mortall bodies he doth not say let it not be but let it not reigne Sinne when it is mortified is like a dead King that can call no more Parliaments but a man may doe for him what he listeth because his strength lieth in the dust If Christ be in you saith the Apostle the bodie is dead because of sinne but the spirit is life for righteousnesse sake Rom. 8. 9 10. Againe if a man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of Christs now if Christ be in you the bodie is dead if you consider the bodie as it hath relation unto sinne Againe if you live after the flesh you shall die verse 13. as if he should have saide if your flesh be alive in you if your pride live in you and if your infidelity live in you if your hardnesse of heart live in you if your wrath c. live in you and if you walke after these you shall surely die he meaneth not a temporall death for so they must doe howsoever they live but his meaning is they shall die eternally but if you mortifie the deedes of the body by the spirit you shall live so then it is plaine there is no life of Christ to be had so long as you retaine your sinnes and therefore sinne must be mortified First because Christ is a Saviour and Reason 1 hence he is called Jesus Math. 1. 21. for he shall save his people from their sinnes if therefore Christ doe not save thee from thy sinnes and if by the power of Christ thou mortifie not thy sinnes and give them a deadly blow assure thy selfe he will never be a Jesus unto thee It is true indeede Christ dyed for sinners but it was not to let them goe on in sinne and therefore if thou goe on in sinne it is for thy damnation and not for thy salvation for he will first save thee from thy sinnes or else he will never save thee from hell so then consider if thy sinnes beare sway in thee if they doe then know thou art delivered up unto the power of thy sinnes and to everlasting darkenesse For Christ is the true Physitian of the soule and you know that a Physician doth not bring a potion to put it unto deaths mouth to kill death and so to save the sicke person alive no but he putteth it into the sicke mans mouth to kill the ill humours that are in his bodie that so he might not fall into the hands of death so Christ came not to quench the flames of hell by his spirituall Physicke but to let his Physicke fall upon the heart and soule of man to save him from hell Therefore unlesse the bloud of Christ doe mortifie thy sinnes and crucifie thy lusts there is no hope ever to get Christ to save thee from hell and everlasting damnation This is a true saying saith the Apostle and worthy to be received that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners 1 Tim. 1. 15. This is a faithfull saying and wicked men like it well indeede For saith the drunkard I am a wicked man yet Christ came to save me The whoremonger saith I am an uncleane person yet Christ came to save me The swearer will say Christ came to save sinners and therefore I hope he will save me to No no Christ came to save sinners that is such as were sinners but now are none they have and doe repent Jesus Christ came to save sinners saith the Apostle whereof I am cheife I was a blasphemer a persecuter but now I am not Hence then is the faithfull saying Christ came to save sinners not still sinning No before Paul was injurious a persecuter and lived in ignorance and unbeleife but now the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ was wonderfully abundant through faith and love towards him so that the grace of God hath appeared to draw men out of blindnesse and ignorance therefore to say that Christ came to save such as live in their sinnes of drunkennesse prophanesse or uncleanesse is a rotten saying and this onely is the faithfull saying that Christ came into the world to save sinners in whom the power of sinne is broken therefore if ever welooke to have benefitte or interest by Christ we must mortifie our earthly members Secondly because it is impossible for 2. Reason sinne and grace to live and subsist in one subject it is impossible that they should ever stand together and be in a man at one and the same time it cannot be that one and the same creature can have the life of a swine and the life of a man for if he have the soule of a swine he cannot have the soule of a man for they are two contrary distinct lives and where the one is the other cannot be It is like hot water and cold if it be cold it cannot be hot if it be hot it cannot be cold Even so the life of sinne and the life of grace are two contraries and therefore they that walke in their sinnes walke contrary to God Now the Lord saith if you walke contrary to me I will walke contrary unto you Levit. 26. and two contraries we know cannot goe together He that walks in sinne walks contrary unto God but he that goes on in the waies of grace he walks towards God Now it is impossible to walke towards Dover and towards London at one and the same time for every steppe he goeth forward to the one it carries him backward from the other so then if ever we will have the life of grace we must forsake our sinnes as it was with the house of Saul and David Sauls house grew weaker and Davids stronger so must it be with sinne and grace as grace growes stronger so sinne must grow weaker as grace goes up so sinne must goe downe And as Saul told David he would not give him Michal his daughter to wife unlesse he brought unto him an hundred fore skinnes of the Philistins Even so the Lord saith that he will not marry the Lord Jesus Christ unto any soule unlesse he bring the fore-skinne of every lust he must circumcise the fore-skinne of his pride of his covetousnesse of his prophanesse this must be the offering and condition of marriage unto Christ even the circumcision of the heart and the mortification of all the corruptions Thirdly because else it is impossible to Reason 3 enter into heaven if we mortifie not our sinnes a man can never be capable of glory hereafter that doth not mortifie his sinnes here in this life Suppose a wicked man should enter into heaven it is impossible that he should delight in heaven if he were there You will thinke this a strange point but give me leave to explaine
but I will let them alone till they die of themselves sure I am that they will one day die no no the Prophet gives other counsell plough up saith he the fallow grounds and sow not among thornes if thou dost not they will grow up to that height and ranknesse that they will spoile the whole harvest Even so if thou kill not thy sinnes but suffer them to die of themselves they will spoile all thy spirituall harvest and quite banish thee out of Heaven for evermore The third use may manifest unto us that Vse 3 the worke of our Redemption is no easie worke as many men in the world thinke it to be The Apostle saith mortifie your members now can a man stab his owne arme through with ease can he cut off his Legg or any other member without feeling any great paine no more can a man kill his sinnes and mortifie his lusts with ease it is called mortification to shew that there is a great deale of miserie and paine in it The Apostle saith that those that are Christians have crucified the flesh c. Gal. 5. 24. and therefore Repentance is set out unto us by crucifying which is the hardest of all kinds of mortifying Can a man set his flesh upon the Tenter peirce his hands and feet with nailes laying his whole weight upon the Tenter and yet feele no paine Cicero a wise Heathen saith that crucifying was a torment that cruelty it selfe had invented to put a man to death it being the soarest kind of death that could be devised And the Apostle to set forth Repentance what it is shews it by crucifying It is an easie matter to cut off the outward act of sinne as of swearing or drunkennesse c. this is an easie matter but to crucifie a mans lusts and to mortifie daily the body of death which he be●reth about him this is a hard thing indeed A Father saith it is the hardest Text in all the Bible and the hardest dutie in all Christianitie that we can goe about they that doe it● an doe all things and therefore let a man resolve with himselfe that unlesse he attaine unto this there is no Christ for him How shall we saith the Apostle that are dead to sinne live any longer therein Rom. 6. 2. The Apostle makes it a Paradox and wonders that men should be so unreasonable as to thinke that they are crucified with Christ and yet live in their sinnes Is it possible that you can be dead with Christ and yet live in your sinnes no no it cannot be But some may object and say what Object doth the Apostle meane to exhort the Colossians unto Mortification were they not alreadie mortified did he not say a little before that they were crucified and buried together with Christ Yes it is true but they that have mortified Sol. their earthly members must goe on and persevere in this mortification and that for three Reasons First because the very same sinne that hath been killed will live againe unlesse it be continually mortified for sinne is strong-hearted it is not every blow that will kill sinne stone-dead no no we may say of sinne as some say of Catts they have nine lives kill sinne once and it will revive againe kill it the second time and it will yet live kill it the third time it will yet have life unlesse it be continually mortified it will never be starke dead and therefore the work● must be continued as Christ said of his Disciples if you continue in my word then are you my Disciples indeed So if we goe on in mortification then verily are we Christs Disciples Secondly suppose the sinne mortified doe not rise againe yet if we goe not on in the way of mortification there will arise another sinne in the roome of it Sinne is like the Monster Hydra cut off one head and many will rise up in its roome Even so it is in the bodie of sinne therefore thou must dayly mortifie it or else it will grow again There is a History that speaks of a Fig-tree that grew in a stone wall and all meanes was used to kill it they cut off the branches and it grew againe they cut downe the bodie and it grew againe they cut it up by the root and still it lived and grew untill they pulled downe the stone wall Even so it is with sinne lopp off the branches it lives cut downe the body it will not die digg up the rootes and it will still revive and will never leave growing untill God pull downe the stone wall of this our earthly Tabernacle and lay it in the dust and therefore we must still be mortifying of it Thirdly because as we mortifie so we mortifie but in part as saith the Apostle in another case we know but in part c. so may we say of this dutie we mortifie but in part as we say of a man breathing out his last breath he is adying but not quite dead so we may say of sinne though it lie sprawling upon the ground yet it is not dead the last gaspe is not past Nay it may be sinne is more striving in the heart of a child of God converted then it was before conversion As an Oxe or an Asse when they have their deaths blow will lash and struggle more then then they did in all their life time before but this is nothing but the panges of death being giving up their last breath Hence it is that the Apostle saith that the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh Gal. 5. So that they could not doe what they would verse 17. as if he should say sinne is so mortified that it hath his deaths wound in thee else thou canst not be the child of God yea such a deaths wound as it cannot possible recover againe If a man that hath received his de●ths wound should send for all the Phisitians in the world and take all the Physick he could and use all the meanes under Heaven yet they can never recover him So when a man is converted unto God as soone as ever the worke is wrought in him sinne hath his deaths blow and although the Devill come as Physitian with all the Cordialls Julips and Balmes under Heaven and use all the shifts and devises in the world yet he shall never be able to recover it againe all will not doe why because it hath received its deaths blow it may be with his industrie and cost he may make the face of sinne looke fresh and faire for a time but it hath it deaths wound and it will downe at the last Now that we may know whether we Marks have mortified our sinnes or no let us observe these markes following First they that have mortifyed their sinnes live in the contrary graces Hence it is that the Psalmist saith that they worke no iniquitie but walke in thy pathes Psal 119. 3. First they crucifie all their sinnes they doe