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	love_n	soul_n	5,983	5	5.1532	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35001	Several sermons, or, Declarations of Mr. Stephen Crisp, late of Colchester in Essex, deceased exactly taken in characters, or shorthand, as they were delivered by him at the publick meeting-houses of the people called Quakers, in Grace-Church-Street and Devonshire-House, London / and now faithfully transcribed and published ; together with his prayer at the end of every sermon.	Crisp, Stephen, 1628-1692.	1693 (1693)	Wing C6941; ESTC R32375	87,023	199

to this pass to be at thy Wits end and not know which way to turn thee nor to whom to run for help or to ask Councel for thy Souls wellfare thou art come to the end of all and without hope then God reveals himself by his Son Jesus Christ Christ the Son of God is known by our coming to him but none can come unto Christ except the Father which hath sent him draw him When thou hast done with thy Gods and thrown away thy Idols to the Batts and Moles then thou wilt find the Lord and thou wilt cry out O that God would have mercy upon me and lift up the light of his Countenance upon me I am a poor miserabie Creature There are many that make such a Whining and Complaining that they take a pride in their very Complaints their Hypocrisie is so great I have known some that have prided themselves in wording their Condition and expressing their miserable case before the Lord but suppose thou canst not speak at all but feelest thy self miserable thou canst not express thy Condition At such a time as this God was drawing thy Soul to Christ Jesus the Mediator of it I have heard of a Mediator and that there is Balm in Gilead for me that there is a Physitian there that there is one Physitian even Jesus Christ the Mediator of the New Covenant thou hast sinned against him and grieved him yet he stands with open Arms for thee ready to receive thee and embrace thee where stands he He stands at the Door and Knocks it is a small matter one would think to let him in Rev. 3.20 Behold I stand at the Door and knock and if any man he●r my Voice and open the Door I will come in to him and sup with him and he with me Here is good News for a hungry Soul if any such be here Christ the Mediator stands at the Door and Knocks he will come in and Sup with thee if thou open to him then we shall meet with the Lords Supper This is the Lord we will wait for him he will bring his Bread with him The Bread of Life and the Wine of his Kingdom And the Lords Supper will be celebrated without cavilling and jangling Now because we do not pervert the Scripture I would have you ●hat understand Books read what Commentators say what those of this and former Ages say upon this Text whether they do not Consture and Deliver in their Opinions that this Knocking at the Door is Christs Calling the Soul by his Grace and this Door is the Door of the Heart and Christs Calling the Soul by his Grace and Spirit to let him in by Faith This is their Judgment and Sense and their Sense is mine and I believe the Genuin Sense of the Text that Christ would have People think he is near to them and that he would have People open their Hearts and Receive him by Faith for to be a Saviour to them No that saith Flesh and Blood I cannot bear I cannot consent to have him for my Saviour I will not let him in for he is like Micaiah to Ahab He never speaks good concerning me For if I have him for my Saviour I must part with my Lusts and Pleasures if there be any other Saviour I will try and not meddle with him He will spoil all our Mirth and good Society he will tell me of every Idle word that I shall speak I must give an Account thereof at the Day of Judgment What do you think that I can like such a Saviour That I can live with such a one as will call me to an Account for every word I speak and that if I speak one idle word Judgment will come upon me No I will try one and another rather than accept of him upon such terms I am one that am joyned to such a Church and enjoy such and such Ordinances and such Helps I am in Covenant with God and under the Seals of that Covenant I am Baptized and do partake of the Lords Supper which is another Seal of the Covenant I hope it will be well with me I will go something farther another saith we must have a Mediator I will go to the Virgin Mary and offer something to her and pray to her Saith another I will go to Saint James and Saint John and other Saints to Intercede with God for me They must have some Mediator This is the Twisting and Twining of the Sons and Daughters of Men to keep out Christ the Great Mediator who came into the World for this purpose to destroy the works of the Devil Alas I have nothing left but my bare Life and Living in the World I have nothing left me but some Li●tle desire I had to please God and that he will never Judge and Condemn me for but my false dealing and buying and selling with Deceit He will Judge this and Condemn it And my Discoursing of things without me all my Carnal Friendship and Love of the World and my vain Fashions all that is Corrupt and Defiled these he came on purpose to destroy He came to destroy bo●h the Devil and his Works What can a man Live in the World and never joyn wi●h the Devil Never Sin at all Never do any thing that the Devil would have him do There is no Perfection in this World no living without Sin here then I am sure there is no Unity with Christ here and if there be no Unity with Christ then there is none with God the Father What will become of thee now What will all the pleaders for that opinion say now There is some thing stands betwen God and me and I shall never have Peace and what is that It is Sin I would have my Sin taken away else I had better never been born Canst thou remove Sin out of thy Heart I have tryed but I cannot do it I have heard of Christ the Mediator of the New Covenant He saith he came into the World and that for this purpose he was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil Now Sin in my Heart is the Devils work I will see if he will destroy that for me I will trust and rely upon him and see if his great Power can destroy it in me Here People come rightly to believe in him that God hath sent and trust in him and he will take them in and like a Chirurgion he will rip up their Hearts and l●t out their Corrruptions though there hath been never so much Rottenness and he will heal them and purifie them and pardon them though they have been never so wicked if they come to him when thy Sins are set in order before thee then thou cryest out O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of Death Is it God that hath thought of me and waited to be Gracious and hath born my Sin long how wonderful is his patience towards me All these things

working in the Soul tend to beget a Love to God and fervent desires after being cleansed and purified from Sin and earnest Prayer to the Lord to make that Holy Fire to kindle that would burn it up The more the Soul trusteth in Christ the more doth this Heavenly Fire burn up our Lusts and then a Man feels a great change in his mind The things saith he that I delighted in are now grievous to me I hope I shall never be found in those things again my mind is now taken off them who took it off Didst thou not strive before to take it off I did but I could not do it There are many I believe in this Assembly before the Lord that are my witnesses in this matter that when they came to Christ the Mediator he changed their minds and he untyed the Devils fetters they were tyed to their Sins and Lusts but he hath unloosed them and set them at liberty and they now find such a change that they hate those things they loved and when they come to think of them they are ashamed they are ashamed of those things that they formerly took pleasure in What fruit saith the Apostle had you in those things whereof you are now ashamed So I say what pleasure have you in Sporting and Gaming and Drinking and Company-keeping What pleasure have you to think of your Wanton Discourses What pleasure in Pride and Vanity What pleasure in Wrath and Bitterness of mind And what pleasure in Malice and Envy What pleasure have you in those things whereof you are now ashamed So far as you are convinced you are ashamed to think of them I am ashamed to think that the Devil at such a time by such a Temptation should prevail over me I would to God you were all come to this to be ashamed that you might remember your past evil Ways and Actions with sorrow and shame There is a secret Joy in this Sure it is better to be ashamed than to continue in impudence God hath wrought this change at last and who shall have the Glory of it God shall have the glory of it for his own Works will praise him What men do many times they do for their own praise but when they are at their wits end and know not what to do they cast themselves upon their Maker to see if he will have mercy upon them if not they must Perish then for what he doth he gets the Glory and the Praise of it There are some here that are bound to praise God while they have a Day to live for what he hath done for them They could never have loved God with all their Hearts but they would have continued Strangers to God and the Devil would have led them Captive at his Will They would not have loved God with all their Hearts had not God first shed abroad his love upon their hearts and constrained them to love him it is he that hath first loved them and wrought in them both to will and to do of his own good pleasure Whatsoever we are we are by the Grace of God this Grace is magnified in them that believe and obey the Gospel My Friends we know there is so much Peace and Pleasure in the ways of God so much Soul-satisfaction in Walking with God and loving of him with all our Hearts That I should be glad that every one of you were of the same mind and had experience of it We Labour diligently for this purpose and we would set before you these two things First how we may come to know our miserable State by Nature What a blessed and happy S●ate they are in that have been Converted and Changed that have been translated out of the Kingdom of Darkness into the Kingdom of God's Dear Son Consider your State by Nature is Evil we hope that many of you in hearing the Reports of the Gospel concerning the goodness of the Lord his great love in sending his Son into the World to seek and save you that were lost and that you may believe in him And we are perswaded that by the Foolishness of Preaching God will save some of you that you may be his Redeemed Ones and trust to no other Saviour for there is not any other Name under Heaven but the Name of Jesus by which you can be saved He only can take away the S●ns of the World his Spirit searcheth the Heart and tryeth the Reins which he promised to send into the World when he was leaving it Now I dare Proclaim that Holy Spirit to be the Spirit of the God of Heaven that now sees what Resolution thou art of and what thou art now proposing to do whether to go on in Sin or to return to God This I can speak without Blasphemy it is God's Spirit that searcheth thy Heart and knoweth thy thoughts and purposes and convinceth thee of thy Sin God hath sent his Son Christ Jesus into the World to enlighten you that by his Light you might see him and that by his Grace you migh Receive him and that by his Grace you might be saved To him I commit you all and these words that we have spoken are in the Evidence and Demonstration of the Spirit according as he hath wrought in us I must tell you we were never called of God to Study Sermons for you nor to Preach things that are made Ready to our hands but as the Lord our God hath wrought in us and as God hath been pleased to make known his mind to us and by his Spirit given us utterance So we speak and so we Preach You that are come to believe and receive the things of the Spirit you will Judge what I say I speak unto you that are Spiritual Judge ye what I say saith the Apostle so when I speak of Divine and Heavenly things you that are Spiritual Judge what I say and as you come to Judge and Determine in your selves that these things are true you will feel the Power of them in your own Spirits And we shall all be of the same mind and as we have One God we shall serve him in sincerity and Worship him with Reverence then his Name shall be Exalted in the midst of us and we shall Edifie one another in Love and we shall instruct one another and call upon one another Come let us go to the House of the God of Jacob He will Teach us and Preserve us in his way and do us good and keep us from all Evil. Turn your minds inward and consider that God is a God at hand ready to help you and he requires no more of you than of other People in former times to love the Lord with all your Hearts and to abstract and withdraw your minds from all other things that do come in Competition with him and be sure to have no Trust or Dependance but upon him Then see what God will do for you no Tongue can express nor Pen Write neither

on in every ones Bosom when the Question is stated I would have you really Answer it Shall I guide my Actions and Words according to this unerring Rule or no I cannot tell what to say say some there is danger in it What danger can there be to answer that which a Man knows to be Truth I will tell you what danger The World is Perverse the most men Live out of Truth and the Devil is a Cunning Adversary and he would have none Live in it He abode not in the Truth and he would not have us live in it nor regulate our Words and Actions by the Truth in our own Souls What if most Men in the World pervert the Truth What if so few walk in the Narrow Way and so few come to Life Eternal therefore is that an Argument I must not come there should it not stir me up to greater diligence that by any means I may be of the number of that few that shall obtain Salvation and not go with a agreat company in the Way that leads to Destruction If we improve our Times and Seasons and Opportunities and Mercies and Blessings that are vouchsafed to us we at last may obtain Life Eternal But some may say I must sit down in Despair for I cannot come thither of my self though I do what I can to Work out my own Salvation There is a Decree against me what though I should Pray never so much and spend my Nights in Grief and Sorrow If I be Decreed to Eternal Damnation there is no help for me no hope that I should escape it And if I be Decreed to Salvation though I take my Liberty to Sin and be Loose and Wanton as others it cannot hinder me from attaining Salvation at last For this Reason many have laid aside the Spiritual Warfare against Corruption and their Spiritual Travel that they will do do nothing in order to their Everlasting Happiness therefore they think they had as good take their Pleasure But my Friends the case is not now so with us Let every Soul among us praise the Lord for his mercy in expelling that thick Cloud of Darkness which is vanished and gone This I know and I hope you do all believe that God doth every where and in every Nation call Sinners to Repentance and that He delighteth not in the Death of him that Dyeth but rather that they would turn and Live and in order thereunto he hath given his Son Jesus Christ to be a Saviour and a Mediator and he hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our Hearts to give direction to us in our Way Now our Duty is to make improvement of those Visitations of Mercy that God hath bestowed upon us in order to our Salvation and not Live in Rioting and Drunkenness Chambering and Wantonness Strife and Envying and following the Fashons of the World But we must Work out our own Salvation with Fear and Trembling But some will say Is not this done already Is it not already wrought by our Saviour and Mediator Christ hath tasted Death for every Man and laid down a Price for the Soul of every Man But there must be a change wrought in us There is a Translation of our Souls from one state to another This is called in the Scriptute Regeneration and being born again this is called a being baptized into Christ and described also by other expressions But the matter is to Change thy Life for there is a sinful Source of Wickedness that is stirred up by the Motions of the Powers of Darkness and our own concupiscence but God is always ready to bring us under the Government of his Holy Spirit that will lead us into into all Truth and this cannot be done without a Cross but the Question lies here Shall I take up this Cross or no if I do it will Crucifie me to the World Let me see How much do I Love the World A great deal But do I Love the World better than my own Soul What will it profit me to gain the whole World and lose my own Soul Or what shall I give in Exchange for my Soul I cannot get to Heaven without denying my self let me take care of my Immortal Soul I am a poor Creature I will serve the Lord my Maker and make it my business to Glorifie and Please him He can snatch me away by Death when he pleaseth therefore I will labour that my Thoughts Words and Actions and Conversation may answer to that rule that he hath set before me as a Standard of Truth to square and regulate my actions by I will not live any longer in vanity as many do I do not know but my Breath may be stopt to Day before to Morrow therefore To Day while it is called to Day I will hear Gods Voice and not harden my Heart but receive that Counsel that is offered to me for the benefit of my Soul I am bought with a Price I am none of my own I will live to him that died for me I have more Reason to live to Christ and serve him that shed his precious Blood for the Redemption of my Soul and to be subject to him then to be subject to Christs Enemy to the Prince of the Power of the Air that Rules in the Children of Disobedience I will take up a Resolution to serve God but I can do nothing of my self but The Grace of God which brings Salvation will teach me to deny Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts and to live Righteously Soberly and Godly in this present World Take heed of being deceived and beguiled for there is no way will bring you to Heaven but an Holy and Undefiled way Therefore come and take this Standard of Truth in your hands to guide you in your way that you may neither turn to the Right hand nor to the Left this will shew you the way you should walk in and be like the Cloud and Pillar of Fire to the Israelites in their journey to Canaan which was a Type of Heaven the Cloud they could see by Day and the Pillar of Fire by Night so this Standard of Truth will direct you in your Travel to the Heavenly Canaan Let this be the Rule and Measure of your Thoughts Words and Actions If a workman that is a Builder hath a Rule to work by if he goes on and never examines his Work by his Rule but makes his Eye his Rule if he doth not bring his Rule to his work every little while to see whether his work be right if he worketh on and never mind his Rule What sad work willl he make But a Prudent Skilful workman will say I will not trust mine Eye too much but I will look to my Rule my Rule will not fail me if there be bad work it will discover it to me that I may mend it before I go any further Thus a discreet Workman will bring his Rule to his Work and use his Line and Plummet

they would give more reverence and respect to it It is this that brings those that Preach Christ to Preach him in those terms and under those Denominations that he is nigh them We do not doubt of Christs being born of a Virgin in the Land of Canaan and that he wrought Miracles and Preached many Godly Sermons and that he was Crucified Dead and Buried and Rose again from the Dead for these things are certainly true we would have him our Saviour in this Age we would have a nearer knowledge of him and a sense and feeling of the virtue of that Power by which he saved them that lived in former Ages He is not a Christ and a Saviour of one Age only but of all Ages to this Day from Adam to the last Man that shall live upon the Earth That Age and Generation that knoweth not Christ will not be saved by him if there be any Age wherein he is not known There is no other Name under Heaven by which you can be saved if you ask where is this Saviour Say not in thy Heart who shall Ascend into Heaven that is to bring down Christ from above or who shall Descend into the deep that is to bring up Christ again from the Dead The word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy Heart that is the Word of Faith which we Preach He is nigh thy Soul he is the Lord of Life and a Quickenning Spirit If I know that Quickening Spirit after this I know the Lord Christ when he comes to work in me by his Power changing my Heart and translating me from Death to Life then I know the true Christ God hath manifested in all Ages that it is the Duty of People to come to the knowledge of the Son of God for he hath sent forth his Spirit for to teach us and to lead us into all truth For when Christ was with his Disciples he told them that he would pray the Father and he should send the Spirit the Comforter and when he came he would be known by his Divine and Inward Teachings and Operations guiding and leading them into all Truth that was his work to them But what shall other Folks do He will be made known to others too When he comes He shall convince the World of Sin So that his work to his Disciples was to lead them into all Truth and his work to the Wo●ld is to convince the World of Sin Who will deny but that there is a Spirit in our Age as well as in other Ages that will convince men of Sin Is this the Spirit of God that convinceth the World of Sin or is it the Spirit of the QUAKERS only When People come to consider really and truly how they may serve God aright they will find there is no serving God aright unless they come to Christ the Mediator that in and by him they may put up suppplications to God and through him they may expect at the hands of God Peace and comfort and there is no other way nor never will be The Jews they had another way they had an outward way of serving God this stood in divers Offerings Sacrifices Washings and Observations this was a way of worship of Gods own institution to that People but what came of it When the Apostle came to grasp it he said The commers thereunto were not made perfect What were the transgressors of it then They that would sin on and continue in sin and not bring a Goat or a Ram or other Oblation they that did observe it and came up to the point of the Law they did bring their Offering when they were convinced of their Sin If a man sinned he was to bring a Hee Goat and to bring it to the Door of the Tabernacle but when he sinned the conscience of sin the guilt of sin remained upon him For it was impossible saith the Apostle that the Blood of Bulls and Goats should take away the Sin For if the Blood of Bulls and Goats and the Ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the Unclean Sanctifieth to the Purifying of the Flesh how much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the Eternal Spirit Offered himself without spot to God Purge your Consciences from Dead works to serve the Living God When there is no hope of attonement and reconciliation with God by all those offerings under the Law he tells you of one offering of the Son of God himself through the Eternal Spirit by which he became a a Propitiation for thus will it do If I believe that Christ offered an Holy Offering to the Father for my sins I believe he offered his Body and that through the Eternal Spirit that he might be a propitiation for sin and take away sin and have Power over Sin and Death and conquer Death and Darkness the Apostle drives the matter farther you must come to the inward Work of this outward Offering this Eternal Offering that was in due time Offered to God you must come to know the Operation of it by the sprinkling of the Heart from an evil Conscience so that there was to be an Applicatory Faith for the offering of that The way to a Saviour was not made by Man no more than the way of Salvation by Christ was found out by Man No more than the Application of the benefits is effected by man Where it pleaseth God to call a People by his Grace he calleth them to his Son not by this and the other Form No man cometh to me saith Christ except the Father which hath sent me draw him The first thing that a Man or Woman comes to be aware of is the secret sense and feeling of the Lords Divine Power upon the Heart to seek Christ Jesus As soon as they feel this and embrace it this will be a Token of the Love of God I hope all this Congregation will acknowledge that they have sometimes felt his drawings and that they have not embraced and closed with them so well as they ought When the People are aware of these drawings Inwardly to Holiness and Righteousness and are sensible that they should with care and intention close with them for the good of their Poor Souls and that it concerns them to be happy in the other World that World that is to come and therefore resolve to be led by these drawings of the Spirit of God these are not weeds that grow in the Field Naturally These are sparks of Divine Fire kindled in the Hearts of Men by God himself No Man comes unto God till God cometh to him and touches him and gives him sense and motion these are the motions and stirrings of Gods Holy Power in the hearts of many that are wicked and Abominable Yet the Lord doth not despise the work of his own hands but reacheth to such When the Lord meets with these that Despise not but highly Prize this wonderful Grace and Close with it and are Glad of it such a one