Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	flesh_n	life_n	spirit_n	9,701	5	5.4408	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92204	The fiery change: or, Almighty God, his melting and refining of his people, purging out their drosse and drossy metals, making them like unto himself and to his Son who is the pure Word. Wherein is discovered, by the comparison of metals, how the visible church is corrupted, consisting of men of all degrees and conditions and how God hath begun to refine them: which have past in the world a long time for good metal: but now is discovering by fire. / By Robert Read.	Read, Robert, fl. 1653-1656.	1656 (1656)	Wing R440; Thomason E899_3; ESTC R206741	92,260	122

life Many will say What shall we we not pray when they neither know what God is nor what themselves are such as presume to pray without knowledge do break the command of God in taking his Name in vaine when the heart is not according to the tongue and sound yea when their Company or their Congregation agreeth not for there is the hater and the hated the oppressour and the oppressed the rich that cares not for the poor and the poor that curseth the rich What congregall prayer can there be in this mixture when mens hearts are one aginst the other The rich and the poor goes together but the Lord is the maker of them both he knows their hearts their ends in comming to publike places every sound noise is not a prayer then the Pharisee had been commended for his long one but it is the inward and deep sighings of the heart in the singlenesse thereof and being fervent We are commanded to pray continually and they that make long prayers are condemned being in ostentation as in publike congregations once or twice in a week and have little converse with God all the rest of the week be not deceived God is not mocked Whatsoever ye sow that shall ye reap Decipies alios verbis vultuque benigno Sed mihi jam notus dissimulator eris Be ashamed and stand amazed all ye that are under the great Light that God hath caused to shine forth in this Nation You will say that you are the people of God and that you know him but it appears by your actions that you know him not for a man to know a thing is to know the condition of it as to know a peece of coine To know God is another manner of businesse than the world makes it to know God is to have experience of him and of all his Attributes his Mercy his Love his Goodnesse his long suffering c. To know God in Christ is the true knowledge of him to be in Union and Communion with him to obey him love him and fear him to honour him and glorifie him this the world knoweth not for the world seeks its own Therefore many that do professe that they know God and in their works do deny him are not onely Heathens but they are worse then the heathens Cato for they say If there be a God he ought to be worshipped with a pure minde miserable is the condition of many that think it sufficient to have the bare name of a Christian and say Christ died for me and rose again for me and never felt the power of Christs death killing sin in them nor the vertue of his Resurrrection quickening and raising them to a new life that cannot witnesse a new birth a separation But live in the old nature and the old man of sin remaining still Deale plainely with your selves ye sons of men for the case doth require it do not lose your precious time here and say I hope to go to Heaven whereas you know not what heaven is neither are you fit for it for heaven is a Condition rather then a Local place and the heavenly condition stands not in outward things as to satisfie the flesh neither is it found any otherwise then in the Crosse here in this World but it doth appear in us by Peace of conscience and joying in the Holy Spirit of God being perfectly assured and having a firme testimony of our Resurrection being Adopted and made the Sons of God 1 John 1.3 and having fellowship with the Father and the Son Deceive not your selves but strive to enter in at the strait gate Go not the broad way of the Worlds profession but the strait and narrow way of the Crosse Deny your selves your own works your own righteousnesse and whatsoever pleaseth and agreeth with your own wills and wait at Wisdoms gate examining your selves whether you be not that that cleaves to the pure Metall and makes it the worse whether you are not the corrupt matter of Silver and not Silver it self if you be the corrupt matter if you be the drosse you must be purged out you must be spewed out if you come to the porch onely and go no further if you come not to the Holy of Holies you were better not come neer at all Psal 119.119 for the Lord will take away the wicked like drosse The Lord will not have to do with such corrupt impure and unclean matter Prov. 25.4 Take the drosse from the silver and there will proceed a vessell fit for the refiner when the Almighty God hath purged and purified the silver and ejected and cast out the drosse then there is a vessell for himself a temple for himself to dwell in for the Lords delight is in his Saints and among them and silver is as his Word is when it is refined Meddle not nor have to do with the most Holy and pure God upon any account living in your own wisdome wills and lust for it had been better for Cain that he had offered no Sacrifice then to account the best too good for God and to offer the worst better not to come to any Table then to the Table of the Devils the end of all Religion is to bring soules to God not to make a greater separation by it from God You were once a far off but now ye are made nigh by the Blood of Christ that onely brings us neer to God draw neer through his Blood and he will draw neer to us look to your hearts and to the issues of all exercises not what the exercise is but to what it tendeth for it is either life or death If you serve God in the flesh you shall have corruption and death for your reward if you live to the flesh you shall die but if through the Spirit you mortifie the deeds of the flesh you shall live God accepteth no sacrifice done in the flesh but as he is a Spirit most holy so he must be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth which was the Legacy Christ Jesus left with his Disciples when he left them We cannot come to the Lord with anything of our own to be acceped of him but what we come to him with must be his he heareth nothing but his own Spirit and that he wil not deny What saith Christ In vain do they worship me c. The Lord Esay 1. saith What have I to do with your Sacrifices and in the same first of Esaiah I hate your new Moons and your appointed feasts they are a burden unto me I am weary to bear them All the devices of men all their art all their invention proceeding onely from them in drawing neer to to God is nothing worth for it cannot but differ from the will of God in Gods worship the more of mans wisdom the lesse of Gods respect the more plainer and simplier we worship him the more hope of acceptance The ordinances of man or of any Churches

I had been undone Consider how fit this resemblance is Man is as drossy metall that must be melted refined and purified These metalls are all generated and bread in the earth and they are no way usefull or serviceable as they come forth of the earth but must passe through a strong blowing fire before they can be made perfect or usefull for the Artificer Even so it is with man being brought forth into this world he is not fit for any thing nor to have to do with his Maker untill he hath past through the fire that all the earthy disposition and incapable substance of drosse that fixeth to him be clean taken away A man canno● commune with his Maker nor offer any sacrifice to him as he is in nature untill he is new born he cannot enter all that earthinesse and drossinesse that is in the internall part must by fire be scummed cleared and utterly taken away and consumed hence it is that Saint John the Baptist saith John 3.3 I Baptise you with water but there is one that cometh after me who will baptize you with the Holy Ghost Matth. 3. and with fire the baptisme of fire is that that will be hereafter for the Whore sits upon the many waters and she is in discovering What is there in the world that is fit for use and service as it is brought forth Children are apt and prone to all evill and disobedience and do whatsoever is contrary to right if they be not educated taught corrected and instructed the naturall disposition must be subdued and kept under that the direction to a good demeanour may work upon them and they grow up into it Survey the whole creation and see where there is any thing that is fit in its body naturall by reason of its afaffixes to make use of before there is a change Corne canot be made into bread before it be threshed winnowed ground sifted and baked no flesh can be fit to nourish before it hath been ordered dressed by fire Trees cannot serve for building but they must be squared sawed and fitted stones must be hewed and so must all things that doth belong to meate and drink apparell and manufactory there must be a change of them or an abatement from them the earth it self canot yeeld forth fruits before it be tilled and manured Canst thou then Oh unbeleeving man conceive although thou art lord of the Creatures that thou art cleaner then other creatures canst thou approach neer to canst thou serve and obey thy Creatour in that nature of thine thou wast brought forth in before thou art cleansed purified purged melted plowed winnowed and sifted before thy self thy will wisdome understanding desires Psal 51.8 and all in that nature be dead and a new birth be witnessed that the broken bones may rejoyce over the dead body of sin which is called the old man because it is as old as thy self having all the parts of a man a head to imagine mischief and vanity to plot and contrive against his Maker a stiffe neck arms and hands full of oppression and guile and stretched out against the innocent feet swift to shed blood heels to kick against the law of God eares to hear folly eyes to behold vanity if this old man be not dead in thee and thou art not a new creature nothing that thou doest can be accepted thou mayest dream of a happinesse to be had when thou hast gotten an artificiall tongue like a newborne creature and art through education and thine own wisdome Esa 1. civilized in the outward garbe but if thy heart b● not changed thou art farre off from happinesse Judgement must passe over thee yea the fire of the Lord must burn out thy drosse or else thou wilt be miserable poor blinde and naked Thou must yeeld and submit thy self to thy God bring thy cursed nature to him there to be slain come willing y Psal 10. humble thy self under the mighty hand of God and he will exalt thee learn of thy Maker to know him and to beleeve in him that for the love of the world gave his onely begotten Son that they should not perish but obtaine through him everlasting life Thinke on this O man of the great love of God to thee what satifaction could the whole world give for the Redemption of one soul and hath Christ Jesus equall to God his Father purchased Redemption for the whole world and art thou so far from prising it that thou wilt not accept of it but think to live happie without change in thy naturall unclean unpurified and unrefined condition Consider in thy hought it to minde did thy Saviour Jesus Christ that be no robbery to be equall to God as it were un-God himself becomming man and suffering a shameful death to recover and Redeem thee and art thou so desperately wicked and so fool-hardy that thou wilt not unman thy self to be like God that is to say to put off thy will wisdome righteousnesse thy pride lust and carnall minde to be invested into a kingdom of righteousnesse peace and holinesse and to be made like unto Christ in whom all fulnesse dwels and to be in union and communion with the Father Let him that hath ears to hear hear what the Lord hath said Know ye not that Christ is in you except ye be reprobates and except your righteousnesse exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees you cannot enter if you are the servants of sin your wages is death if you live after the flesh you shall die for they that are in flesh cannot please God for the wisdome of the flesh is death but the wisdom of the spirit is life and peace all that you can do in the raw unquoth earthy rough drossy vain darke uncircumcised unprepared and dead condition of nature though never so much beautified and adorned with art learning and outward wisdom and glory it is but hypocrisie we are onely Christians portraied and as it with a diamond if not right it is worth nothing and as in a picture if it be not to the life then it hath no regard so except we are really changed and metamorphosed from that we were borne in and are made like the Son of God we are not free from the law of sin and death but it hath power over us to eternall death Will the almighty God melt his people let them be of what sort soever in their outward callings either men of authority men of the world teaching men or mean men Then here Behold the great love of God unto you he will will melt you he will make you pliable tractable and vertible that what you cannot do your selves he will do for you Can the Leopard change his spots or the Blackmore his skin no more can a man change his nature of himself or by any power within himself but God onely is the changer of all Are his people Brasse Tin Iron and Lead such metalls

if they differ in the least from the will of God must be cast out For not onely humane reason but divine reason not sanctified can may or ought to have any power in the ordering placing or disposing of any worship of God The will of God onely is the reason of his own worship and mans reason can be no ground for such a structure which his art and science defileth as separate from the will of God Non vox sed votum non musica cordula sed cor Non clamans sed amans clamat in aure Dei Much might be said concerning the drosse that is among the pure metall In plain termes the corruption the filth and the uncleannesse that is among professing people that professe to be the people of God and are civilized exceedingly that to the eyes of the World are almost spotless but when God comes to try by fire then will their filth and drosse appear Prov. 7.3 Solomon saith As the fining pot for silver and the furnace for gold so the Lord tryeth the hearts The outward visible actions of professours that is so much accompanied with outward decency in the behaviour keeps off the inward purity that the soule should be exercised in in the sight of God Curisity in duties outwardly done in the sight of man hinders the inward integrity invisibly to be done with God Therefore it is that the exercise of Religion which should cure and eject our drosse by an addition of more filth and impurity in that which should speak purity and life it doth kill and brings death The shining beames of Gods most pure and holy Spirit shining in us causeth our actions and duties through that most pure Light to be living and become a living Sacrifice acceptable to God But duties done visibly and audibly Rom. 12 1● onely in the body the minde and will being carried on to the satisfaction of the outward spectacle resting in the forme custom use and manner woundeth and slayeth the spirituall and invisible part where the receptacle should be for the living Sacrifice For men to go about to make themselves like God in their own wills doth derogate from the nature of obedience and doth manifest that they are the sons of emnity but yeelding themselves up submitting unto embracing that which is crosse to their wills desiring to be ruled and guided by that good counsell which is of God maketh the purest sacrifice It pleased God by these comparisons of metals to discover what his people are and how they are different in purity from himself which is most pure and holy let therefore all men that live in a profession not stand upon the purity of it for the Whore sits upon waters there is many baptisms of water but the baptisme of fire is that that God will purifie his people withall and that that hath quenched this many yeers Mat. 3. must now be dried up by the fire of the Lord and it will burn up all and dry up all For our God is a consuming fire Experience this ye that are called godly you cannot be God-like which is the Old language untill the Lord God hath consumed all flesh within you and there be nothing in you but the Lord God All in All. Thirdly God saith that Israel is Brasse and Tin and Iron and Lead What Israel was and what England is by these comparisons of metals the Lord will make known to us These severall metals are of severall natures and qualities some by art counterfeiting the richer metals of Gold and Silver which are figures of Himself and of his word These metals are very apt to rust and to receive and embrace the same and so are accounted drossy metals yet very vsefull as to the World ordained by the great Creatour in their severall kndes for severall necessitous negotiations in the world They have their breeding and their generation in the earth and being from thence and thereout they must passe through a strong blowing fire before they come to perfection and be fit to officiate the use service and the end the great Creatour made them for as to the use of the world wherein is seen a great deal of the glory of God in the excellency of his creation in the various qualities of them as doth also appear in all other things created by God How is Israel Brasse and Tin and Iron and Lead wherein and in what are they such metals The people of Israel here named are thus in divers respects First They are Brasse in their men of power Rulers Governours Magistrates Justices and Arbiters Secondly They are Tin in their Prophets Teachers Guides and Ministers Thirdly They are Iron in the people of Trafficke Commerce Trade and merchandise and in them that exercise to the support of the Nation Fourthly They are Lead in the poor and mean in people of low degree First see what Brasse is and how it may be said that Rulers Governours c. May be as brasse Brasse is a compound metall made and contrived of Copper and Calamy which metall so composed hath a lustre like gold by its mixture and the more usefull for it's mixture So are those that are called to high places of Government they are not barely naturalists onely men as borne simply themselves naturally But there is a mixture composed with other ingredients in them of natural endowments fit for their places of learning experience knowledge understanding and rightly to censure as also to execute as to the World the things matters and causes that are under their dispensation and their determination and herein as brasse hath a lustre like gold so have the Governours c. a lustre beyond other men Hence it is that there is and hath been at all times an honour and a respect given unto them being the greatest instruments under the arme of God for the peace the welfare and the good of people in the Nations under them I have said You are Gods and you are all Psal 82.6 the children of the most High Christians have had at all times respect to their governours for Gods sake they are set up of God By me kings reign c. Rom. 13.1 There is no power but of God wherefore resist not the powers they that doe shall receive to themselves judgement But whence is the complaint that the Lord makes that Israels Rulers are Brasse something is the matter God Almighty expecteth that they should not onely doe and execute the common and ordinary businesse as to the World but that they should stand up like men in the cause of God to distribute justice impartially and as in his stead to curb and punish the evil doers and to defend and preserve those that do well encouraging others also to live in their wayes that they should be as nursing fathers and nursing mothers Esa 49.23 they should defend the innocent and acquit him and execute justice on the nocent The cause why the Lord complaineth

that can destroy them not for the love of his great power tha● burns and consumes sin and drosse in them they fear him because they are sinfull and do not convert and change but live in sin love it and plead for it But because God hates sin and sin is of such a defilin nature and makes us that we cannot be vessels for him therefore should we hate it Search and examine your selves ye sons of men tha● say you know God and are Christians and hope to b● saved by Christ Do you know God If you did yo● would know his people his Word his will his power his love his mercy his goodnesse and his tender compassion Can people say they know God and hate an persecute his Saints despise his Word resist his will regard not his power take nothing from God as love to them but what doth appear visibly in the things of the world that cannot see God mercifull to them when he doth afflict them that cannot conceive that God made them men out of his goodnesse that cannot apprehend God to be tender unto them in delivering them from their lusts from the snares of Satan and from the allurements of the world that cannot praise God for afflictions and rejoyce under crosses that fear death and being never renewed nor changed cannot tell what Heaven is neither is their desire to any other heaven than that that is like the happinesse of this world Should there be such a strict survey and enquiry made of the knowledge of God among us we should finde very few that do know God aright and truly as they ought and as the Saints of old did but imaginarily by relation by hear-say and by writings Who is it that knoweth God experimentally not onely to be his Creatour but to be his God Who is there that sheweth forth in a lively practice that he was made to glorifie God with and in his heart minde soul and strength that doth witnesse to the world that all his members and sences were deputed in their severall orders and places to honour and glorifie his Maker and not to make them vassals and drudges in the service of sin and Satan Who is there that doth exercise his affections in the things of God onely that leapeth and danceth as David did because of the Ark of God 2 Sam. 6.14 that was recovered and brought again among the people of God Or who doth grieve and mourn to the death as old Eli and his daughter Phineas wife did 1 Sam 4.13 Jerem 9.1 Isai 22.3 because the Ark of God was taken they would not be comforted The glory is departed from Israel therefore life was nothing to them Are mens affections carried on or off according to the tenour of Gods will as for the glory of God Or are they set on the world and carried on to the contrary then there can be no true knowledge of God Who is there that the passions of his minde bends to the glory of God that is angry when the Lord is dishonoured his people abused truth despised Where is the zeal that David had Psal 69 9. which did eat him up he was not himself his zeal had devoured him Who is there that will adventure his life liberty goods estate credit or reputation for God If there be any such as are here enquired of surely they know the Lord. And all others that live onely in the Heathenish nature and run together with the multitudes to do they know not what and to they know not whom The Lord will make as many as doth belong to him to know him by his furnace and acknowledge him to be just holy and good as he hath declared himself to be so shall his people finde in themselves if there were no Scripture by their own testimony which is the best evidence and proof for no true knowledge can be but by the inward testimony other knowledge deceiveth for when men boast of their knowing God to be all-sufficient and that he knoweth best what is fit for them and if this be not radicall within by inward testimony when trouble and affliction cometh and the evil day approacheth they are ready to murmure against God and disdain his dealings whereby they testifie to their own hearts their own failings and that recoileth back that should go forwards witnessing by their impatiency and unquiet spirits that their knowledge of him was not true neither can there be any thing true but what will hold the fiery triall that makes us to know the Lord and to know our selves The people of God that are and have been melted they onely shall know the Lord and his indignation they shall not need to fear the wrath to come for wrath seizeth on them here they shall know the Lords wrath that it hath past o●er them and that there shall be no more and that his triall is that they might be the better that they might know God knoweth what all men are though men know not themselves Where no triall hath been and none of Gods indignation hath past over to melt refine purifie and purge out the drosse the filth and corruption which lieth hidden and covered within what ever metall-like shining there is or what gilded profession soever there is or whatsoever art or worldly wisdom there is there is nothing but death To know God inwardly savingly experimentally in all his attributes in all his dealings to know that his wrath here his indignation here worketh for our eternall good is the right knowledge that God will indue his people with for the true knowledge of God and a pure minde goes together being attained unto by the Crosse and by the true revelation of the Son of God made manifest in the flesh by his sufferings that as he overcame death and now sits at the right hand of the Father so might we also overcome and be fellow-heirs with him Away with the knowledge the world hath that cannot apprehend God to be good to them in time of distresse sorrow misery and calamity in the time of their triall but deem that they are out of Gods favour and lie down either despairing of happinesse looking without themselves and revile others which they conceive have been the cause of that that is fallen upon them The case of England is so at present because men cannot enjoy their pleasures and profits as heretofore and things are not according to their wils they lie down in discontent and rage against those that rule over them emulating reviling of them if not seeking their destruction Mark and behold what man is he is a polluted Psal 3. Isai 6. unclean filthy and a defiled creature how unable is he to do any thing to the cleansing of himself and to enter into life he cannot let him be what he will except he be cleansed as the brasse cannot make it self to be gold nor the Tin to be silver so cannot man approach neer to God