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
B11962	Certaine godly and necessarie sermons, preached by M. Thomas Carew of Bilston in the countie of Suffolke ...	Carew, Thomas, Preacher.	1603 (1603)	STC 4616; ESTC S118335	148,213	348

the spirit but is in his naturall estate What must such a man as findes not these things do conclude he is a reprobate no but feare it know that ●ames speakes Iam. 4. 6. that the Scripture offers more grace therefore heare the word which is the immortall seede of our new birthe while it is called to daye and among other things heere that Saint Iames saith cleanse your hands yee sinners and purge you hartes yee wauering minded let your laughter be● turned into mourning and your ioy into heauynesse neuer bee merry neuer eate your meate pleasantly neuer sleepe quietly but tremble and quake continually heare reade aske questions and praye diligentlye till God hath begunne a true worke of grace in you for that which is borne of the fleshe is fleshe and cannot enter into the kingdome of heauen but that which is borne of the spirite is spirit and shall enter Maruell not that I said vnto thee yee must Verse 7. be borne againe Our Sauiour Christ forbiddes him not simplye to maruell at this for if Dauid Psalm 8. wondred to beholde the naturall creatures of God how much more wonderfull are those things that bee supernaturall Dauid speaking of his creation saith I am fearefully and wonderfully made much more wonderfull is it to be created and made a new it is a greater matter to regenerate a man then it was to create the worlde for at the first God created all things with a worde but to recreate a man there must be wordes and deedes to Christ must be borne for vs that wee might bee borne againe in him Christ must dye for vs that our olde man might bee slaine and must be quickned and rise againe for vs that a new creature might bee reuiued and restored in vs therefore regeneration is a thing to bee maruelled at as manye other of the great and excellent workes of God bee but when Christ biddes Nichodemus not maruell hee meanes such a marueling as fighteth against faith and causes a man to reiect a thing as fabulous because hee cannot conceiue it but to wonder at Gods grace and power in the regenerate and to submit our selues and our sences to the word and worke of God there in is a commendable thing But marke wee that Nichodemus not being regenerate himselfe regeneration was a riddle to him as the Papistes and those that haue not true faith themselues thinke that none can bee assured of their saluation whereby wee may see how true that saying of the Apostle 1. Tim. 3. is That Godlynesse is a Misterye Furthermore note that our Sauiour Christ saith not we must be borne againe but yee because hee would exclude himselfe for his first birth was vncorrupt hee was conceiued by the holye Ghost and borne of a Virgin without sinne and therefore neede not be borne againe but all other men beeing corrupt by their first birthe must be borne againe yea euen the Pharises who thought themselues excellent in comparison of others therefore hee saith to Nichodemus that was a Pharisie yee must bee borne againe as hee saith in Mathew Except your righteousnesse exceede the righteousnesse of the Mat. 5. 20 Scribes and Pharises yee cannot enter into the kingdome of God The winde bloweth where it listeth c. Verse 8 By this similitude he would reprooue the follye of Nichodemus that did followe onely his reasonable iudgement and naturall conceite in this worke of regeneration this is supernaturall as Paule by a similitude taken from the Corne reprooued the foly of the Corinthians that followed reason in the article of the resurrection 1. Cor. 15 36. It is as if our Sauiour Christ should saye wee would knowe there is winde that God hath created for many purposes we heare it wee feele it and see the effectes of it but we cannot tell where it riseth nor where it setteth so wee may perceiue the working of the spirite in others and feele it in our selues changing our iudgements our affection and conuersations as how euidently was the power of the spirite to be perceiued in Paule who of a persecuter became a Preacher in Zacheus who of an oppresser became a distributer in Abraham who of an Idolater became a true worshipper and in Marie Magdalen who of an adulterer became a chaste liuer and least any should say these were choice persons our Sauiour Christ saith heere So is euery one that is borne of the spirite The sound of the winde is heard of manye and the force of it is seene in carrying the Cloudes in moouing the Waters in dryuing the shippes in shaking the trees but in how few is the force of Gods spirite seene to mooue and carrye men to spirituall duties to zeale loue liberality iustice mercye c. The blasts and force of the flesh are heard and seene in Towne and country in swearing rayling lying adultery drunkenesse c. But the blasts of the spirit not so common if I should also follow the other similitude so is euery one that is borne of the spirite there is good instruction in it what sorrow hath a woman in bearing of children what faintings what gripings and throwes as if she should be torne in pecces and all to bring forth a childe yea some are content to be ript that by their owne death they may procure the childes life but how little paines doe men take to bee borne againe to cast away the workes of the flesh and to bring forth the fruites of the spirit which will not be done with ●ase but with wrastling with Sathan resisting of sinne and denying our selues Nichodemus answered and saide how can Verse 9 these things be A man would thinke that by this time we should haue hard a new borne babe cry but he still reasons carnally where is the goodnesse of nature to goodnesse that the Papistes boast of when this man that had nature helped by learning and manye meanes yet was altogeather vnap● so much as to conceiue of spirytuall good thinges Those that thinke themselues wise enoughe to conceiue any thing yea any point of religion are controuled by this mans example where wee may see how hard a thing it is to worke regeneration in a man when it is so hard to make men conceaue it Reason with many men about the points of religion as faith repentance and the like you shall finde such vnsauorie carnall and caueling speeches as it would make a spirituall man to wonder they shoulde bee so ignorant and sencelesse But by this man wee see though doctrine bee deliuered plainely though it bee deliuered diuersely though it be laide foorth generallye and perticulerlye though it bee shewed by similitudes and borrowed speeches yet men cannot perceiue and vnderstand it except God giue them grace therefore Dauid prayeth to the Lorde thus Open mine eyes that Psal 119 I may see the wonders of thy lawe but Nichodemus his eyes were still shutte vp and therefore saith How can these things

obscure so great a mistery Now that we might the better see the greatnesse of this mistery that God is manifested in the flesh as it were with a paire of spectacles let vs briefely consider on the one side what God is and on the other side what man is And yet I meane not to enter into any large discription of God least we should thinke he may be fully conceiued for one saith truely and wittily If all the world were full of bookes if all the creatures in the world were writers and all the water in the sea were inke the writers would be wearied the bookes would be filled and the sea would be emptied and exhausted before his perfection could be manifested Therefore Simonides being asked what God was desired a dayes respit to make answere and being asked the next day he deferred two dayes respit and againe being asked the third time saide the more I search it the further I am from it When I seeke for God saith one of the ancient fathers I doe not seeke for the glistering beauties of Dyamondes and precious stones for the eye I doe not seeke for the pleasant melodie of birdes and tunable instruments for the eare I do not seeke for the sauour of flowers spices and oyntments for the smell I doe not seeke for hony and delectable things for the taste which brute beastes may be capable of but I seeke for a glory aboue all beauty for a voyce aboue all melodie and for a sauour and sweetnesse aboue all delicacie which neither beastes nor men with their outward censes can attaine vnto God is the most absolute supreame excelent thing a substance deuine inuisible eternall infinite vnchangeable glorious almightie onely wise true iust mercifull gracious and bountifull before whom the Esa 6. Cherubins do couer their faces of whom thorow whom for whom are all things Rom. 11. saith the Apostle to him be glory for euer Now as God is thus and much more excellent then can be spoken so on the other side man especially considered as Adam hath left him is most base insomuch that Dauid comparing man but with some of the creatures said What is man that thou art mindfull of him and the sonne of man that Psal 8. thou doest consider him how much more compared with the Creator Yea man is not onely base but miserable and so miserable that if Christ had not come to redeeme vs it had beene better for vs we had beene stones yea beares and toades therefore seeing all that can be saide is too little to set forth Gods maiesty and nothing can be said enough to set forth mans misery this that the Apostle saith That God is manyfest in the flesh must needes be a great mistery By God the Apostle meanes not the first person in the diety which is the father nor the third person which is the holye Ghost but the second person which is the Sonne for though there bee but one God yet in the Godhead there Mat. 28. are three persons the father the sonne and the holy Ghost Now it was the sonne the second person that was more manifested in the flesh as Iohn saith The word was made Iohn 1. flesh and dwelt among vs we saw the glorye thereof as the glory of the onely begotten so●ne of the father full of grace and truth Therefore Paule saith In him dwels the fulnesse of Col. 2. 9. the Godhead bodily And yet we are not to thinke he was thrust out of heauen as the euill Angels were but he tooke flesh of his owne accorde as the Apostle saith in the second to the Phillipians he being equal with God tooke on him the forme of a seruant for as Adam sinned and ouerthrew mankinde voluntarily so it was necessarie that Christ should take our nature and redeeme vs voluntarily Manifested in the flesh By flesh he meanes not the body of man onely but our whole humane nature consisting of soule and body As when Peter saith He suffred in the 1. Pet. 4. flesh it is not meant he suffered in his body onely but in his soule also as he saith of Mat. 2. himselfe my soule is heauy euen to the death so when it is said here he was manifested in the flesh he meanes in our humane nature for he was in all things like to vs sinne excepted Heb. The manner of his taking flesh was of a woman as it is said God sent his sonne made of a woman Mathew tels vs Gal. 4. Mat. 1. what woman namely the virgin Mary therefore he is in the Scripture called the Sonne of man not that any man was his father but because on a woman he tooke on him mans nature this is that the Prophet Esay spake of him They shall call his name Esa 7. Emanuell that is God with vs therefore are there such misticall speeches in the scripture Iohn Baptist saith of him he that comes Ioh. 1. after me is before me that is he comes after me in his manhood but was before me in his Godhead He is likened to Melchisadeck who is said to be without father and Heb. ● without mother for as he was man he was without father and as he was God he was without mother and he himselfe saith in Iohn 5. Ioh. 5. Before Abraham was I am This is that which some diuines haue spoken of in a wondring maner That he which is eternall should be borne in time that hee Esa 7. Dan. 7. which is called the ancient of daies should be a child of an houre old that he which is the worde should become a babe that Iohn 1. cannot speake that he which is infinite should be compassed in the wombe of a Luke 2. Virgin that hee should not onely make vs like himselfe at the first but make himselfe like vs that the flesh of Adam and the sinne of Adam being ioyned in all other men should be separated in that man that was the sonne of God because he was not borne after the ordinarie manner of men but was conceiued by the holy ghost and borne of the Virgin Mary this is wonderfull Who would haue thought that these two natures the Godhead and the manhood that were so farre deuided a sunder should haue beene so neerelie ioyned together not in one Paradice as at the first but in one person that more meerely then the soule and the body for they may be deuided but the godhead and manhoode of Christ cannot therefore this is a great mistery that God is manifested in the flesh Yet we must not imagine two Christes one that was God and another that was man but one Christ who is both God and man the diuell hath stirred vp some heritickes to deny his Godhead and some to deny his manhood and some also to confound them together thinking to corrupt this mistery and so to ouerthrow religion those that haue denied his Godhead alleadge for colour