Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	jesus_n	law_n	spirit_n	7,842	5	6.0757	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25835	The souls worth and danger, or A discourse exciting and directing to the due care of its eternal salvation upon the words of our blessed saviour	Armstrong, John, 1634 or 5-1698.	1677 (1677)	Wing A3708B; ESTC R214882	33,452	78

cursing the time that ever they came into thy family where they saw so much wickedness where there was no worshiping of God or means to come to the knowledge of him whereupon they went on securely in sin and are now swallowed up in the bottomless pit of destruction Or suppose any of thy children following thy steps in wickedness and contemning Gods word and worship as they saw thee do should now be sunk down to eternal misery there cursing the day that ever they were born of such a Parent or crying out against thee for neglecting them for suffering them to swear lye and do evil without severe rebukes for letting them prophane the Lords-day for neither instructing them thy self nor causing them to be instructed by others in the waies of God Were this so it might make the most flinty heart to ake and tremble Therefore that it may never be so with thee resolve duly to promote godliness in thy family however thou standest therein related Dwell with thy wife as a man of knowledge as heirs together of the grace of life that your prayers be not hindred 1 Pet. 3. 7. Labour that thy servants may know and serve God they will be to thee more faithful Bring up thy children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord they will be to thee more dutiful Pray with them and for them put them upon learning such verses of Scripture as will further their holy walking Encourage all under thy roof to observe better the Lords day Suffer them not to mis-spend so much of that precious time in such idle trifling and unlawful practices as too many do Thou hadst need chuse a right path that hast thy servants and children or others near thee following thee to heaven or hell Be therefore exact in thy actions that they may have the fairer copy to write after Weigh thy words considering that they will learn thy language Remember that Faith and Troth sound not so well as yea and nay our Saviour being Judge S t Mat. 5. 37. Be afraid to have the Devil so often in thy mouth lest others about thee have him both in their tongue and their heart too Repeat not others oaths nor speak irreverently of the great God and his Word Let no corrupt communication proceed out of thy lips but that which some ways tends to good In all thy religious performances be very serious and sincere that they may see thou art in good earnest about Soul-affairs and matters of eternity Oh be careful thus if it be possible by thy pious exhortations thy devout prayers and thy exemplary behaviour to bring the Souls of all under thee and near thee unto Christ And make that still thine which once was good Joshua's resolution and practice Josh 24. 15. As for me and my house we will serve the Lord. Use 5. Is each ones Soul of so great worth and the losse of it to them so dreadful and undoing as not to be recompenced with the gaining of the whole world See then further how exceeding careful we should every one of us be of our own Souls and how we may not always count them the happiest people who have all worldly things here for a while that heart can wish but those rather who are most careful of their precious Souls everlasting happiness in the world to come Now if thou wouldst understand whether thou thy self art herein rightly careful or no thou mayst know it by looking to the sincerity of thy conversion or thy due care of believing such truths exercising such graces and performing such duties as God requires of all regenerate Christians And which thou mayst find set down in the Directions Questions and Answers of the foregoing Book especially from page 84 to page 93. As also in the prayers thereof which teach us at once both what to ask and what to do and be in order to the Souls eternal welfare For having such prayers to use we may study our petitions before and so the sense of our minds may keep pace with our words and our affections go along with our sense Thus Gods Spirit assisting our devotion would beenlivened and our prayers become the rule of our conversation when we swarve from them they would make us blush into amendment But more particularly to know that thou art in good earnest desirous to save thy Soul 1. Being Christ the Physician of Souls works not a cure upon one every whit whole nor is prized by them that feel no need of him S t Mat. 9. 12 13. hast thou had an imbittering sense of the evil and danger of sin and an humbling sight of thy Souls lost condition by nature as fallen from God and inordinately set upon worldly vanities Hast thou seen that this is not a state to be rested in and therefore been solicitous after a better carefully in effect asking like them Acts 2. 37. what shall I do to be saved 2. Hast thou hereupon been heartily willing to receive Christ as offered in the Gospel for thy Lord as well as thy Jesus or Saviour And as thy Lord dost thou yield to the sanctifying work of his word and spirit and art thou so guided by his Laws as ordinarily to practice the most strict holy costly and self-denying duties which thou knowest him to require of thee And again as thy Jesus dost thou feel the power of his death killing sin in thee doth he by his bloodshed not only pardon thy sins but also save and deliver thee from them so that thou heartily strivest against all known sin and overcomest all grosse sins and when fallen under any prevailing temptation risest again by repentance begging forgiveness of God in his blood and resolving by his grace to watch and resist more carefully for the time to come Acts 16. 30 31. Ezek. 36. 25 26 27 Acts 3 26 Tit. 2. 11 12 14. 3. Art thou so sensible of what Christ thy Redeemer hath done and suffered for thee and of thy many engagements to him upon that account as to love him above all and constantly to cleave unto him in every condition And hath Christ so brought thee back again to God that thou takest him for thy portion and lovest him with all thy heart Soul and strength and chusest to live with him in his favour and glory without sinning or offending him any more rather then sinfully to enjoy the delights of the world and want the favour of God Eph. 6. 24. Phil. 3. 8. S t Mat. 22. 38. Psa 73. 25 26 27 28. 4. Moreover art thou so convinced of the Souls worth and the worlds vanity of the certainty and excellency of heavenly glory and the intollerableness of eternal misery of the goodness of the Divine precepts and the need of obeying them art thou I say so convinced of this as sincerely to set thy self to perform all those holy spiritual duties in heart and life which God hath absolutely commanded thee being sorry thou canst perform them no better

Son through the Spirit with nothing but a state of grace and salvation and the fruition of God All that worth which silver and gold and such worldly things have is not so much in their own nature as from our esteem or from some outward humane appointment but we can never thus make them equally excellent with our selves 'T is true by a wilful slavery to sin we may as the Prophet speaks Jerem. 6. 30. turn our selves into brasse and iron and reprobate silver we may unman and unchristian our selves we may undervalue and debase our Souls blotting out the image of God and writing upon them the superscription of earth and the world Thus indeed the Epicure may greatly delight in sensual pleasures and the ambitious mind in flattering titles and the frothy wit in abusive lightness Thus 't is true carnal and worldly things to carnal and worldly hearts may become but too sutable dear and precious But the desires of a gracious heart are after higher and better things For every faithful Christian considers that God hath made even our bodies upright and our faces lifted from the earth that we might conceive how far from it our heaven-born Spirits should be elevated towards himself and Christ and heavenly Glory which are therefore most excellent because most proportionable and sutable to our Souls in their utmost capacities 5. And lastly the worthlesness of the world appears by its unprofitableness As Samuel said to the people 1 Sam. 12. 20 21. Turn ye not aside from serving and following the Lord for then should ye go after vain things which cannot profit because they are vain Too many indeed are ready to think the profits of the world worth their gaining even by the loss of their consciences of heaven and God himself And as for those who make conscience of their waies and endevour to walk circumspectly closely and humbly with God who scrupulously forbear prophane rash oaths and idle discourse who are sensible of the least secret sin who avoid what they can all occasions and appearances of evil who withstand the corruptions of the times and places they live in though they gain less in the world these are often accounted such as know not what is best for themselves But S t Paul assures us that such Godliness with contentment is the truest gain whereas the world when you have spent all your thoughts and the labour of your lives upon it though it may further you in some lesser respects yet it cannot profit you in the main thing necessary It cannot procure us the favour of God who regardeth not the rich man more then the poor for they are all alike the work of his hands He accounts of all not according to their meanness or greatness but according to their real piety and goodness Prov. 19. 1. Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity then he that is perverse in his lips and is a fool Prov. 28. 6. Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness then he that is perverse in his ways though he be rich Observe They are the poor that walk in their integrity that know love and serve God not that kind of poor who are grossely ignorant and neglectful of God and who lead sensual sloathful and heathenish lives though they above others might be most easily convinced of the emptiness and unprofitableness of the world and so have greater care of their Souls salvation seeking out after God in Christ to supply their Spiritual necessities that it may be better with them in the life to come Again the world cannot ease the pain of an afflicted conscience nor can it give us the grace we want Ordinarily 't is so abused that it makes people not more thankful but more forgetful of God nor doth it as it ought draw their hearts nearer to God but sets them at a further distance from him nor doth it make them more humble but more haughty nor more constant and sincere in duties but more unfit for any good word or work Nor can the world profit us in the day of wrath When the sinful pleasures of youth are ended by sickness age or death what can be left but the worm of conscience bred out of them to torment the Soul for ever Have you not sometimes considered with your self how soon the world and its pleasures will turn you off How can you but now and then take notice of your own frailties which tell you how certainly and shortly you must lie down in the dust Do you not sometimes go to the house of mourning or stand by dying people confessing the world to be nothing worth and complaining of the losse of their time and strength spent upon it And do you not see how little it doth for them in their greatest need Oh therefore let this prevail with us to prize our Souls above the world let this with what hath been considered in the foregoing particulars make us set as light by it as it doth or will do by us Let us henceforth make Christ our treasure and count it our happiness to honour and worship him as we ought to do Let us make God our portion and sit down content with him alone and let them who can get no better take the world and the pleasures of it Having now seen what it is to gain the world and the worthlesness thereof though gained we are in the next place to consider what it is to lose the Soul and the preciousness of that if lost As to the losing of the Soul the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here rendred to lose signifies to have a mulct or punishment inflicted and so may import not only the fatal final losse or damnation of the Soul but also any losse or damage that belongs to it here or hereafter 1. Therefore to lose the Soul is to lose ones self A mans Soul is the principal part of himself and so it is in S t Luke ch 9. 25. What is a man advantaged if he gain the whole world and lose himself Soul and body too and be cast away 2. To lose the Soul implies a being deprived of all further opportunities and seasons of grace of all virtuous and gracious endowments which are as the life of the Soul When Christ calls by death or Judgement they that like the foolish virgins have not oyl in their lamps and their lamps trimmed that have not their Souls adorned with the saving graces of his Spirit they shall not enter with him Having waited so long already and all in vain he will now stay no longer till they go and buy for themselves but will shut the door of mercy against them for ever 3. The losing of the Soul implyes the losse of all such earthly enjoyments as sensual hearts love and prize above their Souls and for which they undoe themselves for ever Oh who can express the wretchedness of such people when they shall stand before the Judgment seat of God to