Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	life_n	sin_n	spirit_n	19,754	5	5.4357	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42834	The way of happiness represented in its difficulties and incouragements, and cleared from many popular and dangerous mistakes / by Jos. Glanvill ...	Glanvill, Joseph, 1636-1680.	1670 (1670)	Wing G835; ESTC R23021	46,425	190

There is no doubt but that an evil man may be convinced of his sin and vileness and that even to anguish and torment The G●ntiles saith the Apostle Rom. ii 14 which have not the Law shew the works of the Law written in their hearts their thoughts in the mean time accusing or excusing one another Conscience often stings and disquiets the vilest sinners and sometimes extorts from them lamentable confessions of their sins and earnest declamations against them They may weep bitterly at their remembrance and be under great heaviness and dejection upon their occasion They may speak vehemently against sin themselves and love to have others to handle it severely All this bad men may do upon the score of natural fear and self love and the apprehension of a future Iudgment And now such convictions will naturally beget some endeavours A convinced understanding will have some influence upon the will and affections The mind in the unregenerate may lust against the flesh as that doth against it So that 2. such a meer animal man may promise and purpose and endeavour in some pretty considerable measure but then he goes not on with full resolution but wavers and stops and turns about again and lets the law of the members that of death and sin to prevail over him His endeavour is remiss and consequently ineffectual it makes no conquests and will not signifie He sins on though with some regret and his very unwillingness to sin while he commits it is so far from lessening that it aggravates his fault It argues that he sins against conscience and conviction and that sin is strong and reigns 'T is true indeed St. Paul Rom. 7. makes such a description seemingly of himself as one might think concluded him under this state He saith vers 8. That sin wrought in him all manner of concupiscence vers 9. That sin revived and he died vers 14. That he was carnal and again sold under sin vers 20. That sin dwelt in him and wrought that which he would not vers 23. That the law of his Members led him into captivity to the law of sin and vers 25. That he obeyed the law of sin If this be so and St. Paul a regenerate man was in this state it will follow that seeking and feeble endeavour that overcometh no difficulty may yet procure an entrance and he that is come hitherto viz. to endeavour is safe enough though he do not conquer This Objection presseth not only against this head but against my whole Discourse and the Text it self Therefore to answer it I say That the Apostle here is not to be understood of himself but he describes the state of an unregenerate man though he speaks in the first person a Figure that was ordinary with this Apostle and frequent enough in common speech Thus we say I am thus and thus and did so and so when we are describing a state or actions in which perhaps we in person are not concerned In this sense the best Expositors understand these expressions and those excellent Divines of our own Bishop Taylor and Dr. Hammond and others have noted to us That this description is directly contrary to all the Characters of a regenerate man given elsewhere by this and the other Apostles As he is said to be dead to sin Rom. vi 11 Free from sin and the servant of Righteousness Rom vi 18 That he walks not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. viii 1 ●hat the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath made him free from the law of sin and death Rom. viii 2 That he overcometh the world Joh. 5.4 He sinneth not 1 Joh iii. 6 He hath crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts Gal. v. 24 Which Characters of a truly regenerate person if they be compared with those above-cited out of Rom. vii it will appear that they are as contrary as 't is possible to speak and by this 't is evident that they describe the two contrary states For can the regenerate be full of all manner of concupiscence and at the same time be crucified to the flesh and ill affections and lusts one in whom sin revives while he dies and yet one that is dead to sin carnal and yet not walking after the flesh but after the Spirit sold under sin and yet free from sin Having sin dwelling in him and a captive to sin and obeying the law of sin and yet free from the law of sin and death How can these things consist To tell us 'T is so and 't is not so and to twist such contradictions into Orthodox Paradoxes are pretty things to please Fools and Children but the wiser sort care not for such riddles as are not sense I think 't is evident enough then that the Apostle in that mistaken Chapter relates the feeble impotent condition of one that was convinced and strove a little but not to purpose And if we find our selves comprised by that description though we may be never so sensible of the evil and danger of a sinful course and may endeavour some small matter but without success we are yet under that evil and obnoxious to that danger For he that strives in earnest conquers at last and advanceth still though all the work be not d●ne at once So that if we endeavour and gain nothing our endeavour is peccant and wants Faith or Prayer for Divine aids or constancy or vigor and so Though we may seek we shall not be able to enter But 3 An Imperfect striver may overcome sin in some Instances and yet in that do not great matter neither if he lies down and goes no further There are some sins we out-grow by age or are indisposed to them by bodily infirmity or diverted by occasions and it may be by other sins and some are contrary to worldly Interests to our credit or health or profit and when we have been in any great degree prejudiced by them in these we fall out with those sins and cease from them and so by resolution and disuse we master them at last fully which if we went on and attempted upon all the rest were something But when we stop short in these petty victories our general state is not altered He that conquers some evil appetites is yet a slave to others and though he hath prevailed over some difficulties yet the main ones are yet behind Thus the imperf●ct striver masters it may be his beastly appetite to intemperate drinking but is yet under the power of love of Riches and vain pleasure He ceaseth from open debauchery but entertains spiritual wickedness in his heart He will not Swear but will backbite and rail He will not be Drunk but will damn a man for not being of his opinion He will not prophane the Sabbath but will defraud his Neighbour Now these half conquests when we rest in them are as good as none at all Then shall I not be ashamed when I have regard

God and delights greatly in hearing and pious Discourse and will suffer all things for what he calls his conscience yet he is not to be concluded a Saint from hence because the meer Animal Religion may put it self forth in all these expressions And though this Professor be a bad man proud and covetous malicious and censorious sacrilegious and Rebellious yet we cannot thence be assured that he is an Hypocrite in one sense viz. such an one as f●igns all that he pretends But we may believe that he is really so affected with Hearing and Praying and devout Company as he makes shew and yet for all this not alter our opinion of his being an evil man since the Animal Religion will go as far as the things in which he glories There is nothing whereby the common people are drawn more easily into the ways of Sects and Separations then by the observation of the zeal and devotion of those of the factions These they take to be Religion and the great matters of Godliness and those the religious and only godly people And so first they conceive a great opinion of them and then follow them whithersoever they lead For the generality of men are tempted into Schism and Parties not so much by the arguments of Fanaticks as by the opinion of their Godliness which opinion is grounded upon those things which may arise from the meer Animal Religion and very commonly do so This they understand not and by this ignorance are betrayed into the snare of Separation to the disturbance of the Peace of the Church and their own great hurt and inconvenience Whereas could they be made to know and consider that complexion and natural passions may bring forth all these fruits they might be secured by this means against the tempting imposture and learn that Meekness and Patience Affability and Charity Iustice and a Peaceable humble temper are better arguments of Saintship than all these Thus a great mischief might be prevented and there is another also that might be remedied by the same Observation The inconvenience is this While the enemies of Factions object Hypocrisie to them affirming that all they do and say is meer personating and pretence they confirm and setle those people in their way for many of them know that they are in earnest and consequently that their opposers are mistaken in their judgments concerning them by which they are better establisht in their own good opinion and hardned against conviction whereas did they consider such things as I have suggested about the Animal Religion and grant to them that they may be serious believe themselves infinitely and feel all those Warmths which they pretend and yet be evil men and far enough from being godly Did they shew them that all their zeal and Devotion and more and greater than theirs may arise from a principle that hath nothing Divine and supernatural in it They would thereby strike them in the right vein and bring them down from the high perch whereon by their false marks they had placed themselves and thereby disabuse them and prevent the abuse of others SECT VI. VI. WE see how we may know our state whether it be that of Grace and Life or the other sad one of Unregeneracy and Death The state of Grace is a motion towards the recovery of the Divine Image and a perfect victory over our selves and all corrupt inclinations and affections The state of Unregeneracy and Death is the continuance under the power and prevalency of sense passion and evil habits When 't is a question to our selves in which of these states we are It must be supposed that we are arrived to something of Religion For the grosly wicked cannot but know what their condition is And the way I would propose to those others who are yet uncertain is this viz. To take notice Whether they really design and make any progress in Goodness Every motion indeed cannot be felt or perceived but if we go on though never so insensibly time will shew that we are grown If we consider what are our particular defects and studiously apply proper instruments to remove them if we find success in those indeavours and that we are better this year than we were the former That our Passions are better governed and our inordinate affections more restrained and our evil habits and inclinations less powerful with us 't is an infallible sign that we live and are in a state of Grace that we shall at last arrive to a perfect man in Christ Iesus Eph. iv 13 and shall attain if we faint not 2 Cor. iv 1 whereas on the other hand If we come to some hopeful pitch and stand still there If sin and temptation be as powerful with us now as they were a year ago and our inclinations and passions just at the same pass we are in a bad state and dead While the Plant grows it lives and may become a great tree though at present it be but small whereas that whose stature is bigger and more promising if it proceeds not decaies and comes to nothing Though we are imperfect if we are striving and going towards perfection God overlooks our Infirmities and pardons them for Christ's sake This is our sincerity and an effect of true Faith But if on the other hand we think our selves well and do not always attempt forwards our state is bad and our sins will be imputed Be our pretences what they will our Faith is not sincere and will not stead us When we get to a certain pitch in Religion and make that our state 't is an argument that our Religion was meerly Animal and but a mode of complexion self love and natural fear When we overcome some sins and are willing to spare and cherish others 't is a sign that we are not sincere in our attempts upon any and that what we have done was not performed upon good and divine motives Sincerity is discovered by growth and this is the surest mark that I know of Tryal So that we have no reason to presume though as we think we have gone a great way if we go not on Nor on the other side have we any to despair though our present attainments are but small if we are proceeding The buds and tenderest blossoms of Divine Grace are acceptable to God when the fairest leaves of the meer Animal Religion are nothing in his estimate This is a great advantage we have from the Gospel that imperfection will be accepted where there is sincerity whereas according to the measures of exact and rigorous Justice no man could be made happy in the high degree of glory but he that was perfect and whose victories were absolute SECT VII VII IT may be collected from our Discourse wherein the Power of Godliness consists viz. In a progress towards perfection and an intire victory over all the evils of our Natures The Forms of Godliness are not only in the ceremonies of Worship and external actions of