Selected quad for the lemma: fire_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
fire_n	baptise_v	ghost_n	holy_a	2,905	5	6.3091	4	false

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

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

and quake O ye mockers for the day of the Lord is come in which he will not onely search Jerusalem with candles but he will change Jerusalem by fire what can you expect that when the great and dreadfull God who is holy and cannot endure uncleanesse and drosse to be among his people but will consume it by the fire of his anger but to be utterly consumed as these sublunary metalls you can have no other end for the Silver and the Gold the pure metals you ever hated and made no reckoning of but rested and trusted in the shinings of your own base metals not regarding to know God and therefore God will give you up to a reprobate minde Rom. 1.28 let seasonable advice take hold on you What ever you do or suffer get Gold buy Truth dig deep for Silver and let not all the metalls beneath these metalls gain thy heart let them have what luster gilding or shining soever they will deceive thee Jona 3.8 They that trust in lying vanities forsake their own mercy What will become of our Nation if it should neglect so great salvation is there not a deluge of pride hypocrisie idolatry covetousnesse and murmuring now God would be mercifull to us if we would but resigne our selves up to him but we are proud and exalted in the fleshly wisdome being blinde thinking our selves in an excellent good condition giving our selves up to the lusts of our own hearts not caring to see the visions of God in the inward and internall way and so perish through our own carnall understandings in an outward profession Let us be humbled under the mighty hand of God who will exalt us the humble he will teach and those that dread and fear him he will reveal his secrets unto what greater blessednesse can be to any of the sons of men then this to be his schollers Pro. 29.18 and to know his will The teachers of the world are corrupted Psal 25.9 14. and need to be taught themselves for it appeareth they are not as the Apostles were in the primitive time but alienated from their practice having not the inlivening power within them of the spirit whence it comes to passe that living and speaking according to the letter they are by an Artifice of Satan strengthened by the outward profession to oppose strongly from their forme the inward and true spirituall worshiper and so Antichrist comes to be taken for Christ and Christ for Antichrist As the Scriptures are such are the Ministers of it the letter serveth as a shelter or an hiding place for Antichrist to lurke and save himself in where now he is striving for superiority as the Pharisees did in the time of Christ against whom he did chiefly speak but the Spirit is of that pure simple individuall and virgin like holy quality proceeding from the Father of light that it needeth not to be urged either by letter or word being given up wholly to the invisible and internall enjoyment of the life of God which by his inspiration the letter was first monumented to enioy the letter without the spirit is to enjoy the picture and not the person Christ saith you thinke to have eternall life in the Scriptures No you cannot they testifie of me John 5.39 that giveth life to all that do beleeve His ministration is a ministration of reconciliation to salvation and we are to look after no other although there may be excellent pretences Should the men of the world study but half so much for their eternall welfare as they do for their temporall they could not but give strong reasons and gain strong resolutions against their own practices to be in Israel and not an Israelite to be of the visible Church and to have no invisible light and truth this is worth nothing to talk of grace with the mouth and have none in the heart to say they know and do not there sin remaineth Stirre up thy self Joh. 9.14 O worldling ly not still consider what thou art and wherefore thou wast created 1 Joh. 3.20 let not the naturall light that is within condemn thee to perdition and make no further use of any thing wherein others meet with the Lord their God then that thou mightest so really and truly meet him also Let not the outward performances of duties Eccles. 5.7 Job 34.19 Psal 113.7 serve thine own will to the increase of worldly gain or preferment but serve God with a pure minde and heart-performance which he onely accepteth of Let the poor and mean Yea the servants of men endeavour cheifly that the Lord may be their portion the sin of murmuring is as among all people so especially among people of low degree they murmure because God hath not given them such a portion of the world as oothers because they are impotent or that they are under the cōmand of others many waies is there a murmuring against God learn patience and know that the very worst estate that can be is beyond thy desert and that thy Maker will do with his own as He pleaseth Happy art thou if thou findest within thy self the God of love and infinite mercy anyway to appear if in that thou hast received thou hast seen a hand directing it to thee though it be bitter take it from the Lord as a token of his infinite love rejoyce in thy low condition the Lords eye is over thee and will neverthelesse judge thine oppressour he hath a regard to the poor he will defend them he wil bring them them out of the dust and set them among Princes all that wait upon the Lord shall see his goodnesse in the Land of the Living Let all therefore say that have not to their desire in outward appearance of Gods favour Verily thou O God hidest thy self O God thou Saviour of Israel Lastly whatever thou art that dost draw neer to God in any outward performance meditate with thy self to what end thou dost it and be more neer to hear than to offer the sacrifice of fools Eccles 4.17 ● 1. neither be rash with thy mouth to utter a thing before God for he is in Heaven and thou art on earth therefore let thy words be few Eccles 4.17.5.1 Lamentable it is to see how sinfully men present themselves before the Lord in Congregations petitioning for that their hearts are not affected with and promising that they have no intent to perform Consider in your mindes would a mortall man be so served that is in some regall authority and do you think the great God can bear it No if this be your resolved practice he will cast you into utter darknesse that doth thus counterfeit and dissemble with him who seeth the heart you shall never have the light of his countenance here nor that Heaven which you care little for hereafter Behold the day of the Lord is very neer at hand and he cometh as a thief in the night Revel 3.2 Who may abide the day of his coming And who shall endure when he appeareth Mal. 3.2 1 Thess 5.6 for he is like a purging fire and like Fullers sope Watch therefore Luke 12.33 to the 41. read it in the Spirit that being fore-warned you may be fore-armed Finally brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things pertain to love Phil. 4.8 whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue or if there be any praise think on these things which you have both learned and received and heard and seen in Paul or in any of the Saints of God those things do and the God of peace shall be with you FINIS