Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	body_n	soul_n	unite_v	6,137	5	9.8589	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33270	A brief and pithy treatise about comfort which Gods children have, or at least earnestly desire, and long after whilst they are in this world : together with the observations of comfort and the removal of them / by John Clark ...	Clark, John, 1630-1669.	1670 (1670)	Wing C4467; ESTC R11148	24,538	144

alteration must needs be in the morall principles dispositions and affections of the soul which also hath a suitable influence upon the externall actions and conversation producing a greater or lesser change in them according as there is need in respect of the greater or lesser preceeding depravation of them by custom in sinning or otherwise 4. Prop. There may be a great change wrought in the outward man without true conversion Many faults may be reformed many sins forsaken many duties taken up with a profession of religion and yet such an one come short of true conversion because all this may be done upon such grounds and reasons as are far inferiour to that of true conversion such as are carnall fear or hope gripes of conscience the outward inconveniences and discommodities of their sinful courses as diseases poverty disgrace and the like 5. Prop. On the other side there may be 〈…〉 conversion where the change of the outward man is but small A good disposition may restrain a man much from the commission of many gross sins and the fear of penall laws may do something but religious education or an hypocritical profession of religion may carry men far not only in avoiding all open sins but also in putting them forward to the performance of all visible duties yea and of many secret duties also so that there may be little wanting to the making up of the whole carcasse and outside of religion Yea they may go so far herein that their outward conversation may be more commendably religious than the conversations of some truly converted persons there may be nothing manifestly wanting but an inward principle of holiness to make their actions and conversations truly holy Then when it once pleaseth God by his renewing grace to convert them i. e. to work in them an inward principle of holiness this makes little or no alteration in the outward man but only actuates and informs their wonted actions and conversations anew whereby that which before was evil and displeasing to God not in the matter of it but in the principle from whence it flowed now becomes acceptable to God and truly holy As an army of rebels may be good Souldiers and have good military discipline among them but their only fault is that they follow the conduct of a rebel general and these only by accepting a new General and owning their true Lord and King may become saithful Souldiers and loyall subjects without new moulding their army or changing armour or discipline When God first formed man out of the earth he fashioned his body compleat in all the parts and proportions thereof yet was it not a man while it was without a soul but when God breathed the the breath of life into it there was no alteration made in the body but by the only addition of a soul it became a living man In like manner by the common workings of the spirit there may be the outward form and lineaments of a Christian without the truth and life of Christianity till the same spirit by his speciall operation actuate that carcasse of Christianity with a new inward principle of spirituall life and holiness and then there is a Christian indeed although little alteration appear in the outward conversation and visible part of Christianity 6. Prop. If any through evill education example custom disposition or grosse ignorance have lived a loose vitious debauched profane life have been a contemner or opposer of the ways of God or a neglecter of the common known duties of Christianity I say if ever such an one be converted certainly they pass under a very great change not only inwardly in their mind and affections but also outwardly in all the visible parts of their conversations As is to be seen in the instances of Zacheus Mary Magdalen Paul and the Corinthians 1 Cor. 6.9 10 11. I have purposely forborn any formall answer to objections because whatever scruples do ordinarily arise in the doubting soul concerning this business of conversion the answer to them I think may be easily gathered out of the foregoing propositions and therefore I may save my self that labour As for instance If any one think that if ever they were truly converted they must needs know the time or at least the thing it self and are therefore ready to conclude that the work was never wrought in them because they know it not to this they may have satisfaction from the first and second propositions Or if they doubt of their conversion because they never knew of any such remarkable change in themselves as conversion is ordinary supposed to import to this they may receive an answer from the fifth proposition and so of others And this method I have thought most convenient and therefore shall observe it in the following part of this discourse SECT VIII Of sorrow for sin 1. Prop. TRue godly sorrow for sin may be occasioned at first by something else than the sense of the evil of sin in its own nature Sickness losses disgrace and the like may be the first exciting cause of sorrow but by these streams of affliction God may and many times doth by the conduct of his word lead the sinner to the fountain of sin so as that which at first appeared evil and hateful to him only in the sad effects thereof may now at last be found by him to be much more evill and loathsome in its own nature and in those more dreadful effects which it produceth in spirituall respects as the losse of Gods favour the debasing of the soul here and the damnation both of soul and body hereafter Thus that sorrow which at first was but carnall may by this means come to be swallowed up of that which is more spirituall and so become an holy and godly sorrow Yet it may be that all carnall sorrow may not hereby be so swallowed up as that nothing thereof shall remain so that the mourning sinner is not therefore to judge all his sorrow to be carnall because there are some mixtures of carnality in it forasmuch as this grace as well as all other graces is but imperfect in this our state of flesh and imperfection but rather judge it to be true because there is a manifest appearance of some mixture of godly sorrow Yet must you strive dayly to refine it from the drosse of carnality it being the perfection of a Christian on this side heaven to be dayly perfecting by degrees those graces whose perfection or abolition is reserved for heaven 2. Prop. There is no sorrow of what nature or in what degree soever that beares a legal proportion to any though the least sin By a legall proportion I mean that which the law requires which is no other nor less than will make satisfaction for the breach of the law so that if any kind or degree of sorrow bear a legall proportion to any sin it is satisfactory to justice and so meritorious of pardon Whether therefore any one should

suspend their comfort upon such a kind or proportion of sorrow for sin may without difficulty be rightly determined by any one but a Papist or a like principled So then while the troubled soul rakes in its own sores to find a sorrow proportionable to the sins they stand guilty of they too much justify that doctrine which in their principles they will most fearlesly deny and while through this error they seek righteously by the law they do unwittingly keep themselves under the curse at least as to their own sense and lose the benefit of the Gospel at least as to the present comfort of it Gal. 3.10 21. 3. Prop. Every degree of true godly sorrow bears a Gospel proportion to every sin that is it is that sorrow which the Gospel requires not by way of satisfaction as the law doth but to put the sinner into a preparative capacity to receive Christ and pardon through him For this is not the difference between the law and the Gospel in requiring the same thing that the law requires a greater degree the Gospel is content with a less degree but the true difference consists in this that what the law requires it requires in perfection in order to justification immediately but what the Gospel requires it requires in sincerity with reference to Christ and life by him But what then Is the least degree of this or any other grace in sincerity and truth the most that the Gospel requires No verily for the Gospel cal s for perfection yea and a greater perfection than the law it self doth but this is the indulgence of the Gospel that the first and least degree of grace in truth and sincerity puts the person into a respective capacity of partaking of the promises and benefits of the Gospel it allowing him and requiring him all the remainder of the days of his life to be perfecting his graces thereby to be growing up in Christ his head when he comes to be fully and perfectly united to Christ he may in him be perfect in holiness and happiness together 4. Prop. That is true sorrow which produceth a willingness to be delivered from the power of all sin a reall willingness though the flesh may gainsay and be unwilling For it is no strange thing for such contradictions to be found in Gods children so long as they have flesh as well as spirit the flesh will be lusting against the spirit as well as the spirit against the flesh and these two are contrary I choose to note out sorrow by its effects rather than by describing it in its nature because it is much more discernable in its effects than in its nature and the truth of it in this effect as much if not more than in any other effect thereof 5. Prop. That is godly sorrow which produceth a sight of our need of Christ and a willingness to close with him on the terms of the Gospel For whereas the tenour of the Gospell is comprehended in those two words repent and believe such a repentance is spoken of as prepares and leads a man to Jesus Christ and that is the repentance which God requires and in the Gospel calls for I need not precisely distinguish between godly sorrow and true repentance which are frequently used as terms of the same import in scripture although it do distinguish them also but so as that godly sorrow doth certainly produce repentance to salvation and therefore whether mediately or immediately it matters not but certainly that sorrow is according to God and the Gospel which prepares the heart to receive Christ by faith and then it is easie to judge whether that sorrow for sin which brings a man to see an absolute necessity of Christ and produceth a willingness to close with him upon the terms of the Gospel be a godly sorrow or no. 6. Prop. The fear of Hell and damnation is no unlawful or ungospel ingredient of godly sorrow It is matter of great perplexity to the souls of many of Gods Children to find upon serious consideration that the fear of being everlastingly damned hath a great influence upon that sorrow for sin and fear of sinning which they really find in themselves judging all such sorrow to be carnall because it proceeds not purely from a principle of love to God Indeed I cannot but look upon it at least as a piece of great inconsiderateness in some who teach that godly sorrow for sin doth purely respect God and his goodness and that that which respecteth the safety of the soul from damnation is legall and carnall which is a doctrine that is contrary both to the principles of nature and the word of God and Gospel of Jesus Christ Whoever thought it unlawfull to fear the plague sword famine poyson or the like upon this very account because they are destructive to the body or to sorrow for those outward evils when present as well as to fear them when they are yet but imminent and that for the bodies sake the being whereof is endangered thereby And if it be lawfull to fear and grieve for the sake of the body those evils which threaten the ruine thereof how much more consentaneous to reason is it to fear and grieve for sin and its consequents upon the souls account which is thereby endangered to be lost for ever But to let pass such argumentations Hath not God also in his word both permitted and commanded that we should have so much respect to our own immortal souls as well as to his pleasure and honour as for the sake of them and their safety to fear sin hell damnation yea and God himself too because of his power to destroy Heb. 4.1 Mat. 10.28 And if to fear sin upon that account so as to avoid the commission of it then also upon the same account to grieve and sorrow for sin when committed and if we may fear God because of his power to destroy then may we also sorrow for sin through fear of Gods displeasure and the displaying of that his power for the everlasting destruction both of the soul and body of the sinner I say not but that sorrow for sinners arising from a principle of love to God may be esteemed the more childlike disposition and an higher attainment and therefore to be laboured after yet this I say also that it is not at all alien from the property of a good Son to grieve for an offence committed against his father for fear of the effects of his fathers displeasure These propositions may be so applyed as to resolve all doubts and scruples that may arise concerning the occasion measure truth or Gospel rectitude of sorrow for sin whereby it may be distinguished from legall and carnall or defective which are usually the matter of the troubled souls perplexities about this point SECT IX Of the pardonableness of sin AS the assurance of the pardon of sin cannot but be matter of great joy to the people of God and is