Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	flesh_n	sin_n	sinful_a	2,809	5	9.4946	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01344	Ioseph's partie-colored coat containing, a comment on part of the 11. chapter of the 1. epistle of S. Paul to the Corinthians : together with severall sermons, namely, [brace] 1. Growth in grace, 2. How farre examples may be followed, 3. An ill match well broken off, 4. Good from bad friends, 5. A glasse for gluttons, 6. How farre grace may be entayled, 7. A christning sermon, 8. Faction confuted / by T.F.	Fuller, Thomas, 1608-1661.	1640 (1640)	STC 11466.3; ESTC S4310	83,852	200

worthy Let us when wee come to the Sacrament bring with us the worthinesse of fitnesse and convenience and God of his goodnesse will be pleased to reward us with the worthinesse of acceptance Two sorts of people then doe eate and drinke unworthily First the Vnregenerate those which as it is Heb. 6.1 Have not as yet laid the Foundation of Repentance from dead workes and faith in Christ but remaine still in their pure impure naturals not ingrafted into Christ Without this foundation the faire side-wals of a good nature and the proud roofe of all morall performances will both totter and tumble to the ground Secondly the Regenerate but guilty of some sinnes unrepented of who eate unworthily till they have sued out a speciall pardon out of the Court of Heaven Come wee now to the sinfulnesse of the sin shall bee guilty of the body and blood of the Lord that is they are offenders in the same forme with Iudas and the Iewes guilty of shedding the blood and wounding the body of Christ For as those that deface the stamp or abuse the Seale of a King are entituled to be traytors so the unworthy receivers of these elements which personate represent Christs body are interpreted to sin against the body of Christ it selfe Some Protestants have by Gods Providence escaped in their persons and yet the papists to manifest their spite have burned their pictures at a stake Christs person is shot-free from any mans malice out of the reach of your cruelty sitting at the right hand of God in Heaven as for his Picture it is with us in the Sacraments and unworthy Receivers shew to the shaddow what they would doe to the substance if it were in their power they push as farre as their short hornes will give them leave But may one say Grant unworthy Receiving bee a grievous sinne yet me thinkes too heavy an accent is put upon it to equalize it with the murthering of Christ Ionathan said 1 Sam. 14.43 I did but taste a little honey with the end of my Rod and loe I must dye but more justly and grievously may the wicked Communicant complaine I did but eate a morsell of Bread and dranke a Draught of wine and loe I must dye here hereafter temporally and eternally yea my sinne is heigthned to be even with the sinne of Iudas and the Iewes who wilfully embrued their hands in Christs blood How ever humane corruption may bee the Advocate to plead herein yet wee must count sinnes to be so great as God esteemes them to be Hee seeth not as man seeth nor judgeth he as man judgeth Hee will judge that to be pride which wee count to be good carriage that lust which wee count love that drunkennesse which wee good fellowship and unworthy receiving which we perchance esteeme a fault but not of the first magnitude hee judgeth it the highest of any pardonable sinne even guiltinesse of Christ blood it selfe Learne wee from hence to measure and survey a sin in the true heigth length and bredth thereof Hearken not to the partiality of thine owne flesh which wil make thine offences in number less in nature lighter listen not to the suggestions of Satan which will never suffer us to see our sinnes truely but is alwayes in the excesse or defect When wee goe on in a sinfull course hee beares us in hand that our sinnes are small and when we are toucht in conscience he seeks to perswade us that they are too great Mountaines too big to bee drowned in the Ocean of Gods mercy but let us measure them by the square of Gods Word an infallible rule that will not deceive us To conclude men generally hate Pilate and Iudas if wee see them but in Pictures our blood riseth at them we could scratch them out with our nayles being more angry with them then David with the rich man that tooke away the poore mans Ewe Lambe whereas in some sense it may bee said of many of us Thou art the man Yet as for those which hitherto have not taken notice of the haynousnesse of this sinne and through the want of consideration have beene guilty of the body of Christ let mee say to them what Saint Peter doth Act. 3.17 And now brethren I wot that through Ignorance you did it Repent therefore and bee converted that your sinnes may bee blotted out And let us all pray with David Psalme 91.14 Deliver us from blood-guiltinesse O God but especially from being guilty of the body and blood of thy Sonne VERSE 28. But let a man examine himselfe and so let him eate of this Bread and drinke of this Cup LEt us know that some make these words Let a man examine to be a bare permission and concession that if they wil they may doe it Others make it a councell or advice that according to the rule of Prudence or discretion they should doe it A third sort and that the truest make it a mandate or command that wee must doe it and the seeming indifferency in the English tongue is necessitated in the Greeke {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 1. The first is taken from the Majesty of that God to whose presenee wee approach Lord what prodigious state did Ahashuerosh an earthly Prince stand upon Esther 7.12 The woman that was thought fit to bee his wife must bee purified twelve moneths before six moneths with the oyle of myrrhe and six moneths with sweet odours Behold a greater than Ahashuerosh is here and therefore those that come to his Table must seriously examine and prepare themselves before 2. From the great profit which we receive thereby if we come prepared 3. From the grievousnesse of the punishments if we be unworthy Receivers The Sacrament is not like to those harmlesse Receits as innocent as the Prescribers are simple which some good old women give sick people which if they doe no good do no harme but this is a true maxim To him to whom the Sacrament is not Heaven it is hell If it brings not profit and spirituall grace it drawes great plagues and punishments on us Examine himselfe A Christians eyes ought to be turned inward and chiefly reflected on himselfe yet how many are there whose home is to be alwayes abroad It is a tale of the wandring Iew but it is too much truth of many wandring Christians whose thoughts are never resident on their own souls but ever searching and examining of others These say not with the souldiers Luk. 3.14 And what shall we do but are questioning alwayes as S. Peter is of Iohn Ioh. 21.21 And what shal this man do Yet a mans examining of himselfe excludes not his examination of those who are committed to his care and charge as Pastors examining such young people as according to the orders of the Church they are to catechise As for that Father who trieth his wife and children he still examineth himselfe Two sorts of people are unfit to

of this one Cure or that my Text with Isaac hath onely one blessing for him that came first no by Gods blessing it may be cordial for the saving of our soules To day therfore part of Samsons Riddel shall be fulfilled in your ears Out of the Devourer came meat Gluttony that vice which consumeth and devoureth food The discourse thereof by Gods assistance shall feed us at this time Not in Gluttony Gluttony is a dangerous sin for any Christian to be guilty of Because humane Laws hath provided no penalty for it Men will be afraid to commit petty Lassony for feare of whipping Fellony for feare of branding Murther for feare of hanging worse sins for feare of having a Grave whilst living But it is too likely that men will take leave and liberty to themselves to be Gluttons presuming upon hope of Impunity because mans Laws have ordered no punishment for it yet as those offences are accounted the greatest which cannot be punished by a Con●●●●● a Iustice or Iudge of Assize but are reserved immediatly to be punished by the King himselfe so Gluttons must needs be Sinners in an high degree who are not censureable by any earthly King but are referred to be judged at Gods Tribunal alone Because it is so hard and difficult to discerne like to the Hecktick fever it steales on a man unawares Some sins come with observation and are either ushered with a noyse or like a snaile leave a slime behind them whereby they may be traced and tracted as Drunkennesse The Ephramites were differenced from the rest of the Israelites by their lisping they could not pronounce H which then was a heavie aspiration unto them when it cost the lives of so many thousands Thus Drunkards are distinguish't from the Kings sober subjects by clipping the coyn of the tongue But there are not such signes and Symptomes of Gluttony This sinne doth so insensibly unite and incorporate it selfe with our naturall appetite to eate for the Preservation of our lives that as Saint * Gregory saith It is a hard thing to discerne Quid necessitas petat quid voluptas suppetat quia per esum voluptas necessitati miretur what is the full charge of food which nature requires for our sustenance and what is that sure charge which is heaped by superfluity Because of the sundry dangers it brings first to the soule Luke 21.34 Take heed lest your hearts bee oppressed with surfetting And indeed the soule must needs bee unfitting to serve God being so incumbred That man hath but an uncomfortable life who is confined to live in a smoaky house The braine is one of these places of the residence of the soule and when that is filled with streames and vapours arising from unconcocted crudities in the stomacke the soule must needs malè habitare dwell unchearfully ill accommodated in so smoaky a mansion And as hereby it is unapt for the performance of good so it is ready for most evill for uncleannesse scurrulity ill speaking this being the reason saith Saint Gregory why Dives his tongue was so tormented in Hell because hee being a Glutton with his tongue had most dishonoured God Secondly this sinne empaires the health of the body the out-landish Proverbe saith That the Glutton digs his Grave with his owne teeth hastens his death by his intemperance For if there were a conflict in Rebeckaes body when two Twins were in her wombe must there not bee a Battell and Insurrection in his stomack wherein there is meat hot cold sod rost flesh fish and which side soever wins nature and health will bee overcome when as a mans body is like unto the Arke of Noah containing all Beasts cleane and uncleane but hee the most uncleane Beast that containes them Our Law interprets it to bee murther when one is killed with a knife Let us take heed wee bee not all condemned by God for being Fellons de se for wilfull murthering our owne lives with our knifes by our superstitious eating Thirdly it wrongs the creatures that hereby are abused Indeed they willingly serve man so long as hee is a King over them but they are loath to doe it when he turnes Tyrant So if when the Drunkard sings the drinke sighes when the Glutton laughes the Meate grieves to bee so vainely mispent by him God saith Hosea 2.9 That hee will recover his Flaxe and his Wooll from the Idolatrous Iewes Vindicabo I will rescue and recover them as from slavery and subjection wherein they were detayned against their will and in such like tyrannie are the creatures as Bread Wine and Meat tortured under the Glutton Lastly it wrongeth the poore for it is the over-much Feasting of Dives which of necessity maketh the Fasting of Lazarus and might not the superfluous Meat of the Rich bee sold for many a pound and given to the poore Come we now to consider wherein Gluttony doth consist I am not ignorant of that verse in Thomas Praeproperè lautè nimìs ardentèr studiosè But I will not march in Sauls heavie Armour or confine my selfe to follow the Schooles directions herein I will goe against this Goliah of Gluttony with my owne Sling and Stone and use a private and plaine Method This sinne therefore consisteth either in the quantity of the meate or in the quality or in the manner of eating In the quantity And here it is hard to define the Omer of Manna for every mans belly the proportion of meate for every mans stomacke that quantity of raine will make a claye ground drunke which will scarce quench the thirst of a sandy Countrey It is thus also in men that proportion of meat surfetteth and surchargeth the stomacks of some which is not enough to satisfie the hunger of others especially of those who being young have hot and quick disgestion of those who living in a cold clymate and thereby have the heat of their stomacks intended of those whose stomacks are strong by reason of their labour and travell and not to speake of the disease called Boulamya mens natures being thus diverse by what standard shall I measure them let this be the rule hee shall be arraigned and condemned before God for Gluttony in the quantity of meat who hath eaten so much as thereby hee is disabled either in part or wholly to serve God in his generall or particular calling be his age clymate or temper whatsoever 2. In quality and that foure wayes 1. When the meat is too young Exod. 23.19 Thou shalt not seeth a Kid in his Mothers milke that is thou shalt not eat it before it hath age to bee just and firme flesh Circumcision was deferred till the eighth day one reason rendred by Divines is because a Child before that time is not Caro consolidata and sure there is a time before which Beasts and Fowles are not sollid fast and lawfull to bee eaten I must confesse wee are to live by the creatures death they being borne are