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
A56317	Durus sermo, or Ænigma moriendi the mystery of dying daily: in a sermon preached in Plimouth, at the funeral of Mistress Joan Warren. By William Pyke, M.A. and rector of the parish of Stokeclimsland in the county of Cornwal.	Pike, William, b. 1617 or 18.	1680 (1680)	Wing P4256; ESTC R220558	23,109	40

in this sense every living person is daily dying Nor a providential Dying which consists in the daily vicissitudes of Crosses Tryals and Discomforts though this is the portion of every living Saint and is in part the assertion of our Apostle concerning himself but a spiritual and practical Dying consisting in the frequent and renewed exercise of mortifying Duties as Repenting Self-denying Self-judging self-humbling dying unto Sin mortifying our Members crucifying our Flesh subduing our Lusts being crucified to the world beating down our Bodies and bringing them into subjection subjugating our wills captivating our understandings submitting our reason to the righteousness of God governing our passions devoting our lives for the testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ and if need be and God so order to die for our Lord and so to live as to die in our Lord and so to die as to die unto our Lord that whether we live or die we may be the Lords These and many more such like are but the several Rules and methods and quotidian Exercises through which good Christians must pass before they come to the degree of Masters in this Gospel-Art To this S. Paul had eminently attained so as it fell into his daily practice I die daily Which brings me to the third part of my Text. The Diuturnity of the Apostles Practise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 notes the Frequency Assiduity Succession and uncessancy of Action And with reference to what is done supposeth time of life to do it in To day Joh. 9.4 Eccles 9.10 whiles it is called to day for the day of life is the working day 't was so with Christ in our flesh and the Church-man Solomon tells us There is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest If we would then set on this work this rare device of Christian Knowledge and saving wisdom it must be before we go to our Graves And it is not the work of a single day neither but the singular work of every day to be daily doing as if daily dying Nulla dies sine lineâ is the laudable industry of a Christian and without doubt there is no Particle of Life allowed for Idleness even Paradise and Perfection the place and state of Innocence and Bliss allowed not a space wherein to do nothing and Heavens Paradise though it be the Saints everlasting Rest yet hath its business for Eternity But this is to be understood of positive Acts but to be daily dying sounds harshly and uncomfortably to living Ears Death is a privation and to die a privative act and how can an habit grow out of Privatives Nay but this kind of dying is a positive duty in the Cristian Divinity 1. As it is an Act of the new Creature to die to sin and live unto God Christ purchased this Estate to us and preferred us to this capacity Rom. 6.10 In every birth there is something generated and something destroyed says the Philosopher so in our New Birth there is the production of Grace and the destruction of Vice the Life of Righteousness and the death of Sin And by dying daily we set up the Ark and throw down Dagon The Sinfulness of our Souls by our first birth consisted in our aversion from God and Grace and our being perverted to the Devil and his works in the defacing of God's Image and the imprinting of Satan's Now the sanctity of the Soul that is its recovery by the second birth consisteth in its conversion to God and aversion from sin to have the Image of the evil one rased out and the Impress of the Saviour re-ingraven and the Acts that appertain to these Issues must be in our daily Exercise 2. As it is the Answer unto the Divine Ordination Romans 8.29 which is our conformableness unto the dying Saviour our conformity to Christ is here our positive Duty in Grace as it shall be our everlasting Dignity in Bliss and the Elect are sent into the world to be planted into the likeness of Christ in his Death and Resurrection to this end baptised into Christ that we may follow his Steps Phil. 3.10 as well as bear his Name and so be found in the fellowship of his Graces and sufferings and all his life was a continued dying until his hour came that he died once for all There is a pertinent but difficult Text for this in S. Paul's case Coloss 1.24 I fill up that which is behind saith he of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his bodies sake which is the Church The personal Sufferings of Christ which he endured in his own body as the Mediator are once for ever finished but his general Sufferings which he endures in his mystical Body the Church are yet behind and must be filled up by S. Paul and his Fellows and Followers Not in way of Office as meritorious and satisfactory nor in proportion of weight and measure but in respect of their Cause and Managery and Issue Thus in dying by way of Resemblance Rom. 6.10 11. And the likeness is in these Instances voluntarily our daily dying must be spontaneous Though there be a great Reluctancy between Flesh and Spirit Grace and Nature the pure will of God and the perverse will of Man yet the superior powers of the 〈◊〉 carry the Mastery 〈◊〉 ● 2● sanctified reason consents to mortifying Acts. To die daily is as irksome to Self-love as the Cup was to Christ's Flesh in the day of his Agony yet he willingly drank because it was his Fathers will he should Yet Christ's Death was violent he died not of nature but of force So should our self-mortifying be voluntary in respect of us but violent in respect of sin And herein is the life of daily dying that we lay violent hands on our corruptions pluck out the right Eye cut off the right Hand smite the sinful Breast break the perverse Heart and kill and destroy sin in its Flower strength and vigour many leave their sins who never mortified them He that dies daily never stays till his sins die for Lusts like Weeds if let alone will destroy all the good Seeds and then wither of themselves The old Adulterer hath left his Lust because his Body is dead And the griping Mammonist is angry with the world but it is because he can enjoy it no longer Eccles 12.1 O remember thy Creatour in the days of thy youth before the days come when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them is a pertinent Caveat 'T were good to condemn and execute sin without Reprieve let not Lust live till to morrow bring your vicious Habits forth speedily in the sight of God arraign condemn crucifie them now mortifie them whiles they might yet live Yet the Death of Christ was lingring Matth. 27.45 he hung divers hours upon the Cross our Dying is daily sin cannot be destroyed all at once cut a Serpent in pieces yet every part will stir Sin

will dwell in us long though it have not Dominion Like a rebellious Tenant Rom. 7.17 it keeps possession in spight of the owner till the House be pulled down ever his Head True the Body of Sin hath in the Regenerate received its deaths wound but it is not quite dead there is not the most sanctified Soul but hath some remainders of Corruption left in it enough to require our daily Conflict which God in his wise providence permits for the trying and exercising and humbling of us and for the making his own rich Grace in renewing his pity and multiplying his pardons so much the more exceeding glorious You find now that dying is a Duty and it is as necessary as our Bread this is daily in our petition as it is daily in our need Dying ought to be daily in our practice as it is daily at our Doors We had need to set death before us under the easiest most familiar and feasible considerations as the days of a mans life come about quickly and one of those days is the Boundary of our Cares so let it be of our diligence so to number them as to apply our hearts to this wisdom of dying daily That which must be of necessity once should be admitted into our frequent account and exercise Let us look upon dying as the Christians Business and not as the Creatures Curse and labour to attain the Art oft that we may bear the painful stroke the better The day will come ere long when it will be in vain to say I have no mind to die or I have no leisure or I am not ready not yet I 'll think on 't What if Esay's Message to Hezekiah were sent thee ● King 20. ● Set thine house in order for thou shalt die and not live Wouldst thou not rather live and die too Heb. 2.13 Luke 12. ●● 'T is possible you see but what if it should be said Hâc nocte then Donec cognominatur hodie had sounded better Die whiles it is called to day thou fool for this night thy soul shall be taken from thee To die once is our Destiny and to die daily our Duty why should we not bring them into our familiar acquaintance the day of dying is not far from us by dying daily we bring it to our hand 't is in our natures why should it not be so much in our expectations as to be daily in our exercise The spirit of God every where speaks of it in reference to the Saints in the most comfortable and grateful expressions as of that which we have daily in our use and observation We ascribe this to the influence of the dying Jesus who hath so embalmed yea and cloathed Mortality by the dress of Holy Language that there is even a Sweetness Beauty and Blessing in it when a man hath worn a Suit of Apparel a great while even until it be thread-bare or it becomes foul and unseemly would he not be glad to put that off and get a new Garment on his Back therefore death is called an uncloathing 2 Cor. 5.2 3 4. a putting off the Flesh and in answer to that corporal Divesture the spiritual disapparelling is so also called Eph. 4.22 a putting off the old man with his deceivable lusts and there is no hurt in that we are willing to change and shift daily When a man hath tired himself all the day at his work would he not gladly go to Bed and our sinful course is so laborious and wearisome as that it is never well with us till we come to our rest and that 's no where to be had but in Christ Matth. 1● 28 Do we not betake our selves to our rest every Evening therefore our death is called our sleep and if we daily need our sleep 1 Cor. 15.20.51 why are we not daily solicitous for our rest and refreshment in Jesus under these apprehensions the Holy Spirit would have us bury all hard thoughts of Dying and that we would familiarise it into our daily endeavours so to practise how to die to day that we need not fear to die to morrow the main reason of the terribleness of Death is that Mortals look on it at a greater distance than it is and it is of a more ghastly and formidable aspect to those that are strangers to it And indeed what Israelite is not apt to run at the sight of this Goliah the fear of dying is natural and so far from being evil that it was incident unto the Son of God who was heard in that he feared Christianity serves not to destroy but rectifie nature and Grace regulates this passion in us and corrects its exorbitances never intending to root it out And this is the method of Grace by daily exercise to master this fear though we cannot avoid it Whiles my fear apprehends ●ust terror in the face of death let my Faith carry me to the crucified Jesus who hath both overcome and sweetned it let me in the exercise of that Faith daily set my self against sin and world and flesh and Devil and the terrors of Death disband It is an excellent Christian Temper always to dwell in the Voysinage of the Grave as we do in our frailty so should we in our faith and hope and humble preparations lie at deaths door and though nature is loath to long for the Grave because she holds dissolution her greatest enemy for what can she abhor more than a not being yet Faith perswades that to die is gain Would we not carefully trade every day in that which is lucrous Phil. 1.21 and profitable Let us therefore come into S. Paul's practice of daily living so as dying may be advantageous we have fair respite given us in life which at best is but a span God might shorten it into an Inch but that he lengthens the day in order to further our work and that which is sanctified by the dying Saviour for our cessation is required as our uncessant Employ 'T is a woful Conversion that we read The sting of death is sin and again The sting of sin is death both meet in man to make him miserable death could not have stung us neither had it been at all in the world had it not been for sin and sin though in it self extremely hainous yet were not so dreadful if it paid not so horrible Wages How do we owe our selves to the Mercy of our Saviour who hath freed us from the evil of both having pulled out the sting of death that it cannot hurt us and having taken such course with the sting of sin which is death that instead of hurting it shall be exceeding helpful and is translated into our daily duty and benefit Into what a safe condition hath the Lord of Life put us as that we may daily be exercised about sin and death without dread or danger O let not the patience and sparing Mercies of God be longer abused by us