Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sin_n	body_n	death_n	wage_n	3,957	5	10.8789	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67173	The mourners memorial in two sermons on the death of the truly pious Mris. Susanna Soame, late wife of Bartholomew Soame of Thurlow, Esq., who deceased Febru. 14, 1691/2 : with some account of her death / by Timothy Wright, Robert Fleming.	Wright, Timothy.; Fleming, Robert, 1660?-1716.	1695 (1695)	Wing W3712; ESTC R25216	54,544	137

of happiness a fulness of Glory both subjective and objective glory shining in them and glory shining upon and round about yea into them transfusing its bright beams through them a fulness of honour infinitely transcending all those fading Titles which advance one man so high above another in this lower World and a fulness of joy satisfaction and delight even those pure refined pleasures that are at Gods right Psal 16. v. 11. hand for evermore All this and a great deal more that neither our words nor thoughts can reach is summarily comprehended in that Eternal Life which all they shall certainly attain at the end of their course who by patient continuance in well-doing do seek for glory and honour and immortality Which will more plainly appear to us by considering that which follows in the next place in order namely III. That which remains in the last place to be spoken to is the connection between the qualifications imported in the foregoing Character and that glorious felicity unto which all that bear it shall at last be advanced between a Christians course and his crown between his seeking for glory and honour and immortality in the way here described and that eternal life in which he shall finally enjoy all that he sought for That there is a connection between them is sufficiently evident inasmuch as the one is attainable no other way but by the other And of what kind this connection is I am now to shew And in short It is easie forus to apprehend that this connection is not natural and necessary but ordinate not such as doth necessarily result from the nature of the things themselves that are here connected but such as hath its foundation in the gracious ordination and appointment of God For it is sufficiently evident to any one that doth attentively and seriously consider it That there is no just and adequate proportion between the most diligent and industrious Christians present service and his future eternal reward And so it is no less obvious for us to conceive that the connection that is between them is not founded in Merit but in Free Grace For when we have done all we must say we Luk. 17. v. 10. are unprofitable Servants we have done only that which was our duty to do And it is most absurd for any one to think to merit any thing by the payment of a just Debt And therefore the Scripture speaks of eternal life under the notion of a Gift as obtained only by the free donation of God and not as a possession accruing to us by any desert of our own whereas on the other hand that eternal death which is the just punishment of Sin is called Wages as being no more than what it doth most iustly deserve Rom. 6. 23. For the Wages of Sin is death But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so the Reward of the eternal inheritance is several times in Scripture under the Title of Mercy As the Apostle prayed for Onesiphorus 2 Tim. 1. 18. The Lord grant unto him that he may find Mercy of the Lord at that day And so we are exhorted to keep our selves in the love of God looking for the Mercy of our Jude v. 21. Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life And therefore it is manifest that the connection that is between the Christians service and reward his Course and his Crown is not founded in merit but in the free Grace and undeserved Love of God in Christ to which alone that gracious Promise or Covenant is intirely owing whereby he hath been pleased to establish an immutable order between them so as that the one shall be infallibly consequent upon the other But the connection is never the less firm or certain for being so founded as it is but rather the more so For the Covenant of Grace which is the more immediate ground and foundation of it is an everlasting Covenant a covenant not 2 Sam. 23 v. 5. only ordered in all things but also sure Forasmuch as the divine eternal veracity is engaged to make good every Article of it to as many as have regularly laid hold upon it and by an hearty compliance with its conditions come to have a real interest in it For altho' God was unlimitedly free before he made the promise and established his Gracious Covenant with us yet that being once done he is obliged for the honour of his Truth and Righteousness to make it good And so though in strictness he can owe nothing to us he is a Debter to his own Promise And at the last day he will be glorified not only as the free and magnificent Donor of all the Treasures of Heaven but also as the God of Truth in fulfilling all the exceeding great and precious Promises that he 2 Pet. 1. v. 4. hath made unto his faithful Servants And therefore Vnto them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality he will not fail to render eternal Life And having thus with as much brevity as the Subject could well admit finished what I proposed to speak doctrinally from this Text of Scripture All that now remains is to make some application of what hath been said unto our selves And 1. From hence we learn with what magnanimity and nobleness of Spirit true living Christianity doth inspire those in whom it takes place elevating and raising their minds and hearts above this perishing World and all its fading transitory enjoyments Steadily inclining them to seek those things that are above Col. 3. v. 1. insomuch that nothing lower than heavenly glory and immortal honour can now content them or compose their Desires into a complacential Rest and satisfaction While others that are acted by the forbid abject and base Spirit of this World lie groveling in the dust of this earth drudging and toyling for what is only accommodate unto their mortal part the living Christian being made alive to God through Rom. 6. v. 11. Jesus Christ his Lord and having received not the Spirit of this World but the Spirit that is from God is continually 1 Cor. 2. v. 12. aspiring upwards in heavenly thoughts desires and aims ever seeking for glory and honour and immortality till he comes to the actual fruition of all in eternal life 2. What hath been said may serve also to discover to us the preposterous folly of their presumptuous hopes who think at last to obtain eternal life tho' they take no care to seek it in that way which the Gospel doth prescribe and in which only it is to be found even by a patient continuance in well-doing Heaven and eternal happiness are promised to none as an absolute irrespective Gift but as a Reward consequent upon service And therefore whosoever are careless and unconcerned about the duty and service of the present state will be sure to sall short of the glory and felicity of the future

indeed an Essential part of man yet it is the less principal part since the Soul can act and live as well out of it as in it And therefore it is from the Original of the Soul that the birth of man is chiefly to be reckoned rather than from the formation of the body Now if accordingly we compute the birth of a Saint we are led to a Threefold Birth which results from the Consideration The 1st is by Creation when the Soul of Man is at first created and placed in the body Which indeed carries along with it the formation of the body also for we can't conceive the body to be formed as to its due perfection with respect to union with the Soul till the moment of the Souls infusion therein if with the Schools I may be admitted to use such a word who tell us of the Soul that creando infunditur insundendo creatur But that the Soul derives its original from Gods immediate creating it and not ex traduce I speak with all deference to learned and worthy Persons of another judgment may seem plain if it were but from that one Scripture Zech. 12. 1. especially if we duely consider its connexion with what precedes I say then that the first birth of man to speak properly is to be reckoned from the union of the Soul and body in the womb which as to priority of time seems to be instantaneously upon the Creation of the Soul rather than from the Egress of the child from thence But since we are most taken with what is most sensible to us I shall not contend about words if the thing be understood Especially seeing the Scripture is so calculated in its Expressions as to use words commonly in use understood by the lowest form of Christians Only howsoever we use words I am confident to say that the Birth of Man may very well be reckoned from the Vnion of Soul and Body in the womb For whatever hath these two constituent parts of man can be assign'd to no other class but that of Mankind The 2. Birth of Man according to the Soul is in Regeneration or Conversion Of which Christ speaking Joh. 3. Calls it the birth of a man from above v. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The 3. Birth is in Glorification And this admits of a Twofold Period viz. 1. As to the Soul only at Death when it separates from the Body and becomes from that moment perfectly freed from sin and misery and admitted to the enjoyment of true happiness above For the Souls of just persons even then are said to be made perfect Heb. 12. 23. 2. As to Soul and Body when re-united at the Resurrection which is called the Adoption and Redemption of the Body Rom. 8. 23. Now from all this we may arrive to make some tolerable Estimate of that which we commonly call the Birth and Death of a Saint For 1. that which we commonly call Birth is nothing else but mans Egress from the womb and his Ingress into the Society of Mortals here Now what is this but a kind of Death since we being our selves Mortal see and converse only with Mortal Objects as all things external here are Whence it is that all mans time on earth even from the Evening of the Worlds Creation to the Morning of the Resurrection is esteemed but as one Night as is imported Psal 49. 14. When the Resurrection is Emphatically Termed the Morning both with respect to the night of time preceding and the day of eternity about to succeed And hence also our Life on earth is called a Sleep wherein we rather dream of things than really apprehend them and out of which we are first thorowly awaked by Death We may see this plainly hinted Psal 17. 15. Whereas 2. that which we call commonly Death is nothing else but the unpinning our mortal Tabernacles and the manumitting us into the immortal Regions of Light Love and Liberty Of which the great Saints in Scripture speak no otherwise than in the familiar Dialect of putting off a suit of old Apparrel for new and more glorious ones Thus Paul calls it a being unclothed as to the Body and clothed upon by having Mortality swallowed up of Life 2 Cor. 5. 4. And Peter calls it a putting off this his Tabernacle 2 Eph. 1. 14. Again 2 let us consider Death the right notion whereof will become more facile to our apprehensions by what we have said of Life All therefore that I shall say of it is that besides that which we commonly call so there is a Twofold Death in a Spiritual sense which falls under consideration here The 1. is a Death in Sin which is entered into at our Birth into the world For then it is that we come to enter upon the Stage of a sinful world We are shapen in sin and conceived in iniquity And our Birth into the world is rather a kind of Death than Life since we are exposed thereby to sinning and suffering to vanity and vexation of Spirit The 2. is a Death to Sin which is entered upon at the dissolution of the tye between Soul and body upon which account it is called Death But tho' it disunite soul and body for a time yet it may rather be called the Birth of the Soul in as far as it translates it from all manner of sin and misery It is true indeed as was said before Regeneration is a kind of new Birth to the Soul in as far as it delivers us from the death of sin in a great measure Yet since that is but a deliverance in part therefore it is by death only that we come totally to dye to sin Tho' I grant that this death to sin comes to be more illustriously display'd at the great period of the Resurrection When the last enemy Death comes to be Totally destroyed and swallowed up in Victory 1 Cor. 15. 54. So that from hence we may see that our Birth into this world is a Death in Sin whereas our Dissolution or the separation of soul and body is properly a Death to Sin or a manumission and freedom given us both from Sin and misery Wherefore from all that hath been said in the Premises as to both these Terms of Birth and Death we may not injustly invert the notion of them with respect to the Saints and say That the day of our Birth into this world was the day of our Death in sin ignorance vanity and misery Whereas the day of our Death may be justly reputed to be the day of our Birth into the world of purity knowledge light and rest But 2dly I come now to consider what that thing we call Life is which the two Periods of Birth and Death enter us upon and with respect to which we can only pass a right judgement of the preferableness of either of them And truely as to this matter we are very much in the dark taking that to be life which hath little more of