Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	believe_v	eternal_a	life_n	3,820	5	4.8065	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64836	A warning to back-sliders, or, A discovery for the recovery of fallen ones delivered in a sermon at Pauls, before the Right Honourable, the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the city of London / Ralph Venning.	Venning, Ralph, 1621?-1674.	1654 (1654)	Wing V229; ESTC R8176	20,885	66

how can ye break my holy Commandments with what face dare ye do these things Now I say very ingenuity makes the soul to cry out as Saul did Is this thy voice O my God is this thy voice have I alas I have done wicedly I will do so no more I will go home LORD I will go home I will hunt after thy Name and thy Glory no more for thou Oh love though thou didst finde me thine enemy yet didst thou let me go well away Oh saith Ingenuity shall I now be an enemy to the God that hath been a friend to me God forbid Ah no I will go home Take but one instance of this overcoming consideration wherein you shall see backsliders returning upon this very account in Jer. 3.22 Returne ye backsliding children saith the Lord and I will heal your backsliding What followes hereupon Behold we come unto thee Oh Lord our God What Ingenuity if any left can stand it out against such sweet invitations such not only alluring but securing promises surely none Behold we come Thus much or thus little may suffice concerning the Doctrinal part to have shewen you That remembring or calling to minde from whence we are fallen doth very much conduce to our recovery and how it doth it by working upon our Modesty Fear and Ingenuity What remains now But to beseech every one to remember whence ye are fallen for we are all fallen short of the glory of God And here we might take an occasion to look as farre back as Paradise and to view that innocent state wherein man once stood and there also to take an account how well it was with man then when he stood before God having no clothing but his innocency and therefore needed not to be ashamed though naked no sin no shame Certainly my beloved it is not with us alas it is not with us our blushing tells us that it is not with us as when we came out of the hands of God Our feare also tells us that it is not with us as when God made us if God should come to us as he did to Adam and say Adam where art thou where art thou O man I am afraid that he would finde as well as make us afraid he would finde us running behinde the trees of the garden to shelter our selves and say I heard thy voice and was afraid Now I say let us call to mind from whence we are fallen for we are all Renegadoes we are all degenerated we are all slidden back fallen down into a lumpish earthly condition Oh let us look back again to Paradise and let our eyes affect our hearts that we may be re-instated yea into a better Paradise even into the second Adam the Lord Christ from heaven heavenly There 's no way to Paradise but by Christ This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Be with me marke that when a man is with Christ that I may allude he is then in Paradise then truly in happinesse That day wherein Christ comes to a mans houso salvation comes to a man and that day that a man comes to Christ he comes to salvation Oh let us long to be dissolved in this sense to die to our sins that we may be with Christ that we again enjoy that old acquaintance which man had with God before he sinned before shame and before fear seized upon our hearts But seeing this is not the direct meaning import or scope of this place I shall passe it by having given it this touch by the way This word preperly relates to us as we have pretended to look heaven-ward again by having an eye to Christ making a profession of the Name and fear of God and that which it calls upon us for is to consider whether it be with us as at first whether it be with us as in the dayes of our youth when we came in to God in the beginning of our dayes Let us look back a little and remember from whence we are fallen for I am afraid it will be made appear that we are fallen not only short of God for that we are at best but short of our selves we are not as we were we do not do as we did it is not with us as in moneths past Now that you may know whether and wherein you are fallen and so remember it as to repent and do the first works I shal shew you what Christians are at their first coming in and conversion to God I shall draw the picture of their life though not to the life and set before you some of their frames and works at first There are ten things which I shall commend to your consideration with my prayer to God that they may conduce to recovery The first thing is this First That at the first Professours looked more after goodnesse then after greatnesse they minded more the beautifying of their soules then the ●●●orning of their bodies they minded more eternity and the things thereof then they did time and the things thereof they cared more to be the Lords people then to be Lords amongst the people When others cry Who will shew us any good corne and wine and o●le their cry is Lord lift up upon us the light of thy countenance Let us enjoy our God take the world who will This I believe some of you know was once your heart well then if now thou minde greatnesse more then goodness the adorning of thy body more then the beautifying of thy soul and the things of this world more then the things of eternity and eternal life thou art fallen O remember from whence thou art fallen Souls had wont to be so taken up with the longing after communion with God that they were scarce at leisure to bestow their looks upon the worlds vanity If thou now be at leisure to bestow thine heart thou art fallen O remember then from whence thou art fallen It is a very glorious frame that is mentioned concerning our forefathers in the 11th of the Hebrewes Abraham and Jsaac and Jacob in the 13th vers These all died in faith not having received the promises but having seen them a far off were perswaded of them and embraced them to embrace a promise at a thousand years distance two thousand years distance that is noble faith and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth for they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a Countrey Mark their whole busines was to go home to God all their travel in this world was to travel heaven-ward they make no more use of this earth but to set their feet on it and walk on heaven-ward they declared plainly no Demonstration is more evident then that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob sought a Countrey that they were not taken up with the things of this world they sought a countrey Now my beloved if we are come to this that we declare plainly that we sit down and build our houses our

that never did them hurt but good all their dayes A God who when they wanted bread fed them when they wanted water smote the rock and gave them drink He was no wildernesse to them in the wildernesse While they were in a barren land God was fruitfulnesse to them he rained Manna from Heaven and fed them with Angels food and gave them Honey out of the rock c. Now after this expostulation when a man reflecting upon himself shall look back upon and read over his wayes and then finde I had no reason to break the holy just and good commandments of my God I can give God no account why I should returne to folly why I should walk after vanity lying vanities why I should forsake my first love What follows hereupon but shame and blushing so that for very shame the man repents and returnes to do his first works 2. Remembring from whence we are fallen works upon us by way of fear There is in man a fear when he hath committed evil fear falls upon him and the man is afraid lest the iniquitie of his heels should overtake him You know that no sooner had Adam sinned but the man was afraid and hid himself for fear No sooner had Cain sinned but Cain was afraid and presently his countenance fell When men fall their countenance and their courage falls When once men remember from whence they are fallen they feare lest threatnings should take hold of them and are afraid lest God should reward them according to their iniquities God shakes his rod over backsliders and threatens them that if they do not come to him he will come c. If they come not to him for their safety he will come to them for their ruine Now very feare lest the wrath and damnation which God hath denounced against sinners should fall upon them and be their portion very feare I say ingages them to returne And my beloved God doth allow in us this principle of fear none of the faculties or affections of man are extinguished but all made use of in working man God-ward God doth not only make use of a mans modesty love and ingenuity but he makes use also of that fearfulnesse that is in man and therefore you shall finde that Christ himself surely not for nought gives this rule to his own Disciples Fear not him that can kill only the body but fear him that can take soul and body and throw them into hell I say unto you Fear him And as the Apostle saith so may I Knowing the terror of the Lord we perswade men Knowing what a dreadfull thing 't is to fall into the hands of the living God we perswade men to remember from whence they are fallen and to repent 3. But then thirdly remembring from whence we are fallen works upon our ingenuity too Man is a very docible and teachable creature and is exceedingly wrought upon by courtesies and kindnesses Now when a soul sees that God doth not only threaten him in case he do nor come in that he shall be damned but also promises him in case he do come in that he shall be welcome that he shall be saved this so works upon mans ingenuity that he cannot finde it in his heart to stand it out against such a God A God of love and kindnesse who promises all the entertainment that love can make for poor souls and Oh Lord how sweet will that be God deals not with man after the manner of men Jer. 3.1 They say saith God If a man put away his wife and she go from him and become another mans shall she return again No say they by no means But I say Thou and though thou hast plaid the harlot with many lovers yet come and welcome to me saith the Lord. Now what soul can finde in its heart when God saith Come and I will pardon all thy backslidings I will forgive all thine iniquities I will entertain thee and remember thy sin no more thou shalt never heare of it again I will never upbraid thee with falling from thy first love if thou wilt return and make thine abode with me What soul I say can look God in the face and turne his back upon that face that lovely and smiling lovelooking face Who can do it I remember a very notable instance of this ingenuity in Saul towards David it 's a place worth your turning to it to reade and observe it 1 Sam. 24. You know that David had an advantage against Saul and could have cut off his head but David cuts off only the lap of his garment to let Saul know that he could for it was in his power to have done more Now said David Behold this day thine eyes sufficient witnesses have seen how the Lord had delivered thee into mine hands and some bade me kil thee would I have observed the opportunity of providence or attended to counsel I had slain thee but mine eye spared thee whose eye spared not me and I said I will not put forth mine hand against my Lord though my Lord hath put forth his hand against me Moreover my Father if thou doubt it see yea see the skirt of thy Robe in my hand for in that I cut off the skirt of thy Robe and killed thee not know thou and see for 't is undeniably true that there is no transgression in my hand that I have not sinned as 't is charged upon me as if I sought not only the Crown but the Kings life that I might have his head and then the Crown and if not Why Oh why huntest thou my soul i.e. my life to take it Here is DAVIDS plea. Let us now see the issue and successe thereof vers 16. It came to passe when David had made an end of speaking these wordes that Saul melting and weeping said Is this thy voice my son Oh my son David and Saul lift up his voice and wept and he said yea and had cause to say to David Thou art more righteous then I and he proves it clearly thus For thou hast rewarded me good whereas I rewarded thee evil and thou hast demonstratively shewed this day that thou hast dealt well with me for as much as when the Lord had delivered me into thine hand thou didst not kill me which he wondred at upon this account if a man finde his enemy will he let him go well a way Oh no and at last saith the Text Saul went home Saul scorned to be so base to hunt after Davids life any more No but Saul went home Why now here is the case the very case my beloved we are all every one of us a backslidden man that 's fallen into the hands of God He might have cut off our heads but Oh mercy he only cuts off the skirt of our garments and when he hath done he shewes it us and then askes us Oh ye sinners ye sinners how can yeo hunt after my Glory how can ye hunt after my Name