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	faith_n	spirit_n	6,139	5	5.3448	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80745	The saints fulnesse of joy in their fellowship with God presented in a sermon preached July 21. 1646. before the Honorable House of Commons in Margarets Westminster, being the day appointed for thankesgiving for the surrender of Oxford. By the least of saints, and the meanest of the ministers of the Gospel, W. Cradock.	Cradock, Walter, 1606?-1659.	1646 (1646)	Wing C6765; ESTC R231691	24,702	43

doe with such things but this is that I only ayme at whereas divers conceive that it is their spiritualnesse the excellency of their grace that they are carried on in Pulpits and Presses so vehemently in wrangling and striving about external things it is to be feared that much of that zeale violence and labour is fleshly and were wee more spirituall hundreds I beleive of those Questions would be removed that lie now like stumbling blocks in our way according to that in the 2. of this Epist ver 10. He that loves his brother abideth in the light and there is no occasion of stumbling in him And were wee filled with the knowledge of God the love of Christ humility and selfe-deniall preferring each other before our selves certainely a world of these controversies would soone vanish away As those that are spirituall can speake by experience A second thing I would have you to observe is this The best way to bring either a Sinner to God or to build up a Saint in any grace or in any point of godlinesse whatsoever Obser 2 is the spirituall promulgation manifestation or declaration of Jesus Christ in his person excellencies and Priviledges doings and sufferings c. This is the best meanes therefore John useth onely that he layes down Jesus Christ as one that had beene seene heard felt as it were to be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the eternall word that brought eternal life and he expects that this should worke in the soule faith joy c. I beseech you beare with mee beloved I feare we spend a great deale of our time almost in vaine and waste much of our labour when we would bring our owne hearts or others to a duty or stir up a grace we use and urge so many morall Motives and Meanes not that I say but wee may use motives and meanes spirituall and morall but if we did study to open Iesus Christ fully to the soule Iohn 3. 14. if we did lift up the Brazen Serpent so as poore people might behold him we should not need the tenth part of those meanes exhortations and paines that we now take For in the Gospel wee shall see and it is our wisdome to follow the scripture the neerer that the better the Apostles when they went forth to preach they told them a story if I may so speake with reverence of one Jesus Christ that was the word of God and that was become man and how he was crucified at Jerusalem and how he was raised from the dead and all this in a plaine simple spirituall way and manner and while they were telling these blessed stories the Spirit fell upon people and they beleived and had faith wrought in them Faith is not wrought so much in a rationall way I meane in a way of ratiocination as by the Spirit of God comming upon the soules of people by the relation or representation of Christ to the soule and this our Lord himselfe hintes As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the wildernesse even so must the Sonne of Iohn 3. 14. man be lifted up that whosoever beleiveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life You know the very beholding of the brazen Serpent when people were stung God so ordered it that the very beholding should bring help though we know not how to those that were wounded and stung by those Serpents so God hath ordained in his blessed wisdome that the discovery of Jesus Christ the beholding of him the eying of him by faith should be that which shall transforme us into his image and so conforme us to any duty as the Apostle saith wee are transformed while wee behold him with open face to his glory Hence it is that in Scripture 2 Cor. 3. 18. all godlinesse and every point of godlinesse is often called the knowledge of Christ For instance justification in Scripture is called the knowledge of Christ By his knowlede shall my righteous servant justifie many So also sanctification Esay 53. 2 Pet. 3. 18. Grow in grace in the knowledge of Christ After that by the knowledge of Jesus Christ they were cleansed from their sins c. Truly Beloved every grace is 2 Pet. 2. comprehended in the knowledge of Jesus Christ did we know Jesus Christ aright savingly spiritually effectually we should be full of faith full of godly feare full of humility full of self-deniall full of diligence and readines to every good word and worke so that our maine defect is in that but I passe by that also A third thing be pleased to observe from the coherence of these words that Divine objects seene by faith if it be a saving and right faith carries with them as much evidence certainty and assurance as any naturall thing that wee apprehend by any or all our naturall senses We have seen heard and tasted the more of our senses are imployed to apprehend a thing the more assurance confidence and evidence it carries with it Put the five senses together to discover any naturall object whatsoever that cannot be more sure and certaine to us then all spirituall objects apprehended by a spirituall Christian through a lively faith are to him therefore it is said that faith is the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11. 1. of things invisible he doth not say that faith is an opinion a probability a conjecture or a wild guesse but faith saith he is the evidence of things not seen that is of things that by naturall reason you cannot see yet making them as reall and as evident as any thing wee doe see by reason sense and all And thence Beloved you see that godly men in all ages have been so free to part with their credit to renounce their profit to lay downe their lives for spirituall things sake now did they not apprehend a reality and certainty in them surely they were no lesse then mad men to forgoe substances for shadowes It were no lesse then madnesse for a man to give himselfe up to be a prisener when he might be free to be a foole when he might be accounted wife to be poore when he might be rich if he did not see a reality in spirituall things for which he willingly forsakes and leaves all these other The Saints in all ages have done so wee read in the Epistle to the Hebrew of Moses and Abraham how Heb. 11. they forsooke all Abraham forsooke his countrey Moses forsooke Pharaohs house and they were no children for Moses was forty yeares old saith the Scripture when he refused the pleasures of Pharaohs house to imbrace afflictions with the poore Saints Whence was this thinke you Moses saw him that was invisible how by faith for all that chapter hath reference to and is but an illustration of the first verse Faith is the Heb. 11. evidence of things not seen and all the rest are examples of the same He saw him that is invisible and by the same

THE SAINTS FULNESSE OF JOY in their fellowship with God PRESENTED In a Sermon preached July 21. 1646. Before the Honorable House of Commons in Margarets Westminster Being the day appointed for Thankesgiving for the surrender of OXFORD By the least of Saints and the meanest of the Ministers of the Gospel W. Cradock LONDON Printed by Matthew Simmons and are to be sold by George VVhittington at the blew Anchor neere the Royall Exchange 1646. THere was an Order from the Honorable House of Parliament to print this Discourse such as it is allowing me the usuall priviledges vouchsafed in this kind in obedience to which Order I appoint Matthew Simmons and Hannah Allen to print the same W. C. TO THE HONORABLE House of Commons ASSEMBLED IN PARLIAMENT PEACE among Brethren is the Pearle that is lost in these dayes which many pretend to seek and all justly complaine is wanting many out-cryes there are for it in the mouth 's of some whose hearts and principles are full of warre and contention Their words are Ps 55. 21. softer then oyle and yet they be drawne swords Yea such is the hypocrisie of this age that it is become almost the Character of a Malignant or Atheist in all companies with much seeming zeale and devotion to pray and desire Peace Union Reconciliation neglecting the while all meanes that may conduce to the same Others there are and those not a few who long for Peace and that sincerely but not hitting the right way to attaine to it doe often cast more Oyle into the flame and make the breach wider This following Discourse though it be the meanest of any that ever hath been presented unto you points out the surest and readiest way to finde this Jewel i. Fellowship with the Father and his Sonne Jesus Christ Fellowship with God necessarily begets fellowship between men He onely is an enemy to Man that is not upon tearmes of friendship with God God is love and when we are in him and walke with him wee cannot but be like him Could wee fully apprehend God as our Father Christ as our Head all the Saints his members chosen and beloved wee should no longer bite teare and devoure one another a spirit of Love Goodnesse Meeknesse Long-suffering that is in God and dwells in Christ would run through all our veines tempering our hearts and framing our carriages Euk. 6. Ephes 5. towards men as God's in Christ hath been towards us Yea it would mollifie our spirits towards all even the worst of men and make us live peaceably as much as in us lieth with all men To give no offence to any man Rom. 12. 1 Cor. 10. Titus 3. 1 Cor. 4. Mat. 5. To speake evill of no man To blesse when wee are blasphemed To give up our cloakes to him that takes away our coat c. And because there is a generall distance growne between men and God an intermission of spirituall fellowship therefore these Scriptures are become now Apocryphall which were precious Truths formerly to the Saints and it may be still are to a few who studied rather to conforme themselves to the strictest Rules then wrest the Rule to their owne carnall senses and corrupt lusts a practice too common in these times Oh that wee could then doe as the wise Traveller who being wilderd in a Forrest despairing to finde the way forward returnes thither where he first lost his way We have lost our way our selves our God and all almost by an Over-violent contention about Things externall Wee have cast durt upon each other that will not be wiped off our names in many Ages opened the mouth 's of the wicked rejoyced the hearts of Papists grieved the Spirit of God Oh how happy should wee yet be if wee would returne to our GOD renewing our fellowship with him in the Spirit Surely it was better with us then when wee made our Hos 2 Fellowship with God Holinesse Righteousnesse our chiefe studie when Christianitie and the power of Godlinesse was the Cement that united us together When wee were distinguished from the world and knowne to one another by the style of Saints Professors of Godlinesse Honest-men It is one of my firmest Principles and by Gods Grace shall ever be my practice to make union and communion with God my maine worke to studie peace with all men To Love Honour Receive SAINTS quà SAINTS To receive I say those whom Christ hath received The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ binde up every one of your soules in that bundle and so preserve your whole spirit soule and body blamelesse unto his comming which shall ever be the most unfeigned prayer of Your most humble servant W. CRADOCK A SERMON PREACHED at the late Thankesgiving before the Honourable House of COMMONS 1 IOHN 1. 3 4. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Sonne Jesus Christ And these things write wee unto you that your joy may be full THe chiefe end Beloved of your meeting here this day is to rejoyce together for those manifold mercies that the Lord hath been pleased to bestow of late especially upon you and the whole Kingdom and I suppose that we I meane the Ministers that are called hither by you are intended to be as the Scripture saith as furtherers of Phil. 1. 25. your joy But truly Beloved those mercies of themselves that are in your thoughts and that have been spoken of here already at large I meane those victories and surrenders of Garrisons c. though I confesse they be very great and glorious yet they may in a sort be reckoned among naturall things they are at best but temporall mercies and so they can produce but a kind of naturall joy For as wee heard this morning vide Mr. Wilkinsons Sermon the effect must be as the cause is And as it is somewhat beneath a Christian to insist much upon those naturall things thereby to expresse naturall affections so is it much more below the worke of a Gospel Minister to stir you up to such joyes as these things doe properly produce Therefore my designe at this time is as God shall inable me to raise you up a little above all these things to lead you to spirituall joy which indeed is the onely true joy at least the fountaine of all joy For take any other joy and abstract it from its spiritualities then indeed you may say of it with Solomon it is but as the crackling of thornes Eeles 7. 6. it is light short superficiall and will undoubtedly end in everlasting sorrow Therefore as I would not put you out of your way of rejoycing so I wish I could scrue you up to the truest joy that is to the most spirituall joy which is fully laid downe here in my text And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Sonne Jesus Christ And these things write wee unto you that your joy may be full The Apostle in this