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	word_n	6,724	5	4.6817	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53117	The fall of man by sinne delivered in a sermon preached at the late solemne fast, Aug. 28, 1644 : wherein these three positions are briefly handled : 1. That all men are miserably fallen from God by sin, and are in a lost condition, 2. That we must see ourselves thus fallen, and utterly lost in ourselves, before we can convert and turn to God by repentance, 3. That formes of prayer may, in some cases be lawfully and warrantably used : published at the request of that truly religious and vertuous gentlewoman, mistris Elizabeth Barnham, wife to the worshipfull Robert Barnham, Esq. / by William Newport, Preacher of the word at Boughton Monchelsey in Kent.	Newport, William, Preacher of the word at Boughton Monchelsey in Kent.	1644 (1644)	Wing N940; ESTC R3278	14,865	30

therefore they were guilty of original sin Looke as ignoble and leprous parents beget none but ignoble and leprous children and as of serpents can come nothing but serpents so of polluted parents come onely polluted children for who can bring a cleane thing out of an uncleane not one Job 14.4 And this originall filth is called sometimes Lust Rom. 7.7 sometimes the law in the members vers 23. the body of sinne vers 24. and the old man Ephes 4.22 And this is the sourse and fountaine of all our actuall sins and cause of all our fals Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with evill neither tempteth he any man But every man is tempted when he is drawne away of his owne lust and entised Then lust when it hath conceived bringeth forth sinne and si●● when it is finished bringeth forth death James 1.13 14 15. Many put their greatest miscarriages upon the devil the devil owed them a shame and now he hath payed them when as the chiefe cause of all our fals lyes in our own hearts The devill can but suggest and sollicit he cannot compell us to sin if he did not plow with our owne heifer work on our own corruption he could do us no hurt And so long as this seed of all iniquity remaines in mens hearts they would commit sin if there were no devill to tempt them to it Vse 1 This informes of two things 1. Since we have falne and so falne as hath been shewed by our sins this discovers to us our great misery by reason of sinne and iniquity We have falne by it to our undoing to our destruction from God from blisse to misery falne not only to the breaking of our bones with David but to the breaking of our necks with Iezebel faln so as that wee have lost life spiritual life eternal by our fal and are in a lost dead and undone condition without infinite mercy We have deprived our selves of all ability to serve our God and have made our selves slaves to the devil We have made our selves children of wrath and fit for nothing but to fry in hell for all eternity We have plunged our selves from the top of our felicity to the gulfe of endlesse misery We think them unhappy that fall from honor to contempt from wealth to beggery O how unhappy are wee that have falne by our sins from God to the devil from the highest blisse to the lowest infelicity And in this case we are not able to helpe our selves nor to desire helpe nor to see our selves to want helpe unlesse God be pleased to give us eyes Few men though they are thus falne and thus miserable wil be brought to believe it 2. This shewes against the patrons of Free-will and universall grace that man hath no power to see light when presented to him unlesse God give him eyes no power to believe in Christ and to embrace him unlesse God give him an heart no power to do any spirituall work unlesse God give life strength and ability Rom. 7.18 I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing Hence David prayes for the opening of his eyes Psal 119.18 Lord open thou mine eyes that I may see the wonders of thy Law And Saint Paul desires light from God in the behalfe of the Ephesians That the eyes of your understanding being enlightened yee may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints Ephes 1.18 And so for the Colossians he prayes That they might be filled with the knowledge of Gods will in wisedome and spirituall understanding Coloss 1.9 And he shewes us that the act of beleeving is Gods gift To you it is given not only to beleeve but likewise to suffer for his sake Philip. 1.29 And that the will to any good is wrought in us by God himselfe 'T is God that workes in you to will and to doe of his good pleasure Philip. 3.13 Not that God doth force the will for then 't were no will but that he doth sweetly incline it ex nolentibus volentes facit of unwilling hee makes us willing to repent beleeve and obey The will is free from coaction or impulsion but not from servitude Men in state of nature sinne freely that is to say they are not constrained to it and yet they sin necessarily too for they cannot doe any thing without sin Quest. But is God just then in punishing men that sin necessarily so that they cannot avoid it Answ I do not say that men are necessitated to commit every particular sin that they are guilty of for from outward acts of sinne and uncleannesse men in state of nature have power to abstaine but this is that which I affirme that they can doe nothing but either materially or formally 't is a sin for they are out of Christ and therefore must needs faile in every act either in matter manner or end Neither can God be charged with injustice in punishing wicked men that sin necessarily because they have voluntarily lost their liberty and drawn this necessity of sinning upon themselves God made us free-men wee made our selves slaves Eccles 7.29 Vse 2 Since we are thus dangerously falne we should be exhorted to labour to rise again by repentance and by faith in Christs bloud This is the Prophets inference here O Israel returne to the Lord thy God for thou hast falne by thine iniquity Since thou hast falne from God by sin therefore returne to him againe by repentance And this wee are moved to on the same ground by the Apostle Ephes 5.14 Awake thou that sleepest stand up from the dead and Christ shall give thee light And Christ himselfe hath the same inference in his Epistle to the Church of Ephesus Remember from whence thou art falne and repent Revel 2.5 Object But possibly you will say What would you have dead men doe if our fall be such that wee have spiritually slaine our selves by it how can wee raise our selves from this death to life by repentance Answ 1 Though of your selves you cannot repent or beleeve yet you can come to the Word which is the instrument to worke faith and repentance to convert you from sin to God the Law of God is perfect converting the soule Psal 19.7 The Gospell preached is Gods mighty power to salvation Rom. 1.16 Saint Paul was sent to the Gentiles To turne them from darknesse to light from the power of Satan unto God Act. 26.18 And therefore we should settle our selves under the meanes and bring tractable hearts with us willing to be new formed and new moulded by this Word 2. We should pray to Christ to enliven us by his Spirit for al spiritual life comes from him Hence he is called the life Joh. 14.6 the life causally because he breathes the breath of spiritual life into the soules of his at their regeneration as he did

but argue a quick apprehension and nimble expression c. no doubt but he that askes them the same may aske them with as much earnestnesse and as good an affection as the other Our Saviour in his agony said Father if it be possible c. and went again and again and used the same words Matth. 26.49 Not that he that was the eternal Word of the Father wanted variety of words to expresse himself but for our example to shew that wee may even with zeale and earnestnesse aske the same things again and again in the same words Howbeit for a Christian to be absolutely word-bound to be tied so to anothers forme or his own that he hath no liberty to vary in any expression is a great bondage and deading to his spirit and may occasion a great deale of meere formality in prayer But now when a Christian hath need to aske some speciall mercy either in his own behalfe or the behalfe of his neighbour or in the behalfe of the whole Church of God or when he receives some new mercy There is no question but he is to aske the one and to give thankes for the other in new expressions This therefore is that which I determine viz. that weak Christians may use forms as helps to their infirmity until they gather more strength and that then they are to lay them aside as a lame man his crutches when hee is recovered his lamenesse And as for those that are better able they may aske those things they daily need in the same words and give thankes for those things they daily receive in the same expressions so that they looke that they bee not meerely formall in what they do and that otherwise every growne Christian is to vary as his occasions do vary Harris in his Quaeries and cases touching theory and practice of Prayer And this is the sentence of one of our Divines of that Assembly that comes behind none of them as I suppose for learning naturall abilities or grace Vse 1 This blames therefore two sorts of men 1. The Anabaptists and those of the Seperation that condemne not only corrupt formes but all formes of prayer holding the use of them to be a meere superstitious will-worship for they say it is not to pray in the spirit and if the formes bee composed by others that it is to worship God by mens inventions Of whom I would know whether the godly Jewes using this forme prescribed by the Prophet with a good heart did pray in the spirit or no I hope they will not deny it Next I would know by whose invention they worship God when they conceive a prayer If they shall say that 't is by the invention of the Spirit of God that is the opinion of the Entheusiasts which look to have the Spirit put words into their mouthes which is as much as ever it did for the Prophets and Apostles whereas the Spirit in ordinary times such as ours only stirs up holy desires in the soule the formation of these desires into verball petitions depends upon mens naturall abilities as we may see by every dayes experience Rom. 8.2 The spirit helpeth our infirmities with sighs and grones not with words and phrases There are that looke for all those gifts now that the eminentest in the Apostles times had viz. That their sonnes and their daughters shall prophesie that their old men shall dreame dreames and that their young men shall see visions Joel 2.28 I am confident that many both old and young in this age dreame more dreames and divulge them too then tend to the glory of God or the good of his Church But why doe not these and their children undertake to foretell things to come too as Agabus and others did in the Apostles times If they cannot do that I le ne're beleeve they can speak by the spirit of prophesie Besides what do these men think of all those formes of prayer mentioned before used by Moses Christ and his Apostles Object Reading and praying bee two things therefore a man cannot doe both at once reade a forme and pray too Answ I deny the consequence they are two such things as may well enough goe together A man may sing and pray and therefore no doubt he may reade and pray too The modulation of the voice in singing is as likely to take off the heart from the matter as the use of the eye in reading 2. Some formalists thinke that nothing can be done without formes and therefore when they are in any distresse presently they mumble over the Lords Prayer or some other that they have learnt by rote without any understanding or heart at all These are just like our foolish Papists that use their prayers in all temptations and afflictions as charmes and spels to remove the evils from them This is only to take the Lords Name in vain to abuse his Titles and his Word and to provoke him to more wrath and indignation against them Though I like not the former yet I like these you must thinke worse by many degrees the former have some good-wil to Religion though mis-led but these are grossely ignorant and dangerously hypocriticall for they draw neere to God with their lips and honour him with their mouthes when their hearts are not with him Let mee exhort those that in regard of knowledge and utterance cannot pray without the help of a forme to labour to get good and wholesome formes and to make use of them we see that the use of them in this case is warranted But let such take these two cautions along with them 1. Let them look that they be not meerly formall in what they do in this kind And therefore they should get them such formes as they understand and must when they have them looke that they utter them with an apprehension and feeling of their own wants in every petition and with an earnest desire to have them supplyed 't is the understanding and the fervent prayer that prevailes with God 1 Cor. 14.15 16. James 5.16 2. Let them not rest upon forms thinking they doe enough because they make use of them and pray by them but let them resolve to use them only as helpes to their dulnesse and incapacity for a time with a purpose to lay them aside when they shall through Gods grace and their earnest endevours get more knowledge and better abilities And therefore they yea all of us should be much imployed in searching out our own wants and in the study of the holy Scriptures that in the one wee may find matter of Prayer and in the other we find out fit words and phrases to expresse our selves in that variety of occasions that wee shall meet withall in the many turnings and windings of our lives He that takes this course with a resolution through Gods assistance to get ability in this kind will find a great deale of comfort in it and get that ability to speak in prayer pro re nata as doth almost as much excell formes as a living man doth a dead cakasse FINIS