Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	death_n	sin_n	wage_n	4,853	5	11.4614	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25247	Prima the first things, in reference to the middle and last things: or, the doctrine of regeneration, the new birth, the very beginning of a godly life. Delivered by Isaac Ambrose, minister of the Gospel at Preston in Amounderness in Lancashire.; Prima, media, & ultima. Prima.	Ambrose, Isaac, 1604-1664.	1650 (1650)	Wing A2964; ESTC R213988	65,629	80

this case Can he enter into heaven that savours all of earth Will those precious gates of gold and pearls open to a sinner No he must first be new moulded and sanctified or he is excepted Except a man be new born Secondly Except This and man is Gods enemy no greater opposition than betwixt God and a sinner Consider we him in his essence or in his attributes in his essence he is called Jehovah both in respect of his being and of his promises in respect of his being and so God is contrary to sin for sin is ataxy disorder confusion a not-being and God is order perfection holiness an absolute and a simple being in respect likewise of his promises wherein there is a main opposition to sin for howsoever he promiseth a reward to the regenerate and so the name Jehovah is a golden pledge unto us Psal 11.6 that if we repent he will forgive us yet withal he promiseth storms and tempest fire and perdition to the unregenerate and thus his name and nature is altogether opposite to sin and sinners But view we those attributes of God I mean his Justice truth patience holiness anger power his Justice in punishing the impenitent according to his deserts his truth effecting those plagues which he hath spoken in his time his patience forbearing sins destruction till they are grown full ripe his holiness abhorring all impurities He cannot behold iniquity his anger stirring up revenge against all offered injuries his power mustring up his forces yea all his creatures against his enemies and what can we say but if all these attributes are at enmity with sinful man woe worth to man because of offences better he had never been born then not to be new born alas what shall become of him Can he that is Gods enemy see God in his glory no there is no way but one Except he repent Except he be born again Thirdly Ephes 2.12 1 Cor. 5.17 Except by a new birth man is without Christ for If any man be in Christ he is a new creature And if he be not in Christ what hopes of that man It is onely Christ that opens Heaven it is onely Christ that is the Way to Heaven besides him there is no Way no Truth no Life and if we be in him as the branch in the vine it is of necessity that we bring forth good fruit Upon these terms his death is effectual if we become new creatures or otherwise all his Merits his blood that was shed his body that was crucified his soul that was agonized they are nothing unto us we nothing bettered by them he dyed for all but his death is not applyed his Kingdom is not opened save onely unto them that have learned and practised this rule of Exception Except a man be born again Fourthly Except before Excepted a man is a very limb of Satan a childe of darkness and one of the Family of Hell Consider this ye that are out of the state of Grace in what miserable thraldom is your souls Should any call you servants or slaves of Satan you would take it highly in disdain but take it as you please if you are not regenerate you are in no better case Paul appeals to your own knowledge Rom. 6.16 23. Know you not that to whomsoever you give your selves as servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey Rom. 6.16 23. If then ye obey the Devils suggestions which you do being unborn what are you but the Devils servants And if he be your Master what is you wages You may see it in the last verse The wages of sin is death death of the body and death of the soul death here and death hereafter in Hell fire Alas that Satan should have this power on man that he who is the enemy and means nothing to a sinner but death and damnation should be his Lord and Tyrannize it over him at his own will and pleasure Would any man be hired to serve Lyons and Tygers 1 Pet. 5.8 And is not the Devil a roaring Lyon walking about and seeking whom he may devour To serve him that would devour his servant is a most miserable bondage and what pay can one expect from Devils but roaring and devouring and tearing souls In this plight are the servants of Corruption slaves of Satan so I rightly call them for Of whomsoever a man is overcome 2 Pet. 2.19 even unto the same is he in bondage 2 Peter 2.19 To winde up this point Lord who shall dwell in thy Tabernacle who shall rest in thy Holy Mountain If we believe David Not he that slandereth with his tongue or doth evil to his Neighbor Psa 15.1 3 5. Or giveth his money upon Vsury or taketh a reward against the innocent No such are servants of Satan and here is matter of Exception against them Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God The sum of all Without Regeneration no Kingdom for whether we consider man in regard of himself or of God or of Christ or of Satan he is Except he be new born unholy Gods enemy out of Christ in Satan And if the New Birth be thus necessary Vse how should we (a) Thus is the language of God I said Behold me to a nation that was not called by my Name Isa 65.1 labor to be born again I mean not as Nicodemus to enter into our mothers womb again and be born It is not the seed of man in the womb of our Mother but the seed of Grace in the womb of the Church that makes us blessed and if we are thus born by Grace then are we sanctified made Sons of God Heirs with Christ over whom Satan can have no power at all Now then as you tender your souls and desire Heaven at your ends (b) Thus whilest the Minister speaks its Christ comes with power in the word Eze. 18.31 endeavor to attain this one thing necessary (c) Pray because God bids you pray it may be he will come in when you pray When Simon Magus was in the gall of bitterness Peter bid him pray Act● 8 22. Lift up your hearts unto God that you may be washed justified sanctified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and that by the Spirit of God you may walk in new ways talk with new tongues as being new creatures created unto good works Thus would you (d) Not that we can wait by a power of our own but he that saith Therefore will the Lord wait that be may be gracious to you Isa 30.18 He draws and gives a power to wait on him and he comes in when he hath waited the fittest time wait on God in his way I trust the Lord in mercy would remember you and his Spirit would blow upon you and then you would finde and feel such a change within you as that you would bless God for ever that you were thus born again Otherwise how

whence cometh mine help Again the ear Psal 121.1 Psal 58.5 that in the old man is stopped against the voyce of the Charmer charm he never so wisely or if it be open like Deaths Porter it lets in sin and Satan at every occasion in the new man it must be the gate of life or the door of faith therefore there is not a member that the devil more envieth than the ear as we see in the man possessed with a deaf Devil Mark 9.25 Mar 9.25 who possessed that sence as the most excellent to hinder him from hearing Again the tongue Iam. 3.6 that in the old man is a world of iniquity that defileth the whole body that setteth on fire the course of nature and is set on fire on hell Psal 45.1 in the new man it must be the trumpet of divine praise or as David calls it the pen of a ready writer uttering onely those things which the heart enditeth in sincerity and truth To sum up all in one the heart is it where grace begins first and is felt last and therefore saith God Son give me thy heart Prov. 23.26 Psal 51.10 Prov. 23.26 and therefore prays David Create in me a new heart Psal 51.10 and therefore wills Solomon Prov. 4.23 Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life Prov. 4.23 Would any man that is regenerate encounter sin in his heart it were impossible to break out into action would the heart of any man that is born again but meet sin with this Dilemma If I commit this sin I must either repent or not repent for it if I do repent it will cost me more heart-break and spiritual smart then the sensual pleasure can be worth If I never repent it will be the death and damnation of my soul sure this thought conceived and rightly followed in the heart of the regenerate would be enough to crush sin at the first rising of it and so it is for if he be regenerate he doth not sin whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin 1 Ioh. 3.9 Consuetudinaliter delectabiliter serviliter illuctabiliter 1 Thess 5.23 Rom. 12.1 1 Joh. 3.9 He is moulded anew and all the members of his body are conformed to the soveraignty and rule of grace yea his body is preserved blameless holy acceptable unto God it is a member of Christ the temple of the Holy Ghost Happy man that is blest with this body Sure a man thus born again he shall see the kingdom of God Secondly as the body so the soul of this man is to be renewed by grace 1 Cor. 6.15 19. 1 Cor. 6.20 Therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit saith St. Paul 1 Cor. 6.20 the body and the spirit must both glorifie God and as all the parts of the body so all the powers of the soul First Ephes 4.18 the understanding that in the old man is blinde and ignorant about heavenly things or howsoever it may know many things Revel 3.18 yet never can attain to saving knowledge in the new man it must be anointed with the eye-salve of the Spirit inspired with the knowledge of Divine truths especially with those sacred and saving mysteries which concern the kingdom of God Again the will that in the old man affects nothing but vile and vain things is froward and perverse in the ways of godliness Rom. 12.2 in the new man it must prove and approve what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God yea it must attend and be subordinate to the grace of God Phil. 5.13 sith God indeed and God onely works in us both the will and the deed Phil. 2.13 Again the memory that in the old man is slippery in the things of God or if naturally good yet not spiritually useful in the new man it must be sanctified to good performances and although it cannot encrease to a greater natural perfection for grace doth not this yet the perfections it hath must be straight and right and guided to God-ward Remember the Lord thy God saith Moses Deut. 8.18 Again Deut. 8.18 the conscience that in the old man sleeps and slumbers or if it be awake tears and roars as if a legion of Devils now possessed it in the new man it must be calm and quiet and yet not sleep or slumber but rather in a friendly loving maner check and control wheresoever sin is yea never be quiet till with kinde and yet earnest expostulations it draw the sinner before God to confess his fault and to seek pardon for it Again the affections that in the old man are sensual inordinate bewitched and set on wrong objects in the new man they must be turned another way Mary Magdalene you know was given to unclean lusts but the Lord diverted this sinful passion and so she became penitent and thirsted after grace To sum up all all must be renewed the undestanding will memory conscience affections But to feel more of their sweetness I will pound these spices and dwell a while on them Now then for your better acquaintance with the regenerate man and that you may know his difference from the man unregenerate observe I pray these passages First I say Col. 3.10 in the new man the understanding must be renewed so the Apostle The new man is renewed in knowledge Col. 3.10 and this knowledge implyes two habits Col. 1.9 Sapientiam Prudentiam Wisdom and Prudence Col. 1.9 First Wisdom and that is speculative Secondly Prudence and that is practical By the one the childe of God having the eyes of his minde opened and illightned doth see the mysteries of salvation the secrets of the Kingdom the whole Councel and the wonders of the Law of God by the other he is enabled with a judicious sincerity to deliberate and determine in cases of conscience in the practice of piety and the experimental passages of a Christian man Sapientiam If we consider the first Wisdom how is it possible that a man unregenerate should know the mysteries of salvation It may be he may go as far as the power of natural discourse and light of Reason can bear sway he may be furnished with store of rare and excellent learning and yet for all this want the true knowledge of spiritual wisdom Why so Because all his knowledge like the light of the Moon is discharged upon others but never returns and reflects upon his own soul he should know but knows not the darkness of his own understanding the disorder of his own affections the slumber of his own conscience the deadness of his own heart but the man regenerate know he never so little he hath the saving-knowl●dge and in this he exceeds the greatest Rabbies the profoundest Clerks he onely knows God with a stedfast apprehension he onely knows himself a most mean base and contemptible thing his new birth hath learned him how

read in his conscience But above all his darling-delight his beloved sin is writ in greatest characters this he findes to have bewitched him most and to have domineered above all the rest in his wasted conscience this sin in some is worldliness wantonness usury pride revenge or the like in others it is drunkenness gluttony gaming scurril jesting symony or the like whatsoever it is the conscience tells him of it again and again where that he may read it together with his other sins the Spirit of God now opens the eyes of his minde and lets him see the very mud and filth of his soul that lay at the bottom before unseen and undiscerned Thus is the first working of the new life to wit a feeling of the old death of his soul in sins and trespasses and here the axiome is true no generation without corruption a man must first feel this death before he is born again The second step is Sense of divine wrath which begets in him fear Rom. 8.15 so the Apostle The spirit of bondage begets fear Rom. 8.15 and thus it works no sooner hath the man a sight and feeling of his sin but then Gods Spirit now called the spirit of bondage presents to him the armory of Gods flaming wrath and fiery indignation this makes him to feel as if he were pricked with the stroak of an arrow or point of a sword or sting of an Adder that he is a most cursed and damnable creature justly deserving all the miseries of this life and all the fiery torments of hell in that life to come yea this makes him tremble and stand and look as if he were throughly frighted with the angry countenance of God Almighty Would you view him in this case his conscience hath now awaked him out of his dead sensual sleep by the Trumpet of the Law his heart is now scorched with the secret sense of Gods angry face his soul is now full sorely crushed under the most grievous burthen of innumerable sins his thoughts are now full of fear and astonishment as if no less then very hell and horror were ready to seize upon his body and soul I say not what measure of this wrath is poured on all men in their conversion for I suppose some feel more and some have less of it but I verily believe some there are that in these pangs of the new birth have been scorched as it were with the very flames of hell insomuch that they might truly say with David Gods wrath lieth hard upon me Psal 88.7 and he hath afflicted me with all his waves Psal 88.7 And no wonder for this is the time of fear now it is that Satan strives busily to stifle the new man in the womb and therefore he that before diminished his sins and made them appear little or nothing in his eyes when he once sees the man smitten down into the place of dragons and covered with the shadow of death Psal 44.19 then he puts into his minde his innumerable sins and that which immediately follows the curse of the Law and the wrath of God which he yet makes more grisly and fierce with a purpose to plunge him into the bottomless pit of horror and despair By this means he perswaded Cain to cry out when he was in this case My punishment is greater then I can bear or Gen. 4.13 as others translate Mine iniquity is greater then can be forgiven Gen. 4.13 And therefore thus far the unregenerate goes with the man born again both have a sight of sin and sense of wrath but here they part for the man unregenerate either sinks under it or labors to allay it with worldly comforts or some counterfeit calm but the man born again is onely humbled by it and seeks the right way to cure it and at last by the help of Gods Spirit he passeth quite through it I mean through this hell upon earth into the spiritual pleasures of the Kingdom of grace which is to be born again The third step is Sorrow for sin and this is more peculiar to Gods childe there is a sorrow which is a common work of grace which an hypocrite may have and there is a sorrow which is a work of special grace and this likewise precedes the exercise of faith But some object Christ must work this sorrow or it is good for nothing now if Christ be in the soul working sorrow then there is faith therefore faith must go before sorrow I answer although it is true that Christ cannot be in the soul but in the same instant there is the habit of faith yet it follows not that faith is before sorrow for the habits of these graces are both together and at once in the soul or howsoever it follows not that the soul is inabled by an act of faith to apply Christ to it self as soon as Christ is in the soul or as soon as the habit of faith is infused into the soul The question is whether the soul in respect of us who can onely judge of the habit by the act cannot be said to have sorrow or repentance before faith the question is not which the soul hath first in respect of Gods gift but which it acts first for our apprehension Surely to us it first sorrows for sin and then it acts or exerciseth faith by coming to Christ and relying upon Christ for Salvation c. he grieves not onely because he fears he must be damned so Cain and Judas might but because he knows he hath deserved to be damned this is the more especial object of his sorrow in that he is so wicked so sinful so rebellious so contrary to God this sin I say is it wherein he was conceived and born wherein he hath lived and continued that makes him sob and sigh and sorrow and mourn and yet this sorrow is sometimes taken largely for the whole work of conversion sometimes strictly for conviction contrition and humiliation in like maner repentance is taken sometimes largely and sometimes strictly By this distinction it may easily appear how sorrow goes before repentance and how repentance goes before faith Indeed for the latter is the great controversie but some reconcile it thus Repentance hath two parts the aversion of the soul from Sin and the conversion of the soul to God the latter part of it is onely an effect of faith the former part of it viz. the turning of the soul from Sin is also an effect but not onely an effect for it is begun before faith though it be not ended till our life end Some object that God works repentance and faith together But we dispute not how God works them but how the soul acts them not which is in the soul first but which appears out of the soul first neither is it any new thing in Philosophy to say Those causes which produce an effect though they be in time together yet are mutually before one another in order of

7. Sins against the sixth Commandment IT is the sixth Commandment Thou shalt do no murther For the duties here required Say 1. Hast thou ever desired and studied by all means lawful to preserve thine own person and the person of thy neighbor Or for the sins here forbidden Say 1 Hast thou not sometimes envied others for their wealth Gen 26.14 Numb 11.29 Gen. 37.11 Iob 16 9 or for their gifts or for their respects with others 2. Hast thou not offended others in gestures gnashing on them with thy teeth or sharpening thine eyes on them 3. Hast thou not fended others in words by censuring or reviling 1 Pet. 3.9 Psal 37.12 or rendring evil for evil or railing for railing 4. Hast thou not offended others in deeds plotting against the just Matth. 5.22 Amos 2.11 or doing evil to any man 5. Hast thou not been angry with thy brother without cause or continued long in anger keeping thy wrath as it were for ever 6. Hast thou not rejoyced at others fall Pro. 24.17 Iob 31.30 or wished a curse to their souls 7. Hast thou not done evil to thy self by inordinate fretting or grieving or drinking or surfetting Numb 14.2 Pro. 6.14 or saying in thy passions Would God I were dead 8. Hast thou not been a sower of discord or some way or other a just occasion of the discomfort or of the death of thy neighbor If in any of these thou hast transgressed thou hast then broken this Commandment Thou shalt do no murther Sect. 8. Sins against the seventh Commandment IT is the seventh Commandment Thou shalt not commit adultery For the duties here required Say Hast thou ever kept thy self pure in soul and body both towards thy self and others Or for the sins here forbidden Say Hast thou not sometimes been defiled with buggery Sodomitry incest whoredom adultery Polygamy Rom. 1.26 self-pollution or with changing the natural use into that which is against nature 2. Hast thou not offended in the occasions of uncleanness as in idleness gluttony drunkenness wanton company whorish attire or perfumes 3. Pro. 7.16 17. Col. 3.8 Hast thou not sinned in thy senses or gestures or words by filthy communication proceeding out of thy mouth 4. Hast thou not harbored in thy heart burning lusts impure thoughts inordinate affections 5. Matth. 5.28 Hast thou not behaved thy self immodestly unsoberly Col. 3.5 or shamelesly abusing thy body or using some maner of dalliance and wantonness If in any of these thou hast transgressed then hast thou broken this Commandment Thou shalt not commit adultery Sect. 9. Sins against the eighth Commandment IT is the eighth Commandment Thou shalt not steal For the duties here required Say Hast thou ever by all good means furthered the outward estate of thy self and of thy neighbor Or for the sins here forbidden Say First Hast thou not sometimes got thy living by an unlawful calling Secondly hast thou not impoverisht thy self by idleness luxurious or unnecessary expences Thirdly hast thou not withheld from thy self or others that which should have been expended Fourthly hast thou not gotten or kept thy neighbors goods by falshood or force and made no restitution Fifthly hast thou not stollen by usury or oppression or fraud in buying or selling an abomination unto the Lord Sixthly hast thou not robbed God of his tythes and offerings by sacriledge or symony Deut. 25.16 Malac. 3.8 Seventhly hast thou not some way or other impaired thy neighbors state If in any of these thou hast transgressed then hast thou broken this Commandment Thou shalt not steal Sect. 10. Sins against the ninth Commandment IT is the ninth Commandment Thou shalt not bear false witness For the duties here required Say Hast thou ever by all means sought to maintain thy own and thy neighbors good name according to truth and a good conscience Or for the sins here forbidden Say Rev. 22.15 First hast thou not sometimes loved or made a lye Secondly Ier. 20.10 Mat. 7.3 Prov. 24.24 hast thou not raised a false report to the defaming of many Thirdly hast thou not censured or judged others yet never considered the beam that is in thy own eye Fourthly hast thou not flattered thy self and others saying unto the wicked Thou art righteous Fifthly hast thou not condemned some without witness or forborn to witness for others when thou knewest the truth Sixthly hast thou not been uncharitably suspitious or a despiser of thy neighbor Seventhly hast thou not told a lye whether jestingly or officiously or perniciously If in any of these thou hast transgressed then hast thou broke this Commandment Thou shalt not bear false witness Sect. 11. Sins against the last Commandment IT is the last Commandment Thou shalt not covet For the duties here required Say First hast thou ever been truly contented with thy own outward condition Secondly hast thou rejoyced at others good and loved thy neighbor as thy self Matth. 19.19 Or for the sins here forbidden Say First Matth. 15.19 hast thou not sometimes conceived evil thoughts in thy heart Secondly hast thou not delighted in the inward contemplations of evil Thirdly hast thou not been full of discontent with thy own condition and state Fourthly hast thou not felt another law of thy members warring against the law of thy minde Fifthly Rom. 7.29 hast thou not coveted after something or other that was thy neighbors either with will or by actual concupiscence If in any of these thou hast transgressed then hast thou broke this Commandment Thou shalt not covet CHAP. III. The second means to get into the new birth AFter examination which may well serve thee for one days work or two the next duty is Confession Now then take the Catalogue of those sins or if thy awaked conscience can tell thee of any other which thou knowest thou hast committed and noted either in this book or on some other paper and kneeling on thy knees spread thy Catalogue before the Lord I say spread thy Catalogue before the Lord 2 King 19.14 as Hezekiah did his letter there read thou seriously and particularly saying O Lord I confess I have committed this sin and the other sin as they are before thee in order of all these sins I am guilty especially of those sins wherein I delighted my darlings my minions my bosom-sins take notice of them and confess them again of all these sins I am guilty And now O Lord standing as it were at the bar of thy tribunal I arraign my self and accuse my self and judge my self worthy of the utmost of thy wrath and indignation for one sin thou cast Adam out of paradise for one sin thou cast the Angels out of heaven for one sin thou destroyedst a world of men and what then shall become of me that have committed a world of sins here pause a while and meditate on thy unworthiness O that I should be so foolish so bruitish so mad to commit these sins